So true
YouTube is my passion, live music, brick n' mortar, thesis on community gardening
Good morning Monday morning, everyone. I just did my skincare to the most beautiful morning song of all time. I’m feeling rested and good and the music is hitting.
It’s Chloe Sevigny’s birthday today. Make sure you honor that in your own way today.
I definitely understand this, but once you hit Labor Day, you do have to surrender to the fact that this is the beginning of the holiday season. Early September until, I don’t know, like Valentine’s Day, it’s all a celebratory distraction to get you through the dark and cold. Thank God for that. I need festivities and occasions.
I got a wreath yesterday at the Tompkins Square farmers market, which looks amazing with my TV. I love generating tons of airtime for my favorite YouTube channel, Calmed by Nature. I feel like their Paris jazz cafe video is very popular, but they keep up with the seasons and are always putting new stuff out. If you’re not familiar, then I’m happy to put you on.
Fall is always, classically 1.5 weeks long. I went on a fall foliage cruise last weekend, but I think because it was so hot and dry, the leaves stayed up, but went straight to brown. Not really the foliage spectacle I hoped for, but it wasn’t all for nothing. It really is so essential to experience NYC by boat. This one looped up the Hudson river and had a bar and snacks on deck, so we were entertained for hours.
I bought some concert tickets months ago and the shows have finally crept up. Somehow I still hadn’t been to a show at Baby’s All Right, but finally got there on a Monday night to see Sofie Royer. The opening act, Rebounder, called Baby’s the Madison Square Garden of indie rock venues.
I hopped over the East river via the L and got to Williamsburg at 10pm - she didn’t go on until 11pm (hell). The opener was very okay…. They sounded nice, but I don’t know about those songs. Not for me to decide. Once Sofie came out there were a lot of tech issues with the mic, but she prevailed very gracefully.
I’ve followed Sofie for a bit now and I’m always curious about her. I was an admirer, but wasn’t quite sure if I was ready to declare myself a fan. I love YouTube and have my subset of people I keep up with. Sofie made really fun, unconventional vlogs during the pandemic and I do miss those. She’s so stunningly beautiful and crazy talented. She sings, is like a professionally trained violinist, a painter, an artist of many trades.
She came out with an album on Friday and she previewed many of the songs at her show. It’s called Young-Girl Forever and it’s great. It’s a very fun nod to like 80s Euro pop and even has a cover of Lio’s Sage Comme une Image on it. It’s so fun to feel like a moody sexy lady who wants to be forever young. This is the soundtrack for that. She asked the crowd at the show if they’d seen any of her music videos - unsure if people even watch those anymore. If no, that would be a shame. They’re amazing. She brought out her violin on stage and danced. It was an incredibly well $26 spent and I’m definitively a fan.
I charted another new territory on Friday: Knockdown Center to see AG Cook. The crowd was extremely cool………… Everyone was fitted down pulling like full Ssense (sort from High to Low) expensive esoteric looks. It was hot and cool. AG can pull that crowd. I love to get dressed, but I’m rarely motivated to throw a fit on for a concert. Like I can’t really be tempted to look down at your pants and shoes in this sweaty dark space that we’re in, most likely in GA. I don’t usually care what people are wearing in that kind of environment, but this was a fun exception.
I have so much to say about AG, but gonna keep it brief. I think he rocks and he makes such bright and loud and FUN music. I find his companionship with Charli very endearing and his adoration of Sophie so touching. His set was long and weaving, starting out by djing his big Britpop and classic songs (Lucifer, Show Me What), pivoting to singing live several of his own tracks, and ending with his Brat hits and a version of Vroom Vroom that started off normal, but then sped up so much until it was completely unrecognizable.
His early collaborations with Sophie and Charli take me straight back to college, partying with the cool girls and gays. We would thrash and feel crazy and have so much fun listening to PC music. The parallels are so painful and real, losing Sophie to soon, losing my friends Max and Zach too soon. Those songs are my memories of those two. There were many big Sophie moments in the AG set on Friday and it was totally joyful the whole time. It was sooooo perfect and everyone was screaming. I’m jumping for AG 4eva.
Brick n’ mortar
This is a brief segment on some retail experiences I had recently. There are some new shops in town that I felt inclined go check out for whatever reason.
The first being Flynn McGarry’s new spot. I just googled him and he is literally 25 years old lmfao. He is like the child chef star from LA who had a tasting menu restaurant in NYC for years called Gem. COVID complicated things and I think he experimented with a wine shop and pop up dinners, but now he has landed on Gem Home. This new spot is like an all day cafe but also a special home goods store. Let it be known, I went in thinking this would be mostly ridiculous, but I had a fabulous time lol. Maybe the $12 4oz container of “roasted vine-ripened tomatoes” was a little egregious, but I can look past it. Surely there are idiots out there buying that type of thing, and I salute Mr. McGarry for taking advantage of that.
There’s a very cozy space in the back with cafeteria-style seating. It felt very open and welcoming and would be a great place to bring visiting friends and family. A good place to rest and get a pick-me-up. I got two pastries and a tea for $19. The home goods could reach high-end, but for the most part felt reasonably priced. I’ll definitely be going back.
The other shoppe I went to was Laila Gohar’s holiday pop up for Gohar World. It was pretty much her greatest hits repeated - candles in the shape of food, a bit more jewelry, and unexpectedly to me, a collaboration of tinned sardines with Fishwife. It was in a tiny space on Mott street, but not super easy to graze about and spend time in. I don’t mind an intimate space, but it was a bit cramped, maybe a little repetitive, and a bit too expensive all around. I’ve been a very big Laila fan, but I think I’m slipping away now that she’s fully committed to luxury pandering.
Her philosophies on hosting and cooking creatively have been big sources of inspiration for me, but I’ve been losing the plot a bit. But I suppose that’s my problem. Her latest gift guide in her series with Financial Times was a bizarre read. Not to totally steal Kourtney’s schtick, but people are dying….
Saturday and Sunday were recovery days. I went very hard Friday night and left the rest of the weekend for healing myself. Since I was overserved at the AG show, I woke up a little wonky on Saturday. My boyfriend took it easy Friday so he was bright and bushy on Saturday ready for the gym…disgusting. I needed to ease back into life, so once we got a coffee, he split for the gym and I went to Tokuya to get a Salmon and Shiso onigirazu. As is mandatory, I took it over to the 6BC community garden and thank God, the treehouse was unoccupied.
I sat there for a bit and was eavesdropping on a gardener being interviewed by an NYU Journalism student doing a thesis on community gardening (?). The gardener was talking on end about how these public spaces offer an abundance of clarity and refuge for their neighbors and it’s such a shame the City wants to demolish them. My hangover-addled brain couldn’t divert its attention to anything else, so I was silently nodding and thinking “so true…”