LOCKDOWN DIARIES PART 5. CHRIS WALLACE
Chris Wallace is the editor of Mr Porter and is not only one of my favorite editors/writers out there, but we also share the same obsession for the British series with David Suchet starring as Hercule Poirot. Chris shared his routine during lockdown in NY and here is his experience.
I try to keep my days in some sort of shape, especially when I am tending toward shapelessness myself. I really like routine, a sort of strong scaffolding over which I can plop my messy, messy being, to give it some structure. Most days I wake up just shy of 7 — the anxiety gets me up. I've been doing the crossword every morning, but all too easily I fall into the Instagram trance. I make a blisteringly-strong pot of coffee and drink it with coconut milk in my nice Rosenthal china, which I got in imitation of the ones they have at Sant Ambroeus. From about 9 to 1 I'm in various states of devotion to the screens — zoom calls, emails, webex, slack, twitter, instagram. When the UK team goes offline, I'll break for lunch (or go live on IG with one of the guys we've had on our series of chats), and make lunch: a bean-y salad, a burger on English muffin, or, as often as not, some form of pasta. Maybe it is time for another pot of coffee, and then to do some writing. I'm writing a book at the moment too, so I'm folding in the reporting and writing on that into my normal day.
By 5, I'm fried. I keep forgetting to do my push ups and pull ups and squats and abs — not having a gym to go to, not having that part of the routine, is wrecking me. But I don't seem to ever forget my negronis. In the evenings, I FaceTime my girlfriend who is sheltering at her home in London, and catch up with her, spend some quality time as she is winding down her day. I'll make dinner (more pasta, probs), and try to cool out to something on Netflix. And then, suddenly it is midnight and I stumble into bed to reread some spy novel that will put me to sleep.
Other Reading
Bill Buford's Dirt; Benjamin Moser's Sontag; Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy; Adam Phillips.
Watching
Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster, which is just incredible. Anyone know where I can get the extended version they screened in HK, but never sent to the States? Parajanov's Color of Pomegranates, Haji/Giri Poirot.
Listening to
Rachel Maddow, Cesaria Evora, Callas, El Michaels Affair, Tinariwen.
Looking at
The same four walls all day every day — which has made the value of the art on my walls go up a million fold in my mind. One of the things I've been trying to do during lockdown is reach out to artists to get a piece of their work. Julia, my girlfriend, calls these QuaranTreats, and they have been the greatest source of joy of late.
