Thursday, November 29, 2007

'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."

Monday, November 19, 2007

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"

Thursday, November 15, 2007

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.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

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:

Monday, November 12, 2007

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"

Saturday, November 10, 2007

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!

Thursday, November 08, 2007

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.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

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.

Monday, November 05, 2007

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.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

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: