d&f 3/28/21
A crisp fresh breeze drifts through my windows and across my living room. I think, yes, it’s spring! The days a longer and it’s now the season for sitting outside, listening to music, and sipping a nice white.
I went outside this week to ride my bike with a friend, and realized it’d been long enough since I went on an outdoor ride I’d forgotten my helmet. My suspicion is we’ll all so some social faux-pas version of forgetting our helmet as we venture back into the world with vaccines and a year largely without human contact. Let’s be gentle with each other. A simple “hey, your pants… they aren’t on,” should suffice.
If you’re not quite ready to let go of the very self-reflective winter, you might enjoy this album from Sarah Mary Chadwick, who we can intuit has some feelings about her family. I mean, same. And, let’s say as you’re thinking through those feelings and want to journal, as one does; use this notebook with a fountain pen. Tomoe River paper is a delight to write on. It feels like you’re secretly scribbling motorcycles inside a bible in the back of church you’re forced to attend.
While we’re being introspective and writing down our feelings, let’s consider eating less meat and quitting social media, or at least reading about doing both and saying, “hmmm”.
At least we can all agree that a lot of these apps are boring. And maybe we want to tell our friends about our new life choices without opening the dreaded slide programs, so we instead just jot it down in markdown and play it like a terrible pecha kucha for one (plus our cats).
A brief aside: once, many many years ago, during my first trip to Japan I walked past SuperDeluxe in Roppongi and considered going in, after reading about their space on Momus’ blog. Instead, I went to Shinjuku and spent two hours trying to decipher a soba menu, ordering various side-dishes from the long menu.
Here is what I ordered:
- A plate full of course miso
- Grilled mackerel
- A buckwheat mochi filled with soba noodles
- A buckwheat cake
The proprietor of the very nice soba-ya was confused and worried that I had lost my mind, or at least completely forgotten how to read. Fortunately, someone sat near enough to me that I observed them ordering from a heretofore undiscovered smaller second menu: the noodle menu.
The soba was excellent. Luckily there’s a great spot near me to recreate the good parts of the experience.
In this series of memories, I’m also reminded of a strange trip to Berlin, which this excellent novel inspired me to revisit as soon as I’m able. The author, I’m told, is seen as a mean reviewer, which I’m neither clever enough, nor diligent enough to determine or replicate. My book reviews are usually “hey, yea. Good”.
Finally, this week please take a deep breath. Ok, now open your window and scream “fuck the rich”. That felt good, right? Excellent. Take that energy and spend it organizing with and donating to non-profits and campaigns that will lead to a more equitable society. It’s criminal that anyone is a billionaire.
Links
- The little-known fifth flavor
- Yes, this is a rad race. I want to go there:
Closing
Again, I recommend breathing outside and drinking some wine. If you don’t drink, then perhaps a sparkling mineral water, or a freshly-squeezed juice? Treat yourself. This year was horseshit, so let’s all ease into the spring and summer with the uneasy legs of a young colt stumbling in a field. Maybe someday we’ll be powerful horses again, but for now, we’re just babies drinking wine.
That metaphor got away from me a little bit.
Take up a new hobby and bring home some yellow leather perhaps?
Regardless of if you take it slow, or immediately start crying and hugging every person you see, I’m glad to have you here with me every week. Thanks for reading, and see you next week, space cowgirls~