On My Mind: Everything I’m Using Not to Look at Screens
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It is birthday week in my family: Mine is this Sunday; my mom’s is today. Last Christmas, she gifted me an introductory weaving class atLoop of the Loom, a fiber workshop that had my favorite booth at theRhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival(I bought a skein of undyed cotton yarn that looks like ramen noodles). On a recent trip to Vermont, I poked my head into a fiber store calledSix Loose Ladiesand found the juiciest, silkiest mohair yarn in bright tomato red, so I’m sticking with the fiber gift theme for her birthday.
I live my life in devotion to the textile arts, but I am not great at sewing or knitting. I used to feel worse about this than I do now; I think it is important to have a hobby you love enough to stick with even when the outcome is underwhelming. Also I’ve mostly sewn on dinky machines, which suck. (“I avoid using modern plastic machines since they make me feel like a bad sewer, which is not the case,”Vaquera designer Bryn Taubensee told mea few years ago.) This spring, I’m hoping to level up — ideally by finding a shared space with a few machines so I don’t have to buy my own.
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I don’t know how to describe what has recently happened to my body other than it feels like apush puppetwith the strings cut. This massage tool has helped. It has three sides — a rounded edge, tines that simulate fingers, and a sharp point I call “the guillotine.” Like its namesake, the guillotine is divisive. There is a certain kind of pain that makes you understand why jamming a plastic wedge into your back would feel good, and if that isn’t you, I understand that it sounds awful. I brought it on vacation recently and a couple of friends tried it out; one did not like it, and the other was like, “Oh yeah, this is great.”
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I need a new pair of sneakers, and I’ve been torn between the gothy yet campy simplicity of the Montero shoes from Mexican brand Cruda or something with a million bits and bobs,like vintage Y2K Nikes. I am struggling to find new sneakers with the industrial-designer turned mad-scientist flavor I am searching for — comment if you know any.
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Wrangler Brush Guard Pants
The first warm day in New York is when people IPO how they’re planning to dress all spring and summer. I will leak mine: I am wearing these vintage Wrangler brush pants from eBay (I got them altered atShopboy), a striped blue Calvin Klein dress shirt, a tiny latex tote bag, andFila Skeletoes, which I originally bought because they were funny, but they have become my most comfortable walking shoe. The Wranglers are great — look for the “made in the USA” label for thick, durable cotton.
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I should be a good journaler, but I’m not. I’ve gone through periods of taking extensive notes on everything from graph-paper pads to Airtable and Notion, and inevitably (hmm!) those systems work great for to-do lists but poorly for introspection. As mycolleague Martha Tuber can attest, the right pen and pad matter, so I’m trying out the combo of a red fountain pen and a thick Maruman spiral notebook.
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Outflows are important in home organization. If you don’t have an answer to the question,Where does this go when I’m done with it?, clutter is inevitable. I’ve decided the problem keeping me from journaling is the lack of a dedicated spot for finished journals. In the past, I wanted to buy a safe because I was so terrified of anyone reading mine, but I never found one I liked. Now I’ve decided to buy these beautifuldocument casesfrom an online archival-supply store and keep them on a very high shelf.
I also want to file other things — miscellaneous drawings, plans, and lists that accumulate in my notebooks — and bought these red washer envelopes at City Papery in Manhattan to fill some future organizational purpose. I couldn’t find the exact same thing online, but the Enveseur ones above are close and come in a lot of contrasting colors.
I have been extremely online for most of my life — I was a weary forum-drama veteran by the age of 15 — but recently, looking at screens has made me feel sick. The major thoroughfares of online life have become clogged with slop, and I think it’s making me stupider. So I’m reading more. Sometimes I will close my computer and stare at the paint on the wall to practice looking at things that aren’t trying to grab my attention.
I lovedJaw Filler,a Raymond Chandler–esque noir centered on a trans commune in Sim World (first run is sold out, but you can preorder), and recently finishedThe Princess Casamassima,a weird one from Henry James, whose work I cherish so deeply I once made ameme accountabout it. I’m tearing throughThe Romance of American Communism,an affective history of the left thatmy brother-in-lawrecommended; it’s informative for anyone who has wondered why the Dems have mounted such a weak defense to rising fascism, and it’s a fascinating document of the texture of life in the early 20th century.
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If I had all the money in the world, I’d shop at APOC Home. It is boutique-tier expensive but looking is free, and looking at this stuff makes me feel joy and relief. It has such great stuff: I love theseAna Drucker bookends, thisaustere plywood chair, and thisfreaky spine tripod table.
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