Happy Friday!
Illustration by Lindsey Frances | Prints available here!
Things that happened recently:
For nearly 20 years, Sam Barsky has been knitting sweaters of landmarks and taking photos of himself wearing them in front of his inspiration. The New York Times did a profile on him recently, but the real goldmine is his personal site, where you can see all of his photos. I looked at every single one of them—each better than the last—and I can't wait for new ones.
I'm still going through withdrawal after finishing Wild Wild Country, but luckily for me there is always another cult to read about—like this crazy one in Upstate New York. Its leader just got arrested in Mexico last week and extradited back to the U.S. on federal charges of sex trafficking.
On Tuesday, we had second-row seats to this talk with my fantasy best friends Lauren Graham and Mae Whitman at 92Y. Our tickets came with signed copies of Graham's latest book and I've loved both of her previous books so I'm excited to read this one.
Things to do in New York this weekend:
I didn't know that parks had opening weekends, but this weekend is the official opening of Prospect Park. The weather forecast isn't too spring-like, but there's yoga, a scavenger hunt, bird watching and the Smorgasburg food festival.
Saturday is the opening of The City Reliquary's sculpture garden in conjunction with their current exhibition, NYC Trash! Past, Present & Future. The garden features art made entirely of trash, something I've been fascinated by ever since reading this book.
The Urban Park Rangers are hosting a tour of the Little Red Lighthouse on Saturday. I took a tour of the Lighthouse with Open House New York, but tours aren't offered very often.
Things that I've discovered recently:
When my mom and I were at the Mütter Museum, she was telling me that someone once found an envelope of smallpox scabs inside of a library book—I didn't believe her, but I looked it up and found out that it's true! If that doesn't gross you out, you will love this book (but no guarantee it will—or won't—come with an envelope of scabs).
I recently discovered Judee Sill when she randomly came on Spotify. Sill died of a heroin overdose when she was just 39, but not before writing and recording some really incredible songs (she wrote Jesus Was a Crossmaker).
One sign shop in Brooklyn makes all of the signs for all 472 subway stations in New York. I love transit graphics and anything subway-related—there are 1,640 signs in the Times Square station alone!
I have the day off work because of Passover, a perk of working at a Jewish cultural organization. I'm getting frustrated with winter's refusal to leave the city, but I'm trying not to let it get me down. I'd like to get to the Orchid Show soon (maybe Sunday, after diner breakfast), and all I can think of is how warm and summery it is inside of their greenhouses. Saturday we might go check out the Morbid Anatomy pop-up at Green-Wood Cemetery, which is luckily only a few blocks from David's apartment. I just started watching Parenthood again for the ??th time and I'm really loving this book, so I'll probably be spending the rest of my time with both. I hope you have a great weekend!
