We arrived in NYC last Tuesday, worked, went to a concert, went to a gallery opening for Zach Thompson (I’ve mentioned his work before), caught up with good friends, viewed some apartments, gave up on apartment hunting, applied one last time (I decided to call the agent directly), he then told us he had rented that unit, but had another unit with an additional bedroom (for the same price?) available in the same building that an application fell through for, we saw it, we got approved, we signed the lease, we got the keys… the last week has been insane!
Knight for a Day—Zach Thompson
Knight for a Day was a fun experience authentic to the Midwest. The dull grey palette of the paintings was intentional and meant to mirror (and maybe honor) the dullness of most days during Michigan winter. The art has a slight flow that you can see the transition of, a journey in a sense, similar to that of a Knight’s. It has been fun to see Zach’s work continue to grow. When we had last spoken in person he had mentioned how badly he wanted to find a space in New York to put on a show, now 4 years later he is doing it!
Atlas Social Club
On Saturday we went back to Hell’s Kitchen to have some demure wine with our past neighbor, a bit of catching up, some gossip, and then we took a stroll up several blocks to Atlas Social Club, his new favorite gay bar. The last time we went out with him was at a different gay bar—which led to optimistic political conversations and two or three more gin and tonics than necessary—that bar is now closed. Not being as much of a drinker anymore I stayed away from the G&Ts, but I had the pleasure of enjoying a bountiful conversation with the drag queen known as Zeta Jones who gets the party started every Saturday. If one of you just so happened to have followed her then you may or may not have seen us on her story…
Greenpoint Foodies
On Saturday, before going out with Caesar, we spent our time touring apartments and cosplaying as Greenpoint foodies—the apartment tour of a supposedly 900ft studio was interesting, but ulitmately the fact that the apartment required work to finish on our end and the landlord was stuck on price made it not a great option for us—we went to:
Cafe Alulu
A small little cafe serving lebanese cuisine. We got the coconut sweet potato curry and a Topo Chico Vibe: 9.2
Bakeri
A bakery that looks like it was built into an old cozy home. Incredible environment and magnificent pastries. I got the Lemon Bar and Sabrina got the coconut carrot cake, both were delightful treats. Vibe: 9.3
Sweetleaf
We got an incredible maple coffee and continued our walk around the neighborhood.
NCAA Wrestling
The national tournament is here, Thursday I stayed off my phone and then popped on the recording to watch the matches. From 2012-2019 I was at every single nationals, and since then every year around this time I get some nostolgia for the strangely familiar routine or watching each session, eating, reconnecting with friends, and then my heart pounding in my throat when I watch matches—due to some unconsious belief that I person I have subconsiously selected to winner is somehow tied to my own fate… This is probably one of the last years I will still recognize many of the guys out there, due to 5th year eligibility—which with all the redshirt opportunities has meant that between injuries, normal redshirts, and olympic redshirts—there are still guys wrestling who were competing 7+ years ago… I am high-key jealous… Not that I am dying to compete, but the idea of having close to a decade of high qualilty support, unlimited educational resources, and an enforced workout schedule feels like a luxury nearly unobtainable only 6ish years into the race. If you are interested in wrestling at all you should tune in on ESPN!
Thank you
I really don’t have all that much this week, I was on the go all around and it felt really nice. Sitting here typing this out and editing the post the night before feels good, like I did enough, was involved enough, that I have earned this time to reflect… idk zero thought all vibes.
derek
Some Post Script Writing I Hope to Soon Publish
At some point in life, we are all told to "find purpose." The directive comes at us in waves, first as gentle suggestions from guidance counselors with questionable smiles and posters of kittens hanging from tree branches, then as increasingly urgent demands from parents who've begun calculating the cost-benefit ratio of your existence, and finally as a sort of existential imperative that hovers in the cultural ether, transmitted via Instagram captions (millenial core) and commencement speeches and the blank stares of elderly relatives at holiday gatherings. If you don't have purpose, you should seek it. Fixate on it, dedicate so much time searching for purpose that finding purpose becomes your purpose. If you have it, you should refine it. If you refine it, you should expand it. If you expand it, you should monetize it, optimize it, and update your LinkedIn profile to reflect it.
Purpose is inherently chaotic, only adding further abstraction to meaning and self-perception. While seemingly innocent, it is disorder, another piece of straw that breaks the American youth's goddam back. Except that the people who supposedly "find it" are granted immunity from appearing directionless. It's a socially sanctioned form of neurosis for Americans, an acceptable delusion that lets certain people's existential flailing look like ambition. That is purpose.
What's particularly cruel about this arrangement is the way purpose-as-salvation is marketed differently depending on which socioeconomic lottery ticket you were handed at birth. For the privileged minority—you know who they are—purpose is a buffet of experiences to be sampled between semesters abroad or unpaid internships at their father's law partner's brother-in-law's hedge fund.
Pause: In my own opinion, if done correctly, I admire and respect the rich kids who throw the kitchen sink at their dreams, no matter how much their parents despise it or how wasteful it looks. Those are the kids that use their advantage for good, and no, I don’t mean the rich kids who consume large quantities of drugs and party hard for half a decade and then go and co-found a YC’25 AI Crypto App (for the most part… I promise I don’t waste my time judging rich people). I am talking about the few who actually go and pursue their true passions Alan Watts style—the few that choose what it is their truly desire and go after it, because if I could afford to do that, I know I fucking would.
"Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life, spent in a miserable way. And after all if you do really like what you're doing, it doesn't matter what it is, you can eventually become a master of it. The only way to become a master of something is to be really with it." So preached Alan Watts in an era when such philosophical romanticism might actually permit survival. Who the modern day version of Allen Watts? Probably some fucker with a podcast.