September 30, 2010 • Category: Blog
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In honor of my recent arrival at Algonquin (and, let’s be honest, my birthday week), Algonquin has been nice enough to let me cap off the month by sharing a few of my favorite things. And what better way to celebrate my birthday than to offer a giveaway, right? Share with me one of your favorite things in our comments and the person who has the most interesting response will receive an Algonquin title of their choice, as well as a surprise bonus gift guaranteed to be shown off among friends.
1. Housing Works Bookstore Café
One of my favorite independent bookstores in NYC where all the books are donated, the entire staff is volunteer, and all the proceeds go to help the homeless living with AIDS. I volunteered there for a good two weeks one fall (and was paid handsomely with a rocking employee discount). Not to mention, their events’ coordinator–Rachel Fershleiser–was an absolute riot to work with on our recent New Stories from the South event.
I feel like writer/artist Allie Brosh understands how I feel about showers, sandwiches, and turning into an adult. I may have sent this link to every person in my address database, including several times to my eighteen-year-old sister Addie Lee, who, at one point, emailed me and said, “I get it. It’s not that funny. Stop sending it to me.”
It was nearly two and a half years before my fiancé traveled back to Los Angeles with me. We hadn’t been to my hometown together yet, and we were planning on meeting my best friend Melanie for dinner. During our many trips, I complained endlessly about the lack of good Mexican food and how nothing–absolutely nothing–compared to El Cholo.
When we got there, Melanie ordered the chicken tacos–chicken and cheese only (Melanie only eats black and white foods, however, that is a story for another day). I happily awaited the delivery of my cheese enchiladas and michalada. My fiancé–adventurous gourmand that he is–went the route of the shrimp tostada.
“THAT” he cried out later in the car. “That place was the be-all, end-all of Mexican food? That’s what you’ve been going on about for years?”
“You ordered wrong,” I finally responded. “Let’s go back tomorrow.”
4. This story from The New Ohio Review, and this poem from The Adirondack Review, and this article from The Colorado Review
5. Bonnie Prince Billy & Tortoise’s cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road”
Usually when I get into a song, I really get into it. I play it–and only it–on repeat. I play it so many times that eventually, I get nauseous when the song comes on and I never want to hear it, ever again. (I’m thinking of you, “Clark Gable” by The Postal Service.) However, the one–and only–song I can listen to and still get chills and still want to share with every person I know is Bonnie Prince Billy & Tortoise’s cover of Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.”
Side point number one: I had never actually heard “Thunder Road” (apologies to John Gregory Brown, who I know will send me a scathing email after reading that sentence) until after I heard the cover. The first time I heard the Springsteen version was in a karaoke bar on St. Marks Street with my best friend Abby and a literary agent named Evan who ran around the room, belting out the song pitch perfectly, eventually sliding to his knees at the end of the song, leading the packed room (on a Tuesday night, mind you) to a standing ovation.
Side point number two: The one time I was truly flabbergasted (ok maybe one of two times I was truly flabbergasted) around a celebrity was when Bonnie Prince Billy–the day after he played a gig in Charlottesville–strolled into the Mexican restaurant, La Michoacana, where my fiancé and I were getting tacos. “Isn’t that Bonnie Prince Billy?” my fiancé asked and I promptly dropped my not-El Cholo salsa all across the floor.
Tags: Bonnie Prince Billy, Bruce Springsteen, Housing Works, Megan Fishmann, New Stories from the South
Benjamin says...
My favorite thing is having dirt under my nails for as long as I can. Not sure if my wife notices. Every minute in the garden is a lifetime of wonder and connection. So when I go to my campus office the day after gardening to hold office hours for students, as I scribble on their essays or type email responses to frantic requests, I look at my fingers lifting and rising, swaying and gliding, and for a moment see them in the soil or around a liatris plug. Everywhere is the garden and my work to plant native prairie plants in my suburban desert. Hopefully, those beneficial soil bacteria that jumpstart natural serotonin production are working under my nails 24/7.
October 2, 2010@ 3:57 PMbermudaonion (Kathy) says...
One of my favorite things is college football, especially when the Hokies win!
September 30, 2010@ 6:23 PMNancy says...
Happy birthday from a fellow Libra. Horoscopes are guilty pleasures but not favorites, unlike starry nights and Carolina blue skies and Chapel Hill most any time. But my ongoing passion is for books, and my favorite thing will always be reading and/or trolling the internet for titles to add to my lovely TBR stacks.
Say hi to all my favorite people past and present @Algonquin. You’re a lucky person to work there!
Cheers, Nancy Pate
September 30, 2010@ 4:46 PMMel says...
One of my favorite things is coffee bean & tea leaf. Granted, it is kinda the same as Starbucks and all the other coffee chains, but it’s only on the west coast, which certainly adds to the allure. Besides having the most delicious coffee, coffee bean also serves as quite “the scene.” On the weekends during high school, Miss Megan Fishmann and I used to migrate to the coffee bean on San Vicente in order to meet up with some of our friends, stare at the hot older classmen, and find out where the good parties were.
September 30, 2010@ 1:04 PMRandom story: Megan and I went to coffee bean one afternoon and ran into one of Megan’s artist/poet friends. The artist/poet (and not the other way around) proceeded to talk on and on about his paintings until Megan, in an attempt to impress him by acting more artsy then normal, said in her laid-back California voice, “it’s all about the art, man.” I promptly started laughing uncontrollably, spitting my delicious coffee bean coffee all over the floor. Only at the bean… Happy birthday Meg!
Amy says...
Favorite things? One is eavesdropping at Starbucks. Fascinating. Remarkably, much of what I overhear is complete and total whining about their lot in life.
Another is the Project Night-Night charity, that makes me happy: it provides a new soft blanket, a new stuffed toy and a children’s book, all in a new tote bag, to homeless kids so that they have something of their very own. I like the idea that they are picky about what they give out, so the kids don’t get some crap toy or chewed up book.
Another favorite thing is baby feet-my three year old’s feet not only don’t stink, but they are immensely kissable. Soft, chubby, and adorable.
Lastly, I swoon for my husband’s homemade chili verde, wrapped in an omelet.
September 30, 2010@ 12:46 PMBeth says...
One of my favorite things is riding my bicycle in a city after rain has fallen. It amplifies the smells of everything. Noodle shops, indian food, trees, cars, flowers.
September 30, 2010@ 12:40 PMCaity says...
One of my favorite things is doing travel photography. Just think about it for a second. You’ve got a wonderful camera that enables you to form art with the twist of a few dials and the push of a button, and you get on a plane to go somewhere new and exciting. Arriving somewhere, wherever it may be that you desire to go, you step off the plane and are immediately surrounded by a brand new culture, new people, new foods and places to discover. Once you’ve claimed your bags and settled them in your lodging, you step outside the door and there it is, the perfect photo opportunity. In your hands rests the surest way to capture that very second of life. You hold your camera up to your eye, focus it, and SNAP! You have taken less than a second of human life and stored it somewhere that allows you to go back to it over and over, whenever you so wish. This is done again and again as you experience the beautiful wide world around you, gaining knowledge and insight about the people you share the planet with and all of the opportunities it holds, all of the opportunities that can be yours if you just reach out and grab them, camera in hand. You’ve been enabled in a way that not enough people appreciate. This is a beautiful thing and a gift to be shared with the world, one that can help raise awareness and lower ignorance. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, and you have the ability to create hundreds, if not thousands of pictures.
September 30, 2010@ 11:55 AMHolloway says...
One of my favorite things is the 3-ounce copper plate for my great aunt’s calling card from the early 19th century. Family legend has it that she chased my grandfather with an axe when she was a little girl. Miss Sarah Wingate Taylor left New England for Northern California, where she became a poet, scholar and professor. Someone wrote “Could be turned in for metal” on the manila wrapper. Not a chance: it’s my favorite paperweight.
September 30, 2010@ 11:50 AM