Lux Lotus

Vows

Among the books I ordered today, from Idlewild Books and Barnes & Noble: Edward Said: The Charisma of Criticism, Best European Fiction 2010, A Short History of Cahiers du Cinéma, The Bolter, and Gloria Vanderbilt's It Seemed Important at the Time. Plus I also gotta track down a copy of Naked by the Window: The Fatal Marriage of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta, because Ian Vanek from Japanther loves it. (And Mating, which Stephen Lance recommends, and I ordered, but then forgot to pick up because I get so distracted by the dreamy movie-like vibe and bonhomie at Idlewild. And also, is it too much for a girl to ask that her requests be pulled from the Botswana section before she arrives?) Because next month I am going to take ten days off and read them all, somewhere quiet.

Previously: Sgraffito Chic and Tea.

On Nine

I saw Nine today (as you know, I am a Marion Cotillard fan). It was a good Sunday afternoon movie, and the astonishingly talented Daniel Day-Lewis is the film. When I focused on those two, plus Judi Dench and Sophia Loren, and the sublime costuming and '60s movie star Roman setting, Nine's true intention to be a sensual, sophisticated meditation on creativity shimmered irresistibly (there is a funny little in-joke involving a nighttime stroll with Nicole Kidman, who I admired in Birth, playing the imported blonde ingenue in a fur and evening gown, and a passing cat. It's no Dolce Vita, though). Whenever Fergie or Kate Hudson, et al, came onscreen, my knees shook with my urge to bolt. When I am alone, I walk out of movies the second they bore me. I don't care what it cost, or how it ends; I gotta go.

In Praise of Terese

I publicize Terese Svoboda because she is a genius. You can see proof of that cosmic sparkle in her poems featured at The Awl today, in the new One Story, or in person next week. Her new books are Trailer Girl and Weapons Grade. Later this year, she has a new novel that's all dialogue; Pirate Talk or Mermelade. I tried to find a good photo of her in the gold sequin dress she wore to read at the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica, but this one'll do.

Upstairs at the Square Tonight (Tuesday)

"Upstairs at the Square" tonight (killer, right?) and then we'll take next month off. Join us for an hour with host Katherine Lanpher and guests Vampire Weekend and Kwame Dawes, 7pm, free, live, or catch it (plus our sexy archives) at bn.com/upstairs in a few days. The Village Voice says, "Might be the best context to see this band, ever." Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal has a preview. 

Soul to Squeeze

I had dinner with Emma Straub of M + E fame, and she said, how do you find the time to do everything you do in a day? Beats me.

I did buy this bracelet, though, at Laura Lobdell today, to commemorate one of the best weeks ever in my career. I'll always have time for that. (Dress: Meg.)

Windowlicker

Yeah.

[T-shirt, 45 Euros]

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

Patti Smith "Upstairs at the Square" Tonight

Tonight (Tuesday) in New York, Patti Smith appears "Upstairs at the Square" with host Katherine Lanpher. 7pm, free, join us!

Postcard From St. Michaels

Above, the pretty things I found yesterday at local charity shops, handwashed and laid out to dry... a Scaasi pink negligee, a Bill Blass cream bolero, plus a pink bed jacket and a slinky black dress. Right now I'm with Kevin at St. Michael's Perk, a coffee house in a bungalow where they're playing Feist's "One Evening." Last night I was re-reading Anthony Doerr's Four Seasons in Rome, richer now that I've been there, and was struck by how much of the book is a soothing and powerful meditation on living. I copied down whole passages about paying attention and ritual and observation and detail. My favorite line, though, is when he lists what he's grateful for at Thanksgiving, ending with: I'm thankful that everything sweet is sweet because it is finite. Me too.

Sanguine

Right now I am in Maryland, getting some work done. It's much easier to leave New York and meet deadlines elsewhere, with fewer distractions. This afternoon I might go downtown to the National Gallery of Art, because lately all I wanna do is stroll around museums and look at some Titians (echoes of Edinburgh?). I never paid any attention to the West Wing of the National Gallery, where the older works are, when I was a kid, action painting babe –– Morris Louis, Clyfford Still, Joan Mitchell –– that I was. There's room for everything in my heart now. Tonight when my friend Kevin gets home from work we are going to drive out to his family's cottage on the Eastern Shore for a few days to relax on the bank of the Miles River and drive around and enjoy each other's company. We laugh so hard when we are together, like, falling on the ground in hysterics, that we constantly have to explain to people that we have been best friends since we were fifteen. And we're fine.

Windowlicker

Red, purple and yellow have really been doing it for me lately. You know what else does it for me? Luxury and love. Ideally, I would be given an enormous ring by Solange Azagury-Partridge (not for sale online) that incorporates all of these influences. My favorite item of jewelry ever is at The Cloisters, an unassuming pin found on the grounds of a castle with no known backstory; behind, engraved in old French: "Autre ne veut (I want no other)." That one's not online, either, but they do have a mid-15th Century Franco-Flemish "jewel with letters spelling amor." That'd do, too.

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