The Silver Lining: Volume 14
Musings on living the good life: food, culture, art, and products designed to inspire. Top picks from me to you, every Thursday.
Quick PSA for the newbies re: what we’re all about with The Silver Lining:
Each week my goal is to bring you a few new sparks of joy — maybe it’s a new song that gets you up and dancing around the house. Or a recipe that inspires you to throw an apron on and try your hand in the kitchen. I’ll share a product that caught my eye that maybe will catch yours, too. Or the curiosity to take yourself on an artist date — you deserve it, damnit!
Keep coming back each week, and let’s see where this thing takes us, ya? Thanks for being here. On to Volume 14.
Top Track(s)
Let’s kick things off with a blast from the past: This is a hell of a cut from Luther’s 1982 album Forever, For Always, For Love.
This song reminds me of summer pool parties growing up — blasting 80s and 90s hits from the likes of Jon Secada, vintage Whitney and Mariah while scarfing down 7 layer dip from Costco. Good times!
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Blasting back to 2020 — one of my favorite acts of the last few years — Parisian Electronic duo Polo & Pan, just dropped the first new material in two years with this hour long mixtape:
New Yorker writer Stephania Taladrid describes their sound far better than I could:
Their songs are funky but suave, uniquely fun, and evoke a fantasy of European night life. Key influences include LCD Soundsystem and Claude Debussy…
Their début album, “Caravelle,” from 2017, was conceived as a voyage across blissful destinations. Close your eyes on “Zoom Zoom” and it’s 1964, somewhere near Ipanema; close them again and travel to the rainforests of Cameroon with “Bakara.” Though most of the duo’s lyrics are in French, many of their songs are infused with vintage samples and exotic instruments, including Pygmy flutes—a blend that invites both surprise and enchantment.
Check them out! I think you’ll dig.
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We’ll close things out this week with newish material from one of the power-house performers of her generation: Yvette Marie Stevens aka CHAKA KHAN!
At 67 years old, Chaka Khan has been performing for nearly five decades. How’s that for staying power? This cut — “Like a Lady” — came to mind when Chaka Khan trended on Twitter a few weeks back for this Jeopardy contestant’s viral mishap:
Laughs aside, the song makes me want to hit a disco club and dance away some of the quarantine 15.
Artist Date
Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl penned a beautiful piece for The Atlantic titled The Day the Live Concert Returns that’s well worth the read. A few excerpts that spoke to me:
I’m hungry for a big old plate of sweaty, ear-shredding, live rock and roll, ASAP. The kind that makes your heart race, your body move, and your soul stir with passion.
I don’t know when it will be safe to return to singing arm in arm at the top of our lungs, hearts racing, bodies moving, souls bursting with life. But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to. It’s not a choice. We’re human. We need moments that reassure us that we are not alone. That we are understood. That we are imperfect. And, most important, that we need each other.
Amen, Dave.
While we wait things out on the sidelines, artists continue to find ways to bring their art to life. The great folks at Sofar Sounds are doing nightly livestreams with a calendar of killer acts — check out the schedule for upcoming streams.
One of my favorite new artists — I featured Jordan Mackampa in Volume 002 — performed his Sofar stream on Monday, and you can view the recording of it below:
Barefoot Contessa Bootcamp
As a member of the tribe, I’ve long connected to Judaism through food; learning the traditions of our faith via the lens of the dinner table ‘spread’ of ethnic food from my ancestors. As such, I was delighted to see the birth of the Great Jewish Food Fest starting next week:
What exactly is the GBJFF? Here’s the skinny from the festival creators:
A 10-day online festival celebrating the history, diversity, and excitement for all things Jewish food. Join us for cooking classes, virtual deli tours, film screenings, panel discussions and so much more.
All events are free and open to the public thanks to generous funding from our donors. We welcome and encourage donations to help support those in the food industry who have lost critical revenue during the COVID-19 crisis and those who are experiencing food insecurity. Learn more about the funds we are raising money for here.
I’m most excited for the The Great Shabbat Cook-Along featuring Top Chef judge Gail Simmons and Michael Solomonov of Zahav, Einat Admony of Balaboosta, and hit cookbook author Adeena Sussman. Join me!
SKU of the Week
With summer around the corner, I’m excited for many things, including lots of time spent outdoors. But as a west-sider in LA, evenings can really cool down from peak highs during the day.
Enter this weeks SKU — Lee and I joke it’s some of the best money we’ve ever spent — our outdoor patio fire pit.
It looks like our particular model is currently out of stock, but we’re big fans of the Coral Coast brand and it looks like they have a range of alternatives in different finishes for great value.
S’mores night has become a ‘thing’ in our house — and if you follow me on Instagram you’ll catch some fire-lit scenes of us enjoying the warmth. I hope this inspires you to spice up your outdoor space as well.
Social Action
A lot of us are asking, especially in this environment, what can I do to help? I came across this site Volunteer Match that is a volunteer resource on steroids. They’ve set up a special COVID section to source volunteers across the country.
You can narrow the search by your location, skillsets, and interests, and cause area. I encourage you to take a look and see if there’s a good fit!
Social Starlette(s)
HT to Will for finding this gem. You can pull up your address from when/if you lived in New York City and find the 1940s Tax Assessor’s photos of your building. Blast from the past!
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country:
Imagine MJ showing up at your local YMCA for pickup…
Love Mandy Patinkin, love him trying to figure out Twitter even more:
And finally — if mom is going to get buckets on you, try not to have it caught on tape:
That’s it for Volume 14. 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