1.28.2021

The 33 Project

Brrr. It’s cold.

1/ It feels right to start with nothingness today. This piece by Kyle Chayka is a great read. Reading it reminded me I have his book, The Longing for Less. So now I’m fully immersed in that, as well. I’m doing A LOT of thinking about nothingness.

Here’s an excerpt from the NYT piece, in which Chayka turns his focus on minimalism during the covid pandemic, that really drew me in:

No one seems to want anything; there is no enthusiasm for desire in this culture, only the wish that we could give it up. It’s an almost Buddhist rush toward selflessness with the addition of American competition and our habit of overdose: as much obliteration as possible. In the words of an enormous piece of graffiti I spotted during a quarantine drive past Philadelphia: “Make America nothing again.” The statement contains a tacit admission of guilt — you can’t blame something that doesn’t exist.

2/ I’ve been meaning to watch Aisling Bea’s new show, This Way Up (I think it’s on hulu). Bea is an Irish comedian and actress. Her full name is so freaking Irish it’s ridiculous: Aisling Cliodhnadh O'Sullivan. I wanted to learn more about her so after some searching and reading I found this letter she wrote for the Guardian back in 2017. It’s a very moving piece on her father, on suicide and family and grief. Well worth the short read.

3/ Fiona Apple is everything. We know this. The Affair had her cover “The Whole of the Moon” for its series finale. While the show messed up a lot, this is one of its great gifts to us. Earlier this month her roommate(?) Zelda Hallman posted this video of the recording session. That voice!!

See ya in February.