Pineapples and bears and Teen Vogue internships, oh my
RPR subscribers deliver where Joan Didion does not
ROCK PAPER RADIO is a dispatch for misfits & unlikely optimists by your favorite hapa haole, beet-pickling, public radio nerd. It’s a weekly email newsletter that shares three curiosities every Thursday - something to hold on to (that’s the ‘rock’), something to read (that’s the ‘paper‘), and something to listen to (you guessed it, that’s the ‘radio’). Themes include but are not limited to: rebel violinists, immortal jellyfish, revolution. Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word.
Hi, friends. Last week I asked you all what you’re listening to, reading, holding on to. You did not disappoint. This week’s dispatch is brought to you by the curiosity of our misfit crew, which is just further proof that RPR subscribers are the sharpest and nerdiest and the absolute best.
I am 100% here for more crowdsourced RPRs so let’s keep doing this. Should we start a Slack channel to drop links? A subscriber text thread? A regular Zoom cocktail party where we all wear weird outfits and talk about the stories we’ve been clicking on? Just please don’t say a Facebook page. Please. I can’t with Mark’s metaverse.
If you have ideas, don’t hesitate to hit reply if this issue found its way to your inbox (shout out to you, subscribers) or comment below and let me know how we all can share what’s sparking a little wonder in our pandemic brains together.
SOME THINGS TO LISTEN TO
Millbury, MA subscriber Cassie recommended Mystery Show’s 78-minute Belt Buckle episode. In every episode of Mystery Show, host Starlee Kine charmingly solves an everyday mystery. Murders? Sociopathic political manuvuers? None of that here. Just a romp of a treasure hunt revolving around a glorious belt buckle adorned with an enamel toaster with eggs.
Brooklyn, NY subscriber Katherine recommended the Ezra Klein Show’s 71-minute episode on how NIMBY’s are keeping our “liberal” cities to themselves: How Blue Cities Became so Outrageously Unaffordable. Katherine shared that the episode changed her friend’s mind about a housing development she had been rallying against. Their relationship is mended now. That’s the power of radio, folks.
Seattle, WA subscriber Mellina (who, at the peak of 2020’s BLM demonstrations, called on white activist allies to—wait for it, this was apparently controversial—actually make some Black friends IRL), recommended Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal’s Blocked and Reported podcast, cancel culture’s primary nemesis. Topics include: bisexual anthropologists, Lolita Twitter, adorable Libertarians.
Another Seattle subscriber, Brendan, recommended S***hole Country’s 28-minute third episode, A Typical Ghanaian Woman, which is a gorgeously written and beautifully produced ode to resourceful women and long overdue conversations. If your relationship with your mom is also complicated, this one’s for you.
SOME THINGS TO READ
Seattle subscriber (and my Master’s advisor!) who I’ve called Doc since I first walked into her classroom over a decade ago, recommended this bold essay from Daphne Merkin for the New York Times: The Cult of Saint Joan. BEWARE, Joan Didion devotees. This is probably #TooSoon for Didion’s legions of superfans who are still mourning her recent passing, but I love it.
True, I also made careful note of Didion’s packing list when I read The White Album—bourbon and mohair throw especially—and I underlined with abandon through my tears as I read The Year of Magical Thinking, and I fawned over that iconic Céline ad like the former Teen Vogue intern that I am.
AND YET. I have always felt a bit ugh at the utterly unquestioned adulation of not just her work but of her coolness, her particular brand of thinness and nonchalance. And then there’s her treatment of not just Hawaii in general, but of my home city Honolulu in particular, which Didion reduces over and over again to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach.
For Didion, the exclusive pink getaway is where she and her husband go “in lieu of filing for divorce.” In her recollections, the pool is always sparkling, the beach is always private, and the smell of pineapple fills the air. However, what readers never see in any of her precisely written scenes, are the brown hands of the local hotel kitchen workers who presumably cut that pineapple into neat little triangles for her vacationing family. In fact, while the beautiful mountains and flowers of Hawaii make frequent appearances in her abundant descriptions of the “paradise” she and her family regularly escaped to, the local people who live there never do.
If after reading Merkin’s tactful takedown, you’re hungry for more unpopular literary opinions, this piece from The Metropole is also great food for thought: Joan Didion’s Honolulu.
SOMETHING TO HOLD ON TO
RPR’s Wife-in-Residence Keri provided this week’s creepily dreamy SHOT.
When photographer Dmitry Kokh adventured through islands in the Chukchi Sea looking for polar bears he initially couldn’t find what he was looking for. Why not? Because he was looking outside.
Lucky for him and for us though, eventually he came upon tiny Kolyuchin Island. It’s about 3 miles long and 1 mile wide and home mostly to ice and neglect. In 1992, the island and its lone weather station were abandoned. Polar bears, apparently, have since moved in and made themselves comfortable.
PetaPixels’ Michael Zhang has the story featuring Kokh’s fantastic photos, including the National Geographic award-winning shot of one boss bear leaning out of a window like you’re being too loud in front of her house: Photographer Finds Polar Bears That Took Over Abandoned Buildings.
LET’S GOOO FEBRUARY
That’s a wrap on issue 68, friends. Thanks for listening, reading, holding on. And thank you to all of you who reached out to share what you’re clicking on lately! Let’s figure out a way that doesn’t involve a virtual reality Faceworld to keep this link exchange going. Hit reply or comment below and we’ll figure out something together.
See you next Thursday.
K.