I saw this TikTok recently where some zen creature really close to the camera asked in those deeply soothing tones exclusive to front facing social media videos (and maybe insane asylums) are you treating your body like it’s summer when it’s winter? She asked, but she knew the answer. What she was getting at is that even in places like Southern California, where winter just means low 60 degrees and some strong winds and the coyotes really getting after it in the canyons, you still need to rest. Just because you can be off to the races—fitness goals and business goals and the new year new you trap of a new calendar year to measure against—doesn’t mean you necessarily should be. It’s still so dark! By like, 5pm! Take it easy! That’s how I heard her, anyway, and I was already well on my way to beginning 2024 gently, by doing pretty much the bare minimum outside of some longform projects, and you know what? I’m okay with that! TLDR: Sorry, it’s been a few weeks. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Let’s all do something good for someone else today.
An easy-does-it approach has reached languidly into my wardrobe—and shopping cart—too. I’m thinking a lot about comfort—warm earthy tones, cozy fabrics, slouch and stretch—but let’s be honest, I’m also most comfortable when I like what I’m wearing (and look cute). Most immediate were some small strategic upgrades: new shearling-lined clogs, to replace my ancient shearling Birkenstock sandals (and I say clog, but they are flat, so mercifully without that Clydesdale clomp of a true wooden clog); a slim-lined but just-the-right-level-of- chunky wool cardigan from Doen; a slew of perfect white tees from AYR (which are light and cool on the skin and also terrific in mens); a Khaite corduroy jacket with a shearling collar that will be heaven in the fall, too, and wide-legged corduroys in my favorite cut from Citizens of Humanity. (Though I would probably wear the below with the denim style, unless the corduroys matched perfectly, in which case I would be thrilled to wear it all as a suit.) If you’re also in a touchy-feely mood, I have a suede Polo shoulder bag and people always think its The Row. Highly recommend. I’m also eyeing a pair of major, new, have-and-wear-forever diamond studs, that, because they’re Dorsey, aren’t cripplingly priced, to just subtly punch up all of the above. I think 1.5 carat is the ticket. (If you order before Feb 1 they arrive in time for Valentine’s day. Just saying.) Clearly I’m feeling snuggly. Below, clockwise from top: clog, me in cardigan (more of which you can see on IG), cords, earrings, bag, coat.
A few more recommendations: I finished last year in a blaze of books—I finally read The Shards, The Fraud, The Vaster Wilds—all of which are by writers I adore, and all of which I enjoyed immensely (and The Fraud much more than its coverage had led me to believe I would, even though: of course, it’s Zadie Smith!) despite putting them off for so long, and then I returned home to L.A. drained of any inclination at all to read. Which, I admit, was not like me. I kept buying books and stacking them up on sideboards and bedside tables and next to my computer, like that would jog some buried instinct, and then walking straight out the door and out to dinner. Finally, I got over it and dug into a book I picked up ages ago on the recommendation of a very well-read friend from my magazine days: Borrowed Finery, by Paula Fox. You don’t know have to know anything about Fox to read it (though if you haven’t, you should read the also very excellent Desperate Characters, which was published in the 70s to little fanfare but had a big resurgence a few decades later). Borrowed Finery is a terrific memoir of a pretty atrocious childhood. It’s briefly, beautifully told, though there’s a lot of material: the very young Fox is tossed between Upstate New York and Queens and Cuba and Nantucket and Jacksonville, Florida and Hollywood by uncaring and otherwise absent parents and a rotating cast of caregivers of various levels of interest and capability and economic circumstance. Her tone is sort of like an East Coast Eve Babitz, but with worse parents and less interest in parties. It’s not, actually, too grim or depressing (amazingly, given its content); it’s clear-eyed, delicately done, expertly wrought. It’s really not one of those memoirs that makes you want to go lie down in traffic, is what I’m saying. Anyways, I really recommend it. It was the exact right speed for entering 2024—for me, at least.
One good thing about not wanting to do much is it means you have a lot of time to watch movies. My favorites so far: Poor Things, American Fiction, The Boy and the Heron, Passages, Zone of Interest, The Holdovers. This list will be added to, I’m sure. I was particuarly fixated on the use of color in Passages—that red turtleneck sweater! Those grey blue rooms!—and then went down a rabbit hole looking for the sumptuous marine-hued sheets (I wasn’t the only one) and then for Andrew Scott’s earth toned bedding in All of Us Strangers. I’m very into richly pigmented rumpled linen, I guess!
I went to dinner at the newish Korean restaurant Baroo, in downtown L.A., and when I tell you that the tasting menu kicked off with a red yeast makgeolli bread square the size of two postage stamps, topped with njuda, Gouda, and pichuberry? And it was like taking a bite of God’s own BLT? It got even better from there. Go, soon, on a fun date night or with a friend who likes the finer edible things: it’s a tasting menu but it’s not stupidly priced or the kind where you’ll need to unbutton your pants to stand up after. It’s so delicious. Truly special. And a sexy room. (Look, I think good design is sexy.) 10/10! We also went to Quarter Sheets in Echo Park this weekend and it was, as advertised, very great, but given it required around a 2 hour wait for two people for pizza, you didn’t need me to tell you that. Oh and Botanica, in Silverlake, remains such a gold standard for true California-style—fresh, local, veg-forward!—dining. I feel like people forget you can go there for dinner. I love it so much it makes me want to move east. (I wore an oversized striped Polo button down and ancient Sies Marjan crew neck over Alix of Bohemia pants and the joys of wearing what are essentially pyjama pants to dinner truly cannot be overstated.) Below is a lettuce wrapped parae-battered fried skate thing from Baroo that I’m still thinking about five days later.
Other things: I did a Pleasure List for a friend’s ongoing project (inspired by Bertolt Brecht) and I stand by all of my inclusions. Real mint chip ice cream especially. The brilliant Cord Jefferson’s pitch for an Entourage reboot is the best thing I’ve heard in a long time and definitely ever on Bill Simmons’ podcast.
[Insert Siren Noise] IMPORTANT NEW SNACK ALERT: Blue Stripes chocolate covered whole cacao beans. I found these at Whole Foods. All the satisfaction of an M&M but they use the whole cacao shell and fruit and bean, which give a nice pleasant crunch and are rich in iron, potassium and magnesium, among other important things. I feel certain that I will be insisting these are in fact a health food and will be enjoying them well into spring. Not an #ad, just your friend who loves you very much. (Though Blue Stripes…call me. I love these beans.)
That’s all I have for you today. I’m so glad you’re here. Hope 2024 so far has been wonderful, and that you can take some time to rest. As always, I’m here if you have any questions or requests! I love to hear from you. It’s really my favorite thing. See you soon.