Category: HRisWatching

Hi friends

Quick spiel for any one stopping by for the first time: I have a voracious appetite for stories and make some musings as a creative at heart who also gets stuff done in organisations. Highbrow or lowbrow, I don’t care what state of refinement the art is in, if it helps me to “understand something about the odd experience of being alive” (Sam Green, 32 Sounds), sign me up! And if there’s content here that struck a chord for you, please share your thoughts, there’s honestly nothing better than geeking out together!

What has fed me this week

A Tumble into Gymnastics:

I have a confession to make. I love women’s gymnastics. But it’s not a wholesome love, it’s a twisted fascination that started as a teen who lapped up Hallmark movies that basically followed this SNL skit of What’s Wrong with Tanya. I love watching women’s gymnastics on YouTube, I’ve been down rabbit holes reading about Soviet training regimes, and I am fascinated by the commentary on how this sport can only exist due to adults seeking accolades as coaches through little girls who have been shaped by society to do as they are told even while in excruciating pain, starvation and fatigue. I know – yikes. But it’s got everything! Sport, strong women, political regimes/cults, rhinestone leotards and teen drama!

Before 2020, the age of sixteen generally indicated the twilight years of a US gymnastics career. And then Chellsie Memmel (former World Champion and Olympic silver medallist) started to train again at over 30 years old. In 2020-2021, she was documenting her journey on Youtube (which I was beyond loving) and stirring up a bit of a frenzy. I remember the articles at the time talking about this as a revelatory ‘omg, what if we let athletes listen to their bodies!’ moment because it was just incomprehensible that she could endure a gymnastics training regime. This was on the back of years of US gymnastics having the most awful AWFUL real revelations about the conditions the young women were enduring from abusive team doctors to head coaches. Turns out, she didn’t have to be brutalised to get results. She could even have rest days (training 3 days/week), and be a mother to two young children.

This week in the Olympics, there is so much coverage about Simone Biles and her amazing feats, plus the higher average age of the whole US team, and the general good vibes they are bringing. Guess who is one of their Team Coaches? Yup, it’s yo’ girl Chellsie Memmel! The capacity of people to heal, to find a way forwards, to choose differently, to lead themselves and others to kindness – ooph – this story just makes me fist pump!

All paths lead to Robert Gottlieb

• On Women by Susan Sontag [Collection of essays] Last week I found myself on a Robert Gottlieb trail, and lamented “it’s a little confronting when you see just how small some circles are in the world.” Of course, in his obit there is a photo of him and Toni Morrison, who he edited, and in the background of the photo is Susan Sontag. Interestingly though, she was in the right circles and highly regarded, but I’m not sure how liked she was. Which I’m sure wouldn’t have bothered her at all. From reading these essays, I get the impression Susan Sontag’s entire raison d’être for writing was to prove that she doesn’t care about any other inferior intellects – which is everyone. This is the quote that summed it up for me: “Although I defy anyone to read what I wrote and miss its personal, even autobiographical character, I much prefer that the text be judged as an argument and not as an “expression” of anything at all, my sincere feelings included.” Sigh, another powerful smarty pants who can’t use the sentence “I feel…”

Fatherhood

• STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces [Documentary] (Turns out Steve Martin is very close friends with Adam Gopnik, a writer who once worked under Robert Gottlieb as editor of The New Yorker. So there’s that connection again.) The documentary is in two parts, with the first focussing on his rise as a standup comedian (great career advice – find your audience). The second is about him going from a highly anxious person in his 30s to a really happy person in his 70s. He talks about doing his life in reverse – with huge career success at the start, and not having a family until very late in life. You can just see how much he is cherishing absolutely every single moment with his child. It hit home for me how a very strong awareness of mortality has a way of transforming time with a child from a task to a treasure. Mortality knocked on my door through illness, for Steve Martin it’s parenting in his 70s – both sound like hard yakka with a three year old.
• Did taking secondary carer’s leave harm your career growth? [Reddit] A man asked the Auscorp sub about taking ‘secondary carer’s leave’ (which for international folk, is HR language for an equal carer of the baby only getting part of the leave provisions because parental leave in Australia is dismal). Over and over and over the answer is essentially ‘Bro, take the leave.’ I just love the ‘cmon now, let’s be real here’ energy with all the responses that assure this man a promotion can happen in the future, but his kid’s first years won’t repeat. It made me think this would make quite a fun DEI guerrilla campaign… Here are some of the forum quotes I made into silly memes for anxious career-dads-to-be to stick on their desks:

• Jules and Jim (1962) [Film] Jules and Jim are best friends, they fall for the same woman who has Jules’ child but loves Jim, and then they try to figure out how to make their unconventional relationship work over the course of before WW1 to just before WW2. The cinematography, the dialogue, the music, even the narrator – it’s a masterpiece.

Good Stories

• The Ultimate Chart of Narrative Structure [Image] I have had a long love affair with Kurt Vonnegut’s narrative diagrams, so this incredible collection of narrative shapes by Ian Bousher felt like stumbling upon the ultimate treasure trove. Recently I read through the journey of the now infamous ‘standing on boxes at a fence’ equity drawing, how it began, how it evolved and how it was pirated across the seas of the internet – I hope this amazing narrative diagram has a similarly rich future ahead! Also, after seeing Ian’s position title of ‘Senior Game Writer’, I just had to go back and watch my favourite episode of Mythic Quest (S02 E06 ‘Backstory!’) which is about as perfect as 35 minutes of TV can get and dives into the bittersweet origin story of a young science-fiction writer in the 70s who predicts the future of video games. Anyways… how good is this:

May the end of your week, or your Act IV, be one with a happily-ever-after…

Sarah

Hi friends

Quick spiel for any one stopping by for the first time: I have a voracious appetite for stories and make some musings as a creative at heart who also gets stuff done in larger organisations. Highbrow or lowbrow, I don’t care what state of refinement the art is in, if it helps me to “understand something about the odd experience of being alive” (Sam Green, 32 Sounds), sign me up! And if there\’s content here that struck a chord for you, please share your thoughts, there\’s honestly nothing better than geeking out together!

What has fed me this week

Meeting Robert Gottlieb:

• Not Your Usual Secondhand Book Sale [Article] It all started with this NYT article about the sale of a portion of Robert Gottlieb’s personal library, a man famous for discovering and editing Catch-22, plus working with writers like Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie. His daughter Lizzie Gottlieb, who made a documentary about her father, finishes the article with this quote “I hope what these young people can take away from my father is that it is joyful to care deeply about your craft and to want to devote yourself to it. It’s not about being precious.”
• Turn Every Page (2022) [Documentary] So I had to dive into this documentary by Lizzie Gottlieb. And yeah, it’s a total joy. Last week I shared how “I love listening in on men in creative relationships and how they navigate around their masculinity while needing to be deeply attuned to their emotions in order to make anything that connects to an audience. It’s a fascinating high-wire act.” Watching Robert Gottlieb and Robert Caro who have collaborated together since the 1970s, and obviously have a deep affection for each other but who also do an awkward half-hug when greeting each other, made me feel like a long-suffering wife who wanted to kvetch “just tell him you love him for goodness sake, who knows when you’ll see him again!”
• “The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, But It Bends Toward Justice” – Quote Investigator [Website] Robert Caro uses this quote during ‘Turn Every Page’, so I jumped onto the Quote Investigator website to learn about the origins. It’s not so straightforward… like the arc of the moral universe I guess…
• Everything is Copy (2015) [Documentary] Robert Gottlieb talks about a work by Shakespeare that he constantly references to make sense of his life – which character is he and what is he playing out at certain times. It made me wonder what my guiding literature might be, and I landed on ‘I Feel Bad About My Neck’ by Nora Ephron (yeah, it’s not Shakespeare, but it’s great advice from a cool Aunt in New York). I came across this documentary her son made about her posthumously – and lo and behold but who should be in there but Robert Gottlieb! It turns out he was a close friend with Nora Ephron. Sigh, it’s a little confronting when you see just how small some circles are in the world. “Your network is your net wealth” rings true and echoes this passage from Kurt Vonnegut’s book ‘God Bless You, Mr Rosewater’:

“It’s still possible for an American to make a fortune on his own.” “Sure—provided somebody tells him when he’s young enough that there is a Money River, that there’s nothing fair about it, that he had damn well better forget about hard work and the merit system and honesty and all that crap, and get to where the river is. ‘Go where the rich and the powerful are,’ I’d tell him, ‘and learn their ways. They can be flattered and they can be scared. Please them enormously or scare them enormously, and one moonless night they will put their fingers to their lips, warning you not to make a sound. And they will lead you through the dark to the widest, deepest river of wealth ever known to man. You’ll be shown your place on the riverbank, and handed a bucket all your own. Slurp as much as you want, but try to keep the racket of your slurping down. A poor man might hear.”

I hate to end on a cynical note when thinking about Robert Gottlieb though, as his reverence for art, beauty and making a contribution was matched by lovely little anecdotes shared by readers on his NYT obit:

In the 1970’s when he was on the Board of the NYCB, I was working in the subscription office at the then New York State Theater at LC. He would come by and volunteer his time and help out the staff. Many a day we sat side by side stuffing envelopes with subscriber tickets and credit card receipts. He was just Bob, chatting away and doing what was necessary. What a surprise to the Ballet’s subscribers to know that he was literally responsible for getting their tickets to them. I am glad I have that memory and glad to have known him, just a little!

A Japanese Film Vibe:

• Perfect Days (2023) [Film] I came for the meditative Japanese zen cinema vibes, I fell in love with the gorgeous public bathroom architecture in Tokyo! The film sits beautifully with my own reverence for the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and learning to be at peace during the storms of life. In reading a reddit thread by someone who had a completely different take, I was interested by the links others made to film makers such as Ozu (who has an unknown body of work to me).
• Tokyo-Ga (1985) [Documentary] Before diving into Ozu’s work, I was curious to watch this ‘Diary Film’ by Wim Wenders who was also the co-writer, co-producer and director of Perfect Days. If you are fascinated by retro Japan and are contented in watching the exploration process of an artist in love with Ozu, then you will probably get something from this film – I know I certainly did. If you need a driving plot though, the various \’diary entries\’ (such as 10 minutes watching the Japanese art of making display food) might not do it for you.
• Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus (2023) [Music Film] After a few nights of Japanese films, the need to continue a certain wabi-sabi mood grabbed me and I found myself putting on this music film a few times while eating or doing chores. Watching Ryuichi Sakamoto perform his own creations amassed over a lifetime, in preparation for his death, is awe-inspiring.

2 Wrongs and a Right

• Brawn, bazookas and killer bots: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s finest films – ranked! [Article] This article ranks 20 Arnie films and there’s NO Kindergarten Cop?! Look, I’m not saying it’s up there with Total Recall, but it could have at least made the list! Such a comfort food.
• RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 9 Finale [Reality TV] No spoilers, but the top was not right. It was Rigga Morris!
• An Ad a Day for July by Mitchell Bozzetto [LinkedIn Posts] “I recently got made redundant, so while I’m figuring out my next steps, I thought it’d be interesting to create an ad a day for July.” Talk about making lemonade from lemons! I have loved watching this series of posts, and am always blown away by the art of distilling ideas and concepts, particularly when there’s humour involved. Very, very cool!

Whether you like to add sugar to your lemons, or a little salt & tequila, I hope your week ahead includes good drinks with good friends. And maybe something from my list above that you have opinions about!

Sarah

I have a voracious appetite for stories and spend a lot of time musing as a creative at heart who also gets stuff done in organisations. The content I consume all contributes to my personal library of examples for analogous thinking and is a beautiful reminder of the deep interconnection between everything. As Thich Nhat Hanh explains “The flower does not consider garbage as an enemy or panic when becoming garbage, nor does the garbage become depressed and view the flower as an enemy. They realise the nature of interbeing.” Highbrow or lowbrow, I don’t care what state of refinement the art is in, if it helps me to “understand something about the odd experience of being alive” (Sam Green, 32 Sounds), sign me up! And I hope you too might also want to join me and share your thoughts on content that struck a chord…

Here’s what has fed me this week:

• Smithereens (1982) [Film] It’s the energy of Wren in her frenzy to escape 80s New Jersey and to carve her spot into the New York punk scene that hit me. It’s akin to a drowning person climbing on top of their rescuer. The current Wikipedia page calls it narcissism.

• Bob the Drag Queen [Stand-Up Comedy Australian Tour] The standup set included reminiscing about changing CDs in the car. The intense pressure of changing an album at a red light unleashed some core memories. I was also struck by how the Melbourne LGBTIQA+ crowd still dressed in so much black – you do you Melbourne!

• This is Important, Ep 209 [Podcast] The dudes from Workaholics have a podcast?! I’ve been sleeping on it and am only getting on the train at Ep 209?! Ok, I’m just going to have to grieve that & move on. If you don’t know Workaholics, heads up on the crass factor. I love listening in on men in creative relationships and how they navigate around their masculinity while needing to be deeply attuned to their emotions in order to make anything that connects to an audience. It’s a fascinating high-wire act.

• Free-Game [Website] Virgil Abloh put this site together as a resource to support fashion brands just starting out. So fascinating to learn that most fashion brands start from printing on ‘blanks’. The legacy Abloh left behind as a man who made his way to being artistic director of Louis Vuitton, then oversight for the whole dang LVMH shebang, while never taking his eye off mentoring and championing others – wow. He sadly passed at 41 years old in 2021.

• Dependency [Image] Thank you Reddit Sysadmin forum for sharing this nugget of gold (above) from XKCD while Crowdstrike was knocking out global systems. It is the perfect depiction of what happens when systems grow too big too fast and are held together by ‘chewing gum & string’. Hilarious and haunting if you’ve ever been that quiet achiever keeping it all together!

• Oblique Strategies Deck [Resource] I came across this in the New York Times’ article on Brian Eno. You can get the deck in an app and it is full of prompts to break you out of creative stalemates. The original deck was part of the creative process when Eno collaborated on David Bowie’s Heroes. Iconic!

The scene in Perks of Being a Wallflower with Heroes as the soundtrack is forever etched in my mind, plus the line “you accept the love you think you deserve.”

Accept only the real real, good good, love this week my friends.

Sarah