Get Lost

It’s the weekend, the first Saturday since Election Day 2024. I’m probably going to get a pizza tonight (mushrooms and olives, two-three slices). Like many of you, I’ve spent the last few days fretting, and the fretting continues. Life continues. But I’d like to offer a little palate cleanser of things I’ve been enjoying in a moment when there doesn’t feel like there’s a whole lot of enjoyment to be had. So, forthwith, a few Saturday recommendations for some stuff you might like.

Starting 5 on Netflix: although I am not a big sports fan, I remain a sucker for any and all sports documentaries. Drive to Survive kicked off Netflix’s slate, which included the very boring QB1 and the somewhat more interesting Sprint, about elite short-distance runners. Starting 5 is their look at the NBA. It follows LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Edwards, Damontas Sabonis, and Jayson Tatum as they go through the 2023-24 season. It can be a little anodyne – these are athletes with a lot of media training behind them, after all – but, overall, it’s cool to get a backstage look at how NBA players go about practicing their craft.

I didn’t know who 4 out of 5 of these people were before I started watching. Now I’m a big fan of 3 1/2 of them.

The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut. I have a rule: when I go into an independent bookshop, I have to buy something. It’s a good rule in general because it supports independent bookshops but it’s a bad rule because I something don’t allow myself to go into a bookshop I might otherwise enjoy if I’m feeling especially penurious. However, at a recent trip to some indie bookshop or other, I picked up this thin book about the polymath John Von Neumann because I liked the cover illustration and because it was on Obama’s “books of the year” list. The Maniac is a fictional oral history about a very real guy whose accomplishments are so vast that it’s kind of ridonkulous. The book serves as a kind of roadmap for how we got here, technologically, without getting lost in the mathematical weeds. Here’s his Wiki page.

Cool cover, no?

Kid A by Radiohead. Such a dad rock pick, I know, but when this album came out almost twenty-five years ago (!), I didn’t really get into it. After watching a YouTube video breaking down the song “Everything In Its Right Place,” I decided to revisit, and it’s, well, it’s great. What I like about it is that, to me, it sounds like a recording of what I imagine how the creative process looks, if that makes sense. It probably doesn’t. What I mean is that some artists make everything look easy. Radiohead makes everything look hard, but in the best way. Everything feels like as struggle on this album, which is maybe why it speaks to me in this moment when everything feels like a struggle. As challenging as I found it two and a half decades ago, now I find the complicated songs enjoyable and even kind of danceable. Maybe my ear finally caught up to their brains.

Miso mushroom and leek pasta. Martha sent me this recipe to try a few weeks ago. Terrific. I went vegetarian about a year ago, and while the transition’s been pretty easy overall, there are definitely moments, particularly around dinner time, when it’s hard to feel inspired about opening another can of beans. Goddamn beans. This is a fresh take on a pasta dish – miso with pasta? WHAT?!? – plus yummy mushrooms and leeks, both of which I associate with autumn for reasons that almost certainly betray my lack of agricultural awareness. I have no idea when the best time of year for either mushrooms or leeks is, but I’m choosing to believe it’s fall. Easy to make and totes yummers, I may even 86 the pizza tonight and stir up another batch of this savory stuff instead. Here’s the recipe.

Yummers. Totes yummers.

Hiking in the woods. After Hilary Clinton lost in 2016, there were innumerable bitter jokes about Hilary sightings as she spent weeks strolling the hiking paths new the Clinton compound in Chappaqua, New York. WHO’S LAUGHING NOW? As somebody who spent a lot of time hiking in the wilds of Connecticut, I can’t recommend taking woodsy strolls enough, especially around this time of year when the leaves have turned but haven’t fully fallen, and the ground is still free from ice. While my current home of Savannah is a fantastic walking city, there are no good forested trails in which to lose myself. I miss it a lot. If you happen to have access to a deep forest, take a lil’ walksy in there on my behalf, please. You can even bring along your headphones and listen to Kid A while you hike. Do yourself a favor, get lost.

I’ve also been writing a lot, which those of you who subscribe already know. Mea culpa. Writing is how I wring out my wet brain. Hopefully all of you are taking time for yourselves to decompress after a horrendous few days. Whatever’s going to happen as we move forward will happen, for better or for worse, and I hope everybody has stuff in their lives that brings them joy. Would love to hear what apolitical stuff you’ve been watching, reading, listening to, enjoying. I’m sure we could all use some distractions. As we move into the new week, and the weeks and months to come, I’ll keep keepin’ on, as the saying goes, and I hope you do the same.