This week was punctuated by a Philly getaway to screen The Short History Of The Long Road (now on Peacock!?), alongside revising the draft of the new script (next week is our casting kickoff) and gearing up to start writing a new, new script this weekend. The T key fell off my laptop as has the doorknob to our bathroom. 88,000 rent-stabilized apartments still sit empty in the wealthiest city in the world while thousands sleep in tents in a decommissioned airfield where a 3 month-old baby girl died this week. No rhyme or reason other than to discourage them from staying here (while diluting the Right to Shelter for good). Other things on my brain, in no particular order:
- writing about input versus output years in : “I liken this oscillation we find in ourselves to a sponge: there is the absorbing and the squeezing. Sometimes you need to do nothing except absorb inspiration, knowledge or find rest. This is an input phase. But the thing is, if you sit and absorb too long, you can become, well, kinda soggy and succumbing to inertia. So, like a sponge, you also need the squeeze—the doing, the action, the outpouring of ideas.”
The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison's essay on the performance of being a medical actor versus being a patient who needs an abortion and how “empathy is always perched precariously between gift and invasion.” Shared by Sasha, the basis of which could make a perfect short film.
A review of “The Trials of Madame Restell” by gender historian Nicholas L. Syrett, tracing the nearly forty-year career of an abortion provider in nineteenth-century New York. An immigrant from England, née Ann Trow, Madame Restell would regularly respond to critics through the press, reiterating to readers she was open for business at 148 Greenwich Street at a time when abortion was illegal. “History is full of figures like Restell—devious, clever, indomitable people whose resistance to the norms of their time can make them appear like products of our own. In the post-Dobbs era, it is not just her character but her circumstances that may seem familiar to readers. Restell’s example reminds us that, though abortion has sometimes been illegal, it has never been unusual. Providers have always straddled the gap between what society needs and what it will admit to.”
The Netherlands provides the legal right covered by social insurance for everyone who gives birth to get support from a kraamzorg or maternity carer for a week. The kraamverzorgster does daily medical check-ups for both mother and baby, washes dishes, does the laundry, cleans the house and cares for older siblings.
This baby doll, covered in old flip phones and computer chips, inspired by the Ripley character’s alien child in the movie Alien.
from writes: “This idea of a wealthy woman, clutching obsolete tech like a literal baby to her breast, is a dazzling antithesis to those of us who are constantly plugged in, because of addiction or necessity or some combination thereof.”
The Avant-Garde Fashion Assembly (AMA), a groundbreaking event in Georgia that combined electronic music, art, and fashion during the tumultuous 1990s. It took place at the Georgian Expo (VDNKh) and the catwalk, suspended as a bridge over the lake in front of the main building, still stands today. “In a way, this can also be seen as a queer gesture: Where else would the parade of the young generation exploring possibilities of self-expression after the social and economic collapse have taken place if not in an exhibition complex dedicated to the achievements of the Soviet Union?” The photo archive from Guram Tsibakhashvili is a visual feast.
This deep dive into bananas, written by
for sent by Kira. It runs from Carmen Miranda’s hat which inspired Chiquita Banana International’s logo, loops through the “banananistas” giving out free bananas at Bezos’ behest in Seattle and swings back to the cavendish monoculture.A reminder that the reason why we have one mass-market yellow banana is the same reason why in 1954, the United Fruit Company (which became Chiquita in 1984) instigated an overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan government. Brandon Summers-Miller writes: “The incident is emblematic of the term ‘banana republic,’ to refer to a country that’s dependent on a single commodity as the lifeblood of its economy, which includes the importance of banana exportation in Costa Rica and Honduras today. The overthrow of the Guatemalan government and the political instability it created ultimately resulted in the Guatemalan Civil War, which lasted until 1996.”
This mix of Brazilian music by Modern Sun Records.
Yasmeen Elagha, a Palestinian-American who has lost more than 100 relatives, filing a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department over its failure to protect US citizens trapped in Gaza.
This poem by Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye:
1.4 million people in Germany marched against far right AfD party after it was reported by investigative outlet Correctiv that members had discussed the expulsion of immigrants and "non-assimilated citizens" at a meeting with extremists.
The eight part audio memoir “Shithole Country” by Afia Kaakyire (not her real name). It came out three years ago but I finally listened to the whole thing on my drive to Philly. It took me right back to Accra where I studied in college and hooked me all the way through as Afia wrestles with the idea of “developing” countries, the hierarchy of nations and being torn between two cultures.
This British seaside simulator via
who writes .For the mermaid girls:
Till next time,
ASK
Every link is a winner I could lose a weekend on this
Every link is a winner I could lose a weekend on this