Surprise Surprise - she's at a library

And I also cosplayed as a Kips Bay dog mom for the week

I spent the last week dog sitting in Kips Bay for a friend and I absolutely took advantage of my temporary Manhattan home and went hard on exploration. I attended 2 Jane’s Walks, took 2 museum tours, ate at 4 new restaurants, and got to take a train to Long Island out of Grand Central (so much nicer than Penn)! This babygirl is tired, but fulfilled emotionally and also filled with so much new knowledge. This was also my first time ever dog sitting and I think I’ll stick to cats tbh - dogs are a lot of work and I prefer the “lounge around and poop in a box” kind of vibe.

As an aside, I’m trying to plan Juneteenth activities/learnings for my employees and since this is still a new-to-me holiday and not something I grew up with, I’d love to hear what you’re doing to celebrate or just any recommendations for learning opportunities or organizations to volunteer with. Holler at ur girl!

This is Larry and even though he tried to eat my socks and underwear, he is a very good boy

1. Noshing 😋

Almost exactly a year ago Lorenzo, his brother, and I enjoyed a delicious meal at a Korean restaurant called PALPAL. Unfortunately, that place lasted less than a year but a new Korean spot opened in it’s place - Hojokban. This place serves “Korean Soul Food” which may not be what you think it is. To me, soul food is indulgent yummy yums that are probably bad for me but feel good in my tummy. To Hojokban, “a meal is not just sustenance; it represents the soul essence of our being” and so their soul food is meant to be artful, carefully prepared, and welcoming.

The thing I love about Korean food is the little endless snacks that come with every meal - the banchan. Hojokban presents you with tiny bowls of kimchi and roasted sweet potato and they were both so good! The kimchi was perfectly tangy and spicy and the slightly soft sweet potato provided a nice cushion for the spice. I wish we served whole ass roasted sweet potato here like they do in Asian countries - I would for sure munch on a potato as a slightly sweet snack and it would be better for me than the shit I currently snack on.

A boy who loves little snacks

Lorenzo isn’t good with spicy food, which is why I sometimes consider leaving him, but for the moment we compromise and order some less spicy items when we eat out together. The Octopus Tteokbokki, however, was not something I was willing to give up. I love tteokbokki and I love octopus and his spice intolerance/shellfish allergy be damned! The dish arrived and I was thrilled to see about 6 little squiddies in there. I love the texture of the little octopus tentacles so I immediately got to work separating those from the heads (I ate some of the heads, but I like what I like!). The sauce was spicy enough that I should have gotten some rice to eat with it and the octopussies and tteokbokki were both cooked to a perfectly soft/chewy consistency.

One of our compromised non-spicy dishes was the Garlic Pork Jowl. The presentation was impressive; it looked so beautiful! This is for sure the type of “soul food” that the restaurant had in mind with their concept. But as far as taste, it was alright. The pork itself was very soft….but kind of too soft? I would have liked a little char or crust on it to give it some texture. The taste was also quite bland, but I guess that’s why there was a literal conga line of garlic on top. The garlic combined with the ssamjang was really good, leaving the pork as just a vehicle to drive garlic and sauce into my mouth. I loved the spicy celery pickle accoutrement though - I wish that was part of the banchan that they kept replenishing.

I really wanted to try the Perilla Oil Noodles, but once again compromised and let Lorenzo order the Jangjorim Fried Rice. I didn’t eat any of the fried rice because I had plenty of tteokbokki and pork to get through, but Lorenzo said it was some of the best fried rice he’s ever had. That’s a big statement coming from him because he orders fucking fried rice everywhere we go! Though to be fair the rice was filled with beef shank and butter so it was obviously going to be good. Lorenzo did ask me if he was supposed to mix in “all of the leaves” on top - it was cilantro and he was delighted to discover that it wilted under the warm rice and also tasted good. Someone help this man.

2. Exploring 🛼

The Morgan Library and Museum is currently celebrating it’s 100th birthday and as a gift to the people they waived the usual $25 admission fee last Sunday! I feel like I always see influencers going here and marveling at the beautiful architecture and I wanted to see it for myself goddammit. Also, they have a Beatrix Potter exhibit going on through June 9 that looked very cute so I figured my time had come!

My tour guide made sure to mention that the Morgan Library got its lions *before* the NYPL got theirs, but said she wasn't allowed to tell us what their names are

I managed to take 2 tours while at the museum and I learned a lot about the history of the building and collection. It was originally John Pierpont Morgan’s private library and if that name sounds familiar it’s because this is the JP Morgan. My dude was quite the collector, as evidenced by the whole ass wall of bibles I found inside one of the wings in every language you can imagine (and maybe some you can’t), little trinkets, and manuscripts upon manuscripts. When his collection outgrew his brownstone at Madison Avenue and 36th Street he did what all rich people do and hired Charles McKim (of the famous architectural firm McKim, Mead & White) and built a whole separate library for all of his stuff. In 1924, JP Morgan Jr opened up the library to the public and now here we are, 100 years later, able to traipse around this beautiful building as if we too are wealthy bankers with fabulous mustaches.

One of these is not like the others 👀

I really enjoyed the Beatrix Potter exhibit! Although Potter was born in London in 1866, she would frequently visit the countryside and really grew to love being in nature. Her whole family was quite artistic and they would always be doodling and creating things. She developed a love of botany and had a whole series of illustrated mushrooms! She also frequently wrote letters her governess’s children and would illustrate them Can you even imagine having such a dedicated pen pal?

Her most famous book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, actually began as a letter she wrote to Noel Moore, her governess’s son. Once it was published, the book was an immediate success! However, the publisher didn’t copyright the material right away so a bunch of unlicensed copies popped up, making this essentially Limewire for books. Something unique about this and Potter’s other books is their size - they were all tiny books, which were the perfect size for kid hands.

Early doodles > Illustrated letters > Tiny books

I also took a tour of the Walton Ford exhibit currently on display. At first, I thought it was just a bunch of pictures of animals, but after reading literally every plaque and speaking with the tour guide, a much fuller and more interesting picture began to emerge. Ford’s watercolors of animals are inspired by myths and stories of encounters of humans and wildlife. He would essentially hear a story about an escaped panther and imagine what might have been, mostly from the animal’s point of view.

I especially liked his take on “The Doomed Barbary Lion.” His giant painting of the MGM lion lounging near a pool like a washed up movie star with the logo “ars gratia artis - art for art’s sake” was my favorite and instead of me trying to wax poetic about it, I’ll leave you with the artist’s words:

“The thing is, the lion doesn’t give a fuck about whether he’s a star, or whether he’s the MGM lion, or whether he’s this human symbol of nobility. He’s just driven from his home-land, being killed and being imprisoned and driven to extinction…There’s nothing in it for the lion, being a superstar of human culture.” - Walton Ford

I’ll share some additional photos and videos on the BCLF Instagram because… I found a secret door in the library and I can’t attach videos here!

3. What’s Good 😎

• I love Welcome to Chinatown (I’ve volunteered with them & attended events) and right now they’re raising money to complete construction on their Hub, which will be a space for coworking, events, and all around good community stuff. Donate to them if you can!

• Over the weekend I learned that John James Audubon was actually horribly racist and The Audubon Society is actually thinking of changing their name, so that’s a bummer. But, I believe you divest your love of birdwatching from one icky dude. May 11 is World Migratory Bird day and NYC has events in all boroughs for budding ornithologists.

• This next one is a NYC Parks Exclusive! For only one day every year, the Queens Greenhouse opens its doors to give New Yorkers a sneak peek inside. This is where all of the trees and flowers and shrubs that get planted around the city are grown. Best of all, this tour is fucking free and you can just shop up at the greenhouse on May 11.

• It’s official - NYC and Dublin are finally connected via The Portal. New Yorkers can head to Flatiron to look through a big ol’ portal that shows real time images of Dublin on the other side. Do I have any Dubliners reading? Let’s have a meetup!

• The Met Gala was this week and while I do not watch because it is far too dystopian, I did enjoy listening to this person explain the story behind the theme. Also, did you know that Brooklyn hosts the People’s Ball every year, giving us regular folks the chance to dress up and walk a catwalk for free? This is the way.

• Last week I was alarmed to see tons of smoke near my apartment and I later found out that a huge fire destroyed a bunch of buildings, displacing about 55 residents. Local Council Member Sandy Nurse is running a collection for items for folks who were displaced - you can drop off clothes and hygiene products at 56 Pennsylvania Ave in Brooklyn.

• Finally, you’ve been living with your head under a rock if you haven’t heard about all of the campus protests going on in NYC, let alone across the country. I found this article about the Columbia protests to be incredibly well-rounded, including perspectives and accounts from all sides. I haven’t spoken about this issue much because I honestly don’t know where I stand at any given moment. I hate that anyone is being killed or oppressed or hurt but I don’t know what the path to peace is in this situation.

4. Watching🍿

I saw two movies last weekend that were not my usual bag at all: Challengers and The Idea of You. I like challenging myself by watching movies that I would normally not like and sometimes I end up surprised. Gran Turismo wasn’t a movie I would gravitate towards, but I actually really liked it. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for either of these movies. Am I missing something?