Two Good Little Things

... amidst the chaos

What up, homes.

The world’s a testing place right now. I can’t even with politics — especially the depressing and infuriating way the media appears determined to bolster Trump as a viable candidate: sane-washing his incoherent and fascism-curious lies while folding their arms and sternly demanding that Kamala Harris cure cancer right now so the voters can “get to know her”. She not a fucking psycho — what more do you want?

In fact, she’s a whip-smart and deeply accomplished woman who will make a great president — but that appears a bit too nuanced and difficult for the craven click-chasers of media desperate for a horse-race that’ll drive engagement with their platforms (all of which are owned by billionaires, who of course might rather like another Trump presidency with its attendant tax cuts). Yes of course I’ll be watching the bloody debate, but we all know how that’s going to go:

I’ve spent the last god knows how many years immersed in American politics but right now, to be absolutely honest, it’s making my head explode — as are a few other things about this so-called world.

So instead, two quick things I rediscovered today which are simply cool.

The Hirschsprung Family Portrait

This is a painting from 1881, by Peder Severin Krøyer. If you want to know more about it, there’s information here. I’m sure I’ve seen it before but I re-found it this morning in the context of a meme saying “How families ignored each other before smartphones”. Which is quite funny.

But then I started looking at properly, and… isn’t it amazing? The sense of a family at rest, quietly vibing, at ease in each other’s company? The internal rhymes of reading and sewing, and the way the familial resemblance in the faces is established — not hammering it home, but there nonetheless. And most of all, that sideway look from the mother: maternal affection with just a hint of exasperation that her daughter’s cheerfully looking at the camera when she’s not supposed to be.

Except it’s not a camera, of course: she’s looking at a painter, in 1881, who somehow managed to capture the immediacy and intimacy of a photo.

Remarkable thing.

The Other Side

My still slightly misbehaving Apple watch served this up to me while I was slogging away on the cross-trainer this morning, and I’m glad it did. Found it years ago, but had forgotten about it.

This is an outfit called Public Service Broadcasting. What they’ve done here is take the mission control audio from the moment when Apollo 8, for the first time in history, successfully went into a manned lunar orbit that took it around the dark side of the moon. This video shows a live performance, but I urge you to listen to it first without watching that, with your eyes closed and maybe headphones on. Just the sound and music.

It made me realize what an extraordinary event that was, how heroic and strange. It even made me excited — for the first time since I was a teenager — at the very thought of space travel. At the stuff we humans do when we put our minds to it.

Yes, there’s a very strong argument that getting better at feeding everyone and not killing each other is far more important.

But just for a moment… reach for the stars.