Check out my cinnamon buns
The Looby List: June already. Lots of stuff this week including Barbie's dream home, radical workwear, Hannah Gadsby vs. Picasso, a super fun sex-positive comic, and homemade cinnamon buns.
Happy June, friends,
And welcome new subscribers! It’s week ten of Crone Cooking: 52 Things to Cook Before I Turn 52… and I am so impressed with myself for sticking with it, even making tricky things like soufflés and ice cream. I haven’t been very good at keeping the list updated with notes and links, but I have fixed that now. I try not to look too far ahead because it’s fun to have a little surprise after I finish one week and then check in on the next… but while I was updating, I couldn’t help but sneak a little look and some good things are coming up over the next few weeks. So far, last week’s ice cream-making thrilled me the most. There was even a moment when I thought, “maybe I should buy a local ice cream making establishment and do this full time,”… which is something I am prone to do when something is so thrilling. Luckily reality kicked in when I thought about how much the tiny amount of ice cream I made cost. Vanilla ain’t cheap. Reality also kicked in on many other levels after about a nano-second, but it was fun to imagine the packaging I could design and the weird flavours I could concoct.
Anyway, enough about my rich (eggs and cream) fantasy life. Here’s this week’s list:
Admiring:
The intense set design for the new Barbie Film. Architectural Digest talks to set designers Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer about their process and inspiration. I thought these sets were all CG, but apparently, this all exists at the Warner Bros. Studio lot in London. So fab.
Musing:
Embarrassment = Growth
Just like shame and guilt, embarrassment is a “self-conscious emotion,” tied up with a primal fear of failing to follow social norms and, as a result, being thrown out of society. Damn. If an artist needs to lose one emotion, it’s probably embarrassment. Like the recent fear of “cringe,” I think we need to turn this stuff on its head and embrace embarrassment and anything we deem cringey. Try the things that we think might make us look foolish because they are the things that might ring the most true for us. Read more in The Riches of Embarrassment in the Further newsletter, and Embarrassment is an Integral Part of the Growth Process in Zen Habits.
Wardrobing:
A while back, I wrote a comic about what it’s like to figure out what to wear to the office after 20 years as a working-from-home freelancer. Perhaps I can wear my snazzy belted pyjama outfit to work after all, as according to this BBC article, things are relaxing so much that it’s perfectly acceptable to turn up to the board room looking like this:
I really do love these two - Monica Sallay’s instagram is a delight.
Reading:
Gadsby vs Picasso - “It’s Pablo-matic” opens at the Brooklyn Museum this week.
From Brooklyn Magazine
“In a surprising move that is already sending ripples through the art world, Gadsby — whose razor-sharp wit and unapologetic feminist stance have made them a keen cultural observer — is calling the bluff of the art world’s greatest nude emperor. With “It’s Pablo-matic,” the forthcoming Picasso exhibit they’ve curated for the Brooklyn Museum the gloves are off.”
And:
From Art Net
“You may think of The Simpsons as one of the funniest, most influential and most irreverent animated series of all time, and you wouldn’t be wrong. What you might not know is that the series’ writers have often surveyed the art world—and their takes on it remain incisive.”
Also reading:
Benji Nate’s Girl Juice (Drawn & Quarterly), which is hilarious and light hearted. A comic that grew out of Patreon and Instagram posts during the pandemic, Benji Nate’s sex-positive soap-opera about four 20-something roommates and their messy lives does not disappoint. The artwork is gleeful, and the jokes are plenty. As Nate describes it, “Sex and the City but with a lot more dildos.”
Shameless Housey
The Secret A-Frame - This little A-frame house in New Hampshire is as pretty as heck and filled with family stories and nostalgia. I am now inspired to make bookshelves in odd nooks in my house. I also might need to make the odd nooks first. Here is the associated Instagram account, which has lots of lovely photos.
Gazing
Two of my most favourite Instagram accounts are @rednosestudio (left) and @cat_rabbit (right). Both work with carefully constructed, handmade characters and scenes. Both play with stop motion animation (Chris and Cat Rabbit) and children’s book illustration. I want to make things when I look at either of their accounts. I have watched this studio tour film of Cat Rabbit’s over and over and keep peeping at the photos of Red Nose Studio.
Listening
Sylvan Esso - Live at Electric Lady… I am really enjoying this. Sylvan Esso live are so good, and I love this collection of songs.
Gia Margaret’s Romantic Piano is getting a lot of time around here. It’s perfect for all kinds of moods. Such good, rich sound.
Crone Cooking: Cinnamon Buns
In an effort to cook 52 essential recipes by the time I turn 52 (March 2024), I have started a little list, and this week was dish number ten: Cinnamon buns!
I used this recipe and it was not too hard and really good. If cooking with yeast scares you, this is a good place to start. I think I baked them a tad too long, so they were a little dry, but the delicious vanilla cream cheese glaze made up for it.
Next week: It was meant to be steak … but there’s a birthday coming up in the family, (17… wtf?!) so I am going to change steak to “birthday cake”!
Thanks for reading, friends. Have a good week and I’ll see you anon!
xo,
Claire
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