The Weather is a living e-mail thread between artists Tyler Hoffart and Hanna Waters. Are you lost? Catch up here: Part 1: Introducing the Weather, Part 2: March 24, Part 3: March 30.
This week’s edition of The Weather introduces the big fuckin’ inline, where Tyler and Hanna, in addition to responding to the most recent e-mail, also go back in and build on each other’s work with inline responses. I’ll be totally honest when I say I AM NOT SURE HOW I WILL CONTINUE TO SHOWCASE THIS because it’s just this growing, Frankensteined thing with different colors of font and I’m not the savviest but we’re going to press on because what else? Is there? To do? Hope it makes sense! Maybe it won’t! Such is life! Thus far, it will be the response, followed by the inline. Godspeed!
Tyler Hoffart
Mar 15, 2024, 10:47 AM
to me
I have some thoughts below in your text in BLUE [ed note: BOLD, as I can’t figure out how to change text color in Substack - YET!!!]
Here's a list i wrote a while back (it's on my insta somewhere maybe you already seen it) and that I'm currently working on to be included in a potential book:
when your puppy pisses outside for the first time
when you meet a stranger who also knows your serpent by her first name.
when a tiny piece of light moves in an animal way.
when you take a chance and fail terrifically and realize everyone knows exactly what you mean when you don’t say anything at all but you have that look on your face that they see and they go oh-boy-oh-shit-oh-my-god-she’s-gunna-fucking-do-it.
when a dog curls next to you and there is no other curl in the world.
when the sun comes back, says whoa motherfucker take it easy, dont worry, hold on, I exist.
when you see the full moon at dusk and no matter how much you read and understand and guess at the math there is still a feeling you will never put into words.
when you remember to breathe and feel your body.
when nothing needs to be said but somehow you’re saying everything you’d ever have to say because someone really sees you, hears you, feels you, imagines you, stands with you.
when a thunderstorm begins on the prairie and you see from one end to the other.
when you finally get to pee after staying until the end.
when he picks you up, starts running, gives no impression of ever stopping.
when she puts you in a head lock.
when knowing comes through feeling.
when they have waffle fries on the menu.
when someone finally says spring is coming and looks you dead ass in the eye and you both know they’re actually fucking right thank sweet baby jesus in drag.
when the time comes.
when you just know.
when you’re truly here
then,
gone.
ALSO some noobies:
the feeling i can almost get to when my catahoulas howl (a few times a day). they get right beside each other and unleash some kind of emotion that puts static in my beard. it's obvious that it is so important to their being and so i jump on in, cuz they are my babies, and i howl with them and we pull the world's heart into my bedroom. we sing for the sky. we burn for core of the moon. i'm pretty sure they understand something so thoroughly and completely with that howl. the sound of everything.
laughing at our chickens. each one is different. Inga, Agnes, Jono, Arvo, Big Bean, Lil Bean, Eunice, Eunice, Eunice. Eunice is my dead grandma who i never really liked and was mostly scared of and now she's back to fuck with me times three. Honestly she was a bit (lot) of a bitch. And yes, the Eunices are bitches. But god damn are they pretty. Don't worry my other grandma Anita is my soulmate and fuck i need to call her.
the motherfucking sun. thank sweet baby jesus in drag (again)
[INLINE] On Mon, Feb 26, 2024 at 9:20 PM Hanna Waters <hannamwaters@gmail.com> wrote:
I hope I get lots of your dad. It has been a blessing to bear witness to all of the ways you celebrate and live his memory through your work. I'll take it.
I love that photo and the pic of the snowy owl in the photo and your snowy owl angel of a dad. I imagine you feel him a lot as you live your day-to-day, and I hope it can be a balm on your heart when he passes through.
I've been keeping this list of things I love lately, those lovely perks of existing in a body and being alive. Here's where I've gotten so far, and I would be interested to know yours. You see, it's hard to catch them in the moment and remember to write them down - I don't even like to take photos for that reason. But when I've remembered...
When someone smells amazing - like clean, or a nice fragrance, or shampoo - and you discover it in the air they just vacated. It's like getting to know them in a very specific and intimate way even though you are strangers.
when the shop smells like cedar from working with it. one of my fave smells in all the world. was my dad's fave smell too, along with fresh cut alfalfa. God, to watch him pick up a handful of alfalfa in the field, to twist and wrap it into a rope to test its moisture. To watch him smell it, taste it, roll it around in his thick hands and look off into the west of a dying sun and say, "should be ready about midnight i bet."
i'll see that sun and his alfalfa face on my death bed.
When someone listens to and loves a song you recommend or a playlist you built. This is also a kind of intimacy, of taste and disposition and provenance. Sharing music is among my most beloved activities.
same my friend, same. we need to absolutely share a few playlists. just by your posts i have a hunch we're birds of a feather there.
Getting into a sun-warm car when it is cold outside. Once I was getting into a car with a friend in Italy and he said che bel caldo - a beautiful heat - and everything sounds better in Italian anyway but it stayed with me since.
CHE BEL CALDO. holy shit i love that
Witnessing something beautiful with someone else, like a buck bedded down a few yards away or an eclipse or a delicious sunny bluebird day. The same goes for witnessing funny things (especially if you and the person need little but eye contact to communicate) and witnessing scary or crazy things - like ghosts. I've never seen a ghost myself, but my friends and I spent a lot of time looking for Bigfoot, the chupacabra (wrong area in hindsight), and other creatures in middle school.
When a song that you have a love affair with comes on shuffle (or the radio) and it reanimates your spirit and whisks you away to all of the moments in your life that have been punctuated by its sound.
there's a new song lately that ive been blasting non-stop erryday as I cruze around running errands. i both love and hate that i can kill a song in a few days by non stop bangin. it's 1000 times by Big Blood. it's a nod to my girl and to Three Circle Shop because i am fucking obsessed and burnt out and dying and alive and oh my god i'm alive. you should check it. Ok i'm putting it on now. FUCK YES
Tyler Hoffart
Fri, Mar 15, 10:58 AM
to me
Whoa. The Weather. Did we discuss this already?
First the thing Dad would ask on EVERY SINGLE PHONE call was about the weather. "Cold there?"
It used to be annoying. I figured he just didn't have anything to talk about. But the other day i found myself asking my brother how the weather was there. Wtf. After the call i realized: Dad was so naturally good at connecting without words. I realized the power of the question: "How's the weather?" It's a type of tuning. Is it warm there? Same here. Cold? Oh, not as cold here. It puts us with each other because we both know Hot. We each know a god damn thunderstorm and how it itches something deep. Dad would ask about the weather and instantly bring me closer to him. Effortless. Like a monk humming sun drunk under a tree.
Of course it makes perfect sense, considering he was a farmer. As a farmer, the weather is your god. Your mother, brother, sister, grandma. Oh how we are at the whim of family.
So yah, The Weather. I love it.
-t
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