Keepsake (Compass), Elizabeth Ziman’s fourth record, began when her landlord was considering jacking up the rent and she had to move across the street into a tiny apartment, far away from her recording gear and the baby grand piano on which she loved to write. Or it began when she started keeping a dream journal, writing down snippets of visions in the middle of the night, or first thing in the morning on awakening. Or it began when she started leafing through old journals and diaries, little half-finished snatches of lyrics and couplets and freewriting, and tried to see if she could shape them through to some kind of completion. Well, who’s to say where anything begins or ends? But for Ziman, who records as Elizabeth And The Catapult, Keepsake was definitely a milestone record—the end of one thing, and the beginning of something else. Ziman will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on her.
Ziman: This tiny hole-in-the-wall falafel joint on MacDougal Street is hands-down the best falafel in New York—maybe the best I’ve ever had. I could be a bit biased, as I grew up a half a block away, but when I was a kid I’d spend my daily allowance on Mamoun’s after school, buying one falafel and one baklava dessert, and then subsequently make myself sick by eating the whole thing in about two minutes flat. These same guys have been cooking up the yummiest, healthiest (that’s what I tell myself) fresh hummus, falafel and shawarma for going on 50 years now. It’s still cheap and fast, and they even have a killer logo for their T-shirts. Long live Mamoun’s!
