Hello again from a Southwest 700 series where I’m flying to California after swearing up and down to just about everyone who could hear me that I wasn’t going to travel again. I’m en route to the back half of the Television Critics Association’s Winter Press Tour, where, hopefully, I can do some good networking and get a good handle on what goes into the Tour so I can better pitch for it in the future. I’ll hopefully have some stories out of it and, at the very least, will be tweeting about it and maybe even pulling some tidbits into this newsletter next time.
Here’s what I’m into this week.
Pinball Machines
Over the weekend, Benti and trekked deep into Northern Virginia to visit a vintage game store in search of Game Boy Advance carts for my new Pocket Analogue I pre-ordered back in December. We arrived at the store too early and needed to kill time, so we headed over to a nearby brewery that just so happened to have rows of pinball machines.
My soft spot for pinball goes back to playing the virtual pinball machine on old Windows computers — a sort of nostalgia ouroboros if you think about it too hard — and from the fact I vividly remember having unlimited plays on the machine inside the Chevy dealership that I spent a few subsequent weekends at while my Dad wheeled-and-dealed on a new car at some point in the early aughts. Nevertheless, I love it, and I’m always keen to fire up a machine whenever I’m around one. There’s an art to assembling the cabinets — the intricate details of the Game of Thrones one that Benti played stood out (there was an Iron Throne, various crest symbols, pixel-rendered images of Oberyn fighting in the pit before he got his face popped like a grape) and made it fun to behold.
I know there are a few places in DC that have machines (I miss going to Player’s Club on 14th and dropping some coins), I just need to find them so I can get some rounds in. Too bad we don’t have a Fat Bernie’s nearby.
Shackets
Shirt jackets — or shackets if you’re a learned man of culture — are an underappreciated outerwear garment. The weather in DC over the last week is slightly warmer than in recent weeks, at least the highs are, which means I don’t need to reach for as many layers. A shacket is sort of the platonic ideal for functional outwear. It’s warm without being too bulky and it’s tremendously easy to toss on when heading out the door. To wit, I went for a walk midweek and still had running gear on from early morning track work. I needed some pockets for my phone and other essentials, and it was nice just to toss them in the chest pockets and still have the hem pockets free for my hands. The version I wore was one from the Todd Snyder x LL Bean collaboration from a hefty wool with snap buttons down the front, but I’m sure you can find something similar (or even better) on eBay without much hassle.
Everything But the Awards at the Grammys
I’ll try to keep this short but I’ve historically not watched the Grammy’s much over the last decade. Sans Arcade Fire’s win for The Suburbs in 2011, a lot of the music I listen to and enjoy rarely got nominated and, rarer still, won. Music, more than any other art form, feels inherently subjective, so it’s hard for me to find common ground with a lot of the winners. Nevertheless, this year’s Grammy’s . . . pretty good!
Some of the actual awards are lame, but the performances make it worthwhile. I’d normally just catch them on Twitter the day after, but seeing Tracy Chapman and Joni Mitchell at the moment was pretty special. Hell, Miley’s little Tina Turner tribute at the end of “Flowers” made me wish that was a part of the recorded song. If the broadcast can continue to serve up instances this compelling, maybe I’ll be inclined to be a more active viewer.
Daiquiri
A few weeks back, we were invited to dinner at Dirty Habit in Chinatown for a comped meal. Part of my work at InsideHook involves keeping up to date with local restaurants so I’m always willing to go try stuff to write about it more accurately. Nevertheless, Dirty Habit makes itself easy to recommend thanks to some really strong dishes (there’s a dessert I had I can’t stop thinking about) and a pretty tasty banana daiquiri that was so good I decided to opt for a regular version to pair alongside the Grammys, I realized that making a daiquiri didn’t require quite as many elements as I’d thought.
The thing with rum-based or even tiki-adjacent drinks is that I hesitate to make them because they can feel too ornate. I love a good Painkiller, but fresh juicing oranges is a hassle. Freshly squeezing a lime, however, is much easier. It’s a great way to swim in the same tiki pool with less effort. Hell, I made a version last night with demerara syrup that tasted more in line with something like a Jet Pilot or Mai Tai. Might be my new go-to at home for the next few weeks.
Espresso
I’ve started switching up my morning coffee routines, swapping a pour-over for espresso instead, as it feels fancier and nicer. I invested in a manual maker last year from Flair and have the process down to a good science now — although I want to try messing around with my Moka Pot a bit more now that I’ve got a grinder capable of producing a fine enough set of grounds. It takes a bit more time to do, but the robust nature of the taste of the shot (velvety richness with notes of caramel when I get it just right) is worth spending the time on, both in making it and sitting down to experience it.
Odds and Ends
I want to give a quick recommendation to Lisa Frankenstein, which I’m higher on than some of my colleagues. Katie Walsh’s review of the Zelda Williams directorial debut aligns with my thoughts; Kathryn Newton is so much better utilized here than she was in, well, whatever it was Peyton Reed had her doing in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Another week of working ahead on some stories that should be released in the next week or two.
I’m starting to hit the endgame of Cyberpunk 2077 and finding myself conflicted. I don’t want the game to end because I’m having so much fun exploring every nook and cranny of the world, but I also have a stack of games I’m keen to dig into. Will probably wrap it up in the next few weeks, though. My Steam Deck is sitting next to me, calling me to dive back into it like the Green Goblin mask.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
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