Heart Eyes, Vol. 198: Reservation Dogs and Apple-Stuffed Apple Cake
Friends! Hello. Happy Friday. Happy Halloween, whatever that looks like to you! This week has been non-stop, in some ways that have been fun (tap class, rehearsing Handel’s Messiah for Christmas, a wine and cheese party at church if you can believe it) but also in some ways that make me feel ready to, well, stop. I’m lucky enough to have that option if I play my cards right, and I hope the same is true for you—that the rest you need will come to you in the midst of…everything. In any case, I think you’re doing great.
What to Watch: Reservation Dogs
These days, does it feel like everyone is telling you to watch Reservation Dogs? Well. Prepare yourself.
I think you should watch Reservation Dogs.
If no one has told you this (gasp!) and you don’t know what I’m talking about, Reservation Dogs is a half-hour dramedy on FX and Hulu about a group of Native American teenagers living on a reservation in Oklahoma—I believe it’s the first mainstream TV show with a primarily Indigenous cast, crew, and writers’ room. It is excellent: silly and sad, sharp-witted and warm-hearted, and with a cast of young actors turning out such warm and flawed and specific performances. (If you’ve seen it: I feel like Paulina Alexis as Willie Jack is the secret hero of the series, but how can I love anyone as much as I love Cheese?? I also have a soft spot for brave, stupid, watchful Jackie; what a great performance.)
I found the first two episodes a bit tough to take and wasn’t sure it was for me, but I’m glad I stuck with it, and I encourage you to do the same; it’s very good at balancing the grit of reservation life with tenderness and compassion, and it doesn’t take very long to get there. If you’re interested in shows about the full range of human emotion in a very specific human experience? You might love it.
Reservation Dogs airs on FX and is streaming on Hulu.
What to Bake: Apple-Stuffed Apple Cake
Ooh, am I feeling pleased with myself right now. I wanted to tell you about an apple cake I made once, sometime in the last…oh, two autumns, I guess? And brought to…um, an event I don’t recall, with a guest list I can’t put my finger on. I remembered it was a simple, weekdayish kind of cake—an Octoberfication of the famous Marian Burros New York Times purple plum torte, to be exact—and that it was a big hit and that I mentally, triumphantly filed it away for later.
Could I remember the details, or whose genius recipe it was, or how it came to me? Not even remotely. Optimistically Googling “Marian Burros plum torte but with apples” yielded nothing. I poked around in the hodgepodge of things I’ve saved from Instagram—not there. But then! All hail the vast searchability of Gmail!
WHEW. It was last year, and it was Jenny Rosenstrach in her newsletter Three Things, and she calls it Apple-Stuffed Apple Cake. It’s exactly the plum torte—aka, perfect—but with cubed apples instead of halved plums, and with a bit of cinnamon in the batter. I am RELIEVED. This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night.
Anyway, perhaps you should make some apple cake? I’m going to, anyway.
Blockbuster Review: High Fidelity (2000)
I was prepared for this movie not to hold up, but I think it really does, overall, and not just because it put Jack Black on the map—though his Barry Jive and the Uptown Five “Let’s Get It On” remains one of my favorite scenes in all of moviedom, for its joy and contentment. Of course it’s the role John Cusack was born to play (and the Chicago setting really works, though it’s different from the book), but the other real treat here is Catherine Zeta Jones, really committing to a relatively small role. Still basically a gem!