Well, I’m finally feeling better after battling back-to-back colds for a month, so while I’m still finishing up the final essay in Volume 06: Future Anticipation, I thought we’d switch it up a bit! So today, let’s chat about our favorite content.
I’d love to know any music, books, articles, podcast episodes, movies, shows, museum exhibits, etc. that you’ve found particularly enjoyable, thought-provoking, and/or generative to your own creative practice. What’s something that moved you? Delighted you? Inspired you? What’s making you dance? What tends to resonate with you?
Here are three things I’ve been digging!
This New Yorker article about imposter syndrome, “Why Everyone Feels Like They’re Faking It” by Leslie Jamison. How did the term originate, evolve, and fall short in encapsulating a seemingly ubiquitous feeling? This article made me think more critically about my own understanding and experience of imposter syndrome—not as a blanket term for feeling insecure and inept, but in the systemic ways capitalism and patriarchy exploit those anxieties. (Thanks to Jesús Rodríguez of Alienhood and Politico for sharing this with me.)
N.K. Jemisin’s second book to The Great Cities duology, The World We Make. What if each city had its own human avatar that personified its cultures, communities, history, and attitude—and ultimately protected its citizens from forces aimed to destroy them? I read the first book, The City We Became, right before I moved from New York, and it made me feel that much more connected to my neighborhood, my borough, and my memories there. The second book expands on worldbuilding outside of New York in exciting, imaginative ways.
The Forty-Year-Old Version, a gorgeous film by Radha Blank, which you can stream on Netflix. Radha, a playwright who’s about to turn 40, feels stuck in her career, and gets reminded of it daily by her cheeky students and the “30 Under 30” award collecting dust on her mantle. Funny, witty, and poignant, Radha’s story explores the challenges of being an artist, specifically in the tensions of selling out for success and the pressure to change her voice for White theater world gatekeepers. Returning to her teenage passion for hip hop in this time of her life sparks joy and inspiration as she collaborates with a young producer to record a mixtape. Never forget what you loved as a kid, it’ll save you over and over again. “This is about creating something that is mine,” she declares, along withall the messy vulnerability required to bear its truth.
I’m so curious to know what you, dear readers, are into. Feel free to plug your own work while you’re at it!
I’ll be reading and responding this afternoon, in between doses of DayQuil. Come and say hi!
Last night I was talking with a friend about formative books - specifically books we come back to over and over again because they either bring us right back to the place we were when we first read them or because as we revisit those books the things we take away from the story/characters/intent changes in an interesting way. We came up with the idea of making book playlists - like in the same way you'd make a mixed CD in like 2007 for a crush - how does that playlist change if you're making it just for yourself vs. if you're making it with a specific person in mind/hopes for what they'd take away/learn about you? It was just a really fun concept to bat around and got me super curious what my friend's playlists might look like.
I saw Big Thief perform yesterday at Radio City. One of the best vocal performances I've ever seen. Adrianne Lenker whispers, growls, impersonates, shrieks, shreds (guitar and vocals!)—and somehow it totally works. She seemed to be bringing so many different parts of herself; so often performers bring just the polished stuff, as if they don't know what to do with the rest, or don't believe they'll be loved for it. Maybe it's a credit to the kind of career that she & the band have built (authentic? wide-ranging?) that they can bring this range and their fans love them for it. Truly, it was one big love fest.
BABY'S FIRST!!! SO EXCITED TO BE HERE!!! Mine is a good for a little *theoretical* and philosophical discussion. I recently watched "Ancient Apocalypse" on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/title/81211003 don't judge, it was a kind of a mindless background watch and I love archaeology). It's hosted by Graham Hancock, and his thesis is that there were advanced societies on the planet *much* earlier than currently proven, and they were mostly destroyed by an apocalyptic event and/or the ice age. He hypothesizes that some of the survivors went around the world teaching others and helping groups advance faster than they would have. Graham has been billed as a "pseudo-scientist" and has ruffled a lot of feathers in the anthropology community (https://slate.com/culture/2022/11/ancient-apocalypse-graham-hancock-netflix-theory-explained.html).
OK, so you go in knowing some of the facts and reality of this may be in question -- HOWEVER I think it brings up some important questions, and I actually found it to be very interesting and thought provoking.
For instance... what we take as "Fact" and base our history on is not complete... what if we just haven't dug in the right place yet? What happens if tomorrow archaeologists discover a site that can be confirmed to be 12,000 years old that has advanced art, time keeping, astrology, etc... how does that change our perception of facts and history? What changes in our society? How much of our society is built on shaky ground?
Another interesting thing to ponder is the role of mythology, mythical beings, and the lessons taught... what if these tales are actually stories based on real people and real stories? What if they're no longer JUST tall tales meant to teach stories about human truths? How much more weight would we give to these stories?
FIRST! Fashion as a form of personal expression has been on my mind lately. I’ve been inspired by the super cool Amy Smilovic, founder of Tibi, whose IG is a masterclass in developing your own personal style. Also, she links to people in the greater Tibi-loving community who broadly identify as creative pragmatists, each with their own 3 personal style modifiers (vintage, humor, classic, etc.). I know it’s in large part excellent marketing. But the lessons around balancing proportions, colors, having a single wardrobe that spans work and play have helped me see my closet with a fresh eye. So, coming out of the pandemic, a career change, having developed a CrossFit butt, I’m finding new ways to express who I am and who I want to be through style.
As you may well know, I’ve been really enjoying the poems of @maryoliversdrunkcousin aka Lyndsay Rush on Instagram. On the surface, they read rather tongue-in-cheek—or the meme version of a Mary Oliver poem. But what I love about Lyndsey’s delightfully unique voice and style is how she captures (nail right on the head, truly) the poignancy of the most mundane aspects of our twenty-first century lives/existential crises—tampons, french fries, online dating—while standing in brazen defiance of the expectation to conform to societal expectations. Lyndsay is the cleverest of wordsmiths (like someone else I know😉) whose poems are at times breathtaking, laugh out loud funny, and heartbreaking. I appreciate how they help me find a little more beauty, and a little more poetry, in my own day to day.
I read that New Yorker article too, and it resonated with me how the term can be a red herring distracting from the structural inequality that impedes women's success. I also appreciated the also the intersectional lens.
It was interesting to reflect that I don't think I have impostor syndrome as they define it-- when I am awarded things, I don't doubt that I was chosen for a reason. I do often feel that my privilege--whiteness, access to top notch education my whole life, acculturation into White dominant norms--gives me an unfair advantage. I know how to "talk the talk" that a university wants to hear, for example.
While I don't doubt my merit when it's validated by an institution, I've realized that I have fear when I think about putting new ideas/ventures into the world *without* an institution telling me that I should. The thought that "someone else has probably done this already and better," and "why would my thoughts matter when there's SO MUCH CONTENT" out there, often stop me from acting on ideas. It's hard to parse what of this is valid humility and what is self sabotage.
So kudos to Elspeth for putting her ideas in the sea of content. I think they stand out as an original gift!
Lately, I've been enjoying the podcast "Terrible, Thanks for Asking" with Nora McInerny. Started in 2016 as a response to a period of significant loss and grief on McInerny's part, it really provides space for folks to embrace and think through feeling bad. And bad feelings. Which I think can be two very different things. What I love about the podcast, besides its ability to let people exert autonomy over the affective nature of their own stories, is that it serves as a kind of antidote to moments in which positivity can feel suffocating. It's a nice, albeit counterintuitive, affirmation that there is a kind of community and humor to be found even in moments of committed negativity and misanthropy.
I also recently reread The Hours by Michael Cunningham, a perpetual favorite. It had been some years since I'd encountered it and I was moved again not just by the beauty and lyricism of the language, but by the intellectual audacity of claiming, extending, and modifying the seemingly sacred legacy of a literary object like Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Iconoclasm isn't always purely destructive. It's often beautiful and generative and even reverential. It's been wonderful to read more about these kinds of exchanges in hip-hop and the visual arts in The Drip.
Oh and I’ve been really into slacker movies as a genre lately. I rewatched Richard Linklater’s “Slacker” the other day. I hated in college, because I was a dumb moron. Upon rewatching, I found it lyrical and delightful. And the structure/camerawork itself is wandering, like maybe a slacker would be.
I’ve also been listening to different rapper’s discographies from start to finish. Currently doing mos def / Yasmin bey & Talib Kweli. Have done Nas, Camron, and MF DOOM (inspired by the drip!). In all cases it has deepened my appreciation of each one of them, often discovering tracks where they delve beyond their “schtick.” Highly recommend
I’ve been working my way through Yasujiro Ozu’s movies. Been really digging his very layered ways of approaching composition, and his ability to tell moving stories with minimal use of camera movement or even that much of a plot. Also, he’s been surprisingly antijob in his themes so that’s always a plus.
Lately I have been super into queer YA- something I wish existed when I was in high school! So many sweet, relatable stories. Let me know if ya'll have any other recommendations- I've been obsessed lately!
Some of my favorites:
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Benjamin Alire Saenz)- about two Latino high school boys in El Paso, Texas
Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Malindo Lo)- about Chinese American lesbian youth in San Francisco in the 1950s
Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating (Adiba Jaigirdar)- about Indian and Bengali queer young women in Ireland
One Last Stop (Casey McQuiston)- about queer youth community in New York City
Some Girls Do (Jennifer Dugan) - so many interesting issues around mental health and how it shows up in young, queer relationships!
And a great memoir: Life as a Unicorn by Amrou Alkhadi, a British-Iraqi drag performer navigating life
So many good recommendations to add to the list, this is awesome!
A few things have have been on mine recently:
- Féminismes & pop culture by Jennifer Padjemi. It’s a french book, but I really hope they translate it to english cause I think you would like it. As the title indicates, through a series of essays, the author takes a critical eye to the intersection of pop culture and feminism, and how the former is a reflection of different movements, has a special place as a mirror of our society and in helping or sometimes hindering progress.
- Still in the world of books, I absolutely adored Deborah Levy’s “Things I don’t zany to know” - a response to George Orwell’s essay “Why I write”, this is the first of a memoir triology, and to which the quote “To become a WRITER I had to learn to INTERRUPT, to speak up, to speak a little louder, and then LOUDER, and then to just speak in my own voice which is NOT LOUD AT ALL” is attributed. There isn’t much to reveal about the book, but rather it is experience and a discovery and I highly recommend it.
- Ok and now for some mussiiiic: I’m digging the track Fever Dream by SG Lewis and featuring Charlotte Day Wilson (https://youtu.be/C61xfJT4yEM); and when I can’t get inspired or decide what to listen to, I turn to the radio station FIP (https://www.radiofrance.fr/fip), they have a great selection of tunes and I always discovery new tracks and remixes.
OMG so many things have been helping my process in the last few months- I feel lucky to have found them.
The first is Dead Eyes- I came a full 3 years late to this podcast but it meant I had 3 series to binge! Although it says it’s about a man searching for answers about whether Tom Hanks fired him 20 years ago, it’s really about failure, feedback, the pivots life takes and the madness of being a creative. When I was in the depths of depression I found listening to smart, “successful” creatives, actors and writers talking about the times they failed and how they still feel like imposters, supremely encouraging.
I keep returning to Jonah Hills film, Stutz, that he made with his therapist. Great for giving you actual tools to help you take the next step (or just get out of bed) plus I live for any content where two grown men look each others eyes and tell each other they love each other without flinching.
And then I recently saw American Movie- also came about 18 years late to this film but it defies adequate description - an utter joy to watch, hilarious and unbelievable that the hapless cast of characters frantically trying to make a movie are actually real people.
And I’m nearly done with Rick Rubin’s new book- the Creative Act- a sparse, zen masterpiece that makes you want to put it down every 5 mins to actually go and create art (which is the point) enjoy and feel better! ❤️🔥
Adding that movie to my queue! Thanks for the recs!
I’ve been loving Sally Bayley’s new podcast, “A Reading Life, A Writing Life”; she’s a scholar, teacher, and writer of (amongst other things) beautiful, lyrical memoirs, and the podcast is like being in one of her workshop classes: I just want to listen to them again and again.
Last night I was talking with a friend about formative books - specifically books we come back to over and over again because they either bring us right back to the place we were when we first read them or because as we revisit those books the things we take away from the story/characters/intent changes in an interesting way. We came up with the idea of making book playlists - like in the same way you'd make a mixed CD in like 2007 for a crush - how does that playlist change if you're making it just for yourself vs. if you're making it with a specific person in mind/hopes for what they'd take away/learn about you? It was just a really fun concept to bat around and got me super curious what my friend's playlists might look like.
I saw Big Thief perform yesterday at Radio City. One of the best vocal performances I've ever seen. Adrianne Lenker whispers, growls, impersonates, shrieks, shreds (guitar and vocals!)—and somehow it totally works. She seemed to be bringing so many different parts of herself; so often performers bring just the polished stuff, as if they don't know what to do with the rest, or don't believe they'll be loved for it. Maybe it's a credit to the kind of career that she & the band have built (authentic? wide-ranging?) that they can bring this range and their fans love them for it. Truly, it was one big love fest.
BABY'S FIRST!!! SO EXCITED TO BE HERE!!! Mine is a good for a little *theoretical* and philosophical discussion. I recently watched "Ancient Apocalypse" on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/title/81211003 don't judge, it was a kind of a mindless background watch and I love archaeology). It's hosted by Graham Hancock, and his thesis is that there were advanced societies on the planet *much* earlier than currently proven, and they were mostly destroyed by an apocalyptic event and/or the ice age. He hypothesizes that some of the survivors went around the world teaching others and helping groups advance faster than they would have. Graham has been billed as a "pseudo-scientist" and has ruffled a lot of feathers in the anthropology community (https://slate.com/culture/2022/11/ancient-apocalypse-graham-hancock-netflix-theory-explained.html).
OK, so you go in knowing some of the facts and reality of this may be in question -- HOWEVER I think it brings up some important questions, and I actually found it to be very interesting and thought provoking.
For instance... what we take as "Fact" and base our history on is not complete... what if we just haven't dug in the right place yet? What happens if tomorrow archaeologists discover a site that can be confirmed to be 12,000 years old that has advanced art, time keeping, astrology, etc... how does that change our perception of facts and history? What changes in our society? How much of our society is built on shaky ground?
Another interesting thing to ponder is the role of mythology, mythical beings, and the lessons taught... what if these tales are actually stories based on real people and real stories? What if they're no longer JUST tall tales meant to teach stories about human truths? How much more weight would we give to these stories?
FIRST! Fashion as a form of personal expression has been on my mind lately. I’ve been inspired by the super cool Amy Smilovic, founder of Tibi, whose IG is a masterclass in developing your own personal style. Also, she links to people in the greater Tibi-loving community who broadly identify as creative pragmatists, each with their own 3 personal style modifiers (vintage, humor, classic, etc.). I know it’s in large part excellent marketing. But the lessons around balancing proportions, colors, having a single wardrobe that spans work and play have helped me see my closet with a fresh eye. So, coming out of the pandemic, a career change, having developed a CrossFit butt, I’m finding new ways to express who I am and who I want to be through style.
As you may well know, I’ve been really enjoying the poems of @maryoliversdrunkcousin aka Lyndsay Rush on Instagram. On the surface, they read rather tongue-in-cheek—or the meme version of a Mary Oliver poem. But what I love about Lyndsey’s delightfully unique voice and style is how she captures (nail right on the head, truly) the poignancy of the most mundane aspects of our twenty-first century lives/existential crises—tampons, french fries, online dating—while standing in brazen defiance of the expectation to conform to societal expectations. Lyndsay is the cleverest of wordsmiths (like someone else I know😉) whose poems are at times breathtaking, laugh out loud funny, and heartbreaking. I appreciate how they help me find a little more beauty, and a little more poetry, in my own day to day.
I read that New Yorker article too, and it resonated with me how the term can be a red herring distracting from the structural inequality that impedes women's success. I also appreciated the also the intersectional lens.
It was interesting to reflect that I don't think I have impostor syndrome as they define it-- when I am awarded things, I don't doubt that I was chosen for a reason. I do often feel that my privilege--whiteness, access to top notch education my whole life, acculturation into White dominant norms--gives me an unfair advantage. I know how to "talk the talk" that a university wants to hear, for example.
While I don't doubt my merit when it's validated by an institution, I've realized that I have fear when I think about putting new ideas/ventures into the world *without* an institution telling me that I should. The thought that "someone else has probably done this already and better," and "why would my thoughts matter when there's SO MUCH CONTENT" out there, often stop me from acting on ideas. It's hard to parse what of this is valid humility and what is self sabotage.
So kudos to Elspeth for putting her ideas in the sea of content. I think they stand out as an original gift!
Reading Lessons in Chemistry! It’s a novel about a chemist in the 50s (who is also a woman) who is a general badass :) absolutely loving it so far!
Lately, I've been enjoying the podcast "Terrible, Thanks for Asking" with Nora McInerny. Started in 2016 as a response to a period of significant loss and grief on McInerny's part, it really provides space for folks to embrace and think through feeling bad. And bad feelings. Which I think can be two very different things. What I love about the podcast, besides its ability to let people exert autonomy over the affective nature of their own stories, is that it serves as a kind of antidote to moments in which positivity can feel suffocating. It's a nice, albeit counterintuitive, affirmation that there is a kind of community and humor to be found even in moments of committed negativity and misanthropy.
I also recently reread The Hours by Michael Cunningham, a perpetual favorite. It had been some years since I'd encountered it and I was moved again not just by the beauty and lyricism of the language, but by the intellectual audacity of claiming, extending, and modifying the seemingly sacred legacy of a literary object like Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Iconoclasm isn't always purely destructive. It's often beautiful and generative and even reverential. It's been wonderful to read more about these kinds of exchanges in hip-hop and the visual arts in The Drip.
Oh and I’ve been really into slacker movies as a genre lately. I rewatched Richard Linklater’s “Slacker” the other day. I hated in college, because I was a dumb moron. Upon rewatching, I found it lyrical and delightful. And the structure/camerawork itself is wandering, like maybe a slacker would be.
I’ve also been listening to different rapper’s discographies from start to finish. Currently doing mos def / Yasmin bey & Talib Kweli. Have done Nas, Camron, and MF DOOM (inspired by the drip!). In all cases it has deepened my appreciation of each one of them, often discovering tracks where they delve beyond their “schtick.” Highly recommend
I’ve been working my way through Yasujiro Ozu’s movies. Been really digging his very layered ways of approaching composition, and his ability to tell moving stories with minimal use of camera movement or even that much of a plot. Also, he’s been surprisingly antijob in his themes so that’s always a plus.
Omg I love this!! Thanks for organizing Elspeth!
Lately I have been super into queer YA- something I wish existed when I was in high school! So many sweet, relatable stories. Let me know if ya'll have any other recommendations- I've been obsessed lately!
Some of my favorites:
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Benjamin Alire Saenz)- about two Latino high school boys in El Paso, Texas
Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Malindo Lo)- about Chinese American lesbian youth in San Francisco in the 1950s
Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating (Adiba Jaigirdar)- about Indian and Bengali queer young women in Ireland
One Last Stop (Casey McQuiston)- about queer youth community in New York City
Some Girls Do (Jennifer Dugan) - so many interesting issues around mental health and how it shows up in young, queer relationships!
And a great memoir: Life as a Unicorn by Amrou Alkhadi, a British-Iraqi drag performer navigating life
Yeah! I would recommend their most recent album
So many good recommendations to add to the list, this is awesome!
A few things have have been on mine recently:
- Féminismes & pop culture by Jennifer Padjemi. It’s a french book, but I really hope they translate it to english cause I think you would like it. As the title indicates, through a series of essays, the author takes a critical eye to the intersection of pop culture and feminism, and how the former is a reflection of different movements, has a special place as a mirror of our society and in helping or sometimes hindering progress.
- Somewhat relatedly, as Grey’s Anatomy is heavily cited in the book and representation is a repeated topic, I really enjoyed the Sandra Oh profile in the New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/sandra-ohs-sense-of-purpose), and how she is now deciding which stories to tell and represent on screen.
- Still in the world of books, I absolutely adored Deborah Levy’s “Things I don’t zany to know” - a response to George Orwell’s essay “Why I write”, this is the first of a memoir triology, and to which the quote “To become a WRITER I had to learn to INTERRUPT, to speak up, to speak a little louder, and then LOUDER, and then to just speak in my own voice which is NOT LOUD AT ALL” is attributed. There isn’t much to reveal about the book, but rather it is experience and a discovery and I highly recommend it.
- Ok and now for some mussiiiic: I’m digging the track Fever Dream by SG Lewis and featuring Charlotte Day Wilson (https://youtu.be/C61xfJT4yEM); and when I can’t get inspired or decide what to listen to, I turn to the radio station FIP (https://www.radiofrance.fr/fip), they have a great selection of tunes and I always discovery new tracks and remixes.
OMG so many things have been helping my process in the last few months- I feel lucky to have found them.
The first is Dead Eyes- I came a full 3 years late to this podcast but it meant I had 3 series to binge! Although it says it’s about a man searching for answers about whether Tom Hanks fired him 20 years ago, it’s really about failure, feedback, the pivots life takes and the madness of being a creative. When I was in the depths of depression I found listening to smart, “successful” creatives, actors and writers talking about the times they failed and how they still feel like imposters, supremely encouraging.
I keep returning to Jonah Hills film, Stutz, that he made with his therapist. Great for giving you actual tools to help you take the next step (or just get out of bed) plus I live for any content where two grown men look each others eyes and tell each other they love each other without flinching.
And then I recently saw American Movie- also came about 18 years late to this film but it defies adequate description - an utter joy to watch, hilarious and unbelievable that the hapless cast of characters frantically trying to make a movie are actually real people.
And I’m nearly done with Rick Rubin’s new book- the Creative Act- a sparse, zen masterpiece that makes you want to put it down every 5 mins to actually go and create art (which is the point) enjoy and feel better! ❤️🔥
I've been enjoying Kristian Bob's Merengue Remix of Mylie Cyrus' Flowers...https://youtu.be/Y_s19EXYaXk
Adding that movie to my queue! Thanks for the recs!
I’ve been loving Sally Bayley’s new podcast, “A Reading Life, A Writing Life”; she’s a scholar, teacher, and writer of (amongst other things) beautiful, lyrical memoirs, and the podcast is like being in one of her workshop classes: I just want to listen to them again and again.
Thank you to everyone who shared today!