Close encounters
Diversion #7: Famous writers, atomic bombs, fried chicken & Santa Monica Pier
Welcome back to Desire Paths, where fascinating people share their life journeys. People like a taro-farming Hawaiian teacher, a Japanese furniture builder, an east London running crew leader, an upstate New York shopkeeper, a hardware-obsessed brand strategist, hotel visionaries in California’s high desert and the south of France, a one-hour photo legend, a Tunisian olive oil ambassador, and a Texas couple running America’s first Black-owned outdoor store. Those stories? Right here.
Don’t miss it: Next up in Desire Paths is the brilliant illustrator Ilya Milstein, who explains his highs, lows and inspirations. Then chocolate maker Vincent Mourou shares his twisting tale, from France to Hollywood to the cacao fields of Vietnam.
Subscribe below so you don’t miss a thing.
—Danny
You’re reading the twice-a-month Diversion edition—a roundup of brands, ideas, links, recommendations and other good stuff on my radar.
1. At a distance
The other day I was walking around my LA neighborhood with a camera, as I do, when I bumped into one of the world’s most famous writers. This guy, a master of short stories, winner of the Man Booker, frequent New Yorker contributor, at the pinnacle of his field, was in sweatpants, walking his dog. Was that…? A quick Google confirmed that yeah, it probably was. In situations like this, you either blurt out something embarrassing or you go about your day. I chose a third, more questionable path, one I deployed only once before, when I spotted Thom Yorke on a quiet street in London. I started walking with him. Not with, really, more behind, at least until I could think of a line better than, ‘I love your books. So I’ve got this newsletter…’
Sometimes you do odd things.
Moments later, our guy walks up the driveway of a beautiful house—his house, presumably—and plops down on the porch. Man, dog, at peace, in the sun. A scene of domestic tranquility that’s just crying out for a stranger with a camera. So I cross the street and backtrack home. That’s when he clocks me. Our eyes meet. I’m not a weirdo! I yell with those eyes. Just a fan! Is there really a difference?
Maybe I’ll request an interview through official channels. At least I’ll have a good anecdote. In the meantime, if you spot an odd, bearded, camera-toting minor character in an upcoming book…
2. Mango sticky rice
Last week was my birthday and we celebrated by going to Anajak. It’s been on my list forever and this was a great opportunity to make the pilgrimage.
Anajak is a Thai restaurant in Sherman Oaks run by Justin Pichetrungsi. But it was opened and operated by his Thai immigrant father Ricky and mother Rattikorn since 1981. For years, things hummed along just fine. Until 2019, when Ricky had a stroke.
To keep the business afloat, Justin quit his career as an art director at Walt Disney Imagineering and took over the place. Anajak picked up steam. During Covid, Justin launched Thai Taco Tuesday (#TTT), which quickly gained word-of-mouth and has become legendary. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind. Anajak has grown, experimented and impressed to the extent that LA Times named it its 2022 Restaurant of the Year. It’s currently #2 on the list of the 101 Best Restaurants in LA. Wild.
It’s a place you gotta book pretty far in advance, but Anajak’s a billion miles from pretentious. You walk in and there’s a vibe that’s warm, but unusual, and somehow makes sense. Is this a scrappy family-owned Thai spot or an elevated hipster scene? Dunno. Both? A signed picture of The Fonz is on the wall, a bulging fridge with unbelievably good wine, west coast rap on the speakers, white tablecloths, inexplicable stacks of cardboard boxes, a Lakers jersey dangling from the ceiling, a guy polishing glasses in the dining room, a phalanx of servers (seemed almost a 1:1 ratio with customers), and Justin running around making sure everything’s perfect, stopping to greet people, swinging by a TV actor’s table to my left—the leading character in a dystopian Apple TV workplace series. (Man, should I say hi too? Just a fan!)
Side note from a longtime Londoner: LA really isn’t all about famous people, but they are, in fact—alas—a part of life here, and seemingly everywhere.
And the food. We ordered the famous fried chicken, papaya salad, lobster special, crab fried rice, and mango sticky rice made by Justin’s mom, Rattikorn herself, who came over with a proud smile to say hi and ask how it was.
It was perfect, Mrs. Pichetrungsi.
I can’t wait to go back.
3. Hiroshima
The film Oppenheimer was gorgeous and horrific and, in classic Christopher Nolan style, grandly told. But throughout it all I couldn’t stop thinking about a famous story of what happened next.
Here’s the cover of the August 31st 1946 edition of The New Yorker, which featured a fun illustration of happy people in a park:
But instead of the usual format—articles, fiction, book reviews, cartoons—readers opening this issue were confronted by a single, 68-page long, ~30,000 word story by the war correspondent and novelist John Hersey. Hersey’s work, now one of the most famous pieces of long-form journalism ever, told the stories of six real people who survived the atomic bombing on Hiroshima.
The bombing happened almost exactly a year earlier, but it was still taboo in the West to talk about the horrors and reality of what happened, let alone interview victims. Hersey did it. And it was a sensation. It was turned into a book a few months later.
I’ve gotten into the habit of collecting copies of the book whenever I see it in secondhand bookstores, including my 1946 first edition (below at left).
You can read Hiroshima in full on the New Yorker’s website here. Wikipedia’s also got a tidy summary. LitHub, too.
4. On the pier
I’ve been quietly working on a photo project involving Santa Monica, California, where I live. Hopefully, eventually, one day, it will be a book. Writing about it here, in public, keeps me accountable and motivated.
So when Eli London—a NYC-based writer and photographer and Substacker behind The Breads—said he’s coming to LA, we agreed to meet up and shoot.
I suggested Santa Monica Pier.
Santa Monica Pier is a spectacular place. Really. All slices of life. Families on vacation, road trippers at the tail end of their Route 66 adventure, buskers and beggars, business travelers playing hooky from convention centers, old people staring at the ocean, magicians and preachers, fishermen praying for a bite. I try to get out there once a week to bask in it and blast through a memory card.
Check out Eli’s photography here and make sure to watch out for his pier shots.
And more on my Santa Monica photo project as and when…
5. Readings & links
People carving their own path.
1. The wise surfer
To Be Frank explores authenticity and community in surfing via Frank Paine, a 73-year-old South Bay icon and humble local legend whose life orbits around a two-block stretch of beach. His unforgettable mustache and magnetic spirit are what most first notice, but Frank’s deeper layers expose a depth that might answer some questions that us surfers continually ask ourselves. [Vimeo]
2. The fashion designer
Bode was founded on the Lower East Side in 2016 by Emily Adams Bode Aujla, who took a vintage sensibility and upcycled it into a luxury menswear brand that women also love to wear… Walk along the east end of Canal Street now and you might feel as if you’ve wandered into some sort of Bode–Green River colony… Call it Bodeworld. But who wants to live in it? [The Cut]
3. The immigrant family
Flanked by fabric shops and stores displaying elaborate quinceañera dresses, a tiendita on the humble corner of 12th and Wall streets was engulfed by a joyous — and curious — frenzy Thursday morning. Here in the heart of downtown Los Angeles — in the shadow of poverty and despair of Skid Row — someone had just won $1 billion. As word spread across the largely immigrant-run shops in the Fashion District, thrilled that someone in their neighborhood could suddenly be so rich, there was a giddy excitement in the air. [LA Times]
4. The Tehran pencil dealer
In a dimly lit corner of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, Mohammad Rafi’s small shop stands out with its display of art pencils. Despite the digital age, Rafi remains loyal to his passion for the past 35 years, surrounded by a multitude of pencils in every imaginable hue and shade. [Catastrophe/AFP]
5. The Oregon winemaker
We were there to sample Harrison’s wine, but to our surprise she began the tasting by pouring for us some of the finest wines from France, which is to say some of the best wines in the world… “I’m having you taste these wines,” Harrison explained finally, “to create a context in which to taste my wines.” To grasp the audacity of this statement, you have to remember that Oregon’s wine culture is, relatively speaking, in its infancy. As far as we know, the state’s first pinot noir vines were planted in 1961, whereas the first vineyards in Burgundy date to at least the first century A.D. Harrison’s declaration was akin to my kicking off a reading in a local bookstore by reading passages from Flaubert, then announcing that I’d been creating a context in which to hear my work. Was this woman kidding? [NYT]
6. The fish fryers
These three businesses – the Pittenweem Fish Bar in Pittenweem, the Wee Chippy in Anstruther, the Popular in Dundee – shared not only a potato supplier but the near-religious devotion of the communities they serviced. They were run by men and women who had thick skins, literally so when it came to their fingertips, which had become so desensitised to heat that they could be brushed against boiling oil to better position a fillet of frying fish or test the readiness of chopped potatoes as they fizzed and crisped. [Guardian]
7. The man (and dog) on an adventure
While searching for tuna last week, a helicopter pilot spotted something bobbing in the vast blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean, more than 1,200 miles from land. It was a small white catamaran, badly damaged. Aboard it was a man with a shaggy, sun-bleached beard and bedraggled hair. He appeared somewhat dazed. When a small boat sent by the helicopter caught up with him, he said his name was Timothy Shaddock and that he and his dog, Bella, had been at sea for about three months. [NYT]
6. Recommendations
Stuff I’m loving.
As a red sauce guy, I enjoyed this Twitter thread in which a scientist rated supermarket marinara brands.
- in about what it’s like to eat at Noma (before it goes away forever) is fun. He took photos and notes throughout the meal and tells you what he really thinks.
I recently picked up a solid pair of binoculars—Nikon’s Monarch M5 8x42— at REI. The view through these things is so crisp. Also discovered a challenger brand called Nocs which has a great story.
My buddy Ed Little has launched a new British honey brand. Kudos: ‘For every jar you buy we replant 100 wildflowers along British beelines helping to protect biodiversity up and down the UK.’
The Intimate City is a fabulous book. The New York Times’ architecture critic goes on walks with architects, writers and historians. Filled with beautiful photographs of the city and its buildings.
UNTIL NEXT TIME,
Tremendous - particularly fascinated by that Hiroshima New Yorker. Oh and happy birthday!