Fall 2024 Newsletter
page 1 & 2
BOOK
The Shards
By Bret Easton Ellis
Like the protagonists in Ellis’ Less Than Zero (as I remember them, it has been awhile!) teens drape themselves poolside in opulent neighborhoods of L.A. But, unlike those numb sacks of flesh made heavy with pop-culture and drugs, the protagonists in The Shards are more animated, navigating the minefield of raging lust, first loves, homecoming and their senior year of high school. They have a proximity to one another but the spaces between them — and between their own brains, hearts, and minds— are vast.
The lead protagonist, Bret, a stand-in for the author who teases with references to his “real” off-the-page life, is a storyteller. Some night-stalker-esque serial killer is slowly taking out young people in the area, an event the young protagonist seizes with obsessive fervor. The gross details of the ritualistic killings feel like they must mean something but, I think, maybe they don’t? Maybe these are details that make for a good story? Details that show the sick underpinnings of an imaginative mind struggling in his formative years? Someone trying to suppress the sweat and blood (and other bodily fluids) aching to be set free, but forced to act a civilized part, setting it loose on the page. This is a journey through the intense moments of youth where one is trying to define themselves. Where one sees adulthood on the horizon with no roadmap to get there beyond the facades of grown ups and half truths of Hollywood. It is a nasty book about a nasty world and the nasty mind of a teen struggling to be a grown up, however ugly and lonely that might be.
Apart from the grotesque mind of Bret & abundant conflicts, the most intoxicating part of this novel was the structure. It was constantly hinting at the conclusion, pushing me to want to know more. It was complete and utter manipulation that once I was sucked into, I couldn’t recover from. Like a drug. Ellis feeds his reader his stories of madness, power, culture and the fights between them, and the reader snorts them up, escaping the blurry real world and laying bare why there is even a need to escape it in the first place.
OPERA
Innocence
by Kaija Saariaho, Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barrière
So I know nothing. Zero. Zilch. About opera other than the fact that I love it. As a kid, my New Jersey public school would trek us to Lincoln Center for free dress rehearsals at the Metropolitan Opera and it totally shook me to the core. I have such a strong memory of the red-carpeted floor of the lobby blanketed in rowdy kids, all completely oblivious to the Swarovski crystals hanging above or the luscious curves of the staircase. It was like the movies, but live! And with endless singing poetry! And an orchestra! What is this sorcery?! I dunno if this was some indoctrination attempt to trap poor kids in this magical realm but it definitely worked and I remain charmed, curious, and intrigued by its power. I’m so grateful some opera houses have turned to live streaming as an accessible way to get there, which is how I was able to see the San Francisco Opera’s recent staging of Innocence, an opera that reflects the “now” but also speaks to a much longer legacy.
A pall is cast over a wedding party as some hidden history threatens the happy day. This storyline is paralleled by that history: a school shooting at an international high school. The story moves between these two events tracing the aftermath and eking out little revelations of turning points leading up to the tragedy— a beautiful and disturbing structure. The setting of the international school gives the opera a globalized voice. Instead of being washed away in operatic gesture, many characters have their own distinct vocal identities, their own self expression and language. The set is its own character, a microcosm of masterful stagecraft. A monolithic, self-contained building that churns to reveal many sides: a classroom, a banquet hall, a school cafeteria. It has a sense of claustrophobia, like everyone is trapped and connected in their own world, a world that is cut open for the audience to see. The staging and storytelling erase makeshift borders between people, time, and space, confronting the viewer with their own role in this gruesome tragedy. What makes someone become a school shooter the opera asks? The answer is everyone.
MUSIC
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4nfwHiETuh0WSP42twVPsV?si=10a380a528f64774
NATURE
Tree/leaf identifier
https://gardentrip.co.uk/2019/10/10/free-plant-identification-apps/
POEMS
By Yosa Buson
Someone goes by wearing a hood
in his own darkness
not seeing the harvest moon
Mushroom gathering —
the heads are full
as the peak of the moon
ART
WHAT: Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry
WHERE: American Museum of Natural History
WHEN: May 9, 2024 through January 5, 2025
WHY: “Building on New York City’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop as a global phenomenon, Ice Cold will highlight the evolution of jewelry in hip-hop over the past five decades, starting with oversized gold chains embraced by rap’s pioneers in the 1980s and moving through the 1990s, when emcees turned business moguls sported record label pendants sparkling with diamonds and platinum.”
https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/ice-cold-hip-hop-jewelry
ART
Crayola Crayon bracelet
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6uND4VI4n7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Gucci Links
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gucci-link-jewelry-virgin-islands-heirloom-tribute
Van Cleef and Arpels
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/jewellery-watches/a41546164/van-cleef-and-arpels-alhambra/
BOOK
33 ⅓ Cat Power’s Moon Pix
By Donna K.
Sale ends Oct. 6th
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/cat-powers-moon-pix-9781501377938/
posted by Donna K. at
9:30 PM
<< Home