dermografia IV - you did it baby
Well.
What. A. Year.
I've been intermittently logging in and adding to a draft newsletter, leaving it for a few months, logging in again, on and off throughout this year. I just haven't known what to say. Or if it was even right to say anything. No one needs my 'hot take' on anything that's happened in the world this year.
But that said, I have missed a lot of things about sending this out. I've missed the feeling of connection, the replies that make me smile, I miss the ritual and regularity of it, and the low-level creativity in pulling it all together. So here's a commitment, to you and to this. dermografia will return to it's original fortnightly routine in the new year. But for now, a poem and some recommendations. Enjoy.
//aesthetic pleasures
FOR LARRY WALTERS, WHO DREAMED SINCE HE WAS A CHILD OF USING BALLOONS TO FLY; WHO IN 1982 SPEND FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS OF HIS TRUCK-DRIVING DELIVERYMAN SALARY TO BUY SUPPLIES, INCLUDING ONE LAWN CHAIR, FORTY-TWO BALLOONS, AND A HELIUM TANK, WHICH HE USED TO INFLATE THE BALLOONS, ARRANGING THEM IN A RING AROUND THE LAWN CHAIR, A STURDY ALUMINUM TYPE FROM SEARS, IN WHICH HE LAUNCHED HIMSELF ALONG WITH HIS PELLET GUN AND WATER JUGS A THOUSAND FEET A MINUTE INTO THE CALIFORNIA SKY, WITH THE GOAL OF CLEARING THE SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS TO REACH THE MOJAVE; WHO AGAINST ALL ODDS FLEW, FROM A BACKYARD IN SAN PEDRO TO LONG BEACH, AN IMPERFECT MAN ON AN IMPERFECT FLIGHT PATH, WHO BROUGHT HIS CAMERA BUT DIDN’T USE IT; WHO, UPON HIS ARREST BY THE LONG BEACH POLICE, WAS QUOTED AS SAYING A MAN CAN’T JUST SIT AROUND…
FUCK YES LARRY YOU DID IT BABY
//read
3 absolute stand out reads from this year. 2 fiction, one non-fiction. All left me thinking about them long after the closing pages.
++ Boy Parts - Eliza Clark.
++ My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell
++ Underland: A Deep Time Journey - Robert Macfarlane
1 podcast that I've found utterly gripping and fascinating and offered the most interesting Princess Diana content in a year that for some reason had an abundance of Diana content.
Thank you all, see you in 2021