Youthquake is a newsletter with Pop Culture ∙ Commentary ∙ Critique
Today’s bonus Youthquake was initially for yesterday, but my laptop and internet frustratingly had other plans.
Pop Culture Cold Brew is a collection of pop culture adjacency news that’s sincerely piqued our interest, only without the celebrity worship culture. Along with social commentary pieces, there’s also entertainment news like new film teasers/trailers, directly from our inbox to yours. Virtual Insanity is our feature where we rant or rave about internet culture. Get into it below.
In homage to TBS’ Dinner and a Movie, Youthquake is featuring our spin on it— complete with our very own theme song (watch below). Bringing back an old favorite with our love for food was an easy pick to stoke our nostalgia as I’ve been in a tunnel vision of films since my nephews moved in. Living with kids has been a challenge, not to mention I’m already a caretaker to my 92-year-old Abuelo, but it’s also been great learning, albeit a stressful experience. Kids sort of unintentionally yet also very intentionally dominate every screen with anything in vivid technicolor. Thankfully, films, especially animated ones, transcend languages and are ageless in our home growing up, which my sister’s passed down to her kids. My eldest nephew, Atticus, has gotten over his shyness of seeing his animated favorites— his wholesome excitement of seeing the characters of Big Hero 6, Monsters Inc., and Up are incredibly palpable. He loves them so much, but he didn’t want to watch them due to his particular Austim spectrum; his overstimulated brain intensely feels the excitement that much more. Atticus now incorporates his pure love of animation into channeling creativity in drawing, which is ironic considering my sister can’t draw a stick figure, and this isn’t an exaggeration.
My inner child has been happily (also sleepily) living with all the animated films I’ve been rewatching. Aside from my nephew’s favorites listed above, the globally loved Ratatouille is a great reminder that art can come from anyone— how snobbery and its elitism hallow out the soul and inspiration behind the art of creating. Something I’ve shied away from as a part of ‘film Twitter,’ which isn’t always welcoming or sociable with its often high desire for reactionary memes and Tweets for exposure. Not desiring to be a part of ‘Stan culture’ and its toxic hive-minded opinions is a reason why I’ve been using social media less. Fans who cannot take any criticism against their favorite chosen celebrities or artists have been surreal as I’ve been a ‘ride or die’ fangirl my entire life. Frequently giving free passes to fans even with problematic behavior or engaging in toxicity and weird online competition isn’t something to adhere to, like the current weird one with Lady Gaga and Kristen Stewart stans. So I’m ushering in a more simple life and writing more but reviewing less to find a renewed inspiration for my first and longtime love— writing. Instead, I’ve perhaps unlocked an obsessive fascination with cottagecore and cooking as I channel my inner Top Chef (my guilt-free pleasure since season one— Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi is a delightful fellow Substacker). Healthily disassociating and rewatching the series led me to be consumed by so many delicious and wholesome food accounts online that I revived my Pinterest as if it were 2009. My inner foodie accepts the old soul in me with her penchant for a simpler cottagecore admirer. As I was rewatching Top Chef, it was a pleasant reminder that the great Napa Valley restaurant founder French Laundry, Chef Thomas Keller, also served as a film mentor for Ratatouille. Chef Keller also created the picturesque recipe for the Disney masterpiece that viewers collectively thought looked too good not to be real. While my plating could use some of that astute Tom Colicchio side-eye or Gail Simmons breakdown, below is the result.
“Ratatouille a la Remy,” Thomas Keller’s Confit byaldi via the New York Times.
I tend to follow recipes loosely, but for avid recipe followers or, no matter your level of cooking experience— the recipe below is simple and user-friendly.
🍴 Ingredients
for 8 servings Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
🍆 VEGGIES
2 Japanese eggplants (if accessible), or 1 large eggplant
6 Roma tomatoes
2 yellow squashes
2 zucchinis
🍅 SAUCE or PIPERADE
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bell peppers (red & orange) bell peppers
salt & pepper, to taste
28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh basil, from 8-10 leaves, chopped
🌿 HERB SEASONING
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, from 8-10 leaves
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, finely chopped
salt & pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil
Preparation
Preheat the oven for 375˚F (190˚C).
Roast bell peppers on the stovetop for 3-4 minutes or until charred, let rest and remove the skin. If you prefer not to use a stovetop, you can half and roast them in the oven until skin loosens. Let bell peppers cool and remove the skin to chop finely.
Boil water in a medium pan and place four tomatoes to boil until skin cracks and peels for about a minute. Remove the tomato skin by peeling and then cut the tomatoes in half, remove the seeds and finely chop the tomatoes. Set aside.
Slice your veggies (eggplant, tomatoes, and squashes) into approximately ¹⁄₁₆-1 inch (1-mm) rounds, and set aside.
Making the sauce or piperade: Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion, garlic, and bell peppers until soft (about 10 minutes). Season with salt and pepper, then add the crushed tomatoes. Stir until the ingredients are blended. Remove from heat, then add the chopped basil and stir. Set aside for the next step.
Arrange the sliced veggies in alternating layering patterns on top of sauce/piperade and fill until the desired amount of layers. So from the outer edge until the middle of the pan— season with salt and pepper.
Making the herb seasoning: In a small bowl, mix the basil, garlic, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Spoon the herb seasoning over the vegetables.
Cover your dish with parchment paper and two leftover sprigs of fresh thyme on top and bake for 40 minutes (or until assorted veggies are softened, I like mine to still have a bit of crunch as opposed to overly baked). It’s perfectly filling as an entrée or side dish (my ratatouille was a side dish to my portobello steak and cauliflower rice).
Lastly, but most importantly, enjoy. The leftover ratatouille is also excellent the next day; reheat the dish by baking in the oven at 350˚F (180˚C) for 15 minutes or simply the desired temperature.
As an homage to my love of mixtapes, here’s a digital collection of new music you should listen to, like this week’s soundtrack. Get into it below.
🎧 Saweetie Icy Chain
Photo Cr: Dennis Leupold.
On the heels of her SNL debut, Saweetie is celebrating the icy season is upon us as only our favorite Icy Girl can. The new glacial track, Icy Chain, is no exception to Saweetie’s cheeky and spirited rhymes globally embraced.
🎧 Willow t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l Remix Feat. Kid Cudi & Travis Barker
Image courtesy of Roc Nation/MSFTSMusic.
WILLOW’s fifth album lately I feel EVERYTHING, via Roc Nation/MSFTSMusic, is such a standout. Listening to the pop-punk era of the 2000s and hearing WILLOW’s music is a nostalgic renaissance as she comes into her own as an empowered young person. Watch the visualizer HERE. Following her major SOLD OUT headlining tour that took her all across the U.S., WILLOW is set to return to the road in February 2022, supporting Billie Eilish.
Photo Cr: Qiuran Zhu, @qranbearzo.
Talent is ageless, and with this powerfully embraced message, Anna Sofia knows the responsibility. Co-composing, co-producing, and co-recording the infectious hit track No Negotiations in Montreal with her creator friends–Zach Zoya, Miko, Soran, and Yuki. Described as a straight-to-the-point “hype song,” the track drips with the hindsight wisdom of her peers along with a refreshing candidness of the harsh realities of teenage experiences.
Anna Sofia shares, “It’s the one song I’ve made that reminds me to be good to myself because I deserve it! Sometimes we forget how amazing we really are and can be our own worst enemies. This is just a song to remind you that you are the baddest mf out there SO ACT LIKE IT!!!!”
On the heels of Pearl Jam legend’s highly anticipated new album, Earthling, Eddie Vedder has released the second single— listen to The HavesHERE. Earthling is produced by Grammy Award® winning producer Andrew Watt, is the first album since Vedder’s 2011 Ukulele Songs.
With the upcoming holiday this week, it’s been a frantic change of plans to suddenly have plans to celebrate with the family— which hasn’t happened in a couple of years. However, with so much frenzy happening in our everyday lives, the best thing we can do for ourselves during this neverending consumerism and repurposed holiday is to remember the actual reason it exists. The Indigenous people celebrated the seasonal harvest years long before the colonized settlers— before POTUS Washington issued a proclamation or even Lincoln, who declared it a National Holiday. As the Indigenous mourn the genocidal holiday, knowing and acknowledging should be just as profound as the reprocessed holiday we know.
