Here is another installment of my free newsletter where I list some things I have read, watched, listened to, and maybe even some other senses for no other reason than to show that I like stuff.
What I Have Watched
This will be two movies by Frederico Fellini, La Strada (1954) and Nights of Cabiria (1957) that star Giulietta Masina. Masina is a performative and expressive actor and her peculiarities really shine in these two movies. In La Strada, she plays a poor girl who is sold to a showman, played by Anthony Quinn, by her mother. They travel Italy putting on shows with Quinn playing the strongman and Masina playing the clown. In Nights of Cabiria, Masina is a prostitute in Rome who overcomes a series of unfortunate events. Giulietta Masina is like a Charlie Chaplin or a Buster Keaton with her physical humor, but her stature and voice are what make her so special. I think I married my wife because she reminds me of Giulietta Masina.
What I Have Read
On the recommendation of since I like the Vorrh trilogy by B. Catling, I read Follow Me To Ground by Sue Rainsford. Eerie, fantastical, and gothic, we follow the story of a girl named Ada and her father who give cures to the locals with special and strange rituals. The book is dreamlike and hallucinatory all the way through. I look forward to more of Rainsford’s books.
Instagram and Website I Like @james.west.glass
James West Glass has been putting up some great glass art on Instagram and has recently started selling on his own website. He’s been making fish, moths, and an elk skull using glass and other sculptural materials. Extremely beautiful stuff. He was also a great resource for when I was making my own tarot deck.
What I’ve Listened To
Songwrights Apothecary Lab with jazz composer Esperanza Spalding. This is a coordinated effort to compose music that has therapeutic and other enhancing effects. What makes some of this so special is that Spalding grew up in Portland and recorded while residing in Wasco County, Oregon – which is where I am living now. The music is ethereal and minimal but has a huge impact on a heart. This has been added to my meditation guidance.
What I Have Done
I just want to plug myself for a minute and to add that I am currently creating content for Public Node, a non-profit that is trying to help create an inclusive Stellar network which is a blockchain payment for moving and storing money. In my efforts to understand what that means I am writing these blogs as a “no-coiner” – someone who doesn’t own digital cryptocurrency. Hopefully, this will help some of you understand what this all means and how it can be of value to decentralizing and democratizing the financial institution.