January 2025
Hello to you and the end of January.
Bon Public is two years old! Thank you for supporting this newsletter by reading, subscribing, messaging and so on. I appreciate you <3
READING
All Fours by Miranda July (2024)
Word on the street is that many people have upturned their lives after reading this novel about an artist who is a perimenopausal wife and mother. She launches a grenade into her world and messily reshapes the shrapnel, shaking up societal notions of desire, creativity, death, relationships and family structures. It’s very sexually charged, funny, raw and profound. Read a Guardian article about July and the book here.
… Burial Rights by Hannah Kent (2013)
And for something completely different (to All Fours and the type of book I normally read), Burial Rites is set in northern Iceland in 1829. Authorities have condemned Agnes Magnusdottir to death for her part in the brutal murder of two men. She awaits her execution at a farm, where pastoral life plays out against the harsh climate and Agnes’ story is revealed. I picked this up at an op shop mostly because of the review on the cover - “… its prose as crisp and sparkling as its northern setting.”
Up a Mountain or Into A Hole by Chris Wallace in Family Style magazine
A short piece about retreating from everyday stresses to find an unattached, fuller version of self.
“We’re all on Boogie Street,” Leonard Cohen once said of our daily lives. “And we believe that we leave it from time to time. We go up a mountain or into a hole. But most of the time we’re hustling on Boogie Street one way or another.” Everything we do on Boogie Street is to survive, to make a living, make rent, make do. And everything we fantasize about is the unmaking of these things.
PINNING
… mixed ring stacks with mixed metals.
Side note about Pinterest: I pin often and am becoming very conscious of AI-images creeping into my feed. It angers me, mostly because I pin quickly by instinct like an unhinged obsessive, and it’s getting harder to pick the computer-generated images! I don’t like being hoodwinked!
WATCHING
… Installing Isamu Noguchi’s Iconic Sculpture,Water Stone (1987)
I found this gem of a short clip on the Met Museum’s website. Filmed in 1987, it documents the precise installation of Noguchi’s sculpture Water Stone. Check out the Met’s From The Vaults series to find more super interesting mini doco’s.
… Hunt for Truth: Tasmanian Tiger (SBS On Demand)
We got completely sucked into this mini doco series about filmmaker Tim Noonan’s search for the Tasmanian Tiger. The animal’s official extinction date is 1936, but elusive sightings of the thylacine in Tasmania and PNG have caused flurries of excitement ever since- and in some cases, have driven people to madly dedicate their life to grabbing one more glimpse of the mystical pouched dog. Lots of amazing characters are interviewed in the show, and the remote landscapes are wild and sublime.
… Wild at Heart (1990)
RIP David Lynch! The news of the iconic artist’s death spurred Beau and me to revisit his catalogue. I’d never seen Wild at Heart, the fever dream road trip movie filled with speed metal music, hired killers, and clumsy Wizard of Oz references. And Nicholas Cage convincingly performs an Elvis Presley number in a heavy metal club. Perfect. Numerous Twin Peaks actors are featured, such as Sheryl Lee, aka Laura Palmer, as Glenda the Good Witch. It is, as expected, trippy, unnerving and delightfully Lynchian.
… SNL50 Beyond Saturday Night (on Binge)
One for the comedy die-hards: a four-part documentary on the iconic series Saturday Night Live, which is celebrating its 50th year in 2025. So cool to see original auditions, the writing and production process (gruelling! at such pace!), and many, many faces that have provided me with decades-worth of chuckles. See the trailer here.
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (SBS OnDemand)
I put this on while cleaning the kitchen on a Saturday afternoon, and all of a sudden, I was ruthlessly decluttering and reorganising! It follows a format similar to any given ‘horders’ or Marie Kondo show, with a dash of Queer Eye, but I appreciated the extra insights into Swedish culture. Plus, it’s funny, gentle, and just a little bit naughty (f-bombs are thrown around). I watched two episodes and will go back for more. See the trailer here.
LOVING
… This filmclip for A$AP Rocky’s track Tailor Swif
Released last year, the clip has so much creative detail in it. AI used for good! Watch it on a bigger screen for the full effect.
… this post on Instagram.
LOL.
… Experimental portraiture
Over the long weekend, I created a makeshift photo studio at home and experimented with coloured lights and a nifty little set design element that gave me exactly the obscured, messed up look I wanted. (Aloe vera gel was involved…)
If Beau and I ever put out a record, we’ve got album cover options! It feels so good to pull visions out of your head and make them a reality.
And that’s it for this month! Thanks for scrolling BON PUBLIC.
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jessica@jessicabellef.com / @jessicabellef / www.jessicabellef.com
I pay respect to the past, present and future traditional custodians and elders of this nation and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Nicknames for coworkers had me in stitches. LOL