Fall Update
Plus a check-in with readers.
I’m catching up on other affairs after the stretch of work that went into the launch of the Dissident Museum. Above is the last of the potato harvest. This was my first attempt at potatoes, on a new no-till bed. All I can say for it is that more potatoes came out of the ground than I put in. This is how it is with vegetable gardening. You botch the job a little less year after year, and for your trouble, you sometimes eat like a god.
Also, at the general store in the town over, they had twenty-pound bags of apples for $12 each. These aren’t going to turn into applesauce by themselves, so I’m due in the kitchen this afternoon. (Actually, they will turn into applesauce by themselves, but the applesauce will come out a lot better if I do the job instead of leaving it to nature.)
At the same time I owe an essay to the wonderful Root Quarterly, which in November will host an event they’re calling Founder’s Weekend in Philadelphia. I’ll be a part of the proceedings that take place on Thursday the 14th at the headquarters of FIRE on Walnut Street. I also owe a piece to The New Criterion on the Manet show at the Gardner Museum that starts tomorrow.
We will finish the Asynchronous Studio Book Club reading of the second half of The Shape of Content on Friday, and the schedule will otherwise proceed as previously announced. In the meantime, I have a few items for your consideration. One is “Curating Courage” by my friend
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The second is an idea I’d like to bounce off of you: the Dissident Muse Symposium. This would in essence be the synchronous book club. We would meet over Zoom for one evening a week for six or seven weeks to discuss readings and share art (for those who make it) concerning a particular theme. Symposiums would be led by yours truly or someone uniquely qualified for the topic. For November into December, I want to start with the theme of Death. Readings would include Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles: The Power of the Reader’s Mind over a Universe of Death by Harold Bloom, The Art of Dying: Writings, 2019-2022 by Peter Schjeldahl, Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming, and To Photograph Is to Learn How to Die: An Essay with Digressions by Tim Carpenter. I have a folder with possible future themes that includes Culture and Agriculture, Phenomenology for the Working Artist, Freedom of Expression, and deep dives into relevant authors such as Suzanne Langer, Benedetto Croce, and Dietrich von Hildebrand. There would be a two-digit fee for participation. I was thinking about calling this the Cedar Bar Project, in homage to that extraordinary community of creative intellects, but I don’t want to invoke the historical baggage. (Symposium means “drinking party” anyway.) If this sounds like something you would participate in, or pointedly wouldn’t, let me know in the comments or via email.
Third and related has to do with the problem of paid subscriptions. I’m profoundly grateful for my paid subscribers, especially since I have done nothing for you except offer the same content that I offer everyone. But Substack has grown to the point that I have readers burdened with more paid subscriptions than they can maintain, and Dissident Muse Journal is a logical one to cut since I don’t incentivize paying.
In your opinion, how should I solve this? Ideas that have come up around the dinner table include:
start a Print of the Month Club and offer DMJ subscribers a discount
offer virtual (or where possible, actual) studio visits with my critic hat on
start the Symposiums and offer subscribers a discount
restrict comments to paid subscribers
discount on limited-edition artisanal applesauce
Anyone already subscribed would be grandfathered into the new arrangement, whatever it is. The other option is to do nothing and keep marching onward, which is my mien, but I thought I should ask you since you do me the enormous favor of reading. Again, comments below or emails are welcome.
In my esteem, I hoist a sunlit potato in your direction. Thank you all.
Content at DMJ is free but paid subscriptions keep it coming. Please consider one for yourself and thank you for reading.
Our current title in the Asynchronous Studio Book Club is The Shape of Content by Ben Shahn. For more information, see the ASBC homepage.
The current exhibition in the Dissident Museum is David Curcio: The Point of the Needle.
Dissident Muse’s first publication, Backseat Driver by James Croak, is available now at Amazon.
Aphorisms for Artists: 100 Ways Toward Better Art by Walter Darby Bannard is out now at Allworth Press. More information is available at the site for the book. If you own it already, thank you; please consider reviewing the book at Amazon, B&N, or Goodreads.
I can't offer any solution right now, but it does get pricey when subscribing to multiple substacks. Generally, I equate pricing to what I may for the WSJ and NYT subs. Perhaps subs might be weighed in context of these nationals "brands"?
Yes, symposium means drinking party in Greek. I'm sure you're also aware that symposiums always featured flute girls and flirty young boys, all employed, of course, to keep the wine flowing as deep thoughts flowed in synchronicity. I'm definitely on board if you're proposing a time machine to take us back to 500 BC. To discuss art, of course.