A Veblenesque Gorge

What Richard Price says in the this interview for Bold Type expresses exactly why the taco shack has become an important outlet for me:

The thing about writing is that because it’s such a solitary activity, at least for me, I need to find projects that involve a little bit of social interaction or I’d go nuts.

I was going somewhat nuts. Now I speak words to people’s faces on some days of the week. And sitting in a room by myself the rest of the time has been relieved of its crooked, distracting glow.

Richard Price Nails the Mixologist

I don’t even know what garter sleeves are, but they have the right ring to them, in this best-ever description of a ‘mixologist’ from Richard Price’s Lush Life, which I am currently tearing through as if some long lost love were waiting for me on the last page:

The baby-faced bartender-proprietor, Josh, like a twelve-year-old in dress-up, sporting garter sleeves and suspendered pants, hair bowl-cut and pomade-parted, but as earnest as a Kinsey researcher, every drink chin-pondered before acted upon …

The scene unfolds from here inside (and in the back alley of) a clear approximation of the bar Milk & Honey. I am adoring this book.