feeling anxious? watch.listen.snack.

a priest and a rabbi walk into a romcom + a chill playlist + brave potatoes

Hey-ho,

The news is hard all over. Election. Milton. Persistent wars. Here’s a way to help those impacted by storms in Florida, and North Carolina. Of course World Central Kitchen continues to provide meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. *If you need help navigating relief from the storm damage, check here.*

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We’re in Arles for three days and I must tell you, Arles has a Russian doll of a bookstore. Not joking. It includes: a cinema, a restaurant, an art store, a record store, and a HAMMAM! As a pal noted, a hammam in a bookstore is better than a cafe, no espresso machine grinding, whirring, and spitting, drowning out the readings.

Passer du coq à l’âne, which figuratively means changing the subject, but literally means to pass from the rooster to the donkey, we went to the Van Gogh Foundation and saw a wonderful show, La Haute Note Jaune, about Van Gogh’s drive to achieve a “high yellow note.” The exhibit had just one Van Gogh, and so many playful pieces, paintings, sculptures, and video installations. It got me looking for yellow everywhere.

And it made me wish (once again) that I’d bought this mug for myself last year at MOMA, in NYC.

Yesterday I saw a quote about the way desire reminds us that we’re alive. True. And travel, and art, and hearing everyday a language I only barely understand… all of it.

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watch:

I read in

Caroline Chambers

terrific substack (also check her great new cookbook, WHAT TO COOK WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE COOKING) that she’d given up reading *literary* fiction in favor of romance novels and that her life improved! “Xanax in a book!” she says. Man-0-Man, I’m nauseously hopeful that we won’t all need Xanax in a bottle after the election. (Are you registered to vote?)

Some people think romance novels are a guilty pleasure. I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If it pleases and doesn’t harm, then why the guilt? I’m maybe not a huge reader of romance though I do have books I love and recommend here, and I certainly vibe on the meet-cute, on love-and-fluff, but I also like a solid dose of real life, it makes me feel less alone.

In my tv viewing, I’ll take loads of love-and-fluff. So what am I currently watching? NOBODY WANTS THIS, with Kristen Bell and scraggily bearded Adam Brody, in which a rabbi and a shiksa fall in love. It’s a delight. My husband and I are against a TV in the bedroom. (I know, we’re insufferable in some of our opinions. We also travel with carry-on luggage and we’re smug about it, even as we sit on our petites valises, sweating and groaning, trying to shut them… ) but we binged this show on my computer in our hotel. It seemed right to snuggle under the covers, and watch the chemistry of this couple. We giggled and then went to sleep happy!

There’s another hot man of the cloth in FLEABAG, from back in the beforetime of 2016, starring Phoebe Waller Bridges, who by the way, gives the world’s best side eye…

Where NOBODY WANTS THIS is dandelion fluff, FLEABAG has some gravitas in the best possible way. The humor keeps coming, but the undercurrent is wrenching loss, similar to the sad/funny story in the wonderful novel by Catherine Newman, WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS. (Isn’t it interesting that the show and the novel both have *want* in the title, hmmm…)

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What’s your fluff-and-love, not-guilty pleasure?

Maybe your not-guilty pleasure is spending a day writing at my house! If you’re in Portland, I’ve only got four spots left so grab your seat, ASAP:

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listen:

With coffee in bed, I watched one of my favorite singers, Cecile McLorin Salvant, sing this beautiful song. I mean, the lyrics of this tender ballad slay me every time. Love and yearning for someone who isn’t around:

In the evening,
When the kettle's on for tea,
An old familiar feeling
Settles over me,
And it's your face I see,
And I believe that you are there!

It grabbed me at “old familiar feeling,” that sort of calm, comfortable melancholy we all feel at times. So I did the “song radio” thing on Spotify and it made a terrific playlist. It’s mellow and has beautiful piano. I hope you like it!

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snack:

I don’t know why it took me two weeks into our trip to finally start ordering Patatas Bravas at every meal. Can’t stop, won’t stop. Here’s how I will make them at home, complete w/aioli and delightful salsa brava.

Patatas Bravas

• 2lbs yellow-fleshed potatoes, cut in 1½-inch chunks

• Kosher salt

• ½c extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 head garlic, separated into cloves but not peeled

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put potato chunks in a large bowl, season generously with salt and toss to coat. Leave for a few minutes to let potatoes absorb salt. Add olive oil and unpeeled garlic cloves and toss to coat well.