Your very, very, very busy fall

No, it's not your imagination.

Delta variant or not, makers of movies and prestige television are careening into fall, guns blazing. And with concerts and theaters open again for live performance, the competition for your attention is fiercer than ever.

Illustration: Ben Lewis Giles; Rotunda: Erin Baiano; Eilish, Stewart, Stallion: Getty Images; Company: Brinkhoff/Moegenburg; Many Saints of Newark: Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema; Fire Shut Up In My Bones: Eric Woolsey/Opera Theatre of St. Louis; Shang-Chi: Marvel Studios; Six, Mrs. Doubtfire: Joan Marcus; No Time to Die: MGM

Apple and Amazon are investing billions of dollars to compete with Netflix and Disney, while Peacock and Paramount+ are playing catch-up. Traditional networks are mostly back to their regular production schedules as well.

If it was common before Covid-19 to refer to this era as Peak TV, the sheer volume of high-quality amusements at our disposal today makes the 1950s look like the Stone Age. In 2019 alone, the industry released more than 1,000 new series.

Jon Stewart's students have become the teachers for his new show on Apple TV+.

Source: Getty Images

Now, people can walk around with a supercomputer in their pocket that's capable of transmitting TV shows, movies, video games, podcasts, news articles, and GIFs. Keeping up with the latest ways we can distract ourselves often feels like a Sisyphean task. Luckily we're here to help.

Whether you'll be riding the wave of movies soon-to-be flooding theaters or venturing back to Broadway or temples of high culture, the next few months will be a test for consumer confidence in in-person entertainment.

Mrs. Doubtfire, whose opening was delayed by Covid-19, returns to the stage in October.

Illustration: Richard Chance for Bloomberg Businessweek

Concert venues, shuttered since the start of the pandemic, are scheduling shows for every night of the week. They've had no problem filling the calendar, since any act that released music in the past two years is eager to get on tour. "Everyone is fighting for dates right now," says John Meglen, co-CEO of Concerts West.

Fortunately for those people still hesitant to venture out into crowds, they'll have more to watch than ever before. Like Jon Stewart, even a new Sopranos movie is getting pulled back to TV.

Five musical acts that will be everywhere this fall.

Source: Getty Images

Your Fall 2021 Guide to the Post-Covid Culture Crush

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After 16 months without live music, it's a packed schedule.

And just like that, the Tokyo Olympics are over.

Track which countries have won the most gold, and keep tabs on the latest results and medals won by each country or delegation through the Closing Ceremonies this Sunday, Aug. 8.

We've removed this one from behind the paywall so you can bask in the glory for however long you'd like even after the flame is snuffed out.

An unusually large lot for Sag Harbor, N.Y., offers a backyard and swimming pool.

Source: Lifestyle Production Group for Sotheby's International Realty

For $11.5 Million, a Family Compound on Sag Harbor's Main Street

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If you keep really quiet for a moment, you will hear your inner voice asking you one simple question.

What do you want?

Do you want to experience a little bit of everything or everything about one thing?

After a year that you would probably want to leave behind, all you want is this place.

A place tailor-made for you.

#AllYouWantIsGreece

Visit Greece

Put the pitchforks away for a minute and hear us out. This week's Lunch Break column makes the case that the best pesto pasta uses pistachios and lime.

This recipe has even supplanted the avocado version that we fell in love with back in March when David Kinch, chef-owner of the Michelin three-starred restaurant Manresa, suggested it. If that was "a California take" on "the greatest sauce in Italian cuisine," then consider this a voyage back to the homeland.

It's time to rethink pesto.

Photographer: Kris Kirkham

The recipe is featured in the upcoming cookbook Sicilia: A Love Letter to the Food of Sicily by Ben Tish (Bloomsbury; Aug. 10; $32) and is a powerful green sauce for home cooks to use in celebrating the rest of season. The pistachios add an underlying sweetness you don't usually find, but the real surprise is the hit of summery, tangy lime.

A bonus here: Tish chose to take cheese out of the sauce and make it an optional garnish, so you can easily make this a vegan dish.

The following recipe is adapted from Sicilia, by Ben Tish. Tester's note: the flavors come through best when the pasta is served at room temperature or chilled for a picnic or al fresco meal.

You don't usually see limes in a pesto setup photo.

Photographer: Kate Krader/Bloomberg

Sicilian Pesto Pasta

Serves 4

3 cups loosely packed basil leaves
1 small bunch parsley (about 3.5 oz.), stems discarded
1 small garlic clove, peeled
½ cup toasted salted pistachios (about 2.5 oz), plus more to garnish
Finely grated zest of 1 lime
4 tsp. fresh lime juice
1 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 lb. dried spaccatelle, casarecce, or other short tubular pasta shape
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for garnish
½ cup fresh ricotta, plus more to finish

In a blender, combine the basil leaves, parsley leaves, garlic, pistachio nuts, lime zest, and juice, and pulse until roughly chopped. With the machine on, pour in the olive oil until smooth. Season well with salt and pepper.

In a large pot, cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to package directions. Drain, reserving a little of the pasta cooking water. In the pot, mix the pasta with a splash of olive oil, a little of the pasta cooking water, and about half the pesto. Stir in the Parmesan and check consistency; it should be saucy. If necessary, add more pesto. Off the heat, stir in the ricotta.

Spoon into bowl, garnish with a few pistachios and a little more ricotta and serve warm, at room temperature.