Plus niche manifestations, cig influencers, and Dennis Hopper's personal effects.
AUGUST 27TH, 2023
“Legends: Hollywood & Royalty” Auction
From Julien’s Auctions and Turner Classic Movies comes this giant sale of Hollywood ephemera. While the auction is largely movie props and other film-related items, the crown jewel (or jewels) is probably the collection of Dennis Hopper’s personal effects. I’m not currently in the market for celebrity goods, but I do find some of the lots—like this letter to Hopper from Esquire magazine asking him to list what drugs he takes, and this assortment of smoking accessories—intriguing. His psychedelic-related items are also worth a gander. -DW
I don’t know if anyone else has been feeling the effect of seven different planets being in retrograde over the last month, but I certainly have. After a string of the usual mini-nightmares that always accompany a move, (briefly) losing the keys to my new apartment threatened to be the straw that would break the camel’s back for me. Luckily, I was able to find solace in this video fed to me by the FYP engineers at TikTok. Similar to the insanely popular Instagram account @affirmations, @nichemanifestations offers ultra-specific “manifestations” for everything under the sun. A few of my favorites include finding your vape, getting your cat to only vomit on hardwood or tile, making every bite of a grape crunchy, and not transferring your makeup to people’s clothes when you hug them. While I can’t guarantee results, there truly is something for everyone. -PR
Sungold Tomato Sauce
The only thing I look forward to more than tomato season is sungold tomato season, when my favorite stand at the Carroll Gardens farmers market dedicates an entire table to neatly stacked clamshell containers of the sweet golden orbs. They’re perfect on their own, obviously, but my favorite use involves blistering them in a nice amount of olive oil, red pepper flakes, and about five cloves of thinly sliced garlic over medium heat until they break down and stew in their own juices. (I use around a pound of tomatoes for a pound of spaghetti.) Cook your pasta pretty al dente, reserve some of the starchy cooking water, and then mix together with the sauce and heaps of finely grated parmesan. Top with fresh basil, more olive oil, and enjoy. As a gift to your future self, I recommend making a few batches of the sauce now and freezing them. There’s nothing like the taste of August on a miserable weeknight in February. -VvP
Zilot by Bob and Erin Odenkirk
Did you know that Bob Odenkirk has a Shel Silverstein-style children’s book that he wrote with his daughter coming out? Nor did I, but now we both do. I assume you’ll do the sensible thing and pre-order it today. -DW
Apologies to the American Lung Association, but I don’t think I’ve ever saved so many posts in one go. -VvP
Fun fact: Back in the 1980s and 90s, the Swiss Cheese Union sponsored the Switzerland national skiing team uniforms. I didn’t know this little tidbit (like most people, I imagine), until I came across this untitled Sven Sachsalber piece. If you’re in NYC, you can see the piece yourself on display at O’Flaherty’s, the East Village gallery which reopened last spring with a performance art piece the Times called the party of the summer. This new project, which feels at least partly designed to attract the attention of city officials, is an illegally constructed cafe housing their aptly named new show Questionable. Featuring works by artists such as Cory Arcangel and Catherine Murphy, as well as a Fanelli-esque menu that seems to offer standard bar food as well as a watermelon feta mint salad, they promise to stay open until they’re shut down. Stop by before they do! -PR