It’s Friday. Looking for something to switch up your weekend, or to give you an excuse to relax a little? That’s what the Weekend Reset is for. Each week we’ll pull together five things to get your weekend started. Could be something to read or watch, something to eat or listen to, or even something to do. Enjoy the weekend fellas.
MAKE: Mulled Wine
There’s nothing quite like a mug of something warm and a little boozy on a cool, crisp fall evening. That feeling of coziness, of being warmed from the inside out, is absolute perfection — which is why mulled wine is one of my favorite fall drinks. The process is pretty simple: pour a bottle or two of (inexpensive) red wine into a pot. Add some spices, maybe some lemon zest, maybe a little sugar or honey, maybe a little cider or liqueur. Simmer for a bit, then serve. I like Ina Garten’s recipe because it’s incredibly simple; Jamie Oliver’s recipe, or Gordon Ramsay’s in the video above, is more complicated but excellent; or if you have an Instant Pot, you can try super quick spiced wine.
WATCH: American Utopia
David Byrne is one of our most iconic and visionary musicians. A year ago, he turned his album “American Utopia” into a Broadway smash that earned incredible reviews. Now, in collaboration with Spike Lee, Byrne has adapted that show into a film for HBO — and again, the reviews have been through the charts. This is music and performance that both comments on the challenging state of our times while offering radical hope for the future — and I can’t wait to watch it. American Utopia airs this Saturday on HBO/HBO Max.
BINGE: Fargo Season 4
Fargo is fantastic. Season after season, writer Noah Hawley manages to churn out some of the quirkiest, weirdest, darkly comic crime television I’ve seen since the finale of Justified. And because Fargo’s an anthology series and each season tells its own discrete story, there’s no need to have seen seasons 1-3 — you can just jump right in with the brand new Season 4, which focuses on a Kansas City crime syndicate and features a gangbusters performance from Chris Rock. Streams free on Hulu.
LISTEN: boygenius
I don’t know why — but something about this EP screams “fall” to me. This EP — recorded by a “supergroup” that combines Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers (whose excellent album Punisher was also featured in the reset a few months back) — is full of finger-picked folky indie rock, and at only 20 minutes long, it’s the perfect soundtrack to a drive across town in the crisp fall weather. “Bite the Hand,” “Me and My Dog” and “Ketchum, ID” are particular favorites of mine — but all of these tracks are fantastic.
READ: Inland by Téa Obrecht
Téa Obreht earned smash reviews for her first novel, The Tiger’s Wife, which came out when she was only 25 years old. Inland, her second novel, came out late last year, and sounds equally fantastic: a Western about an outlaw and a frontierswoman navigating the ghosts and mysteries of the Arizona territory in the 1890s. Full of muscular prose but also haunted, magical realism, this book sounds like Cormac McCarthy meets James Joyce, a Western and a ghost story that is both subversive and wholly original.
About the author: Michael Robin is an LA-based television writer. When he’s not working away on his latest pilot script, you can find him scuba diving, hosting Shabbat dinners, or goofing off with his goldendoodle, Biggie Lebowski.