Aesthetic Arrest: Weekly Cultural Highlights 6/3/22
“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!
[Editor's Note: This week, Substack made some platform updates which affected the font formatting. So you may notice that all links, italicization and bolding have extended to the adjacent punctuation.]
Ryan Wildstar’s Recommendations:
Reading: During the pandemic I delved into the work of Amy Tan. I had always loved the film based on her best-selling novel, The Joy Luck Club but I had been sadly remiss in reading her novels. Since I knew the plot of that book from the film, I decided to start with her much-lauded second novel, The Kitchen God’s Wife. It was thoroughly engrossing from cover to cover. This masterpiece is centered around the lives of Pearl, a Chinese-American woman living in San Jose, her Chinese immigrant mother Winnie and her Auntie Helen. The story begins in the present and is told through Pearl’s point of view as she struggles with telling her frail, aging mother that she is suffering from multiple sclerosis. Then the story shifts and her mother Winnie becomes the narrator, taking us back to her captivating origin story of Japanese-occupied China in the years leading up to and after World War II. This is a work of pure literary genius that I could not put down. As soon as I finished it, I went straight into her fourth novel, The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Another masterpiece!
“We are living in a world where everything is false. The society is like bright paint applied on top of rotten wood.” Amy Tan, from The Kitchen God’s Wife
Listening: I’ve had “Free,” from Florence + The Machine’s latest album, Dance Fever, stuck in my head since it was released. Absolutely loving the new album, which very much feels like a mature, insightful return to her debut album, Lungs. Singer Florence Welch says this particular song, which has a great video (link below) featuring veteran British actor Bill Nighy, is “about my anxiety and how I process it.” The song and video immediately reminded me of the six-week program we recently finished, Lil’ Habit, with life coach Andrea Engstrom. She founded the company in order to help people identify and then face their resistance and create a small, doable daily habit to try to reach their goals. Honestly, if you’re a creative individual feeling blocked or just want to try to accomplish something in your life that you’re feeling unable to do, check out lilhabit.com and start working with Andrea. Our work with her is literally the reason we were able to launch The Epicurean Vagabonds. Ten weeks ago, she helped us to start writing for 20 minutes a day and we created this entire newsletter from the results! I highly recommend both Florence’s new song and Andrea’s Training Wheels Program. Thank you, Andrea!
Looking: I’m rarely a fan of Brutalist architecture, the post-war era building style that emerged during the 1950s and spread faster than Covid across Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and much of the United States and Canada. However, there are several buildings across the Balkans that literally stop you in your tracks and make you pause and ask yourself, “Is that the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen or is it actually really cool and very Blade Runner-esque?” The Central Post Office here in Skopje is definitely one of those Brutalist buildings, erected in three stages from 1974 to 1989 by Macedonian architect Janko Konstantinov. Walking past it the other day, I’m leaning towards “It’s actually really cool.”
Viewing: Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times. This documentary about the friendship between two of the world’s most treasured spiritual leaders, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, is exactly what the title says it is - joyous. The pure love and respect shared between these two Nobel Peace Prize-winning men is beyond compelling. You will laugh out loud and perhaps, knowing that the world lost Desmond Tutu last year at the age of 90, even shed a tear for the loss of the Dalai Lama’s dearest friend. If you want to be uplifted and filled with joy, watch this documentary right now. Also, check out the book they wrote together, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World.
Tasting: The delight of eating out in Macedonia is that the food, served meze-style, is delicious, bountiful and an amazing bang for your buck. Last night we dined at the city’s most popular restaurant, Skopski Merak, in our hip Bohemian neighborhood, the Debar Maalo. The food, the service and the liter of house white wine were all deserving of their fantastic reputation. We started with their trio of spreads: pindjur (a creamy mix of tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, olive oil and a touch of vinegar), ajvar (roasted eggplant and sweet red bell peppers) and makalo (a thick blend of mashed potatoes, aubergine, leek, onion and embroidered peppers) served with some fresh-baked sesame bread sticks. This was followed by their delectable deep-fried zucchini chips (see Ryan’s tasting notes below for his mouthwatering description). And lastly, a mixed platter of savory meatballs (ground beef and pork stuffed with edamer cheese, wrapped in bacon and grilled) their Skopski burger (a beef patty smothered with cheese curd and tomato, wrapped in pastry dough and baked in a wood-fired oven) and oven-roasted baby potatoes slathered in olive oil and sea salt. Everything was utterly scrumptious but our eyes were bigger than our stomachs (which is saying something) so we had to take what we couldn’t finish to go and . . . it’s dinner again tonight! Miam miam miam!
Ryan Elston’s Recommendations:
Reading: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo is one of the finest novels I’ve read in years. Potent, ingenious, delicious writing in a poetic style (hints of Gertrude Stein and a dash of Toni Morrison stirred into ancient epic rhythms), with smart and snappy dialogue better than the most riveting TV dramedy. The story centers around a dozen fascinating Black British women (and one non-binary Black person) whose lives are all completely intertwined: mothers, daughters, grandmothers, lovers, colleagues . . . with many interesting twists and surprises along the way. The whole time I was reading it, I was imagining a beautiful, big-budget BBC or ITV miniseries with a huge ensemble cast of amazing Black British actresses and non-binary actors. (My dream cast would include starring roles for Sophie Okonedo, Thandiwe Newton, Michaela Coel, Cynthia Erivo, Naomie Harris, Freema Agyeman, Adjoa Andoh, Golda Rosheuvel, Olive Gray, T'Nia Miller, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Gina Yashere, Lydia West, Nina Sosanya, Yasmin Finney and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.) Evaristo deservedly won the Booker Prize in 2019 (along with Margaret Atwood) for this outstanding work, and her presentation of each character’s unique story and perspective is both highly empathic and extremely relatable, even to those readers who may be less familiar with the Black experience in the U.K. There were parts that had me laughing out loud and other parts that literally brought me to tears. Un. Put. Downable.
Listening: Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora virtuoso Seckou Keita just released Echo, their stunning conclusion to a trilogy of perfect albums. Their decade-long collaboration brings together two seemingly disparate musical traditions, and yet the result is a soothing, harmonious fusion of strings. Music for relaxation and inspiration. There are no live videos from the new album yet, but a perfect example of their artistry is “Bach to Baïsso” (which seamlessly blends a passage from Bach’s Goldberg Variations with an ancient, traditional melody passed down through Keita’s griot lineage):
Listen to Echo and the first two albums in the trilogy here, here and here.
[Note: I will be writing further about this style of music – a recent trend in global fusion merging stringed instruments from different cultures – in an upcoming article entitled “String Theory.”]
Looking: I am always dazzled by the lush paintings of Kent Monkman, a Canadian First Nations artist and member of the Fisher River Cree Nation, who is both queer and a two-spirit. Monkman, via his drag queen trickster/alter ego “Miss Chief” (a pun on “mischief”) – full name “Miss Chief Share Eagle Testickle” (“Share” is an homage to gay icon Cher), subverts the entire Western art tradition using historical paintings, landscapes and portraits inspired by (and often playfully, provocatively or pointedly subverting) everyone from Titian to Delacroix to Picasso.
Brief CBC News segment about Kent Monkman’s 2019 commission from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Kent Monkman (with an appearance by Miss Chief!) discussing his work and process:
The Official Site of Kent Monkman
Viewing: I love PBS and I’m not ashamed to say it. One of our favorite series is American Masters, which has been going strong since 1986! All of the incredible documentaries American Masters has showcased over the decades are far too long to list right here (and you know I love a long list), but last season alone gave us powerful documentaries on Amy Tan, Buddy Guy, Helen Keller, Rita Moreno and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo! Not to mention How It Feels to Be Free (directed by Yoruba Richen), which highlights six beloved icons – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – and how they transformed American culture. (Okay I still made a list. Anyway.)
The 2022 season is proving to be equally rewarding, beginning with Ailey, directed by Jamila Wignot, a beautiful tribute to the revolutionary dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, a genius who left us too soon at the age of 58. In addition to a tender portrait of the artist by those who loved him, including many dancers/choreographers who are now famous in their own right, the documentary also contains fantastic clips of his stunning live performances, which later led us to many hours of Youtube viewing. Ailey was followed by Marian Anderson: The Whole World in Her Hands, directed by Rita Coburn, and tracing the extraordinary life of Marian Anderson, the opera singer and civil rights activist who happened to be one of the greatest contraltos of the 20th Century. Also, the best part about American Masters is that, depending upon your location (or your VPN’s location), you can watch these documentaries (and many past episodes) at PBS.org for free! Watch American Masters here.
Tasting: I am becoming obsessed with a meze staple that seems to be ubiquitous in the bistros of Macedonia – fried zucchini chips. I’ve never eaten anything exactly like this before! The local variant is nothing like a tempura vegetable, nor does it have anything to do with an American restaurant’s form of deep-fried and breaded zucchini (such as the "zucchini zircles" Ryan Wildstar served long ago whilst waiting tables at The Hamlet in Beverly Hills). It’s not a fritter or a croquette. The Greek variant of the dish, kolokythakia tiganita, is a bit closer but still much heavier and not exactly what we’ve tasted here. In the Macedonian version, the zucchini is sliced into impossibly thin wafers or strips with the translucence and consistency of origami paper, then very lightly breaded with a batter than almost tastes sweet (I’m reminded of the funnel cakes or elephant ears you would find at the county fair), and then fried to a point of perfect crispness where they literally shatter in your mouth. The tangy zest and freshness of the zucchini matched with all that decadent, deep-fried goodness is downright irresistible. Feast your eyes upon the delectable version from Skopski Merak, one of our favorite new restaurants, in the photo here.
That’s it for this week! What are your reading, listening, looking, viewing and/or tasting recommendations?
Wow! This is a packed full posting and will keep me busy for awhile--amazing content. Amy Tan is one of my favorite authors and have read several of her books, but surprisingly, not The Joy Club. I will start there.