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“You’re born naked and the rest is drag. Whatever you proclaim as your identity here in the material realm is also your drag. You are not your religion. You are not your skin color. You are not your gender, your politics, your career, or your marital status. You are none of the superficial things that this world deems important. The real you is the energy force that created the entire universe!"                                                                                           ― RuPaul
Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.
This week those of us in the Northern Hemisphere celebrated the summer solstice, the day of the year. To borrow RuPaul's language, the energy force that created the universe is easier to notice when the days are longer.

Happy Summer. Happy Friday.
Celebration
Dancing in the street
Video: Show some love ❤️ for the newest Olympic sport! | Around the world dance music video
Around the world break-dancers are competing for a chance at a spot in the 2024 Games in Paris, the first time the oldest hip-hop dance, born in NYC in the early '70s, will be recognized as an olympic sport. Early this month the Big Apple Regionals were held in Brooklyn. Dan Greene was there.

Article: The B-Boys and B-Girls of Brooklyn Go for Olympic Gold
Learning, Sharing
“Music has great potential to help us understand we are all connected," or, why we should support music programs in schools
Video: Flash Mob - Ode a die Freude ( Ode to Joy ) Beethoven Symphony No.9 

Early this month classical radio station, KUSC, and the University of Southern California Brain and Creativity Institute co-sponsored a concert and panel discussion called “Music on the Brain."

While this whole summary is worth reading, I want to hold up the consistent findings of numerous studies that have shown that kids who study music outperform their peers in a variety of realms. Psychologist, Assal Habibi, reported on her eight-year longitudinal study featuring underprivileged youngsters enrolled in a rigorous music education program.

She reported that over time her team saw 'more active engagement in the frontal regions of the brain, which are responsible for decision-making, and more integration' between the two hemispheres of the brain. Here was proof, the researchers claimed, that music training made a real difference.

"Moderator Gail Eichenthal pointed out that there is a perplexing disconnect between these findings and the fact that music education continues to be either nonexistent or starved for funding in so many school districts." - Tom Jacobs

Article: At USC, Research Shows the Benefits of Music Extend From Childhood to Old Age
Creativity, Learning
Joan Rivers took really, really good notes.
In a scene from the documentary “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” the comedian explains how she kept and cross-referenced 65,000 jokes.
Credit Break Thru Films
Melissa Rivers, daughter of Joan Rivers, is donating the comedian's extensive archives, including a meticulously organized collection of 65,000 typewritten jokes, to the National Comedy Center, the high-tech museum in Jamestown, N.Y., joining the archives of A-list comics like George Carlin and Carl Reiner. 

Journey Gunderson, Executive Director of the Center, described the catalog as one of 'the crown jewels of comedy that exist on planet Earth.'”

Article: The Joan Rivers Card Catalog of Jokes Finds a Home
Design, Communications
Learn about Florence Knoll and get a master's class in short-form video in just two minutes.

I'm just not sure who is more amazing, Florence Knoll, the subject of this short film, or the filmmaker, Lorenzo Petrantoni, who modestly calls himself "an illustrator".

If you need to be reminded of Knoll's contribution to contemporary furniture and interior design, this short will answer that. If you need to see how much information and wow can be woven into short-form video, this work will blow your mind.

To top it off, Steven Heller scored an interview with Petrantoni in which he talks about how he got this gig, his relationship to modernism, and his feelings about mini-bio-pics.

Article: The Daily Heller: Florence Knoll in Two Minutes (Almost Exactly)
Cultural History
It's hard to believe, but pot was once seen as a symbol of civil disobedience and social change.
The art in this book speaks to a time when pot was smoked with optimism, as something potentially good for society and people, capable of activating profound transformation in the face of corrupt and powerful forces.

It's the story of the Underground Press Syndicate (UPS), a loose confederation of newspapers that reached millions of readers. UPS spurred the legalization of cannabis movement, and weed became its totem. Weed, its use, cultivation and political implications shared page layouts with civil rights, the women’s movement, student unrest, and protests against the Vietnam War. Gaps in text were often crammed with weed-inspired spot illustrations. 

Heads Together collects these drawings, ads and cartoons. This artwork is hand-made and amateurish. It's innocence brings marijuana's once incendiary status into odd relief with the corporate profiteers who dominate the legal market today. Author David Jacob Kramer makes clear how the new "industry" does not reflect those who first fought for legalization, or the Black and Latino populations strategically criminalized for pot well before hippies were targeted, and long after.

Kramer concludes, "Like an old roach, pot as a symbol of civil disobedience has long ceased to smolder. The imagery in this book pertains to a time when pot was smoked with optimism".

Book: Heads Together: Weed and the Underground Press Syndicate, 1965-1973
Packaging, Circular Economy
Clay may be the ultimate recyclable material.
"GaeaStar, a technology company based in San Francisco and Berlin, developed ultra-thin clay containers as an alternative to single-use plastic. The containers are created through high-speed additive manufacturing (3D printing) and consist of three simple ingredients: clay, water and salt...Users can dispose of the containers in regular trash or even smash them on the ground, as they turn into dust without causing any environmental harm. This eliminates the need for recycling. They can also be washed and reused, and are appropriate for both hot and cold beverages." - Dawn Hammon

Article: Check Out an All-Natural Solution for Single-Use Containers
A fiber-based molded tablet blister pack that is recyclable along with waste paper
"Our paper blister packs are repulpable, recyclable, and don’t harm the environment; they are completely circular,” says Guido Schmitz, vice president of Papacks America. “From all the inquiries we receive at Papacks, I see interest in all industries trying to go green. From candy and chocolate to food, chewing gum, and cosmetics. Everyone is trying to find a more sustainable path."

Article: Plastic Blister Packs Rule The Drug Store: Dieline's Editor’s Choice Winner Shows There’s Another Way.
Advertising, Brand Affiliation
Unifying a brand’s "love for rubbers, and its love for… ‘ducking.'"
By now you've heard that that one the announcements that Apple made at this year's developers' conference was that it would stop autocorrecting the word 'fuck' on its devices. Sexual wellness brand Durex wasted no time. They flooded the brand's social media channels with "Instagram posts of 'ducks in the wild,' TikTok videos of rubber ducks 'mucking about,' and targeted posts for 'older ducks.' In the spirit of Pride Month, there’s also a 'queer as duck' variation."

Article: Durex Celebrates Apple No Longer Autocorrecting ‘Ducking’ In Vivid Ads


One-liners

Article: One in three say books offer best form of escapism when having a bad day

Article: Massachusetts moves to bring sex education out of the ‘90s

Article: U.S. approval of interracial marriage at new high of 94%

Article: While fights rage over big brands like Bud Light and Target, other companies have stepped back and are quietly improving LGBTQ+ representation from the inside.
Playlist
Video: Astrud Gilberto - Corcovado


"Astrud Gilberto didn’t set out to be an ambassador of bossa nova, the laid-back Brazilian musical genre with rhythms recognizable to music lovers around the world.

"According to Gilberto, who died on June 5, 2023, at the age of 83, she wasn’t expecting to be on the 1964 recording of “The Girl from Ipanema” – the song for which she is best remembered.

"At the time of the recording, she wasn’t even a professional singer.

"But Gilberto’s breathy singing voice – almost a whisper, with no hint of a vibrato – helped catapult the song, the singer and bossa nova to the forefront of international pop music." - The Conversation

Article: Astrud Gilberto Spread Bossa Nova to a Welcoming World – But Got Little Love Back in Brazil

Weekly Mixtape
The bossa nova beat was created in 1958 by Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, who relaxed the traditional samba to allow more space for harmonic melodies. Within just a few years Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones and Charlie Byrd had incorporated the seductive beat into hit albums. Then, in 1963, record producer Creed Taylor introduced Gilberto and pianist and composer Tom Jobim to saxophonist Stan Getz. His goal was to create an "historical documentation" of the genre's style. The album they made, Getz/Gilberto, is the same album that introduced Gilbert's then wife, Astrud Gilberto, to the world, and popularized bossa nova worldwide. This mix of songs with the bossa nova beat spans 60 years.
Playlist: The Girl from Bahia. Beatnik Jazz 7
Image of the Week

The Image of the Week was shot by our friend Jonathan Lagreze. He posted it on Facebook, with this note:

"The soft relaunch of the Free produce exchange!
Hidden away on York Road ( Colrain) it is open for give and take like a community food pantry to keep garden surpluses from going to waste.
Right now I only have starts out there but if you catch me in the garden there may be stuff available from the garden. Rhubarb, flowers, scapes or greens now."
What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.
If you get value from Love & Work, please pass it on.

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You can also read Love & Work on the web.
Copyright © 2023, Mitch Anthony, All rights reserved.

My mailing address is:
23 Chestnut Hill, Greenfield, MA

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