⌾Curio #33 - Philip Larkin, Extreme Graffiti & Oscar Peterson
Welcome back, dear readers. I’m Oli Duchesne and this is Curio, the newsletter for curious minds seeking an escape from the noise of the news cycle.
Some of the most circulated articles at the moment are pieces predicting how society will change as a result of this crisis. They tend to touch on big picture issues such as healthcare, education and privacy. If you’ll indulge me, while I won’t attempt to make any predictions, I would like to offer my own small suggestion for how I hope society will change. It is as follows: more sidewalks (or footpaths, as they’re called in Australia and the UK). I realize that doesn’t sound sexy and groundbreaking, but I hope you’ll hear me out.
This lockdown has resulted in a huge spike in people walking or jogging around their neighborhood for fresh air and exercise and as a tonic to help ward off cabin fever. If you’ve read Curio recently, then you’ll know I’ve prattled on about the benefits of walking as much as anyone. For some, this spell of daily exercise is business as usual. However, for many others, you can tell it’s something they’ve never done before (unwieldy gaits, splayed feet and baggy jeans are just some of the giveaways). The problem is that large swathes of suburban America were built for cars, not pedestrians, and as a result there are often no paths on which to walk. People are faced with the unfortunate choice of walking on the road and risking a collision with a colossal American-sized SUV or walking on someone’s property and risking a collision with the Second Amendment. The gutter often acts as a compromise, which perhaps says a lot. Surely we can aim higher than that?
Sidewalks would help solve this. Ensuring American suburban neighborhoods had adequate paths for walking would encourage people to continue with their current regimes once this lockdown ends. Shouldn’t a society with so many chronic health problems linked to a sedentary lifestyle be making exercising outside as easy as possible? Anyway, it’s just a thought.
Jeffrey Smart - Antibes (1965)
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I hope you’re continuing to stay physically well and emotionally positive. If you’re finding Curio a welcome addition to your week, then don’t hesitate to send it to a friend or two.
Until next time,
- Oli
Philip Larkin on Spring
The inclusion of Billy Collins in last week’s edition inspired some further reading on poetry about spring. A poem that kept popping up was ‘The Trees’ by Philip Larkin, one of the most celebrated English poets of the twentieth century.
Larkin was the librarian at the University of Hull for over thirty years. He is said to have been inspired the main character of Kingsley Amis’ novel, Lucky Jim
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Larkin wrote ‘The Trees’ in 1967, and included it in his final collection, High Windows (1974). It’s a melancholy yet comforting work that deals with the yearly renewal of spring and how it offers the regular chance for trees, as well as people, to blossom and flourish. With phrases such as “almost being said” and “kind of grief”, Larkin gives the trees human characteristics, suggesting to the reader a close connection between humanity and the natural world. Although time marches on and trees await the same fate as we do (“they die too”), it doesn’t stop them from blossoming every year. The poem ends on a hopeful, optimistic note, with Larkin reminding us that spring gives us the annual opportunity to leave the previous year behind and “begin afresh, afresh, afresh.”
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The Trees
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.
Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.
Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
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You can listen to Larkin recite the poem below.
Extreme Graffiti
Over a period of four years, photographer Cpt. Olf followed around one of Berlin’s most notorious and secretive graffiti artists, Paradox, as he surfed trains, scaled cranes and abseiled buildings trying to spraypaint in the most inaccessible spots possible. The resulting video features outrageous footage from mind-bending vantage points. Don’t try this at home. (But if you do, make sure you get drone footage like this.)
Oscar Peterson Trio
This sultry track by the Oscar Peterson Trio is from their 1963 album, Night Train. Its unhurried and easygoing quality has made it a trusted companion to lazy weekend afternoons during this lockdown. The group is comprised of the freakishly talented Canadian jazz pianist, Oscar Peterson, described by Duke Ellington as the "Maharaja of the keyboard", Ray Brown on the double bass and Ed Thigpen on drums.
“It's not a silly question if you can't answer it”
- Jostein Gaarder
Curio is a weekly newsletter for curious minds seeking an escape from the noise of the news cycle. It is put together by Oli Duchesne