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Weekend Butler: “Hold on tightly, let go lightly.” A music video that will thrill you (and everyone you share it with). Kurt Vonnegut shows you how to make $1 million. Weekend movie: a German thriller. Julia Child’s Coq au Vin.
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Published: Dec 07, 2022
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Weekend
“HOLD ON TIGHTLY. LET GO LIGHTLY.”
When I read that quote from the great theater director Peter Brook, I thought he had it backwards. If you’re talking about relationships, holding on tightly seems the last thing you want to do — your possessiveness strangles the romance. And letting go lightly? Doesn’t that say: Thanks for the memories, go and prosper, I’ll be fine, no blame or grief will reside in my heart.
Then I hunted down the full quote: “There is an inner voice that murmurs, Don’t take it too seriously. Hold on tightly, let go lightly.” The “inner voice” makes the difference. Not taking yourself as the star of a Shakespearean drama is to acknowledge that whatever’s happening with you has happened before you were born and will happen again when you’re gone — if you can step back, you might see you’re both the center of the universe and a grain of sand. It’s my winter project. Not easy to do. But every once in a while, I have a glimmer…
THE MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
For 15 years, Taylor Hawkins was the drummer for the Foo Fighters. In Bogotá, Colombia, on March 25, 2022, he complained of chest pains. Medics rushed to his hotel room. He was unresponsive. The band canceled concerts and grieved. Six months later, there were two tribute concerts.
The video you’re going to watch is “My Hero.” It typically brings crowds to their feet, singing along.
There goes my hero
Watch him as he goes
There goes my hero
He’s ordinary
If you’re puzzled by “He’s ordinary,” it’s because you don’t know what Foo Fighters fans do — it’s a celebration of Average Joes (and Janes) who act with purpose and courage, then return to their lives. It’s a slam on people who do good things for media attention and personal advancement.
At this tribute show, “My Hero” is the last song. The drummer is Shane Hawkins (pictured above), the 16-year-old son of Taylor Hawkins. This video will make your eyes mist… and then you’re share it widely. Need I say: crank the volume. Watch it here.
KURT VONNEGUT GIVES THE ULTIMATE “CHALK TALK”
He called it “The Shape of Stories.” And on a blackboard, he shows you how to do it. “You can make a million.” Genius at work. And funny! Watch.
IT COULD BE WORSE: CONSIDER WHAT MARCUS AURELIUS HAD TO DEAL WITH
from Lit Hub:
In 160 AD, Rome was hit by a horrible plague. The “Antonine Plague” would kill somewhere between 10 and 18 million people. No one knew what caused the awful disease, or what had brought it on. But it quickly overwhelmed the country—bodies piled up in the streets, the economy was devastated, civic institutions crumbled.
One ancient historian, Cassisus Dio, would write that Rome’s emperor Marcus Aurelius “did not have the good fortune that he deserved… and for almost his whole reign was involved in a series of troubles.” It’s almost incomprehensible and impossible to compare to… and yet not all that different than how life goes for the rest of us: one damn thing after another.
Yet Dio would write that these events made Marcus Aurelius, that he “admired him all the more for this very reason, that amid unusual and extraordinary difficulties he both survived himself and preserved the empire.”
At one point in Meditations, Marcus Aurelius would lament all that had happened to him. It’s unfortunate that this happened. Then he catches himself and decides no, in fact, it’s fortunate. Because this is what he trained for. Because this is a challenge he could rise to.
THE WEEKEND MOVIE: “THE LIVES OF OTHERS”
The Times lead story seems beyond belief: Germany Arrests 25 Suspected of Planning to Overthrow Government.
The plan was to storm the German Capitol, arrest lawmakers and execute the chancellor. A prince descended from German nobility would take over as the new head of state, and a former far-right member of Parliament would be put in charge of a national purge. To facilitate the coup, the electricity network would be sabotaged. Satellite phones to communicate off grid had already been bought.
The plan was outrageous. And doomed: 3,000 police officers and Special Forces fanned out across the country on Wednesday to raid 150 homes and arrest 25 suspected co-conspirators..
3,000 police officers! Special Forces! I immediately thought of “The Lives of Others.” That film, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2007, looks back to East Germany in the 1980s, when the Stasi — the secret police — had 90,000 employees and 173,000 informers. In a country of 16 million people, that’s huge; it means that one of every 63 East Germans collaborated with the Stasi. To outwit them… you had to be more than clever. To read my review, click here. To watch the trailer, click here. [To rent the streaming video from Amazon, click here.]
THE WEEKEND POEM
“A Confession,” by Czeslaw Milosz
My Lord, I loved strawberry jam
And the dark sweetness of a woman’s body.
Also well-chilled vodka, herring in olive oil,
Scents, of cinnamon, of cloves.
So what kind of prophet am I? Why should the spirit
Have visited such a man? Many others
Were justly called, and trustworthy.
Who would have trusted me? For they saw
How I empty glasses, throw myself on food,
And glance greedily at the waitress’s neck.
Flawed and aware of it. Desiring greatness,
Able to recognise greatness wherever it is,
And yet not quite, only in part, clairvoyant,
I knew what was left for smaller men like me:
A feast of brief hopes, a rally of the proud,
A tournament of hunchbacks, literature.
THE WEEKEND RECIPE
from Julia Child and Simone Beck: Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One
Coq au Vin
Serves 4
4 ounce chunk of bacon
20 pearl onions, peeled, or 1 large yellow onion, sliced
1 chicken, 4 lb, cut into serving pieces, or 3 lbs chicken parts, excess fat trimmed, skin on
2 garlic cloves, peeled and mashed
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups chicken stock
3 cups young, full-bodied red wine
1 bay leaf
Several fresh thyme sprigs
Several fresh parsley sprigs
1/2 lb button mushrooms, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Tablespoon tomato paste
Blanch the bacon to remove some of its saltiness. Drop the bacon into a saucepan of cold water, covered by a couple of inches. Bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes, drain. Rinse in cold water, pat dry with paper towels. Cut the bacon into 1 inch by 1/4 inch pieces.
Brown bacon on medium high heat in a dutch oven big enough to hold the chicken, about 5 minutes. Remove the cooked bacon, set aside. Keep the bacon fat in the pan. Add onions and chicken, skin side down. Brown the chicken well, on all sides, about 10 minutes. Halfway through the browning, add the garlic and sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. (Note: it is best to add salt while cooking, not just at the very end. It brings out the flavor of the chicken.)
Spoon off any excess fat. Add the chicken stock, wine, and herbs. Add back the bacon. Lower heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20-30 minutes, or until chicken is tender and cooked through. Remove chicken and onions to a separate platter. Remove the bay leaves, herb sprigs, garlic, and discard.
Add mushrooms to the remaining liquid and turn the heat to high. Boil quickly and reduce the liquid by three fourths until it becomes thick and saucy. Lower the heat, stir in the butter. Return the chicken and onions to the pan to reheat and coat with sauce. Adjust seasoning. Garnish with parsley and serve.
