You asked me to do more of these, and I listened!

Many of you are ridiculously talented, and nothing makes me happier than when you share your work with me. One of my subscribers, Binnie Klein, is multi-talented and looks fabulous in her many hats.

When she sent me her album months before it came out, I listened to it immediately and could not stop.

In These Trees and Tartie is a collaboration between two women over three decades and 10,415 miles apart.

They came together when younger Australian singer/songwriter Tartie sent some of her tracks to writer and U.S. alternative radio show producer Binnie Klein.

Tartie’s song, "Winter's Girl," so captivated Binnie that she sent Tartie a poem she had just written in a wild leap of faith.

Could it become a song?

“I’ll give it a go” was Tartie’s response, and she began what was to become a multi-year remote collaboration (they have yet to meet in person).

The results of that first effort were magical, and "Orchard" (link to official video, with over 400k views) was released as their first single.

More songs followed, with lyrics, melodies and demos sent back and forth via emails and Zoom.

The 10-song album “The Quiver” is the result.

If that wasn’t enough, they made a beautiful Flipbook for the album!

Ralph Beaubrun is a French musician, dancer and choreographer. This song came to my attention when I saw a dance I wanted to learn (see below). When I went to find it, I discovered that the song was the dance teacher’s and he’d choreographed the dance for his classes in France!

The song is called La Madame.

This is a small segment of the dance.

4 years on, and Anisha Thai is still my favorite dancer, and her version of the viral Jerusalema Dance Challenge is still, hands down, the best.

I vowed to learn this dance in a year. That was in 2020.

Whoops.

My friend Leigh Newmann told me about Susie Boyt’s Loved and Missed at a dinner party in March. She said she’d been savoring it, reading it slowly, a few sentences at a time, because the language was so stunning. I was sold without even knowing the story.

That recommendation, out of many throughout knowing Leigh for 20 years, solidified her role in my life as a literary taste-maker.

This book, Susie Boyt’s eighth novel, and her first published in America—an absolute shocker—is an exquisite, sonorous glory. It’s the sort of book you read multiple times: first, to float within the language, second, for a story, and third, for the vast richness of both.

It’s about parenting and care, mothers and daughters, aging, and coping when our lives derail in ways we never imagined.

I think this book is an absolute classic. Fun fact: Susie Boyt is Sigmund Freud’s great-granddaughter (Lucien Freud’s daughter).

A very different book I love and will write about eventually is A Work of Art by Adam Moss.

If you’ve ever wanted to take a guided tour inside the artist’s head with the artist leading the way, this is your book.

Moss traces the evolution of transcendent novels, paintings, jokes, movies, songs, and more. Weaving conversations with some of the most accomplished artists of our time and the journal entries, napkin doodles, and sketches that were their tools, Moss breaks down the work, the tortuous paths and artistic decisions that led to great art. From first glimmers to second thoughts, roads not taken, crises, breakthroughs, on to one triumphant finish after another.

Featuring: Kara Walker, Tony Kushner, Roz Chast, Michael Cunningham, Sofia Coppola, Stephen Sondheim, Louise Glück, Nico Muhly, Thomas Bartlett, Twyla Tharp, Barbara Kruger, Marie Howe, George Saunders, Suzan-Lori Parks, and so many more.

Josh Korda and Kathy Cherry have been running Dharma Punx NYC for a LOOOONG time.

If you need to rest and restore your soul, start here.

A subscriber sent me this poem last week to cheer me up, and it did.

Until next week, I will remain…

And what are YOU loving right now? Let me know in the comments.