39. what i've been watching: new media edition
thinking about books + art & home + commentary on YouTube
Hi there! š Iām Ida, and this is tiny driver, a newsletter about research, pedagogy, culture and their intersections. Thank you for being here. Reach out anytime by just hitting reply, I love hearing from you.
Hi, friends. Well, this weekend was quite an overwhelming one for me. It has to do with some changes that are going to be coming in the near future. I'll talk more about this in a future newsletter when I'm ready, which hopefully won't be much longer.
As a result, this week is going to be a bit of a shorter letter to you all. To make it up to you, though, the "Item(s) of note" section this week is a curated playlist of YouTube videos I've been loving recently.
Thank you for continuing to read my words, and Iāll be back with my usual newsletter content next week.
What I consume.
In the Bookshop:
Currently Reading:Ā The Weak Spot by Lucie Elven
On Deck: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
For our inaugural book club, we will be reading & discussingĀ John McPhee'sĀ Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process.
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 27 at 5PM PST/8PM EST
Registration link!!
Suggested donation (for those able to donate):Ā $3-20 throughĀ PaypalĀ or Venmo (@idyalz)
Item(s) of note.
A curated playlist of things I have enjoyed recently on the YouTube.
The "Solidarity Semester" playlist from the Building Movement Project. I've included session 1 here, which is a breakdown of the Social Change Ecosystem map:
I love Tiffany Ferg's commentary videos, particularly because she puts a lot of thought into them and has a degree in media studies! This one on YouTube "drama coverage" is interesting, but I'd also recommend her more recent stuff as well:
I found Jessica Yang through Tiffany! She's a PhD student in Cinema and Media Studies at USC, and she has two channels. One contains highly produced videos that analyze different niches of YouTube culture, and the other is just a cute vlog channel of her day to day life. She's given me some style inspo for my own teaching lewks after I saw this vid:
Literally the 1 bdrm apartment of my DREAMZ:
One of the corners of YouTube that I love so much is "BookTube." One creatorāAriel Bissettārecently bought an old house in Canada that she is remodeling herself! The vlogs showing her house reno process (including THRIFTING A SINK!?!?) are always a break well spent:
Speaking of BookTube, if you want to see Gabbie Hanna get ABSOLUTELY DRAGGED for her book of poems in the smartest & most generous way possible:
We stan Damon Dominique and his French lessons:
Ever wonder how people make paint from pigments? Look no further:
And for when the painting has been completed and you go 200 years in the the future and it needs to be restored:
Finally, there's absolute perfection in the form of Daveed Diggs & Emmy Raver-Lampman's house:
A pup-date.
Girlie has been loving the warm weather recently. Here she is on a grassy patch next to the water in Jack London Square:
As always, thanks so much for reading through, and I'll see you in the next one!
Warmly,
Ida