BRAIN FOOD : SUMMER 2019
{Originally published November 8, 2019}
It’s only halfway through autumn, and I’ve got a whopper of a list compiled over the summer for you guys! These are things to read, watch, and listen to that have fed my mind, heart, and soul over the last little while. I hope they provide something for you, too.
If you’re staring down the weekend and need even more to read, check back in the Dear Reader archives for more brain food roundups!
As ever, if a link is marked by a star (*), that means it may not be suitable for a younger audience.
VISUAL : HUGH MORTON
I encountered Morton’s work in the NC Museum of History last year - it was so sincere and so technically excellent, it made me want to cry on the spot (mostly out of frustration. you know when’s a good time to experience a giant in your field? not in the midst of a creative slump, I can tell you that right now). Over the summer I got the chance to page through a couple of his books, and be refreshed by his candor and his kind eye towards the people of North Carolina. I’m just going to leave you with the image that initially drew me in that mini gallery exhibit, and you can flip through his online archive for yourself.
LISTENED
The Much Ado About Nothing soundtrack
Want to feel full of youthful certainty you can take over the world and find love and go bounding through the fields of Tuscany? Just listen to this overture and let it work its magic.
After finding out I’m a fan of true crime podcasts, a friend recommended Up and Vanished season one - and I think I listened all the way through it in a week. Centered on the disappearance of Georgia middle school teacher Tara Grinstead, Up and Vanished has the most sense of place I’ve ever heard in a podcast, delving you into the self-contained world that a small southern town can be.
To Kill a Mockingbird via Overdrive*
At the risk of having to turn in my literary lady card, I had never read this book until this August. My first experience with To Kill a Mockingbird was seeing the play in New York, and just seeing the play took my soul and shook it in the best way. Listening to the book amplified that shaking and turned me over and changed me. Yes, it is flawed. But it is immensely important, in addition to being masterfully written.
Right: My standing-room slot. After a day of walking the city, it was worth standing for.
WATCHED
When Half a Billion Dollars’ Worth of Art Disappeared
(at a museum I’ve been to and loved, by the way.)
Best of Antique Roadshow Compilations
My descent into granny-hood continues. Look, playlists of people finding out their antiques are worth thousands just fills some gap I have in my heart or something, okay?
Where Are All the Bob Ross Paintings?
Bob Ross painted at least 1,000 landscapes on his show, but you cannot find one out in public for love nor money. Where are they all now? The New York Times sent a crew to find out.
The Art Assignment takes a minute to explore the family featured in Dorothea Lange’s iconic image, a photograph that has come to symbolize the vulnerability and strength of women during the Great Depression.
READ
Picasso was a man who left many shattered women in his wake. Francoise Gilot was not one of them. She walked away from her 10 year relationship with him with her dignity, self, and creativity intact.
A beautiful mediation on food, ordinary graces, and receiving with a grateful heart.
The Rockefellers and Bassett Hall
A piece about the quiet lives the Rockefellers (yes, those Rockefellers) carved out for themselves in Williamsburg, Virginia. Decorated by Abby with her beloved American folk art, the home became a place of respite and normalcy for the couple.
This article has achieved legendary status in the world of profile writing - after reading it, I understand why. Author Gay Talese was confronted with a seemingly nightmarish situation - a profile subject who wouldn’t talk to him. Talese spoke with everyone surrounding Sinatra, hung around and observed the man at the heart of the storm, and wrote something truly remarkable.
The man who spun the epic tale of Ishmael, Ahab, and the white whale - who was he, really? The home serves as a sort of biography of the man. (found via Austin Kleon’s excellent weekly roundup)
This book is art history meets biography meets love letter to the sibling relationship. Theo was a steadying arm for Vincent, encouraging him, nudging him along, and hearing him out. Without Theo, we would never have heard of Vincent. I keep returning to these pages, and crying every time.
That is all. I’m going to go cry about Van Gogh…again.