“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!
Ryan Wildstar’s Recommendations:
Reading: “Ode to Wine” by Pablo Neruda (translated by from Margaret Sayers Peden from All the Odes: A Bilingual Edition, edited by Ilan Stavans)
Listening: The Music of Carol Kaye (born March 24, 1935)
Looking: The Art of Hans Baldung Grien (1484 or 1485 - 1545)
Viewing: Fashion Reimagined (documentary about fashion designer Amy Powney, directed by Becky Hutner)
Official Site of Mother of Pearl
Some disturbing facts from the documentary [source]:
The fashion industry produces over 100 billion garments a year, and three out of five of these end up in landfills within one year of purchase.
Traditional denim washing uses 1500 litres of water for 1 pair of jeans. That’s equal to 1 person's drinking water for 2 years.
Only 2% of the people who make our clothes earn a living wage.
Five out of seven cotton growers use child labor, which means 2.5 million children are picking cotton every year.
If the fashion industry were a country, it would be ranked third for greenhouse gas emissions after the US and China.
The emissions created by the fashion industry are equivalent to 372 million cars driving for one year.
35% of ocean microplastics come from synthetic clothes shedding in washing machines.
A typical garment travels to at least 5 countries before reaching the customer.
Tasting: Dinner at La Gioia Restaurant (Tirana, Albania)
Ryan Elston’s Recommendations:
Reading: Bricktop's Paris: African American Women in Paris Between the Two World Wars by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting
T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting on Ada “Bricktop” Smith (1894-1984):
“The grande dame of cabaret culture . . . Bricktop served as both anchor and magnet for an expatriate community of African American women. . . . [A]ccording to Bricktop, her club was a ‘combination mail-drop, bank, rehearsal hall, clubhouse—even a neighborhood bar. But it was always chic.’ For many, such as the poet-painter Gwendolyn Bennett and portrait artist Laura Wheeler, Bricktop’s was the last stop on a night out. Composer and singer Nora Holt and performance artist Florence Mills frequently dined with the saloonkeeper during their time in the city. Bricktop counseled Josephine Baker in her early days in Paris, helping her to read and write, and offered refuge to a homesick Ethel Waters who, tired of croissants and beurre blanc, desperately wanted a place to cook. The ever-difficult Nancy Prophet befriended a newly arrived Augusta Savage at Pan-Africanist impresario W. E. B. Du Bois’s request, while Dorothy Peterson and Nella Larsen enjoyed tea in Parisian salons and wrote countless letters to Carl Van Vechten of their travels.” - from Bricktop's Paris: African American Women in Paris between the Two World Wars by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting
Listening: Hello Happiness by Chaka Khan (born March 23, 1953)
Looking: The Art of Marjorie Cameron (1922-1995)
Click here to watch Marjorie Cameron in Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, an avant-garde short film by Kenneth Anger from 1954!
Viewing: Bessie Coleman: Queen of the Skies - documentary about aviatrix Bessie Coleman, directed by Chad Cunningham (Curiosity Stream)
View trailer here! (via Facebook)
Tasting: Dinner at La Gioia Restaurant (Tirana, Albania)
That’s it for this week! But we want the dinner party to continue! So we have a question for everyone joining us here at our table. In honor of Women’s History Month, we want to know:
Who is one of YOUR favorite female singers, musicians or composers? Let us know in the comments and we’ll share some of your choices on next week’s podcast!
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