Maggie Downs

3 days ago | businessinsider.com | Alexandra Karplus |Maggie Downs |Henry Blodget

Nearly five years ago, I broke up with alcohol. I didn't yet know what it would mean for my day-to-day life, but I knew it would rattle my travel rhythm. No more hotel bar nightcaps. No more mid-flight Bloody Marys. And no more welcome-drink toasts after check-in. I braced for less fun and fewer indulgences. Yawning over sparkling water served in wine glasses. But the surprise was that sober travel turned out to be sharper, more vivid, and even more meaningful.

1 week ago | palmspringslife.com | Maggie Downs

With guests already seated and the clock ticking, their wedding planner, Trish Jones, swooped in with a solution: a second ceremony. The estate remained the backdrop for the big, dazzling celebration. But two days later, the couple made it official — after securing another license — with an intimate, windswept vow exchange in Joshua Tree. “We had the most amazing first wedding, but getting to go to Joshua Tree and have a private ceremony with Trish was fitting for us,” Joanna shares.

1 week ago | mcsweeneys.net | Maggie Downs

“Dozens of US arts organizations have been notified that offers of government grants have been terminated, hours after Donald Trump proposed eliminating federal agencies that support arts, humanities and learning.” — The Guardian- - -I don’t know about you, but I’ve been sweating bullets the last few years, just terrified that the National Endowment for the Arts would receive a sensible amount of funding.

2 weeks ago | matadornetwork.com | Maggie Downs

Houston Insider Guides Art + Architecture by Maggie Downs Apr 28, 2025 I’d just stepped out of a glowing, dreamlike installation at Art Club in Houston — one of those immersive, blink-and-you’re-in-another-reality spaces — when a woman from the gallery stopped me with a smile and one perfect question: “Did you love it?” I nodded, still a little dazed, and before I could say much more, she rattled off a half-dozen other places I had to see. Not just museums but artist-run spaces, warehouse...

1 month ago | mcsweeneys.net | Maggie Downs

3:45 a.m. – Wake naturally to the soft sigh of a ghost. Or maybe it’s the hum of the Amherst wind through the shutters. Either way, it’s a Sign. Do not question the Sign. 4:00 a.m. – Lie completely still and compose six hauntingly perfect quatrains in your mind. Refuse to scribble them down. Let them ferment in the silence like forbidden knowledge. 4:45 a.m. – Tape mouth shut. This is not for health. It’s a vow of silence to preserve the sanctity of unspoken verse.