Welcome to my sporadic monthly favorites! I always like doing these things, but I always forget to keep track of the things I do enjoy over the course of the month. (I feel like I have explained this already, but oh well.)
Film
(source)
“It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just a thing.”
20,000 Days on Earth
I didn’t get to watch a lot of movies while I was away—because movies cost an arm and a leg overseas, what the frak—but I did manage to watch 20,000 Days on Earth at the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco with my brother and it was amazing. It is about musician Nick Cave and his life and creative process, although reading this back… It’s much more than that. I was scribbling in my journal in the dark, hanging on to whatever gem I might be able to haphazardly write down, because I have recently rediscovered the importance of writing things down… Anyway. This film was just beautiful and fitting for an enigmatic person such as Nick Cave. Click here to learn more about it.
Singles
I also watched Singles, an oft-overlooked Cameron Crowe classic, for the first time, and what can I say? Bless you.
Books
What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund
I haven’t really read a lot of books that I like enough to call a favorite, so this will be brief. Just one! This one. It is beautiful… and brought me back to a place in my life when I was scared of words like phenomenology and semiotics (a.k.a. college; hi Mr. de Jesus! Hi Sir Oca!). Peter Mendelsund was a classical pianist for thirty years of his life before he quit at the ripe ol’ age of 34 and tried to pursue something different. Normally, he is behind book covers, but this is a new book of his that tries to dissect and think about the actual act of reading. What happens when we read, what do we see beyond the words, what is being constructed automatically by what we come to understand from the words that we read. It’s amazing and lovely (and so was he!) and there are pictures.
Places
Nevada
A welcome surprise as I was not looking forward to this leg of the trip… but we went to Red Rock Canyon, Lake Mead, and the Hoover Dam, and then I got really, really into the thought of Nevada. I posted some photographs on , but I’m still working towards the blog post for that.
The Last Bookstore
My friend Marvin took me here when we met up in LA, and wow, it was amazing. I wish I had a proper camera because I just want to show you guys everything. There is a path that snakes through the back and up the second floor into a few installations and a “labyrinth” of books where all the books are just $1 each. In the end, I picked up two books for cheaper than usual: Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners and a collection of poems by Linda Gregg.
Food
Snyder’s of Hanover Honey Mustard & Onion Pretzels
OK, this was a real surprise. I hate mustard. I have hated it since I first saw it (childhood) and first tasted it (high school, from a classmate who was eating Piknik Honey Mustard. Hi Anna!) and I declared a quiet, seething war on mustard. And then I had a pretzel at a beer brewery and my life changed and I went through so many bags of this pretzel snack and I must say, writing about it, it’s making me want some more.
And that’s about that! I promise I’ll put more thought into these… I really do like making them. If you’re into beauty shit, I’ve got a monthly favorites up at my beauty blog, Softly Sometimes. See ya later.