Favorites 9.3.15

September: I always do spectacular things in September like burning stuff in backyard fires and turning my back toward the cold of night, like drinking beer and eating chocolate birthday cake. It's my month. Razor blue skies and the season pulling at you like a tide.

A homegrown cucumber: Cucumbers are cucumbers. Except they're not. The good ones taste like perfume.

A Winter's Tale: A fantastically long book by Mark Helprin (that was made into a lackluster movie starring Colin Farrell). It's a vivid dream of grit and magic in turn-of-the-century NYC.

Bloodline: A slow burn. Takes you 4 episodes to get hooked—but then you are. The music. The storms. The heat. The faces. An unflinching family drama set in the sun-bleached Florida Keys.