Long road trips aren’t for everyone. But if you’re on the fence, I really think you should do one, at least once. There’s plenty of upside. You adjust to changes in time zone subtly, without much drama. And there’s so much newness as the time passes: towns and trails and restaurants and people and customs and small regional differences you never would know about unless you visited or someone from there told you about them, for some reason, which they probably wouldn’t even if they had the time and reason to. Plus, a long road trip allots you certain opportunities. The opportunity to consume those poisons you otherwise sensibly deny yourself (roadside stand beef jerky, fluorescent Hubba Bubba gum, Diet Coke) with complete impunity. The opportunity to listen to audiobooks, or not and have long conversations instead, ones furthered by not looking at each other and all the forward motion. The opportunity to zone out and engage in uninterrupted deep trains of thought, like when I decided I discovered the key to a certain tenor of happiness (feeling that you’ve received more than you deserve) and why it remains so elusive for so many (who knows what they truly deserve?). The opportunity to visit friends who’ve settled slightly off the beaten path, or not by convenient airports. Gas station sunglasses. Local radio stations! Brief flashes of outrageous beauty, like this one turn on route 12 between Bryce Canyon and Grand Staircase Escalante that may be the most beautiful stretch of road in America. If you like craggy red and grey cliffs and sprawling green pastures and wide open skies and those kind of things, of course. I do.
Bad things about cross country road trips: lower back stiffness. Overall stiffness, really. Loss of routine. A general feeling of physical atrophy from sitting so long, mental atrophy if you don’t take enough breaks. Your beloved dog becoming increasingly frustrated with you and your life choices. (He likes an adventure, but he loves to flop down on a cool floor.) An unending assault of bug carcasses on the windshield. Roadkill. The occasional depressing, endless, decidedly unscenic highway. The very fact of a highway, in the middle of what was a perfect and beautiful plain before we got here. “Heat domes.” Gas station bathrooms. Local radio stations.
The good news: we’ve landed on the opposite coast, where it is so hot that this is about all I can bear to wear. (Unbelted in the garden it makes me feel frightfully creative, like a smocked painter running amok. Open, over a one piece swimsuit, or belted, with a nice strappy heel, I feel like I can do normal adult things “in town.”) But we do not need to consider the cross country drive again for another six weeks at least! Which will mark, yes, our fifth time to do so! By the time you read this we will have just begun our next journey, which is by plane: a beige plastic-lined sameness familiar down to the stale fungal smell of recirculating airplane air. Can’t wait.
I am pleased to report that I have kept up with my usual rapacious content consumption these weeks on the road. I read this review for Nothing Special by Nicole Flattery and then devoured it in the car. The novel—set inside Warhol’s Factory and written from the perspective of one of the high school girls who transcribed the taped exploitative, boundary-less conversations Warhol had with his “superstars” that became his first novel, a, a Novel, which is, incredibly, apparently a real thing that happened—is brilliant, and perfectly captures a certain kind of New York both forgotten and ever present, and a certain type of lost young woman in it. It’s really beautifully wrought, and unspools expertly, and is to me, much more interesting than the sort of anesthetized hot girl lit that’s so popular right now. (It’s more Sally Rooney than Ottessa Moshfegh, if that makes sense.) Recommended if you like Factory Girl, feeling like you were born too late (but then ultimately grateful you were), unbalanced female friendships, toxic glamour, the 1960s, precocious female protagonists, parental traumas large and small, only in New York! stories. One of my favorite books I read this year, I think.
Another thing I loved: I fell into this 1962 Calvin Tompkins New Yorker story about Sara and Gerald Murphy like you fall asleep on the beach. Blissfully. It’s a perfectly wonderful portrait of a marriage that received a significantly less flattering rendering at the hands of F Scott Fitzgerald (speaking of toxic friendships!), and just so summery. Living well! Still the best revenge.
Other road reccs, in brief: Bryce Canyon, and Under Canvas hotels in general. (We’ve stayed at Zion and Bryce and both were great, though the former is more dramatic in terms of scenery.) The Kimpton Cottonwood hotel, in Omaha. Recently, expertly redone historic old beauty with a nice restaurant and a thriving summer pool scene (it gets hot in Nebraska!), and very pet friendly, as all Kimptons are. The Cottonwood is also, I’ll have you know, the home of the first Reuben sandwich! There’s also a brand new concert venue, the Steelhouse, where we wandered into a Fleet Foxes concert, and outside in the park, a well attended live community production of Footloose. Omaha! Who knew! Later, I had the best steak in recent memory in Buffalo, NY at a restaurant called The Billy Club.
We saw the new Indiana Jones at the beautiful State Theater in Traverse City (Harrison Ford’s still an A-grade movie star!) during the annual National Cherry Festival, where we also saw one of the rides break with six or so teens on it. It was the one that draws its passengers up around a pole, legs dangling, and then plunges them down quickly. The plunge became a steady lowering instead. I also watched You Hurt My Feelings (Amazon) and loved it.
I have carted this book around with me since I was last in London, where I bought it at the London Review of Books store, and I still haven’t read it, and it just won the International Booker prize, so I guess it’ll be coming back across the Atlantic with me this weekend. Which is sort of pathetic, if you consider the air mileage. Perhaps it’s time for a kindle?
Barbie mania is real, and perhaps a little tiresome at this point, but I loved this story about the evolution of the dream house.
We listened to Michael Finkel’s The Art Thief on our way to Omaha from Colorado, during which I was most pleased to learn about Stendhal syndrome (also known as “Florentine syndrome,” “aesthetic sickness,” or “an art attack[!]”), in which a work of art’s beauty so overpowers the viewer they basically…have a panic attack? Edoardo Ballerini reads the audiobook, which my fellow Audm fans know is a guaranteed treat. I found this story to be pretty openly tragic (compulsion, narcissism, deceit, destruction, and one really weird mother-son relationship), but Finkel sort of treats it like a heroes journey.
I don't know why I like this video explaining string theory so much. Maybe because it’s so clear and beautifully put?
This video scratches the How to with John Wilson itch quite nicely, and was surprisingly moving.
Hot dog salad? I’m listening...
NOW: to the main event! My friend Kadi Lee is both personally very beautiful and a beauty professional. She’s responsible for some serious hair. Basically if they’re a very famous woman and they have what appears to be effortless, natural, gorgeous color, she did it via her Venice salon, Highbrow Hippie—in every shade from Julia Roberts and Kristin Davis to Elle Fanning and Gwyneth Paltrow. I’ve been lucky to attend a few events at the salon and was knocked out, both by the talent in house, the community they’ve created, and what they’ve got on the shelves: they only carry the best, cleanest, most effective and high vibrational products. You basically just want to move in. For my birthday, Kadi gave me a bottle of Lula potion serum and balm, and though I don’t always love switching it up with my skincare, I trust her implicitly, so I packed it along for the summer. Cut to midway through the road trip, heat dome, elevation fluctuations, A/C, sun, car…and my usual routine had ceased to cut it. So I brought out the Lula and immediately became a convert. I’m no stranger to face oils but this stuff is special. You just pat a few drops of the serum on AM and PM and your skin soaks it up like a glowy little sponge. And then my boyfriend got a sunburn and I let him use the balm, and it’s been a week and wouldn’t you know, it lives in his dopp kit now. (And he only swipes the really good stuff.)
So in the interest of keeping everyone at their most beautiful, I asked Kadi for her recommendations for the summer months. Here’s what she has for us:
“As we all know, summer is time to turn up the hydration. Like, whatever your routine, double it. As the climate gets more unpredictable and we’re exposed to more and more extreme sun, it just means the elements are wrecking havoc on your skin and hair.
So it’s about creating barriers and layers of hydration. The Lula stuff is obviously next level. Founded by my client and fellow beauty veteran and makeup artist Sarah Uslan. I love the hand/body lotion, and that both the serum and balm are small enough to travel with.
Speaking of travels, I literally don’t get on a plane w/ Lauren Kennedy’s (another HH client) hand sanitizer line, Stranded. She has this gel formula which has THE freshest lemongrass scent, and it somehow doesn’t leave your hands dry (actually the opposite- insanely hydrated), and word on the street is that the next products dropping in this line are biodegradable hand wipes. We literally haven’t been able to keep this product in stock. Flies off the shelf every time.
I love any product that can do double duty, so the Inner Sense harmonic healing oil is also a great addition to any summer travel beauty must haves list. Put it on your cuticles, on your elbows, and on the length of your hair for tons of shine. Even better when used for a slicked back look.
If I can take a full size bottle of a product, or going somewhere that’s driving distance, then I’m taking my Palermo oil. Their geranium scented blend is beyond. And one application goes a long way—I almost never have to reapply during the day.
I know it’s tempting to try to use hotel, shampoo and conditioner, but I really stress to my clients to take the products that work for them at home, especially when being cognizant of getting enough moisture. Virtue Labs “Smooth” shampoo and conditioner manages to be both thick and emollient, yet washes out quite easily, and doesn’t weigh your hair down.”
And there you have it! Summer beauty expertise from an expert! Lucky us.
That’s all for this week. I hope your summer is going swimmingly, wherever it’s taking you. As ever, thank you for being here! See you next time.