World of Irreversible Change
July highlights
Writing to you live from an Amtrak train on a Friday night- how romantic!
It might be August 9th but we are looking back at July because I was relishing in being very lazy when I can- and you should too (I may be even more lazy next month and not post- who knows!). July was birthday, family time, life goal of attending the Olympics- and them being at home, but also rest, ocean, surf. Learning how to light fireworks from Janine and how to Frisbee from Micah. And actually not seeing or watching too many things but a few stood out and are below.
Love hearing your recs too- thank you for reading mine <3
Movies
Allemania is a seemingly simple but profound movie surrounding a sixteen year old’s mission to convince her family to study abroad in Germany in the midst of her family managing her older sister’s mental health issues and many more unsaid. The film follows Lola as she slowly comes to understand her surroundings and and becomes truer to herself, even as she is mostly left to her own devices.
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero is a music doc about Lil Nas X’s first concert tour- created in a month’s time- and a reminder of all the barriers he has broken through as an artist. As Sean Bankhead, his choreographer, mentions- there really isn’t anyone like him. But what is most compelling about it honestly is getting to know him as a part of his family and witnessing what it means to become rich within a family and the responsibilities that can entail. There is a self-awareness that Montero has, at a very young age, about how behaviors have changed around him and what he is willing to let slide. Following the concert that his family attended, he puts on a mini skirt, and shirt with LGBTQIA+ flags and acknowledges that he is making a statement as he is about to join him. One that feels daring but that he feels like he can embody at this time- and that’s a beautiful thing to watch.
McQueen is a stunning documentary- though very dark- that left me in awe and with better understanding of Alexander McQueen’s body of work. We’re lucky that he both filmed a lot of footage very early in his career, had incredibly innovative runway themes (from Dante’s Inferno to Plato’s Atlantis with some true crime in between) and a sense of humility coming from a modest upbringing. His first collections were created with Unemployment checks and celebrated at McDonald’s. When asked why he accepted the appointment of Creative Director at Givenchy, he answered “for the money- to make my own line” which feels like a wind of fresh air in the fashion world. We are lucky to have been witnesses to his work.
Visual Art
teamLab, World of Irreversible Change, Pace Gallery: teamLab is an incredible collective of architects, artists and mathematicians that work together to create art that can be perceived differently. I found myself pacing back and forth looking at this piece noticing that whatever I was focusing on was moving with me- a cloud, a train, a color. It was hypnotizing.
Ranti Bam, Anima, at James Cohan- Ranti’s ceramics for this show were both inspired by The Garden of Earthly Delights and her West African Yoruban traditions to create pieces that evoke feminine energy and both pull us in while collapsing on themselves. There is something really playful and approachable about her work and the space she creates around it that draws me to it.
Books
Edouard Louis’ (likely one of the most discussed young authors in France) Monique s’évade is stunning- I just finished it earlier today. Another dark one but here Edouard Louis looks back at his mother’s escape from her second abusive husband and how they connected to help her get out of there. In the process of telling this story he looks inward at the experience of being a published author who moved up a class by writing about his family’s history embedded in poverty in a very small village in the North of France, hurt his family in doing so, but is now using those means to move his mother out of a toxic situations and the complexities around this idea of giving her “freedom” as someone who can’t actually afford freedom. It’s a beautiful look at a son-mother relationship, family history and self-analysis.
Sociopath, A Memoire by Patric Gagne: A few months ago I mentioned the interview with Patric that led me to read this book- Patric a diagnosed Sociopath who became a therapist that is helping other sociopaths and had to support herself in her diagnosis since it wasn’t even in the DSM at the time and mental hospitals would not accept people with her diagnosis. In her memoire she shares her earliest memories of Sociopathic tendencies and how she got around becoming a criminal- who are some of the most well-known sociopaths to most. Incredibly illuminating, brave and impactful all at once.
Funny Story by Emily Henry: Did anyone ask for a beach read? this was was devoured in two days and is about an awkward librarian, Daphne whose marriage is cancelled because her fiancé realizes that he is in love with his best friend. Needing to move asap, Daphne accepts the best friend’s boyfriend offer to move to a room in his apartment as they both grieve their relationships with violent action movies. Needless to say you know the rest but it’s really fun and made of a cast of unglamorous characters.
Also on the night stand and gifted from my best friend from home for my birthday- La Distinction de Tiphaine Rivière, which is an interpretation of Pierre Bourdieu’s La Distinction but in comic book form to make it slightly easier to read lol
Podcasts
Again- not sharing because my team worked on it- but Hysterical is truly the best podcast documentary that I have heard in a longgggggg time. The score is gorgeous, the story is wild and the host is incredibly thoughtful. In short- in 2012, a high school in Le Roy, New York, saw twenty or so girls experience hysteria that took the form of torrets like symptoms but was inconclusive in any medical testing (hence the hysteria diagnosis). That said diagnosis that seems like a fantasy until you hear the tape of it, along with the demographic- high school girls- who are rarely believed/or thought to act as copy cats to one another is a recipe for a societal disaster. Bonus- Erin Brokovich tries to save the day- for real.
I will leave you Velvet Underground John Cale’s new album and late to the game- Tommy Richman’s hit that I can stop dancing to.
