The Silver Lining: Volume 31
Musings on living the good life: food, culture, art, and products designed to inspire. Top picks from me to you on Thursdays.
Top Tracks
Artist: London Grammar
Why I picked it: I was delighted to see the UK based trio announce their third studio album titled Californian Soil, due out February ‘21. As part of that news, they delighted fans with two new tracks off the forthcoming album — including the title track “California Soil”. The song reminds me of the Massive Attack track “Teardrop” that served as the opening to Hugh Laurie’s hit show House from the 2000s.
Comparisons aside, I love what I’m hearing from London Grammar’s new work, and I’m particularly happy having lead singer Hannah Reid’s dramatic and soulful voice back in rotation.
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Artist: Tycho + rum.gold
Why I picked it: Tycho is back with new material as well this week, this time collaborating with R&B singer-songwriter rum.gold. The collab is a winner, complete with sultry vocals and a winning beat that equal parts chill and groove. Tycho expands on the collaboration:
“Working with rum.gold’s voice was really freeing in that it provided the contrast needed to push things into a different emotional space.” Encased by golden tones and crisp details, “Run Away” lays down all-familiar instrumentation and ambient synth harmonies as soft vocal layers wrap around rum.gold’s poignant performance.
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Artist: Nick Murphy
Why I picked it: My buddy Mike is back with another fantastic recco, this time with a Chet Faker aka Nick Murphy remix that had us really grooving this week. Cleopold deserves most of the credit here: the Aussie based producer brings a welcome upbeat cadence to Nick’s strong vocal. Simply put — it’s a vibe. Crank up the volume and dance with me.
Fall is off to a very strong start on the music front — here’s my Fall ‘20 Playlist that I’ll be adding to all season long.
Artist Date
When I moved back to LA from New York City a few years back, each autumn I’d be filled with major fomo. Fall in the City is unbeatable: crisp weather, changing leaves, the collective energy and optimism of New York’s denizens peaking just before the impending hibernation of winter.
A tentpole of culture in the city each fall is always The New Yorker Festival: a who’s-who of the arts, politics and everything in between. For the first time ever, this year’s festival is presented virtually, a ‘silver lining’ of the pandemic.
While the event is set to go from October 5-11, once you purchase tickets you can stream the entire catalogue for on-demand replay until October 13th. I purchased a VIP ticket for $49 and have slowly been working through the program: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chris Rock, Maya Rudolph, Ethan Hawk, and Fiona Apple among many others. Pretty damn good value if you ask me, all from the comfort of home.
Barefoot Contessa Bootcamp
The queen herself, at age 72, Ina Garten is out with her 12th cookbook this month titled Modern Comfort Food. I stumbled across the news in the New York Times’ roundup of the best 14 Cookbooks for Fall, itself a great gifting resource for the epicurean friends and family in your lives this holiday season.
Modern Comfort Food boasts 85 recipes that reviewer Kim Severson assures will please Contessa fans:
The collection can seem awfully, well, Hamptons-y against the backdrop of more diverse offering this fall, but the spell Ms. Garten holds over her fans will not be broken. We will put hash browns in the waffle iron, we will bake our cod with Ritz crackers and panko, and we will grill white Cheddar and mango chutney into a sandwich, because sometimes we need to fancy up old favorites, and also because she’s the Barefoot Contessa, probably the most trusted brand in cookbook writing today.
Photo: Catherine Servel
SKU of the Week
As the weather cools and cases are likely to increase, mask wearing is of paramount importance. With so many brands bringing mask designs to consumers this year, which are the real winners?
Our editors at TQE took a stab at finding the perfect mask for each person. Check out Zoe’s round-up to see her faves and maybe find yours, too.
Table for 2
Two new openings on my radar that I’m excited to check out when we return to LA next week:
Clark Street Bakery
Clark Street, known as one of the best bakeries in all of Los Angeles, is coming to the westside courtesy of the former LPQ space in Brentwood. At first the menu will include offering takeaway breads, pastries, coffee, and breakfast and lunch items daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Carb fans rejoice — this is a big win for the Westside.
Marvito
From the geniuses behind Marvin, the little French bistro in the Beverly / Fairfax area, comes Marvito. Marvito’s menu is inspired by the beloved beachside burger and taco shacks of yesteryear. Their Instagram vibe is on point — building community and buzz around the opening with impressive food shots to boot. Add to your lunch queue:
Social Action
With the election less than a month away, I was excited to learn about The Infatuation’s collaboration with Zagat and the nonprofit organization The Migrant Kitchen called “Feed the Polls”. The initiative aims to give voters free, nutritious meals at polling places on Election Day, focusing on poorer, food-insecure communities.
They have a stated goal of distributing 50,000 meals on November 3. Consider donating to their GoFundMe page if the program speaks to you!
Social Starlettes
David Attenborough is newly on the socials, folks. Here’s Seedlip celebrating:
Eerie image of a truly fucked week in Washington:
Exhibit A:
The Tax scandal story from ONE WEEK AGO is largely out of sight, out of mind already, but this video summarizes nicely:
HT to Will with the find of this piece of New York transit nostalgia:
LOL when the Salt & Vinegar hits:
And finally this week., I came across this thread of amazing moving images from turn-of-the-century city centers. Here’s Paris in the 1890s. You can also watch the original remastered video on Youtube.
For those curious about the origin story here — This Times piece from 1989 explains in full detail:
They were taken between 1896 and 1900 by Auguste and Louis Lumiere, two brothers from Lyons, France, who are widely recognized as the world's first film makers.
Together the brothers Lumiere made more than 2,000 silent black-and-white short films. To call them ''short'' is an understatement: each lasts less than a minute. Nevertheless, they are to motion pictures what the Dead Sea Scrolls are to Scripture. Old, but still to be seen.
That’s it for Volume 31. I’m off next week, I’ll see you back here October 22nd.
Comments, questions, tips?
Send a letter to the editor –– Scott Silver:
scott@thesilverlining.la / @thesilverlining.la