The Summer Shadow: Behind the Scenes

The past few months, I've been preparing for my summer project. Here's a sneak peek at a few quotations that I hoped to tack somewhere on the website, but they just didn't fit. They work with my theme and inspired me as I prepare for this summer:

“We are yet too young to know what we are fit for.” 

John Jay, Federalist #2

“When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence—that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of reality.”

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“I learned that the future will never be predictable and that mutual dependence in daily life is the truest form of safety.”

Hansen, Vogue July 2017

“It is the duty of all, as far as they can, to improve their own mental faculties, because we are commanded to love God with all of our minds, as well as with all our hearts.”

Angela Grimke, An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South

“The heart of hospitality is about making space for people to feel seen and heard and loved.”

Shauna Niequist, Bread and Wine

THREE

three

The Summer Shadow: The First Manifestation

Last summer, I sent this as an email to Breadwinners, a restaurant in Dallas. It's a mess, and it didn't get a response, but as I look back, I see it as a step that brought me closer to 2017's manifestation of The Summer Shadow.

Hi!
          My name is Madeline, and I'm a junior Creative Writing major. This past school year, some of my friends interviewed people who have their dream job. I hadn't seen the accessibility of reaching out to strangers with a shot at getting a response. This realization led me to an idea.

          I'm in Dallas for the summer and am hoping to learn about different jobs, people, and experiences. I had the idea to contact different businesses and ask to follow someone around—a combination of an observation and an interview. My interest isn't solely in the work, which is why I'm interested in being matched with an individual, and it isn't solely in information, which is why I'm not interested in just an interview. 

          What exactly do I want? Well, there's not a template I'm looking to perfectly fit with this experience, if you even decide that you can say yes. I'm not looking to conduct an interview. I'm not looking to come for 20 minutes, look around, and leave. What I'd really like is to get to follow around one employee, at whatever level of employment, from groundwork to management or administration, do their job with them or watch them do it, and talk to them about work, their opinions about work, and their thoughts about the world. I'm a creative writing major, and I'd love to write about what I've observed and learned.

          I realize that this is out of the ordinary. I realize that it won't bring you publicity (my sub-par blog exists only for my writing practice). I realize that it's strange to be contacted by a writer and asked to hang out. I realize that it'd be easier to say no than to say yes. 

          But I'm still asking, because I think that the work you do is valuable, and I'd like to learn about it. I'm asking because I love the spontaneous, unconventional side of humanity. And I'm asking because I love people, and I'd love exposure to new people and new situations. 

          I'm only in town until the first of July, so there's your deadline if this thing is going to happen. I work Monday-Friday 9-5, but I'm free any other hour of the day. My lame little blog is charlielovelace.blogspot.com (it's a pseudonym I use:). 

That's what I've got.

Now, it's time to show me what you've got.

Madeline

p.s. sorry that send-off was so weird. trying to be motivational, ya know?

Recommendations: Vogue Review (Dec. '16 & Jan. '17)

Here are some thoughts and favorite moments of recent Vogue magazines—December 2016 and January 2017:

1. The section advertised on the cover as "creators, artists, and activists pointing the way ahead" delighted me. You all know that I love options, whether between types of ice cream or types of occupations. When I see many different people doing many different things, I am delighted and overwhelmed and inspired. This section of Vogue was like a journalistic interpretation of the options-loving part of my soul. It looks at people and places value on them for things they value in their life. In detailing their pursuits, it gave them a platform to publicize what they care about to other people. It also tacitly validated their pursuits, just by deeming them important enough to put in the pages of Vogue. When I got to the one entitled "Power Brokers," about DeRay McKesson and Tracee Ellis Ross, I noticed something that I, as a writer, loved. Whoever wrote the columns on each topic was hardly speaking at all. The columns were the voices of the people they were about, quote after quote, the writer only peaking in to organize and provide speech tags. This kept the attention exactly where it belonged, on the subjects of the column.

2. Annie Kevans. 
Check out her art. Read about it. She's killer.

3. Mi Golandrina
My aunt introduced me to this brand when I was in Dallas this summer, so finding them in Vogue was so cool. I have a dress from them, and I've loved it. 

4. Michelle Obama. 
Everyone loves her, and the article says all the reasons why, but the thing that struck me the most was the writer's commentary on the diversity introduced into the white house staff: first (black) woman to be chief usher, first Asian executive chief, and more...ballin. Let's go, America, keep it up.

5. Wonder World: Fantastic Bests and Where to Find Them. 
Couture + Harry Potter = Absolutely. Vogue writer Hadley Freeman explains that "while the film is filled with fantastic beasts added by CGI . . . for the purposes of the shoot they are represented by models in extravagantly over-the-top couture" (249). What an idea. Incredible. 

6. Not Your Mother's Dior: 
An article on Maria Grazia Chiuri's debut as Dior's creative director. I'm a fan. Read it here, check out the collection here. One of the pieces most hyped about on social media—the "We should all be feminists" t-shirt—was inspired by a TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I'd never heard/read it before, but I looked it up—it's incredible. Check it out too!

7. Cookies: 
Vogue had an entire article on Christmas cookies. Absurd. Wonderful. Read it.