HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIDE of potty training … of sleep training … of the discipline required to write an artist’s statement without succumbing to shame or disgust.
This month has been insane and here are the things that kept me afloat.
I read If We Were Villains on the recommendation of my friend Olivia (@thebookrave). It’s a fun not-murder mystery with a too-large cast – as evidenced by only half of them being fully characterized – that I really enjoyed! A lot of people are dropping The Secret History as a comp, but this is both a lot less and a lot more serious than that. It’s like a CW version of teenage Shakespeare actors inThe Secret History, without the charismatic teacher thing.
Years ago I saw Your Name., a Japanese anime film by Makoto Shinkai, and kind of loved it. While I don’t watch enough anime to justify a Crunchyroll subscription, it’s a special little treat when I find one I’ve been eyeing on Netflix – in this case, Suzume, Makoto Shinkai’s most recent offering. It’s a sweet, beautiful little film that was exactly what I needed at exactly the right time.
After I enjoyed The Guest so much, I checked out Emma Cline’s short story collection, Daddy. The best story in the collection (and the one I would recommend) is … not fully online. I thought it was up on The Paris Review, but it’s behind a paywall. However, it’s called Marion and if you like the preview, I highly recommend!
I love this filthy, profane article titled Everyone Is Beautiful and No One Is Horny. It’s about how having a beautiful body in the eighties and nineties was a means to an end – to attract others, to receive pleasure – and now it’s just an end with no real purpose. Read it and feel better about your gym routine.
In Jackson McHenry’s profile of playwright-turned-director Annie Baker, I found a lovely supposition as to why I loved playing with dolls until I was, like, thirteen?
That impulse to impute something more behind the blank mien of a doll has come to fascinate her on a philosophical level. Dolls are a slate onto which we project so much imagination, the beginning of so many inquiries into religion and art. They can be a means through which a child exerts control over her universe and expresses herself, orchestrating scenes like a young theater director.
I have yet to direct a play, though I have been involved in the production of quite a few. I don’t know if I need this on my bucket list. But maybe I do?
Have a restful, rejuvenating Shabbos, and I hope to see you again soon.
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