My grandfather left the Malabar Coast for Madras in 1956 with a dream of becoming an actor. He built three companies instead. At ninety, he told me about the fancy dress competitions — and I finally understood what we trade away, and what our loves refuse to let go of.
Author Archives: Tanya Jaison
Aftertaste: Us
My Aftertaste review of Jordan Peele’s Us — a chilling allegorical horror film that dresses the French Revolution in postmodern American clothes. Privilege, shallow altruism, and the Tethered rising from underground: Peele never tells you what to think. He just makes sure you can’t stop.
Shakespeare in the Park: Romeo & Juliet
A review in one act of Free Shakespeare in the Park’s Romeo & Juliet at the newly reopened Delacorte — Saheem Ali’s border-set, Spanish-threaded staging that ends in a real wedding. A purist goes in braced for another “inventive” take on the Bard, and comes out not completely won over, but more open minded.
Aftertaste: The Giver by Lois Lowry
My review of The Giver by Lois Lowry — a quietly devastating dystopia about memory, colour, and the full cost of a full life. I read it across one rainy Queens weekend and found my own bargains with safety and distance staring back at me.
Candlelight Concert at Marble Collegiate Church
A skeptic who connects to music through lyrics, undone by a Hans Zimmer candlelight concert — a string quartet in a Manhattan church, and the Requiem from The Lion King that named a grief I couldn’t.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Three hours on the Late Show standby line outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Then, days later, three hours again. The afternoon I made it in — with Tom Hanks as the guest.
Subway Series – Yankes v. Mets at Citifield
My first baseball game was a Subway Series at Citi Field — Mets against Yankees on the 4th of July. How do you find your team, or your game, when you didn’t inherit it?
Aftertaste: The Devil Wears Prada 2
🍷 Flavour Profile Primary Notes: Prominent notes of becoming, threaded with the humbling necessity of reinventionSecondary Notes: Lingering undertones of nostalgia and the finesse of professional maturityTertiary Notes: Glimmers of performed excellence, paired with the softening effects of age 📜 Provenance 🍽️ Medium: Motion Picture👤 By: David Frankel📍 Where I Found It: Cultural Memory | General Press for the Sequel 🍷 Tasting NotesContinue reading “Aftertaste: The Devil Wears Prada 2”
Aftertaste: A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Megha Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief: where the climate crisis is the moral engine, not the setting, and everyone, eventually, is both guardian and thief
Playing House: A Bathroom in NYC
A curated bathroom essentials checklist for setting up a new home or first apartment in New York. From daily basics and shower staples to towels, cleaning supplies, and small-space bathroom storage, this Playing House edit brings together practical, shoppable finds for city living.