7.22.24
I've been busy. I've been good. (Please ask me about Joni Mitchell.)
Hi Friends,
It’s been a few weeks since we last talked, but you’ve been on my mind. I’ve been busy in the sweltering heat of a Florida summer. And sometimes as writers/creatives/human beings, I think we all benefit from stepping away from the “doing” side of things. Sometimes we need to just be where we are, doing whatever it is we do. We need to spend time with people, with places, with ourselves. We need to be out there in the world. Going for a swim, reading a book, watching a movie. A lot of things happen without our intervention. Sometimes what that project needs is the same thing we do: a break.
This summer has been a memorable one already. I’ve spent more time with friends the past few weeks than I have in years, and this has been a great reminder that we aren’t made to live life alone. Although I haven’t been writing here, I have been working on plenty of things, both big and small. I’ve been working on some exciting home remodeling projects. I’ve been toying with the idea of seriously studying architecture. And I’ve been listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell. But more on that later.
Let’s chirp.
Some home inspiration: Kitchens
I’ve recently begun the very, very, very early stages of remodeling my kitchen. Which mostly means that I have taken down a single cabinet and also discovered that there is some amount of hardwood underneath my current linoleum floors. But there is so so so much more to think about before any serious work takes place. So in the mean time, here are a few inspiration photos from Pinterest for your viewing pleasure. (Not included are the all of the ways I would really just love to cover the whole thing in stainless steel.)
For anyone interested in interior design
should need no introduction. But she also happens to have a fantastic Substack, Remotely, which I highly recommend.Film of the week: Kinds of Kindness (directed by Yorgos Lanthimos)
Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness
While recently visiting friends in St. Petersburg, I had the pleasure of going to the Tampa Theatre to see Kinds of Kindness. I am not what I would consider a frequent moviegoer. The last time I went to the movies was just over a year ago to see Asteroid City (directed by Wes Anderson). So going to the Tampa Theatre made going to the movies a much more intentional experience. The venue itself was a really neat place, and to add to that, the film was shown in a much smaller, much more intimate, 43-seat screening room that had probably less than 20 people total. And with this being the first film I’ve seen from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (best known for The Lobster (2017), The Favourite (2019), and Poor Things (2024)), I wasn’t at all sure what was in store.
The film was unique in the fact that it was an anthology with 3 separate parts, and 3 separate story lines, however each part starred the same actors. Without giving away any spoilers, the film largely centers around the lengths that people will go to for one another, while also commenting on the agency we have in our own lives. With clear, and often humorous, examples of profound devotion, desperation, and the need for belonging. With no shortage of oddities or moments that simply leave viewers uncomfortable, I would definitely describe the film as graphic. But overall, I appreciated it for what it was, as it was definitely a conversation starter amongst the friends I went with.
The film left plenty of people in the audience confused and also comically disturbed, evident by their own laughter. And at the end of it I stood up and said to the viewers around me “Well, I think we all need group therapy now.”
My personal rating of the film: 3 out of 5 stars
Playlist of the week: Joni’s
A few months ago I did the very “in” thing and finally made my way around to getting a record player. It’s something I’ve always wanted and something that I’ve certainly enjoyed having since. One of the biggest changes I noticed once playing records at home, was that it entirely changed the way I listen to music. In a day and age where we mostly listen to shuffled favorites, or AI-generated playlists “Made For You”, listening to vinyl creates an environment where things slow down, and you are forced to listen to an album from start to finish. Because of this, I’ve found myself eager to listen to more albums as a whole, and beyond that, I’ve found myself wanting to explore artists’ entire discographies.
As a result, at some point recently, I decided that I wanted to go through artists’ discographies and craft a sort of “Greatest Hits” of my own for each artist that I dive into. The rules are as follows:
Look through an artists’ discography, and study the average length of their albums (for example: the average Joni Mitchell album is around 10 songs).
If an artist has a limited number of studio albums (say less than 10), then the length of the playlist will be the same as their average album length.
In the case of someone who has an expansive discography (such as Joni), then the playlist will consist of one song from each album.
I know… This is a lot. But as much as I sometimes wish I were different, this is the way I am. I’m, as Sylvia Plath referred to herself: “so pathetically intense. I can’t be any other way”. I always know how to create another project for myself with unnecessary difficulty. But in all honesty it has been an incredibly rewarding way to listen to music, and to connect with artists I enjoy. That being said, when I stumbled upon a copy of Joni Mitchell’s Blue and a week later onto a $10 copy of Court and Spark, it only felt natural that I dive deeper into her music.
Joni’s discography spans 5 decades and consists of 19 studio albums, so this was certainly a daunting task, but it was really enjoyable. The Canadian-born artist is best known for her folk records in the 60s and early 70s, but there’s a lot of great music that takes place after her biggest commercial successes. Joni has been very open about the backlash of making a record as sentimental as Blue, and she’s also been open about the confusion many had around her music in the late 70s, 80s, and 90s that took a sharp turn towards jazz and rock. Needless to say, as someone who has a wide variety in music taste, there was a lot to love, so picking one song off of each album was quite challenging. Leaving off songs like “California”, “A Case of You”, “River”, and “Big Yellow Taxi” felt very wrong, but my rules are the rules. One album was skipped because it consists of Joni’s covers of her own earlier songs, so the playlists consists of my 18 “favorite” Joni Mitchell songs that I think also capture her music’s changes over 39 years.
My favorite albums: Blue, Court and Spark, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Hejira, Night Ride Home, Shine
My favorite songs: “Cactus Tree”, “Help Me”, “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio”, “Little Green”, “This Place”, “Coyote”
If you like Joni Mitchell you should listen to: Joan Baez, Kate Bush, Karen Dalton, Tia Blake, Carole King, Linda Perhacs, Jessica Pratt, Norah Jones
What I ate this week: Granola, peach cake, risotto, and things from the garden.
This week, two of my friends came over and gifted me the experience of doing our own at-home Chopped challenge. They went to our locally-owned grocery store (always ready to give a shoutout to Ward’s) and picked ingredients at random, delivered them to me in a sealed box, and then watched as I came up with something on the spot for dinner. My ingredients this week were: Risotto rice, bok choy, Japanese eggplant, daikon radish, parsley, white onion, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, and a London broil. So I chopped and cooked all of the veggies and made a risotto that was topped with parmesan and London broil. For a last minute, surprise of a dish, I think we were all pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. I really appreciated them giving me the challenge and I had a great time figuring it all out. Definitely something we’ll be doing again.
That’s it for week 29. I hope you have a great week. Love you all.
Talk soon,
-Zach
this photo is so special!