Tree of Light.

This video, about a magical, marvelous tree in Silverlake, made my night. Watch and feel happy.

Says creator Adam Tenenbaum, "All the neighbors and kids come by, and they feel free to stop here and play here and hang here... I basically consider my front yard public domain."

Angelenos, visit the Chandelier Tree at 2811 West Silver Lake Drive. Thanks to Colossal for the introduction.

In the meantime, wishing you all a lovely (and cool) Tuesday - I'm melting here in Brooklyn! Might be time for a Swingle, or a Sundae Morning (sweet cream ice cream with wild blueberry lemon sugar cookies, whipped cream, honey, and oats). If I must.

POV: Reminders.

POV ("point of view") is a series that addresses many of the same themes covered in my Equals Record column: growing up, saying yes to adventure, learning to embrace a quarter-life crisis. Each POV entry will include a photograph and a short reflection based on what’s pictured. While my previous column focused largely on ideas, POV will focus on moments - glimpses, glances, tiny stories.  

This weekend, I hung art on the walls of my new bedroom. Near my bed, where I’ll see them when I wake up and go to sleep, are three favorite quotes. 

Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror. That’s Rilke.

Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s. Nin.

Craziness is heaven. Hendrix.

“Why so many words?” someone asked me.

“‘I’m forgetful,” I said. “I need reminders.”

Lately.

A few summer highlights, according to Instagram: first and foremost, moving into a new apartment (below, Charlie captures Jamie and me on our roof, which doesn't quite look like this - yet);

an epic pie tasting (twenty total!) and my dad's long-awaited visit to Brooklyn;

random adventuring with friends, and face paint, and middle-of-the-night trips to Midtown swimming pools; 

and an epic - and completely spontaneous - weekend upstate, which included wild blueberry picking, a stop at Dia:Beacon, and a cliff jump that almost didn't happen (Megan and I deliberated for a long time before taking the leap).

I'll be back with a new POV post on Monday; in the meantime, have a very happy weekend! What are your plans? (Also, on a side note: today's post is my 500th on Sho & Tell. Thank you so much for your support, friendship, and incredible kindness along the way - it's meant the world to me!)

Fiction & Fromage.

For literature lovers and dairy devotees (and who among us isn't at least one of the two?), an article that pairs various types of cheese with literary equals. There's Tom Robbins's "raunchy" yet "unmistakably delicious" taleggio, and Virginia Woolf's Bayley Hazen Blue ("it's a mix of narratives - the Mrs. Dalloway of cheeses, if you will"). 

For Amelia Gray, there's a sheep's milk concoction studded with flowers and herbs; for Joyce Carol Oates, there's Humbolt Fog. Says author and cheese enthusiast Freddie Moore, "In the gourmet cheese canon, it's like the inevitable English class discussion of 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been.'" Wow.

Read more at The Airship, here. Found via The Paris Review.

Touching Strangers.

Many thanks to Cool Hunting for introducing me to Touching Strangers, a series of photographs by Richard Renaldi that explores the "spontaneous and fleeting" relationships between people on the street who have never met (an idea that resonates particularly powerfully for me after writing this). For each shot, Renaldi asks his subjects to touch, creating "ephemeral relationships that exist only for the moment of the photograph."

After seven years of work on Touching Strangers, a Kickstarter campaign has been set up by Aperture Foundation to put together a special-edition book of the series. Says Chris Boot of Aperture, "We think these great photographs have something positive to say about human connection...about a diverse society in which people have been taught not to touch other but in which we can and do transcend the boundaries set around us. In seeking support to make the book possible, we want to ask you - strangers - to help us."

Read more and lend your support, here. Happy Wednesday!