Odessa’s Oddities & Curiosities | Week of 6/17/24

Dear friends,

I’m writing from that glorious balcony in our apartment I mentioned last week. I’ve just returned from a TikTok-coined “Hot Girl Walk” — sipping on iced coffee & listening to Robert Sapolsky lecture on Emergence & Complexity.

It’s Father’s Day, and I’m wishing I was making my dad breakfast in bed with a serenade of “Happy Father’s Day” to the tune of “Happy Birthday”. Thank you, Dad, for modeling diligent curiosity, skepticism, and never taking yourself too seriously. I love you so much!

Moving onto curiosities…

I got to spend last weekend in Manhattan with my mom — what a nourishing weekend on so many levels! We had the perfect blend of art and shopping and culture and delicious food. Some recommendations:

The impetus for my mom’s trip was the premiere of The Sabbath Queen — a documentary that’s been in the making for about as long as I’ve been alive. We went to the premiere last Sunday at Tribeca. And it is BRILLIANT. Sandi Dubowski (dear friend of my mom) directed a film exploring the journey of R’Amichai Lau-Lavie (another dear friend of my mom’s): “the heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis who is torn between accepting his ancestral destiny or becoming a drag queen rebel. In addition to his drag persona, Lau-Lavie is a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul: an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation”. I laughed. I cried…especially as a leftie jew right now. It’s on the film festival circuit right now, so watch at a festival near you!

We went to services at Lab/Shul on Friday night, and it was precisely everything I needed in a way I didn’t even think was possible. Instead of using Adonai in Hebrew prayer, which roughly translates as Lord/Master — a metaphor I detest, they use Havaya or the everpresence. Both the film and the service made me feel reignited with excitement for the potential of Jewish ritual — an excitement that has long been dimmed by spending way too much time in traditional Jewish spaces.

Onto less-Jewy topics, we also saw Suffs on Broadway — a smart, moving retelling of the fight for women’s suffrage. My mom and I sobbed for most of the play.

On another mushy note, entering The Met always makes me verklempt. This massive exertion of human energy and curiosity so that millions of people can wander in and have all these bundled moments of awe. In a museum like that, I get so overwhelmed, I can’t decide whether to laugh, cry, or dance or just skip through the galleries in an attempt to take it all in. Their exhibit on the Harlem Renaissance was superb — shoutouts to “Pool Parlor, 1942” by Jacob Lawrence, and Aaron Douglas’ paintings, particularly "Let My People Go”. The Costume Institute’s exhibit was also fantastic — I was amused/bewildered by their profilic use of scents to add to the multisensory experience: smells like the body odor of the model who wore the dress. And their collection of Chinese Buddhist sculptures took my breath away — just like that divine moment of jaw-dropped, head-tilted-up, eyes-wide awe.

Also on this trip, I was enthralled by Birnam Wood — admittedly I’ve been reading this book for a long time. I think I counted four lapsed Kindle holds from the library. I think I also mentioned it in a previous newsletter. The writing is brilliant, but the first half is pretty damn slow. But it was good enough that I kept going back to it. The pace definitely picks up in the second half, and the ending shocked me!!!! Please someone read it so we can talk about it! It’s a hard book to describe but perhaps an intellectual eco-thriller set in New Zealand.

My favorite article I read in the last week was by far this profile of Diane von Furstenberg. Of course, I knew of Diane, but after this profile, I adore Diane. Iconic is too small and imprecise a word. And I will be taking her term: cuddle puddle.

Other articles I enjoyed included this guide to how to pack a carry-on for a two-week trip, this essay on how sweating brings us back into our bodies, and what happened when Pope Francis brought a whole bunch of comedians to the Vatican.

In science news, a study just came out with this really cool wearable MEG scanner to measure brain activity in young children — really fucking cool because it’s normally really challenging to keep children still enough to scan in fMRI. And this really interesting study on how cognition changes through the menstrual cycle — took scientists long enough!!

Here’s an amusing oddity that made me chuckle from this article, “Who is Rodent Man?”: “What does it mean that some of the people who desire men are desiring men who look like rodents at this particular moment.” The oddly academic phrasing combined with the absurd subject matter made me giggle.

I’m finally feeling settled back in New Haven — the city just seems to unfurl once most of the Yale students leave. Danya and I went to Movies in the Plaza where I was giddy to rewatch The Parent Trap (an all-time favorite film) with an enthusiastic crowd. We discovered this amazing game store — nerdy safe haven. Tetsu’s been cooking these unbelievable meals — including this out-of-this-world coq au vin.

On Thursday, Abe and I went to Art & Stories at the Yale University Art Gallery, where they share the stories behind the art. We learned about the art of Indonesian Shadow puppets — including a story from the Mahabharata. In Indonesia, there are these 24-hour puppet shows with hundreds of intricate shadow puppets. The docent called it athletic storytelling as the puppeteer moves and manipulates all these puppets. But I was particularly moved when we moved around to the other side of the screen where the puppets were revealed. Despite the fact that they were shadow puppets, these puppets had gloriously bright and detailed colors. I raised my hand to ask why would they color the puppets if the audience can only see their shadows? The docent smiled: For the puppeteer to enjoy. And I think there’s a marvelous lesson in there — something about art and the nature of performance, and the small joys we take only for ourselves.

We hosted 7 people (10 in total) for Shabbat dinner on Friday night. Tetsu orchestrated a feast — we had dips & crudité, gazpacho, artichoke pasta, roast beef, salmon taurine. We had some good giggles as I tried to be his sous-chef. We drank Aperol spritzes, and Danya led us in the blessings, and my heart was so full. Then we played fierce games of Code Names & Bananagrams. I just love being back here where I can casually debate Philosophy of Mind at a backyard party.

I hope you all have a marvelous week and a joyous Juneteenth. And I hope you find some time to color in your puppets, some joy just for you, whatever that might mean.

With love & curiosity,

Odessa