XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 27 nov 05) ::

Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil-up :: various
Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music :: various
Jardin Interior :: las Malas Amistades
Live in Addis :: Either/Orchestra
Silver & Gold 1973-1979 :: Prince Far I
Rolas de Aztlan: Songs of the Chicano Movement :: various
Songs of the Volcano :: Papua New Guinea Stringbands w/ Bob Brozman
Kongo Magni :: Boubacar Traore
Another World Is Possible :: various
In the Heart of the Moon :: Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabate

Here's an excellent article on Steve Kloves, the screenwriter for the first four Harry Potter movies. (note: does include some plot spoilers, if you've been living under a rock since spring) I was particularly interested to hear that Kloves decided to come back and work on the script for Half-Blood Prince, and that next two movies will be filmed as close to back-to-back as possible. That, if they can pull it off, will go a long way towards allowing them to finish out the series with the original actors still playing Ron, Hermoine, and Harry. I also noticed that my hunch on how much Kloves does or doesn't know about the overall plot and where it's headed was about right.
A bit of something I meant to blog back before Thanksgiving -- as you may be aware, this year's Beaujolais Nouveau is out. Like the slashfood blogger, I've also found it drinkable, but in an enjoyably unsubtle way. Not perhaps as "stunningly mild" as the black wine that DJ Jesus brought to the Charming English Cottage of Death Halloween Party, but definitely not the kind of thing that calls forth the urge to sip slowly whilst thinking profound and sophisticated thoughts. And, finally, here's today's late-arriving tip for how to be a better guest: should you find yrself invited somewhere, say for Thanksgiving dinner with friends, and find they have Beaujolais Nouveau among the wine offerings, you might want to resist the temptation to go on and on about what a crap wine it is and how it's all a big marketing scam.

i'm just saying...

T-day weekend over. Travel both ways was mostly good with periods of utter craptacularity. We'd made excellent time going up Thursday morning (left here at 5am) until we hit a killer traffic jam on 95 just north of Bawlmer. Fortunately, when we stopped at a rest area Sarah found out there was an accident ahead and got a map and a suggested detour. So we cut back a bit and over to Rte 1 for a while. A nice drive thru the country and it took us past the awesome dam and hydro plant pictured here (image yoinked from the internets), at Conowingo on the Susquehanna. Very much in the high WPA style. As always, a pleasant visit with Sarah's folks. What is there to say, really, about visiting family? The point, after all, is not to do but to be. And we all were. (or maybe I'm just saying that because I slept a lot... did I mention that it was a really long drive getting up there?)
The non-turkey-related food highlight of the weekend was lunch yesterday. Sarah, Laura, and I went to the Charcoal Pit. Which is beloved not just by Wilmington residents but roadfooders far and wide. A damn damn fine burger, my friends. Not quite up to Shake Shack levels but ahead, I'm afraid, of all local-to-Durham burgers that I've sampled. We got an early start today and were able to stop at Ikea (which is always fun) and had some killer pancakes at the Silver Diner just up the road from there (sure it's probably a chain and aggressively branded and aggressively noisy) but it's still good food. Alas, the shopping/eating delay caused us to run into a nasty accident-related traffic jam just north of Richmond and spend the last 90 min. of the trip driving thru heavy rain. Ah, the sacrifices one makes for affordable Swedish merchandise...

There's something altogether comforting about not traveling on the biggest travel day of the year. My condolences and best wishes to those who didn't have the luxury of avoidance. And, yes, that means that faced with the choice we've once again opted to wake up at half past holy jumpin jeebus it's early rather than drive thru holiday traffic on I95 (forever aka, our long national nightmare). And yes that means I'm totally insane for being up this late. I'm loading music onto the iPod. Not that it's necessary as there's something like 32 hours of music on there already.
Anywayz, hope all of y'all have as pleasant a Thanksgiving as you desire...

XDU wrrld music top 9 (week ending 20 nov 05) ::

Live in Addis :: Either/Orchestra
Another World Is Possible :: various
Ceasefire :: Emmanuel Jal and Abdel Gadir Salim
Qallunak :: François Couture
In the Heart of the Moon :: Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabate
Afrobeat Visions :: Bukky Leo and Black Egypt
Kongo Magni :: Boubacar Traore
Para Todos Ustedes :: los Pleneros de la 21
Vampire Music, vol. 2 :: Gypsies Maladon

Watched Sleepy Hollow tonight, which somehow we'd not gotten around to until now. Not Burton's best but still a damn good ride. And plenty o' beheadings -- it's hard not to like a movie with multiple decapitations, I always say. Just the sorta flick I needed after a brain-drain day at work. It's all-on mad panic time, what with the holiday coming up. My fave fun trivia fact (gleaned from imdb) is that there are 3 Sith Lords in Sleepy Hollow. Christopher Lee plays the judge that sends Depp off to Sleepy Hollow, Ian MacDiarmid plays the doctor who was part of the conspiracy, and Ray Park was apparently the guy inside the headless suit doing all the chopping.
Oh and by the way, hell is no doubt currently freezing over, as the always reliably pretentious (hell, Borges gets name-checked in the first frikkin sentence) Village Voice actually liked Goblet of Fire. They do, however, mention something that hadn't occured to me -- that the movies are being made before the series has ended. So, unlike Peter Jackson, they're making movies in a series that has no conclusion. I'm sure Rowling's not giving away the ending but I wonder if she provides any kind of feedback to Steve Kloves about things he should or shouldn't emphasize as he's trying to turn the novels into screenplays.

This will have a tendency to take it out of a person. Most of last night was spent not-moving as much as possible. Today was much better, altho my energy level was still approaching zero. So here are a few notes from a day of doing mostly nothing.
Is it just me or is this interview with Baudrillard just insanely hostile. I don't agree with a lot of what he says, but Solomon just comes across badly. I wonder if it was conducted in French. If so, did it make any more sense, or seem any less nasty, in the original?
I reviewed a bunch of CDs for the radio station. Two of my faves (in fact both are contenders for the year's top 10 list) ::
Music's Made of Memories by Treva Whateva. He's friend with NT labelmate Mr. Scruff and they share the same crate-digging, magpie tendency, loading the mix with funk, disco, techno, ragga, house. Treva's stuff is not quite as jazz-inflected as Mr. Scruff. Oh so good...
Live from the Breadline by Part 2. He's a longtime UK hiphop producer and this album is squarely in that sound. If you're a fan of Roots Manuva, MIA, Dizzee Rascal, Ty or any of the hip & cool UK sounds like garage or 2-step, this will be right up yr street. It bounces and rolls and hangs with the best cuts on the (sadly uneven) most recent Roots Manuva disc.

Tonight's quick quiz: what sucks more? a) had to work 9 hours; b) had to work 9 hours with no lunch; c) had to work 9 hours with no lunch because the taco truck didn't show up.

What didn't suck was Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire.
(more after the cut, in deference to those what ain't seen it yet)
("spoilers" and other details discussed so proceed at yr own risk)

A quick note on comments -- if you've tried to comment recently and gotten some kind of weird error message, that's apparently caused by a template that didn't install correct with the MT upgrade. Sarah's already talked to tech support and hopefully we can get it fixed over the weekend. Or at some point in our copious free time.
Here's last night's playlist
Tomorrow night: Goblet of Fire
w00t!!

Here in all its glory is today's lunch. Yes, the Hot Tamale taco truck paid a return visit. More pics over at my flickr page. I'm sure that their arrival has everything to do with the renovation and construction going on in the buildings around us and that once those projects are done, the taco truck's visits will be as well. Not that I'm complaining. Just enjoying it while I can.

In other news, big ups to LB Rockmeier for plugging my XDU show tonight, since I was too damn lazy to mention it myself.

Particularly hilarious Strong Bad Email this week.
Today was relatively meh except for 2 things: Sarah and I had dinner at the new Tyler's in Durham, in the American Tobacco complex. Pretty much similar to the Tyler's in Carrboro (except no pizza). My entree (a butternut squash gratin) was much better as an idea than as an entree. But the appetizer (bacon/bleu cheese/crab dip) was utterly kickass. And Avery Old Jubilation on tap, so what's to quibble...
The other cool-ass thing for today was the appearance, in the parking lot at work, of an actual honest to jeebus, taco truck. Dos tacos de lengua for $3. To die...
They said they'd be back tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pics

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 13 nov 05) ::

In the Heart of the Moon :: Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabate
Another World Is Possible :: various
Ceasefire :: Emmanuel Jal and Abdel Gadir Salim
Escape from the Dragon House :: Dengue Fever
Qallunak :: François Couture
Coconut FM :: various
Kongo Magni :: Boubacar Traore
Para Todos Ustedes :: los Pleneros de la 21
Afrobeat Visions :: Bukky Leo and Black Egypt
Prototyp :: Hurdy-Gurdy

First off, lemme send out a "hey" to wordnerdy from whom I yoinked tonight's title.
To wrap up yesterday: I bought some lumber (but not enough, alas, so I'll have to go back next weekend), pulled out most of the tomato plants (decided to leave the cherry tomatoes in for another week -- there are probably over 20 green tomatoes on there and since it'll be weirdly warm for November for the next few days, there's a chance some might actually ripen); cleaned out some of the gutters on the back of the house and replaced/installed gutter screens; cooked posole.
Then last night (as I've mentioned over and over) we went to see Laurie Anderson. Amazing show! The stage had many many candles on it. I'm not sure if the candles alone were responsible for all the smoke or if there was a smoke machine chugging along somewhere as well. But there was definitely a smoke-rising effect going on in the stage spots. There was a comfy chair stage-left where Anderson sat at the opening and a few other times during the performance. The rest of the time she was either playing the viola center-stage a bit towards the back or else up towards the front center where she had a few keyboards, computers, and effects pedals. There was also a monitor that showed a photo of the surface of the moon for most of the show, except for one segment when she was using a small iSight-type camera (attached to her bow, I think). Tech-wise, this was actually a pretty restrained show. No voice-altering. No body miking. No LEDs in the mouth. About 90 minutes and, really I think it's right up there with her best work -- running from quite comic and funny (particularly the part about Thomas Pynchon insisting that he would be thrilled to have her write and opera based on Gravity's Rainbow, provided she scored it for solo banjo) to quite chilling (the story of her trip to a California retreat with her dog, which starts off as funny musings on terrier behavior, turns into a harrowing account of vultures swooping down to carry off the dog, and ends with her neighbors in NYC after 9/11, and the realization "they can come from the sky." I think, though, that my favorite story was the one about her performance at a concert in Italy and an unscheduled duet with an owl.
More Laurie Anderson notes after the jump...

See I never should have written that, about getting nothing done today, cos that's exactly what happened. I actually did manage to drag myself over to Lowe's after the XDU meeting but I'd forgotten to measure the things I needed to measure. And with only 2 registers open there were 5+ people lined up at each one. Does that happen to anyone else? I mean, every Lowe's or Home Depot has 6, 8 whatever registers but whenver I'm there (usually weekends) there's never more than 2 or 3 staffed. Needless to say, I love the HD out on 15-501 that has the self checkout machines.
Now that we're deep into autumn, the seasonal winter brews are starting to show up. Yum! So far, I've had the following:
Pyramid's Snow Cap. This was good but nothing outstanding -- sorta the way I feel about Pyramid in general. But the packaging is gorgeous. Altho the bottles look more like the standard Pyramid label, with snow, the six pack case preserves the green/white retro look you can see on the bottle in the pic on the website.
Avery's Old Jubilation, which yes I know I blogged last year. It's more available this year and has become my standard for winter beers, replacing my longtime fave, Snow Goose (which I haven't tried yet this year)
Great Divide's Hibernation Ale is my new fave. Dark, malty, hoppy goodness. I'm going to try to lay in a couple of six packs to ration out thru the late winter months. (I know it says it's cellarable but I don't think I've got the willpower to leave a really good beer sitting in my pantry for a year without drinking it.)

And then there's this (yoinked from Slashfood), a far more alarming beverage option. Not as scary as Turkey & Gravy, perhaps, but not something I can see myself drinking either.

Work week = done. A good thing, yes. Weekend will be too busy. XDU's semi-annual all DJ meeting is tomorrow afternoon, which breaks up the day such that I won't be able to get any of the big house/yard projects done. But there are a couple of smaller tasks I can work on. Assuming I'm feeling ambitious. On the other hand I might just lie around and read or watch TV or something equally sloth-like. Both days this weekend, the Durham Art Walk is going on downtown. Why is it that multiple interesting things end up being scheduled on the same weekend? Esp. weekends when I'm trying to clean gutters, install insulation, and other time-consuming projects. Anyway, maybe we'll be able to get to that. Maybe Sunday. Then on Sunday night it's the Laurie Anderson show at the Carolina. That should be amazing, even tho it's in Fletcher, home of the most uncomfortable theater seating in the known universe.
Anyway, enough blathering... here's a link. Slashfood has instantly rocketed to the top as my absolute fave food site. (sorry, Roadfood) Surprisingly, I found out about it in the Bawlmer Sun last weekend. I suppose the fact that I read about it in a (gasp) newspaper means that it's over like Niagara Falls is over. But I don't care. Any site that's blogging the insanely twisted Jones Thanksgiving sodas is okay by me.

Here's last night's playlist. With an actual request (from Xta) and 20 min. of bonus beats, cos the midnite DJ was a no-show. But I pretty much knew before I got there that no one would be coming in for the 12-3am shift so no surprises or anything. I could've left after the Marc Almond but I figured I'd groove on for a while in case an unexpected sub showed up. Once again I was foiled by the library. While I was playing the Adolphus Bell, I got the inspiration to the play the Brains' "Money Changes Everything" but the old Brains album was nowhere to be found. So I grabbed the much less interesting Cyndi Lauper version with almost no time to spare. Only to discover when I hit the button on the board that someone had turned the power off to the turntable. Consternation uproar... and not even for a particularly good song. I shoulda just played "Money Is Not Our God" by Killing Joke.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 06 nov 05) ::

Another World Is Possible :: various
In the Heart of the Moon :: Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabate
Ceasefire :: Emmanuel Jal and Abdel Gadir Salim
Prototyp :: Hurdy-Gurdy
Kongo Magni :: Boubacar Traore
Afrobeat Visions :: Bukky Leo and Black Egypt
Qallunak :: François Couture
Escape from the Dragon House :: Dengue Fever
Township Sessions :: the Mothers
Coconut FM :: various

It's not just fun, it's bowling fun. So, yeah, we had a keglin' good time tonite at wrrld music bowling night: me, Lisa, Mark, Todd and Andy. I bowled sux0r, of course. But I got several strikes here and there, finally started picking up some spares part way thru game 2 and actually broke 100 in game 3. Plus cheap American beer and excellent fries. What's not to love?!?

Back from MD. Fun weekend. Lotsa driving, but that can't be helped much. Well, I could fly but I wouldn't really have that much more time to spend up there that way either. Mostly we just hung out. Drove out on Saturday morning with Pru when she took Hunter to orchestra rehearsal. That's where I got this pic. It was also a total flashback to about 30+ years to when I was going to Island-wide orchestra rehearsals every Saturday morning. At least the Maryland Symphonette gets an actual rehearsal room. We were rehearsing in a middle school cafeteria. But anyway...

Did watch Constantine last night. Which was so ridiculously over-the-top it was almost good. Almost. Altho it does answer the question: what do you get if you cross the Exorcist with the Matrix?

Here's last night's playlist. Once again, I went in assuming that some old vinyl would be there but it wasn't. The problem (well, it's not actually a problem but I'll call it that because it's late and I don't want to stop and figure out a more correct word) is that these are all fairly cheezy bits o' rock history that I don't in any way want to own. It'd just be nice to be able to play them when they pop into my head during the week.
In other news, I'm off to MD tomorrow so there will be a short posting hiatus.
And in other other news, we've got the wedding scheduled. Here.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 30 oct 05) ::

Ceasefire :: Emmanuel Jal and Abdel Gadir Salim
Kongo Magni :: Boubacar Traore
Prototyp :: Hurdy-Gurdy
Afrobeat Visions :: Bukky Leo and Black Egypt
In the Heart of the Moon :: Ali Farka Touré and Toumani Diabate
Escape from the Dragon House :: Dengue Fever
Para Todos Ustedes :: los Pleneros de la 21
Vampire Music, vol. 2 :: Gypsies Maladon
Coconut FM :: various
Township Sessions :: the Mothers