2024: The Year in Review, 3rd rev. ed.

 

Things that quickened the heart, 2024 edition.

Song

David Bowie, “Right”

Jamie XX, In Waves

sample track: “Treat Each Other

Bob Dylan, GWW, Seems Like a Freeze Out (bootleg)

Blonde Redhead, Sit Down for Dinner

sample track: “Sit Down for Dinner (Part 2)”

Destroyer + Lightning Dust, Ritz PDB, Montreal, QC, April 8, 2024 (a.k.a., SOLAR ECLIPSE DAY [see “Miscellaneous” below])

Everything But the Girl, Fuse

sample track: “Nothing Left to Lose”

Sudan Archives & Neneh Cherry, “Heart”

Lafayette Afro-Rock Band, Soul Makossa

sample track: “Hihache”

Altin Gün, Gece

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Wild God

Neil Young, On the Beach

Neil Young, Neil Young

The New Year, The New Year

Mdou Moctar, Funeral for Justice

Derya Yildirim & Grup Şimşek, Dost 1

Derya Yildirim & Grup Şimşek, Dost 2

Nia Archives, “Silence is Loud”

V/A, The Love You Save: American Soul Music, 1955-1972

sample track: Bettye Lavette, “Let Me Down Easy”

Perfect Days (original soundtrack)

Staples Jr. Singers, When Do We Get Paid

sample track: “Send It On Down”

Sinéad O’Connor, “All Apologies”

Muscle Memory, “Body of Light (Justin Strauss Remix)”

Calexico, “Alone Again Or”

Wolf People, Ruins

Olafur Arnalds, Island Songs

Talk Talk, “Life’s What You Make It”

Fleetwood Mac, Tango in the Night

Terry Callier, Hidden Conversations

sample track: “Wings”

Lubalin, “Just Love”

Witch, In The Past

Myriam Gendron, Mayday

sample track: “Long Way Home”

Boba Teens, Toronto, ON

Food & Drink

Pacina (vino, olio e ospitalità), Castelnuovo Berardenga, Tuscany, Italy

Cena Pop Up, Michelle Marek + Natasha Pickowicz @ Pacina, Castelnuovo Berardenga, IT, July 2024

Barbara Fish House, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

Ahimé, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Sagra della Bistecca, Olmo, Tuscany, Italy

shopping at Miklagarður, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, then going “home” to prepare and enjoy the bounty

Cittavino & Co., Oakland, CA

Rôtisserie La Lune, Montreal, QC

Ohayo Café, Montreal, QC

Abracadabra Coffee Co., Woodstock, VT

Cara Mia, Montreal, QC

Quinnie’s, Hudson, NY

Kitty’s, Hudson, NY

Mel the Bakery, Hudson, NY

Grapefruit Wines, Hudson, NY

Luciano, Rome, Lazio, IT

Sunny’s Chinese, Toronto, ON

Maipai, Hamilton, ON

Icelandic picnics (thank you, Chef Bryn!)

Zucchini Agrodolce alla Gabrielle Hamilton

Poulet au 40 gousses d’aîl à la Richard Olney

Tintico, l’art du café Colombien, Quebec City, QC

Toro, Boston, MA

Neptune Oyster, Boston, MA

Podere Orto wines

La Bottega Nicastro, Ottawa, ON

True Loaf Bread Company, Ottawa, ON

Cantina Gia, Ottawa, ON

Moving Images

Universal Language (2024), dir. Rankin @ the Mighty Niagara Film Festival + Q & A with Matthew Rankin

Green Border (2023), dir. Holland

Blitz (2024), dir. McQueen

Janet Planet (2024), dir. Baker

Dahomey (2024), dir. Diop

Sing Sing (2023), dir. Kwedar

Klute (1971), dir. Pakula

A Real Pain (2024), dir. Eisenberg

Conclave (2024), dir. Berger

Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb (2022), dir. Gottlieb

Réjeanne Padovani BRD, Canadian International Pictures (featuring commentary by Yours Truly)

Dune 2 (2024), dir. Villeneuve

The Green Fog (2017), dir. Maddin, Johnson, and Johnson, NAC Microcinema, Mighty Niagara Film Fest, November 2024

Tales From the Gimli Hospital (1988), dir. Maddin + Q & A w/ Guy Maddin, Mighty Niagara Film Fest, November 2024

The Village Detective: A Song Cycle (2021), dir. Morrison

Hit Man (2024), dir. Linklater

The Zone of Interest (2023), dir. Glazer

Sibyl (2019), dir. Triet

Teenage (2013), dir. Wolf

Wolfs (2024), dir. Watts

Pour la suite du monde (1962), dir. Brault & Perrault

Soul to Soul (1971), dir. Sanders

John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (2018), dir. Faraut

Diabolique (1955), dir. Clouzot

The Crown, Season 6 (2023)

Bad Monkey (2024)

Creating a Distinct Regional Film Culture panel, with Guy Maddin, Donna Szoke, and Leslie Supnet, Mighty Niagara Film Fest, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, November 14, 2024

Print

Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys

Alexei Navalny, “Prison Diaries,” The New Yorker, October 21, 2024

Kathleen Hanna, Rebel girl

Patti Smith, Just Kids

Camilla Wynne, Nature’s Candy

Anna Wiener, “The Art of Taking it Slow,” The New Yorker, September 16, 2024

W.G. Sebald, Vertigo (yet again)

Rebekah Peppler, Le Sud: Recipes From Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur

Gurdeep Loyal, Mother Tongue: Flavours of a Second Generation

Lauren Collins, “The Hottest Restaurant in France is an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet,” The New Yorker, April 1, 2024

Han Kang, The Vegetarian

John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy

Josiah Thompson, Last Second in Dallas

Anthony Lane, “The Secret History of Risotto,” The New Yorker, December 16, 2024

Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World

Heidi Blake, “Blood Relatives: Who Committed the Murders at Whitehouse Farm?,” The New Yorker, August 5, 2024

Richard Olney, Simple French Food (toujours!)

Jamie Baron and Kristen Fuhs, eds., Summer of Soul: A Docalogue

Rachel Cusk, The Last Supper

Deborah Levy, Real Estate

Luisa Weiss, Classic German Cooking

Miscellaneous

solar eclipse 2024, Montreal, QC

Art at the Kent, Kent Museum, Calais, VT, October 2024

Bessie Drennan retrospective, Kent Museum, Calais, VT, October 2024

lumens workshop with Amber Lee Williams at Studio 4, St. Catharines, ON

linocut workshop with Janet Cathey at Maple Corner Community Center, Calais, VT

KristÍn S. Gar∂arsdóttir mugs

YMC sweaters

Il Palio, Siena, Italy

Antica Aguzzeria del Cavallo, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Paynter Jacket Co.

Le Cyclorama de Jéusalem, Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, QC

l’Île aux Coudres, QC

A.Therien, Cairo, NY

Listasavn Føroya (National Gallery), Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

“Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON

“Saints, Sinners, Lovers & Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks,” Musée des beaux arts, Montreal, QC

studio visit, Brynhildur Gudmundsdottir, The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists, Reykjavik, Iceland

Serial & The New York Times: The Good Whale

Slow Burn: Gays Against Briggs

Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News

Snaeldan Sweaters

De Paz sport jackets

Kapwani Kiwanga, Trinket, Venice Biennale 2024

Thomas Cole House, Catskill, NY

This American Life, “My Senior Year”

This American Life, “There Will Be Blood”

This American Life, “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here”

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Fuji X-T5 cameras

Bélisle Pottery Workshop, Regional Municipality of Niagara, ON

pen pals

Thingvellir National Park, Iceland

Laxness House & Helgufoss, Iceland

Greater Reykjavik, Iceland

flying from Iceland to the Faroe Islands

Greater Tórshavn, including Nólsoy, Faroe Islands

Streymoy & Eysturoy, Faroe Islands

Siena, Tuscany, Italy

Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Izzy & Ozzy (4 1/2 years old now, and still crazy after all these years…)


R.I.P.

Aleksei Navalny

Steve Albini

Jimmy Carter

Melanie

Kris Kristofferson

Françoise Hardy

Rodriguez

Shelley Duvall


aj

Into the Archives: Patrice Fortier, permaculture hero & seed evangelist

 

fig. a: Patrice Fortier in his element

It’s hard to believe, but it’s now been OVER 20 YEARS since we first made the acquaintance of Patrice Fortier and his incomparable la Société des Plantes, one of the world’s great purveyors of rare and heirloom seeds, and, therefore, significant figures in the push for biodiversity and sustainability. Its name might conjure visions of vast fields and orchards, huge arrays of greenhouses, and large teams of botanists, but la Société des Plantes is a modest operation, owned and operated by Patrice and his small team of associates and based on a small farm in Kamouraska, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Eastern Quebec. In any case, in retrospect, it seems as though we actually met Patrice before we started “…an endless banquet,” in the fall of 2004, but that our second encounter with Patrice occurred right in the thick of the first month of AEB’s existence—November 2004—a period of excitement and high enthusiasm that resulted in a torrent of posts (21 in all, although many of them amounted to little more than “micro-blogging,” avant la lettre).

Patrice quickly became not only an inspiration for this couple of novice food bloggers, he became a good friend. And back in the day, he used to regularly show up in Montreal with his fantastic (and fantastical) assortments of vegetables and hold these largely impromptu farm stand sales that were very much true to the DIY roots of la Société des Plantes (and very much in line with the DIY philosophy of AEB), so he also became a recurring character in the pages of AEB. Not surprisingly, a number of our favourite posts feature Patrice quite prominently.

The photo up top—the one with the full angelica headdress—is my favourite photo of Patrice. In 2012 we finally went to visit Patrice in Kamouraska, and when we did we discovered that a documentary film was being made about him: Julie Perron’s Le Semeur (2014). We arrived just in time to behold the shooting of an elaborate fertility ritual that Patrice had created for the film. My photograph is a behind-the-scenes view of the action that captures some of the chaotic energy that was in the air on that August afternoon. If you’re interested in tracking down the finished version of Le Semeur (The Sower), you can do so here.

And if you’d like to read all about that magical first visit to la Société des Plantes, you can do so right here. In addition to details of our visit to Patrice’s farm, you’ll find tales of bakeries, charcuterie producers, smokehouses, restaurants, and eel appreciation centres, as well as a preview for a stunning “Hommage à Kamouraska” menu that Michelle had created for Foodlab (a.k.a., Labo Culinaire), featuring vegetables from la Société des Plantes.

fig. b: Patrice’s squashes, Mile End, 2005

The AEB Archives also contain a number of posts about Patrice’s numerous DIY farm stand sales, especially in the years 2004-2010. Some of these literally took place on street corners. Others took place in an odd assortment of businesses, all of them run by members of Montreal’s secretive Vegetable Underground, like bike shops and wine importation houses.

Examples of these posts include our very first piece on Patrice and la Société des Plantes in November 2004, as well as the following items:

fig. c: Michelle & her Société des Plantes cardoon, 2006

Finally, this is one of my favourite photos of Michelle from AEB. It’s a photo of her holding a prized la Société des Plantes cardoon in 2005.

We had the pleasure of seeing Patrice again yesterday when he held a sale of his seeds (sorry, no vegetables this time!) at Librarie Gourmande at Marché Jean-Talon. It was such a treat to see him again—it had been a while. And one of the reminiscences that came up was the vision of Michelle and her cardoon at one of those early streetside sales. Patrice mentioned that AEB had been among the first to draw attention to la Société des Plantes in Montreal. That may have been true, but our interest in Patrice and la Société des Plantes had everything to do with his phenomenal assortments of vegetables and his magnetic personality. He was the one who was doing something extraordinary. He still is.

Once again, if you’d like to learn more about la Société des Plantes, you can check out their website HERE. If you’re a gardener, or you have gardeners in your life, seeds from la Société des Plantes make a wonderful gift.

aj

p.s. 1: One of our earliest recipes was one inspired by our second visit to one of Patrice’s sales, where we picked up “white carrots and white beets, tomatillos, chervil, homemade plum preserve, homemade herbes salées, and fresh horseradish.” The fresh horseradish found its way into a recipe for Horseradish Mashed Potatoes that we’d gleaned from Amanda Hesser’s 1999 book The Cook and the Gardener (seems appropriate), just a few years before Hesser founded Food52. Without any further ado:

Horseradish Mashed Potatoes

1 1/2 pounds potatoes, washed
salt
1/3 c. freshly grated horseradish
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c. heavy cream
3 tbsp. butter
black pepper

Boil the potatoes in water and salt until tender. Drain.
Grate horseradish, keeping eyes as far away from the grater as possible, and add lemon juice right away.
Crush potatoes with a masher, add horseradish, cream, 2 tbsp. butter, salt and pepper to taste. Mash until desired consistency is reached.
Heat remaining tbsp. of butter in a medium pot, add potatoes, cover, place over medium heat, and stir until they are served.

Serves 6 as a side dish.

(This recipe comes from The Cook and the Gardener by Amanda Hesser)

p.s. 2: Did we pick up some seeds for ourselves? Yes, of course, we picked up some seeds for ourselves!

fig. d: La Société des Plantes seeds, ready to be broadcast

2023: The Year in Review, rev. ed.

Now that we’re 10 days into 2024, I can finally muster the courage to try to look back at 2023. This list will likely be shorter and less involved than recent lists, like THIS ONE or THIS ONE or even THIS ONE. I’m not sure I have the energy to live up to those standards. Then again, 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of “…an endless banquet” (!!). There are traditions to uphold, right? Anyway, without any further ado, here’s a list of things that quickened the heart (in a positive way) this past year.

Audio: Song

Altin Gün, Ask

Altin Gün, On

Tim Maia, Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul of Tim Maia

Destroyer (“solo”), Higher Ground, Burlington, VT & Levon Helm Studios, Woodstock, NY

Rosalía, “Tuya”

Fleetwood Mac, “Rhiannon (live 1976)”

Jimmy Scott, The Source

Mavis Staples, s/t

Mavis Staples, “You Are Not Alone”

The Staple Singers, Be Altitude: Respect Yourself

Sandy Denny, The North Star Grassman and The Ravens

Lewsberg, Out and About

ODESZA, “The Last Goodbye (feat. Bettye LaVette)”

Petula Clark, “La Nuit n’en finit plus”

Felixson Ngasia & the Survivals, “Black Precious Color”

Ibrahim Hesnawi, “Never Understand”

Sudan Archives, “Selfish Soul (ODESZA re-mix)”

Sudan Archives, “Nont For Sale”

Sudan Archives, Natural Brown Prom Queen

Latto, “Big Energy”

Coi Leray, “Players”

Vusi Mahlasela, Norman Zulu, and Jive Connection, Face to Face

Bob Dylan, “Murder Most Foul”

Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series, vol. 9: The Witmark Demos, 1962-1964

Bob Dylan, Great White Wonder (bootleg)

Lightning Dust, Nostalgia Killer

Meg Baird, Furling

Mary Lattimore, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada

CFCF, You Can Live Forever (Original Motion Picture Score)


Audio: Podcasts

This American Life, “The Call”

This American Life,”Eight Fights”

The Ezra Klein Show, “A Revelatory Tour of Martin Luther King Jr’s Forgotten Teachings”

The Kids of Rutherford County (The New York Times/Serial Productions)

The Retrievals (Serial Productions)

The Coldest Case in Laramie (The New York Times/Serial Productions)

This American Life, “The Show of Delights”

The Ezra Klein Show, “What a Poetic Mind Can Teach Us How to Live”

Rumble Strip, “Finn and the Bell”

The Daily


Moving Images

Anatomy of a Fall (2023), dir. Triet

The Red Angel (1966), dir. Masumara—Thank you to Cinéma Moderne for this one!

Saint Omer (2022), dir. Diop

Tori et Lokita (2022), dir. Dardenne Bros.

Le Pupille (2022), dir. Rohrwacher

Geographies of Solitude (2022), dir. Mills

Women Talking (2022), dir. Polley

The Pigeon Tunnel (2023), dir. Morris

Showing Up (2023), dir. Reichardt

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), dir. Scorsese

Oppenheimer (2023), dir. Nolan

Stop Making Sense 4K (2023/1984), dir. Demme

May December (2023), dir. Haynes

Reality (2023), dir. Satter

Blackberry (2023), dir. Johnson

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (2023), dir. Fremon Craig

Narcos: Mexico, seasons 1-3

The Crown, seasons 5 and 6


Print

David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Noah Gallagher Shannon, “The Genius Behind Hollywood’s Most Indelible Sets,” The New York Times

Greil Marcus, Folk Music: A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs

Peniel E. Joseph, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience

Doreen St. Felix, “How Sudan Archives Became the Violin’s Domme,” The New Yorker

Rebecca Solnit, Orwell’s Roses

Nastassja Martin, In the Eye of the Wild

Rachel Corbett, “The Inheritance Case That Could Unravel an Art Dynasty,” The New York Times

Robert MacFarlane, Landmarks

Josiah Thompson, Six Seconds in Dallas

Josiah Thompson, Last Second in Dallas

Robert Kolker, “The Botched Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Killer,” The New York Times

John Branch, “Ghosts on the Glacier,” The New York Times

Michelle Sterling, Camp Zero

Maggie Nelson, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint

Questlove, Music is History

Jon Mooallem, “Michael Stipe is Writing His Next Act. Slowly.,” The New York Times

Florian Gadsby, By My Hands

Jody Williams and Rita Sodi, Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking

Bricia Lopez, Asada: The Art of Mexican-Style Grilling

Natasha Pickowicz, More Than Cake: 100 Baking Recipes Built for Pleasure and Community

Hettie McKinnon, To Asia, With Love

Hettie Lui McKinnon, Tenderheart

Rick Easton w/ Melissa McCart, Bread and How to Eat It

Irina Georgescu, Tava: Eastern European Baking and Desserts from Romania & Beyond


Food & Drink

Ernesto’s, NYC

Bread and Salt, Jersey City, NJ

Vin Mon Lapin, Montreal

Etna Pastificio, Montreal

Carlota Boulangerie, Montreal

Kitano Shokudo, Montreal

Son & Seigle Boulangerie, Montreal

Eventide, Portland, ME

The Honey Paw, Portland, ME

Famiglia Baldassare, Toronto

Pasquale Brothers, Etobicoke, ON

Casavant, Montreal

Alma, Toronto

Tapisserie, Paris (flan!)

Parcelles, Paris

Mokonuts, Paris

Bar Cravan, Paris

summer strawberries

Canal House Station, Milford, NJ

Kitty’s, Hudson, NY

Quinine's Good Food, Hudson, NY

Churchtown Dairy, Hudson, NY

Oaxaca Fest, Calais, VT

Poppy Café, Burlington, VT

San Fu, Montreal

ongoing experiments in homemade pasta shapes of all kinds

Bonci panbriacone

Tandem Coffee Roasters & Bakery, Portland, ME

Island Oysters, Toronto

OXO Cold Brew Coffee Maker

Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, VT, including Lawson’s Scragarita

AEB Spanish-themed Holiday Extravaganza

Miscellaneous

A.THERIEN, Cairo, NY

S.W. Welch, Montreal [R.I.P.]

Rabelais Books

Musée de la chasse et de la nature, Paris

The Monkey’s Paw, Toronto

Heath Ceramics

Baba Yaga, Littleton, NH

Stanley Swain, 10-year-old artist

“Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Pinhole Camera Workshop, Niagara Artists Centre, St. Catharines, ON

YMC sweaters

Yosukata carbon steel woks

Terry Fox Run 2023, High Park, Toronto, ON

R.I.P.

Sinead O’Connor

Daniel Ellsberg

Tina Turner

André Braugher

Rodriguez

Tom Verlaine

Robbie Robertson

David Crosby

Adolfo Kaminsky

Michael Balga

and thousands of other innocents

CEASE FIRE NOW




aj

That Nashville Sound

 
fig. a: That Nashville Style

fig. a: That Nashville Style

Yes, a number of these tracks were recorded in Nashville by artists who actually lived in Nashville and/or environs for significant lengths of time. In other cases, they were recorded by artists who spent fleeting time in Nashville, but were inspired by its music scene. In still others, they’re tracks that were recorded in other parts of the States, but got channeled through Nashville because of its central role in the North American music industry. Then there were songs that I heard during a remarkable trip to Nashville in April of this year, or ones that I picked up on that trip. Whatever the case, this is a mix that came together soon after I got back from Nashville, and while very, very few of these songs are true examples of “the Nashville sound,” together they go a long way toward conjuring that magical time in that magical place for me. A Nashville of the Mind.

If you happen to be in Nashville sometime soon, by all means visit the Country Music Hall of Fame (after all, ‘round there, “Honor Thy Music” is taken pretty seriously), and, when you do, check out “Outlaws & Armadillos: Country’s Roaring ‘70s” and “Emmylou Harris: Songbird’s Flight”, both of which are pretty astounding if you’re as big on “outlaw” country-folk and country-rock of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and the LA-Austin-Houston-Nashville connection that was so crucial to it, as we are.

If you’re not going to Nashville anytime soon, but you share our devotion to that “outlaw” scene and you haven’t yet had the pleasure of seeing James Szalapski’s Heartworn Highways (1981), don’t hesitate. Now is the time. Honor Thy Music.

aj