The Desk Digest, February 2024
The Desk Digest, February 2024
A talk, a rant, an admission, a recipe revamp, and much more.
Though I wrote an ode to slowing down my work this February that quickly became my most popular newsletter missive ever, I have found it difficult to let myself. Who am I if I’m not endlessly churning out work? I have become accustomed to endless busyness, endless feedback, and I’ve closed off a lot of the world—virtually, geographically—in order to focus on writing, and so I’ve got to figure out where I find satisfaction. A lot of other folks are also questioning themselves about this, I know. We’re at a real turning point, not just for media workers but in how psychologically sustainable feeding ourselves into social media really is; a wall has been hit. What emerges now? Were I not working on a book right now, I’d be absolutely freaking out about what comes next for me professionally. This newsletter provides ongoing work and stability, but I also want to stay a step ahead. (To that ends, of course, I’m scheming—ABS, always be scheming, the freelancer’s mantra.)
I’ve gone back to my old ways (a theme of slowing down is remembering how I used my free time as a kid and adolescent, when the internet was new and access to it finite): books, of course, and now I’m using Criterion to catch up on movies I’ve never seen and/or always intended to. I recently watched James Gray’s 1994 debut film Little Odessa on a flight, which inspired an outpouring of Notes app writing from me. The slowing is allowing me time to feel and remember, and that’s likely what I had kept myself so busy to avoid. Textbook. I swiftly read Deborah Levy’s The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography, too, and am re-visiting food memoirs, like Nigel Slater’s Toast, as instruction and inspiration for my own. (I’ll discuss this more in next Monday’s essay.)
February, with the slowness, felt quiet to me—a stillness I’m getting comfortable with—but I’m very proud of what I put out.
February 5: Defining and Refining a Food Justice Lens
A talk for Bates College: “When we hear the phrase ‘food justice,’ do we imagine a dining table filled with abundant foods? Do we imagine sourdough of locally grown and milled wheat? Do we imagine a workers’ cooperative delivering CSA boxes of regionally grown organic produce? Do we imagine a sliding-scale priced brunch at an otherwise fine-dining restaurant?”
February 9: From the Desk Recommends... Establishing Our Limits
“I’m writing my second book, and that was the impetus for putting these parameters in place. Yet it’s taken on even more importance with a renewed cultural concern with what writers are going to do with themselves as the media burns down in a whole new way.” This post also includes my January playlist for paid subscribers (February’s is shaping up very nicely, if I do say so myself…!).
February 12: One Writer, Many Voices
“I’ve said to folks before, and they haven’t believed me, that I’m not comfortable speaking—because once I get going, I’m off to the races, in a bit of a fugue state. I have that anxiety that makes me fill air; I have to memorize questions for interviews. I feel more than adequate here at my desk, with all my books and notebooks; I worry about whether I can bring that to a situation where I don’t have notes (otherwise known as: human socializing).”
February 16: The Monthly Menu: January Was So Long
What I’ve been eating, cooking, and using in the kitchen. I also announced a revamp to the recipe archive here, which I’m calling The Desk Cookbook: I’ll be publishing my recipes there and linking out to them when referenced, and it’s also its own section for easy perusal. Here’s the index.
February 19: The Desk Dispatch: “China View Restaurant [Permanently Closed]”
A stunning essay I was honored to publish, by Christoph Tsang-Grosse: “A recipe for ancestral ambiguity: mix Hakka and Han Chinese blood. Migrate to America. Survive for at least two generations. Add German blood and allow mixture to assimilate.”
February 23: The Desk Book Club ‘Small Fires’ February Discussion
The Desk Book Club closed out our conversations on Rebecca May Johnson’s Small Fires and also had a Zoom discussion yesterday afternoon. It’s been so fun to get to know everyone more, putting faces, experiences, and insights to names.
From the Desk… returns next Monday with an essay on the work of restoring memory while writing a food memoir.
The March and April Desk Book Club pick is Hanna Garth’s Food in Cuba: The Pursuit of a Decent Meal (available at 20% off with our bookstore partner Archestratus). Discussions among paid subscribers will take place on Friday, March 22 and Friday, April 19, with a Zoom to be scheduled later.
News
An interview with Kate Ray of Soft Leaves about my history with coconut oil and recipe development, and why I’m prioritizing a new approach to the kitchen.
Reading
Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti
A Lifestyle Note
While at Muji in New York, I got some nice letter-writing paper and brown envelopes to reinvigorate penpal-ing with my oldest friend. I also got a little silver pen tray because, simply put, I’m in my tray era.