Add to List - #65
Great art by bad people, great moments of joy, great algorithms, great Guinness
Hello, thank you, and welcome. I love you for being here!
Add to List is my Sunday round-up. It’s the small things that brought me joy, evoked an emotional reaction, or became some short-lived stability in the past seven days.
Obsession
Hand-picked flowers from a lovely boy.
(He was called Teddy, and he was four years old)
I was sat sipping my coffee at my local on Wednesday morning, feeling down if I’m honest. And as I basked in the sun, reviving myself with some well-needed vitamin D, I was given some additional child-like wonder and hope sprinkled into my day.
A small, sweet boy kept popping his head around the corner of the chair next to me. He was shorter than the back of it. He kept asking my name, we chatted about Pom Bears (elite crisps tbh) and he later returned with his nanny from the park with a bunch of hand-picked flowers. She said “He’s not stopped chatting about Michaella. He’s been so exciting to give you these.” Tears. Children are just so wonderful.
Apparently, I am quite the heartthrob — who care if it’s only with the under 5s.
Confession
A high desire to complete morally confusing actions.
I’ve got a desire to listen to Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, Watch Midnight in Paris, and then look at some abstract portraits sketched by Picasso but also, I don’t want to. And it’s all thanks to this week’s book recommendation.
Shook
Just how much great art is created by bad people. More below.
Cook
On Monday, I popped out to Reading Lido for lunch with my friend and her absolutely gorgeous baby. The food was average but the vibes were tops.
On Tuesday, team Pasta Grannies devoured some
salad boxes with a side of cornbread on the banks of the river in Richmond.
On Wednesday, I started my day with a custard tart and the intention to finish my book — I ended up chatting to everyone else sat in the sun. First my new little admirer, then an incredibly interesting man who was recovering from a shoulder replacement. He trained as an architect, had been in multiple bands, then moved into music production, all before running a literary and talent agency for 10 years. I didn’t finish my book in that sitting, but I didn’t mind. Sometimes, it appears we need to just look around us to find stories instead of opening the pages of a novel.
And Friday? A liquid dinner of four pints — two of them Guinness at the Auld Shillelagh. I hate to be that Stokey wanker, but it really is the best drop in London. And, not a G split in sight — thank God.
So, of course, on Saturday to soak up the remaining alcohol in my system I had to try the pizza from an al-fresco inspired pop-up at my local bakery. BYOB. I settled for water and took it home to binge watch This Is Us on Prime Video.
Book
Monsters, What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People? by Clare Dederer
I was recommended this book by the highly-intelligent encyclopaedia of searching questions, Michael Kibedi, author of
. He’s proficient in finding, reading, and writing about books which address important topics and informing a practice of design research. He’s also just a lovely pal I’ve made through Substack; someone who champions everyone’s creative endeavours. There’s nobody’s opinion I trust more with all things culture and bias (and moreover how these areas hugely overlap).
Much like many of his essays, this book is an uncomfortable, essential, brilliant read. I find myself disgusted but beguiled by the moral complexities of artistic taste; a pop culture history which seems difficult to comprehend yet leaves me feeling conflicted, confused — somewhat crazed even. I’ll leave you to ponder this fantastic quote from the opening chapters:
“This, I think is what happens to so many of us when we consider the work of monster geniuses — we tell ourselves we’re having ethical thoughts when really what we’re having are moral feelings. We arrange words around these feelings and call them opinions: ‘What Woody Allen did was very wrong.’ But feelings come from some place more elemental than thought. The fact was this: I felt upset by the story of Woody Allen and Soon-Yi. I wasn’t thinking, I was feeling. I was affronted, personally somehow.
Look
Vintage M&S.
Finally! The weather! No need for long coats!
This week I’ve mostly been wearing the vintage jacket I purchased from my local farmers market in January. This isn’t just any M&S number, this is a vintage, St. Michael, M&S number.
Can’t Stop Scanning
Spotify daylists.
Most algorithmic curation doesn’t work. You only need to look as far your latest hinge ‘most compatible’ to see that. Spotify have nailed it somehow. Perhaps it’s because there’s less commitment? A song is skippable; two minutes instead of two pints long.
Anyway, their new daylist feature includes a number of different genre tags (I’d love to see the tags assigned to my dating profile, actually).
Unlike Hinge, these tags are shared with you. And if you don’t like it? Doesn’t matter, the daylists refresh at set points in the day based on your previous listening history. The genre descriptions provide me with some jiffies of joy: doof doof — a personal highlight.
Saturday morning I was classic cowgirl, but I refreshed in the afternoon into a 80s disco vibey groove. On Sundays sometimes it passive aggressively suggests 190 bpm Pilates Sunday. But, I forgive it because Thursday morning it made me sound WAY cooler than any of my music tastes.
Are you using daylists? If so, share your favourite descriptions below — I’d love to hear them.
Forward Planning
Escaping the city.
I’m getting out of the city next week and heading to Bath, Bristol, and the surrounding countryside. I hope this weather holds so I can frolic in the fields like a classic Austen character.
🎧 “house dj tuesday early morning” 🙍🏾♂️
That lido! Thank you for the rec, wow.