Things I Learned This Week
Sellers, Sayet, and Stevie... down in Fraggle Rock
Good stuff this week. The wait to hear back from graduate schools is upending, but I’m poised to take whatever comes my way with a light heart and trust in the future, no matter how dark and dreary it seems. That said, here’s the good stuff…
Being There. I now find out my mom loved this movie a lifetime later. How have I never seen this film? Might be in my top ten of all time now. Released in 1979 and directed by Hal Ashby, based on the novel by Jerzy Kosiński, it is very pertinent to our times now. Touching on the randomness of existence and how we can project our societal and political desires onto others, it is definitely one for this era. Plus, Peter Sellers is an absolute dream, and Shirley McClaine is top-notch.
I mentioned her in my early post this week, but I am still blown away by Madeline Sayet’s play Where We Belong. As an acolyte of Spalding Gray and a lover of one-person performance, reading this show is a real mind-bender. Beautiful, hilarious, and provocative, she writes about being a scholar of Shakespeare and half Jewish and half Mohegan in ways that open up so many questions about systemic racism while touching on coming of age and finding your place in the world, intellectually and spiritually. This episode of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast with her is fabulous, and if you have been wondering what my Decolonial Shakespeares class is all about, it gives you a spot-on window.
A born Texan, Baseera Khan is a New York-based visual artist who works in lots of different media, bringing together symbols and color and examining their economies—labor and family structures, gender, religion, and spirituality. I love artists who work within different media—public art, sculpture, painting, performance, and music. Using all these forms, they bring beauty using light, fabric, and color to expose ideas around xenophobia, feminism, colonialism, othering, and the human form. Their take on prayer rugs is as beautiful as it is provocative. Check it out.
Knowing I’m a fan, my sister gifted me tickets to see the new Fraggle Rock live stage play that is going around. It was waaaay too G in ways the old TV show never was—and in ways that probably have Henson himself rolling in his grave. That original show was subversive in the best way and meant to explore real fears and anxieties with children. The episode "Believe It or Not" is memorable in that it features a creepy basement full of water and a monster that morphs into whatever you believe it to be. Primo nightmare-inducing television. Tune in to Apple TV friends.
My son did a little Valentine’s show on WECX last night and played his little ditty by Stevie Wonder from 1976, which I’d never heard before. And it could easily be the anthem we all need for these days. Do yourself a favor and have a listen.
Quote of the week?
“Love's in need of love today / Don't delay /Send yours in right away / Hate's goin' 'round / Breaking many hearts / Stop it please / Before it's gone too far, yeah”
— Stevie Wonder
‘Til Tuesday kids.
Burgin
(I’m finishing college at 50+, follow along and read my story here.)