The Silver Lining: Volume 26
Musings on living the good life: food, culture, art, and products designed to inspire. Top picks from me to you, every Thursday.
Top Tracks
We kick things off with new material from brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence, affectionately known as Disclosure. The British Dance/EDM duo shared new material last week titled “Douha” that we’re really grooving to:
This is the latest track from their upcoming album Energy, featuring lyrics and vocals from Malian artist Fatoumata Diawara. The new album is due out later this month on August 28th!
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My music discovery takes many forms — Spotify Discover Weekly and KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic are my go-to’s — but once in awhile, I find inspiration in random places. This week I came across this Bob Marley & The Wailers track featuring Ms. Lauren Hill on a cool-down Peloton ride:
It’s pure good vibes for your morning routine or weekend recovery sessions.
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Finally this week — I’ve been spending more and more time listening to Allen Stone, the R&B and Soul singer blessed with serious vocal chops. The 33-year-old from Spokane, Washington has been recording music for nearly a decade, and his 2019 album Building Balance is his best yet.
I’ve decided to feature “American Privilege” from his 2016 Radius album for its particularly poignant lyrics reflecting the times we’re living in:
It’s also the first song featured on his 20-minute stripped-down Tiny Desk Concert, which is really something to behold. His voice is squarely on display throughout:
If you’re feeling Mr. Stone’s work as much as I am — scope his cover of Ray Charles’ Georgia On My Mind, it’s a good one. (You know how I feel about covers!)
Artist Date
Props to friend and former colleague Alex Blunk for sending the Underwater Malta project my way for this week’s Artist Date.
This online museum features incredible imagery captured from deep-sea dives of shipwrecks of historical significance located on the seabed off Malta and Gozo.
This online platform brings underwater cultural heritage to the surface and into the homes of the general public. Using 3D, virtual reality and other media, the aim of this website is to provide access to and share Malta’s unique underwater cultural heritage with all members of the public.
Diver capturing imagery for the Underwater Malta Project. Featured content includes a 2,700-year-old Phoenician shipwreck, First World War surface crafts, and submarines from the Second World War. Check it out!
Barefoot Contessa Bootcamp
I’ve been seeing ads for this new chef-driven cooking class platform called Yes Chef that looks pretty damn promising. Featuring James Beard award-winning chefs like Nancy Silverton and Edward Lee with many more to follow, Yes Chef is a Master Class type offering focussed exclusively on chefdom and food.
Here’s a recap of Nancy Silverton’s class focussed on her Italian cuisine:
FROM LA TO UMBRIA: IN PURSUIT OF DELICIOUS
From the quaint kitchen in her Umbrian home, and the bustling galleys of her Los Angeles restaurants, Chef Nancy Silverton rolls up her sleeves and teaches the principles and processes behind her world-famous food. She teaches roasting, grilling and baking, and how to build flavor from the base, up. She teaches the tricks and techniques for creating delicious family meals, and dazzling dinner parties. By the end of her class, you’ll have learned not just how to cook like Nancy at home, but how to host like her, too.
You can sign up for an annual pass to get started, which features a 30-day money-back guarantee if you decide it’s not your cup of tea.
Each YesChef class includes 4.5+ hours of content divided into a 45-min cinematic documentary plus 12+ hands on lessons and recipes from the chef’s home kitchen (each± 20 minutes long).
Table for 2
2020 has thrust restauranteurs into survival and innovation mode, and an emerging trend we continue to pay close attention to is the Instagram ‘Pop-Up’. We’ve already featured three pop-ups — Ăn Cơm in Volume 21, Burmese, Please in Volume 16, and Oaxacan pop-up Valle in Volume 13.
This week we bring you yet another in the form of Sandwich pop-up Carla Kitchen, who ‘drops’ sandwiches weekly on their Instagram account. Up until this week, the team has been operating out of their family’s Beverly Hills home where pickups occurred. Word on the street is they’ll now be popping up out of Bootsy Bellows on Sunset.
We were very impressed with the Tuna Chopped we picked up this week — which comes on great Ciabatta style bread — and are excited to follow their progress as they fly the coop and set up temporary roots in WeHo.
The Tuna Chopped sandy from Carla Kitchen.
Social Action
Our thoughts are with the people of Beirut this week. You can donate directly to the Lebanon Red Cross, or review this round-up for more ways to support those impacted.
Social Starlettes
Who else remembers his gold cleats? 1996 feels like a galaxy far, far away these days:
Obsessed with this account I stumbled upon this week. Sanna Dullaway is a colorist who brings vibrant and historically accurate color to old black and white photos. Click through to see her before and after:
Speaking of color (click to play):
Thank you to my sister Lindsey (and fellow swimmer) for this epic find:
And we’ll close it out with Obama’s smack talk on the court:
That’s it for Volume 26. 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