17 July 2020
“We eat the year away. We eat the spring and the summer and the fall. We wait for something to grow and then we eat it.”
This Week
I hope everyone’s hanging in there all right. I kind of am.
I don’t have a lot of new items to share, so here’s a recap of things from the past month or so:
Podcast! I have a podcast, Quiet Little Horrors. The next full episode will be out next weekend. If you take a look at our running list of films covered on Letterboxd, you can get a preview of upcoming episodes. Also keep an eye out next weekend for an online watch party of the film from the next episode, Carnival of Souls.
My open-source version of DIY Code and Cupcakes is live. Workshop materials and event guides, for both in-person and virtual events, are now freely available. If you are interested in running a workshop and would like to ask questions or just let me know, please send an email!
I’ve kept May’s paid subscriber essay public, as a treat. June’s essay will end up being more of a double July essay, but they are both coming. Promise.
Links
“Although free speech remains the fundamental bedrock of a free society, for everyone to enjoy the benefits of freedom, liberty needs to be tempered by two further dimensions: equality and accountability. Without equality, those in power will use their freedom of expression to abuse and marginalise others. Without accountability, liberty can mutate into the most dangerous of all freedoms – impunity.” Billy Bragg on free speech and cancel culture.
Policing doesn’t protect women.
“Like generational trauma tap dancing through DNA strands, jewelry transports sentiment from one person to the next. It holds, in its tiny little chains and clasps, evidence of our most devastating emotions, from fear to grief to existential despair. It makes those things small, palatable, pretty. But in the shrinking of emotion, we run the risk of losing touch with the expansive and all-consuming reality of grief. We risk losing the opportunity to come together as a community, to hold not jewelry, but each other.” The ugly history of beautiful things: Lockets.
Sylvia Plath’s last plan. A graphic story by Summer Pierre.
Gary Larson has begun posting “New Stuff” at his Far Side website.
Forty-three years after the fact, Iggy Pop has released an official video for “The Passenger.”
Reading/Watching/Listening
It’s the middle of summer and a lot of things suck and you need some entertaining and/or uplifting movies to watch. Or maybe that’s just me. I’ve been relying on a lot of comfort food media lately. In any case, I found Palm Springs (Hulu) funny, thoughtful and sweet.
I also enjoyed The Old Guard (Netflix), a progressive, grown-up comic book film seemingly designed for progressive, grown-up comic book fans.
I finished my Hannibal rewatch and moved on to a Twin Peaks rewatch. Having a normal one over here, for sure.
Margo Price has a new album out, That’s How Rumors Get Started. So obviously that’s on rotation.
I’ll let you know if my log has further messages for you. For now, we’re just going to chill.
Love,
Jen
Connections
Substack archive: https://jenmyers.substack.com/archive
TinyLetter archive: http://tinyletter.com/jenmyers/archive
Essay archive: http://modernadventuress.com/
Website: http://jenmyers.net
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jenmyers
Email: hello@jenmyers.net
Post: P.O. Box 13114 Chicago, IL 60613
Today’s quote is from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.