ETHAN'S EIGHT: MAY 2025
From my tackboard to you
You may have noticed some spring cleaning on my Substack. I’ve organized my journal, FROM THE DESK OF ECF, into a few columns. Going forward, you can expect my desk notes to be tagged under one of these columns, which you can view really easily on the Substack website or app! All of it will, of course, be for curious urban minds and big city dreamers.
AT THE DESK - true to the origins of my blog, there will continue to be an assortment of desk notes. Think of these as handwritten notes from me to you. I’ll also visit the desk of other cool professionals in the design industry and feature guest interviews, like that time I wrote from the desk of Angela Babel.
CITY WALK - this is a casual new series I am so excited to debut in a few short days! I’ll be taking an imaginary city walk with fun guests from all over the creative spectrum to cultivate our curiosity about cities and our favorite streets within them! Be on the lookout for something STELLAR in your inbox soon.
DESIGN NOTES - for my thoughts specifically on urban planning, design, architecture, placemaking, plus case studies on specific projects
ETHAN’S EIGHT - what you’re reading right now :) these are my monthly moodboards: what I’ve enjoyed lately, places/spaces/people I am inspired by, favorite things across art, fashion, culture, design, you name it…
TRAVEL GUIDES - you already know this is a mainstay on here…throw out those fancy, glossy, paid-placement filled travel magazines of years past, and replace them with my personalized travel guides, always based on my own experience in places. Plus, I’m a Sagittarius, so I’ve kinda got this whole travel thing down pat.
Okay, let’s get on with it now…here are my eight things for this month.
ETHAN’S EIGHT: MAY 2025
Roses for Mother by artist and photographer Dominik Tarabanski. Because flowers ARE art. I love this one called Brooklyn (2018). Also, Mother’s Day is coming up. Buy your mom flowers!
I think I know what that was…it was an epic Lorde return. I missed her surprise performance/music video shoot in Washington Square Park last week (of course, this happens when I’m at a comedy show in East Village - so close yet so far!), but I’ve been playing “What Was That” at least 5 times every day since. Go play NOW!
Leaning into the boho rock chic vibes over at the Hotel Chelsea lobby.
LIBRARY IN THE CHRYSANTHEMUM FIELD by Atelier Xi. I am really intrigued by this expression of architecture as part of the scale of time and its connection to nature. The way they presented and photographed the project is incredible as well.
My third annual Spring Spritz party. Every year since moving to New York, I’ve thrown a BYOF (flowers) party. I can’t believe this week I hosted the 3rd edition. It is always a soul-warming afternoon surrounded by friends, sipping aperol spritzes and arranging bouquets, even if there are some April showers. I wrote about it last year.
This 1985 photograph of the Meatpacking District at Washington and East 13th Street, by Brian Rose. I’m working on a new project with the Meatpacking District and have been browsing the archives. More to come on this next month.
Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman (1966). I took myself on a movie date to see this French film classic a few weeks ago at the NY Film Forum on Houston Street. First, get over your fear, and just take yourself out to the movies. Second, I barely knew any French but that wasn’t the point. It was/is so nostalgic and romantic. Just like April is in New York.
Hedi Slimane’s old diary, since rockstar indie sleaze, which Hedi famously brought to the cultural forefront with Dior Homme in the early 2000s, is having a comeback at the moment, but also because I love black and white photography.
Ethan x
Love this!!!