Monday, April 27, 2009

4 yr ears and 4 yr eyes



Rainbow Arabia - "Omar K"



Breathe Owl Breathe - "Boat"

Friday, April 24, 2009

i be in it like a preacher in a pulpit

The-Dream - “Mr. Yeah”

I’m a sucker for art that parodies itself, whether it does so wittingly or not. The-Dream’s “Yeah” is a syrupy bit of horny braggadocio that owes a lot to the up-in-da-club bravado of Usher’s “Yeah” and to Kanye West vocoderized come-ons. The lyrics may be silly when they’re going for sexy (“Cupid ain’t got shit on me / I’m harder than Superman, / I bounce back like a rubber band”), but there’s a really lovely melodic line here, and I love how the staccato synthesized chords counterpoint with a noise that sounds like a contented baby alien after a satisfying breastfeeding.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

oh, but we go out at night!

Born Ruffians - "I Need a Life" (Four Tet Remix)

After listening to this remix umpteen times, I’ve decided that Four Tet should remix every song I like—or every song I don’t like, for that matter. The remix minces and reassembles the rough-hewn singing in Born Ruffians’ “I Need a Life,” creating an achey-breakey assemblage of boy vocals that swirl over pools of blips and bleeps. By the time the chorus breaks in and we hear the Ruffians chanting “Oh, but we go out at night!” the track has built up to such a crescendo that the otherwise forgettable phrase becomes a sublime assertion. At 6:50 the moving plea

I need a life
I’ve never had
I need so much more good, Lord
And much less bad

closes the track and turns what might otherwise have sounded like a frat-boy chant into a heartfelt prayer.

Monday, April 20, 2009

st albans

Shane and Joyce and I took a short day trip to the market town of St Albans on Saturday, Jan. 24. At one end of the market is a clock tower, which also marks the site at which the funeral procession of Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I, rested on its sojourn to London in 1290. At each spot where the funeral procession rested, Edward raised a cross (one of these is the site of Charing Cross in London). The cross at St Albans no longer exists, but the clock tower is handsome in its own right, no?

A group of American Indians were dancing and singing at its base. Why not?

Word has it that St Albans boasts one of the highest concentrations of pubs of any village in England. That was enough motivation for Shane and Joyce and I to find ourselves in one. I ordered sausages and mash, and the pub people misforgot my order. So they gave me my lunch for free. Score!

After our lunch and ales, we sought out St Albans Cathedral. Here are Shane and Joyce playing "find the cathedral."


The cathedral is an interesting blend of styles dating from before the eleventh century to the late nineteenth.


See?

The interior was particularly beautiful, and, while inside, we joined a guided tour which informed us about various of the cathedral's features.




I can't quite remember what the tour guide said, but these pictures should give you some sense of what's in there.

After enjoying another beer, we headed back to London. That night, I took this picture from the window of my room in Vincent House.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

westminster abbey & barnes to putney

On Jan. 23, I took the students to Westminster Abbey. No photography is allowed inside the church, so I don't have pictures, but Westminster is a fascinating and beautiful place. Some of the students found all the tombs to be creepy (it must have been all the tombs), and a couple chose to cut out early (their loss, I say). It was also difficult keeping everyone together: Westminster allows groups only if all the members stay keep together and if the leader refrains from making any comments that a hired tour-guide might make. Thus, between herding students of varied levels of interest and not being able to say much while inside, the experience was less than ideal. Still, some of the students really enjoyed Westminster. One of them remarked, "Wow. You really have to want something badly to build this." I concurred.

That afternoon, Shane and I followed Robert Wright's walk from Barnes bridge to Putney. Early on in the walk, we stumbled across a house Henry Fielding lived in. So, to celebrate, I cut a little caper.


The walk took us past a Wetlands Centre, and then to a boat-racing section of the Thames.


It was dusk at the end of the walk, which made for some lovely views of the river and the bridges that cross it in Putney.

behind on london and bread

My goal had been to blog regularly about my London Semester adventures, and I didn't even get through the first month of three! Still, through photos, I have a pretty good record of the walks and excursions, so I'll keep posting about them every so often, if only so I have a record of the experience.

Meanwhile, feast your eyes on this loaf of bread:


I made this a couple of days ago using the Cook's Illustrated Almost No-Knead Bread recipe that appeared in their January/February 2008 issue. It's a simple recipe, and it's nearly perfect. I still have to figure out why my loaves come out with a slightly over-browned bottom crust, but I have some ideas about how to address that problem.

Almost No-Knead Bread

An enameled cast-iron Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid yields best results, but the recipe also works in a regular cast-iron Dutch oven or heavy stockpot. Use a mild-flavored lager, such as Budweiser (mild non-alcoholic lager also works). The bread is best eaten the day it is baked but can be wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in a cool, dry place for up to 2 days.

3cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface
1/4teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2teaspoons table salt
3/4cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature
1/4cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)
1tablespoon white vinegar

Makes 1 large round loaf

1. Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

2. Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.

3. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

from Cook's Illustrated, Number 90, January & February 2008