Rosamond Bernier is a pretty neat lady

In Wendy Goodman’s New York Magazine feature on Rosamond Bernier’s apartment, the 95 year-old Bernier says, of founding the art magazine L’OEIL, “It was everything that interested me. I would just think of things, or hear of things, or read about something, and off I would go.” I love that. If that weren’t enough, here are some pictures of her that are pretty damn fabulous. Her captions. Age 6 on her pony Teddy, after winning a cup at her first horse show. Philadelphia, 1922.At 16, she played the harp in the Philadelphia Orchestra as part of a Youth Concert Series.She moved to Acapulco in 1938 with her first husband Lewis Riley, who had properties there. Here she is with some of her menagerie.When She returned from Paris to New York, she began a career as an art lecturer. Here she is talking about Henry Moore in 1972 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She still wears this dress.

Awesome. Makes me want to read her book.

images from here and here.

Tea Party of One

One of my favorite things about the chillying weather (despite frequent deluges, this past week must be one of the most beautimous in New York history… also helps that Sweetheart and I have been listening to Billie Holliday on repeat) is the transition from cold brew coffee back to plain old dark and delicious hot coffee. But despite my militant affection for coffee, there’s just something about late autumn afternoons that seems to require tea. It’s such a lovely little ritual- the loose leaf Hediard that Maman and I got in Paris (and that Sweetheart replenishes from McNulty’s), the old copper kettle, with its real throaty whistle, the time and steep. Just a little honey for me, always.

City Mouse, Town Mouse

Visiting our friends in Pennsylvania over this past weekend, I discovered something new: the life of the town mouse. Until now, I’ve only known the pretty sharp divide between Country Mouse (beauty, idyll, low rent, and terrible chinese food) and City Mouse (the glittering compromise of paying pounds of flesh for the privilege of seeing a human poo on the subway… on the way to get amazing sichuan and see The Moth story slam live). My dear friend McKay, sensing a potential shift, gave me this New Yorker cartoon when I first moved up from my Virginia farmhouse (sidenote: the fact that a New Yorker cartoon actually pertained to me was an early City Mouse thrill):

Cartoon by A. Geisert, 12/1/06

But instead of either traipsing down a fetid sidewalk or run over in the middle of 6th avenue, there could be another fate: Town Mouse. Rare in America, my friends have a beautiful old sort of Craftsman house in an awake little old-fashioned downtown- walking distance to the market, the dry cleaner, the bookstore, the coffeeshop, the train station, and (!) work etc. but with space, calm, fabulous light and a good mortgage (I’m guessing. City Mice don’t think twice about talking rent money and square footage over $8 beers, but when you’re drinking a very nice cote du something with some Town Mice, it feels unseemly to ask them whether they paid extra for the washer/dryer). But think. Town Mouse could keep her jewels in a tiny cup when she was at the sink. Town Mouse could have a sweet, sunny little place for strawberry baskets, eggs from the chickens, and muddy shoes.Town Mouse could have this tree in her backyard.But…City Mouse still has it pretty good, for now.

Arts and Farts and Crafts

In which: my mama comes to town and we begin to execute a series of much discussed craft projects (increasingly-ambitious-proportional-to-the-amount-of-wine-we’ve-had)  painstakingly designed and overseen by Nipsey Russell the cat. More to come…

Revisionist History

This is a 5 year Journal (from the amazing Gravel and Gold, of course). You get about an inch each day to record what happened on that day every year for five years. Marvelous. Terrifying. Now, I’ve always wanted to keep a journal. But- I’ve never been able to make it work. It takes too much time to capture everything I know I should, and whenever I have tried (often at various stages), it always feels like I’m writing as if I hoped someone would find it (this is probably why I can keep it together to write here). I prefer to send postcards, a form of daily recounting that goes away on the wind like a smoke signal, and to the same purpose. For a postcard l will dedicate hours at cafes, during breakfast, on fallen logs painstakingly recounting the day in 6 point font or (even better) drawing elaborate tiny diagrams to show and tell what I’ve been up to. Here’s one addressed to sweetheart, and the cat, that I sent from San Francisco this summer (the rarity! A postcard that you get to see after you sent it): I cannot imagine the 5 year journal. But I am enamored with the principal. So about this time last year I read a re-circulated article about 10q, and immediately added my name to the list. 10q is a series of, well, ten questions of varying degrees of banality and intensity that you answer once a year. “Describe an event in the world that has impacted you this year.” or “How would you like to improve yourself and your life next year?”. One year later, your previous answers are revealed to you via e-mail as if your inbox were a personal, virtual time capsule. Theoretically this serves as an exercise in reflection, and (hopefully) an indicator of personal growth, right? I signed up for it (stoked!) and one year later my answers were e-mailed to me. Uh… it turns out, I had neglected to actually answer any of the questions. Whoopsie. So, the e-mail just said:

Is there something that you wish you had done differently this past year?

your answer:

Think about a major milestone that happened with your family this past year. How has this affected you?

your answer:

BLARGGGGGHH! My personal history is BLANK. Reflection and personal growth? Naaah, not for me. Or maybe it was that I didn’t want to dwell (at the time) on a pretty rocky year and a relatively uncertain future. Or that I didn’t want to dwell theatrically. Or maybe it was that 2010 me didn’t feel like putting on a brave face for the benefit of 2011 me (but I knew I’d think I was a bitch in hindsight if I didn’t put on a brave face, so I left it blank). Anyway, this year I am DOING IT. I recommend you do too.

Friendship Octopus

Meags was in town this weekend. In addition to laughing late into the night and my favorite kind of long champagney afternoon spent talking story and just flipping and flipping the same record over and over, we also did a once-over of the Brooklyn Flea (one of the last summeryfeeling days and, hey, it’s right by my house). In a moment of utter genius we impulsively purchased matching octopus necklaces. Because although each wearing half of a heart, one side saying “Best” and the other saying “Friends” is alright, knowing that I’d like to hug her across miles of I-95 with all eight of my arms is much better. We got them at Birdhouse (which has tons of awesome blingy and fun big baubles for cheep cheep). Friendship Octopus: Highly Recommended.

I heart the Williamsburg waterfront

I had the distinct pleasure to spend almost my entire weekend looking at this view from various angles of repose. On Saturday I was text-ambushed with the news that Widespread Panic was playing at the WIlliamsburg Waterfront and, as a tribute to my 16 year old self (who would have certainly known well in advance if Panic was coming within a 100 mile radius, much less a 1 mile radius, and would have accumulated secret stores of Southern Comfort and patchwork swirly skirts in anticipation), I put on my dancing booties and hopped on the train. The show was marvelous, and the venue so perfectly lovely- a gently sloping field-ish right on the river with the fresh fall breeze ruffling all of our feathers. Then on Saturday, the ever-so-handsome boys of Roosevelt Dime played sunset-set at Taste Williamsburg Greenpoint.This fabulous event was comprised basically of incredible hors d’oeuvres from various awesome restaurants and lots of delicious beer- all for charity to keep a historic Brooklyn firehouse from being bulldozed down so that Goonies-type development interests can move in. Basically: a pork-belly-and-dixieland-jazz version of Mouth’s bag of jewels. Watching the changing light color the city like the Gershwin Fantasia, all in the midst of a just-cool indian summer, and it was Ahhh heart NY.

Goodbye South… for a bit.

I’ve just gotten back from marvelous adventures back down South… whenever I go home all of its specialness seems to hit me right in the mouth with the force of humidity and biscuits. It’s starting to feel like cool plaid fall in New York, which might be the bittersweetest loveliness that a city girl can ask for, but the joyful heartache that is the autumn city is right up there with the effortless still warm evenings of southern indian summer, the kind where the air is as full as the moon. So, I’ll be back soon.

Sweet Autumn Clem

New this year: Sweet Autumn Clematis has set up residence in the bush/bustled in the hedgerow that is right up against the outdoor shower house at the beach house (a.k.a.: the only place with power in all of Virginia after Irene). These gorgeous, simple, and— yes sweet— white flowers smell like honeysuckle crossed with jasmine and maybe just a bit of earthy beet pollen (is this what Jitterbug Perfume actually smells like??). There might not be anything more divine than showering in the dark on a full moon night with a bit of honey on the breeze. Seriously.

Last days of summer….

I came to simultaneous epiphanies the other day:
Summer is almost over! I haven’t had a lobster roll yet! AGHHHH!
No, this just won’t do. I’m a grown ass woman, master of my own destiny. So:Thankfully, sweetheart and I had already planned to head up to Connecticut to see Bruce and Bela so we decided to make a day of it, take the slow road, and have what may be one of our last adventures of the summer. Le sigh. Lobster rolls from crookedy old Lobster Landing- Connecticut style of course (meaning hot in a griddled bun and doused in butter- after all, this was the Friday before Hurricane Mothra/Irene was coming to destroy New York, so we had better have our last hurrah and make it count). Then on to a curvy route north and inland that had us cruising by scenic (and perhaps magical/gypsy headquarters) Lake Zoar for hand dipped chocolate ice cream (for sweetheart) and (for moi) all-time-summer-favorite-and-somewhat-hard-to-find, a peach milkshake. Ahhhh, summer.

 

Here are some Lobster Roll Rules for those of you who, like me, enjoy rules exclusively governing sandwiches.