This Week: Five Things That Caught My Eye

new photography, summer travel hacks and unraveling the uncanniness of "The Rehearsal"

Hi good people,

This week I’ve been taking a (free!) transcendental meditation course through the David Lynch foundation and feeling a little high on my own supply. It’s helping me parse and process the Diddy case, among other things. Here’s what’s moving my spirit this week.

Naima Green, Soubrette, 2023, Archival pigment print, 35 x 35 inches

1. Naima has a new show at Astor Weeks. Go because you are tired of feeling like New York doesn’t belong to the people anymore. Go because you want to support a new spot run by another artist. Go because Naima’s work always teleports you to another sensorial dimension. Go because the new work asks us to look beyond our expectations of images, the faces and bodies we demand to see, and savor the presence, life and textures that filters in when our gazes are subverted. Notice how it may attune you to towards the subtleties that get overlooked in your own life.

2. Marion’s idea for a recession proof dinner party, aka, cheap eats. I love feeding friends (and being fed) but sometimes I feel intimidated and prematurely exhausted by the task of making something fancy enough to withstand the litmus test of an Instagram story. (Social media will really have you believing there’s no such thing as a casual pizza party or taco night anymore.) And as the brilliant Mennlay points out, the hypervisible consumption (or appearance of consumption) of expensive food is the new luxury flex and we should all be wary of it. I needed to hear someone, like Marion, insist that “you can basically cook anything that tastes decent and call it a dinner party and people will be thrilled.” Case in point: I was recently invited over to warm up a jaw-dropping new home purchased by some friends and they served us a big Le Creuset of picadillo, an aromatic stew of tomato and ground beef, punctuated by raisins and olives, along with some rice and plantain chips out of the bag. It was simple — and the best meal I’ve had in weeks. I’m starting off small by having a friend over for a breakfast hang today, but this is my new thing: Being Instagram-unworthy in the name of care, communal experiences and power sharing/building, which we all desperately need.

3. I read The Strategist the way some people read the news. I just like to know what’s going on (aka for sale) and what people are up to (aka buying). I rarely buy things since I’m actively watching my budget right now. But their entry on PPBPs (phone-passport-boarding-pass bags) intrigued me. I’m pleased to announce that I have graduated from someone who once missed a flight because they were partying too hard in an airport Applebees to someone who has a zero chaos tolerance for travel policy. These days, I’m a pre-check, carry-on, early arrival to the lounge kinda guy. (I also religiously rely on these zippered mesh pouches from Muji for everyday intra-borough travel for all the loose little things that rattle around in my bags.) I’m going to Italy this summer with friends, and our email chain is full of strategizing how to navigate heightened border tensions in America and abroad, so I’ll take anything that potentially increases ease and lowers stress.

4. I’ve recently fallen into the strange and intoxicating world of Sayaka Murata through “Vanishing World,” her latest work translated into English, which constructs a future where all reproduction happens through technology like IVF. Sex and love are engineered out of society, destabilizing cis-hetero conventions (which we love) and forcing the reader to think about why our world is organized the way it is. Recently, a friend mentioned Elif’s profile of Murata in TNYer and I got a little more mesmerized, especially after reading about her writing process, which sounds bizarre and fascinating and dissociative and frankly, enviable. Now I’m onto “Life Ceremony,” a collection of her short stories, which includes a story about using human remains to make high-end fashion and home goods (shinbone bookshelves anyone?) and a love triangle between a young boy and girl, and the curtain in her bedroom, from the curtain’s perspective. Be forewarned! I wouldn’t recommend her work to everyone. But: I’m freaked out, I’m hooked, I’m in.

5. I’ve been slowly digesting season two of “The Rehearsal,” Nathan Fielder’s pseudo reality show x lab experiment hybrid. I didn’t finish the first season because watching him pretend to father an actor child unsettled me. This new season has a much more noble goal than the last - to investigate safety in the airline industry and reduce the number of commercial plane crashes. Allegedly. Like all Fielder projects, it takes so many sharp turns that you lose your way. I experience so much discomfort with this show when I watch it that it makes me curious about what’s happening in the galactic meatspace between my brain and my body. Is it exploitative? Is it mean? What I’m watching feels familiar, but uncanny. I can’t quite tell what’s real, and it’s almost like I’m training myself to learn how to spot dupes. Here’s its Felder, walking around a mobile laptop harness. Weirdly enough, the more outrageous parts of the show remind me a bit of AI “slop.” The scenarios and images manage linearity despite their nonsensicality — much like Chubby the Cat videos. (I will forever rue the day Quinta Brunson told Amy Poehler she loves them! I’m usually fine with wasting time on TikTok but those are hours I actually want back.) Aiden Walker made a very interesting point recently that relying on auto-generated material allows the ability to stay clear of responsibility for it and its impact, that you don’t have to worry about whether this art is cultivating social values or destroying it, as long as you’re laughing. At best, I chalk the show up to a boot camp on staying hypervigilent on all forms of media, a reminder that much of what we see/hear/consume/experience is almost always being manipulated by someone, or something behind the scenes.

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I’d love to hear what’s on your heart, mind and plate this month, if you want to share! I’m also taking recommendations. What are you listening to? Should I watch “Andor”? Where should I get my next sweet treat? Email me or leave a comment below. And as always, thank you for reading <3