Late Addition Weekend Edition
I know, we’re late to publish this week. I’m sorry. It hurts me more than it hurts you, trust me. Punctuality is a real holdover from my Vogue years—where, yes, it’s true that everyone runs 15 minutes early. I do think being punctual is important. Nothing says “I don’t value your time” like turning up late. This is a struggle in Los Angeles, where everyone is late and often has good reasons for it. Anyways, this isn’t late like you’ve been waiting at a restaurant, it’s late like a package in the mail. Hopefully still a pleasant arrival!
I went to a beautiful dinner for Amanda Gorman and a non-profit called Vital Voices the other day, and she said this thing I haven’t stopped thinking about since. “The possibility of change is less important than the belief in change. That’s something that we’re seeing from the Iranian women, where it’s not about the barriers that exist, it’s not about the mountains, it’s about their own certainty, and that in itself creates possibility.” I mean. (Can you believe this woman is 24? At that age I was writing thinly veiled short stories about my various bad dates. Jeeze Louise.) It dovetails nicely with this idea I learned last month about anger. We often deny anger, suppress it, pretend we don’t feel it, because we feel like it’s beneath us somehow, a giving in to a lesser impulse. But anger is important. Anger is the belief that things can change. The real lesser impulse is apathy, giving up entirely, “going with the flow” and forsaking yourself in the process because you don’t want to make waves, or, god forbid, a scene. Well guess what. Maybe we like scenes. Maybe we need to make a scene. I’m using this Scorpio eclipse whatever-whatever energy to embrace my inner messy little bitch who loves drama, or however that meme goes. I’m angry sometimes. So are you. It’s okay! Just do something about it. Use it.
Can I take my own advice? That remains to be seen. I’ve been angry at myself lately, and only until recently fully pretending that I’m not. I feel like I went to that retreat last month and everything was so clear and positive and I got this real rush of optimism and self-compassion and motivation and then a little over 30 days later I feel like I slid right back into a lot of bad habits, only now it’s worse because I know how bad they are and how much better I can feel. But that’s the work of life, I guess. It’s an ongoing project. Like decorating a house. Or raising a child (/perfect golden retriever?). I’m electing to face myself, here, and in other ways, rather than doing my historically preferred endless water-tread of avoidance. That metaphor probably ends with my drowning. Fuck that. We’re swimming, kids. I see the shore!
Other things:
In L.A. it was rainy and cold for a few days this week. Shocking! Two excellent coats for high 50s/ low 60 degrees and deluge, if that applies to where you are: One fuzzy and long and reversible, and one basically a lightly padded hoodie, in fun colors. (If you live in an actually cold place, you would use these as layers, I know.)
Everything is so green and lush and quiet here when it rains. Even though the canyon where I live becomes something like a Disney log flume. It’s definitely been soup weather. (Not to be confused with bean soup weather.) Here’s A Very Good Soup. It’s healthy and hearty and light. It’s also behind the NYT Cooking paywall, let me know if you want me to send it to you (no snitching), but honestly, NYT Cooking is worth it for Melissa Clark alone. Melissa Clark pitches no-hitters. I’m serious. What that woman does with a sheet pan!
Speaking of food, but not in the way you think: A thing I would like to happen soon, please?
A very good cold weather streaming watch: War & Peace (the limited series). Free on Amazon prime if you don’t mind the interruptions for ads for carbonated beverages and pick up trucks and various international hotel chains every 15 minutes or so. Small price to pay actually. It’s so good. Terrific actors (Brian Cox[!] has a small part, as does the wonderful Gillian Anderson, who I had a terrific conversation with last spring, Lily James and James Norton and Paul Dano and the fabulously named Tuppence Middleton star), expensively made, thoughtfully adapted for the screen. It’s 8 or so episodes. How did I miss it in 2016?! I have yet to read the book, I’ll admit it! I did read George Saunders’ wonderful A Swim in A Pond in the Rain which is sort of like how I imagine it would be to audit his Russian lit class at Syracuse. A thing I sorely wish I could do IRL. Surely that counts for something.
I had a really good conversation with Adria Arjona about her new series, Andor (which is great), why she thinks jumping out of a plane is better than being on a plane, and other fun stuff for L’Officiel’s fall cover. The clothes/jewels are pretty fab too. (Come for the diamonds, stay for the cocktail-fueled life advice from Gloria Estefan.)
The You Learn Something New Every Day! department:
I was a guest on the very cute Fanfare Podcast this week, where the mission is to throw an imaginary dinner party for a cultural luminary. As a relatively recent L.A. transplant, inviting Eve Babitz as my guest of honor was a no-brainer. For the unfamiliar, here’s a primer that I wrote about her for C Magazine after her death, but the best thing to do is to sink into her books. They’re full of vigor and heart and heat and L.A. lore. She’s great, vivacious company; your most wild friend who also paid the most attention (and remembers everything). (That’s actually a dangerous friend to have, but also better than an enemy.) I’d start with Slow Days, Fast Company and then Eve’s Hollywood. The best biography is Lili Anolik’s excellent Hollywood’s Eve, which comes up a lot on the pod. It was a fun conversation. My apologies to Dan Tana’s. (Though, where is the lie?)
Okay. Thanks for being here. More soon. I love you.