Things I Learned This Week

Truffaut, Zadie Smith, Katie Spragg, and Gillian Welch

I have started keeping a little journal where I grade each day based on what I got done, how well I took care of myself, and what my general mood was for the day. Seems like a ridiculous endeavor, but for some reason, it is making me feel better. There is a huge thrill in getting a 98 for the day. I am only on day three, but last night, I dreamed I saw my mother. It was the first time I saw her in a dream since she died six years ago. The entire dream was cinematic and celebratory, so I feel like it bodes well for the future. ❤️ Maybe I should have started grading myself a while ago. Now, here’s some other stuff I’ve been up to.

I hadn’t seen the French New Wave film The 400 Blows since I used to check out reel-to-reel films at the library in New York and watch them in a viewing booth in the basement of the 57th Street branch. I didn’t realize that even though it was François Truffaut’s first film, it was actually the first of four films about the character Antoine Doinel , played in each film by an aging Jean-Pierre Léaud. The movie is semi-autobiographical about a troubled youth in Paris, and after the casting of Jean-Pierre the filmmaker took the boy under his wing and felt such an affinity for him that he rewrote the part to fit him personally. The actor was often as troubled as the character he played, so Truffaut often took care of him outside of the filmmaking world. It’s a devastatingly adult performance, so I’m interested to watch the other three films as they follow Antoine into adulthood and marriage. Jean-Pierre had a long, illustrious film career and is still kicking today, so I guess he made out alright.

Finished A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. What a fabulous read. Highly recommend. The weird this is that the last class discussion on the book was yesterday, and Marina Lewycka, the author, died yesterday. A little spooky, and a real literary loss. This weekend I’m starting On Beauty by Zadie Smith, a novel loosely based on E. M. Forster’s Howard’s End, about a mixed-race British-American family living in the United States. I have never read anything by Zadie Smith, so I’m psyched to be catching up on all the years of being so hyper-focused on motherhood that I let my love of reading lapse. There is so little time to catch up!

New ceramic obsession? Katie Spragg. Her stuff mashes up nature with ceramics, film, and installation, in this way that is simply addictive to the eye. Gorgeous white porcelain nature-scapes often encased in wood viewing boxes. Shop motion shorts of handmade weeds growing from cement cracks or wheat blowing in the wind. Whimsical and gorgeous, leaning on analog ephemera and nostalgia for places that might not exist. All kinds of lovely.

A young Irish musician named Dove Ellis opened for Geese when we saw them last week. While his music was atmospheric and soothing to the ear, the thing I love most was that he did a cover of the Gillian Welch song “April the 14th, Pt 1”. My husband and I saw her in New York at Town Hall a million years ago on tour for Time (The Revelator), and that concert still stands out as one of the best I’ve ever seen. She and her musical collaborator, guitarist David Rawling, were at the top of their game, and we were seated on the very front row. (My husband and son saw them a few months ago, too, in SATX.) What’s interesting about this song—and the second piece called “Ruination Day, Pt 2”—is that Welch connected that date with three important days in American history: President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, the Titanic striking the iceberg in 1912, and the Black Sunday dust storm of 1935. There’s a great interview on Longreads where Welch discussed how she put the pieces together. That album is still one of my all-time favorites.

Quote of the week? Leaving with a portion of the Tao Te Ching which we covered in my TA class. For being written in 500 BC, Lao Tzu knew his shit.

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don’t try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
When you are content to be simply yourself
and don’t compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

‘Til Tuesday kids.

Burgin

(An MFA grad student at 50+… follow along and read my story here.)