Myth vs. Folklore

How We Live Now with Katherine May on Season 5, Episode 5, “Amy Jeffs on ancient stories and new understandings”

Something I found interesting was Amy Jeff’s distinction between myth and folklore. She describes myth as political and cosmological and folklore as personal.

Her book looks lovely (she did the woodcuts herself) and I’ll be keeping an eye out in bookshops while I’m in London.

Treacle Tins


One of my favorite reads on Substack this week was Nanette Regan’s post about the new Lyle’s Golden Syrup logo.

Apparently this lion was the world’s oldest logo. And the original logo is a dead lion that Samson killed in the Bible and bees made honey in his carcass.

(Note they are only changing plastic packaging. They will be keeping the old design on the tins.)

The new lion has Aslan vibes and I like the shape of the bottle.

I have a few of these treacle tins from my time living in London to hold art supplies. It seems they aren’t changing the Black Treacle design (perhaps it only comes in a tin?) but when I was looking for it I found this.

I’d love to have one of these if anyone has a spare knocking around in their cupboards!

Winnie the Pooh

MOVIE NIGHT

Movie night: february 24, 2024

We’ve started watching new films as a family on a weekly-ish basis. It’s only over the past 6 months Davy has really developed the attention span for this (other than Totoro which he has been watching through since a babe.)

This week we watched Winnie the Pooh. I meant to watch the old version, but Disney + has updated all the thumbnails in a confusing way and we ended up watching 2011.

It drew a lot of inspiration directly fom the 1977 film. It felt like an adaptation of that film versus the books themselves. I appreciated how they continued to explore the use of text as a visual framing and storytelling device.

Something else I loved was the set and prop design in the room that opened and closed the film. This was one improvement in my opinion. The room in the 70’s version was very bright and white and clean. This one felt warm and British and lived in. I could stare for ages at the details.

Here are a few stills from the credits.

I loved how these vignettes depict the toys in scenes from the film.

Piglet outfitted for battle with a teacup on his head, a plate as a shield, and a fork. Quilted pillows behind.
Pooh pulls an antique red wagon with Piglet riding

That said the voice actors felt off and the story and music didn’t feel as strong. Some bits felt familiar and other bits felt “off” so we watched the 1977 version the next day to compare.

Where the 2011 film was an adaptation of the 1977 film the 1977 film was a very faithful adaptation of the original book. Over the past week we’ve been reading the original stories and it seems the 70’s film took chapters directly from the book (making minor changes for a visual format like depicting a fly as a butterfly) but remaining very true to the details of the original story.

This leads to the biggest difference between the films in that the 70s version was a vignette of small stories (quite literally chapters) where the new film tried to create an overarching narrative and shoehorn these other stories into it.

The visual framework of a book made so much more sense with this in mind. Between scenes the pages would literally ruffle and flip to a new part of the story. And the detailed animation of the text itself was more enchanting.

Pooh Gifs via Adventurelandia on Tumblr

I also love the analogue matte paintings behind the 77 version. I can see clearly that they used watercolor in a way that could never be recreated digitally.

I can’t find a good image of the backgrounds but here is one of the original cels as photographed for an auction. Maybe I should look for a book about the art of the 77 film.

Transparent sheet with Rabbit and Pooh illustrated laughing and Pooh falling holding a honey pot

While reading the book Davy wanted to know why “tiger” wasn’t on the book’s map.

Digital Gardening

STARTED: MARCH 4, 2024

LAST UPDATED: APRIL 7, 2024

What originally started as a “chronofile” morphed to an “artist log” and then a digital garden or “compost heap.”

Here’s how that process evolved.

First, I wrote about my note taking practice and idea to start a microblog called a chronofile here.

MARCH 4, 2024

This experiment is a effort in developing my own note taking process. I wrote a bit about it here. Since I’ve started using Obsidian I’ve been creating daily notes. What I’m experimenting with is starting each week with re-reading those notes and curating the bits I want to keep and share in a forward facing commonplace book.

I’ve been documenting and sharing in some form or another for almost 10 years. What I want is to find a sustainable way to do this that lives on my own website and doesn’t rely on a third party (like Substack, Patreon, Tumblr, or IG.)

Some weeks may be lengthy and others may be short.

March 9, 2024

I’m attempting to recenter my creative practice.

If this feels cyclical that’s because it is.

My creative orbit spiralling closer and closer to something that’s right for me.

When throwing pottery on the wheel you have to center it first.

The pot builds around the center of mass and if that isn’t the center of the wheel you get a wonky pot. I’m actually not very good at centering clay, but we won’t dwell on this. I haven’t been able to throw pottery since Davy was born due to chronic pain.

That’s the last time I tried to throw a pot. My hands should be controlling the clay not the other way around. I also have a connective tissue disorder that makes this extremely difficult. (I really need one of these.)

The same thing can happen when artists share our work online.

WHEN THE PLATFORM COMES FIRST EVERYTHING IS OFF BALANCE.

Something still feels “off” about creating for Substack. Over the last 10-15 years I’ve seen platforms come and go. The places that we gather and connect online change and immigrate. The more I think about this the more I want an archive of my writing on my own website.

At the same time, I value the community and comments I find on platforms like Substack. With that in mind I am experimenting with writing for my own blog and cross posting to Substack. (For technical reasons it works MUCH better this way than the other way around. But it’s also a nice reframe about who I’m writing for and why.)

Right now I’m experimenting with a second Substack publication where I can cross post entries in my “Artist’s Log.”

Like a Captain’s Log, but for art.

This is an outgrowth of moving my hybrid note taking practice into Obsidian. I’ve been using it for a month now and it works brilliantly with my particular magpie brain.

So here we are.

I’m essentially turning my blogging process inside out. I’m recentering on my own creative practice. Then cross posting that to Substack. It’s a subtle difference, but it feels like a powerful one.

I’m also rooting more deeply into what I find interesting rather than guessing what you want to read.

Eclectic weirdos are invited to hang out and chat in comments here or subscribe for weekly emails.