the summer we didn't leave / I quit my job / borrowing vs buyingPrologueParis in August is a running joke and also completely correct: everyone leaves, the bakeries close in rotation, and the people who stay get the city at a scale it never otherwise offers, it's like a private tour of a well-known tourist attraction. This year we stayed in the area, purposedly — a proper staycation in our own neighbourhood, a break from work and some time to go all around town visiting different things, while still sleeping in our bed every night. I'm writing this as August ends, as my daughter is feeling the excitement of her little neighbors & friends coming back from their summer break one by one. On my side, I resigned from my job at the end of July and should finish by end of September. So this newsletter issue is a bit of everything: a slow holiday, a big decision, and some time to read/watch/listen to a lot of stuff :)
Monsieur et Madame, having a blast in a wedding reception at Rosa Bonheur in Buttes Chaumont. On the summer we didn't leaveNo trains, no airports, no packing a toddler's entire existence into a car. Same bed every night, tourist energy by day. The Baby™️ went to the Science Museum, where she spent an afternoon playing in a construction-site area in a hard hat, with one of her friends. We rented a car for 48 hours and drove out to a farm to run around , feed goats walking past her — which she found more compelling than anything else — and picking up fresh, locally-grown produce. We went down to Parc de Sceaux and spent an afternoon in the royal park.
Visiting the Parc de Sceaux
Having a blast petting free-roaming animals at Ferme de Gally And after seven years of walking past it and saying I should really try that place, we finally ordered from La Taverne de Zhao. It was excellent, obviously. There's a whole category of thing like this — the restaurant two streets away you'll get to eventually — and I'd like to close more of that loop before we're another eight years in.
Really felt like we deserved a chinese takeout dinner treat after the past 48h of adventures A guilty pleasure— the museum exhibition of the summer: Beyond The Streets, a street art retrospective at Villette ! I've been waiting for months and it was my favorite art(s) I've been exposed to this year!
The Shephard Fairey section of the exhibition. You might be familiar with his brand Obey, or his take on Andre The Giant or the Obama "Hope" from 2008. Three other small things making this summer better than it needed to be. 1. Shana and I bought a pair of Kodak CharmEra keychain cameras, deliberately, specifically to make something together that has nothing to do with our phones. The photos are bad in the exact way I wanted them to be. They live on my keyring now.
Our little summer toys!
On leaving a job I was good atI'll be leaving my job on September 30th and going back to my startup roots. I'll share the where and the what later this year. There was no dramatic breaking point, but accumulating frustrations that became harder and harder on one hand, and very good timing for a great opportunity on the other. It's been a good run (3 years from start to finish), but in looking back, while the role came at a point when my previous freelance activity was slowing down, I can recognize that I never truly felt integrated with the team, and I miss working with a smaller, more tight-knit team, as opposed to feeling like I've got one foot in and one foot in. When you plan to move from a company of 150 employees to one with a total headcount of 10, you know that everyone really does have an impact on company culture, and having deeply involved founders is always a great sign. More on the new gig as I prepare to start it later this October! On borrowing instead of buyingThe unexpected win of the summer is that I finally worked out our local public library network. One thing that helped is that the graphic novel selection is excellent and you can reserve ahead. I've read twenty-nine books this year against a goal of ten (obviously going back to graphic novels and audiobooks help to increase the total count a fair bit). I went through Kieron Gillen's whole DIE run in three weeks, all four volumes. Finished the last one about two weeks ago.
DIE, volume 04 — an great conclusion to an epic comic book series. And then the loop closed in a way I couldn't have planned: I borrowed In Waves by A. J. Dungo in July, loved it, returned it to the library — and three weeks later the animated adaptation turned up at our little local cinema down the road. An absolutely beautiful and touching film and possibly the best thing I've watched all summer so far. Four and a half stars from a book I paid nothing for but that will stay with me for a while.
Both the IN WAVES graphic novel and animated movie adaptation have been wonderfully raw and emotional works. Highly Recommend! On sportsThe World Cup is over and it did not go our way. France lost the semi to Spain, then lost the third-place game to England 6–4, a scoreline so unhinged you'd need to check it twice if you weren't watching it live! Spain beat Argentina in extra time. No third star. See you in 2030! 🏀 Back in the land of Paris Basketball, we finished first in the regular season for the second year running, made it all the way to the final, but lost to Monaco in a Game 5. The team is rebuilding slowly but one of our flagship new signing is Frank Ntilikina (aka The French Prince), formerly drafted by the New York Knicks, and who just won Euroleague with Olympiacos last season. I had already renewed my season ticket, but now I'm looking forward to October even more! And now that we're hitting the fall, the footy is back! ⚽ C'mon City! 🩵 Daghe Munegu! 🇲🇨 What I've been intoThe genuine surprise: Kacey Musgraves is one of my most-played artist of the last month by a wide margin. Middle of Nowhere. Twenty years of pop punk and this month has belonged to her pop-flavored country music. I don't have an explanation and I'm not looking for one. Balanced out by the best mail day of the year — the 15th-anniversary reissue of My Chemical Romance's Danger Days, which sent me straight back through The Black Parade and Three Cheers like it was 2006.
A few more chosen pieces:Al Pacino's memoir on audiobook, narrated by the man himself, which completely changes it. It also sent me back into his filmography — a Godfather double bill at the end of July, Scarface next, and I suspect this becomes a whole run. Shana and I started and then finished The Madison season 1 and it was a refreshing blast: This Is Us dropped into a Yellowstone world. Bring on season 2. Now I'm deep into a The Wire rewatch, midway through season 3, which is where it becomes the best show ever made. On the side, Shana and I finished the second season of Your Friends & Neighbors, and we are getting ready to start the final season of For All Mankind! Nolan's The Odyssey in a theatre — epic in a way almost nobody attempts any more. Not my favourite of his, but worth the seat. Whereas Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere got two stars from me, which stings given the Born to Run book currently on my nightstand. Next on the pile: Yesteryear, the tradwife-influencer satire everyone's been shouting about since spring. I'm generally allergic to a book hype train, but Shana read it with her book club and rated it highly, and that beats any list.
Leaving you with my favorite goofball! That's the summer coming to an end: a holiday we took without leaving, a job I'm leaving on purpose, and a library card doing more for me than most subscriptions. September is going to look very different, with a little one getting ready for school and a new chapter in my professional life. I'll tell you about it when I can. Thanks for reading. Reply if something resonates — I always read comments. 🤘🏼 — Tibz |