Holiday Recs

The Dirt staff shares what we’re reading, eating, buying, and streaming. We’re taking July 4th off but will be back with a stellar editorial package to kick off the month. Enjoy!

bar italia, Tracey Denim

If you’ve ever blasted I Wanna Be Adored while driving in the rain, this one's for you. The London-based band bar italia first caught my eye because “Bar Italia” sounds like a place where I would have a satisfying meal alone on a business trip. There is a studied casualness to the band’s debut Matador album, Tracey Denim, which sounds maybe half-edited and toggles between lowercase and CAPS song titles—though it’s definitely more polished than the EPs they previously released in “quasi-anonymity,” according to Pitchfork. I particularly like the song changer, where The Cure vibes really come through. Besides, the 45-minute album is like the 90-minute movie of albums (says me). — Daisy Alioto

Burlap & Barrel Sazón + Adobo

I’ve long prided myself on not caring about the kind of seasoning I use to cook Puerto Rican food. I stick to the brands I grew up seeing in the grocery store like Goya, Knorr, and Bohío. Cheap, packed with sodium, tacky packaging (in a good way), and they put money into all the wrong pockets (in a bad way). But the sazón and adobo set from Burlap & Barrel changed everything: The duo was developed in collaboration with Illyanna Maisonet and I learned about it through her newsletter. The sazón is made with wild achiote from Puerto Rico, the only sazón of its kinds on the market. When it came back in stock in late May, I almost overdrafted my card to make sure I placed my order ASAP. I got two of each, one of the adobos cracked in transit and I was delighted to smell the turmeric-based seasoning through the USPS box. The brand was quick to replace my cracked adobo and I’ve been intoxicated by the smell ever since. — Michelle Santiago Cortés

Staying in the city

It’s a four-day weekend. Everyone is going out of town, and I’m seeing pictures of barbecues under weeping willow trees and Hamptons houses and Hudson swimming holes. The weather, according to reputable apps and a particularly disturbing TikTok I saw, is leaning towards “jungle” on the entire Eastern Seaboard, which I happen to be visiting from Los Angeles at this very moment, and that’s upsetting to me. But I have long been a proponent of staying in town, particularly in New York City, on a holiday weekend. Does it smell bad? Yes. Is the air still gross due to the ecological disaster happening in the Great White North? Also kind of yes. But you can walk down Canal Street unencumbered! Get a table anywhere your heart desires without dealing with post-Covid fascist reservation culture! Wear a bikini on a roof! And, with apologies to the Earth and dogs, fireworks over the skyline really are gorgeous. — Jocelyn Silver

Fairfax Petal Pushers, NLT

Summer is here, which means I’m evangelizing about mesh (who doesn’t love a sheer top?) and capris (to minimize where the bugs can bite you). I’ve been a long-time fan of No Less Than LA, a made-to-order fashion brand run by two sisters, Betty and Sylvia, whose family has roots in wholesale apparel production. These black petal pushers are my latest favorite from them. I love the ruffle hem, which is a flirty little addition to the pants’ silhouette, and the fabric is stretchy and versatile. I’ve paired my petal pushers with a scarf top, cropped tank, and oversized tee for casual jaunts through Prospect Park. I am seriously considering the pistachio pair, although I worry the shade might clash with my skin tone. —Terry Nguyen

A Room with a View (Max, Amazon)

I read E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View years ago and loved it but I only just got around to watching the 1985 adaptation, which is stacked with the star power of Helena Bonham-Carter, Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, and the late Julian Sands. The views of Florence and the bucolic British countryside do not disappoint, although some of the slow tension of the book is lost on-screen.

Watching the movie was also an occasion to revisit a wonderful line from both the text and the film, “By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes—a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes.” I can’t explain it, but it has the same energy as this tweet. — Daisy Alioto

Marissa Zappas, Maggie the Cat is Alive, I’m Alive!

New York perfumer Marissa Zappas’s latest scent is inspired by the great Elizabeth Taylor as “Maggie the Cat” in 1958’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the fantastic box covered in warped stills from the film. Zappas, who has the star’s famous violet eyes tattooed on her arm, told Dirt’s Daisy Alioto that as a child, she was so obsessed with Taylor in National Velvet that she would only speak in quotes from the film.

As a lifelong fan, Zappas made a thoughtful scent that smells like summer in the 50s (Suddenly, Last Summer, maybe?), including notes of champagne, ambrette musk, peach, oakmoss, violet, orris, sheer amber, castoreum, patchouli, sandalwood, and somehow, sunlight. It smells both rich and sunshine-y, evoking Maggie the Cat sweating in her white slip on Big Daddy’s Eastern Mississippi estate. I think the creator of White Diamonds herself would be enormously pleased. — Jocelyn Silver

The Rebbe’s Choice, Sweet Dill Pickle Popcorn

This is the holy grail of snacks. It is sweet, savory, and somehow infused wholly with the flavor of a bread and butter pickle chip. Also dill. When I took my first bite, I was moved. Movie theater popcorn used to be my favorite of all foods, but now it is this. — Jocelyn Silver 

Finally, here’s a playlist about what it feels like to open our inbox on July 5th. 🙃

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