sunday links

How’s your weekend going? We have been enjoying the sunshine, and blowing the cobwebs away at one of our favourite places. Meanwhile, here are a few creative things you might enjoy this Sunday:

First: an exhibition. I’m a massive fan of Café Royal Books, and am really looking forward to the celebration of the first 600 books issued by this brilliant small publisher at Stills in Edinburgh

Bubble Boy, from “Glasgow 1970s – 1980s” © Douglas Corrance

Second, a multidisciplinary creative project. Some of you may have heard my dear friend, Anne Whitehead (seen below in her KDD snood) interviewed on the Today programme last week about her brilliant project exploring how the Angel of The North has become a spontaneous place of remembrance.

Anne and the angel

Working with her local community in Gateshead and sound artist David de la Haye, Anne is investigating the Angel’s significance as an ad-hoc memorial (a topic you’ll know is of great interest to me, if you’ve read my piece about the painted cave at Davaar island). How do the objects and tokens left at the Angel add to its range of meanings in the landscape? How do such objects channel individual grief and loss? How might such grassroots acts acts re-create and re-make Gormley’s artwork as a site of collective public memory and meaning?

Stone © Anne Whitehead

Follow Anne’s blog to learn more about this brilliant project as it unfolds!

Coffee at the Automat. Photo by Hikaru Iwasaki. UC Berkeley

Third, a film. Lisa Hurwitz’s documentary The Automat is now available to stream in the UK (on Prime and Apple TV) and I urge anyone in need of cheer in these rather dark days to spend a restorative hour and a half with this celebration of the utopian, beautifully designed and inclusive cafés in Philadelphia and New York where you could get good food and great coffee for the price of a nickel. Who doesn’t want to hear Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Colin Powell enthusing about automats as inclusive and inherently democratic spaces? Or to listen to Mel Brooks singing the song he wrote especially for this documentary?

Fourth and finally, a conversation. Many of you will be signed up for my friend Felix (Felicity) Ford’s Yarnadelic Remixes project: an inspiring, creative and wide ranging exploration of knitting and music which she has been working on with Muriel Pensivy. As part of the Knitalong (and playalong) accompanying the project, Felix and I got together to talk about our favourite cover versions – both musical and knitterly. Read our cover versions conversation here! And find the Yarnadelic Remixes ebook on Ravelry here!

The Supremes, A Bit of Liverpool (1964)

However you are spending it, I hope you have a lovely Sunday!


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Comments

17 responses to “sunday links”

  1. I love libraries!
    I don’t subscribe to streaming services but my local district library has 2 copies of The Automat (North Vancouver) – hopefully that’s an option for other viewers.

  2. storyguardyarn Avatar
    storyguardyarn

    Thank you for the suggestion of Lisa Hurwitz’s documentary The Automat. It was a very fun watch on Sunday afternoon. I really want a a Time Machine to go back and that the experience myself.

  3. Judy WAYNE Avatar

    Thanks Kate for the recommendation to look at The Automat. We were entranced by the film and particularly enjoyed the wonderful architecture and interiors. A brother in law, now living in Vermont, was brought up in Philadelphia and we asked him whether he had ever been a customer. His reply is below:

    “Beyond stunned to see the words-“Horn and Hardart” in your recent mail!!
    It’s been almost seventy years since the (many) times my brother and I would do the three minute walk from our house to our local H&H “automat”. I can still remember like it was yesterday, the enjoyment we had over those many years peeking into each of the individual glass doors to see, what seemed like at the time, a countless array of varied meals and treats!

    With the drop of a few small coins, our selected doors would pop open, and we would have our ready prepared meals. Have to laugh- back then we used to think- WOW- what amazing-technology!!”

    The Automat was clearly an institution that touched many people’s lives.

  4. Jannis Mindel Avatar
    Jannis Mindel

    I was utterly enthralled with the Automat’s as a kid. On one of our yearly trips to visit my grandparents in NY my parents took us to an Automat near Radio City Music Hall. My sister and I thought the idea of getting food out of these little windows was the most amazing thing we had ever seen. The documentary gave me so much joy.

  5. dinywarren Avatar

    Thank you for mentioning At The Automat, just finished watching it. Available in Canada through Apple TV as well. It was delightful, great memories

  6. biogodesscrr Avatar
    biogodesscrr

    I ran into the young women who are developing this amazing tool – the Knitter’s Helping Hand. Having read your Handywoman book, I thought that you and your network might be interested in what they are trying to do. They are looking for folks to help test their design. CRR

  7. I so enjoy every post, Kate! Thank you! This last couple of weeks has been trying, and your blog posts have been a brilliant ray of sunshine and color (even though I didn’t get to comment on most of them). Thank you for your generosity, in sharing your artist’s eye and your wit.

  8. Oh I LOVED the automat experience! I recall visiting one, probably in Philly, but perhaps NYC, as a young girl. It seemed like magic!

  9. When I was 12, my family drove to NYC to see the Thanksgiving Day parade and went to the Automat afterwards. I don’t remember the parade at all, but I have vivid memories of the Automat!

  10. Patricia Hay Avatar
    Patricia Hay

    The Automat is also on Prime Video here in Canada and is on my list to watch. I enjoy all your posts Kate.

    1. Thanks! I was just going to check that.

  11. What an absolutely delightful piece on this gray Sunday morning, it left me smiling “bigly “

  12. wendyknits Avatar

    Thank you for the recommendation for The Automat. I note that it is also available on Max in the U.S.

  13. Thank you for weaving this web of wings and inspiration that beckon me on into projects and resources. I am looking forward to following your friend Anne Whitehead’s project at Gateshead. I lived in Northumberland in the 1990s and The Angel watched over our journeys north on the A1.

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