Best. Tuxedo. EVAH!. As true today as it is tomorrow...

And it's damn tasty. Altho similar to B&J's discontinued waffle cone flavor this one does not have nuts (an improvement) and does have caramel (also an improvement).

With great effort of will we managed to not eat our way thru the entire container in one sitting.

Hey, hey, it's the other March Madness... PEEPS Madness!! Here's a post from Serious Eats pointing to peep foto hijinks, including a flickr tag. I went out tonight and bought myself some (classic oldschool yellow). Now I just have to figure something to do with 'em

Tomorrow is a regularly scheduled radio morning. But I'm wiped out so I found a sub and will be sleeping in, at least for a little bit.
Below is the final installment from my Best of 06 playlists. As before, copies available on request.

Sunday's NYTimes included some music reviews by Ben Ratliff, and one line of his really struck a chord with me. Talking about a collection by Western Saharan guitarist Doueh (just out from Sublime Frequencies), he says: "the question arises whether some Western assumptions about rustic authenticity are being served." This is a problem I have with a lot of wrrld music, particularly Sublime Frequencies. I get the feeling that they're overselling the exotic and rustic qualities because that's what's currently considered authentic in the world of wrrld music. And, yes, I'm aware that this recapitulates a similar discussion around blues which has been going on since the 1960s. One of the things that's always nagged at me about SubFreq is that so many of their CD releases don't credit the musicians on the songs. I give them somewhat of a pass on that, since they're releasing stuff we'd probably never get to hear otherwise, even if they haven't been able to get full documentation. Plus they do seem to credit when they can (see: Doueh, Omar Souleyman).

Still, moving away from SubFreq, I've always had a problem with the way some wrrld music is marketed -- as if moving further away from "here" (wherever "here" is) somehow equals moving back in time; as if all wrrld music is, by definition, rustic and authentic and played on traditional, acoustic, folk instruments; as if, by definition, an acoustic guitar (or oud or tres or kora) is more "authentic" in 2007 than an electric guitar or a digital sampler or sound system made of salvaged car parts. Rather than thinking of wrrld music as alien and other, I'm much more down with the Six Degrees motto: everywhere is closer than you think.

The downside of that approach is when everything turns into a generic, globalized mush. But that, I'd argue, is no worse than the fake authenticity of too much wrrld music, a Potemkin Village fantasy of acoustic "realness" that never existed. I remember when I had my interview with the XDU board, when I was applying to be wrrld music director. One of the first questions I was asked was to define "wrrld music." I declined. I felt like I was being baited and that there was some kind of XDU history to the question that I didn't know anything about. But, more to the point, I don't think it's a terribly relevant question. How is it the job of a genre music director at a small college radio station to determine what wrrld music is (or isn't)? Is it the job of the overall music director to determine what rock music is? If I'd been compelled to answer the question, though, I'd have taken the descriptivist argument and not the prescriptive. I have no interest in manning the barricades to keep outside influences from corrupting some non-existent purity. My vision of wrrld music is expansive and open. And, frankly, pretty laidback. I don't think that, as a music consumer (as opposed to a music creator) genre means much except as a way to file CDs so that they're easier to find.

At the store this evening, I saw a box of Balinese long pepper, a spice I'd never heard of before. So I bought a box. Of course. It looks pretty exactly as pictured on that page. Those are definitely some long peppers -- that's not getting thru your average pepper mill. But in addition to being up for trying just about any new spice, esp. of the peppery kind, I'm also happy for any excuse to break out the molcajete. Ground up some tonight with salt and coriander and sprinkled on steaks before grilling. I didn't notice the described notes of cardamom or nutmeg particularly, but the flavor profile is a bit different that regular black pepper. It's a subtle difference, and not one I've fully worked out a description of yet. I'll be using it in some other dishes to see what kind of results I get.

Annoying ways to start your Monday, part one:
Walk into food/coffee selling establishment. Find no one behind counter. There is someone nearby, mixing something in a blender but he's got his back to you. It's very loud (due to the blending). Wait. Wait some more. Hear the phone ring. See guy come from back/kitchen area to answer phone. Wait. Still noisy. Notice that the blending guy still has his back to you. He's focused on that blender like he's monitoring a gas spectrometer. Note that guy on phone has put down phone. Assume he's going to take your order. Stare slack-jawed as he disappears into the back without ever acknowledging your presence. Note that the blender operator is still blending away madly and has also not turned around, rendering him incapable of acknowledging your existence. Leave. Leave quickly to avoid temptation to wonder aloud why the fuck they don't want you to spend any money in their putative food/coffee selling establishment.
Go somewhere else.

My advice: don't go to Nosh for your morning cup of coffee.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 25 mar 07) ::

Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria :: Omar Souleyman
Selda :: Selda
Cê :: Caetano Veloso
All Good Things :: Pacha Massive
Security :: Antibalas
Don't Mess with the Dragon :: Ozomatli
Techarí :: Ojos de Brujo
Le Monde Musical de Baden Powell :: Baden Powell
Remixed :: Midival Punditz
African Spirit :: Soweto Gospel Choir

Over at Rotten Tomatoes, they've got what they're billing as the worst of the worst. Supposedly, the worst reviewed movies of all time. If by "all time" you mean the last 10 years. What's really worst about it, tho, is the UI. Oh. My. Gods. Most annoying, ugly, stupid interface. EVAH! It's a 100 movie list and you're only shown one movie at a time. That's right, they expect people to click 100 times to see they're list. And, like all RT pages, they're loaded with graphics and pointless crap and ads and take, on average, anywhere from 30 sec. to 1 min. to load. And it's not like there's any all that much content on each page, apart from the name of the movie. There's nothing surprising -- no great movies that got bad reviews, no camp classics. It's all studio dreck from the last few years. I mean, I know "page clicks" is one way of measuring web activity, but do they honestly think anyone's going to spend an hour or more to click thru 100 screens? I was sick of it after the fifth screen. Oh, and they interrupt the countdown with interstitial ads multiple times on the way from 100 to 1. I only kept doing it so I could complain about it here at greater length.
I've only suffered thru one of the 100 in its entirety, Darkness Falls (yes, it sux). Altho, like me, you've probably seen at least bits of many of these. The list reads like a typical month of basic cable.
In case you're curious, RT's 10 worst "of all time" are:
10. Half Past Dead (2002; Steven Seagal)
9. the Master of Disguise (2002)
8. Twisted (2004)
7. National Lampoon's Gold Diggers (2004)
6. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004)
5. King's Ransom (2005)
4. Pinocchio (2002; Roberto Benigni)
3. Crossover (2006)
2. Alone in the Dark (2005)
1. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)

It's movie trailer mashup fun time...

It's Raining 300 Men (via Making Light)
A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead (via everywhere)

In addition to hilarity ensuing all over the damn place, these are just really impressively edited.

Altho my best bracket was mired well down into the lower third of the standings, I still had the opportunity to move up and finish strong. But Kansas getting the rock chalk chop this evening pretty much sunk that slim hope, which now sleeps with the fishes and both my other sets of picks. Such is life. It was fun while it lasted, though.

Below the cut is a long story from my day in the waiting rooms at the hospital yesterday. From which I learned that, sometimes, context is the enemy of certainty.

Some actual thoughts tomorrow. For now, let me just say that all is well. Please enjoy this picture of some eensy daffodils. And have a lovely evening.

Interesting article on Serious Eats about corks v. screw caps on wine bottles. Altho I can understand why wine fans (or wine snobs, depending on how you look at it) would get really attached to all the custom and ritual that center around corks. And maybe if I was spending bigger bucks on wine, I might feel differently. Because it really is all about custom and habit and what other people will/might think. I'm actually pretty contrarian and prefer screw-cap bottles if I can find them. Three Thieves, which I've talked about previously, has wonderful wines in screw-cap jugs. And one of my favorite Veitliners also has a cap not a cork. The article doesn't mention it but I heard a few years ago that most Australian and New Zealand wines don't use corks because it's so incredibly expensive to ship cork all the way out there.
Also in food news, my review of Southern Kitchen finally got posted at Roadfood. I actually felt bad about posting such a negative review but we had such a bad experience there that I just had to say something.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 11 mar 07) ::
bonus late-arriving top 10 from week before last

Cê :: Caetano Veloso
Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria :: Omar Souleyman
Selda :: Selda
Security :: Antibalas
Techarí :: Ojos de Brujo
Abacabok :: Tartit
Samba Nouvelle Vague :: Sivuca
Wishbone :: Jackie Mittoo
All Good Things :: Pacha Massive
Vieux Farka Touré :: Vieux Farka Touré

Seen on Slashfood today: the James Beard Foundation has just announced its nominees for 2007. One of the categories is Outstanding Restaurant. In order to be eligible, a restaurant has to have been in business for at least 10 years. And one of the nominees this year is Durham's own Magnolia Grill. Woohoo! There's some pretty heavy competition in that field, including Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill, in Chicago, along with several places I'm not familiar with but which do not have the word "grill" in their names. Good luck to the Barkers.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 18 mar 07) ::

Security :: Antibalas
Cê :: Caetano Veloso
Selda :: Selda
Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria :: Omar Souleyman
Techarí :: Ojos de Brujo
Don't Mess with the Dragon :: Ozomatli
Vieux Farka Touré :: Vieux Farka Touré
Abacabok :: Tartit
All Good Things :: Pacha Massive
Samba Nouvelle Vague :: Sivuca

Special bonus Monday playlist. Fortunately, I was cleaning out my email inbox last night and found the message where I'd agreed to sub this morning's show. That'd would've been embarrassing, to show up at work around 8.30 and then remember I was supposed to be at the station. But no blood, no foul...

Y'know what's fun? Shooting fish. In barrels. Newitz, when she's not poking holes in shoddy research and dubious journalism, is one of the editors of She's Such A Geek (which I gave Sarah, and which I'll probably yoink from her and read if I ever I get thru all the Xmas books I haven't read yet).

Hey, hey, it's the Housemartins.

Hey, hey, it's exotic chocolate bunnies.

Finally got around last night to watching the first episode of the Riches, a new series on FX starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver. They play a couple of "travelers" (which I thought was a British-only term). But anyway, they're smalltime grifters and seem to be part of this whole social network of families. I was impressed with how economically they set the story in motion. They did a good job of setting up the characters and their context so that when the plot moments happen, what follows feels natural, almost inevitable. I'm being vague here, I know. But the show's good enough that I don't want to spoil it, in case anyone's deciding whether to watch it. (hint: you should). Izzard has a couple of tour de force scenes. And Driver is amazing. I was impressed that she was willing to look as messed up on camera as her character's supposed to in the story. I saw a quote from Izzard, describing the first version of the pilot as (paraphrase): "well, that was interesting; I never want to go back there." Overall, it was still pretty dark but I felt like I could tell where they'd added stuff to make sure that we liked the main characters and would want to follow their story in future weeks.
ETA: Here's the NYTimes review. They apparently had a chance to view upcoming episodes, since they reference things not in the pilot. Still, I agree with their conclusion, even if the opening paragraph is nearly incoherent, and they get a couple of factoids wrong (cough syrup? I don't think so!)

Speaking of Eddie Izzard, here's a post from a science blog (found via Bookslut) that includes a clip from (one of his standup concerts -- can't remember now; too lazy to look it up). I especially love the comments, which are mostly quotes from other bits of his.

For dinner last night I made a really easy, really tasty hot & sour soup recipe (variations on a recipe I found on the internets). How simple? Combine chicken stock (4 cups), lime juice (1/4 cup), fish sauce (3 Tbsp). Add 3 stalks lemongrass and a jalapeño (cut in half) and boil for 5 min. Remove the lemongrass and pepper. Add some udon noodles and shiitake mushrooms. Cook for about 6-8 min. until noodles are done. Add 1 lb. of fresh shrimp (peeled and cleaned) and some chopped scallions. Cook until shrimp are done. Salt & pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped cilantro. The most time-consuming part of this was cleaning the shrimp. So this could be made even simpler by using cleaned, frozen shrimp. Or cooked chicken, or tofu. Heck, if you subbed veggie stock, I guess you could even make it vegetarian. Well, except for the fish sauce. Anyway, a super delicious meal for an unseasonably chilly evening. I'll definitely be making it again. As a bonus, if we plant lemongrass again this year, we've now got at least one recipe to use it in.

Missed this earlier in the week, but the Stardust was imploded. The Strip just won't be the same without that sign. Other than that, though, I won't miss the Stardust much. I never stayed there and the times I was in there it showed its age. It wasn't a scary pit like the New Frontier (now that's somethng that should be imploded) but it wasn't exactly oozing oldschool charm either. I guess I'm pretty much over being sad or surprised when another Vegas landmark gets torn down. That's what they do out there? (50 years ago? no one was alive then!)

Another Thursday, another playlist. Decided to stick with A3 as opening theme for another week, since it's still o-dark-thirty when I'm starting the show. After it gets on to being light at 7am, I'll probably switch to some other morning-themed classic track. Well, classic by my definition at least.

So, how's your bracket doing? I've got three and they're all pretty different so I'm having trouble remembering how any one win or loss fits into the various pictures. I know Duke losing blew one of my brackets all to hell but I think I had VCU winning in the other two. This was one of those years where I just filled in the names without doing too much research. But I'm finding that having the multiple brackets is actually making me less tense about the whole thing.

We're watching the coolest movie (recorded from TCM earlier): Reveille With Beverly. 1943 B-comedy (the jokes have a lot in common with Bugs Bunny cartoons of the period), but the forgettable plot is hardly the point. And what you might ask would be the point? Ella Mae Morse singing "Cow Cow Boogie"; Frank Sinatra singing "Night and Day"; Bob Crosby playing "Big Noise from Winnetka". The Mills Brothers singing "Cielito Lindo" and "Sweet Lucy Brown"; Count Basie playing "One O'Clock Jump"; Duke Ellington playing "Take the A Train". My only quibble is that they had the Ellington band playing "Take the A Train" on what looked like the Super Chief. That may be a train, but it's not the frikkin' A train. On the upside, you get to see the Mills Brothers doing some vocalese (the 40s equivalent of human beatboxing). Well worth checking out if you get the chance.

Like others, I've been taking advantage of the recent time-shift (plus a short term work-shift that's actually made it better for me to leave a bit early on weekdays) to get some gardening done here at Casa del House. Well, so far it's mostly been confined to the digging of the holes and the killing of the weeds. But, in gardening, as in so many things, it's always best to begin at the beginning. This afternoon, I was planning to dig the 3rd, 4th and 5th holes for the rose bushes which await planting. But the space where hole the 4th needed to be turned out to be occupied largely by rocks of varying sizes. Still, progress is being made.
(No pictures 'cause a hole in the ground is just not all that interesting to look at)

This is one of the coolest things I've seen recently (thanks !!Swanhunter): visual interfaces for DIY dub (or, an addictive little flash game that makes music) from the fine folks at Dub Selector. They're all cool but I particularly like Echo Chamber and Little Axe.

I also note that Little Axe (with the full On-U Sound Crew line-up of Wimbish, McDonald, LeBlanc, and Sherwood) are playing a gig in April. UNfortunately, it's in London.

Yes, yes... you're right. I had completely forgotten about my best of 06 tracklists. Third of four below the cut.

(and there's still a chance I'll get them all posted before the equinox)

Just in from the dept. of stuff I'm missing in the big city: interesting gallery show of Rauschenberg transfer drawings. I'm sorry not to get the chance to see this (it closes next weekend), as I'm not terribly familiar with the transfer drawings, altho the technique does show up in some of his larger works. Good article, at least, even if it does get a bit art-criticky/prententious in spots.

Oh well...

Daylight Savings Time has begun. Planes have not fallen from the skies. The streets are not running red with blood (last I checked). Your toaster is not trying to strangle you in your sleep.
That is all. Continue with your day...

This comic (found via Making Light) is one of the funniest things I've seen all week. Hilarity ensues. With dinosaurs!
Judging from the number of places I've seen it referenced online, many of us of "a certain age" had the same reaction to the Libby verdict.
Oh and can I be the 1001st person to insist that Lewis Libby must change his nick-name. Everyone knows there's only one Scooter.

Ahh... it's full-on, marching to madness, college hoops tourney time. ACC tournament is in full effect this weekend and my bracket was blown to hell by 4pm yesterday. Fear the turtle, indeed. But, hey, someone's got to be the dead money.
I was thinking just now that it's funny how many specific memories I have that are tied to conference or NCAA tournament time. Not memories of basketball so much as of things that were happening at that time of the year. But I guess it's not any odder to have memories linked to NCAA tournaments or World Cups than it is to have memories tied to Christmas or birthdays.

Hey, check this out: the FMU blog's got a big old post up about Red Sovine. Looks like part of a series about truck drivin' music. But, really, once you've heard Red Sovine, do you ever need to hear any other truck drivin' music? I think not. I note from the post that there's an offical site and that you can even get Red Sovine ringtones for your cellphone. And I was also reminded that theres a Tom Waits cover of "Phantom 309" which I'll have to look for when I'm at the station next week.

Here's an excellent photo essay on Aero Car 2. One of my favorite art cars (as mentioned previously). As a bonus, since these photos were taken in Minnesota last month, they're a nice last blast of winter as it gets ready to head out the door. Well, that's true 'round here. Maybe not so much where you are...

Manu Chao US tour dates just announced. Nothing local as yet. Roadtrip may be in order.

April 29th – Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival

May 25th – Vancouver, BC Canada – Commodore Ballroom
May 26th – Quincy, WA –Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre
May 28th – Portland, OR – Roseland Theatre
May 30th – San Francisco, CA – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

June 2nd- Los Angeles, CA (Venue TBA shortly)
June 5th – San Diego, CA – Bayside Concerts – Embarcadero Marina Park South
June 8th – Denver, CO – Red Rock Amphitheatre
June 10th – Dallas, TX – Palladium Ballroom
June 11th – Austin, TX – Stubbs
June 13th – New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s Uptown
June 15th – Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Music Festival
June 17th – Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom
June 19th – Detroit, MI – St. Andrews Hall
June 21st – Toronto, ON – Kool Haus
June 23rd- Washington, DC
(Columbia, MD- Merriweather Post; has not been confirmed)
June 24th – Boston, MA – Avalon Ballroom
June 26th & 27th – Brooklyn, NY – Celebrate Brooklyn - Prospect Park Bandshell
June 29th – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory

Here's the official site. No info there yet. TIx go on sale next week, I believe.

Tonight's movie: ¡Vampiros en la Habana! w00t. I hadn't seen this movie in almost 20 years (jeez, I'm feelin' old...) and I was, I must admit, concerned that it wouldn't live up to my memories. Not to worry though. It was every bit as much fun this time. Vampires. Cuban revolutionaries. 20s mobsters. And if that's not enough, soundtrack prominently features Arturo Sandoval. Digging around online I found the actual NYTimes review from 87. Altho this ran the exact date that I saw the movie, I'm sure that's not where I heard about it. For one thing, it's not a very good review (altho it wouldn't have taken much to get me to go see a Cuban cartoon about vampires and mobsters). Also, I was reading the Voice much more than the NYTimes back in the late 80s, so that's probably how I found out about the movie. While poking around I also learned that there's a sequel, 2003's Más Vampiros en la Habana. Sadly, it does not seem to be out on DVD yet.

I recently read (mostly while waiting at BWI for a plane last month) Christopher Moore's most recent, You Suck: A Love Story. Altho rather conspicuously not mentioned on the jacket, this is essentially a sequel to his earlier vampire novel, Bloodsucking Fiends. I found the new one much more of a page-turner. It's frequently laugh-out-loud funny but I thought he also managed to avoid one of the main pitfalls of comic novels -- letting the joke or the shtick take precedent over an engaging story and characters you care about. Maybe not the best place to begin if you've never read Moore before. OTOH, it's been so long since I read Bloodsucking Fiends that remember it only vaguely and that wasn't any kind of problem in terms of understanding or enjoyment.
Recommended and well worth yr time.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 4 mar 07) ::

Highway to Hassake: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria :: Omar Souleyman
Don't Mess with the Dragon :: Ozomatli
Selda :: Selda
le Monde Musical de Baden Powell :: Baden Powell
Wishbone :: Jackie Mittoo
Samba Nouvelle Vague :: Sivuca
the Bombay Connection, vol. 2 :: various
Grabaciones Originales, 1950-1954 :: los Donneños
Bunalim :: Bunalim
Abacabok :: Tartit

One of the things I reviewed for XDU this week was Techarí, the new CD from Ojos de Brujo. This is their 3rd (fourth, if you count Remezclas de la Casa) altho I'm pretty sure the debut has never been released in the US. And they just keep getting better and better. Into their already smoking mix of rumba Catalana, hiphop, flamenco & funk they've added some sabor latino (guitarist from Son de la Frontera guests on 1 track and there's also some Fania-worthy horn charts and Ruben-channeling piano) and some Asian Underground stylee as well (Nitin Sawhney on 1 track and Prithpal Rajput of Asian Dub Foundation on another). Absolutely kicking and definitely on the shortlist for best of 2007.

Found this amazing site via Neil Gaiman, who summed it up best: "by clicking on these things we were powering a hellish device made of owls and body parts in an alternate London."
(or if you prefer, here's the more prosaic explanation)

dovertastic!

So this comic, I think, is the high point in all the foofarah surrounding Bourdain v. Food Network.

And what better way to wrap up the week than with some roast! pork! cookies!

Another Thursday, another playlist. I was wanting to end the show with "Eat Y'self Fitter" (the video I linked to the other day) but the station didn't have that album. Which turns out to be a good thing, as I was just reading the lyrics and there's an FCC indecency hiding in there which would've gone out over the air (as I was out of the room filing my CDs for the last 5 minutes of the program, I wouldn't even have heard it).
And now, back to the food... Hey, it's National Pig Day. Nice list of porky goodness there. Altho I wouldn't pick Allen & Sons as the best pork 'cue in NC. Not necessarily because I've had better but just because I've found them to be inconsistent -- sometimes great, sometimes barely mediocre. (ymmv, of course)