Friday Faves 4/17: Young Helen Mirren, Christian Scott, Women Leaders, Mezcal, and Funfetti Cookies
Best Activity
The zoom call cocktail hour has filled many people’s social habits while we all try to stay put in our homes. The last four Tuesday I’ve hopped on a call with friends from Holy Cross. Some of them live in Boston, but others are in New York, Virginia, and Connecticut. At this stage in life it’s hard to get everyone together. Weddings are done, so no bachelor parties. They all have kids, so trips or nights out have to be meticulously planned. However, the zoom call, and the slow pace of life right now, has allowed me to see some guys I hadn’t seen in quite some time.
One thing I have noticed during zoom calls with friends and family is the fact that we can’t communicate through our phone and pull up a funny video or text message. I also don’t have the urge to look at my phone is the conversation doesn’t involve me. I know we’re looking into a camera to talk to each other, but there is an old fashioned feeling to the call. Everyone can see you, you can see everyone. Sometimes the conversation peters out and we have to sit for a minute before a new topic is brought up. That wave of pressure doesn’t exist when you’re sitting in a room with people as much anymore. We’re all so accustomed to having shorter attention spans, and we’ve also expected others to have shorter attention spans, too. There’s less hiding on a zoom call, but maybe I’m just a fool and all my friends are doing three other things during the call that are even worse than just aimlessly scrolling through the phone while I try to explain why I watched The Bachelor Present: Listen to Your Heart.
Best Watch
Prime Suspect: A young Helen Mirren plays DCI Tennison in this British crime show. It aired back in the early 90s. We watched the first season this week, which is only two episodes, but each episode is 90 minutes long. Don’t let that detract you though. It’s just two episodes of any other show back-to-back, just make the commitment! The show is very different from other crime shows we’ve watched. There is barely any soundtrack, it’s very quiet and calm, it move slowly. There’s an incredible amount of cross-talking and discussion in the background, which is distracting without subtitles. Helen Mirren is awesome, Tom Wilkerson is also in the first season. It takes about 25-30 minutes to get comfortable with the pacing and presentation of the show, but it’s very good TV and tackles a lot of timely topics.
Best Listen
Ancestral Recall by Christian Scott eTunde Adjuah: I had never heard of Christian Scott until this week when I listened to an interview with him on Ryen Russillo’s podcast (listen here starting at the 14:30 mark). He was raised in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans and played a mean trumpet. He was touring at 15 years-old and Ancestral Recall has been in the rotational all week. Pop it on and you might not think of jazz the same way again.
Best Read
Zen, Ultra-Marathoning, and the Art of Suffering: We’re all suffering a little bit right now in our various ways. This is a splendid piece about Avery Collins, a world famous ultra-distance runner. I’m not sure how people do this stuff, and it’s always interesting to read about the different mentalities that ultra-runners have. They aren’t all cut from the same cloth. - SBNation.com
Woman Leaders are the Best Leaders during this Pandemic: “Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, stood up early and calmly told her countrymen that this was a serious bug that would infect up to 70% of the population. ‘It’s serious,’ she said, ‘take it seriously.’ She did, so they did too. Testing began right from the get-go. Germany jumped right over the phases of denial, anger and disingenuousness we’ve seen elsewhere. The country’s numbers are far below its European neighbors, and there are signs it may be able to start loosening restrictions relatively soon.”
Truth, Tech, and Love are at the heart of the countries that seem to be handling the pandemic best. Oh, and female leadership. Forbes.
Best Eat
Funfetti Cookies: I’m having a tough time… my co-worker continues to bring baked goods into the office. Tiff made cookies from the Milk Bar cookbook we have. They were incredibly delicious, and we’ve had to try really hard to make them last the entire week.
Meal Prep Boxes: We have subscriptions to Blue Apron and Hello Fresh. We use them rather infrequently, maybe once a month. I will typically cancel Blue Apron long before the delivery date, but sometimes I forget and we end up with a box of meals for the week. On the rarest of weeks, like Halley’s Comet, both of us will forget to cancel. This week was a Halley’s Comet week. The bright side of the mix-up was we didn’t have to go to the grocery or think up our own meals. One less thing to worry about. And the meals have been delicious so far. The highlight being a kale salad with chicken. The dressing was the star: dijon mustard, tahini, garlic paste, lemon juice, and some oil.
Best Drink
Jalapeno Mezcal Margarita: Our co-isolation friend, Mallory, made this drink for us last week during our BBQ dinner; I didn’t include it here, but I should have. I’m not entirely sure how she made the drink, but it was spicy (jalapano seeds), smokey (the mezcal), and it she used chili salt for the rim that would go well on fish or chicken.
Lord Hobo’s Hobo Life: This is a wonderful session IPA. I have found myself cracking one while making dinner. It’s right up there with “All Day IPA” from founders. It tastes like an IPA, but it a little crisper. Making it a great choice as the days lengthen and the weather warms. Sip this one on your deck or with the windows open or slip it into a Koozie on your evening dog walk (or your morning walk if you’re feeling really low…).
Best Plugs
The Imperfect Game: Two pods this week!!
First, Both and I had to push ourselves this week to track down a worthy hero and villain for Crystal Palace F.C. The little brother of London football clubs has a villain just south of it along the English coast. It all started with some dolphins, a penalty kick, a cup of coffee, and some spare change in 1976. The bad blood has existed ever since between Crystal Palace and Brighton.
The Eagles have existed in a world of "what ifs." Their trophy case is rather empty, but a young manage, Steve Coppell r in the 1980s pushed them to the brink of FA Cup glory along with their highest final in top flight football. The Eagles did win a trophy in 1991 and were founding members of the Premier League in 1992. Their manager at the time was the reason, and he's the hero in this week's episode.
Listen to Both and I on iTunes and please subscribe so each pod is delivered to your ears.
Second, I also had Paul Burke on to talk about the newest golf schedule, sports content during the pandemic, Golf Channel’s lack of creativity, and we wrap up by trying to build the perfect golfer.
Listen to Paul and I on iTunes and please subscribe so each pod is delivered to your ears.