Marie Cosindas, Dementia, Marriage, El Chapo, TSA
Marie Cosindas, Great American Artist
Tom Wolfe | Vulture | 19th June 2017
Obituary of the painter-turned-photographer, student of Ansel Adams, virtuoso of Polaroid. “She tried experiments nobody had ever even remotely thought of. She warmed up exposed film in rooms heated up to 90 degrees. She Scotch-taped double color filters, typically orange and yellow or magenta over the lens. She pushed exposure times to give portraits almost completely dark backgrounds with the subjects emerging in the centre. She was painting with film” (2,600 words)
Field Notes from My Dementia
Gerda Saunders | Literary Hub | 22nd June 2017
Scholar with Alzheimers celebrates the value of love as a palliative, in her own life and in the life of the novelist Iris Murdoch. “As Murdoch’s illness continued to crumble away her language and reason, she gradually abandoned attempts to write. There came a day when Iris laid her hand on Bayley’s knee and said, ‘Susten poujin drom love poujin? Poujin susten?’ Bayley needed no more help than her hand gentling his cheek to distill from this jumble the grammar of love” (2,000 words)
Aftermath
Rachel Cusk | Granta | 19th May 2011
In the shadow of an acrimonious divorce, the writer Rachel Cusk reflects on marriage, family, and the intrinsic unfairness of gender. “A man commits no particular heresy against his sex by being a good father, and working is part of what a good father does. The working mother, on the other hand, is traducing her role in the founding myths of civilisation on a daily basis – no wonder she’s a little harassed. She’s trying to defy her own deep-seated relationship with gravity” (8,100 words)
Cartel Wives
Mia Flores & Olivia Flores | Fox News | 19th June 2017
On being married to the men who run El Chapo’s cocaine franchise in Chicago. “By 2006 cash was something that was just there, free for the taking and spending. I felt like a banker who walks into the vault a few times a week and sees millions of dollars in front of him. A few steps away from our bedroom was a room where Junior and Peter stored their cash. Probably $2 million or $3 million was piled up and if I needed some I’d just walk in and grab a few stacks” (4,200 words)
Anxiety At The Gates
Edward Schwarzschild | Hazlitt | 15th June 2017
What it’s like to work as an airport screener for the TSA. “Now, every morning, as part of my job, I was supposed to run my hands up and down the legs, torsos, and arms of my fellow citizens. I was supposed to do this in such a way that no one would feel groped. Our cheerful instructors offered guidance. Exert the same pressure you use to spread peanut butter on a sandwich. Say clearly what you’re going to do and then do it. We’d grow numb to it before long, they assured us” (4,560 words)
Video of the day: Artis Lives
What to expect:
Happy, colourful animation about the nature of life, by Christian Borstlap for Amsterdam Zoo (1’40”)
Thought for the day
Who wants a library full of books you’ve already read?
Harlan Ellison