tiramisu's melancholy weight

 rating: 4.89/5

The cities I visit have a tendency to weep every time I depart from them. No matter what time of year it is, and yet somehow always on the brink of transitioning seasons, Los Angeles, Seoul, and now New York have rained upon my parting. I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. Despite the annual mumbles of doubt that come with a changing season, it is always my personal approach that creates the climate and it is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess the tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous, so despite New York's desolate nature of rain that wept for the wrenching in my heart as you kissed me twice before getting on the bus to leave, I chose to be lighthearted. Joy has a habit of returning and I have chosen to remain in good spirits for patient faith that I will be returned to you. 

On my first day in New York, I visited Harney & Sons, an American fine tea company with the most beautiful Manhattan storefront. Upon a wonderful free tasting, I chose to pick up their Venetian Tiramisu blend. The delicate Mutan White tea combined with over-roasted Japanese Hojicha gives it an intensely complex nutty aroma, evocative of quiet illumination and romance. By far my highest rating on this blog, the Venetian Tiramisu has officially achieved the status of my favorite tea. I am currently in the process of awaiting my roommates' return from spring break to enjoy this beautiful tea with me. 

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Initially, I only picked this book up in a small New York bookstore because it had a review from McKenzie Wark on the back cover and I wanted to bring home a quick plane read. However, it turned out to be more than a quick skim and was an incredibly insightful comprehension of socioeconomic theory and feminine capacity under capitalism. Something I have noticed is that, unlike most realists, Marx does not see art as precious because it reflects reality. On the contrary, it is most relevant to humanity when it is an end in itself; art is a critique of instrumental reason. Here is an excerpt from Sophia Giovannitti I found important:

"Art and sex occupy similar positions under capitalism. The commodification of each, while rampant, is also rife with anxiety and subject to questions of ethics, purity, and meaning. This is because we are told art and sex shouldn't be commodified. Both are seemingly sacred forms of human expression, and we are taught to keep them close to ourselves, safe from capital's voracious appetite. And yet, art and sex--and specifically the art and sex industries--are actually capital's stress points: two industries saturated in hypercapitalist relations while also existing on the outskirts of the formal economy. This may explain their profound material similarity: both are filled with wildly stratified price points, scams, blurred legal lines, and exploitation. Art and sex are also connected effectively, through metaphor. Selling art has ever been likened to prostitution--to sell your art is to prostitute it--and both traffic the ability to provoke a particular feeling in another person."

-from Working Girl: On Selling Art and Selling Sex by Sophia Giovannitti