“Never in my life
had I felt myself so near
that porous line
where my own body was done with
and the roots and the stems and the flowers
began.”
-Mary Oliver

Is this the current state of magazine journalism? I just read this “interview” with Katie Holmes in People Mag, written by their exec editor, and I thought, Olay and Alterna just flat out bought the interview:

http://stylenews.peoplestylewatch.com/2014/10/31/katie-holmes-hair-secrets-exclusive

I read the fashion commentary on Lena Dunham’s dress at the Emmy Awards. Awful! horrible! What was she thinking?

I think most everyone got it wrong. I think she knew exactly what she was doing.

In the world of Hollywood, Dunham is zaftig — no, fat actually. If she were well behaved, she would wear serious spanx and serious minimalist clothes. She would get in line, feel bad about her body, hide it under chic clothes.

Well, Dunham didn’t drink the Kool-Aid. She not only wears her curves proudly, she flaunts them in a completely thoughtful unflattering way. I mean, it’s possible even Zoe Saldana couldn’t wear that dress well! But Dunham, in the tradition of Bjork at the Academy Awards dressed like a swan, holds the mirror up to our own prejudices and enjoys it.

She’s not uncomfortable. We are. Isn’t that what art is about?

“I see simplicity not so much as a disregard for complexity, but as a clarification of the significant.” — Glenn Murcutt, architect

I was grateful to get this recent review of Ravenous:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raves for Ravenous!, March 10, 2014

This review is from: Ravenous: A Food Lover’s Journey from Obsession to Freedom (Paperback)
Dayna Macy’s Ravenous is an extraordinary book about food. She takes the reader through a journey of the most negative meanings of food to elevate food to it’s most socially conscious, nurturing, and planet caring heights. As she does, she enables one to follow her own healing path and then gives that gift of transcendence to those fortunate enough to read her book.

Her writing is absoutely the finest and makes her work of great value on multiple levels.

Nice piece by Andy Revkin in the New York Times about my husband, Scott, leaving Grist.

Grateful to my friend, Alison Ashton, for re-running this interview with me on the Nourish Network.

When I grew up in Rockland County in the 60s, most of the farmland was already gone. As I wrote about in my memoir, Ravenous, There were vestiges of farms but they were farming as entertainment (think scarecrows and pumpkins around Halloween).

Which is why I’m amazed and thrilled that there is a renaissance of farming in Rockland County again. Whether it’s the opening of Rockland’s first CSA, or a Farm to Table tour, or spending a day farming at Cropsey Farm, the first new farm to open in Rockland County in many decades.

My only knowledge of vegetables came from a can, and I ate mostly processed foods. Today, kids living in Rockland can actually eat fresh chard or leeks or carrots or apples grown right in their backyard. That’s soul food. And it makes me think there really is such a thing as progress.

The first piece about Google in the mainstream press was by my husband, Scott. Here’s a piece in the Business Insider about it. After 24 years, he still amazes me.

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain. It’s so dry here in Northern California where I live. The worst drought, I’ve heard, in 500 years.

The sound of rain is so rare, I was at first confused. I wasn’t sure what I was hearing. I opened up one groggy eye, looked out my window and saw raindrops dancing down my window.

I am so grateful. And underneath my gratitude is panic. It’s bone dry here. Water levels are at their lowest in decades. What we need is so basic — fresh air, clean water. We can despoil our planet only so much, and then it fights back. And when it does, it shows us just how small and needy we really are.

The world is changing. It’s being replaced daily by a planet that will become unrecognizable. I’m afraid for my children, their children, and future generations. I’m afraid for our generation.