Odessa’s Oddities & Curiosities | Week of 2/26/24

Dear friends,

I have spent far too long this weekend trying to remember how to write literary analysis. I have just now emerged from my attempted mind-meld with The Odyssey as I yank at a thesis concerning women, drugs, and power. But my first draft is complete…I will edit it another time.

I engaged with a bit more media this week. To be truthful, I do feel guilty on weeks when I consume and share less media. But when there is so much going on in life, sometimes, in the quiet moments, I just want to zone out to music. I can’t stand any more input. I hope you understand.

But I will share some music that has been bringing me joy including Claire’s upcoming single: “Boat”. You can only listen via her Instagram @clixr, but I can’t recommend the hypnotic sound enough. For a different hypnotic vibe, “Tripasia,” and different yet, “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” by Beyoncé.

Jon Stewart is back on The Daily Show, at least once a week till the election in November. Even though Jon Stewart’s prime on The Daily Show was before my own cultural/political consciousness, I have a deep misplaced nostalgia for this period. So such joy to see him return!

Speaking of returns and guest appearances, I noted this week that Dante’s Inferno is kind of like the infamous YouTube Rewind of epic literature. I will not explain further.

Surprisingly, I have two notes of interest on dunes. First, this Half As Interesting video on the power of sand dunes, and how sand dunes can develop into forests. Second, I did not realize all the psychedelic undertones of the Dune franchise…reading this interview of both Chalamet & Villeneuve made me quite excited to watch the second movie.

In class, we dove deep into the cognitive science of lying and whether you can assess lying. Professor Mendes introduced me to the concept of Truth Wizards, people who could detect deception with an accuracy above 80%. Law professionals and psychologists weren’t very good at this, but Secret Service agents were quite skilled. We also talked about the TSA’s SPOT program, which trained people to spot behaviors indicating deception. It was intended as a counter-terrorism measure but was funnily most effective at catching people cheating on their spouses. I also learned about the Program for Extraordinary Experience Research — fascinating! And I learned that my inclination toward fantasy novels and daydreaming may just mean that I’m high in magical ideation. I was tickled to collect that new self-description.

I caught the first five minutes of Adam Gopnik’s lecture on writing, but the big takeaway was that he thinks of writing as performance. I’m curious what percentage of writers you think feel similarly. I know I do when it comes to poetry. I was discussing with my tutor for Daily Themes how I’m so ill-adept at enjambment and white space, because in my head, obviously, I’m performing, and obviously, I know the perfect pause points.

The Run Up released a fabulous Valentine’s Day episode, where they asked people at a speed-dating event how important politics were to them when it comes to dating.

Olivia Rodgrigo’s GUTS Tour started a few nights ago. With Olivia, there is always the strange truth of her being only 1.5 months older than me. Definitely humbling haha. But I feel very proud of her (?) I love massive group phenomena and this article chasing down the nuances of concert outfits from Taylor Swift to Olivia Rodrigo to Beyoncé is delightful.

In terms of logistics, watch here for how the largest cruise ship feeds everyone !!! I feel both disturbed and delighted at the thought of their master spreadsheet. And, how the hotels on Mount Everest keep running!!! What a spectacular and fascinating documentary. Truly Everest-sized respect to all those workers.

Other things I found interesting or curious: Jevon’s Paradox, a review of the new book “Strong Passions”, and the importance of reading aloud to each other, even as adults — I was complimented on my reading aloud abilities this week by a professor, and never has a compliment struck so deeply after many years of practicing in speech therapy.

One writer mused how aesthetics for today’s teens are impoverished forms of the “scenes” teenagers used to have. I couldn’t decide if I felt like this was an adult who just didn’t get it or an actual case of modern superficiality. One benefit of aesthetics rather than scenes is that encourage a lot more experimentation and freedom to move between them.

One article totally flabbergasted me this week (I was hedging on whether to use this word, but I do think it fits the bill). “What It’s Like to Be a Sociopath” illuminates an interview with Patric Gagne on her new memoir: “Sociopath.” The interview flips on its head about halfway into it. So good.

In Modern Jewish Poets, we covered Muriel Rukeyser — Jewish feminist rebel poet that I had heard of before this class — a shonda! Daevan and I presented two of her poems side-by-side for the class: The Disease and The Disease: The Aftereffects. We noted her effect as a documentary poet — how she borrows language, how she presents images, and how she serves as an advocate rather than an impersonal viewer. It almost felt at times like blackout poetry from Congressional testimony if layered with many other voices. But in terms of other poems I loved from Rukeyser…

”Letter to the Front” — a multipart poem, some highlighted quotations:

“Women and poets see the truth arrive”

“But we are that home you dream across a war. / You fight; and we must go in poetry and hope.”

And “Poem” …

“We would try to imagine them, try to find each other,

To construct peace, to make love, to reconcile

Waking with sleeping, ourselves with each other,

Ourselves with ourselves. We would try by any means

To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves,

To let go the means, to wake.”

This week, we’re covering Paul Celan. I’ll wait for most of my reflections till next week, but I must recommend a read of Wolf’s Bean — please read it aloud to yourself.

I listened to this episode of 99% Invisible where they dove into all the instances of science affecting media (particularly Hollywood), and how in turn, these films affect science and public policy. So fun and with such good stories! And definitely makes you want to make films!

In other beautiful conclusions this week, all week, I’ve been walking past this dress in a store window. And I am not a particular window-shopper, but this dress caught my eye several times. Finally, I decided fuck it! and walked in — I do need a dress anyway for Junior Formal (Bridgerton-themed). It turns out they were completely sold out, but they did have just one small left in stock in blue, and it is perfect.

I was so overjoyed that Thea bought three of my grandfather’s books after reading my newsletter a few weeks ago! We’re going to have a little book club together!

NYT Cooking released this great doc about Dre, the most endearing dishwasher at Gage & Tollner, and all the work he does behind the scenes. For someone with a particular soft spot for dishwashing, I adored this doc — if you don’t know, I wrote a whole slam poem about my love for dishwashing.

I’ve recently revised my stance on The Ezra Klein Show — he does have superb taste in books. I was obsessed with this interview with Rhaina Cohen on her new book: The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center. Ezra and Rhaina noted how few gradations we have to describe the people we love, and how we lack the language beyond the rather childish “best friend” to describe what Ezra proposed were “platonic life partners.” They also discuss how the number of close friends is predictive of loneliness beyond any other factor (I could be misremembering). And the decline of close friends is associated with the rise of loneliness. It dovetails so nicely with this conversation Tetsu and I were having about “effect” friends and true friends. But I was feeling grateful about being in the stage of life where it is relatively easy to have close friends, but also what marvelous close friends I have. In addition to friendship, they also discuss allo-parents, and I was feeling grateful for how my parents kept a profusion of allo-parents in my life. One particular allo-parent, Rachel, wrote a complementary book to this one: Reconceptions: Modern Relationships, Reproductive Science, and the Unfolding Future of Family.

With love for all my close friends & allo-parents & curiosity,

Odessa