Hello! Happy Halloween!
We’ve got a half-dozen pieces o media for you this fine evening. Read on…if you dare.
1/ Matty Matheson’s “Salmon Katsu Sando”
(from his new cookbook Soups, Salads, Sandwiches)
Matty Matheson is among the millennial men with whom I am most obsessed (Chris Black is the other big fish in that sea). Matheson’s cooking videos are the best way to exercise YouTube’s autoplay feature. This is the first recipe I cooked from his new cookbook. It was delicious and pretty straightforward...pickled Daikon, for Pete’s sake! Check out Soups, Salads, Sandwiches ASAP.
2/ “Rainy autumn day at @stormkingartcenter ☔️ 🍂”
(posted by the iconic @ryanyee123 on Instagram last week)
These clips from friend-of-MR Ryan Yee embody the sheer essence of autumn. Shot on a Sony a6500, the shots are cozy, but they also convey a chill in the air. It’s great stuff as usual from the excellent videographer, photographer, and person born on the same day as me. Shoutout Ryan.
3/ “Robert Caro on 50 Years of ‘The Power Broker’”
(Spotify link; Apple Podcasts link; hosted by Gilbert Cruz, published on September 13)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Gilbert Cruz is not HALF the Book Review podcast host that Pamela Paul was. But Cruz did do a fine job interviewing Robert Caro, so that has to count for something. Caro’s articulate dedication is matched only by his charm in this 43-minute interview. Here’s my favorite thing that Caro said:
“Everybody thinks...‘couldn’t you be faster?’ For me, it’s more important to be slow.”
4/ “The Plan to Save Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Skyscraper Isn’t Going as Planned”
(written by Annie Aguiar for the NYT on September 30)
Did you know there stands a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed skyscraper in Bartlesville, Oklahoma? I did not!
The fate of said tower is now in question. Read (or listen to) this article to learn all about the tower’s tribulations. The interior photographs are really quite nice, too!
5/ “Inspiration: Tibor Kalman”
(a blog post by Eleanor Mayrhofer on her website)
No relation!
This lovely blog post highlights some examples of the late great designer Tibor Kalman’s work. Tibor was the driving force behind M & Co. (named after his wife, Maira Kalman), a New York firm that “produced some of the most notable graphic design in the 80s and 90s,” as the post states. Check out some of the high-res images from the elusive book Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist.
6/ “The Hitch-Hiker”
(from 1960; a lil tough to find, but available for $1.99 on Apple TV, on Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, and something called Pluto TV (?) )
Her name is Nan Adams. She's twenty-seven years old. Her occupation: buyer at a New York department store. At present on vacation, driving cross-country to Los Angeles, California from Manhattan.
Minor incident on Highway 11 in Pennsylvania. Perhaps, to be filed away under ‘accidents you walk away from.’ But from this moment on, Nan Adams' companion on a trip to California will be terror. Her route: fear. Her destination: quite unknown.
That’s Rod Serling’s opening monologue of this sixteenth episode of season 1 of The Twilight Zone of course. I find it to be a chilling and underrated episode of one of the all-time great television shows. In honor of Halloween, enjoy.