I’m not sure I’ve visited a bookstore as buzzing with activity as Village Well Books in Culver City … and I’ve visited a lot of bookstores lately. On a sunny Sunday late-afternoon, the light airy space was full of people, browsing books, eating in the cafe, sitting at long tables with their laptops, meeting in a glass enclosed room, playing with kids in the children’s area and… listening to me talk about my diary book.
We had a good crowd (for me)… about 40 people, including several young Asian gals and guys. The audience questions were very thoughtful. Bilingual diaries popped up: one woman first wrote her diary in Chinese and then English. Another woman told me she first write in Persian, then in Hebrew and then English.
After the event we went to dinner at a nearby place that has decent food but flakey service. Ex:,The frites to our moules frites arrived after we ate our mussels and only after we asked why we had not received them. They gave us a free dessert to compensate but still.
Today we squeezed in a visit to The Huntington Gardens outside patio which was lovely as ever. Roses were in full bloom and spectacular and lunch was good at a favorite Thai restaurant, Daisy mint.
We’ve been to Albuquerque more times than I can count so most places we visit are revisits. One new places this time: Books on the Bosque, which kindly hosted an event for my new book “Our Diaries, Ourselves.” Nice people and store.
I remain impressed with the Albuquerque Museum, which has a great permanent art collection oabout New Mexico, often by New Mexicans and thought provoking exhibitions including the latest by Delilah Montoya whose photos, prints and installations are about Chicano life and especially our brutal and messed up immigration system sadly are as topical as ever. Next up: an exhibition on the ABQ stretch of Route 66.
Lunch (good salads) at Vinaigrette was as good as ever but in a new location— the former home of another restaurant, Modern General, which is no more. We also had good sandwiches at Villa Miriam.
Sawmill Market
A bunch of storefronts in Nob Hill along Central are vacant so it was good to see the good Japanese/french bakery ihatov (which sounds like Hebrew or Native American but may be Japanese) is still on Central avenue (aka Route 67, on a tarted up but still a little honkytonk stretch.) Excellent morning bun (sort of a busy carrot cake with various dried fruits).
Dinner was at Sawmill market, a hip food court that has long wooden tables and a dizzying array of options. It worked well for our party of six. We all got hamburgers they were closest and easiest but got lunch today we tried the tacos, which were better than the burger.
Vinaigrette
We also enjoyed shopping around the central plaza in Old Town, with its adobe buildings, wooded colonnades with hanging dried chiles, and pretty courtyard gardens.Several shops have interesting work by locals and/or southwest artists – and their wares are refreshingly affordable compared to Santa Fe.
We still need to explore Ann Arbor more, beyond Zingerman’s deli and its neighbors, but I did get a peek at the terrific Literati Bookstore, inside a century-old brick building downtown during an event there for my diary book.
Also had an excellent dinner with family and friends at nearby Cafe Zola (skirt steak, bolognese pasta).
At literati with high school pals
After excellent lunch (goat cheese, bacon, fig jam grilled sandwich, muffuletta, cheese board with Pleasant Ridge and St.Germain) at The Rind (part of the cheesemongers) in Berkley (the new Royal Oak/Ferndale with interesting affordable restaurants and independent shops), we quick perused Perch, a vintage/contemporary home goods store and Toadvine, jam-packed with quality used books.
The main Grosse Pointe library, where I had another book event, turned out to be impressive in many ways including architectural/artistic. It’s a striking contemporary 1953 building designed by famous modernist architect Marcel Breuer with a large (and real) Calder mobile and mosaic piece by famed Detroit artist/family friend Glenn Michaels. Dinner (lasagna with spinach noodles in an orange bolognese sauce) was very good at nearby Cafe Nini.
AI report:
Grosse Pointe Public Library Central Branch, designed by renowned Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer in 1953, is a landmark of modernist architecture located in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. As one of his first major U.S. public commissions, the two-story brick building features distinctive floor-to-ceiling windows, open spaces, and integrated art, including a Calder mobile. World Monuments Fund +3
Key Details of the Breuer Library:
Design & Structure: The building is noted for its unadorned, rectangular design, characterized as a “timeless” modern structure by Michigan Modern.
Art Integration: The interior was designed to showcase art, including a large Alexander Calder mobile, a Kandinsky-inspired tapestry, and a 22-foot steel sculpture by Lymon Kipp.
Significance: It is the only building designed by Breuer in the Detroit area, and it was commissioned by philanthropist Dexter M. Ferry.
Current Status: The Central Branch is recognized for its architectural significance. The Grosse Pointe Library Foundation supports the site through the Breuer Preservation Fund.
D and I had not been to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in decades and never together so it was a great to return on a suddenly cold but sunny March day. The interior courtyard with its beautiful plants and flowers, arranged with symmetrical precision, was a psychological boost, a reminder that spring will come soon, if not yet.
Isabella’s palace
In the early 1900s, Isabella collected all sorts of old world artworks and arranged them in the vast and small spaces of her mansion (“palace”) in idiosyncratic fashion, which reminded me of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. The rooms are often dark and gloomy, painted a deep moody blue or red, with large dramatic paintings, antiques, ceramics and sculpture. The windows and balconies lining the three-story courtyard with its Moorish patterns lets in very welcome light, adding an unexpected sunniness.
Isabella Stewart Gardner contemporary addition
A contemporary addition to the main house is also cheerful, with red and orange mod furniture. We had an excellent, albeit pricey, lunch in the restaurant Cafe G (rigatoni Bolognese!) and sat in comfy contemporary chairs in a lounge.
We also visited the edgy contemporary photo exhibit on the second floor, where photographers documented experimenting with their gender and sexuality. Couldn’t help wondering what Isabella would have made of it. One thing’s clear: she wouldn’t have been in it. She didn’t like having her picture taken, and often covered her face with a scarf when photographed.
A 13 minute walk along the Fens got us to the Time Out Market where we went to Far Out for New Zealand style ice cream — soft serve mixed with real fruit. Real Tasty.
On our last day we went to AJK, an excellent bakery with pastries, breakfast sandwiches and sandwiches in Salem walked past beautiful old Yankee homes in the nearby historic McIntire District, dodging a few witch tours here and there. We stopped at the statue of Bewitched TV show star Elizabeth Montgomery so D. could pose with his childhood crush.
Dirck with Bewitched statue in Salem.
Our American Airlines flight home was rocky. We boarded for an on time departure from Boston to Chicago and started moving. Then flight attendants started rushing up and down the aisles. Then the plane stopped and we were told there was a missing passenger. Then we were told there was a passenger count discrepancy. Next thing we know, we’re taxing back to a gate and are told we must deplane with all our stuff, hopefully to soon re-plane — which we did after awhile, complete with another safety demonstration by a flight attendant. Then there was another weird delay — the tow bar (or some such) wasn’t coming off. Strange grinding noise ensued, then stopped, and we flew to Chicago, leaving several hours late, causing several passengers to miss their connections. Our outbound flight on American also began with a short delay that grew longer.
We enjoyed a visit to the superb Peabody Museum in Salem with brother-in-law Steve. A very interesting collection of Native American art, old and contemporary, and early American art; also a step Chinese home called Yin Yu Tang that came from a small rural village west of Shanghai and was reconstructed inside the museum. Built in 1790, lived in by eight generations of the Huang family over 200 years, most recently in 1982. Twenty to 30 people lived in the house at one time. About 40 percent of the objects in the house belonged to the Huang family, another 45 percent were from homes in the region with similar histories. Way cool and reminded us of a old traditional building with a dark wood interior surrounding a central courtyard that we stayed at in Hoi An, Vietnam.
Peabody
During an unexpected return to Somerville (long story), we drove past the group house I lived in several lives ago (1983) at 34 Avon street (I remembered the address) which looked spruced up since my day.
My former residence
On to Charlestown which also has spruced up since my day, complete with an outpost of the excellent Tatte bakery on Warren Street where we had excellent hot chocolate and a morning bun. We were in the shadow of the towering Bunker Hill Monument with streets lined with attractive colonial-era- looking homes and alluring shops on Main Street that I wish I had time to explore.
High school friends represent!
But we were there, instead, for an event for my book Our Diaries, Ourselves at the Charlestown branch of the Boston Public Library! High school friends kindly showed up.
Warren Tavern
We all went to dinner at the very atmospheric Warren Tavern, circa the 1780s, where revolutionary leaders George Washington and Paul Revere dined. (Good burger and Cobb salad, centuries later!)
We have eaten well, as always in the Boston area, thanks to Dirck’s sister who used to be a newspaper food critic here. First stop, Shubie’s, a cheerful gourmet market and cafe with killer sandwiches, salads, and deli counter with enticing prepared foods.
The Barnacle
We also enjoyed the fish chowder, steamed clams, and water view at The Barnacle. We walked along the quiet Marblehead streets lined with flat-front wood frame homes from the 1700s and 1800s with historic plaques and along the waterfront by an old fort. (Fort Sewall, 1742.)
Abbott Hall is a cool old pile of bricks with some old paintings including the spirit of America. We learned that Marblehead is the home of the American Navy and the Girl Scouts Brownie. (Guess which one I was in.)
Dinner after my Our Diaries, Ourselves book reading at Porter square books in Cambridge was at nearby Gustavo’s, where we had meat dishes packed with flavor (pork asadas, ribs, chicharones)
Abbott Hall
The weather was glorious, with temperatures rising to the 70s, perfect for a waterfront walk in Swampscott, with glistening water and the Boston skyline rising in the distance. In Salem, we had a good meal at Bernadette.
The next leg of my Our Diaries, Ourselves book tour has taken us to lovely Connecticut where we are visiting our friends N&A!
I had an event at two very different but both terrific bookstores — the venerable RJ Julia in Madison which I’ve enjoyed over the years and Possible Futures in New Haven, which has an interesting selection aligned with its social justice mission. Highly recommend them both!
We had lobster rolls and lobster bisque at the classic homey seafood place Lenny’s in Branford and fantastic pizza at the famous Pepe’s in New Haven, followed by a brief walk around the Yale campus.
Clam pizza at Pepe’s (ricotta and meatballs, margarita pizza too) Possible futures
I’ve long said I’d go anyplace if a local wanted to show me around but even better if the place is beautiful. So we felt very lucky to spend a day touring this beautiful island with a local and even better a local-by- choice who years ago picked the island village of Vineyard Haven as the place where she wanted to live when school is out (she was a teacher) and retire.
Oak Bluffs
The weather was grey and foggy so we couldn’t see the water until the fog lifted after a few hours. But the fog added to the other worldliness as we drove along winding roads in the woods and beside sand dunes where the beach and ocean was obscured by the gloom.
Famous names
L. drove us down island (east) and up island (west), around west Chop and East Chop, to places with Native American or English names, through the classy village of Edgartown with its stately white and grey shingled homes, and funkier Oak Bluffs, with its rows of little Victorian painted lady cottages surrounding the gathering pavilion of the “Martha’s vineyard camp meeting association” a religious community since 1835.
Edgartown
She drove us to her favorite seaside fish shack ( in menemsha) and pointed out her favorite shingled mansions on sprawling grounds and the headstones of famous writers and journalists (William Styron, Art Buchwald, Mike Wallace) in a graveyard with old peculiar monuments.
Island map
It was fun to be here so off season, among 20,000 year round residents on an island that swells to 100,000 in the summer. Yes, fog and gloom, shuttered shops and estates with shrouded shrubbery, but empty roads and locals at one of the few restaurants open. We ate pizza and Cobb salad at Rockfish in Edgartown.
The weather suddenly cleared our second day here, with bright sun, blue sky, shimmering water, 60 degrees. we joined L for her morning constitutional in Oak Bluffs with its pretty town green and boardwalk along the water.
Rookie mistake, as we learned here in Woods Hole, where the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard departs. “Never wait for a ferry,” a ferry staffer with a weathered face told us. Live and learn.
We arrived a few minutes before the 3:45 ferry but decided to pick up some bakery goods and then take the 4:10 ferry, as planned. Turns out the 4:10 was cancelled due to a lack of passengers so now we’re in the ferry tix office waiting for the 5 pm ferry. “
French bakery
On this damp, grey foggy day, we drove about 1 hour 45 minutes from our friends in Branford,CT to my friend Ed’s in Cranston, where we caught up at SevenStars Bakery over ready made but good baguette sandwiches.
Then we drove another 1.5 hours to the Palmer Ave ferry car park in Falmouth, dropped off the car and took us bus 9 minutes to Woods Hole and the ferry.
There are two popular bakeries here, each with a following. We went to the austere French one recommended by a friend who lives here: Maison Villatte. The homey one recommended by other locals is Pie in the Sky, which has excellent sandwiches and clam chowder. We also drove briefly through the pretty cape cod town of Falmouth.
Busy and fun NYC day. First stop: a members preview (courtesy of my Uncle) of the Whitney Biennial, with edgy thought- provoking art from across the country. A few impressions of trends: big full-room installations with video and/or sculpture and sound. Lots of sound in general. Unusual materials (dried breast milk and semen in one work), Palestinian theme including a poignant video installation about displacement and longing to return. very small delicate work next to very large work.
Lunch was Japanese inspired tacos at TacomiTaco, in the buzzing Chelsea Market which was even more fun to explore than I remembered. We sat at the counter and ate excellent tacos (short rib, the Japanese curry); bought hard-to-find Candy (Regal Crown sours, Rolo caramels) an outpost of the famous lower east side’s Economy Candy. I could have shopped for hours at Muji, a Japanese home goods and clothing purveyor.
After my book event at the cool bookstore P&T Knitwear on Orchard Street we had excellent food (ribs, dumplings, fried rice) at nearby Saigon Social. (Saltwater cafe turned out to be a good spot to meet an old friend.)
TakeBetsywithyou 