The Weekend Reset: David Byrne, Fall Drinks, and a Western

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.

 

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 T©a Obrecht

T©a 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.