Tag Archives: Sarah Hughes

Westervin Recommends

Westervin Recommends: September

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It’s been a while since our last recommendations, but our gifted guest blogger Sarah Hughes has made it worth the wait. Boy are these a treat!

Annie Dillard

Westervin Recommends for September: Annie Dillard

{ some party from unexpectedtales }

With The Maytrees, Dillard manages to write a book that is not about love and death, but TOTALLY IS.  I don’t want to write a book review of this particular book, but I want to recommend Dillard, because I lost my breath reading her prose. I’m in phase where I’m feeling particularly disenchanted, and Annie begs you to stop being like that.  Seriously.  It made me love Cape Cod while I was there, even though it was raining atrociously and I hated all the tourists who made the lines to get clam chowder long.

Giving your stuff away for free

Westervin Recommends for September: Giving away your stuff for free

{ the couch in the street by Jessica Gardner }

This is a post about karma.  I don’t really believe in karma, so let’s call it physics.  Some law of matter says that there is a finite amount of matter in the universe.  It cannot decrease or increase; it simply changes.  I feel that way about stuff.  There is always the same amount of secondhand, curbside furniture in the universe, and it is your responsibility to give and take with balance.  If you try to make money from things you did not purchase, that is like trying to circumvent the laws of physics.  Or karma.  They seem really similar.

Grüner Veltliner

Westervin Recommends for September: Grüner Veltliner

{ hang me out to dry by Jena Ardell }

I know white wine season is almost over, but give this one a shot.  I really like the Höpler vineyard, which I had at a local restaurant and couldn’t stop mentioning every time I had a sip.  You can find them in the German wine section. They’re pretty reasonably priced, and they are the wine equivalent to granny smith apples, fresh laundry, and clean air.

Making your own sushi

Westervin Recommends for September: Making your own sushi

{ Hippo Sushi by Koala Joe }

We’re about 5 years late on this. It’s as easy as people say and gives me an excuse to eat pickled ginger by the jarful. I’m gonna go and try to predict more trends now.

Westervin Recommends

Westervin Recommends: MARCHing On

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Our favorite guest bloggers are back!  Sarah Hughes and Seth York are here with another great batch of recommendations.  You’ll laugh.  You’ll cry.  You’ll want them to move in with you to entertain you with their whip-smart storytelling.

Vermont

photography by indieuh

{ by the observatory by India K }

To recommend a whole state may seem sort of generalized or inaccessible, but trust us, Vermont is awesome. As a state it seems conflicted. It’s sort of liberal and libertarian. They like solar power, but they also want you off their property. They wear a lot of hemp, but they’d just as soon you didn’t bring your southern nonsense in their business. And no one wants Wal-Mart.
For example, do you remember Chris Cooper in Adaptation? I swear that guy threatened to shoot us if we didn’t get off his property when we tried to walk through his covered bridge. But just down the road, we had some delightful, 5-year aged cheddar samples and a fruit & wine tasting! I embrace this dichotomy fully.

Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

I first heard this song as a “Tiny Desk Concert” on NPR-where a band squeezes into the music editor’s office and plays acoustic sets. It was awkward for this band since they appeared to have about twenty members, some of them only tangentially involved with the music-making. I loved it immediately. It was a like a big party with all your weird friends who sing and dance and tell stories, probably around a bonfire or something. Ok, well I don’t have those friends either, but for a couple minutes, I did.
Find the studio version of this song, but then also watch the Tiny Desk Concert. It’s really close up, they probably knocked over some paperwork and stuff, and the lighting is like daytime, office building lighting. But it’s the best way to see the band members hang out, and especially the lead singers who look like they’re in love and they just sing to each other and I wish it were my home.

Lint Rollers

photography by eros turranos

{ feast by eros turannos }

Something about me: I hate spending money on things I think I can make or feel entitled to get for free. This has traditionally included pens, staplers, umbrellas, travel mugs, folders, plants, and a host of other things. Including the lint roller. I thought just a piece of duct tape rolled onto itself would suffice, and mostly it did for my amateur lint rolling needs. You know, fuzz from other clothes, laundry lint. It did work, until we got a cat. Months ago, I could not have imagined the extreme dedication and dexterity cat hair has for ingratiating itself into all of your worldly possessions. Needless to say, I found a formidable foe. Now lint rolling now is like grabbing my keys before I try to catch the bus. It’s a necessity for everyday, just so my coworkers and classmates don’t think I own twenty long-haired cats or one large, cuddly Yeti.