From the mixed-up files of me

Sep
18th

Sun

I haven’t posted on Tumblr (which I consider to be broadcasting thoughts, dreams, and snippets to my own network of very certain, very intelligent, interesting friends) in a very long time. But you [this video] changed all of that / sleeping in my head / as the days go by / I hear you say a golden hymn. Blessings to all.

Jun
5th

Sun

I watched a video posted on my friend Nick’s tumblr blog and was introduced to an artist I’d never seen before and very much enjoyed. As Nick put it, she seems so casual and carefree about it, which I agree. But I also saw shades of this girl, back at the height of her game, with her tiny, electric body and strange, spooky, almost sad vulnerability, as in this live performance of “When You Were Mine” (itself a cover of a song by another very eccentric artist, Prince). It’s a shame in some ways because the vocals in the recorded version of this song (sung by Cyndi) are so tight, really one of her best, but here, live, it kind of falls apart while she’s painting sarcophagi or something and shaking in the most “unusual” way. Still, one of the most culture-defining performances for me.

Sep
27th

Mon

Op-Ed: Lessons for freshmen as they enter college

Was going to send this Times article to my 17-year-old cousin but then

1) remembered that she is starting her senior year of high school, not college, now

2) felt that the advice is pretty universal if you remove the campus details. We can all pretend it’s our first day of school, put on a good outfit, and set out to meet a lot of new people and make a good impression on them every day, as well as unplug from the internet, read a good book, join a new club or volunteer. NYC is a campus because you can do all these things and more literally every day. Only thing I wish someone would have mentioned in their essay on is to not lose track of one’s physical wellness and diet, as is often overlooked at this stage (and ultimately thereafter).

So, I thought I’d share it instead with friends.

Jun
10th

Thu

Writers, youth, creative peaks

Our urban generation may be increasingly slower to get married and settled down, but are we equally slow at producing our best work? This article proves that the greatest literature was overwhelmingly written when the authors were young. And that many authors actually reached their creative peaks young, while the work that followed in their later years was less significant. Hemingway was 27 when he wrote The Sun Also Rises. Fitzgerald was 28 when The Great Gatsby came out.

Faulkner lagged slightly behind. He had just turned 32 when “The Sound and the Fury” was published. Then again, it was his fourth novel.

Carson McCullers was only 22(!) when she wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. The Romantic poets were boys! I know we’re also living longer lives these days. But still.

At book signings or cooking demos, so many passers-by have looked at me and looked at my book on the table and said, “Wow, you wrote a book already, and you’re so young.” I just hope it’s not the last.

May
29th

Sat

Reminder: You are your own best personal chef.

Apr
29th

Thu

I took a flower arranging class at Saipua in Red Hook, Brooklyn tonight. I’d tweeted a few weeks before that I was taking a $275 flower arranging class, and “have I gone nuts?” and got a few confirmations. I knew it was nutty and was proud of that decision before even experiencing the class. When you consider that the cost of a dinner at Per Se is probably more than that, and appreciating food is what I do every day, then… I can’t cook as good as the cooks underneath Thomas Keller, but I don’t know the first thing about flower arranging. None. Oddly enough, it all came back to food. When I asked Sarah and Nicolette, my teachers, about how they’d learned floral arrangement and whether there was a school of thought behind it, they said yes, but at formal schools you’ll learn all the basics about flowers, how to make a funeral arrangement, a bride’s bouquet, etc. Their classes are more free-form, allowing the students to find their own art, and sharing theirs. I thought about the differences between formal culinary education and the type of “cooking classes” I’ve been known to teach, where I have half-formed recipes usually untested and let an intimate group roll up their sleeves right with me in them. They even drew parallels between cooking with a little experience and adaptation to what’s in season, to making floral arrangements. In any case, at the end of the night, I made this. At no calories.