Interesting Times No. 15
Big cats; RIP iPod; bad art; virtue signalling; Margaret Atwood; Fifty Shades of Grey; the retail daze; fungi, folklore, fairyland; 'braincare'; Jennifer Packer; reality TV; the Ockhams; Kravis!
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I hope you all enjoy this mere snippet of the internet; the high, the low, the thought-provoking (?), the less so. (And as always, click on the Interesting Times graphic above, for a nicer, errr, reading experience. ‘Reading experience’ sounds like something a robot would say.) Enjoy this week’s offerings!
JOURNALISM
‘He has won his freedom, yes, but how does a falsely accused man reclaim his life? The Wronged Man.’
‘The Strange and Dangerous World of America’s Big Cat People. When COVID-19 was still just a murmur and Netflix’s Tiger King had yet to become mandatory escapism, you could already learn about Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin on Longreads. In a […] 7,000-word piece, Rachel Nuwer examines the bizarre fact that in some American states it is easier to buy a lion than a dog.’
‘Hate an artwork and appreciate it, idolize it and mock it, know that it is bad and love it anyway. Bad Art.’
This article spoke to me, because not once have I spent less than $50 at Chemist Warehouse. Once you’re inside this money sucking space it feels like you go into an altered state, one outside your control. As the article says, ‘it is a temple of consumption.’ And there, like a dazed robot, and like many others, I consume.
‘Wellness’ has a new thing: braincare.
Goodbye, the iPod. ‘To all the iPods we’ve loved before.’
The story of a man’s obsession with catching a live giant squid.
‘The intelligence of machines has exceeded our own to the extent that programmers accept their decision-making with blind faith. Does that make AI our new god?’
If you’re in the mood for a cry, or at the very least a feeling of sadness and frustration at the state of things, you can read this: ‘Inside LA’s Homeless Industrial Complex.’ And related: ‘It is both America the Great and the toxic end product of American capitalism — those who couldn’t work and live within the system and those who have outright rejected it: Desert Dwellers.’
‘Is Virtue Signalling a Vice? Proclaiming one’s own goodness is deeply annoying. Yet signalling theory explains why it’s a peculiarly powerful manoeuvre.’ Oh, this is TOPICAL.
‘How psychological aspects of healing are important for hospital design.’ And although I’ve included a piece in a previous newsletter about art in hospitals, I’m including this one too, because it has a more personal perspective, and a paragraph that leapt out at me, so beautifully put:
“The pōhutukawa painting in the office of the haematology department says “shush shush”, that lulling noise of waves from the beach. Don’t worry, relax. It’s OK. Look at the view. But the Jae Hoon Lee photograph in my doctor’s surgery says to me your hurt is timeless, the sea will exist whether we do or not, release your grip, whatever happens next will be surgically safe, emotions are never still, time is an inlet, the sea runs in and out.”
Amazing. ‘Jamie Fewery spent a year at the heart of the Fifty Shades of Grey Storm.’
Photographs: ‘Painters, posers and poodles.’ And a gathering of vampires.
‘How do you say Kardashian in Italian? The Ferragni sisters already have millions of followers and a reality TV show. Now they’re working on their fashion empires.’
And speaking of the actual Kardashians, Kravis (Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker) got married! Here’s the wedding. Favourite headline: “Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker Do Catholic Cosplay For Third Wedding.” (Kourtney’s very long veil had the words ‘Family, Loyalty, Respect’ embroidered on it which is quite Mafia, but I’ve just discovered she had those words because Travis has them tattooed on his head.) And here ends the Kravis wedding coverage.
‘Fungi, Folklore, and Fairyland: From fairy-rings to Lewis Carroll's Alice, mushrooms have long been entwined with the supernatural in art and literature. What might this say about past knowledge of hallucinogenic fungi?’ And ‘How ecstasy and psilocybin are shaking up psychiatry.’ This is one of so many articles like this I’ve read over the past few years - just tell us when the drugs are coming to change our lives ! !
I’ve tried never to include work by the same artist twice across all the newsletters, just to keep things interesting/new/fresh but this week have included TWO paintings by the same artist. (What can I say? I’m an agile disrupter!) The two pieces are from Jennifer Packer’s exhibition, ‘The Eye is Not Satisfied With Seeing’, at The Whitney Museum of American Art. I recommend clicking the above link to see details of the exhibition - and looking at the images on a bigger screen than a phone’s. I know it’s all subjective, but for me these paintings, and all those in the exhibition, are incredibly moving, fascinating, beautiful (and other things I don’t have the words for.)
BRITISH GOOP OF THE WEEK:
BOOKS
Damian Barr, author, and host of the great, fun, uplifting Damian Barr’s Literary Salon, talks to Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain (winner of The Booker Prize) and the recently released Young Mungo. Stuart is an author who writes what he knows; growing up working-class in Glasgow, being gay in a world where that’s not accepted, longing to escape, but also longing for home. Stuart did manage to ‘escape’ - he’s lived in New York for years, and only stopped working in fashion after the success of Shuggie Bain - he seems a gentle and funny soul, and is a delight to listen to as he talks to Barr about all of the above, and much more. (Should this be in the podcasts section?! Maybe!)
Hilarious, seemingly oppositional man/excellent writer Steve Braunias has *thoughts* about the recently announced Ockham New Zealand Book Awards (‘the country's premier literary honours for books written by New Zealanders’). And, as always, he’s not afraid to share them. ‘To hell with the Ockhams.’
‘Want $300 to read a book? Same.’
‘“The Idea That Slavery Was a Long Time Ago is Profoundly Untrue”: An Interview with Clint Smith.’ The author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America talks to Hazlitt about ‘writing through the lens of fatherhood, reckoning with the past and confronting difficult histories, and the beauty that can rise from pain.’
PODCASTS
‘For too long, reality TV has been derided. Fans of the genre are branded as airheads and anyone brave enough to be a contestant is routinely slated by tabloids and Twitter users alike. It’s seen as pointless, trashy, brain-rot. On the surface, that may seem true. But behind the BBLs [that’s a Brazilian Butt Lift, for those who, like me, didn’t know that] and Botox, reality TV actually contains a fascinating insight into society.’ Unreal, by journalists Pandora Skyes and Sirin Kale, gives a critical history of reality TV and charts the genre’s impact on culture.
RATS! Who doesn’t want to listen to 35 minutes of rat talk?!? Rats on the Brain: In the pandemic, reports of rat sightings have risen dramatically. But is it all in our heads?’
'Deliver Us From Ervil: In the 1940s, a group of Mormon dreamers started a town in the Mexican desert. But what began as a utopian vision quickly turned sour when the founding family’s son, Ervil LeBaron, struggled for control of the community and unleashed a multi-generational crimewave – the ripples of which are still being felt today.
From bank robbery to drug smuggling, auto theft rings to multiple murders, a deadly cult evolved into a sophisticated organized crime family. In Deliver Us From Ervil, journalist Jesse Hyde tells the story of Ervil LeBaron and the unlikely ensemble of reporters, cops, survivors and family insiders trying to halt his bloody legacy.’
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Thanks for reading - see you next time,
Ellie
Yes, Jennifer Packer definitely deserves two paintings in here - her work is so exquisite!! Great artwork choice as usual! xxx