media consumption log: june 2023

 

Media Consumption Log:

June 2023

Books:

• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett
• Waiting for God by Simone Weil
• The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 
• Ghost of by Diana Khoi Nguyen
• Women as Lovers by Elfreide Jelinek
• Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
• Miami by Joan Didion
• The Years by Annie Ernaux*
• In the Lateness of the World by Carolyn Forche*
• Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord*

Poems:

• "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath. I like listening to the recording of her reading this. Sometimes I'll listen to it a few times when I'm getting ready in the morning (because I am insufferable). I have parts of the poem memorized, and some lines tacked up on my wall. 
• "Sanity" by Caroline Bird.
• "Cozy Apologia" by Rita Dove.
• "Failing and Flying" by Jack Gilbert.
• "The Traveling Onion" by Naomi Shihab Nye.
• "Tender" by Sophie Klahr.
• "I Am Offering This Poem" by Jimmy Santiago Baca.
• "We Manage Most When We Manage Small" by Linda Gregg.

Albums and Playlists:

You can check out my June tunes here. Heads-up: lots of Midwest Emo. 

I've been listening to this awesome playlist that's full of songs like Royel Otis's "Oysters in My Pocket", which is a total indie classic. It's good music to play on 20-minute drives through the 'burbs.

And I really like this one, too, which is full of songs with a similar vibe to the Beach Boys, "Wouldn't it Be Nice". I listened to it on my 2hr 30-minute drive to Amherst for the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, and it kept me sane. I like listening to this one on my daily walks.

Roadside Crosses, which I made on a road-trip through West Virginia (at 5am, after devouring 2 Krispy Kreme donuts), is a staple in my rotation. It's got loads of horrifically sad bangers.

I made this playlist as a joke for when I get my tattoo (it's funny. Laugh). I also made this playlist as a joke for my trip to Ireland (Celtic Woman, Tebi Rex, Niall Horan, the Irish Rovers, etc.).

• Abbey Road, the Beatles
• Tapestry, Carole King
• Birdie, Slaughter Beach Dog
• New York Dolls, New York Dolls
• No Secrets, Carly Simon
• To Learn, Leith Ross
• Insomnia (EP), the moss
• Jim Carrey, Billy Raffoul (Heather sent this album to me)
• Heaven or Las Vegas, Cocteau Twins
• Lost in Translation Soundtrack
• Everybody else is doing it, why can't we?, The Cranberries
• Skin Suit, the Bobby Lees (Heather also sent this album to me)
• Sofa Kings, Royel Otis 
• Home After Three Months Away, empire! empire!
• Hunky Dory, David Bowie

Movies:

• Black Swan 
• Virgin Suicides 
• Girl, Interrupted 
• Lost in Translation 
• Blue Valentine 
• Amelie 
• I, Tonya 
• Promising Young Woman 
• Raise the Red Lantern 
• American Psycho 
• La Chinoise 
• Pierrot le fou 
• In the Mood for Love 
• Valley of the Dolls 
• White Men Can't Jump (2023)
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Essays, Art, Obsessions & Digital Things:

• Joan Didion's essay, "Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power"

• Leslie Jamison's essay, "Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain", which is just so utterly brilliant and is now a certified meghangetslit classic

• Vintage prayer cards

• French New Wave.

• God's year by Piotr Stachiewicz (a series of paintings)

• Cuno Amlet's work (visual artist. I like "Girl With Flowers", "Self-portrait", "The Yellow Girls" and "Female Nude with Flowers". 

• Ouroboros, both as a concept and as a tattoo design. Ouroboros is a Greek word that roughly translates to "tail-eating", and visually manifests as a snake eating its own tail. The idea is that it is only through destruction that new life can be formed - y'know, circle of life and all that jazz. But honestly, as interested as I am in that idea, I'm equally as gravitated towards what it means to break that cycle. There are lots of tattoo designs where the snake is just about to eat its own tail, or bites off the tail without devouring its whole self again. I almost prefer that. It suggests that you can break the cycle of self-flagellation while simultaneously acknowledging the presence of a wound and its power. 

• Annunciation paintings. I've been obsessed with annunciation paintings for years, so what's new. Mary Magdalene and Mary, Mother of Jesus as foils...or whatever.

• Sylvia Plath's interview with Peter Orr. I've always loved her comments about how poetry shouldn't be a public purging: instead, poets must combine personal experiences with craft, manipulating things and making specific choices around form, etc. to turn pain into actual art. Many people are shocked when they hear Plath speak and find her to be so put-together.