“Yup, Still No Pumpkin!”—the sign outside the Philz Coffee on Castro Street seemed to personally antagonize me. Not that I was going to order a “pumpkin spice latte” but I do enjoy the seasonal re-emergence of pumpkin spice, as, like, festive ambience, and it feels cruel to enthusiastically taunt withholding it. Nevertheless, that Philz is great because they open at 5:30am, as any respectable coffee shop should, rather than lazily at 8am like the rest of the cafes in the neighborhood catering to tech people who work from home.
As soon as I landed back in NYC last week there was another triumphant installment of Candystore’s performance art variety show S.L.O.P. at Parkside Lounge with special guest Bett Williams, who stayed with us for her birthday weekend…heaven on earth. Don’t miss the next very special iteration of S.L.O.P on December 3rd!
Amused by my complaint about the Philz sign, yesterday morning Candystore revealed a can of “Naturally Flavored Pumpkin Spice Whipped Dairy Topping”, administering pale orange swirls on top of our morning coffees. She’s always giving shows: #FallIntoFall
All that is to say that I’m pleased to announce that a new episode of “Private Life” is out—“Elaine Blair on Lena Dunham, Sex and Television”—where we discuss her 2012 NYRB essay on the show Girls (which coincidentally just announced a reboot), as well as sitcoms, the anti-porn feminist Andrea Dworkin, the Me Too movement and more.
Next week’s episode will be a reading of Blair’s “The Loves of Lena Dunham” (2012) by the actor Ruby McCollister.
In case you’ve been as scattered as I have (what with all the traveling and pumpkin spicing) here is a little recap of links to the second season of “Private Life” so far:
S2 E01: “Lucy Sante on Pauline Kael, Film Criticism, and Pop Culture”
S2 E02: “Holland Taylor reads ‘The Perils of Pauline’ by Renata Adler”
S2 E03: “Edwin Frank on Love and Death in the American Novel”
S2 E04: “Rachel Kushner reads from Love and Death in the American Novel”
Enjoy!