Five Fine Things...
*in which I inflict my taste on you, dear reader
Photo credit: Sublime selfie in February Finland (see point 4).
Hello there, in case you don’t know, (if you do just skip to number 1), this is a list of five things that I have been enjoying lately! This is a weekly to fortnightly haphazard list of stuff that’s inspiring or interesting me ranging from books and poems, to websites and media, from TV shows and films, to music and podcasts to other Substacks and philosophies, to even actual sights in the real world- natural or human-made.
I’d love to hear of some of the things that are currently enriching your life too so please do comment below and thank you for reading! Also do check out some guest Fine Things with David Horgan Art here and musician Mark Vernon (of YOVA music) here, (more to come and do get in touch if you’re keen to be my guest).
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Listening! to a good ‘ole spot of hillbilly music. That is Tyler Childers - a young man from the Appalchian mountains, with a voice full of dirt (in a good way) singing out the struggle (the pills, the whisky, the grind, the Charleston girls, the myopic religion and on). Here’s his Tiny Desk Concert for a flavour of his work. My favourite in terms of visuals is this one from a gig at at Red Rocks, (visuals both in terms of location and the madness that Childers is channeling in his expressions here) and my fave in terms of romance is this one. Tyler also created a whole fiddle album in 2021 in response to the ongoing police brutality in America which concludes with him addressing his “white rural listeners” asking how they would react if they had to worry “about the smallest interaction with a public servant” and goes on to cite several hypothetical examples, that album is called Long Violent History.
Re-reading! A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. What a play, what a playwright! I’m re-reading this to teach it for a Spot-Lit (theatre in education) workshop but this doesn’t feel like werk. Williams’s women are both dreadful and pitiful and absolutely captivating, which brings me to my next point…
Reading! Unlikeable Female Character by Anna Bogutskaya a study of the development of female characterisation in film and television from it's inception to the present day - charting the course from the vamps and femme fatales of Hollwoo’s Golden Age to the hysterics and madwomen of the 90s (a la Girl Interrupted) and on to the Vilanelles and Fleabags of today. I’m only two chapters in but am thoroughly enjoying this so far, to the extent that I am going around the house quoting bits of it to my partner and/or cat! (🙏Thank you regular reader and dear friend Becky for this birthday gift.🙏)
Contemplating! the power of the sublime. I teach this term all the time (as I teach English Lit, more on that here), especially when I cover the Romantic poets but I’ve probably only experienced it personally a handful of times. One of those times was a fortnight back while taking the ice-breaker ferry across the Baltic sea in Finland from Oulu to the island of Hailuoto island. As the name suggests the ferry was literally smashing up the very thick ice for us to pass, it was immense, awesome (true sense of the word), and somewhat terrifying. More on Finland to follow but here’s a travel piece on polar opposite very hot Greece here.
Watching! All Of Us Strangers a beautiful, funny, pathos-filled surreal meditation on grief, coming out, family, the power of connection (however brief), and of course love. Features Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy. I watched this in the Brixton Ritzy (my favourite cinema) and it was so good to watch it with an audience that got it - responding to all the East and South London locations and references (The Whitgift Shopping Centre in Croydon features poignantly).
Once more thank you so much for reading as always and if you are interested in other recommendations then please visit here, you can also explore the full archive containing all sorts of things here. In other news here’s a recent, very lovely review of my book Roaming Wild, the Founding of Compassion in World Farming, on the website England Naturally. Finally, do check out my most recent long-form piece on the phenomenon that is TV show Gilmore Girls, even if you've never watched the show this piece is still IMHO worth a read as indeed it contains multitudes….⭐
Love,
Emma x o x o
Great selection! I feel I am now becoming a Tennesy Williams fan due to you! 🙌✌️