“These are the Shula eggs”
Hello again from such a deep heavy heat!
I’m combating the weather by taking my espresso over ice (You haven’t heard? Darling, we got an espresso machine!), taking full advantage of a loaned ice cream maker, and googling things like “linen underwear high waisted.” Last fall I got a basket for the back of my bike and while it can make the machine a little unwieldy, I am forever grateful when I feel the wind blow through my shirt and dismount with undrenched back.
Otherwise, though, I’m giving in to full exhaustion: About a month ago I started volunteering a few days a week at an urban farm and just the other day I committed to the work more fully by purchasing, at the recommendation of the farmers, a wide-brim sun hat. It’s been nice, mentally and physically, to put a little bit of routine into my days, meet new people, gain some knowledge, and be outside. Plus, sometimes my boss comes back from stopping at home with a bowl of sliced watermelon and, man, is there anything better than watermelon on a thick hot day?
I have a little garden of my own, just some containers on the side of the apartment building. It’s my first time really trying (I’m going to be kind to myself and not include the seasons I would buy, and then promptly forget about, herbs on my back porch) and just today I noticed the first small yellow flower on one of the tomato plants. So much of time passing in quarantine is sinister or, at best, bleak, but then we get a little nudge of positivity and growth.
Positivity and growth like, for instance, the fact that the Phoenix Union High School District has cut ties with police, and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Muscogee Creek Nation in McGirt vs. Oklahoma.
Positivity and growth like, for instance, there’s not better time to be inside watching a movie than on a very hot day—go forth!
Love,
Nina
We watched the 1982 Horace B. Jenkins romance CANE RIVER, which follows the love between Peter, a light-skinned Catholic Creole, and Maria, a dark-skinned woman who knows well the history of their Louisiana town that Peter is only just discovering: that his ancestor was a Black slaveowner who collaborated with the Confederacy. Unsurprisingly, Maria’s family disapproves of the union, and Maria herself has nerves about the relationship’s intensity given that she is on the verge of finally leaving Cane River and getting a college education. The movie is imperfect; the acting is often awkward and the screenplay pedantic, but it’s still easy to see its import. I’d never before seen a film exploring this specific Black American dynamic, not to mention issues of Black land loss. “Cane River” is literally rare, too: The film was never archived or distributed, until 2014 when a negative was found and money was raised to restore and screen it.
Streaming on the Criterion Channel.
For further reading on Black land loss, I recommend this article, co-published by ProPublica and the New Yorker: “The Dispossessed” by Lizzie Presser.
Maybe the most fun I’ve had “at” the movies this month was watching SHAKEDOWN (2018) by Leilah Weinraub. The documentary is about what Weinraub calls “a utopic moment”: the brief, early 2000’s existence of the titular underground Black lesbian strip club in Los Angeles. In fact, the director worked at the club and the footage is so intimate, so warm, and so celebratory. Her familiarity, affection, and reverence for performers is apparent. It’s bittersweet, of course; we know when the film begins that Shakedown is defunct (and can we expect an underground Black strip club documentary to exist without a cameo from the LAPD?), but the footage and interviews never look back in sadness or regret.
Streaming on the Criterion Channel and (wait for it…) PornHub (Their first ever non-porn film!)
In the tradition of contemporary fabulists like George Saunders and Margaret Atwood, Rungano Nyoni, the director of I AM NOT A WITCH (2017), employs familiar icons of society and governing in her storytelling but then twists the cranks inches further to reveal their dystopic potential. Here, in a Zambia where women deemed dangerous witches are tethered to long ribbons and kept in camps where tourists can ogle and photograph them from a distance, the spools of ribbon, the bureaucrats, the daytime talk shows, are Black-Mirrored into an upsetting visual palate. Our guide through this twisted present is not a Saundersian milquetoast office drone or a Handmaid, but a little girl (played with captivating stoicism by Maggie Mulubwa) who joins the witches’ ranks and chips away at the logic of their captivity. Several sharp, funny performances keep the movie from sinking into self-seriousness, but the imagery is haunting nonetheless.
Streaming on the Criterion Channel and available to rent on Amazon.
I couldn’t help but think of this George Saunders story in particular: The Semplica Girl Diaries, also available in his story collection The Tenth of December.
In the ongoing, deep-sea expedition to find quarantine silver linings, one is that endless expanses of time means there is no excuse for not watching those epic, 2-plus-hour films that one would normally avoid popping in on a Friday night. In fact, it’s almost a gift to settle into watching something so long and knowing that at the other end of it you’ll be just a bit closer to the end of your aimless day, and this expanse. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, silver linings! We get to watch big, long, epic, weird movies and no one has anywhere to be! A few weeks ago (or was it months?), Sammy picked out surely one of the strangest movies I’ve watched in recent memory, CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING (1974), a three hour-and-thirteen minute trip of a film by Jacque Rivette. After two witchy, fashionable Parisians have a whimsical meeting in a park, they become embroiled in a paranormal mystery, sucking on magical lollipops to transport themselves into the world of a haunted mansion’s previous tenants. Drawing on Henry James, Lewis Carroll, and Marcel Proust, the film is heady but goofy, a fantastical whirligig that uses its excessive runtime to explore repetition, psychedelia, and memory. (Also, a major influence on David Lynch and MULHOLLAND DRIVE in particular, so if that’s your alley, you might want to wander up this one!)
Streaming on the Criterion Channel
Alli and I watched another movie that follows a core female friendship (this time in under 90 minutes!), the simply but powerfully titled TWO FRIENDS (1986), by the wonderful Jane Campion, one of the directors I’ve fallen most in love with through quarantine. Over five realist episodes, presented in reverse chronology, the film lays in plain detail the evolution, or devolution, of an adolescent bond, as well as the seemingly small choices that stack to create change in an individual. As in AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE, Campion’s rich but unromantic details render such fullness of setting and character, so when change occurs it takes a minute to hit, then hits hard. I recommend especially for fans of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels!
Was once streaming on Criterion, but otherwise a bit tough to find, alas.
REPO MAN (1984), is one of those movies that has sat in my cultural consciousness but I’d never seen. If someone mentioned it I’d nod with vague knowledge that they were referencing a punkish ‘80’s B-movie. But now I have remedied that ignorance and it’s okay? I’ll be honest, this movie does not age great. The special effects and design are ridiculous and fun, some of the dialogue is ridiculous and stupid and fun, the soundtrack is pretty great…and fun, and Harry Dean Stanton has, as ever, one of my favorite faces to watch. But Emilio Estevez’s character Otto, our punk hero, has an anti-establishment streak that, with today’s eyes, smells a bit rotten. A little more like misogyny and racism, a little less like smash the system. On the bright side: aliens, UFOs, bright glowing cars, some excellent dystopian design touches.
Available to rent on YouTube and Amazon. Or just stream the soundtrack!
I’m finally getting around to reading Harif Abdurraqib’s collection of music criticism They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us after receiving it as a birthday gift a couple years ago (Thanks, Sarah!). He wrote an illuminating and personal essay on the experience of being black in a punk scene. Here it is in Pitchfork, where it was originally published: I Wasn’t Brought Here, I Was Born: Surviving Punk Rock Long Enough To Find Afropunk
It’s been a while since I shared a recipe!
Here is one for anyone looking to A) beat the heat, and B) take advantage of berry season. It’s what I’ve got cooling in the freezer as I type. It’s strawberry granita! A recipe by the wonderful and reliable David Lebovitz. My mom’s family is Sicilian and I’m lucky that we’ve visited relatives there regularly. It’s impossible to pick a favorite regional food, but the first treat we would get upon arrival was granita con brioche, the breakfast of an eggy, buttery brioche bun and cold, icy granita in a flavor like almond, lemon, or espresso. I got a full flat of Michigan strawberries so I used those to make a big batch, and until it’s cool enough to turn the oven on, I’ll probably just eat it solo, by the spoonful.
Strawberry granita
adapted from David Lebovitz
1 pound strawberries
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup water
lemon juice, to taste
Slice the berries into rough pieces and toss with the sugar. Let sit at room temperature for 1-4 hours, until they are bright and juicy.
In the meantime, place a shallow tray (I used a 9-inch cake pan) in the freezer.
Put the berry mix into a blender or food processor with the water. Blend to a puree, taste, and add lemon juice as needed.
Strain the mixture to get rid of seeds, or leave it as is (I strained mine because I prefer the smooth texture for this dish).
Pour the mix into the frozen tray. After 30 minutes, take a fork and stir everything well, making sure to get the frozen pieces off the sides and into the center. Repeat this every thirty minutes for about two hours, until the granita is uniformly frozen and smooth. Enjoy! And remember, it can be breakfast!
If you liked this newsletter, please send it along to friends and family, and, as always, I’d love to know what you’ve been watching.
This last week I watched Perfect and Schindler's List — and, as always, beg you to watch Candyman <3