Here's an important Halloween PSA. A bit late, perhaps, but hopefully you'll remember until next year.

While I was walking from my car to the radio station yesterday morning, I realized that the coldest it ever gets around here was only about 10-12 degrees colder than it was, right at the moment. Let me just say that is not a happy thought to be having in late October. Okay, I suppose you could see it as a good thing, since it won't get supercold in the winter but who wants to look on the bright side at 6.45 in the AM.

More good news for local beer fans as another good regional brewer has started shipping into the area. I'm quite enjoying the Amber Ale from Starr Hill (from Charlottesville, VA) and am looking forward to trying their other offerings.

happy halloween, y'all

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 26 oct 08)

More, Love! :: Terne Chave
Sprigs of Time: 78s from the EMI Archives :: various
Mali Koura :: Issa Bagayogo
Bionico :: Bio Ritmo
Guitars from Agadez :: Group Inerane
Journey to the West :: Monkey
Calypsoul 70: Caribbean Soul and Calypso Crossover :: various
Yo Baba :: Funkadesi
Passport :: Brooklyn Rider
Rebel Woman :: Chiwoniso

this week's video feature: Group Inerane
(embedding blocked on youtube but this is wonderful... worth clicking thru)

I had to go check this and it turns out it's been even longer than I remembered -- at least five years -- since I'd done a radio show anywhere close to Halloween. I wasn't inspired to go full Halloweenie but I was glad to have a chance to roll out some of my fave thematically appropriate tracks, inc. "Lagartija Nick" by Bauhaus, "the Unseen" by ClockDVA, and "Dead Eyes Opened" by Severed Heads. As always, my playlists are linked over in the sidebar ("i am what i play") if yer interested.

Update: if you're in NC, there's still 2 days left for early voting. And they announced today that the hours on Saturday will be extended until 5pm (they were originally planning to close at 1pm). Get out there. Your vote is not going to cast itself.

Signs o' the season no. 1: We got our first robocall yesterday. It was one about Joe the Frikkin' Plumber and how Obama's gonna raise my taxes and redistribute all the wealth that I don't have. Nothing about turr'ists or Ayers or etc. In other words, it only insulted my intelligence and not my sense of human decency. It pleases me greatly that the RNC is wasting money to contact me, after I've already voted. Idjits.

Here's an insanely cool artifact a friend tipped me on. Mmm... mmm... steampunkarific.

Signs o' the season no. 2: the Xmas tree lots are under construction. Heavy sigh...

Check this out -- the Sands from 1991. According to Vegas Tripping this is part of a set of slides taken in Vegas in the early 90s. Which, as I've mentioned too many times I'm sure, is right around when I first went to Vegas. It's quite striking to see just how much has changed since then. There's lots more amazing shots in the photostream

So things have not been going so well for the Rays, who are looking more like the 07 Rockies than the 03 Marlins. No telling how last night's weather weirdness will play out. The Rays certainly did Bud (Lite) Selig a favor by tying the score in the top of the 6th. I can only imagine the hellfire and consternation if they'd either suspended the game until tonight with either team winning or (worse yet) followed the regular season model and declared the game official at 6.5 innings.
Other stray thoughts before coffee:
I expect to see David Price on the mound for the Rays when the 6th inning starts back up tonight. (ETA: did I say tonight? Make that Wednesday. And all bets are off on pitching at this point)
Jon Scheyer's father is also very tall (which factoid I learned when waiting behind them while getting brunch last Sunday)
Ted Stevens is full of fail

Next up in tonite's video ranger report, it's zydecObama

(via Looka!)

First up in a special video ranger Sunday nite series o' good stuff from YouTube, Tim Gunn says "no on 8." HoD is a big fan of Tim Gunn and equal rights.

(found via Sullivan)

Damn, they were committed to getting that Phillies-Rays game in tonight. First pitch just tossed (hey, it's Moyer so we're way closer to tossing than to throwing) at 10:07 EDT. I'd say we're looking to wrap up sometime around 1:30 in the AM.

Here's one of my fave YouTube videos of the election cycle

And here's your reminder to get out and vote.

We went to the State Fair on Wednesday. Fun, as always. Here's Sarah's write-up to which I don't have much to add.
In deference to the sensibilities of HoD's New England-based readership I will only mention in passing that the Rays won game 2 last night to even up the Series w/ Phillies. Everyone now decamps to Philly for the next three games which, given the weather report, shouldn't more than a week to get in.
Pizza update: got take-out from Pop's Backdoor last night. The Polpette (meatballs, broccoli rabe, roasted garlic, parm) is very good, altho the b-rabe is kinda hard to eat. The Carolina (shrimp, roasted red peppers, onions, bacon) is outstanding, rocketing right to the top of my faves list.

friendly reminder: go vote already!!

World Series starts tonight. Go Rays

Friendly reminder: get out and vote!

Mental health break or moment of zen or maybe it's just mashup fun (found via Crooks and Liars)

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 19 oct 08)

Mali Koura :: Issa Bagayogo
Sprigs of Time: 78s from the EMI Archives :: various
Ana Hina :: Natacha Atlas
Journey to the West :: Monkey
Le La :: Cankisou
Guitars from Agadez :: Group Inerane
Calypsoul 70: Caribbean Soul and Calypso Crossover :: various
Yo Baba :: Funkadesi
Repentance :: Lee "Scratch" Perry
Rebel Woman :: Chiwoniso

this week's video feature: Issa Bagayogo

I guest-hosted today's Divaville Lounge cos Sarah was working at the staging area. It was a pretty good show, altho I wish I'd played more Anita O'Day. Here's the playlist.

Have you voted yet?

I voted today. Yay early voting! I was at the Board of Elections in downtown Durm and 2300+ had already voted at that location but there was no line when I was there (mid-afternoon on a rainy Friday) altho all of the tables were taken up with people filling in their ballots. I liked that whenever a first-time voter came in, all the poll workers would cheer. Go team! Democracy! And all that good stuff!
Have you voted yet?

Hey, early voting started in NC today. Like I said this morning on my show (to any of the 3 people and cats who might have been tuning in): get yr butt out there and vote.

Here's a few links and assorted bits o' internet fun that I've been wanting to pass along:

This Obama Llama song is very silly indeed. It's also a horrible brainworm which has gotten stuck in my head like nothing since the Bad Horse song from over the summer.

Punkins we can believe in.

I read a suggestion somewhere that one of the changes in this election cycle is that candidates are losing control of their images to a bunch of snarky kids w/ Photoshop or Final Cut Pro skills. I don't know if it's as much a loss of control as it is the introduction of competition. Instead of just the candidate, the opponent and the media weighing in, now it seems like more people with more opinions can create alternate takes on a candidate's image and get it all over the internets. All of which is to say, if you've ever read four four, then you'll no doubt agree that this completely bizarre McCain image is just screaming out to be giff-ed.

Hey, hey... today's the first day of the NC state fair. And, yes, there's been another step forward in food-on-a-stick technology. I know that we'll never reach the levels of mastery displayed at the TX and MN state fair but I think we're holding our own. This year's buzz items seem to be the deep-fried pecan pie on a stick and the deep-fried mac & cheese on a stick. I will report back w/ further details after our on-site inspection next week. Mac & cheese is a must. Pecan pie maybe not so much. If we were there w/ a larger groop maybe but if it's just the two of us then I'm thinking a lot of that's going in the trash. (So if anyone wants to join us at the fair, in the interests of advancing deep-fried research, we'll probably be there in the afternoon either Mon, Wed or Thurs)

(found on Looka!)

ukuleles ftw!

One thing I learned yesterday is that there's a limit to how many CDs I can review in one day before my brain gets full and I can't think of much of anything sensible or useful to say about them. That number seems to be six (MoE +/- 2).
One thing I learned last week listening to sports talk radio is that Sarah Palin is well on her way to national punchline status.

Baseball playoffs in full effect. Go Rays!

Last night we went to see Milton Nascimento in concert at Duke. It's not every day a musical legend comes to town here so I try to take advantage of the opportunity if I can. He was performing with the Jobim Trio (inc. son and grandson of A. C. Jobim plus the drummer from Jobim's group) in a concert saluting the 50th anniversary of bossa nova. Altho as Nascimento noted, a lot of things have happened since then -- bossa nova, tropicalia, clube da esquina. Here is Sarah's write-up of last night's show. And here's a nice review of a show earlier in the tour which sounds pretty much exactly the same as the one we saw. (Found that review, btw, in a nice mention of the event at Onda Carolina)
It was a fantastic show. The trio (quartet, actually, w/ added bass player) opened alone, w/ "One Note Samba", "Corcovado" and "Aguas de Março" and I was worried that if they kept up that pace of classics I'd be exhausted by night's end. Fortunately, they branched out in territory I'm less familiar, inc. more Jobim tunes, a song by Vinicius de Moraes, a new composition by pianist Daniel (grandson of A. C.) Jobim, and several Nascimento classics. The band was in the groove all night and Nascimento has lost none of his amazing vocal range (pretty impressive, seeing as how he'll turn 66 later this month). If they come to a concert hall near you, I highly recommend that you get yrself there.
I'll be hosting the Mondo Mundo radio programme on XDU this Sat. (1-3pm) and you can expect to hear a goodly bit of Nascimento and bossa nova.

So I was reading last Sunday's NYTimes and, half-awake as usually am on weekend mornings before the coffee kicks in, I only glanced at an article about doughnuts. Turns out I should have been paying more attention. Fortunately, Delicious Durham was on point with the info that the article mentioned, and included a recipe for, the churros from Watts Grocery. And, yes, those are some damn good churros.
Also in food news, here's 10 ways to eat more bacon. Not that I think you really need the help.

mmm... bacon...

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 5 oct 08)

Yo Baba :: Funkadesi
Le La :: Cankisou
Calypsoul 70: Caribbean Soul and Calypso Crossover :: various
Bionico :: Bio Ritmo
Guitars from Agadez :: Group Inerane
Ana Hina :: Natacha Atlas
Rebel Woman :: Chiwoniso
In the 7th moon, the Chief Turned Into a Swimming Fish and Ate the Head of his Enemy by Magic :: Kasai Allstars
Repentance :: Lee "Scratch" Perry
Yerba Buena :: Conjunto Jardin

this week's video feature: Conjunto Jardin

Last night's movie: Election. That's the 2005 Johnnie To movie, not the Matthew Broderick/Reese Witherspoon flick. Simon Yam and Tony Leung Ka Fai are gangsters both seeking to be elected the next boss of an HK triad. Stylish, tense, funny in spots, with bursts of violence (hey, it's a triad movie). I should clarify that a bit. The movie (like Fulltime Killer) is very stylish but the violence is not stylized the way it would be in, say, a Kitano or Tarantino movie but actually pretty direct and visceral. I've got the sequel, Triad Election in my queue. Unfortunately, I missed a chance to see Exiled, To's most recent. It played at Duke as part of their Cine-East series but I didn't find out about it until after it had screened.

To wrap up Leaky-Boat-a-thon, here's a nice live version by Tim Finn.

I think it was John Cole who recently pointed out that when you here a politician decrying the "blame game" what they're really saying is "please don't point out that this is all my fault." I'm always reminded of the line that titles this post, spoken by Michael Palin as the King of Swamp Castle in the Lancelot segment of ...Holy Grail.

Here's that hilarious Biden debate prep slideshow, if you haven't already seen it a hundred times. And even if you have, it's still hilarious. Oh and get out of my secret Christmas place.

Also, General George B. McClellan shares his thoughts on Thursday's debate and our current situation.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 28 spt 08)

Calypsoul 70: Caribbean Soul and Calypso Crossover :: various
Bionico :: Bio Ritmo
Friends and Countrymen :: Earl Rodney
Yo Baba :: Funkadesi
De Donde Eres :: Cordero
Guitars from Agadez :: Group Inerane
Ana Hina :: Natacha Atlas
New York City :: Brazilian Girls
Repentance :: Lee "Scratch" Perry
Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump :: various

this week's video feature: Natacha Atlas (not from the new CD -- I couldn't find any vids from Ana Hina on youtube, or more to the point I didn't feel like slogging thru the 300+ Natacha Atlas videos to look for them -- but one of my faves)

Couple of local dining updates I wanted to get to.
We had dinner last week at the recently renovated Broad Street Cafe. The atmosphere is still somewhere between coffee house and restaurant (esp. on open mic folk music night) but the food we had was really good. Sarah had a burger and I had a lamb burger. Which was excellent. I'd say it was not as good as the lamb burger at the Burger Bar in Vegas. Except that they took their lamb burger off the menu so unless you've got a time machine and can travel back to 2006, Broad Street's wins this round just by actually existing. And it's also damn good.
We've gotten pizza several times now from Pop's Back Door and it's been wonderful every time. The mushroom pizza is a fave. We usually get two 10-inch pies -- a mushroom lover's and one other. Also recommended: #4 (salty egg, prosciutto, roasted garlic, kalamata olives); #11 (smoked chicken, fontina, grilled onions, pesto); #9 (bresaola, wilted arugula, caramelized onions, pecorino romano); #13 (short ribs, herb roasted mushrooms, taleggio, white truffle oil)