The First Salon

An intro to salons - and brief thoughts on traveling, working out, and living in a big city

The House of Commons, 1833 (George Hayter)

Hello there!

I first heard of the concept of salons while reading an article on Substack. (Unfortunately, I can no longer find the article itself - perhaps it is somewhere in my Sublime or my bookmarks. I will link it if I can find it.) But the concept intrigued me. Salons are, by definition, gatherings that aim “to educate or to please.” Now, I’d love to host a salon in person one day, but in lieu of that, I do look for an outlet to share what I’m thinking of or what I’m reading, especially in a less formal or less “serious” context.

The idea for this section mainly comes from Paul Kingsnorth’s monthly salons, where he gives updates on what he’s currently working on and how his book is going. Sadly, I do not have any books to report on, but I’m more than happy to talk about what’s been running in my mind lately.

These salon articles will be quite muddled, frantic, and unstructured. It’s a way for me to get ideas and thoughts out of my head, and somewhere where I can not only see it, but also talk about it with people. I know that there’s social media, but Twitter (which may or may not be my favorite social media) is limited by nature, and so I thought I’d give this a go. This is, mainly, a way for me to keep writing.

Here are some thoughts I’ve had over the past few weeks (some of these may become longer articles):

• I’ve traveled quite a bit over the last few months, more so than the entire year of 2025. Over my last trip, I’ve come to realize what a privilege it is to travel. Most people only get to travel a limited number of times in their lifetime, and many don’t ever get to travel at all. It is bizarre and stunning to me how some people take flying for granted; that you can wake up in one country, get on a massive iron bird that utilizes engineering and wizardry to bring you further than you may ever walk in your lifetime, land in a place you’ve never been to before, and fall asleep in a completely different timezone that might even be somewhere in the future or the past. There was a time when I got bored with getting on a plane. But there was something I read how if you treat everything like the first time, you start to see things with wonder again. And so, I’m trying to treat every flight like it’s my first. I’m patient in the check-in queue, I enjoy the walk to the gate, I try to look out the window as much as I can and watch the buildings become smaller down below.

• One particular load-bearing post for me this past week has been this Tumblr post:

  

  I have thought about this post every day since I saw it. I’ve posted it on Instagram, I’ve posted it on Twitter, I’ve talked about it with multiple friends. I didn’t even know what “world of signs” meant when I first read it, but something about it still hit me like a truck. As someone who is always trying to achieve something and is semi-obsessed with online metrics, the way I interpret this is that we are so sucked into our screens and what we can see on them. We care a lot about what people see about us, and what we signify (also known as our personal brand). It’s easy to forget that there’s a world out there when the entire world lives on a screen in our houses. So I’m actively trying to remember not to get lost in signs and remember what they signify. I’m trying not to chase personal bests just for the sake of posting that I got a new personal best. Every time I run, I do my best to enjoy the experience, the sweat, the suffering, the reminder that I live in a body that is real and living and breathing, and I do not live on the internet. I’m still working on it.

• I have been going to more events alone recently, and Jakarta quickly humbles you into understanding that no one knows who you are and, frankly, not a lot of people care. For the most part, your movement in a city as big as Jakarta barely creates a ripple, and for most of the people you pass, your existence is as temporary as a raindrop falling on their hand. I’ve come to terms with the fact that nothing is guaranteed beyond the first encounter; meeting someone twice is a small miracle on its own. And so, in a place where every interaction feels fleeting and frivolous, I am increasingly grateful to have friends who ask me to stay. Friends who ask me why I’m going home so quickly, where I’m off to next. Even when it annoys me, I’m glad that my friends give me crap for never having time for them. It means that they still care enough to have me around. Most parties will go on, with or without me. But for some parties, I’ll happily linger around. (P.S I just remembered I wrote something about this years ago.)

This salon is meant to be a place for you to share your thoughts. What are you up to? What are you thinking about? What’s been your hyperfixation recently? If you’re feeling open to it, please comment. I promise I’ll try to be better at replying.

One question I have: What’s a load-bearing post for you?

To close, here are some of my hyperfixations from the past few weeks:

• This mashup of Lorde’s 400 Lux and The 1975’s About You

• Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez singing ‘Old Friends’ from Merrily We Roll Along

• Obsessed with the level of detail and skill required for this AoE final

• Currently reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love In The Time of Cholera

• Finally, Tim Curry’s performance as Frank-N-Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show (antici……..)

Thank you for reading. Pray that I can keep posting regularly. See you at the next salon!