Weekend Reads #100

Yoga mats are shoved under all the furniture to prevent our dog's balls from rolling underneath. The living room floor lamp now has a grow lightbulb in it and has moved to the end of the dining table which has been transformed into a plant nursery. The bedroom is cleaner than it has ever been before, and there are only a few pairs of shoes at the front door when there usually a large pile. So is home decor, quarantine style.

Priorities change, in some ways aesthetic, and in others for practicality. Few of us ever spent this much quality time, day after day, after day in our homes, in this capacity.  These priorities I see also changing in our wardrobe.  A desire for comfort, of easy care, and again for practicality. As with our homes, our personal aesthetic still matters.  And so I say wear it, whatever it may be.  If not now, when?  What are you saving it for?  

Last night, my friend Chelsea tagged me in an Instagram Story, wearing her leopard-print Margaux pumps just because she felt like wearing shoes, and fabulous ones at that.  I replied back, while wearing a little black shrug sweater from cabi with faux fur puffed short sleeves that I've only had the opportunity to wear once, seen here.  It deserves to be worn, and if not now when? With it, two earrings in one ear, joggers with pockets that zip closed, a thick layer of lip balm, and wool socks with metallic silver Birkenstock sandals.  Like Mad Max, shelter in place edition. 

Wear that dress, wear that ridiculously expensive makeup.  Wear the sequins, and with them your favorite sweatpants from college. Let your hair return to its natural color or try colored eyeliner.  Embrace the fanny pack life, or become a muumuu connoisseur. Drink from the wedding crystal, dine on the Christmas china, put up your holiday lights in the summer and don that silk dress you only wore once because if now, when?  And why the hell not?

How to Help

Due to the heightened demand on hospitals, admitted patients are no longer permitted to have family members accompany them. With over 3,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the US (as of March 31, 2020), this means that we are facing a time where patients are dying alone, without family by their side. COVID Tech Connect provides donated tablets to hospitals across the United States to connect critically ill COVID-19 patients with family members.  If you are a manufacturer that wants to donate a minimum of 15 smart devices such as wifi-enabled smartphones or tablets, please reach out to COVID Tech Connect. To cover the cost of shipping and handling the organization is accepting financial donations at this link. If you are interested in receiving donated tablets for your hospital or hospice center that is a registered non-profit, visit this link. 

Weekend Reads

How to help librarians and archivists from your living room: if you’re cooped-up and curious, use your free time to decipher handwriting, tag images, and more. (Atlas Obscura)

‘Free Solo’ filmmaker Jimmy Chin talks about facing the unknown and staying sane in scary times. A plus, this interview was done by my friend Jennifer Barger! (National Geographic; if you sign up for their newsletters you can read for free)

My friend Tanvi shared how collaboration can spur creativity.  I discuss this below in the For Your Entertainment section, but was thrilled to spur on some creative juice for her and she for me. (Tanvi.com)

National economies collapse; species go extinct; political movements rise and fizzle. But — somehow, for some reason — Weird Al Yankovic keeps rocking! (New York Times)

It's the little things that bring us joy these days, and I am so in love with my Nespresso machine, even more than my ode to it from this December. Bed Bath and Beyond has several Nespresso machines on sale; I have this one which comes in three colors and is part of the sale.

Glasses fogging up when wearing a mask?  There is no true solution but these tips may minimize it. (The Cut)

What to knit when you're staying inside. Even if you're a knitter you may enjoy this from my friend Dana and her little pup Jellybean.  (Yarns of Happiness)

Speaking of knitting, my Bearabny Tree Napper gravity knitted blanket is back in stock in the small couch-chilling size!

The writer Fran Lebowitz on growing old, life in quarantine, and the sadness of seeing her city shut down. (New Yorker)

Nikon is offering free online photography classes for all of April. (The Verge)

What is the point of a fashion magazine now? (New York Times)

No time like now to transition from drugstore to natural deodorants.  I have tried dozens of them and share the good, the bad, and the ugly in this natural deodorant review post.  The comments also have great suggestions and feedback.  I'm close to finishing up a bottle of Lavender Bergamot from Apothekari and I still love it and find it effective.  I appreciate it's a classic liquid roll-on, isn't sticky, and is made by a woman-owned Canadian small business.

Remember Tiger Beat? It's still around and it's getting sued for copyright infringement. (The Fashion Law)

Citylab is inviting readers to draw a map of your life, community, or broader world as you experience it under corona. Your map can be as straightforward or subjective as you wish.  Click here to learn more and submit your map! (Citylab)

See/Hear/Read

When I shared on Instagram Stories that I finished and liked Verity by Colleen Hoover, someone DMed me (sorry it's hard to keep track of DMs so not sure who) and suggested I'd like The Ghost Writer by Alessandra Torre.  I had started another book from Colleen Hoover that was just too YA for me (I liked YA until I lived with a tween and now it's just too close to my everyday) so I bought The Ghost Writer. I am 29% through it on my Kindle and I am just getting to where I am emotionally involved. Can't say yet if I recommend it, I'll be sure to report back.  But thank you all for your recommendations, I trust your taste, I mean, you read here, you like me, it's likely I would like you and have similar tastes! 

We watched a lot of TV and movies this week.  This week had a lot of rain and gray days, it was our daughter's “Spring Break” so we had more free time and the desire to pull her from Animal Crossing and ROBLOX for at least two hours a day (LOL but also TRUTH). 

• We watched the movie Onward which was odd but sweet and she LOVED it and we parents were invested the whole time.  It's available on the Disney streaming service, we don't have that and splurged by renting it on OnDemand.
• We also watched Isn't It Romantic (available on HBO and Netflix) and for a movie that is only a year old it felt SO dated with what is going on.  There's a joke about handwashing after riding the subway because he may have “Zika on them” and there's a cupcake shop called Corona Cupcakes.  But it was still cute and colorful happy fluff that felt good (and IMO was fine for an 11-year-old to watch while also playing Animal Crossing). In the movie Liam Hemsworth really reminded me of Taylor Swift's character in her video for “The Man”! 
• We're still enjoying Making the Cut on Amazon, though there is no designer that I am rooting for yet.  
• Karl and I watched the finale of Schitt's Creek and cried.  Okay, I cried, but he looked misty eyed!  We luckily decided to get into Schitt's Creek at the beginning of the year, catching up on Netflix right at the time to watch this final season in real time. We're going to miss it terribly.  
• We're loving Dishing with Julia Child, a new series on PBS that is delightful.  I remember watching Julia Child as a kid and it was so fun to watch José Andres and Eric Ripert sit at a table watching Julia Child prepare fish and just laugh and be shocked by how she did it, count how many times she patted the fish, and just “dish” about it. No need to be a foodie to enjoy this show!
• If you haven't yet caught John Krasinski's YouTube show SGN (some good news) you need to.  It's so lovely, not too long, and the second episode is a must for every Hamilton fan.
• I still watch Empire.  It's ridiculous but I'm emotionally invested and watched it this week and it was a fun distraction.  No point in starting now, this season is the last and not a good representation of the series. 
• We've ended up watching some seriously random stuff when we just need some sound and color and movement on the TV and something that isn't the news. I don't watch a lot of TV, especially food and home TV, yet I've now watched more than one episode of Guy's Grocery Games, several partial episodes of Property Brothers, and the quarantine edition of The Kitchen which I felt was pretty creative and a quick pivot to relevant content for our times.  With us all being at home and trying to be creative with what is in our pantry, such shows are my new mindless pleasure instead of anything related to fashion or travel.

For Your Entertainment

One of the most beautiful things that has come from this time in history is the ways that individuals are using technology to collaborate on creative projects.  On a small scale, a few of my friends and I took part in the #dontrushchallege and made this video last weekend.  We coordinated on a Friday night Zoom call then each shot our own pieces on Saturday.  We used Google Drive to send our video pieces by Saturday evening to our friend OnRae who then edited them into one piece that we were able to share on our individual platforms Monday at noon.  

I love seeing this with music.  For years technology has allowed artists to “collaborate” even if they aren't in the studio or on the set at the same time.  But to see music created in a time of stress and distancing, and such creative ways of sharing it with technology is heartwarming.  And this video from Twenty One Pilots is a perfect example, pulling their families into it to create a fun video and a super catchy song for our times.  And watch until the end, the last few seconds are the cherry on top.