Sunday, May 30, 2010




Helena Rubinstein, 1964, photo by Jean Mermet
"It all comes back. Even that recipe for sauerkraut: even that brings it back. I was on Fire Island when I first made that sauerkraut, and it was raining, and we drank a lot of bourbon and ate the sauerkraut and went to bed at ten, and I listened to the rain and the Atlantic and felt safe. I made the sauerkraut again last night and it did not make me feel any safer, but that is, as they say, another story."

-Joan Didion, On Keeping a Notebook, 1966




morning drawing, may 30, 2010

Friday, May 28, 2010

"I have now seen Orlando. It is, as I guessed, unabashed festival material and can never be shown to real people."

-Quentin Crisp, Resident Alien

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Wednesday, May 26, 2010




He said that my tuna would be encrusted.
I'm hoping that I didn't understand what that means.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

"Next, a fifty-nine Dodge, black, mint condition, tries to parallel park in the Mercedes' spot (I'm not getting too much paperwork done today). The driver is one of the worst drivers I've ever seen under the age of eighty. Three pedestrians take turns waving him in, guiding him back out. I step to my window and hear one person yell, "No, left, sharp left. Clown." Disgusted, a last helper leaves.

When the driver stands and stretches, he hasn't really parked his car, just stopped it. I've noticed him around town. About twenty-five, he's handsome, but in the most awkward possible way. His clothes match the old Dodge. His belt's pulled up way too high. White socks are a mistake. I watch him comb his hair, getting presentable for downtown. He whips out a handkerchief and stoops to buff his shoes. Many coins and pens spill from a shirt pocket."

from Adult Art by Allan Gurganus

Friday, May 21, 2010

Thursday, May 20, 2010

"It was, as I recognized with some difficulty from a photograph in the family album, my Aunt Augusta, who had arrived late, dressed rather as the late Queen Mary of beloved memory might have dressed if she had still been with us and had adapted herself a little bit towards the present mode. I was surprised by her brilliant red hair, monumentally piled, and her two big front teeth which gave her a vital Neanderthal air."

-Graham Greene, Travels With My Aunt

She herself remained completely unscathed, but she left a great deal of turmoil in her wake.


Thursday, May 6, 2010



She blackened the soles of her shoes. She had the maid iron her money.