Fun
A Pivot, in the Basement
Dear Kay,
One of my more hopeful thoughts during this time is that we are going to get art out of this. Maybe the musicians, artists, and writers are going to give us amazing things.
And maybe it won’t be the art they have done in the past.
A harbinger of this came through my email the other day, when Ellen Margulies, longtime friend of MDK, sent along a link to her brother-in-law’s short video.
Donald Margulies won a Pulitzer Prize for his play Dinner with Friends. He is a professor at Yale, the creator of many plays, a guy comfortable operating in the creative realm.
But what happens when it’s impossible to write? Like many of us, he has been thrown off track by the Covid-19 pandemic.
His reaction? Head down to the basement and crank up the Melville.
I am now a fan of his Instagram feed, @tsimmes, where the collages are flowing even as the world has stopped.
Thanks for the virtual postcard, Ellen.
Love,
Ann
I watched the video first thing this morning (after walking my 9 mo puppy who refuses to sleep past 5AM). It raised my spirits. First, I find the language of Melville thrilling, and listening to it is the best. Second, watching creativity in action fills my soul with hope. I am listening to Middlemarch as I knit during the quarantine; also using this time to work on my reading bucket-list. Thank you.
I listened at 6:30am (also with pups that don’t recognize weekends); haven’t tried audiobooks lately but Melville is probably a best choice. Thank you!
The Melville excerpts were marvelous. Moby Dick is on my list too, and boy, can‘t we all relate to Donald’s situation?
I might find the audiobook in the library, and I should make socks with the Uneek yarn I just got from you while listening.
MDK is one of my sources of joy.
I heard Audible is doing something with Prime, if you have such? Maybe there if not the library.
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and used to collage lunch boxes and just about anything else suitable to collage and decoupage. I haven’t thought about it in years. And, I adore the hashtag #tsimmes…It’s perfect! I also loved listening to the new Home Cooking podcast you found with Samin Nosrat. I’ve been listening to Unorthodox while knitting a Nightshift Shawl. I think I will pivot to Middlemarch. MDK has provided me with so much inspiration during this quarantine….keep those ideas flowing ladies….Thank You!
Oh gosh! You reminded me of the lunch box I decoupaged when i was 13! I loved that thing and the art I put on it. I can still remember a Peter Max cut-out. Good times.
Wonderful encouragement for all of us to take an “interesting excursion” into our brains…I also want to comment that MDK had Moby Dick on a Knit To This a few years ago…it was delightful and I’m so glad to be reminded of it!
Thank both of you for your daily posts because they are keeping me sane
Ah, Plague. Bocaccio and…who? My dear friend the Medievalist informed me scholars still write of the great emptiness left by artists on the topic. Makes me deeply grateful for Kushner, his “Angels in America” and a couple works by others in the AIDS years. Whew. Whadda rough road Baby Boomers have traveled. And now this. Makes one weep.