Design
Matisse’s Vestments
In 1947, Henri Matisse designed a Catholic chapel—the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence.
Matisse intentionally left the interior white. As the sun rises, colored light shines through the stained glass, painting the walls and floors uninterrupted.
I’ve known about the chapel for some time, but I was unaware Matisse also designed the liturgical vestments.
There are five colorways in total.
Very, very cool.
Film
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (2011)
In 1954, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project was erected in St. Louis, Missouri—thirty-three eleven-story high-rise buildings. Formerly, the site was a proper slum. Many Black families were exploited by private greed, suffering disastrous, overcrowded living conditions. For these families, Pruitt-Igoe was an opportunity to experience a higher quality of life, or “the poor man’s penthouse.” In 1972, only eighteen years later, every building was demolished.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth documentary synthesizes why the experiment failed. A few factors are at play, but I attribute the loss to poor governmental foresight and racism.
The mismanagement of funds still plagues St. Louis today.
Over the weekend, I drove by the former Pruitt-Igoe site. A small portion of the 57 acres is repurposed, but the majority remains untouched.
After two months of life in St. Louis, one thing remains a mystery to me—the abandoned infrastructure. On the ten-minute drive from the Central West End to Pruitt-Igoe, over half the businesses and homes I passed were boarded up. Around the corner from Stephie’s apartment, there is an abandoned, partially demolished church. Just down the street, you’ll pass hundreds of immaculate Gilded Age mansions. Continue walking, and you can treat yourself to a $7 scoop of Jeni’s ice cream or a $100 hand cream at Bluemercury.
I haven’t fully grasped the reasons for this stark, abrupt inequality, but learning about Pruitt-Igoe familiarized me with the historical socio-political issues at its root.
Les quatre cents coups (1959)
Screened at the St. Louis French Film Festival.
Les quatre cents coups, or The 400 Blows, is François Truffaut’s semi-autobiographical debut film. Truffaut premiered the film at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, winning best director. However, he shot it a decade prior. The actors are mostly amateurs, with a couple of exceptions. Jacques Demy plays a cop, and Jean-Luc Goddard does a voiceover.
I like how the opening credits and final scene loosely mirror one another.
At the end, the title sequence music reemerges. Truffaut tracks protagonist Antoine running from his past toward his dream—seeing the sea.
Pretty Woman (1990)
Pretty Woman is a modern Cinderella story with progressive modifications. Watch it, especially if you’re a Princess Diaries fan. Keep an eye out for Joe, Paolo, and the it happens all the time waiter.
Interestingly, the final cut is far from the original. Read more here.
Food
Koloocheh
The other day, my aunt recalled her annual grandmother-grandaughter trip to the Ramsar Hotel. About a four-hour drive north of Tehran, the beach town of Ramsar was developed into a tourist destination by the Shah of Iran in the 1960s. As with many of the Shah’s projects, Ramsar mimicked European opulence.
A highlight of these beach trips was koloocheh, a cookie made of a yeasted dough exterior and a sweet walnut paste, cardamom, cinnamon filling. According to my aunt, the cookie is a Ramsar specialty, though I struggle to confirm this online.
Now, koloocheh is commercially manufactured, smuggled through Canada, and sold at Juice Stop in Glendale. My aunt brought over a box.
Condiment Claire’s Cucumber Jam
When I first read
’s cucumber jam recipe, I was sure she was calling a relish a jam—as a joke. This jam is silly, it has a sense of humor, but it’s no farce.The kitchen smelled like a minty spa water, in the best way.
The cucumber maintains a fresh crunch, the ginger is spicy, and the granny smith apple’s crisp, fruity flavor brings everything together. I ate it with toast, cream cheese, fish, by the spoonful… It’s genius.
Miscellaneous Gems
Today, a song.