Lux Lotus

Windowlicker (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Series)

Man, I'm late; I need a bike.

Windowlicker - from the French for window shopping: faire du lèche-vitrine - often appears on Tuesday and Thursdays at 10am EST-ish.

Glasvegas

I saw Glasvegas tonight. If Lux Lotus had a house band, they'd be it. That style! That sound! As far as shows go, it was so good it almost made me want to go back to Glasgow. But not quite.

The Weekend Report

Yesterday I caught up on sleep and laid around all afternoon. Then in the evening I went to Mr. Love & Squalor's birthday party, which was a bit unnerving as we'd only met the once, but I'm so glad I did. He notably left his own soiree twice on my account, once to show me the roof and the smashing view, and then to walk me to a cab 'round midnight. Color me impressed.  Right now it's Sunday night and there's a thunder and lightning storm in New York. Maybe it almost feels like spring. Doesn't it?

What I Do

Sometimes I feel burned out, especially in the spring, when I am trying to work as much as possible so that I can make enough money to take a vacation of sorts in the summer when everything in New York is as slow as molasses and too hot to breathe, and lately I've been a little down about it all. I can't be everywhere, I can't do everything, and it kills me to say No. Especially because I already do it all day. And I get tired. I wish there were a hundred me's, a thousand me's, but there's just one. And not just because I often feel so different from other people, so lonely; mostly because I get things done. So I try to focus on what I can and will say Yes to, my deepest desires, the good I can create in the world, what do I really want to do with this one life I've got? And when I get tired of my job, as is occasionally the case, I remind myself that, among the many things I'm happy about having had a hand in, I introduced David Lynch to Au Revoir Simone via Barnes & Noble's Upstairs at the Square. And I smile.

A Reason to Read: BABYJI

Abha Dawesar's debut novel, Babyji, is one of those books I meant to pick up when it came out a few years ago but didn't until recently. And I'm glad I did; it's a precise definition of reading for pleasure:

"What are you thinking about?" she asked as she pulled the covers over herself.
"How quantum physics applies to life," I said curtly.
"Tell me about it."
"Wave, particle, wave, particle. One falls in and out of love as if one is jumping over a skipping rope," I said.
"Are you in or out at the moment?" India asked.
I thought her question was very clever. I was out when I had started talking about it. But talking about love made me love her.
She slid closer to me.
"One can never know one's position with any certainty," I said.
Her coming closer had made me very hot.
"What do you want right now? Or don't you know that with any certainty?" she asked.
"I want to collapse my wave function into you," I said.

Now I want to go to India, more than ever, and read Dawesar's next novel, That Summer in Paris, too.

My Life in Pictures: Poets & Writers Gala

Here I am last night at the Ritz, where, after dinner, sublime author and supreme table host Tayari Jones and I had an impromptu photoshoot during dessert. I am wearing the dress my mother wore (in New Orleans, at age 28 or so) to the party the night before her wedding. It's always brought me luck.

Lux Lotus 'Round Midnight Poetry Hour

 

HOMECOMING by John Ashbery

"Weather drips quietly through the skeins
in my diary. What surly elision is this?

Who faxed the folks news of my homecoming,
even unto the platform number? The majestic parlor car
slides neatly into its berth, the doors fly open,
and it’s Jean and Marcy and all the kids, waving pink plastic pinwheels,
chomping on popcorn. Ngarrrh. You know I adore ceremony,
even while refusing to stand on it, but this, this is too inane.
And the cold anonymity of the station takes over,
reins in the crowds that were sifting to the farthest exits. No one is here.
Now I know why I’ve always hated the tango, yet loved the intimacy
secreted in its curls. And for this lo continue we’ve got to
get together, renew old saws, let old grudges ride . . .

Later I’m posting this to you.
I just thought of you, you see, as indeed I do
several million times a day. I need your disapproval,
can’t live without your churlish ways."

[Source: Poem, Image]

When You Least Expect It

The other day I was explaining my theory that when I wake up, I like to tell myself that today could be the most extraordinary day, and how it contrasts with an earlier phase characterized by calling my ex-boyfriend at work to say that I needed a pep talk to get out of bed, and he would always be compassionate, and say something like, "Oh do you need a reason, baby? How about that it's 12:30?" And I would laugh and get up.  This morning my phone rang at like, 9:30, and jolted me right out of a dream. After a few moments of feeling cross, I discovered it was an invitation from one of the hosts of the Poets & Writers Gala on Wednesday night! So that qualifies as auspicious and then some. Anyway, work and parties and everything means maybe no Lux Lotus this week at all. Maybe.

The Weekend Report

Today while I was out and about I stopped by the Exhibitionist store closing sale (the designer is replacing the shop format with a smaller showroom elsewhere) after a perfect late brunch across the street at Zucco-- the owner went to hand me a menu but it was a formality; I often get the same thing and he said it before I did. Finally, a man who knows what I want and is keen to bring it to me! Back to the topic at hand: I don't wear much jewelry but something about the aesthetic always dazzled my eye from the window and the price (and my mood of the moment) was right.  As seen above, I got an oversize ring -- the base is silver, with an ornately carved snake pattern nestling a big sparkler of a stone -- perfect for a little Venus vibe and a touch of the shiny shiny. The necklace is a skull on a chain that strikes me as sweetly romantic in the manner of memento mori  and all that. You know me.

My Life in Pictures: Days of Being Wild

I was a moment late to meet an old friend at Ten Bells this evening because I caught a glimpse in the mirror as I was running out the door and thought, Oh, my mother has to see this outfit... It was really nice to catch up with this charming man because he was sitting at the desk next to mine when I started Lux Lotus five years ago next month! Our conversation touched on it tonight and I said that what I like about Lux Lotus is that I think of it as a diary of my personal perspective rather than my personal life. Sometimes I do wish I had a little all-access reality show for laughs because now and then my experiences do seem entertainingly over-the-top, even to me. Tomorrow night I'm going to Momofuku for the mouth-wateringly anticipated first time with a clever friend who I met in Tokyo -- he and I are bound together by our love of tonkatsu -- only to discover that we live about eight blocks apart in New York. Then, the weekend, a nice long stretch of doing nothing. Maybe for two whole days! Bliss.