STL faves, "I hope that you ask me!", thoughtful observation
many quotes, links & recs......... follow the energy!
Lately, ANEMONE energy has been focused on Layout Department, but we’re starting to slow up for summer break soon. I’m working on the next print newsletter, in the early stages of dreaming up a comics anthology, and keeping going with writing/drawing my publications on cooking and eating. Adam is working on the California and Great Basin sections of a new book of Western Rivers maps. I’m reading about making a font (using rubber stamp scans) and gathering the materials.
Feeling hot to rearrange the printshop! Sketching out ideas for a new flow, better paper storage using a huge vintage school cabinet, and connecting the output of the collating machine to the input of the booklet maker. So far I’ve been resisting the urge (so many other projects, it’s climbing season, I still haven’t finished re-framing those prints, do I really need to be moving furniture and hundreds of pounds of paper this very instant?? etc)… but you know what, I’m gonna begin today. Follow the energy.
Adam and I spent a week with family in St. Louis recently, and I wanted to offer some highlights to note down, in case you have a trip coming up:
A brioche doughnut at Damn Fine Hand Pies. Just look at this beauty…
CITY MUSEUM!!!!!! Actually, I think it is worth planning a trip
to St. Louis sometime in your life just for this. And if you don’t have kids to go with, then go to the late night hours on Friday or Saturday night (often open til 10 or even 11pm). Next time I go I want to bring kneepads and a headlamp and get serious about even more complete exploration of the tunnels and slides.
Cherokee St.: many great taco places, ‘ssippi (an extremely charming place to be), vintage shops, and the all-cookbooks-hallway-sized bookstore Anchovy. Plus the shops/community spaces of our riso friends Swan Meadow and Melon Press.
Wandering the museums and islands and waterfront in Forest Park, and visiting the many pergolas and bandstands and architectural-follies in Tower Grove Park. At the (free) art museum in Forest Park, I always visit Frank Stella’s Madinat as-Salam III, a monumental 10’ high by 25’ long painting. Being in its presence really does something for me, every time.
The rest of this newsletter is…
THINGS FROM US & PALS:
I have a little piece on independent food/cooking publications in Bear Bear’s new periodical, Meal Train.
Hot off the Press is July 11 at Fantagraphics in Seattle: keep an eye out for the new Trailer Blaze Residency anthology from Short Run… I have a comic about mold in it. :)
Also Seattle: Paper Pushers is downtown this summer, and very wonderful.
In Norway, the Climate Emergency Reading Room at Oplandia Samtidskunst.
Haunting Is Just a Reason by Elizabeth Case, in minor literature[s].
Kim Kent just opened A Tiny Literature Shop in Hudson, NY.
Rachel Hays just released Soup Library.
NO NEED TO FEEL ALONE IN YOUR WARINESS ABOUT AI:
The World’s Wide Web by Rachel Hays:
We’ve been trained by billionaires to value convenience over every other thing. And, in that way, are more isolated than ever. I’ll set aside how bad and ugly AI work is, how it’s sucking all of our water, wetlands and taxing our energy grid and instead point out that WE DON’T NEED IT. We are not meant to do every aspect of every project alone or answer every question instantly with an amalgam of boiled down half truths. Asking is part of learning. Connecting is part of the human experience. […] Don’t ask ChatGPT ask Real Fucking People. It’s a way we care about each other. […] When someone has a question about canning, dog nonsense, soil blocking, thrifty ways to hunt down equipment or hyper-specific travel recs like “where are the massage chairs in this airport I’m stuck in” I hope that you ask me! […] I’m sure that your circle of friends is as talented, multifaceted and knowledgeable as mine. Ask them questions! Tap into their skills and in that way strengthen your own. Use your lifelines. Stay behind with the rest of us, stay human. Feel at home in failure and growth alike as you live your one human life.
In that spirit, if you have questions for me or Adam, reply to this newsletter, and we’ll do our best to answer. AMA!
The AI-inflected crisis artists are facing, in 4 charts:
Artists really, really hate AI. In fact, one of the Carnegie paper’s most striking findings is the sheer extent to which artists are refusing and abstaining from the technology. Sure, it’s been easy enough to intuit from any glancing contact with artists on social media that they harbor a great disdain for generative AI. But the numbers are something else. According to the survey, 99% of artists “disliked” AI; for 92%, the dislike was “strong.” And that distaste translates into action, too. Per the survey, 85% of artists completely abstain from using AI at all. And 88% percent refusal use AI to generate images. That’s about as overwhelming a rejection of the technology as you’re likely to see in any field.
If people talked about other technologies the way they talk about AI: “Is it possible that my lawnmower is making me dumber? Let me ask it what it thinks.”
And some more reading recs: AI Doesn’t Work and We All Know it Doesn’t Work / You will never win at AI / Blood in the Machine / Ed Zitron
A friend who teaches computer science had 40 middle schoolers doing a project using software where an AI assistant was available, and asked them to reflect on if they used it or not, and why. None of them did. Commentary included: “I’m not a bot-licker!” “I don’t speak with the clankers.” “I can do it myself.” “I like to think for myself.”
CREATIVITY:
Artist and technologist Angie Fan on putting in the time and thought – The Creative Independent:
I feel like when I write, it’s an encapsulation of my own thought processes. It’s sort of my little mark to say, “Hey, I was here. I’m out here. If you see me, let me know.” I think that has to do with so much of my foundational creative come-up being on the internet. The old internet felt much more like a place where you could carve out your own little world. People would leave little treasure troves around that you could find. I love getting to see into other people’s minds, into other worlds that they’ve created. That always felt so special to me. I think that’s something I’m still reaching for in my own work, whether it’s my writing or websites. They are little transmissions I’m putting out there.
Sobremesa with Kristen Pumphrey, founder of P.F. Candle Co.:
Do you have any secrets to overcome creative blocks? I physically reset my whole space. I think this works because you’re touching physical objects and dealing with very low-pressure decision-making. You’re making these really quick, rapid-fire decisions, but you’re also able to move through it in a bit of a creative flow state—like arranging books by subject or by height. The other thing I do is put timers on myself. Being aware of the clock, setting a timer for just five minutes and doing what I can in that window is usually enough to take that good flow energy and ‘rebound’ off of it back into a true creative state.
“There is no cultural production without financial support.”:
“It’s very hard to get permission to be an artist. No one’s going to give it to you. You have to decide for yourself. You have to make it up for yourself.”
The economics of self-publishing a book on Metalabel – I always appreciate posts with lots of good numbers.
GARDENING:
Adam and I are making a garden (and also learning about “psychological” fences for deer). Growing starts from seed under lights in the basement, using the seed blocker method. (Can there be “too many” tomatoes? No.) We’ve been letting the field grow to see what’s there: many daisies, poppies, cosmos, borage, yarrow, dandelions, mullein, and so many grasses and unknown plants. Serviceberry, thimbleberry, raspberry, wild roses, snowberry and lupine in the brambly areas. Doing a lot of observing. I notice myself feeling the urge to go faster or “do something” sometimes, and keep coming back to this quote from Dark Properties’ The irresistibility of a solar punk future:
The very first thing they taught us was the idea of “protracted and thoughtful observation,” i.e. don’t intervene until you know what you’re doing. As people socialized under capitalism who wanted to immediately dig in and get things done, that was important to hear. But we realized it was important to observe first, and get to know the land a little before we changed much.
As a leek-obsessed person, I liked this idea for turning leek greens into powder, and thought this article on Starting a Dye Garden from Seed was beautifully done.
GRIZZLY BEAR ADVICE:
Learned a lot from Bear Spray Is A Placebo, including:
According to Smith, the world’s foremost expert on human-bear conflict, simply going outdoors with another adult, and remaining close together, may be the simplest, most effective bear avoidance technique we have. “To the best of my knowledge, I have not seen an instance where two or more persons have remained grouped, whether standing their ground or backing from a bear, that the bear made contact,” he told me. Elsewhere in his research we can see that you’re twice as likely to be attacked by a bear in poor visibility terrain as you are when you can see a good distance. And that humans have a 90 percent success rate at terminating in-progress maulings by physically intervening, while those rescuers only have a 10 percent chance of being mauled themselves. Put all that together—travel in groups and remain tight together, avoid areas of dense brush or tree growth when in bear habitat, help a buddy if they do get attacked—and you have the simple, effective, easily communicated information you need to actually stay safe in bear country.
Some sort of metaphor in there for staying together and taking the risk of helping one another.
— Amelia (& Adam)
P.S. — Country fans: I’ve been cracking up at the Dry Spell lyrics on Kacy Musgraves’ new album. And the Southern ghost story in Luke Combs’ Seeing Someone… ooooh.
P.P.S. — Mystery fans: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was fun summer reading.
P.P.P.S. — Don’t forget, just reply to this email to AMA.