Can you buy taste?

Dearest readers,

I hope you’ve finished your spring cleaning, considering the end of spring is upon us. Fret not if you haven’t—I just finished mine.

I write to you while sitting in a patch of afternoon light in Riverside Park. I’m clad in a black turtleneck, bootcut jeans, and flipflops. I know all this freezing-in-the-shade and sweating-in-the-sun will be missed when the city heat inevitably suffocates us all, so I’m trying to embrace it.

This week, I’ve been texting my friends (who are usually sitting directly across from me in the library) about @sighswoon’s new book, making school hard again, and whether trending colors are a real thing. We’re also observing Silicon Valley as a phenomenon and asking the age-old question: Can you really buy taste? Plus, we’ll tell you what we’re getting up to this weekend.

Take care out there.

Tastefully yours,

Julia

Culture Notes

• Gabi Abrão’s (@sighswoon’s) gorgeous new book Practices in Apparition came out this Wednesday. I can’t stop thinking about the vision board for the cover, which is the perfect shade of internet spirituality blue. In this same vein, machine learning engineers are asking whether AI can be religious, and South Korea welcomed its first-ever robotic Buddhist monk (also coincidentally named Gabi). My friend Izzy, a religion minor, says: “My initial thoughts in short: robots can be religious but not spiritual.”

• School has never been easier…so they’re making it hard again. A combination of AI use, grade inflation amongst top schools, and an uncertain job market means that a 4.0 doesn’t carry much weight anymore. Harvard’s capping A’s at 20%. Princeton’s faculty voted to end their 133-year-long tradition of unproctored final exams. My school’s gone analog—I’m not allowed to open my laptop in any of my classes, and all of my exams are in blue books. My Luddite classmates and I aren’t terribly opposed.

• Is it bad to say that I think pink, aqua, and chartreuse are going to be the colors of the summer? Kamryn Renae, the girl hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, wears hot pink tank tops under her aqua windbreaker, and I’m seeing a trillion beautiful neon granola copycats. I’m reluctant to call colors a trend, but then I remember that everyone’s weddings were chartreuse and burgundy this year. Happy 2014 coral-and-teal revival to all those who celebrate.

• Can you really buy taste? I’ve been reflecting on a post Gutes and Meg wrote two months ago, where they asked AI what Byline should write about. In a world where it’s so easy to create, it’s getting harder to discern why we create and what constitutes great creation. Silicon Valley seems really stuck on where taste comes from. Does it come from buying an Eames chair or using serifed fonts on your website? I’m certainly not the first to opine on this, but I’m a true believer that taste is like a diamond: a huge volume of random stuff you consume that, under your personal spiritual pressure and over time, becomes a small nugget of tasteful discernment. Have thoughts on this? Maybe ones under 200 words? Email us.

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What We’re Doing this Weekend

SOME HAPPENINGS FROM OUR TEAM AND FRIENDS:

JULIA: I’m reading Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan in French, making my way to the Matisse show at Acquavella, turning my roommate’s bed into a couch for the summer, buying work-appropriate attire for my big girl summer internship, and heading back to New Jersey for some much-needed home cooking.

GUTES: After a very eventful week (check out the @bylinebyline stories to see what I mean), my weekend includes having a steak dinner, writing, and locking into Famesick. The truth is, every real party girl knows the week is for going out, and the weekend is for staying in.

MEG: I will be basking in the sun in Brooklyn this weekend, hopefully on a grassy knoll in the park. I’m #freezingmyeggs right now, so that’s about all I can offer the world. I’m also reading Famesick while binge watching Girls, which is giving me a lot of joy. I’d love to mosey to Books are Magic to find my next book because I’m going to be sad when I finish Famesick. I wish it would go on forever. Oh, and I have writing class tonight!! Maybe I do have some things to offer the world.

COLDHEALING: On Friday I’m going to my friend’s office rooftop after work. On Saturday I’m having my 100,000 twitter follower party. I ordered tiny swords for guests and number balloons that spell out 100,000. I don’t know what I’m doing on Sunday yet.

LIAM HAMILL: Getting MARRIED this weekend! Wedding will be at Il Buco on great Jones St., followed by afters at Nightclub 101. I have a bunch of my Irish friends from home visiting, which is making me see NY through tourist goggles. On Sunday, we’re going to Coney Island for a post wedding swim in the Atlantic (or if we’re too hungover we will lie down in McGolrick park).

Our Out of Body Issue arrives next month! In the meantime, stay up to date with us at bylinebyline.com.