Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, A24: Three things that I think would’ve convinced anyone to consider watching this film, and appropriately so, but I had already seen some snippets of what I knew I might be interested in most: the set design. And on top of that I was excited to watch because a hometown friend of mine, Tommy Le, was an Associate Producer on the film. Congrats Tommy!

As mentioned, the film stars Zendaya (Emma) and Robert Pattinson (Charlie), who are a young (and clearly well off) engaged couple living in Boston who seem to have it all… that is until a long kept secret of Emma’s slips out over a few bottles of Pet Nat while having dinner with friends. From that point on, the film turns on it’s head, and puts the audience in a predicament over Emma’s secret. Which, I think sparks some valuable discussions regarding mental health, forgiveness, and yet again, gun control. But this time I’m not here to talk about the storyline, the cinematography (which was beautiful), or the talent of Scandinavia’s filmmakers (see: Kristoffer Borgli, Joachim Trier, Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Susanne Bier, and countless other examples).

I want to talk about this apartment and all the things it teaches us about great interior decoration.

Firstly, this is a real apartment in Boston. The team, led by Production Designer Zosia MacKenzie, scouted several homes in the city before landing on this beautiful South End apartment. Within three weeks, they were able to transform the space into what we see in the film. And although the blank canvas of this space is certainly a great starting point already, what they turned it into really is stunning.

Here are some things I think this space teaches us:

• The importance of curating intentionally and over time

Something I think this space emphasizes so well (in a way that any designer or enthusiast will recognize) is how important it is to mix the styles and eras of furniture, lighting, art, and other decor. In the real world, it’s the kind of decoration that can only be done with time, slow development of your own personal style, and a great amount of consideration. This is why it feels so nice when you go to that one friend’s place. Because even though things might be a bit mismatched, it’s done authentically. They didn’t furnish their house in haste on a Saturday run to Target. They didn’t pack their car to the brim at IKEA reaching for something just because it would fill an empty space. They didn’t go to Rooms To Go and finance a 7-piece set that robs their living room of any chance to have character. My point being: everything doesn’t look the same. And aside from some overconsumption tendencies, there’s nothing inherently wrong with taking a rapid approach. Some people feel perfectly at home in a space that can be copy-pasted in the blink of an eye, and that’s okay. And sometimes we don’t have the luxury of time. Not everyone has the same priority or need to have a designed or curated space. We’re all different and I encourage you to do whatever your thing is.

Homes like this, with some unique originality, are built with family heirlooms (if you’re lucky enough to have them), trips to thrift stores, antique malls, estate sales, and auctions. They’re built by traveling to new places or seeing whats out there on Marketplace. Some of those trips you leave empty handed, sometimes you get the steal of a century, and sometimes you overpay because you just can’t leave without it. But regardless, there’s a great amount of reward that comes with building spaces like this slowly, and allowing our homes to change in real-time with us, rather than dumping a heaping pile of poorly-made and mass-produced furniture that we’ll be begging to replace in 5 years.

Aside from the very real fact that real estate and/or rental prices in Boston for an apartment like this are probably unattainable for most of us, this apartment feels believable in its content, especially in the context of who this couple is. They obviously have money, that’s not a secret, and looking around the apartment you can tell, as there are some very choice pieces of vintage furniture. To list a few:

Pollock Armchair designed by Charles Pollock (1960) - $4,220 at Design Within Reach (still don’t know whose reach they’re referring to). Two of which sit in Charlie and Emma’s living room.

Akari UF4-33N designed by Isamu Noguchi (1951) - $1400 at the Noguchi Shop. Seen below in the dining room.

Akari 2A UKAI designed by Isamu Noguchi (1951) - $450 at the Noguchi Shop. Seen above on the bedside table.

Snoopy Lamp designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni (1967) - $1,840 at FLOS. Seen in the living room.

Cesca Chair designed by Marcel Breuer (1928) - $1,350 at Knoll. Four of which sit around their dining table, beautifully paired with two vintage ladderback chairs (similar to one I thrifted myself last year for $10).

Matin Table Lamp designed by Inga Sempé for HAY - $245 at DWR.

In other words, those pieces would set you back a grand total of $17,530 (if bought new today). My point here is that although these pieces may be expensive, they are themselves undeniably timeless artifacts of design history that never fall out of style. And with time, someone who is serious about design and interiors could collect pieces on a similar tier if you can find the deals. But, even easier, you could opt for cheaper alternatives that at least effect a similar style from thrifting, shopping second hand, auction, or bought new from places like IKEA. The goal should never be to copy and paste an interior from elsewhere into your own home, but rather to learn what you love and apply that to your own space in a way that makes sense for you, your blueprint, and your budget.

• The never-ending appeal and warmth of a lived-in home.

When watching the film, it’s easy to understand that the couple is in a state of transition, a state of being unsettled, and their apartment reflects this in many ways. But the most meaningful, and the most translatable to our everyday lives, is in the way that everything isn’t perfectly stored away. In other words, the home feels very lived-in. Charlie being a curator naturally leads to having artwork all over the house, but pieces feel just as comfortable on the floor as they do hung on the wall. Books are resting throughout the house, wherever they were last read. Blankets rest on the couch rather than being folded away neatly. Candles, bongs, notebooks, and knickknacks all sit out in the open. This is the type of space that feels inviting because the need for perfection and resolute organization was never there to begin with.

Compare this to uber-modern spaces that feel white, sterile, and cold (like Kim Kardashian’s LA home or Pernille Teisbæk’s home in Copenhagen) where there’s the sense that someone would let out a scream if one single mug were left out on the counter. But alas, everything is personal taste. And it’s not to say that the homes mentioned are poorly designed or distasteful, rather that so many of these McMansions feel more like a dentist’s office or an operating room to me than a warm, welcoming home. Whereas it’s entirely possible to do the opposite, and turn a dentist’s office into an amazing home like this one in Geneva designed by BUREAU.

All that being said, the beauty of the set design extends well beyond the apartment itself. The wedding venue, the offices, and ballet studio are all stunning in their own right.

And just as importantly, the film is certainly worth a watch. You can stream it on Apple TV, Google Play, or Amazon Prime.

Also. If you want a much more detailed and thorough breakdown of the film and the symbolism in its set design, please go read ’s post from her page Loose Buttons.

Loose Buttons

The apartment symbolism in "The Drama"

I haven’t anticipated a movie like The Drama in a while. The marketing was full of flair and intrigue: the mysterious engagement announcement, the restrained trailers, the press tour. It definitely felt like the film would be yet another fucked-up thrill ride from A24. The movie follows a c…

Read more

5 months ago · 232 likes · 16 comments · JoAnn

Hope all of you are well.

Thanks as always for reading as always.

-Zach

Buy Me a Coffee

It’s been far too long since I’ve posted here for so many different reasons, but I’m ecstatic to be back. For those of you who have been with me from the beginning: yes, another rebrand, and a big thanks to you for still wanting to read with all of my inconsistencies! What was once Tenderhearted became Let’s Chirp and has now fully nested itself as Somewhere To Land.

But this redesign was approached with much more intention, much more care, and with emphasis on what feels most sustainable to me going forward in respect to whatever this space is that I’ve carved out for myself (and for all of you wonderful folks who have chosen to hop in towards wherever we’re going!).

Like many others, I went the college-to-grad-school-for-a-clear-career route. Some would say the more… “predictable” (at this point I think we all know that nothing is really predictable) path. And I don’t have regrets about this. It’s led me to a stable job that provides me with a good income, enough freedom and flexibility to do the things I want to, and even a little bit of purpose. But, if you work in medicine (or probably in anything), then you understand that our careers are not our identity, at least not for most of us.

So I expand on all of that to say: although I’d be happy to talk to you about the risks of smoking, the importance of your daily fiber intake, or how fascinating the human body can be at times, I’d much rather ramble on about design in all its forms, my garden, music, or the Rhône red that I tried last week. That’s the stuff that energizes me. That’s the stuff that feeds my soul. That’s the stuff that I carry around in my head and my heart, ready to whip out when the opportunity presents itself. And this space was created because, like we all do, it needed somewhere to land.

Sir Terence Conran’s Berkshire Country Home, Barton Court

Lately I’ve been on a tear of studying some really great London homes (Phoebe McDowell and Sasha Bhavan/Simon Knox to name two), and I’m no stranger to a great countryside home in the UK, but when it comes to iconic figures in the history of modern UK design, Sir Terence Conran certainly has a special place on the list. And this home deserves one as well. Conran is well known in the design world for being not only the founder of UK furniture brand Habitat (f. 1964), but he also founded the renowned Design Museum (f. 1989) in Kensington, London.

I particularly love the balance between these two living room options. And what shines brightest in the room below for me is Conran’s ability to have such a great mixture of old and new. Keep in mind that these photos were taken in 1984, so what seems outdated to us now was definitely more modern at the time. But such a great balance of texture, color, and furniture variation feels so authentic to me in a way that every good home should. Without being told who designed this space, Conran is clearly able to stamp this as his own through the displays on the shelves, the layout, and the undeniable taste of whoever it was that put this room together. And on top of that, it’s entirely timeless. You could have this same room featured in any magazine in 2026 and celebrating it would feel equally valid.

The red brick estate was built in 1772 for a senior officer in the Royal Navy, George Dundas, but Conran (and his wife Caroline Herbert (his third of four wives)) purchased the home in the 1970s. Extensive renovations were required as the home had poor upkeep after a period of time where it was used as a boy’s prep school. At the time these photos were taken, the home belonged to not only Conran and his wife, but also five of his children. Homes as expansive as this often come off more like museums that should go untouched rather than places for a family to unwind, but the liveliness of this house feels palpable and much more approachable to me. Even in its grandiosity it does somehow seem possible to imagine children, friends, and family running in and out weekend after weekend.

One common thread that I love throughout the home is not only the unique placement of furniture (e.g. a stray table here, a chair there, some purely decorative piece for display), but the emphasis on lounge chairs in rooms. A chair in a bedroom is not a new idea, and certainly plenty of us have them, but when I saw the lounge chair in the bathroom below, I felt like he was onto something that I hadn’t considered out loud. Which is that if you’re like me then you’ll find yourself sitting in any random room at any given time, and so naturally, why not have somewhere designated for that activity? I don’t know, but it’s food for thought in a setting where leisure is surely at it’s peak.

All photos sourced from House & Garden and taken by Lord Snowdon (Antony Armstrong-Jones).

Three albums I’ve had on repeat:

• Sampha’s second full-length studio album, Lahai, was released in 2024, but two years later it is still something quite magical. It’s music that you’ll want to find a way to live inside of. Beautiful motifs, his haunting voice, and his ever-familiar piano with plenty of reasons to hit rewind. Make sure you listen to the deluxe version, especially for the song “Re-Entry”. If you haven’t already stumbled across the British singer, songwriter, and producer in one of his various side projects or collaborations, then this album is a fantastic introduction to someone that continues to master his craft.

• I’d had no previous knowledge of the Australian band Way Dynamic until I recently heard “Miffed It” on someone’s Instagram post a few weeks ago but I’ve been hooked ever since. While I do think “Miffed It” is my favorite track from the album, Massive Shoe is filled with plenty of other tracks that are perfect for a spring afternoon. From beginning to end I get a clear yet quirky singer-songwriter energy that doesn’t lack with backing instrumentation and feels somewhat reminiscent of Andy Shauf and Benny Sings.

• If you’ve never listened to Lausse The Cat, then the initial description of who this artist is might confuse you away from any desire to listen, but trust me, behind an incredible album cover is also some pretty fantastic music. Lausse The Cat is the pseudonym for an anonymous UK-based rapper who, since 2016, has been putting out some of the most whimsical, haunting, dark, lush, and layered hip hop I can think of in the last several years. (Think if Mac Miller (RIP) was bilingual in Enlgish and French and made Faces under a penname.) He is a wonderful storyteller and the entirety of his music is made from the perspective of this troubled but honest cat, Lausse, and The Mocking Stars is some of (if not) his best work yet. I can’t describe this album any better than Matty Timmis did in this review for Wayzgoose Magazine: “Across 12 tracks our narrator pops up, much as he did in his prior work, to marshal us through the dusk like a ring master in a midnight musical circus.”

What’s good on Substack?

• from

There are a lot of reasons that I’ve been consistently drawn to Substack over the years I’ve been posting here, but its ability to drum up a sense of online community is towards the top of the list for me. Beyond that, I also really love seeing behind-the-scenes design processes of how creatives think. And I say all of that to tell you that The Backyard has it all. Cristina is the co-founder of San Fran-based outdoor equipment/apparel company Yardsale. She’s also in the process of designing and opening Yardsale’s coffee bar: Double Black and she shares so much great inspiration for anyone interested in branding, design, or honestly just anything cool. I would start with her most recent post Where did all the third spaces go?

Side note: If you’re anything like me and traveling (especially internationally) on a regular basis, then you know the struggle of the schlep. Yardsale’s Day Bag (in two sizes and five colors) seems to be a waterproof winner, which is probably why it’s sold out repeatedly.

The Backyard

A BTS look into how we're building your next favorite outdoor brand

By Cristina Ashbaugh

• sparksnote from

Molly is a multi-talented but always always always tasteful Freelance Creative Director based in Queens who has quickly become a dear internet friend after I had the great pleasure of talking to her for her new series After Hours (still not sure how I qualified for this but it was such an honor, read here). Molly is a necessary follow for all things design (especially graphic design and vintage brand design) and travel. Start with her most recent defense of all things lowbrow: In defense of the ordinary

sparksnote

A weekly letter from Molly Sparks Sailors. Freelance Creative Director. Formerly: Sotheby’s, Soho House, The Smithsonian, & Victoria’s Secret.

By Molly Sparks Sailors

Some other things I’m into right now:

• I have been obsessing over wine lately and will certainly be talking about this more soon. But for now if anyone randomly likes to use the app Vivino feel free to add me there because I can’t get enough. Recent bottles I really loved recently: Matthais Warnung’s 2017 Zion Grüner Vetliner, Stéphane Orieux’s 2023 Muscadet Sevre Et Maine Sur Lie, and Rivetto’s 2023 Zion Nando Barbera.

• Eating salads akin to this Lindsey Eats Chicken, Fennel, and Arugula Salad

• Flæskestegssandwich. Specifically the overpriced, but also somehow completely appropriately priced one from Slagter Lund.

• Rewatching The Office and Adventure Time.

• Naps and sleeping in general. (And for that matter, melatonin gummies.)

• My recently purchased OXO Burr Grinder (let’s cross our fingers that it holds up).

• Lidocaine patches (recently tore my rotator cuff).

• Checking on my spring garden every morning with a cup of coffee in hand.

• I never thought I would say this, but…Adobe Illustrator. I’m learning…

• Hopefully not debt after this plumber comes to my house later today. Wish me luck.

Thanks for landing here for a bit!

Talk soon.

-Z

Hello Friends,

It has been far too long since I’ve written to you, and that’s for a mixed bag of reasons (as it always is for any of us, no matter whether they’re good or bad, right?). Anyway, now that autumn is here I’ve been able to slow myself down and spend more time getting back into the swing of things here on Substack. As many of you may know, I approach my creative endeavors like Let’s Chirp from a place of self-derived desire rather than one of absolute necessity. I’m incredibly fortunate to have a stable and purposeful career that takes up a lot of my time and energy, but I value every chance I get to be in this space with you because so much of my passion lies in design, music, fashion, films, feelings, and whatever else there is to chirp about.

Because I write out of my own desire on my off time, my posts often come infrequently, but believe me, I’m always thinking about what’s next. I’ve felt so lucky to have so many of you tag along on this journey with me to grow this community. It’s deeply rewarding. It still blows my mind that over 1,000 people think my rambling is worth signing up for! That being said, one thing I’ve always been clear about is that I will never have a paywall for Let’s Chirp. For my fellow creators who make a living off of their creative content, I understand and support their decisions to do otherwise, they deserve it. However, for myself, this work is a gift to me as much as it is to anyone else. I’m not here to make money, I’m just here because I really love talking about design, intentionality, and living a good life.

Like many of us, I do dream of a full-time career in this passionate, creative space over a lifetime of my more objective and contained (and sometimes not so rewarding) day job. And despite the fact that I have so so so much love for my three paid subscribers (you know who you are, my mother included <3 ), Substack has put us as creators (and supporters) in a weird spot between paywall or nothing. So that’s why I’ve joined along with many other creators and have decided to add a ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ button. Because supporting my/our work shouldn’t have an entry price of $60+ per year. Please do not feel any pressure to support me financially unless it is something that you feel driven to do yourself. Your support of reading, talking, and sharing really means so much more than any dollar! Financially supporting creators is something I enjoy the privilege of doing for people’s work that I find truly meaningful and valuable to me, but in this economy I understand that we all need to do as Marshawn Lynch says which is: “Take care of 'y’all bread. Take care of y’all chicken.”

Buy Me a Coffee

Now that I’ve talked your ear off, I want to go on talking your ear off even more about things I want in my dream home. I’m hoping this can be a bit of a recurring series, because like ourselves, our homes, and what we want for (and in) them is always changing. And as always, please let me know what you think! I want to know what you want in your dream home too, and hopefully one day we can all have each other over for tea.

1. A wood-burning fireplace:

For a dream home, this one feels obvious to me. As much as I love sitting around a TV watching sports games, series, or films, there’s nothing like sitting around a fire. It feels like a more appropriate thing to center a space around because it’s as much of a connecting event as it is an aesthetic and physically mesmerizing one. Beyond the fire, the actual physical parts that make up the fireplace (the mantle, the hearth, and the chimney) are also really fun design options to add some neat things to a home. And to be clear, I am dead set on a wood-burning fireplace, none of those weird, lifeless gas things with a finicky pilot light. I want the smell, the warmth, the sound, and yes the labor intensive and increased danger of real wood. It’s the same reason I will never buy a fake Christmas tree, it’s just against everything I stand for.

The above 1954 MCM home is featured in a great article from AD that I just wanted to share a neat excerpt from for historical context:

The architect of the home remains a mystery; through oral tradition, the Robinsons passed down the information that he was a Black architect who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright, but today, the family cannot identify him. The original drawings for the home are simply signed “T.D.” Furthermore, many Black architects had to work under white architects, as white clients did not want to shake their hands or sit next to them as they drew up the plans during that time. This led to the work of Black architects, particularly those without name recognition, sometimes being listed under other names.

Dr. Robinson sadly passed in 1960, but his wife Doris lived in the home until her passing in 2016. The home underwent renovations in 1989 (led by black architect Lester Bankhead), 2017 (led by Doris’ niece Michelle Runles), and 2019 (by the homes current owners Marc Johns and Catherine Gregory).

2. Built-ins:

I know that built-ins might not seem like the dreamiest item to have on a wish list, but as someone who lives in a 700 square foot 1930s home, there are fewer things I dream of more than storage. Despite my best efforts to limit my materialism, I absolutely still believe in the having of things, knickknacks, tchotchkes. Not excess, but the things that matter: A birthday card from my grandmother, an old jacket from my dad that I might not ever wear but would never get rid of, a T-shirt from my 5th grade field trip to Boston, shells from the beach in my hometown. Countless books, kitchen tools, and records. There’s always something. And in my current house I have two small closets that hardly hold my clothes. So, with that being said, I really do dream of built-ins, and these are just a few examples of what I might be after.

On the note of storage, I think as a society it might be time for us to consider eliminating junk drawers? What do we think? Is anyone else tired of squishing your hand through a drawer full of (and this is just what’s in my own): batteries, birthday candles, tape, picture frame hooks, and Scotch felt furniture pads? Part of me admires the honesty of the junk drawer but I wonder what it might do for our collective mental health if we made the change… You tell me.

I also love that in addition to their functional qualities, built-ins add a great opportunity for color, materials (wood, glass, and even linens like the curtains above), and texture. They have the ability to make any specific home feel genuinely unique because something has been built just for that space. That isn’t meant to be a knock against the countless iterations of the IKEA Billy hacks that are all over the internet, because it is a very practical choice, but I’d like to dream of something a bit more special in my dream home.

I was admittedly much more inspired to take advantage of the utility of built-ins in my own home after watching a video from one of my favorite internet friends, , when she and her husband built the library in their farmhouse.

3. A swimming pool:

As a native Floridian, pools have played a pivotal role in both my childhood and adulthood, and as our planet continues to get warmer, I think they’ll only be more sought after. Pools are like trucks or boats, everyone wants in if you have one. But unlike many of the pools I grew up with, which were huge blue things surrounded by concrete and a perfect grass lawn that’s not great for the environment, or covered by some large mesh contraption, I would love to have a pool with more natural surroundings, and hopefully in a way that could still maintain the natural beauty of the environment, even incorporating things like native flora and fauna into the planning.

I’d like my pool to be more reminiscent of a pond rather than the typical boring manmade copy-and-paste pool. Also, in the spirit of not having more than we need, I don’t think a pool has to be massive (the small pool of Casa Deck above is a great example). But also…if I had the money to have this beautiful infinity-esque pool surrounded by a larger non-swimmable nature pond like the Sagaponack Barn Compound above, I would probably not say no..

4. At least one unique window:

Below are two great examples of unique windows that both happen to belong to Richard Neutra’s Rang House (1961) in Taunus, Germany. I especially appreciate the window behind this desk with the vertical beams. I feel like an architect or designer could see this set of beams (likely structurally significant) and deem this an area that would benefit most from a solid wall, but having this slatted series windows provides a more varied different experience than what you’d get from a wall or even just one large window. In all honesty, my ADHD would likely lead me to peek through each opening far too often while working from the desk so if I had this window myself it would likely be behind something like a daybed or a reading chair rather than a desk. Which is another situation in which I say your house has to work for you.

5. An outdoor kitchen:

As someone who loves cooking, hosting, and being outside as much as possible, an outdoor kitchen would be a treat to have. Having the ability to grill or bake outside opens up so many possibilities in my mind. And in all reality, I find the meals I’ve made outside to often be very simple, but equally, if not more delicious than what can be more complicated and time consuming indoors. Throw just about whatever you want on an open flame and it will turn out delicious. And the ability to serve up a pizza outside sounds just as delightful.

Alright friends, that’s it for today! Making this list was a lot of fun and I already have some ideas for what I’ll add to my dream home next. As always, thank you for sticking with me through the rambling. I hope you found something interesting or the least bit inspirational in here. Today I’ll leave you with one of my favorite traditions to make my home feel a little more *dreamy* each fall, which is my Autumn Jazz playlist. Play it anywhere and share it with a friend!

Buy Me a Coffee

‘Til next time friends. Stay well. ♥️

-Zach

If you haven’t read this book, then I’ll clue you in on the fact that in this quote, Didion is referring to the passing of her husband, John, who suddenly collapsed at the dinner table after suffering from a massive heart attack; a literal cardiac emergency. John had an occlusion of his Left Anterior Descending (LAD) coronary artery. An artery that supplies a large portion of the left side of the heart. An artery that is often referred to as: The Widow Maker. For anyone suffering from a heart attack, time is of the essence. In medicine we often refer to heart attacks and strokes by saying “Time is heart” or “Time is brain”. Point being, the sooner someone is brought to a facility for the appropriate medical intervention, the better. In hopes that we can save as much functioning of the respective organ as possible. But for people like John, who are outside of a hospital, and more specifically who have an acute LAD occlusion outside of the hospital, the survival rates are low, roughly 12%1. John passed in 2003, but in 1987, he underwent a coronary angioplasty2 of his LAD. After his procedure he often commented that “he now knew how he was going to die”, and he was ultimately proven right.

If you have read the book, then you know that Didion goes on talking about her inability to cope with John’s death. In other words, to talk about her own heart-related emergency, her grief. Joan provides example after example of her struggle to accept his death. She writes about going “literally crazy”, reflecting on the way she kept his shoes, believing he would need them when he came back. About their memories and life together, and working intimately alongside one another as writers for four decades. In one excerpt, Joan references a point where in the months preceding John’s death, he mentioned to her how they weren’t “having any fun”:

“We were not having any fun, he had recently begun pointing out. I would take exception (didn't we do this, didn't we do that) but I had also known what he meant. He meant doing things not because we were expected to do them or had always done them or should do them but because we wanted to do them. He meant wanting. He meant living.”

All of that to say, I use this book as an example of why our jobs matter. Because there is a chance that we are the difference between someone living and dying in the instant that we are with them. I use it as an example as to why we should take our education seriously as medical practitioners, and most of all, why we ourselves should choose to live while living is an option.

I’ve worked as a PA in Emergency Medicine for six years now, and maybe my thoughts about living and dying are skewed because of this. I’ve been the person who has delivered the news of the deceased to a family. I’ve watched the heart monitor, begging for a rhythm to appear while my head bobs from doing chest compressions. I’ve told expectant parents about a heartbeat that’s been lost. I’ve informed people about the presence of cancer, or of its return, its mindless spreading. I’ve held the hand of someone who is dying, who has died, to the point that my squeeze couldn’t be returned. I’ve placed a sheet over shut eyes, zipped a bag around someone I talked to hours before. I’ve had conversation after conversation with patients and their families about how they might want things to go if death pokes its foot in the door. Our mortality isn’t optional, and neither is it’s timing. I’ve seen children go, teenagers, adults of every age including my own. Death is the only certainty of life. My experience isn’t unique, ask anyone in this line of work, they’ve likely seen even more than I.

So when a friend told me recently, that life was happening (in a good way) and that they didn’t feel ready for it, I understood. We’ve all felt that way before, and it’s a completely valid stance to have. But what I quietly thought to myself, and what led me to writing this to you now, is that I haven’t ever met anyone who was ready for anything. I’ve heard people say they’re “ready”, letting the word bubble out of their throat into the world. Splattering like hot oil out of a pan, burning them if they touch it, if they believe it a little too much. I’m sure that I’ve uttered the word “ready” myself, only to find out later that I was lying. Preparation is a possibility, and one I believe in. An athlete can prepare for a game. A student can prepare for a exam, but “ready” isn’t somewhere I think any of us can ever really be, or at least not somewhere we can stay. Ready is a fixed state, meanwhile we are living in the now, which is always changing and immediately becoming the past because the now has taken over again. The reality is that we’re all winging it. And what a relief it is when we realize and accept that we don’t need to have it all figured out because no one does, because we are all living for the first time. What a relief it is that we can make mistakes, that we can be forgiven, that we can figure something out in whatever time and route it takes us to.

No one is ready for anything3, but what I will tell you is that no one is more willing to live than those who are dying. And by willing to live I mean to try, to make mistakes, to announce our own individual states of imperfection, to be, to love. No one is more “ready” to choose life than those who see that their chance to do so is slipping through their fingers like water. But what we must finally realize, and realize through acceptance and action on that acceptance’s behalf, is that the only thing between us and the permanence of death is the instant, this instant. Is the now, and now, and now. And I dream of a world where we all accept that fact. And I can see the ways that it might change us to realize how close we are to the edge. I dream of the gentleness we might be able to show each other, the grace, the love, the joy.

So what I’m telling you now is of course something that poets, prophets, and philosophers have told you for millennia. Dear friend, what I am trying to say in all of this is that this instant is the life!! And we can only live it by choosing to do so without fear of what is on the other side of our choice.

So what I’m asking you is this: What are you choosing to do in this life? In this instant?

And if you are here with me now, in this instant, and this instant, and in this one too, I will look you in the eyes. I will take you by the hands. And I will tell you that like John did, I want to have fun. I will give you my answer to the question, which is this:

I will live.

I will live.

I will live.

And I hope that you will too.

- Z

I’m still thinking about kitchens (in an attempt to finally finish the remodel of my own):

If you don’t follow me on Pinterest please do! I love checking out what other people are into and it’s my favorite, silent form of creative social media. If you know me, you know there’s a 64% chance I’m on Pinterest at the very moment you’re reading this.

I’ve been trying to remodel the kitchen in my house for the past year. In this time, I’ve confronted maybe my most difficult task when it comes to interior design: color. I love color, but I think it scares me. It’s hard to settle on one (or a group) with so many options. I come up with things in my brain that I try out only to find that they clash entirely. I have my Sanzo Wada color dictionary that I love, but really, I’m someone who loves a white wall. With the exception of my bathroom (which is a color-matched blue from the previous tenants), every wall in my house is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Simply White. And I would say that’s my stance on color: I’m simple. I want to bring color in with art, trinkets, things. But on walls? Furniture? Scared.

So far I have painted the wood floors in my kitchen three different colors. I’ve painted my cabinets….four? I’ve lost count. I’ve had red cabinets for the last 10 months, before that they were a sea-foamy green. My most recent decision is to commit to a darker espresso brown and to paint my floors white (for peace), but we will see where things ultimately settle.

But if left alone to my own devices, my kitchen would be like the rest of my house: wood tones and white. And in the kitchen? Slap some stainless steel anywhere and everywhere and I’m in.

As an “aspiring” (more like: wannabe (and more gently said: learning)) interior designer I really do desire to bring in color more often, but as a home cook with ADHD I really crave a simple and functional setup. I fully believe that as much as things in our homes should fit our design taste, they should also fit our lifestyles, and this includes our mental and physical health. For myself, I want things within reach. I want practicality, I want honesty (shoutout to open shelving and mason jars), and I want a lack of chaos on my countertop.

And… although I love the idea of a colorful cabinet or a fun backsplash, I’m just as likely to take all notes possible from Georgia O’Keeffe’s Abiquiú Pantry to have nothing more than what’s necessary, done exactly right.

Only time will tell, but I will keep you all updated.

An album I can’t wait to listen to: Olivia Dean’s The Art of Loving

You know when an artist releases an album that marks a major highlight of their career? It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s their best, that’s an entirely subjective declaration, but I mean an album that just cements them and their place in the music industry, do you know what I mean? Like stuff that becomes legendary with time. I’m talking about Lil Wayne’s No Ceilings mixtape, Kanye West’s College Dropout, Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Coldplay’s Parachutes, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Sade’s Love Deluxe, (and at least for me) Maggie Roger’s Surrender. Now, I understand what you’re thinking. I just mentioned some seriously iconic albums, but when listening to Olivia Dean’s two most recent singles off of her upcoming album, The Art of Loving, I can’t help but get excited for what I think could be a pivotal album for her career, and one that I think I will have on repeat for months to come.

Dean already has quite a following with 13+ million monthly listeners on Spotify and a hefty US tour this summer (that you should attend if possible). Her first studio album, Messy, which was released in 2023, already had overwhelmingly positive reception as it was shortlisted for a Mercury Prize that year. I loved that album, and I’ve been listening to it again more lately. The opening song “U.F.O.” is still one of the most intoxicating intros to an album of recent memory for me. When I listened to her first single from her upcoming album, “Nice To Each Other”, I knew this was going to be something to look forward to. But when I heard the more recently released “Lady Lady” my excitement grew even more. It’s this beautiful ballet, a nod to the inevitable changes in life, and more specifically in womanhood. She manages to weave in memorable (and meaningful) lyrics, wonderful instrumentation, funk, and that catchy, poppy, rhythm that you keep coming back for. Dean knows her lane. She owns it. She’s got this confident, clear aura that just feels more mature, more sure, and more defined this time around. “Nice To Each Other” has this Maggie Rogers-esque sense of a folky, summer road trip with the windows down while hammering home the point of being present. The little piano outro is just *chef’s kiss* on what’s already done so well. And so far it has been my song of the summer without question.

I know I’ve already made the decision to praise an album that only has 16.67% of itself out in the sun, but needless to say, if these two singles are any sign, it’s one that we’ll be hearing a lot of. The Art of Loving is set to release on September 26th.

An album I remembered while on the train in Osaka: Volcano Choir’s Repave

I won’t say much here, but if you’re familiar with Bon Iver’s frontman Justin Vernon, then you might be familiar with his side project Volcano Choir. Their 2013 album Repave has this really unique, really powerful sound that I feel is always enhancing of that quite moment in a new place. I was on the train in Osaka on my way to an Omakase dinner at Sushi Yamano when this album came back into my mind. Highly recommend it for one of those introspective mental health walks or maybe just a quiet drive somewhere.

A scenic and very well designed stay in the Berkshires: TOURISTS

If you’re looking for a late summer or fall getaway, I’d maybe consider heading to Adams, Massachusetts. TOURISTS is a multi-building hotel and riverside retreat in North Adams. They have options for single room stays or full homes that are big enough to take on up to 11 guests. They have breakfast, all-day snacks, and a neighborhood cocktail bar: The Airport Rooms. They also host chef pop-ups and concerts. It’s a bit of a haul for me from Florida, but if you’re in the Northeast I’d seriously look into booking a stay.

You can watch a tour on YouTube here:

That’s all for this week!

Talk soon.

-Zach

Hello Friends!

I’m happily writing to you from home this week. I’ve spent all week working from my covered front porch while we’ve had rainstorm after rainstorm. Since returning from Japan I’ve been slowly getting back into the flow of things, but I’ll admit I miss the quiet, the cleanliness, the food, and the ridiculously efficient public transportation. Not to mention, being an American is weird right now.. maybe weirder than it’s ever been. But nevertheless it’s Summer. The cats are growing and so are the veg and flowers in my garden. I’ve been tending to my introverted self as well and it’s been a good reminder that we need to do that every now and then, especially in such crazy times (they’re always crazy times).

My biggest news is that I recently got asked by one of my wonderful subscribers to help tackle an interior design project that they needed help with. I’ll surely be saying more about this later on, but the fact that someone has followed along with my work and thought me worthy of such a task was the highest compliment I could imagine, and the work was so much fun. It’s what I wanted when I started this page was to have collaboration, because I think it’s no accident that we’re all here listening, doing, caring. It’s touching to be believed in and it’s necessary to find your passions when you can.

So consider this my advice: Whatever your thing is, keep leaning into it. Someone’s waiting on you. But more importantly, you’ll find so much more of yourself in that thing then you could’ve imagined. I promise it’s worth the leap.

A 727ft² Craftsman cottage of my dreams in Laguna Beach, CA:

For those who don’t know, three years ago I bought my first home. A 700ft², 1930’s Bungalow in my little town in North Central Florida. Being a homeowner isn’t something I take for granted. It’s something many of my peers have attempted without success, so it’s not lost on me how lucky I am to be in this position. At the time, I was looking for something small since it’s just me, and I stand by that, because ultimately I was also trying to make a reasonable financial decision to not live beyond my means. When I moved in I felt utterly free, but I also didn’t have anything but a mattress to fill my space. The rental tenants before me left a tattered chair and I bought a plastic folding table from Walmart that acted as my dining table, work from home desk, and my sole seating area.

When I started planning my layout in the house of where I’d build or put furniture, I often got frustrated because designs I saw on home tours or in magazines didn’t fit my space. In the interior design and architecture world there’s so much emphasis on larger spaces because they offer expansive opportunities to craft things, but many of us aren’t there. Mix in the other extreme of the tiny house boom that has happened over the past 15 years and I felt like I was sort of in no man’s land. (If you find yourself in this area, I highly recommend the Melbourne-based publication Never Too Small.) But with endless intention and careful (and slowwww) steps in the past three years, I’ve turned my not-quite-tiny-house into the perfect space for me.

All of that to say.. when I stumbled upon this 727ft² home in Laguna Beach, I thought to myself: what a wonderful use of 700ft².

After having several different owners since being built in 1917, the home is now owned by filmmaker Gregory Caruso, who uses the home as a getaway from his working life in LA. The home underwent a major renovation in 2022 led by LA-based studio Hammer and Spear, who is headed by the husband and wife duo Kristan Cunningham and Scott Jarrell. Amongst their many inspirations for the redesign, one source stood among others: the work and home of sculptor J.B. Blunk, who worked and resided in Northern California until his passing in 2002. If you haven’t looked into Blunk’s home or work, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s been a major source of inspiration for myself as well, and it was exactly who I thought of when I first saw this home.

Like artists of just about any kind or time, Blunk was heavily inspired by Japanese design. So the addition of the Noguchi pendent above the sofa is of course timeless, but also relevant. The 105-year old redwood walls are so stunning throughout and give the home such a cohesive, cozy, and magical feel and keep the home deeply connected to it’s longstanding California roots.

This kitchen is absolutely one of my favorite features in the house. I love their use of metal with the copper countertops and additionally appreciate the way they’ve tucked away most of the appliances.

My favorite feature of all is this bathroom, specifically the raised bathtub seen below. The designers initially planned to use a Japanese hinoki soaking tub, but due to the clients preferences they had to pivot to a different product, but still committed to having a tub that matched the counter height, which I love. The designers referred to giving this space a feel of a “celebration of woodworking” and when I think of this house I can’t think of a better way to describe it.

You can read the full AD article here.

A Chicago-based artist that I promise you’re going to want more of:

Despite my deep rooted disdain for AI, especially the way it is changing art for the worse, I really do owe so much of my musical discovery to Spotify’s algorithms. And that is especially pertinent this week because I haven’t been this excited to discover a musical artist in quite some time. Thanks to the AI powers that be, I recently heard “Running” by Chicago-based artist Sparklmami, whose music has been bumping through every speaker I own in a celebratory fashion ever since. Born in Texas, the group’s lead singer, Ariella Granados grew up listening to a mixture of various Latin music: 70’s Brazilian jazz and funk, Mexican Bolero, Norteño, and Corrido. She describes her music as a “confessional subconscious”.

When you listen to the group’s music, it becomes immediately apparent just how much work they put into each component. Their sound is beautifully layered, rich, and it fills every corner of the room you’re in. I don’t know how else to say this other than it feels like being in a rainforest, there’s just so much lush sound everywhere, and it’s meaningful. It’s not like anything that I’ve heard a recent artist make. It makes me feel like I’m in a Latin jazz club, but also like I’m in a 60’s Italian film. I can’t get enough. And on top of the music, their visual performances are also top notch. I can’t embed the music video for “Running” or any of their other videos in this post, but I CANNOT recommend watching them enough. This is a group I would keep my eyes and ears on, because there is certainly much more to come and I can’t wait.

Some of my favorite Substack finds lately:

• by

I had Katie Beth Payne’s Bourdain & The Trouble With Being Alive saved in my to-be-read list for weeks now, but when I got around to it I was not disappointed. But then I read her most recent post The Sacred Art of Wanting Without Having and wow wow wow. Katie writes. I’m not going to say she writes about: “x” because that’s not the point. Her writing is the type of work that initially made this entire platform stand out to me and many of us in the first place. It’s sharp, it’s rockstar, it’s poetry, it’s captivating, it’s thought provoking, and it’s as pertinent as anything I’ve read. Read it, read it, read it.

Outlaws & Highways

My personal Substack

By Katie Beth Payne

• by

If you’re a jazz nerd like me, you’ll appreciate Joel’s work. While I was in Japan recently, I happened to see his post Exploring Japan Through Jazz - Part Three which directly led me to a pair of really neat jazz kissas in Osaka that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Anyone who knows jazz knows that it’s bigger than just the music, so I recommend subscribing to Undercurrent if you’re interested in jazz (duh), music at large, travel, film, or menswear.

Undercurrent

A blog about jazz.

By Joel Condemi

• by

I first read Eleanor’s work when I happened upon her piece Should we all be downsizing into the city as we age? for House & Garden. As a healthcare professional, aging is something that I think about often, and where we live has everything to do with our health now, and going forward. But in addition to this wonderful piece, Eleanor also has a great Substack about interior design, travel, hotels, and personal style.

A Considered Space

A design journalist sharing curated edits of good-looking things and places, plus honest observations about life and work. I save all my best finds for Substack.

By Eleanor Cording-Booth

A few paintings I love by the American artist, Susan Hertel (1930-1993)

Hertel was born in Illinois, but went on to study drawing at Scripps College in Claremont, California. She lived and worked in California until she and her family moved to New Mexico in 1980, where she lived until her passing in 1993.

What I’m reading right now:

• I have been terrible about keeping up with my reading lately, but I recently picked up where I left of in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. In usual Gabo fashion it is dizzying and has the most complex family tree but I’m happy to be regaining my momentum.

Thanks for stopping by.

Talk soon.

-Zach

Whether I can believe it or not, the data says that Let’s Chirp has surpassed 1000 readers! I write this Substack because I truly love it. If you know me in my personal life, I’m never shutting up about music, architecture, interiors, fashion, films, gardening, or any of the other things I touch on here. I do this because I want to, because it truly brings me purpose and joy. And although I’m not at all obsessed with the numbers, it’s incredibly cool and also very touching to me that you all have gleaned something from my writing and have chosen to follow along. I’m beyond appreciative of every single one of you that reads Let’s Chirp.

I’m currently writing to you from my seat on the Shinkansen bullet train on a rainy trip from Osaka to Tokyo, where I’m wrapping up a 12-day trip to Japan. Traveling here has been a dream of mine for years now and I can say, without question, that the journey to get here is well worth it. I’ll be sharing a lot more about my trip in the future, but for now I will just say that I’m very grateful to have spent the last several days here and I can’t wait to come back.

A trio of live performances by jazz drummer Yussef Dayes:

There are very few people that I have ever witnessed and thought to myself (and out loud for that matter) “This person has mastered their craft.” But when it comes to drumming, I have yet to witness anyone who has a touch, a style, a stage presence (Including an insane fashion sense, I don’t know any other artist putting out a lilac, shell-lined tracksuit1 as a merch option), and a consistently elevated sound like Yussef Dayes. There’s not any other modern artist I can think of who elicits a stank face2 more often than he does. Born in London, Dayes grew up with three older brothers. His mother was a school teacher and yoga instructor while his father was produce salesman who also played bass guitar. He and his brothers all played instruments (all played the piano, one trombone, and one cello), but Yussef got his first drum kit at 4 years old and the rest is history.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of music from the UK as it’s been mentioned plenty of times, and if you are too, then this probably isn’t the first time you’re hearing his name. He’s known for collaborating with other jazz, R&B, and hip-hop musicians. His most recent studio album, Black Classical Music (2023) featured artists like Masego, Leon Thomas, Tom Misch, and Shabaka Hutchings. In 2020 he and Tom Misch collaborated on a joint album titled What Kinda Music that is still one of my favorite albums to this day. And prior to forming his current group, The Yussef Dayes Experience, he partnered with pianist Kamaal Williams forming a duo named Yussef Kamaal for their 2016 album, Black Focus. In December he put out a 1 minute and 4 second tease from a studio session with Mississippi native, and Grammy-Winning Blues guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, and I would pay a disgusting amount of money to see the rest of this session.

Dayes has several live performances that he has recorded and published on his YouTube channel that are expertly recorded from various locations around the world. When I’m home I loooove to put these on while I’m doing just about anything. I have a projector in my living room and putting on live performances like these have become a frequent part of my routine, especially when hosting friends. It adds such a fun, lively energy to my house that I don’t always get from just putting music on. If you haven’t seen any of these I cannot recommend them enough.

• Live from Japan (2025) - Featuring Minami Kizuki (Sanshin & Vocals), Rocco Palladino (Bass Guitar), Malik Venna (Saxophone), Elijah Fox (Keys and Synthesizers)

• The Yussef Dayes Experience - Live From Malibu (2023) - Featuring Rocco Palladino (Bass Guitar), Malik Venna (Saxophone), Elijah Fox (Keys and Synthesizers), Alexander Bourt (Congas & Percussion)

• FKJ & Yussef Dayes - Live From The Greenhouse (2025)

Most recently, in what I’d consider one of the more unique recorded performances I can think of, Dayes joined French Multi-instrumentalist Fresh Kiwi Juice (better known as FKJ). The two had an all-day session recorded in a greenhouse and according to an interview with FKJ, the session itself was impromptu: “Live From The Greenhouse was intentionally unplanned. The concept was to make music like we were meeting in the studio for the first time. We even got there there in separate cars so we wouldn’t talk about it beforehand.”

If you’re interested in seeing Dayes live, he is currently starting up a tour through Asia from late May through early June, but he’ll also be headlining his Summer Dayes concert in Central park in NYC on July 31st.

A new build in Colorado that doesn’t lack one bit of character:

Creating a new space that looks, and feels like it’s been standing for decades (or maybe a century) is no small feat. But that’s what was asked of Seattle-Based Interior Designer Heidi Caillier, when a family wanted to rebuild on their ranch home in Southwest Colorado. The plan was initially to renovate the 1970s farmhouse that already stood on the property, but the limitations of the structure quickly became too big of a challenge to achieve what the family was after, so ultimately it was decided to go new. In the end, Caillier and team designed what is this stunning (and giant) 7,000 square foot home.

When looking around the home you would never know it’s a new build. It lacks the beige-walled, granite counter-topped, alarmingly-small/poorly-placed windows, and waiting room feel that plagues so many new builds. Although I’m sure the budget for this project was far beyond what most of us are/will be able to spend, there are lessons to be learned from a project like this, in that, if you are a good student of the past, you can design a new space thoughtfully to understand what will age well and what will last, while also building a home that adds useful modern advancements. I’ll rant more about this one day, but the new build crisis (at least in America) is repeatedly responsible for creating homes that people don’t want to live in. There’s a need for constant renovation, which in the end, is environmentally harmful and also financially burdening to homeowners. I think of many new builds and new developments like fast fashion for homes, and if we have learned anything from fast fashion, it’s not a mistake we should be so willing to repeat. Our homes are crucial to our mental and physical health and we, especially as families, need homes that allow us to live well and as a planet, that we want to stay in and not tear down.

While I love the color and the overall style of the home’s design, I especially love the design of each of these bathrooms. Details like the differing sink hardwares, light fixtures, tiles, wallpapers and counters adds character on a level that competes with the best homes of the British countryside or elsewhere. Where a typical new build might bulk-purchase the same materials for cost savings, decisions like this tell me a much more meaningful story, and I’m sure, give the homeowner a much more meaningful experience day to day.

There are reclaimed materials throughout the house that also immediately inject a sense of history. Reclaimed limestone in the entryway, reclaimed wood beams on the ceiling, antique hardware, and custom cabinetry made with joinery methods that mimic older processes. The home even has doors of varying heights from room to room, which, if you live in an older home like I do, you know all too well. But altogether, there has been so much intention put into this space and it shows. And while I understand that this level of detail can’t be placed into every new construction home, the lessons are here for the taking. We of course need places to live, and sometimes building makes sense, but it should always be done in a manner that results in something that lasts and that people want to care for for a lifetime.

Some of my favorite Substack finds lately:

• by

I’ve been subscribed to Kind of Cool for months now and if you are interested at all in fashion or personal style (yes those are different), then it is a must follow. I particularly love her witty, but very valuable, series of writings on menswear:

Boys Need Bags, Stuff I Think My Brother Should Wear, Layers Look Good On You

• by

I recently discovered Sara’s work after her post 10 Essays on Food & Life popped up on my home page. If you’re interested in food and wine, I highly recommend subscribing! I’ve especially enjoyed her In Good Taste series.

Other posts to check out: In Good Taste #003: Kitchen Essentials, How to Read A Wine List

• This lovely mural work by Dublin-based artist . I just want to sit in this room all day!

As always, tell me what you think, and thanks for being here!

Talk soon.

-Zach

Also to those who celebrate: Happy Easter and Happy Passover!

Over the past month I’ve been busy at work busy in my garden (more updates to come), in my kitchen, and busy trying to guide myself on some potential new chapters in my journey as a want-to-be creative who just happens to work in medicine. My cats are growing by the day and so is my love for them.

Brunswick House: Brunswick, VIC by Olaver Architecture (2019)

Although I am incredibly grateful for my very stable day-to-day job in medicine, I have been thinking more and more about the idea of going back to school to study architecture. As you’ve seen here, I certainly have an appreciation for the art itself and find it to be incredibly interesting, but as a homeowner myself and as a healthcare professional, I think our homes are imperative to every aspect of our mental and physical health. One does not simply just go to architecture school on a whim given that it’s an incredibly challenging field to study and practice in, but time will tell how much of my interest is composed of a genuine desire to practice the art. I might simply be doing my typical daydreaming while remodeling my house.

That being said, I recently watched a home tour of this beautiful Australian redesign by Simple Dwelling on YouTube. The early 1900s Victorian home was redesigned by the firm Olaver Architecture (led by Emlyn Olaver) who worked closely with the owners to “make the home sustainable not only from the way it’s built, but the way that you actually live in the house”. The home was also featured in The Local Project.

In the kitchen and living area, something I really appreciate about the design is the way they bring in natural light. We’ve all seen (and appreciated) the typical rectangular skylight that feels like a simple cutout of the roof above (see photos of the bathroom below, where this lighting addition is much more appropriate in my opinion). And although that’s a wonderful gift itself, I think that the way these windows are angled above the kitchen ceiling allows for a much more impactful pouring in of natural light. That paired with the big sliding glass doors makes this space feel like you’re nearly outside the entire time and I can’t dream of anything better.

I also really appreciate the simplicity of the bathrooms that have really wonderful tile work, but also tie into the rest of the common theme of this home with the timber details in the door frames. I’m also a sucker for a well designed terrazzo floor/countertop.

Watch the full home tour by Simple Dwelling here.

Some of my favorite Substack reads lately:

• from

Sandy is a writer and Brand strategist based in NYC. Check out her work if you’re interested in intentional thoughts on home design and interiors, as well as peeling back the layers of what it’s like and what it means to be a creative. If you’re not sure where to start, here are two posts below that I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

But First, Coffee Tables and What Does Your Home *Really* Say About You?

• from

Sara is a photographer and educator based in Utah. If you’re interested in photography (especially film), travel, or notes on motherhood, go read her work! I really love her post the disposable camera, which has fully convinced me that I need a disposable film camera with me at all times. As someone who previously worked as a photographer, it’s an art I’ve gotten away from all too easily. Reading posts like this remind me why Substack is such a special place.

A new 2-track release from (probably) my favorite current-day artist:

• all i need, Loyle Carner (2025)

The first time I’d listened to Loyle Carner (LC) I was in college. I was certainly bouncing around to different genres of music a bit more than I do now, but when I stumbled upon his music I felt an emotional connection immediately. It was my first real introduction to UK rap and I had an immediate appreciation for how much instrumentation was used in the production of the music as opposed to rap from the US. But with many UK rappers (excluding UK Drill which I do also love), especially LC, I find that they’re not only making sonically beautiful music, but they’re adding an incredible depth of words and emotions to their albums. And for me, no one does that better than LC. From his lyrics, to his sound snippets (often featuring recordings of family members or friends), to his merch, to his tours, the man oozes feelings. (Also see: his ADHD Cooking School, Chili Con Carner) And if there’s one thing to know about me it’s that I do too. His album Not Waving, But Drowning begins with a letter to his mother and ends with a letter from her in return. I remember listening to it with my mother at home and we both cried because it was one of the most beautiful and open expressions of love I’d witnessed, especially through music.

But the more I listened to LC, the more I heard him talk about himself, a half white-half black kid from London with ADHD. And the more I listened, the more I felt like I was listening to music about myself, a half-black kid from Florida, who only recently realized that I too in fact have dealt with undiagnosed ADHD. I found out later that we were born on the exact same day in 1994, which then immediately felt like one of those connections in life that makes you question whether there might in fact be a parallel universe. Anyway, his music has followed (and guided) me through all sorts of stages of my life the past several years, and his most recent release adds a touch of rock that I really admire. The second track, “in my mind” gives me a sort of King Krule kind of vibe, who is an artist I’m sure I’ll touch on later for anyone who isn’t already familiar.

Another UK hip-hop/rap album I’m cherishing the more I listen to it:

• A Man After God’s Own Heart, Kofi Stone (2024)

I first heard Kofi Stone when he featured LC on his 2019 Album Nobody Cares Til Everybody Does. The track “It’s Okay to Cry” was my personal favorite and immediately made me a fan. Stone recently released his 2nd studio album in 2024, A Man After God’s Own Heart. It’s a very heartfelt 48 minute compilation. There’s tones of gospel, jazz, and even a feature from the late writer/poet Benjamin Zephaniah on the track “May Sound Crazy”. My personal favorites from this album are “Black Joy”, “Lavender”, “These Years Are Golden”, “I Owe It All”, and “A Mother’s Love”.

Something I’d like to buy:

• The Jackie Robinson Collection by Ebbets Field

Founded in 1988, Ebbets Field has built a solid reputation amongst recently put out a collection in honor of the African American baseball legend Jackie Robinson. The last few years have seen soccer jerseys be at the center of sports-related fashion (see: these embroidered jerseys by TFG and these knit jerseys by fortytwo), but I think projects like this question why we aren’t all considering wearing baseball jerseys just as much.

Something I did buy:

• These Ecru denim from Madewell

I bought these in-store while I was recently on vacation and I have had a hard time taking them off since. They are super comfortable, they fit well, and they go with just about everything. They’re a great, reliable pant for Spring/Summer that will simply be getting a lot of use in my rotation.

Something I’m still considering:

• The Moccamaster KBGV Select in Butter Yellow

Much to my dismay, my two cats have recently grown large enough, and curious enough, to occasionally leap onto my kitchen counter. And as a result of this, there was the recent casualty of my trusty Bodum pour over that I’ve relied on for years. As someone who is unfortunately (but honestly) often running behind to work (see: ADHD, also see: my incessant need to always do one more thing before I leave the house), my coffee routine is now something I’m looking to automate at least a little bit without a compromise on quality. The Moccamaster has been well known to coffee lovers for decades and finds a home on many BIFL (Buy It For Life) lists. They have a 5-year warranty and have a good reputation for longevity and repairs when needed. There are a wide variety of colors available, but I’m especially drawn to this Butter Yellow. My kitchen is tiny, so counter space is precious, but I won’t pretend like this isn’t what I want to see on my counter every morning.

As always, tell me what you think, and thanks for being here.

Talk soon.

With love and gratitude,

-Zach

Oops, I’ve been gone again! But I promise it was only because I’ve been doing my best to live my life off of the internet. But I’m back again, this time with some more film, architecture, and more things that you should (maybe…potentially) consider spending your money on. Spring is here, and in sunny Florida that means I have flowers blooming in every corner of my yard. I’ve been busy pulling up carrots and kale and getting ready for the bountiful and sunny season(s) ahead.

The Brutalist dir. Brady Corbet (2024)

I recently had the pleasure of going to the theater with a friend to see Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. Yes, in 2025 we (we being the 8 people with me in the theater at the time) are going to the theater to sit down for a thoughtfully created 3 hour and 35 minute film, including the 15-minute intermission. The film, which was made on a $10 million budget (compared to the average $100-$150 million Hollywood budget) followed the story of a Hungarian-Jewish architect, László Tóth, who was a Holocaust survivor. There had been great press coverage of the film after it’s initial release praising it as being one of the greatest films of recent times, so I went in with high hopes and expectations. And as someone who has a love for architecture, I was excited to see what was built on the screen.

If I can say one thing about the film it’s this: it’s beautiful. The film was mostly shot on Kodak’s VistaVision film, which is a 35mm film format that hasn’t been heavily used since the early 1960s. The feel of what unfolded on the screen was soft and enticing, while the experience became abruptly harder and harder as the story continued on. There should be no struggle to see the genius behind the film for those who watch. The cast was fantastic, especially the film’s primary star Adrien Brody who played Tóth, and the cinematography of DOP Lol Crowley was magnificent and should get the praise that it has. But…

The absolute shining stars of this film for me (and my friend who saw this with me) were two people: Costume Designer Kate Forbes and Production Designer Judy Becker (see this article by Vogue). Throughout the film, I kept noticing just how badly I wanted some of these pieces in my closet, especially the coats and knitwear. I would’ve included more photos of the clothes but they’re fairly hard to come by. According to an interview with GQ, Forbes mentioned that the clothes in the film were all original pieces from the time periods that the story took place (1940s-1960s). They sourced clothing from costume houses throughout Europe and the U.K. GQ has a thorough article about the costumes.

Some of my favorite visuals from the film came from a scene during which Tóth and Van Buren (played by Guy Pearce) visited Carrara, Italy to source marble for a building that Tóth is working on. Seeing the fog roll through the mountains while the camera followed each character inching by giant slabs of marble felt like a dream, but if you’ve seen the film then you know, they quickly turn into a nightmare.

The Gerald Luss House, Ossining, New York (1955)

If you’ve watched Apple TV’s Severance (which I haven’t…yet) then you might’ve gotten a sneak peek into The Gerald Luss House during season two. The home was designed and built from 1952-1955 in Ossining, NY, about 35 miles north of Manhattan in the Hudson Valley. The sculptor, furniture designer, and architect Gerald Luss, was only 25 years old at the time. He has ultimately been more well known for his interior design work in corporate buildings in New York, specifically the Time & Life Building (now known as 271 Avenue of the Americas). His work in this building especially was featured heavily in AMC’s Mad Men.

Although I’ve spent much more time studying the “art of medicine”, as someone who has spent at least a little bit of time studying architecture, I had an immediate appreciation for Luss’s design of this home. It tucks itself beautifully into the heavily wooded natural landscape in a way that is seamless when viewing things from both inside and out.

Something that I appreciate about his design, especially in spaces like the kitchen above, is the simplicity. And I don’t mean that from the sense of it being simple as in “basic”, but simple as in the design translates to anyone that walks in without much effort required on the viewer’s part. You don’t have to be an architect or an artist of any specific kind to see what’s wonderful about this space. The lines are simple, the materials are simple (but honest), and again, in the kitchen especially, things are not only beautiful, but handsomely functional. The emphasis on the outdoors is felt everywhere (see the sliver of window above the sink to the right). This home makes a statement, but it’s not aggressive or overly pretentious. It is what it is, and I love that.

One of my favorite things about this tour was not only seeing the home, but seeing how the current owners have maintained it. They clearly have such respect for the original design and haven’t altered things to the point that they are unrecognizable, which I appreciate. I think it’s incredibly important for us as a society to continue to take care of carefully designed homes like this, especially from a sustainability standpoint. Many new-build homes nowadays lack the character, intention, or the thoughtfulness that older homes boast. But in addition to that, living in these spaces allow us to tie together our lives with the history of the homes themselves. The act of loving and caring for my home is something I wouldn’t ever dare to replace as it’s something that has brought me purpose and joy unlike anything else. It’s truly one of my greatest pleasures in life and I’ll continue to do this wherever I live for the rest of my life. Keeping older homes going is such a special act of love and losing them is something that I think many of us mourn.

Potentially my favorite thing that the current owners have done is the way they’ve handled the lighting in the space. They’ve committed to warm lighting that compliments the space perfectly, while largely staying away from the “big light”. If you’re interested in interior design and want to think more about how to light your space well, I highly recommend this video (lighting for interior design & how to get it right) from designer Noah Daniel, whose design I am a big big fan of.

A joyful bit of new is that Luss, who is now 98, is still designing from his home studio in New York City.

You can watch the full home tour by Open Space here.

Some things I found while shopping online*:

(*Disclaimer: If you aren’t familiar with ’s Substack , I can’t recommend it enough. She posts tons of fantastic items from clothing to home decor which are largely found on eBay. Check it out.)

• This burl wood nightstand by Bali & Pari. I originally found it on eBay, but after further searching it’s also on Wayfair, Walmart, and Home Depot. I don’t know anything about this brand, nor can I speak to the quality, but I really love the design of the piece itself. As a very amateur woodworker, I’ve personally built a lot of the furniture in my house, and I have an affinity for square pieces, but something with rounded edges like this is a nice contrast. I’ve wanted to bring a piece of burl wood furniture into my home for quite some time. I think that sometimes it can be a challenge to find unique patterns that are also from natural materials. But things like burl wood, cork, or woven textiles like jute can add some neat natural patterns and textures. And while something like this could be really overwhelming with a large piece of furniture, an item like a nightstand could be much more palatable. I also like this option from West Elm.

• This absolute dream of a chair I found on eBay. Listed at $1,450, this beautiful 1970s Scandinavian piece will likely never make it to my house, but a boy can dream. I can imagine melting away here for hours while listening to jazz or waking up here with my morning coffee. This eBay seller, Scandinavian design & vintage has some really amazing stuff.

• My new favorite tote bag that has already traveled with me to work, to my favorite coffee shop, to my friend’s house(s), and to South America. When I first saw this Chestnut suede tote bag from LindenIsEnough I knew I wanted it, but only after shopping around for several other options did I decide I should indeed purchase this one over the alternatives I found. Since I got it I’ve had it over my shoulder pretty much daily. It’s versatile, the perfect size, it’s well made, and it’s timeless. I recently traveled to Colombia for a wedding and it was the perfect travel companion instead of the usual backpack that I’ve lugged around for years. Plus, it’s got that smell.

Three albums I’ve had on repeat lately:

Sweet Nothings, GIOVANNA (2024)

It’s not a secret amongst my coworkers that I always have music on at work. It’s not really a luxury for me as much as it is a necessity. I always have my little JBL speaker with me at my desk every time I start a shift, and when I recently heard GIOVANNA’s “giving” playing on Spotify I looked up and noticed another coworker was coming to save the song for herself. “Oh it’s giving all right”, she said, and I couldn’t agree more. The LA-based musician released a 4-song, 6 minute and 4 second EP in 2024, titled Sweet Nothings, that is so worth its all too brief listen. (The EPs brevity of reminds of Tierra Whack’s 2018 album, Whack World, which is such an under appreciated, streamlined, 15-minute masterpiece.) I can only imagine that GIOVANNA will go up from here. She recently released another 4-song EP made up of remixes of “giving” which I highly recommend.

Sink Into Me, Babeheaven (2022)

I recently discovered London-based group Babeheaven while I was on a streak of listening to Navy Blue, who is featured on their song “Make Me Wanna”. Made up of singer Nancy Andersen and keys player Jamie Travis, the group cites Cocteau Twins and Massive Attack as inspirations for their dreamy, vibey, bouncy sound. I’ve come back to this album over and over and although I usually listen through the 35-minute album each time, my personal favorites are “Heartbeat”, “Make Me Wanna”, “Don’t Wake Me”, and “Erase Me”.

I think you’ll like Babeheaven if you’re a fan of Clairo, Alice Phoebe Lou, Faye Webster, Mazzy Star, etc.

Giant Steps, John Coltrane (1960)

John Coltrane should not need any introduction, but as a self-proclaimed jazzophile, I never tire of listening to the iconic sound of Trane. If you listen to enough jazz then you can recognize the tone of his sax from the first note. Giant Steps was Coltrane’s first studio album as a leader after arriving to Atlantic Records in 1959, and since its release it has consistently been considered one of the best and most influential records in jazz history. For Christmas, I recently got a copy of The Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in the 1001 Best Albums by Richard Cook and Brian Morton, in which the refer to Giant Steps as “Trane’s first genuinely iconic record.” Fortunately, I recently got the record on vinyl and have been letting it play throughout the house at any given time.

My personal favorites are “Giant Steps”, “Cousin Mary”, “Naima”, and “Mr. P.C.”.

Last Book I finished: Kindred by Octavia Butler

I can’t recommend an Octavia Butler book enough. She deserves every ounce of praise she’s ever had, and so much more. Highly recommend it.

Book I’m reading now: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

I recently revisited Márquez’s home country of Colombia, and each time I have, while in Cartagena, I pick up a copy of one of his books from Ábaco Libros y Café.

If you’re interested you can follow me on GoodReads here.

As always, thanks for being here.

Talk soon.

-Zach

After a nearly two month hiatus I am very excited to be back. And as you may notice, things are a little bit different around here. Fall/Winter has been a busy work season (for my real job), and despite my consistent desire to post regularly, I’ve had to prioritize other work. But I’m happy to be back and to be committing more firmly to the Let’s Chirp moniker for good. Aside from working I’ve been busy decorating the house for Christmas, baking endless numbers of cookies, and relishing my new role as a cat dad. Watching kittens grow day-by-day has been incredibly entertaining but even more rewarding. Getting to know their personalities and getting an opportunity to connect with them with each chance has been so much more than I could’ve imagined it being.

From here on out, I’ll be titling posts by their date rather than the specific week. It helps take a little pressure off of myself to have a strict schedule and frees me up to post whenever I feel like it, even if it’s more than once a week (one can dream). Whenever I decide to post a longer, more heartfelt, life-centered piece it will be titled a “Birdsong” to stay on theme with my bird-obsessed brain. Anyway, I’m happy to be here! Let’s chirp.

A coastal home in Maine packed with color: Northport by Reath Design

Built in 1910, the home inherently boasts an abundance of old charm, but after the redesign by LA-based Reath Design, there has been a splendid mixture of new and old. Things like this orange Nesso table lamp (designed in the 1960s by Italian designer Giancarlo Mattioli) stand out boldly in house that’s not shy about it’s century-old, coastal bones. I especially love it when things aren’t overly corrected, like this shiplap wall in the living room that hasn’t been painted over to be uniform and still retains it’s perfectly varied splotches.

Throughout the house there are trim and doors painted in Benjamin Moore’s Webster Green, and not only is it a great color to begin with, but I think it’s the perfect color to tie the house together. For people who aren’t afraid of color (I’ll exclude myself here because I still love living in my mostly white box), spreading a common green throughout a house can be a very digestible splash. In nature, we are very accustomed to green tying just about every landscape together. As I’m writing this I am looking out of my window and can see flashes of green in every direction, but the blue sky, the brown leaves and trees, and the colors of my neighbor’s house all fit and make sense among it all. And this is also the case if you’re sitting on a beach with Sea Grape trees in front of the sand or if you’re driving down the interstate surrounded by trees aside the asphalt. Even when we think of the chaos of color in a wildflower meadow, there’s one common thing that ties it all together: green.

The dining room features stunning panoramic views of the ocean which you can see while seated in these equally stunning Oak “Razorblade” dining chairs (designed in the 1960s by Danish furniture designer Henning Kjærnulf).

I love the balance that is achieved in this home, where a room like the kitchen above is so simple but not lacking in color at all. While the bedroom below has this incredible splatter of color with the star being this gorgeous hydrangea wallpaper by House of Hackney. Just take a peek through their wallpaper catalogue and see if you don’t fall in love 10 times over.

Then meanwhile, there are plenty of corners that were left perfect as they were, like this teal-tiled bathroom.

You can read an AD article about the home here.

A film I’ve had on my list for quite some time: Paris, Texas directed by Wim Wenders, released in 1984

The first words that came out of my mouth when I finished watching this film were: “Now that was a journey”. For any cinemaphile, the 1984 Palme d’Or winner at Cannes is likely high on the list as it has spent four decades garnering praise. The film opens with a clearly disheveled, clearly desperate, and clearly deserted Harry Dean Stanton who stars as the main character, Travis. With virtually no dialogue from the film’s star for the first half hour, the audience, and the film’s costar Dean Stockwell, who plays Walt, are practically begging for answers.

As the film unwinds itself, German filmmaker Wim Wenders (and the rest of his production crew) flashes some of the most direct displays of cinematic brilliance that I’ve ever seen. This is one of those films that I will talk to people about from a place of “I wish I could watch it for the first time again.” The film is beautifully designed from start to finish, whether it’s the set design, the colors, the story, the writing, or the cinematography itself. DP Robby Müller certainly is a master of his craft because some of the shots during this film genuinely made me pause and appreciate what was happening in front of me.

In one of the film’s final scenes there is a conversation between Travis and Jane that contains one of the most incredible monologues I have ever seen. It’s not only a wonderful performance by both actors, but also an incredibly well-executed piece of art where each component shines. Scenes like this, and overall, films like this, are what make me love cinema. This isn’t a film I can explain well with words and not one that I’d want to cheat an audience of experiencing for themselves. So all I can say is please watch it.

The film was restored to 4K this year for the 40th Anniversary. You can watch it on Max, Criterion, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video.

Some Pinterest saves: Follow me on Pinterest here if you’d like! It’s arguably my most active form of social media (Trying to spend a lot less time on Instagram).

This brown suede daybed that is inspiring me to get a little more chaotic with my brown suede sofa. Also love the way that the shimmer of the gold in the lamp and the frame plays off of the velvet.

This dining room featured in über talented ’s Buffy’s book club. This room has definitely given me some inspiration for my own dining room. I especially love the warmth of the pine in the table mixed with the light texture of the pendant above. The home itself could (and likely will) be in it’s own post, I found a tour here.

This outfit by @isabelzanderzeidam that I would love to recreate. I recently bought this red sweater from Fera that is a good start. Certainly an outfit that is Florida Winter appropriate.

The blue walls in this bedroom (original source unknown). Things like this really make me think I should break out of my white box habits and add some colorful glossy walls to my house. This is a bed I can imagine sitting in all day while reading or listening to the entire discography of Mazzy Star. Point being, I wouldn’t want to leave.

Two albums I’ve been revisiting:

Childqueen, Kadhja Bonet (2018)

Listening to and comprehending Kadhja Bonet’s music can be a dizzying experience for any new audience. It’s a genre-less concoction of jazz, folk, R&B, and soul that is also very forward in its orchestral and choral influence. Born as the middle child of seven, Bonet picked up music at an early age. Her father, Allen, was an opera singer and her mother was also a musician. (She is also the half-sister of actress Lisa Bonet.) I first listened to this album after the song “Joy” popped up in my Spotify Discover Weekly years ago, and I was hooked after the first listen. From beginning to end, the album is an undeniably beautiful, psychedelic, and intoxicating experience. And amidst the varied instrumentation throughout this album, Bonet’s voice remains front and center. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but while making coffee one morning this week this album popped back into my mind and I’ve been happily revisiting it all week.

My favorite tracks: “Delphine”, “Thoughts Around Tea”, “Joy”, and “Wings”

A Seat at the Table, Solange Knowles (2016)

I’m not sure that there’s anyone in the world who has grown up with an older sibling that cast a larger shadow than Solange Knowles. The younger sister of Beyoncé has been releasing solo music since 2002, but in 2016, with the release of her third studio album, A Seat at the Table, she quickly gained a well-deserved spotlight of her own. With Beyoncé also releasing Lemonade the same year, the two became the first sisters to have their own respective number one albums in a calendar year.

When I first heard this album I felt like I was discovering an entirely new genre of music that felt necessary to my soul. Like I had almost found what had been missing. It’s dramatic, I know. But I am using no exaggeration when I tell you this is one of my favorite albums of all time. And this is coming from someone who spent a pretty penny to see Jay-Z and Beyoncé during their On The Run tour in 2014. If we’re going to have a conversation about which Knowles sister has had a larger impact on music and American culture in general, there isn’t much debate. Beyoncé is one of the best selling music artists of all time, but for me, when it strictly comes down to music, my preference (biased as it may be) is incredibly clear.

The album features a range of dreamy, lullaby-esque tracks followed by incredibly sentimental interludes, followed by some fuuuunky jams, ultimately all tying together an album that is full of what I consider some modern black anthems. Solange certainly shines as the center piece of the album but her collaborative tracks featuring artists like Sampha, Lil Wayne, The-Dream, and BJ The Chicago Kid also deserve a high amount of praise. I haven’t heard a better verse from Lil Wayne since he released The Carter IV in 2010 (My one exception might be his verse on Tyler, The Creator’s “Droppin’ Seeds” on Flower Boy in 2017).

My favorite tracks: “Weary”, “Cranes in the Sky”, “Mad”, “Don’t Touch My Hair”, “F.U.B.U.”

Knowles released another album in 2019, When I Get Home, that is also absolutely worth the listen. I especially cherish the Gucci Mane verse on the track “My Skin My Logo”, which was produced by Tyler, The Creator. I’d recommending giving that album a listen as well.

Thanks as always for getting to this point! I’m happy to be back and not going anywhere any time soon. If you have thoughts, share them! I’d love to hear.

Til then we’ll talk soon. Hope you all have a very happy New Year.

Here’s to more chirping in 2025!

Cheers,

-Zach

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Film of the week: Run Lola Run

Recently, a few of my friends decided that we should start gathering every few weeks to watch films (mostly foreign) as a group, and this week we all met at my house to watch Run Lola Run, a 1998 film written and directed by German director Tom Tykwer (also known for 2012’s Cloud Atlas). The film follows Lola (played by Franka Potente) and Manni (played by Moritz Bleibtreu) who are caught in a challenging situation in which they have to come up with 100,000 Deutsche Marks in 20 minutes.

Without giving too much away, the twist here is that the couple gets multiple chances to get this right, so the film follows the alternative results with slight variations of their plan. Because of this, it makes the 80-minute film feel more like you’re watching multiple acts, which reminded me of Yorgos Lanthimos’ anthology Kinds of Kindness which I watched back in Week 29.

Although there are a few brief moments that the movie felt somewhat thrown together, it’s an undeniably enjoyable film with tangible brilliance. The music, the wardrobe, and the set design (especially the use of color) are second to none. There’s a reason this film won the 1999 Sundance Audience Award amongst many of it’s other awards and nominations. And if you do any internet perusing in relation to the film you will find droves of people who rightfully love it. I would definitely say it’s worth a watch, but if you’re even more bold, between the opportunity to wear a red wig and some temporary tattoos I think Lola would make a fantastic Halloween costume.

In a June 2024 Vogue interview, Franka Potente opened up about her experience making the film, and especially recounts the way it took 8 attempts to bleach her hair white before finally using an imported dye from London to achieve Lola’s signature red.

To watch, you can rent Run Lola Run on Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV (at least in the U.S.)

Home of the week: A 1924 Hillside Cottage For Sale in LA

Tucked into Northeast LA’s Mount Washington neighborhood, this now century-old 1 bed/1 bath, 750 sq ft home is the perfect artist’s cottage. It’s brimming with natural light and aged charm. The white floors, walls, and exposed wood ceiling are a beautiful canvas for any pieces that would be brought into it. I know a lot of people aren’t fans of white walls because they think it lacks color or character, but as someone who has all white walls in their home, I feel like it has always offered me a sense of serenity but also it allows all of my art, trinkets, and cherished pieces to shine as what makes my home mine. The home has a separate 200 sq ft workshop space that would be a great place to take on new projects.

I’m really a fan of this baby pink, retro range in the kitchen. It’s not necessarily my style but I can appreciate the way that it injects some playfulness in the house when an all-white space can start to feel museum serious. As an amateur furniture maker, I also really appreciate the kitchen seating. The way these stools tuck into the table base is a really creative use of space while there’s no seating capacity sacrificed.

My personal home is ironically similar, as mine is a 700 sq ft, 2 bed/ 1 bath built in 1935. My home also has a 200 sq ft detached workspace that is in desperate need of serious renovation (if not demolition and rebuilding) that I currently use as my workshop/storage space. So when I stumbled across this home on Instagram and saw the similar details, it felt like a reminder of what’s possible in a small space like mine, but also a tangible inspiration for some future projects I have planned.

The home is currently under contract and was originally listed at $799,000.

Album of the week: Never Enough by Daniel Caesar

In my opinion, Canadian singer-songwriter Daniel Caesar is one of the few modern R&B voices that always stands out to me amongst his peers. If you haven’t listened to his previous albums Freudian and CASE STUDY 01, I can’t recommend them enough. Although the value and credibility of the Grammys has waned in the past several years, listen to his music and you’ll understand why he’s won one and been nominated for several more.

Born to Bajan and and Jamaican parents, his music has an abundantly clear Caribbean influence, yet he also flawlessly mixes in rocky guitar riffs and calming symphonic melodies with pianos and violins. Meanwhile his voice smoothly carries you like the cool side of the pillow through the whole experience. It somehow feels like you’re in space but also under a shady tree on a warm fall day.

So in May of last year, a month after this album’s release, when I found myself sitting quietly on a beach in Ocho Rios (ironically also the title of the album’s first song), I glommed onto this album. I spent the week sitting on the beach in the morning with my coffee, reading Joan Didion and Mary Oliver, and throughout each day I came back to this music. I was going through my own episode of heartbreak at the time and Caesar’s music has this calming, validating sentimentality to it that brought me so much peace. And while his music creates this space to feel some sadness it also has a distinct hopefulness and liveliness to it that carries you forward.

For me, this is a no-skip album that I almost always listen to in its entirety. But some of my personal favorites from the album are “Valentina”, “Toronto 2014”, “Cool”, “Do You Like Me?”, “Disillusioned” and “Buyer’s Remorse”.

You can watch an Apple Music interview with Caesar about the making of the album from his New York home studio here:

A trio of Novels by Irish Authors:

Earlier this year I read Karl Geary’s Juno Loves Legs and now that we’re entering the 11th month of the year I can comfortably say it was one of the, if not the favorite novel I read this year. I was talking with a friend who I was traveling with at the time I read this and I found out she was also just finishing a book by a different Irish author. We were going on about how alluring their respective writing styles were, but also found some similarities between the two that we really enjoyed.

So later in the year when Sarah Gilmartin’s Service popped up as a recommendation on my Goodreads page, I didn’t hesitate to buy a copy after finding it at my local bookstore. And now that I’ve recently finished that, I’ve moved on to what I’m currently reading, which is the the much anticipated Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, which I was given as a 30th birthday gift my the same friend I talked with earlier in the year.

Tenderly,

-Zach

If there’s anything we associate with fall, it’s the feeling of having a hot drink in our hands. (Queue the annual pumpkin spice latte craze that has lines wrapped around every Starbucks in America.) Over the past few years, one of my most steady autumn rituals has been making a big pot of masala chai at home from scratch. Not only does it make my house smell fantastic, but it’s the perfect drink to bring us into this season (and beyond, as it is still perfectly appropriate iced during the summer).

Native to India, masala chai (or chai masala) is a tea drink made with milk and spices. In the states, we often refer to it as “chai tea” which is a bit redundant since the word “chai” itself means tea. Chances are, you’ve had or seen a chai latte at just about any coffee or tea shop around. This is not that. While I would still never turn down a chai from a coffee shop, I almost always find that they are under flavored and watered-down for my liking. So I’ve spent some time settling on this recipe. It’s a bit spicier than what you’d get at a coffee shop or at a grocery store, but I (and just about anyone I’ve shared it with) think it’s delicious. If you enjoy chai already, then you should definitely give this a try!

Recipe

Makes approximately 7 cups (roughly 5 to 7 servings) | Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 inch (5cm) piece of fresh ginger, thinly sliced

• 2 cinnamon sticks

• 7 to 10 cardamom pods

• 7 to 10 whole cloves

• 2 to 3 star anise pods

• 2 teaspoons (8g) black peppercorns

• 6 teaspoons (8g) black tea (English Breakfast is what I use. Would personally stay away from Earl Grey (too overpowering) or Darjeeling (not strong enough)) If you don’t have loose leaf tea you can use 6 tea bags.

• 1/2 cup (110g) granulated or cane sugar (can replace with 1/3 cup maple syrup if needed)

• 2 (500mL) cups milk* (I use whole milk)

*A note on milk options. I’m all for non-dairy milk, so if you’re dairy free, please feel encouraged to stay that way. You can still make this. However, while I’ve trialed this recipe over the past couple years I’ve found that a lot of non-dairy milk will curdle in the process of heating. Not only that, but many of them end up more watery than I’d like and I guess I desire a creamier chai at the end. I do my best to avoid preservatives and usually opt for non-dairy milk brands like Malk or Elmhurst (this is just what’s available near me) and these have especially been terrible in the curdling department. I’ve had better luck with larger brands like Chobani, Oatly, or Planet Oat. Go for “extra creamy” or “barista” versions if possible.

Instructions

Step 1

Going one spice at a time, grind all whole spices in a mortar & pestle or a molcajete*. Add these to a pot and stir with 6 cups of water.

If you don’t have one you can grind the dry spices (excluding the ginger since it’s wet) in a spice grinder or a coffee grinder, but keep in mind that the end product should still be quite coarse. We’re not looking for a fine/sandy texture, more of something like loose leaf tea.

*If you don’t have one of these in your kitchen I would HIGHLY recommend investing in one. They are relatively inexpensive, I found mine at an antique store for about $20. They’re a very handy tool and often also add a nice variety of texture in your kitchen. Here’s a video from Jaime Oliver on how to use a mortar & pestle if you haven’t before.

Step 2

Let the mixture heat up on medium-high heat, for a total of 7-10 minutes to the point that everything gets to a simmer or a gentle boil.

Step 3

Take the pot off of the heat and add 6 teaspoons of loose leaf or bagged tea. Steep for 3-5 minutes and then remove tea. If you are using loose leaf tea, make sure you are using something that can be picked up out of the pot without using your hands.

Step 4

Add 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 2 cups milk and stir. Place back on heat at low-medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Step 5

Give everything one final stir and then strain the mixture over a fine mesh strainer. If you have a pour-over coffee pot that has a metal filter than this is a great apparatus to use for this step.

Step 6

Serve the final product directly into mugs while hot or let cool and store in mason jars or other large glass container. Can serve iced after being chilled. To reheat, place desired amount on low heat on stove or heat in a microwave safe container for 1-2 minutes.

If you don’t want to go through any of this trouble (which is certainly understandable) then I recommend getting a high quality pre-made chai mix like this one from Kolkata Chai Co. You can still have a great product without going through all of these steps.

Alright, that’s it for today. I’ll be back soon with the next installment of Let’s Chirp. For now, chai on.

Tenderly,

-Zach

I’m doing swell and I hope you are too. After the very recent, very exciting event of being mentioned on by the wonderful , we have gained several new folks in this community, and I want to say welcome to all of the new faces (even if I don’t see you in front of me as I write this tucked under my pink-and-orange-striped, linen duvet cover). It’s lovely to me that you’d want to hop on this journey with me to chat about the things I’m into right now.

As we’re making the transition from summer to fall, things are undeniably changing. The days are getting shorter, the earliest parts of the morning have the slightest hint of cool air, and if you’re anything like me, you’re starting to slow yourself down from the heat of summer.

I’ve been spending a lot of time at home lately, which is of course not at all unusual, but I’ve been steadily (and slowly) crafting things to provide myself (and my guests) more comfort in the coming months while we huddle together inside and out. As a result of this, I’ve spent less time writing and more time painting things, more time creating sawdust, and more time with my hands in the dirt while playing in the garden. And that’s not a bad thing at all.

So now that we’re all here (all three hundred?!? of us), let’s chirp.

Film of the week: Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro)

Black Orpheus is a film that has lived on my to-watch list for quite some time. The 1959 film, directed by French filmmaker Marcel Camus, was the winner of the 1959 Palme d’Or at Cannes and also went on to win the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film itself takes place in and around Rio De Janeiro, during the week of Carnival, and mimics the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

The film stars Breno Mello as Orfeu, a handsome trolley conductor who, legend has it, can make the sun rise by playing his guitar, and Marpessa Dawn as Eurydice. A beautiful, timid stranger traveling to town to visit her cousin. Escaping from a mysterious man that she believes wants her dead. As someone who is Afro-Latino, the opening scenes of the jubilant cast (overwhelmingly made up of Afro-Brazilians) dancing in their favela brought on an immediate sense of joy. It’s the kind of joy I always get when I travel to places like Central America, South America, or the Caribbean. It’s the kind of joy I always get when I travel to places where it’s normal (and openly celebrated) to be black. It’s beautiful, it’s exciting, it’s blasted with color and it’s as lively as anything I’ve ever watched on a screen.

The film has another side that progressively becomes darker as the characters quite literally encounter Death. The sense of the occult becomes ever present and while watching, I was so amused thinking that Clarice Lispector was in the same city, writing in her unique, hauntingly seductive style. And while the film is beautiful, and alluring, and very much worth watching, it has faced plenty of criticism for the way it exoticizes the lives of poor black Brazilians. While I think it’s fair to question the cultural sensitivity of a white, French director in the 1950s (especially one who is making a film about people of color), in the end, the film is a fantasy. A fact is not hidden at all. And like many good things in art or in life, controversy exists.

What is up for less debate is the impact that this film had on the music world. The film features original music by Brazilian composers Luis Bonfá and Antônio Carlos Jobim, and because of this, the film played a large role in the coming boom of Bossa Nova that spread throughout the world for the next several decades. As someone who is a jazz (and likewise Bossa Nova) nerd, I know the impact this music had on jazz musicians across the globe. Look around and you will find covers of Black Orpheus songs by the likes of Paul Desmond, Quincy Jones, Vince Guaraldi, and Gerry Mulligan to name a few.

But anyway, give the film a watch. You can find it on HBO Max, Mubi, or Criterion.

Home of the week: The Burkhardt-Cohen Residence, Paul Rudolph (1956)

I spend a lot of time watching home tours, but it’s not often that I stumble across such a fantastic home that’s close enough to me that I could drive there and back home on one tank of gas. In my mind, I don’t often think about great architecture existing in Florida, but thanks to Open Space, I recently learned about the American architect Paul Rudolph, who designed several residential and commercial buildings in the Sarasota area in the 1950s and 60s. This particular home, owned by Philadelphia attorneys and investors Betsy and Ed Cohen since 1981, was built in 1956 on Sarasota’s Casey Key. Just steps from the beach, the home tucks itself between an incredibly intoxicating (but familiar to any Floridian) bundle of winding Oak trees.

What I love about this home the most, apart from the obvious successes in its design, is the emphasis that it places on one of my favorite aspects of architecture: context. When you look through this home from inside, or even while looking at it from an aerial view (as seen in the full home tour here), you can see that it takes nothing away from it’s surroundings. The natural draw of your eye is outward. To the trees, the water, and through them both, the sky. When seen from above, there is a very stark contrast between this house and the towering, pastel figures that sit above the manicured tree line next door. And although this style of home seems somewhat inhabitable for the type of life I live day to day (i.e. someone who isn’t entirely clutter averse and likes to make piles in the corner of rooms, i.e. someone who has a dangerous affinity for a trinket or twenty, i.e. I am a cozy, cluttered, cottage type) I have to admire its beauty and its seamlessness.

“Architecture is a personal effort, and the fewer people coming between you and your work - the better.”

Paul Rudolph

In 1996, the couple purchased the adjacent lot (if only we were all multi-million dollar investors we too could start our own Mid-Century Modernist compounds) which allowed them to build another home for their visiting children and grandchildren that was designed by Japanese architect Toshiko Mori. The addition blends wonderfully into the space, still placing great emphasis on the context of the nature around it, while still being in sync with the original home next door.

Watch the full home tour here. See more photos of the home here.

Album(s) of the week:

• Kenny Drew And His Progressive Piano by Kenny Drew (1954)

By now I know that you know: I like jazz. Okay, I love jazz. But the only thing I love more than jazz, is finding a new jazz artist to dive into. I recently stumbled across Kenny Drew, and as a diehard fan of jazz pianists like Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, and Erroll Garner (to name a few), I was quickly struck by the liveliness of Drew’s style. Drew began recording in the 1950s, but after a decade of recording in the states he decided to move to Europe. This move is likely the reason he wasn’t ultimately as popular as his some of his other American counterparts. It was a decision he later spoke about his gratitude for, as he felt it gave him a more unique creative path as a musician as opposed to if he had stayed in his hometown of New York. Drew passed away in 1993 in Copenhagen, where he had lived since 1961, and where he recorded decades of music with legendary Danish bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen.

Favorite tracks: “Bluesville”, “Many Miles Away”, “Chartruse”

• Livin’ Love by The Feminine Complex (1969)

Sometimes we have to bow down to our streaming overloads, and thanks to Spotify, I found The Feminine Complex. Founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1966, the group was an all-female garage band who only released one studio album, Livin’ Love. When I first stumbled across the song “Are You Lonesome Like Me”, I knew that it was going to be something I came back to over and over again, and I’m glad to say that I have. The album has a funky, punky, soulful, and slightly psychedelic mixture of songs that I’ve loved listening to while remodeling my kitchen. There are moments in the album that feel as gentle as silk, some that feel as sharp as a knife, and some that simply say “I’m just a girl.”

Favorite tracks: “Are You Lonesome Like Me?”, “Six O’clock in the Morning”, “I’ve Been Workin’ On You”, “Love Love Love”, “Is This a Dream?”

• This unbelievable video of Nina Simone from thejazzestate (via IG), performing “The Sounds of Silence” at the Montreux Jazz Festival (1968)

Well you’re here so thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Talk again soon.

Tenderly,

-Zach

I hope you had a restful weekend and I hope you’ve been well. This week we have some catching up to do. I’ve been… let’s just say “away”. I’ve had a few needed weeks of working on some projects at home (which I hope to share more about soon), as well as time to work on some longer writing that I’d been wanting to put out for a while. It’s been nice to focus on some more intentional projects, but I have also missed the balance of more lighthearted chats, and I’ve desperately missed sharing what I’m into right now.

This week, I want to chirp about a few different things:

1. A series of French films I recently watched.

2. Some clothes I love.

3. And as always, some music.

So with that being said, let’s chirp.

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A series of films by François Truffaut

With a career than spanned over 25 years from the 1950s to the 1980s, French director François Truffaut became an iconic filmmaker of his time. He got his start in film at the age of sixteen, when he founded his own film club after spending his younger years obsessed with cinema and literature. Shortly after, he began to work with French film critic André Bazin, who helped him become the youngest film editor for the French film magazine, Cahiers du Cinéma (which still exists today). Truffaut made several well known films, but none of his work is more well known (or more highly regarded) than his first feature film, The 400 Blows (1959).

The film follows a young Parisian boy, Antoine Doinel (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud), who has a troubled childhood fraught with parental disputes, overly critical teachers, and the expected consequences of his repetitive delinquency. The character closely resembles a young Truffaut who himself grew up in Paris as an undesired child, living with his grandmother until she passed away when he was eight years old. After her passing he lived with his parents, but bounced around from place to place and was repeatedly expelled from school after school until finally seeking solace in film.

Between 1959 and 1979, amongst his other work, Truffaut made a series of five films following Doinel’s character. Throughout the series’ entirety, Doinel was played by the same actor. And this is the case for most of the series’ characters who reappear in each film over two decades. Although the idea of actors reappearing for several films in a series isn’t a completely unique thing to us now (see the 10-year run of Harry Potter films or the endless cash-cow Marvel movies), the series itself has a completely different feel to it. Knowing that the character is loosely based on Truffaut himself, it feels much more autobiographical and it invites viewers to examine themselves to see how we might also change (or not) with time. There are moments that as the viewer, you’re begging for Doinel to not repeat his mistake, but upon reflection, we realize we are just as guilty in our own lives. The films are beautifully shot, with timely and appropriately-trimmed dialogue. They are romantic, whimsical, and quietly witty. They offer nuanced situations that see Doinel repeatedly face his gluttonous need for love through a carousel of lovers as well as his struggle with completing his life’s work as a writer and a father.

The last film in the series, Love on the Run (1979), offers several comical, and comically direct, recaps of what has occurred over the past several years of Doinel’s life. Allowing the viewer, and seemingly Doinel himself, to reflect on all that has led him to this moment. It’s an opportunity that all of us ought to take advantage of. To learn from our past. To look at who we are, and who we’ve become, and own it with the good and the bad. If you have a way to watch these films (best through either Criterion or possible through Mubi) I can’t recommend doing so enough.

Some clothes worth shopping for

Although I live in Florida, and that means we hardly get a true fall or for that matter a true winter, I have still been slowly easing into preparing for fall fashion. The average high here this week was around 91F, so to say I have been dreaming of nights where layering is an option is an understatement. And after recently reading a piece by , titled Summer Is For Buying Sweaters Not Swimsuits, I have been steadily perusing the internet for some better fall staples for my closet.

• Things I think will be gravitating towards for F/W 2024: Monochrome outfits, navy blue, white (and off-white) jeans, denim-on-denim (aka more monochrome), and lots of textures.

As someone who has spent less and less time paying attention to fashion while learning about interior design over the past two years, seeing creative people like and Carla Nicieza blend the two together in INCREDIBLE ways has been seriously inspiring. And in addition to being inspired, I am also reminded that it’s just as useful to take some of the lessons I learn about interiors and apply them to clothing. Now, keep in mind, what I am showing below is more of a guide of what I’m after rather than a strict shopping list. I will always prefer to thrift as many pieces as possible, but it’s great to have inspiration, and every now and then, spending some money is required.

• I really love this jacket by Paris-based BRUT. Also looks fantastic in brown. As shown, this denim-on-denim look is perfect with a basic thermal, but I can also easily see it working well for a more dressed up look with a shirt and scarf or bandana around the neck. Also, imagine the versatility of shoe options with this. I especially love the prospect of a colorful sneaker like these red Alohas (See: interior design’s unexpected red theory) or these dusky yellow Sambas (which my fashionista friend is deeming “the shoe of the fall”). But this look would also pair super well with a boot or a loafer.

• For a really basic (but super high quality) thermal (which adds some great texture and layering ability) look no further than this one from Imogene + Willie. They make fantastic basics (yes at a price) that I can personally attest to as my favorite two t-shirts are both from the brand. Everything is great quality and just gets better with time.

• White jeans are incredibly versatile and I think everyone needs a pair. No one I know does it better than my internet friend , whose Substack how to wear it, you should absolutely run to for vintage finds, books, and looks. White jeans go with just about everything, and although they’re not the typical go-to for winter, I think they can be a workhorse in late summer and fall. These Madewell Jeans fit the bill (also see the wider fit here). If you’re willing to spend a little more these from AYR also look fantastic.

• Monochrome is always a safe bet. It works. It’s consistent. It’s like your favorite coffee shop. You know what you’re getting, and you know you’ll be happy. I think putting time and effort into dressing well can be exhausting sometimes, but the easier we can make it, the better.

What I’ve been listening to lately

Jazz can be a difficult thing to listen do during Summer without entering into a premature Fall depression, but there are always exceptions (see: Pharaoh Sanders and Sun Ra). This 1957 album, The Poll Winners, by the trio of Barney Kessel (guitar), Shelly Mane (drums), and Ray Brown (bass) is a perfect Summer jazz album. My personal favorite tracks from the record are “Jordu” and their rendition of “On Green Dolphin Street”.

Every now and then I dip back into a hip hop/rap phase, and for the past month I have been repeatedly listening to Atlanta native Kenny Mason’s recently released second studio album, 9. Mason has become a mainstay on the rap scene the past few years and is unique for his seamless mixing of hip hop and rock. My favorite tracks are “SLIP”, “US”, “MONEY SIGNS”, and “EASY DUB”.

Self proclaimed “jazz-house” artist berlioz (yes, slickly named after the 19th century French composer Hector Berlioz) has blown up since releasing his first single in 2022. His debut album, open this wall, was recently released in July, and since then I have had it on repeat. While I want to be clear that berlioz himself is not a true jazz artist, he has quite a knack for making an intoxicating concoction of “jazz-house” that just about anyone will love.

If you happened to make it this far then all I can say is thank you! It’s so much fun growing this little community and hopefully in the following weeks I can carve out a little more time for this work that I love so much. I hope you all have a fantastic week.

Talk soon,

xo,

-Zach

Dear Reader,

Tonight I’m writing to you from my bed. As I’m starting this it’s 1:30am and I’ve been kept awake by something I can only refer to as a writer’s urgency. It may sometimes be better known to us who write as a ‘writer’s burden’. That is, our (or at least my) dire need to listen to that voice in our head, or maybe our heart, no matter the time or situation, that says “This thing that you’re feeling needs to come out and it might be gone if you don’t get to it now.” It’s our call to action. It’s the thing that frees us of the most frustrating writer’s block, yet also the same thing that can distance us from something as vital as sleep. It’s the reason that our Notes apps are full of document after document of unfinished thought. A sentence here, a title there, sometimes a single word. Hoping that when we come back to it we will snap right back into our previous thought process and finish off where we started. But unfortunately it rarely, if ever, works that way.

As I’ve started sharing my writing over the past year or so, I’ve come to learn something about writing that often perturbs me. Which is that the most uncomfortable writing to carry out is often the most necessary to share. It speaks directly to a belief that I’ve carried for a while now that art ought to sometimes spark controversy, whether that occurs within the artist themselves or amongst its observers. Overall, writing, and sharing my writing, has been an overwhelmingly pleasurable experience for me. It has helped me meet myself in ways I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. It has introduced me to people and places that I now call home. It has given me renewed life in periods of time that I otherwise felt dormant, alone, cold. It has quietly fed me the most necessary energy, and provided the necessary solace when I’ve needed it most. I write because I have to. Because it’s how I see the world. It’s how I know the world. I write because I want to know the truth and tell the truth. And I share what I write because somehow, people like yourself, have given me the gift of believing that my writing can bring comfort, or provide understanding to someone who feels they aren’t understood. And the fact that one of you incredible people actually pays to support my writing makes my brain hurt and my heart swell.

To quote one of my biggest sources of human and creative inspiration : “Tears mean it is time to write.” Seriously, if you aren’t subscribed to her newsletter, I can’t recommend it enough. And on top of that she makes the most incredible bumper stickers, prints, and overall cool things. Support her.

As I was lying down in bed tonight, my tears informed me that I must write. And what I am writing to tell you, amongst other things, is that I miss my dog.

While spending the summer of 2013 back home from college, and against the wishes of my mother, I decided that I both wanted and needed to get a dog. I had moved away without any friends or family in the city I was now living. My partner at the time was 600 miles away. I’d been in the midst of one of the worst bouts of depression that I’ve ever faced and I wasn’t handling it well at all. So after great discussion with myself and my partner, the solution to my loneliness and my struggle to cope was to have something that provided a distraction, a companion, and provided me with some purpose.

My partner and I went to the local rescue on a Friday and when we got to one of the last kennels, there was a brother and sister who were listed as lab mixes. I was adamant that I was going to get a female rather than a male, mostly because of my dire need to become a girl dad, but also because of my well documented history of connecting emotionally to women rather than men. Admittedly, this was probably also due, at least in part, to my unconscious belief at the time that men aren’t as loving as women, and what I desperately hoped for from this dog was love. But when we opened the door, the sister sat quietly in the corner, while the brother jumped straight into my arms. Leaving no question as to which pup we’d be taking home. When we talked about this moment later, we always said that my dog, Atlas, chose us, not the other way around. And it’s a decision that I will be forever grateful for.

Since it was Friday, we couldn’t finalize the adoption that day, but we fostered him over the weekend. Which gave me a few days to ponder my decision, even though I didn’t need it. From the moment we brought him home he was incredibly loyal, loving, and generous. We spent the first night picking fleas off of his belly one by one while giving him a bath on the brick patio at my childhood home. He slept for what felt like an entire day the first night. He had the typical mishaps that any puppy would: the time he pooped in my mom’s carpeted bedroom closet, his incessant drooling during car rides that usually led to him vomiting if we went on long enough, his early (but temporary) habits of eating plants and books (he once chewed up an entire Bougainvillea on our apartment patio, thorns and all), the time he famously piled up every shoe in the laundry room and sat on them like a throne. And through the nine years that I got to spend with him, he was absolutely the best dog I’ve ever been around, and beyond that, he saved me in a way nothing else could have.

I unapologetically echo the paw print bumper stickers found on Subaru after Subaru that say: ‘Who rescued who?’ Because for me that question was not only pertinent, but also easy to answer. For the first year of his life he and I lived alone in an off-campus apartment. There were moments where I struggled mightily at first while training him. He was obedient but I was broken. There were nights where I would be brought to tears when he didn’t come when I called his name. Many people say that we often have secure attachments to our pets, but like so many other areas of my life, my attachment was anxious even with him. He was the one thing I didn’t want to be rejected or ignored by, but every single day with him taught me something new about myself, about life, and I wouldn’t trade my time with him for anything else in the world. I have never felt more gratitude to belong to something than I did to him.

It’s been over two years since I last saw him. I remember the day well. I remember the way he ran to me in the driveway, his always-too-long nails scraping the concrete. I remember the way he licked me with excitement, so aggressively that his tongue hit the roof of my mouth in the midst of our shared laughter. Early in 2022, I made the decision to end my relationship with my partner, whom I had been with for over a decade, and with that decision, we agreed that it would be best for him if he stayed with her. It was one of those things that we alluded to throughout our relationship, that if anything ever happened between us, he would stay with her. And it’s something that I knew and accepted without hesitation. In the eight years we lived together as three, he grew closer and closer to her emotionally, and I knew if he had to live without one of us, it would be me.

In the two years since, I’ve thought about him every day. He’s the background on my phone. I have a painting of him on my dining room wall. I had an appointment to get a tattoo of him, which unfortunately fell through with the artist, but it’s something I’d still like to do. I’ve celebrated his birthday, which we don’t technically know, but we chose to celebrate on Valentine’s Day because if he’s anything he’s a lover. For months after I left I found his hairs throughout my new house, which he’s never been to, but they were left all over my things as they had been for years. In those moments of unprecedented transition in my life, it made me feel like he was still around. There have been many nights, especially in winter, where I’ve wanted nothing more than to scratch his butt while he warms the bed. There have been many days, especially in summer, where I’ve wanted nothing more than to take him to the beach and drive back home with a sandy car filled with the smell of a wet dog snoring in the back seat.

But this is how life goes. This is the underbelly of adulthood that we don’t dare dream about as children. This is the reality of learning to trust yourself. This is the consequence of our ability to make decisions about our lives and to decide what might be best for those we care about. Loss, and more specifically loss of connection is a tough one. It stings. It lingers. But the only promise in our relationships with each other, with pets, with things in every form, is that they will come to an end. Sometimes these things leave us, and sometimes we are the things that leave. So despite the sadness that I have felt in the years since I last felt his body wriggle in my arms, I understand that I made a decision, and it’s one I still stand by, knowing that it was best for him and best for myself.

Our connections to our pets are sacred. There are piles of evidence that suggest we, as humans, have had pets for tens of thousands of years. And I think anyone who has one can believe this without needing any convincing. We lean on our pets even when we can’t lean on ourselves. Our pets not only teach us how to love, but just as much about how to receive it. The connections we make with them transcend our inter-species language barrier and they give us a place in this world that is consistent, safe, and bountiful. And going from having this relationship with Atlas to the way things are now has obviously had its challenges. Once things in my life had settled a bit, I reached out about the possibility of seeing him, or having him stay with me, but this request was declined, and understandably so. Time has passed. My previous partner and I have built separate lives. We don’t communicate, and I don’t think there’s any reason we need to. I trusted her ability to do what was best for him (and herself) then, and I trust her still.

There’s a song, “Comfort”, by Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin, whose music I adore (who is also fantastic live), that speaks to my sentiment about how things are now. I can’t know that Atlas misses me in the way that I miss him. I can’t know if he remembers me at all. I can’t know if he thinks about sitting at my feet while I chopped veggies in the kitchen, waiting on scraps of kale and carrots. I can’t know if he finds my hair around the house like I do. But if I want anything, it’s to protect his peace, and in turn I want to do the same for her and for myself. If we aim to maintain respect for the people we have loved, then we ought to trust that they will continue loving the parts of us that we’ve left with them. So with that in mind, I have an easier time accepting that things are the way they should be, and I’ve made peace with that.

Reader, I want to be clear that in no way am I trying to convince you that anything should be different than the way it is. I don’t believe, as some people do, that I should “go get my dog back”, because he wasn’t mine to begin with. He belongs to himself and his life as he knows it. He wasn’t taken from me and I don’t blame anyone that he and I aren’t together. I did not, and will not ever, view my past partner’s willingness to keep him as malicious, because it’s absolutely the opposite. She’s a phenomenal person and someone I still hold a great amount of love, admiration, and respect for, while understanding that the relationship we had wasn’t the one that was meant to last. I wish her happiness. I wish her a successful career, a peaceful life, good health, and all of the other things I’d wish on anyone I’ve had the pleasure of knowing so intimately. Yes, it hurts to be apart from him, but I know that in deciding to leave that relationship I hurt them both as well. The pain goes around, and it’s only fair that we take our turns. And most fair of all, we should keep our word to one another.

I recently had a family friend visit me, and she brought along her new 7-month old puppy. He was a bundle of boundless energy and I couldn’t tell you the last time I touched something so soft. Having a dog in my house was a treat that I haven’t experienced in some time. Recently, this same family went through the loss of their oldest dog, and having known that dog for 14 years it felt foreign to see my friend with this joyous, naive, eager-to-please puppy. In the past two years a topic of debate amongst myself, my friends and my family, is the idea of me getting a new pet. I’ve approached this topic a few times, gingerly, with shy intent. Inquiring about getting a cat or two, as they would fit my 12-hour shift schedule much better than a pup. But it’s something I still haven’t been able to digest yet. The idea of bringing a new pet into my life while knowing (or rather assuming) Atlas is still alive, feels wrong to me. It’s something I’m always revisiting, but having a dog napping under my dining room table was a sharp reminder of this possibility, and maybe more so of my heart’s desire for companionship.

I’ve talked to many people about similar situations in their own lives. Dogs or cats that they had to say goodbye to because their relationship ended and custody went the other way. It’s been an adjustment for us all, and there’s clearly the potential for a support group for this kind of necessary grieving. But for now, as I’m writing this to you, a dear friend was reunited with her dog that she hasn’t seen after her own relationship ended a couple years ago. And just this morning, she brought her over to my house for our usual weekly coffee on the patio. Together we marveled at her as she wandered around my yard, sniffing the August breeze, later peacefully settling down at our feet. Between conversations I reached my hand down to scratch her gentle, giant head. I couldn’t help but smile, knowing the yearning that my friend had for this moment. Wanting to be reconnected with someone that meant so much to her. I’m happy for them both. I’m happy that they have this time together that they’re clearly making the most of.

The whole beautiful time, in the back of my head, I was also unapologetically missing my own dog. He’s 11 now, and admittedly, my minds slips into a state of unease every now and then when I realize that I might not see him before he’s gone. That I might find out about his passing from a friend or a family member. But on a day like today, I spent the afternoon wondering what he’d be doing if he had the yard to himself. If he’d be focused on the lizards or the birds, or if he’d be curled up in one of the chairs on the patio. Or maybe he’d be lying next to me, primed to jump wildly away from me when my feet touch him (he has a ridiculous case of Podophobia). But like I try to with anything else in life, I choose to believe that we’re all where we’re supposed to be. So wherever he is, I know he’s got a favorite sunny spot on the floor in the house. I know he’s got a favorite toy and a favorite place to take a nap.

Most importantly, I know he’s loved, and thanks to him, I know what a gift that is.

With love,

Zach

Hi Friends,

It’s been a few weeks since we last talked, but you’ve been on my mind. I’ve been busy in the sweltering heat of a Florida summer. And sometimes as writers/creatives/human beings, I think we all benefit from stepping away from the “doing” side of things. Sometimes we need to just be where we are, doing whatever it is we do. We need to spend time with people, with places, with ourselves. We need to be out there in the world. Going for a swim, reading a book, watching a movie. A lot of things happen without our intervention. Sometimes what that project needs is the same thing we do: a break.

This summer has been a memorable one already. I’ve spent more time with friends the past few weeks than I have in years, and this has been a great reminder that we aren’t made to live life alone. Although I haven’t been writing here, I have been working on plenty of things, both big and small. I’ve been working on some exciting home remodeling projects. I’ve been toying with the idea of seriously studying architecture. And I’ve been listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell. But more on that later.

Let’s chirp.

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• Some home inspiration: Kitchens

I’ve recently begun the very, very, very early stages of remodeling my kitchen. Which mostly means that I have taken down a single cabinet and also discovered that there is some amount of hardwood underneath my current linoleum floors. But there is so so so much more to think about before any serious work takes place. So in the mean time, here are a few inspiration photos from Pinterest for your viewing pleasure. (Not included are the all of the ways I would really just love to cover the whole thing in stainless steel.)

For anyone interested in interior design should need no introduction. But she also happens to have a fantastic Substack, Remotely, which I highly recommend.

• Film of the week: Kinds of Kindness (directed by Yorgos Lanthimos)

  

While recently visiting friends in St. Petersburg, I had the pleasure of going to the Tampa Theatre to see Kinds of Kindness. I am not what I would consider a frequent moviegoer. The last time I went to the movies was just over a year ago to see Asteroid City (directed by Wes Anderson). So going to the Tampa Theatre made going to the movies a much more intentional experience. The venue itself was a really neat place, and to add to that, the film was shown in a much smaller, much more intimate, 43-seat screening room that had probably less than 20 people total. And with this being the first film I’ve seen from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (best known for The Lobster (2017), The Favourite (2019), and Poor Things (2024)), I wasn’t at all sure what was in store.

The film was unique in the fact that it was an anthology with 3 separate parts, and 3 separate story lines, however each part starred the same actors. Without giving away any spoilers, the film largely centers around the lengths that people will go to for one another, while also commenting on the agency we have in our own lives. With clear, and often humorous, examples of profound devotion, desperation, and the need for belonging. With no shortage of oddities or moments that simply leave viewers uncomfortable, I would definitely describe the film as graphic. But overall, I appreciated it for what it was, as it was definitely a conversation starter amongst the friends I went with.

The film left plenty of people in the audience confused and also comically disturbed, evident by their own laughter. And at the end of it I stood up and said to the viewers around me “Well, I think we all need group therapy now.”

My personal rating of the film: 3 out of 5 stars

• Playlist of the week: Joni’s

A few months ago I did the very “in” thing and finally made my way around to getting a record player. It’s something I’ve always wanted and something that I’ve certainly enjoyed having since. One of the biggest changes I noticed once playing records at home, was that it entirely changed the way I listen to music. In a day and age where we mostly listen to shuffled favorites, or AI-generated playlists “Made For You”, listening to vinyl creates an environment where things slow down, and you are forced to listen to an album from start to finish. Because of this, I’ve found myself eager to listen to more albums as a whole, and beyond that, I’ve found myself wanting to explore artists’ entire discographies.

As a result, at some point recently, I decided that I wanted to go through artists’ discographies and craft a sort of “Greatest Hits” of my own for each artist that I dive into. The rules are as follows:

1. Look through an artists’ discography, and study the average length of their albums (for example: the average Joni Mitchell album is around 10 songs).

2. If an artist has a limited number of studio albums (say less than 10), then the length of the playlist will be the same as their average album length.

3. In the case of someone who has an expansive discography (such as Joni), then the playlist will consist of one song from each album.

I know… This is a lot. But as much as I sometimes wish I were different, this is the way I am. I’m, as Sylvia Plath referred to herself: “so pathetically intense. I can’t be any other way”. I always know how to create another project for myself with unnecessary difficulty. But in all honesty it has been an incredibly rewarding way to listen to music, and to connect with artists I enjoy. That being said, when I stumbled upon a copy of Joni Mitchell’s Blue and a week later onto a $10 copy of Court and Spark, it only felt natural that I dive deeper into her music.

Joni’s discography spans 5 decades and consists of 19 studio albums, so this was certainly a daunting task, but it was really enjoyable. The Canadian-born artist is best known for her folk records in the 60s and early 70s, but there’s a lot of great music that takes place after her biggest commercial successes. Joni has been very open about the backlash of making a record as sentimental as Blue, and she’s also been open about the confusion many had around her music in the late 70s, 80s, and 90s that took a sharp turn towards jazz and rock. Needless to say, as someone who has a wide variety in music taste, there was a lot to love, so picking one song off of each album was quite challenging. Leaving off songs like “California”, “A Case of You”, “River”, and “Big Yellow Taxi” felt very wrong, but my rules are the rules. One album was skipped because it consists of Joni’s covers of her own earlier songs, so the playlists consists of my 18 “favorite” Joni Mitchell songs that I think also capture her music’s changes over 39 years.

My favorite albums: Blue, Court and Spark, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Hejira, Night Ride Home, Shine

My favorite songs: “Cactus Tree”, “Help Me”, “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio”, “Little Green”, “This Place”, “Coyote”

If you like Joni Mitchell you should listen to: Joan Baez, Kate Bush, Karen Dalton, Tia Blake, Carole King, Linda Perhacs, Jessica Pratt, Norah Jones

• What I ate this week: Granola, peach cake, risotto, and things from the garden.

This week, two of my friends came over and gifted me the experience of doing our own at-home Chopped challenge. They went to our locally-owned grocery store (always ready to give a shoutout to Ward’s) and picked ingredients at random, delivered them to me in a sealed box, and then watched as I came up with something on the spot for dinner. My ingredients this week were: Risotto rice, bok choy, Japanese eggplant, daikon radish, parsley, white onion, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, and a London broil. So I chopped and cooked all of the veggies and made a risotto that was topped with parmesan and London broil. For a last minute, surprise of a dish, I think we were all pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. I really appreciated them giving me the challenge and I had a great time figuring it all out. Definitely something we’ll be doing again.

That’s it for week 29. I hope you have a great week. Love you all.

Talk soon,

-Zach

As crazy as it sounds, we’re halfway through the year this week, and without cutting corners, I have to tell you that this week was full of all of the rest I’d been missing after the craziness that preceded. Thanks to an adequate early week grocery trip, as I’m writing this, I haven’t started my car in two days since I’ve had what I needed here at home. And when I have left it’s been for my usual walks around the neighborhood while dodging the heat and the lightning. My days this week have been happily filled with rainstorm after rainstorm, which has done all of my garden watering for me, including dousing my new fig tree, Esther. (Yes, I have of course chosen to be entirely original and name my fig tree after the main character in Sylvia Plath’s Bell Jar.) These storms have also planted me squarely on my couch for plenty of naps while reading and I’ve happily plunged back into some of my favorite creative practices. But anyway, let’s chirp.

• A home I can’t get enough of: Ice Cream Factory in Devon County, U.K.

Furniture designers Russell Pinch and Oona Bannon, who run London-based Pinch Design worked alongside architect David Kohn to convert an old ice cream factory they discovered in The Modern House into a stunning countryside home that blends some original structures with modern updates. Featured on House & Garden’s Design Notes, this home is such a beautiful example of converting an old space into something new. I think it’s a perfect melding between everyone’s creative practices as an overall design team. I love few things more than seeing a well-designed home that not only looks beautiful, but functions in a way that serves the people who live in it. And as someone who is very hesitant to call themselves an amateur furniture designer, I drool over the possibilities of converting a space like this and adore all of the Pinch pieces in their home.

Watch the full home tour here:

• Album of the week: Shelter by Alice Phoebe Lou

Like so many other forms of art, music can often become repetitive to the point that artists within any genre tend to sound uncomfortably similar. And with the way we listen to music being more frequently dictated by things like Spotify or Apple Music, many artists get buried in an AI-generated playlist made to carry you through an otherwise mundane work day. Point being is that amongst this changing music environment artists can stand out less, but out of the many artists I listen to, Alice Phoebe Lou has always maintained her sound in a way that makes her music immediately recognizable. Shelter is the fifth studio album from the South African singer-songwriter who is highly touted for her unique mixture of grooviness, potent lyricism, divine energy, and music that flaunts as much sensitivity as it does sensuality. The most honest thing I can say about her music is that I can’t ever sit still for very long when I listen to it. Between the words and the music itself, it always makes me move, or as Alice often refers to it “shake”.

Shelter starts with the simple piano cradle of “Angel” that is carried by Alice’s voice to an unexpected twang by the song’s end. “Lose My Head” is impossible to avoid dancing to. There aren’t many sweeter songs I’ve heard than “Shine”. The crooning “Hammer” is a perfect bridge to the album’s ending with “My Girl”. Filled with memorable lines and subtle hip-swinging rhythms, this album is an open exploration of the intoxication of loving another person while consistently focusing on the need for self love throughout a relationship.

My personal favorites are “Shelter”, “Lose My Head”, “Shine”, and “My Girl”.

Listen to this when: You need to loosen your bones. You’re home alone washing dishes. It’s summer but you have a little nostalgia for a cooler day. After the sun sets at the beach. You’re sitting outside at night with a nice breeze.

If you enjoy this album, I highly highly recommend checking out some of her live performances because seeing her energy takes it to another level. My favorite of which was filmed at the Copenhagen-based Brodie Sessions who have some phenomenal live performances on their channel. (My favorite is their session with Andy Shauf).

• What I ate this week: Cherry tomato pasta, mangoes, and my first Pizookie®.

In summer, grocery stores, farmer’s markets, and hopefully your garden, are overflowing with cherry tomatoes. Throughout summer I usually have tomatoes around and often resort to throwing together an easy pasta with sauce made from cherry tomatoes when I don’t have anything else to eat.

The recipe (which is very loose and has only been tested on two people other than myself) is below.

Recipe for tomato sauce (serves 2):

1 carton of cherry tomatoes (typically between 12-16 oz)

3 tbsp of olive oil

1/2 tbsp of butter

1 clove of garlic, crushed (can use a mortar and pestle if you have one)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (more for serving if you like spice) or 1/2 tsp Calabrian chili paste

4 leaves of fresh basil, Julienned (more for serving)

Salt to taste

Freshly-grated Parmigiano Reggiano (for serving)

8 oz of pasta

1. Add olive oil to a pre-heated skillet over low-medium heat and cook the garlic and red pepper flakes until it just starts to brown.

2. In a large bowl with tall sides, crush the cherry tomatoes by hand. Add this to oil and garlic and stir.

3. Continue simmering the mixture, covered, over low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add about 1/4 cup of pasta water along with 1/2 tbsp of butter to your sauce. Stir to incorporate and simmer for another 5 minutes.

5. Salt to taste, then add in basil* and pasta. Stir everything together to coat pasta evenly with sauce.

6. Serve in bowl or plate and top with grated Parmigiano Reggiano, more basil, and red pepper flakes.

• If you really want a summertime treat, chop up half of a ripe peach and add it to the tomatoes at the beginning. It’s a super fun balance of sweet and spicy.

*If you add the basil at the beginning of making your sauce it can often become bitter and lose the ideal flavor of the basil.

That’s it for Week 26. Enjoy your week!

Talk soon.

Love,

Zach

This week I am tired!!! I unfortunately skipped writing Let’s Chirp last week simply because I have just been way too busy. Work has been demanding as of late, but we are officially in Summer! And for me that means peaches and watermelon, temperatures routinely bordering triple digits, swimming in every available body of water, and lots of time spent with friends. These past two weeks have contained an impressive (to my introverted self) amount of social time. I’ve met friends out for dinner. I’ve had friends and family over for porch hangs. I’ve hung out at friend’s houses and gone to pool parties. I even managed to somehow go “out” with friends until 2:30 in the morning?! I know. I was just as shocked as you are. But not as shocked as when I also invited friends over to my house for an emotional midnight hang that lasted until FOUR IN THE MORNING when I had to go into work at 9:00am. I don’t know what has fueled this sudden socialite chapter, but what I do know is that I’m not 22 any more and I desperately need my sleep. This has all been a lot of fun, and equally as fulfilling, but the little introvert inside is tugging at my sleeve, whispering “Why don’t we sit down at home for a bit?” And best believe I’m going to listen.

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Despite the current fatigue, it has been a fun couple of weeks getting to make some new friends, forming deeper bonds with older friends, and maybe most of all it’s just been great to be outside in the world (yes, even when the heat index is over 100 Fahrenheit). The summer energy is here and I would absolutely be lying if I said I wasn’t riding high on it like the rest of us.

Gratitude, like the sunlight, has been golden lately. Every time I venture out, usually happily so, it allows me to cherish coming home that much more and walking through my door has felt like a sweeter embrace each time. I’ve especially cherished the chances I get to open my doors to the people I love. Because I think when we share our homes with one another, we share a special part of ourselves with one another too. And in some non-verbal but incredibly clear way, we are really saying: I want you to know me in this place where I am most myself. So if you’ve invited me into your home, then I have to say thank you, because I want nothing more than to meet people as themselves, and I know our homes are sacred spaces. Plus, if you’d allowed yourself to feel welcome in my home then I owe you thanks as well. Because even at four in the morning, or maybe specifically at four in the morning, I want to be here looking at my friend realizing that we made the most of this time together.

• This week I finished reading: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

This book is an undeniable classic as one would expect from a Nobel Prize winner. It’s one that I’ve had on my list to read for the past year or so and I’m glad that I finally did get around to reading it. I bought my copy while traveling in Cartagena, Colombia (The hometown of Márquez) so it felt like extra motivation to stay on top of it. Without giving much away, and without providing the world with another book review, the story focuses on the impact of unrequited love. This has been an interesting time for me to read this book, and there are plenty of annotations in the pages of my copy. At one point in the story, the main character is grappling (to put it so so lightly) with his ability to be patient for a chance with his sought after lover, when she tells him: “Let time pass and we will see what it brings.” I had many take aways from this book, and many moments of self-reflection, but this line has stuck with me as a reminder that we only have so much control. It was a bit of a nudge to remind me that the right things happen if you let them.

Having finished this, I can easily see why Márquez is so highly revered. He was a masterful writer that knew how to layer together a beautiful story with complex characters. I personally enjoy the blurred lines where we as readers have to question if we sign off on the actions of the protagonist, or if we instead have decided that we’re against them entirely. It’s a good test of how we treat one another because we’re all just as complicated. That being said, I thought the story also gave many great examples of the power of requited love. About the armor and the confidence it gives us to take up more space in the world as our genuine selves. It gives us the bravery to face life despite hardships or consequences.

• Album of the week: ‘S Wonderful by Bill Charlap Trio

Anyone that knows me knows I’m an absolute jazz fanatic, and thanks to Zoei, who I follow on Instagram, I recently learned about Bill Charlap Trio. Comprised of pianist Bill Charlap, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Kenny Washington, this trio has been together since 1997 and is still performing today. Most of the jazz I listen to is older, typically from the 50s to 80s, so finding artists that are still playing now is always really intriguing, and I hope to be able to see them live sometime soon. The album starts off with a gentle but lively rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”, and the group carries that same tone throughout the rest of the album. My personal favorites are “Isfahan”, “Lover”, and “Summer Serenade”.

• Listen to this: When you’re cooking dinner. While doing any sort of crafting project. While doing chores during a summer rainstorm. When you need something in on the background while you catch up with a friend on the phone.

• What I ate this week: Fresh figs, things from the garden, and plenty of cookies.

My friend (whose newsletter you should follow on Substack for all things vintage home goods) knows how to set a table like no one else. She also has lots of great things to purchase on her website as well:

Hometings Shop

That’s it for Week 25 (and technically Week 24). Enjoy your week!

Talk (very) soon.

Love,

Zach

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I haven’t been perusing on Instagram much lately and that feels like a gift, but this morning I stumbled across this video from A View From A Bridge (which is an even greater gift). You should watch it, because it’s profound and beautiful and if you’re like me then it will bring you to tears on a Tuesday morning. But most of all, while watching this I thought to myself immediately: This is why we need couch friends.

There was something Ann said in this video that summed up the epitome of what I wish to create with my place in the world, with my love, my friendships, my partnerships, my family:

“If we could all split the responsibility of caring for one another the world would be a much better place.”

Life is hard. Life is heavy. Life has some really ugly days. But if we let ourselves believe that this is the sum of our experience in life, we’re selling ourselves short. Life is a gift. Life is beautiful. Life is unbelievably wonderful if we choose to let it be. But what I understand is that it’s easy to get bogged down. Life can crumble us when we feel its weight. There’s the news of bombings, shootings, natural disasters, and countless tragedies. There’s the endless political discourse. There’s the stress of work, of finances, of getting older. There’s traffic, broken appliances, delayed flights, sick kids, sick parents, sick pets, and maybe you didn’t get enough sleep or remember to drink enough water today. There’s people telling you that you’re doing something right yet there’s just as many people telling you that you’re doing the worst possible thing. Society does not provide us with many opportunities to rest and reflect with one another in a way that actually connects us. Our jobs don’t make space for it. Our schedules don’t make space for it. And on top of that we are often the source of our divisiveness.

We need couch friends because we need spaces to be real. We need people to help us figure out what the hell is going on and what we’re doing. I refuse to believe that we are meant to work through our lives alone. We need couch friends because we need to realize together that maybe we will never understand as much as we want to. That this may never make sense and that’s okay. We need couch friends because we need to be seen, loved, and cherished when we’re our true selves. Messy hair, bloodshot eyes, groggy voice, cheeks doused with tears.

We need to see each other on the couch because the hottest new restaurant isn’t the place to process your grief. A wedding isn’t the place to talk about your heartbreak. A night spent barhopping with friends isn’t the way to heal your trauma. I’m not saying that these things can’t happen in these places, but what I am saying is they’re poorly setup to do so. We’re not supposed to cry in our comfy clothes in a place where everyone is dressed up, laughing and smiling. And if what we want is genuine connection, if what we want is togetherness, belonging, understanding, then it’s on us to carve that space out because life doesn’t always do it for us. Genuine connection is not brought about in a performative space. We need people that we can be honest with. We need to be able to share our fears, our mistakes, our confusion, our exhaustion. We need to be able to talk about the ways we want to be a better friend, a better parent, a better partner. And we should be able to celebrate our victories too.

We need to be able to say “It’s been 10 years since my father died and I’m still not over it.” We need to be able to say “I have missed you and I didn’t know how to tell you.” We need to have the space to quietly grieve and not have to apologize if it takes longer this time around. We need the space to forgive one another, to forgive ourselves, and most of all I think we need a place to listen and to be listened to.

Something else Ann said in this video that really hit me, as someone who is a chronic cryer is:

“For many years, I tried to learn to articulate myself without crying. But now as an adult I could cry and articulate myself at the same time.”

And I think what I understood in hearing this is that we often try to work through things with this belief that we’re only supposed to go so deep into our emotions. That we should be able to process things without having to express them. Without the mourning, without the shed of a tear. But to me that feels like eating broth with a fork. You come out with nothing. I think what we all find in life, if we allow it, is that the more we open up, the more we’re able to process it. The more we heal. And it’s a touching gift to be able to do that in the presence of people who genuinely love you.

So anyway, thank you for reading this far. I hope you have a great rest of the week. Go love on someone. Go call your friend. And please, go sit on the couch.

Talk soon.

Love,

Zach

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This week was centered around rest. I spent a lot of time sleeping this week, which is abnormal for me. I slept in later than usual and took naps throughout the week. Including one of those terrifying, three hour, late afternoon naps that you wake up from in a sweat wondering if you’re supposed to get ready for school. The body knows what it needs, and apparently, this week, mine needed to sit down and chill out.

I had an unexpected visit from a friend who stayed with me for a couple of nights and that felt like really sacred time that we haven’t had in a while. We caught up with a friend from our hometown that I haven’t seen in months. I had a friend over for a farmer’s market trip and dinner at home, and we spent time eating chocolate-covered almonds, discussing life on the couch. If you have these kinds of friends, cherish them. One of my friends refers to them as “couch friends”. People who you don’t have to get dressed up for, that can come over at any time and just spend a night chatting in the living room without any “event” to have your time centered around. Or maybe that’s just it, your time is centered around being together rather than being somewhere.

I think couch friends are harder and harder to come by in adulthood. Life gets busier, people move apart, we prioritize our families, and somewhere along the way we also get this sense that we have to be “doing something” when we see each other. We need some event to push us over the threshold towards actually seeing people. But often, when we get to this event, we realize that it’s been so long that we barely recognize each other any more. Or we fall into being the person we were last time we saw them, and the truth is that we’ve changed. It’s not nearly as fulfilling as when we sat around the table sharing a bottle of cheap wine, eating Chinese food. We don’t share the deeper parts of our lives and we don’t get any control over the environment to take those quieter moments to express how much we’ve missed each other.

And in all honesty, we’re often not our true selves at places like concerts, or weddings, or bars. We’re often too worried about our appearance in that moment to focus on making genuine connections. We’re thinking about the first impressions we’re making, or if we’re coming off as “likable” or “cool”. And this isn’t to say that we can’t be ourselves or make great connections when we go out, or that a wedding isn’t a place to meet your lifelong best friend, but what I’m saying is that the relationship shouldn’t start and stop in these moments. If we want togetherness, if we want love sprinkled throughout our lives, we need to have moments of being ourselves in front of each other. So yes, I’m again being a shameless advocate for vulnerability.

I hear so many people say that they don’t have close friends in adulthood and I can’t help but think of how rarely we create moments to truly connect with one another. We don’t create an abundance of opportunities to let someone know us, but I have been reflecting on just how much of a gift it is to be known. I was writing to someone recently and I don’t have the exact quote, but I wrote something along the lines of “I don’t think there are many greater things in life than being known by someone. And it can be just as rewarding to take the time to get to know someone.” And I believe this wholeheartedly. I have witnessed what a gift this is every day when I unravel myself to friends or family about my grief, my joy, my silly little passions, my abundance of love. And to be received for being yourself is something that we all deserve.

So what I’m saying is, continue going out into the world. Go to the weddings, the bars, the music festivals. But when that’s done, call your friend. Check in on them. Be honest with each other. Do the quieter things too. Go for walk together. Go kayaking. Sit by the pool. And then maybe have them over on your couch. Make some popcorn and light a candle, and realize that the “event” is your togetherness. The event is not a $16 cocktail.

Let yourself be known.

• Quiet moments at home this week: The light has been really special in the house this week.

• Some research (aka snippets from my Pinterest board):

If you’ve been to my house then you know that I have built a majority of the furniture here, including the couch. This is something I am certainly proud of, but also knowing my lack of true woodworking skills, it leaves some room to be desired. The couch has been very functional for me the past two years, but I’m inching towards the time to get a “real” couch.

My initial instinct was to lean towards getting a lighter colored couch because my living room is all white and will continue to be due to my projector on the wall. Something “relaxed” and preferably made from a natural fabric like linen was my plan. But as I’ve been doing more “research” (time spent on Pinterest, reading interior design books, watching home tours, Paige Wassel, and Noah Daniel) I’ve been leaning towards a darker color, and I’ve been repeatedly drawn to brown. At first this felt like it might be a crazy idea since my floors and furniture are all shades of brown since they’re wood, but the below research feels like it’s starting to fully convince me of the brown couch trend.

My current favorite is this sleeper couch from Sabai in the color “Chocolate”. I have some swatches that I ordered from them that have been sitting on the table beside my couch and it still feels like a good option.

I especially love the idea of unfolding the couch into a queen sized bed which is ideal for countless gatherings with couch friends and plenty of days spent reading or watching my Criterion films.

A close second right now is this sofa from Crate&Barrel.

Also have to give a shoutout to this kind of periwinkle blue couch I found on Pinterest which would be super fun, but it feels like it might’ve been custom and I’m ultimately leaning towards having the flexibility of a sleeper sofa. Also the room and architecture of this space seem amazing as well.

• Album of the week: Liquidator by Harry J Allstars

Going into summer, especially here in Florida, I don’t think there’s a better genre to have on repeat than Reggae. Perfect for beach days, having a drink poolside, standing at the grill, or afternoons in the garden. Harry J Allstars was a Jamaican Reggae group led by bassist and producer Harry Zephaniah Johnson. Liquidator was their debut album, recorded in 1969, but was initially only released as a single of the title track “Liquidator”. The full album was later released in 2010 and features 12 instrumental tracks. My favorites are “The Dog”, as well as the covers “My Cherie Amour” (originally by Stevie Wonder), and “Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus” (originally by Serge Gainsbourg).

• What I ate this week: More salads with peaches, pistachio cookies, and my favorite local birria tacos (from La Tienda).

That’s it for Week 23. Enjoy your week!

Talk soon.

Love,

Zach