Rec Center #1: August
Five things I recommend this month
The Lillian Review of Books is trying something new. Welcome to Rec Center, a monthly rundown of five things I’m obsessed with/grateful for/amused by, or otherwise recommend!
“Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” by Warren Zevon
The people closest to me know that, for the last 2-3 months, I’ve been listening to Warren Zevon more or less constantly. I knew a couple of his songs before (“Lawyers, Guns, and Money” and “Werewolves of London”), but when Spotify inserted “Carmelita” into one of my playlists, it triggered a ravenous obsession with Warren Zevon that has led me on an ongoing odyssey through his discography of funny-sad, clever, LA-centric songs. I’m convinced he’s the most underrated songwriter of the 20th century, and it’s criminal that I never heard of him until a couple of years ago. All five of my recs, this month and for the next few months, could be Warren Zevon songs, but I’ve chosen just one in the hopes that it will lead some of you down the incredible rabbit hole I’ve been in for months. Start with the album Excitable Boy (1978), then Warren Zevon (1975). The epic “Roland” is on Excitable Boy, “Carmelita” (my new favorite heroin song) is from the self-titled album. If you’re part of the Zevon hive already, please drop me a line. I could talk about this man all day.
Scanners (1981) by David Cronenberg
Grotesque prosthetics, campy inner monologue voice-overs, and mind-blowing plot twists. Private security companies employ antisocial “scanners” as tools for corporate espionage— people with ESP who can read minds and cause psychic injury. The pained/ecstatic/orgasmic facial expressions of the battling telepathists alone make the whole movie. It’s a (literal) mind-fuck. I’ve been loving my summer of Cronenberg discovery.
Tomato toast
I adore tomatoes. When they’re in season, I’ll take a ripe, juicy, flavorful heirloom tomato over the finest A-5 wagyu or chu-toro. All summer, I grow tomatoes (Cherokee Purple, Black Prince, and Sun Sugar this year) or buy them from farm stands and eat them almost every day. Tomato nectarine salad with burrata and basil is a go-to, but my favorite way to eat tomatoes is thick-sliced, liberally salted with smoked Maldon salt, fresh cracked pepper, on sourdough or challah toast drizzled with kewpie mayonnaise and draped with pickled red onions. Occasionally, I mix in some Laoganma chili crisp into the mayo for an extra hit of msg-umami and heat. From June-September, this is the only meal I dream about.
Leonard Cohen’s remarks at a conference of Jewish Canadian writers in 1964
This is a highly niche rec, but I recently listened to these searing comments on the spiritually impoverished state of Judaism in North America after seeing them referenced in a remembrance of Silver Jews frontman David Berman from the socialist magazine Jewish Currents that I was revisiting while writing my review of Goodbye, Columbus. (Thanks, twisty internet rabbit holes). I’ve been an avowed atheist since the fourth grade, but God, religion, scripture, and ritual have always appealed to me on an aesthetic level. Which is not to say a superficial level—I take aesthetics very seriously. Cohen’s demand that we Jews must embrace our special purpose and destiny in our personal contact with the divine is compelling to me. It’s also just exciting, as a long-time Leonard Cohen fan, to hear him, at age 30, speaking with such bitter passion.
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Tempest in space! This classic sci-fi flick was name-checked in Rocky Horror Picture Show (“see androids fighting / Brad and Janet / Anne Francis stars in / Forbidden Planet / at the late-night double feature picture show”) and was the first movie to have a fully electronic score. I was surprised to discover that it’s an actually good movie, not just some campy B-movie (which I’ve also been known to enjoy). The plot is compelling, the twist moderately sophisticated, and the special effects are way ahead of its time. Yes, there is a problematic arc concerning a stranded philologist’s 18-year-old blonde bombshell daughter (Anne Francis) and a whole spaceship full of lecherous men, but that just adds to the fun.
Regularly scheduled book review programming should hit your inbox on Tuesday. Rec Center will be back again in September with a new batch of eclectic recs.