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500g boneless, skinless chicken thighs 500g arborio rice 1l chicken stock 3 bell peppers 1 onion 1 Spanish chorizo Garlic, paprika, saffron, salt, pepper to taste Preheat a large frying pan with a lid to medium-high. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces, season with salt and pepper, begin frying (stirring to avoid burning, but overcooking … Continue reading Paella
Less than a year ago, Lover was released. Less than two weeks ago, I ranked all of Taylor Swift’s albums. That ranking is now out-of-date. And I’m not mad about it. This album is good. It’s really good. Creatively, it surpasses her previous work to a pretty significant degree. It’s cohesive – a proper album, … Continue reading Taylor Swift – folklore (2020)
Everyone thinks that her old stuff’s better, or that she peaked at Red. Those are valid (albeit basic and well-worn) opinions, but I can’t agree. I expect I’ll find it very difficult to write this post, because for me, all her albums represent something different. Her story, as far as it is known to the … Continue reading Every Taylor Swift album, comprehensively and controversially ranked
Troye Sivan’s debut album, Blue Neighbourhood, was released in 2015, so it’s likely to be one of the most recent albums I cover in the Lockdown Rediscovery series. Apart from anything, with albums more recent than that, I can’t really consider myself to have rediscovered them, because I never lost them in the first place. … Continue reading Lockdown Rediscovery: Troye Sivan – Blue Neighbourhood (2015)
Yesterday, I was on my weekly Zoom call with my parents. Of course, my dad’s some sort of boomer proto-hipster, so we were using Jitsi instead of Zoom, but that’s besides the point. During this call, I mentioned to my dad that I’d listened to Blue Train by John Coltrane for the first time the … Continue reading Music And My Dad
Skyfall is one of my favourite films. Some of my opinions are essentially unjustifiable, and if I’m honest with myself, this is probably one. Most people don’t even think it’s the best Bond film – or even the best one with Daniel Craig. Yet here I am, watching it about once every two weeks, loving … Continue reading Skyfall
In my opinion, five songs isn’t really long enough for an album. Unless you’re Miles Davis. If you’re Miles Davis, it’s long enough for an epoch-defining tour de force. It helps that the songs are pretty long – the album still comes out to around 45 minutes. But much more importantly, the songs are very, … Continue reading Lockdown Rediscovery: Miles Davis – Kind of Blue (1959)
2 egg yolks 50g parmesan or pecorino (plus extra for finishing) Black pepper Salt Guanciale (or pancetta or bacon, based on what’s available) 75g spaghetti Boil approx 1.5 litres of water, heavily salted (use less salt if you’re using pecorino – it’s very salty already). Cut your pork product into lardons. Add the spaghetti to … Continue reading Carbonara
Occasionally, I’ll think of a phrase which would make a perfect title for something or other. “Second to ducks” is one of those phrases. We’ll see where this goes. In a way, I think we’re all second to ducks. Ducks are, in many ways, the ideal bird – perhaps even the ideal animal. They’re not … Continue reading Second to Ducks
In the midst of the ongoing pandemic (a sentence I never expected to write), I’ve been rediscovering – and indeed discovering for the first time – some essential albums, finding solace in music and taking the time to explore albums I’d never given enough attention. Demon Days by Gorillaz seems an appropriate place to start … Continue reading Lockdown Rediscovery: Gorillaz – Demon Days (2005)