INTERIOR LANDSCAPE, RALPH ANGEL

this poem is like time expanding and contracting, the paradox of everything feeling infinite and being finite. some changes perceived in the world are delicate – the blink of an eye, a light rain. and yet, so much can happen within them. i love how this poem plays with space and shape. what fits where and when? how many small moments make up one big one? blinking eyes and empty rooms and unread papers all evoke something similar here. a clear mind, open and unoccupied, soon to be filled again.

-liv

I'M GOING BACK TO MINNESOTA WHERE SADNESS MAKES SENSE, DANEZ SMITH

this was the first danez smith poem i ever read. i think about it all the time. there is such conviction in this age-old doctrine, that true peace is only really felt in the shadow of true suffering. i so often think of the image of this poet at the edge of the lake, “the only warm thing for miles & the only thing that can’t shine.” such a very pure recognition of the reality that every life has a cycle and the beautiful things in our life that fuel us will so certainly be taken away from us someday. there is an acknowledgment of the balance and order in the universe that we are all subject to one way or another, reflected back to us in the field of mirrors asking us to find the true source of light. i can understand the poet’s frustration with this idea of california too, a culture so drenched in pleasure and consumption that it almost doesn’t feel real, like the grittiness of the earth is lost and the sun is just plastic. i appreciate the poet’s honor for the severity of life’s realities. to think of a sea change in this context, that great transformation, i think of the harshness of seasons and weather and time and place, the physical world around us, as a reminder of the vitality embedded in all change and transition.

-sum

LIV

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tracklist:

1. Common Blue - Warpaint
2. Blue & Silver - Lower Dens
3. Lydia Wears a Cross - Julia Jacklin
4. Serpents - Sharon Van Etten
5. Don't let It Bring You Down - Annie Lennox
6. It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody - Weyes Blood
7. I Can't Give Everything Away - Spoon
8. Storms - Fleetwood Mac
9. Fish - Wye Oak
10. Cosmic Love - Florence + The Machine

SUM

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tracklist:

1. All In My Head - The Linda Lindas
2. Swingin Party - The Replacements
3. Sail Away - Creedence Clearwater Revival
4. Carry the Zero - Built to Spill
5. Bleecker Street - Simon & Garfunkel
6. talk soon - hemlock
7. Wake Me Up When September Ends (Live 2005) - Green Day
8. Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis
9. bicentennial quarters - Leah Rando
10. Chance - Angel Olsen
11. If I Could Only Fly - Blaze Foley

THE BABY, SAMIA

oh man, i couldn’t think of a better album to fit our september theme of ‘sea change.’ samia became one of my favorite artists during covid, when the intimacy of life somehow became the most overwhelming part of existing. her offering during that time was this album, the baby – also her first full length album! it is so well-crafted and deeply personal, from the glistening build on the first track ‘pool’, which incorporates a voice message of her grandmother singing to her, to the ultimate question asked on the final track: is there something in the movies that’s better than my love? she confronts herself in every song, through meditations on the passage of time, the strange and fleeting obsessiveness of american culture, the betrayal that comes with formative experiences like moving away or getting your heart broken, the solace of close family and good friendships. her lyrics paint a complicated portrait of entering adulthood – all of the confusion and deer-in-headlights moments that come with growing up. this album may as well be an extended diary entry set to music. it bears witness to a relatable transformation of self, one that doesn't expect much but hopes for all of it.

- liv

IN THE END IT ALWAYS DOES, THE JAPANESE HOUSE

this album is one of my favorite albums of all time. i swear i have listened to it front to back 10,000 times since it was released last year, and it came to mind immediately when thinking about a record that tells the story of a sea change. amber bain’s vocals, so stunningly delicate and heavy and twisting in her melodies, the perfect balance of a never-ending synth topped with the dreamiest of acoustic guitars, i truly do not have the words to do it justice. but more than anything, i love the story she tells, of falling in and out of love, the arc of devotion turned desperation in the face of an impending end, an infinity captured. i hear her telling of lovers eroded and smoothed over and changed completely by the weathering of the relationship. blushing, loving, breaking, yearning. the rush of meeting someone who reflects back a self you always wanted to know. in the car windows down in love, lovers on knees in the living room, sometimes sweet, sometimes begging, sometimes seeing through you, friends who don’t understand, wondering yet knowing when it’s ending, running to catch the train, waving, smiling and looking back, do you like it over there? and not turning back. wanting to. going forward instead. in love and in life, i find myself constantly in awe at the power of time and experience, the revelation that comes with this, that makes our hearts change before our eyes. give this a listen right now.

- sum

DEAD POETS SOCIETY, PETER WEIR

in this beautiful film, robin williams’ character famously declares, ‘poetry, beauty, romance, love…these are what we stay alive for.’ his character teaches english at a traditional all-boys prep school, and this line is part of a monologue he delivers to his class, huddled up around him, like he is telling them the secret of life. dead poets society displays a great deal of empathy for all of us and how our lives are often contextualized as a never-ending relationship between pressure and success. this film says there’s more, and we should believe it! it might be idealistic to say, but i’ve always felt like this film exists to do good in the world. to reconsider a thought that was once dismissed as too impractical or too whimsical. to offer a shift in perspective that promises more openness, more heart, and more joy. what does it feel like to live? that’s the first question this film asks. and, by the time we start responding, we encounter another: is one lifetime even enough?

- liv

"GOODBYE TO ALL THAT" FROM SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM, JOAN DIDION

sometimes, i find that a change of spirit happens slowly over time. my friend recommended that i read this and it really resonated with me on so many levels. this essay traces such a significant revelation, so stunningly and so painfully real. joan didion tells the story of her moving from california to new york, and the eight years she spent there. i love the fondness and self-awareness she has of her early ways of thinking that drew her to this place. she catalogs the story of her days so beautifully, long afternoons spent in brownstones, disoriented and awestruck, making sense of this place that feels like the center of the world. what speaks to me is the truly bittersweet acceptance of the reality that even in the rush of youth, “all of it really did count,” even in these places that feel larger than life. we spend time agonizing over who we will become, where we are going, what are we doing now to really understand our true selves, yet all of this happens in real time and in real place. joan seems to have realized this in a way that is very similar to how i have. a sea change of the mind, a powerful embrace of what has always been true, a permission to own your time.

-sum