Things I'm Loving (3)
The March Edit: Getting in touch with the culture
March was very chaotic, which seems timely for the transition into spring. But unlike the seasons, which shift and change gradually into each other, my March was made of choppy jumpcuts back and forth. March, for me, seemed to be about doing things differently, getting my shit together while also.
This month I did a lot of offline stuff! Gasps of horror from the audience. Yes, it’s true. At the end of February I went rock-climbing and absolutely obliterated my arm muscles. I also went on a couple field trips to art museums (I haven’t been on a real field trip since middle school). And, as many of you know, I also went on a date. Of course, I also went to Paris (no I won’t stop talking about it).
March was packed with things that pushed me out of my comfort zone, which made me feel a little bit separate from myself. As a result, I also engaged with more thought-provoking media (less brainrot) in order to feel more… person-like. If that makes any sense.
The things I loved this month helped me feel grounded, without having to make me turn my brain off. Many of these things reminded me of the kind of person I am and what I’m really interested in. So this upcoming month, I hope you can find yourself loving this stuff as much as I do!
First on the list is a category of things I call “Stuff That Works My Brain” (pending title). This month I went past my podcast interests and dove deeper into actual lectures instead. Stick with me now. In an attempt to be off my phone just a bit less, I found that listening to these lectures has been really good for my brain. I cannot quit digital media cold-turkey, so podcasts and lectures have been very good at just stopping me from staring at a screen. However, some podcasts, from my favorite online personalities, still feel a bit too brainrot-heavy. (Not that I don’t enjoy some good brainrot once in awhile, oddly I think there’s still a place for it.) As a result, I think that lectures about topics I’ve studied have been very effective at engaging my brain (in a non-dopamine-hacking way).
Before I was an Art History major, I was a student of Political Science; and it seems to be part of my core. But I’ve not taken a Political Science class in about a year now, and I find myself craving the ability to study it again (very nerdy, I’m aware). So Youtube, which happened to read my mind, started recommending me these lectures from political scientists and journalists and I’ve really been loving them. In contrast to a comedy podcast or a simple video-essay, I think these talks/lectures really work my brain. I think the structure, which is familiar and still educational, is something my brain really enjoys because it’s like my brain still gets use, without the added stress of assignments. So I’ve fallen into learning about political science again, and I couldn’t be happier. Genuinely, I like to learn and listen to people who know what they’re talking about, so I’ve left a couple of the lectures I watched this month below:
Slavoj Žižek on “Soft Facism” plus the post-lecture interview
Ezra Klein on Liberalism (his excellent NYTimes podcast too)
Similarly, when I was in Paris a last week, I did a lot of things offline, while simultaneously working my brain. Not necessarily through lectures, though the podcast listening did continue, but through reading, and taking in the arts and culture of Paris. Paris is very good for me I think, I could write a whole essay on why I love that city. But one of the things I did read was A Question of Identity by James Baldwin. I had been meaning to read his other book, Giovanni’s Room, and was going to pick it up at Shakespeare and Co. (I did not, it was kinda pricey). But I did start to read it at the store, and in the intro was a quote from A Question of Identity that really stuck with me throughout the rest of my trip:
“For Paris is, according to its legend, the city where everyone loses his head, and his morals, lives through at least one histoire d’amour, ceases, quite, to arrive anywhere on time, and thumbs his nose at the Puritans—the city, in brief, where all become drunken on the fine old air of freedom.”
Naturally, I had to read the entire essay, which is available online! In audio form too, luckily for us. And it is truly one of my favorite things I’ve ever read (and I’ve struggled to actually read in the last few years). As a young American student who came to Paris, believing the legend of it as Baldwin describes, I slowly started to recognize the rose-colored glasses coming off. It was my third time there, I started to recognize places I had been before, and I cared less about the beautiful monuments I would casually walk across. I ended up becoming Baldwin’s protagonist, but I’m not sure whether I’m the one who ‘embraces home’, or the one who ‘embraces the continent’, I feel there are elements of both within me. But this incredible essay found me at the perfect time, and also gave me an existential crisis. So if you’re a person in you’re early 20s feeling lost, I highly recommend (1) reading any and all of Baldwin’s works and (2) a spontaneous solo-trip to Paris.
Now onto the FASHION of it all. This month I was really loving trouser pants (or slacks I don't know) with casual outfits. Not necessarily in an office-siren kind of way (I’m not Bella Hadid-enough to pull that off), but just in an elevated-sweatpants kind of way. As much as I love my baggy jeans, a low/mid-rise wide leg trouser really did it for me this month, especially while I was in Paris. Trousers were just a comfy, lighter weight pants option I was able to wear with any outfit! I didn’t want to opt for the any kind of athleisure and risk exposing myself as an American tourist, so I did as the French do and classed it up a little. And yes, they may look a bit corporate, but I’ve always kind of liked that look (think 90s minimalism). It’s all about juxtaposition, pick something that’s definitely not corporate to really make a trouser really fun!
Similarly, I’ve been NEEDING a pair of burgundy adidas. I’m not really picky on which ones, though I’m partial to the Gazelles with the butter yellow stripes. I’ve been wanting a pair since last year (for Christmas), but they’ve been sold out in my size for the longest time. And this month, I finally found out why they were sold out. All the burgundy adidas buyers ARE IN FRANCE. They were everywhere!!! Every person with a slight hint of personal style had a pair of these on, and I was forced to look at them. It was almost like the shoes were taunting me, I was almost tempted to buy a pair while I was in Paris. But I decided to be financially responsible and hold off on the purchase… for now.
But as for things in the high fashion realm, I (like most people on the internet) have been loving Chloe’s FW25 collection (SS25 is great too but I’m more excited for the former). I just think these, boho, yet edgy looks are really going to be my personal style inspiration for the rest of the year, of course with a more minimal (wearable) spin to them. They’re just the perfect blend of fairy and rockstar which I enjoy; and if you read Things I’m Loving (January), then you’ll find that many of these looks also fit into the vampire-chic aesthetic I’ve been going for as well. 10/10 Chloé.
Now onto the art section because I always find some art to love every month! Category for March seemed to be pieces that evoke ‘spring’, which is obviously very appropriate for the month of March. I’ll try to keep it brief, because we all know that I can go on and on about art till the world ends. But here’s what I’ve been loving:
Eva Gonzalez - Morning Awakening (Left); I love how soft this painting feels. Brought to my attention in my Impressionism class, we talked about Eva Gonzalez as a student of Manet. We discussed how many women artists were defined by their associations with men, and how Gonzalez specifically was known as “Manet’s student.” But if you ask me, this is very different from a Manet work, specifically because of the care paid to the female subject. Where Manet would have clear flat, impasto surfaces, Gonzalez takes a subtler approach and blends gentle shifts in light onto the skin and sheets. Not quite chiaroscuro, but something with less contrast, more characteristic of the color theory of the Impressionists. I love it. This painting just feels quiet, like the transition from winter (sleeping and resting) into spring (awakening).
Berthe Morisot - Eugène Manet and His Daughter at Bougival (Center); MY GOAT Berthe Morisot always makes me love her any time I look at her works. Another female Impressionist like Gonzalez, she was also associated with the Manet because (get this) she was married to his brother! The tea on their family is one art historians love to ‘analyze’ (gossip) about in many a research paper. But I love Morisot not for the gossip, but because she’s a modern woman! And an amazing artist! This painting very obviously feels like spring and summer, with it’s lush greenery and floral motifs. However, like Gonzalez’s Awakening, it has a certain degree of coziness brought about by the blooming of new life. This painting depicts Morisot’s husband Eugene Manet and their daughter, the formidable Julie. Eugene clearly engages with Julie in a wholesome father-daughter moment we rarely see in art. Eugene actively supported his wife’s art career, and cared for their daughter, and the love they all had for each other is, to me, very clear in this painting. I love it so much.
Johan Vilhelm Gertner - A Bedroom in Bernstorff Palace near Copenhagen (Right); Finally, a new artist I discovered at The Met earlier this month, Danish painter Johan Vilhelm Gertner. Gertner tends to paint a lot of portraits and smaller landscapes, so a work like this is slightly unusual. But once again, I feel like the painting captures the coziness one gets from the springtime. Something about the pink-ness really evokes spring to me, and especially with the light streaming through the window (similar to Gonzalez’s Awakening) it gives the impression of a new day. Not much to say about this one, I just love how precise it’s capture of light is, and it’s unusual subject matter makes it all the more interesting.
Finally, for the ‘Lifestyle’ section, because I’ve now decided that Things I’m Loving can have some kind of order. This month, I’ve really channeled my inner Impressionist and played into the Flâneur lifestyle. “What is a flâneur?” I hear you say. Well, according to Wikipedia it is “a type of urban male stroller, lounger, saunterer, or loafer” popularized during the newly urbanized (Haussmannized) nineteenth-century Paris. Basically, with the rise of the new city structure in Paris, young men from the emerging middle class would use their leisure time to wander around aimlessly through city, taking in it’s beauty and participating in the culture.
That was me this month in Paris during my spring break. The ability to be purposeless is not something I often get to embody as a college student. It was unusual at first, and I felt the pressure to try and see and experience everything while I was in Paris. But at a certain point, I realized that Paris would always be here, and that it would look this way when I came back, because it was exactly how I remember it from two years ago. So once I was able to get that through my head, I was finally able to relax! (Which is what you should do on spring break = relax). And once I let myself just wander around the city, I felt that I was actually able to enjoy it for what it was.
Flânerie is freeing, and I find that it allows you to enjoy a place for what it is: not necessarily for the touristy bits or the hidden gems only locals know about, but for your own experience of it.
Similarly, I’ve been loving “quiet time” this month. Now what is quiet time? It’s much more straight forward than flânerie but the two go hand in hand. For me, quiet time has simply been doing things without my Airpods. It might sound scary to many socially anxious people, such as myself, but I promise it is necessary. There’s a lot going on in my brain, and I find that sometimes, having music/a podcast/ambience on the background doesn’t always help. So this month, I found myself sitting in the quiet more often. Especially when wandering around Paris, trying to take in every bit of it, I realized that the city was much more interesting when I could hear it. It dawned upon me that my Paris Playlist was only helping me live like a main-character, instead of helping me live like a real person in the moment. So I ditched the airpods for a lot of March and just enjoyed the silence of being present with myself. (It’s been great for writing too.)
Honorable Mentions:
MY LOUISE CARMEN JOURNALLLL — I NEED ANOTHER RAHHH; I love it so so so much, I don’t feel as guilty about the pricetag now because it really helped me get back into journaling. I’ve tried my whole life to write consistently in a journal but it always ends after a month or two. But now I’m really committing to it (to justify the spending) but because I actually have a journal that feels like a common place. Love love loveeee my Louise Carmen.
Dates? Like real ones? This has never happened to me before.
Actually, I lied… I don’t love this. I don’t really know how to do it, and I hate not knowing things. But I like the “after” feeling of a date. I feel oddly confident, and I usually end up liking myself more than the person I’ve been on the date with. By the time this comes out I would’ve been on three dates, which is a 300% increase from last month. I’m proud of myself. I think I like the idea of someone liking me, but actually having to small talk and open myself up makes me… itchy. I don’t love it, but its fine.
Food: Pickles, Pâté, and Escargot — thank you France for showing me that liver can taste good, and also your tiny pickles! Also escargot, of course.
Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona (2008) — I saw this movie last month actually but I’ve been thinking about it a lot. This is definitely going to be the artsy European movie I model my summer after this year. One year it was Call Me by Your Name (questionable), another time it was Saltburn (even more questionable), and this year it’s gonna be the hedonistic, romantically lost Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona. No I will not be taking questions.
My social media freelancing gig: It’s fun! It’s been good practice for me to actually start making my own digital content, which I’ve been wanting to do for awhile now. I think I’m really going to commit to it this year, just to see where it takes me.
Check out my vlog hehe
Thanks for tuning in to this month’s Thing’s I’m Loving issue. It’s been a packed month full of many things to love. But I find that the more I do this, the easier it gets to actually curate a cohesive list of what I’ve been enjoying. I’m always excited to find new things and share them with you all, it’s made me more excited about my life and I feel more connected to this platform. So thanks for being here, talk to you all soon.
Sincerely,
Amelia.
Notes:
Sorry this was not brief at all. I really thought I could be under 7 minutes this time. Turns out I was wrong. UGH.
THE LOUISE CARMEN JOURNAL IS AN HONORABLE MENTION?!!?! that needs its own post ...
this is so detailed! i love it!! taking all ur suggestions! 🫶