Guest Algorithm-Free Reco List, No. 1
Gabriela Riccardi loves secondhand straw goods, Carole King, and other delights
Hello!
Welcome to the first edition of ~*GUEST*~ Algorithm-Free Reco Lists!
I’m thrilled to introduce you to a bunch of brilliant people and the things they can’t shut up about. From here on out, I’ll be doing one guest edition per month. If you’d like to write one, please feel free to respond to this newsletter (or email me directly).
My first guest is , a woman of impeccable taste and many talents!
Gabriela is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, New York. She also writes , a weekly newsletter filled with delicious little things to talk about at parties.
Here are Gabriela’s recos—straight from her:
Finding someone to go in on the Mona Lisa’s Florentine villa with me
It was purchased by her in-laws in 1498, features fourteen bedrooms and a lemon house, and went up for sale on the Tuscan market this year. So: which bank will sponsor me on this purchase? Do I have any outrageously wealthy potential patrons out there? Trust fund kids lurking among my social circles? Early Bitcoin investors who are friends of friends of friends? If we pull together an offer, I’ll let you have first dibs on the olive oil mill.
Weird vintage wicker on eBay
I’ve only recently gotten into vintage-hunting on eBay, and boy, is it a treasure trove for funky old stuff someone scooped out of the closet of their most eccentric great aunt. My most recent obsession involves secondhand straw goods, like this 1950s vineyard bag woven with purple grapes, or this truly spectacular Italian sun hat draped in fishnet-y crochet. But I can’t buy it all — or really any of it, I share a tiny New York apartment with merely TWO CLOSETS! — so I occasionally share my best finds with friends.
And relatedly, the Gem app
I evangelize this one to anybody who will listen. Gem lets you search a bunch of vintage and resale platforms at once — including Poshmark, eBay, Etsy, Depop, Mercari, and Grailed — so you can megashop clothes secondhand. I’ve spent the last few years trying to buy clothes more sustainably, and this thing makes circular fashion feel like a breeze. Lately I’ve been using it to save vintage flight jackets for my boyfriend.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
I’m trying to read fifty books this year, and this one touched me like none of the others have: lyrical, vigorous, brimming with (literal) poetry and heart. I also loved this podcast interview where Akbar and his good friend, Pulitzer Award-nominated novelist Tommy Orange, talk about the power of cheering on your friends’ creative work.
The Brian Lehrer Show
When was the last time you listened to your local call-in radio program? I listen to mine every day because Brian is a New York institution and also the love of my life (platonic). Listening to people from all over my city phone in to talk their takes on our local issues makes me feel connected to my community in a way nothing else really does.
Carole King on vinyl
Are you in a bad mood? Depleted by the horrors of late-stage colonial-capitalism and the pandemonic state of the world at large? Sad! Allow me to reintroduce you to Ms. King, writer of songs that create the auditory equivalent of chamomile tea and maybe half a benzodiazepine. When you start spiraling about The State of Things, I really recommend you flip on Tapestry, in its vinyl format if possible, and let Carole soothe you as the earth moves under her (our) feet.
Big thank you to Gabriela for piloting this new series!
If you too were influenced, perhaps subscribe to her newsletter, which is my number one source for remembering I can put out a packaged snack, have two friends over, and call it a party.
This newsletter brought to you by:
The Who Weekly? podcast, which I have not listened to in 5+ years. And yet! Connections to people like Gabriela (and a solid hunk of my other internet/IRL friends) would not exist without it.
Strawberries from Trader Joe’s that actually taste good and not like already molding wet cardboard.
Generally and consistently being scared and doing the thing(s) anyway.
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😤 PUBLIC RADIO SUPREMACY 😤
this was so fun to do! thanks for having me!