What I Endorse (the artistic version)

Post on 23 October, 2019 by Dallin Malmgren

The Mus­es

One the one hand, this is total­ly sub­jec­tive. I am writ­ing to myself. On the oth­er hand, almost every­thing I have found enthralling, espe­cial­ly in the realm of the arts, came to me through someone’s rec­om­men­da­tion. So what I endorse becomes what I recommend—I would love to share the plea­sure and insight and inspi­ra­tion that these artists and works of art and art forms have brought into my life.

1) The Avett Broth­ers – def­i­n­i­tion of muse: a source of inspi­ra­tion. They’ve been doing it for fif­teen years (my time, not theirs). The tune always catch­es me first, but then the words ele­vate the tune. I almost always lis­ten to them alone. They are becom­ing more spir­i­tu­al now, which is reaf­firm­ing to me.
2) Tim Dun­can – ath­letes are artists, and Tim Dun­can is the con­sum­mate. It goes so way beyond suc­cess. Such dig­ni­ty and humil­i­ty! He proves that art involves depth more than flair.
3) The Grad­u­ate – my favorite movie—I don’t mean because it was enter­tain­ing, but because it was bril­liant (also incred­i­bly enter­tain­ing). It shift­ed my per­spec­tive on where I was going in life, and then it shift­ed it again. And, ah, Elaine… (It is on Net­flix or Prime right now—watch it!)
4) To Kill a Mock­ing­bird – I taught it for six years and nev­er got tired. One of the most beau­ti­ful moments a teacher gets is when you sud­den­ly have a rev­e­la­tion about what you’re sup­pos­ed­ly teach­ing. Every Eng­lish teacher has heard count­less dis­cus­sions of the Great Amer­i­can Nov­el (or has it been writ­ten yet?). I stopped look­ing when I got here, although my mind is still open.
5) A great TV series – one that grabs your heart and your mind…that you wait for week by week…or if you got there late, you stay up extra hours because you have to find out what hap­pens next…where the series finale is almost like a break-up. Lone­some Dove and Mad Men and Down­ton Abbey and Game of Thrones come to mind, but there are count­less oth­ers. Any recommendations?
6) Female authors – I con­fess that I nev­er used to read them (except Agatha Christie—I’ve read her since ado­les­cence). Then I joined a book group around 20 years ago, and it was usu­al­ly me and about five or six women, and we took turns pick­ing books, and I dis­cov­ered the bril­liance. Louise Erdrich and Joanne Har­ris and Anne Proulx and Car­ol Shields and Anne Lam­ott and … (And, of course, Harp­er Lee).
7) Spo­ti­fy – (or Pan­do­ra or iTunes or whatever—this is not a com­mer­cial endorse­ment) – It is mirac­u­lous that I can type in the name of a song or an album or an artist, and the music pops up, and I can lis­ten to what­ev­er I select. From any era I choose. For just $16/month ( and I have five rel­a­tives on my account)! This is on my Top Ten Ben­e­fits of Tech­nol­o­gy list.
8) E‑books – I’ve not been won over yet. Give me a com­fort­able read­ing place and I will take a hard copy. But they real­ly open up the oppor­tu­ni­ty to read in bed, which is some­thing I’ve always enjoyed. And if money’s not an issue (I’ve always been a library per­son), you have access to every book on the planet.
9) Art muse­ums – I have a sis­ter who is a docent and sev­er­al oth­ers that could be. I’m not even close. I take my muse­ums as sub­jec­tive expe­ri­ences. I walk into a room and see what I like. Karen and I some­times play a game: “If we could take home one item, which would we choose?” Then we share our answers. I have fun in art museums.
10) The­ater – I swear I am not show­ing off. These last two entries sound like a cul­tured per­son, and I am not that. I like sports and TV. But I’ve been lucky enough to see the big-time (it doesn’t have to be NY): Hamil­ton and oth­ers. I’ve sam­pled local the­ater: Bright Star (by Steve Mar­tin and Edie Brick­ell) in Dal­las. What I see in the­ater is tal­ent and effort—they are real­ly try­ing up there! I had sev­er­al kids in my Cre­ative Writ­ing class one year, also in the­ater, and they won the State Cham­pi­onship in One Act Play. Watch­ing them was as cool as watch­ing Hamil­ton.
11) Adele – this might be my most ridicu­lous choice. I hard­ly ever lis­ten to her. Rea­son: her songs have a pow­er­ful way of get­ting stuck in my head—and I don’t like songs stuck in my head. But she has the clear­est, smoothest, truest voice I can think of.
12) Peace Like a Riv­er – my favorite Chris­t­ian nov­el (that is such a disservice—it is about a man who is a chris­t­ian). And also about a real family—and how that is sup­posed to work—and, of course, about God and man.
13) Leonard Cohen – My for­mer stu­dents know about Bob Dylan—I dis­cov­ered him ear­ly. Leonard I have had to grow into. My con­clu­sion: two equal poets and observers of the human condition.
14) Sculp­ture gar­dens – two in New Orleans. We go there on walks, my broth­er and Gert, me and Karen. I love it there. It’s like man and God have got­ten togeth­er to dis­play their skills, and they are riff­ing with each oth­er. I’ve always want­ed to back by myself and pray, but I nev­er do.
15) Bri­an Doyle – my favorite author. If you like fic­tion, read Mink Riv­er. If you like true spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, read The Book of Uncom­mon Prayer. If you like both, keep reading.

Anoth­er fun one to write. Art lifts us up. It’s good to keep rising.

Comments

  • Reply

    TV Show rec­om­men­da­tions: FLEABAG (on Prime) and KILLING EVE (Hulu). Both won a ton of awards. Both writ­ten by the same woman (an incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed woman who fills me with love and jeal­ousy). Two total­ly dif­fer­ent shows. You can watch both sea­sons of Fleabag in a day and you’d have a won­der­ful expe­ri­ence. Or you’d hate it and get mad at me for wast­ing your time. Who knows.

    I have a song for you to lis­ten to: How to be Yours by Chris Ren­ze­ma. It’s a beau­ti­ful con­ver­sa­tion between a man and God.

    I don’t know how to enjoy Leonard Cohen. Maybe one day I will. It just…I…I can’t.

    Also, read In the Alto­geth­er: Trust­ing God with All We Hide From the World. Pret­ty good book by a cool guy.

    Taylor Johnson24 October, 2019

Leave a Reply

* Copy This Password *

* Type Or Paste Password Here *