FOR THE CRYBABIES: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Crybaby Magazine is intended for the sad, isolated teen girls of today. Everyone is welcome here, and I hope lots of different kinds of people will enjoy finding new songs, videos, and perspectives from this magazine.
The theme this month is CRYBABY. This spring, we take a look at the many different kinds of grief, sadness, and pain that humans can experience. We look at how human contact can affect our emotions, and yes, how much we cry. We encourage crying your feels out, AND we also encourage good self-care before, during, and after your cry sessions. :-)
Crybaby is a free newsletter. If you want to pay to support this project, I have monthly and yearly subscriptions available. I will release issues quarterly, in time with the changing seasons. Sending love and gratitude out to whoever this reaches.
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF,
RACHEL SWAN / @CRYBABYNIGHTOWL
˚✿ ༘♡ ⋆。˚❁༺ ꕥ 。* ❀。• ✿ *₊° ༻❀°。
♪ MUSIC ♫
click ☛ PLAYLIST SPRING 2023
Cherry - Chromatics
2017 / PORTLAND, OR
Lockdown - Anderson .Paak
2020 / OXNARD, CA
After the Storm - Kali Uchis (ft. Tyler, the Creator & Bootsy Collins)
2018 / ALEXANDRIA, VA
Time Moves Slow - BADBADNOTGOOD & Samuel T. Herring
2016 / TORONTO, CANADA
Head Over Heels - Japanese Breakfast
2019 / PHILADELPHIA, PA
Lost One - Jazmine Sullivan
2021 / PHILADELPHIA, PA
Pretty When You Cry - Lana Del Rey
2014 / NEW YORK, NY
Reason Why - Rachael Yamagata
2004 / ARLINGTON, VA
So Many Tears - 2Pac
1995 / NEW YORK, NY
Flowers - Lil Simz ft Michael Kawanuka
2019 / ISLINGTON, LONDON, UK
Farewell Blues - Seatbelts
1999 / TOKYO, JAPAN
Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse
2006 / SOUTHGATE, LONDON, UK
*. · : ·. ✧ FILM ✧ .· : · .*
Sita Sings The Blues, 2008
“[Director Nina Paley] begins with the story of the Ramayana, which is known to every school child in India but not to me. It tells of a brave, noble woman who was made to suffer because of the foibles of an impetuous husband and his mother. Paley depicts this story with exuberant drawings in bright colors. It is about a prince named Rama who treated Sita unfairly, although she loved him and was faithful to him. There is more to it than that, involving a monkey army, a lustful king who occasionally grows 10 heads, synchronized birds, a chorus line of gurus, and a tap-dancing moon.” - ROGER EBERT, 2009
*+:。.。 WATCH FOR FREE ON YOUTUBE 。.。:+*
Q&A With Creator Nina Paley
Q: What drove you to create "Sita Sings the Blues"?
A: Sita Sings the Blues is a musical, animated personal interpretation of the Indian epic the Ramayana. The aspect of the story that I focus on is the relationship between Sita and Rama, who are gods incarnated as human beings, and even they can't make their marriage work.
And then there's my story. I'm just an ordinary human, who also can't make her marriage work. And the way that it fails is uncannily similar to the way Rama and Sita's [relationship fails]. Inexplicable yet so familiar. And the question that I asked and the question people still ask is, "Why"? Why did Rama reject Sita? Why did my husband reject me? We don't know why, and we didn't know 3,000 years ago. I like that there's really no way to answer the question, that you have to accept that this is something that happens to a lot of humans.
☛ Read more Q & A with Nina Paley
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ARTIST HIGHLIGHT
MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT (2010)
“Since the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has been pushing past perceived limits of the body and mind, and exploring the complex relationship between artist and audience, through performances that challenge both herself and, in many instances, participants emotionally, intellectually, and physically. The concepts inspiring her works are key, as is the use of her own body to convey her ideas. She has been making art since childhood, and realized early on that it did not have to be produced in a studio, or even take a concrete form. “I understood that…I could make art with everything…and the most important [thing] is the concept,” she relates. “And this was the beginning of my performance art. And the first time I put my body in front of [an] audience, I understood: this is my media.”
In 2010 at MoMA, Abramović engaged in an extended performance called, The Artist Is Present. The work was inspired by her belief that stretching the length of a performance beyond expectations serves to alter our perception of time and foster a deeper engagement in the experience. Seated silently at a wooden table across from an empty chair, she waited as people took turns sitting in the chair and locking eyes with her. Over the course of nearly three months, for eight hours a day, she met the gaze of 1,000 strangers, many of whom were moved to tears.
“Nobody could imagine…that anybody would take time to sit and just engage in mutual gaze with me,” Abramović explained. In fact, the chair was always occupied, and there were continuous lines of people waiting to sit in it. “It was [a] complete surprise…this enormous need of humans to actually have contact.”
-Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
TRAILER FROM THE 2012 DOCUMENTARY:
EXPERIENCE THE MOMENT WITH ULAY:
* EXTRA CREDIT: MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ MADE ME CRY @ TUMBLR
A collection of people who cried during this performance, AND how many minutes it took for them to cry.
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'*•.♡˗ˏ✎ INTERVIEW YOURSELF ♡¸.•*'
How often do you cry? What kinds of situations make you cry?
2. How do other people react to you crying? How do they treat you when you cry?
Do you wish you could cry more or less? Why do you think that is?
How do you take care of yourself after you cry or have big emotions?
What other questions do you have for yourself?
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YESTERDAY’S TEENS
“Sixth graders from The Franklin School in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1960 debating American prestige a few years after the Soviet Union/Russia launched its Earth satellites Sputnik 1 and 2 that demonstrated their superiority in space. At the time American prestige was a hot topic in the schools and this film attempted to demonstrate the ability of young students to debate the subject. The Franklin School was a public elementary school. In 1960 it had a student population of around 400 students and a staff of approximately 20 teachers. The school was known for its emphasis on academic excellence and innovative teaching methods, including individualized instruction and hands-on learning experiences. The school was also notable for its commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion.”
- David Hoffman, filmmaker and archivist
click ☛ David Hoffman’s YouTube Channel