Waiting in winter for the sun of spring
Thoughts on 2023, cold emails, being a "Perennial", fantastic avatar generators, delicious places to eat, and gochujang cookies
Last Sunday marked six months of living in Barcelona. This feels mostly right. The summer, up until October or so, felt long and luxurious. Weekends soaking up the sun by the sea, lazily walking to beachside shacks for arroz con langostinos and a crisp bottle of cava. Sweating our asses off from the absurd humidity. Months spent exploring and wandering, permeated with wonder.
Though, since we've come back from Los Angeles, there was so much unpacking, getting the apartment to feel like a home, planning trips to see family, and everything else... I would describe the fall as more of a blur. The honeymoon period starting to wane as we settle into newly formed routines. The permanence of our move finally becoming concrete.
I'm sure you can relate to that feeling of time being compressed, squeezed tightly, till we end up shooting out into the unknowable newness of 2023. Kyle and I have finally started discussing our goals for next year. Top of the list is making new friends here in Barcelona. I’ve decided that I’m going to cold email some rad creative folks here in town to see if they want to grab a drink. I figure it can’t hurt. Meeting people in life is hard these days, and even harder when you move to a new city. If I’m not proactive though, it’s probably not going to happen. If you, or your friends, are in BCN, shoot me an email — thefoxisblack@gmail.com.
Past that, obviously, continuing to learn Spanish. And of course, looking at where to explore next. My goal is travel around Europe only by train or ferry, bringing the dogs along with us on new adventures. The trips will take longer, though isn’t that part of the fun? Top of my list is obviously the rest of Spain, including Madrid, Bilbao, Basque Country, Gibraltar, Valencia, and Girona. Beyond Spain, I must see Lisbon, I’d love to head back to Marseille and then travel along the French Riviera. Weekend trips to Paris or Lyon. Life is short, we should make the most of it, right?
I hope you have some amazing plans of your own for the new year 💙
💭 — Last week I received an email from someone I didn’t know, a person named Olu Odukoya. In the email was simply a list of images, and as it turns out, it was essentially a portfolio update. I followed the rabbit hole further and discovered that Olu is an artist and creative director, helming the look and feel of Modern Matter Magazine, and doing all kinds of interesting freelance work for clients like Louis Vuitton, Acne, and Margiela. I found this approach of sharing strong work, no links, not even any intro text, just pure work, to be somewhat blunt and refreshing.
💭 — The What has a fascinating piece on the, “The Perennial”, a term they’ve coined to describe “a self-selecting, positive term for curious people who resist being defined by any one characteristic, especially age.” As someone who just turned 40, though doesn’t feel/look/dress/act like a “typical” 40-something, the term totally resonated with me. Further to this idea, they describe the idea as being truly about your mindset, and that a Perennial can be any age, not only elder millennials like myself.
💭 — I felt like I had to give a special shoutout to Brent Schoepf and this insanely gorgeous print he made for his mom for X-Mas. All those details, all those textures, the proportions of each piece and how they work together, it’s a stunning piece of art.
💭 — Last week there were an awful lot of folks paying eight bucks or whatever for creepy "super hot” AI anime portraits. Which, good for you, I guess! Why pay for some unrealistic depiction of what you might look like in a JRPG, and instead, use Amanda Baeza’s wondrous avatar generator. I only wish I could be as sexy as the two hotties above.
💭 — Last week’s cover of New York magazine was a star studded spectacular of who’s-who in New York City. 72 celebrities, one intersection, and nearly 11,000 photos later, they have quite an iconic cover that both celebrates the personalities of the city, along with the city itself. Major props to photographer Pelle Cass for doing what he does so well, and be sure to click the link above to see how complicated the planning of this cover was.
💭 — If you’re familiar with LA you’ve probably heard of Great White. As part of the Australian’s plan to take over of the world through coffee, Great White is now three restaurants that serve a delicious mix of breakfast, brunch, and dinner offerings, all with very stylish outposts. Their latest location, which takes a very cozy corner of Melrose Ave. between Verve Coffee and Gracias Madre, is a stunning build out that I want to live in. If you’re in LA, I’d highly recommend stopping by.
💭 — There is one recipe that I can’t stop thinking about lately and it’s Eric Kim’s Gochujang Caramel Cookie. He describes it as “a gentle amount of ground cinnamon lends snickerdoodle vibes, and the dough is raked through with ripples of clay-red gochujang “caramel,” in which brown sugar and butter mellow the chile’s heat.” I think this idea is so smart, I can’t wait to make this over my holiday break.
💭 — One of my fantasies is moving to a small-ish town (not too small, I need people and creativity and culture!) and opening up my lil’ coffee shop. To that end, I keep seeing Girona popping up everywhere, and I’m certain that this will be on my list of places to see in 2023. Only an hour-ish away from Barcelona, it seems like there’s quite a lot happening. Casa Cacao seems like a beautiful hotel, dining at Normal or Mas Morach, and of course good coffee at La Fabrica.
I too share the small town coffee shop fantasy. I remember I wrote something about it on my blog in college years ago and you shared it, and I was so proud. That's still the plan... someday. Just remembered that and wanted to say thanks for sharing that a long time ago, and for continuing to create and curate interesting stuff to follow.