Last year my NYE post was about the giant peep drop in Bethlehem, PA. In that tradition, I'm pleased to shout out the Mt. Olive pickle drop. Every news story should include the words "glowing, 3-foot pickle" don't you think?

So even though today wasn't my favorite evah (had to work, broke my sunglasses, forgot to turn off my headlights and ran my battery down requiring a AAA visit and jumpstart in order to get home, we'd talked about going to Jujube for dinner but put it off too late and couldn't get reservations) it's wrapping up well. We made mac & cheese (w/ Russian kielbasa). Yum. Sarah got a nice little chocolate cake from WFM. And we're watching Astaire/Rogers movies on TCM.

good times

Happy New Year, y'all!

XDU wrrld music top 10 (year ending 31 dec 07)

Security :: Antibalas
Thai Pop Spectacular, 1960s-1980s :: various
II :: Budos Band
Highway to Hassake :: Omar Souleyman
Studio One Kings :: various
Songs from the Classic Years, 1969-1974 :: King Sunny Ade
Nu Med :: Balkan Beat Box
On the Right Track :: the Skatalites
Kala :: M.I.A.
With Lasers :: Bonde do Rolê

Wrrld CDs were about 30% of the 07 XDU top 100. I didn't make note of last year's numbers so I don't know if that's up or down. Just missing the top 10 were: Brazil 70, Manu Chao, Jackie Mittoo, and Bebel Gilberto.

And so we come to the end of another holiday season. Mostly. Yes, there's still New Year's Eve. But since I have to work tomorrow and Tuesday, it's not gonna seem all that holly jolly holiday-ish to me. If it wasn't the best holiday evah it was at least mostly quiet and relaxing. And no one got violently ill or anything, which is always a plus. My gift choices appear to have been well-received (also always a plus). I was able to pick up some nice outdoor Xmas decor items at 75% discount this afternoon at Target. In a tidy bit of symmetry, one of the last holiday-esque things I did was enjoy an eggnog latté that was one of the best examples of the drink I've had. From the always delightful Bean Traders. It took away most of the bad memories of the wretched one I had from Starbucks back at the start of the season.

One of the highlights of my four days on N Island this week was a trip to the Net Cost Market. For Durmites, the best description I can give is: "what if Compare was owned by Russians?" Lots of sausages, smoked fish, and heavy, dense breads. Russian chocolates. Moldovan cookies. Polish cheeses. Bialys. Pickled herring. I'm pretty sure the announcements over the PA were in Russian. Signage was definitely bilingual in English and Cyrillic alphabets. And, in the meat dept., one of the sure signs of quality shopping... whole animal heads. In this case, pig's head (Compare has cow's heads instead). Anyway, awesome store. I wonder if the name is any catchier in Russian?

The other night I watched the Japanese movie Black Test Car. I'd somehow gotten the impression that it was a Tokyo Drifter-style mod action flick involving spies and fast cars set in 60s Japan. Actually, it's a dark, twisty tale of industrial espionage and personal corruption/redemption set against a backdrop of the Japanese auto industry. Reminded me a lot of this Kurosawa police drama I saw a few years ago (Stray Dog? I should look it up but I'm tired). So, not at all what I was expecting but very good.

Happy Boxing Day! And if you're already planning to spend the day vegging out and doing nothing can there be two better words than: Mythbusters marathon? Perhaps only these three words: Project Runway marathon. w00t! Saw several fave Mythbuster bits including the Mentos & Diet Coke Rube Goldberg machine from last Xmas, the wild west myths, the burning Xmas tree, and what I'm pretty sure was the first episode ever. I didn't see any eps from season 2 of Project Runway but I did manage to catch a couple from season 1, which I hadn't seen in a while. Also spoiled myself for 2 eps of the currently-running season 4. We normally don't get Bravo so I'll have to wait for the DVDs to see the whole thing. Looks like a good groop, tho. And there was a moment that definitely ranks up there with the funniest things evah! on PR. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet. Plus a lot of it was context and visual so it'd be hard to do it justice anyway. But I did literally spit my drink I was laughing so hard.
good tv times...

Happy Xmas! Hope it was good for all of y'all. Now that all the pre-holiday madness is over and the various celebratory events of the day itself are over it's time for the serious business of sitting around and doing nothing. Yay! I did manage to get in a few last bits o' required viewing -- both Robot Santa episodes of Futurama plus the Grinch on DVD. I also saw something even more conceptually odd that the (legendary) Yule Log. Which, being a video loop of a fire in a fire place with Xmas carols playing, is odd enough. But this was a video loop of a fire in a fire place without any Xmas music playing. Yes, just fireplace sounds. For 36 hours non-stop (if the TV listings are to be believed).
wiggy!

Happy Xmas Eve!
I suppose this is really a leftover from yesterday's airing of grievances. Sorta kinda maybe. Anyway, there was this question to the Ethicist, the column that runs in the Sunday NYTimes Magazine. I don't always agree with his answers but he's usually on the money. And I'm always impressed by his ability to provide in-depth answers to questions that I'd just dismiss as ridiculous and beneath a serious response. Por ejemplo, last Sunday's from the AP English teacher who wanted to know if it would be okay for him to charge his student's a fee for writing them letters of reference for colleges. My answer would have been: no! Or possibly: hell, no! Or: umm.... NO!

Happy Festivus! My main grievance is that we had to get thru an insane to-do list this weekend which even involved going to (gasp!) a mall yesterday. I was able to contain the homicidal rage that started building mere moments after arriving. Partly because I was able to find Homer Simpson and Grover Xmas ornaments for half off at the big Xmas store. Altho mostly it was because the shopping experience actually went quite smoothly. The getting-the-hell-outta-the-parking-lot experience... not so much.
Coolest thing I saw today: across the street from XDU there's a church parking lot which has been home to a Christmas tree lot for the last few weeks. When we got to the station this afternoon, the lot was completely gone. Nothing remained but a stack of leftover trees at the edge of the parking lot. When we were leaving after the Xmasville Lounge show, we saw a couple of people tying one of the leftover trees to the roof of their car. Now that's a rock & roll Xmas. Free trees! w00t!!

Happy solstice! Here's a bit o' fun.

From the Plug Away Dept:
Sarah will be hosting a special four-hour Xmasville Lounge tomorrow afternoon. That's Sunday, 12/23, from 3-7pm EST. I'll be sitting in, helping to spin all the swankiest holiday hits I can reach without spilling my eggnog. Tune in, if you're so inclined, at 88.7fm (if you're in the XDU listening area), or check us out online.

We had dinner at Tonali this evening. So good! Every time we go there we say the same thing: we should come here more often. It was a pretty good crowd for the Friday evening right before Xmas, I think. We shared the fish tacos to start. Sarah had the mushroom and cauliflower tacos (the taste I had was amazing) and I had the pork tikin xic. According to wiki, tikin xic (which is traditionally a fish preparation) is made with sour orange and achiote. That's the same base as pibil, as in cochinita pibil (as in Johnny Depp might shoot you after he eats it) but the flavor was actually pretty different. My guess is there's much less achiote in tikin xic. Tonali's version also has a lot of cilantro, which mixes nicely with the citrus. Served with squash and with mashed potatoes that were so good it was only the thin veneer of civilized respectability that kept me from picking up my plate at the end and flat licking it clean.

Sarah's also posting the questions from Wednesday night trivia. Here are the holiday songs and toys categories. I'll continue on with:

Category: A Christmas Story
26. What "major award" did the Old Man get and display in the window to his wife's displeasure?
27. Why, according to Santa, should Ralphie not get the Xmas present he desires?
28. What was Flick "triple dog dared" to do?
29. What was Ralphie's favorite radio program?
30. What color eyes did Scott Farkus have?

(answers below the cut)

Here's some more questions from Wednesday night trivia.

Category: Freaky Puppet Shows (Rankin/Bass Holiday Edition)
6. What Hollywood legend provides the voice of the narrating mailman in Santa Claus is Coming to Town?
7. In Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, what profession does Hermy the Elf aspire to?
8. In the Year Without a Santa Claus, what are the names of the 2 elves Mrs. Claus sends out in search of Xmas spirit?
9. In Rudolph's Shiny New Year what is the name of the missing Baby New Year?
10. In the Year Without a Santa Claus, what does Heat Miser want in exchange for allowing snow in Southland?

(answers below the cut)

Sarah and I helped write the questions for tonight's trivia at Dain's. Have I mentioned how much I like Dain's? Well, I should have. I recommend the burger. Or the chicken sandwich. Or the cheesesteak. Or the grilled cheese. Oh, and get the fries. Mmm... fries...
Anyway, there were, as usual, six categories with five questions each. We came up with about half the questions and S. and D. did the rest. D. did the hosting honors and read the questions. Good times.

Category: December
1. In most British commonwealth countries, December 26 is usually what holiday?
2. In US history, what is the significance of December 7th?
3. What form of decoration is traditional for Festivus, celebrated on December 23rd?
4. What is the date of winter solstice this year?
5. December 19th is what major Muslim holiday? (It commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son)

(answers below the cut)

Fascinating little tidbit in the comments on Monday's Elements of Cooking post on beurre manié that points out that there are stach-digesting enzymes in human saliva and that you can, in fact, wreck a sauce by double-dipping with your tasting spoon while you're cooking.

Good news, everybody! Or at least everybody in the NYC-area. Second Avenue Deli reopens. Sure, it's not on Second Ave. anymore but that'll just be another way to sort out the tourists from the natives. Sarah and I had a wonderful lunch with Womzilla a few years ago on a cold, rainy December afternoon. Tongue sandwich, chopped liver, mushroom barley soup... Too bad we won't have a chance to go back this Xmas. Next time, for sure.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 16 dec 07)

Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds and Nigerian Blues, 1970-76 :: various
Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs and Folk Tunes from Tuva :: various
Ethnic Minority Music from Southern Laos :: various
Azucar :: Celia Cruz
Rokku Mi Rokka :: Youssou N'Dour
Big Band Urban Folktales :: Bobby Sanabria
Complete Recordings, 1949-50 :: Ben Baruch
Disko Partizani :: Shantel
Breath :: Mercan Dede
(A) Move to Silent Unrest :: Chicago Afrobeat Project

note: top 10 will be taking a couple of week's off for the hols

this week's video feature: Mercan Dede

So apparently Amazon UK paid almost £2 million for one of the copies of J. K. Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard. You can see pics and read reviews here. Thanks to wordnerdy for the heads up. I'm amused by the number of people suggesting (in comments at Amazon UK) that there's something wrong with them spending this amount of money on one book, regardless of the fact that it's a handmade object by an insanely popular author and the fact that all the money's going to charity. I'm just glad that one of the copies ended up in the hands of someone willing to post pictures and reviews online.

Every once in a while I see some act of stupidty that manages to surprise me, deeply cynical though I am. Double bonus today. First this morning I saw a mini-van drive up the soon-to-disappear right lane of the I40 on-ramp. It came up behind a car waiting to merge and rather than do any of the things you might expect (wait behind the merging car, merge before getting to the waiting car), it swerved onto the shoulder and rolled past, without slowing down, all the way down the shoulder, only cutting back into the lane at the last possible minute. Delightful. Then tonight I was at the new TJ's in Chapel Hill. I'm standing in the coffee aisle and I hear this sound. I look over and this guy has popped the lid of a can of ground coffee. He's standing there sniffing it. Then he slides over to the coffee grinder and drops the lid onto the floor in the gap between the grinder and the display case. I'd like to believe that he kept that can and bought it. But I don't. I'm sure if I'd gone back to that aisle and started lifting lids on those cans, I'd have found one with its inner metal lid popped. The return of delightful.
What gets into people's heads anyway...

I know it's only middle o' December but I've been getting started on my personal faves of 07 mixes. As with last year, this not a best of. For one thing, while I do hear a lot of things courtesy of being at XDU, unlike most music critics, I'm not insane or blinkered enough to think that my taste translates into any objective standard of quality. Seriously. I was looking at the A.V. Club's "best of" voting and, unless I missed something, you can count the "world" CDs that got any love on one hand and have fingers left over. Gogol Bordello, MIA, and Vusi Mahlasela, if you're curious -- and yes, that's stretching the definition of world music about as far as I'd want to. Also, I don't restrict these lists to new releases. It's a sampler of the sounds that made up my own heavy rotation. Tracklist and notes for CD1 below the cut.

Sarah mentioned recently that we'd both been hip-mo-tized by Katamari Damacy (fair warning: site will play fiendishly catchy music and various other sounds at you). We decided to deal with this problem directly by getting ourselves a PS2 for Xmas. And it arrived in the mail today (woohoo... we've entered the early 21st century of gaming). So, of course, I sliced the shit out of my thumb while I was cutting up last night's leftover chicken to make a pot pie. Pretty much one of the last things I want to be doing with my left thumb tonight is jabbing it at a PS2 controller. Oh well. There's always tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

We started to get our Xmas on over the weekend. Got the tinsel trees and decorations out of storage. Bought some pine garland from the farmer's market in Raleigh. Sarah got the lights up on the big white tree on the porch -- we discovered that we'd bought a bunch of LED lights in last year's post-holiday sales so now we can be festive with a lower electric bill. Alas, I didn't get the last few strings of outdoor lights set up and now we're having unseasonably mild weather. It's hard to focus on Xmas lights when it's 75 degrees outside. I know, I know... that's normal temps for places like California or Florida. But here in NC I've come to expect a more above-tropical ambience in the runup to Xmas.



Such is life...

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 9 dec 07)

Azucar :: Celia Cruz
Colombia! the Golden Age of DIscos Fuentes :: various
Breath :: Mercan Dede
Brazil 70 :: various
Rokku Mi Rokka :: Youssou N'Dour
Sino :: Café Tacuba
Latin Lounge Jazz :: various
Ticklah vs. Axelrod :: Ticklah
Complete Recordings, 1949-50 :: Ben Baruch
(A) Move to Silent Unrest :: Chicago Afrobeat Project

this week's video feature: Celia Cruz

Time for some Sunday morning booze blogging. Well, beer at least. (that's almost like booze...) Anywayz, my latest brew pick is Shipyard Prelude Special Ale. (note: yes, their site has too much flash and I can't directly link to info about Prelude but there's info there if you're interested). Prelude is a seasonal ale, related to an Xmas festival in Kennebunkport. They've apparently extended its production run to November and December this year, which is probably why there was enough of it to make it down to NC. I'm pretty sure I've never seen it around here before. It's a nice English-style winter ale. Maybe not worth stock-piling to get you thru til next winter but definitely worth seeking out. Which reminds me that I should go back to Sam's and pick up some more Hibernation Ale before they sell out.

This pic is from an art car parade in Manchester. I was previously unaware that there was an art car scene in the UK. And apparently that used to be true, as this was their first ever art car parade. How cool is that? You can find more info here.

To mark what would have been the 82nd birthday of Sammy Davis, Jr., Slate posted some excellent photos. It's part of an ongoing feature with Magnum Photos. My favorite is the one of him dancing across the street after closing at the Copa but they're all really good. I'm pretty sure the last one in the series was used as the cover art for one of Sam's albums.
(Well, I thought it was but I just did some looking and couldn't find one that matched so probably I'm just confused)

Great new blog by Michael Ruhlman, in support of his new book, Elements of Cooking. The plan is to post a different element of cooking every Monday. So far he's covered aromatics, water, and pate a choux. And there have been comments from a number of food bloggers and at least one instructor from CIA. Awesome stuff!

So I should have held back my cocktail post from last night for today, the 74th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition. Thank you, Utah! And that's probably the only time you'll ever see me saying that. I see that the distillery industry is trying to market this as another drinking holiday. No doubt (as S. suggested earlier this evening) they're testing the market this year in anticipation of next year's big 75th. It should work. I mean, it's got way more connection to boozing it up that either St. Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo and we all can see how well they've done with those.

Here's a completely unrelated but very funny writer's strike video.

I'm arriving late to the party with this news, but the Visart on Hillsborough in Durham is closing down. I'm sorry to see them go but not all that surprised. We used to go there all the time but now I can't remember the last time we rented anything from there. Years, certainly. Netflix and the increasing availability of VOD have really doomed the video rental store. We were talking about this tonight with friends who are also Netflix users but occasionally rent from Avid. And we agreed that there could be a future for a rental store but on a much smaller scale, niche sort of business. Interesting discussion here about Blockbuster and their failing business model.
So I hope Visart will be able to retrench and keep their other branches open and profitable. But that's not going to stop me from grave robbing during their closing sale (which runs for the rest of the month; DVDs are 5.99). I went the other evening hoping to get a couple of seasons of the Wire. Unfortunately, they only had 3 of the 4 discs of season one. I did buy several cool things though: a collection of Robert Benchley comedy short films from the 30s and 40s; the Man Who Came to Dinner, a delightfully acerbic Xmas comedy; Tsui Hark's Zu Warriors remake (which I've heard was disappointing and ended up getting shelved by Miramax -- fortunately, the HK original is included on the disc); and Versus, a Japanese movie I've heard good things about (it seems to have something to do with zombies, yakuza and the eternal struggle of good against evil... or something like that).
I'm sure I'll be stopping back in several times over the next few weeks to see what's left in stock.

Some days start better than others. And often it's the little things. Por ejemplo, here are the songs that rolled off my iPod during this morning's commute:
"Ça Plane Pour Moi" by Plastic Bertrand
"Earth Intruders" by Björk
"Get Carter Theme" by Bombay Dub Orchestra
"Four Sticks" by MIDIval Punditz
"Downtown Venus" by P.M. Dawn
"Fly Me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra

Great article about the song "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I knew that the Garland version had different, and more melancholy, lyrics than the Sinatra version but I didn't know that Sinatra had asked the writer to jolly up the song for his '57 recording. Also didn't know that the original lyrics were even darker (they're halfway to goth, in fact). Either way, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a wonderful song. Especially the Garland version. If it doesn't break your heart, you ain't got one left to break.

Great article from Sunday's NYTimes about Beachbum Berry, the renowned tiki drink expert. Also includes several great recipes and a nifty slideshow history of tiki drinks.
Also found an interesting mixological site, Cocktail Chronicles.

like fun...

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 2 dec 07)

Breath :: Mercan Dede
Rokku Mi Rokka :: Youssou N'Dour
Sino :: Café Tacuba
Complete Recordings, 1949-50 :: Ben Baruch
Scare Tactics :: the Afromotive
Invasion :: Alien Chatter
Latin Lounge Jazz :: various
Brasil 70 :: various
Music of Nat Pwe: Folk and Pop Music of Myanmar :: various
Disko Partizani :: Shantel

this week's video feature: Youssou N'Dour

Kaeru Jump is an addictive little flash game. Boing² linked to another of their games last week. But Kaeru Jump is the one that got under my skin. I've been working my way thru it all weekend. There are 10 levels and I finally got thru L10 tonight. It was the same way almost every time -- I'd look at the screen and look at the screen and try route after route, getting nowhere. And then, suddenly, something would click into place.

There are several other fun games on the Gamedesign page that are worth checking out.

Went to the Durm Holiday Parade tonight w/ D & S. Lots of fun. This was the first parade we've been to in a while that we weren't in. Bands, classic car clubs, motorcycle clubs, horses, dogs, a book cart drill team, trash trucks, the bomb squad, flame jets, and more.
Post-parade, we walked over to Piedmont for dinner. It was excellent. Sarah and I shared the turkey rillettes starter. We agreed that, if it wasn't quite as good as the salmon rillettes at Bouchon LV, it was pretty damn close. She had the cassoulet (the small taste I had was amazing) and I had parsley tagliatelle w/ shrimp, scallops, and clams in a spicy tomato sauce which was oh so tasty.

good times