Nº85: Editor's Special
A reintroduction ☆ Elizabeth and Olivia on exhibiting together, irish goodbyes, and much more...
We’re back and this one’s by your editors, with a quick reintroduction. It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these…
Read on to find out what we’re into, and if you’re new here, hit subscribe for secret recommendations every week.
Elizabeth Dimitroff and Olivia Bryant are London-based artists.
Elizabeth
☞ ON SELF RESPECT: This essay is dear to my heart – I read it once or twice per year. Joan Didion dishes out some tough love and gives it to us straight. We could all stand to take some good old-fashioned responsibility for ourselves.
Find it on page 215 of ‘Slouching Towards Bethlehem’ which is probably (or should be) on most of your bookshelves already.
☞ LOUIS CK LONDON 2026: I’ve already bought my ticket.
☞ IRISH GOODBYES: I am anti goodbye-party and anti saying-goodbye-at-a-party. No one really cares. It will save us all a lot of time.
☞ NURSING HOMES: My 102 y/o grandpa lives in a nursing home in Florida, I try to spend a few days with him there every year. Something about shifting the fact of death into the foreground for a few days will really kick you into action. It’s also pretty nice to be the hottest person in the room.
☞ BALLET CLASS: The English National Ballet use their ballet studios in Canning Town for evening classes. The class is £15, the studios are stunning and they have a live pianist. I only went once lol, but it was a great excuse to buy ballet shoes – which have since become perfect slippers to wear around the house.
☞ TOLLINGTON’S: Charming old-school chippy turned fish bar in Finsbury Park. This one’s for the bone-in-fish/pickled anchovy/sardine-maxers out there. Warning: Don’t wear anything you’re not willing to incinerate – my fit smelled like fried fish for 3-4 working days.
♪ LISTENING TO:
Otis Redding, Billie Holliday, The Strokes, Jay-Z, Lana, Amy…
My goth roommate’s daily ceremonial drumming
Room to Dream - David Lynch (Lynch narrates the audiobook) <3
365 Stories I Want To Tell You Before We Both Die - Caveh Zahedi
☠ HATES:
Whatsapp group chats
Margate
Navel-gazing art ‘journalism’
When a man earnestly serenades a woman with an acoustic guitar
Bob Dylan
Doing anything half-heartedly
Not dancing at parties
Olivia
☞ GRIBOEDOV’S: The literary club in Master and Margarita… Somebody needs to recreate this, brick by brick, in London. Preferably Camberwell, so I can walk there. Or maybe SET social could open a straunt?? I’ll happily paint the violet horses. Which brings me to…
☞ PAINTING: I recently began painting again properly for the first time since my teenage years. Painting comes close to what I imagine transcendental meditation must feel like. No thoughts, just your body taking over, mixing colours and selecting brushes; pure instinct. John Cage said it best - “When you start working, everybody is in your studio - the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas - all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.”
☞ WATERPROOF NOTEPAD: This was the main Christmas present I requested (for the gift guide heads: file this one under novelty x useful). It’s already revolutionised my life admin, as I knew it would. I’m doing shower drawings now too.
☞ HELLYEAHSORRYMOM: Rn I only have one “tattoo” (got a splinter coated in black shed paint, pulled it out, paint stayed in me). If I get “another” (lol), it will be from @hellyeahsorrymom.
☞ GRANNY’S SMALL MIRROR: Last April I helped clear out my beloved grandmother’s flat, which was full to the brim with sixty year’s worth of stuff, including an entire archive of files geniunely containing every text and email she had ever sent and receieved, printed out and organised by month and year. Who does she think she is, Andy Warhol?? Anyway I took this tiny mirror kinda as a joke but now I’m addicted to it. It’s so small and camp that I thought I’d never use it but I do! Every day! (vain)
☞ BROOCHES ON BOYS: And Valentino Vannini has the best collection…
☞ THEY FLEW: A HISTORY OF THE IMPOSSIBLE: A book in which historian Carlos Eire challenges established assumptions about the redrawing of boundaries between the natural and supernatural that marked the transition to modernity. A great birthday present for someone whose childhood wish was simply ‘to fly’.
☞ OFFBEAT FILM CLUB: I v much enjoyed watching BBC footage of Steeleye Span’s electric folk performances (unseen for 50 years) at Walthamstow Trades Hall a few months ago. Did you know that Offbeat Film Club is the UK’s only dedicated folk film club hosting archival documentaries about British folk culture? Well I didn’t either, my boyfriend introduced me to it 😂. Screenings can be found here - their next event is the OffBeat Folk Film Festival.
☞ THOSE PICS OF TRISHA PAYTAS AND QUENTIN TARANTINO: Could trish be the millenial Tommy Wiseau??
♪ (NOT) LISTENING TO: A few years ago, in a square in puglia, I heard some choral music emenating from a church… I’ve never been able to get an ID on the track, but if any chorister subscribers recognise the song from the above vid… Please email or dm me.
☠ HATES:
How Americans refuse to use the word queue. ‘im in line’ - shut up, you’re in England, and you’re queueing.
Driverless cars
Robots
Electric ubers
How I have to charge my portable charger
The Salesforce Tower fish tank
How there seems to be only one cash point in Chinatown
How bright it now is upstairs at Wong Kei
Home reno vloggers delighted to uncover fugly Victorian tiles… girl those were mass produced… Ikea ass tiles…
lrb close reading podcast not included in physical subscription package
The BFI website UX designer
Financially ruinous Forest bike addiction
Paying apple for monthly storage… forever??
Mince pies in sainsburys in august
The smell of tinned sweetcorn
Strong Kangaroo TikToks
No footpaths on google maps
Two Announcements
If you missed yesterday’s newsletter, God Save The Scene X Soho Reading Series are hosting an event on April 11th! Featuring readings from previous GSTS guests, plus some new faces. Get tickets !HERE!
PLUS we are both exhibiting paintings in a group show at Shipton Gallery. Hinterland opens on the 18th of April. Come along and say hi at the opening, or catch the show during its run :)