City Arts & Leisure II

Don't forget: Dine for Democracy tonight at 5:30pm! A conversation on voting rights plus a cocktail demo – with 100% ticket income going to 5 grassroots voting organizations. And, a wonderful excuse to order dinner from a local restaurant! Check out Dine for Democracy's IG for participating Bay Area restaurants. Order in, watch the livestream, and dispel (some of) your anxiety about the election with us.

MUSIC, PODCASTS, FOR YOUR EARS...
Lost Notes: 1980, a series about music from KCRW
Hanif Abdurraqib returns to tell us what we’re missing in music. Specifically, in the year 1980. There was so much vitality in music that year, and so much death; so much we half-remember, stories passed along like a game of broken telephone to the point of our culture collectively calling a wrong number. Listen for: a week of Love Will Tear Us Apart on a loop in your brain, background on the Happy Birthday song, Hanif Abdurraqib’s hosting: a low, steady rhythm, leaving space to breathe. For more of Hanif, watch him in conversation with Jeff Chang for CA&L this past June.

Jill Lepore in conversation with Mina Kim.
It turns out that using predictive analytics (taking computer data mined from our human lives and using it to anticipate how a hypothetical decision might play out in the real world) is maybe actually not a great idea for things like free and fair elections. Listen for: the book from 1968 that predicted all the tech we'd have by 2018 (and just decided to leave bioethical questions til then too), how we're basically (almost) living in Minority Report (2002), and how your phone knowing what you want to buy before you do is essentially a modern form of psychological warfare. If this sounds too scary to listen to (happy October!), you can also read a transcript.

IT'S TV (AND DOCUMENTARY) TIME
It is a simple fact that Pen15 (Hulu) is objectively the best portrayal of middle schoolers played by adults opposite actual middle schoolers, all of whom have parents played by actual adults, on television. People say that it is "the funniest show on TV," but this newsletter writer doesn't think enough people are talking about the genius of the weasel-themed zine that sneaks into this season. Watch for: an opportunity to relive all middle school slumber party trauma (Bloody Mary, truth or dare, the girl who sleeps with her eyes open), a revival of the devastating diss "fool," and the kids who did tech for the middle school plays finally finding their light.

Re: Reader request for “well done, progressive documentaries to watch with my teens on race and environmental issues": Hale County This Morning, This Evening. The documentary is poetic, rather than prescriptive; listing, rather than linear. It documents the Black community of Hale County, Alabama tenderly, allowing the collage of voices to build up, as on a well-loved cast iron skillet, a chorus of flavors coming together to complement one another. Watch for: an infinitely hyper sprinting toddler barreling back and forth, dads, grandmas, and multifarious forms of family cradling their children, explosively joyful dancing, singing, and basketball, all cast under cascading light.

TIRED OF "CONSUMING" MEDIA?
Did you know we have postcards? They are iconically designed by our friends Samin Nosrat, Dave Eggers, Daniel Handler, Lisa Brown, and Wendy MacNaughton. Yes, it is sad, but true, that this newsletter writer finally learned how to make dried beans from the back of one of these postcards. That is just one of the many ways that City Arts & Lectures changes lives! You may have received our cards in the mail, but if you didn’t, let us know and we’ll mail you a pack (while supplies last). Pop a stamp on one and send us a picture – extra points if your postcard is VOTING themed. Perhaps we'll feature you on our Instagram.