Weekend Edition 🥧

Tricks and treats.

15 Oct

The Dirt staff shares what we’re reading, eating, buying, and streaming. ICYMI, here’s our interview with W. David Marx about his book Status and Culture.

We still have some SIGNED copies of Status and Culture to move. Please use the below link to order from our friends at P&T Knitwear.

DAISY ALIOTO

I bought this shirt on my recent trip to Marfa, Texas. Proceeds go to support local journalism. Long live, print!

JOCELYN SILVER

Je M’en Fous by What We Do Is Secret

This perfume by What We Do Is Secret (previously known as A Lab on Fire) is meant to evoke “a brief impression of Santa Monica in June 1999,” with notes of mandarin, bergamot, jasmine, and “crisp aldehydes.” To me, it smells like flowers and fruit trees dipping into a swimming pool, which to me is the height of romance. I thought it was a bit summery for mid-October, but when I wore it to a party recently a friend told me they thought it smelled full-throated and sexy, like it belongs in cold weather. And so I recommend it here, to you, in October. I think it has a hint of chlorine, in the best possible way.

Naked Attraction (HBO Max)

If you are not watching the British import Naked Attraction on HBO Max, I would like to insist you start. It is perhaps the best mindless entertainment ever produced, a dating show in which contestants are evaluated by their body parts, as they silently stand in tubes, completely naked. You see everything, often quite up close, with a cheeky host asking various “singletons” about their preferences regarding pubic hair and tattoos. It sounds vicious, but the show is randomly pretty matter-of-fact, even kind, about The Body. If you have ever wanted to see a rather large appendage with a surrounding tattoo designed to make it look like an elephant’s trunk, this is the show for you!

TERRY NGUYEN

The best olive oil cakes are melt-in-your-mouth moist, and this recipe was enthusiastically endorsed by friends at a recent housewarming. Only one bowl is needed for prep, and it’s a flexible dairy-free recipe. If you have, say, a party at 7 p.m. and only a spare hour to bake during lunch, this cake can safely marinate in the fridge for several hours without going stale. In fact, refrigeration is encouraged! Splurge on the extra virgin olive oil, dark chocolate, and cardamom for the whipped coconut cream. The two-ingredient cardamom cream elevates the recipe to another level, and takes five minutes to make. It’s become my go-to topping for all kinds of baked goods, from pies to banana bread.

I purchased my first pink wig on a whim in 2020. I got it off Amazon and shoddily trimmed the bangs, but every year around Halloween season, it serves its purpose. (I say first because I ruined it during my birthday a few years ago and got a replacement wig off St Marks.) I like to think of myself as a generally festive person, someone who devotes about five hours every year to brainstorming a not-basic Halloween costume. Having a wig on hand simplifies this process. There is, after all, a finite number of figures in the pop culture canon with pink hair (or who don pink wigs): ScarJo in Lost in Translation, Natalie Portman in Closer, Frenchy in Grease, Brittany Spears in her Breakdown Era (worn specifically while purchasing a case of Red Bull)... Nothing gives more main character energy than a pink wig!

Nothing gives more main character energy than a pink wig!

OSIRENE

Within the charming facade of Valley Gate lies a little town of small secrets and sleepy mysteries. Nothing Happens in Valley Gate is a pleasantly distracting slice-of-life podcast up front, with a touch of spooky under the surface, about the uneventful lives of residents in Valley Gate. With characters with names like "Kastle Stormheart," "Kindur Whitetail," and "Ragnarok the Dog," nothing of grand stakes happens to them (hence, the title and sorry, no zaddies either). Still, each episode quietly blends reality with a tiny hint of magic, leaving you to uncover the small town's quiet yet eerie depths.

Dredge, a spooky fishing sim

I'd always kill too many hours on fishing mini-games in big titles like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, or the classic Ocarina of Time. (I'm not an IRL fisher, but I do respect their ocean swag.) Dredge, a Lovecraftian indie game from New Zealand-based Black Salt Games studio, is "a cosmic horror fishing adventure."

Explore remote islands, sell rare fish, upgrade your boat, and dredge the deep ocean for lost items like a belt buckle for a father grieving his son lost to the seas. I usually don't take well to horror, but the mutated fish haven't scared me off (yet). Dredge released in March and now celebrates a million downloads.

And introducing…our new interns.

MADDIE

I’m Maddie Kao (she/her), from Alameda, CA. I’m in my final year of college studying Screenwriting / Queer Studies. I hope to make art that creates community. I feel like my recently-attended events describe me well. I just saw a screening and Q&A about Hiro Murai’s music videos (director, co-Executive Producer of Atlanta and The Bear) with my cousin, and tonight I’ll be going to a Victoria MonĂ©t concert!

E29. Scripting Your Life with Writer Jacqueline Woodson. from The Institute of Black Imagination. podcast

So much about writing and being a full human! I thought I knew Jacqueline Woodson from Brown Girl Dreaming, her book in which each poem made my jaw drop. Listening to this episode, I realized I have scenes from Red at the Bone, her 2019 novel, filed in my brain under Memories.

I loved the connections Dario Calmese, the host, made & the insights Jacqueline Woodson shared about parenting, the power of literature for identity, feeling fragile in public etc. So much good energy! Link for Apple Podcasts.

Consuming long-form live performances on YouTube

Experience transcendence as you work on menial tasks (and end up focusing only on the performance)! I’ll click on any Raye performance. She’s showstopping, innovative, and so expressive with her voice. Olivia Dean has one of my all-time favorites, at The Jazz Cafe. Sam Smith’s Tiny Desk blew my mind, perfect arrangements with an 11-person choir, pianist, and guitarist. Don’t have an AmEx card to go to a pop-up concert? Watch Olivia Rodrigo explain her new album and perform Guts live from the comfort of your dining room.

BECKY

I’m Becky Miller (she/her) and I’m a college senior studying English and Film. In my free time I like to bartend and rollerblade. This weekend I danced to ABBA with my dad and watched Groundhog Day.

Listening to Nathan Fielder and Alexa Demie meet in 2020 for the first time, talk about fairy portals, and be themselves side by side is so intense and insane I had to return to it. Their voices are both so slow and hilarious. Are they similar to the characters they play? I will argue that they are playing their characters on this podcast, creating an HBO-Comedy Central Universe. Both actors have layers of awkwardness to them that coat this listen with absurdity. I feel like this meeting is a national treasure even though Nathan is Canadian.

If you made it this far, here’s our October Playlist again…

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