I’ve been sitting on this one for almost three years now, for no real reason other than a dim hope of someday being able to furnish a place in L.A. with nothing but pieces from quiet collector Jonathan Pessin. NFS, which stands for Not For Sale, is an appointment-only assortment of one-of-a-kind finds housed in Pessin’s loft and studio space in Frogtown. You can peruse via Instagram or his site—the latter of which breaks some of his selections down into idiosyncratic categories like Practical Adjacent, Uncomfortable Furniture, and Smalls—but I highly recommend going in person and making sure you have plenty of trunk space. -VvP |
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I only became aware of this book after seeing someone tweet a picture of a passage from it, and I’m very glad I did. Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! is an oral history of arguably the funniest movie ever made. The book is largely told from the vantage of comedy trio David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (collectively known as ZAZ), but also features bits and pieces from an assortment of comedians, actors, and many of the people actually involved in the film. Does the average person need to own this book? Definitely not. But if you’re someone who has said “I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue” or “And don’t call me Shirley” more than once in your life, then this is a great early beach read. -DW |
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This is just a little reminder that we now offer joints and cigarettes from our old friends at Pure Beauty in the THC section of our shop, shipping to over 25 states and straight to your door. How, exactly? While Pure Beauty is known for their high quality, premium cannabis grown and sold in California, these pre-rolls are filled with carefully sourced THCA flower. THCA is a federally legal cannabinoid found in hemp plants. When you heat it, the non-psychoactive THCA transforms into THC, releasing its psychoactive effects. In other words, light one of these up and smoke away. -VvP |
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For someone who reads a lot, I really, really, really struggle with nonfiction books. I generally agree with The New Yorker writer Helen Rosner’s take that most can be “condensed into one taut magazine feature.” So when I tell you that I absolutely plowed through this true crime, court case procedural by Australian journalist and novelist Helen Garner, you should listen. It follows the trial of Robert Farquharson, whose car plunged into a roadside dam on Father’s Day in 2005. Farquharson survived; his three young sons did not. Was it a tragic accident or a horrifying murder? How does a family and a community find closure? And what does it mean to be a witness, a spectator, a juror, or a judge? Garner’s recounting is so clean and simple as to sometimes seem artless—until you realize just how invested you are. -VvP |
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I was absolutely gutted to hear of Ken Jordan’s passing on Sunday. Known to most as the co-founder of Lucid News, and Evolver and Alchemist Kitchen before that, Ken was a luminary and guiding light in the psychedelics space. He was also one of the kindest people I’ve met in a very long time, and someone I looked forward to getting to know much more in the coming years. A Brooklyn neighbor, we got together on Ditmas Ave not that long ago for what was supposed to be a quick coffee. Thirty minutes turned into hours as we went deep into our life stories, our experiences, and our thoughts on everything from parenting styles to ‘90s music to obscure Beat poets (a world he grew up in thanks to his father’s own work). When I got home, I told my partner that I thought I had done one of the rarest things a late-30s man can do: make a new friend. Regrettably, our relationship mostly continued through simple emails in the ensuing months, with the assumption being (at least on my part) that of course we’d meet again once it got warm out and the arcs of our work continued to bend toward each other. Sadly, that was never to be. It really speaks volumes about an individual if their loss is felt so acutely even by those who barely knew them. My heart goes out to all those who were in his life and loved him best—we’re truly worse off without him on this planet. If you’d like to help honor his memory, my understanding is that there is a request for donations to Lucid News, the company he championed so hard. -DW |
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