as a matter of fact, i'm there right now
this and that — 1/20/25
So many people shared beautiful tributes to David Lynch this week. I felt a little stuck, like he meant so much to me that I didn’t have anything interesting to say. I went to see Lost Highway in the theater when I was 15. I didn’t know who Lynch was. I just knew that my favorite band, Smashing Pumpkins, had a song on the soundtrack. I don’t even remember my initial thoughts or feelings about that initial viewing. I just remember it was daytime and I was totally discombobulated walking back outside into the light.
After that, Lynch was always a part of my life. He explored the immense psychic darkness in the universe with humor and without jadedness. More than any other filmmaker, his work confirms my belief in a collective unconscious. If this many of us recognize our dreams in his images, we’re all connected.
I just got back from the Bay Area, where I watched my nephew’s 2nd-grade class perform as a part of an Aretha Franklin-themed MLK Day tribute at the Paramount Theater in Oakland. There are a lot of beautiful art-deco theaters scattered around California, but the Paramount might be the prettiest I’ve ever seen.
If you’re in the area, check out Parche, a Colombian restaurant/bar a couple of blocks from the venue. The arroz atollado (a coconut rice mixed veggie paella), sancocho parce (a whole fried branzino served with spicy dashi), and off-menu piña colada are especially good.
Last week, aside from my North African couscous paella (so much paella!), I made some other winter comfort dinner recipes. Deb Perelman’s French Onion Baked Lentils and Farro goes well with Andy Baraghani’s Fall-Apart Caramelized Cabbage. There’s not a lot of textural contrast—caramelized onions meets caramelized cabbage—but the tomato acidity and unexpected heat of the cabbage cuts the gruyère richness of the casserole.
My lunches were a substitution-heavy version of Bon Appetit’s doula-approved Quinoa Bean Salad With Lots of Dill, which apparently brought the author “out of the disembodied sterility of a scheduled C-section and back to the natural world.” I subbed barley for the quinoa, garbanzos for the white beans, and sunflower seeds for the pepitas. I did use lots of dill, I promise.
The new owner of Wine and Eggs, my chaotic local shoppy shop perpetually on the verge of bankruptcy, added a desperately needed “under $20” bottle basket near the front door. I bought a $17 natural Chilean red, Viña Doña Luisa, to pair with the lentils and cabbage. More than a hint of barnyard, but I’d drink it again.
If you’re at all interested, here’s a great piece about the incoming generational shift in men’s tennis. Stay up late tonight for the anticipated Djokovic-Alcaraz quarter-final.
My old friend and fellow recovering sketch-comedy writer Diana Moskovitz wrote an essential article for Defector about how the recent LA Fires exposed the need for pasture-raised organic local news.
This coming week in Back to the Garden, we’ll be traveling to snowy Vermont for a very special, very ‘80s, vegan pizza. Stay tuned…