Odessa’s Oddities & Curiosities | Week of 4/8/2024

Dear friends,

Many apologies for the delay — truthfully, yesterday was so hectic (& delightful re: eclipse) that I totally forgot.

But importantly, Happy eclipse! Happy (belated) birthday to my mom! Only my mom would have the mazal for a complete eclipse crossing North America on her 54th! Speaking of the eclipse, I loved this graphic. And I loved the humanness of it all…yesterday, the clouds briefly obscured the sun during the most exciting part of the eclipse. People began to pack up and leave. But then, the clouds parted again, and the crowd, packing every inch of grass outside the Observatory, burst into applause.

Also! There is a high of 67 today in New Haven, which means I am defiantly wearing a sundress — hello warm weather!!

In Modern Jewish Poets, we did such a fruitful close reading of “Psalm” by George Open, but I also want to flag his “Some San Francisco Poems” — Oppen so beautifully captures The Bay:

“Climbing the peak of Tamalpais the loose

Gravel underfoot

And the city shining with the tremendous wrinkles

In the hills and the winding of the bay

Behind it, it faces the bent ocean”

We’re now reading Adrienne Rich (who I LOVE) and Allen Ginsberg, but I’ll save that discussion to next week! Also this lovely article on the complementary forces of nature & poetry.

Speaking of poetry, Joni Mitchell is back on Spotify (along with Neil Young!) Her Blue Album played on repeat in the few weeks after Blooma was born. I’ve been strolling around campus with Blue on repeat.

And on the topic of Spotify, I was tickled by this nifty musician who makes all sorts of songs…

Looking over my notes for this newsletter, a common theme was technology. We have this lovely ode to Google Maps & shared location lists. Use of AI to recreate a conversation with a loved one — I wrote about this & griefbots for a summer program years ago. And this podcast episode, which partially details how a technology for the tongue can aid with sight —- the rest of the episode is heart-wrenching.

One of the best parts of being in college is all the lectures that are publicly available. I was walking up to breakfast in Branford last Friday when I noticed that Ta-Nehisi Coates was speaking that afternoon at 5 pm. I snuck into the back of Battell Chapel to hear him speak. I was expecting beautiful language, but I did not expect to sob in public that Friday afternoon. Coates spends much of the hour reading from his newest (unreleased) book, which unexpectedly starts with his visit to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem). He talked about the massive book of names of nearly five million Jews, and how by walking around the book he was “circumnavigating the cataclysm”. He read about how the US likes to have this narrative that they were so far removed from the horrors of the Holocaust, but the “unspeakable spoke in America first” — referencing how the Nazis were inspired by American slavery & Jim Crow laws. He talks about how Yad Vashem ends with the founding of Israel. And how he could see so clearly how many might view Israel as the culmination of the long arc of justice. But the realities of the West Bank shatter this vision (written pre-Oct 7).

I’ve never heard a gentile speak so clearly and directly to the heart of why the atrocities of Gaza feel so deeply painful to Jews. Coates talked about his profound and full realization that race is a species of power, nothing else.

The last episode of Curb aired last Sunday. I haven’t watched any of this most recent season — waiting to savor it this summer! But I’ve been appreciating all these fantastic essays about Curb and its impact.

Also, a fascinating little glimpse into an unusual job.

I went on such a joyful run earlier today. I definitely understand why most civilizations worshipped the sun.

With love & curiosity,

Odessa