What with pre-holiday rushing around and travel and festiveness and such I've been pretty much out-of-the-loop and disconnected from most news-like objects. I guess I'll test the waters over the weekend before diving back into the madness next week.
Meanwhile, it's the end o' the year and I feel like I should make some sort of summarizing post or something. But there's just nothing that I'm really moved to say. Instead, here's John Scalzi's top 10 SF movies of the last 10 years. In deference to several of my occasional readers, I will refrain from calling it "best of the decade" altho, really, the ship has sailed on that. It might be factually wrong to say the decade runs (ran? whatever?) from 00 to 09 but, as a supporter of descriptive grammar, I have to acknowledge that the current usage is pretty much that. Anyway, back to Scalzi's list. I've seen only 4 of these. Which surprised me. Most ot the rest are on my ever expanding list of things I need to watch Real Soon Now. Altho I have only limited interest in 28 Days Later (I'm sorry, but fast zombies are just WRONG) and District 9 (looks so depressing). And I'd take active steps to avoid Cloverfield (I get what Scalzi's saying but I'm not convinced).

Some sights and sounds of a holiday:
- samovar-shaped boxes of chocolates at Net Cost Market on SI
- tourists lined up three deep on the observation deck of the ferry taking flash pictures of the Statue of Liberty at dusk (enjoy your shots of the backs of peoples heads or the overhanging roof)
- many inflatables and holiday lights everywhere, including one house that had its own low power FM station (sadly, we passed that one during the day when everything was shut down)
- SITA SINGS THE BLUES on the big screen at IFC Center on 6th Ave & W 3rd. Formerly known as the Waverly where I went many times back in ye olden days
- "Cranial Crunch" quiz program on SI cable featuring high school or middle school students
- old school SI (rolled thru several old haunts, including the neighborhood where my cousins lived when were all growing up) and new school SI (lunch at awesome Sri Lankan restaurant)

Surprisingly, the cable seasonal channel did not switch back to ambient electronica at the stroke of midnight on Boxing Day. The satellite radio stations all did so I guess it's iPods in the car if we want to extend the holiday spirit a bit further. I've sorta gotten used to the fact that most people are done done done w/ Xmas by the 26th or 27th, seeing as how they've been having it stuck in their faces since Halloween. Such is life in our media saturated times.

Here's an absolutely miind blowing lecture by Hervé This. It's long but definitely worth it. He's sorta the French Harold McGee (as I've mentioned previously).

On a related note, Sarah (who is amazing, and I will never get tired of mentioning that) got me the Fat Duck Cookbook as one of my Xmas presents this year. What's weird is that she chose this without any memory of ever seeing this post I wrote last summer about how much I wanted said book. I guess you do get to know each other after a few years...

Happy Festivus, y'all

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

Taketron :: Slavic Soul Party!
Shadow Music of Thailand :: various
Ghana Special :: various
Light a Candle :: Forro in the Dark
Aguilas & Cobras :: Brownout
Colour :: Latin Bitman
Sujinho :: Jackson Conti
Singapore A-Go-Go :: various
Satellite City :: Noiseshaper
Warm Heart of Africa :: the Very Best

this week's video feature: Brownout

I missed the holiday with this but just saw it over on boing² -- an interesting (or insane, depending on how you look at it) book about Chanuko.

Last night I watched Big Time, the Tom Waits concert movie. Amazing! From 1988, with Ralph Carney and Marc Ribot in the band. I recorded it when it aired on Ovation earlier this month. So I wouldn't have to just keep it on the DVR forever (and to see it w/o commercials), I went online to see about renting or buying it on DVD. Only to find out that it's never been released. Found a few mentions of a possible DVD release from 8 years ago but that was about it. Well that and lots of people wondering whether there'd ever be a DVD. Plus many places to download pirated copies. So, good job entertainment industry! Give the people what you want them to want.

Weather update. Surprisingly, there was still snow on the ground this morning. Well, honestly, it was more a crunchy mix of ice & snow. But still better than soggy grass and mud.

Hey, hey... new Anthony Bourdain book next summer. That should be fun.

Enjoy this while you can as I'm sure it'll get pulled down sooner rather than later. It's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo" by the Billy May Orchestra with footage from the classic Rankin-Bass show. In the words of Esquivel, feliz navidad, baby.

When the boss comes around before 2pm and says that everyone should feel free to head home, hey, it's time to go. Took advantage of the FWDFA-induced largesse and did some food shopping (stores were not crowded). Altho I just now realized that I forgot to go over to the dairy sections and watch the milk riots. Also stopped downtown and had lunch at Toast -- a bowl of bean, pasta, escarole soup and a couple of chickpea & olive crostini. Yum.
Once the initial snow had stopped there was actually nothing falling out of the sky for most of the afternoon. Snow started up again around 4 and kept on until there was (I'm guessing) about an inch or so. At some point in the last few hours it's switched over to sleet or freezing rain or wintry mix or some such thing. Alas, it's supposed to change over to rain sometime overnight so I expect it'll just be cold, wet and muddy by tomorrow. Whee...

This morning I did probably my last radio show before the holidays. I mean, there's always a chance of emergency subbing but I'm not planning to do the show next Thursday (Xmas Eve). So this was my chance to bust out the holiday jams. But because we're 8 days out from Xmas, I didn't wanna roll with 2 full hours of Xmas music. So I did a regular playlisst show except that 12 of my 15 non-playlist tracks were seasonal faves. Well, some of my faves anyway (Dino, the Roches, Cool John Ferguson, Acid Xmas). And I'm rather ridiculously pleased with how well it all hung together. My only regret is that I forgot to bring my copy of "Christmas in Hollis."

In other holiday news, here's an excellent interview with the Rifftrax crew in which they discuss their least favorite Christmas movies.

Tonight was another Rifftrax simulcast event. Sarah organized a whole crew o' folks to attend: Charles & Zac, S & D, Spacegrrl & J. Last time, for the Plan 9 show, the place was mobbed so we got there super early tonight (about 7.15 for an 8pm start) and there was no one else there. Eventually it turned into a pretty good-sized crowd but it was weird to walk into all that empty. On the up side, no problem finding 8 seats together.
Tonight's was maybe not as much of a spectacular as the last show. Really it was just Mike, Bill and Kevin riffing on a bunch of freaky Xmas themed short films. There wasn't as much interaction with the audience and the special guest (Weird Al) just joined them to riff on 1 film (a non-holiday musical short extolling the virtues of pork) and did not sing any songs. But if there wasn't as much hoopla, the movies more than made up for it. If you watched MST3K, it was like a whole night of the short subjects they'd occasionally show before the feature. Or, if you're local to the Triangle, it was like a holiday themed show from AV Geeks (except with bot-esque snarking throughout). The movies ranged from bizarre to freaky to psychotic. Particular standouts were the one about the Xmas tree, the visit to Santa, the previously mentioned ode to pork, a demented doll-coming-to-life dream, and an early cartoon version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" that probably would have left me emotionally scarred for life if I'd ever seen it as a child.

good times, indeed...

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 13 dec 09)

Taketron :: Slavic Soul Party!
Ghana Special :: various
Sujinho :: Jackson Conti
Light a Candle :: Forro in the Dark
Colour :: Latin Bitman
Aguilas & Cobras :: Brownout
Este Mundo :: Rupa & the April Fishes
Warm Heart of Africa :: the Very Best
Travelling the Face of the Globe :: Oi Va Voi
Singapore A-Go-Go :: various

this week's video feature: Slavic Soul Party

Yesterday it was frikkin' cold plus I had to go retrieve my car from the repair shoppe and do a radio show in the afternoon so I did not get the LED stars & snowflakes set up outside. No problem, I thought, I can just do it in the morning. So, of course, I get up and it's pouring down rain. Tried anyway but I was getting drenched. Fortunately, it let up a bit in the afternoon. So now all the holiday festiveness is installed, with handy timers to switch it all on and off at the (hopefully) appropriate times. Tonight we wrote out Xmas cards. What's that you say? You had yours done and mailed weeks ago? Well, that's spiffy. Also please remember that I hate you with the withering heat of a thousand suns. But I digress. While we were doing this Sarah wondered when we became the sort of people with a long Xmas card list. So I guess it's my fault, because I've always had a card list. I don't remember whether it was when I was in high school or college but certainly ever since then I've pretty much always had a list of cards to send. Sometimes I made cards. Mostly I bought them. I'm not Christian or particularly extroverted and it's probably a pretty short list compared to a lot of people. Altho it does seem to have gotten longer over the last couple of years. I mean, I've done the card-sending thing for years but I don't recall it ever taking all night. Meanwhile, I've had the Kinks' "Father Christmas" stuck in my head on and off all weekend. And while I like that song okay, I don't like it that much.

To paraphrase Stephen Colbert, this is one of the craziest fucking things I've ever seen -- an article about carniverous plants. First off, you've gotta love a scientific journal article with a sense of humor. Among their illos is one of Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors. Of course, they discuss the expected -- venus fly traps, pitcher plants etc. But there's also some interesting stuff on tomato plants, which can apparently be considered carnivorous because they've adapted "hairy" stems, which trap small insects. After the insects die and fall to the ground, the plants absorb nutrients through their roots. Quite unusual.

In case you were wondering, a bad way to end your week would be to take your car in for an oil change only to have the shop call with a list of problems they found. And then give you an estimate that has a few too many digits in it. Oh, and it'll take at least a day and a half.

The other thing we learned tonight is that the Durm WFM is apparently the place to be on a Friday evening. Ran into (not literally) spacegrrl, J. (and Reese) out in the parking lot and then our friend Charles in the produce section and then (less surprisingly) my co-worker Trish. I think that matches the most people I've ever bumped into at the store. Oddly enough, most other times it's been all XDU peoples. Not sure what that means. Probably nothing...

Happy Chanukah. Here's some holiday themed mashups compiled by DJBC

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

Taketron :: Slavic Soul Party!
Ghana Special :: various
Warm Heart of Africa :: the Very Best
Colour :: Latin Bitman
Singapore A-Go-Go :: various
New York - Addis - London: the Story of Ethio Jazz, 1965-75 :: Mulatu Astatke
Satellite City :: Noiseshaper
Aguilas & Cobras :: Brownout
Este Mundo :: Rupa & the April Fishes
Son de mi Tierra :: Son de Madera

this week's video feature: the Very Best

Top Chef finale! Yukon Cornelius vs. the Miser Brothers. I was planning to live blog the show but we managed to miracle into tonight's community dinner at Panciuto so I ended up overfull and unable to do any more than watch the show. Spoilers below

Watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer last night, I was struck by just how much of a dick all the adults and authority figures are. Rudolph's abusive dad. The gym coach (who doesn't even need an adjective as I'm sure we all understand that gym coaches are by definition bastards. Hermy's asshole boss. And of course, the king tool of the piece, Santa. (note: Yukon Cornelius, aka Kevin Gillespie, clearly doesn't count as an authority figure.. he's a loner, Dottie, a rebel...) Y'know, I understand that they were stuck with the plot that the song lyrics gave them. And obviously they were trying to support the misfit lifestyle and teach a lesson about how it's okay to be different. But I really think it's a problem when your story requires Santa Claus to be a complete asshole.

Last night's movie: Exiled, another great one by Johnnie To. I'd rank this one right up there with his best. There's nothing quite as flashy as the opening tracking shot in Breaking News (altho the opening of the final gun battle is pretty impressive). Not as brutal as Election, maybe because the stakes are lower. The story isn't about a fight for control on the HK triads but a more personal battle set in Macau during the chaos around the time of the takeover by China. There's lots of humor, good work by To's regular troupe (including Simon Yam), and several amazing set action set pieces. I'm no expert on contemporary Asian cinema but I'd say that for stylish gunfights To is right up there with Kitano. Highly recommended.

Cold and rainy for the Durham Xmas Parade this year. But we all went anyway. We being spacegrrl & Jason, S & D, and me & Sarah. Jeez, gangs of married people traveling in packs....
Two of the highlights were new entrants the bagpipe band from School of the Arts and the NCCU marching band (the Marching Sound Machine!). The NCCU band were so good that we followed them along the rest of the parade route while we walked back to the car. Turns out they've been invited to the 2011 Rose Bowl Parade. Congrats to them. Durham represent!
One of the forecasts for this evening was saying there was a chance of snow during parade time. It didn't get that cold until after the precip stopped so no frozen white death from above yet. Altho I've seen (mostly via friends on Facebook) that's there's been snow in DC, PA (not unusual) and Houston (quite unusual) this week. Related to that, quote of the day to John Cole: "We have our first snow of the year, so clearly global warming is a hoax."

Hilarity ensuing over across the ocean, in a beery mode. BrewDog (who I believe were one of the first US-style microbrewers in the UK) intro'ed a high ABV beer called Tokyo*. It was promptly deemed excessive, irresponsible and just generally bad. In fact, it's just been banned in the UK. BrewDog's earlier response had been to create a low ABV beer called Nanny State. But earlier this week they upped the ante a bit with Tactical Nuclear Penguin. 32% ABV. I'm at the same time both impressed and reminded of the Monty Python line "this is not a wine for drinking; this is a wine for laying down and avoiding."

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 29 nov 09)

Ghana Special :: various
New York - Addis - London: the Story of Ethio Jazz, 1965-75 :: Mulatu Astatke
Singapore A-Go-Go :: various
Aguilas & Cobras :: Brownout
Warm Heart of Africa :: the Very Best
Este Mundo :: Rupa & the April Fishes
Panama! 3: Calypso Panameno, Guajira Jazz & Cumbia Tipica on the Isthmus 1960-73 :: various
Timba Talmud :: Roberto Rodriguez
Vagarosa :: Céu
Satellite City :: Noiseshaper

this week's video feature: Noiseshaper

Interesting article about Fela and the growth of his popularity (and the popularity of Afrobeat) in the US. Interesting, altho I have some problems with the whole "greatest musician you've never heard of" idea. I mean, I'm sure it's true of the population overall. But it's hard to relate to it personally when I've been listening to Antibalas since their first CD came out and have organized two 24 hour Afrobeat marathons at XDU. I mean, pretty much everyone I know is a huge Afrobeat fan. Thinking back, the first time I can remember reading about Fela was when one of his US tours was canceled at the last minute when the Nigerian gov't arrested him on trumped up currency smuggling charges. That was in (I'm pretty sure) 1984. So, yeah, hard to wrap my brain around the idea of Fela as unknown. But, still, I am weirded out by the idea that there's now a Broadway musical about Fela. By Bill T. jones, no less.

There are two things I especially love about this article (on Slate today) about Eva Tanguay, who was apparently a huge star in Vaudeville. Mostly it's just really interesting. Lots of info about someone I've never heard of before plus some good points about the history and development of popular music. I'm not totally buying the "first rock star" thesis but it's a good hook for the piece and there's definitely some truth in there. The other thing I love is that it's such a classic music geek powerplay. It's like "you think you're into obscure? honey, I got your obscure beat. Twice." C'mon, Tanguay has one recorded work. Ever. I was gonna say that the only thing that could beat that would be an appreciation of someone with no recordings but, on reflection, I don't think so. With no recorded legacy, the temptation exists to dismiss. Since you'll never be able to hear it, why get excited? But with the one recording, there's a record of what you're missing out on. Sure, the writer hasn't heard any more of the music than you have. But they knew about it before you did. Hand!