The Weekly Croissant: Art Hoe Roundup
The Shaggs / /Abdulrazak Gurnah's By The Sea / A New Season of Sex Education
Hello My Dear Croissants,
Another Sunday means another Art Hoe Roundup for you all!
Special thanks to all of you whom I met out on the road this month. It’s very exciting for me when someone tells me they are a croissant reader, as I know we are true friends although we are also strangers.
Here are some discoveries I have made this month that you might enjoy:
Music: The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World
George introduced me to this album, which will have you questioning everything you thought you knew about music. The Shaggs were three sisters from Freemont, New Hampshire, who performed between 1968-1973. They had no passion for music, and were forced into the business by their controlling father because their grandmother had predicted that his daughters would be rock stars (?!). Everything about this story is amazing and strange, you can take a deep dive into it via this New Yorker article entitled Meet The Shaggs.
Their music sounds like people given instruments in complete isolation and told to make sounds with them. It’s so confusing that it’s brilliant. Let me know what y’all think. Here’s George and my favorite number, entitled “My Pal Foot Foot”, about one of the sisters’ lost cat.
Book: By The Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah
I haven’t finished, but am loving the book By The Sea, by Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic Abudlrazak Gurnah. The book follows a middle-aged refugee from Zanzibar as he arrives and settles into life in the United Kingdom. I find his writing hilarious and profound, one of my favorite combinations.
In the first chapter, the narrator is discussing his asylum plea with the immigration officer who tells him “People like you come pouring in here without any thought of the damage they cause. You don’t belong here, you don’t value any of the things we value, you haven’t paid for them through generations, and we don’t want you here”. Later, Gurnah writes “But the whole world had paid for Europe’s values already, even if a lot of the time it just paid and paid and didn’t get to enjoy them. Think of me as one of those objects that Europe took away with her. I thought of saying something like this, but of course I didn’t….Do you remember that endless catalog of objects that were taken away from Europe because they were too fragile and delicate to be left in the clumsy and careless hands of natives? I am fragile and precious too, a sacred work, too delicate to be left in the hands of natives, so now you’d better take me too. I joke, I joke.”
TV: Sex Education Season 4
If you aren’t watching Sex Education what are you even doing with your life? This show brings me so much joy. It’s exploring so much new territory with just the right amount of sarcasm and humor. The cast and writing is fantastic, and the new season hasn’t lost any steam. This show makes me feel more hopeful about the future than most anything else. Hope y’all will give it a try!
That’s all for this week! Hope y’all are having a great one and remembering to eat your pastries.
-Rachel
Haha I watched the first few seasons of Sex Ed and absolutely loved it. Thanks for the reminder to stop wasting my life. 🤣 will get on it. Also The Shaggs omg! A friend introduced me to them years ago when we were doing a hectic tour of Europe and they broke my brain! I also loved My Pal Foot Foot. Top notch content as usual! I met your mate DanParsons this weekend and he only had glowing things to say about you 🌟🌟🌟