It was my birthday on Saturday.
I turned thirty-five. My friends took me to the spa for a massage and some much-needed downtime. Later they bought me a steak and a nice bottle of wine.
I was in bed by one.
This is how I like things now: simple and timely.
As I type this, I’m in bed with a cold—another birthday present.
Last night, I ordered mulligatawny soup, extra spicy. I burned my mouth scarfing it down, and then promptly passed out for thirteen hours.
I found a place to live, too.
Maybe this year is done kicking my ass, though I personally doubt it.
I’m currently working on an essay about how Kathy Acker and Anthony Bourdain are mythologized the same way, and I may dig out something from the drafts that I’ve been unsure about posting. Lots to come; please bear with me through the move.
For now, here’s a piece about obsession for paid subscribers.
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I love you.
A few years ago, a friend e-mailed me this interview with Dorothea Lasky, published by The Creative Independent in 2018.
She wrote: this reminded me of you.
She was referring to Lasky’s answer to Fortune’s question:
Do you have any daily practices that you use for tapping into that metaphysical source that seems to guide such a huge amount of your work?
To which Lasky responds:
I don’t necessarily do daily rituals in terms of actions or something, but I think that the brain is the most magical thing. “Magic” is a word that has this stigma where when we say it, we feel like we’re being silly. But for me, something that I engage in, whether I want to or not, is obsession. Obsession to me is a really important ritual. It’s like the kind of thing where I don’t actually feel like my … I don’t want to use the word “healthy” or whatever, but I don’t feel like myself unless I’m truly obsessed with something or someone or just in some sort of enthusiastic zone.
Obsession is something that is really hard to create, obviously. But I think that daily, I try to go and search some things to be obsessed about. When you’re truly obsessed with something, you don’t have any ego and you would do anything for it, and you are of course devoted enough to it to want to write about it or think about, and turn it over and think of all the possibilities around it. I think that’s the thing that’s part of my practice.
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