Friday

Forgive me for posting so infrequently those days. I’m beginning to wonder if my blogging days are drawing to a close, with Facebook and Twitter as places to post links and brief updates, and all my myriad projects eating my time. I started blogging in college, and really picked it up when I moved to New York, but that was when I had lots of dead time to fill at work and not too many actual writing projects, or magazines to fill. I don’t really need another empty text box making me feel guilty.

But, it’s getting cold in lovely New York City, and winter is fast approaching. Somehow, I find Christmas music soothing this early, now that it’s cold, and am looking forward to hanging fairy lights around the apartment after we get back from Thanksgiving next week. Maybe we’ll even actually have a tiny tree this year.

Last night we had a dozen people at home group, and I had a grand time mulling cider (on sale at Whole Foods!) and staying up late splitting a bottle of red wine among the six of us who stayed after it was over. It’s a real blessing to have this particular group of people in our home every week, forcing me to not only actually have a clean apartment once a week, but also to move outside myself and my alarming to-do list and serve other people. It’s too easy to turn in on myself, and I am so grateful for the changes in my life the last few months that force me into happy interaction each week - at home, and at work.

Now, to work. Happy Friday!

Today on The Curator: Katie Herzig, The Karate Kid, and a Year of Living Meatlessly

An Interview with Katie Herzig
Part 1

By Tom Wilkinson
The first of a three-part interview with singer/songwriter Katie Herzig.

Wax On, Wax Off:
Reflections on the Karate Kid

By Christy Tennant
Rediscovering your favorite movie of all time.

On a Year of Vegetarianism
By Wayne Adams
It’s amazing what a year-long experiment in giving up meat can teach you.

This week on The Curator: Oliver Sacks’s Awakenings, Jaco Pastorius, and Bones

What Ghosts Teach:
Oliver Sacks’s Awakenings, Part I

By Rebecca Tirrell Talbot
What could being asleep for fifty years, and then awakening, teach a person about life?

Boffo Socko Jaco
By Kevin Gosa
Bassist Jaco Pastorius’ seminal work, The Birthday Concert.

Belief in the Bones
By Alisa Harris
Rationalism, mystery, and forensic science - in prime time.

Thursday night

This was my first of probably many Thursdays working from home, and it is so lovely to have this day. I brewed a French press full of Cinnamon Creme Brulee Coffee, which the amazing Jenni sent to me along with a horde of different kinds of tea this past week. (By the way, she has completely rocked my hot beverage world this week - I got hooked on Sweet Thai Delight due to a teabag tucked into my birthday card, and after that Mayan Cocoa Spice - Tom’s favorite - and Tahitian Vanilla Hazelnut. Jenni is all kinds of awesome.)

I brewed the coffee a little too strong, but it was still delicious and I’ll perfect my amount soon - I always brew too strong, anyhow. I settled down to write a bunch of work emails while Tom got ready to head to work. He’s on a new TV show now, hopefully through the winter and into early spring, and he’s enjoying the work so far.

In the course of the day, I managed to do three loads of laundry, make and eat lunch, write a movie review, clean the apartment, catch up on a bunch of work, plan meals for next week, order groceries (I’ve broken down because next week is so busy and I won’t have time to shop, so FreshDirect it is), and put together some spreadsheets for Comment. All in all, a good day.

Tom got home a while ago and our fellowship group is showing up any minute, so I threw some brownies in the oven and have a coffeepot ready to brew, and we’re having ravioli (frozen, from Whole Foods - I am lame), dressed with olive oil and sage and a bunch of black pepper, and some red wine for dinner as we wait. I promise I feed him vegetables.

On Tuesday night we saw Tom Stoppard in conversation with David Remnick (you know, the guy who edits that little magazine called The New Yorker. It was so good, and we were so delighted that we left with a BAM membership and a signed copy of The Coast of Utopia. We live four blocks away. It seemed like a good time for it, and their winter/spring lineup is amazing.

People are here. Ciao!

BURN-E

Meet BURN-E, a robot contemporary of WALL-E.

Today on The Curator: Shigeru Miyamoto, chocolate tasting, and morning diptychs

Choosing Creation Over Destruction
By Matt Cox
A brief profile of the father of video games, Shigeru Miyamoto.

Chocolate Tasting
By Daniel Nayeri
Want to knock your significant other’s socks off?

3191: A Year of Beautiful, Ordinary Mornings
By Jenni Simmons
A long-distance friendship spawns an intimate photographic examination of daily life.

Happy Wednesday

We voted - I waited two hours at 7:30am, and Tom an hour and a half around 1pm - and we celebrated and we came home at 2am to crowded streets of cheering people in a neighborhood that counts this election very close to the heart.

Also, I am twenty-five.

New IAM Website!

My dear employer has an amazing new website!