Lifestyle
Avoiding your problems with work? You might have “high-functioning” depression
Judith Joseph has spent most of her life building an impressive résumé. She is a board-certified psychiatrist, chair of the Women in Medicine Initiative for Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center, the principal investigator of her own research lab — and a mom.
But despite her accolades, once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Joseph couldn’t shake the sense that something was off. With the world on lockdown, Joseph began sharing skits related to her research on social media, many of which went viral. It was only then that she landed on a name to what she, and many others, had been experiencing: high-functioning depression.
Shelf Help is a wellness column where we interview researchers, thinkers and writers about their latest books — all with the aim of learning how to live a more complete life.
“I wanted to make sure that we weren’t just thinking about depression in the way that our grandmothers think of depression, not being able to get out of bed, crying,” Joseph said.
Instead, with high-functioning depression “you push through and you don’t deal with your pain because too many people depend on you,” she said. “You know something’s off, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. And you don’t slow down because you don’t know how to.”
To Joseph’s surprise, high-functioning depression was absent in medical literature. So she set out to design and execute the first research study on the topic, which published in February. Her first book, “High Functioning: Overcome Your Hidden Depression and Find Your Joy” (Little, Brown Spark), relies on findings from the study, anecdotes from patients from her private practice and lessons from her life to teach people how to understand the science of their sadness, so they can understand the science of their happiness.
The Times spoke with Joseph about her book’s findings and why it’s just as important to practice preventative care in mental health as it is in physical health.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Dr. Judith Joseph is the author of “High Functioning: Overcome Your Hidden Depression and Reclaim Your Joy.” (Little, Brown Spark) (Photo by Anthony Steverson)
How would you define high–functioning depression?
With clinical depression, you have five or more symptoms, like low appetite, change in appetite, poor sleep, low energy, feeling restless, guilt, hopelessness, suicidal ideation. But you also have to meet criteria for having a low mood, or anhedonia. And on top of all that, you have to have lower functioning or significant distress.
People with high-functioning depression will have the symptoms of depression, but they’re not low-functioning. In fact, they cope by over-functioning, and they don’t acknowledge having significant distress. In fact, they’re muted. They don’t feel anything.
One of the symptoms of trauma is avoidance. So people think, “OK, I don’t want to go to this place or see this person or be in this situation because it triggers me.” But with high-functioning depression, people are avoiding by busying themselves so they don’t have time to feel, and when they sit still, they feel restless and empty.
A big part of high–functioning depression is being defined by your achievements or what you do for others. Why is it so hard to build identity outside of our external achievements?
Many of us have this coping mechanism of forgetting, and that’s one of the 30-plus symptoms of the trauma inventory. We outrun because we don’t remember what it was like to derive a sense of pleasure from things that truly bring us joy, because our past hides them.
Children, if there’s a conflict, they internalize it and they’ll say, “Well, if I only got straight A’s, Daddy wouldn’t have left.” Or “If I only did my homework, the dog wouldn’t have died.” Children use that magical thinking, but adults use it too. They focus on things like work, a role, on what they can do. In the short run, that’s a positive coping skill, but in the long run, when you continue to intellectualize and you don’t feel, that can show in different ways like binge drinking, excessive shopping, excessive doomscrolling, physical breakdowns or even dipping into low-function depression.
The bottom line is that there is a real value in acknowledging and processing your trauma and healing, because then you can actually experience a change.
“People can search and try to be happy all their lives and never get it. And even if you get the thing you think will make you happy, you’re still not happy. If you shift it, and you’re like, ‘I can increase my points of joy every day,’ then it’s attainable.”
— Dr. Judith Joseph
In the first part of your book, you introduce two key terms: anhedonia and masochism. What is anhedonia and why is it important for people to know what it is?
There’s a real disconnect between the research and the real world, because in research, anhedonia is all over our rating scales. It’s a term that has been around in the medical literature for hundreds of years. “An” is a lack, “hed” is pleasure, and “onia” is a symptom. “Anhedonia” is a lack of pleasure and joy, and it’s a lack of pleasure and joy in things you were once interested in.
So imagine you’re eating your favorite meal and you’re not even tasting it, you’re not savoring it. Or if you are listening to your favorite song, and it doesn’t move your body the way it used to, it doesn’t light you up. Or if you’re looking at a beautiful part of nature, like the sun is setting and it’s exquisite, and you’re just checked out. Or if you’re with your partner, and you’re being intimate and you just want to rush through it; you’re not even in the moment. These are all the simple joys that make life worth living.
In research, you will rarely see the word “happy” on our rating scales, but what you do see are points of joy. Whereas in the real world, the patient will come in and say, “I just want to be happy.” But we’re like, “No, we’re just trying to eradicate your depression by increasing your points of joy.”
Happiness is an idea, whereas joy is an experience. If you can reframe that and think about it as: Anhedonia is robbing [me] of my joy; it’s not that I have to be depressed and weepy and sad, but if my points of joy are low, then that’s an indication that something is off.
It’s a really important shift because people can search and try to be happy all their lives and never get it. And even if you get the thing you think will make you happy, you’re still not happy. If you shift it, and you’re like, I can increase my points of joy every day, then it’s attainable. There’s hope. Today, you may get two points, but tomorrow maybe you get three.
How does masochism contribute to high–functioning depression?
When people think of masochism in the real world, they think of sex, which is not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about masochistic personality disorder. Masochistic traits are ones where people tend to bend over backward for others. They tend to sacrifice their joy for the sake of others. It’s almost like self-sabotaging. In today’s speak, it’s called people-pleasing.
What I found in my study was that a lot of people who are caregivers have high rates of anhedonia. Well, that makes sense. These are people who are not thinking about themselves. They’re putting others first, often at the expense of their own happiness. Because high-functioning depression is closely tied to trauma, and because a symptom of trauma is low self-worth and shame and self-blame, that may be a part of the reason why people with high-functioning depression can’t relax: They’re constantly doing for others.
If you’re someone who knows your self-worth and you know that your role doesn’t define you, you’re not going to bend over backward. You’re not going to keep going, even though you feel off and you feel burned out. You’re going to take care of yourself.
The second half of the book gives the reader concrete steps to reclaim their joy using what you call the Five V’s: validation, venting, values, vitals and vision. How did you develop these five Vs?
If you think about it, there’s been this renaissance in physical health, but there’s nothing for us in mental health. Why do we wait to check that box of low-functioning? We need to show people how to increase their points of joy and prevent these breakdowns on their own.
So, I came up with the five Vs based on what I learned about happiness and research, and derived them based off of things that I felt that people needed to do in order to overcome trauma and how to find sustainable joy.
Validation is the first step. Because many people, again, don’t acknowledge how they feel. They push through pain, they just get through life, and that’s how they cope. But if you can acknowledge how you feel, and accept how you feel, then you could actually do something about it.
Venting is expressing your emotions. Some of my clients are neurodivergent, so they’re not the most verbally expressive. But there are other ways you can vent. You can draw, you can write, you can pray, you can sing. You could talk about your feelings, if that’s how you want to express it. You can cry. Venting has different ways of getting that emotion out and decreasing your stress.
Values are things that, when you tap into them, you feel a sense of purpose and meaning. I would say that values are things that are priceless. Many of us with high-functioning depression, we’re chasing the accolades, and we’re chasing the things that look good on the outside but don’t really give us true meaning.
With Vitals, I wanted to put in the traditional things like sleep, movement and diet, which are all important. But I also wanted to add things like our relationship to technology, our relationships with other people and work-life balance, because the quality of our relationships with people in our lives is the No. 1 predictor of long-term happiness and health.
Vision is how do you plan joy so that you keep moving forward instead of getting stuck in the past? Celebrating your wins so you don’t have to live for tomorrow’s. Start planning joy today. That’s the whole point. Don’t hold your breath for happiness for the future.
(Maggie Chiang / For The Times)
For someone who’s avoidant, it can be really scary to slow down enough to really examine your interior life. What do you say to that person who doesn’t know how to broach the five Vs?
I always say don’t do the five Vs all at once, because people who are intense like myself will want to do everything at once. The goal is not to use all five at once; use one or two. I would say start with validation. It doesn’t have to be this big, grand thing. It could be as simple as looking in the mirror every day and just reflecting on how you feel. Or, if that’s too intense for you, there’s sensory tools like a 5-4-3-2-1 method that is a grounding tool that allows you to be present in your body. Just practice that every day for one to two minutes and, slowly, you should be able to start to self-reflect and acknowledge and accept what you’re feeling and move from there.
You directly tied the idea of “vision” to fostering joy and combating anhedonia. What’s the relationship between vision and anhedonia?
People with high-functioning depression want to keep doing what they’re good at. But it’s important to retrain your brain and slowly reintroduce yourself to the things that you once enjoyed.
For example, in the book I talk about a patient who forgot that they actually enjoyed nature. When they were a child, their parents used to take them camping and when the parents got divorced, they stopped going camping, and they forgot that that’s what they love doing. Now they live in a big city and what they usually do for fun is go see a show or something that is more accessible in a city. But when we identified that trauma, we started to challenge them to go back into nature again. By slowly introducing the person back to the things that they used to like, their anhedonia in relation to nature got better.
TAKEAWAYS
from “High Functioning”
At the end of the book you break down the various types of therapy and drug interventions for someone struggling with their mental health. For someone who has your book in hand and is looking for next steps, what would you recommend them?
I’d recommend for them to take the quizzes [throughout the book] and to see where they are in terms of the levels of anhedonia, depression and trauma and then move from there.
Let’s say, biologically, you’re healthy and psychologically you don’t have very many risk factors. Then you have to work on the social aspect. What is it about you that’s keeping you in that toxic environment? What’s hindering you from leaving there? Because that’s where you’re losing joy.
For another individual, it could be that the social bucket is fine. The psychological bucket is fine. But biologically, maybe there’s an untreated autoimmune issue, or maybe you’re going through perimenopause. Well, then that’s where you need to focus on the science of your happiness.
For others who have trauma that’s never been processed, and they’re constantly in fight or flight, but biologically and socially, things are not as draining for them, then that’s where we need to focus.
There is only ever going to be one you in the history of the universe and in the future of the universe. That, to me, is so powerful because then you know that you’re here for a reason.
So I want people who read this book to really try to understand the science of your happiness, because there’s only one you. And then when you fully understand what’s draining from your happiness, then you can work on those efforts to increase your joy, using the book as a guide.
Shelf Help is a wellness column where we interview researchers, thinkers and writers about their latest books — all with the aim of learning how to live a more complete life. Want to pitch us? Email alyssa.bereznak@latimes.com.
For its upcoming Los Angeles venue, experiential art firm Meow Wolf will focus on the art of storytelling, with a specific eye toward skewering our city’s moviemaking magic. To help bring that vision to life, Meow Wolf has entered into a creative partnership with Titmouse, one of L.A.’s most renowned independent animation houses.
The Hollywood-based studio behind popular series such as “Big Mouth” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks” will create animation that will be shown throughout the West L.A. venue, which is on target for a late 2026 opening at the Howard Hughes entertainment complex.
It’s a move that represents a shift for Santa Fe, N.M.-based Meow Wolf. Over the last decade-plus, the art collective has grown beyond its anything-goes, punk-meets-psychedelic roots into an organization with full-scale, maximalist installations in its hometown, Denver, Las Vegas, Houston and the Dallas suburbs. In the past, Meow Wolf kept most of its media in-house.
As part of its larger-than-life participatory art installations, Meow Wolf L.A. will feature a mix of live action and animation, the former filmed by Meow Wolf in its Santa Fe studio. Meow Wolf’s James Stephenson, a senior VP with the company and its creative director of emerging media, said the degree to which the L.A. exhibition will lean into various animation styles necessitated an outside partner. Titmouse’s work, in development by a number of directors with contrasting tones, will be shown on a variety of formats, ranging from cinema screens to full-room projections.
“I really believe in animation as an art form, and I know the Titmouse folks do too,” Stephenson says. “Animation is made by artists. It’s made by artists with their own hands. It’s something that is still very rooted in craft.”
Meow Wolf’s L.A. space is set in a former cinema complex, and will champion its location, taking guests on a journey through a converted movie house and beyond, into a sci-fi-inspired fantasyland with sentient spaceships and a 30-foot-tall mushroom tower. Meow Wolf creatives have spoken of the fantastical movie theater as one that will feature animated, self-aware candy before attendees enter the main exhibition space, making Titmouse’s work some of the first art guests will encounter. Titmouse co-founder Chris Prynoski has said the studio has lined up at least six directors for the exhibit.
An in-progress art installation destined for Meow Wolf L.A. at the art collective’s Santa Fe, N.M., headquarters. The L.A. exhibition will feature animation from Titmouse.
(Gabriela Campos / For The Times)
Titmouse, says Stephenson, is the right partner because “they’re known less for a house style, and more for a house vibe.” Over the years, Titmouse has been behind such diverse shows as “Scavengers Reign,” owning a Jean Giraud influence rooted in French and Spanish surrealism, the lively “Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld,” with an unique color palette that took inspiration from anime and Chinese mythology, the exaggerated comic book feel of Adult Swim’s “Metalocalypse,” and the approachable yet expressive tone of “Star Trek: Lower Decks.”
“Meow Wolf’s vibe is similar to Titmouse’s vibe,” Stephenson says. “It’s artist-first, artist-driven, independent and kinda edgy. They are always trying to find the edge of what’s possible. They try to see how far they can go, and it’s done for fun and in the spirit of taking risks.”
Prynoski says working with Meow Wolf will give Titmouse a sense of artistic freedom it doesn’t always have when delivering content for more traditional Hollywood partners. He says the multi-director approach is a callback to the early days of Warner Bros. Animation, when individual creators put their own stamp on Looney Tunes material.
“I use Bugs Bunny as an example,” Prynoski says. “You’ve got a Friz Freleng Bugs Bunny short. You’ve got a Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny short. You’ve got a Tex Avery Bugs Bunny short. They’re all different versions of Bugs Bunny, and people who are really paying attention can tell which director directed each one. Even though to the layman, these are all Bugs Bunny, but if you lined them up, they are drawing in different styles, sensibilities and techniques.”
Prynoski says that was a centerpiece of his pitch to Meow Wolf, noting that characters will reappear in multiple installations, each handled by a different artist. Meow Wolf L.A., in fact, will be the firm’s most character-driven exhibition, as guests will follow the storylines of three main protagonists throughout the space.
In announcing the partnership, Meow Wolf and Titmouse released an image from an animated work directed by Luca Vitale. It features a key character having a moment with a hummingbird and it’s done in an elegant, slightly anime-influenced style. It’s an image full of movement, reflecting a character in transition with inviting pastels and bold dashes.
“I like that image because I think it captures some of the sense of wonder that we want people to feel,” Stephenson says. “The character is having an encounter with the elusive nature of creativity and reality in a way that makes them have a different perspective of what’s possible.”
Other contributing animation directors to Meow Wolf L.A. include Space Dawg, Felix Colgrave, Alexander Vanderplank and Phimémon Martin, and Jun Ioneda.
Titmouse’s partnership with Meow Wolf will extend beyond the L.A. exhibition. The two will be working on the development of Meow Wolf New York, which is slated to open some time after Los Angeles, and are collaborating on a planned animated series, which Prynoski is spearheading.
Meow Wolf exhibits are the result of sometimes hundreds of disparate artists coming together in a shared space. Distilling that into a signature, singular style for a series could be a challenge. Stephenson pinpoints some guiding principles.
“You really need to feel the hand of the artist,” he says. “You need to feel a DIY aesthetic. You need to feel the materiality. Those are very specific to what we are.”
The Kennedy Center on June 28, with its facade signage still covered by a tarp and scaffolding.
Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
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Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
On Wednesday, a federal appeals court denied President Trump’s request to stop the removal of his name from Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center. The signage on the building has been covered with tarp and scaffolding since June 13, but in a court filing last month, the center’s current executive director said that Trump’s name has been removed.
In their decision, three judges from the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that the president had failed to prove that the arts center would be “irreparably injured” without Trump’s name attached to it.
NPR requested comment from the Kennedy Center, but did not receive an immediate reply.
This latest round of court decisions is part of the ongoing litigation filed by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, against President Trump and the board of the Kennedy Center. In a statement emailed Wednesday to NPR, Beatty said: “Today’s ruling again affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename the Kennedy Center were unlawful. His name no longer desecrates this sacred memorial, which belongs to the American people. Now it is time for the Trump administration to accept this, comply with the law, and take the tarps down.”
In previous court filings, Trump’s legal team had asserted that removing the president’s name from the arts complex, both on the physical building and in its digital materials, would inflict irreparable harm in both time and money already spent. In the denial, the three judges — Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Gregory Katsas — wrote that since Trump’s name has already been removed, “a stay would not avert those harms.”
Furthermore, Trump had claimed that without his name attached, future fundraising would be threatened “and [will] contribute to the financial decline of the Center.” In response, the appeals judges wrote: “Appellants, however, have failed to support this assertion with any specific facts or evidence. They offer only the conclusory assertions of the Kennedy Center’s Executive Director that were made in a factually unsupported declaration.” The center’s current executive director, Matt Floca, specializes in physical plant management.
The presiding judge in the case, Christopher R. Cooper, has ordered that the center provide him a status report on the center’s operation and programming before the end of this month. As of Wednesday, the center’s calendar lists a small roster of programs, including outdoor free movie screenings, workshops for children, and five free live performances in July on its Millennium Stage. In the past, the Kennedy Center presented over 2,000 arts and education events each year, including free daily Millennium Stage performances.
Lifestyle
A meal with an animated Mona Lisa? Immersive dining goes high tech — but will L.A. eat it up?
My dinner course is served. It is a Campbell’s-inspired soup can, lightly angled so strands of broccoli are peeking out. I lift the can to uncover a slow-braised short rib and mashed potatoes. An American dish to represent an American artist, here Andy Warhol.
The room is overtaken with projections, scenes of bustling New York traffic paired with bachelor-pad-like guitar riffs. Shown on a wall above a dinner table is a selection of Warhol silkscreens. It’s a Friday night in West Hollywood, and I’m surrounded by a mix of out-of-towners and those celebrating an anniversary. And while this is a special occasion, we’re urged to get a little messy with our food — to use our hands, to paint with a salad, to draw on a cookie.
The main course: A tomato soup can? “7 Paintings” is an immersive event that occasionally hides dishes in artist-inspired presentations.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Play is the primary side dish at “7 Paintings,” a tech-infused dinner theater that aims to be a crash course in fine art. That selection of veggies paired with multiple mini cups of colorful dressings? Guests are encouraged to mix and match the vinaigrettes into a mess of hues, a nod to abstractionist Jackson Pollock. And yellowfin tuna with dashes of avocado and taro chips? That’s an edible tribute to Banksy, of course. What does raw fish have to do with stenciled street art? It’s bold, heavily angled and has a short shelf life? Maybe? Perhaps don’t overthink it.
Even the paper is edible.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“Have you ever eaten a painting before?” says Nadine Beshir, the Dubai-based creator of “7 Paintings.” “We try to get people out of their comfort zones and eating paper. I want to bring out the child in them.”
“7 Paintings,” held at Sunset House L.A. through the end of August, is the latest example of immersive dining to arrive in this city. These experiences often involve guest participation and are accentuated with advanced multimedia technology and sometimes theatrical elements.
Worldwide, there have been standouts. For instance, Eatrenalin at Germany’s Europa-Park, a dining room-meets-ride where participants are whisked around the space on trackless “floating chairs,” has just received a coveted Michelin star. Ibiza’s Sublimotion has similar haute ambitions, pairing 12 diners together in a room that will come alive with otherworldly projections and performers. At times, diners will win don virtual reality headgear.
But tech-driven immersive dining experiences have never quite taken off in Los Angeles as a trend. Last year, the Gallery, where fantastical cityscapes and projections surrounded downtown L.A. diners, stood just a couple months before the concept was abandoned.
“7 Paintings” pairs food with art and music. It’s “fun dining, not fine dining,” says its founder.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Bartender Luca Famulari shakes a cocktail at the immersive dining event.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“The economics of a restaurant are not the same as the economics of theater and the challenge of combining the two lies in thinking outside the box with respect to pricing and cost structure, such that the customer perceives high value from both the food and the experience,” says the Gallery co-founder Daren Ulmer.
Entrepreneurs keep aiming for that careful balance. “Le Petit Chef and Friends” is currently running at Tangier at downtown’s Hotel Figueroa, an event in which a fully animated film is projected on our plates and tables. Long-running pop-up event Fork N’ Film leans more dinner and movie, pairing dishes directly inspired by what is happening on screen. Upcoming films include “Ratatouille” and “Lilo and Stitch.”
The field comes with challenges. “The costs are very high,” says Joanna Garner, an immersive designer and former creative director with experiential art firm Meow Wolf. Garner has been experimenting herself with communal, immersive dinner events, and her next, the flirtatious “Please Open Your Mouth,” is set for July 11. (No tech there, as Garner is after a more sensual, adult-focused gathering.) Tickets for her event are $150 and a spot in the “7 Paintings” dining room runs $175, priced on par with a number of city’s most acclaimed restaurants.
There is also the reality that all public dining is in some fashion immersive, usually requiring varying combinations of engagement, communication and presentation. And then, are all these added elements distracting?
An animated Mona Lisa sits on the wall as guests enjoy their meals. Throughout the dinner, the painting provides factoids on various artists.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Throughout “7 Paintings,” for instance, an animated Mona Lisa, situated on the wall next to the main dinner table, will provide brief biographical details of each artist represented.
“Being able to nail the food, and nail the story, those are two very difficult threads to weave,” Garner says. “I do think, ultimately, people come to a dinner table to talk to the people at the table and to have intimate experiences. To have an experience where you’re constantly being taken away from the food, I’m not so sure if that’s what people are looking for.”
Food is framed as a star of “7 Paintings” but tasting it is just one component. At one point, we must uncover a cheese course in a tiny treasure chest, the code for the lock hidden in the projections (don’t stress, it’s not a hard puzzle). Beshir highlights the Pollock-inspired salad course, which is accentuated with a jazz soundtrack, as the thesis of the evening.
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1. A guest uses a silicon brush to apply sauces onto an entree, a nod to abstractionist Jackson Pollock. 2. Projections fill up the dining table during meals.
“This course is really about getting people to free their minds from preconceived ideas,” Beshir says. “Like, you have to eat with a fork and knife, or the salad comes and then the dressing. No, the dressing comes and then the salad, and it’s trying with big brushes to paint the way he did. A lot of people do not understand Abstract Expressionism, and they think it’s people just splashing colors around. But when you understand the link between the rhythm of the music and painting, you live it. We give you time to paint with your salad dressing.”
In L.A., Beshir has partnered with nightlife impresario Kim Kelly, who is plotting a “Sleep No More”-inspired walk-around theatrical show for the Sunset House venue later this year. “7 Paintings,” however, is fully seated, and purposefully a little silly. Beshir and Kelly have been evolving it during its L.A. run, recently adding a stronger painting component by giving guests their own canvas to work on throughout the evening. Each night crowns a winner.
“Everyone comes over to look at their art,” Kelly says. “It just kind of changed the whole thing, to be honest. People are now being creative throughout the entire evening. Instead of just watching and occasionally painting, you’re now painting the whole time.”
As for what, perhaps, soba noodles with edamame and mushrooms have to do with Pablo Picasso, or why Salvador Dali gets an unexpected dessert course of a white chocolate potato souffle, Beshir clarifies the goal of the evening. While the animated Mona Lisa will provide backstories on each painter, this isn’t an educational night. “It’s fun dining, not fine dining,” Beshir says.
And by the end of my night, strangers were socializing, showing off their painted cookie creations, sharing Banksy tidbits and asking for recommendations on various vinaigrette combinations. Ultimately, it’s an evening of discovery, packed with surprises like finding an entire course hidden under a canvas.
Darryl Mayes of Charlotte, N.C., left, and Taylor Smith of North Hollywood, right, uncover their course.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“We try not to have too much sophistication, like fried ants or something. I’m personally very adventurous in how I eat, but if I want to have this in 100 cities around the world, I cannot be too meticulous.”
And Beshir has big goals.
“I want this be your movie and dinner thing,” Beshir says. “I want people to be waiting for our next show, and to be able to afford to come every couple months.”
And to come home not with leftovers, but perhaps a painting of their own.
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