Musings on Books, Music, and Movies

this is a five things essay with a two drink minimum

Every time I write one of these, unless I fall into something hilarious, like repeating Central European Time over and over, I feel like each “thing” could have been edited down into a tweet. I honestly don’t know how other writers wrangle their thoughts into so few words. And then to do it several times per day, every day, forever, to maintain algorithmic relevance? To me, that seems like Xtream Sport Writing, and I’m into Coffee Steam, Cigarette Smoke, Meandering Walk Writing.

So, let’s meander…

one

I’m working on a new aesthetic, one I am sure will take over the world. Definitely not an aesthetic that is difficult to describe and even more of a challenge to photograph. But our world is definitely not based on things like snappy catch phrases and pretty images. So, me and my new aesthetic really cannot lose. Are you ready? Here goes… #darkchampagne. Let’s start with a colour scheme. Black, navy blue, and dark brown contrasting with every shade of gold, from rose to champagne to a deep patinated gold that’s almost green. Dark Champagne is something that looks morbid but also sparkly. If it were a room, it would be a library with soft, yellow string lighting, heavy crystal ashtrays, and stains on the tables from spilled coffee and red wine. If it were an outfit, it would be dark tweed high-waisted trousers with a gold leather vest. Dark Champagne is a little more grown up and a little less feminine than Dark Academia. Warmer than Goth, and with less lip filler. It’s destructive, like buying expensive, dry champagne when you can only afford store brand mixed nuts. It’s constructive, like forcing you to read classic literature. It is beautiful, but not at all photogenic. Dark Champagne is clean like using a bidet, and dirty like rescuing and re-homing a slug.

two

This is actually more of a question than a comment. How do avid readers parse their time between reading for pleasure and reading for purpose? Before I did my Master’s degree, I read almost exclusively for pleasure, and exclusively fiction. In writing my dissertation, and writing a book to go along with it, I binged, I gorged, on modern feminist literature. Non-fiction. Since then, I’ve had a hard time sitting down and just reading for pleasure. It’s only in the past few years that I’ve read a physical fiction book. I’ve listened to a bunch of fiction since my Master’s degree, and while I do believe that listening to an audiobook is still “reading”, I know that, for me, looking at a physical book and turning its pages is a crucial part of “reading”. To help with my motivation, I’ve got a “reading” section in my bullet journal and I’m thinking I need to be deliberate in choosing what I’m reading for pleasure and what I’m reading for purpose. For example: right now my pleasure read is The Paris Review and my purpose read is Ottessa Moshfegh’s Homesick for Another World. I learn by example and I’m shamelessly using Moshfegh’s book of short stories as examples of how I might write a short story. When I’m reading a short story in The Paris Review, I have to remind myself to not let analysis of the text take over the simple enjoyment of reading. My question at the beginning of this was not rhetorical; if you read for purpose, how do you make yourself read for pleasure?

three

In the middle of my meditation on my new found Dark Champagne aesthetic, I realised that the aesthetic also needs a playlist. One that was made by a sad cigarette smoking Tumblr girl in 2012. Or one that was made by me that doesn’t devolve into the same playlist I make over and over and over again, with Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, The Who, Patti Smith, Fleetwood Mac, Steve Miller Band, Styx, et cetera… But please don’t ask me to try to describe Dark Champagne music or you’ll get more talk of bidets and gold leather, and you still won’t know what to look up in your music app to hear it. The best I can do is: Dark Champagne music is definitely not Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, The Who, or Steve Miller Band. It might be some Patti Smith and the Fleetwood Mac songs that Stevie wrote. It might be Styx’s “Come Sail Away”, but if I add that song I won’t be able to stop myself and my Dark Champagne playlist will pop like bubbles in the wake of 70s rock.

four

Have you seen Saltburn? I’ve been asking everyone I know that question and I’m starting to feel like a Mormon missionary.

ding-dong Hello! My name is Lady Rachel, and I would like to share with you the most amazing movie!

ding-dong Hello! My name is Lady Rachel, it’s a movie about shame and obsession and the British landed gentry. It has so many awesome parts, you simply won’t believe how much this movie will change your life!

My religious fervour is really where the comparisons between Mormonism and the movie Saltburn overlap, so I’ll stop typing out my parody lyrics to a parody song from the musical The Book of Mormon. One thing that the characters in Saltburn share with every Mormon I’ve met (a lot, I grew up in Utah and Idaho) is a relentless commitment to positivity, even in the face of tragedy. Maybe another thing would be not knowing where Liverpool is located. Why should you see Saltburn? I honestly cannot tell you. I’ve tired. I have at least three drafts of essays answering that question, but my love for the film will not be contained by human language, so I’m letting myself off that hook here, in thing four.

five

Rosamund Pike. That is the only coherent reason I can give you to see Saltburn. She is the definition of “luminous”. She is breathtakingly talented. Everything I’ve seen her in, I need to watch at least twice because the first time I will have not seen anything apart from her. If anyone knows what the makeup artist used for her blush in the first season of The Wheel of Time, please let me know because those cheeks kept me sustained through a boring show. And fun fact: she and Tom have the exact same birthday.

Ok, to sum up: welcome to my Dark Champagne aesthetic, bring your favourite fiction and non-fiction books so we can dialogue about reading for pleasure vs. purpose, every evening meal will be followed by a showing of Saltburn, and the only makeup allowed is eyebrow gel, concealer, and Rosamund Pike’s blush from The Week of Time Season 1.

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