Blood Harmony Vol. 85: Weather Report
Hello Blood Harmonists,
We were fortunate enough to have a relatively underwhelming winter storm experience here in NC. Can’t wait to see what this weekend brings!
Cartoons
Baking
Galette season continues! Here’s one I made with a buckwheat flour1 crust and spicy cabbage filling.
Every season is cookie season in my house. Here’s some cookies and cream cookies I made this week. I thought they were a tiny bit too cakey but I liked that you get to bash some Oreos into pieces and then fold them into the dough.
I made this cabbage, potato and leek (didn’t have any, used regular onions) soup from NYT this week and followed the instructions in the comments to roast the cabbage separately first (way easier). Simple and tasty. Gift recipe!
Mending
I fixed this pillowcase with two pre-cut fabric squares from Ruby Star Society. You can get them here in all sorts of patterns if you’re interested.
I also preemptively reinforced my current favorite pair of jeans!
Screens
The Rip was totally fine.
Jack O’Connell (JOC) Film Project Update
Tulip Fever was made in 2014 but not released until 2017/8 (depending on the country). It’s a story about a young bride of a wealthy Dutch businessman (played by Alicia Vikander) who has a love affair with the portrait artist (played by Dane DeHaan) hired to paint the couple. JOC plays a fishmonger who is in love with the bride’s servant, Maria. Per Wikipedia: “In December 2018, it was released in several cinemas across the UK. It was reviewed by Adam White of The Daily Telegraph, as ‘handsome yet cripplingly dull2, Tulip Fever is every bit a throwback to that age of Chocolat and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ and it suffers from ‘clumsy post-production work’. It was also the penultimate film to be produced by The Weinstein Company, prior to its closure on 16 July 2018.”
There’s actually a pretty funny farce buried in this weirdo film. Maria gets pregnant with JOC’s baby and Alicia Vikander decides to play the baby off as her own so that her husband (Christoph Waltz) gets an heir. She is assisted by a very ethically comprised physician played by Tom Hollander (having a total blast). And JOC and Holliday Grainger, who plays Maria, get to have fun playing lusty common folk. Even Dame Judy Dench shows up as a feisty abbess involved in tulip speculation.3 Also, this movie is gorgeous to look at. But Vikander and DeHaan lack both chemistry and charisma which drags the whole thing down. And the ending is just incredibly stupid (but would make sense if it WAS a farce!).
The best thing about Tulip Fever is that it lead to this exchange on The Graham Norton show between JOC and Dame Judi Dench.4 Also, stacked couch during this episode. We’ve got JOC, Dame Judi, Dev Patel, Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney. I love Graham Norton!
I was dreading watching Back to Black (2024) based on the scathing reviews that came out around its release. I completely agree with Alissa Wilkinson’s review in the NYT which includes this: “A vibrant, dynamic, abundantly talented woman whose life often didn’t feel much like her own has ended up at the center of a movie where her life, once again, is not her own — where the facts are manipulated to favor the men who arguably did the same at her expense when she was alive.” If you want a more accurate account of Amy Winehouse’s life, I direct you to the 27 Club Podcast or the 2015 documentary Amy. But this movie is not without its charms. Marisa Abela (Yasmin from Industry) fully commits to playing (and singing!) Amy. It’s impressive. The screenplay: less so. The portrayal of Amy’s early life is very TV movie but the story finds its way once JOC enters the scene as my Blake incarcerated, Amy’s terrible husband. He gives Abela someone to play off of and is quite compelling himself. Then, you know, a bunch of terrible things happen between some fun musical numbers. This movie is scant on details, timelines and events and makes both Blake and Amy’s dad out to be much better people than they really were. Also, as mentioned in the NYT article, it makes it seem like Blake introduced Amy Winehouse to The Shangri-las which is absurd.5
We are 67% through JOC’s film catalog. Hooray to us!
Recs
Elise Granata with a great post about increasing your community involvement:
Book AND perfume recommendations from Sample Sluts? The dream!
Is this the coolest job ever?
What goes into a well-crafted pair of scissors:
Here’s a great summary of ethical t-shirts from Articles Of Interest including several brands active here in NC.
Ron Swanson Level Recommendation
I read about this lotion in the Wirecutter article The Best French Pharmacy Products 2025 and got a little tube of it when I ran out of moisturizer. It is SO nice. The texture is rich but light and it’s super easy to apply. It does smell literally like my paternal grandmother’s flowery perfume so take that as you will.6 But it’s a very luxe feeling product for an affordable price ($19/small tube which will last you quite a while). 7
Thank you so much for reading!
If you are looking for new music in between mixes, might I suggest checking out my mega playlist The B-Sides?
Is everyone else already aware that buckwheat is a seed not a grain?
"Handsome yet cripplingly dull” is such a sick burn.
Also, Matthew Morrison and Zach Galifianakis show up in side roles?!
It also led to JOC mentioning how much he fancied Dame Judi in multiple interviews for the next few years which I just love. I hope to whatever higher power there is that these two had a brief but torrid affair.
Although watching JOC lip sync to “The Leader of the Pack” is fun.
The scent fades quickly FYI.
Not sponcon but if legacy French skincare brand Laboratoires Embryolisse wants to send me a free tube, I would welcome it!
Great cartoons. Dame Judith is truly a
Gem