End-of-week treats #1
A whole 112 -- 112! -- of you have decided to stick around, which is a party. If you all lived on my street, I'd say come for tea and cake
I once stood in a record store in Berlin and listened to this new Yo La Tengo album, from start to finish, without taking my backpack off my back. I wrote the band a postcard to thank them, referencing CS Lewis’s Surprised by Joy – yah, I know – and Ira wrote me back on a postcard of a Slinky. He acknowledged the spiritual disconnect.
Anyway, there’s spiritual joy. There’s bone-deep existential joy (children! love! being alone! art! the mountains! minimalism! maximalism! surrealism! stillness!). And then there’s the small stuff — the Haribo Tagada/grape-flavoured Hi-Chew/insert-your-sweet-of-choice-shaped moments that just make your day a bit better. Like an Aperol spritz on a hot day. (The Guardian recently asked me to write about why this orange drink is so enduringly happy-making and the brand instantly sent me two glasses and a bottle, so that was fun).
I woke up to 112 readers, which ticks at least two of those three boxes. So, before the next weekly post and as a Friday-morning-late-week booster, I thought I’d list some sweets for you. I’d absolutely love some lists back please.
An Aperol spritz, even on a not-so-hot day, with an olive in it. OR the Amaretto sour Will made for me and Nell, with a maraschino cherry, on a recent Saturday afternoon.
Eating that maraschino cherry.
The word “maraschino” (and Ezra Furman singing it)
Awkwafina and Simu Liu doing karaoke and cutting buses in half in Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings.
Thundercat’s nails (the best cameo and one of the better moments in The Book of Boba Fett).
Nathan Apodaca AKA Doggface vibing to Dreams by Fleetwood Mac — still.
Skateparks and skate murals and watching skateboarders do their thing:
Being barefoot. And a viral video I’ve lost but am always looking for of a skinny guy in the woods (I’m guessing in California somewhere? can you help find it?), walking barefoot in mud and just giddy with the joy of it all. Everyone who saw that wanted to feel like that for a hot minute.
Touching my toes with straight legs.
Doing a straight arm doorway stretch and a finger extension stretch.
Man, just stretching.
The D Soraki giving his all to Diana Ross’s I’m Coming Out:
And Sara (at 2:12 in), from Spain/Colombia, being perfect to Lojay’s Monalisa. You know what, just watching all these contestants, repeatedly.
Robert Burton’s obsession with the Lion King and the many ways he likes to answer the phone.
Newspaper corrections and clarifications.
House plants (do you talk to yours? I talk to mine.)
The shadows and play of light on the walls of my home.
You lot. Each one of you <3 THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE, can’t tell you how delighted I am that you are.