“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. Here we go!
Ryan Wildstar’s Recommendations:
Reading: Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A.J. Liebling
[To hear us discussing our fine dining experiences in Paris as well as other regions of France, check out our recent podcast, Ryan & Ryan in Conversation: Fine Dining in France]
Listening: Linger Awhile by Samara Joy
Looking: Bust of Apollon aka Goddess Apollo Dea aka Goddess of Butrint (Illyrian - 4th Cent. BCE) at The National Historical Museum in Tirana, Albania. [And Sleeping Hermaphroditus at the Musée du Louvre.]
Viewing: Sidney: The Life and Legacy of Sidney Poitier directed by Reginald Hudlin (Apple TV+)
Tasting: Green Chicken Korma and Dal Tadka (made by Ryan Wildstar, Dal Tadka from a recipe via Cook with Manali, a Seattle-based Indian cook and photographer). Her cookbook, Vegetarian Indian Cooking with your Instant Pot by Manali Singh can be purchased from her website here.
Ryan Elston’s Recommendations:
Reading: Delayed Rays of a Star by Amanda Lee Koe
The photograph of Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong and Leni Riefenstahl that inspired the novel:
Listening: The Music of Pharoah Sanders (October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022)
Pharoah Sanders obituary (with great Youtube links)
Remembering saxophone icon Pharoah Sanders, dead at 81 (audio segment on All Things Considered)
Looking: Night Flight of Dread and Delight by Skunder Boghossian
Night Flight of Dread and Delight at the North Carolina Museum of Art
Skunder Boghossian, Night Flight of Dread and Delight (via Smarthistory)
Viewing: Paris Blues (1961) directed by Martin Ritt, starring Sidney Poitier, Diahann Carroll, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Louis Armstrong and Aaron Bridgers (with a soundtrack by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn! And cameos by María Elena Velasco and Skunder Boghossian!)
On Paris Blues by Darryl Pinckney (via The Paris Review)
Tasting: Baklava from Tito Bakery and Patisserie (Tirana, Albania)
For more about the food and culture of Tirana, check out Ryan Wildstar’s article: Cooking With Cultural Appreciation Part One: Tirana My House
That’s it for this week! What are your reading, listening, looking, viewing and/or tasting recommendations?
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