shake shake shake
things i can't stop talking about
this week’s style icon:
I was in Harbour Island earlier this month and got to go to the last Junkanoo practice of the year. On Harbour Island they celebrate on January 1st, but many moons ago we spent Christmas in the Exumas and got to see the parade on the 26th. It’s a definite bucket list item and possibly the single best reason to visit the Bahamas.
what I’m clicking:
Even sugar daddies are feeling the economic squeeze | The anti-plastic surgery essay everyone should read | Experience designers for the 1% | A highly personal profile of a Manhattan It Chef | The last resort of the Salton Sea | My year of Chinesemaxxing | The images a Nat Geo photographer will never forget | Lost Vegas | Saudi Arabia’s unraveling utopia | Why all the Hallmark movies are filmed in Canada | A Christmastown horror film | Diary of a popcorn seller | The art of the steal | Behind the scenes at the Klimt sale | Romantasy at the end of the world | Performative reading | The spiral-obsessed AI cult | Is ghosting inevitable? | Life in beige | Addiction, a plastic plant, and the story of a marriage | The masculinity crisis | The dark side of surrogacy
what i’m wanderlusting:
Hong Kong in neon
what i’m listening to:
Oratorio for Living Things, a weird (but beautiful) show my mother-in-law took us to a few weeks ago. I can’t find the soundtrack anywhere, but one of the songs is on youtube.
what i’m watching:
One Battle After Another is sort of the perfect feel-good movie.
what i’m eating:
One of the best meals of the year at Playa de los Artistas in Montezuma, Costa Rica. Apart from the excellent ceviches and crudos, they made this eggplant parm situation that was baked inside an eggplant and I am not sure why everybody isn’t making eggplant parm like that.
what i’m drinking:
We have accidentally gotten into cider recently, sparked by a visit to Rose Hill last month. This morning, we got a few bottles from Golden Russet (including their own label). It’s like wine gone wrong, but in the best way possible.
what i’m coveting:
An invitation to a really glamorous party or winter wedding where I can wear a sparkly gown from Annie’s Ibiza or Georgia Hardinge or Clio Peppiatt.
what i’m recommending:
I got this little purse for Christmas and I can’t wait to bring it on all my vacations. It’s nylon, which means it’s lightweight enough for beach trips, and it’s leopard print, which means it matches with everything. Now I just need the matching duffel.
what i’m reading:
I’m ending the year on a high note, with a few books that will certainly make it into my top ten of 2025, including The Bee Sting (people have been trying to get me to read this for years, but for some reason I thought it was about a sad little boy in the olden days - it’s not) and Martyr!, which I have been forcing people to read at gunpoint (sending emphatic text messages and giving it as a Christmas present).
what i’m writing:
I love a reason to talk about Idaho
Really solid curation here. The range is impressive but what connects them is how they all interrogate systems people usually accept without questioning. That surrogacy trafficking piece in particular raises a lot ofquestions about how markets in reproductive labor operate without real oversight, which is something I've been thinking alot about.