This is their first rodeo
Thoughts on men's and women's fashions
On the last day of Christmas (December 30, in my case), I woke up to a warm, unexpected New York Times review of Grand Rapids by Meghan O’Gieblyn: “The novel’s most impressive accomplishment is its rendering of Tess’s grief, which is less an outpouring than a slow bleed into the general anomie of teenage life. Stagg inhabits Tess’s consciousness with a luminous deadpan, a gaze that grasps, without amusement or malice, the garish absurdities of life in West Michigan.”
Speaking of, a friend who lives in Grand Rapids made me two gorgeous, functional ceramic bowls as a birthday gift and I’m now surprised to find she isn’t selling them online anywhere. If I convince her to, I’ll let you know. She also used to make these carved wood Great Lakes wall hangings I liked but focuses now on custom art for her interior design practice.
Other gifts I haven’t yet mentioned: a Jacob Kassay original (!!!) that I’ve been wanting for years (it features photos of my sister and I in lenticular, a perfect study of our facial similarities and differences), a great pair of Thistles sunglasses (the AL), and a copy of Barry Hannah’s Ray (1980), the edges of which I already dampened by sticking it in the pocket of my puffer and walking out of Agi’s Counter (incredible, get the cloud-like schnitzel or the tuna melt, on toast as soft and crunchy as a latke) to experience the city’s first big snow of winter and walk a few blocks to Rodeo for a martini or two.
Before Christmas, I went with Kaitlin to the glorious Manhattan Art and Antiques Center in Midtown, where she was seeking out the same silk and crepe-de-Chine lingerie that Lotta Volkova had just posted on her mostly un-credited Instagram. “How did you find me?” asked Illisa, proprietor of Illisa’s—and a real character, as you can imagine.