Tag: Summer 2022 Reading List
OTM #7: Forbidden Fruit
Happy Wednesday once again! We’re almost through the semester!
I’ve been obsessed with coffee lately, as most teenage girls become enamored with at some point in their adolescence. My trips every so often take me to M-36, which has become by far my favorite coffee shop in Ann Arbor. However, something about their cold brews leave me absolutely destroyed; I already have a difficult time processing caffeine, yet the cold brews at M-36 seem to be built different. My friends and I have come to title these occurrences my “Grasshopper Days”, in which I order the Grasshopper cold brew (a delicious mint chocolate flavor, like a thin mint cookie) and just a few hours later fall to my knees and tremble for the rest of the day.
There’s something beautiful about it. After all, I keep going back for more. Something about the experience has become inspirational to me, comedic, legendary. I always am sure to prepare myself before I get one – “Am I ready for a Grasshopper? Have I finished enough work to relinquish my day to this beverage?” – And then I’m set. (P.S., I do know people that drink this and do not fall to the same state as myself, so I would certainly recommend trying it!)
Hope you enjoy my plights for today, and have a great week!
Fine Art Fables: The Bear Prince
The Bear-Prince is a fairytale that originates from Mexico intended to teach children about key aspects of Mexican culture. The fairytale begins with a woodcutter, chopping down trees in the forest. A bear is mad he is doing so, and stops him by grabbing the ax. The man says he must chop down trees or else he won’t have money to feed his three beautiful daughters. The bear says that the only way he will not kill the man is if he gives him one of the daughters to marry. Ninfa, the youngest daughter, volunteers to marry the bear. The two marry, and when they go back to the bear’s cave he transforms into a human. The bear-prince tells her that he was cursed into being a bear by an evil witch. Eventually, Ninfa returns home to see her family, and because the bear-prince is rich is is adorned in nice clothing and jewels. Her sisters are envious, and she tells them his secret. However, this breaks their promise of secrecy and the bear-prince runs away to the Castle of Faith in which Ninfa must now find. She encounters many different ‘beings’ along the way, including the Sun and Moon personified. Eventually, it ends with the prince being permanently transformed into a human and they two can be together.
My artwork this week features the key elements of the story, with the bride and groom figures standing apart from each other and the bear figure in the middle.
PONDERING ANN: IV
MORNING SHOWER
I have bent my hand
into the shape of a
chewed orange slice, or
a telephone cord curl,
just so that the droplets
of tap water draining
from the showerhead
roll down and appear
to pool from the very
tips of my fingers.
I am staring for
too long, and soap
has started to fall into
my eyes. I’m trying
to catch the bits of
life we let slip
through the cracks.
Like in the law quad,
how symmetrical gothic
arches are adorned by
gargoyles
jutting their tongues
at each passerby.
Or the child today
sitting in the greenery,
with her jam stained
hand stolen into one
pocket of a yellow
raincoat, the Morton
Salt kind, and making
the same gargoyle
face right back! And
although she did not
win that tongue-out
staring contest, she
gave the stone creatures
a run for their stone
money.
.
This is a miracle.
No shooting stars
or runaway eyelashes.
This is it! All
this living makes
me think of the
time my lover and I
walked the banks
of Lake Michigan
and paused to gaze
at the cold pools below.
Oh, the warmth
as our stretched smiles
filled the air, cackling
at the sight of a lime
green electric scooter
hurled into the depths
below. You could just
make out the shape of
of its handlebars,
the rear wheel, and
we smushed our cheeks
together like two
rotten apples, laughing
at this work
of a mad man, or
an artist, or an architect
of human nature.
Academia Jukebox: Garden Song
Phoebe Bridgers is one of my all time favorite artists. Though her music may be about a specific event or situation, the emotions she sings about are universal. I personally interpret Garden Song, the second track on her most recent album “Punisher”, as the changes in our lives and in ourselves as we grow up. Noticing how much I’ve grown up always comes as a shock to me. I was (and still am) nervous about becoming an adult and all the responsibilities that come with it. But when I take a second to acknowledge my growth, or see myself from an outside perspective, I have to admit I’m making progress. Though other people might not know about the fears you had getting here, recognizing that you’re growing well can put some of your anxiety at about the future at ease. Or at least, it does for me. Definitely listen to Bridgers’ “Punisher” if you haven’t before, it’s a work of art!
Yesterday: Batman – The Long Halloween (1996)
As a long time Batman fan, I was super excited when The Batman finally came out a few weeks ago. So for this week’s post, I wanted to combine one of my favorite Batman comics, The Long Halloween (1996), with the new Batman movie, drawing Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz in place of the comic book versions. I hope you like this rendition, and if you have the time, check out the comic or the movie!
The Original Comic Strip
