It's gotten to where we've seen pretty much every episode of Ninja Warrior that's running on G4. And it's weeks and weeks until the next season of Survivor starts up. Fortunately, I've got a couple of new things to stare blankly at during the month of August. This weekend, Food Network is starting up the 2nd season of Feasting on Asphalt. Alton Brown and his crew of manly motorcycling men are going up the highways along the Mississippi River this year. There's no way they'll top the highlights from last year (Chris Cognac, caffeine-addled Winnebago cookery, and the motorcycle wreck) but I'm still well looking forward to it. More comments after the episodes start airing.
My other new reality show obsession is HGTV's Design Star. Sure, several of the wannabe designers are straight outta reality TV central casting: the design hobbyist and stay-at-home mom (she's the one Sarah has dubbed "Zombie Mom" cos of her big, scary, dead, soulless eyes), the incredibly flamboyant gay man (looks like he raided Seigfreid and Roy's closet for his wardrobe), the California dude (he's stoked to be there, man), the NY chick (who thinks hairstyling is the same thing as design). But then there's the "green" designer from Minneapolis, who has dubbed his style metro-hippie. And the slightly-less-flamboyant gay man, who arrived wearing a cowboy hat and carrying an espresso machine. And the photo stylist who looks like a cross between Anjelica Huston and Jennifer Tilly, is clearly there because she's not afraid to act like a biotech on national TV but forgot to actually design anything in episode one (it was very much a photo stylist effort -- change paint and accessorize). Oh, and the African-American guy from Charlotte who got started in design when he decided he needed a pimped-out bachelor pad.
There's definitely fun to be had. Did I mention that they're in Vegas? And that Vern Yip (from Trading Spaces) is one of the judges? UNfortunately, the first designer to get booted off was the quirky chick from PA with the two-tone fauxhawk. I was hoping they'd keep her and get rid of the truck-driving tool from FLA who also ended up at the bottom of the pack. All he did was waste time shopping, bitch about his partner in the challenge, and basically end up with nothing to show for his work but a car door hung on the wall and a bunch of throw pillows scattered around aimlessly. Alas, he's a much more abrasive personality, it seems, so that's probably why they kept him on the show.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 29 july 07)

Cock Mouth Kill Cock :: the Congos
Songs of the African Coast: Café Music of Liberia :: various
Isabela :: Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca
Jumping Rabbit :: Mori Chieko
Piñata :: Mexican Institute of Sound
el Espiritu Jibaro :: Roswell Rudd & Yomo Toro
Na Afriki :: Dobet Gnahoré
Jukebox: Music in the Films of Aki Kaurismäki :: various
the Player :: Willie Colon
Live at Oberlin :: Kartik Seshadri

This week's video feature: Dobet Gnahoré

As if I needed any more proof that I'm a total food geek... I was reading a review of No Reservations (and btw didn't they notice that Bourdain was already using that title for his series) and they remarked that Aaron Eckhart's character is Italian-trained and he's given a lot of shit about by the other cooks. The writer expressed disbelief that anything like that would ever happen. Meanwhile, I'm going, of course they did. No doubt they were all French-trained. There's a long tradition of French chefs looking down their toques at Italian cuisine. Even Julia Child, I believe, was known to dismiss the skills of Italian cuisine chefs. I think having odd bits o' trivia like that leap readily is a pretty strong geek indicator.

All sorts of fun stuff coming up this week, but let me just get in a quick plug here for XDU's 24 Hours of Afrobeat. This coming Thursday, Aug. 2nd, is the 10th anniversary of the death of the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti. To celebrate his life, his music, and the ongoing greatness that is afrobeat, I and 10 other DJs will be taking over XDU from midnight to midnight to play nothing but afrobeat. Expect to hear lots of Fela as well as other acts from Nigeria and Ghana in the 70s and 80s. Plus plenty of stuff from the folks keeping the sound alive like Femi Kuti, Antibalas, Chicago Afrobeat Project. And more more more. If you're in the area, it's 88.7fm. Or you can listen at the XDU website (now available thru iTunes!) You might not want to listen to my show, which will be 3-6am EDT but do tune in sometime during the day. When we did this before, back in December 05, it was a total blast.

Here's a few other things that have managed to catch my attention during this week of Potter obsession:
1. the Weekly World News is closing up shop. The WaPo story says only the print version, but I've seen other reports that it's both the print and online versions. A sad day for crackpot journalism indeed...
2. More Kwik-E-Mart photos. Woohoo! Hey, the movie opens today. We'll probably skip the opening night crowds and catch it sometime over the weekend.
3. Also from the A/V dept. -- some nice behind-the-scenes photos of Cirque du Soleil's Love.
4. And, last but never least, the pannenkoekenboot. Pancake boat! Pancake boat!! Every city should have one of these. But since they don't, a trip to Holland is now definitely on my list of things to do.

And still more Deathly Hallows yammering, again, below the cut for any slow readers in our midst...

If you run Nurmengard into Babelfish for German-to-English you get "only mixing pool of broadcasting corporations." That's entertainingly deranged but clearly a dead end. Nurmen also seems to mean grass in Finnish. Again, interesting but not really getting us anywhere. After some more musing it struck me that nurmen could be related to normen which is standardize, normalize. Gard is, of course, guard. Aha! Given the original stated purpose of the facility, that seems to be a likely candidate for what Rowling was suggesting.

In deference to slackers and slow readers Deathly Hallows yammering continues below the cut. Note to HP readers: avoid the Slate book club discussion of Deathly Hallows that's ongoing. Unless you want to spend some time with Capt. Bringdown & the Buzzkills.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 22 july 07)

Cock Mouth Kill Cock :: the Congos
Songs of the African Coast: Café Music of Liberia :: various
International Sad Hits, vol. 1: Altaic Language Group :: various
Piñata :: Mexican Institute of Sound
Poplór :: Tomás Kocko & Orchestr
Isabela :: Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca
the Player :: Willie Colon
Na Afriki :: Dobet Gnahoré
Momento :: Bebel Gilberto
Fania Signature, vol. 3: Boogaloo :: various

This week's video feature: Willie Colon

So, yeah... I'm done reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It ended up taking me about 15 hours of reading, or so. Like Sarah said, it's weird to think that there won't ever be any more new Harry Potter books.
I declare myself well pleased with the reading experience.
A few more thoughts below. DO NOT go if you haven't finished the book yet.

I'm setting my personal over/under line at 16 hours. And I'm taking the under, but only slightly.

Tonight's movie: Syriana. Which is quite possibly one of the bleakest, most deeply cynical movies I've ever seen. Makes Three Days of the Condor look like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Of course, I quite enjoyed it. One of the things I found interesting is the way the story refuses over and over to go down the expected Hollywood route, to allow action-movie heroics to gain any traction. They definitely want to drive home the point that the real world ain't like that. Great acting from a cast including George Clooney, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, Alexander Siddig. It seems like the plot's going to be very twisty but it's actually not that hard to follow. At least on DVD, though, I found there were several quiet scenes where I had to back up and watch again to pick up on some little point in the dialogue. Probably that wouldn't have been as much of a problem in a theater where the volume's cranked to 11.

We went and saw ...Order of the Phoenix again tonight. Just as much fun this time. I know that a lot of critics and folks talk about all the things that get left out of the movies. But one of the things I find most interesting is seeing what they decided to leave in. (have I talked about this already? or perhaps I'm just having deja vu...)

Now we're home and I'm watching Follow the Fleet on TCM. It's definitely in the second tier of Astaire/Rogers movies. But it does have some great Irving Berlin numbers, including "Let Yourself Go", "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket", "Get Thee Behind Me Satan" and "Let's Face the Music and Dance". And, of course, the aforementioned monkey with flowers.

As Sarah mentioned recently, the veggie garden is producing, if not at peak, then at a pretty steady clip these days. We're now at a point where we're getting enough at the same time to actually make a meal. The other night we came pretty close to meeting the eat local challenge. All we had to add was some Chapel Hill Creamery cheese (which does make the grade) and some sausages (not local, so we fail on that line)

Tonight we went to Wed. night trivia at Dain's on Ninth St. w/ S & D. We had a respectable showing. There were a few questions we should have gotten right but didn't. But even if we had, we'd still have come up short to another team. Which, oddly, makes me feel better.

Okay so I guess I'll be pretty much out of the loop for the rest of the week. Already today on two different sites I've seen headlines reporting that the last Harry Potter book has been leaked on line. Is it just an unsubstantiated rumor? I don't know, as I clicked away after seeing the headline. But clearly, just avoiding places where I think there might be spoilers won't be enough. They're obviously going to come looking for me and I shall have to practice conscious avoidance. Such is life...

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 15 july 07)

the Player :: Willie Colon
Fania Signature, vol. 3: Boogaloo :: various
International Sad Hits, vol. 1: Altaic Language Group :: various
Romano Hip-Hop :: Gipsy.cz
Immigration Dub :: Dubblestandart
Ghettoblaster :: Socalled
Gypsy Caravan :: various
Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing and HIV/AIDS in Uganda :: various
Momento :: Bebel Gilberto
Voices Have Eyes :: Eccodek

This week's video feature: Socalled

Last night was the big farewell bash for Xta. Lotsa lotsa fun. Much of the local blogerati, many XDU djs, and other fine folks. Tasty beverages, smiley face cupcakes, ukuleles... good times, indeed. I brought my camera to take some pics but I forgot until it was too dark and none of them came out. Oh well.

Saw ...Order of the Phoenix the other night. Loved it. More below (inc. spoiler-ish stuff) if you're so inclined.

Here's some info you can use (perhaps... it's certainly info I can use) on the copyright implications of embedding YouTube videos. Obviously, EFF is going to take the most expansive view on an issue like this, but I think they're correct that embedding videos does not raise any copyright concerns. So I'll keep posting the Monday video feature.

So, as you might have noticed from the sidebar, I read a bunch of food blogs. Here's an interesting one by a pastry chef from Seattle who is doing a stage at wd50, Wylie Dufresne's restaurant in NYC. Dufresne is one of the leading chefs on the molecular gastronomy scene. Which I'm not so much interested in eating but I'm endlessly fascinated in reading about it. Am definitely looking forward to further posts about the rest of the stage at wd50. Dana, the pastry chef, previously did a stage at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck which you can read about on her old blog.

Here's an interesting interview with William Gibson. Good stuff. I really need to get caught up and read some more Gibson. I do wonder how the College Crier managed to land a Gibson interview.

Note: we'll be seeing ...Order of the Phoenix tomorrow night so I'll be able to come out of my media blackout. At least for a few days, until I have to enter the cone of silence to avoid any chance of ...Deathly Hallows spoilers.

Rained today. Finally. Which will hopefully break the heat a bit. Also it's good for the tomatoes. Did I mention that our tomatoes have finally started to ripen? Photos RSN.
Like others, I'm still trying to figure out the various Potter logistics. We'll also be skipping the midnight show tonight. So obviously I'll be staying away from most blogs and all news sites tomorrow. Also, someone I work with is going to a midnight screening so I'll have to walk in loudly announcing that I haven't seen the movie yet so any Harry-related conversations need to change topic. It's not that there's any spoilers -- I've read the book; I know what happens -- I just don't want to know what you (or Roger Ebert or the AV Club or anyone else) thought of the movie.

Meanwhile, please enjoy this zombie food pyramid.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 8 july 07)

the Player :: Willie Colon
International Sad Hits, vol. 1: Altaic Language Group :: various
Fania Signature, vol. 3: Boogaloo :: various
Momento :: Bebel Gilberto
Immigration Dub :: Dubblestandart
Gypsy Caravan :: various
Romano Hip-Hop :: Gipsy.cz
Ghettoblaster :: Socalled
Por Por: Honk Horn Music of Ghana :: the La Drivers Union Por Por Group
Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing and HIV/AIDS in Uganda :: various

This week's video feature: Gipsy.cz

Yesterday was all about running errands that ended up with much looking-at of things but little actual buying of things. Did get to play with the iPhones at the Apple Store, though. Like fun! As reported by spacegrrl, while there were people hanging around it was easy to just walk around them to the phones. Actually the mall was strangely deserted for a Saturday. Perhaps it was just because we were there on the early side. Had lunch at a newish place across the street from Southpointy, called Bakehouse Bistro. I don't think it's a chain but it clearly aspires to be. Not that it was a bad lunch. But mostly it just made me appreciate someplace that's really local and really good, like Nosh or Rick's.
Today was mostly taken up with moving bits of data from one storage medium to another. Verrah exciting, no? With a few breaks for some garden maintenance. We're now into the part of the year where it's too damn hot to do any major work outside. I wish the weeds would respect that and stop growing...

Just finished watching Plan 9 From Outer Space the other night. I'd recorded it when it played on TCM's Underground a few months ago but hadn't got around to watching it. I ended up watching it in installments, which is not a problem since I've seen it many times. Actually, there are stretches of the movie that I still kinda know by heart, from having listened to the soundtrack album so many times. It's quite literally the soundtrack of the movie, with all the dialogue and everything. I actually had the vinyl before I'd ever had a chance to see the movie. Anyway, here's an appreciation of Ed Wood. I think this view, that Wood's films are distinguished by their combination of technical incompetence and utter heartfelt sincerity, has become more common, esp. since the Tim Burton movie, and his displaced the earlier "worst movie ever!" opinion. I'd certainly rather watch Plan 9... than, say, Gladiator.

I, a fiend?!?

More science, not quite so weird as the last time. Here, with 20% more snark, is a chemist's response to a piece by Jaime Weinman about nuking all the fat out of a hot dog. Funny and informative.
Less snarktastic, but even more interesting is the latest from Harold McGee, about research which seems to indicate that there's more tomato flavor in the seeds and jelly (that is, all the stuff that practically every cookbook and cooking show tells you to throw away) than there is in the fleshy part of the tomato. Haven't had the chance yet to taste-test this with tomatoes from our garden yet. Will report back with results after I do.

put down that science pole!

Some more linkage, this time for Lewis Shiner. Nice to see Lew gettin' some dap over at boing² recently, as they might actually drive some traffic to his site. Altho I can't match Cory D's 10x readings of Glimpses, I have read Slam 3x which makes it one of the few books I've read more than once in my adult life -- the only other one that comes to mind is Kitchen Confidential. Not to get all name-droppy but Lew was part of the XDU wrrld music groop for a few years and he's probably the only person in this century to drop some Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons on the XDU listening audience. Meeting Lew was definitely in the top 2 most serendipitous things that have happened to me cos of being at XDU.
Altho not so much recently, I have perpetrated a fair amount of short fiction in my time and have been toying with the idea of adding a section for it in the oft-contemplated redesign of this site. I guess one of the things stopping me was some inarticulate and not-fully-formed concern about the market. But, as Lew points out, there is effectively no market any more. No sense then in holding onto storied until some certified content provider agrees to publish them. Better to get them online and out to the audience that way. Sure, it's not exactly a business model. But neither is YouTube. Yet.

Heads up, weird science fans. If you're in London this week you can go check out some folks breaking the first law of thermodynamics. Or not. As Farhad Manjoo put it on Salon today, the demo is on hold until "the geniuses who cooked it up [can] learn how to turn on an air conditioner."

ETA: as Sarah mentions below, the link to the demo page went dead last night. The link now goes to Steorn's announcement that the demo has been postponed until some indefinite future date.

Here's a couple of food-related items:

Charlotte went to the big hot dog eating contest today. Fortunately, altho there was spewage (which was being shown on ESPN over and over and over earlier this evening), none of it landed on her. Can I say, btw, that I love that the insider slang for spewage at competitive eating events is "reversal of fortune." Now I'm imagining Ron Silver v. Jeremy Irons in a big hot dog eating throwdown.

And speaking of celebrations of gluttony, check out this McPimped ride. Like fun!

Last night we watched the documentary Refugee All Stars about the group of the same name, how they got together in the refugee camps in Guinea after they'd fled the civil war in their home country, Sierra Leone. I'd missed the movie when it played at Full Frame a few years ago (I think it might've played the same night as Monster Road) but it's finally getting some airplay on PBS stations as part of the P.O.V. series. Well worth checking out there, or renting. I'd heard their CD and enjoyed it -- the music is mostly West African highlife with reggae and hiphop added to the mix. I'd been surprised and impressed at how "up" the music was, since they were all refugees from a civil war. Seeing the movie only reinforces that. The film-makers don't beat you over the head with it but there's plenty enough context, inc. several stories of shocking brutality, to make the All-Stars positive outlook and music seem all the more amazing, and to make their success so far (the CD, Living Like a Refugee, got picked up for US distribution by Anti-) quite encouraging.

Woohoo! The long-rumored rebranding of a dozen 7-11s as Kwik-E-Marts (to cross-promo the Simpsons movie) has now happened. In addition to these flickr photos (click on the pic to see a bunch more), there's also a photo blog. Like others, I'm impressed by the attention to detail -- the Frostilicus decal inside the freezer is a particularly nice touch. Alas, the nearest one to here is up in the DC suburbs. A co-worker will be in Dallas in mid-July and he might try to check out the Kwik-E-Mart there.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 1 july 07)

Fania Signature, vol. 3: Boogaloo :: various
Ghettoblaster :: Socalled
Gypsy Caravan :: various
Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay :: various
Momento :: Bebel Gilberto
Nu-Med :: Balkan Beat Box
Por Por: Honk Horn Music of Ghana :: the La Drivers Union Por Por Group
United We Swing :: Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Immigration Dub :: Dubblestandart
Voices Have Eyes :: Eccodek

This week's video feature: Fanfare Ciocarlia (who are on the Gypsy Caravan soundtrack)

It's time for some linkage. Now on the internets, a wonderful painter (and a friend of mine): Lisa Kaiser.

We worked together back in the previous century and have managed to stay in touch over the years in spite of the fact that I have it in me to be horribly slack about correspondence. I've often wondered why it is that some workplace friendships pretty much die at the office door. You can have relationships that feel like they're close, socialize outside work, talk about personal lives, etc. And yet, as soon as one person leaves that workplace, it's over and done and no amount of effort will bring it back. It's probably not something that can be defined. Offices, schools, and so on create zones of artificial closeness. I guess it's hard to tell if you've actually connected with someone else until that's removed.
Or not.
I mean, it's not like I know what I'm talking about...

Various things from the worlds of nature and technology have conspired to make this weekend less than ideal. We'd planned to drive out to Charlotte to see the Titan Arum (aka corpse flower). But it bloomed this morning instead of tonight (damn inconsiderate plant!) so all the stank will be gone by tomorrow. We might have gone anyway except my car's "check engine" light lit up yesterday so I need to take it to the mechanic tomorrow and find out what's up instead of driving 2+ hours to see a no-longer stinky flower.