The Year Ahead
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
This is my winter holiday post, and in lieu of a visual essay, I have exciting news to share: A couple days before Christmas, I learned that I’m receiving an Emergent Ventures grant from Tyler Cowen at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University. This grant will allow me to put my entire professional focus on Fashionably Late Takes for the upcoming year. My goal is to become self-sustaining before the grant money runs out. If you've been enjoying my visual essays and would like to help me accomplish my mission, then please consider upgrading to a paid subscription for $5/month — all paid subscribers receive hand written thank you postcards featuring one of my drawings. And Founding Members get an archival, limited edition print!
My publication pace will remain the same — visual essays will continue coming out every other Tuesday — and the additional time that the grant buys me will be spent on research for in-depth, long-form pieces. Given that my motto is “I can't draw fast enough for hot takes,” this approach is in line with my quality over quantity outlook. Going into 2025, you can expect more heavily researched essays like my popular piece from several months back, “‘America was supposed to be Art Deco.’”
"America was supposed to be Art Deco."
A couple months ago, the New York Times ran a piece titled, “The Chrysler Building, the Jewel of the Manhattan Skyline, Loses Its Luster.” Though its stainless steel eagles still glisten above Midtown Manhattan, Anna Kodé describes how inside of this skyscraper from 1930, crumbling ceilings are patched over with duct tape and water fountains spew someth…
And if you haven't had a chance to read that Art Deco piece, then I hope you'll make time for it ahead of my next visual essay coming out on Jan 14, because the upcoming one will be a sequel! There are also two podcasts that invited me to discuss my ideas about art and architecture back when that Art Deco essay came out, which I hope you'll also give a listen: the Quillette podcast with
(check out her Substack ) and the Ex Nihilo podcast with German cultural theorist .Because tonight is about toasting to the new year, here is my “Ode to Martinis" about the pivotal cocktail of the 20th century — it even helped us win WWII. This was my 2024 New Year's essay, but its topic is timeless. And of course, the Martini is served in its iconic Art Deco glass, so this short and fun piece pairs well with the long-form one above. Taken together, these two visual essays summarize the aesthetics and interests I pour into Fashionably Late Takes.
If you're a new subscriber, welcome and enjoy these introductory essays! On this day one year ago, I had only recently launched Fashionably Late Takes and had just 83 subscribers. Today there are over a thousand of you, each using your finite time to look at my drawings and read my essays — what an honor.
Loved the piece on Art Deco and a twinge of sadness at the lost opportunity. I was in South Beach before it was discovered and became hip and with it, the redoing of so many classic buildings that were repainted and made more hip. The Senator was empty but not yet torn down. Was hard to believe that they were going to destroy it. The same feeling I had about Penn Station. But so it goes and time passes on.
Look forward to reading more of your work. Happy New Year. Here's an animation you might find interesting https://vimeo.com/160024074
What a prestigious honour! Congratulations, Megan. And thanks so much for the postcard! Happy New Year