Volume 16
Welcome back to the Isolation Diaries, our weekly round-up of the things that bring us joy, keep us creatively motivated and help us unwind. What have you been up to?
We’re looking to all things Clever, and being overwhelmed by amazing interior design ideas. Following the overwhelming sell-out success of the Empire Exhibition in the Dandenong Ranges, Rone has released two versions of his art book, including the covetable limited edition hardback. For some engaging fiction, The Decameron Project from the New York Times has kept us enthralled for hours upon hours. With short stories from 29 seriously big-name authors, all inspired by the pandemic, this is an impressive project. The concept and name refer to a 14th century novel by Giovanni Boccaccio, which was written during the plague.
While a little contrived, we’ve been indulging in Street Outlaws Memphis, for no reason other than we’re addicted. It might be feeling extra relevant to us in this Lockdown 2.0, but we’ve been following Nadia’s journey on Russian Doll, as she continuously relives her 36th birthday (and last day of life in general), trapped in a ‘Groundhog Day’ time loop. We’ve also been rediscovering some of that classic Kiwi cinema. Boy is a story about a dreamer living his best life… In his imagination. While his reality is a little different, he’s still got some sweet dance moves. Sign up with your library and watch it on Kanopy, it’s great—and free.
We’re all missing parmas, and our time at the pub was—alas—short-lived. So, for the meantime we’re loving these take-home fancy pub dinners that can be assembled and enjoyed at home. It almost feels like going out… Right? We’re continuously looking for ways to make our home offices prettier, so we’re dusting off the workshop and building new desks. Expectation-versus-reality meme might follow in next week’s issue. Looking for ways to occupy the smaller members of the family after school? While their adult classes aren’t currently running, Gloworm Studios are offering a variety of Zoom classes for kids.
Italian composer Ennio Morricone unfortunately passed away this week. We’re honouring his legacy by making our way through his work, which included some lesser-known pieces in his over 400 cinema scores and 100 classical pieces. When we’re looking to change it up a bit, we’re maintaining our sanity indoors by dancing in our seats to some classic rock, art-pop and new-wave. Think of it as building up to Friday night, because Quarantunes is back. From 5pm Friday we can all take the dancing through to our living rooms, lifting our spirits with a continuous stream of live DJ sets, broadcast straight to you in HD.