Take That Step #5

Via AD

1) Art news abound! The Calder Gardens are opening this September in Philadelphia in a building designed by the Pritzker–winning firm Herzog & de Meuron and gardens by landscape artist Piet Oudolf. They’ve announced Juana Berrío as Marsha Perelman Senior Director of Programs. She said:

I am thrilled to join Calder Gardens, a unique space that integrates art, architecture, and nature to invite self-reflection. I look forward to working with the team to design rich cross-pollinations between artistic and nonartistic practices, with diverse communities, and between humans, flora, and fauna. Calder’s own passion for interdisciplinary collaborations and experimentation at large provides a perfect context for Calder Gardens to become one of the most innovative and forward-thinking spaces for art and culture today.

2) My husband loves this podcast that tells stories behind songs’ lyrics:

3) I’m taking a course on Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges and have been trying to read as many of his short stories as possible. Some, I read in Spanish, others, in Portuguese, and if I’m in the mood for audio, I end up reading/listening to them in English on Spotify. The New Yorker Fiction podcast has many options. My favorite so far was this one:

4) Also, for the nerds like me, the audio from his Harvard Norton Lectures on Youtube.

5) Obsessing over the book Perfumes: The Guide. When talking about how to chose your fragrance, Tania Sanchez has the best paradoxical advice:

You must be both stubborn and open-minded.

6) Inspired by two articles in the NYTimes about reading aloud, my friend and I will start a book club with 2 other pals. The idea is we each read excerpts from what we are currently reading and tell the other group members why we are loving — or not — that publication.

Is there a person on earth who doesn’t love to be read to? Children get storytime, nightly if they’re lucky, but once we know how to read we typically do it by ourselves. Last year I wrote about audiobooks as bedtime stories for adults, how they can tap into that desire that’s maybe dormant in all of us, the desire to have our sleep treated as a project worthy of coaxing and custodianship.

Lucas Samaras, Book 4, 1962

Reading aloud recaptures the physicality of words. To read with your lungs and diaphragm, with your tongue and lips, is very different than reading with your eyes alone. The language becomes a part of the body, which is why there is always a curious tenderness, almost an erotic quality, in those 18th- and 19th-century literary scenes where a book is being read aloud in mixed company. The words are not mere words. They are the breath and mind, perhaps even the soul, of the person who is reading.

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre (detail), 1831–33

7) I will share perfect quotes from the perfume guide such as this:

If you've tried several perfumes, you know things can go wrong. Many compositions smell great in the first few minutes, then fade rapidly to a murmur or an unpleasant twang you can never quite wash off. Some seem to attack with what feels like an icepick in the eye. Others smell nice for an hour in the middle but boring at start and finish. Some veer uncomfortably sweet, and some fall to pieces, with various parts hanging there in the air but not really cooperating in any useful way.

Some never get around to being much of anything at all. The way you can love a person for one quality despite myriad faults, you can sometimes love a perfume for one particular moment or effect, even if the rest is trash. Yet in the thousands of perfumes that exist, some express their ideas seamlessly and eloquently from top to bottom and give a beautiful view from any angle. A rare subset of them always seem to have something new and interesting to say, even if you encounter them daily. Those are the greats. By these criteria, one can certainly admire a perfume without necessarily loving it. Love, of course, is personal (but best when deserved).

― Tania Sanchez, Perfumes: The Guide

According to Sanchez, this is one of the best perfumes ever made.

8) When tennis becomes ballet… I couldn’t believe these photos of Alcaraz mid-match:

eurosport

A post shared by @eurosport

It also reminded me of a quote I heard in a Brazilian podcast: “teams that practice play better”.

9) My favorite DJ and friend Luiz Mattos shared a great article from the Guardian with me. Brian Eno and his co-author Bette Adriaanse talking about their upcoming new book What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory:

And I think one of Brian’s deep likes,” she tells me, “is when people have a talent or are good at something. So Brian can be very enthusiastic. He will say, ‘Oh, this man, he’s such a good listener. And that woman is such a wonderful dancer. You should see her dance. She’s like a snake.’” He chuckles at this, and agrees. “I sent a proposal to Channel 4 once that they should make a series of short films called ‘the ballet of work’, because I love watching people do their job, like watching somebody who makes pizzas and who’s done it for a long time: there’s such a ballet to the way that is done.” [*see Alcaraz photos above*]

Nevertheless, he tells me, “one thing I’m very interested in is the idea of writing a new kind of song, and I’ve been thinking about this for quite a few years now. Something that is between long, slow, ambient music and a kind of almost not-songlike song. So a kind of song where the singer isn’t so important.

10) This week’s playlist is guitar oriented. I hope you love it as much as I do ;)