The List

A few of my favorite things, each week. Five, to be specific.

So it’s a new year, right?

I’m not so sure, but I’m more into the philosophy now than I have been in the past. A lot of this has to do with last year having been a very difficult one for me, and, on the topic of new years, that difficult year didn’t start on January 1st and some of it is still hovering over me like an ominous cloud. In my effort to come to new terms through the challenges I am reminded that in downward, negative, spirals, our brains begin to attack themselves. One has to take a direct, if not forceful, approach to steering thoughts in another direction.

It’s a very strange function of evolutionary biology and it’s exacerbated by a global culture that, in many ways, encourages us to harm ourselves in all kinds of ways. One of them is a kind of binging on information and entertainment, and, just like food, it’s not all nutritious, and even the healthiest can be overeaten. In some ways, that’s what I’ve been doing- binging on negative thinking, which primed me for seeing many things in a negative light, and eating so many mental meals with no nutrients. It’s not helpful when life comes knocking with bad news, or just comes throwing punches, which it did in spades for me over the last fourteen months. This, of course, is all tempered with the knowledge that I’m a very fortunate person and have, in so many ways, a wonderful life. But when you’re laying on the ground, bleeding from the head, which at one point was exactly where I was, it’s hard to remember that.

So this is The List, which is to say, my weekly list of things I love, or find fascinating, or am puzzled and delighted by, none of which causes in me any kind of despair, because there’s enough of that and you know where to find it. I’ll keep the lists to five things and will leave up to you as to how much of your precious life you want to spend on them. Not all of them will be interesting or fascinating to you, of course, but each of them is something that I think is worth considering, watching, reading, listening to, or just pondering by way of a lazy gait on an afternoon walk.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t express my gratitude to a handful of people that have, in their own ways, inspired and encouraged me to get back to writing. My therapist - Todd Sarner, editor and newsletter extraordinaire, Leonor Mamanna, my friend Vicci Baigrie, and my friend and inspiration, Gioncarlo Valentine, who is one of the most courageous, and soulful people I know.

For now, and as always, thanks for reading,

Peter

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1. Shōgun - I’ve never read the book, but the show got and held my attention, the performances are wonderful, the set design was clearly a heavy lift, and it did that thing that I love about good storytelling, which is to say that it functioned a bit like a time-machine in which you can only look out the window. I also have a thing for Japanese history that seems to be growing.

2. Amy Sherald - American Sublime - There’s a longer story here about my relationship to the SFMOMA, which I’m happy to share with anyone that’s interested. In over twenty years of being a member, and countless visits and shows I’ve experienced, nothing has moved me with such profound and unexpected force as this one. If you have any opportunity to see it, go now. Sherald’s ability to make work at this scale with this much depth is astounding, which is probably obvious given that she’s got an entire wing of a museum dedicated to it, but that’s the thing here; I was shocked by how much it put me back on my heels because I expect work in this arena to be great. I had no idea. None.

3. Gioncarlo Valentine - A master in the making. Gioncarlo and I have been friends from a distance for about ten years now, give or take. I’ve followed his work as a photographer, and writer, since he first reached out to me on Twitter back when I don’t know with sweet and supportive compliments of my own. Since then, he’s directed his sails with such clear intent and force as to make it seem like he is in control of the wind. He holds nothing back in his fierce criticism of the industry in which we work and continues to commit himself to the act of celebrating the joy, and love, and undeniable dignity of Black culture in the face of so much media that continues to denigrate it. I have no doubt that, in the decades to come, he will be considered as one of the great artists of this century.

4. Billy Collins - The Lanyard, from his 1998 collection Picnic, Lightning. (for all you moms out there - I love you)

5. Sleep No More - A magical, surreal, wild, and unforgettable experience was finally laid to rest just a couple of weeks ago. If you knew it, then you know what I mean. If you don’t, well, I’m sorry. Immersive theater, Shakespeare, and more, at its absolute finest.

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