Bernadette's Peters's sister's house... Camping in the Hamptons... Trinkets for Women who want to Calm Down... Laurie Simmons necklace update..

wind chimes & Joanna Gleason

One-of-a-kind tiles you can find at the Cosanti Foundation. There are workshops for tile-making.

The other day I wrote WIND CHIMES in my notebook. I’m not sure where this came from, but I felt a sudden compulsion to find beautiful kooky desert-inflected chimes. My favorite are the bronze windbells from The Cosanti Foundation, which was founded in the 1960s by a “theoretic architect” called Paolo Soleri. (He wanted to erase the barrier between nature and buildings, not a new idea these days.) You can find “originals” by him at a huge mark-up on 1st dibs. I suggest buying objects from the foundation that are made using his molds. If you prefer, they have ceramic wind chimes. They have bronze tiles for funky Southern-style backsplashes. (You can find used tiles on Etsy.) If you’re ever in Paradise Valley, you can visit the studio in person, and even take classes and participate in activations.

You can listen to his bell sounds here.

As cheap as $110, which is really the ceiling for gifts for people you’re not married to. I think?

When I mentioned to my friend Eliza that I put these wind chimes on the guide, she said, “ah, yes, but maybe already too mainstream?” (Fair!) She recommends a week in Ten Thousand Waves in Santa Fe, a humble Japanese-style spa that opened in 1981. There’s an inn you can stay at. “Really special. Right by Gene Hackman’s house.”

An adventure hat from the Bolinas Museum ($85). This is the perfect thing to wear if you are hiking to Chez le Belge, my favorite restaurant on the outskirts of Marseille. They only serve rum drinks and Bolognese. It’s for tourists and non-tourists. You can also rent a boat and swim in that way, but there’s no road. It’s cash only, don’t forget! And arrive right when it opens. Close readers of the blog will notice a recurring fascination with Bolinas—a place I have never been. This weirdo’s house is perfect for me (and nominally on the beach?)

I love this Ojai botanical soap that looks like dessert. And this perfectly useless bowl (rather unrelated).

Bernadette Peters’s Sister’s House Renovation

I see a lot of playbills photographed on Instagram. That’s about as close to the theatre as I get. (I field invitations to the opera, and that’s about it.) I usually watch whatever revival is popular on my laptop — in the original, the grainier the better. Last night, we threw on the 1991 PBS Broadway Full Performance of Into the Woods while we cleaned. This version is advertised to have AI enhancement, though I’m not sure where or what. The production stars Bernadette Peters (as the witch!) and Joanna Gleason (my personal favorite, as the baker’s wife). The original broadway cast, I believe. It’s good, even if you can’t afford Broadway, to have seen “everything.” I didn’t grow up watching musicals, and this is a new thing for me.

(I know I say this every week, but YouTube is the thinking man’s Netflix. My husband’s YouTube recommendation of the week is this beautiful English documentary about a guy in South London who painted his house pink. Unmissable cinema!)

You’ll notice Bernadette—after the intermission—is wearing a sparkling necklace, a light catcher. To be honest, you might have to watch to get the full effect:

It reminded me greatly of a necklace artist Laurie Simmons was wearing this week. She gave us a necklace update (video courtesy of auteur Lena Dunham, her daughter):