A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
July Issue, 2023
A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
Au Hasard Balthazar
We tend to make everything hold meaning for us as humans, but what the sheep and the donkey know feels deeper than allegories and metaphors and stories humans need to tell ourselves. It feels fundamental and honest and beautiful, and the movie ends the way it began, with the ringing of warm bells.
The song of the white-throated sparrow
There is a pause, a thick electric hush, as we wait for the thunder. But in the yard the white-throated sparrow, seemingly unphased, sings and sings his wild and melancholy song.
Quick and Flupke (and why I love Tintin)
There’s a lovely lightness to the strips, a freedom, but as with all the best comic strips, (or all my favorite) underneath the lightness is a depth of honesty and humanity.
Ozu’s Good Morning (why I love it)
The film is full of misunderstandings and half-spoken thoughts and desires….And yet, the real joy of the film is the moments of understanding between people.
Letter From the Editor: It might be our anniversary.
Thoughts on our first year. Our editorial calendar is serendipitous, and each month’s theme is make-the-road-by-walking.
Letter From the Editor July: Words and Silence
It seems more important now than ever to tell our stories and share our stories, and listen to the stories of others. To amplify the voices of anybody struggling to be heard, and to celebrate when the words or images or silences speak to us or bewilder us or transform us. To harness our anger or sadness or joy in a wild productive fury, resonating with the strange perfect words we make our own or the deafening silences we inhabit.
The Harnessed Rage of Paula Rego
To elaborate on the metaphor of harnessed rage: I don’t mean to say that she tamed it. Rego permitted her rancour a life of its own, a force of creativity to be exploited in the studio.
James Guthrie’s A Hind’s Daughter at the National Gallery of Scotland
“You’d not want to mess with her. She’s got a knife. But you do wonder what her future will be.”