Happy Friday!
I can’t stop thinking about Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx since visting a wonderful exhibit about him at New York’s Jewish Museum last weekend.
Burle Marx, who died in 1994, was most famously the man behind the black-and-white tiles that undulate alongside Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, and a frequent collaborator of Oscar Niemeyer—the architect who defined mid-century modernity in Brazil with his swooping, space-age white buildings. He was also a painter, a gardener, a sculptor, and designer of textiles. But he was especially skilled with his medium of choice: plants. Rather than copying European gardens like everyone else, he designed geometric landscapes for his native orchids, bromeliads, and cacti—many of which he discovered. He was, as Richard Hartlage wrote, “a painter working in landscape.” The consummate tropical modernist.
Back in the day he hosted parties, cooked, and played music for the likes of Buckminster Fuller, Alexander Calder, Susan Sontag, and Pablo Neruda. In heaven, I might like to attend one of these garden parties. In the meantime, I plan to visit Sitio Roberto Burle Marx, his former estate outside Rio, which is currently under consideration for UNESCO Heritage status. If you’re in New York between now and September 18, you can check out the exhibit.
Related: this exquisite live version of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil—musical pioneers of Brazil’s Tropicália cultural movement—playing ”Terra,” or Earth.
Tomorrow Louis Vuitton will hold its 2017 Resort show at the Niemeyer-designed Niterói contemporary art museum in Rio, which should make for some beautiful pictures. What to expect? #tropicalmodernism
Baby tees and ballgown skirts forever! At the Jewish Museum I wandered upstairs to the Isaac Mizrahi exhibit and found I was transported to my ’90s high school days, when I studied Vogue cover-to-cover, and Shalom Harlow and Amber Valletta were fresh-faced in floral slip-dresses. The sketches, supermodel-strewn videos, and popsicle-colored clothes reminded me that it wasn’t all minimalism and grunge.
I’ve been climbing out of a cooking rut with the help of Food52’s new app. It’s called (Not) Recipes, and is like an Instagram feed of the food people actually eat—ahem, eggs for dinner—captioned with simple instructions. Last week I baked some eggs in a ramekin with sautéed sorrel and Parmesan. Then I took a picture, added some directions, and 39 people saved the recipe. Food52 will update the app with search and link functions on June 1.
In the meantime, here’s a recent favorite I adapted from Mina Stone’s gorgeous book, Cooking for Artists, and shared with my new (not) chefs.
(Not) recipe: Toss thin-sliced red cabbage, shredded carrots, pan-toasted shelled pistachios, and fresh mint with loads of lemon juice and a little olive oil. Set it aside. Pour a semi-sloshy amount of olive oil into a skillet, turn up the heat, shake some smoked paprika in, swirl it around, and crack an egg in there. Lunch! (Or dinner.)
Want: a high-tech gadget for low-maintenance barbecues. Quartz editor and host extraordinaire Indrani Sen loves her sous vide cooker: a game-changing gadget that turns any stockpot into a super-calibrated water bath, allowing home cooks to employ a technique high-end chefs have been using for years. Indrani uses hers to slow-poach eggs and make silky fish for poké bowls, but says its “highest purpose” is prepping meat for the grill: “You can sous vide your steaks earlier in the day, and then hold them at temperature for several hours before a final quick sear and serve—allowing ample time to prep a side salad, grill some hot dogs for the children, and pour yourself a cocktail.” Amen.
Essentials for the well-appointed dopp kit/handbag/desk drawer. Earlier this year, on an overnight flight from New York to Zurich, I came to the horrifying realization I had accidentally checked my toothbrush in my luggage. When I asked the flight attendant if he could offer me a mini-toothbrush, he was very clear: “No,” he replied. “Not for passengers in this class.” Then he proceeded to come back, crouch next to my seat, and offer me a f-ing toothpick. “Would that help?”
I vowed to never fly again without an emergency kit of creature comforts to make me feel spoiled, regardless of where I’m seated. You can read the full list and regimen here. Many of these items also belong in your desk drawer: Lucas’ Pawpaw ointment, Embryolisse Lait Creme Concentre, a rollerball of Olo fragrance, and, yes, a toothbrush.
A parting thought from Roberto Burle Marx. In 1989 interview, the LA Times asked the landscape architect whether he had a favorite garden, among the many he had designed.
He said: ”My favorite garden is always the last garden I have done because the emotion that led me to create it is still fresh and very real, until it is replaced by another new discovery of plant use within myself.”
May whatever art projects, barbecues, travels, gardens, fashion shows, or dance parties you embark upon this weekend help you discover some fresh, real joy.
Happy weekend, wherever you are!
I’ll be on vacation on the island of Culebra next week! While I’m away, you can look forward to a special edition from designer Elan Kiderman, whose handprint is always here.
I’ll send you a postcard!