“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!
This Week’s Apéritif: Bayanis Pastis de Marseille
Ryan Wildstar’s Recommendations:
Reading: The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris by Edmund White
Listening: Biréli Lagrène Plays Loulou Gasté by Biréli Lagrène
Looking: The Art of Nicholas Kalmakoff (1873 - 1955)
Viewing: A Page of Madness — directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa, screenplay by Yasunari Kawabata and music by Minoru Muraoka
Tasting: Les Pêcheurs des Calanques Bisque de Homard (The Fishermen of Calanques Lobster Bisque) served with Wildstar’s Homemade Rouille on Croutons
Ryan Elston’s Recommendations:
Reading: Grand Tour: Poems by Elisa Gonzalez
“A mesmerizing book, deeply original, one of the most profound reading experiences I’ve had in years. There is in Gonzalez's nature something volcanic, a sense of fire originating at a very great depth, so when it breaks the surface it breaks blazing. Here are wild elegies to lost selves; here, too, poems of eerie delicacy and strangeness, radiating a kind of desperate sadness. But I love best the long incautious poems: here one feels most urgently her extraordinary force, her dignity, her savage hunger, her sweetness. These poems make me feel as if poems have never before been written.” — Louise Glück [Source: Macmillan]
Interview with Elisa Gonzalez: The Poet on Sisterhood and Grief (via The Yale Review)
Unplotting Trauma: On Elisa Gonzalez’s “Grand Tour” (via Los Angeles Review of Books)
Listening: My Strong Will by Girma Yifrashewa
Looking: The Art of Uýra
Viewing: Uýra – The Rising Forest — documentary about Uýra, directed by Juliana Curi (POV on PBS)
Watch for free on PBS.org and the PBS app until December 24, 2023!
Tasting: Dinner at La Petite Cantine in Bellegarde, France
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 cult classic films?” Here are some of the great responses from the comments:
Ryan Wildstar chose Phantom of the Paradise!
Ryan Elston chose Hedwig and the Angry Inch!
Katie Kleinhesselink also chose Hedwig and the Angry Inch, though her second favorite is Guy Maddin's Careful (1992)!
Del Mar chose Black Christmas (1974)!
kde chose Napoleon Dynamite!
Zach Shaw chose Harold and Maude!
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’s podcast began with Edmund White’s peripatetic classic, The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris, a book inspired by his many walks through the streets of The City of Light.
So, our question for the table this week is:
What's one of YOUR favorite places to take a relaxing walk?
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!
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