PicoBlog

Welcome to In the Flash, a weekly, behind-the-lens dialogue on photography. To join the conversation One of my favorite records of the year, Motomami (2022) by Rosalia, is also one of the most confusing album covers I've ever seen. Rosalia is fully naked, wearing a gigantic motorcycle helmet while covering herself demurely with claw-like nails like a Botticelli's Venus from hell. She seems to be toying with the many tropes of naked women selling testosterone-laden music made by male artists, but the photo itself feels like a meme created by a hungover art director after a three-day binger.

Today, l’m sharing another one of my previously published stories from Standart, a magazine about coffee culture. This story is interesting: In 2011, the Hipster Barista meme spread like wildfire across the internet. Hundreds of publications picked up on the meme, writing articles not just about the image but about the person featured: a real barista named Dustin Mattson. Ten years later, in 2021, I wanted to revisit the meme. I knew Dustin casually and asked if he’d be down to chat, and he was so generous with his time.

Three young boys run down the street. On the corner, groups of fans congregate outside the Olympic bar. Opposite, the gates swing open to allow the team bus to pull into the car park. Higher up, old floodlights tower over the Stade Bauer. It’s match night. Ici c’est Saint-Ouen. This is Red Star FC. Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, just over four miles from the centre of the French capital.

My dear friends and I have a china pattern. Well, not china, Corelle dishes—the millennial’s china. It’s called “Spring Blossom,” which features a darling sprinkling of groovy green daisies dancing around plates, cups, bowls, and and cookware. I was enamored of the pattern when I first saw it on a stray teacup and plate at my friends’ home, and I was delighted to get my hands on nearly a complete set when I was furnishing my new apartment last month.

Hello, Today we have something a bit different for you. TTSG goes a bit Melvyn Bragg with a history episode about Bay Area Filipino DJ culture. Our guest today is Oliver Wang, professor of sociology at Cal State Long Beach, one of the co-hosts of theHeat Rocks podcast, and the author of Legions of Boom, a fascinating book which tracks the history of Filipino immigrants into the Bay Area after the 1965 Hart-Celler Act — first into San Francisco and then out into suburbs like Daly City, Fremont, and Vallejo.

Dear Readers, If you’ve started Soledad, you’ve certainly noticed that the women of our protagonists family prefer spiritual solutions to their problems and physical ailments, and often practice aspects of Dominican santeria, Congos Del Espiritu Santo. The most prevalent of applications being the use of Florida Water, for spiritual cleaning, actual cleaning and household rituals. You might use Florida Water in your own practices, or maybe you’ve seen it behind the counter at your neighborhood bodega, or perhaps the smell is familiar to you, but do you know where it comes from?

Edited 8/2/2024 to remove the paywall to make this piece of history accessible to all! There is only one way to share all the things I’ve learned recently from reading the fascinating history of Italian food during the 1920s-1940s, Partigiani a Tavola: Storie di Cibo resistente e ricette di libertà (“Partisans at the Table: Stories of food of the resistance and recipes of freedom”) by Elisabetta Salvini and Lorena Carrara, and that is through a multiple part post that I hope you’ll find as interesting as I do — and, of course, pasta.

France has the most history of any nation on earth. History being the analysis of written records, having the most history simply means having the most written records. Currently the United States most probably produces the most written records. But France has consistently produced the most writings, from the early Middle Ages right up into the 19th century (China might have been a contender during some of that time, I do not know enough of Chinese history to have a strong opinion on that).

The graphic flashed on Fox’s telecast last night and made its way across all the social medias platforms from MLB’s account. The eerie numerical similarities between Reggie Jackson, the original Mr. October, and Corey Seager, the latest Mr. October. Seager is on the verge of joining Jackson as the only position players to win two World Series Most Valuable Player awards. They are both left-handed. They both enjoy swinging at the first pitch.