Orange and Tan
Visits to Paris, op art furniture, Korean art, Wolfgang Tillmans, and a fancy new web browser
A month has passed, how time flies! Paris was a total treat. After a 3 year gap, Paris ended up feeling slightly more frenetic than I remembered. I feel like this is due to the relative calm of daily life in Barcelona, and the contrast that provides. We ate well (picnic by the Seine with JB, an epic fruits de mer at Bofinger, a lovely lunch with Shelby at Chanceux) and drank even better (you must visit Bisou. for a custom blended cocktail!). After we came back we had our friends Maury and Dan stay with us for the week, it was nice to have guests in the apartment again.
This week we will see some massive upgrades to the apartment. We hired Casa Protea to help us bring some greenery to the space. All said we’ll have about two dozen new plants of all varying sizes in our living room and terraces. After that, we’re finally getting our new couch, the one big splurge we made in moving into the place. I will share more updates once it’s here cuz’… this couch is WILD.
Then in two weeks we head back to LA from 1-15 Oct. I don’t feel like I’m ready to go back already. We’ll be staying Venice for the first half and Eagle Rock for the second which is kinda’ exciting. As always, already planning out the meals — Meteora, Workshop, Bavel, San Laurel, Capri Club, and some Burger Lords.
🦓 Re-Covering a Classic — Furniture makers Orior have teamed up with fashion designer Christopher John Rogers who has revitalized several bold prints from his archives to give their chair frames a dynamic new look. I can’t decide if the André in bold blacks and whites or the dramatic wingback Lu Chair in the colorful, op art pattern is my favorite.
🍌 Banana Bread Baking — The humidity here in Barcelona is no joke, and one fun side effect we encounter is bananas getting ripe very quickly. To accommodate for this occurrence I started making banana bread from this recipe and it turned out great. My first batch was pretty simple, next time I will be experimenting with more flavors/mix-ins.
🌲 Velvet Goldmine — I was looking around Saint Eulàlia, one of the best and most beautiful clothing stores in Barcelona, when I came across a Saint Laurent jacket that made me stop in my tracks. It’s a stunning dark forest green velvet jacket with a tone on tone Saint Laurent script on the back. It was so soft and elegant… but that price 😭
🇰🇷 Modern Korean — Last week, a new show called The Space Between Korean : The Modern in Korean Art opened at LACMA and from what I’ve seen the work looks incredible. Los Angeles County Museum on Fire has a nice post on the exhibit giving an overview, saying the show features “works reflecting the influences of cubism, Socialist realism, the New Objectivity, Regionalism, the New York School, hard-edge abstraction, and process art.”
📸 You Are Insanely Alive — Wolfgang Tillmans’ is having quite a moment with the recent opening of his show at the MoMA in New York. Titled To Look Without Fear, the exhibit spans three decades of his photographic work. NY Times also has an interview with Tillmans, who speaks to the work, the exhibit, and his potential ambitions in politics.
🚲 Fishtail Downhill — Craig Mod wrote a great piece on his love for electric bikes and you can feel the excitement coming off of every word. His energy has me so interested in getting a Vanmoof X3 to get myself around town.
💥 Exploding Clay — SSENSE has a beautiful feature on ceramicist Nathalee Paolinelo, on her work and where she finds inspiration to make such stunning, organic pieces. I think the photos by Rachele Daminelli also help a lot to capture the essence of her space and her work.
🌐 Internet Exploring — I recently switched over to Arc, a new browser from The Browser Company, that is redefining what a browser can be. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and so far it’s been such an improvement in my day-to-day. The overall design and UX is refined and flexible, there are tons of tools and ways to organize your bookmarks and tabs, it’s built on Chrome so there’s any plugin you need, it’s been great. I use it with mymind to keep track of all the things I see and it’s just… smarter and better than anything else out there rn. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a modern way to browse.
💿 To Be Continua — Nosaj Thing is back with a new single We Are (우리는), ft HYUKOH, which also teases his upcoming album Continua coming out on 28 Oct. The track is phenomenal, slightly more upbeat than his previous works. And as with most Nosaj albums, the list of guests/collaborators is beyond great, I cannot wait.
The Trend Report™ by my partner, Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick, is a sharp and insightful look at all the things going on in the world, arriving every Sunday to your inbox. Highly recommended, obviously.