Gift Guide

I loved the idea here, to write a piece on a dancer at Jumbo’s Clown, the Hollywood Boulevard bikini bar. “Caroline Blaike has been working at Jumbo’s Clown room for 13 years. She is one of only 22 dancers there; A spot for new dancers rarely opens up.” Still, I need everyone to admit we’re letting some pretty shitty writing slide at the e-magazines right now. What a waste of an article! (“Spaces like burlesque bars and strip clubs have deep roots in operating for the male gaze.

I was thinking to myself, how is it that I haven’t developed an opinion about Ligaya Mishan, the chief restaurant critic for the Times? I don’t have an affinity, neither do I hate her. I’m just stuck in neutral-negative. An unusual place for me, so naturally opinionated. (LOL.) I clicked through with interest on her review of the restaurant in the Breuer building, nostalgic as I am for its previous tenant. (I used to get the stracciatella and a white wine.

I love to read about Adam Platt’s family life.

TV writer Caitie Delaney posted that she saw Romeo and Juliet at a tiny community theatre, Will Greer’s Theatricum Botanicum, in Topanga Canyon. It’s been operating since 1951, after the late Greer was “blacklisted by Hollywood during the McCarthy era.” “In the years to come, Geer cultivated not only theater, but a bountiful garden that enabled him and his wife, actress Herta Ware, to earn a living from the sale of vegetables, fruit, and herbs.” I have a thing for Topanga Canyon.

Commission a mural for your home. Seriously. I would ask Matt Kenny, he did the one at the River bar. If you’ve been there, you remember it. Ash Carter—Graydon’s son—recommended this Lapham’s Quarterly piece on a 21-year-old scamming his way into producing a film version of The Iliad. So, so, so, so fun. I haven’t thought of Lapham’s in years! Or 10 Gracie Square, one of the best addresses in New York, which makes a brief appearance as the site of Sidney Lumet’s apartment.

I like the new crop of “Dimes Square” authors—in particular Madeline Cash, who lives in London, and Anika Levy—and I still think the Styles section should profile their entire friend group, what with all the ambient competition between them. Natasha Stagg wrote a bullseye of a piece about what happens between those who pan and those who get panned, socially that is. New York City! (I loved this Edith Zimmerman cartoon “about” Madeline Cash yesterday.)

“In the early 1960s, Joe Colombo created a series of glasses that allowed people to hold a drink and a cigarette in one hand with ease. (He called the collection Smoke.)” Here’s a pair for sale on Etsy; and here it is in MoMa. As someone who will never quit smoking and drinking, this is very appealing glassware. I love Cat Zhang’s work and her whole “thing.” She once came to a Gift Guide meet-up wearing makeup that matched the cover of the book we were reading. (Why were we reading the book?

Christopher Cawley is opening an antiques shop in Stockton, NJ. He has an impeccable memory and great taste. A few summers ago, I was invited to the Jersey Shore, and it made me think: Will there be a New Jersey revival? Is Jersey already popular? Many questions. I didn’t go on the trip, because—I’m embarrassed to admit—my politics did not perfectly align with my host, and I was wary of having an argument while also suffering from heat stroke, to which I am prone.

. No one writes a better portrait of boomer men. I can’t fucking wait!

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