It’s Thursday! Best day of the week. I’m back with some recommendations on this cool September day. It’s getting colder, gloomier, and with that I’m feeling an increased sense of doom and despair. Not planning ahead, not excited about the upcoming weeks. It’s going to be a cold, sad winter. I suppose it’s important to set expectations low and allow room for surprise and delight. Here’s hoping.
I was reading through a daily newsletter that I subscribe to and in it the author described recommending something the day before having not read it, then reading it and having more to say. I hope this is never that. I don’t want to ever push out something just to push it out. I want to share things that move me, motivate me, and help encourage thought and empathy. Can’t do that if it’s part of a system that requires pumping things out for clicks. So to all 10 people that will read this, I promise to never pump something out for a click. And to go hand-in-hand with that, I also hope to never waste your time. There are so many sources these days. Too many. So to even consider my voice as a source in your weekly consumption of content is a privilege. I know this.
Let’s get on with it!
1/ This is basically just a The Ezra Klein Show promotional newsletter at this point. But he keeps delivering the hits! His latest interview, with Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, may be one of my favorite yet. The subject: Race, policing, and the universal yearning for safety. Dr. Goff makes an incredible case for reshaping how we approach understanding, conversing and taking action on policing in America. There’s really no better time to listen to his genius on this subject - in fact, we must, for fear of what’s to come. Dr. Goff is a professor at Yale University and the co-founder and CEO of the Center for Policing Equity. Much of the conversation is about what we know and what we don’t know. It’s also about what we need to know, what we need to start tracking and analyzing, to better understand the situation and, ideally, to fix it. Please listen and try and promote. We need help here.
2/ This is a beautiful ode to my favorite director, Celine Sciamma. Sciamma’s work is magnificent. Honestly, it’s hard for me to write about it. I don’t have the adequate words to describe the impact. I can’t really articulate how much she means to me.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is, of course, my favorite film of all time. This piece is a great starter on why. I appreciate this essay not only for articulating my feelings on the film, but also for effortlessly integrating praise for the craft. Sciamma’s a writer and a storyteller and an intellectual, but where she truly shines here, is as a filmmaker. Her art is in the showing and the craft. There is no other film I’ve ever seen that has stuck with me so intensely and indefinitely. Pure jouissance.
3/ This music video is so beautifully made and works so well with the socially conscious track it depicts. Stormzy, a British rapper/MC, made headlines recently when he pledged to donate 10 million pounds to Black, British causes over the next 10 years. Pretty cool! I’ve become a full Stormzy stan this week. Join me.
Ok, bye!