I get a lot of email newsletters, but the one I received this week from MyFonts.com (the site is typography heaven!) made my nerdy grammar-girl self very happy. I loved the clever use of different fonts to make the graphics for each type of punctuation the newsletter addressed — fun tie-in to the site. I wish EVERYONE could read the section on apostrophe usage! 

Worth noting: My Fonts has a side site called WhattheFont, which is a great resource when you're trying to track down unknown fonts. It's also available as an app (of course!). 

Good Bones is an HGTV mother-daughter fixer-upper show filmed in Indianapolis. Mina (daughter) and Karen (mom) are capable, strong, smart, and funny. They buy dilapidated houses, rip them down to the studs, and build them back up into something beautiful. During these last tumultuous weeks, escaping into their world where everything becomes beautiful in less than an hour has been a gift. My only criticisms — and they're real — is that the show is very white, very heteronormative, and on the bougie side. However, that's also a problem with the entire network. That aside, it's solid, constructive, positive-feeling reality TV where people are kind to each other, and I love it. 

For many years, I've had a client in the international education industry. These years with Trump in the White House and now with the global pandemic have put the industry in the spin cycle, and who knows where it'll be when the spinning stops. This article in the NYTimes argues for the humanities, which have been in decline as students need to have jobs when they graduate with their very expensive college degrees and their back-breaking student loans. And for that, they migrate towards majors that will get them jobs: practical degrees, not ones like literature, philosophy, history, or anthropology. 

Neither of my parents graduated from college before they had me; and yet — or maybe because of — my education was extremely important to them. And my father in particular believed in a liberal arts education. I am so grateful that he was willing to pay for a stupidly expensive education where I was able to indulge in my love of reading and English literature. It has been a solid foundation for my career, which has always at its root been about communication in some form or another. 

Our society is in the midst of a bucking bronco of a change — so much of it needed — and my hope is that we can hold on to the things that bring meaning to my life when we stumble out of the rodeo: arts of all formats, plus books, books, and even more books. Also, a deeper understanding of who we are, why we're here, and what we owe to each other. None of which we'll get with a degree in finance or business. 

When you're in the tornado of change, the humanities don't feel essential. But afterwards, when the storm is over, art and history and philosophy and critical thinking are exactly the things that help us learn from what we've experienced and allow us to move forward.

I've been attempting to create a daily art practice for the past few months, with a little success and lots of fits and starts. A couple of weeks ago, I got myself in a real anxiety tangle, but so, so happily a friend of mine introduced me to Danielle Krysa (aka The Jealous Curator). After downloading all of her books from the library onto my Kindle — not ideal for art books, but good enough during a pandemic when the libraries have been closed for months — I inhaled Creative Block. Each chapter is an interview with a different artist, and at the end, each gives an exercise to break through a block. I can't cite the artist who came up with the technique that really helped me since my copy is back with the library now, but it's just this: go through your old pieces that don't work, cut them up, and make something new from them. So simple, but it freed me! And now I've started a whole series that I'm in love with. 

BONUS: Danielle's The Jealous Curator podcast is a series of conversations with artists. She's in season 4 now, so there are lots of episodes to catch up on!

I am late to reading Normal People, which is not a shock because I don't generally keep up with modern literature, if that's even the right category for this book. It almost felt like it could be a young adult novel, which is actually more my speed in fiction these days. Having given up on sleeping and perusing the borrowed books on my Kindle in the middle of the night, I was surprised by how quickly I was pulled into the story and how little idea I had of what was going to happen to the main characters, who are both young and Irish, like the author. I finished the book in the morning and was astonished by how I had been so swept away by it. As aptly summed up in one of the two quotes I highlighted while reading, "life offers up these moments of joy despite everything." 

We recently-ish got a Hulu account, mostly so I could watch FX's What We Do in the Shadows. I am a huge fan of the creator, Taika Waititi, and loved the original movie version. Similar to the film, the series follows a small group of out-of-touch-with-modern-times vampires who live together and deal with modern life, this time set on Staten Island. Its absurdist humor is just my style, and I am completely in love with the opening credits, which are lush and layered but also set up the show in a short 30 seconds. I can't decide which character I like best, but my favorite reaction shots are always whatever face Nadja is making. ALSO, the show has great and unexpected cameos. Season 2 just started on April 16th, so now there's even more to love.