October, the gold, amber and ruby leaves are falling, revealing skeleton black branches beneath. Winter is coming. But before that it's time for whodunits, macabre fairy tales, stories from Hollywood's first century, and little teeth...
“Why don’t you cover a big cork bulletin board in bright pink felt, banded with bamboo, and pin with coloured thumb-tacks all your various enthusiasms as your life varies from week to week?”
You Must Remember This…
I stumbled on the YMRT podcast when Googling Carole Landis, an actress I heard mentioned but wasn’t all that familiar with. Thank you internet.
Because without that serendipitous search I wouldn’t have found Karina Longworth - who writes, narrates, records and edits this fantabulous podcast:
“...exploring the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century.”
From the Dead Blondes season - wherein I found Carole Landis - to the career-wrecking communist witch hunt which was the Hollywood Blacklist YMRT is more than just stories about 20th century films and those who made them - which to me would be interesting enough.
It’s tales as old as time too. Tragedy and comedy are everywhere. And so too are themes of self-sabotage and hubris, just writ large-r and enacted with more drama (natch) and in better clothes than regular folks could generally muster in real life.
Oftentimes YMRT tales highlight socio-political issues too. The Jean & Jane season, for example, explores:
“[T]he parallel lives of Jane Fonda and Jean Seberg, two white American actresses who found great success (and husbands) in France before boldly and controversially lending their celebrity to causes like civil rights and the anti-war movement.”
Join her, won’t you?. (That’s a riff on Karina Longworth’s kinda catchphrase thingy). And if you love film or are interested in American history, then you definitely should.
Little Ashes - Dali, Garcia Lorca + Spain’s fascist past
A charity shop find, I’d never heard of Little Ashes. Turns out it stars a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson as a pre-Dalí Dalí.
It centres on the lives of three artists: Salvador Dali, poet Federico García Lorca and filmmaker Luis Buñuel.
The story: An attraction between Dalí and García Lorca. The location: 1922, the School of Fine Arts, Madrid. What happened? Well, not that much is really known about it. But as the Roger Ebert website says:
“[I]n the conservative Catholic nation of the time, and given Dalí’s extreme terror of syphilis, it seems to have been passionate but platonic.”
While all three would go on to achieve fame. It was Dalí and Buñuel who wound up working together on the famous Surrealist film Un Chien Andalou - you know, the eye-slicing one.
García Lorca - whom I know little about - on the other hand went on to achieve acclaim with Gypsy Ballads (1928). According to the Poetry Foundation:
“His lyrical work often incorporates elements of Spanish folklore, Andalusian flamenco and Gypsy culture, and cante jondos, or deep songs, while exploring themes of romantic love and tragedy.”
Tragically Garcia Lorca was arrested and killed by Spanish fascists in 1936, aged 38. Although the whereabouts of his body and exactly whodunit are still largely mysterious.
Artist Descending a Staircase - now listen carefully...
Also featuring three artists and a whodunit, Artist Descending a Staircase (ADAS) is a radio play by Tom Stoppard. What’s more it’s a play which uses “a whodunit to frame metaphysical questions” on art and perception.
The three artists - Donner, Marbello and Beauchamp - are flatmates. And, when one, Donner, is found dead at the bottom of a staircase it appears his last descent was caught on tape...
“[T]the meaning of these aural clues ... depends entirely on the radio listener’s interpretation of them. Beauchamp and ... Martello, assume - quite understandably - that the recorded clues can only mean that one or other of them is a murderer.”
says the BBC blurb.
The answer to the whodunit isn’t really whodunit at all, but howdoyoudoit. As the NY Times says ADAS is:
“Mr. Stoppard’s larger inquiry into how people, and artists in particular, see the world (or fail to see it).”
And, we haven't even mentioned Sophie, a girl who haunts them still, a girl who happened to be blind...
Justine Leconte’s little teeth - a lesson on perfection
Of course in the world of social media appearances - both lifestyle and physical - are much debated.
Personally, sometimes I like nothing better than to think about clothes and I can often be found foraging on social media feeds for new-found inspiration.
To be honest I find much of the apparently unedited monologues on many a fashion vloggers output to be irksome to say the least. But then there is Justine Leconte.
Justine is a French fashion designer based in Berlin who talks in English on design, ethics, production, style and so much more. She’s knowledgeable, passionate, non-fluffy and accessible.
But guess what?
“At least once under every video I upload, everyone, I get a comment saying that I have small teeth. Do the people commenting think I didn’t notice? By the way “Justine Leconte teeth” is the second most Googled thing about me. Why does it matter so much? Truth is it’s a part of me and I embrace it. I don’t care. But imagine a 15 year old girl…”
She goes on to address who has the right to talk about low self esteem - err everyone. And she says her solution is always to:
“Try something new.”
A must-see vlog for anyone worried about putting themselves out there. In short: It happens to the best too.
SEVEN overcome perfection anxiety with rapid sketching
As former New York art director Steven Heller writes in his piece on drawing and doodling for The Atlantic notes:
For most people, the big question isn’t “when did you start drawing?” but “when did you stop drawing?”
Something some of the SEVEN collective - have asked themselves. I, personally, gave up drawing when I felt life had gotten on top of me.
It wasn’t till much later that I found my natural inclination to draw was also something I needed - soul food, if you will. I find the process calming. It takes me out of my head - usually. And it’s grounding.
“When you draw an object, the mind becomes deeply, intensely attentive … And it’s that act of attention that allows you to really grasp something, to become fully conscious of it.”
designer Milton Glaser has said.
Skill is not the preeminent concern here. In fact Heller goes on to share a discussion he had with children’s book illustrator John Hendrix, author of Drawing is Magic:
“As a kid you draw without any thought to enjoying it. Enjoying it is assumed! Then we get to art school and learn there is a right way and wrong way to make images. ... But, then after that, we have to be trained to learn to play again.”
As Heller notes Hendrix believes:
“[F]inding enjoyment [in drawing] is an essential first step to finding good ideas.”
Tanith Lee reimagines Red Riding Hood with more bite
Long dark nights call for even darker books. This Halloween I reached for Tanith Lee’s Red as Blood (Or Tales From the Sisters Grimmer).
“[N]ine devilishly twisted fairy tales as the Brothers Grimm never dared to tell them.”
I picked Wolfland. A reimagining of Red Riding Hood, who is here called Lisel and could give Veruca Salt a run for her money. While the once dowdy grandmother is the Matriarch, Madame Anna:
“[A] weird apparition of improbable glamour.”
Because there is something a little off kilter about grandma. Oh my, grandma, what very blonde hair you have... And, oh my, grandma what long discoloured nails you have...:
“Grandmother’s eyes … were not so reassuring. Brilliant eyes, clear and very likely sharp-sighted, of a pallid silvery brown. Unnerving eyes, but Lisel did her best to stare them out … .”
Read on if you dare...