Cool Article Club Issue One: October

This month we've got: art/hypebeast feuds, an IDEO hitpiece, consent in vampire LARP, Eve Babitz’s tits, Paul Klee’s puppets, and victorian seaweed collecting

Hi Friends,

Welcome to Cool Article Club! This is a formalization of my compulsion, as a librarian and very intense friend, to send links to random cool articles to all my friends constantly. I have three to five weirdo news sources I check regularly and I'm always finding cool stuff on them that nobody else would ever have read because it’s on fucking Collectors Weekly. I think we can all use more cool random articles to read right because there's a lot of interesting things and people in the world that we could all stand to learn more about. So, this is my plan:  every month I will share three to ten cool articles. They will either be organized by theme or just be the latest in cool articles I have found. I will also take requests or suggestions because ultimately what this is meant to be as an act of friendship and sharing. First up we have some of my favorite articles. They may already be familiar to some of my closer friends. Or just articles that have shaped a lot of my thinking and writing.

If any of the articles I include are paywalled, I will try to find a work around/There will be a PDF in the Zotero library. Every article I share will also have been marked up using hypothesis. Get Hypothesis if you want to read my (I am cmallea, sorry dad) genius comments and questions or add some of your own. I'd love to see your thoughts. This will allow us to read as a community and share our thoughts. I have taken the liberty of creating a Hypothesis group for Cool Article Club, So, if we post there we can see each other’s comments. Click the Link here to join: https://hypothes.is/groups/DjNrexrV/cool-article-club

I have also created a Zotero library for each issue of Cool article Club. Please join here:  https://www.zotero.org/groups/5194154/cool_article_club?token=p90dvw66y9v0flqjn4qbv6h1vukbms0abysd4clx All articles will be listed there and pdfs will be included as necessary. In case you forgot I am a librarian and I love cool Digital Humanities tools.

And welcome to the first issue of Cool Article Club. This month we have art/hypebeast feuds, an IDEO hit piece, consent in vampire LARP, Eve Babitz’s breasts, Paul Klee’s puppets, and Victorian seaweed collecting. No pressure to read every article, this is for fun!

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Articles:

1. FIXATIONS NOV. 6, 2017: I Think About This a Lot: When a 60-Something Feminist Artist Dragged Overgrown Skaters

Kat Stoeffel

This article introduced me to two phrases I think about daily and use often: Fools.doc and WARCOTUJ (What a ridiculous clusterfuck of totally uncool jokers). The most scathing insult of all time. Has anyone seen my Performa 17 tote bag?

2. On Design Thinking

Maggie Gram

Having some understanding of design thinking and IDEO is crucial to understanding why the contemporary world looks and is created the way it does and is. I have my own design thinking trauma but I am pretty confident you'll enjoy this article even if you don't. During my MLIS I had to use design thinking in a group project to address an “information problem” so we had to go through the five-hexagon approach with a library digital collections department. It was maddening and I have no idea if it accomplished anything for them but I'd be surprised if it did. This article used to have really cool graphics but they seem to have disappeared in recent years. I will update if that version turns up. But if you want to hear how they tried to bring Colombian Guerillas home with design thinking read this. A cautionary tale about optimism, empathy, methodology, and Design.

3. Ask Before You Bite

Elvia Wilk

Opens with a philosophical discourse on the ontology of love, the power play of naming, the impossibility of true consent to something transformational. Then, an overview of LARP, Nordic LARP, consent in context of vampire bite in LARP, consent and political correctness, consent allowing for exploration. Comparison to role of consent, aftercare, etc. in BDSM. A discussion of the fracturing of identity in the internet, mental illness, and LARP. It’s long and theory-heavy but really cool. I read it in an archives class, I couldn’t tell you why. Every time I read this article I am overcome by a desire to LARP. Like LARPers understand life more than the rest of us.

4. My Life in a 36DD Bra, Or, The All-American Obsession

Eve Babitz

Let’s break up the heavy reading a bit with some Babitz. I must acknowledge that I share a bra size with Eve Babitz. You might enjoy this less if you are not a 36dd. If you are, why don’t I know that we are tit twins? Text me. We’ll go bra shopping. But man, Eve’s a laugh. This is mostly a riff on the stupidity of male heterosexuality. Why must we lie about desire? But isn’t it better when we do?

5. Of Angel and Puppet: Klee, Rilke, and the Test of Innocence

Kenneth Gross

You know I opened this article the first time and cntrl F’d “Benjamin.” I was not disappointed. A brutal meditation on innocence, puppets, ghosts, and childishness. Reading it, I long to see Klee play these puppets for me. The series exists in the intersection of family life and creative work.

A great introduction to a wonderfully odd series. Introduced me to a favorite quote by Klee: “The future slumbers in human beings and needs only to be awakened. It cannot be created. That is why even a child knows about the erotic.” Gross does great art history then tucks into Benjamin and Rilke. The language can be a bit rough but often beautiful.

6. Love and Longing in the Seaweed Album

Sasha Archibald

A mood piece and an investigation. An Introduction to the cool weirdos that were 18th century seaweed collectors. Seaweed collecting was a Self-help movement for Victorian women, even as it became a legit field of study. We might have Seaweed collecting to thank for Middlemarch. Really a meditation on time and collecting. If you pay attention you can see the threads of colonialism inherent to Enlightenment thinking present even in this gentle science. Even the boldest are conquered by the vastness of seaweed. Archibald really digs into the emotional experiences of collecting. Anyone want to meet at the beach and collect seaweed? I’ll bring my grabber.

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Thank you so much for reading this far. I am grateful to have you as a friend and I love you. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on any or all of these articles wherever I can be reached. email: claudiamalleanyc@gmail.com (or just reply to this email). Instagram: @cloud_ I _ a. Twitter: @mylarsleeve. Compliments and criticism. I'm tough and aim to please. If even one of you downloads and uses Hypothesis or Zotero I will feel accomplished. I am waiting to read your annotations. and if you read anything cool in the next month that you think I would like please send it to me.

In other news. If you're in NYC, come find me at Brooklyn Book Fest, Sunday. October 1st, I will be tabling for Books through Bars 10-12 and hanging around all day. If you liked this, you’ll enjoy Brooklyn Book Fest. I also have an essay out in Raw Lit Mag, Issue 3. Read it here: rawlit.weebly.com

Have a great October and a fun Halloween. You will be hearing from me in October with more cool articles. Don’t be a stranger!

Sincerely,

Claudia