In my first book, I wrote something about how T.S. Eliot's whole idea of April being the cruelest month feels off when you’ve spent an entire summer in New York City and finally make it to August. The eighth month of the year used to be the one I dreaded the most when I used to work in the service industry. Waking up on hot days without a trace of wind, possibly hungover, then walking around and seeing the empty city streets used to make me feel incredibly lonely. Then, the people would start waking up and coming to brunch or to get coffee or whatever job I was doing at the time, and it would almost always be people from out of town. All the locals were in the Hamptons or the mountains or a friend’s dad’s summer house in Maine or something like that while I was stuck making Mimosa after Mimosa for some couple from Jacksonville who really wanted to take full advantage of the all-you-can-drink brunchtime special. It used to bum me out. All I could do was obsessively check the forecast, read the Old Farmer’s Almanac to see when the first frost was coming, and just stick my finger in the air waiting for a gust of wind.
Things have changed. I honestly think the shift was during the pandemic when the city was already feeling empty. I think I noticed it first in 2021, but maybe it was last year, when the people that still lived in NYC started getting out in July and August, and suddenly the city felt comfortably barren. This year is the quietest it’s ever felt, especially in the mornings. There’s a very real “Locals only” feel that I love. It’s about as quiet as New York can get for a few hours. It feels like there’s less hustle and bustle. Deep down, I know it’s almost certainly indicative of some bigger problems like how unaffordable housing is, but I’m also trying to let myself enjoy things a little more. If I keep thinking about what’s on the flip side of the good, then I’m never going to be happy. So I’m embracing these slow August weekends in New York. Reading a lot. Walking. Just trying to live.
Melt Reads
You might recall last year that a night out at Ticuchi in Mexico City had me thinking a lot about how much I miss dark bars. I got so sick of every new place I went to drink or eat dinner being designed with perfect lighting so people could take selfies. It looks like things are starting to change. Now places are going…red. “Red is risky,” David Yun of C as in Charlie says in this piece about how places are embracing the dark and spooky.
Read: “Meet the Latest Dining Aesthetic: Darkroom-Core” by Ella Quittner at the New York Times
This is something I think about a lot and I’m glad somebody said it. I still love going to a vintage shop and just looking at old labels on clothes. I don’t want some boring, faux stealth wealth-looking minimal garbage in an ugly font. Give me something that tells me a story and makes me feel some pride in buying your stuff.
Read: “When did logos become so basic? Long live maximalism!” by Sprezza
I always tell people how much I hate the Hamptons in the summer. It’s one of my favorite topics. In the off-season, that’s fine. But in the summer? Nope. Not a fan. But you know what I do like? Reading about the people that do go there this time of year and the stuff they’re getting into. I especially liked this piece on Emma Cline’s new novel showing up everywhere in the area this summer.
Read: “Everyone in the Hamptons Is Reading The Guest” by Stephanie Krikorian at Curbed
It’s easy to say culture isn’t moving, that there’s nothing new happening, but it’s also easy to forget that everything has to take its influence from somewhere, and this article on “Gen-Z regional Mexican groups” had me thinking about that.
Read: “Gen Z LatinXers are reinventing regional Mexican music. But your abuelo still might dig it” by Reed Johnson at the Los Angeles Times
Melt Stuff
I’m a massive sucker for the Brooks Brothers sales. I can’t help it. It’s one of the sales I see and I go “I can use this for next season, or I can buy it and wear it this time next year” when it comes to the mix of stuff for warm and cold weather. But my favorite thing when it comes to any sale is sweater markdowns. And Brooks Brothers being the Brothers Brooks, they’ve got a nautical flag sweater that has a real Mondrian vibe to it for almost $100 off.
Starting to look at what I’m going to wear for fall and usually one of the first places I look is Norse Projects. The relaxed-fitting collared sweatshirt is really nice looking. I think it’s one of those things you could wear with a blank baseball cap and a pair of Carhartt pants and you could be mistaken for having a job that has you building things besides brands or your portfolio.
I really liked the Arthur Ashe collection and especially loved this purple cotton-rayon blend tennis polo shirt. Not sure I’d play tennis in it, but that’s probably the point.
I’ve been hearing your commentary on Article of Interest’s American Ivy and it makes this whole newsletter make a lot more sense.
Boston has this feel in the summer too, which is compounded by the fact that so much of our population is student based. As we had a kid in June my wife and I have just been in our neighborhood all summer while everyone else is in Maine or on the Cape and it’s… fantastic! We should have done this before!
Also, I’ve whined internally about the ways Instagram has been ruining bar culture (over the top, over garnished, mediocre drinks rule the day now; bring back down and brown!) but I hadn’t really thought of the lighting of a bar itself. All the places I used to go ten years ago, many of which are now closed, were capital-D Dark. Every new place now feels like it’s lit by one of those portable influencer lights (yells at cloud).