The reinvention of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and fly fishing fashion
Things I Saw This Week — Friday, June 13
Cities
A roundup of city news of note:
Chicago
“The Nine Best Ways to Experience Giardiniera”
Gaziantep, Turkey
“A baklava crawl in the Turkish city that's obsessed with the pastry'‘
Baklava is not unique to Gaziantep, and the city doesn't claim its origins. The pastry is feted in local cuisines of many countries, from Iran to Greece to Algeria. But no city has made baklava into a tourist attraction, a vast industry and a public obsession quite like Turkey's Gaziantep.
London
“How Long Does It Take to Draw a Picture of Every Pub in London?”
Mexico City
“A New Frida Kahlo Museum Is Coming to Mexico City”
The existing Museo Frida Kahlo, housed in the Casa Azul (“Blue House”), the artist’s former residence in Mexico City’s Coyoacán neighborhood, displays artful elements of the painter’s curated artistic life shared with Diego Rivera. The forthcoming Museo Casa Kahlo, meanwhile, will intimately explore the early life and familial relationships that formed one of the world’s most recognizable artists.
Paris
“In Paris, 3 Troves of Art and Curios Even the Parisians Don’t Know About”
The museum exhibits more than 1,200 mineral species, making it the fourth most extensive collection of its type. Rocks, meteorites, ores and gemstones in rainbow colors fill the rooms. “Even the Smithsonian doesn’t display as many mineral species as we do,” said Éloïse Gaillou, the director.
For more than two centuries, the museum has scoured the world for treasures. They have been purchased, exchanged and donated, although some were confiscated from the collections of royalty, nobility and clergy during the French Revolution. Now it has more than 100,000 objects; 5,000 are on display; the rest are stuffed into drawers and cupboards.
“Our museum is better known by collectors, geologists and geeks of minerals from around the world than by tourists,” said Ms. Gaillou.
San Francisco
San Diego
“The world's largest nonalcoholic beer company is reshaping San Diego.”
Seattle
“In Seattle, preserving trees while increasing housing supply is a climate solution”
Fashion
Fly-fishing has become trendy, fashion-wise.
As for the guys going to brunch in fishing vests or wearing fishing shirts to their office jobs: “Yeah, I think some of it is a little bit absurd,” Coggins says. “I think you can take it too far. But as someone who fishes a lot, I think you could say I’m mildly bemused to see these things become fashion. And I think it doesn’t upset me. I think it’s funny and sort of sweet, and I’m sure it will cycle through.”
After all, Coggins muses after a moment, what we wear for sporting pursuits has always found its way into our casualwear. Where else might we have gotten the polo shirt, the cricket sweater, the rugby shirt? At a certain point, the gatekeeping feels a little pointless, Coggins says: “I’m sure 90 percent of Air Jordans are never worn on a basketball court.”
Mending accounts for only a tiny fraction of the apparel industry, but there are indicators that its popularity is growing. In 2023, France established a “repair bonus” that rewards customers with government-subsidized discounts when they use the services of certified menders of textiles and shoes.
Google searches for “sashiko” — a Japanese mending technique — have steadily climbed in the past five years. Searches for “visible mending” have virtually exploded.
Food
A look inside Marcus Samuelsson’s new restaurant, Marcus D.C.
The 80-seat newcomer with a 12-seat bar was already packed on the first night of service. Samuelsson says he has many opening favorites, notably that crab rice, but recommends starting with his signature blue cornbread served with yassa butter and berbere honey; followed by his Swediopian, a cured salmon served with a goldenberry broth, fennel mustard, and teff crisp; and fluke crudo served in an apple cucumber aguachile with a crispy plantain. After that the options are endless, diners can chow down on mains like the roasted rockfish served with an octopus-based chili (a homage to Ben’s Chili Bowl), the Chuck B’s Roast Chicken, and, of course, that signature Mel’s Crab Rice with pickled okra and uni bernaise.
Try to save room for dessert. Executive pastry chef Rachel Sherriff, formerly of Rooster & Owl, has created a selection inspired by her Jamaican heritage that will not be found anywhere else. The Thai basil rice pudding accompanied with lime cake, ginger lime jelly, and yogurt sorbet is habit-forming. Her praline coconut cake is showcased with a table-side retro trolley where the final dish is theatrically built in front of guests.
This is how a vintage Malört bottle made it from Memphis all the way back to Chicago.
Theater
After 18 years, two rejections, and countless hours of rewrites, the first-ever authorized adaptation of James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novel Giovanni’s Room is set to premiere. Not in the legendary author’s hometown of New York or chosen home of Paris — but right here in Philadelphia.
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There have been many efforts to adapt Baldwin’s works into films and plays since he died in 1987, nearly all of them unsanctioned or unsuccessful in earning official approval from his estate. The 2018 film If Beale Street Could Talk was a rare exception that paved the road for new adaptations in the future.
Giovanni’s Room in particular has been attempted several times. Though it never materialized during his lifetime, Baldwin had worked on a Giovanni’s Room screenplay — even getting interest from actors Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro — that eventually fizzled.