Pump up the volume

I've always wanted to be an art school kid. Out of all the Babysitters' Club characters, I most envied Claudia, the artsy one, when I hoovered through those books in elementary school. Toward the end of ninth grade, I went through a vocal audition for my city's performing arts high school, got in, and chickened out at the last minute (aw, buddy).

This year, I took a big swing with these middle-aged arms and applied to a masters program in writing at the Royal College of Art, the #1 postgraduate art school in the world. Why not. But then they... let me in? And now I'm moving to London for a year? Starting this weekend? I'm using question marks because it hasn't sunk in yet. Will it ever? No clue.

Anyhow, if anyone ever tells you a ship has sailed for you, please laugh heartily and tell them your grownup friend is an art school kid. Tell them she's almost half a century old and doesn't give a shit and neither do you. Remind them—gently, because people get freaked out about these things and mask that with faux annoyance—that we're all impermanent collections of stardust disguised as people with elbows. Tell them everything ends, and that we may as well do some cool things while we can.

So, I might skip next week's newsletter while anxiously flat-hunting and trying to get my sea legs in the biggest city I'll probably ever live in. Wish me luck? In the meantime, let's get to this week's goodies.

Cheerio:

1. The 1990 coming-of-age film Pump Up the Volume and its unimpeachable soundtrack have been living in my brain rent-free for no fewer than 35 years, but it's been virtually impossible to find. It was sort of my introduction to counterculture as a concept, and as bumbling and uneven as it was, it still managed to plant a seed in my psyche: always question the status quo. So, I am pleased, delighted, elated to inform you that the 1990 coming-of-age film Pump Up the Volume (and, by extension, its unimpeachable soundtrack) has, quite rightly, become a part of the Criterion Collection. Long live Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis and Lala Sloatman's glasses and love scenes set to Ivan Neville's "Why Can't I Fall in Love." Kick out the jams, y'all.
2. Have you ever wondered to yourself, "What if sound could see?" I'm guessing no, but if you were to wonder that, these gorgeous photos taken deep inside a series of musical instruments might give you some idea of an answer. Each violin a temple, each bassoon a portal to who knows where. Pianos become viaducts, didgeridoos morph into molehills, caves, volcanoes. They were taken with great care by cellist/photographer Charles Brooks using medical lenses, like the ones endoscopists use. Honestly breathtaking and so, so poetic.
3. Staying with sound: I’m forever fascinated by musical interpolation and lineage—how bits and bobs in modern songs can carry so much historical weight and energy. Here's a rabbit hole for you: do you know the name Camille Yarbrough? Probably not (unless you’re very, very cool), but I bet you know her voice. 
4. Let’s hear it for creativity, concentration, and hot hot heat. 
5. Speaking of hot: Get your Betty White stamps, folks... get your Betty White stamps.
6. And speaking of hot people, meet Jeanne Villepreux-Power, the “seamstress turned scientist who solved the ancient mystery of the argonaut, pioneered the aquarium, and laid the groundwork for the study of octopus intelligence.” Who says we can't have (and/or do) it all?? 
7. That's a lot of inspiration from the past and present, so let's end this week's list with something that looks way far up ahead. The Netherlands is (are?) hosting a countrywide competition to see which of its (their?) cities can replace the most grey (pavements, paving stones, etc) with the most green (grass and other botanicals—lolol Amsterdam, grass, hi, I'm twelve). I, for one, am rooting for them all to win. (website in Dutch; explainer in English)

Til next time from across a big deep pond, y'all...

"It's never too late to be who you want to be."

—George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans)

18 August 2025

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