I was in the middle of eating my nachos at the Dead and Co. show at Citi Field last night and the worry that I didn’t prepare my Friday morning e-mail started rushing through my mind. I really should have prepared this before standing in a sea of Deadheads singing along to “Franklin’s Tower” (and that one hero that sat down eating a pastrami while they covered “Hey Jude”), inhaling all the nitrous and weed in the air, but I will soldier on.
I ended up in a few articles this week if you’re interested. Hope Corrigan at the Washington Post reached out to me and asked if I had any thoughts on why we love analog stuff as digital takes over our lives more daily. I think Hope literally asked if I have thoughts on things like vinyl records, paperbacks, and old matchbooks, and I said something like “Do I? Oh yeah!” If anything, I’m just glad a major publication has me on record in a piece about why having stuff is good so Emily won’t get mad next time I bring home some weird piece of art I find on the street or I buy a box filled with pens from old restaurants that have all been closed for a decade or two. Give it a read at the Washington Post.
And over at Architectural Digest, Sarah Archer talked to me and some other folks about good and bad taste in home design. It’s a really smart piece and I end up babbling a little about Edith Wharton and how I think good taste is simply showing you care about your choices and not so much the choices you make. Like whatever you like, decorate however you want, wear what you wear, but just put some thought into it and make it your own thing. Give it a read at Architectural Digest.
This past week marked ten years since James Gandolfini passed away. Over at Vanity Fair, my pal Jason Bailey did a real mitzvah by talking to everybody about what a great guy Jimmy was. But he also really gets at something else that I think is important when it comes to Gandolfini’s lasting legacy, and that’s how the man was truly a beast when he was acting. Sure, he played one of the most iconic characters in TV history, but you go back and watch some of his other roles or talk to anybody that saw him do a stage performance and they’ll tell you.
Read: “James Gandolfini Was So Much More Than Tony Soprano” by Jason Bailey at Vanity Fair
I have a lot of past with Miami. Besides New York and Chicago, it’s the city I tend to think of when I consider the places that helped shape me. I grew up going there two or three times a year and even lived there for a short time in my early-20s and I credit it with really helping me realize that if I’m in a city, I should explore it and not just stick to the places I know. And in doing that, I remember noticing a long time ago that people in Miami do have their own slang that reminds me a lot of New York, but is really its own thing. It turns out I was right, and the only problem I have with this article is nowhere is “irregardless” found. You can say that isn’t a word, but try telling that to somebody from Miami.
Read: “Linguists have identified a new English dialect that’s emerging in South Florida” by Phillip M. Carter at The Conversation
I’ll be honest and say I really appreciated the whole Coastal Grandma thing that was popping off last year, but mainly because I’m a Nancy Meyers head. But wearing a white suit while sipping an amaro and going “Coastal Nonna?” Now that I can truly, 1000 percent get behind.
Read: “White Suit? Check. Aperol Spritz? Check. Meet the Coastal Nonna” by Rory Satran at the Wall Street Journal
And finally this week, if you know me and basically anybody else that lives in Brooklyn, you know how much I love Long Island Bar. It is, in my very humble opinion, a perfect place and I will hear no other opinions on this matter. But there’s a reason it’s as good as it is. Well, a few, actually. And nobody is better than Brad Thomas Parsons at diving into what those things are that make it such a special place.
Read: “An Oral History of Brooklyn’s Beloved Long Island Bar” by Brad Thomas Parsons at VinePair