Are the 80s back?

In this newsletter

• Diego Rivera, Frank Lloyd Wright and competing visions of Mexico

• A new collaboration from Dirt x P.F. Candle Co.

• Daisy Alioto on the long shadow of the 1980s

• Our April playlist featuring new music by Saya Gray, Deafheaven and Larry June

Vita Dadoo on Diego Rivera’s Anahuacalli, a volcanic museum torn between the past and the future. This article originally ran in Prune.

Between 245 and 315 AD, the southwestern part of Mexico City became engulfed in lava flows that traveled north. The monogenic eruption of the Xitle Volcano ultimately covered the ancient city of Cuicuilco, known for its uncanny circular pyramid, which is now visible from Mexico City’s so-called “second floor”––a suspended urban highway that cuts through Ciudad Universitaria, the first public city university campus and Estadio Azteca, the largest soccer stadium in the country.

Thousands of years after the eruption of Xitle, in the mid 20th century, there was a concerted effort to integrate the lava fields of the Pedregal, once considered barren land, into the fabric of Mexico City’s cultural landscape. Artists-turned-architects like Luis Barragán and Juan O’Gorman sculpted the lava-stone into what would become residential complexes for the upwardly mobile and artistic utopias for a burgeoning vision of the country, full of echoes from the past and the elusive hereafter.

One of these ancient lava flows lead to Diego Rivera’s Anahuacalli, an inset of volcanic rock that functions as a museum. Housing Rivera’s 60,000 pieces of prehispanic ephemera, the space conjures a version of History, held together by the four cardinal points honoring ancient deities of maize, fire, water, and wind. Walking across an empty public plaza, visitors symbolically descend into the underworld as they enter the structure, greeted by the mother of all Gods, Cuatlicue, before ascending towards light.

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DIRT X P.F. CANDLE CO.

By Daisy Alioto 

On June 6th, 2022, I woke up, drank my coffee and tweeted, “the girl boss is dead, long live the girl moss (lying on the floor of the forest and being absorbed back into nature).” The tweet went mega viral. 

To me it was a tossed off observation, a play on words at a time when the arc of the venture-backed millennial-focused CEO was plateauing (with most of the schadenfreude reserved for female founders). The Girl Boss had to be glued to her Blackberry, the Girl Moss is building things that make you want to log off. A lot of viral things burn fast and die out, but I think this one has staying power…

The Girl Moss bundle from Dirt and P.F. Candle Co. is the perfect gift for yourself or the Girl Moss in your life. A manifestation of work/life balance, the bundle includes three best-sellers inspired by the great outdoors at 15% off their individual retail value: Amber & Moss Standard Candle, Enoki Cedar Incense Cones, and Geranium Moss Reed Diffuser. 

Daisy Alioto on turning away from microtrends and towards a lost era. This article originally ran in our Weekend Edition.

Lately, I have been wondering whether I am simply getting old, or whether there is something in the zeitgeist pushing me to default to “the classics”. I no longer have the energy to even pretend to participate in microtrends. The Graza-fication of every CPG brand fills me with dread when I see a wheatpaste campaign for a formerly indie brand like DS & Durga. I mean, it’s only a matter of time before the Polar Seltzer can looks exactly like Poppi.

I buy a lot of my clothes at Los Angeles Apparel, in the long tradition of you pick two: good prices, founder not a sex pest, or made in America. As a millennial, I am mentally trapped in the Jenna Lyons era of J. Crew and will probably never stop shopping there. (Friend of Dirt, Drew Austin, penned an Obituary for Millennial Culture at Vice this week.) To be honest, my libidinal fascination with J. Crew goes even further back, to when the prettiest girls in my cabin at summer camp had the catalogs sent to them directly.

I no longer have the energy to refresh Resy pages or show up somewhere where I might not be seated—no matter how many great meals I’ve had at Thai Diner (to be fair, the White Lotus special menu looked great.) These days, I find myself gravitating toward spots like Sant Ambroeus and The Odeon.

OUR APRIL PLAYLIST