Had a fine nite out tonight. We met S & D for dinner at Sushi Love. Really good. Somehow we'd never gotten around to checking it out until now. Even tho it's in the same bldg as Nosh, where we go all the time. We didn't go for anything too out there -- hamachi, salmon and eel nigiri, and a bunch of different rolls (spicy tuna, one w/ tempura bits and wasabi, one w/ lemon and cucumber, one w/ avocado & srihacha). Good stuff. We'll definitely be back.
Thanks to S. we had tix for ADF. Tonight's performance was by Japanese company H.Art Chaos. One part of the program was an amazing dance to Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and it combined the kind of scary, primal energy you'd expect from "Rite of Spring" with an ominous, J-horror feel. Very impressive. Altho I'm still not sure I fully get what was up with the swinging chairs.
Now I'm feeling all cultured up & shit... is there a monster truck show coming up or something that'll balance out all this highbrow elitism?

We were up in Asheville last week for a few days of R&R. Mostly we just wandered around, ate, and chilled. Got back to a few of our fave local restos (Salsas, Early Girl, 12 Bones) and tried some new places -- Barley's Taproom (yummy pizza and microbrews), Corner Market (nice lunch but we both wanted it to be better; several things were oversalted, including my main course), and Tupelo Honey (by that point we'd been eating like fools for 3 days so we just had the sides plate, which was awesome: ginger cornbread w/ peach butter, fried green tomatoes, sweet potato fries, pickled beets, cheesy cauliflower). Highlights in the "doing stuff" category: NC Arboretum and Grovewood Gallery (outdoor sculpture show and cool furniture and knick-knacks inside).
On the way back we stopped at Keaton's for the best damn BBQ chicken I've ever had. Plus we extended the food vacation by bringing home cupcakes from Sisters McMullen and ribs from 12 Bones.

good times...

So, yeah, Michael Jackson's life was an absolute trainwreck. But the same has been true for a long list of great talents.
Ideally, I'd be posting a clip of "Wanna Be Startin' Something" but there isn't a good clip of that on YouTube. And the vid for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" is locked down by the label. So here's a bit from the surreal Rankin-Bass J5 cartoon.

"The next tune's older than she is; that black guy who turned white and then his face fell in, she guesses." - William Gibson, VIRTUAL LIGHT

Found this via boing² -- an interesting article on Wired about phantom traffic jams. Which apparently they're now able to mathematically model, and (at least according to the MIT study) it behaves similar to wave phenomenon. I remember reading a while back about someone using Brownian motion as a way to model traffic behavior. No mention of that here. I wonder if that line of research is now obsolete.

Here's a couple of interesting things I've seen on the internets recently. Unrelated by anything other than the fact that I thought they were interesting. Both links found via facebook. One from a FOAF, the other from XDU's very own DJ Mythic Horse.

Check out these color photos from 1909. Yes, that's what I said. I might have known there were color pics from that early but I didn't know any had survived in such good condition. If I read that article correctly, that's the only color photo of Tolstoy ever taken. Pretty amazing stuff. And, yes, there's still a part of me that's surprised that the past wasn't actually black & white.

Also, here's an awesome article from Gourmet about using Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies in the kitchen. What do I need to add to that?

Las Vegas, 6/20/06

Apparently yesterday was Goatsday on the Atlantic site. Several meatastic articles about raising goats (by the Nimans, of pork fame), goat cheese, and goats in Maine.
In other goat news, I don't think I ever got around to mentioning this awesome story about goat towers (!!)

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 14 jun 09)

Panama! 2: Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical and Calypso Funk on the Isthmus, 1967-77 :: various
Kimba Fá :: Eva Ayllón
Thank You Very Quickly :: Extra Golden
the World is Shaking: Cubanismo from the Congo, 1954-55 :: various
Ven Baila Conmigo :: Latin Giants of Jazz
Hello Hello :: MIDIval PunditZ
Treeg Salaam :: Group Doueh
Nu Made (Remixes) :: Balkan Beat Box
Latin Disco :: various
Infinity :: Warsaw Village Band

this week's video feature: Warsaw Village Band

Well, here's some crazy shit. Seems like some "concerned" citizens up in Wisconsin are all riled up about a some YA novels, including one by Francesca Lia Block. Altho it's been years, I read quite a few of her books back in the 90s: it's sort of po-mo, punk/goth magic realism and very much in line with the kind of stuff I was trying to write back when I was trying to write.
Here's an article on Salon and another from the National Coalition Against Censorship. Even without reading those links, I'm sure you could guess that what those citizens are concerned about is "the overt indoctrination of the gay agenda."
But where it gets really fucked up is that, having failed to get the copies removed or re-shelved or anything, they're suing the library not just to have the books taken out of the library but actually to have them burned. WTF x 1000?!?
I'd like to think that that's the point where most people will go "hey, wait a minute..." Y'know, you're chatting with them over pie and coffee and they'll maybe agree how horrible it is to have kids exposed to books about sex and teh gays and whatever. And maybe they'll agree that it might be better not to have "those kinds of books" in the library. (won't someone please think of the children?) But (and again, this may be wishful thinking on my part) when you get to the part where you're gonna take all those books out to the parking lot and set 'em on fire... I just don't think most people are gonna sign up for that ride. Burn what? You seem a little tense there... have you considered switching to decaf?

you have heard the heavy grooves and now it's time for morning maniac music...

Great news for local beer lovers: Fullsteam has a home! I'm sure it'll be a while before they're up and brewing but still... very cool.
UNfortunately, I found out just now that I missed another brewery tour at Triangle this afternoon (so hard to keep up with things these days). Looks like the next one is 6/27. But there's an X % chance I'll be on the radio that day. I think the next one after that is 7/18.

A typical late spring evening here at the House of Casa de la Maison -- we're sitting on the couch, from which we can see out the windows. There's a flash of lightning.
Sarah: I'm surprised Jane isn't inside.
me: (thinks about agreeing)
But before I have time to get any words out, Jane (our dog) runs into the house and squeezes into the space between the couch and the coffee table. She's scared of thunderstorms
Then we hear the thunder.
Yes, just that fast.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 07 jun 09)

Dabke 2020 :: Omar Souleyman
Hello Hello :: MIDIval PunditZ
Treeg Salaam :: Group Doueh
Kimba Fá :: Eva Ayllón
Nu Made (Remixes) :: Balkan Beat Box
Infinity :: Warsaw Village Band
la Guerra No :: John Santos y el Coro Folklórico Kindembo
Ven Baila Conmigo :: Latin Giants of Jazz
Latin Disco :: various
Por Favor Sucesso :: Liverpool

this week's video feature: MIDIval PunditZ

No surprise (since it's a porkish topic) that Eat at Joe's got there first. But I do want to call your attention to an excellent article on Slate singing the praises of lard. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be able to walk into Compare and buy a container of fresh lard. And not that hydrogenated shelf stable crap but a nice big container of nothing but rendered pork fat. The one thing i'm wondering is how to use it to make biscuits. Cos what I've got is pretty soft, even under refrigeration. And soft fat is not gonna make a very good biscuit. I suppose I could freeze it to get it solid enough to cut into the flour. Or maybe if I heated it up, it would render some more. Updates as events warrant.

Nice post over on Eat Me Daily extolling the virtues of Next Food Network Star. I don't think I'll be recapping this year's edition (been there, done that) but even tho last night's episode wasn't totally gripping, it was pretty good. And the EMD post makes some good points about the interesting things about NFNS. I'd never really thought about it that way before but watch people fail at it tells you something about the work and craft involved in doing a good TV cooking show.
And stuff like that there

This morning's NYTimes had a truly stupid article about fallback jobs. The basic idea was not that different from Will Work for Food, Adam Gertler's Food Network series. The difference was all in the approach and attitude. For all his smartassery and snark, Gertler approaches all the jobs with a certain respect for the hard work and specialized skill sets involved. The NYTimes article came across with this attitude that, well, sure the economy is tanking and I might lose my Wall Street job but, hey, I can always go make chocolates or work on a farm or whatever. OK, yes, the writer does learn that, well, hard work is hard. But the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth in a way I couldn't quite articulate at first. Fortunately, there was a book review also up today that helped me out. From a book review of Shop Class as Soulcraft: "highly educated people with high-­status jobs... often believe that they could do anything their less-educated brethren can, if only they put their minds to it, because cognitive ability is the only ability that counts."
Yup, that about sums it up for me.

Local brewery hits the big time! That's right, a really nice story on Duck Rabbit by the Atlantic. I wonder if it's in the print edition or only online. Anyway, good stuff. Duck Rabbit is probably my fave NC brewery. Because, as stated in the article, they focus on dark beers. I do have to agree with the Atlantic writer that their amber ale is not all that impressive. Not bad or anything but not in the same class as the darker brews. The brown ale is excellent. Tho that's about as dark a beer as I'll want to drink during the summer. Somehow, when it's 90+ degrees, stout just isn't the first thing I reach for. (aside: I've always wonder how Guinness, and stouts in general, got to be so popular in tropical-type countries. Was it just a legacy of empire combined with effective marketing?)
Once cooler weather returns, the stout and porter will get added back into the rotation. In the meantime it's all about pale ales, saisons, wheat beers, etc... which must be sourced elsewhere.

I think it was TPM today where the question was asked: why do TV networks keep giving air time to Liz Cheney? Srsly. Can someone explain to me why I'm supposed to give a rat's ass what the daughter of the former vice president has to say about, oh, anything? If we're gonna have ex-veep daughters making the talk show rounds, can we at least get Kristin Gore? She used to write for Futurama so at least she's done something useful with her life.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 31 may 09)

Nu Made (Remixes) :: Balkan Beat Box
Dabke 2020 :: Omar Souleyman
Latin Disco :: various
Treeg Salaam :: Group Doueh
Infinity :: Warsaw Village Band
Ume in the Middle :: ON Ensemble
Hidden Melodies Revealed :: the Sway Machinery
la Guerra No :: John Santos y el Coro Folklórico Kindembo
Ven Baila Conmigo :: Latin Giants of Jazz
Hello Hello :: MIDIval PunditZ

this week's video feature: Balkan Beat Box

A bit o' consternation uproar going on in food blog land. Seems like the mission statement for NYTimes columnists is now to just write whatever damn thing pops into your head. So Amanda Hesser dropped an op-ed over the weekend about how Michelle Obama should stop telling people that she doesn't like cooking. She goes on at some length but her point seems to be that Michelle Obama, as First Lady, has a duty to set an example for the country about how great it is to cook your own food at home. The fact that there might be, I dunno, more important things to do as First Lady doesn't seem to have occurred to Hesser. Actually, a lot of things seem not to have occurred to Hesser.
Most of those were summed up nicely in this Eat Me Daily post on the topic. (Shorter EMD: Hesser tells Michelle Obama to get back in the kitchen). But I'll add that I don't recall anyone asking Laura Bush to start cooking meals at the White House. Is that just because she was better at playing the game and having a ready supply of recipes to give to the press pretending they were hers. And the bit from Hesser's piece that most annoyed me was her saying that if Michelle Obama spent time in the kitchen she'd probably learn to enjoy cooking. How arrogant. I love to cook but I would never suggest that everyone should. I'll leave it to others to examine the "pretend you like it for the good of the country; eventually you'll get used it" argument.
more rambling below the cut

Durham landmark trashed by fucking losers. I know it was a brontosaurus and not a T Rex but driving past it always added a little flavor of Pee Wee's Big Adventure to the day. I think it was just a couple weeks ago we drove by and I was thinking that I needed to find time to stop and get some pictures. More proof, as if any were needed, that there's never really enough time to wait. Cos, well, you just never know when something's gonna get gone.

ETA: here's the Dinos in Durham flickr pool