Read, Listen, Eat (+ Trois Familia!)

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My holiday party is Saturday night and I've done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I have about 30+ peeps coming over, so prepping my appetizers and pie and cookie bar, plus brewing (?) my mulled wine and whisky cider is going to keep me up all Friday and I am so RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED about it, I might keel over. Thank god for Jaimie and my mom who have offered their assistance, because you know Imma be sipping on some champs and listening to the holiday music and totally forget about the cookies in the oven.

In other news, I just accepted a position with Fork Monkey for a freelance writing gig. So now I get to be compensated for eating and drinking and telling people about it. (Fork Monkey curates unique, high-quality culinary experiences you’d be hard-pressed to uncover anywhere else: underground supper clubs, private dinner parties and pop-ups that will leave you with a lasting impression of “wow”.) My first event is with the Whaling Club and their cocktail making class on Saturday, so I'll definitely have a piece out soon and I'm sure you're all waiting with bated breath.

And for your brief Read, Listen, Eat this week:

READ:

1. The Story Behind David Bowie's New Album (being released in Jan. 2016) - "We're were listening to a lot of Kendrick Lamar."

2. Kind of a meta rec, but picking up some of the recommendations from the Guardian's Best Books of 2015, especially Julian Barnes. He wrote "The Sense of an Ending" which was one of my favorites this year.

3. Jaimie turned me onto Susan Miller's Astrology Zone and well, I'm kind of obsessed.

4. Also just read this piece of Circular Dating from Mind Body Green, and roughly it's what I do, though both Jacy and I took issue of the references to "making someone fall in love with you." LBR, I don't need to make anyone fall in love with me... they already are. *Insert obnoxious hair flip.* (Hopefully, you picked up on my oozing sarcasm).

LISTEN:

1. Obsessed with the Chainsmokers recently - great for the overly melodramatic, wannabe cigarette smoking, Parisian-esque ingenue. 

2. Bob Dylan - I'm back on that wagon again. He needs no link, you should have him on your playlist already.

3. Everything by Denitia and Sene, more specifically Divided. So hot.

EAT:

Trois Familia - the newest venture form Chef Ludo in Silverlake in the old Alegria spot. Wait was about 40 mins. Sort of beachy, communal chic atmosphere with a self-proclaimed Mexican-French theme. The issue is that here, as well as Jon and Vinnys, menu items are hit and miss. The Chicken Milenesa I would die for, with the pickled radishes and such. However, the nachos, smothered in watery béchamel sauce, and sort of bland broccoli(!), and three dots of chorizo jam for an extra five bucks. Definitely pass on that. Then we got the crepe for dessert, that had too much colour, too much fluff, and a tasteless caramel that should have passed as dulce de leche. Moral of the story, try it out. Pick the chicken and get Alfred Coffee before.

Alfred Coffee 

Meh nachos

Chicken Milenesa - Must Get

Awful crepe

Quick Friday Update - Ten Things

This will be quickie. (I know you're disappointed, but it'll have to do.) I suffered from some awful stomach bug/food poisoning thing this week - might have been karma, but probably bad thai. Lots of quasi-dramatic episodes requiring pulling over in traffic and vomiting into lavender scented dog poop bags. I can now say, after a lunch of beers and burgers, that I am back to fighting form. (Minus some residual heartburn).

The light at the end of this week? My bestest bestie, Lauren, is coming up tonight for homemade sorbet mimosas and dancinggggg with Carey, Evan, Mark and Brandon and anyone else who wants to see get down to 90s hiphop. #myfavorite.

I'm also seeing Aziz Ansari and Amy Schumer on Sunday with Jeff and maybe doing a Brazilian dance party tomorrow night with Grant.

In the meantime, things you should be reading/eating/doing/listening to:

1. Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me. [Stolen from my over eager FB status:] I want everyone I ever speak to again to read it and breathe it and love it as much as I have. It is simultaneously pure poetry and incisive and heart-breaking truth, tackling racism, family, and class lines. If there is only one book you read this year, please make it this book. It gave me incredible insight and inspiration.

2. Fools, Wild Child - my favorite folk artists back with a lil mo' modern stuff, but equally catchy and satisfying.
3. This video - I want to be a teacher like this and I want to be able to learn like this: Encouraging Students to Persist Through Challenges. (I may have teared up watching this.)
4. This house - I'm dead.

5. Pre-ordering the new Kinfolk Book. Kinfolk: Interiors for Slow Living.

6. Machiko got me a signed copy of Austin Kleon's Steal Like An Artist Journal. The journal asks you to take 10-15 minutes to go through creative exercises to keep you focused on your goal, while encouraging creativity and innovation. I've added to my daily writing exercises and it's been inspirational and a conversation started. For instance, I just did the "Ten things you want to learn exercise." I surprised myself with the fact that many of the things I want to learn, I've already been attempting. I just need a little extra push. PS have I said today how lucky I am to have Mach as a roomie?

7. Just signed up for the online Beginning Watercolor class through CreativeBug. Obviously I need some guidance - here's a portrait of Sophie I did a minute ago. As a friend said, "It looks like a giant mouse with eyebrows."

8.  From Buzzfeed, "19 Signs You're the Thirsty One in Your Group," to which my friends respond: "Amber, did you write this?" #noshame. Also, lol boys.

9. New podcast addiction: StartUp. Perfect for a nerd like me or someone wanting to start their own business or just wondering how the hell it happens.

10. Random music I'm playing on repeat: