Adventures With Carbs

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[kushandwizdom]

“Get into the habit of asking yourself, does this support the life I am trying to create?”

— Irisa Yardenah

[anxietyfarm]

When Cole Porter wrote the classic line “fighting vainly the old ennui” this is the exact image he wanted to evoke.

[areasonablydressedwoman]

[lacetulle]

Hamda al Fahim | Spring/Summer 2019 Couture

[theatregraphics]

[alisonzai]

[closet-keys]

the thing I really like about The Good Place is that it thematically revolves around ethics and what makes a person good or bad (both in the sense of– how do we define good and bad, and in the sense of–what aspects of someone’s formative environment and social group influence how they will treat other people). 

and the conclusion that the show comes to over and over is both that it is possible to become a better person, and because it’s possible we owe it to each other to keep trying to be better– for all eternity if we must. 

there’s no end to it, and (should I make a prediction) no real “good place” where you’ve gotten to the finish line and “won” at being a good person. it’s an eternal commitment to other people. 

you create your own good place, because whether you’re in a good place or a bad place is defined by how people treat each other. when your community has collectively learned to respect, value, and help each other, you experience the peace and support that you might have once imagined in the abstract being awarded to the truly “good” 

[alex51324]

Sartre famously said that the Bad Place is other people.  The Good Place argues that the Good Place is, too.  

[aimmyarrowshigh]

That’s because Mike Schur is Jewish.

The underlying theme of all of his shows is essentially chesed (חֶסֶד), which basically translates to loving-kindness. But not just like, loving kindness? But a DUTY to loving-kindness, a duty to tikkun olam, or repairing the world through acts of genuine chesed.

Tahani was committed to good works, but not out of a commitment to loving-kindness. Not for others and, tbh, not for herself, since she spent her whole life feeling “less” than Kamilah. To love others as yourself, you have to love yourself.

Similarly, Chidi was desperately unkind and unloving to himself, and thus denied the *whole world* loving-kindness. TGP shows this in the way Chidi’s thought- and behavior patterns that hurt him throughout his life were also inherently harming the people around him who loved him.

Eleanor purposely acted against loving-kindness, to the point where seeing others engaged in it made her angry.

Jason, honestly, had a very kind and loving soul, but his actions caused harm to others (whether that was his intention or not, and honestly it seems like he mostly just didn’t understand the impact of his choices a lot of the time… but harm is harm).

“You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it,” “learn to do good,” etc. I’m not saying that TGP ~is Jewish, because it’s not, but I AM saying that you can see Schur’s ethical framework in his art, and trying to look at any of his shows through a Christian lens is going to skew them.

Also the whole thing where there’s not really a heaven nor a hell, and that it seems like in The Good Place’s eschatology, actions are ultimately judged solely by the impact they have on others – which I feel like was also one of the main themes of Parks & Rec, and is wrestled with in B99. The highest ethical order is chesed.

[thesixthstar]

Ok now I’m struck by the fact that there’s 4 main humans in this show and for some reason my brain immediately went to the 4 children from the Passover Seder and it fits so well?

Like obvs Chidi seems the choice for the wise and Eleanor fits the wicked, and it’s tempting to say Jason is the ignorant child, but then I realized he spent much of S1 in silence and is the child who cannot ask. Which leaves Tahani as the ignorant child which imo fits as well.

[turnabout]

My kingdom for The Good Place Haggadah. 

[adventureswithcarbs]

Omg - we need to make this happen

[maralie-deactivated20211111]

maralie, sorry for this incredibly weird question, but do you have any advice on living an Elegant and Spiritual Life? i try and read and "better myself" as much as possible but i always feel like i'm getting messed up by our Awful Modern Culture and all that

oh this is by no means a weird question, it’s just kind of broad so it’s hard for me to tell exactly how you’re being corrupted to help save you lmao

but! i will recommend to you first the thing i recommend to everyone: evensong. even if you are not anglican; even, honestly, if you aren’t a christian. go as often as it is available to you. i go three or four times a week (the wonders of new york city) and i really think i would lose my mind without it. other religious services are good too, but evensong is at once the most beautiful and the least participatory of anything i’ve ever been to, and that combination means you can all but phase out of existence while it’s going on around you. it is utter peace. there is of course also something to be said for praying the daily office, which adds rhythm and discipline to your life, if you’re inclined to try.

outside of that… do nice things. memorize poetry and recite it. memorize anything, actually, scripture or a passage of a favorite novel or whatever you want. the comfort of letting familiar words flow out of you is really wonderful. take up a cute and productive hobby like embroidery or baking or gardening or journaling, something that will keep you physically busy and produce a result you can sit back and admire. write letters to people. ask your friends if they want letters and just absolutely go ham on pretty stationery, stamps, seals, ink, whatever you can come up with. read muriel spark. learn how to be alone and dignified in public, like pick a coffee shop or bar or something to be Your Local and just go sit there at the same table all the time and do your work and become a fixture. go to museums and the opera. take a class in something, like even if you just want to sign up for idk like a roman history class on fucking coursera or something, come up with some kind of niche thing to be really knowledgeable about that other people will find fascinating. poison your husband and go about in glamorous mourning garb. wait what? did i say that last one out loud? oh dear

also a couple years ago i read the original 1922 edition of emily post’s etiquette cover to cover — i’m pretty sure it’s free online bc it’s in the public domain so you could just look it up now — and i tried to incorporate as many of its principles as possible into my daily life. some of it doesn’t apply at all anymore and other parts are only tangentially related to any situations you would encounter in 2018 but the general way of thinking behind it is… when people think of emily post they tend to think of like, snooty manners, but what she actually teaches is a level of grace and consideration toward other people that will make you absolutely magnetic if you can work it into the way you live now. i hope this helped somewhat!

[artist-hopper]

New York Office, Edward Hopper

Medium: oil,canvas

https://www.wikiart.org/en/edward-hopper/new-york-office

[allgarbo]

Greta Garbo signed letter to Sydney Guilaroff “…I can speak to no one.” (1964) x

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

learning to let go and learning to relax means just freaking sticking those stickers on something. stop worrying if it’s the right place. burn that nice candle you’ve had for a year. it doesn’t need a special occasion. I’m gonna use those fancy soaps I’ve been collecting in a drawer even though they look so pretty and it means I’ll use them up. everything is temporary so just enjoy the littlest pleasures you can possibly have we all need to just let go and enjoy things while they last. the sticker’s gonna look fine on your water bottle I promise

[roxilalonde-deactivated20251105]

showing up late to a meeting with an iced drink is a power move. like with hot drinks the cup is opaque and people cant tell the temperature so they dont know how long ago you got it. maybe its hours old. maybe you just got caught in traffic. who can say. but iced drinks. its clear. they can see the ice. they can see if its still frozen. they look you in the eye and they know you were standing in line fifteen minutes ago and made the conscious, deliberate decision to get a mocha frap instead of being on time. and then you made ANOTHER conscious, deliberate decision to bring it into the meeting with you, informing everyone in attendance that on your list of priorities, each and every one of them ranks firmly below one (1) mocha frappuchino.

[midsummernight98]

good types of alone time:

“decadence”

rewatch pride & prejudice (2005 or 1995, your pick)

take a long shower & shave legs

stare at face in mirror for a long time, reflect on changes that have occured in past year

sara bareilles cd on repeat

“deep mystery”

lying on the floor listening to music you liked fifteen years ago

watch dust motes travel across the room in the late afternoon haze

what would be different about my life if i had been a cheerleader in high school?

what was the title of that book you read in the fourth grade?  you only remember the main character’s name and nothing about the plot.  you spend the next three hours googling and then you drop $60 for a first edition on ebay

cup of tea, then another

are you there god?

“efficiency”

take out five boxes of paperwork from the closet and spend the next three hours making small piles around your body on the floor

write first chapter of novel

cover wall in post it notes

lists lists lists

highlight everything

now’s a good time to start that bullet journal

must empty email inbox

plan out next five years of life down to the month, week, day

“shake it up”

blast nsync while scrubbing out microwave

rearrange living room four different ways

today’s a good day to repaint your bedroom

let’s research and plan a trip to san francisco

develop new fashion style, must throw away all items of clothes that don’t work with it

“rain day”

light candle, open windows, put on sweater

reread old favorite book

pet a cat

listen to jewel cd

[howglorygoes]

Where you are, this is no longer IHOP Such a restaurant, nobody knows it! Not a brunch, not an egg, not a pancake This is now an IHOB, with a “B”

[beyourownboyfriend-deactivated2]

give yourself a little gift today. mute your ex’s insta stories. hide your stories from them too. free yourself from comparison, free yourself from performative output. you’ll feel better almost immediately. you’re none of their business, and it’s none of your business knowing.

[the-goldengirls]

[someauthorgirl]

Whatever or whomever they saw and judged, I agree. I never need to know the specifics.

[marcjfranklinphoto]

Ready. Set. Go!

On Broadway, when a production is just about to open, the press schedule can be filled to the brim with events which means, when I have a feature shoot, sometimes I have as little as 10 minutes for a photoshoot. And that was this case for my session with the Band’s Visits Katrina Lenk. I was given a 10 minute window in the middle of show’s press junket, shooting after interviews were concluded but just before the cast took the stage to perform a sneak peek at the musical. Luckily, we were in the Strand’s Rare Books Room so the show’s star and I found a cozy corner away from the hustle and bustle of the event to create this timeless photo set! Like, being shot out of a cannon, this session had us continuously moving, proving you can strike gold in 10 minutes!

(Shot for Playbill, October 2017)

[adventureswithcarbs]

Katrina Lenk!!! In the room where I am gonna get married!!!!