Happy Long Weekend.

Happy Friday! I'm in New Hampshire today for a wedding (it's being held at a summer camp - I'm expecting days similar to this one) but I'll be back Tuesday with a new POV post to share! Wishing you all a very happy Labor Day weekend - any exciting plans?

See you on the other side...

Summery photos by Max Wanger.

Peach Perfect.

Tara O'Brady's Seven Spoons has long been one of my favorite food blogs. Tara's recipes and photography are unfailingly gorgeous, and what's more, she herself is a delight (we had the pleasure of working together on this post for Cup of Jo last fall). But what I love most about Seven Spoons is Tara's writing. 

In a recent post featuring Five Spice Roasted Peaches with Glazed Sesame Oats, she notes, "I grabbed yogurt and a spoon, and in a last-second addition, I anointed the cold crumble with maple syrup spiked with Chinese Five Spice, since the blend's base of cinnamon, clove, anise and fennel makes good sense with peaches, and its touch of Sichuan peppercorn would lend its pep to the fruit's intensely honeyed flesh...[it] emerges fragrant and shining, retaining its shape but supple enough to give way to a spoon. My third helping will be with ice cream." 

Yes, please.

Photos by Tara O'Brady. Find much more on Seven Spoons, here.

Coeds, Close-Up.

I love these photos, taken by Bill Ray for LIFE Magazine, which depict the goings-on in a coed dorm at Oberlin College in 1970. The school had instituted coed living just two years prior, and the "experiment" garnered mixed reactions. Some were uncomfortable with the change; others celebrated its upsides - one student reported that he was now “taking [his women classmates] more for granted as people, something I’d never done before.”

A few of these shots - the one of students playing music in the hallway, in particular - look like they could have been taken during my time at UC Santa Cruz, where I shared a dorm - bathrooms and all - with boys my freshman year.

See more at LIFE, here. Photographs by Bill Ray for LIFE Magazine. 

Night Light/Night Bright.

This afternoon, just for fun, French-made neon night-lights in glass jars, presented by a very cute, very inquisitive little brown-eyed model. Capped with a tiny silver toggle switch, each light features a brightly-colored furry or feathered friend, for company on even the darkest of nights.

Shop these and many other children's items at Cecile Bernard's Etsy shop, here.

City Sleepover.

Artist Thomas Stevenson is the founder of Bivouac NYC, a pop-up rooftop campsite in East Williamsburg. According to John Leland of The New York Times, Stevenson built seven tents from canvas and wood, along with a picnic table and even a makeshift library. Reported one camper recently, "I went to bed with a belly full of whiskey, starlight and the sound of distant traffic. All is well on the rooftop."

Read the feature by John Leland in The New York Times, here, and see a photo slideshow - with photographs by Michael Kirby Smith - here.

POV: Magic.

POV ("point of view") is a series that addresses many of the same themes covered in my Equals Record column: growing up, saying yes to adventure, learning to embrace a quarter-life crisis. Each POV entry will include a photograph and a short reflection based on what’s pictured. While my previous column focused largely on ideas, POV will focus on moments - glimpses, glances, tiny stories.

  

Sunday afternoon, a friend DJed a party in McCarren Park. Rain showers came and went, and Megan and I sat under a tree near the speakers, poured whiskey in our coffee and watched the people around us dance. Someone twirled a sequined scarf in the air; a man in a pink t-shirt spun in circles with his arms outstretched. 

“Maybe I’ll write about this,” I said. 

Weeks earlier, I interviewed an artist at his home in Manhattan. He showed me his backyard, littered with trash he’d collected from the streets. He took a seat in the middle of it all, on a sun-bleached leather armchair, legs outstretched. A gold-painted fingernail glistened in the heat.

“I can’t wait to write about this,” I said.

On Saturday, I played frisbee in Central Park. The sun had gone down, and bats swarmed in the air around me, diving into tall grass, fluttering between leaves in the trees overhead. A firefly kindled in the distance.

If I wrote about this, I thought, what would I say? I envisioned the sentences and the words I’d use: flutter, tall grass, the light in the trees.

Climbing Trees, Hunting Ducks.

Embroidered curiosities for fans of the handmade: backpacks from seller boyfrengirlfren (love that name), whose creations are made using materials "that speak to childhood, deserts, house plants, and snacks,"  

"reworked" vintage handkerchiefs by Frances of Liverpool,

and an ode to the outdoors, stitched in thread by Ana Raimundo, "for those who enjoy climbing the trees in the night." (I like to think I fall into that category.) 

Have a wonderful Thursday. New POV post coming tomorrow...

Stories/Souvenirs.

For those who dream of travel but are without the means or the time, Elin Aram's A box from offers tastes and tidbits of far-off lands. According to Elin, each box contains a selection of items meant to "tell the stories about cities [that] you haven't heard yet." For Tehran, there are threads of saffron, bright yellow sugar sticks, woven baskets that recall the multicolored rooftops of northern Iran; for Seoul, cold noodles and a collagen face mask.

Makes me wonder what I might choose for the cities I love: Pocky and a cat cafe badge for Tokyo; Nalgene bottles and prayer flags for Santa Cruz; Mast Brothers chocolate and a copy of Diner Journal for Brooklyn. What would you include in yours?

See more, here. Thanks, Fast Company.

Mapping Manhattan.

As part of an ongoing project he calls Here to There, Japanese artist Nobutaka Aozaki is creating a map of Manhattan made entirely of smaller, hand-drawn maps. Aozaki roams the city streets, asking passersby for directions; he then connects the drawings to form an illustrated patchwork - the map-in-progress is pictured below. (I especially love the paper plate portion of the East Village.)

A few photos of the artist, gathering material:

Visit Nobutaka Aozaki's website, here. (And check out his Names on Starbucks Cups project, which tracks the many misspellings of Nobutaka's name by Starbucks employees. As someone with a name that often elicits double takes, I can appreciate it.)

Hand-Made.

To ease the transition to Monday, a song perfect for daydreaming. I first heard Alt-J's "Hand-Made" when I stumbled on a website using it as background music, and loved it immediately. Shortly after, I came across this video by Neels Castillon, which pairs the song with footage of starlings at sunset. It's gorgeous. Have a look - and a listen - below.

Visit Alt-J's Facebook page, here. More videos by Neels Castillon, here. Happy Monday.

POV: Rest.

POV ("point of view") is a series that addresses many of the same themes covered in my Equals Record column: growing up, saying yes to adventure, learning to embrace a quarter-life crisis. Each POV entry will include a photograph and a short reflection based on what’s pictured. While my previous column focused largely on ideas, POV will focus on moments - glimpses, glances, tiny stories.

  

I slept away the afternoon on my birthday, which was a Thursday. 

I had vague ambitions for the day, which included transcribing an interview I’d done weeks earlier in mid-July, a task that had been hanging over my head for ages. It would be a gift to myself to get it done, I figured, and if I finished, I could do some writing of my own. Or catch up on emails. Or get a head-start on a new project. Or read.

Instead, I ate cake for breakfast, went out for coffee, and walked home in the rain without an umbrella. When I got there, I sat down at the table, tried again to write. Nothing came. 

So I closed my eyes and slept instead, for hours, the sky outside a blur of clouds.

Assembly.

The other day at Ikea - a place that, for some reason or another, always seems conducive to evaluating relationships - Lily and I came to a realization. "We've all been so busy lately," she said, of our group of friends. Things were quiet for a few seconds. Then, at the same time, we both said something along the lines of: "We've all been so happy lately." It dawned on us that in the past few months, we've had many ups and downs individually, but often, those ups and downs occurred between all of us at the same time.

Japanese shutterbug Osamu Yokonami's Assembly shows groups of girls in matching dress, frolicking in a variety of outdoor settings. I love the camaraderie it depicts, and the shared experiences of curiosity and awe and loneliness and exhilaration. It all looks, in a way, very familiar.

See more of Osamu Yokonami's photography, here. Thanks, Wolf Eyebrows.

12 Course Can.

Pickled beef and charred strawberries; foraged ramps, truffle butter, and a coconut crepe: artist Chris Godfrey's All In One packs gourmet cuisine - twelve courses worth - into a pop-top can. 

Unsavory? Certainly. Clever? Without a doubt. Godfrey writes, "Contempary culture means on every trip into town, you’re bombarded with gimmicks galore. Gimmicks often diminish their products to turn a profit, downgrading on the content but selling you something thats ‘50% more’. The All in One 12 course meal offers the average Joe the chance to dine like royalty without the washing up."

See more on Chris Godfrey's website, here. Found via Things Organized Neatly.

Flowers/Forests.

To start your Tuesday, a tiny forest, hand-painted on a porcelain teacup (suitable, apparently, for both people and pets),

iPhone cases made using real leaves and flowers (no two are exactly alike),

and a collection of blossoming faces, by California-based artist Clare Elsaesser.

See more from these artists' Etsy shops, from top to bottom: Corduroy, Tasteful Tatters, Tastes Orangey.

Happy Tuesday. Stay dry today, New Yorkers!