Recommended Reading / 31.

Every Monday, words to start the week. 

This week, courtesy of BBC News: exploring "glass delusion," a condition that causes those afflicted to believe their bodies are made of glass and therefore susceptible to breakage. Cases were reported as early as the late Middle Ages, but it's not unheard of these days, either. Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips tells the BBC that the delusion makes sense "in a society in which anxieties about fragility, transparency, and personal space are pertinent to many people's experience...of living in the modern world." Read more, here.

A few more stories, just because:

-The Museum of Shit.
-Subtleties of haha's and hehe's and hoho's and heh's.
-Beautiful pastries made by Brooklyn baker Ayako Kurokawa, whose Instagram captions suggest a possible second career as a poet — next to a photo of a glazed black cat, she writes, "It is a / hazelnut cake. / evan it looks as an animal."

And a couple posts elsewhere:
-On Refinery29: an interview with Justina Blakeney on her book The New Bohemians.
-For Conde Nast Traveler: global interior design trends, and a profile on an installation that asks international designers to share how their respective cultures welcome guests.

More recommended reading, here. Have a lovely Monday. Photos by Max Wanger.

Non-Career Advice: Julia Robbs.

Non-Career Advice is a series that asks people - young, old, and in a range of occupations - for words of wisdom unrelated to work, career-building, dollars, or getting ahead.

Julia Robbs / Photographer

Also: Biker / bird watcher / baked goods buff

Age: 28

Quality over quantity in all things (including non-things). "If I've developed any sort of motto in life, it's quality over quantity. I'd rather have less and love what I have, than fill my life with things that don't mean ultimately mean anything. That applies to everything: my husband and I invest in what we call 'forever pieces' for our apartment, and we'll hold out on buying things if they aren't just right. I wear the same pair of shoes every day, but I love them. And friendships? In my earlier twenties, numbers mattered more — I wanted to be friends with everyone, but in the end, I wasn't cultivating rich relationships. I recently moved from Brooklyn to San Francisco, and finding my place in a new city has been an interesting challenge. Part of me wants to get comfortable as quickly as I can — but building friendships and finding a community takes time. All worthwhile investments do."

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Thanks so much, Julia. More from the Non-Career Advice series, here. 

Birthday Suits.

Thanks to brilliant Kateoplis, I now know that Lucy Hilmer, a photographer and poet who recently turned 70, has shot a portrait of herself in nothing but underwear and her shoes and socks on every birthday for the past four decades. (You can find them here.)

There's a book and a film about this project currently in the works, which, Lucy writes, "will reveal how a woman who came of age before women's lib used her camera to peel off society's 'pretty girl' label and define herself from the inside out." Hero.

 Visit Lucy Hilmer's website, here.

Recommended Reading / 30.

Every Monday, words to start the week. 

This week, courtesy of Slate: a glimpse into a series of portraits by fashion photographer Jean Pagliuso, who chose chickens, raptors, and owls as her subjects for nostalgic reasons — her father, now deceased, handled show chickens. Says Pagliuso, "I don't see it as any different at all from photographing people. It's exactly the same to me. I look for the same things. I look for form and the way the frame is filled."

(See also: Angora rabbits — or, as The New York Times calls them, "impeccable living pillows" — as photographed by Andres Serrano.)

Three more, just because:

-The best butter.
-Doors built for babies, packrats, and those backed into corners.
-An oldie from Jim Jarmusch: "Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."

More recommended reading, here. Have a wonderful Monday.

Primary Things.

For Friday: hypnotic words from Eileen Myles (whose book The Importance of Being Iceland is currently sitting on my windowsill), accompanied by equally mesmerizing images from Julia Robbs (whose collages for #the100dayproject have been the highlight of my Instagram feed these days).

Though on the boat, I write, I shoot. On the boat, let's face it, I'm held. In its waves, its vagueness, in its water. I see only water. Water doesn't answer. No land ahead. Just water. So my dilemma shrinks to secondary and abstract. How will I live. I want to stay in this primary thing that moves. (Thanks, Cassie.)

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, wherever you may be. Happy May!