Ep .05- Spring Blossoms, Tough Moments, & Fish Filets

And before we start… I realized I’ve been signing off our newsletters sans a proper introduction! My name is Jackie and I’m LookUp’s Creative Director, and a member of the founding team. Nicole and I have been building together for over a year and a half now, and I came from a background in tech before pivoting into the creative world. As you’ve probably been able to tell from newsletters prior, I’m NY-based (apologies for all the only NY restaurants!), a creative and lover of all things pop-culture, museum-obsessed, a yoga teacher, a photographer, a traveler, and a dog-mom. Thank you for following along and for reading my weekly words. We’ll get some fun guest features in here, too, to mix things up. For now, though… my week:

Ways we’re looking up: 

• Book Club: I’m very lucky to be surrounded by more intelligent, curious, crazy funny, and beautifully warm-hearted women than I can count, and one of my many deeply treasured friend groups puts on the most successful and long-running book club I have ever had the pleasure of joining. We meet once a month and genuinely do read the book, or at least over half of it. Not only do we read the book, but we really do talk about it!! Thoughtful, vulnerable questions. Open conversation. Whoever chooses the book hosts the gathering and oftentimes has snacks (or a full-on dinner) themed around the book, too. I’m up this month and chose “The Biography of X,” which is well over our roughly 350 word limit, but when I brought it to the chat, everyone was immediately up for the challenge which warmed my heart in a way I can’t quite articulate. Love you book club. 

• Cherry Blossoms (with a side of the Brooklyn Museum): I’m going to truly make an effort to not talk about my museum outings every week, but I joined two of my best friends for a day at the Brooklyn Museum to visit the Giants exhibit- a selection of works from Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz personal collection. I cannot recommend you visit enough, the Meleko Mokgosi room was my favorite, and Gordon Parks and Kwame Brathwaite’s photographs were a fast follow. We also stumbled upon the unexpected opening of Hiroshige’s “100 view of Edo” (which you now know as Tokyo), with additional honorary reworks of a few “views” by Takashi Murakami. Hiroshige’s collection hasn’t been displayed publicly for over 20 years and arriving the day after its opening by chance felt kismet. As inspired by the magically featured cherry blossoms within his works, we made our way outside and into the Brooklyn Botanical Garden to see the first blooms of the season. If you are a true cherry blossom chaser like I am, and have been refreshing Cherry Watch everyday this week, I’ll see you back at the BBG this weekend- the esplanade blooms are finally live!!!  

A moment of honesty: 

• I’ve had a pretty shit week. I won’t get into any personal details here, but in life’s more painful moments I’ve so often found myself looking to fill that searing “hole” with the endless scroll. And each and every time the longer I scroll the wider the hole expands until I fall down into a state of numb nothingness. In seeking connection and support, I reach for the tools designed to bring me just that, and yet I couldn’t feel farther from reality, or from my own thoughts and feelings, which I suppose is what I’m after and exactly what I don’t need. Nicole and I talk about this all the time; we may have started a digital health company but we are so far from perfect and when confronted with difficult life moments we are reminded why we believe so strongly in our mission. I haven’t used my LookUp tin this week. I feel extra attached to the semblance of security my phone is bringing me but my goal is to get there soon. To be able to put it away and sit with myself in silence, to allow myself to go inwards. I will take it back out for all of the beautiful phone conversations I’ve been having with friends though, those can definitely stay. 

What we’re listening to: 

• Silver Springs, Fleetwood Mac: Did anyone else have a point in their life where they fell deep down into the Silver Springs-lore? All of the Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham theories that we’ll just never fully know the truth behind?! I mean when you watch the 1997 live performance we can all agree something happened there. The musical compatibility and romance and the intensity of a fire that burned too bright to not consume its parts. Or something like that. I can’t get enough of it and if you need the next best thing then first read, then watch, Daisy Jones and the Six, it's the perfect fan-fiction for the Fleetwood-obsessed.

• Binz, Solange: It’s all about comfort music this week and this was my number one most listened to song last year. I knew this song and adored it even before I knew it was Solange singing, and when I finally discovered it was, it all made so much sense. She is the coolest person. A genuine creative, experimenter, multi-disciplinary, world-builder, (interior designer?), and someone I’m incredibly inspired by (minus the singing bit, that will likely never be me). I have friends that have made the case for Solange as the superior Knowles, and while I may not go so far, I do think I’d choose to spend a day hanging with Solange over her icon of a sister. Controversial! 

Something that reminded us why we started LookUp:

• The opportunity to work with the coolest people!! We’ve brought on the most incredible creative consultant, Emma Apple Chozick. Emma is based out of Miami and recently left her role with Thingtesting to go full-time freelance with the coolest rolodex made up of the who’s-who of brands, and we’re so lucky to have her with us at LookUp and to be among them. You know when you start brainstorming and strategizing and building with someone who just gets it right away? It is the most energizing feeling, and while we won’t say too much about what's to come just yet, we are more excited about what we’re building than ever, and so excited to bring such real value and learning and change to our community (that is you!). Stay tuned. And if you are a design lover and don’t already follow Emma on TikTok or on her Substack, get on it, because her curation and features are full of undiscovered gems and inspiration. 

Best thing I ate this week that made me put my phone down: 

• Birds of a Feather: I’m not sure how it took me this long to talk about a major favorite of mine and my friend’s, but nothing like a cozy night-in with one of my best friends yesterday, where we over-ordered and over-ate to remind me of it. Birds of a Feather is a Sichuan Chinese restaurant in Williamsburg that is just the right level of spicy to have you sweating but never compromising on taste. Do not miss the Spicy Fish Filet, the Duck fried rice, or the Dan Dan noodles, and add in a veg for that “green thing on the table” factor, and for the fact that they are all so damn delicious. I have been to Birds with best friends, on first dates, and ordered it in alone, and it is perfectly perfect in every which scenario.    

Stay cool and Look Up. 

Xo, Jackie, your LookUp Creative Director and phone-health evangelist