playlist, dec. 17, 2007

Una - "Casa del Fuego"
Sally Shapiro - "Christmas Anorak"
The Spinners - "The Rubberband Man"
Spoon - "Don't You Evah"
Cookie Jar - "The Island"
Petra Haden - "God Only Knows"
Yo La Tengo - "Fourth Time Around"
The Walkmen - "The Christmas Song"
Common [feat. Lily Allen] - Drivin' Me Wild"
Gorillaz - "Dare" (Soulwax Remix)
CSS - "The Knife"
The Submarines - "Brighter Discontent" (Styrofoam Remix)
Supersuckers - "Hey Ya!"
Andrew W.K. - "Don't Call Me Andy"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Rockers to Swallow"
The Pretenders - "Tattooed Love Boys"
Sleater-Kinney - "Rollercoaster"
Sparklejet - "Emilio"
Darlene Love - "Winter Wonderland"
LCD Soundsystem - "North American Scum"
Junior Bloomsday - "Swans to Greet You"
Beirut - "Forks and Knives (La Fête)"
The Smiths - "The Headmaster Ritual"
The Mary Onettes - "Void"
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - "100 Days, 100 Nights"
The Staple Singers - "Uncloudy Day"
Julia Dawn - "Beautiful"
The Gossip - "Are U That Somebody"
DJ Bitman [feat. Julian Peña & Tea Time] - "Tropilove"
El-P - "EMG"
James Brown - "Go Power at Christmas Time"
Nicole Atkins - "Maybe Tonight"
Wilco - "Walken"
Okkervil River - "No Easy Way Down" [Live]
Andrea Echeverri - "Baby Blues"
The Avett Brothers - "Paranoia in B-Flat Major"
Patti Page - "Frosty the Snowman" (Rondo Brothers Remix)
Daft Punk - "Around the World / Harder Better Stronger Faster"
Chromeo - "Fancy Footwork"
Calvin Harris - "Acceptable in the 80s"

playlist, dec. 10, 2007

Band of Horses - "Detlef Schrempf"
Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc." (Stanton Warriors Remix)
Hot Chip - "And I Was a Boy from School"
Sally Shapiro - "Anorak Christmas"
Low - "Just Like Christmas"
The Sleepover Disaster - "Over the Top"
Dave Gahan - "Saw Something"
Burial - "Archangel"
Radiohead - "Nude"
Darlene Love - "Marshmallow World"
Mark Ronson [feat. Amy Winehouse] - "Valerie"
Junior Bloomsday - "Nervous Habits"
Rademacher - "If U Got Some Magic"
Jens Lekman - "I Remember Every Kiss"
Feist - "The Park"
Antony & the Johnsons - "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
Matt Morgan / Sufjan Stevens - "We're Goin' to the Country!"
Beirut - "Cliquot"
Moby - "Everytime You Touch Me"
Daft Punk - "Da Funk / Daftendirekt" [Live]
DJ Bitman [feat. Juan Sativo] - "La Raza"
Common - "The People"
The Go! Team - "Doing It Right"
Blake Jones & the Trike Shop - "On Christmas Tree Lane"
Wilco - "Sky Blue Sky"
Devendra Banhart - "Seaside"
Okkervil River - "April Anne"
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "Humble Me"
Akron / Family - "Ed Is a Portal"
Soulsavers - "Revival"
Animal Collective - "Fireworks"
Snowden - "White Christmas"
Division Day - "Tigers"
Les Savy Fav - "The Year Before the Year 2000"
Sigur Rós - "Í Gaer"

playlist, dec. 3, 2007

Band of Horses - "Is There a Ghost"
Charlotte Gainsbourg & Calexico - "Just Like a Woman"
Okkervil River - "Plus Ones"
Liz Phair - "Winter Wonderland"
Big Star - "The India Song"
Beirut - "In the Mausoleum"
Ls Savy Fav - "The Equestrian"
Adam & the Ants - "Kings of the Wild Frontier"
Rilo Kiley - "Breakin' Up"
Rademacher - "Machines"
The Fiery Furnaces - "Japanese Slippers"
José González - "Down the Line"
Radiohead - "Jigsaw Falling into Place"
Anna Ternheim - "Lovers Dream" (Naked Version)
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "I've Seen It All"
Snowden - "Christmas Time Is Here"
Akron / Family - "Ed Is a Portal"
Céu - "Malemolência"
Joan As Police Woman - "Real Life"
Amy Winehouse - "Love Is a Losing Game"
Saturday Looks Good to Me - "Apple"
Darlene Love - "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"
Daft Punk - "Around the World / Harder Better Stronger Faster" [Live]
Chromeo - "Tenderoni"
Feist - "My Moon, My Man" (Boys Noize Remix)
New Order - "Regret"
C.S.S. - "Knife"
Poplord - "Quigley Park"
Billy Bragg - "All Fall Down"
The Mary Onettes - "Lost"
Manu Chao - "Rainin' in Paradise"
Dennis Brown - "Oh Mother"
M.I.A. [feat. Afrikan Boy] - "Hussel"
James Brown - "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto"
Dave Gahan - "Kingdom"
White Williams - "New Violence"
Junk Science - "Slojo / Pop Rocks" (Extended Disco Edit)
Prefuse 73 [feat. School of the Seven Bells] - "The Class of 73 Bells"
Federico Aubele - "En El Desierto"
The Kid Named Miles - "Ring of Fire"

'cause i got it going on

I've been home with a cold I picked up from my nieces and nephews over Thanksgiving, and, now that my computer has come back from the Apple store with a brand-spanking-new hard drive (and, yes, I did have a pretty current backup, so I'm pretty stoked), I can catch up on blogging, email, and surfing the web.

Over at 17 dots, Bryan Robbins made a passing reference to some Aphex Twin/Hip-Hop mash-ups by someone calling himself 100dBs. There are some good ones, and all merit a listen. I was also happy to be reminded how good Aphex Twin is. You can download the bunch for free here. My favorite tracks are "Planet .215061," "Breathe, and Stop Using Home Made Polysinths," and Drop Alberto Like It's Hot."

playlist, nov. 19, 2007

White Williams - "Headlines"
New Order - "Regret"
Sondre Lerche - "Let My Love Open the Door"
St. Vincent - "Marry Me"
Brady Earnhart - "Stephen Crane"
Iron & Wine - "White Tooth Man"
Yo La Tengo - "I Feel Like Going Home"
PJ Harvey - "The Devil"
Thom Yorke - "The Eraser"
White Rabbits - "Kid On My Shoulders"
Rademacher - "If U Got Some Magic"
Rilo Kiley - "Dreamworld"
The B-52's - "Downtown"
pc muñoz and the amen corner - "Skin City"
Junk Science [feat. Cool Calm Pete] - "Words from the Pedro"
Balkan Beat Box - "BBBeat"
M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
TV on the Radio - "Dry Drunk Emperor" [Live]
Andrew Bird - "Darkmatter"
Beirut - "In the Mausoleum"
The Fiery Furnaces - "Navy Nurses"
Animal Collective - "Fireworks #1"
Battles - "Leyendecker"
Radiohead - "Jigsaw Falling into Place"
Stephen Malkmus & the Million Dollar Bashers - "Maggie's Farm"
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - "Follow the Lights"
Hem - "Not California"
Neil Young - "Only Love Can Break Your Heart"
Mark Ronson [feat. Paul Smith] - "Apply Some Pressure"
Easy Star All-Stars [feat. Toots & the Maytals] - "Let Down"
Bonde do Rolê - "Office Boy" (Architecture in Helsinki Remix)
CSS - "The Knife"
LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
Calvin Harris - "Merrymaking at My Place"
The Same Shape - "Laid Down"

are we not dell?

Devo is back with a great new song called "Watch Us Work It." Dell is featuring the song in a television ad, but the music video by Jonas Åkerlund (from which the ad is excerpted) is much better. Watch out; both the song and the video are addictive.

now the neighbors can dance!

Lately, Pitchfork has been spotlighting some fan-generated music videos, and today they've posted a video for the Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)" from the band's much ballyhooed 2004 debut, Funeral. You can read what Pitchfork's Mark Hogan has to say about it here.

The video was made as part of a film school project, and it features some charming kids preparing for their school talent show. My favorite scene is when the kids literally start bouncing off the walls in a stark white space (a racquetball court?) that somehow evokes the spooky hallway scenes from Kubrick's The Shining, but replacing fear with fun.



Here's the official (and much creepier, though still beautiful) video for the song:

you kill the joe, you make some mo'

OK, maybe everyone else on the planet knows about these Terry Tate Office Linebacker vids, but I just learned about them thanks to my very cool brother.

Enjoy:

playlist, nov. 12, 2007

Bettye LaVette - "Somebody Pick Up My Pieces"
Bebel Gilberto - "Caçada"
Neko Case - "Buckets of Rain" [Live]
CSS - "Knife"
Dump - "Pop Life"
The Shins - "Sealegs"
Poplord - "Poptimistic Pete"
Spoon - "Don't You Evah"
Rademacher - "If U Got Some Magic"
Radiohead - "15 Step"
Beirut - "Cliquot"
Antony & the Johnsons - "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
The Clientele - "Here Comes the Phantom"
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "100 Days, 100 Nights"
Massive Attack - "Be Thankful for What You've Got"
Cornershop - "Sleep on the Left Side"
The Shout Out Louds - "You Are Dreaming"
Tegan and Sara - "Relief Next to Me"
Karen Marguth - "Marie Laveaux"
Julia Dawn - "Falling"
Sally Shapiro - "Anorak Christmas"
Jens Lekman - "Maple Leaves" [7" Version]
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "Is This Love?"
Big Country - "Harvest Home"
White Rabbits - "The Plot"
Dirty Projectors - "No More"
Of Montreal - "Voltaic Crusher / Undrun to Muted Da"
Iron & Wine - "White Tooth Man"
Mavis Staples - "99 1/2"
Bob Marley and the Wailers - "Soul Shake Down Party" (Afrodisiac Sound System Remix)
Ticklah [feat. Tamar-kali] - "Want Not"

montpellier (france, cont.)

On the morning of July 8, I made my way to the Gare de Lyon via the metro (love the Paris metro) and boarded a speed train bound for Montpellier in the south of France. I sat with a very friendly mother and daughter pair from British Columbia, and we had a nice chat about Paris and the places they were going to visit next. The train ride took only about 3 1/2 hours--not a lot of time considering I was traveling from one end of the country to the other. I became an instant fan of speed trains, and I'm really looking forward to the day when I can zip from Fresno to the Bay Area or to LA on the speed trains we so desperately need in California.

I arrived in Montpellier a little too early to check into my dorm room, so I found a good bakery and ate a sandwich in a park near the train station. I then boarded the TAM, Montpellier's light rail system--which is probably the best public transportation system I've ever used--and headed over to the university dorms. After a few misadventures (I was sent to the wrong floor, given the wrong key, etc.) I checked into my little room, and was thrilled to see that I had my own itty bitty bathroom, complete with toilet, sink, and shower. (I'd been told I'd be sharing a bathroom in the dorms.)

Montpellier is basically a big college town; it is home to the oldest medical school in Europe, and it is a lovely place to visit, despite the fact that other coastal towns tend to get all the love from travel books. In fact, the 17th-century philosopher John Locke once wrote, "I find it much better to go twise [sic] to Montpellier than once to the other world." This, however, doesn't prevent the Lonely Planet guide to France from snidely observing, "Paradise it ain't."

While it may not be paradise, Montpellier is a lovely place to visit. Its history as a hub of trade in the Mediterranean shapes its architecture, its cuisine, and its population. The pace of life is decidedly andante, although it is still a vital and bustling city with its fair share of tourists. I spent my first afternoon wandering about the place de la Comédie and the esplanade Charles de Gaulle, which are pleasant places to meander, enjoy the trees and fountains, and have a coffee. There are lovely examples of Beaux-Arts architecture here, and it's easy enough to dodge the tourists by wandering off into one of Montpellier's many side roads or alleys.

In fact, Montpellier is great for wandering, as the city center is a maze of small roads and alleys and home to a number of 17th-century mansions (hôtels particuliers) that have been converted into living spaces, shops, or museums. Swallows continually circle above the city, often darting downward and swooping through the alleyways. In the early evening, I headed over to Le Corum--the ultra-modern complex where the Enlightenment Congress was being held--registered for the conference, and went to the wine and cheese reception.

In my previous post, I indicated that the French were not at all rude to me, but I will have to say that French eighteenth-century scholars (dixhuitemists) are not the friendliest bunch. I couldn't at all join any of their conversations, and a few practically pushed me to the ground in their mad grab for wine and nibbles. I couldn't find any of my Irish/US/Canadian/English colleagues, so, having had enough of being ignored and jostled by French enlightenment scholars, I wandered off to enjoy a delicious meal of salad with goat cheese crostini, chicken breast in mustard sauce, and crème brullée.

The food in Montpellier was fantastic. The main reason I chose to stay in student housing was that I wanted to spend my money on food, and I'm glad I did, because I didn't at all hold back when forking out for meals. That evening I had my first good night's rest in France, and, after a modest breakfast of bread and coffee in the student cafeteria (a week's worth of these was included in the price of the dorm room), I got ready for a full-day's worth of sessions on such exciting topics as 18th-century law and theories of science in the enlightenment!

Um, not really. It was far too beautiful a day to be stuck in a stuffy room listening academic presentations, so instead I wandered the city again. I came across the Cathédrale St-Pierre, which sports some very large 15th-century columns that create a sort of odd front porch. Inside were some cool paintings, including "The Fall of Simon the Magician" by the 17th-century Montpellier artist Sebastian Bourdon. At lunch I watched a couple of drunks nearly get into a fight, and then went back to my dorm where I had a refreshing nap.

During an outdoor evening concert in the place Royal du Peyrou, I finally found my friends--Sally, Nancy, Katherine, and Caroline, all of whom are bonafide speakers of English, even if they all evince their own peculiar accents. From that point on, we basically became a rogue gang of eighteenth-centuryists, avoiding the conference as much as we could possibly get away with. By the way, the place Royal du Peyrou is another beautiful promenade where you'll find a hexagonal water tower (the Château d'Eau) and the nearby 18th-century Aqueduc de St-Clément. A statue of Louis XIV presides over the place. The Arc de Triomphe, just to the west of the promenade, serves as a gateway to the city center (see above). We got tired of waiting for the post-concert wine reception, so we all went off to dine at Roule Ma Poule, a student hangout with good salads (I had the Roquefort) and festive lights on its patio.

Next: how Sally, Nancy, Katherine, and Caroline avoided attending the conference by taking excursions to the beach and to a fantastical walled fortress!

france, finally

Many moons ago I determined to write some posts about my trip to France. I considered blogging while I was in France, but I didn't always have access to the Internet, and let's face it: I was too busy doing interesting stuff to be wasting my time sitting at a computer and writing about it all. That said, I really didn't mean to wait four months to give this account, but . . . merde happens.

My reason for going to France was to attend the Twelfth International Enlightenment Congress: Knowledge, Techniques, and Culture in the 18th Century. But before you go running off to YouTube to search for something more entertaining, take heart in knowing that I am not going to be saying very much at all about the conference or about the 18th century. (This is mainly because I didn't spend much time doing anything conference related. I was in France, for goodness's sake!) Thus, rest assured that these next few posts will be largely unenlightened. I mean, enlightenment-free.

(If any of these pictures look too small, just click on them, and they should appear as larger versions in your web browser.)

I won't say much about my experience getting there, except to say that it takes a really long time to get from Dallas to Paris. And that I've become a big fan of the international terminal at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, where you can sip margaritas at a variety of bars and restaurants as you while away your 3+ hour layover.

I arrived in Paris the morning of July 7, and I spent the first day checking into my cosy hotel (it really was called the Hotel Cosy) and wandering about in search of sustenance. You need to realize that I don't speak a lick of French (well, maybe just a lick, and, after having been there for a week and a half, I think I speak maybe two licks now), and so getting myself some lunch proved absolutely futile. I would walk into an establishment and say something like "bluh blah bluh bluh bluh," and, surprisingly enough, this would not cause a plate of those yummy French vittles to appear before my famished self. I also learned (mainly through a series of quizzical looks, grimaces, and pointing at signs) that the French don't do lunch after 2:00 p.m.

So, I did the next best thing, and wandered off to the Cimetière du Père Lachaise. This is a great big cemetery where the remains of such luminaries as Edith Piaf, Molière, Gertrude Stein, Isadora Duncan, Georges Bizet, and Richard Wright are interred. The place makes for a lovely walk, and the weather was beautiful, so I spent a few hours paying my respects to some of the most important folks of the last few hundred years, and was generally thrilled to be standing before the grave site of, say, Oscar Wilde.

When I found myself before the headstone of Jim Morrison--one of the most visited sites in the cemetery--I was surprised to find that I had Jim all to myself; no one else was around. Shortly after this, some cemetery police people pulled up next to me and began to say things in urgent and loud tones. I finally came to understand that the cemetery was closed, and I would have to leave immediately. Good thing they found me, because as charmed as I was by the place, I wasn't prepared to spend the night there. (Not without a Ouija board and some warmer clothing, anyway.) Besides, I was getting really hungry at this point. So after a crypt keeper let me out through the side gates, I wandered off in search of food again.

I finally steeled myself, and walked into the Crêperie Bretonne on the Rue de Charonne. If you're ever in Paris, and you're in the mood for a tasty crêpe, this is a good choice. I recommend the buckwheat galette with ham and cheese. And be sure to try the cidre de Rance, a lovely dry cider that they serve in traditional Breton stoneware.

I should mention here that all those stories I'd heard about the French being rude and snooty proved to be untrue. I never once had a bad experience with anyone in Paris or elsewhere in France. The trick is to make an effort with the language. Even when whatever I tried to say sounded like I was about to spit a mouthful of oatmeal onto the floor, the people seemed pleased that I was taking a stab at speaking in French. And for the most part, I kept trying. In any case, at this crêperie, a young man walked in and blurted out "Can I get a crêpe to go?" My server, who had just recently demonstrated that she spoke perfect English when helping me decipher the menu, merely gave this guy quizzical looks and shrugs as if she couldn't understand a word he was saying. And I can't say I blamed her. The kid came across as insolent. The least you can do is learn how to say "Me wantee!" in French. On the other hand, maybe I just got better service because I was so much more attractive than the other guy.

I then wandered back to the Hotel Cosy (and got really lost trying to find it again) and spent a generally sleepless, jet-lagged night before rising early to catch an early train for Montpellier, the site of the conference.

Stay tuned.

i want one!

I don't know why I find this so funny, but I crack up each time I watch it.

Thanks to Neil's friend over at Facebook for posting it on his wall.

playlist, nov. 5, 2007

Yo La Tengo - "Fourth Time Around"
White Rabbits - "The Plot"
Radiohead - "15 Step"
The National - "Ada"
Architecture in Helsinki - "Heart It Races"
Earlimart - "Fakey Fake"
Rockfour - "Goes Around"
Arcade Fire - "(Antichrist Television Blues)"
Beirut - "Forks and Knives (La Fête)"
The Avett Brothers - "Shame"
Iron & Wine - "Boy with a Coin"
Feist - "My Moon My Man"
The Velvet Underground - "Sweet Jane"
Nick Drake - "Hazey Jane II"
Belle & Sebastian - "Lazy Line Painter Jane"
Caribou - "She's the One"
José González - "Teardrop"
Blake Jones & the Trike Shop - "Our Pile of Bones"
Julia Dawn - "Beautiful Lie"
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "Humble Me"
Karen O & the Million Dollar Bashers - "Highway 61 Revisited"
Band of Horses - "Is There a Ghost"
Sigur Rós - "Hljómalind"
Devendra Banhart - "So Long Old Bean"
Manu Chao - "Besoin de La Lune"
Bonde do Rolê - "Geronomia"
Calvin Harris - "Merrymaking at My Place"
Time Zone [feat. Afrika Bambaataa & Johnny Lydon] - "World Destruction" (Original 12" Version - Bill Laswell RMX)
Prefuse 73 [feat. School of Seven Bells]- "The Class of 73 Bells"
Mexican Institute of Sound - "El Micrófono"
Maritime - "Be Unhappy"
Babyshambles - "Carry on Up the Morning"
Earlimart - "Answers & Questions"

be brainy - it's free!

A live radio session by The National has appeared over at Sixeyes' blog, and while I'm not prepared to call Boxer the album of the year (so far I'm still partial to M.I.A.'s Kala), listening to the set reminds me how good Boxer is. Matt Beninger's not-quite-monotone voice is dark chocolately rich--more bitter than sweet--and the songs themselves are smart and brooding with surprisingly catchy melodies. The album, with great production by Padma Newsome, sounds much better than these in-studio takes, but it's a good place to start if you haven't yet heard Boxer. You also get the added bonus of an as-yet-unreleased song, "You've Done It Again, Virginia." Read what Joe has to say about the session and the song over at 17 dots.

Snag the free session here.

roasty toasty

Yesterday John and I went to a wine tasting and hors d'oeuvres party, and I made parmesan crisps and and spicy pumpkin seeds. These tasty nibbles are super easy to make! Here's how.

Parmesan Crisps

Preheat your oven to 400°
Grate a bunch of parmesan cheese. (Don't use the store-bought powder stuff. It won't melt, 'cause it ain't really cheese.)
Scoop heaping tablespoons-full onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving about 1/2" gap between each parmesan pile.
Let them cook for 3-5 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
After they've cooled, remove them with a spatula.

Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

Preheat your oven to 350°.
In a bowl, mix together 1 cup green, raw pumpkin seeds, 2 tsps. lime juice, 1/8 to a 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, 1 tsp. chili powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Spread these on a rimmed cookie sheet, and let them bake for about ten minutes, stirring them at least once. They should be crisp and puffy.

Both of these are great on their own, but they also make for nice additions to salads. The pumpkin seeds are good with thick, creamy soups and pasta dishes with rich, creamy sauce. The pumpkin seeds are a good source of zinc, while the parmesan crisps are a good source of fat!


Happy Birthday, APJ!

Tomorrow night I'll be playing a set of Jane (Jayne) songs for airplaynejayne's birthday, so tune in to 90.7 KFSR or head to kfsr.org to stream the show live (6-9 pm Pacific time).


Darth Earl Jones

Watch this:

playlist, oct. 29, 2007

Joan as Police Woman - "Eternal Flame"
Kevin Drew - "Gang Bang Suicide"
Massive Attack - "Man Next Door"
Radiohead - "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi"
Matthew Sweet - "Divine Intervention"
Joanna Newsom - "Coleen"
The Fiery Furnaces - "Japanese Slippers"
Love - "The Red Telephone"
Bebel Gilberto - "Caçada"
Beirut - "A Sunday Smile"
Galactic [feat. Ladybug Mecca and Nino Moschella] - "Squarebiz"
Prince - "It"
Sage Francis - "Got Up This Morning"
Mexican Institute of Sound - "Hip Hop No Pares"
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - "Humble Me"
Dionne Warwick - "Walk on By" [Live]
The Shout Out Louds - "Tonight I Have to Leave It"
Of Montreal - "She's a Rejecter"
Dwight Yoakum - "I Want You to Want Me"
Spoon - "The Underdog"
Sonic Youth - "Silver Rocket"
Sparklejet - "How Long"
LCD Soundsystem - "Time to Get Away"
Patrick Wolf - "Get Lost"
Rockfour - "Goes Around"
Sufjan Stevens - "Chicago" (Multiple Personality Disorder Version)
Rilo Kiley - "Close Call"
Julia Dawn - "High-Horse Man"
Blitzen Trapper - "Devil's A-Go-Go"
The Rolling Stones - "Happy"
Iron & Wine - "Resurrection Fern"
PJ Harvey - "When Under Ether"
Thurston Moore - "Frozen Gtr"
TV on the Radio - "Province" [Live]
Born Ruffians - "Merry Little Fancy Things"
Stars - "Window Bird"
Yo La Tengo - "Sometimes I Don't Get You"

playlist, oct. 22, 2007

Bettye LaVette - "Talking Old Soldiers"
David Dondero - "One Legged Man and the Three Legged Dog"
Brady Earnhart - "Get Right Back"
The New Pornographers - "The Myriad Harbour"
St. Vincent - "Jesus Saves, I Spend"
Feist - "1234"
Abigail Nolte - "Take Me Home"
Aspen Hollow - [Live Track]
Radiohead - "15 Step"
Rilo Kiley - "Silver Lining"
Mexican Institute of Sound - "A Girl Like You"
Nouvelle Vague - "Making Plans for Nigel"
Arctic Monkeys - "D for Dangerous"
Minus the Bear - "Ice Monster"
Asobi Seksu - "Thursday"
Electrelane - "To the East"
Arcade Fire - "Keep the Car Running"
R.E.M. - "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
They Must Be Russians - "Don't Try to Cure Yourself"
The Raconteurs - "Intimate Secretary"
Blake Jones & the Trike Shop - "Virginia Woolf"
Jens Lekman - "A Postcard to Nina"
P J Harvey - "When Under Ether"
Beirut - "A Sunday Smile"
Patti Smith - "White Rabbit"
The Sleepover Disaster - "Over the Top"
Thurston Moore - "Wonderful Witches + Language Meanies"
Kevin Drew - "Gang Bang Suicide"
Iron & Wine - "Boy with a Coin"
Honeycut - "Exodus Honey"
Nino Moschella - "Inside Yourself"
Danger Doom [feat. Talib Kweli] - "Old School"
The Go! Team - "Grip Like a Vice"
M.I.A. - "Boyz"
Galactic [with Ladybug Mecca and Nino Moschella] - "Squarebiz"
Enon - "Colette"
Animal Collective - "Peacebone"

playlist, oct. 15, 27

P J Harvey - "The Devil"
Hot Chip - "No Fit State" [Live]
Gary Numan - "Metal"
Feist - "Mushaboom" (Postal Service Remix)
Nino Moschella - "Are You for Real"
Forro in the Dark [feat. Bebel Gilberto] - "Wandering Swallow"
Tom Waits - "Hold On"
Cookie Jar - "The Island"
Okkervil River - "John Allyn Smith Sails"
Neko Case - "Star Witness"
My Morning Jacket - "Wordless Chorus"
Kings of Leon - "Knocked Up"
Akron/Family - "Ed Is a Portal"
Animal Collective - "For Reverend Green"
Beirut - "Postcards from Italy"
Nina Nastasia & Jim White - "Our Discussion"
Manu Chao - "Besoin de la Lune"
Honeycut - "The Day I Turned to Glass"
Betty Davis - "If I'm Lucky I Might Get Picked Up"
UNKLE - "Persons & Machinery"
Supermayer - "Us and Them"
Dwight Yoakam - "I Want You to Want Me"
Blake Jones and the Trike Shop - "Parade"
The Fiery Furnaces - "Ex-Guru"
Kevin Drew - "Safety Bricks"
Thurston Moore - "Fri/End"
Of Monreal - "She's a Rejecter"
Subtle - "A Tale of Apes I & II"
Common [feat. Lily Allen] - "Drivin' Me Wild"
Iron & Wine - "Boy with a Coin"
José González - "Teardrop"
Stars - "The Night Starts Here"
Bettye LaVette - "Somebody Pick Up My Pieces"

playlist, oct. 1, 2007

Kevin Drew - "Safety Bricks"
Arcade Fire - "No Cars Go"
The Go! Team - "Keys to the City"
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - "Nobody's Baby"
Talking Heads - "What a Day That Was" [Live]
Stereolab - "Motoroller Scalatron"
James Figurine - "Apologies"
Subtle - "Middleclass Kill"
Ibid - "Pesticides"
Odd Nosdam - "Fat Hooks"
Mexican Institute of Sound - "Para No Vivir Desesperado"
Busdriver - "Sun Shower"
Sonic Youth - "Candle"
Fiery Furnaces - "Ex-Guru"
Grace Jones - "Warm Leatherette"
Bettye LaVette - "I Still Want to Be Your Baby (Take Me Like I Am)"
M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
Animal Collective - "For Reverend Green"
Tortoise & Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "Daniel"
Elvis and the Attractions - "Watching the Detectives"
Spoon - "The Underdog"
Okkervil River - "John Allyn Smith Sails"
Abigail Nolte - "Sand in My Guitar Case"
Minus the Bear - "Knights"
Bo Dylan - "Mos tLikely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)" (Mark Ronson Re-Version)
Rufus Wainwright - "April Fools"
Stars - "The Night Starts Here"
LCD Soundsystem - "Someone Great"
Donna Summer - "I Feel Love"
Ladytron - "Destroy Everything You Touch"
!!! - "Heart of Hearts"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Kiss"
My Morning Jacket - "Anytime" [Live]
Patti Smith - "Within You Without You"

playlist, sept. 17, 2007

Patti Smith - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Emma Pollock - "Acid Test"
Interpol - "Pioneer to the Falls"
Prinzhorn Dance School - "Up! Up! Up!"
Bats for Lashes - "Tahiti"
Cinematic Orchestra - "That Home"
Matthew Dear - "Deserter"
Joe Henry - "Parker's Mood"
Mavis Staples - "We'll Never Turn Back"
The Shins - "Sealegs"
The New Pornographers - "Myriad Harbour"
Caribou - "She's the One"
Blake Jones and the Trike Shop - "Parade"
Nino Moschella - "Are You For Real"
Honeycut - "Crowded Avenue"
Busdriver - "Dream Catcher's Mitt"
Manu Chao - "Politik Kills"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Is Is"
Animal Collective - "Unsolved Mysteries"
Shout Out Louds - "Your Parents' Living Room"
Caribou - "She's the One"
Nina Nastasia & Jim White - "I Write Down Lists"
José González - Down the Line"
Brady Earnhart - "Manalapan"
Julia Dawn - "Target Practice"
Rilo Kiley - "The Moneymaker"
Betty Davis - "If I'm Lucky I Might Get Picked Up"
Lymbyc System - "Idle Wires"
Mexican Institute of Sound - "El Micrófono"
The Go! Team - "Titanic Vandalism"
M.I.A. - "Jimmy"
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - "Tell Me"
The Section Quartet - "The Man Who Sold the World"
Stars - "Sleep Tonight" (Junior Boys Mix)
Peter Bjorn and John - "Objects of My Affection"
Devendra Banhart - "I Feel Just Like a Child"
Gnarls Barkley - "Gone Daddy Gone"
Cibo Matto - "Spoon"

playlist, sept. 10, 2007

Manu Chao - "Rainin in Paradise"
Federico Aubele - "La Esquina"
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - "100 Days, 100 Nights"
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals - "Needed You Tonight"
Dennis Brown - "Black Liberation Time"
Zapmama - "Go Boy"
Battles - "Race:In"
Animal Collective - "Chores"
Modest Mouse - "March into the Sea"
Metric - "On the Sly"
Psapp - "Hi"
YACHT - "We're Always Waiting"
!!! - "All My Heroes Are Weirdos"
Cansei de Ser Sexy - "Let's Make Love to Death from Above"
Shout Out Louds - "Tonight I Have to Leave It"
The Go! Team - "Doing It Right"
The New Pornographers - "Myriad Harbour"
Caribou - "Sandy"
Rilo Kiley - "Silver Lining"
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Sons of Cain"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Doomsday Clock"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "10 X 10"
Joe Henry - "Civilians"
Nina Simone - "Sinnerman"
Paul Van Dyk - "Sabotage"
Dntel - "Natural Resources"
Una - "Angels at My Door"
The Sea and Cake - "Too Strong"
Patrick Wolf - "Magpie"
Simian Mobile Disco - "I Got This Down"
Talib Kweli [feat. Norah Jones] - "Soon the New Day"
Feist - "Mushaboom" (K-OS Mix)
M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
P.O.S. - "De La Souls"
Mark Ronson [feat. Lily Allen] - "Oh My God"
Thurston Moore - "Frozen Gtr"
Pinback - "Barnes"
Earlimart - "Answers & Questions"

playlist, aug. 27, 2007

Una - "Fading in C# Minor"
Billie Holiday - "Glad to Be Unhappy" (DJ Logic Remix)
Calexico - "Roka"
Josh Ritter - "Right Moves"
Joan as Police Woman - "Eternal Flame"
Dead Can Dance - "Frontier"
M.I.A. - "Boyz"
Karen Marguth - "Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down"
Madeleine Peyroux - "Between the Bars"
José González - "Heartbeats"
Okkervil River - "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe"
TV on the Radio - "Province"
John Vanderslice - "The Parade"
Wilco - "War on War"
St. Vincent - "Marry Me"
Tegan and Sara - "The Con"
Common [feat. Lily Allen] - "Drivin' Me Wild"
Gipsy Kings - "A Mi Manera"
The New Pornographers - "Challengers"
Spoon - "Don't You Evah"
Matthew Dear - "Fleece on Brain"
Apparat - "Holdon"
Von Südenfed - "Fledermaus Can't Get It"
Justice - "Newjack"
Honeycut - "Shadows"
Nino Moschella - "If You Believe (You Will Be Strong)"
Blake Jones and the Trike Shop - "RedWhite&BlueSoBlue" [Live at KFSR]
Caribou - "Melody Day"
Joanna Newsom - "Cosmia"
Architecture in Helsinki - "Heart It Races"
M.I.A. - "Jimmy"
Feist - "I Feel It All"
Mark Ronson [feat. Amy Winehouse] - "Valerie"
The Blow - "Parentheses"
The Decemberists - "The Perfect Crime #2"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Down Boy"
Battles - "Race:In"
The Knife - "Like a Pen"
The New Young Pony Club - "Hiding on the Staircase"

more records than the kgb

Last Tuesday, M.I.A.'s sophomore release, Kala, was released in the U.S. on Interscope records. Because it was released the day before in Britain on XL, I was able to get my ears around it early through emusic, thereby snagging the extra track, a duet with Timbaland, which is available only on the British version.

I'd been reading a lot of hype about this one, and I'd heard a handful of tracks that were released over this past year, but I'm here to tell you to believe the hype: Kala could very well be the album of the year.

If you're not familiar with M.I.A., she is Maya Arulpragasam, originally from Sri Lanka, and, on the strength of her first single, "Galang," she was propelled into indie/club/dancehall/electronica stardom. Her first full-length Arular was my favorite album of 2005, and Kala is turning about to be my favorite of 2007. I can't stop playing it. It's especially great driving music, cranked up high and vibrating the windshield.

Arular was edgy, catchy, and smart club music with a conscience; it took jabs at U.S. imperialism, child prostitution, and world poverty. Kala is every bit as edgy. Taking up a similar set of social concerns as did Arular, it investigates the effects of consumerism, immigration, and a global economy intent on widening the gap between those who run corporations and those who work for them. M.I.A. is socially conscious, but not thoroughly clear as to the implications of her own place in a world that looks East, West, North, and South to devour and recreate new forms of culture. She's at once ironic and sincere in confessing her attachment to the products and pleasures she enjoys as a result of Western imperialism (cell phones, French fries, watching Lost on cable). And even when she asserts herself as a leader of the "third world democracy," she seems insecure as to her supremacy while questioning any desire for supremacy over others.

The first track, "Bamboo Banga" begins with M.I.A. quoting the Modern Lovers' "Road Runner." It's an apt metaphor, as many of Kala's songs have her spitting lyrics fast and furious, and throughout she demonstrates her quick wit and her ahead-of-the-pack innovations. The track is a head banger and hip shaker, filled with M.I.A.'s trademark vocal phrasings with high-pitched up-turns.

In "Boyz" she asks "How many boyz there are?" but rather than offer up a range of masculinity, she suggests that boys are fundamentally "rowdy" and that each is capable of starting a war. The pounding techno beat both underscores and obscures M.I.A.'s discussion of men's capacity for violence. On "Jimmy," M.I.A. speaks from the point of view of a woman who may not fully understand that penchant for violence, but begs to be implicated in it. The song is basically a recasting of "Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja," a swirling disco Bollywood tune, but M.I.A.'s lyrics are decidedly contemporary:

When you go Rwanda Congo
Take me on ya genocide tour
Take me on a truck to Darfur
Take me where you would go.

The woman who pines for Jimmy only glances at these African catastrophes, and instead worries about the static on Jimmy's satellite phone and when she can be alone in his arms again. Still, this backdrop of political massacre strikes me as integral to a song that muses about the possibility love in an age of genocide.

On Kala, M.I.A. continues the musical plundering of '80s music that fueled the Diplo/M.I.A. collaboration, Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1. There, the Bangles, the Eurythmics and Prince were the victims (or beneficiaries) of such piracy, and they were so seemlessly integrated into M.I.A.'s tracks that they were less samples or mash-ups than outright claims of ownership. In "20 Dollar," M.I.A. turns to New order and the Pixies. The song is built on a fuzzed-out loop lifted from "Blue Monday," and M.I.A. harmonizes via vocoder. The lyrics continue to explore the issues she raised in Arular's "10 Dollar": the intertwined nature of money, sex, and power, especially for non-Western people who turn their eyes and ears to the West and are willing to trade in Qrans for Cadillacs to escape life in the shanty town. But whereas "10 Dollar" told the story of a young Lolita turning tricks to secure a travel visa, "20 Dollar" comes off as more autobiographical:

I was born out of dirt like I'm porn in a skirt
I was a little girl who made good with all what I blurt.

In "10 Dollar," M.I.A. sang about the China girl prostitute in third person; here she takes up a more immediate first person, thoroughly appropriating Black Francis's lyrics, chanting "Where is My Mind?" as a means of expressing confusion as to who she is and where she belongs.

My favorite track from the album is "Paper Planes," which is at once lovely and creepy. The song, which takes up issues related to immigration, fittingly borrows the bass line from The Clash's own pointed meditation on immigration blues, "Straight to Hell." Part of what makes M.I.A. so effective here is her deadpan delivery; she never emotes; she simply allows the serious implications of her lyrics to work their way into the listener's consciousness. The speaker in this song is making and selling paper planes at the border, and is, at first, solicitous:

I fly like paper, get high like planes
If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name.
If you come around here, I make 'em all day
I'll get one done in a second, if you wait.

But by the chorus, you realize that this paper plane peddler's desires are more deadly:

All I want to do is BANG BANG BANG BANG
and ka-CHING, and take your money.

Here the track incorporates the sounds of a firing gun, the ejection of a freshly fired casing, and a cash register's bell. The effect is eerie. The sentiment is at once chilling and sensible. Haven't we all had murderous fantasies about those who are appear to be better off, seemingly at our expense? Of course, you=the listener here, and the sense of threat is palpable. I'm even more unnerved when M.I.A. sings, "Some some some I some I murder / Some I some I let go" like a child intoning a nursery rhyme. There's a context for this brand of gangsta, and it's not in any way gratuitous. This is purposeful and pointed. At folks like me. Still, this is the song I repeat most often.

All the tracks on Kala are stunning in their own right, and I highly recommend it. They are suffused in insistent, infectious beats that take hold of you and refuse to let you go. If you buy only one new album this year, this should probably be it.

Visit M.I.A.'s website to watch videos for "Jimmy," "Boyz," and "Birdflu." Read J. Edward Keyes's spot-on review of Kala here. And check out Yancey Strickler pre-release discussion of it here.

la pose

The other day I was visiting a friend's mypsace page, and I watched a few Parker Posey clips that he had embedded. I was reminded of just how incredibly sharp, funny, and biting she can be. Anyone know what she's up to lately? Here's a bit from The House of Yes (which also features Tori Spelling in her finest moment) and an outtake from Waiting for Guffman. The first clip will make you squirm in your seat. The second will have you squirming on the floor.

Back to Louisville

This morning, as I was applying a lovely shade of lemon grass to my dining room doors, I was thinking back to last night's post about the AP English Literature reading in Lousiville, and I realized that perhaps I should be offering up a few suggestions for things to do and see if ever you find yourself in that fair city. Here are some dos and don'ts for enjoying the site of "the most exciting two minutes in sports":

1) OK, I didn't see the Kentucky Derby, so I can't really speak to that one. It's probably just fine if you have plenty of mint juleps and a broad-brimmed hat.

2) Check out the Speed Art Museum on the campus of the University of Louisville. It has a fabulous collection of modern and contemporary art, as well as some good 17th- and 18th-century Dutch, Flemish, and French paintings. I saw a Warhol of police dogs attacking Civil Rights protesters that I'd never seen before.

3) Splurge on a meal at Proof on Main, a fine restaurant John took me to for a birthday meal. Even if you don't have a meal there, order the Oleana, which is kind of like a mojito with a vanilla bean. And have a gander at the weird replicas of bleating, lassoed goats hanging from the walls. You might just end up going vegetarian.

4) Wander back to the 21c Museum, which is just off the bar at Proof (see #3). There are some very cool installation and video pieces on display, and the men's urinal is pretty much just a wall of glass, down which flows sheets of water that prevent would-be looky-loos on the other side from checking out your goods.

5) And this isn't the only see-through urinal in Lousiville, oh no! If you head over to Boots--a gay leather bar within walking distance of downtown--you can stand before a glass and chain-link fence urinal, the other side of which is a bench for guys who love to watch men pee at them but just aren't into the mess. If your imagination is failing you, here's a picture of what I'm talking about:


Pretty nifty, huh?

Heads up: you gotta have some leather on to get to where the urinal is. And athletic shoes don't count. So how did I get in, you ask? The owner of the bar was kind enough to loan me his boots, which almost fit me. Oh, and, sorry ladies, but it's pretty much a guy thing at The Hole at Boots.

6. The drag show LaBoy LeFemme at The Connection (just next door to Boots, see #5). Nobody does drag like middle America does drag!

7. Karaoke at Q Starbase. Advance warning: these are some serious karaoke-ers, and they will mess you up if you mangle your rendition of "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

8. You thought I did nothing but guzzle cocktails at Louisville's gay bars? Well, think again. I also hung out at the bar at the Seelbach Hotel. This is where Daisy and Tom Buchanan of The Great Gatsby were married, but it's called something slightly different in the novel; I don't recall what. (There. I thought about it again.) I can recommend The Seelbach Cocktail. While you might not think that champagne and bourbon make for a good combination, I found it eminently drinkable.

9. Avoid 4th Street Live unless there's really something you want to see going on there or you're really in the mood for some uninspired kitsch. It's all chain restaurants, drunken brides-to-be in veils, clutching dildo bouquets, and Colonel Sanders impersonators. It's like Vegas's Fremont Street Experience, but without all the classic neon.

10. I guess you ought to order and consume a Hot Brown. I did. I was expecting a little more from what I understand to be a legendary Louisville dish, but it's essentially a turkey, cheese, and bacon casserole. Not that I have anything against that! But ultimately, it was more about being able to say I ate something with such an unappetizing name.


So there you have it! Your own guide to what to do, what to avoid, and what maybe to do while in Louisville, Kentucky! I'll probably be there again next year, so check this spot in summer 2008 for an update. At the very least, I'll make an effort to visit some different gay bars.

the case of the expiring passport

I promised you this tale of woe, so here it goes. Spoiler alert: although it is a tale with some truly hair-raising moments, it ends happily, and in a future post, you'll get to read about the fruitful uses to which I put my new U.S. passport.

All through the first half of 2007, I'd been planning and looking forward to a trip to France. The primary reason for this visit was work-related, as I was invited to participate in an academic roundtable tantalizingly titled "Queer Taxonomies," and it was an opportunity for me to get working on a piece I'm writing about sapphic-minded ladies and their maids in 1720s British literature. I won't bore you with further details on that topic. Let's just say it's turning out to involve a discussion of "Welsh flummery."

I guess planning is too strong a word to use for the way in which I was preparing for this trip, as I waited until nearly a month before the conference to arrange for my flight (mindblowingly expensive), pay my conference fees (ditto), and secure my lodging (refreshingly economical). You see, John and I were originally going to go together, spend a week in Montpellier, where the conference was being held, and another week in Paris, eating and drinking as much as possible. Well, the flights to Paris were prohibitively expensive, and because only I was getting University funding for the trip, we made the difficult decision that I would go it alone. We would look forward to a trip to Paris--sans academic commitments--sometime next year. Besides, John's passport had expired, and it was going to take him anywhere from six weeks to three months to have it renewed.

I, on the other hand, was resting on a bed of assurance, knowing that my travel dates were from early- to mid-July, and that my passport wouldn't expire until August. This was until my friend Shane alerted me to the possibility that an airline might not allow me to board unless I had at least a good six months before my passport expired. He'd heard about people being turned away at airports for this reason.

Thinking I'd better check this out, I went to the local passport information office and inquired. And, yup, turns out Shane was right. I even drove over to the American Airlines counter at Fresno Yosemite International (FYI!--or as airport-naming powers that be insist upon, Fresno Airline Terminal, or FAT) to verify this alarming bit of news. The woman at the counter confirmed it. I wanted to rant about the meaning of the word expire, and how if the expiration date was good enough for the U.S. government, it should be good enough for American Airlines. But I refrained.

Now, why this information isn't more widely known--printed on the flight itineraries that the airlines themselves generate, for example--I don't know. But in the increasingly disappointing realm of airline effectiveness, this seemingly important detail can go uncommunicated to would-be passengers who have drawn perfectly reasonable conclusions about the validity of their passports. At this point, I invite you to go check the state of your passport. I'll be here when you come back. If you now find yourself clutching your soon-to-be useless passport in one hand and locks of perfectly good hair in the other, bouncing from foot to foot and screaming to the high heavens, "now how am I going to get to Tehran???"--then take some deep breaths. What I have to tell you may be heartening.

The stern but not unyielding woman at Fresno's downtown branch of the U.S. Post Office gave me some hopeful advice, almost all of which turned out to be bogus. She gave me a 1-800 number that I should call to make an appointment to visit the closest passport agency in San Francisco. She told me to get a date--any date--and then head over to San Francisco and, in the we hours of the morning, wait in long lines in the hopes that the armed guards barring the agency entrance might relent and let those without appointments for that day enter the building and then wait in more lines.

You think you've experienced automated telephone service hell, but, trust me, unless you've grappled with this one, you have not. The first hurdle is getting beyond the "we're sorry, call volume is through the roof right now. Try calling back at, say, 4 a.m." And even if you do set your alarm and wake up at 4 a.m. and call that damn number over and over and over, you may not get to the next stages, where, until you've become familiar with the system's idiosyncrasies, you will learn that "I'm sorry. There are no more appointments available." I found that the trick is never to request an afternoon appointment. This inevitably leads to the "none available" answer, followed by a click and a dial tone and your screams of horror at the sound of such ominous noises. I found I had to stick with morning appointments--God knows why--which I did, and, finally, I was successful in securing an appointment date, time, and confirmation code.

The problem was that my appointment was for a mere few days before I was to leave the country, and I wanted to get some sleep between now and then. So, I planned a very sudden trip to San Francisco and left on a Wednesday, planning to stay until Friday, just in case I needed two full days to stand in line at the agency. I'm lucky to have even found a hotel room at all, given that SF's Gay Pride (scroll down, way down) events were coming up that weekend, and I hadn't factored these into my plans.

Well, to make a long story short (I know, too late), after a fitful night in what appeared to be a child's single bed, amid truly terrible decor involving geese in bonnets, I ended up arriving at the U.S. Passport agency in San Francisco bright and early on a Thursday morning, necessary documents in my hot little hand.

What I learned there was that you didn't really need an appointment, after all. Sure those good little citizens who had dutifully gone through 1-800-GOV-HELL to secure an appointment were admitted in first. But in the end, everyone in that line got in. Once inside, I enjoyed some pretty friendly and relatively prompt service. The only hitch was that I had arrived two weeks and one day prior to my departure date, and the folks at the agency are only supposed to help walk-ins who show up within two weeks of their departure date. Luckily, the woman behind the bullet-proof glass barrier pitied me when I began to panic and shriek, "but I drove all the way across the California desert to do this and I'm staying in a geese-filled, South-of-Market hotel room!" She nodded with understanding: "well, in that case..."

So I turned in my forms, paid my exorbitant expediting fees, and came back that afternoon to pick up my new passport. Inside were a rotten photo of me and my many chins and a few too many images of bald eagles for my taste. Still, it was a valid passport! It was going to get me where I needed to go!

Afterward, I walked into the nearest brew pub, downed some tasty IPAs, and had a lovely salad with flavorful cheeses and candied walnuts, all the while gazing at attractive, tattooed and shaven-headed men, who were watching some sports event on the TV. (Ah, San Francisco.)

If there is any wisdom to be gleaned from this story, it's this: screw the rules, and just show up! Life is too short to spend it pacing around the house on your cordless shouting "yes" and "no" at an automated voice recognition telephone system at four in the morning. And, hey! It's San Francisco, so how bad can it be?

versectitude

Well, another summer has nearly flown by, and I'm no better a blogger than I was this time last year. Sigh. Some great things have happened this summer, however, and I want to get some of them down while I can still recall them. It'll happen piecemeal.

This past June, I was in Louisville, Kentucky spending my sixth (count them--six!) year scoring AP English Literature exams. I know what you must be thinking: "how do I get in on this gig?" Well, you have to be either a high school or college English instructor, and you have to be willing to give up the first week or so of June to sit in an overly-air-conditioned conference center and grade essays for eight hours a day.

My previous years as a reader were spent in Daytona Beach, which sounds glamorous unless you've actually been to Daytona during the first week of June. The only folks there that time of year are leathery beach bums and very pathetic frat boys who seem not to have gotten the memo as to where and when Spring Break was going to be. Daytona does have a fine beach (if you're into that sort of thing--I'm not much of a sand guy, myself), but the only other attractions include a Bubba Gump's and more souvenir shops (think alligator heads and Confederate flag-wear) than you could possibly imagine. OK, I'm sure there are other charms, and most of the people I hung out with really loved it there.

But moving the reading to Louisville was a step in the right direction, as far as I'm concerned. In Lousiville, there is a real downtown with some pretty good restaurants, museums (not just the Louisville Slugger one, but art museums, too), watering holes with many kinds of bourbon, several gay bars that stay open really late, and a view of the Colgate Factory across the river in Indiana. (It's cooler than it sounds.)

The real reason I keep returning to score essays for Educational Testing Services, however, is to see my same-time-next-year AP English Lit reading pals. For the past six years I've spent my birthday (June 5, in case you hadn't yet marked your calender) with these folks, and this year I turned the big Four-O with them. John even came out to meet them and celebrate this milestone with me. We had a party in my hotel room--a suite, in fact--and the hotel management was called up to tell us to keep it down. You know it's a party when party-pooping authority figures come a-knocking!

As far as the essays were concerned, there weren't near enough howlers this year. I was scoring the third essay or open question. Students were asked to choose a novel or play and discuss how a past decision played a pivotal role in a character's present state. In other words, choose a work with a character and a plot, and you've got it made. By the end of the reading, I felt certain I never wanted to even think about The Great Gatsby, Death of a Salesman, or Beloved. Ever. Again.

There were a couple of bright moments, however, and I'm happy to share them with you.

Here are some of the most interesting coinages I came across:

poingrent
peripety
vermit
versectitude

and--I kid you not--Se la V.

I read about the "great ball and chain of being," and discovered that The Great Gatsby was, in fact, written by Ella Scott Fitzgerald. I also encountered examples of insightful character analysis, such as, "Lady MacBeth wasn't very nice at all," and "As a young man, Gatsby was not well endowed."

But the prize for most entertaining response goes to the poor young writer whose essay was comprised entirely of this observation:

"I've only read one work on this list. A Streetcar Named Desire. I think it's a kind of Volkswagon."

Mock me and my choice of summer activities if you must, but really, folks, you can't find this stuff on the Comedy Channel. And I haven't even told you about the cafeteria food we're served thrice daily.

Stay tuned for my harrowing tale of the expiring passport.

playlist, aug. 21, 2007

Zap Mama - "Moonray"
Architecture in Helsinki - "Underwater"
The Magic Numbers - "This Is a Song"
Travis - "Selfish Jean"
The New Pornographers - "All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth"
David Dondero - "When the Heart Breaks Deep"
Bebel Gilberto - "Caçada"
Una - "Casa Del Fuego"
Ulrich Schnauss - "In Between the Years"
The Polyphonic Spree - "Running Away
Robbers on High Street - "The Fatalist"
Born Ruffians - "Piecing It Together"
The Dalloways - "Clarissa, Dear"
Pela - "Your Desert's Not a Desert At All"
Lavender Diamond - "The Garden Rose"
Elliott Smith - "Thirteen"
Julia Dawn - "Falling"
Forro in the Dark [feat. David Byrne] - "Asa Branca"
Feist - "Sealion"
Spoon - "The Ghost of You Lingers"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "10 X 10"
M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
Common - "The People"
L.A. Symphony [feat. Posdnuos] - "Universal"
Björk - "Innocence"
St. Vincent - "Now Now"
Bats for Lashes - "I'm on Fire"
Caribou - "Sandy"
Battles - "Leyendecker"
Interpol - "The Heinrich Maneuver"
The Boggs - "Melanie in the White Coat"
Sleepover Disaster - "One More Chord"
Dinosaur Jr. - "Almost Ready"
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Bomb.Repeat.Bomb"
TV on the Radio - "Wolf Like Me"
Mark Ronson [feat. Kasabian] - "L.S.F."
M.I.A. - "Jimmy"
The Cure - "In Between Days"
Tom Vek - "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes"
Josh Ritter - "To the Dogs or Whoever"

playlist, aug. 20, 2007

Tegan and Sara - "I Was Married"
Interpol - "No I in Threesome"
The Real Tuesday Weld - "Bathtime in Clerkenwell"
Gypsy Kings - "Mi Manera"
The Magic Numbers - "You Never Had It"
Stevie Wonder - "Masterblaster (Jammin')"
Common [feat. Lily Allen] - "Drivin' Me Wild"
The New Pornographers - "My Rights Versus Yours"
Jonathan Coulton - "Skullcrusher Mountain"
Charlie Louvin - "Great Atomic Power"
Earlimart - "Everybody Knows Everybody"
Spoon - "The Underdog"
Uni and Her Ukelele - "I'm on My Way"
Caribou - "Melody Day"
Mark Ronson [feat. Paul Smith] - "Apply Some Pressure"
M.I.A. - "Jimmy"
New Young Pony Club - "Ice Cream"
Snowden - "Anti Anti"
Joanna Newsom - "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie"
Feist - "The Park"
Josh Ritter - "To the Dogs or Whoever"
T. Rex - "Cosmic Dancer"
Okkervil River - "John Allyn Smith"
St. Vincent - "Jesus Saves, I Spend"
David Dondero - "The Prince William Sound"
The Sea and Cake - "Middlenight"
The Clientele - "From Brighton Beach to Santa Monica"
L.A. Symphony - "Passionate"
Shape of Broadminds - "Changes"
Brother Reade - "Let's Go"
mansbestfriend - "Dedemma Speaks"
Justice - "Genesis"
Digitalism - "Pogo"
Honeycut - "Shadows"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Kiss Kiss"
M.I.A. - "Boyz"
Bonde do Role - "Solta O Frango"
Bitter Sweet - Bittersweet Faith" (Thievery Corporation Remix)
Feist - "Mushaboom" (K-OS Mix)
Battles - "Race:In"
Sonic Youth - "Within You Without You"

playlist, aug. 13, 2007

Mark Ronson [feat. Daniel Merriweather] - "Stop Me"
Serge Gainsbourg - "Requiem Pour un Con"
Belle & Sebastian - "Act of the Apostle"
The Sea and Cake - "Sound & Vision"
Architecture in Helsinki - "Heart It Races"
Cookie Jar - "The Island"
Gogol Bordello - "Wonderlust King"
Socalled - "You Are Never Alone"
K-OS - "Crabbuckit"
Bullion - "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times"
Dälek - "Bricks Crumble"
Tortoise & Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "Daniel"
Okkervil River - "John Allyn Smith Sails"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "10 X 10"
Sonic Youth - "Silver Rocket"
Pavement - "Summer Babe" (Winter Version)
Super Lucky Catz - "58 Steps"
Sufjan Stevens - "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!"
St. Vincent - "All My Stars Aligned"
Arcade Fire - "Black Mirror"
Interpol - "Pioneer to the Falls"
New Young Pony Club - "Hiding on the Staircase"
Apparat - "Limelight"
Von Südenfed - "Fledermaus Can't Get It"
Patrick Wolf - "Accident & Emergency"
T. Rex - "Bang a Gong (Get It On)"
Bonde do Rolê - "Geremia"
Common [feat. Lily Allen] - "Drivin' Me Wild"
Battles - "Race:In"
Tegan and Sara - "Relief Next to Me"
Simon & Garfunkel - "The Sound of Silence"
Spoon - "The Ghost of You Lingers"
Hot Chip - "My Piano"
Nick Lowe - "Hope for Us All"
Robbers on High Street - "The Fatalist"
Calexico - "The Guns of Brixton"
Mavis Staples - "In the Mississippi River"
Stars - "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" (Final Fantasy Remix)

playlist, aug. 6, 2007

Freelance Hellraiser, "We Don't Belong"
The Go! Team - "Huddle Formation"
Feist - "I Feel It All"
Architecture in Helsinki - "Heart It Races"
Ozomatli - "La Termperatura"
Frightened Rabbit - "The Twist"
The Knife - "Neverland"
Battles - "Ddiamondd"
The White Stripes - "Icky Thump"
Tegan and Sara - "The Con"
Son Volt - "The Picture"
Essie Jain - "Glory"
The National - "Mistaken for Strangers"
Okkervil River - "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe"
Lavender Diamond - "The Garden Rose"
Johnny Cash - "If You Could Read My Mind"
M. Ward - "Beautiful Car"
Spoon - "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"
Yo La Tengo - "Beanbag Chair"
Mark Ronson [feat. the Dap Horns] - "God Put a Smile on Your Face"
Bob Marley and the Wailers - "African Herbsman" (King Kooba Remix)
Common [feat. Lily Allen] - "Drivin' Me Wild"
Blake Jones and the Trike Shop - "Clever Things"
They Might Be Giants - "The Mesopotamians"
Peter Bjorn and John - "Young Folks"
Nouvelle Vague - "Dancing with Myself"
The Cure - "Close to Me"
Interpol - "No I in Threesome"
K-OS - "The Rain"
Teddybears [feat. Neneh Cherry] - "Yours to Keep"
!!! - "Heart of Hearts"
Honeycut - "The Day I Turned to Glass"
The Boggs - "Remember the Orphans"
Sparklejet - "We Get in a Hurry"
1990s - "You Made Me Like It"
St. Vincent - "Paris Is Burning"
John Vanderslice - "Time to Go"
Earlimart - "Answers & Questions"
Digitalism - "Digitalism"
The Chemical Brothers - "All Rights Reversed"
Beastie Boys - "Off the Grid"

playlist, aug. 1, 2007

The Black Keys - "Just a Little Heat"
Billy Bragg - "Sexuality"
My Morning Jacket - "Anytime" [Live]
Spoon - "Underdog"
Feist - "My Moon My Man"
A Tribe Called Quest - "Can I Kick It?"
Mark Ronson [feat. Robbie Williams] - "The Only One I Know"
Arcade Fire - "Wake Up"
Blonde Redhead - "The Dress"
Caesers - "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"
Julia Dawn - "Beautiful"
Feist - "I Feel It All"
Zap Mama - "1000 Ways"
Billie Holiday - "Pennies from Heaven" (Count de Money Remix)
Lily Allen - "Littlest Things"
Cibo Matto - "Beef Jerky"
Thee More Shallows - "Freshman Thesis"
Stevie Wonder - "Masterblaster (Jammin')"
Bob Marley - "Soul Shakedown Party" (Afrodisiac Sound System Remix)
B-Side Players - "Unplug This Armageddon"
Gorillaz - "White Light"
40 Watt Hype - "Controversy"
They Might Be Giants - "Take Out the Trash"
The Zutons - "Valerie"
The Cure - "The Caterpillar"
Björk - "Innocence"
The Chemical Brothers - "A Modern Midnight Conversation"
LCD Soundsystem - "Someone Great"
The Avett Brothers - "Die Die Die"
The National - "Apartment Story"
Nina Simone - "Sinnerman"
Tom Waits - "Rains on Me"
Peter Bjorn and John - "Let's Call It Off" ( Girl Talk Remix)
Royal City - "Is This It?"
Mika - "Billy Brown"
Patrick Wolf - "The Magic Position"
Jarvis Cocker - "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time"

playlist, july 30, 2007

Stars - "Ageless Beauty" (The Most Serene Republic Remix)
Lily Allen - "Smile"
Nouvelle Vague "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
José Gonzålez - "Heartbeats"
Lavender Diamond - "Like an Arrow"
Spoon - "Don't Make Me a Target"
The National - "Fake Empire"
Los Super Elegantes - "Solar Day"
Apparat - "Holdon"
Battles - "Leyendecker"
Misha - "Weatherbees"
My Robot Friend - "One More Try"
Miranda! - "Don"
Bonde do Rolê - "Solta O Frango"
Gogol Bordello - "Ultimate"
Patrick Wolf - "Accident & Emergency"
Mark Ronson [feat. Amy Winehouse] - "Valerie"
Billie Holliday - "Spreadin' Rhythm Around" (Lady Bug vs lady Day RR Remix)
Karen Marguth - "Lullaby of Birdland"
Elliott Smith - "Miss Misery" (Early Version)
Wilco - "Sky Blue Sky"
Nick Drake - "Northern Sky"
St. Vincent - "Your Lips Are Red"
Julia Dawn - "Seven"
Feist - "The Park"
Hot Chip - "And I Was a Boy from School"
Bark Bark Bark - "Brand New Shoes"
Lismore - "1979"
Blonde Redhead - "Dr. Strangluv"
Interpol - "The Scale"
Ryan Adams - "Two"
Mavis Staples - "Eyes on the Prize"
Digitalism - "Pogo"
LCD Soundsystem - "Time to Get Away"
Justice - "DVNO"
Poplord - "Quigley Park"
Mark Ronson [feat. Paul Smith] - "Apply Some Pressure"
Editors - "French Disko"
Smashing Pumpkins - "That's the Way (My Love Is)"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Rockers to Swallow"
Bat for Lashes - "Trophy"

playlist, july 23, 2007

My Morning Jacket - "Anytime" [Live]
Spoon - "The Ghost of You Lingers"
Apparat - "Limelight"
Battles - "Atlas"
Mavis Staples - "99 1/2"
Jefferson Airplane - "Somebody to Love" [Live]
T. Rex - "Planet Queen" (Acoustic Version)
Pela - "Your Desert's Not a Desert At All"
Stars - "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" (Final Fantasy Remix)
Feist - "Sealion"
Joanna Newsom - "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie"
Lavender Diamond - "Here Comes One"
Metric - "On the Sly"
Of Montreal - "She's a Rejecter"
The Same Shape - "Obvious Solutions"
Subtle - "Middleclass Kill"
The Roots - "Don't Say Nuthin'" (Remix)
Busdriver - "Secret Skin"
The Streets - "When You Wasn't Famous"
Bonde do Rolê - "Geremia"
Interpol - "Heinrich Maneuver"
Snowden - "Like Bullets"
The National - "Fake Empire"
DeVotchka- "Venus in Furs"
The Knife - "We Share Our Mother's Health"
New Order - "Age of Consent"
LCD Soundsystem - "Time to Get Away"
The Blow - "Parentheses" (Rory Philips Remix)
Junior Bloomsday - "Your Perfect Gene" [feat. Cadence Weapon]
Mark Ronson - "Valerie" [feat. Amy Winehouse]
The Polyphonic Spree - "Running Away"
DJ Axel - "Stand Up Fever" (Peggy Lee vs Ludacris)
Bob Marley and the Wailers - "Rainbow Country" (DJ Spooky's Subliminal Funk Remix)
Dan Deacon - "The Crystal Cat"
Justice - "Waters of Nazareth"
Sonic Youth - "Within You Without You"
Calexico / Iron & Wine - "Sixteen, Maybe Less"

playlist, july 2, 2007

Sonic Youth - "Total Trash"
Ryan Adams - "Two"
Nick Drake - "Black Mountain Blues"
Mavis Staples - "This Little Light of Mine"
Youssou N'Dour - "Jealous Guy"
Peter Bjorn and John - "Let's Call It Off" (Girl Talk Remix)
The Polyphonic Spree - "Running Away"
Tom Vek - "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes"
Feist - "Past in Present"
Bebel GIlberto - "Os Novos Yorkinos"
Easy Star All-Stars - "Let Down" [feat. Toots & the Maytals]
Stars - "Ageless Beauty" (The Most Serene Republic Remix)
The White Stripes - "Conquest"
The Damned - "Neat Neat Neat" (Peel Session)
Patrick Wolf - "Accident & Emergency"
Sparklejet - "Emilio"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Cheated Hearts"
Metric - "Hardwire"
Yung Mars - "Tha Bay"
Beastie Boys - "B for My Name"
Bonde do Rolê - "Geremia"
Macromantics - "Scorch" [feat. Ground Components]
DJ Axel - "Without Billie Jean" (Michael Jackson vs. Eminem)
Battles - "Atlas"
Afghan Wigs - "Debonair"
The Sleepover Disaster - "Victoria"
My Morning Jacket - "Anytime" [Live]
Snowden -"Like Bullets"
Asobi Seksu - "New Years"
!!! - "All My Heroes Are Weirdos"
LCD Soundsystem - "Someone Great"
Apparat - "Holdon"
Spoon - "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"
Charlie Louvin - "Must You Throw Dirt in My Face"
Joanna Newsom - "Clam, Crab, Cowrie"
CocoRosie - "Rainbowarriors"
The Knife - "Silent Shout"
Stars - "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead" (Final Fantasy Mix)

playlist, june 18, 2007

Elliott Smith - "Georgia, Georgia"
Julia Dawn - "Beautiful Lie"
Wilco - "Walken"
Feist - "Sealion"
Colourbox - "Hot Doggie"
Apparat - "Holdon"
Bonde do Rolê - "Geremia"
M.I.A. - "Sunshowers"
pc muñoz and the amen corner - "California"
T. Rex - "Mambo Sun"
TV on the Radio - "Provence"
Celebration - "China"
Blonde Redhead - "My Impure Hair"
Imitation Electric Piano - "I Mean Wow"
Belle and Sebastian - "The Blues Are Still Blues"
Loney, Dear - "Saturday Waits"
Lavender Diamond - "Like an Arrow"
The Clientele - "From Brighton Beach to Santa Monica"
Andrew Bird - "Heretics"
Battles - "Race:In"
Dungen - "Familij"
Sparklejet - "We Get in a Hurry"
Modest Mouse - "March into the Sea"
Arctic Monkeys - "D Is for Dangerous"
Field Mob - Georgia [feat. Ludacris]
Sage Francis - "Civil Obedience"
Ozomatli - "La Temperatura"
Grace Jones - "The Apple Stretching"
Lily Allen - "LDN"
CocoRosie - "Rainbowarriors"
Poplord - "Quigley Park"
K. McCarty - "Like a Monkey in a Zoo"
M. Ward - "To Go Home"
LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
The National - "Fake Empire"
Arcade Fire - "Keep the Car Running"
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "A Bottle of Buckie"
Kings of Leon - "Knocked Up"
The Blow - "Parentheses"

playlist, june 11, 2007

The National - "Mistaken for Strangers"
Lavender Diamond - "Open Your Heart"
Menomena - "Weird"
Battles - "Atlas"
Viva Voce - "From the Devil Himself"
The Twilight Sad - "Cold Days from the Birdhouse"
Blonde Redhead - "SIlently"
Apparat - "Holdon"
Matthew Dear - "Neighborhoods"
Céu - "Malemolência"
Bob Marley - "Concrete Jungle"
Nino Moschella - "Didn't You See Her"
Björk - "Hope"
Robbers on High Street - "The Fatalist"
Peter Bjorn and John - "Let's Call It Off" (Single Mix)
Dntel - "Roll On"
The Teddy Bears - "To Know Him Is to Love Him"
Amy Winehouse - "Love Is a Losing Game"
Snowden - "Anti Anti"
Dungen - "Gör Det Nu"
Beirut - "Elephant Gun"
Essie Jain - "Glory"
Everything All the Time - "The People vs. Lux"
Sleater-Kinney - "Wilderness"
Talking Heads - "The Girls Want to Be with the Girls" [Live]
Patrick Wolf - "Accident & Emergency"
Mavis Staples - "99 1/2"
The Rapture - "Pieces of the People We Love"
Dan Deacon - "The Crystal Cat"
Datarock - "Princess"
Bonde Do Role - "Solta O Frango"
The Kingston Trio - "Greenback Dollar"
Rufus Wainwright - "Oh What a World"
My Morning Jacket - "One Big Holiday"
Malcolm McLaren - "Love Will..."
Dump - "Pop Life"
Pela - "Your Desert's Not a Desert at All"
Gavin Bryars - "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" (Single) [feat. Tom Waits]
Nouvelle Vague - "Dance with Me"

gunshow

Get over to Tim Fite's webpage and watch the two episodes of gunshow he's posted, one of which involves making and unmaking a beard out of electrical tape (i think).

Thanks to flamigirlant for this.

That you can still "get away from the snakes" for free from Fite's site is pretty terrific, so you should do it. And you should get some of his other songs, too.

would you like some ranch with that?

I generally don't do these quizzes, but you have to admit--the thought of throwing radishes at people? How cool is that?

Mmmmm. Radishes.

What random vegetable should you throw at someone?

Radish You want a vegetable that will say that you are a very exciting kind of person. If you throw a radish everyone will say that you are the life of the party. Just look at that gorgeous red color that it has. It just screams excitement!

How do you compare? Take this test! | Tests from Testriffic

Thanks to Katie-did for this.

pc's revenge

Ever since I ditched my Dell and switched to Mac, I've been a very happy camper. I love my MacBook, and I now kick myself for not becoming a convert to the Church of Apple any sooner.

But I'll have to admit that these Mac versus PC parody ads are pretty funny. Stoner Mac is my favorite.

playlist, may 28, 2007

Balkan Beat Box - "Habibi min zaman"
Freelance Hellraiser - "We Don't Belong"
Yoko Ono feat. Le Tigre - "Sisters O Sisters"
TTC - "Ebisu Rendez-Vous"
Elliott Smith - "High Times"
Feist - "So Sorry"
Joanna Newsom - "Sawdust & Diamonds"
40 Watt Hype - "On and On"
Sage Francis - "Civil Obedience"
Cibo Matto - "Spoon"
Björk - "Innocence"
The Knife - "Neverland"
Neil Young - "After the Garden"
Charlie Louvin - "The Christian Life"
Lavender Diamond - "You Broke My Heart"
Royal City - "Is This It"
Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins - "Melt Your Heart"
Julia Dawn - "Falling"
Grinderman - "Grinderman"
The Gossip - "Are U That Somebody?"
Mavis Staples - "Eyes on the Prize"
Kings of Leon - "Knocked Up"
Snowden - "Like Bullets"
Jonathan Coulton - "Sibling Rivalry"
Donnie Iris - "Ah! Leah!"
Planningtorock - "I Wanna Bite Ya"
Miranda - "Don"
LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
Arc Minute - "Polyethelene"
Go Home Productions - "Flaming Mary Can (Out) Run Prince"
Subtle - "Middleclass Kill"
Amon Tobin - "Verbal"
Johnny Boy - "Fifteen Minutes"
Arcade Fire- "(Antichrist Intervention Blues)"
The Hold Steady - "The Chillout Tent"
Editors - "French Disko"
Clinic - "Gideon"
Viva Voce - "From the Devil Himself"

rub my legs! rub my thighs!

Yesterday I went to a Rogue Festival Barbecue Party, and I amused myself by taking over the barbecue and grilling up some meats. Earlier in the day, I created two dry marinades, and, since I rarely make any meat dishes at home, I had a great time making the rubs and seeing how the final products turned out. I think that at least some of the roguers enjoyed these, but by the time I got around to grilling the chicken that I brought, nearly everyone had either already eaten (nothing I could ever make could compare to airplaynejayne's Basque-marinated Omaha steaks) or were pretty trashed or both. In any case, I thought it was pretty tasty.

Here's what I made:

Chicken Legs with All-Purpose Spice Rub

1/3 cup coarse salt
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried thyme leaves
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (optional, but I used it)

This makes about 1 1/4 cups or spice rub, which is enough to season anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds of meat. I used this to season about 24 chicken legs. You can also store this in a jar and it will keep for about six months.

Chicken Thighs with Curry Rub

8 teaspoons curry powder
3 teaspoons ground coriander
3 teaspoons coarse salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon sugar

I used this to season about a dozen chicken thighs.

For both the legs and the thighs, I thoroughly rubbed the mixture all over the meats and shook off the excess. I put those puppies on the grill, skin side down, and kept vigil.

Both these recipes come from my favorite cooking magazine, Everyday Food.

playlist, may, 21, 2007

The Sea and Cake - "Up on Crutches"
Andrew Bird - "Fiery Crash"
Julia Dawn - "Beautiful"
Karen Marguth - "Marie Laveaux"
Feist - "So Sorry"
Au Revoir Simone - "A Violent Yet Flammable World"
Goldfrapp - "Ooh La La"
Patrick Wolf - "Accident & Emergency"
dntel - "Dumb Luck"
Vicarious Bliss Pop Experience - "Together in Electric Dreams"
Arc Minute - "Snails & Haloes"
The Submarines - "Brighter Discontent" (Styrofoam Remix)
Thom Yorke - "Harrowdown Hill"
Björk - "Hope"
Elliott Smith - "Looking Over My Shoulder"
Bebel Gilberto - "Night and Day"
Coco Freeman feat. Franz Ferdinand - "The Dark of the Matinee" (Spanish Version)
Gnarls Barkley - "Smiley Faces"
Maps - "Lost My Soul"
The Arcade Fire - "Black Mirror"
Blonde Redhead - "Spring and by Summer Fall"
The Noisettes - "Scratch Your Name"
Snowden - "Anti-Anti"
Mew - "Snow Brigade"
Pela - "Cavalry"
Born Ruffians - "Piecing It Together"
The Clientele - "Here Comes the Phantom"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Cheated Hearts"
Björk - "The Dull Flame of Desire"
LCD Soundsystem - "Us v Them"
Teddybears feat. Neneh Cherry - "Yours to Keep"
Wilco - "Either Way"
Mavis Staples - "99 and 1/2"
pc muñoz and the amen corner - "California"
Dan Deacon - "Woody Woodpecker"
The Whitest Boy Alive - "Burning"
The Flaming Lips - "Free Radicals"
Junior Boys - "In the Morning"
Yacht feat. Bobby Birdman - "Platnum"
!!! - "Myth Takes"