Good morning! I hope you’re having a cosy and contented Sunday.
First thoughts
By the time you get this, I should be waking up in the countryside, breathing in the fresh air and switching off from technology as much as possible.
It’s been a weird week right? In my home country of the UK - there have been about a million *announcements*, and elsewhere in world there just seems to be A LOT going on. I’ve been listening to Christmas Wrapping on repeat, trying not to be too grumpy, trying to actually remember to leave the house, and watching some really fantastically bad (but like, also good?) Christmas movies. I’m browsing a lot of cute dog videos on Instagram, trying not to get overwhelmed by work Teams and Zoom meetings, thinking through what I can do to be helpful / do something good this year (Charity donations? Donating my time to a good cause?), and somehow not quite managing to reply to everyone on WhatsApp.
It’s about week 10000 of putting “yoga” and “exercise” on my to do list (and not actually managing it), and week 2 of - at the end of the day - listing 5 things in my head that went well/ that I’m grateful for (and actually managing it).
I’m drinking a lot of that biscuit flavoured tea, and I am taking a moment to chill and look through some of the back issues of the zines I’ve mentioned below. I hope you can take this as your chill moment too.
Photo by elizabeth lieson Unsplash
Zines
This is a Scotland based one which runs with the tagline ‘Post Internet Poetry’. There’s some serious thought and care gone into these collections, and I can’t believe I haven’t read it until now. I’m completely obsessed with their Instagram vibe too.
This is a relatively new Dominican based zine and I think it’s fabulous. There’s even a playlist to go along with their first issue. If you want to submit, they have a very handy submission form. They are also on TikTok.
Podcasts
I was really gutted that The High Low will be coming to an end. It’s one of my favourite podcasts, and I’m really going to miss it. Their last episode is next week. You can find The High Low archive, and their upcoming final episode on Spotify, Acast, Apple Podcasts etc.
Out to Lunch with Jay Rayner - Charlie Brooker
This is a fairly straightforward concept: food critic Jay Rayner takes celebrities out to lunch at a restaurant, and interviews them while also using the food as a talking point. This (pre-lockdown) episode with Charlie Brooker (writer of Black Mirror) was one of the ones I found most revealing. I also really liked the episode with Dolly Alderton. It’s on all the usual podcast platforms - Acast, Deezer, Podtail, Apple Podcasts etc.
(Side note: I’m really hoping Brooker does a “2020 Wipe”. He used to do a cynical/funny review of the year every year, and I feel like he probably needs a whole series - or at least something feature film length - to sum up this year. He hasn’t done one for the last while, but he did do a really good special “Antiviral Wipe” episode during lockdown earlier in 2020. Here’s 2015’s one.)
This is by Frankie Cotton, and I've only just started getting into this podcast today, but I’m enjoying it so much that I wanted to list it here. I’ve been listening to the episode about how Instagram fostered recession-ready scams, dressed as female empowerment (part III).
Events
The Moth and Literary Arts presents: Portland’s Virtual Mainstage
On the 5th of December, The Moth (a really great live storytelling project) are doing another live zoom event. It’s based in Portland so the timing might not work out amazingly for those of you in Europe. So if not - maybe you could make your own Moth evening by making an appointment with yourself to watch some of their previous shows on YouTube?
As their goodbye to The High Low Podcast, hosts Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes will be doing a special live Christmas party event on the 8th of December, to help raise money for charity. I’ve just booked my ticket and cannot WAIT.
Textiles & Ceramics
I really love everything in this collection of ceramics. Coy’s Instagram is really interesting in terms of giving us an insight into the creation process too.
I’m really loving the range of textile designs Candice creates. In particular I love everything over on the @candicegray_textiles Instagram: the floral phone cover, these duvet covers, this peach print, the ‘bikini bags’, and this gorgeous painting.
I find myself bookmarking almost all of their sunset/mountain mugs. Really moody earthy tones and substantial chunky handles. I found them through their really great Instagram account.
YouTube
The Personal Philosophy Project - videos on Black Friday and Social Media
It took me a little bit of time to get used to the accent, but I find her observations on life - and technology especially - really insightful. I’m going to try to do a bit of an internet detox, not a full one, but dedicating only certain points of the day to being online. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes (spoiler: it’s going to be HARD).
I first saw their quick Harry Potter illustrated animations which are hilarious, but they’ve got a huge amount of other animation work online.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with your thoughts, ideas and suggestions at catrionamedia@gmail.com
(If you are nosy - like I am - you can find out a bit more about me here).
Until the next time,
Catriona
(🔊“cah-tree-nah”)