This week, we’re regressing. We’re taking our brains and our palates back in time, to arguably better days. We’re longing for the old internet, and certain familiar characters. Some of us are tripping the light fantastic to bygone epochs entirely.
McKayla Coyle has been enjoying new Netflix fare—My Melody and Kuromi. A stop motion series populated with Sanrio characters and set between pastry shops, this one is apparently “stupid cute and beautifully animated.” A perfect weekend treat.
Drew Broussard is eager to keep his title as Resident Web Game Recommender. He sailed through the week on the grace of Clues By Sam, the “kind of infuriating logic puzzle” he grew up devouring. Descending clues start simple, then draw you down a rabbit-hole. I bungled the tutorial with some overenthusiastic guessing, but some of us on staff are worried this is going to ruin our lives.
I, Brittany Allen, also went spelunking in the better corners of the old internet. Divergency is an hour long, home-brewed indie TV experience, available on YouTube and cooked in the brains of (admitted pals) K & M. Interstitial episodes zone in on one cultural product and close read it—with an amalgam of sketches, original music, interactive zines, video essays, re-enactments, and earnest commentary. My favorite ep so far is about Garden State and its radiant cringe factor. But the latest, a rabbit-hole dive into Citizen Kane, was just released this week.
This hard-to-describe episodic reminds me of VH1’s signature comment-docs, like the I Love the…[Insert Decade] series. Our hosts are arch and fun and silly, and provided a great creative jolt this week.
James Folta recommends another bespoke artistic experience. Specifically, a visual treat, for New Yorkers or those able to travel. The Beauford Delaney Show at the Drawing Center ends in a month, but ought to make your unmissable list. The Black American modernist was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, and this (free!) retrospective covers his work across many mediums.
Delaney knew everyone. So the gossip factor in his paintings is a big draw. Says James, “the section of letters and ballpoint sketches he did at jazz clubs are a wild tour through his rolodex.”
Olivia Rutigliano had the best pizza of her life at Pizzeria Florian in East Aurora, NY, a dreamy suburb of Buffalo. She cannot overstate the case. “The crust was razor-thin and crispy and did not bend under the weight of the tremendous portion of tomato sauce, stracciatella, honey, and Calabrian chili crisp that sat on top. The sound when you bit into it was a loud CRONCH and the taste was unreal.”
Again, the praise is no hyperbole. From Olivia: “Pizzeria Florian, I will die for you.”
Oliver Scialdone is also in the food hype business this week, after dining with a best friend at the much-hyped Thai Diner. “I’ve been there before, but each time I go, I get a little angry about the fact that the TikTok restaurant influencers were right about something.”
And Emily Temple also ate well. Her “local cheesemongers” recently opened a “cheese-based restaurant” where last night she enjoyed an aged cheddar and Comté mac and cheese alongside a pink cocktail. You know, “like a grown-up.” What is being grown if not eating as you dreamed you would at 12?
Wishing you a weekend of Peter Panning-it, where possible. May all your graphics be kitschily glitchy, may your palettes and palates marvel at bold flavors.