PicoBlog

Hi! Welcome to This Side of Japan, a newsletter about Japanese music, new and old. You can check out past issues here. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu introduced herself to the world in 2011 by the same methods later employed by countless pop artists throughout the next decade: by going viral on the internet from the music video of her debut single, “PONPONPON,” boggling onlookers’ minds in Japan and overseas. “Going viral” was still a foreign concept then.

I’m back in Tel Aviv, where it has been 90°F. and sunny every day. It's hard to imagine how we will cool the planet when the vicious cycle of warmer weather and increased consumption of energy, water, and everything else will break. There’s an answer to be found somewhere in how we grow, distribute, cook, and dispose of our food, but we’ve got a long way to go. In the meantime, I offer you a way to make your own mustard.

I’ve been in Florida for almost two weeks, first for our Miami Art Week Aerobanquets RMX popup and now for a Taoist Tai Chi retreat in Dunedin. It feels like two years. The warm, sunny days have made me forget it’s December. There have been a few culinary highlights, namely, stone crab claws and Cuban food. The current episode of my What’s Burning podcast features photographer Clay Williams, who is masterful at capturing the vibe of the kitchens and restaurants where he works.

A few weeks ago, in the middle of a 100-degree week, I walked down to the two-acre stand of wild fennel that has taken over the dog park on the bluffs near my home. The neighbors have carved paths though this aromatic forest, and as I wandered amid the 8-foot-high weeds the tiny galaxies of yellow flowers thrummed with the drone of thousands of bees. At age 10, the sound would have terrified me, but at 50, it has become an apian sound bath, one that my body responds to in unconscious, sympathetic vibration.

Just wanted to start off with a kitchen I love… You probably saw a lot of Carmys over the weekend, and you’ll likely see more. Looks like The Bear Season 3 is happening. The Camber App is here! 👏 “A platform for finding new places with familiar faces. It’s for tourists that want to feel like locals and locals that want to feel like tourists.” Huge congrats to Mady + Lauren 🤍

THE YELLOW PAGES is a newsletter recommending Asian and AAPI films, music, writing, and other inspiration — all the artsy things I wished for growing up! There are so many actors who have been in my orbit for years who feel familiar to me because we have many friends and colleagues in common — but we don’t actually know one another. That’s why I’m so grateful for this platform, because it gives me the excuse to reach out and connect — just like I did with actor Michael Sun Lee.

Back in 2016, around this time of year, I found some ochre-colored leaves that had fallen in front of our family’s house out on Long Island, and I thought about how they felt like paper between my fingers. These leaves were thin and delicate, not yet completely dried. I was going to draw them in my sketchbook using some of my Micron pens but then thought it might be interesting to see if the pens would work right on the leaves.

How do we live in the world without being complicit in its evils? The answer is, of course, that we can’t. In the final two seasons of The Good Place, the gang of lost souls (plus one demon, and one not-a-robot) came to the realization that global capitalism had made living a traditional, moral life impossible. The mere act of buying a tomato at the supermarket ties one’s ethical thread into a skein of wrongdoing.

The Cincinnati Bengals will be without star quarterback Joe Burrow for the remainder of the season. The former LSU standout suffered a torn ligament in his wrist during Thursday night’s game against the Ravens. With the Bengals sitting at 5-5, coach Zac Taylor is not throwing in the towel on the season. Taylor will now turn to Jake Browning and AJ McCarron at quarterback to navigate the remaining weeks of the regular season.