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Laptop nonfiction

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Life and death at Balthazar

Boom and Echo

Boom and echo

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Songs Ojai

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Making babies

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The Popular Alternative

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Dirt

prune-bergamot (1)

How “the prince of citrus” went from bespoke to big-box.

on bergamot’s centuries-long ascent from exotic and weird-looking fruit to everyday fragrance.

Bergamot for All

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Let it linger. 

on “sillage” as the defining brand attribute of our times. 

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Brand sillage

perfume diary

A week of working at a niche perfume shop in the Pacific Northwest.

on the good, bad and smelly parts of working at the oldest niche perfume house in Portland, Oregon.

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Diary of a fragrance diplomat

Desiring at AWP.

reports from the annual Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference.

AWP (1)

Run, algo, run

80s cover

Power vs. freedom 

on turning away from microtrends and towards a lost era. 

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Are the 80s back?

diego cover

Man out of time.

on Diego Rivera’s Anahuacalli, a volcanic museum torn between the past and the future.

Anahuacalli

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With parallels to nonprofit movie theater initiatives.

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Barnes & Noble’s indie rebrand

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Starting a magazine is an act of optimism. 

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The Fence across the pond

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