dcscover 020 | Long term
Hello friends old and new,
I can’t believe this month marks the two-year anniversary of this newsletter 🎂🎈Part of it is denial that two whole years have past since May of the year that shall not be named. Part of it is just that it doesn’t feel like I’ve written two years worth of newsletters? But I suppose that’s by design.
At this point, I have a better grasp of what I want this newsletter to be and how it should fit into my life. Amid the peace and quiet of the last holiday season, I was able to find some sudden clarity on the common thread tying together all of my passion projects: the intention to cultivate long-term wellness and inspiration.
In a way, this newsletter has become a small but direct way to practice that intention. In contrast to anything I do on social media for example, putting together this newsletter is an act of patient curation — of both things to consume (i.e. links) and thoughts/experiences I’ve had. I jot things down a little bit at a time, then cut, add, tweak, and stitch everything together at the end. It’s not a grand production, but it is allowing myself to marinate in a month’s worth of stimuli. And that’s a luxury.
A month-ish is still on the short end of long term. But there’s a special kind of satisfaction in tinkering on something without the expectation of finishing or revealing it for even just a couple of weeks. I’d recommend it.
Projects, projects
Thanks so much for reading this newsletter! In honor of the 2nd birthday of this project, I’m using this space to ask for any feedback or suggestions. Feel free to reply directly to this email with any thoughts — or just say hi and tell me to keep it up 😉
This months’ finds
L’Agence/The Parisian Agency (Netflix) — why did I wait so long to start this show, which is like a French Selling Sunset but with more meaningful drama. It’s my new French-learning strategy. (Also: found this dreamy Paris apartment on the agency’s site).
Dries Van Noten documentary (Prime Video) — I actually watched this five years ago but recently rewatched it and it has inspired me like nothing else lately (there’s so much there on vision, craft, and finding balance in the creative process). True story: in the middle of watching it, I decided to quit TikTok (for like the third in the last year welp) and have been feeling really good about it lol (Also: pics of Dries’s house/garden never get old).
The viral Taco Bell oil painting I didn’t know I needed.
Life, on the Line (memoir of Alinea chef Grant Achatz) — just finished and really liked it. I jotted down this quote: "It is impossible to try to innovate. You can't decide to turn creativity on or off. All you can do is present yourself with interesting problems and try to find solutions. Then you refine those solutions again and again."
Eric Kim’s pineapple-marinated chicken breasts — one of my favorite recipes tried this month.
One more thing
Speaking of recipes: A recent upgrade in that department is the “Recipe Hub” I made in the project management/note-taking tool Notion (any Notion lovers here? I’m completely dependent on it). The hub is basically a Notion page with a database presented in “Gallery” view (with an entry for each recipe) and then I use different “Properties” ( like “Sichuan,” “Korean”, “Batch-friendly”, “Noodles”, “Done”, “Faves”...so tags essentially) to filter everything. I was looking for a way to organize a queue and index of recipes (both online and in cookbooks) and so far this is working for me. It takes a bit of upkeep but I think it’s worth it. Will keep playing around.
Opening scene: We planted peony tubers in spring 2021 and finally saw our first bloom this month.