MY FAVOURITE THINGS | Bird In Hand

“Sometimes you have to let everything go - purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything - whatever is bringing you down - get rid of it. Because you will find that when you are free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.”

— TINA TURNER

Last week we celebrated Ridley’s fourth month on Earth. While there have been some choppy waters — two months of cleaning up (and stepping in) monumental amounts of piss and poo — it’s been a delight to see her quite literally grow into herself and triple in size. And while she’s come a long way, the biggest change has taken place within Billie and I. From the first days and weeks of training it became clear that Ridley’s emotional growth and wellbeing was dependent on our ability to become the guardians she needed. While such a shift was daunting, forsaking habits that help to confront the daily chaos of life, I’ve come to acknowledge that it was critical in setting our little gremlin up for success.

Tina 📹

No one could have projected the career trajectory of Anna Mae Bullock. A young woman of talent and innate drive who would become one of the most celebrated husband and wife duos of the nineteen-sixties as Ike and Tina Turner. That this country girl from Brownsville, Tennessee was able to step out from under the shadow of her ex-husband and become a rock and roll icon in middle-age is another thing altogether. That Turner’s most cherished hit single from her debut solo LP Private Dancer came about on her forty-fifth birthday is one of the most remarkable stories from the late twentieth century. While this HBO documentary certainly wallows in the mire of the #MeToo moment it transcends Turner’s bruised past to show how the most hare-brained dreams can come good.

Is Limitless Choice Killing Us Slowly? 📻

Kara Swisher’s Sway podcast has been a soothing balm to my existential pangs for her ability to pry the most uncomfortable truths out of her celebrated guests. Her latest conversation with Dave Eggers in celebration of his new book, The Every, got me thinking about a problem that plagues my daily life. Endless choice. While I started this newsletter to share my creative outlets and inspirations, it was also a way to stop and savour the experience. To not feel like I was constantly sticking my neck out of a moving jet plane. The Every, Eggers’ follow-up to his 2013 publication The Circle, satirizes the rising oligarchs of big tech and their eternal quest for self-optimization and consolidated power. While Silicon Valley continues to stomp out the ambiguities of life, Eggers’s makes clear that our blind belief in technology (and a strong wifi connection) may just be our undoing.

Life 📚

Re-reading Keith Richards hilariously honest stream-of-consciousness autobiography has been the perfect escape from my dreary news feed. I’d completely forgotten the formative chapters, the rags-to-riches tale of five impoverished teenagers with a burning itch to bring the Chicago Blues to the bleak streets of London. More interesting still was their blithe willingness to ‘sell out’ their parochial dreams in order to become the voice of a generation. I loved reading about this formative shift, stepping back from the blues covers and trusting in their own talents, an evolution that would fortuitously ignite a social revolution and prove that music has a ticket to ride. The re-read also led me to the fly-on-the-wall photography of Michael Cooper and a second-hand copy of The Early Stones, a visual compendium of the band’s first ten years. It also inspired a new playlist.

Scenes From A Marriage 📺

There is a line uttered by Jessica Chastain in the pilot episode of this HBO remake, a remark that is far from original yet holds so much water when evaluating the health and wellbeing of any relationship. A marriage is a metaphorical equilibrium, one that requires the efforts of both halves to ensure that the balance remains in harmony. In adapting Ingmar Bergman’s controversially acclaimed 1973 miniseries for the twenty-first century, Hagai Levi inverts the show’s foundations with Chastain as primary breadwinner. As this NYTimes profile reminds, a profound synergy takes place when Oscar Isaac and Chastain fill the screen, an ineffable connection that speaks to their deep-rooted friendship. While the early episodes are action lite, the constant dance that plays out between the pair is as entertaining as any Marvel spectacle.

The Upsetter 📹

There is so much to savour in this 2008 doco on the late Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry (streaming for free on YouTube). Much like his former protege Bob Marley, Perry was born into humble beginnings in rural Jamaica and shared an insatiable appetite for self-discovery. Narrated by the one and only Benicio Del Toro and littered with incredible homemade footage, it showcases Perry as a veritable one man hit factory, whose debut hit single would give birth to reggae and endow him with the financial freedom to build the Black Ark studio. Over the next decade, Perry would produce some of the most celebrated albums of the nineteen-seventies, ear candy hits that inspired a new playlist. While Perry’s third act sadly reminded me of the last two installments of OJ: Made In America it did force me to appreciate the virtues of moderation.

Scum 🎥

My primary reason for hunting down a hard copy of this British classic was spurred by my love for Ray Winstone. And while his screen debut as a young renegade enthralls, it was Roy Minton’s uncompromising screenplay that sealed the deal. Scum was Alan Clarke’s theatrical feature debut after a decade working in television and takes aim at the brutality and prejudiced confines of a British borstal in the late nineteen-seventies. I was oblivious to these juvenile detention centres, glorified prisons for young offenders run by middle-aged men whose hardened indifference is chilling. This hard-hitting drama, laced with a stellar cast of new talent, would lead the Crown to defund the broken system a few years later in 1982.

Attached 📚

I wasn’t expecting to find so many smoking guns in Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment. All the same, Amir Levine and Rachel Heller’s concise self-help manual distills the complexities of relationships into a user-friendly framework. As the authors make plain, we all fall into one (or more) of three emotional categories; anxious, avoidant or secure. There was a strange comfort in having my latent trademark habits unearthed and diagnosed. It also went a long way to explaining why so many of my previous relationships were doomed from the outset. I wish I’d had knowledge of this book when I was an eligible bachelor. It may have helped me avoid the pitfalls of the ‘treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen’ dating mantra.

The Portrait of a Lady 🎥

Jane Campion’s luscious adaptation of Henry James’ celebrated novel of the same name has stayed with me for the past month. For while the underlying plot left little to the imagination, Campion’s exacting eye for detail, from its sumptuous costumes to the lush production design, left me riveted. The Wellington native coaxes my favourite performance out of a baby-faced Nicole Kidman and breathes such pregnant conflict into the softest moments. Just having the opportunity to glimpse these palatial Italian residences, set dressed to simulate the opulence of the late nineteenth century, left me dreaming of better times. I also savoured this little write-up with screenwriter Laura Jones on penning the adaptation along with her original screenplay for High Tide.

I Am Not Your Baby Mother 📚

It was the cover of Candice Brathwaite’s new book that left me curious. What on earth was the title getting at? When I lived in London, I remember soaking up the cosmopolitan capital and its cultural vibrancy. All the same I was astounded at how little integration took place between the city’s melting pot of races, how few ethnic classes ever uprooted from the neighbourhoods they were born into. Braithwaite peels back the curtain on growing up within the confines of the West Indian community and struggling to rise above the confines of tradition and taboo. I love the underlying message of this confessional book which takes aim at the patriarchal strictures of her unique community and by extension the English monarchy.

High Tide 🎥

Over the past few months, I’ve been hunting down used DVDs, exiled films forgotten in the streaming age. While it makes me long for the brick and mortar days of video stores, I was nonetheless chuffed to get my hands on Gillian Armstrong’s heartwarming 1987 drama. Set on the picturesque shores of the South-Eastern seaboard, it follows an Elvis revival troupe traveling through a resort town. When Judy Davis, one of the the show’s back-up singers, finds herself out of a job for dissing the king, she inadvertently strikes up a relationship with a sweet young girl. Davis is extraordinary as a hapless vagabond on the run from a broken heart. Yet it is a pre-teen Claudia Karvan who steals the show and brings so much star power to every scene. One of the most emotionally-charged Australian dramas.

Michael K. Williams 👤

Like most fans of the late Michael K. Williams, I was first introduced to the Brooklyn native in the groundbreaking drama The Wire. The HBO series presented a searing portrait of a modern American city and introduced an indelible cast of colourfully complex characters. Williams’ portrayal of Omar Little, a gay hustler and Robin Hood style gangbanger, would come to stand as one of its most memorable. It was only while listening to the Brooklyn native in conversation with Mark Maron earlier this year that I realized how much his screen presence had meant to me. David Simon’s recent op-ed piece offers a most touching tribute and reminded me to take in the final few episodes of Lovecraft Country, another innovative HBO drama, and savour one of his final gifts to the world.

The Last Transmission - The Heliocentrics & Melvin Van Peebles 🎙

I was turned onto this phenomenal 2014 LP while killing time on Instagram stories. Like any good cinephile I was down in the dumps over the death of yet another cinematic icon, the Blaxploitation star and auteur behind Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. I had no idea how prodigious the Black filmmaker was before and following the unexpected success of this 1971 independent film earning the equivalent of $100 million dollars. Van Peebles was a prodigious force, a writer, playwright and musician whose voice and vision is a prominent feature of this beautifully cryptic album. Best enjoyed at the end of a work day with a glass of something in hand.

“Scars are the price you pay for success.” — Melvin Van Peebles

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WRITING | @jamespillion
FILM | @jamespillionfilm