Maybe we all need to go on an art ride

Leonardo's log flume, Basquiat's Ferris wheel, and the woman cannon

Hey everyone,

It’s been a while since the last newsletter, and I am trying to explain this to myself and to you. As I understand it—and I may not—failure to thrive is generally linked to a lack of nourishment. I’ve never been well-fed; certainly overfed and extremely underfed at times, but, in whatever sense or senses of nourishment works here, I’ve always given myself permission to have enough to live, but not enough to thrive.

Someone on a British show I’m watching said, “We do things that we know are wrong because the momentary relief they bring is better than nothing,” and I was appalled that this fairly minor character had summed up so much of my terrible psyche!! He was talking about taking upskirt photos on the train and I’m talking about one million bad decisions ranging from meals to trusting absolute psychopaths, but still.

(It was Unforgotten Season 5, by the way, which is incredible, once you get over the crazy train lady from Derry Girls being a Detective Sergeant Inspector or whatever. The storyline plays out as a indictment of government austerity programs and white violence, just a litany of the ways that poor people, Black people, and especially Black women have been violently used to further egos and agendas. Martina Laird’s character, Ebele, does unforgivable things but she is also the most tragic of victims, mired in generations of abuse, neglect, greed, and ambition. So good.)

The momentary relief is a form of hiding, right? I do all kinds of hiding, and that behavior predates the crippling PTSD so who knows. Maybe the trick is to do things that nourish oneself as a counterweight to a life organized (if you can call it that) around fear. If you eat a good breakfast, maybe the psychopath’s red flags will be more noticeable.

You guys did miss some bangers. Among the newsletters I started and then didn’t send, we have “Why I’ll never quit Twitter,” “How to tell if your AI is evil,” “The giant rhubarb,” and “Rant Stew,” which is where I really got worked up about Dianne Feinstein and Drew Barrymore. JFC Drew Barrymore! Truly the worst.

I also had one on something I am still wondering about—why is skydiving on so many people’s bucket lists? Maybe it’s only on the bucket lists of people who would make a bucket list and then publicly announce they are crossing off the skydiving item, which is to say people I find annoying, but it’s weird. My bucket list is things like “Do Pilates again someday” and “Get a haircut.” I should break it down into steps.

Perhaps I’m conflating bucket list with to-do list, as I am currently mired in the admin of downsizing and packing up 30 years of my life in New York in order to move to Los Angeles. The admin includes managing my feelings, my belonging, my cat, and various other stakeholders while dealing with just some excruciating physical stuff, and that affects everything. Moving is undeniably the right thing to do (I think) but the words “failure to thrive” are maybe more than a metaphor at this point. Also: The World!!!!

Let’s nourish ourselves with some enchanting things I’ve found lately.

Leolandia

DID YOU KNOW THERE IS A THEME PARK DEVOTED TO LEONARDO GA VINCI??? Humans! They can really be great. Leolandia is in Italy, obviously, in Lombardy. You can figure out where that is because Leolandia also has a scale model of the entire country!!!!

Around the scale model of the country they have little reproductions of important things! Look at the mini Tower of Pisa! And its mini lean! We haven’t even gotten to the Leonardo stuff yet! There is a statue of Julius Caesar that talks.

Details on the Leonardo Land part of Leolandia are maddeningly sparse. Here’s a water ride based on some of his drawings, yes it is just a water ride, this may be the muscle relaxants talking, but I am sorry my mind is b-l-o-w-n that this exists. Look at this! Le Rapide Di Leonardo is a water ride based on LDV’s drawings. I cannot.

There’s also ride called La Donna Cannone, the woman cannon. The woman cannon! Does Avital Ronell know about this? Jane Gallop? Come on!! Apparently there is also one in France? I’m delighted and desperate to know more.

Luna Luna

My new future home of Los Angeles will soon have its own artist-designed theme park. In 1985 Andre Heller began recruiting artists including Joseph Beuys, Sonia Delaunay(!), Miles Davis, Suzanne Schmögner and Philip Glass to design rides for a park to be built near Hamburg, Germany. (One article about the project contained the poignant sentence, “Only John Cage said no.”) Luna Luna opened in 1987 with a Basquiat Ferris wheel, a David Hockney pavilion, and more. Incredible.

But, as with many great things, it didn’t last. Luna Luna closed and the art-rides were packed away and nearly lost. UNTIL NOW. Somehow Drake got involved, to the tune of $100 million, and now a coalition of groups including the Tate Modern, The Shed, MOCA, and The Kitchen are working together to restore the rides and the artworks, and plan to reopen next year. They have a website where you can tour each artist’s contribution. I won’t spoil it, but the Beuys is amazing. And the Rebecca Horn. It all is. They should call it Coney Marfa. Marfa Coney? Something like that.

One orange brain cell

I am spiritually shackled to the orange cat Reddit and I could not be happier. Oranges! It’s hundreds of posts daily of derpy and beautiful orange babies and it is the only thing that allows me to rise above my neighbor shouting in the hallway.

One last delight

Activists bought the student debt of 3,000 Morehouse college students and alumni and then wiped the debt out. All of it!! I consider the Rolling Jubilee to be an art project and I love everything they do. Co-founder Lauren Hanna also has a project called Perpetual Peace. I revisited it today and was struck by Hélène Cixous, in flawless eyeliner, saying something that feels very apt today: “Security is not peace. Human beings are not supposed to refer only to the limited concept of security. We must aspire to peace.”

There are probably typos and worse in this. I can’t bear to reread it, I have to hit send while I’m still filled with wonder. More soon, and sorry again for the absence. xxm