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Weekend Edition
Camper boots, Couplets and more...
The Dirt staff shares what we’re reading, eating, buying, and streaming.
TERRY NGUYEN
Camper boots
If I had to choose one brand to buy footwear from for the rest of my life, it may be Camper. I was peripherally aware of the brand, but it wasn’t until late January, when Dirt contributor Katy Kelleher tweeted about its boot sale, that I was sold on cinching a pair. I’ve received countless compliments on these knee-high TENCEL boots in periwinkle blue. (Apparently, Katy got the exact pair; taste runs in the Dirtyverse!) They are extremely comfortable, warm, and perhaps most crucially, always stay above the knee. I’m eyeing the Kobarah in Bottega green for spring, and am tempted to get the Dina in black. Camper also has a very cool men’s selection.
Sofreh-inspired saffron vespers
I still have yet to dine at my personal Dorsia, Dame, but reservations at the Persian restaurant Sofreh, so I’m told, are equally coveted. (The trick is to get there right when it opens on a weekday; I’ve managed to secure a table for two twice.) My friends and I are eagerly anticipating Sofreh chef and owner Nasim Alikhani’s cookbook this June, which will contain the recipe for her legendarily boozy saffron vespers. We’ve tried to replicate these before—with some success. Infuse your gin with saffron ahead of time so that the liquor is vesper-ready, and garnish the drink with rose petals.
Early Works, Alice Notley
Alice Notley is our greatest living poet, and it’s a shame she isn’t talked about enough. Possibly because she resides in Paris, France (for the affordable healthcare, she has said), possibly because she’s a woman poet who writes and works beyond the purview of academic institutions. Notley is often mentioned alongside other second generation New York poets, including Ted Berrigan (her first husband), Ron Padgett, Anne Waldman, and Joe Brainard. This collection, released by Fonograf Editions, compiles poetry written in her mid-to-late 20s, some of which has been out of print since the 1970s. Notley’s work contains a surrealist flair; her turn of phrases are always surprising and eerily fantastical, while maintaining a lucid thread throughout. The poems feel “emotionally concrete,” a friend told me, even if her subject matter is abstract. It’s hard to pick my favorite Notley poem. “At Night the States,” written to commemorate Berrigan, is a good place to start.
TWA Hotel at JFK Airport
Airports are the worst liminal space to be in, but this Space Age-y hotel lobby in Terminal 5 is the best place to have a cocktail while waiting for a flight. The ‘60s playlist is top-notch, the red conversation pit-like couches are comfortable, and there is plenty of natural lighting to do some pre-flight reading. Just hope that your flight isn’t the same day as some stylish rich person’s wedding ceremony.
DAISY ALIOTO
America’s lesbian covers Sweden’s number one queer export. It’s fun to hear the pop anthem of people in overlapping relationships stripped down to one acoustic guitar, revealing the fundamental desperation underlying this upbeat bop. (Brandi’s teal and moss color-blocking isn’t bad either.)
Couplets, Maggie Milltner
Speaking of overlapping relationships, I read an excerpt of Maggie Milltner’s Couplets in the Filth issue of Astra Magazine (RIP) and was immediately hooked. The book tells the story (in poetry and poetic prose) of the narrator leaving her long-term relationship with a man for a woman. It alternates between universal truths like, “the thought of my betrayal / didn’t turn me on at all/ but pained me in a way I couldn’t fetishize” and eye-rollingly specific Brooklyn literati references—”I thought she thought my life was trivial / since she was queer and edited periodicals…Every night she’d attend some trendy function/ with people dressed in Eckhaus and Givenchy.” If you want to know more, read Jamie Hood’s excellent review in Poetry Magazine! Also, has anyone written a prose poem about Rachel Comey x NYRB? Someone should get on that.
I spent about 12 months passively searching for my new “everyday bag” before deciding on the Soft Lune Bag in black from Aesther Ekme, a Copenhagen-based brand that remains somewhat under the radar. I’ve joined the kids in vetting products on TikTok ahead of time, and have seen the more structured Demi Lune bag suggested for fans of The Row, but in general I like my bags soft and floppy!
JOCELYN SILVER
This perfume line (also called L’Âme du Bois, “the soul of wood”) was inspired by shinrin-yoku, aka the Japanese practice of “forest bathing,” or walking and meditating in the forest for one’s health and well-being. I feel very healthy and like I am being well when I smell these fragrances, which are named after tree essences and the barrels in which their alcohol is aged. I wear the Oak in Oak, a unisex scent that contains notes of oakwood, leather, saffron, cedar, amber, and tonka. It’s warm and makes me feel very elegant, like Diane Lane in Unfaithful, minus the whole murder with a snow globe thing. The packaging is also gorgeous—smaller bottles come with a smooth wooden top, while the larger sizes appear to bloom from beneath a tree branch.
Time, Spencer Longo
I love this book by Spencer Longo, a printed version of his 2022 show at King’s Leap Gallery in Manhattan. Longo draws illustrations in pen directly over the pages of uncollated issues of Time magazine dating between 1972 and 2002, pairing images in panels, such as a story about David Koresh directly next to one about Bill Clinton. His bright, cheery graphics–angels, children holding hands—paired with grisly news items make for an eerie, hallucinatory experience. He bills Time as a “must-have for your fallout shelter’s library.” I do know the artist personally but this book is really cool.
This stuff is very popular amongst the French, and upon a Google I saw some circa-2018 English-language articles recommending its powers. But I missed them at the time, and only recently discovered Nuxe’s multi-purpose dry oil while browsing for my other favorite French pharmacy item, Hexomedine Transcutenée, the best over-the-counter pimple product ever (which I learned about from a 2019 article). But I threw some huile into my cart, and I will never look back. This magic potion, which comes in a perfume-like spray bottle, can be used for moisturizing your body, hair, or face (I’m frightened of applying a perfumed oil to my face, but it’s great on the other places). Made of seven different oils, including almond, camellia, and argan oil, it smells absolutely delicious, with notes of orange blossom, magnolia, and vanilla. The scent is so popular that Nuxe also sells a pure fragrance version, along with a J.Lo-esque gold flake-flecked edition. I like to spray it on my skin when I’m fresh out of the shower, using an unscented cream over drier spots to lock it in. When I use it I feel very summery and French, like Cécile in Bonjour Tristesse. My elbows and knees no longer feel like elbows and knees.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
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