Farewell, Hilly. And thanks to Barry for blogging this first. Here's the write-up from Gothamist.
If you look at this pic of CBs, that wall on the left is where you'd have found me and WTH leaning most nights when we were there. Not to oversell my history. It's not like I was there nightly, over even weekly. I found a journal from 1987. I wrote down 6 shows that I saw at CBs that year: Agitpop, Ism; Michelle Shocked, Mekons; Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, Zeitgeist, Fetchin Bones; Ritual Tension, Ed Gein's Car, Carmaig DeForest; the Toasters; Saqqara Dogs, Roger Miller, Gutbank.

Here's a couple of interesting local foodie articles, both via Chow. First, and actually from the site is an interview with Ben Barker. I think the brief description of Magnolia Grill makes it sound a lot more "out there" than it seems to me. But what do I know? It's not like I'm a regular.
Also fun: this blog post about Locopops. I'm bummed that I missed the horchata flavor and am hoping they'll bring it back before the end o' summer.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 26 aug 07)

Thai Pop Spectacular, 1960s to 1980s :: various
With Lasers :: Bonde do Rolê
On the Right Track :: the Skatalites
Molam: Thai Country Groove from Isan :: various
Roots, Rock, Remixed :: Bob Marley & the Wailers
Shukriya :: Sukhawat Ali Khan
Blizzard Boheme :: Balval
Without Zero :: Joi
Super Taranta! :: Gogol Bordello
Piñata :: Mexican Institute of Sound

this week's video feature: Bonde do Rolê

One more note from the weekend's travels, a particularly telling example of security theater at the Philly airport. At the entrance to the xray machine area there were two metal tables and on the shelf under each one was an array, nay a swarm (perhaps even a plethora) of water bottles. And coffee cups. And sports drink bottles. And etc. Items clearly so dangerous that they can't be allowed on a plane. But it's apparently just fine to leave them lying around, right out in the middle of where Every Single Passenger will be. Outstanding!
On a related note, Gonzo the Great resigned today. So that's one more rat off the sinking ship. However, as of right now, the planned replacement is the partially re-animated corpse of Michael Chertoff, the man who gave us security theater. Well, he may not have invented it but he's certainly been delivering it. And, of course, there was the impressive job DHS did managing the aftermath of Katrina.
You're doing a heckuva job...

One thing I noticed over the weekend is how much more variety there is in the media universe up in the NYC area. Thursday night driving up to N Island I surfed across a radio station playing west African music. I listened for about 45 min. It was completely awesome stuff but I never heard a DJ say anything so I have no idea what any of it was. This morning on a couple of other stations I heard an all polka program, with DJs speaking both English and some Eastern European language. At various other points of the weekend I also caught parts of a 2 hour radio show focusing on Greek music, Schoenberg on the radio, two different TV shows playing Bollywood videos, a Serie A futbol match (broadcast in Italian), a leased-time TV program by atheists, oldschool hiphop videos and a interview with Afrika Bambaataa, a call-in program about cricket. And that's just the stuff you can get w/o leaving the house (I'm fudging a bit since some of that was on radio I heard driving in and out thru NJ and you might or might not be able to get in in all parts of NYC)
The other thing I noticed is how much I didn't like driving around SI. There are, I know, nice parts of the Island but most of the parts I saw the last few days were aggressively ugly -- overdeveloped, under-planned, crowded, congested, dirty... It all seems to have become an exurban mess where you're crammed in and spread out. At least in an urban environment, you have the congestion offset by the fact that most everything's fairly accessible. But on SI, it's congested sprawl -- not enough space but you still have to drive almost everywhere.

I'll be heading up to N Island tomorrow. Mostly to help my mom clean out her basement. I know... I have such fun. So posting might be a tad sporadic for the next few. Talk amongst yrselves...

It actually rained for almost an hour tonight. You may not find this all that exciting but lemme tell ya, it's been pretty damn dessicated 'round this area lately so even a short storm is cause for rejoicing. Plus it's started cracking 100 again this week so a bit of rainy relief is a delight.

In other news, I'm trying to edumacate myself about Belgian beers. I'm mostly an English-type ale fan, particularly the American craft beer versions. The first few Belgian ales I tried, I just thought they tasted weird. But I really enjoyed the Clipper City saison. So it seemed like a bit of research was warranted. I'm starting off on this side of the Atlantic, with Ommegang. They're based in NY and they have a great rep. Plus, since they're domestic, the prices are a bit more reasonable. I figure once I have some idea what I like, I can move on to actual Belgian beers. Right now I've got some Abbey ale at home and it's terrific. Reminds me a bit of Hibernation, the Great Divide winter brew in a way I can't quite articulate at the moment.

good times...

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 19 aug 07)

Thai Pop Spectacular, 1960s to 1980s :: various
On the Right Track :: the Skatalites
Roots, Rock, Remixed :: Bob Marley & the Wailers
Super Taranta! :: Gogol Bordello
Molam: Thai Country Groove from Isan :: various
Without Zero :: Joi
Bamisphere :: Gino Sitson
Isabela :: Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca
Songs of the African Coast: Café Music of Liberia :: various
Força Bruta :: Jorge Ben

this week's video feature: Ricardo Lemvo

Here is a very fun site of vintage postcards from Las Vegas. So cool. The Dunes, Stardust and Tropicana cards are particularly awesome. I wish they were set up so that you could send e-cards of these. That would be even cooler.

I just read that Tony Wilson died earlier this week. Here's an appreciation from Slate. Also photos and coverage from a 25th anniversary exhibition earlier this summer. Thanks to 24 Hour Party People (which I agree is probably the best rock biopic evah), I'll always think of Tony Wilson and Steve Coogan together. In fact, when I see Coogan in other movies (most recently Hot Fuzz) I usually think, "hey, it's that Tony Wilson guy"

ETA: Here's the (to me, at least) surprisingly positive NYTimes obit. They badly mangle the musical history but do mention Factory's habit of assigning catalog numbers to every-damn-thing they did.

Here's an interesting article about Hervé This. I'd read about This (of course -- you can't do much reading about molecular gastronomy without encountering his name) but didn't know that he'd been trained as a chemist. It's interesting that several of the more well known chefs working in wilder and flashier styles (Adria and Achatz particularly) have rejected the name "molecular gastronomy" while This does not, but seems to take more of a determined approach. He reminds me a bit of Harold McGee.
On a related note is this recent post on Tasting Menu which talks about the links between tradition and innovation, about how each one informs and gives context to the other. I think that in much the way that This and McGee and Alton Brown are trying understand the basic properties of food and the science of what happens to it when cooked, a lot of cutting edge cooks (both in and out of the MG scene) are trying to understand the way people respond to food, the role that memory and tradition play in shaping the experience of eating.

What I learned on Monday is that it's hard to have a bad day when it starts off with 30 min. of non-stop accordion music. Today I learned that another good way to start your morning is an article smacking down Stanley Fish. Alas, the actual op-ed is behind the Times Select wall (can I throw an aside here and say I do not understand the business model at work... for free, I can read the news and find out (theoretically, at least) what's going on but if I want someone else's opinions of what it all means™, for that I've got to pay? Righteeo, then). But the excerpts in the Slate article are funny enough. Reading the whole thing might well cause one to bust a spleen laughing.
My question, though, is where are these oldschool diners or hash-houses of yore which Fish longs for -- where the help is appropriately servile and the coffee refills are plentiful and quickly appearing? Is he lamenting the loss of the Pan Pan? Thinking fond thoughts of Honey's? Is there some friendly joint somewhere in town with which I'm woefully unfamiliar? He could even be thinking of a place in another city. He's a bigtime professor dude, I'm sure he travels around a bit. More likely, though, he's not negatively comparing Starbucks to any specific place. Rather it's the imagined ideal of a lost paradise. Details and reality just get in the way of blathering fantasies like that.

(p.s.: I am not a crackpot)

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 12 aug 07)

Without Zero :: Joi
Força Bruta :: Jorge Ben
Bamisphere :: Gino Sitson
Greetings from Havana :: Cubanismo
el Espiritu Jibaro :: Roswell Rudd & Yomo Toro
Blizzard Boheme :: Balval
Jumping Rabbit :: Mori Chieko
Songs of the African Coast: Café Music of Liberia :: various
Jukebox: Music in the Films of Aki Kaurismäki :: various
the Player :: Willie Colon

this week's video feature: Gino Sitson

Merv Griffin!

Kudos to Jason for finding this first. There's an awesome shot on flickr of Merv w/ Elvis, Tom Jones and Norm Crosby (who let him in?). Unfortunately it's not available for blogging but you can get a peek at it by searching flickr for Merv Griffin.

So long, Merv.

While I'm on the food topic, here's an interesting op-ed piece from the NYTimes about food miles. What I took away from it is that, as with so many things, it's never as easy as it seems. There are many good reasons to eat local, most of them related to taste and flavor. The odds of getting a good tomato decrease pretty directly the further you get from your backyard tomato plant. But when you start talking about things like carbon footprints and other environmental impact issues there are so many variables to consider. I think that's why people burn out. They want it to be simple -- a perfectly reasonable desire. But it's not and I think people on both sides of the issue do their cause a disservice if they suggest that it is, that it's a simple easy call on paper v. plastic, or disposable diapers v. cloth, or (apparently) New Zealand v. domestic lamb.

One of the gifts I received for my birthday was the River Cottage Meat Book. Looks amazing! Here's a review which uses the words "classic" and "astounding" in the first 'graph. The author, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (it's hard to imagine a more English name), sums up his approach better than I could on the River Cottage website: it's "about food, where it comes from, and why that matters." I've long believed that if you're gonna eat meat (and I am) then you have a responsibility to know that meat doesn't come from a styrofoam package in the grocery store. Fortunately I have the luxury of being able to buy meat from local and responsible sources. I do have concerns that, like so much in this country, we're currently at a place where if you're poor you're stuck eating factory-raised chicken, beef and pork pumped full of growth-hormones and whatnot. I'll be interested to see what the River Cottage book has to say about that. I haven't read Pollan's book but I've read some of his debates with Mr. Noodle and I've felt that he, like others in the slow food movement, tends to handwave around the problem of economic access. Of course, that's possibly an unfair characterization on my part.

Sarah has already mentioned this, but as I'm just now getting around to day 3 of the Big Weekend o' Fun™ let me begin by offering congratulations to S & D. You crazy kids! Bay 7, site of the reception, is a cool warehouse space with hardwood floors, high ceilings, and a nifty water feature at the back. We all walked up to the balcony to check out the two-story water cycling for the wall o' water. Super neato. Mary, Lisa, Jason, Sarah and I were ID'd as "townies" shortly after our arrival by a friendly family member of the bride (personally, I'd have prefered "Durham mafia" but that's an idiosyncratic preference... I'm not militant about it). Other insights from the evening: bendy pirates are a welcome addition to any event; adding raspberry juice to champagne, while not a traditional bellini, makes a damn tasty beverage; everybody really is doing the Hustle; if the music is swinging, it don't really matter what they're singing. This last, of course, is just a variant of my long standing belief that most people don't listen to the lyrics which was brought on by the positive reception at the reception of Bobby Darin's version of "Mack the Knife." Hey, it's a kickin' swingy tune about a remorseless serial murderer! Let's dance. Or, in the words of Irving Cohen: "gimme a C, a bouncy C!"
The food, of course, was spectacular. Beef on sticks. Shrimp and grits. Sweet potato praline cake with cream cheese frosting. I may lapse back into a food coma just thinking about it.
As we were leaving, the DJ was playing "Beyond the Sea."
It was a magical night.

A brief pause in the big weekend o' fun wrapup for a bit of classic American folk art or outsider art (or whatever you want to call it). The Spindle (which you might recognize from Wayne's World) is an Illinois landmark that's now, sadly, scheduled to be torn down at the end of the month, to make room for a Walgreen's. Delightful. Some good news, though, that efforts are being made to save the Spindle and to raise funds to either restore the existing work or get the artist to come back and recreate it, as well as find a new permanent home for it.

Our next exciting episode...
Big weekend o' fun, day two: Friday was the non-foodie day. Altho plenty o' food and tasty beverage was consumed, it was not the focal point. We were at the Bulls game, with a large group of local and out-of-town wedding guests, friends and family of our pals S. and D. We were all down in the picnic area that's behind the visitor's bullpen, out in left field. I believe I already mentioned the tasty beverages, and alluded previously to the tasty barbecue sammiches. Pretty sure the 'cue at DBAP is by Dillard's. Even tho it's not world class 'cue, that's still a damn tasty barbecue sammich, esp. with some slaw on top. The view down to home plate isn't the best (more on that in a moment), but it was such a fun night of hanging out with friends that we didn't mind at all. Plus we got to see a couple of really spectacular play by the left-fielder that happened right in front of us.
And it was a crazy night at the DBAP. Bulls hit around in the 7th, scoring 8 runs and blowing the game open. But even crazier was whatever happened in the Columbus half of the 8th. We weren't paying super-close attention to the game, and it was a little hard to see what was going on at home. First thing I noticed was that the batter was on the ground and the trainer was out checking on him. I assumed he'd been hit by a pitch. After he got back to his feet, apparently not significantly worse for wear, there was some kind of discussion going on between the umpires, his manager and the batter. Next thing I know, he's been tossed from the game and proceeds to absolutely lose his shit. We're talking Lou Piniella or Earl Weaver (to drop a really oldschool reference on y'all) levels of losing it. I don't think he actually bumped the umpires but that's only through a supreme effort by his coaches and team-mates, one of whom ended up by lifting him off the ground and carrying him from the field and into the dugout. After that, the several minutes of the manager arguing, waving his arms and kicking his hat rather paled in comparison. I'm still not sure exactly what happened. The only story I could find about the game said the Columbus manager and (IIRC) catcher were ejected for arguing balls and strikes. My best guess is that the batter was not hit, but dove out of the way of an inside brush-back but not until after swinging and as a result was called out on strikes after he picked himself up off the ground. ETA: finally found a news story that described what happened. I had it mostly right. On an 0-1 count, the Durham pitcher ran one inside on the Clippers' Manny Alexander who failed to check his swing before getting hit by the pitch. On learning that he would not, in fact, be taking first base but would instead be at bat w/ an 0-2 count, Alexander lost his shit bigtime and everything else went down pretty as it looked to me from the left field picnic area.

Next time: bendy pirates, raspberry bellinis, townies, Bobby Darin, the Hustle and more take over Bay 7

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 05 aug 07)

Força Bruta :: Jorge Ben
Greetings from Havana :: Cubanismo
Jukebox: Music in the Films of Aki Kaurismäki :: various
Piñata :: Mexican Institute of Sound
Songs of the African Coast: Café Music of Liberia :: various
Jumping Rabbit :: Mori Chieko
Poplór :: Tomás Kocko & Orchestr
the Player :: Willie Colon
el Espiritu Jibaro :: Roswell Rudd & Yomo Toro
Isabela :: Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca

This week's video feature: Mexican Institute of Sound

Got paid back for three days of foodie excess last night with a bout of queasiness and poor sleep. Oh well... I wouldn't change a second or give back a bite. Well, possibly the steam table burger from Friday dinner (but only to swap it out for another barbecue sandwich instead). Foodie adventure, day one: Thursday. Sarah and I celebrated my birthday with dinner at Acme. I tend to forget about Acme when I'm thinking of nice restaurants for dinner but this meal was right up there with ones I've had at Starlu or Piedmont. We had a tomato sampler appetizer -- three kinds of heirloom tomatoes, just dressed with salt & pepper and olive oil, some fresh mozzarella, plus sungold cherry tomatoes with pesto and a nice piece of pistachio-crusted goat cheese. Awesome. I'm of the opinion that when it's tomato season you're a fool not to grab every opportunity to eat some. For main course, I had the fried chicken, served over mashed potatoes, topped with a tomato gravy. On the side were green beans and shallots, with some roasted tomatoes. To die for! Sarah had a piece of sea bass, over jasmine rice, with a fish broth (grouper, maybe) and jalapeño bacon. I believe there were some vegetables involved there as well. My dessert was a blueberry shortcake, with whipped cream and creme anglaise. Delightful. My only quibble was that the biscuit was a little dry but there was plenty of cream to compensate for that. Sarah had a warm lemon pudding cake that was just stellar. In its simplicity and directness, it reminded me a bit of the chocolate cake I had last year at Magnolia Grill.

(the story will continue in our next exciting episode...)

In a comment below, the Right, Honourable H. Trouser asks if I know of any all-afrobeat radio on the internets. Alas, I do not. However, I found this list of online stations in Africa and the Caribbean. I listened to a bit of Radio Palmwine this afternoon. They're based in Nigeria. The 20 min or so I listened to was mostly all hiphop (sounded good; nothing I'd ever heard of before) but the blurb says they also spin fuji, afrobeat, highlife, and more. I'll definitely be checking them out again. UNfortunately, they seem to be Windoze. I also listened to a bit of Iceberg Radio which has a nice eclectic world music station. It's an outsider perspective obviously and most of what they play I've already heard. So it doesn't have the thrill of discovery of something like Radio Palmwine. On the other hand, it's mostly music I like. And it plays in iTunes.

I'm just back from the station and my 3 hours of the 24 Hours of Afrobeat. It was great fun, of course. Didn't play quite as much Fela this time as I did during the first marathon. But there's so much good stuff. Slight regret that I didn't have time to get "Coffin for Head of State" into the last set. Unfortunately, the track I subbed was a lame remix of "Gov't Chicken Boy" by Bill Laswell. I generally have a lot of respect for Laswell, but this was just lethally bad. From around 1984, it removes most of the music and replaces it with rather generic reggae-ish funk which is utterly lacking in the sinuous groove that drives afrobeat. Oh well... ymmv, of course. Anyway, it was a good time. I'm enjoying listening to more more more afrobeat now, altho at some point I'm sure I'll crash and catch up on some of the sleep I didn't get last night.