I’ve said it before on the app and I’ll say it again: I experience the sun as pressure. It’s been so many damned years since I was the kid who ached (literally and figuratively) when thrown into the girl eat girl world of summer camp, who wept if she had to sit in a wet bathing suit or had sticky popsicle on her hands, who fought tooth and nail to be allowed to stay indoors and read as her sole summer activity but was told that healthy people do healthy things. I still remember the notebook I brought to day camp with me- it had a drowning Ophelia on the cover, which seemed extremely poetic to me as I avoided the lake and filled it with bad poetry. Some people realize with delight once they’re out of their childhood home that they can eat dessert before dinner, that they can dance in the nude or stay up until 5am, whatever forbidden pleasure alluded them under parental rule. For me, it’s that my summer fun can be stealing away with a book, even (or especially) when the world says it’s time to frolic. The luck and luxury of having a job where I write, only to use so many of my non working hours to read, is one I’ll never get over. Reading and writing- they go together like peanut butter and jelly, like dogs and duvets, like Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Here are some of my summer 2024 reads- all thought provoking, page turning, divinely personal- and all my favorite kind, the ones that make me want to write. Wishing you a summer of happy reading and- if the outdoors is your thang- bathing suits that dry quickly in the sun ☀️ 👙 📕 Miss May Does Not Exist by @carriecourogen Everything Nothing Someone by @firsteditionalice Consent by Jill Ciment Widow Basquiat by @jenniferclementauthor You Get What You Pay For by @morganapple0 Nothing Natural by Jenny Diski No Judgement by @lawandoyler Stash by @lauracathcartrobbins Love Junkie by Robert Plunket
Barbara Gladstone was- will always be- an icon and an iconoclast. She went from house wife to force of nature who built the modern art world. Her taste, her wit and her passion were unmatched. I feel so lucky for the time we spent together, from Greece to Norway, Berlin to Chelsea, Paris to Connecticut. She told me never to go out without sunscreen but also to “never refer to a woman as well-preserved.” She was always honest about an outfit. She had the most discerning eye- it set her apart- but most deeply she understood artists. I am especially grateful for the decades over which she supported my father’s work, both in her galleries and across the world. It made my education (and therefore my life) possible, and I am one of hundreds of people for whom that’s true. I am equally grateful for the delight she took in my @arnoldfriend6. How deeply she recognized her genius. And how deeply we recognize Barbara’s. There will never be another.
Happy Father’s Day to the only straight man who has ever found me consistently delightful. You didn’t just give me my life- you also saved it. Thank you for letting me put wigs on you and call you in the middle of the night. You’re the funniest, most fucked up yet wise genius who has ever graced the streets of New York and the fields of Connecticut. You’re also a really good husband to an iconic woman, without ego and with gusto, and you let me know that was possible. So yeah, you’re the man. Can’t wait to be home and walk ten feet from my steps to yours/have you call me from across the way to tell me I have too many lamps on. I love you.
Happy Father’s Day to the only straight man who has ever found me consistently delightful. You didn’t just give me my life- you also saved it. Thank you for letting me put wigs on you and call you in the middle of the night. You’re the funniest, most fucked up yet wise genius who has ever graced the streets of New York and the fields of Connecticut. You’re also a really good husband to an iconic woman, without ego and with gusto, and you let me know that was possible. So yeah, you’re the man. Can’t wait to be home and walk ten feet from my steps to yours/have you call me from across the way to tell me I have too many lamps on. I love you.
Happy Father’s Day to the only straight man who has ever found me consistently delightful. You didn’t just give me my life- you also saved it. Thank you for letting me put wigs on you and call you in the middle of the night. You’re the funniest, most fucked up yet wise genius who has ever graced the streets of New York and the fields of Connecticut. You’re also a really good husband to an iconic woman, without ego and with gusto, and you let me know that was possible. So yeah, you’re the man. Can’t wait to be home and walk ten feet from my steps to yours/have you call me from across the way to tell me I have too many lamps on. I love you.
Happy Father’s Day to the only straight man who has ever found me consistently delightful. You didn’t just give me my life- you also saved it. Thank you for letting me put wigs on you and call you in the middle of the night. You’re the funniest, most fucked up yet wise genius who has ever graced the streets of New York and the fields of Connecticut. You’re also a really good husband to an iconic woman, without ego and with gusto, and you let me know that was possible. So yeah, you’re the man. Can’t wait to be home and walk ten feet from my steps to yours/have you call me from across the way to tell me I have too many lamps on. I love you.
Happy Father’s Day to the only straight man who has ever found me consistently delightful. You didn’t just give me my life- you also saved it. Thank you for letting me put wigs on you and call you in the middle of the night. You’re the funniest, most fucked up yet wise genius who has ever graced the streets of New York and the fields of Connecticut. You’re also a really good husband to an iconic woman, without ego and with gusto, and you let me know that was possible. So yeah, you’re the man. Can’t wait to be home and walk ten feet from my steps to yours/have you call me from across the way to tell me I have too many lamps on. I love you.
Happy Father’s Day to the only straight man who has ever found me consistently delightful. You didn’t just give me my life- you also saved it. Thank you for letting me put wigs on you and call you in the middle of the night. You’re the funniest, most fucked up yet wise genius who has ever graced the streets of New York and the fields of Connecticut. You’re also a really good husband to an iconic woman, without ego and with gusto, and you let me know that was possible. So yeah, you’re the man. Can’t wait to be home and walk ten feet from my steps to yours/have you call me from across the way to tell me I have too many lamps on. I love you.
Happy Father’s Day to the only straight man who has ever found me consistently delightful. You didn’t just give me my life- you also saved it. Thank you for letting me put wigs on you and call you in the middle of the night. You’re the funniest, most fucked up yet wise genius who has ever graced the streets of New York and the fields of Connecticut. You’re also a really good husband to an iconic woman, without ego and with gusto, and you let me know that was possible. So yeah, you’re the man. Can’t wait to be home and walk ten feet from my steps to yours/have you call me from across the way to tell me I have too many lamps on. I love you.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
Dziękuję, Poland. You showed us such a beautiful time- I could live on Pierogi and Kieslowski films alone. Thank you to @michaelpcohen, my dream of a producing partner, for always taking the literal and figurative journey with me, and to our team at @goodthinggoingprods. Thank you to @stephenfryactually- one must never meet their heroes unless they are this gorgeous man. I love you, Pa. Thank you to our cast and crew, so devoted even as our fingers fumbled from cold. Kocham cie. Thank you to @lilybrettauthor, a gentle but ferocious mind, whose story feels like it is all of ours- no matter where we come from, our religion or race or history, we want to know a home and to belong. And thank you to @juliavonheinz for asking me to be your Ruthie. You showed up every morning ready to push deeper. Filmmaking is a great adventure. And sometimes, just sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you see a man dressed as a Polish dumpling. Treasure, in theaters today @filmnationent @bleeckerstfilms Bring your parents, grandparents, great aunts- and then ask them the questions you’ve never quite gotten the answer to.
My grandfather Samuel Ira Simmons was the self-professed “funniest orthodontist who ever lived.” (Not that high a bar?) He loved prop humor, pranks and driving us all crazy by singing Old Man River and conducting the radio with a baton. When he was in his 70s and barely retired he even started going on auditions (he ended up in an MTV commercial.) And at the end of his life, with Alzheimer’s ravaging his mind and body, he still could never resist a joke- I once asked my grandma what her golf handicap was, and from his armchair he shouted “me!” My grandma Dorothy (Dottie) and great grandma Mildred (Mimi) were elegant. I never saw them without lipstick. They loved belonging- to clubs, to bridge games, at department stores. As a kid, I resented that attitude. It felt basic, old fashioned and I saw how it constricted and hurt my mother and aunts, who raised their daughters differently. It took me a long time to understand something so simple- that belonging is what you seek when you feel you don’t belong. Both Sam and Dottie came from Eastern European Jewish families. Simmons is not our original last name. It’s been changed many times. They spent their lives belonging in order to avoid, belonging in order to forget. It wasn’t until my time on #FindingYourRoots that I understood their stories. They never told us- they only told us to dress and speak nicely, to make people laugh. A lot of that I hold so close, but not the part about hiding. I wanted us at @goodthinggoingprods to make TREASURE because it made me feel them in the room again. I got to ask questions that I was too young to ask, feel feelings I’d never been allowed to feel. I love that art can bring people who are gone back to us, start conversations with people who aren’t even there. This one is for Sam, for Dorothy, for Mildred- and for my great great grandmother Regina, who got on a boat alone at fifteen- leaving behind 9 siblings she never saw again, most of whom were killed before they could leave Poland- and had a daughter who had a daughter who had a daughter whose daughter is me. I went back and visited for you. And I hope I’m using this one beautiful shot you gave me. Thank you.
My grandfather Samuel Ira Simmons was the self-professed “funniest orthodontist who ever lived.” (Not that high a bar?) He loved prop humor, pranks and driving us all crazy by singing Old Man River and conducting the radio with a baton. When he was in his 70s and barely retired he even started going on auditions (he ended up in an MTV commercial.) And at the end of his life, with Alzheimer’s ravaging his mind and body, he still could never resist a joke- I once asked my grandma what her golf handicap was, and from his armchair he shouted “me!” My grandma Dorothy (Dottie) and great grandma Mildred (Mimi) were elegant. I never saw them without lipstick. They loved belonging- to clubs, to bridge games, at department stores. As a kid, I resented that attitude. It felt basic, old fashioned and I saw how it constricted and hurt my mother and aunts, who raised their daughters differently. It took me a long time to understand something so simple- that belonging is what you seek when you feel you don’t belong. Both Sam and Dottie came from Eastern European Jewish families. Simmons is not our original last name. It’s been changed many times. They spent their lives belonging in order to avoid, belonging in order to forget. It wasn’t until my time on #FindingYourRoots that I understood their stories. They never told us- they only told us to dress and speak nicely, to make people laugh. A lot of that I hold so close, but not the part about hiding. I wanted us at @goodthinggoingprods to make TREASURE because it made me feel them in the room again. I got to ask questions that I was too young to ask, feel feelings I’d never been allowed to feel. I love that art can bring people who are gone back to us, start conversations with people who aren’t even there. This one is for Sam, for Dorothy, for Mildred- and for my great great grandmother Regina, who got on a boat alone at fifteen- leaving behind 9 siblings she never saw again, most of whom were killed before they could leave Poland- and had a daughter who had a daughter who had a daughter whose daughter is me. I went back and visited for you. And I hope I’m using this one beautiful shot you gave me. Thank you.
My grandfather Samuel Ira Simmons was the self-professed “funniest orthodontist who ever lived.” (Not that high a bar?) He loved prop humor, pranks and driving us all crazy by singing Old Man River and conducting the radio with a baton. When he was in his 70s and barely retired he even started going on auditions (he ended up in an MTV commercial.) And at the end of his life, with Alzheimer’s ravaging his mind and body, he still could never resist a joke- I once asked my grandma what her golf handicap was, and from his armchair he shouted “me!” My grandma Dorothy (Dottie) and great grandma Mildred (Mimi) were elegant. I never saw them without lipstick. They loved belonging- to clubs, to bridge games, at department stores. As a kid, I resented that attitude. It felt basic, old fashioned and I saw how it constricted and hurt my mother and aunts, who raised their daughters differently. It took me a long time to understand something so simple- that belonging is what you seek when you feel you don’t belong. Both Sam and Dottie came from Eastern European Jewish families. Simmons is not our original last name. It’s been changed many times. They spent their lives belonging in order to avoid, belonging in order to forget. It wasn’t until my time on #FindingYourRoots that I understood their stories. They never told us- they only told us to dress and speak nicely, to make people laugh. A lot of that I hold so close, but not the part about hiding. I wanted us at @goodthinggoingprods to make TREASURE because it made me feel them in the room again. I got to ask questions that I was too young to ask, feel feelings I’d never been allowed to feel. I love that art can bring people who are gone back to us, start conversations with people who aren’t even there. This one is for Sam, for Dorothy, for Mildred- and for my great great grandmother Regina, who got on a boat alone at fifteen- leaving behind 9 siblings she never saw again, most of whom were killed before they could leave Poland- and had a daughter who had a daughter who had a daughter whose daughter is me. I went back and visited for you. And I hope I’m using this one beautiful shot you gave me. Thank you.
Turns out home is where the heart AND the premiere is- so sad to miss Treasure at @tribeca Film Festival, but will never miss a chance to turn out for this beautiful film we worked so hard to make. Blessed to grace my at-home premiere with @simonerocha_ realness- styled by my @infinitealterity @goodthinggoingprods @therealstephenfry @juliavonheinz living room paparazzi c/o @miablakee time travel vid by @starquality.studio
The youths say Wednesday, but I’m old enough to know Vampira did it first… My beloved @16arlington for ghouls night out … fresh armor care of @infinitealterity 🦇 ☠️ 🫁🖤
