It’s the year to be hated
It’s the year to be hated
A Bangers & Jams anniversary
The most consistent thing in my life is my love of change. Last night, over one of my favorite meals of the year at Baroo, my dad gave me shit about how quickly and easily I get bored of things.
“So, are you back in LA for good?”
“I think so.”
“We’ll see.”
He’s not wrong. I have a tendency to blow up my life every 18 months or so. I wander and I try things and I trust my instincts on decisions big and small more than any deeply critical thinking. Often, a new challenge is more enticing than embracing or improving whatever is right in front of me. So it was cool to see the other day that I was coming up on a year of launching Bangers & Jams. 52 weeks and 59 posts, maintaining the promise to deliver every weekend. It’s a relief that this feels more like the start of something than another project I’m ready to set aside after a good run.
So, what’s next? I don’t like bailing on commitments — even if they’re just to myself — so fairly soon I’m actually going to update this top 100 songs list and pick a launch date for Jabroni’s. There’s weird stuff happening in New York and LA dining that doesn’t appear to be the case elsewhere, and I’m excited to explore that in more depth. There will be more home cooking journeys and more city guides.
More than anything I want to push myself a little harder, branching out beyond my own hot takes and observations each week. The past year has been surprisingly fun. But this thing needs to evolve, and it will.
I’m grateful for everyone who subscribes and messages me about how wrong I am. For
and all the readers she sends over here. For a bunch of new Substack friends, many of whom I got to see over wonderful meals this week, like , and (who I made fun of these kinds of posts to while internally wrestling with whether or not I would do one … whoops).I’m gonna celebrate by making a simple chocolate tart this afternoon for a friend’s barbecue and then trying out Camelia. See ya next week. Thanks a bunch.
