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This past weekend, Landon and I took the children to a Renaissance Fair. I’d never been to one before, but our neighbors have taken their two daughters the past few years and sold us on it as a great event for younger children on a slow weekend. The Fair was fascinating — one of those situations where you realize how enormous the world is, and how little you know about it. It was a cross-section of dozens of fringe (or maybe, as I’ll elaborate in a second, not-fringe) cultures: gaming, anti-tech, cosplay, LARP, history buffs, paleophiles, and what I can only classify, and I don’t mean this derisively, as nerdcore? I arrived in Agolde jean shorts and Sambas and felt like a total square. The sensation of outsidership made me think a lot. Here is a place where ambient trends are “out,” where dressing to fit in with the present retail context is “uncool.” You are meant to show up in Renaissance garb (defined very, very liberally), and if you don’t, you feel marked as an observer rather than a participant. Not that anyone is unkind, or that there aren’t hundreds of other people dressed in “normal” streetwear — but most people dress up, and there is a distinct sensation of collective performance, so if you don’t, you feel as though you’re the audience of an audience. In literature, there is this concept of the “mise en abime,” where there might be a play in a play (a la “Hamlet”) or a novel in a novel (a la My Brilliant Friend). The effect normally draws us to a meta-textual place: we think about the novel/play/artwork as a whole, as a form. It is self-aware art. The same held true at the Ren Fair: I kept thinking about what it means to perform, what it means to watch. And if the Ren Fair wasn’t in some way an elaborate art installation…

Anyway, the event was fun for the children, who had their faces painted, watched various performances (my son was obsessed with a glass blower?), ate french fries, ogled at all the costumes, etc. It was a great way to pass a day doing something completely different together, even as I found myself unexpectedly walloped by theories of mise en abime and masking on a Sunday morning.

Later in the week, my Dad dropped off an article he’d torn out of The American Scholar on Seamus Heaney’s new book of letters (seen above), with my name underlined at the top. (This is a habit of his, and one of his 10 I Love Yous.) I am an enormous fan of Heaney. He read some of his poems at the University of Virginia in maybe 2004, in a hot, standing-room-only church on Rugby Road, and you could have heard a pin drop. Mesmerizing, incantatory — one of the most profound cultural experiences of my life, and not only because of his way of reading, or the brilliance of the poetry itself, but because here were hundreds of college students packed in like sardines to hear the bard speak, and I thought to myself: “people care about art, they care about poetry.” This was at a time when I was fluid with my life ambitions and self-conscious about my interest in writing, and the movement of feet on Rugby Road reassured me. Something I loved about UVA was that there was no culture of nerd-shaming; in fact, there was real reverence for those who lived on the Lawn. (At least when I attended, you had to apply to live in one of the historic rooms along the school’s Lawn, which basically meant you had to be academically gifted and heavily involved in the school’s self-governance and extracurriculars.) Still, there was a vague pecking order between the schools. It was cooler to be in
The Comm School (business) than it was in the College of Arts and Sciences. Engineering was for the really smart people, and Architecture school was for self-flagellants (and we respected them, too, even as they worked hundred hour weeks in the library). But seeing all of those peers listen, in awed silence, to Heaney made me think differently about my own interests, reified my self-direction.

In the article my Dad dropped off, the author talks a bit about Heaney’s self-awareness about his own celebrity. The article cites a letter in which Heaney writes: “Maybe it can be survived, but I’m not sure. The lookalike who goes to the platforms and the camera-calls has been robbed of much of himself.” Later, he talks about a childhood spot on the Moyola River as “one of the few places where I am not haunted or hounded by the mask of S.H.”

Of course, Heaney’s mask is quite different from the one most of us wear. None of us (I am guessing) are Nobel Laureates; we are not reading our massively popular poetry on the dais. But between the Ren Fair and the Heaney’s concept of “the lookalike” version of us who, say, leads a meeting at work or makes smalltalk with other moms at school pick-up or baby music class, I have been thinking a lot about the ways we perform, and why we do so, and how?

My guess is that most of us feel most “unmasked” when we are at home with our families. But what are the other contexts? Where and with whom do you feel most like yourself?

And onward, Magpies, into the week —

Forcing Mr. Magpie to hang art in our newly appointed living room — his most-dreaded chore. This experience made its way into this week’s musing on marriage. Haha.

Fall outfits loading for my children. This J. Crew barn coat is beyond adorable, as are these Pehr boots and quilted jackets! (20% off at Pehr with JEN-20). As I type this, I’m about to pick my children up from school and take them to the mall (yes, the mall!) to buy them new jeans for fall. My daughter is picky and the sizing can be weird, so I want her to make her choices. We’re going to Gap and J. Crew — will share what my tiny trend-setter picks. She also just picked a bunch of items from Bisby herself (!): this turtleneck, this skirt, this denim jacket, these floral pants!

We had friends over for dinner on Saturday. In the spirit of trying to cut back on other things in order to accommodate our life without (or with much less) childcare, we decided to order in the meal and just provide bar snacks, drinks, desserts. It was still a lot of errands and work (why do I make even simple things so complex?) but easier than if we’d made the entire menu. We ordered noodles, dumplings, wantons, scallion pancakes, pig ear, pickles, and a few other sides from A+J in Rockville for dinner and plated everything up on huge white platters. Before, we served a gin-citrus-aperol-bitters punch from Death & Co’s excellent cocktail book. A punch is the only way to serve a crowd cocktails without being stuck behind the bar for a long portion of the night, and their book has many options! Bar snacks included a wasabi snack mix, fancy corn nut mix (Spanish, not really on theme, but addictive), and butter/cheese straws (also no on theme, but addictive). For dessert, I made lime-coconut cookies from my favorite cookie book, and one of our guests went back for thirds. They were really, really outrageously good.

Ren Fair! This is what I wore to it — turns out this outfit will mark you are a square! Ha. (Sezane button down // Agolde parker shorts // Adidas Sambas // Veronica Beard Goody Bag // AYR Early Mornings Tee // Celine-inspired hair claw)

In closing, some Sunday shopping poetry…

EVERLANE DENIM JACKET // UBEAUTY RESURFACING COMPOUND // VICTORIA BECKHAM X AUGUSTINUS BADER CONCEALER // LULULEMON SWEATSHIRT // ZARA KIDS JACKET // PEHR BOOTS // MANSUR GAVRIEL BAG

Quince has some fab new arrivals, including this Kule-like striped polo sweater and this Toteme-inspired whipstitch-trim “scoat.” // Meanwhile, Toteme released a longer version of its Instagram-popular OG. // Victoria Beckham released a concealer with Augustinus Bader that is generating some buzz. // I have this cinch-waist sweatshirt from Old Navy that I probably paid $15 for 10 years ago that I love and cherish. I find the cinch waist so flattering paired with leggings — you can adjust where you want it to hit on your body. I just saw Lulu has a similar item and ordered immediately. // Tuckernuck re-issued our favorite blouse in a great seasonal oxblood color. // My son’s fall boots (20% off with JEN-20). // I did end up ordering this denim barn coat I mentioned in yesterday’s post. Run! Selling fast! (Your little can twin with you in this.) // J. Crew’s bucket bag in the portobello color OR brown suede are perfection — and well-priced. My upgrade bucket bag picks: Mansur Gavriel (the seaweed color is so interesting and unexpected – reminds me of a color that Celine does) and Toteme. // I just started using UBeauty’s Resurfacing Compound — stay tuned for thoughts. This product has a lot of hype! 20% off with JENSHOOP.