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: Soufflé
Everybody assumes that soufflé is difficult to make: there are all kinds of urban legends about soufflés that were ruined by someone walking too aggressively through the kitchen or by opening the oven door too soon. But with a little technique and the right ingredients, it’s quite easy to make a delicious, airy savory soufflé for dinner — and there’s nothing quite as comforting as a warm gooey cloud of eggs and cheese on a cold day. I use the Serious Eats recipe, and always get fantastic results. (Of course, if you’re more in the mood for a dessert soufflé, Serious Eats has great recipes for that too.)
BINGE: Doom Patrol
Easily one of the very best superhero shows on TV in recent years, Doom Patrol is wonderfully weird. It tells the story of a band of angsty, confused, self-loathing freaks who want nothing to do with being heroes: a 50s starlet who turns into an uncontrollable blob, a former test pilot possessed by dark energy, a former race car driver turned into a giant robot, and a girl with 64 different personalities, each of which has a different superpower. The show works so well because it’s incredibly self aware and delightfully silly — this is a show where a donkey fart opens a portal to another world, a show where Beatles lyrics are used as mystical incantations, a show where the main super villain is also the voiceover narrator who constantly makes mocking metajokes about TV clichés. Streams on HBO Max.
LISTEN: Ignorance by The Weather Station
Tamara Lindeman’s new album, through her moniker name The Weather Station, has been the soundtrack of last few weeks for me. This is phenomenal folk-rock — the songs and arrangements remind me of both Big Thief and Fiona Apple. The first track, Robber, is a particular highlight, but the whole album is excellent. Streams on Spotify.
PLAY: Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
There’s something incredibly cozy about an evening of board games, especially during the late winter doldrums. If you’re a fan of PC roleplaying games like Baldur’s Gate or love Dungeons and Dragons and are looking for a grand board game adventure, Jaws of the Lion is the perfect game for you. A stand alone prequel to the massive, epic game Gloomhaven, Jaws of the Lion is much easier for a new player to pick up, featuring more newbie-friendly rule books and introductory scenarios that are designed to get new players comfortable with the game. But don’t worry — it still features dozens and dozens of hours of gameplay. Fun with a group, but a fantastic solo game too for those of you that are quarantining alone.
READ: The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon’s first and most approachable novel, The Crying of Lot 49 is a weird kaleidoscopic hippie detective story about a woman named Oedipa Maas who stumbles upon a bizarre conspiracy about a secret underground postal service/counter cultural society named Trystero. If this sounds weird, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Lot 49, Pynchon’s shortest novel (by far!) and one of the great early “postmodern” novels, is a book you read for its irreverent humor, its absurdist names and digressions (there’s characters named Dr. Hilarius and Pierce Inverarity and a Beatles-like band named The Paranoids), and its overall atmosphere of acid-infused paranoia. The plot makes little sense and it doesn’t matter a lick. One of my all-time favorite books.
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.