02: Study Notes

Hip hop high schools, the Hilary Banks saving money method, and an exhibit on lights.

This week’s bits ‘n’ bobs in life, education, and culture.

Life

2026! We’ve officially landed in the “made up years” era, where the years don’t feel real, rather, opening lines for a YA doomsday sci-fi book. “The last time I saw sunlight I was seven years old. Back when 2026 was just another year, and not the word we whispered like a curse.” I made that up but you know exactly what I’m talking about!!

I had been in a very terrible book drought since October, calling it on over 5 books. But I ended the year on a high note with Alexandra Lange’s The Design of Childhood where I learned how to be resourceful with making toys during wartime, and that Isamu Noguchi pitched playground design in NYC three times (yes Robert Moses is in this story), but it was Atlanta’s Piedmont Park that won the prize.

We rearranged our apartment, and now it flows a little better, and there’s more room for work+play. Of course rearrangement means purchasing things to align with the new energy, but I’m potentially in a no-buy/low-buy year, so I’ll have to think of alternative methods. Maybe the Hilary method:

Here’s my very brief Ins and Outs list:

Ins

• PBS, always

• Information architecting my life

• …except for my clothes where I’ll be analogous color whimsy maxing™

• I also want to share more outfits. 2025 was the year I firmly acknowledged how much personal style means to me

Outs

• Letting Fox Mulder stress me out

• Plastic (not in an elitist way, more like a, what other materials are out there way)

• 8-episode, three-year-break-between-season TV shows. I always forget about this weak and embarrassing cycle of television that we’re in now, until Stranger Things discourse resurfaces and I’m like, does this ever end will this ever end

Culture

• Pizza prices and subway fares used to be in lock step. Now, the slice price has far eclipsed the subway fare, even with the Jan 4th price bump

• How glamour persisted (and transformed) during WWII rationing. If you haven’t already, listen to the full Articles of Interest series on gear

• MoMA PS1 is now free, for everyone, over the next three years! In contrast, Trevi Fountain introduced a €2 fee for those who want to recreate the Lizzie McGuire scene get closer to the monument

• If you can’t make it to the Studio Museum in Harlem to view Tom Lloyd’s exhibit, see it online!

Education

• The Bronx is getting a high school dedicated to hip-hop

• Huge numbers coming out of LAUSD! “L.A. Unified currently has a structural deficit whereby in-year expenditures exceed in-year revenues.” Mix in declining enrollment, vacant schools and the loss of one-time COVID relief funds, the district is operating with ~$19 billion in revenue while projecting a $1.6 billion deficit by 2027-28

• Some California community colleges are still withholding transcripts due to unpaid debt, despite the 2020 ban. Even a library fine can block your transcript and your ability to transfer or apply elsewhere

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