miles here. i’m interested in the interesting and like to curate this semi-weekly newsletter for my friends and anyone else who wants to tune in.
🎧 what i’m listening to
bebel gilberto. wow. she's a breathy, recent discovery of mine, but by no means is she under the radar. the brazilian bossa nova phenom has been nominated for multiple grammy's and has been releasing music since 1986. i had a moment watching the sunset the other night, my brain firmly plugged into my bose headphones, listening to preciso dizer que te amo, and i'm quite sure i floated away. gilberto strokes the ears with both her native portuguese and english, and the lush electric strings are nothing short of alluring. her latest album, agora, just dropped, and i've enjoyed it immensely, among other work.
🎬 what i’m watching
unorthodox. unorthodox is a moving, 4-part german-american netflix miniseries i watched earlier this year that follows a young woman's escape from her ultra-orthodox hasidic community in brooklyn to berlin. the mini-series is loosely based off deborah feldman's best-selling 2012 memoir, which chronicles feldman's similar departure from williamsburg in 2010. the series has garnered eight primetime emmy award nominations and set a new bar for netflix-produced content.
israeli actress shira haas gives a riveting and emotive performance as esty shapiro as she navigates the choppy and uncertain waters of her escape and her coming of age. and the series is obsessive in its penetrating attention to detail of contemporary hasidic life, which is something i knew little about before watching the series. it was stunning to see the contrast in lifestyle in modern new york to esty's new york, which is foreign in time-period and culture. i enjoyed this and hope to see more foreign collaborations like this on netflix.
😮 quote i’m pondering
"There is usually a Marxist moment in every relationship, the moment when it becomes clear that love is reciprocated. The way it is resolved depends on the balance between self-love and self-hatred. If self-hatred gains the upper hand, then the one who has received love will declare that the beloved (on some excuse or other) is not good enough for them (not good enough by virtue of associating with no-goods). But if self-love gains the upper hand, both partners may accept that seeing their love reciprocated is not proof of how low the beloved is, but of how lovable they have themselves turned out to be." On Love: A Novel, by Alain de Botton
🙏 thanks for reading. i appreciate you.
my best,
miles
Hey man, your notes are super refreshing and some are quite thought provoking. The Omelas story stuck with me...keep them coming!