BRODIE LANCASTER
Brodie is a writer, author, and podcast host who wrote one of the only books I've ever read that in many way mirrored by own experiences growing up — do yourself a favour and listen to No Way! Okay, Fine — I demand it! Brodie is co-host of See Also, a pop culture recommendations podcast with the also excellent Kate Jinx — if you listen to the last few episodes you'll also discover she too is a Butthead and will foist Austin Butler related content at you as much as I do, sorry not sorry.
MIFF Play: the online streaming component of the upcoming Melbourne International Film Festival lets you watch a really hefty chunk of the festival's program from home. No lines, no worrying about program clashes. It's available for streaming everywhere in Australia from August 11-28. Some of the films I can't wait to see are Give Me Pity!, Adoption, Mira's Daughter, The Humans, Jane by Charlotte, and the generation-defining Australian indie Love and Other Catastrophes (trailer for outside Aus here, other trailers should work on the MIFF site).
Midori notebooks: Midori is a Japanese paper company who make my favourite grid notebook. They're extremely chic, with exposed spines and threaded binding (so they lay flat). I have one of their clear covers, which i use to protect two notebooks – one with a column layout. I have bought one of their beautiful day-to-a-page diaries every year since 2020, but I fear the number of events I've had to scribble in and cross out over the past 3 years has kind of cursed them – that, and I've finally made the switch to Google calendar. Once my current notebook is finished, I'll move onto the Codex style notebook. Something to look forward to! (I order mine from Bookbinders in Melbourne, but Milligram stocks them too, as does Jet Pens for international)
Grossy's guide to Tulips: love a fresh flower in my home, especially a tulip. And before reading this article, mine always died!!!!!! Not anymore.
Black pepper tofu and eggplant: I raved about this Smitten Kitchen recipe on a recent episode of my podcast, See Also, and need to share the news here. It is a perfect weeknight meal. It's great for leftovers. it's delicious and I wish I were eating it right now.
Double Wonderful tees: after a few Australian-specific recommendations, this one is just for the Americans among you. Double Wonderful designs and prints exceptional bootleg tshirts for lovers of Steely Dan, the Sopranos, Paul McCartney – and any combination of the two. After staying up late to order as many of his tshirts as I can, he recently announced international shipping is too tricky so it's US only now. Wear yours with pride. For me!!!!
HANNAH CROFTS (AKA BABY VELVET!)
Hannah is an incredible musician who just released a magical new album (and is on tour in Australia right now!). She has the best smile, a jealousy-inducing vintage wardrobe, and incredible taste.
These recently discovered lost tapes of Fire Island ’Soundtrack of Love & Loss' were recorded between 1979 - 1999 — full of disco and house music from the Gay Club Scene during the AIDs pandemic.
Melanie Griffith once had a pet lion living in her house called Neil, cannot recommend these insane photos enough.
David Sedaris’s latest book, Happy-Go-Lucky. I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t read, watch or listen to something of David or his sister Amy's.
Listen to Izaak Opatz’s latest album - lyrically and musically I get something new outta this record with every listen.
What a gross thing for me to recommend, that you spend a small fortune on a water bottle, but I bought this Yellow Rhinestoned water bottle and I the most hydrated Ive ever been because I love it so much. I feel that every sip brings me closer to Dolly Parton.
STACEY ROZICH
Stacey is such an incredible overachiever, so when I asked her for five recommendations, she wrote an ENTIRE NEWSLETTER, edited here below. My favourite part was her original opener “Look at me, I am your Newsletter captain now” with the editorial note “picture of me with Somali pirates”. My love for this woman and her quite frankly out of this world painting skills know no bounds, I even love her when she mocks my new found obsessions (read: Elvis). Please bathe in a lil’ sample of what I love about Stacey below:
This past May my partner Sam and I got married in a big beautiful wedding in Milwaukee that was massive in scope and attendance (editor’s note: the BEST of times). After the big lovefest was over, I felt a powerful emotional hangover aptly called the Post-Wedding Blues. Thankfully I’m feeling much better, now that time has passed and I’ve resolved to be less hard on myself (a work in progress). Stories like The Strange and Secret Way Animals Perceive the World have brought me so much gratitude to live in the same epoch as dolphins.Pardon me while I slip out for a mid-afternoon Boba fix.
I’ve been enjoying Elif Batuman’s newest novel “Either/Or” which is a continuation of her previous book The Idiot which I LOVED. I love me an awkward literary heroine!
I’ve been wanting to see Portrait Of A Lady On Fire — it was just in theaters, right? Checked IMDB: released 2019. Cue sinking feeling that time is ephemeral and we’re only in our corporeal forms for such an infinitesimal blip of time in the greater scheme of existence. I was blown away by the mastery and the beauty of this film. Every shot is a visual feast, a moving oil painting. The love story simultaneously broke my heart and left me feeling lucky to have loved, to be in love. Standing ovation to the cinematographer Claire Mathon, who also shot the movie Spencer!
Lately I’ve been listening to Marlon Williams (not to be confused with Marlon Wayans, I tell myself constantly). I dig his velvety country crooner vocal style paired with sultry guitar and synths. His voice is reminiscent of Elvis so Ngaio will be happy I was able to meet her tyrannical demand that I mention Elvis at least once in her newsletter.
Do make this dip I created after buying the Trader Joe’s Ranch Seasoning (or any ranch seasoning) on a whim, much to the delight of my taste buds and my actual human buds. I put this dip out last weekend with corn chips as an appetizer for my friends and the bowl was licked clean. It wasn’t actually but I could tell they wanted to. (editor’s note: I did actually lick it clean when Stacey made this for me).
- 1 cup labneh (or full fat sour cream)
- 1tbs ranch seasoning
- large wedge of lemon, squeezed
- optional: onion powder, dill
I’m a subscriber to the Sam Sifton style of no-recipe cooking so all of these measurements are not approximate, if you so choose to make this please adjust everything to your taste. Tweak the Ranch season depending on how flavor blasted you prefer your dips.
Things I purchased recently and loved:
Perhaps the perfect tee, the luscious fluorescent pigments from woman-owned watercolor company
Case For Making, the
holy grail toy for my cats Julius and Dougie — also, did you know they found new footage of
how house cats became domesticated?
Photography from No Borders
VANESSA VARGHESE
Vanessa is in incredible choreographer, dancer, and movement director, and also runs
Groove Therapy, beginner adult dance classes for people who think they can't dance. I was invited to a conference once for "young Australians with potential" (I cannot remember what they actually called us) and I met Vanessa and her now husband Stefan and asked them the next day if we could maybe be friends for life. They were down which is great because they both rule and we are excellent game night companions.
Are you on that travel buzz? Same. I'm attributing my 9-hour plane nap to
this infinity pillow.
What would you do if you got seated next to a movie star on a plane? This
Miranda July story explores one possibility, and it's hilarious.
If you're in Amsterdam in August, bail on the tourist magnets and maybe treat your eyeballs to
a dance battle?
Dream of going to a big fat Indian wedding?
This doco will ruin it for you. And check out the young generation of Indians that
surf and
rock mad threads.
When was the last time you learnt a new skill? Not to upskill, self-help or further your career, but to simply bathe in
the wonder of being a beginner? I've personally been
learning how to draw. What a bowl of humble pie that's been.
And lastly, I can't say goodbye without lovingly reminding you of the power of dance. Dance alone in your designated safe space, dance at a party, dance in a dance class or just
learn how to body roll. It's the perfect way to warm your cold, dead heart.
TEGAN HENDEL
Tegan is a talented designer who runs her own independent studio between London and Melbourne. We've loved each other's work from afar for a very long time, but have never been in the same city together somehow — it'll happen one day! Tegan's recommendations are great British things from a recently departed self-made Londoner. Most of them can be recreated / enjoyed in anywhere in the world.
A concert, a composer. This one is a double-whammy. It is not a closely kept secret that
The Barbican Centre has an amazing cultural program, so that is
part one of this recommendation.
Part two is the great composer and trumpeter
Matthew Halsall, who hails from Manchester and is the last performance I went to at The Barbican before leaving London. Fav albums: Fletcher Moss Park (transcendent and calm) and On The Go (warm and vibrant).
A perfectly formed pub. I cannot narrow down to just one bar or restaurant because London — especially East London — is a literal Mecca of food and wine. Instead I will recommend my favourite London pub
The Duke, which is old and tiny and perfect. In my minds eye, when I imagine myself in Central London, I am running in the grey drizzle towards this pub — shaking off the rain, I order a pint and slide into a booth to read while I wait for a friend.
JOAN is a great and relatively young British online store. It is one of my favourite spots for a burst of fashion inspiration outside the tired virtual aisles of Matches and Net-a-Porter. And more importantly, my favourite JOAN-stocked British fashion recommendation is
Good Squish — enormous scrunchie sartorial heaven.
A day trip, for art's sake. Take the train from Kings Cross to Cambridge for the day to visit
Kettle's Yard — the former home of Jim Ede. Jim was the curator of the TATE in the 1920s and later a lecturer at Cambridge. He left his home and collection to the university, who have kept it as it was when Jim and his wife Helen lived there. I love it for its ability to show art as the companion to our lives and homes, not just the property of millionaires and stark white gallery walls.
A book, for when you aren't in London. A book I do not have yet, but am itching to read.
Look Here by Ana Kinsella, wonderful writer of
The London Review of Looks. This is her first book and described as 'a portrait of London and its people'. I’ve read her newsletter for years and know this will take me straight back to the streets of my adoptive home, despite the fact that I'm in Australia for now.
