Issue 32 | May 2025

Welcome to the May 2025 edition of Miaaw Monthly for 2025, courtesy of our newsletter provider Beehiiv.com.

We have still been struggling to describe our new 2025 publishing schedule in one simple phrase. Now we have it: Miaaw Monthly should arrive in your inbox on the Wednesday before the first Friday of each month. Usually that will be the last Friday of the preceding month. Sometimes it will be the first Wednesday of the month. Either way: it should arrive in your inbox on the Wednesday before the first Friday of every month.

However, as usual Fate stepped in, and the very month we realised that this formula explains everything, we also realised that we were running a day late, due to some last minute back-end problems. So here we are on Thursday May 1st, one day behind ourselves.

But, as usual, we continue to hope that you will send us something that you want to include in Miaaw Monthly, or something that you want to suggest for the podcasts, by emailing us at [email protected]. We will be happy to include your news and suggestions here and hunt down the topics you want to hear in the podcasts.

PODCASTS FOR MAY 2025

A THOUSAND WORDS

THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD

Americans Who Tell The Truth

This month I found something completely new to me: Americans Who Tell The Truth. I found it in a very unlikely way but find it I did. I can think of no better way to explain it than to quote from their website. What follows compiles an assortment of quotations into one very short explanatory article.

What began in 2002 as artist Robert Shetterly’s personal portrait project has become a broad-based, not-for-profit arts and education organization, the mission of which is to foster and inspire “a profound sense of citizenship” by exposing students at all levels to portraits, quotes, biographies, and related resources built around these “Models of Courageous Citizenship.”

The AWTT project was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization in 2004. With the platform provided by the organization, the portraits and Robert Shetterly have participated in hundreds of events, presentations and exhibitions. To date, Shetterly and his portraits have been invited into grammar schools, high schools and colleges in 27 states and Washington, D.C. The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program promotes him as a speaker through the Council of Independent Colleges. In addition, AWTT has collaborated with a number of organizations working to promote engaged citizenship through education and the media.

AWTT creates spaces where people learn ways to participate democratically in building just and equitable communities. Through making art, facilitating journeys of individual and community discovery, and demonstrating how history shapes lives, AWTT inspires a future of active citizenship.

You can find out everything you want to know about AWTT if you click right here.

The Stanley Kubrick Archive

The first thing to note: the Stanley Kubrick Archive actually exists. The second thing: you can arrange to visit it any Monday to Friday if a) you make an appointment and b) you happen to be in London.

I discovered this in a newsletter I subscribe to which described a journey around the archive, a place that “runs to approximately 900 linear metres and includes production paperwork, letters, props, costumes, publicity materials, production photographs, research, photographs, plans, books, audiovisual material, equipment and press cuttings”.

You can find the Archive housed in the basement of the London College of Communication; a branch of the University of the Arts, London.

You can find its website if you click here.

Moby x 500 = free

The electronic musician Moby began his Mobygratis project in 2005 with “the goal of providing creators of all kinds with high-quality, royalty-free music to use in their projects”. The project library has calculated that it has since supported over 50,000 indie films and media projects.

Last week Moby relaunched it by adding 500 new pieces of music, with the promise of another 1,000 later in the year. He says that “You can do whatever you want with it. You can remix it, you can edit it, you can add parts to it, you can play clarinet on it, you can use it for social media, for films, for choreography: the idea is complete creative freedom. I don't want to inhibit whatever you're going to do with the music here."

As usual, if you click here you will get right to the source of this information: the mobygratis.com site itself.

If you have read the newsletter from the top and got down this far then you will already be aware that May has five Fridays, and that Friday Number Five this month will play some samples from the music available on the site.

THIS MONTH’S LINKS

1. The information about the Stanley Kubrick Archive came from Steve Cook’s Secret Oranges newsletter at Substack. Click here for a direct link.

2.  Caught by the River is an arts/nature/culture clash which began as an idea, a vision and a daydream shared between friends one languid bankside spring afternoon. You can visit the website if you click here, or subscribe to their weekly newsletter if you click here.

3. Warren Ellis, the comic book writer and radio, television and film script writer, writes a weekly newsletter about writing, and everything connected to it. Called Orbital Operations, you can subscribe to it if you click here.

THE MIAAW REVIEW

We announced on October that we planned to produce The Miaaw Review which will contain one or two full length essays, as well as a couple of short pieces. The first issue appeared on Wednesday January 15, 2025, we promised that it will appear almost quarterly after that.

The first issue contained a timely and interesting essay from Arlene Goldbard and a shorter piece or two from François and Owen.

The second issue has unfortunately been delayed by a week or two from our intended launch date and will now appear in your inbox sometime in May. It, like a number of other things round here, has been the victim of an unexpected and extreme head cold. When it finally appears you will find it contains an essay by Owen Kelly that will act as the opening to a whole new phase of activity here and elsewhere, as well as a number of shorter pieces.

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