Jewel
Rec Room #18 – Things we’ve been enjoying this week
Kia ora, welcome to this week’s newsletter.
If you could eat one food and one food and one food only for the rest of your life, what would you choose? The more I think about it, the more I think the only answer is sandwiches.
Obviously sandwiches are delicious, but this decision is also influenced by the fact you can argue almost anything is a sandwich. And because ‘what is the definition of a sandwich (is a hot dog a sandwich...)’ is a tedious debate no one ever wants to engage with. You could get away with eating a taco or probably even two slices of pizza folded over without anyone challenging you on it.
Anyway, the reason I’m thinking about sandwiches so much lately is that Dietary Requirements had a couple of local sandwich legends on as guests last week. Have a listen and join me in adding Hare and the Turtle and Hero Sandwich House at the top of your ‘To Eat in 2021’ list.
–Cal
Lots of Jewel recs this week for some reason. Sam recommends Jessica Simpson and Jewel performing ‘Who Will Save Your Soul’ on the Nick & Jessica Variety Hour back in 2002, and this close reading of the lyrics to ‘Pieces of You’. Jane recommends the time Jewel got done up in prosthetic make-up and sang her own songs undercover at karaoke. The recent Song Exploder episode about ‘You Were Meant For Me’ is a good listen too.
Josie recommends Ari Eldjárn’s Netflix special Pardon My Icelandic. “The Icelandic people believe elves are real and I believe Ari Eldjárn is one of them. He’s a stand-up comedian with a new Netflix special. He makes lots of silly little jokes and also rolls around a bit. The audience goes “hehehehehe” instead of “whoop whoop” like American audiences usually do. It’s a light watch for a heavy day. If you, like me and Ari, have gripes with the people of Denmark - I highly rec.”
You know those ideas that sound so obvious when you hear them you wonder how nobody else thought of that? That’s last week’s Business is Boring guest Dudley Jackson, who figured out that if VR headsets were making lots of people seasick, they could also be used to make seasick people un-seasick. That’s more or less how See-LEVEL was invented, and the whole story of how it came to be is a hell of a yarn.
Alex recommends the new season of His Dark Materials on Neon. “If you aren’t prepping for the holiday season by watching steampunk polar bears and world-hopping bad guys discuss the nature of free will and the purpose of existence, did you even experience 2020?”
Alex (another one) recommends 1 Hour of 60s Brazilian Doomer Music. “Highly rec all the playlists on this channel if you need some background working music (ignore the thumbnail).”
Eli recommends Proper White Corn Tortilla Chips. “The absolute closest thing I've tasted to Californian Mexican restaurant tortilla chips in New Zealand by far. Lightly salted, perfect crunch... Obsessed.”
Alice recommends Oreo cheesecake truffles. “These are a Christmas pot-luck fav and could not be easier to make. Mix together a tub of cream cheese and some crushed Oreos and roll them up. Cover them in chocolate if you wish, decorate if you please, or get bored early and just eat them – nobody cares, it’s Christmas! If you’re vegan you can use the Angel Foods cream cheese (Oreos are already vegan).”
That’s all the recs for this week. Rec Room will be back in January – see you then. Have a safe and happy holidays!