Week 50-22 - Curiosities
ESSAY
“Why is Everything So Ugly? by N+1 Editors discuss the omnipresence of griege or whatever the heck that ubiquitous gray blah is called. It’s not modern, it’s boring.
https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-44/the-intellectual-situation/why-is-everything-so-ugly/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
In “The Sweet and Sticky History of the Date” Matti Friedman takes us on a brief tour of dates and the Middle East. Fascinating.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/sweet-sticky-history-the-date-180980983/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
“The Secret Lives of MI6’s Top Female Spies” by Helen Warrell. I wanted more.
https://www.ft.com/content/741772c0-ee76-4d3d-bfcd-4fabc1fb405d?shareType=nongift&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Unmasking “The Scholar”: The Colorado woman who helped a global art smuggling operation flourish for decades. An investigation into how Emma C. Bunker helped Douglas Latchford sell stolen Cambodian antiquities by Sam Tabachnik.
https://www.denverpost.com/2022/12/01/emma-bunker-douglas-latchford-cambodian-art-denver-art-museum/?src=longreads&mc_cid=224e76fb93&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
The Wilde Friendship Album by Jillian Hess. I love this idea, and the signatures collected in the Wilde album are amazing.
https://jillianhess.substack.com/p/the-wilde-friendship-album
The Superannuated Man by Charles Lamb. When you get to middle age and you begin to feel useless - there is a freedom there. Explore it...
https://fullreads.com/essay/the-superannuated-man/4/
I have not “conversed” with ChatGPT yet, but Erik Hoel’s feelings about The Banality of ChatGPT reflect some of my previous AI interactions.
https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/the-banality-of-chatgpt
The Blue That Enchanted the World by Latria Graham. How Indigo is making a comeback, seemingly everywhere all at once.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/indigo-making-comeback-south-carolina-180980987/
MUSIC
“Songbird” by First Aid Kit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOtlJhsykYI
“777” by Butcher Brown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd6u7YsYAG8
“Glasgow Town” by Donovan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQyOLRYvFgU
“Still Life” by Anderson Park + RM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vfmL4q2koo
“Karma” by Summer Walker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie_dLVcfi7E
“The News” by Paramore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSFa_wOZPXg
“Automatico” by Maria Becerra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Gk2wGNtIk
POETRY
Terms and Conditions BY CINDY JUYOUNG OK
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/159025/terms-and-conditions
Course Listing: More Than a Notion BY LYRAE VAN CLIEF-STEFANON
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/158797/c-o-urse-listing-more-than-a-notion
Treaties and Monuments: The Whim of Ephemeral Contracts, or A War Department Map Looks like the Fingerprint of All My Relations BY KIERSTIN BRIDGER
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/158375/treaties-and-monuments-the-whim-of-ephemeral-contracts-or-a-war-department-map-looks-like-the-fingerprint-of-all-my-relations
1855 BY BETH PIATOTE
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/158115/1855
A Study through Homes BY AE HEE LEE
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/157924/a-study-through-homes
A Hymn to Ra BY UNKNOWN TRANSLATED BY SAMSON ALLAL
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/157827/samson-allal-on-hymn-to-ra
Land BY AGHA SHAHID ALI
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/41227/land
ART
Kathleen Bryson
https://www.kathleenbryson.com/
David McLeod
https://davidmcleod.com/
Aiste Stancikaite
https://www.stancikaite.com/
Sara Ludy
https://www.saraludy.com/
Hal Lasko
https://thepixelpainter.com/
Dmitri Chernicik
https://linktr.ee/dmitricherniak
https://podcasts.proof.xyz/artist-spotlight-ringers-with-dmitri-cherniak/
Ben Kovach
https://bendotk.com/
SHORT STORY
The Evaluators: To Trade With Aliens, You Must Adapt by N.K. Jemisin
https://www.wired.com/2016/12/nk-jemisin-the-evaluators/
Stories of the future like this are a provocation to consider our present condition. Just replace The Machine Stops with the Internet stops. The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster
OTHER
“I don't care what kind of fancy camera you have or how high quality a lens you have on it, it will never compare to seeing things like this with your own eyes.” Pissyrabbit
“Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands” by Kate Beaton
https://bookshop.org/a/87154/9781770462892