Trees and trees and trees
Hello my favorite people!
Happy November. Happy November 1, to be precise. I’m determined to get back to sending the Report on the first of the month. If I don’t send it on the first, it’s like who cares, there are no rules and then I slack off even further, and before I know it it’s the 15th, or the 18th, and I seize up because now I feel like it has to be ABOUT something. Whereas, if the rule is I have to just fucking send it on the first, maybe I won’t take myself so seriously? Or something.
R and I got back this morning from a three week road trip/working vacation. We pulled up to our little house (man I love our house) right around 6am, as the last coyote was trotting home to bed. I’m tired but I’m in a wicked good mood. We saw both dads, saw lakes and ocean and rocky beaches, birds of prey, baby deer, mink, field mice, blue jays. Saw trees and trees and trees. Red ones and yellow ones and a whole lot of evergreens. Maybe that’s why the good mood—all those trees passing across my eyeballs. It must be.
Also, I managed to stay off the internet for most of the time we were in BC. The trick was, I didn’t sign onto the wifi in the cabin where we were staying, and the cell signal was terrible, I had to go out onto the (chilly) back porch, scraping my phone through the air to get one bar of service, which allowed me to check email a few times a day but discouraged me from doing anything rash like load a website or read the news.
You guys, I got so much done. Writing. Thinking. Talking to people instead of just Mmmmhmmmming with my eyes glued to a screen.
IS LIFE BETTER OFFLINE? This is the burning question. —She types into a web app, preparing to send her e-newsletter.
*****
This month in print: I’ve been reading short stories by Lucia Berlin, inspired by how spare her writing is, and how vivid. It has a definite Bukowski vibe (both writers were published by Black Sparrow Press) but it feels more authentic. And Nina Stibbe’s Love, Nina, a breezy, captivating collection of letters. The protagonist is a 20-year-old from Leicestershire, which I gather is England’s equivalent of, I dunno, Wisconsin? who moves to London in the early 80s to nanny for the editor of the London Review of Books. Thrown into an intellectual crowd of playwrights, theater critics, and film directors, and caring for two quite intellectual boys, Nina has this unsophisticated but clear-eyed, completely charming way of looking at the world, and the dialogue she captures is so great.
This month in “fashion”: I interviewed a dozen fellow filmmakers for a Racked piece on the Best Clothes for Extreme Weather. Some of the recs are fashionable and some are very much not (I’M LOOKIN AT YOU CONVERTIBLE PANTS), but all of them are wildly useful.
This month in tacos: Should you find yourself in Cumberland, or “the Portland of the Comox Valley,” as my friend L likes to call it, Biblio Taco is Not Bad. The beef taco, served with pico de gallo and crispy onion, was my favorite, but the smoked wild salmon with seaweed salad gets points for being hella West Coast-y Canadian.
This month on the small screen: If I may, Project Runway is killer this season. It is perhaps the best cast we’ve ever cast—so much talent and so much drama. Please ignore the fact that it's a Weinstein production, and that Harvey used his ties to fashion to prey on models (😖), and find a way to watch it!! Wow that's a tough sell huh. TWC is scrubbing his name and the Weinstein company logo out of the credits, but I don't what that solves really...
*****
xoxo,
Laramie
Happy November. Happy November 1, to be precise. I’m determined to get back to sending the Report on the first of the month. If I don’t send it on the first, it’s like who cares, there are no rules and then I slack off even further, and before I know it it’s the 15th, or the 18th, and I seize up because now I feel like it has to be ABOUT something. Whereas, if the rule is I have to just fucking send it on the first, maybe I won’t take myself so seriously? Or something.
R and I got back this morning from a three week road trip/working vacation. We pulled up to our little house (man I love our house) right around 6am, as the last coyote was trotting home to bed. I’m tired but I’m in a wicked good mood. We saw both dads, saw lakes and ocean and rocky beaches, birds of prey, baby deer, mink, field mice, blue jays. Saw trees and trees and trees. Red ones and yellow ones and a whole lot of evergreens. Maybe that’s why the good mood—all those trees passing across my eyeballs. It must be.
Also, I managed to stay off the internet for most of the time we were in BC. The trick was, I didn’t sign onto the wifi in the cabin where we were staying, and the cell signal was terrible, I had to go out onto the (chilly) back porch, scraping my phone through the air to get one bar of service, which allowed me to check email a few times a day but discouraged me from doing anything rash like load a website or read the news.
You guys, I got so much done. Writing. Thinking. Talking to people instead of just Mmmmhmmmming with my eyes glued to a screen.
IS LIFE BETTER OFFLINE? This is the burning question. —She types into a web app, preparing to send her e-newsletter.
*****
This month in print: I’ve been reading short stories by Lucia Berlin, inspired by how spare her writing is, and how vivid. It has a definite Bukowski vibe (both writers were published by Black Sparrow Press) but it feels more authentic. And Nina Stibbe’s Love, Nina, a breezy, captivating collection of letters. The protagonist is a 20-year-old from Leicestershire, which I gather is England’s equivalent of, I dunno, Wisconsin? who moves to London in the early 80s to nanny for the editor of the London Review of Books. Thrown into an intellectual crowd of playwrights, theater critics, and film directors, and caring for two quite intellectual boys, Nina has this unsophisticated but clear-eyed, completely charming way of looking at the world, and the dialogue she captures is so great.
This month in “fashion”: I interviewed a dozen fellow filmmakers for a Racked piece on the Best Clothes for Extreme Weather. Some of the recs are fashionable and some are very much not (I’M LOOKIN AT YOU CONVERTIBLE PANTS), but all of them are wildly useful.
This month in tacos: Should you find yourself in Cumberland, or “the Portland of the Comox Valley,” as my friend L likes to call it, Biblio Taco is Not Bad. The beef taco, served with pico de gallo and crispy onion, was my favorite, but the smoked wild salmon with seaweed salad gets points for being hella West Coast-y Canadian.
This month on the small screen: If I may, Project Runway is killer this season. It is perhaps the best cast we’ve ever cast—so much talent and so much drama. Please ignore the fact that it's a Weinstein production, and that Harvey used his ties to fashion to prey on models (😖), and find a way to watch it!! Wow that's a tough sell huh. TWC is scrubbing his name and the Weinstein company logo out of the credits, but I don't what that solves really...
*****
xoxo,
Laramie
Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to The Laramie Report: