Cinta Vidal I can't find the title for this anywhere but visit her website and go down a rabbit hole

Why are small, weird worlds like this so goddamn good?

When I was a kid, all I wanted was for my parents to get the hell out of the house so I could make doll worlds everywhere*. (Location scouting was a pleasure in and of itself—possibly 1/2 to 3/4 of the total pleasure.) Clear off a bookshelf in the living room and make an apartment complex. Gather normal-sized household items to use as giant Barbie objets d'art. Arrange Cheerios on saucers like giant platters of bagels for a party.

*also so I could listen to rock music loudly/find all the hidden candy in the house but this, too

It's exciting when some small nothing thing like a paperweight gets to take on significance.

Is it a paperweight OR IS IT A MAJOR, EXPENSIVE BARBIE SCULPTURE

A charmed feeling takes over the periphery, a feeling of excitement where anything could be a star.

But that painting up there, I love it so. I can't stop looking at it. All we're going to do in this whole episode of the newsletter is think about how great it is.

• Everything seems very small even if it's not meant to be small.

The wall makes me think so but the people do, too.

• BUT THEN EVERYTHING CAN GO UPSIDE DOWN.

MY GOD, WHAT A SPACE SAVER. AND GRAVITY HAS BEEN DEFEATED, SO WHAT OTHER RULES ARE GONE?

WHATEVER RULES WE HATE, MAYBE, THOSE RULES!

Such a resourceful world, too!

TIMES TOUGH? HOUSING AT A PREMIUM? LOOK WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH LIKE 15 SQUARE INCHES OF WALL.

    pregnant lady going up the stairs   hanging onto that floor though   is surely thinking someone could have   sprung for some hand rails.  you fall off the side who knows where you're going. i mean, she might know but we don't.

   putting that painting down here again so you don't have to scroll up to refer to it since we're not done talking about it

Let's talk about the people of the painting now. Do they all live together on purpose? Or are they just all in that one space in their own worlds unless they're explicitly in relationship to each other? The kids on opposite ends of the ramp with the ball are clearly hanging out and so are the upside-down dog and black-and-white cats but do all these adults live together on this shelf? This is a can't-lose situation but

I never want to know.

SHOUT-OUTS

Hey, lady in the blue striped t-shirt with the straw purse and sunhat! Where ya headed? Are you gonna step off the edge and fall neatly to the farmer's market on a shelf below?

We got a guy in headphones working

(or watching porn) (just because he looks focused doesn't mean he's looking at a spreadsheet)

  Mr. Laundry up there...well, I was about to say he's a mensch but would I say one of the women was a mensch for doing the laundry?

NO

THANKS A LOT PATRIARCHY

Not sure what the guy in the red t-shirt is doing but my money's on meditating

THE BEST ONE IS THE ONE WITH THE BUN ON THE BED IN THE ROBE WITH THE BOOK AND THAT BLAAAANKET DRAPED JUST SO

is that a beanbag?   is that a, what do we want to say, suggestive beanbag?  is that a fully graphic beanbag about to get done by that cactus?? 

huh  DOESN'T MATTER WHATEVER IT IS STILL LOVE IT

   I LOVE THIS PAINTING THANK YOU FOR MAKING IT, SPANISH ARTIST CINTA VIDAL  IT'S GOT A LOT GOING ON AND I'LL VISIT IT MANY TIMES AGAIN IN THE FUTURE

                 The Weekly Zephyr has been going for nearly a year now and it's a natural moment for some thought. I think something will shift but I don't know what yet. Something wants to, though. Tell you as soon as I know! XO TR