House of Dioxin

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 29 jun 08)

Made in Dakar :: Orchestra Baobab
Wild Animals :: the Pinker Tones
Bokoor Beats :: various
Merengue Tipico from the Dominican Republic :: la India Canela
A Tribute to Gonzalo Asencio: Tio Tom, 1915-1991 :: Orlando "Puntillo" Rios y el Conjunto Todo Rumbero
Gal :: Gal Costa
Nigeria Rock Special :: various
Radio Myanmar :: various
Saracen :: Jef Stott
Bollywood Steel Guitar :: various

this week's video feature: Orchestra Baobab

Posted by at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey, it's time for another installment in the never-ending series "stupid people saying stupid things" :: Noel Gallagher doesn't think Jay-Z should play Glastonbury. For those who just came in, Glastonbury is a big UK festival/concert, Jay-Z is a rapper/mogul/owner of the NJ Nets, and Noel Gallagher is guitarist for Oasis/wanker. I'm kinda surprised that: a) anyone in 2008 cares what Noel Gallagher thinks about, oh, anything; b) there are still people who cling to the delusion that guitar-based rock & roll is objectively superior to all other music; c) Joe Strummer hasn't risen from his grave to kick NG's ass.
BTW, if you thought NG's remarks were the height of wankery, I advise you to stay out of the comments thread where there are way too many people expressing some version of the belief that "they" should stay away from Glastonbury and keep "their" music in Brixton (that's in between their wounded bleatings about how dare anyone say that NG is being racist).
I need a drink.

Posted by at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This just in: Devo suing McDonald's. Altho it doesn't show up in the Serious Eats comments, in other places I've been surprised by the number of people who don't seem to get that Devo have the right to sell or not sell their music (image, services, whatever) to who they want. And to not sell to people they don't want to. It's not like they gave up all rights of refusal when they first sold ad rights to anyone. Casale really does have the money quote: "plus, we don't like McDonald's." That's all they have to say. Their not required to have a deeply philosophical or political rationale for who they do or don't want to license to.
And anyway, McDonald's is just ripping them off. I hope they get into them for some major cash.

Posted by at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I never got around to writing up our dinner last Saturday. We had a delayed anniversary celebration by going to Dinner on the Porch at Elodie Farms. They raise goats, make goat cheese, and host a monthly dinner with a local chef. The chef on Sat. was Amy Tornquist of Watts Grocery and the food was amazing. Looking at some of the other menus, Tornquist's maybe wasn't as goat cheese centric as some. But it did make excellent use of local produce, inc. corn, tomatoes and peaches. We started with a shrimp and Stilton salad, with pickled Jerusalem artichokes. Then a corn, tomato and chevre salad. Rack of lamb with corn pudding (I think there was some goat cheese in the corn pudding). And a shortcake with berries and peach ice cream. Plus we were sitting on the porch, looking out at goats, a horse, a donkey. There were some chickens wandering around. Every once in a while some peacocks (never did see them) would do their freaky screaming. Towards the end of the meal the fireflies started coming out. Sarah said she thought she saw bats flying around. A bit of a splurge, yes, but absolutely a wonderful night out.

Posted by at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's network time-killer time again: virtual jello fun, Altho I never imagined that jello would sound like a theremin, it kinda works.

Also, undead fun, or zombie kickball! Y'know, every year XDU plays a kickball match against XYC (the UNC-Chapel Hill radio station). I'm going to have to suggest that next year's match be in zombie kickball.

brains...

Posted by at 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's not just fun, it's online, Simpsons-referencing fun: Troy McClure Film or Actual Terrible Movie?. Found via the always entertaining and informative Scrubbles. I was somewhat disappointed to only get 12/15. Actually, I found I was on firmer footing with my knowledge of crap movies. I recognized a few of the Troy McClure's but on a bunch of them I felt like I was just guessing.

get some confidence, stupid...

Posted by at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Turns out I guessed wrong on where NFNS was going in Sunday's episode. They were not cooking for the Navy but rather the Coast Guard. But before they got to that, there was another TV challenge. Tyler Florence showed up to give them the set-up: 1 minute on-camera demo of a basic culinary skill. Everything from shucking an oyster to cleaning squid to opening a coconut to frenching a rack of lamb. Pretty much everyone ran out of time. Several failed to master the talk while working and even most of those who did forgot to look up at the camera. Kelseybot was the winner. She didn't do the greatest job on her lamb but she clearly knew what she was doing and also managed to dial her personality down to only-slightly-more-terrifying-than-Rachael-Ray levels. I expected Shane (the other c-school grad to do well) but he only poked one hole in his coconut so no water came out (need second hole to let air in). But he presented with a lot of authority. Not sure if that's cos he was faking it well or because he thought it was going to work. Over on the epic fail side were Boring Jen (who spent most of her minute not shucking an oyster while apologizing that she'd forgotten how to do it because she was allergic and oysters made her sick) and Nipa (who announced that she had no idea how to clean squid and then amply demonstrated the completeness of her ignorance). Boring Jen is clearly having a nervous reaction to being on camera that's causing her to apologize, back-pedal and basically try to disappear every time she has to talk. Hardly the best trait for someone who wants to host a TV show. And Nipa -- where to even start? What the hell network did she think she was auditioning for?
For the second half, hosting duties were taken over by Michael Symon (and his crazy laugh). The ridiculously complex challenge: select 1 kind of fish plus 1 wacky Kitchen Stadium style ingredient (marshmallow fluff, froot loops, grape jelly, white chocolate, coffee, cola or caramel); create 2 dishes (one basic w/ just the fish and one Iron Chef w/ the fish and the secret ingredient). They had to create 30 servings w/ cooking to be finished later at a location TBD. Fun starts right up when Nipa says that she's never touched a fish. Or had to pick up a fish. I'm unclear as to whether she meant she'd never had to pick up a whole fish or had actually never touched any fish at all. So many questions... I mean, two weeks ago she was chopping up lamb -- why is a trout any different? Even if it never entered her mind that, y'know, at some point in a cooking contest she might have to work with fish, you'd think that she'd at least suck it up and get on with it. But, no, she put on a display of squealing and icking and carrying on the likes of which are usually only seen in cartoons when housewives jump on tables to get away from mice. Symon was good-naturedly teasing her ("pick up that trout!") but you could tell the other contestants were not amused. Then she had to filet the whole fish for at least one portion (the rest were provided pre-fileted). Which of course she couldn't do. I don't know that I've ever fileted a whole fish. But then, I'm not trying to get a show on Food Network. After hacking out one miserly hunk, she took the mangled remains of the fish and dumped them in the trash. More on that later.
(rest of the recap below the cut)

Aaron was doing cod w/ cola and Ensign Ro was using arctic char & coffee. They had the easiest road for the IC combos. But Aaron overcooked his cod and did a lackluster presentation to the Coast Guard and found himself in the bottom 3. Ensign Ro did an arctic char/hoisin/etc glazed char which found favor. But for some inexplicable reason, she did a tartare-style presentation for the Red Lobster part of the challenge. Which she was rightly dinged for. I mean, yes, more people are eating raw fish. But not at Red Frikkin' Lobster. Her presentation was actually pretty good. Probably cos she was flustered and wearing half her sauce after wiping out in the kitchen. Altho that only partially mitigates her insistence on mentioning that the sauce-spilling accident ruined her Pucci shoes and $300 blouse. If she's stupid enough to dress like that in a kitchen, she deserves to have her gear ruined.
Shane and Kelseybot both got good notes for food and performance. Shane added fluff to a parsnip puree under some panko coated fish and got particularly praised by Symon. Kelseybot won the Red Lobster challenge, altho actually for her IC dish, which had a white chocolate beurre blanc accompanying the fish.
To the bottom, then. Adam did a crepe w/ caramel-garlic sauce on the fish for his IC dish. When Symon told him he'd spit it out, Adam (bizarrely) said "that's amazing." To which Symon could only reply "no, it was disgusting." Plus he started his presentation to the Guard members by doing a pratfall thru the doorway into the mess. Totally bombed. As Tushman put it, he completely undermined any sense that he had authority as a chef. Since his final quote on camera was something about how he wanted to be funny but didn't want to be a joke, I won't be surprised if he wins one or both challenges next week in a big redemption episode like Kelseybot got this week.
Boring Jen did the same thing again -- got halfway thru her spiel and started apologizing for how bad her IC dish (she ground up the froot loops to make a crust for the fish but didn't cut it w/ any bread crumbs or anything so it was sickly sweet). The FN people keep talking about what a great personality she has and how much the camera loves her but I swear I haven't seen any of that from her so far. She actually was not in the bottom 3 but I'm writing her up here cos I think she deserved to be.
It was actually Aaron in the bottom 3 (along w/ Adam and Nipa). I pause here to note that, contra Tom Hanks, there is a hell of a lot of crying in this season of NFNS. Kelseybot busted out bawling last week. Boring Jen broke down at least twice this week. Ro's had a couple of teary-eyed moments. And Aaron started choking up trying to relate a personal story about his son who's run away from home and how he wanted to make his family proud. I know I tagged Aaron as a fave to win it all last time but he's not showing much growth in his ability to perform on TV. As a cook, there's no question that he's one of the best still in there. But I'm starting to have doubts on his ability to go all the way.
And then there's Nipa. Symon raked her for throwing out an entire fish. He was clearly offended, as anyone who ever worked in the food business would be. Her tandoori trout actually got some decent notices, altho no one liked her attempt to work grape jelly into her IC dish. I will give her props for busting out some Bollywood dance moves during her presentation to the Coast Guard (judges were also there for the meal, obviously). It didn't really go over all that well in the room but I thought it was a nice little "nuts to you" for the FN. You want ethnic? I got yer ethnic right here. Dishoom!
But when it came down to her and Adam, it was clear she was gone. No way they were gonna keep someone who can't even pick up a fish or understand the basic principles of food costs.

Posted by at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

38 minutes and counting down... Apparently not only does Time Warner Cable suck locally, they actually suck globally. In fact, if you type "time warner cable sucks" into Google you get links to several youtube videos about how much TWC sucks. Plus this story about a CA city fining them $25K for excessive and ongoing suckitude.
And I want to retract any vaguely complimentary things I might have ever said to anyone, anywhere about TWC customer service. Bad enough that we've had to go thru multiple rounds of calls (and one previous visit) and they still haven't fixed the problems w/ our DVR. And that I had to wait on hold for a half hour on Sunday just to get this appointment today (thank Grom there was a futbol match on TV to watch while I was waiting). But, dammit, if I'm burning vacation time to sit around here and wait for the motherfucking cable co. to show up, they could at least have the decency to show up.
To sum up, then: Time Warner Cable sucks.

ETA: okay, while the overall customer service experience still sucked, I must say that when the techs finally showed up (just after 11, altho they did call before 11), they were very nice and very efficient. They swapped in a new DVR and provided a tip on how we've got our hardware configured that might be causing some of the problems. So at least one segment of the event went wells. Kudos to them. And yah boo sucks to everyone else.

Posted by at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 22 jun 08)

Wild Animals :: the Pinker Tones
Bokoor Beats :: various
Made in Dakar :: Orchestra Baobab
Sonidos Gold :: Grupo Fantasma
Nigeria Rock Special :: various
Saracen :: Jef Stott
Radio Myanmar :: various
Two Faiths, One Voice :: Gerard Edery and Maria Krupoves
the Best of Lydia Mendoza :: Lydia Mendoza
Anatomy of a Coup :: Sacha Silva

this week's video feature: Lydia Mendoza

Posted by at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just wanted to add my late in the game plug for Toast in beautiful downtown Durm. We had lunch there yesterday after trekking out to the Raleigh Farmer's Market. And damn was that some good eating. Sarah had the soppressata panino and I had one w/ egg, tallegio & chive. There was also some nice ricotta involved as well. Which I consider a positive addition, since a little tallegio can go a long way. But this was just the right mix of mild cheese & funky cheese w/ scrambled egg. So good. After I'd ordered I noticed that the special crostini was one w/ house-cured lardo. Didn't want to fill up by adding that onto my order. Hopefully they'll have that again sometime when we go back.

Posted by at 6:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to Jason0x21 for this comment about Netflix, which pointed me to the this Consumerist post. I'd received the email about Netflix getting rid of the profiles feature. But after spending several minutes poking around the site, I wasn't able to find any way to email them a complaint. Just a phone number, plus a widget on the home page helpfully informing me that the current wait on the phone was 20 min. Yeah, right... like I have nothing better to do with my time than wait on hold to make a complaint that will most likely be ignored. So I was glad that the post on Consumerist mentioned how to contact Netflix online (click "Contact Us" and then "Suggestions"). Honestly, if it's true that only 2% of users have taken advantage of Profiles then they probably will scrap them. And that will suck because I'll be getting less service and a lower quality Netflix experience for the same money. Will I cancel my subscription? No, not right away. We'll just go back to re-arranging the queue every time one of us returns a movie. It's doable. We did it for years. But for Netflix to pretend (as I feel they are in their rather patronizing email) that nothing major is changing and this is only a minor disappointment, well that's bullshit. They're decreasing functionality and not decreasing price. Like Jason0x21 says, Netflix's apparent willingness to lose a small percentage of the customer base raises concerns about other future "improvements" to the service they might have planned.

Posted by at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've said it before but it bears repeating: you'd best keep your wits about you out there. That way when you're driving home and suddenly find yourself slamming on your brakes not quite in time to keep from rolling into to some car (one that, inexplicably, remains nosed out into your lane as you screech to a half), you'll have a better chance of actually stopping in time to prevent most major damage. Could have been so much worse. Altho (since I was already planning to take my car into the shop tomorrow) I'll only be able to definitively make that statement in about 24 hours. And there was no one behind me. Jeebus, that would have been bad. As it stands now, it's just the end of a very long day. But I'm fine. Lying down and thinking about falling asleep as soon as I'm done posting this.

Posted by at 9:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So... part 2 of last Sunday's NFNS involved the contestant's having to come up with a food product, package 50 samples, present to some buyer's plus a special surprise guest. Who turned out to be Martha Stewart. One of the things I like about NFNS is that, since it's a contest to host a TV show, there's really no challenge that's too off the wall and out-there. People can, I think, legitimately complain that many of the challenges on Top Chef have little, if anything to do with the skill-set required to be an actual top chef. But hosting a TV show? That could involve any number of crazy-ass things so all bets are off.
There were basically 3 parts to the challenge: coming up w/ and creating a product; selling to buyers; impressing Martha Stewart. Of the products created, I thought Adam (BBQ spice rub), Aaron (vinaigrette), Ensign Ro (orange-basil marmalade) had some good stuff. Kelseybot (sloppy joe sauce), Jeffrey (season salt), Boring Jen (cheese sauce for pasta), Shane (cherry/cognac sauce for meat) and Nipa (cayenne/sugar blend) most definitely did not. Unlike the potato challenge, what we saw of this provided few surprises. For the most part, the people with lesser food did weaker presentations. Jen and Jeffrey were boring. Kelseybot was insanely perky. Ensign Ro demonstrated a definite background in (or at least familiarity with) food merchandising. Adam broke out some blues harp for Martha Stewart. Ridiculous but showed a real commitment to going all in. He, Ensign Ro and Aaron were the winners for the week. I thought they let Nipa off the hook way too easily. Her product was a mix of 2 ingredients (sugar and cayenne) and I don't care how much she babbled about "the secret" being in the proportions. It was clear that the retail buyers saw right thru that and called it for the BS it was. Kelseybot took some major grief for her insane perky-osity. And responded by breaking out with the sobbing and boo-hoo-ing. I do hope there won't be someone busting out in tears every week. What I loved about that, tho, was that her defense seemed to be that she'd been watching every season of NFNS and had applied for every season and how much it meant to her yadda etc. So her fakeness is completely sincere, dammit. Seriously, tho, her problem, I think, is much like the problems I used to have with genre stuff that would show up in the fee room at Scott Meredith (lo these many years ago). It's hard to quantify exactly why a romance novel (say) that's exactly like every other romance novel that's published doesn't make the grade. A lot of times there's actually no difference other than that Writer Not-You already has a gig with the romance novel writing industry so that if all Writer You can bring is exactly the same thing... well, why do they need You when they've already got Not-You? If that makes any sense.
Getting back to Kelsey, I think her problems are that she's seen every single episode of Rachael Ray EVAH and decided that what it takes to be a Food TV star. Unfortunately, FN doesn't need another Rachael Ray, as they've already got one. Plus, Ray, for all her flaws (hey, this post is long enough already...) does seem to be fairly natural on camera. Kelsey, however, does not. Altho I do think that she's actually very sincere in her superficiality. The nothing that she's expressing is deeply personal and important to her.
Of course, all the angst w/ Kelseybot was just a red herring. Jen gets dinged for her basic boringness again. But Jeffrey gets sent home for being Even More Boring. He did seem like a nice and interesting guy but he was death on TV -- he could never quite pull it together so I can't say I was surprised to see him go. Too bad, tho.

Next week: In the Navy!! They all slope off to visit the USN. With Mike Symon. Plus Ensign Ro falls on her ass. This is roughly the same as the boot camp visit from last season. Altho they'll be hard pressed to top the episode of Master Chef where they went to Sandringham and had to do all their cooking in an actual field kitchen. Also, is it just me, or wasn't there another reality show that did an episode with the Navy? Maybe Design Star? Or maybe I'm just confused...

Posted by at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sunday's episode of Next Food Network Star did NOT begin w/ Robert Irvine banging on a pot at 4am to wake up the contestants. So that right there is a big plus for this week's show. No crazy scavenger hunt thru pre-dawn Manhattan, alas. Instead everyone convenes at the test kitchen and gets their marching orders from Bobby Flay (Alton has the week off, I guess): make a potato dish that expresses their culinary POV and then present to camera. Shane does well w/ presentation, telling a cute story about cooking with his mom when he was a "chubby nine year old" who could barely see over the kitchen counter. Alas, the judges hatehatehate the texture of his potato soup. Lisa (aka Ensign Ro) does okay w/ her dish. It was unmemorable, as evidenced by the fact that I can now not remember what it was, but the judges like it okay. And she's definitely absorbed their advice and come up with a new, actually understandable shtick. Unfortunately, she's so freaked out about running over the 1 minute time limit that she races thru her "beautiful basics" spiel in 15 seconds and gets so flustered that she stammers and says nothing for the next 45. Mercifully not shown in real time. I should mention that one of the briefs for the TV presentation was to share some personal story about themselves and why they cooked the dish they did. Along with Ensign Ro, Jeffrey also completely fails at that. He doesn't run 45 sec. short but he's almost as stammering and incoherent. And boring. Kelseybot (who remains just this side of an SNL parody of a food TV host) also gets out nothing in the way of a personal story. Aaron also flubs the facetime but makes potato wedges wrapped in bacon (what's not to love?) which is so good that Flay jokes that he's going to steal it for his restaurant in AC. Is it just me or is that a backhand way of saying that the dish, while good, is not sophisticated enough for NYC restaurants? Jennifer manages to get something personal into her facetime. Of course, it's the same thing as always -- about how whatever she's cooked is a favorite of her daughter. Alas, what she's cooked is easily the worst idea of the day: mashed potato grilled pizza. It would be the worst dish of the day except Kelseybot undercooked her casserole (raw potatoes AND bacon... yummo!). Plus Jennifer babbles on about healthy alternative versions of grilled pizza and low carb before catching herself and remembering... oh yeah, mashed potatoes. Nipa does not (surprise) storm off in a snit. She makes (no surprise) a curried potato dish. For those keeping score at home, that's the 3rd curried vegetable dish she's made so far. At least she seems to have figured out how to season things this time. Judges like her flavors and like the fact that she talks about herself, about her connection to Indian food and her mom. Except it all plays like she's memorized some talking points based on the verbal beatdown she took last week. The way I see it, she was basically told by Tushman and Fogelson that she's there to be the token South Asian on Food Network and so she better start representing for her tribe. Which she did but not with much heart behind it. Perhaps she thought that she was selected for the show because of her personality and/or cooking skills. And the winner is: Adam. Who fully cooks his bacon cheese fries (again, what's not to love) and does some fairly amusing TMI shtick about all the horrible personal (relationship) meltdowns that might cause one to want comfort food like bacon cheese fries. This, I think, clearly illustrates why Kevin had to go last week. His shtick (excuse me, culinary POV) was basically the same as Adam. Call it lumpen bachelor cuisine. It's hardly a new idea for either of them. But Adam's just putting it across with a lot more snazz.
(2nd half of show to follow -- how do all those recappers keep these things from metastatizing into epic tomes of bloatedness?)

Posted by at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 15 jun 08)

Nigeria Rock Special :: various
Radio Myanmar :: various
Roots of Chicha :: various
Sonidos Gold :: Grupo Fantasma
1 Real :: DJ Dolores
Bollywood Steel Guitar :: various
Sonido Amazonico! :: Chicha Libre
Global Noize :: DJ Logic and Jason Miles
Saracen :: Jef Stott
Viandra :: Lars Hollmer

this week's video feature: Jef Stott

Posted by at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's summer. Okay, it's not officially summer but it has been officially Too Damn Hot™ for days. And that means it's time to get my gin & tonic on. I'm starting off the g&t season by embracing my inner cocktail snob with some Fever Tree tonic. Ever since I found out that most all tonics you can buy at the super-mercado are made with HFCS, I've been looking for alternatives. Last year I was mostly using diet tonic. But I read something online recently extolling the virtues of Fever Tree. So when I spotted some at Southern Season (extra bonus: during clearance sale!) I grabbed up a 4 pack. Totally worth it. At least as an occasional splurge. No idea if I could tell the difference in a blind taste test. But it tastes good, makes a fine cocktail and is fairly budget way to snob it up.

Posted by at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sad news, everybody. Turns out there will not be internecine political warfare on Staten Island. The Libertarians saw fit not to offer their spot on the ballot to Francis Powers, Jr. He's the son of Francis Powers, Sr. who's running as a Republican for the seat now opened up by the hasty departure of Vito "Cheating Bastard" Fossella. I guess the Libertarians were looking for more of a platform from Powers, Jr. than "fucking with my old man's chance of getting elected." Too bad. That would've been some of the best fun on SI since the fantabulous days of NYC secession.

Posted by at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So yeah I'm gripped by Euro 2008 fever. Obviously I haven't been able to watch any games live since last weekend (damn job... expecting me to show up just cos they pay me to... what's that all about?). Fortunately, one or another of the many ESPNs have been re-running a game in the evening. Mostly tho I've been getting my fix by reading the liveblogged coverage. ESPN's site is pretty good for play-by-play. BBC's is more opinionated and puts the games in better context. But they don't post as much so there are details of the game that you'd just miss if you only read them. My fave so far is the Guardian which is a good mix of game coverage, big picture context, and snark. I was going to link to their coverage but Euro 2008 links won't be any good in a month from now. Oh, and while I'm singling out the coverage I've enjoyed, I should point out how awful the NYTimes has been. Or at least it was at the beginning of the week when they had nothing but AP wire stories with the results and that not even in a timely manner. I gave up and stopped checking.

So far, I like Portugal and Netherlands for the finals. Assuming they don't have to play each other earlier. I don't think so. I'm pretty sure it's A-B winner vs. C-D winner for the finals. Anyway, groop play continues thru next Wed. Netherlands could suit up a bunch of fans against Romania and still win the group. Portugal might need to at least draw a point off the Switzerland match to win, altho they're guaranteed to advance. Germany hasn't impressed me so far. Italy's looking better but they waited a little too late to show up, I think. France didn't stank out the joint against Netherlands like they did in game 1. I noticed that the ESPN broadcast seemed much more charitably inclined towards France today than either of the liveblog coverage. Maybe that's revealing some UK-based anti-French bias. Any-anyway, Sweden v. Spain tomorrow should be good (Russia v. Greece, maybe not so much). Also Turkey v. Czechs on Sunday and Austria v. Germany on Monday.

Posted by at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight we stumbled upon the discovery that the cable music channel "Sounds of the Seasons" (which plays Xmas music during the holidays) is, at least for now, the downtempo channel. Okay, it's not called the downtempo channel, but that's what it is. In the last half hour or so I've heard Tosca, Orbital, St. Etienne, Morcheeba, Moby, and Tweaker. Plus a bunch of downtempo (and nu jazz, ambient, illbient, dubtronica, acid jazz and etc allied sub-genres) that I've not heard before. Best artist name so far: Mr. Electric Triangle.

Posted by at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So not this week but last Sunday (6/1) was the first episode of the new season of Next Food Network Star. Or "Low Rent Chef". But for those of us Bravo-deprived types, it'll have to do. At least until BBC America gets around to running some more of Master Chef. I was curious to see how the show would look this time around, after having had the chance to watch Next Iron Chef since the last season NFNS. And, not surprisingly, NFNS does pale in comparison. The contestants aren't as talented and the hosting duties are spread around to multiple FN celebs so not as much Alton Brown.
Still, it's a cooking reality show. So it's got that going for it.
I'll skip over ep. 1 and jump right in w/ this week's. Highlights included:
- the contestants all get roused super early by disgraced former FN host Robert Irvine. You can guess how thrilled FN were to have this ep. in the can before all the accusations about Irvine's resumé padding came to light. They edited the show so that he was probably on camera about as little as possible and still have the ep. make any sense;
- during the scavenger hunt, when Team Green was unable to answer their Q (what parts of wheat are removed to make white flour?), Kevin had to form a pan of baguettes. I don't know how long this took him. The show made it look like it took forever. But I can tell you that it ain't easy to hand roll baguette dough;
- Aaron (the hospital catering chef from Camden) making a big staged entrance in his team's presentation. I particularly appreciated that, during judging, he gave credit to Adam for coming up with the idea. It was win/win/win for both of them. Adam shows he's got an idea about what makes good TV, Aaron shows that he can be a winning personality if someone comes up w/ the script, and they both come off as gracious and not win-at-any-cost reality TV psychos;
(more below the cut, w/ spoilers)

So of course, the only thing anyone's talking about this week is Nipa. Who won't do fusion food but apparently can't improvise curried potatoes if the store is out of turmeric or figure out how to season lamb kebabs for a brunch. For me, the best part of the whole meltdown and return was the bit where she's freaking out and one of the judges asks her what's wrong. She says that she feels different and indicates herself. At first I thought, oh she did not just go there, did she? And the absolutely befuddled looks on the FN execs faces were some of the best stuff since Jeff Probst's refusal to understand why the African American team during the divide-by-race season of Survivor found his questions about the uniqueness of the experience of being divide by race so hilarious.
But, wait, it gets better. The more the FN execs talked the clearer it became that, well, yes, maybe Nipa was right to feel a bit of an outsider since she seems to have been cast so that FN has a chance to up the ethnic quotient of their line-up.
Still, cracking under pressure and throwing a hissy is hardly inspiring that one has the snazz to pull off hosting their own series.
Not that losing Kevin was any great blow. He didn't seem to have any coherent POV other than bachelor-on-the-make cooking. Which he never seemed to be able to fully articulate. Unclear as to whether he just wasn't able to get it across or if FN was editing the shows so that it seemed that way.
Right now, my early money is on Aaron. He seems to have the best mix of cooking chops and workable TV personality.
One other thing I learned is that while the prize for winning is a show on FN, the guarantee is only for 6 episodes. If they don't think it's working after that, you're done. Which is apparently what happened to Amy from last season. Would that the same had been true of Guy Fieri. Alas...

Posted by at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 8 jun 08)

Nigeria Rock Special :: various
Gal :: Gal Costa
Bollywood Steel Guitar :: various
Sonido Amazonico! :: Chicha Libre
Anatomy of a Coup :: Sacha Silva
Viandra :: Lars Hollmer
the Best of Lydia Mendoza :: Lydia Mendoza
Saracen :: Jef Stott
Two Faiths, One Voice :: Gerard Edery & Maria Krupoves
Tijuana Sound Machine :: Bostich + Fussible

this week's video feature: Gal Costa

Posted by at 9:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Part two of my music documentary mini-festival the other night was East of Havana, a look at the Cuban rap scene. Specifically the underground scene centered in the eastern part of Havana, and the 3 rappers in "el Cartel" who work outside of the official state sanctioned rap industry. I thought it did pretty well at showing a slice of life that most people would otherwise not get a chance to see. Altho it got (for me) overly manipulative at points, particularly in the segments with the brother who had escaped in the 1990s and was now living in the US, I thought the film-makers did a good job of taking its tone from its three central figures: Soandry, Magyori, and Mikki Flow. One thing I noticed, having watched this right after Crossing the Bridge is that both movies include a scene where an older male relative of one of the rappers talks about how he's come to enjoy and appreciate hiphop. I should also mention that, from what I can tell, most all commentary online about East of Havana is useless and absolutely unable to transcend whatever opinion the writer has about US policy towards Cuba. Not surprising, perhaps, but still somewhat frustrating.

Posted by at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night's movie (pt 1): Crossing the Bridge: the Sound of Istanbul, a fascinating documentary. The hook for the movie is a visit by Alexander Hacke (bassist from Neubauten) to record the music of Istanbul. He's in the movie a lot, usually around the edges. I found him an entertaining tour guide & much less of a distraction than Ry Cooder in BVSC. The music covered includes traditional Kurdish songs, hip-hop (complete w/ Istanbul b-boys), classic Turkish rock (inc. a segment w/ Erkin Koray), punk, Romani, raki, pop of various kinds (inc. Orhan Gencebay, who seems to be the Amitabh of Turkey -- lots of film clips from the 70s, many of which featured Gencebay, his stylin' mustache, and his saz), and electronica (Mercan Dede!!!)
Highly recommended an well worth tracking down. It's on DVD and also showing on Sundance, if you get that channel.

Posted by at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Moving on from the sports dept. of "idiocy so staggering it can't pass by unremarked upon" to the politics section, we have this gem from Tom DeLay, who said, of Obama: "unless he proves me wrong, he is a Marxist." Yes, that's Tom "Indicted for Money Laundering" DeLay demonstrating his fine logical chops there. C'mon... Marxist? What is this, a grad school seminar?
I hereby declare that Tom DeLay is a mother raping father stabber until he proves me wrong.
Oh, and Socrates is a cat...

Posted by at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Argh!. Time for the first (in what will no doubt become an ongoing) round of weather-related bitchin' and moanin' as it's only the first week of June and it's like a bazillionty degrees out there. Feh and feh again. At least we're getting fairly regular rain so the plants are doing well. Look for some garden update pics this weekend. Unless my brain melts in the interim.
Did I mention that it's too damn hot...

Posted by at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday night we finally made it to dinner at Twisted Noodles. Hawesome. Maybe not Lotus of Siam good but probably the best Thai food I've had on the east coast. Not that I've made an exhaustive survey of Thai restos. But I'd say it slightly tops Thai Café the only other Thai place in Durm we've been to. Sarah had drunken nnodles and I had one of the specials, pork dumpling curry. Which were big meatballs of pork, lightly battered and deep fried, in a curry sauce w/ veg. Nicely spicy w/ just enough coconut. For starter we had a plate of deep-fried tofu and butternut squash. That had a nice sweet/sour dipping sauce but was mostly just proof that deep frying makes everything better. The only quibble I'd make is that the service as a bit idiosyncratic. The waiter was trying a bit too hard with the cornball humor. The mains showed up while we were barely halfway thru the starter. And it took frikkin' forever to get the check. But the food was so good we'll definitely be back.

Posted by at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 1 jun 08)

Gal :: Gal Costa
Bollywood Steel Guitar :: various
Global Noize :: DJ Logic & Jason Miles
Nigeria Disco Funk Special :: various
Futurismo :: Kassin + 2
the Best of Lydia Mendoza :: Lydia Mendoza
Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru :: various
OG: Original Gangster :: Willie Colon
Tijuana Sound Machine :: Bostich + Fussible
Victrola Favorites: Artifacts from Bygone Days :: various

this week's video feature: Kassin + 2

Posted by at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Very cool article about Louis Armstrong's collage art. I'd never heard about these before -- really nice stuff. Someone on the boing² thread mentioned that there's a book of the collages coming out next year. That'd be nice to see, since I don't think I'll be getting up to Queens College any time soon.
And is it just me, or does one of those pieces (the second one in the Paris Review article, the one with the text "South American Broadcast" in the upper right) somewhat resemble some of the early Rauschenbergs?

Posted by at 9:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, so I don't listen to sports talk radio for high level insights and profound philosophical debates. I mainly listen to distract my brain from obsessing about politics and/or the woeful state of the world we live in and life in general. But every now and then someone says something so mired in cliché and so poorly thought out that it can't go unremarked. Driving along yesterday I heard a long ramble on how this year's baseball standings were upside down, topsy turvy. I half expected him to start invoking Bizarro World or announce that Ron Paul had won a primary. Y'know, I can accept that for a lot of media yakkers (sports or otherwise), the best they can manage to support their point is just to repeat it over and over and over. And I don't know why, on May 31st, it's necessarily time to take stock of the standings. Still, it apparently is and things are just crazy, he tells me, kuh-rayzee. The evidence? If the playoffs were to start right now, the teams involved would be: (AL) Angels, White Sox, Red Sox, Devil Rays; (NL) Diamondbacks, Cubs, Phillies, Cardinals. So that's 6 of the last 7 World Series winners (Sawx have won twice). The Cubs, while carrying a long history of epic fail, have been in the playoffs twice in the last five years. The Phillies (ditto but not nearly as epic) were in the playoffs last year. So apparently the mere presence of the Devil Rays, who admittedly have never even come close to making the playoffs before (and, yes, I know they de-deviled last winter... whatever, they're still the Devil Rays to me), is enough to drive sports commentators insane and see chaos and upheaval all around. 1 out of 8 is not "upside down" or "the craziest season ever". It's a fluke. Or a refreshing change of pace, depending on how you look at it.

Go D-rays!

Posted by at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First trip to a Bulls game this year. We went w/ D & S and were sitting out in Diamond View seats (left center). Not so great for the first few innings. I have new found respect for all outfielders as it is murder trying to visually pick up a ball in flight (or in fact see damn near anything) until the sun goes down behind the bldgs. Great seats after that. I think we've now watched games from just about every section at DBAP. Big crowd. Lotsa Sawx fans there to see Pawtucket. And it was an awesome game. Bulls won 10-6 and I think there were only 2 innings with no runs scored at all. Several home runs but also some good small ball from both teams. I could, perhaps, have enjoyed the game a slight bit more w/o the would be hecklers nearby. Here's a tip: if the player has his name printed on the back of his jersey, you kinda sound like an idiot if you heckle him by calling out his number. Or maybe there's some protocol of heckling with which I'm unfamiliar. And anyway, I've been to games at Yankee Stadium. I've heard honest-to-Grom angry drunken heckling. This stuff was just a few steps up from "swing, battah battah battah..." Hell, it was FCC-friendly. Altho I did enjoy the tweens a few rows back who, after the Bulls left fielder tossed a stray ball to another section of the bleachers (and not to them) turned on him and declared their everlasting hatred.
Another high point, during fat suit sumo, the two guys shook hands before the final round and Wool E. Bull came running up and knocked them both on their asses with a flying clothesline. Apparently, there's no room for good sportsmanship in fat suit sumo.
Oh, and after the game we got to see Lucky the Wonder Dog run the bases (which apparently happens after a Bulls victory) and there was a fireworks show. Which was very cool -- up close & personal fireworks.

good times indeed

Posted by at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)