Rue Harrison’s Jungle of Montini is back for a second time. And who’s counting? Not me. I’m laughing again. So why not, I thought, look through the archives for a few pieces that might bring some smiles? Revisiting "A Selection from Kathleen White's Collection of Vases" spurred me on. It reminded me how much I love the outright quiddity of her work—a word that needed to be dusted off just to do right by her creations. Given these two treasures, it seemed a leit motif might be shaping up around this common impulse we have to pick up souvenirs and trinkets that multiply on our shelves and bureau tops, and colonize all the nooks and crannies they can find around the house or apartment—to say nothing about staking out places on a dashboard or hanging from the rearview mirror in some of our cars.
     It was a good start, I thought. Then wondering what else might work, I happened across a piece we'd published by friend and scholar, Tom Leddy, with his wife Karen Haas: "The Pleasure of Tchotchkes." (Looking back, I suspect it was an early tip off for Leddy's book that came out some years later, Aesthetics of the Everyday.) So, check. We had our third piece, but we were still one short of a complete edition. Fortunately, a Muse must have been nearby to whisper in my ear, “How about Bob Scher’s Song of Life? Wouldn't that be a touch of light magic?”
     Welcome to newsletter #48 - R. Whittaker