The Monday Media Diet with Melanie Dunea
On Demon Copperhead, Atomic Habits, and Amuse-Bouche
Melanie Dunea (MD) was introduced to us by the great food writer Gordinier Check out her new Amuse-Bouche project. We’ve pleased to have her with us this week. -Colin (CJN)
Tell us about yourself.
I am Melanie Dunea, lots of vowels eh? I’d regale you with stories about my six given names, but that is for a different story.
Though I have lived in NYC since 1993, I will always be a Chicagoan. You won’t hear a hard “r” in my accent, but if we go out for hot dogs, I will definitely order my dog “dragged through the garden.” Dead giveaway.
When I was little I dreamed of becoming a writer. Each summer, my granddad (the political editor of the Des Moines Register newspaper) would greet me with a yellow legal pad and a classic book. I was expected to copy the book word for word and complete it by the end of my month's visit. “That is how you will learn style,” he pontificated.
Since my mother owned an independent bookstore connected to the Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago, all I wanted to do at Grandaddy’s house was watch TV. We didn’t have TV at home; my mother thought TV was “vulgar.”
We had books, soooo many piles of books.
As my self-appointed career coach, one day Grandaddy declared that I needed to learn to take photographs. “No paper or magazine can pay for a writer and a shooter. You need to learn both.”
Et voilà.
My career has had twists and turns but has always been deeply entwined with all types of media. Books (I now have six to my name) and I have worked with all types of magazines, radio, books, TV, podcasts, and now that includes social media.
Describe your media diet.
Media consumption is the only area in my life where I am *not* on a diet. Where to start? How about at the beginning?
The first thing I do each morning is open my front door and grab the New York Times, which is reliably waiting on the right side outside my front door. I glance at the headlines, but I do not read the paper until later. Sometimes the issues stack up until the end of the week, but I always lay eyes on each paper.
NPR News Now or the Guardian news or another podcast echoes from down the hall because my husband consumes most of his information by listening to it. Voraciously.
I used to pop onto the snarky Daily Mail to see what sillies the stars are up to, but lately that app has become too politically motivated for my taste. The frivolous Swifty news is more what I am after. Now I pop onto Instagram and scroll for a few minutes. The idea that people exchange and share pictures has always made Instagram a favorite of mine. I used to follow that with a glance at Twitter but … well, you know.
My love of magazines runs deep, and since the physical versions have dwindled, I love a daily dig into the Apple News app — shoutout to writer Charlotte Druckman for sharing that tip. No article escapes me now!
What’s the last great book you read?
I usually toggle between reading a classic and then something modern. Great Expectations was my latest classic. I was entranced by the concept that Dickens released this as chapters instead of one big tome. How very entrepreneurial! Then it was time to relieve my bedside Leaning Tower of Pisa stack of books and dive into Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead. Brilliant and devastating. I have added listening to books to my repertoire. Miranda July’s voice seduced me in her novel All Fours, while Richard E. Grant is doing a magnificent job sounding as posh as Keith McNally dreams of sounding.
What are you reading now?
Thanks to Ann Patchett’s Parnassus Book of the Month club, I am never at a loss for a great novel. I just cracked Bear but have to put it on hold until I finish John Richardson’s Picasso and Me, which I am reading for research. (This is also a wonderful example that photographs *can* exist in a book alongside words … ahem, I am looking at you, Dan Halpern.)
On the Kindle app on my phone, I hide self-help books that I dip into such as Atomic Habits, Backable, or books on topics like to get rid of cellulite, drink less, chill out, reduce inflammation, etc., etc.
What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?
That has changed because my attention span has shortened — I know, I know, shame on me. I scan, flip, dog-ear a story, read, go forward, go back. I have no set strategy.
Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?
I return often to The Creative Act: A Way of Being. I jump around. Sometimes I listen to his dulcet voice easing my fears as I embark on a new project or continue the latest piece of work.
What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone?
Truth be told, apps annoy me. Seems like almost everything needs you to “download the app” these days. It is too much to keep track of. I wish we could have five apps and call it a day. So stand by, I need to look at my phone. … Okay, I am going to pick the Aura app. This app lets you upload photographs to a remote digital frame. (Obviously, you have permission to have access.) It is very amusing to send my in-laws in Spain random photos on the regular. It surprises and delights them.
Plane or train?
BOTH. Any mode of transportation and I am IN. Wait, except for a long-haul bus. Cue the vomit emoji.
What is one place everyone should visit?
Whoa, that’s a tough one. I am going to suggest something that is foreign to them, somewhere that feels very different to their norm. It will expand tolerance, compassion, and understanding of the world. When I did a pro bono book for the wonderful charity Operation Smile, I went on mission trips in remote Brazil, China, Africa, and India, which really enhanced my worldview and perspective.
Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.
This is gonna sound promotional, but I pinky promise that is not my entire intention. I just completed and self-published (no compromises!) a “book” called Amuse-Bouche. It is the project that I have gone the deepest and spent the most time ideating and creating, almost three years. (For context I completed My Last Supper, the Next Course in nine months.)
Amuse-Bouche isn't really a book but rather a piece of art that’s designed to resemble a restaurant menu and is a whimsical exploration of where photography, food, fashion, and art meet. My idea was to create a piece where, as you page through the “menu,” which includes made-up hors d’oeuvres and entrées, and peruse the food as fashion photographs, you escape. I want the “reader” to fall into the same rabbit hole I did when I created it.
A surreal world where I laughed and painted and dreamed and forgot about time. A perfect dream world, the most perfect rabbit hole. (MD)