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Here’s this week’s four things:
music:
Tenet soundtrack1: In recent years my intake of movie, show, and video game scores have gone up 2000% (estimated, not actual). It's an interesting art form. Take what is primarily visual art, and along with the emotive aspects of acting, story, plot, action, cinematography; and create music which reflects the same feeling. Like a mirror, but the mirror somehow translates your reflection into a different sense (from visual to audible, a taste, a touch, a smell). Turning a liquid to a solid.
It’s magic.
The Tenet soundtrack sounds like what would happen if a time-travelling cyborg with an penchant for odd-time rhythms was programmed with the compositional skills of Mozart. It uses sampled sounds from the film. It flips and reverses on itself. It's loud, like a 747 crashing into a hangar. It's delicate like an orchestra warming up minutes before the beginning of WWIII. I think it’s a work of genius.
This is an album I listen to when I want to do deep work, or I am driving long distance at dusk. It helps me to pull creative thoughts out of the sky and into my mind, and if I am lucky record those thoughts in some medium.
article:
Guardian interview with Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys: This came into my read-o-sphere in a timely moment, after last week’s four things suggesting you all to listen to their 2018 album Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. They have a new album coming out the 21st of October called The Car. The Guardian interview displayed the unique and often quirky qualities that Turner seems to possess. I’ve seen him live a few times (once in Barcelona with the Last Shadow Puppets and once in Madrid with Arctic Monkeys) and he is both impossibly cool AND charmingly odd in how he directs attention. My favorite part of the interview is how it shows his humility and projects his creative struggles along with his ability to not take himself so seriously.
physical activity:
10 minute workout: I read some advice years ago about the power of a 10 minute workout. Or five minutes. The idea is to set a timer for a short period of time and do as many of one simple exercise as you can. Reality is a spectrum, not zero sum. Five minutes of push-ups isn’t easy, and it’s better than zero minutes. My favorites: push-ups, squats, burpees, pull-ups.
Embrace “good enough”, not perfection.
recipe:
Once upon a time I had the best patty melt in the world. Since then it has ruined every other patty melt I’ve ever eaten. The story goes, years ago I was hanging out with one of my closest friends (Griffin) and arriving home after some beverages and laughs I mentioned I was hungry. She bippity-boppity-booed and in a fit of culinary alchemy produced said magical patty melt. It’s from one of Chrissy Tiegan’s cookbooks. I’ve replicated this recipe on many occasions, always with the same amazing results. Enjoy!
Crispy Bacon and Sweet Pickle Patty Melts
Yield: 4
INGREDIENTS
1/2 medium yellow onion
3/4 pound ground beef (preferably 80 percent lean)
5 bacon slices, cooked crisp and crumbled
3 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
8 slices white bread
Butter, room temperature
Vegetable oil
8 slices American cheese
PROCEDURE
1. Using a box grater, grate onion into a bowl. Scoop up the grated onion with your hands and squeeze and discard liquid. (You’re going to wash you hands for the rest of the day. Sorry.) Return squeezed onion to bowl; add beef, bacon, relish, egg, garlic, salt, pepper and cayenne. Mix it all together using your hands, but gently. Pat out 4 thin patties and you get extra credit if you get them equal in size to the bread.
2. Generously spread one side of each slice of bread with softened butter.
3. Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Grease the skillet with oil and when you see it start to smoke cook the patties until browned and a crust forms, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
4. Reduce heat to medium and arrange 4 slices of bread, butter-side down in the skillet. Layer with a slice of cheese, a burger patty and another slice of cheese. Top with a final slice of bread butter side-up.
5. Cook, pressing down slightly once in a while, until the bread is brown, crisp and toasty, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve hot.
When I saw the movie I remember thinking that the score was it’s own character in the movie. I found this youtube video where the composer Ludwig Göransson was talking about how he was approached to make the score, and his process. It’s insane. You know when you find something you think is so interesting that you’re completely fixated on it and time goes by fast and you wish it could go on much longer? It was one of those experiences.