AUG 2 - R.E.P.O.R.T.
Salt air, the rust on your door...
At the intersection of diary entry, listicle, wishlist, and acrostic poem lies the ~ R.E.P.O.R.T. ~
R - reading
I finally made it off the wait list for one of BKPL’s highly sought-after copies of Miranda July’s new novel All Fours. I devoured this book in ~2.5 days. July is one of a few authors whose prose I want to roll around in like mud. I take notes, underline passages, and handwrite quotes just to experience a more active participation in the reading process. Her previous novel, The First Bad Man, cast the same kind of spell on me. I <3 U, Miranda July.
“I wasn’t dead, but I was too much a soul. I had weighted things too heavily in the direction of music and poetry, and my spirit, thusly animated, had come to think of itself as a full person. It did not understand how misshapen it was.”
E - eating
You would think they’re giving shit away for free at the farmers market the way people mob the produce stand come heirloom tomato season. I played nice with my neighbors, probably being a little overly-polite, until I realized I was going to have to run defense AND offense if I ever wanted to get close to the display of rainbow tomatoes.
My go-to easy breezy summer lunch is a simple tomato sandwich. Getting my tomatoes and a loaf of 12-grain sourdough from two neighboring farmers market stands makes me feel like Belle in the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast, singing my way from merchant to merchant with my wicker basket (medium crescent baggu), all lithe and graceful like a Disney princess-to-be.
P - playing
Only ~15 years late, I’ve officially boarded the Red Dead Redemption train. I don’t have anything new to add to what’s been said about this franchise other than I love these amazing games and they remind me of Frontier Land/Liberty Square, but with far more gratuitous violence. This is my favorite area in the park, due in no small part to The Haunted Mansion, The Hall of Presidents, Big Thunder Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean (in Disneyland tho, we all know Pirates is located in Adventure land in Disney World.) I think I’m overdue for a lil Disney trip.
O - obsessing
I’ve been playing Clairo’s new album Charm on constant repeat since its release. Miss Claire Cottrill AKA Clairo AKA the daughter of Topgolf’s CMO (lol) has done it again.
Her third studio album is airy, soft, sexy, and a little psychpop. I refer to it as ‘girl Beatles’ but only to myself because I worry no one else could ever appreciate the nuanced genius of that phrase.
“I really liked the idea of the gray area and the buzziness that two people can feel when they’re being charmed by each other, because it usually happens before they really know each other. It’s kind of like a crush, and I wanted the record to live in this bubble of that gray area, and then I make up the rest of the story, whether it’s good or bad.”
The songwriting and instrumentation are married beautifully in the more romantic themes of the album. Not sure how else to describe the lyricism other than they feel like a peek into the journal of a girl whose room looks like this:
With the reemerging trend of bag charms, phone charms, and charm jewelry, the double meaning of the album’s title feels particularly apt. The accompanying visuals and merch are a perfect internet-witches’ brew of the cottage core/twee revival/coquette aesthetics all dominating recent trend cycles. Please know this observation requires A LOT of time spent online and consider chucking me a couple bucks a month for the damage to my psyche that I no doubt endure as a result of the hundreds of hours spent on Tiktok/Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr in the name of cultural research + curation.
R - recommending
An annual Whitney membership costs about the same as three visits so I feel a sense of accomplishment every time I go. I’m saving money AND supporting a cultural institution, look at me go! 2024 Whitney Biennial: Even Better Than The Real Thing is only up through August 11 so get your tail over there if you haven’t seen it yet. If you can’t make it in time, Mubi is streaming the show’s films!
With the Biennial being a survey of contemporary culture, it’s a given that AI would weasel its way into the show somehow. I’ve yet to see any subversive, self-referential AI art that interests me in the least but luckily the show was far more expansive than this very literal interpretation of the theme. The two main floors, from my POV, spoke to “better than the real thing” in the context of identity and place, relatively.
I spent nearly 5 hours working my way through the show and could write a proper art school essay on it but I’ll spare us all and reduce my review to shouting out my favorite pieces:
Seba Calfuqueo - TRAY TRAY KO, 2022
Demian DinéYazhi’ - we must stop imagining apocalypse/genocide + we must imagine liberation, 2024
Pippa Garner - Inventor's Office, 2021–24
Sharon Hayes - Ricerche: four, 2024
Isaac Julien - Once Again… (Statues Never Die), 2022
Eamon Ore-Giron - Talking Shit series, 2023
Rose B. Simpson - Daughters: Reverence, 2023–24
Carmen Winant - The Last Safe Abortion, 2023
JJJJJerome Ellis - Live Performance, 2023
Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich - Too Bright to See (Part I), 2022
Spending so much time with this show reminded me of the past version of myself who engaged with art in-person far more frequently. It was bittersweet to be reminded of that past iteration of myself, I think she deserves more attention.
T - treating
Building a collection of solid gold jewelry, for myself and the future family members who will inherit those heirlooms, has become increasingly important to me lately. The couple pieces my grandmothers have passed down to me are some of my prized possessions and I feel a distinct type of intimacy in wearing something every day with the knowledge that I’m just one link in a chain of women to do so. It’s leo season but I will forever be a sentimental family-centric cancer ♋️ 🦀
Catbird is having their big summer sale through the end of this weekend and here are the pieces I have my eye on. Mally can have a lil 18k as a treat!
Beloved Heart Spinner Charm from the Jenny Slate collab <3 <3
P.S. IF YOU HAVE A CATBIRD CONNECT, LMK. I’m trying to do a photo project with them.
Happy Friday, talk soon 🫶
xo mal