Judy Miller Silverman's Desk Notes
The legendary publicist gives us an annotated tour of her desk.
The cat calendar came from my friend Gemma who picked it up in Japan. Every month you have to remove the front cat and move it to the back. I have made this a bit of a ceremonial VIDEO on my IG stories. For the millions interested, ‘Changing of the Cat’ runs 1x month, top of the month.
Black candle from my friend Aimee. Because… goth. Never burned. Hoping to put a spell on someone.
The handmade ceramic pen holder (aka cup) I bought like 10+ years ago at a shop that was on Fairfax called Keep Shoes that sold vegan sneakers. They also had some locally made projects and I loved the ‘cup.’ there are two of them. The shop is still online and run by an amazing woman named Una.
Pottery bottle. Bought this from a recovering music manager and I adore it. Brian Deran used to manage all sorts of bands including Animal Collective during the Feels and Merriweather era. He now does printmaking, art, and pottery and listens to a lot less complaints.
The small wooden box just came to me from my mother-in-law via Tokyo. It’s a music box from this company Sankyo that has been making all sorts of music boxes for hundreds of years. I thought it was so sweet it went on my desk. It plays ‘When you wish upon a star.’
Speaking of wishing…
My cousin in Santa Fe, New Mexico sent me the ‘Zuni Fetish’ bear. It is for strength, introspection, and healing. I was diagnosed with Breast cancer in October 2023 and spent most of last year in treatment. I am in remission, but there have been a lot of lovely tokens given to me.
The embroidered and framed message came unexpectedly from someone named Elia Einhorn. I was working on a project with him and was diagnosed with cancer around the same time. One day this showed up. Was so sweet!
The books. Had the pleasure of working with Brian Eno on a few books, but not this one… This just got sent to me, so I had stored it there. I worked on the Fall Book with Faber Books, and I just keep meaning to read the Byrne one.
Mug. Broke down and bought myself a set of Heath dishes and mugs. Sustainably handcrafted ceramics that have been around for about 75 years in the US. I had stayed home so much the past 18 months with treatment that I wanted to love what I was using. YOLO.
Judy Miller Silverman is a legend in music publicity. After a stint at RCA early on in her career, she took the helm at Motormouthmedia, a boutique PR agency that specialises in championing left-of-centre artists, brands, museums and books, and helped the likes of Brian Eno, Four Tet, SOPHIE, Thundercat, Arooj Aftab and more make their mark in the US.