Rec Center #2: September
Five things I recommend this month
Welcome to Rec Center #2. COVID caught me a few weeks ago and I was bed-ridden for a couple weeks, which is why it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me. Despite having a brain full of rice porridge, I did manage to do some reading from my sickbed, and I hope to have a new review ready for next week. For now, here are my five September (non-book) recs. Drop me a line if you check any of these out!
For Rec Center #1, click here.
COVID booster shot
If you take only one recommendation from me this month, make it this one. I got sick around September 10, and even now, although I’ve been testing negative for the last week or so, I’m not back at 100%. It’s not just like getting a cold. Please, save yourself some misery. Don’t fuck around; get your updated booster shot ASAP and get your flu shot while you’re at it, too. Hot tip: Novavax is the best shot with the fewest side effects if you can get it (I think Costco Pharmacy carries it).
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983; dir. Nagisa Oshima)
David Bowie as a British WWII POW? Awesome. WWII POW movie by a Japanese director? Hmm. I went into this with skepticism; after all, the Japanese are not known for being particularly informed or self-reflective about their wartime atrocities. However, turns out director Oshima was a radical left-wing activist in Japan, known for controversial films that exposed the brutality of Japan’s treatment of minorities. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence does not pull any punches in its depiction of life in a Japanese POW camp in Java. David Bowie is excellent as the defiant, magnetic Major Jack Celliers. It’s an odd, intense movie that doesn’t fall easily into the familiar tropes of Western war movies, but well worth a watch.
Tennessee EP by Silver Jews (2001)
In a previous post I discussed my love of the band Silver Jews, and particularly their 1998 album American Water. These last couple months I found myself listening to their 2001 Tennessee EP on repeat. It’s a wry delight of sublimated sorrow, where sadness is imbued with commercial value. From the title track: “We’re gonna live in Nashville and I’ll make a career / Out of writing sad songs and getting paid by the tear”. Or “Long Long Gone”: “Everybody knows that I know what’s going on / If cars could run on teardrops, I’d be long long gone.”
“They Killed John Henry” by Justin Townes Earle
Lately I’ve been revisiting the music of Justin Townes Earle, with whom I was deeply obsessed circa 2011-2014. This song, off his 2009 album Midnight at the Movies, is one of my favorites. Short, sweet, firmly rooted in the long lineage of folk and old-time labor music. I love songs about John Henry, the steel-driving American folk hero. (All time favorite? Odetta’s rendition of “Take This Hammer”—this live version from 1963 gives me chills.) Finger-pickin’ good.
Justin Townes Earle was the son of country star Steve Earle, who named him after the legendary songwriter Townes Van Zandt. (Here is JTE covering TVZ’s Rex’s Blues.) Justin struggled with addiction throughout his life and died in 2020 of an overdose at age 38—a major loss of a rare talent. I would have loved to hear the songs he would have written as a man who fought and prevailed over his demons. Rest in peace, Justin.
Corn Rice
This Japanese corn rice recipe from Just One Cookbook is a summer staple in my household. It’s so simple and yet transcendent when made from sweet ripe local corn. I make it in my rice cooker, which makes it even easier, and omit the sake because I don’t typically have it in my pantry. Summer is officially over, even in Virginia, and fresh, in-season corn is disappearing from farmer’s markets. But this is America, land of corn; you can find some decent corn in some form any time of year. I’ve made this corn rice with frozen corn from the supermarket and it’s almost as good. It’s a solid option when you want a taste of summer in the off-season. Use more soy sauce and more butter than the recipe calls for. Perfect as side for grilled meats or any other dish you’d eat with white rice. Exquisite with a soft boiled egg and chili crisp.
That’s all, folks. See you in October.