The Keeper’s Work | 12.21.23
INDULGE
As a child, I begrudgingly ate panettone, longing for more American treats like chocolate chip cookies. But now, I’ll take panettone over chocolate cookies every time. ISN’T AGING GRAND? I’ve had my fair share of these bready cakey mounds, so it’s not too bold for me to claim that nobody does it better than Roy. Be warned, you will pay a premium, so only unwrap with company you really love. Traditional panettone is made with fruit, but I love this chocolate version.
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WATCH
Yorgos Lanthimos newest film Poor Things is a Surrealist dream and nightmare set against one of the most fantastical production designs I’ve seen. Created entirely on soundstages, it is a feat of creativity as designers Heath and Price pull from a wide range of historical references and render them askew playing with elements like color, and scale. Read more through Deadline here.
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READ/LOOK
Craig Mod is one of my favorite writers and thinkers. Originally from the Midwest, he moved to Japan for undergrad and has remained since. Mod has made a creative practice of taking very long walks throughout Japan, usually along historic pilgrimage routes, all the while photographing, writing, thinking, recording. His most recent self-published book, Things Become Other Things, is a stunning compendium of his decade of walking the Kii peninsula, with short reflective essay-ish passages and poignant, rich photography. I cried no less than five times reading it and got so much out of his insights. The book itself is a gorgeous object, whether closed or open to any page.
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VISIT
I am ‘internet captivated’ by the current show Evocações, Ismael Nery and Lewis Hammond at the Brazilian gallery Mendes Wood’s Casa Iramaia location. Curated by Germano Dushá, the show features eight 1920’s works by Ismael Nery alongside six contemporary works, created for this exhibition, by Lewis Hammond. United by eerie settings, ghostly figures, and rich tones, it’s fascinating to see how artists separated by 100 years of history search for meaning and grapple with the issues of their time through their works.
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TOUR
Lately, I feel like house tours are delivering. This one is exceptional. Saffron Aldridge and Scarlett Supple restored a Scottish farmhouse with keen consideration - what to keep, what to introduce, etc. A big highlight is the mix of textures and the scale of their application - key to creating an atmospheric country house.
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LISTEN
The holidays are my favorite time of year, do not get me wrong. But now that I’m older, I sometimes wonder - why are we doing all of this again, and how did we get here? A fantastic episode of Not Past It really illuminated how the Santa we’ve universally accepted (red suit, big beard, house in the north pole, etc.) came to be, and how this version spread to such breadth. The episode is full of tidbits worth listening for, but I’ll give one fact away: the modern image of Santa was created by Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist who incorporated the Santa figure into his works in the 1860s. Thomas Nast also popularized the Elephant and Donkey party symbols. The more you know..
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