Same Stuff, Different Stuff
Volume 1
The people have spoken! You want the same stuff and different stuff. That’s great news and I’m happy to oblige. Thank god ‘feet pics’ didn’t win. Maintaining an off-season pedicure is so much work.
In honor of these poll results, I’m playing around with a new format called SAME STUFF /// DIFFERENT STUFF. Let’s get into it!
SAME STUFF
The same stuff is easy! This past week I took in some culture, would ya believe it? I saw excellent art AND got to watch Mulholland Drive on the big screen at MoMA. Lucky me! Have you seen the film? It’s one of my absolute favorites. I identify so deeply with the movie’s thesis “whoever said describing your dream is boring hasn’t heard about my damn dream.” Have I mentioned this thing I heard last year — that everyone in your dreams is actually just you? That really unlocked something for me (maybe 2026 will be the year I finally read Carl Jung). I think the movie tracks with this logic quite well actually. RIP David Lynch. A genius and a Grade A hottie. Doesn’t come along very often, does it?
Earlier in the week, I bopped around Queens and Brooklyn in the most beautiful weather of the year, so far, to visit the Noguchi Museum and MOTHERBOX. A perfect day! The group show at MOTHERBOX is in tribute to Blanche DuBois, which is a terrific theme. I loved seeing how each artist thematically interpreted and approached the character. Melodrama is really in the air right now!
The Noguchi was perfect as always although I suspect someone listed it somewhere as a place with a vibe and so it was filled to the brim with vibe-seekers. That’s ok! I don’t mind crowds, I wouldn’t live here if I did. But I do not-so-secretly hope that will die down a bit before my next visit. How else am I going to feel contemplative??? Jk but not really. Funny enough, Noguchi’s work also has a “walked into a dream” kind-of-thing going, don’t you think? In a calmer way than Lynch but you never know what’s around the next corner, I suppose. Imagine seeing a staircase like this in a dream? I would be unsettled!
DIFFERENT STUFF
Now how about some different stuff? I was so inspired by the current exhibit at the museum, Noguchi’s New York. The show is a lovely survey of the public art and works that Noguchi planned and (sometimes) executed for New York City. Read this quote and tell me you don’t feel moved!!
Like a lot of New Yorkers, I was one of those bitten by some kind of an idealism … New Yorkers after all felt a special relationship to the world. They were on this island looking out on the whole damn world, which they had to do something about. My way was not the way of words, but the way of doing things, making something which might sort of approach that which one felt the world could be. Little spots here and there, so that instead of going to the moon, you bring the moon to you.
Isamu Noguchi, 1980
I know this doesn’t seem different at first glance but I promise it is! I want to switch gears a bit to use this space… this platform if you will, to tell you all about how much I hate Robert Moses.
LOOK AT WHAT HE TOOK FROM US!!
Can you imagine watching some cutie pies absolutely shred down that thing? It would be the highlight of my life.
In grad school I read The Power Broker (likely place, etc.) and it genuinely changed the way I understood the city and its politics. For decades, citizens were expected to just accept the machinations of an unelected bureaucrat making major environmental and structural decisions without any constituent input. Excuse my language but what the fuck?? The repercussions of his choices are still felt to this day. I live in Queens where cars are king, just the way Bobby wanted it. It makes me want to tear my hair out! I live in this city because I HATE DRIVING! All I want to do is ride a train being controlled by a fine union worker to my destination. Is that so much to ask?
With that, I’ll leave you with a recommendation / proof of my un-dying love for the train. If you struggle to fall asleep, may I suggest ambient train sounds? They really do the trick!
How are we all feeling about this change of pace? I think I love it! Most of all, I’m excited to continue Earth Horse into its second year. I’m so glad you’re along for the ride.
<3
Mulholland Dr. on the big screen was so epic, for no other reason than the sound being so enveloping. NEXT LEVEL.