Observables #66

on coming home, Cos shirts and movies sans nostalgia

This SLIM FIT HEAVYWEIGHT LONG SLEEVED from Cos (it’s a mouthful—I know). When I visit a different city, usually I buy an item of clothing and then when I come home my kids say: “Is that new?” Which is something I would do with my own mother as a child when she came in the door with a shopping bag. I would narrow my gaze: "Is that new?” Time honoured. Davey specific. Not exactly judgment, but something. The “is that new?” tradition that every family can choose to incorporate. My Christmas gift to you.

The Worst Woman In The World.

Coming home from Europe always takes an extra hour. The benefit: so many movies. This time I watched three. One of which was, The Worst Woman In The World—a character study of one woman in Oslo over the course of 4 years. The opposite of a Hollywood movie, but somehow more hopeful in all its painful truth—conversations gone wrong, relationships severed, disappointing family. It’s kind of anti-nostalgic (the director Joachim Trier calls nostalgia “more of a sweet safety blanket that we need to be a bit wary of). I’m into it.

Violet on a drive to school. She is full of information from her beloved YouTube shorts.

Red is a powerful colour you know. Fast food restaurants use it to make you stop and buy their food.

Hm.

Mozart’s first name was Wolfgang. He was composing songs when he was 5.

Wow….

Then there’s something about laundry…

How many times do you do laundry in a week?

Um…once I say.

Although, the answer is more like when I have to. Is she seeing a solution for the family??

Imagine if you did it every day? Then there would never be any laundry.

Smart.

It’s so fucking smart it makes me weepy. The zeal for laundry and getting things right. All organized. What can I do for you, Violet, so you don’t get weighed down by your own soul? That’s what I want to ask her as I drive away. To which she would respond with an eyeroll and, “You think now’s a good time for that, Mommy?”