PicoBlog

When I think “holiday pasta,” the first word that comes to mind is fancy. Something intricate and laborious, like tortellini in brodo and agnolotti del plin, or served with expensive delicacies like truffles and lobster. But fancy doesn’t have to mean difficult, and it doesn’t have to break the bank either. Introducing our eighth Pasta of the Month, and the final installment of the year: tajarin. Tajarin are thin and delicate pasta ribbons from Piedmont, a gem of northern Italy at the foot of the Alps that neighbors France and Switzerland.

By the time Sean Baker became A24’s indie darling with The Florida Project (2017) and Red Rocket (2021), he already had a number of stellar independent feature films already under his belt. Take Out (2004), Baker’s breakout film and second ever feature (his debut feature Four Letter Words (2000) remains rather elusive), first premiered at Slamdance twenty years ago. The Criterion Collection remastered Take Out into 4K and produced a short documentary on the making of the film, Reflecting on Take Out, in 2022.

Housekeeping: I’ve been interested in reputation lately. Last week we launched VC investor reviews (LP next!) and have over 300 so far. Today we launched reviews for startup service providers and SaaS tools (please upvote/leave a review). We’re also working on company reviews too, please leave one here. To be determined on how this all fits together. :) Inpreviousposts we discussed how beliefs are not about being accurate, but about establishing and cementing your membership to your desired tribe.

Welcome to Second Rough Draft, a newsletter about journalism in our time, how it (often its business) is evolving, and the challenges it faces. We are publishing a day early this week to avoid a scheduling problem. When James Bennet’s magnum opus on his misadventures at the New York Times appeared almost a month ago, I quickly recommended it as must-reading, and said there would be lots to discuss later. I think the time has come for that discussion.

In the days before a hapless studio technician erased Steely Dan’s “The Second Arrangement” in 1979, Roger Nichols, the band’s late, great longtime engineer, made a rough mix of the track on a cassette tape. The song was nearly complete. Horns and a fade would soon be added. Producer Gary Katz already was imagining it as the band’s next single. When Nichols returned to his apartment at 30 Lincoln Plaza in New York, he set the tape aside and forgot about it.

There’s a prevailing opinion among many creative types that there are truly no more original stories, and everything new we see is just stealing, or to use the polite term inspired by, existing works. I don’t really subscribe to this theory — how many other films used a popular toy as inspiration for a hilarious and oddly poignant exploration of gender roles? — but I take their point. Certainly themes, story construction and character types are often liberally borrowed from work to work, movies being no exception.

In Southwestern Wisconsin you’ll find two very interesting houses within ten miles of each other.  They can’t be more different and yet they both work if you visit both on the same day like we did.  It made for a pleasant day trip. If you know anything about architecture you’ve probably heard of Frank Lloyd Wright.  He is arguably one of the most influential architects in the United States in the 20th century and is largely responsible for the prairie style home that the modern ranch style home.

If you’re not already following Evan Ross Katz on Instagram, what are you even doing with your life? His memes and stories make opening that app worth it every time. Evan is much more than a meme maker though, he’s a journalist, published author, stellar celebrity interviewer, podcaster, and one of the most popular (for good reason) culture critics of our time. He’s also incredibly kind and generous, I have the fortune of getting to work with Evan on his Substack, and from our first call, I was immediately struck by how down-to-earth and fun he is to talk to.

🇲🇽 MÉXICO (Guerrero) 📍 8101 Garfield Avenue, Bell Gardens, Southeast Los Angeles EDITOR'S NOTE: This location has closed permanently. The original food truck in Watts is still open. 📸 All photos by Jared Cohee for Eat the World Los AngelesHISTORICAL ARTICLES are brought over from eattheworldla.com to make sure our Substack content is constantly growing and as full of depth as possible. These will never be behind the paywall. 📆 Original Article 23 November 2020For a restaurant born in the pandemic, Tamales Elena Y Anojitos seems to have their game together very well.