Reading, Watching, Listening 7/18/2025

A few words about sitting in the park

Jul 18, 2025

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It’s been hot out. Hot as balls. The heat wave seems to have broken for now, but man, it was hot. Some days it was genuinely too hot to spend much time outside for a person like me who sweats profusely at the slightest effort or lift in temperature. Other days, though, I indulged in my favourite activity: sitting in the park. Yes, I’m one of those guys. Sitting on a park bench, etc. I live near Grange Park in Toronto, which is right behind the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Ontario College of Art and Design. It’s not a massive park, but it’s not so small either. There’s an off-leash area for dogs, a playground, a water pad, a big open circle of grass in the middle, and another grassy area nearby. Along the path around that circle, there’s a big cast sculpture, Two Large Forms, created by the English artist Henry Moore. There are multiple casts fo the sculpture, including in Bonn and Yorkshire, but the one at the Grange was the first, originally sitting at the side entrace of the AGO until it was moved into the park nearby.

Two Large Forms is a fantastic work of public art. It is, as the title describes, simply two large forms, bulbous, with a large hole through each, and each seeming to almost fit into each other, like continents split apart by plate tectonics. There’s something sensual about the sculpture, but also blunt and earthy, and also they kind of look like butts. Human butts, not the cigarette kind. One of the reasons I love it so much is that it conveys no meaning, only a visceral feeling, and even that changes by the day and the colour of the light and my mood. It’s also big, and sturdy, and climbable, which makes it interactive, like a part of the overall playground mentality of the park. People, especially kids and teens, will often sit within the hole in the bigger of the two forms.

I rarely do that, usually opting to sit on a bench, but I couldn’t find a bench with shade, so I decided why not, lay me down, cocooned in that great sculpture, its top blocking the sun. I got my Kobo out to read, and for an hour at least, I laid there in bliss. I love the sound of other people at the park, and the wind blowing and birds chirping. I love the feeling of activity that surrounds me, even if I’m sitting all alone. There’s community in that experience, and it makes me feel less lonely if anything. 10/10 experience, highly recommended.

This week, I review Ari Aster’s new movie Eddington for The New Republic. I liked it!

I also did an AMA post here on the newsletter, which I had quite a fun time with.