The Compound
On the restorative power of art, books about appearances and creative credit
Hello friends!
This weekend the weather was perfect (if almost too hot), and I had a friend visiting (hi, alex). We went to The Huntington where we had high tea, saw Eve Babitz’s photos and wandered the gardens. In one of the galleries, I became obsessed with a painting of an actress depicted as Tragedy flanked by the specters of Terror and Pity. At first, it just looked like another lush portrait of a Lady, and then I stepped back and spotted the figures behind her and was like OKAY!!!!!!
We also went to LACMA, which I haven’t been to in years. I’ve said this before, but I am like my dad in that I am an annoying person to go to an art museum with because I like to stand in front of the paintings for longer than most people. As we walked from room to room, I kept thinking, if I was rich enough to own a Pollack or a Monet, you would catch me sitting in front of it once a day just gazing and absorbing all the color and texture.
There were several immersive pieces that I loved – “The Wash House,” which was a large white laundry room that made me feel like I was in the movie Pleasantville, and “in Pursuit of Venus [infected]” in which live-action scenes of Captain James Cook arriving in the Pacific are overlayed on a painted tapestry, inspired by an eighteenth century French wallpaper, playing out across a 70 inch screen. Plus one of the coolest things I have ever seen – a film installation by the director Alejandro Iñárritu featuring raw film from the cutting room floor of his first movie. The large circular room was dark and almost smokey as several 35mm projectors processed huge reels to splash images on big screens – their mechanical sounds coupled with ambient street noise had my senses overloaded in the best way.
LACMA has a lot of modern art, which I enjoy as much as the next person, but at exactly the point where I felt like I was going to combust if I did not encounter an Impressionist, we stumbled into the Impressionist gallery. So, you know, the universe does provide.
Last night I had my windows open and could smell a terrible burning like scorched rubber and my body entered fight of flight mode the way it does when an emotionally unavailable man texts me.
I wonder if this is my life now or if I will become less sensitive to the smell of fire over time.
In contrast, my friend, who was visiting from NY, gave me a look midway through a sentence.
“What?” I asked.
“There’s a man outside screaming,” he said.
It’s a sound that I no longer register – there’s always someone screaming into the night on Hollywood Blvd.
Some (TV) Things
my currently airing comfort show, best medicine, has been renewed for a season 2!
rebecca serle’s latest book once and again, out this month, is already being developed by apple
a show based on the movie bride wars about wedding planners starring emma roberts is in development (helllll yes!)
in the latest ep of love story, jfk jr. takes carolyn to the kennedy compound on “hyannis” and my ass was sitting there like… “that’s not hyannis” (it was shot on long island)
the latest ep of paradise has MUCH to answer for
now that it’s over i can officially say industry season 4 was a flop
but it’s okay because vladamir drops this week and virgin river is back next week! i remain BUSY
What I’m Reading
My hold on the first book in a new regency romance series that I learned about via a promotional email from Penguin Random House (i’m always like, i need to unsubscribe from these and stop hearing about new books but i can’t) is up from Libby and I cannot wait to have that very specific itch scratched!
The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner - I finished this book about two estranged sisters, Cassie and Zoe, who were in a band (and a love triangle) in the early aughts. Past timelines were interspersed with present timelines, and the POV of Zoe’s daughter. Zoe is thin and popular with little musical talent, and Cassie is a child prodigy who is thick and neurodivergent. It’s about sisterhood, body image, intergenerational trauma and miscommunication!
It wasn’t as juicy as I hoped it would be but it’s a solid beach read that I will be passing along to my mom when we reunite on the Cape this summer.
The Compound by Aisling Rawle - I flew through the first hundred pages of this in one sitting and cannot wait to see what happens! Lily wakes up on a compound with nine other women knowing there are cameras watching them but not knowing where exactly they are. Inside, the house is a mess. Outside, it’s stiflingly hot. As they wait for “the boys” to arrive, they set about cleaning the house and assessing each other. When the boys arrive from a journey across a desert that surrounds the compound, the competition begins.
As a group, they must complete a series of tasks to furnish the house and gain tools for survival. They can also complete secret personal tasks that will reward them with luxuries like lip balm and a flattering bikini. They can’t talk about the show they’re on, or the past seasons they’ve seen, and they can’t talk about their life outside the compound unless instructed in a task. Also, anyone who does not spend the night in bed with a member of the opposite sex is banished from the compound.
It really is giving The Hunger Games meets Love Island! It’s tense and mysterious and I’m locked into what’s going to happen next.
What I’m Writing
Folks, the creative wheels are turning again!!!!
I’m really locked in on my new concept for Novel 3. I’ve had some fun ideas around POV. The relationship between the central protagonists keeps evolving, as do their ages. There are four characters I think I know fairly well and several more I need to make up.
I have three pages full of notes in my writing journal and one running bullet point note called “revamp” in my notes app, plus one new scene I started sketching from one of the new POVs I’m trying.
We are back in the incubator stage and I’m loving life flying high at a ten! As soon as I sit down to write again I know I will probably crash. I’m trying to quietly quell doubts about how I can pull another story together and more specifically how the fuck I’m going to be able to execute all the ideas I’m having.
It’s just another ride on the merry-go-round that I now know so well, and as three more recent rejections have rolled in, it is really feeling like I’m free to move on (as painful as that is).
At the beginning of the weekend, my friends pointed out that having written a second novel is still an accomplishment, that I’m just getting better and honing my skills. They do not think of me as a flop unlike I myself do.
By the end of the weekend I said, “I really don’t give myself enough credit,” and my friend gave me a look like “HELLO what have I been saying.”
The devil works hard, but my inner Eldest Daughter Capricorn who never thinks I’m doing enough, works harder.
Headings from my “novel 3” folder in my notes app–
revamp
thanksgiving
hawaii - post sick
(redacted) at the pool
PA Story - Novel 3! (the note that started it all! my biggest gripe with notes is that it tells you the last date it was updated, not when the note was originally created. i want time stamps!!!)
That’s all from me this week – stay tuned.
