The Silver Lining: Volume 11
Musings on living the good life: food, culture, art, and products designed to inspire. Top picks from me to you, every Thursday.
No preamble this week. Let’s get right to it!
Top Track(s)
This week — the internet meme ‘Bill Clinton Swag’ ran wild, so we feel obliged to leverage Bill as a visual aid for this week’s tracks:
First up is French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg with his track 69 annee erotique:
The Godfather of French Pop, Gainsbourg gained notoriety for his often sexual and satirical overtones. After his death in the early 90s, he reached cult status in France, and is one of the few French Pop artists to transcend fame and success on the U.S. and U.K. charts as well. This track has me craving beef bourguignon with a big, bold Bordeaux.
—
To Bill’s left is a selection from one of my favorite albums from 2018, Bahamas’ Earthtones, titled “No Wrong”:
Afie Jurvanen is the man behind the Bahamas brand, and is one of my favorite voices…ever. This is the kind of album you should play start to finish. We were lucky to see him in concert while he toured in support of the album; what a treat to see him sing live.
—
Next is Meeka Kates’s “Weight", a sexy track from his 2017 EP Fault Line:
Meeka originally hails from NYC, but his bio says he’s living in Amsterdam. Hard to to know for sure; he hasn’t posted on social media since 2017!
What a guy, living on his own terms, offline, in the real world. Socials aside, this track rocks. Probably best paired with a stiff Negroni and some mood lighting.
—
And finally, we round things out with the Jazz proprietor Bobby Jackson and his track “Ya Kum Ba” from his album The Cafe Extra-Ordinaire Story:
The backstory on Bobby and his Jazz club is an interesting one:
You won't find the name Bobby Jackson in the jazz books. Yet here is a remarkable man who did more than anyone to promote live jazz in his hometown of Minneapolis, risking everything to open a venue for jazz lovers and putting on such luminaries as Freddie Hubbard, Roland Kirk and Elvin Jones. In so doing he rode the wave of financial insecurity, dealt with problems involving drugs, the law and the police, not to mention the issues and temperaments of the musicians themselves. Yet he still managed to keep things together enough to record a truly deep and inspired album with his band - although it took another 8 years before it was finally released, telling the engaging story of the Cafe Extra-Ordinaire and all who took part in it.
It’s a great album to throw into your Jazz rotation when you’re in the mood!
Artist Date - c/o Julia Cameron
This week I came across two things to scratch your ‘Artist Date’ itch without having to get off the couch:
First, it’s National Park Week, and Earth Day was yesterday, so…it’s a double mitzvah to take a few beats and appreciate mother earth this week. The kind folks at the National Park Service are reminding us all about the beauty and value of our nations park system via — you guessed it — webcam. I particularly loved this view of El Capitan in Yosemite:
Second, Warner Music Group announced on Tuesday a three-day virtual music festival called PlayOn Fest, taking place this weekend. It will stream each day on PlayOnFest.com and Songkick’s Youtube channel.
65 Acts, including Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Death Cab, and Coldplay, will play archival footage of their shows at some of the world’s iconic music venues as part of the PlayOn Fest.
P.S. — Lee and I had a killer dance party with Jason Bentley’s Metropolis at Home (featured last week). Highly recommend and we’ll be tuning in again on Saturday Night.
Barefoot Contessa Bootcamp
Eleven volumes in, and I’ve yet to feature something from the culinary goddess that is the actual Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. That all changes this week, with her mustard marinated Flank Steak recipe.
We hadn’t made red meat in awhile, and this mustard-and-vinegar marinade hit the spot. She recommends marinating the meat in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before cooking but preferably overnight. We followed the day-ahead strategy and it came out really damn good. Bon Appetit!
Using the tip of a sharp knife, we lightly scored the top of the steak diagonally in a large crisscross pattern. This allows the marinade to penetrate into the meat more easily.
SKU of the Week
With all this cooking-in-quarantine, I noticed a few weeks ago that my knives were going dull. I never figured out how to use the honig steel that comes in most knife sets. And so I started researching a more convenient and effective at-home option, which led me to this Wirecutter article detailing 2020’s best-of. I opted for the Chef’s Choice 15 Trizor Electric Knife Sharpener.
It’s definitely not the ‘budget’ option, but my knives are high quality and I wanted something that would consistently do the job for the long haul. This week I learned all about getting the Burr back on the edge, and I’m back in business in the kitchen: strong endorsement to snag this SKU for anyone on the hunt for a sharper edge.
Editors note — this machine is (annoyingly) loud, so keep that in mind before sharpening if anyone is enjoying a quarantine nap.
Social Starlette(s)
If Stanley Tucci moonlighting as barkeep in quarantine isn’t a silver lining, I’m not sure what is:
Shoutout to The Last Dance premiering last week, and to this homage of film photography:
Major mood:
And finally, an epic video of SF’s downtown, a week before the Great SF Earthquake of 1906:
Stay healthy, stay grateful, stay sane. Sending love and hugs!
That’s it for Volume 11. New issues of The Silver Lining drop weekly on Thursdays.
Comments, questions, tips?
Send a letter to the editor –– Scott Silver:
scott@thesilverlining.la / @thesilverlining.la