Ugh summer!! Actually I love it. Have written like 3 draft posts since my last one trying to get one out to you and now those are all so out-of-date I am starting new. It is +34 here (93F) so - Hot! My brain is melting but I kind of like it.
I have finally mastered the art of Beach which is - go later in the day - bring a supper - and stay until sunset if you feel like it. You miss the crazy heat of the afternoon and everything is just more mellow but still super hot. If there are rocks they are like sauna rocks and will give off heat for hours yet. Also I have mastered a good clothing plan that makes it easy to change after - a (vintage 50s/60s/70s) skirt and crop top. And shout out to the maybe more obvious but still killer combo of tomato red toenail polish and Tevas Original Universal sandals. Don’t forget your jaquard towel and straw bag!
It takes years to get this good at Beach! I feel like I have finally arrived in Summer 2025.
Anyway - moving on with links for you. Happy Summer everyone, hopefully will see you in the Fall (at the rate I am going these days). :)
Podcast: Jerry Saltz on Great Women Artists Podcast
I feel blue about the state of women (especially mothers) in the arts off and on. Sometimes I think - we are doing great! More family residencies! Grant applications with a section for childcare costs! (I used to omit this factor thinking it would hurt my application) Ruth Asawa’s retrospective! But on my darker days I think - where are our voices? How can you be a care-giver, run (at least half) a house, work a job and still make mental room and psychic space for capital ‘A’ art? Some women can manage it I guess. I am reading Sally Mann’s memoir ‘Hold Still’ right now, maybe there will be some answers there? (money?? haha).
All this to say that I really enjoyed Jerry Saltz’s interview from 2022 on the “The Great Women Artists Podcast”. He is not just talking about artists who are mothers but about women artists in general and I liked his take. I think in there somewhere (if I remember correctly, which I might not be) he also acknowledges that his wife, the critic Roberta Smith, is much smarter than him, which is very funny to me.
Watch: MOTH by Allison Schulnik
Love this animation so much by the artist Allison Schulnik. Really reminds me of the old Norman McLaren NFB films or the early days Sesame Street animations.
Another Podcast: The New Rules of Subculture
This is another post from the Art Angle podcast which I guess I am really into? I found it very interesting because it talks about something that ties into stuff I have been thinking about lately concerning the idea of “slow media” which is like a sister to Alice Water’s and Micheal Pollen’s “slow food”. I literally thought I made this term up ha! But no, there are many links for the search term in google that expound on this idea.
I originally thought of this idea when parenting, trying to slow down and choose slower paced media that was coming into our house when my kids were small. I also just kind of hated a lot of the contemporary media made for kids and was unwilling to pay for streaming so it was easy for me to do. I wanted to watch things together, which meant there had to be something appealing for me, the adult, and I wanted to enjoy the music, animation and stories. I leaned pretty heavily on old Sesame Street, the Muppets, Pingu, Moomins, the French version of Pippi Longstocking (Fifi Brindacier!), the 60s Spiderman cartoon, anime, Frog and Toad and probably some others I am forgetting. I did try Mr. Rogers, but, let’s be real, somethings are just *too* slow haha… I guess all this to say that I wanted media that felt nourishing. Soul Food!
In this podcast, Nadia Asparouhova talks about her new book Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading which made me think about generating and consuming a different form of online content - the opposite of memes - something that is much more “hard to find or difficult to understand”. My take away was that memes, short-form videos and the like are the fast food of online media, super fun, quickly digested and overly sweet and salty (also don’t get me wrong - just like junk food it has its time and place) - but it should not be a substitute for real, nutritious food that you eat communally (in the best case scenario).
We should create and demand richer (online) meals, slow burn ideas, hearty and expansive thoughts. I think the Internet 1.0 had this, but now it is all factory farming and tooth-rotting, metabolism-eroding garbage.
Here is a New Yorker review of Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading which mentions nothing that I have talked about here but maybe proves that these ideas are “generative”??
A slow-media organization I like is Ultralight School!
Shop: Ballet Slipper Moccasins
Looked at these for years in a shop by our old apartment that sold lots of Indigenous wares and artwork like beading supplies and moccasins (and T-shirts and mugs and mousepads!). They had them in other colours too, black, pink - teal!! I always thought they were so perfect but also so expensive. I finally got the chance to try them out when I found them at a thrift store a month or so ago and I would pay the money next time to continue to have them on my feet.
I am pretty sure they are these ones from Hides in Hand which is located in Rockwood, Ontario. While they are not Indigenous-made, they are from a company that learned the skill of moccasin-making from an Elder and today work together in collaboration with Indigenous artists. :)
Listen: LCD Soundsystem: Losing My Edge
The Ultimate middle-aged lament! I really love this tune and think it is so funny. I guess I am in a zone where I am gathering up middle-aged content wherever I can find it.
In this same vein - the most excellent “Better Things”! I should do a whole post on this show, it is my second time watching the full series. If you live with teenagers, I think you will enjoy it, or hey - even if you don’t. (although I must note - mine are nowhere as mean as these guys are). You can stream it on: https://seez-su.lol/ (make sure you have an adblocker on your browser first!)
Friends, thanks for being here even those these posts are so spotty. I hope you enjoy! This took me like 2 days! I need to do real work!! Have a great summer!!!
You trully have mastered BEACH TIME! Always prepared with snacks and all the things! And totally agree and love a classic tomato red polish on the toes...although at the moment I'm busting out the blue! Miss hanging out with you at the beach...do you remember the time I got a wasp so angy it stung you! I've never seen anyone handle a sting so calmly!!!