I have not been able to stop thinking about this.

Communed with Toshiko Takaezu’s planetary bonbons at the Noguchi Museum.

The outermost (light)house

Mysteriously luxe moment in Flushing

“I like to stay up late, I like to sleep late, and I like to live like 90 in between. I get up around noon and I stagger outside, out this door, and I throw open my arms and say, ‘Thank GOD I don’t have children!’” — E. Jean Carroll via this incredible video from 2017 at her home in upstate NY.

The film fans who refuse to surrender to streaming: ‘One day you’ll barter bread for our DVDs’ via The Guardian

An excellent companion piece to this one about music fans quitting steaming services.

The playbills I held this week, and the food I enjoyed after each show:

- Patrick Page’s All the Devils Are Here, followed by room service at 1 Hotel Central Park.

- The Life & Slimes of Marc Summers, followed by soul-nourishing ramen at Kohoku-ku.

- Meow Meow’s Carnegie Hall debut, Sequins and Satire, Divas and Disrupters: The Wild Women of the Weimar Republic, followed by two microwaved peanut butter cookies with a scoop of mint-chip ice cream, eaten the couch while listening to WQXR (not pictured).

The Fool is never too far these days.

Onto LA! My Silverlake airbnb was very quirky. It had a toilet in the shower, but it also had a lemon tree and a Little Free Library out front.

As soon as I dropped my bags, I wolfed down an excellent burger at Win~Dow and headed right to the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which wouldn’t be open at any other time during my stay.

The above is, I’m sorry to say, an illegal picture (no photos are allowed to preserve the mystique), but I knew it would be a long time before I would be able to come back and I wanted to remember this place always.

The museum honors the weird and the mystical at the intersection of science, art, natural history. The exhibitions are esoteric, unsettling, and displayed in ways that require the viewer to get very close. There are a lot of miniatures and taxidermy throughout. The space prominently integrates scent and sound into its exhibitions in a way that few others do. What I most appreciate is that the museum doesn’t explain itself to the viewer — you either get it or you don’t.

On the roof, there’s a little garden area where they serve tea (didn’t have) and cookies (had one), and a walk-in birdcage where you can watch zebra finches flitting around your head. What a brilliant fever dream of a place.

I ordered my 400th Lyft of the trip to get dinner at an open-air restaurant called Bacari. Enjoyed the schwarma tacos, salad, and rosewater-infused malabi for dessert.

Then, I walked back to my airbnb and was greeted by the pretty string lights illuminating the patio. I listened to Nimet Habachy on New York at Night until I fell asleep.

Second day in LA! Katelyn and I met up and we GALLIVANTED. First stop was the LACMA — just a perfect visit, no notes. LA does museums very well.

We then hit up the La Brea Tar Pits next door. They were bubbling up through the pavement!

No footage of our trip to All Seasons (a very cool bar in a converted gas station) or Brass Monkey (a divey Koreatown karaoke spot), but perhaps that’s for the best!

The next morning, I felt a little worse for wear. Recovered with a morning walk, looking at all of the weird Cali street signage and sniffing the bitter orange-infused air.

This perfect diner breakfast from Millie’s Cafe brought me back to life.

Hours later, Katelyn and I met back up and hiked to the Hollywood Sign! I am not an experienced hiker, and I would say that this hike is easy-ish, only if you know what you’re in for. The path is wide and straightforward, but it’s a lot of work trekking uphill — according to my iPhone, it was the equivalent of 50 flights of stairs!

We parted ways briefly, then reconvened to see the Sklar Bros’ show at Largo. I really like this venue and want to make it a point to see a show here every time I visit the city. The show was a lot of fun and a perfect note on which to end an amazing, action-packed, yet surprisingly rejuvenating week.

Vegas: Day 2!

We began with a brunch buffet at Wicked Spoon. The best meal of the trip, hands down. (It was impossible to get a good pic of of this restaurant, but it was palatial.)

We journeyed to the Arts District once again for an afternoon of antiquing and wandering in the Burlesque Hall of Fame. Pictured here is the wall of pasties.

I’m not usually a museum-tour type of gal, we had one that was pretty excellent. Our tour guide was a local artist and performer named Buttercup, and she took us through each era of American burlesque and expertly answered all of our questions. Her retro-glam look made me want to start wearing hot rollers and false lashes again.

After a coffee break, we caught the Big Elvis show, then were accosted by some naked cowboys. We needed some group pics of ourselves anyway, so we were game to say hi.

Inside the Paris casino, a very vibey place.

DITA! It felt SO good to be at Dita’s show again. Hannah and I saw her just last year and it was life-changing. I am definitely my most present when watching burlesque — I think no thoughts and just let the glamour wash over me.

Afterward, we had drinks and beignets at the Vanderpump Garden back in the Paris casino. We stayed here till 1am, and I didn’t feel at all tired. That’s when I knew Vegas had me under its time-warpy spell.

Fast-forward to Day 3! The day was spent mostly by the hotel pool. We made the most of the patchy sun and barely 60-degree temps. Nighttime agenda was dinner at Momofuku followed by the Chippendales show. Here’s me that night & the next morning, LA-bound.