Hello! this week has been a little all-over-the-place. I’ve felt a bit disconnected from my accounts, and whenever that happens, I feel like a boat without a tether. I’m an emotional queen and DEEPLY attached to my community, so whenever I can’t give you the proper time, I feel discombobulated. And a little lost.
I know it’s like this with most jobs, but there are always things behind the scenes that take our attention, and while those demands are technically “work,” they don’t feel like work enough to me, because they aren’t linked to in-real-time production. I’m so used to creating things that receive feedback in the NOW, that it’s very hard for me to work on things that won’t be seen until the future.
This got me thinking about a wonderful episode of the podcast Vibe Check (you know I’m a fan, they’re my girls), where the hosts discussed the stagnation of culture in the 2000’s. They were discussing it on a far deeper level - talking about how fashion seems to have become heavily referential, how music and movies have circulated around the same stars, etc., but a key takeaway I took was from Saeed Jones when he said “culture requires privacy or isolation to germinate” (Timestamp: 36:04). I highly recommend you listen, because my thoughts are stemming from his, but not an exact repetition. Where he is focusing on the development of culture, I began to think of it under the umbrella of creativity.
I said this in a previous newsletter, but we are working and consuming at a breakneck speed. We exist in an environment where everything can be published nearly immediately, and anything can be discovered just as quickly. Not even 20 years ago, recipes were just beginning to be posted on blog sites. Before then, they had to go through layers of editors, copywriters, printers etc. to even get seen. Because of where technology was, creative material simply needed more people to make it. There were barriers to visibility, which yes, is not good, but it also forced creatives to sit with their work longer. And that permission to let something ~germinate~ can be a powerful thing.
And not to wax romantic about the “old” days, but it almost feels like the privacy and isolation to create great work has been traded for rewarding whoever can create output the fastest. And I wonder how much better our creativity would be if it wasn’t on a treadmill, or better yet, if there was the allowance and grace to create something in private. To let it simmer on low. So when I see there is a nostalgia boom in our creative work, I think it’s because we are nostalgic about time. About living when things were slower simply because they had to be.
Now, the internet is not bad. Obviously, it’s what has given me my job! But it has created 1) immediate feedback loops 2) irreverent stimulation 3) a mass production of consumable work at an unfathomable speed 4) a shorter trend cycle.
To be blunt, it feels like we’re tapping a well, and getting the water we need, yet the well goes much, much deeper than what we are sourcing. I don’t think we’re getting dumber. I just think we’re getting faster, and a little less careful. And I think that may be the issue…and I wonder what A Moveable Feast would have been like if it was written in the age of Instagram.
Even now, I wish I could sit on this newsletter for another week. But I guess that’s why this is just food for thought.
But wait, this IS a food newsletter!
The weekly round-up is a banger this week! When I’m not posting philosophy essays, I’m at the restaurant:
Any-Vegetable Cilantro Soup - this started as a soup I made just for me, then I tested it for all of you, and the formula turned into something really special. It’s Thai-inspired with Indian influence, and works with nearly any vegetables you have around. Plus, vegan!
Pink Salad with Agrodolce Beets - A salad that only gets pinker with time! The acidic agrodolce dressing takes the cabbage, radish and red onion and lets them be what they want to be: Barbie-level hot pink.
IMPULSE COOKIES - I was sad last night, so I baked. And this year is the year of the bread flour cookie. It makes it chewier, denser, crisper - all the good things. Just trust me.
The written and printable PDF is for my paid subscribers, and our Q&A call (and some questions for long-form content!) will be in the audio clip as well! But thank you to everyone who subscribes at any level. I appreciate your consistent support of my recipes and my work.
Xoxo,
Slower_Snacks
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