The Joy and Pain of a 6 Mile Depression Walk

Nothing like a lawng walk, amirite?

I clocked 42 miles last week, nearly double what I had to fight to achieve when living in car-centric Cali. Part of it is owed to being .8mi from the nearest train, building in almost two solid miles to any trek to “the city” and the other part being that when I feel down, I follow my feet when the weather allows.

Turns out THAT’S OFTEN as both good weather and bad feelings mingle inside me—usually one pushes out the other. The walking ain’t new: I love to explore both my city and new cities this way, even when they’re car heavy. However in New York and especially in my denser-than-dense area of Queens with notes of North Brooklyn, the streets just go on and on and on.

Bushwick alone is the size of most of Manhattan; Ridgewood, too, it’s own entire-sprawl-of-downtown sized neighborhood, making me both long for the microhoods of “the city” but also relish in getting lost in the streets of every adjacent chunk of living space.

Block after block of roses, some ornamental and scentless, others punching through the cool, sea-tinged, but hazy breeze, (born of a wildfire up north) with their lemony and heady cloud, splay under endless brownstones and bodegas for miles in every direction.

Then there’s the mulberry trees: currently dropping purple fruits in a tie dye radius that stains the blocks with the warnings of the first days of 80 + degree days on their way. Great, trollish and warped drapings give off a deep and woody, sweet scent, especially when the berries aren’t ripe yet, which mingles with honeysuckles so determined that they pour out ring after ring of wood out of the tiniest opportunistic concrete cracks to smell like the purest essence of a sunny journey in the non-Manhattan boroughs.

It’s now that they explode with that soapy, sugar notes that zap me immediately to the top of the hill my grandparents lived on in Staten Island, in 1995, or to drives home through South Brooklyn on a scorching 1993 evening, KTU’s freestyle serenading us toward the Belt PKWY.

Today, she’s taking me to a cruise down a Brooklyn or Queens mega block, mingling the yellow and white trumpet flowers with charcoal from nearby gatherings and blunt smoke trailing off of stoops. She’s a long walk alongside a semi-neglected graveyard on the way to a backyard party on the first humid days, with mats of raspberry bushes and clumps of chamomile trying to compete with her with their fleeting pineapple tea notes.

Honeysuckle might belong to New York now, but she’s invasive, like the rest of us non-indigenous folks 😘 Keep that in mind.

This week we’re keeping it light on links and reccos because I know you all have summer Friday brain all week after mem day, and that’s OK! Plus I just gave you 750 words of poetic nonsense, so we’re keeping the rest brief 😜.

LATEST WORK: 😎💨

It’s time! Im so proud of these tasty cookies! Make them yourself for a fun, berrylicious treat. Don’t be scared of the flavor combo, it’s fabulous!

🍓

INFLUENCED: Buying Insights 📲

NYX The Brow Glue 🤌🏼

Everyone should use this on their eyebrows, seriously! Don’t get caught with schloppy brows when you can be groomed pretty easily, like with a quick spin of a spoolie brush.

With an extreme hold that only flakes at the verrrrrry end of the day, I have yet to find a better brow offering even at slightly higher price points.

Even without a lamination (which I typically DIY at home) I’m able to get serious lift and hold, pointing the brow hairs straight up to heaven.

8/10 🛢️🛢️🛢️🛢️🛢️🛢️🛢️🛢️🛢️

EEEEvents

Check out these fun events in NYC and beyond!

Links to Love 💕 or Hate 🫀

While I indulged in Succession the past four tumultuous years, I wont lie the sheer number of writers making a living off of dissecting every fart on the show when its impossible to get pitches in right now is as decadent as the Roy family. If you’re a freelancer who gets to write reviews, of ANYTHING consider yourself privileged, anyone else has to develop a full features brief on just about every topic, only to be ghosted😈.

But hey, sharing this was actually PRAISE for this writer, who went so deep as to find cheesemongers and interview them, and I HOPE to develop this pitch in the first place, kudos for making culture content that requires real effort!☄️

Streaming Sched

• Follow me on Twitch - @realdanhell

• Streaming music and chat MONDAYS coming soon!

• Next stream: TBA!

Ciao amici 😘😘