5 things for friday
the ghosts of new york, a new (old) favorite pod, the supremely screwed up show i can't get enough of, and more
happy friday, friends!
can you believe these tulips?! this is a no filter photo, snapped on a cloudy stroll home from the west village on thursday evening. i saw them peeking out through the railings of a garden and thought, those cannot possibly be real. but there they were! shining brightly, practically popping off the grassy backdrop behind them. after a day spent writing (with a quick break for a 30 minute chat with a lovely recruiter—i am still job-hunting, after all), i realized i’d gotten a mere 6,000 steps thus far, a function of a rainy day + hours at my desk in the zone, and decided i’d take myself for a long walk. what luck that at that very moment, a message came in from penny’s vet: her medication was ready for pick up! it was 4:40pm, it would take me a little under an hour to walk to the west village, and they closed at 6. the timing was perfect, so i popped on a podcast, layered up (thursday was a chilly one!), and took to the streets.
i strolled down delancey until i hit bowery, then cut across spring street, which took me all the way through soho and over to king street (one of my favorite random blocks in the city, where a restaurant of the same name has occupied the corner of king + sixth avenue for as long as i have lived in the city). one of the things i both love and hate about new york is that it’s ever-changing. that bodega you recall from your wild nights in your twenties? it’s now a bank. before it was a bank, it was a tacqueria; before it was the bodega in which you bought red bull and giant bottles of sprite, it was a cobbler, perhaps, or maybe a nail salon. every building in new york has held so many souls, has seen so many stories. when you live here for a long time, walking around the city is a little bit like liaising with your ghosts. there are the streets you love dearly, the ones that hold bright, brilliant memories, memories shiny as a brand new penny. there are the streets that haunt you, rattling your bones as you walk by and pray that your past doesn’t jump out and dropkick you back in time.
you can walk nearly everywhere in new york, you can walk miles upon miles, year after year, and still, there will always be something new to see. something you had not seen before, or something that was not there before. it is the magical thing about cities: they, like the people who inhabit them, are constantly shape-shifting. constantly pushing towards a better, brighter version of themselves. some days, i think that perhaps i might like a quieter life. a life in a small town upstate, a small town like the one i grew up in. and then i think about how attached i’ve grown to walking. to having an entire world—or at least, what feels like it—at my fingertips.
last night, i attended my apartment complex’s house committee meeting, and found myself—as the sole F building attendee—volunteering (or rather, being asked to volunteer) to be the building’s house rep (what exactly this means, i don’t quite know yet). i sat in a folding chair, listening to 15 or so of my neighbors talking about fixing our doors, and our elevators, and our gardens, and our community room. about setting up a training opportunity for narcan, which we recently began keeping in the building, should one of our neighbors need it. about movie nights, and fundraising opportunities, and solar panels. about the recently-donated piano that sits on our stage, a piano i chipped in $25 to fix up, because i thought i might like to learn to play again (i played as a kid; there is a baby grand sitting in my parents’ house, waiting for the day in which i have a home big enough to house it).
i looked around at this diverse group of people—some youngish like me, others having been in the building for 40 years—and i thought, how wonderful to live in a place in which community is all around me. do i wish that i didn’t fall asleep to the sound of sirens? of course. do i get tired of the honking, of the car alarms, of the fire alarms, of the sound of my upstairs neighbor vacuuming? of course. but i wouldn’t trade it, not for anything, not yet any way. because this city, it has soul. it has a wild, beating heart. it is not perfect—far from it—but it is my home. and in this time of stillness i have given myself, i feel more grateful for it than ever.
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man oh man friends, i have some GOOD recs this week. let’s get to it, shall we?
first things first: this week SLAYED ME on the podcast front. so much so that i truly struggled to select just one podcast to feature this week. like, don’t ask me to pick a favorite pod child! ultimately, though, i landed on this one, because it’s a show i had somewhat forgotten about, and am so happy to have rediscovered. sam fragoso is such an incredibly thoughtful interviewer. i love his questions, i love the soothing tone of his voice, i love the meandering, storytelling-centric way in which he goes about his interviews.
talk easy is 11/10. as is this particular episode with dev patel, who i’ve had a mega crush on since slumdog millionaire (you too?!). i don’t want to say much about the interview, because it’s wonderful and fascinating and i don’t want to spoil it. but i did find this particular snippet interesting: remember the film lion, which patel starred in in 2016? i have a VERY vivid memory of SOBBING at the final scene. like, full on ugly crying. as it turns out, that scene was the very first one patel shot for the film. sometimes i forget that movies are (for the most part) shot out of order. it makes the craft of acting so much more impressive, don’t you think?
ps: i also really loved this episode of wiser than me with THE ina garten, and this interview with photographer alex lau on this is TASTE.
i’ve long been a fan of author jo piazza. i especially loved 2018’s charlotte walsh likes to win, and 2021’s we are not like them, which she cowrote with christine pride. i’ve been seeing her latest novel, the sicilian inheritance, allll over my feeds, and so earlier this week, in search of something that felt both light and meaty, i downloaded the book on audible. it’s marketed as one part mystery, one part family saga, with a side of ‘sex in a beach cave’ (!). this is not inaccurate, but i almost feel like it doesn’t do the book justice? it’s a really wonderful story about women taking back their power, in any and all the ways they can. it’s told from two POVs: that of sara marsala, a present day philadelphian whose life is falling apart, and her great-grandmother serafina, who may or may not have been murdered many moons ago. the book follows sara to sicily, where she embarks on an adventure to find out the truth about serafina’s death—and also, to see if the deed for a plot of land her recently-deceased aunt rosie has left her is the real thing.
it’s a romp of a book, both heartwarming and lots of fun, and i really enjoyed it.
ps: if you’re a big reader, follow me on goodreads! i try and rank/save every book i read (and i read about 50-60 a year!)
[trigger warning: sexual assault (in a tv show). if this doesn’t feel safe for you right now—or ever!—please feel free to keep scrolling]
what does it say about me that i absolutely love a dark, f*ed up show/movie/story? baby reindeer, which was recently released on netflix, is just about as dark as they come—and i cannot look away. the tv adaptation is based on a play, which is based on a real life experience the comedian richard gadd (he plays himself in the show!) had in which he—after showing kindness to a random stranger—found himself with a stalker who nearly destroyed his life. the show takes a sharp turn in episode 4, which delves deeply into both drug use and sexual assault (hence the TW above). it is incredibly sad and difficult to watch, but it’s played remarkably by gadd, whose performance is so nuanced and vulnerable that you cannot help but be drawn in. ever since i finished the episode, i’ve been thinking a lot about why people—and particularly men—don’t report sexual assault. if you think you’re in the headspace to watch the show (i’ve still got a few eps to go), i’d highly recommend. i think people will be talking about this one.
here’s how i know i really love a recipe: i return to it again and again. such is the case with this easy peasy miso carrot ginger salad dressing, which i make literally any time i buy a bag of carrots at the grocery store. it tastes like the kind you get at japanese restaurants, but somehow, even better (probably because it’s fresh)? i’ve made it with pre-shredded carrots, and whole carrots i’ve shredded myself, and both have worked well. i am a bonafide salad lover, so it’s not like i need convincing to eat lettuce (side note: i realllllly need a sweatshirt that reads I LOVE LETTUCE. should i make salad loving merch?!), but this dressing goes a long way towards making an average bowl of veggies feel like a restaurant meal.
ps: i also somehow ended up with fast-ripening bananas earlier this week, and made a batch of molly baz’s brown butter banana bread. holy moly, is it good. oh so rich and definitely a sweet cake vs. a bread, but still. i subbed greek yogurt for labne, and added chocolate chips, because life is short.
i have recovered from the bug glasses debacle of last week, and realized, whilst packing for a quick overnight to pennsylvania this weekend, that i have neglected to show you guys this VERY cute quilted toiletry tote i randomly discovered on amazon. as a general rule, i try not to order on amazon for things like this—things i could ostensibly get from an IRL store, or anyone OTHER than jeff bezos; that man does not need more money—but every so often, i slip up and order the cute random thing. this was one of those orders. when it arrived, it was both bigger and better quality than i’d imagined. so, i thought i’d share!
ps: because there are not one but two malin and goetz products peeking out from the sides of this photo, i thought i’d remind you that i am a big fan of the strawberry candle (and ALL their candles, really), as well as their bergamot fragrance, which is springtime in a bottle—and that i have a code to share with you. if you shop at the link below, use code SARAH15 for 15% off. friendly reminder that a bougie candle is just about the best damn gift you can give (IMHO).
and that, friends, is where i leave you. if you like this post, it would mean the world to me if you’d hit the little heart icon, as well as consider sharing it with your network—so that the grand weekly can be seen by more people.
Thank you for the podcast recommendation. I also love Dev Patel and cannot wait to listen to that interview this weekend!
Big yes to the salad lover merchandise 🥗