Heavenly Discord

Stovetop potpourri and Elder Scrolls.

28 Mar

Left: “Elder Scrolls”; Right: Stovetop potpourri by Pete Williams

Becky Miller gives an update on the Dirtyverse water cooler, aka Discord. With good links from Daisy Alioto.

The Dirt Discord is my go-to spot for mini stories. This past month, tucked in between Oscar movie reviews, Dirt Discord friends have been dropping a trail of internet gold into the streaming channel: I learned of a Chilean version of the original Star Wars trilogy from the early aughts that stitched Cerveza Cristal commercials right into the script, the miraculous and eerie abandoned cinema in the Sinai Peninsula, and the early screening of Dune 2 for a man in a palliative care facility whose final wish was to see the film. Each of these nuggets opened up an enticing Wikipedia rabbit hole, and each made me smile.

Recently, our internet channel has been interested in web design aesthetics, spurring discourse around the minimalist designs of websites like Muumuu House and The Creative Independent. This conversation easily veered into the ironic, with Exhibit A being this website for a DC banh mi shop (self-described as a “dumpster fire of a webpage”) and Exhibit B being the neverending stream of MotherfuckingWebsites that (loudly) satirize what makes a website a website. On the theme of reverting back to simpler times, Osirene took us back in internet history with this look at the vertical scrollbars of yore. 

Source: Reddit

Inspired by the fire-cooked eggs covered in this recent Prune dispatch, Dirt Discord’s cooking channel took our fascination with the retro to an extreme. Channel member Yoga Fuego put me on to Townsend’s YouTube channel, which merges eighteenth century history and food with a delight I haven’t seen since my elementary school field trip to Old Sturbridge Village. I happily followed along as another member of our community, Pete Williams, experimented with stovetop potpourri, aromatizing his house with a sure-fire technique. Other recent highlights include a crowdsourced guide to Athens, so if you’re planning a trip to Greece—come to Discord and say hi. 

We’ve also had some inquiries about tennis partners in NYC and elsewhere. Looking for a tennis partner? Respond to this email and we’ll put you in touch!

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PLAYBACK

Snippets of streaming news — and what we’re streaming.

  • Chappell Roan: Tiny Desk Concert (YouTube)

  • A new EP from Nourished by Time (Spotify)

  • One for the RollerCoaster Tycoon heads (Guardian)

  • Has anyone used mmm to make their personal website? I’m super curious about it. (mmm)

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MIXTAPE

  • The contemporary art market is not doing well. (Artnet)

  • “Consent is a heuristic for assessing the legality of a sexual situation, but it cannot be a heuristic for understanding what is desired or desirable sex.” A close read of a new book on consent. (The New Inquiry)

  • Have you ever had artist merch FOMO? (No Bells)

  • I have Little Ugly FOMO (MOCA Store)

  • “Adderall, I eventually had to acknowledge, had destroyed my Adderall essay, and was on its way to destroying me.” Daniel Kolitz in Broadcast 

  • Sasha Fletcher and Alexandra Tanner discuss Tanner’s debut novel and the joys of a creative relationship. (Lithub)

  • “I had—have—a brother.” On em dashes and grief. (The Offing)

  • “I didn’t get the sense that [Penske Media] read anything that we did.” David Velasco speaks out on his Artforum firing. (Air Mail)