memory recollection tools
or, music
this week’s Thought (singular)
it’s so lovely to see the future as opportunity, rather than entrapment
hi
(a dear friend was responsible for the push to convert incoherent messages into this little writeup some weeks ago. shoutout to said dear friend.)
i recently rediscovered a song that i used to listen to on repeat for a good few weeks at a point. it took me right back to when i had first discovered it, involuntarily flooding my senses with specific events and feelings that took place during that period of time.
i’m not well-versed (or versed at all, to be fair) in this particular brand of science, but i’m sure the explanation has to do with brain wiring, linkage of the cochlear nerve to the nervous system, sense organs and memory, and other similar concepts that are out of the scope of this newsletter.*
what i do know is that this is another testament to the power of art. how stirring and impactful and visceral does something have to be to make insofar forgotten memories resurface? entire weeks, busy ones at that, being characterised simply by a song/album/miscellaneous piece of creativity - it’s fascinatingly potent.
the AM album by Arctic Monkeys takes me back to a mysore trip with my family in the summer of 2017. i can recollect tiny details of metro journeys i had taken in the beginning of my first year of college, 2019, simply by playing any song from Lush by Mitski. the whole of january 2021 can be summoned to the forefront of my mind by the Petals for Armor album by Hayley Williams. MCR and Fiona Apple are so july/august 2022.
no, the memories aren’t always good. but from a purely objective angle, this observation of music, or art in general, being so powerful that full months can be delineated by the span of a few minutes, or through a couple of songs, is largely wholesome. from a purely objective angle, how cool is that?
*biology students are welcome to correct me, so long as they accompany said corrections with proof of their credentials. med school id cards will do.
English Recitation Competition
Time, Alex Dimitrov
Again I am unprepared standing under an awning in the middle of summer autumn, winter, spring watching the downpour in what could be the middle of life; wondering how long I'll wait before becoming the rain.How to Pour Madness into a Teacup, Abegail Morley
Tidying, she carefully puts hot rain in the teacup, sings as she hangs her tears on a string and watching the dance, thinks herself mad.awaiting a carriage, any, Bernard Ferguson
sure, i’ve been lonely before, i always say, but not like this. you have to survive the bad season to make it to the season of reversals, the magnolias leading the fray. though that’s not what we call it, at least not where i’m from where there is a single, impenetrable era that begins just as soon as it ends.
A Poll!
Middle School Book Review
These Violent Delights series by Chloe Gong
the perfect combination of action, angst, romance, and fantasy. it’s such a fun and interesting plot of a super bloody and higher stakes version of romeo and juliet set in 20th century shanghai, with heaps of fun tropes like betrayal, found family, forbidden relationships, foolish sacrifice, self loathing, and evil scientists. smoothly moving the plot along is a healthy dose of political intrigue and animosity between different factions, and a beautifully rounded off cast of characters that you can’t help but root for.
find all shared books here.
A Picture!
The Good Side of the Internet
I’m Broke and Mostly Friendless, and I’ve Wasted My Whole Life (advice column)
You need to discard some of this shame you’re carrying around all the time. But even if you can’t cast off your shame that quickly, through the lens of art, shame becomes valuable. When you’re curious about your shame instead of afraid of it, you can see the true texture of the day and the richness of the moment, with all of its flaws. You can run your hands along your own self-defeating edges until you get a splinter, and you can pull the splinter out and stare at it and consider it. When you face your shame with an open heart, you’re on a path to art, on a path to finding joy and misery and fear and hope in the folds of your day.
The Weird Analog Delights of Foley Sound Effects
E.T. was jello in a T-shirt. The Mummy was scratchy potpourri. For Foley artists, deception is an essential part of the enterprise.
You don’t need to look perfect to work out
Online fitness is becoming more and more intertwined with performing pleasantness — and, by extension, being perceived as beautiful at all times. Whether this is positive or negative depends on the person consuming the content. It could inspire some consumers to pursue healthier habits or to organize their days in a way that makes more sense for them. And believing oneself to be an it girl can serve as a confidence booster.
But for others, aspirational content can exacerbate pre-existing insecurities.
At fourteen I saw my mother fly.
When Yves Klein jumped out of a second-floor Paris window to create his famous Leap into the Void photograph he was living at 14 rue Campagne-Premiére.
The first time I saw the world end I was eight years old. It began peacefully enough. I sat in a well-padded chair in the dark with the rest of my second grade class, all of us tilted back, faces turned up to the white dome of the ceiling. We watched it shade into blue dusk, the stars and the planets coming out one by one. Soon we were under the clearest, blackest, brightest night sky any of us had seen, shining with an impossible number of stars. Over a shimmering electronic soundtrack, a disembodied male voice, like the voice of God, led us on a tour of ghostly nebulae and puzzling constellations. The comforting milky river arcing above our heads, the voice explained, was a small piece of our galaxy.
this week’s Song
find all shared songs here.
thank you for reading, and see you next week <3
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