Aesthetic Arrest Podcast: American Fiction, Amoako Boafo, Marilynne Robinson & Agnès Varda's Vagabond!

“The aesthetic experience is a simple beholding of the object . . . you experience a radiance. You are held in aesthetic arrest.” - Joseph Campbell

Aesthetic Arrest is our weekly dip into the Epicurean pleasures we’ve been enjoying lately. Cheers to that!

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This Week’s Apéritif: The Shake Shake Shake For Your Booty Smoothie #2, Electric Boogaloo (Hazelnut Rice Milk, Roasted Almond Milk, Blueberries, Avocado, Peach Juice, Carrot Juice, Wild Apple Juice, Orange Flavored Electrolyte & Collagen Powder and Ice)

Shake Shake Shake Your Booty Smoothie #2, Electric Boogaloo [Photo by Ryan Wildstar]

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Ryan Wildstar’s Recommendations:

Reading: Housekeeping (Fortieth Anniversary Edition) by Marilynne Robinson

Purchase here.

• Renowned author Marilynne Robinson, '77, found her voice in the Northwest (via UW Magazine)

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Listening: The Music of Lass

• Massamba (single from new album, Passeport, coming April 2024 from Chapter Two Records!)

Purchase or Stream (multiple platforms)

• Bumayé (2022 album)

Purchase or Stream (multiple platforms)

• Lass on Instagram

• Lass Interview: “It's a Cry From the Heart to All Young Africans That the Future Belongs To Us” (via Songlines)

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Looking: The Art of Ma Yuan (c. 1160/65 - 1225)

1) Immortal Riding a Dragon; 2) Dancing and Singing Peasants Returning from Work; 3) Dancing and Singing Peasants Returning from Work; 4) Plum Rock Stream Teals; 5) White Rose; 6) Snowscape; 7) Clouds Rising from the Green; 8) Viewing Plum Blossoms; 9) On a Mountain Path in Spring

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Viewing: Vagabond (1985) — directed by Agnès Varda, starring Sandrine Bonnaire (available via Criterion)

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Tasting: Happy Hour at Radio Bar in Tirana, Albania

Tirana Mule (Albanian gin, lemon juice, lime juice, sherbet, fresh ginger, ginger beer, cucumber) & Kaipiraki (juniper raki, lime juice, fig jam, soda water) [Photo by Ryan Wildstar]

The Amazing Antique Decor of Radio Bar [Photo by Ryan Wildstar]

• Official Site of Radio Bar Tirana / Instagram

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Ryan Elston’s Recommendations:

Reading: Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?: Stories by Kathleen Collins (foreword by Elizabeth Alexander)

Purchase here.

• Remaking the Everyday - The interior worlds of Kathleen Collins’s fiction and film (via The Nation)

• Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins review – black power and pathos (via The Guardian)

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Listening: The Music of Lass

• Sory (new single with acclaimed Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca)

Purchase or Stream (multiple platforms)

• Bumayé (2022 album)

Purchase or Stream (multiple platforms)

• Lass on Instagram

• Lass: Celebration of Life on Debut Album (via New Model Radio)

• Lass | The Senegalese artist releases his debut album (via What the France)

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Looking: The Art of Amoako Boafo

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• Amoako Boafo on Instagram / Mariane Ibrahim Gallery / Roberts Projects LA / Works for Sale (via Artsy)

• Check out the current exhibition, Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks at the Denver Art Museum (on view until February 19, 2024!)

• Check out the current exhibition, Amoako Boafo: The One That Got Away at the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Mexico City (on view until May 4, 2024!). Take a virtual tour of the exhibition here!

• “When I look at you, do you see me?” Painter Amoako Boafo urges us to consider the complexities of blackness (via Document)

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Viewing: American Fiction (2023) — written & directed by Cord Jefferson, based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, starring Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams & Keith David

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Tasting: Happy Hour at Radio Bar in Tirana, Albania

1) Framboise (vodka, fresh lemon juice, raspberry, pineapple juice, almond syrup); 2) Manhattan (Canadian whisky, red vermouth, Angostura bitters) [Photos by Ryan Wildstar]

Vintage Film Posters (in multiple languages!) at Radio Bar in Tirana, Albania [photo by Ryan Wildstar]

• Official Site of Radio Bar Tirana / Instagram

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That’s it for this week! But we want the dinner party to continue! So each week we are asking a “dinner party” question for everyone joining us here at our table. Last week, we asked: “What's one of YOUR favorite foreign films?” Here are some of the great responses from the comments:

• Ryan Wildstar chose Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973)!

• Ryan Elston chose Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también (2001)!

• kde chose Kim Ki-duk’s Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)!

• Katie Kleinhesselink chose Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)!

• Del Mar chose Marco Ferreri’s La Grande Bouffe (1973) and Agustí Villaronga’s In a Glass Cage (1986)!

Thank you everyone for your wonderful responses! That was last week . . . but we don't want this week's dinner party to end either!

So here is this week's question for the table:

This week we talked about the delicious cocktails at Radio Bar, one of our favorite bars here in Tirana.

So, our question for the table this week is:

What's one of YOUR favorite bars?

Anywhere in the world! Whether it’s the local watering hole or an upscale wine bar, a retro Tiki lounge or a hipster gastropub, tell us your choice in the comments and we’ll share some of your responses on next week’s podcast!

Also, don't forget to stop by The Epicurean Vagabonds Substack on Wednesdays, to check out our revamped Mid-Week Libations! Now with audio segments featuring Ryan & Ryan!

And thank you for joining us for Season Two of Aesthetic Arrest!

Cheers to that!