i love liz bishop in great part because peter sacks, who i took two-and-a-half poetry classes with, loved liz bishop.
these classes, all of which centered bishop at some point, gave me a better understanding of the relationship between author and art-object, and in particular a better understanding of my own relationship with representation and with self-representation. the delicateness with which bishop investigates every portrayal and how it also portrays herself has changed the way i write, to be at once more decisive and more orbital.
art is fraught work, in which the same precision we use to represent a subject also captures that subject, and also ourselves (if, in representation, it’s even possible to make such a distinction).
on a lighter note, peter sacks also taught me the word “poiesis”, which i now use all over in the privacy of my own digital organization systems.
my favorite of bishop’s poems is the very last one she published during her lifetime, five flights up, which you can read here.
before the live action flop starring scarlett johansson, before a laundry list of ill-received sequels, ghost in the shell was just a manga, a movie adaptation, and an original-story, two-season anime.
that anime was and still is the most formative work of fiction in my life. it made me more anti-authoritarian and skeptical in my political imagination. it pushed me to think more deeply about what exactly characterizes human sapience that underlies my values. it presented such a range of individual motivations that it surely expanded my theory of mind at the time. and it ultimately defined my one true dream in life—the sort of unbounded, interhuman connectedness that hideo kuze wanted to facilitate, or to symbolize, or to simply become.
aesthetically, it also invents a vision of the future that’s at once visually thrilling, optimistic, and unsettling, and the animation is fluid, blocked well and surprisingly soulful.
i like the dub for this one because i think the voice acting interprets the tone of the show thoughtfully—togusa’s journalistic recounting, batou’s confident and impassioned introspectiveness, and aramaki’s… idk, but his voice matches his hair. both ghost in the shell: stand alone complex and ghost in the shell: s.a.c. 2nd gig are available to watch for free on adult swim, linked above.
hadestown is my favorite musical. more folksy and soulful than theatrical, it’s a sung-through masterpiece of songwriting. also i cried every time i watched the story end.
not to be a fuckin’ hipster, but imo the broadway version of the show is… not great. for me, what made the show such a vital evolution of the concept album were the chants and the further development of the epics. in the NYTW and NT versions of the show, chant ii and epic iii in particular manage to portray the varied complexity of relationship conflicts, and then draw a narrative parallel between the troubles of the gods and those of orpheus and eurydice. what results is a timeless (and authentically greek myth!) sense of relatability—love is hard, trying, laborious, and ultimately, rejuvenating, for gods, men, and the earth alike.
in the broadway version, all of this is cut in favor of what’s essentially a milktoast “when a MAN loves a WOMAN” delivered weakly by reeve. having heard any previous versions of the show, this feels hugely anticlimactic and antidramatic.
uh… but anyway. my favorite pieces across the show’s history are the concept album wedding song, and chant ii and epic iii from… the NT version, but the only official recordings are of NYTW, and those are great too. i also really like how long?, which was left basically untouched since the concept album (and thank the gods for that).
if i had to pick an overall favorite song, “painting roses” by the defunct band dresses would be it.
folksy indie songwriting has been at the heart of my regular listening aesthetic ever since high school, when a friend of mine, jess, made me a six-CD mix of music she thought was worth hearing. the contents ranged from purple rain to back when i was 4 and, well, i guess we know which one stuck with me longer. (before she gave me this mix, i simply only listened to anime soundtracks.)
if you’ve eyeballed my about page, know me irl, or have interacted with me and thought about it, you probably won’t be surprised when i say that i consider my primary artistry to be my performance of my self.
what does that mean? well, you can watch this instructional video to learn more!
i am in fact a wholly aesthetics-driven person and pretty much all my beliefs, ethics, and interests are just aesthetic taste if you look under the hood. this video just speaks to me, and it is my favorite video, my favorite essay, and hence also my favorite… huh what do you call those again
i had cha bei bei for the first time in early 2020, and tbh it’s ruined all other boba for me. the owner tonie makes all her boba by hand, entirely from scratch—just tapioca, water, and a starchy vegetable for color and texture, not hydrated from a powder mix like most “homemade” boba. she uses custom-balanced blends of imported leaf teas assembled with astonishing attention to detail—the ice cubes are even made of frozen tea. the drinks are sweetened with maple syrup to layer in flavor. the milk teas are served with cream for extra richness. she even makes nut milk in-house for the dairy-averse.
i’m not a regular!tea drinker, but drinking tonie’s teas has given me a better understanding of what quality tea can taste like and how it can stand up to all the sugary flavors in a bubble tea. by comparison, every other boba shop might as well be serving muddy water with trash balls.
if the michelin guide visited boba shops, cha bei bei would have the only stars. as far as i’m concerned, it’s the reason to go to the LA area.
get the house milk tea with boba, no alterations. then get anything else on the menu—i like the thai milk tea, and the mangonada when it’s in season.
one time, a friend i’d then just met on hinge invited me to get dinner at le sia, and she (a chinese international) deemed me to have good, authentic taste when i ordered the 疙瘩汤 (dough drop soup).
contrarily, i think my preference for 鸡肉串 (chicken skewers) over lamb raised a bit of an eyebrow. but growing up, there was a whole decade where, whenever i’d visit family in beijing, chicken skewers from street vendors was all i’d eat outside of my mom’s cooking. le sia nails its beijing flavors—and to be honest, in 2024, it pretty much nails the beijing prices, too.
i go to le sia for beijing food every few days whenever i’m in new york (and even more if i’m dancing at BDC, since it’s literally around the corner). if you need a third dish in your rotation, i like the soupy 金针菇肥牛 as well—a dish i have my friend to thank for introducing me to.
i’m unsure how to describe in words the greatest animated shorts of all time. instead, i’ve linked for you an un-paywalled stream. it’s what fred would do.
gene’s is a huge part of why, despite a concerted search effort in cities like NYC and LA, i still like boston best for noodles. in LA there are places like shaanxi garden and bang bang noodles, and in NYC there’s… uh. there’s xi’an famous foods? ok oof.
so anyway those LA shops are great, but at the end of the day, for hand-pulled, hand-torn noodles with good chew and chonk, i just wanna go back to gene’s. the noodles are incredibly consistent and have the perfect bite and thickness (a.k.a. thicc af), and i think gene stretches his prices at least as much as his noodles (🥁🥁💥) because it’s honestly hard to find a cheaper meal in the area.
the noodles are the centerpiece of almost every dish on the menu, so it’s hard to go wrong. i now exclusively order the #16 hot & sour hand-pulled noodle soup, a strongly-seasoned and very vinegar-forward soup that also contains an entire pig’s worth of pork. the only caveat: the take-out bowls are filled to the brim, so if you’re transporting them, make sure they’re stable. i often pick up my gene’s order on bike, and more than a few times i’ve ended up with bag soup. (i just pour it back into the bowl and it’s just as tasty.)
i am not clear on why “flatbread” is in the name, because even if it refers to 肉夹馍, that is absolutely a sandwich and not a pizza.
have i mentioned i like noodles?
this place has existed since 2016? and i only heard about it (from jake, ramen chef at yume) in 2020? honestly devastating news.
a shaanxi noodle rival to gene’s is a delicious contribution to boston’s noodlescape. ifresh has my current favorite 凉皮 in the country and i’ve also enjoyed their spicy oil biang biang noodles. it has a rounder flavor compared to some of the aggressively vinegary or garlicky gene’s plates, and the noodles are more elastic and less thiiicc. having access to this contrast is a small luxury, and i could happily alternate ifresh and gene’s for lunch every day without tiring of either.
the first time i had pho was at le’s in harvard square while i was a student. by my senior year, i’d be getting it as take-out at least once a week.
since then, i’ve had the “best pho in the city” as recommended by friends (or occasionally by the internet) in the bay area, philly, los angeles, and nyc, looking for an even better bowl. and they were all… just awful? so not for lack of trying, i’ve found le’s to be—
well okay. the best bowl of pho i’ve had was in the facebook boston kitchen under chef barry maiden and a vietnamese sous chef. the next best was probably at pure kitchen and bar in calgary, which is a teeeeny bit out of the way. and i’ve had a few upscale phos at 2x the typical price which aren’t even worth identifying; they were all nice but unremarkable.
so maybe one day i’ll find a truly jaw-dropping pho. until that day, it really is back to my college town and le’s.
for ramenheads, ramen chefs, and bostonian food eaters, yume needs no introduction. for everyone else: yume is a dream workshop. you go in, you think for a bit, and you share a dream you aim to achieve. i usually look towards the next few weeks or months, which is not something i’m prone to doing normally.
while you think, you can eat a huge bowl of ramen. yume’s ramen is unique—in style, sure, but even more so in attention to detail. i’ve gone to yume sometimes sporadically and sometimes regularly, but at least once a year since it opened in 2012. the founder, tsuyoshi-san, passed on ownership a few years ago, and especially in the last couple years, former apprentice jake has really been improving his craft.
i can’t say i remember just how yume ramen tasted ten years ago compared to today, except that it was delicious. but i know that it’s still improving, and it’s easily the best in town today (and currently it’s the only boston-area ramen i really like).
the recent changes that stand out to me: the chashu has gotten a lot better in both texture and flavor; and something about the balance of the dish has made it easier for me to eat more frequently, whereas before the sheer density made it a monthly-or-less kind of meal.
if you go, get, uh, the ramen, which is the only thing you can get.
look, i made this page as a form of storage for all the artistic and sensorial objects i like to share with people and there are two contrapoints videos, that’s just how it is. this one is a banger and really captures the tension between personal optimism and societal cynicism that i, too, experience on the reg.
there’s just something about films with my name in them…
i love the sheer amount of sensory stimulus that got stuffed in here without compromising storytelling. not every monomyth can start with a 30-minute nonstop action scene, but this one does—and i’m in it.
“the calculation” is my favorite regina song. what’s your favorite regina song?
this tamale truck is on every list of tamales in LA and it’s the real deal. the tamales are more moist and tender than any other tamale i’ve had—maybe because they’re wrapped relatively small—and also the most consistently flavorful. my favorite savory option is the pork tamale.
every order comes with salsa rojo and salsa verde in little baggies. the rojo is, i think, habanero based, and was way too hot for me (especially in the summer heat). the jalapeno and cilantro salsa verde was perfect.
when i was in town, the little restaurant had shut down but the food truck was running. it’s open until it sells out, which was around 11 a.m. on weekdays and 12.30 p.m. on weekends.
theoretically this is a tortas shop, but i couldn’t stop myself from just ordering the pozole every time because i love soups and stews. i suspect better pozoles can be had in the kitchens of various abuelas but those are not places i have access to.
i also really enjoyed the fish tacos which were unlike any fish tacos i’ve ever had before. both the breading and the onion-tomato salsa were a bright red-orange color and they tasted surreal against the endless backdrop of baja fish tacos.
hanon has displaced yume ga arukara in cambridge as my favorite udon in the US. they have a great variety of preparations, but i love curry noodles so my go-to is the washu-gyu curry udon. their cold udons are tasty, but the serving sizes are smaller and they end up much less satisfying to dig into for me.
hanon closed for a while in 2022 due to a building fire, so show them some love when they reopen!
i don’t have much to say about hao noodle. i’ve only been to the chelsea location, and while i’ve tried a few things on the menu, the only thing i remember is the hotpot beef noodle soup. it’s the best spicy beef noodle soup i’ve had in the US (or anywhere, i guess; it’s not something i’ve looked for in china). compared to all the watery, unseasoned-save-for-some-chili-oil “broths” out there, i guess it’s not a high bar to cross, but hao noodle’s take sets a strong standard.
i wouldn’t know that murray hill existed if it did not contain my favorite shanghaiese restaurant. nowhere else have i gotten chinese flavors as clean as i do at little alley at an affordable price point. the eight delicacies in chili sauce in particular is just so pointedly málà with such a mild, low-profile heat, i feel like i’m tasting málà for the first time every time i order it. i also enjoy the 上海粗炒面 (shanghai stir-fried thick noodles).
their prices tend to be quite a bit higher on delivery apps (unless they’ve just increased across the board by 25% since i was last there…), so i always prefer to stop in.
look, if you have a penis and you enjoy comfort, you should really at least try this underwear. i know it costs a million dollars but it’s so odor-resistent you really don’t need that many pairs to cycle through and idk what else to say, it’s the best purchase i’ve ever made that isn’t some massive piece of equipment like a computer or a piano.
backcountry has significant discounts on them twice a year or so if, uh, you can tolerate a high price for underwear but not quite as high as it is normally. the pictured “sea blue” color seems to be out of production, though, but they are my favorite and kinda match my site theme and if you ever see them for sale anywhere, you know how to contact me.