A tree grows in Philly — that has 40 different fruits, and why the daiquiri deserves more respect
Things I Saw This Week — Friday, April 4
Food
A series of food stories with cleverly worded question headlines from the New York Times. (All are gift links.)
“Steak Fries: Deservedly Reviled or Underappreciated Edible Spoons?”
“Why Are We Living in the Golden Age of ‘Gut Soda’?”
“How About a Dash of Respect for the Daiquiri?”
“It’s the purest expression of mixology,” said St. John Frizell, an owner of Sunken Harbor Club in Brooklyn and of Gage & Tollner, where there’s one on the menu.
When he ran his own bar, Fort Defiance, he began the training for all his bartenders with a daiquiri session, having them mix the standard, three-ingredient formula in several ratios so they could observe the way minor variations led to markedly different outcomes.
“There’s nothing to hide behind,” Mr. Frizell said.
Contemporary artist Sam Van Aken is bringing the “Tree of 40 Fruit” to Temple University’s main campus in Philadelphia. This art project is a single grafted tree that produces 40 varieties of apricots, cherries, peaches, plums, and other stone fruits. Over the next two years, students will have the opportunity to learn more about the fusion of horticulture and art and Van Aken plans to plant an additional “Tree of 40 Fruit” in Temple’s Ambler Arboretum. Students will also learn about the cultural history of fruit in the Philadelphia region including indigenous and introduced varieties.
During a recent lecture, Van Aken shared his passion for grafting and its deep historical roots potentially dating back to 1800 BCE. Grafting is a way to propagate fruit trees by combining one plant’s qualities of flowering or fruiting with the roots of a more vigorous or resilient species.
Literature
“We talked about trading pages weekly as like, this is the band,” Akbar explains from the passenger seat between bites of a Bavarian pretzel. “The idea was that writers don’t get to play music together like musicians do, and this is a version of that. So what does the band do? They go on tour.”
“It’s like we have solo albums,” Orange elaborates from the back, “but we do something totally different when we’re together.”
Michelle Zauner shares the books that shaped Japanese Breakfast’s new album, “For Melancholy Brunettes (and sad women).”
Music
NPR takes a trip to Athens, Georgia, 45 years after the band R.E.M. was formed there.
But if you really want to go back to the beginning, to "begin the begin" you're gonna go to Wuxtry Records in downtown Athens. Not the main store, but the boxcar sized building on the side.
This is the exact space where Wuxtry employee Peter Buck met a customer named Michael Stipe, who kept coming back to buy cool records. They struck up a friendship and, in true Athens fashion, formed a band. And in 1987 had their first big hit with "The one I love."
Nick Bonell works here today and, of course, plays in his own band, The Asymptomatics. He says even though it's been 14 years since R.E.M. disbanded, the fans keep turning up.
The Pudding’s latest data visualization traces “shared DNA in music.”