One of the bloggy/op-ed/think pieces on Salon today (which I'm not linking to cos I think they make you sit thru adware to get to the content even when you link and who needs that...) was about how NJ gas stations and how self-service gas is against state law. When we were driving back from SI earlier this month, we stopped for gas in Jersey, just before getting on the turnpike. And the station was self-serve. Or at least was allowing self serve. I pulled in and saw several other drivers pumping their own gas, so I got out and did the same. Assuming that, I dunno, hell had frozen over and they'd changed the law. Come to find out that, now, it's still against state law. So apparently the folks running this station didn't get the memo. Or else they're a bunch of crazed socialist anarchist full-service denialists. The other weird thing was that while the station had big signs for one of the major oilcos (don't remember which one exactly... maybe Citgo), when you actually got to the pumps, they all had signs saying "unbranded" or something like that. So I have no idea what weird kinda brand X petrol I put in my car (soylent gas?). But it got us home on 1 tank. Plus I had the unique experience of pumping my own gas in Jersey.

Apropos of nothing in particular (and via Scalzi), Peanuts, Bukowski-style.

Interesting and sad article in today's NYTimes about Jim Carroll, his life, his last days and his novel. I never saw the Jim Carroll Band but I did see him reading once. It was at the old Bottom Line in NYC, on a bill with Richard Hell and Richard Price. Oddly, I don't remember much about what he read that night, even though he was the headliner and the person I was there to see. Hell did some kind of spoken word meets standup thing (the sorta thing Rollins would end up making a career of 10 years later) and was wearing a lot of plaid -- he had some sorta suburban golfer vibe going on. What's stuck with me most after all these years was Richard Price reading from what would end up being Clockers (I think). Carroll might have read "A Peculiar Looking Girl" or I might be misremembering that cos that's the piece he reads on a spoken-word album that I owned back in the 80s (which I blogged about previously here). I do have very specific memories of tearing thru reading Basketball Diaries back in undergrad days.

"But it ain't no contribution
To rely on an institution
To validate your chosen art
And to sanction your boredom
And let you play out your part"
(Jim Carroll)

I was driving back across town this morning and I passed the early stages of today's Pride Parade (25 years! w00t!). Lots of people arriving. Rain is holding off for now. Excellent vibe overall. Noticed that they'd stuck the "anti" demonstrators on 2 corners of Main and Broad -- one right outside Mad Hatter and one across Main nearer the train tracks. The two guys on that side were waving a bible and holding up a sign that said something about Jesus saving you from burning in hell. I think the sign might have been attached to a big ole wooden cross. Meanwhile, outside Mad Hatter there were a small handful of "anti" types (I didn't get a good count cos I was driving down Broad and my view was partlally blocked by the shrubbery). There was also a sound system set up playing club and house music. Lots of kids dancing and waving banners to the passing cars. And (I'm sure) generally taunting and tormenting the "anti" people. If not directly, then just by their very existence. Also there were a couple of cop cars keeping an eye on the whole scene. I don't know if one of the LGBT groups found out the "anti" people were gonna be there and moved there. Or if Mad Hatter was always planning to have music playing in that spot. Either way, it was (dare I say) fabulous. What better way to highlight the contrast. On one side you got a bunch of unhappy to angry people waving signs about how you're all gonna burn in hell. Talk about ten pounds of no-fun in a five pound sack. And on the other side you've got kids dancing to "It's Raining Men." Srsly? That the best you got, "anti" people?
Oh, one other thing: as I drove down Broad, I saw a sign that I at first read as "homo sex is fun." Which I thought was maybe a wee bit edgy. But then I looked again and realized it was the much more predictable "homo sex is a sin."
blah blah blah
(oh, and god hates shrimp)

Went down the road to Chapel Hill tonight to get my jazz on & see Sonny Rollins. Coincidentally, I think the last time I was at Memorial Hall was to see Henry Rollins. Amazing show tonight. Sonny Rollins is 79 years old and altho he does walk with a bit of that old man shuffle, once he picks up the sax and starts blowing, he's got the energy of a man half his age. Actually, that probably over-estimates the energy level of most 40 year olds. The band was cooking and Sonny sounded great. Pretty good sized crowd, which makes sense since this was one of only a handful of show he's doing in the US this year. I only recognized one of the songs he played ("My One and Only Love"). They also did a really nice Latin jazzy number. Amazing stuff.
Here's a clip of Sonny Rollins doing "My One and Only Love" from 1982.

RIP Arthur Ferrante, the gloriously cheestastic piano player, who died last weekend.
Here's an excellent overview of Ferrante and Teicher from Space Age Pop Music. I had no idea they'd done prepared piano works before they got into easy listening (altho I'm sure that was much more lucrative).
And here's a clip (w/ bonus Dean Martin intro):

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 20 sept 09)

Haih... ou Amortecedor... :: Os Mutantes
Deliverance :: A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Saints & Tzadiks :: Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg
Blow Up :: Bomba Estereo
Seya :: Oumou Sangare
Y Que Viva Venezuala :: Maestros del Joropo Oriental
Coconut Rock :: Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada
Eternal :: Huun Huur Tu and Carmen Rizzo
Borders y Bailes :: los Texmaniacs
Maiteí Américana: Harps of Paraguay :: various

this week's video feature: Bomba Estereo

Couple of interesting things I saw on the internets this weekend: nice (altho somewhat superficial) article on the origins of the flapper. Some stuff I knew plus a few things I'd never heard before. Not super in depth but a good start point if one is interested.
At the other end of the spectrum, a superlong and detailed piece from today's NYTimes on Jung and the Red Book. I think my fave part was the translator (noting that he's spent the last 10 years working on the book and only just beginning to feel like he's got any handle on it) wondering what all the people participating in all the conferences scheduled for just a few months after publication of the Red Book could possibly have to say. Also the quote from Jung about how he was glad that he was Jung and not a Jungian.

Been away but now I'm back. We went up NE-ward. Stopped in DE to see Sarah's fam. Then up to NYC to see mine. Yesterday was the big doing stuff day: Doughnut Plant, walk thru Chinatown, Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Station, lunch w/ Womzilla, walk thru midtown (including a chance to snap back at some comedy club flyer guy -- if you've ever read Overheard in New York, you know what I'm talking about), drinks and pu pu platter at Jade Island, which was every bit as tikitastic as we'd hoped. Today was the having a headache and driving home anyway day. We were planning on visiting friends in DC tonight but I was feeling like such crap this morning that we cancelled and drove straight home.
(Pics to follow).

So we had to be over on the other side of Raleigh today which gave us a chance to go back to Holy Smokes Bar-B-Que. I gotta say, they may have the best ribs in the Triangle. Backyard in Durham also does great ribs. There's are wet while Holy Smokes does a dry rib. It's really more a matter of personal preference than good or bad. But I gotta give a slight edge of Holy Smokes. At least tonight I do. Maybe I'll change my mind at some later time.

Also, please enjoy this cheese/font quiz.

Today in bizarro alcohol news: Dogfish Head makes chicha. Or tries to anyway. While I have to admire Calagione's commitment to detail and authenticity (and I love pretty much every Dogfish Head beer I've ever tried), I have to admit that I think the NYTimes reporter might be onto something when he calls this more of a stunt than an actual brewing technique.

And on the local front, it's World Beer Festival time again in Durham. Saturday, 10/3.

hooray beer!

Because there are way better writers out there than me and sometimes they sum things up brilliantly. Often things which I can only managed enraged growling. Without further ado, then Mr. John Scalzi.

hats off, gentlemen...

Things I learned today (which was clearly Monday disguised as Tuesday):
There is, apparently, a tiki bar on Staten Island. Bourdain went there w/ David Johansen on the outer boroughs episode of No Reservations. Jade Island is, more accurately I suppose, a Chinese restaurant w/ a tiki theme. It's even got a half-page entry in Tiki Road Trip, which calls it the only vintage tiki restaurant in the five boroughs. None of this latter-day, neo-tiki stuff. I am, retroactively, abashed to have grown up on Staten Island and not known of this place until this evening.
Parsons in NYC has an exhibit of work by the Quay Brothers up currently (on view thru 10/4/09). Described as "film decors" -- sets and others pieces from their films. Just, wow.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 6 sept 09)

Depedro :: Depedro
Saints & Tzadiks :: Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg
Eclipse :: Lura
Coconut Rock :: Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada
Paraibo :: Hugo Filho
Y Que Viva Venezuala :: Maestros del Joropo Oriental
ZZK Sound, vol. 2 :: various
Kenya Revisited Live! :: Bobby Sanabria
Falcao and Monashee :: Falcao and Monashee
Seya :: Oumou Sangare

this week's video feature: Oumou Sangare

Tonight's movie: Godzilla 2000. Y'know, I knew I was gonna love this as soon as the oldschool Toho logo came up at the beginning. And it did not disappoint. I particularly appreciate that, even tho, it was made only 10 years ago, they worked very much in the classic style. Sure, they may have access to actual military surplus tanks and stuff now. But there's still an underwater scene with a mini-sub that looks straight out the 60s. Plus a spunky kid in the cast. And none of the wrenching death-of-Godzilla angst from the last Toho Godzilla movie I saw. Major havoc (most of it collateral damage, natch) is visited upon the cities and countryside. Alien spaceship that looks like a computer mouse. Giant monster on giant monster fight scenes galore.

good times!

Interesting new business concept from Japan: rabbit café. Super kawai. Altho they don't seem to be going for that extra level of weirdness and serving any rabbit-containing food on the menu. Which I'm told is not uncommon at US rabbit shows.

In other semi-related sorta food news, apparently on Mad Men recently (and, no, I'm not watching the show... I hear it's good but I'm just not up for following a TV series right now) they got the account for Patio soda. The young internet hipoisie was shocked (shocked, I tell you!) to discover that Patio was a real brand. While I don't remember the much cooler 60s cans, I did get a definite flash of blast-from-the-past when I saw pictures of the (oh so very) 70s cans. Probably I hadn't thought about Patio soda since the 70s, in fact.

More news from the fun and deep-fried world o' state fair foods. As I mentioned last month, Iowa may have deep-fried cupcakes. And, yes, deep-fried candy bars are everywhere from NC to Scotland. And Minnesota is the home of everything-on-a-stick, apparently (mmm... cheese curds). But, once again demonstrating that they are on the cutting (nay, bleeding) edge of the fryolator sciences, Texas this year is rolling out deep-fried butter.

That, my friends, is sheer bloody brilliance.

Got a reminder the other day that there is a difference between the things you know and the things you think you know. See I had this vague memory of a kinda wacky new wave era song called "Wild Moose Party." Something I remembered hearing on the radio way back when. And I remembered it as being by the Swinging Madisons. I think I might have looked for it without luck back in the wild outlaw days of Napster. For reasons too convoluted to be interesting or worth detailing here, I was thinking about this again the other night and searching the internets again I found that, yes, there was a song called "Wild Moose Party." But it was actually by the Cosmopolitans. Who, bizzarely enough, played a reunion gig at the Cradle back at the start of August.
And, even tho they have no connection except in my brain, there was also a Swinging Madisons, an early entry into the faux lounge scene, led by Kristian Hoffman (Klaus Nomi, Contortions).

this probably just goes to show something, but i sure don't know what

I've embargoed myself from most political web stuff for the last week or so. Mostly on account of not wanting to become even more of an angry ranting misanthrope. But there's a gem of a post by Matt Yglesias that's well worth checking out. He's working over the most recent stupidity (at least I think it's the most recent; it's hard to keep up sometimes) by Pat Buchanan. You know, the one where Buchanan argues that Hitler didn't really want to go to war and WWII was all England's fault. A question occurs: if Hitler's just a misunderstood statesman then what does that do to all those "ZOMG! Obama is so bad he's just like teh Hitler" ranters?
Anyway, the post is cracking and even the comments are worth reading (which is a pretty rare thing for the internets) with a combo of history geeks arguing and hair-splitting, a few wingy nutbags rolling in to defend Pat and/or Adolf, and lots of snark. Including this, the funniest damn thing I've read in a while:
"Pat Buchanan is a less entertaining Franz Liebkind"

Mel Brooks FTW

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 30 aug 09)

Falcao and Monashee :: Falcao and Monashee
Depedro :: Depedro
Commercial :: los Amigos Invisibles
Seya :: Oumou Sangare
Coconut Rock :: Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada
ZZK Sound, vol. 2 :: various
Borders y Bailes :: los Texmaniacs
Paraibo :: Hugo Filho
Rasta Got Soul :: Buju Banton
Coba Coba Remixed :: Novalima

this week's video feature: Buju Banton

Check this out: Durham's own Counter Culture gets some love from Serious Eats. Altho there are now other good local roaster, Counter Culture remains by default choice most times when I'm buying coffee. But I'm so out of the loop, I had no idea they'd expanded to other cities. I thought they were still a local treasure. Some Friday, I need to clear out my schedule and get over to their weekly cupping.

Hooray coffee!