Media: The 1976 climbing tragedy of Nanda Devi Unsoeld (longform), more on MILF Manor from Cody Ko (video), the Hunt for Russian Collaborators in Ukraine (longform), Russia’s Convict Fighters are Heading Home (longform), and this must see on Netflix:
It took 79 months to get to that screen.
Media: Much needed winter comedy from Paul T. Goldman (TV), Detroiters, S1 (TV), You People (film). Couldn’t bring myself to actually watch Milf Manor (TV) so I watched Cody Ko’s recap. Most disturbing forest encounters (youtube). That is a lot of fluff, compared to this horrific tale: The Escape Artist – The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World (book), which is an important read and very well done. Alex Hollings talking about Highly Classified Aerospace Programs on The Team House (podcast) was a great listen.
from the notebook: Back in 1988 I photographed some kids playing with guns outside our apartment. This week one of the kid’s kids found the photos and reached out. Love that.
He is the one with the fluffy hair and mullet…
Many moments fly by. This one hit. I was photographing from the Senate gallery as Sen. Nate Blouin read a statement by Ari Webb during the voting on and passing of another anti-transgender bill in the Utah Senate. A quote from Bryan Schott’s article in The Salt Lake Tribune:
“This is a reminder of the fact that people like me are not accepted by the majority of this body. This is not a partisan issue. No one is trying to indoctrinate your kids into the trans community that would welcome them with open arms. I would not be alive if I had not been able to transition, and I am lucky that my attempts to take my life before that time failed,” Webb wrote.
Media: How Eric Adams Started Mentoring a Con Man (longform). How “Battle Royale” took over video games (longform). Overreach (book):
The people are not stupid. They watch and laugh nervously and see how low the actors will go
The PEZ Outlaw (film) treats its quirky characters with a loving hand. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (film), something I should have seen last year.
The archives say the week was this:
Media: Landlocked (film) was the kind of film you can’t forget (in the best way). Sick (film) takes you back to early COVID-19 quarantine and adds a human killer. Saw Avatar: The Way of Water (film) in the theater. And to catch the backstory of a MySpace outsider influencer, My Name is Jonah (film)
From the notebook: Watching Sicario (film) again. There’s this brilliant exchange, something like this:
“Tell me how the cartels work.”
“You’re asking me to describe how a watch works. Better to focus on what time it is.”
We started off the year in Moab. Always beautiful. More so when no one is around. We took advantage and spent every day in Arches National Park, where we fell in love back in January 1989.
Media: Loved The Menu (film) and luckily watched You Should See This (film) just before the guy got canceled. Great to see Avail (music) back onstage via hate5six. And does Shapka translate to HAT? Russkaja (music) knows.
From the notebook: We hiked into Delicate Arch. On the hike up the rocks a lone hiker is wandering way off course to the right, lost despite the obvious signs. We round the bend into the arch’s presence and it feels so crowded. Even though it’s only around twenty people. A guy is flying a buzzing drone (they’re banned in the park). An influencer is filming a video. The guy who was lost on the trail is yelling at a couple, who is yelling back at him. An older couple is walking slowly towards us, clutching each other in terror, as if they’re going to slip to their deaths on the sandpaper-like redrock.
I can only imagine what it looks like in the summer.
IN CHIȘINĂU, MOLDOVA, ON THE CRACKED asphalt of the wide but empty central street, a wrinkled old man sold a hammer, a rusty screwdriver, two Soviet
via Orion Magazine: https://orionmagazine.org/article/ukraine-invasion-meaning-in-war/
N CHIȘINĂU, MOLDOVA, ON THE CRACKED asphalt of the wide but empty central street, a wrinkled old man sold a hammer, a rusty screwdriver, two Soviet history textbooks, an old VHS tape, and a bunch of rainbow-colored rubber balls in a crinkled plastic bag. The objects, arranged at an even distance on a red tablecloth, looked like Inquisition torture tools, surgical instruments, or an exhibit of communist artifacts.
His portrait of Obama sparked a nationwide pilgrimage. Now he’s establishing an arts empire of his own.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/02/how-the-artist-kehinde-wiley-went-from-picturing-power-to-building-it
The paintings begin life in Photoshop. Wiley sends initial shots of models to a graphic designer, along with decorative motifs and detailed instructions for creating a backdrop. After the mockup earns his approval, assistants trace it onto the canvas, then begin their painstaking work on the fashion, the flora, and the filigree. Individuals focus on particular works, but also serve as floating detail specialists. The bird painter was brought on for her knowledge of Japanese landscape painting; the clothing expert, who has worked at the studio for seventeen years, doubles as a quality-control inspector, insuring that every Wiley looks like a Wiley. The process has become intuitive, she told me: “I’m his hand, almost like a human printer.”
Sasha Solomon, a software engineer, joined others in the media business who lost their jobs this year after publicly taking on their employers.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/23/style/twitter-elon-musk-sasha-solomon.html
On Nov. 10, during a week of frequent meetings on changes at the company, Ms. Solomon tweeted: “we will be scheduling multiple all-hands every day until morale improves.”
The Ukrainian President’s trajectory is often cast as surprising, but what makes him compelling as a political leader is the former comic’s talent for exposing the crux of the matter.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/volodymyr-zelenskys-critical-visit-to-washington-dc
What had made everyone laugh was that the Presidents’ initial responses—and, indeed, the reporter’s question itself—had been obscene: they exposed what is usually hidden. The United States and its allies have not done enough to stop the war in Ukraine. They could, but they have not, and so for ten months Russian troops have tortured and executed Ukrainians, erased entire towns from the face of the earth, and targeted civilian infrastructure in order to deprive civilians of heat, light, and running water in winter.
I misjudged the Web site, which can be a pleasing oasis of text-based communication.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2022-in-review/my-year-of-reddit-and-relaxation
On a bleak day, the signs are everywhere. Books are chiefly useful insofar as they generate source material for podcasts or streaming shows. Those streaming shows are most successful when they generate gifs and memes for social media.
Suffering is an essential part of the story that we Argentines tell about ourselves.
via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-agony-and-ecstasy-of-argentinas-world-cup-victory
My family is Argentinean. We screamed so hard in our Harlem apartment that later we found our tortoise upside down in her cage
