Happy Christmas Everyone!

Notice how the Brits say "Happy Christmas" instead of "Merry Christmas"? I've always liked that better, maybe just because it is a refreshing change from what I've been hearing my entire life. I have a lot of non-Christmas material to catch up on- Raphael Saadiq, Fela!, the Robeson gingerbread cookie decorating party and other adventures- but I'll get back to those post-Christmas vacation.

I usually hate Christmas music but I discovered a couple tunes this season that warmed even my coal-black, anti-Christmas heart.

1. "Let Me Sleep It's Christmas Time" by Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder's voice rules
2. "Pimp My Sleigh" by Houseman of Galactic, no explanation needed
3. "12 Days of Christmas" by Straight No Chaser, an a capella medley of different Christmas carols that blend into "Africa" by Toto.
4. A live James Taylor recording that doesn't sound anything like normal James Taylor. He even drops the F-bomb. It came up in Veronica's Bruce Springsteen holiday Pandora station. I'll come back and include the title as soon as I can find it.
5. "Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects" by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Download it here.

And since it is the time of year for Best Of lists, I thought I would include a list of 10 great things I discovered in the past year.

1. Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. Boomerang's in Jamaica Plain - I am continually amazed by the treasures within its walls
3. Galway House on Centre Street. It looks like an old man bar, and it is, but the steak is cheap and delicious. It is perfect to split with a friend or lover.
4. Grooveshark - I love being able to send song links via gchat, email, etc.
5. Patagonia socks- they are almost worth the $16 price tag
6. Juicing- apple, carrot and ginger juice is better than sex
7. "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes - Unlike Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say", this song will still be good in five years
8. South Boston Yoga - this studio made me think about yoga in a whole new way
9. Helvetica and Trouble the Water - two of the best documentaries I have ever seen
10. My home grown arugula. I challenge you to grow a tastier bunch!

Top music RE-discoveries of this year included "'93 'til Infinity" by Souls of Mischief and It Is Finished, a stellar Nina Simone album.

Love and high fives to everyone in my life who made the past year a blast, through the peaks AND the valleys. I have high hopes for 2010. As Norm says, "It's the year, kid. It's the year."

Crazy Lady

The winter just got real in Boston. A facemask would be ideal. Without a hat you can consider yourself dead.

I realized last week that as long as there isn't snow on the ground I can just run everywhere. I wear sneakers everyday anyway and this way I can stay warm, get places faster and get my heart rate up. The only downside is the sideways glances I get from the neighbors. : )

COP15...party on America

After accepting his Nobel Peace Prize and noting the irony of it in his speech, President Obama heads to the climate negotiations in Copenhagen today. The likelihood of useful language leaving his lips is unlikely but I wanted to share with you this chart from the NY Times which breaks down the different stakeholders at the talks and what they are hoping to achieve.

I am not expecting a lot to come out of the talks, especially from the American contingent. Most probably can't tell you which Scandanavian country Copenhagen is in.


But, if you want to use your brain and help out, there is something you can do.

You can sign up for the Energy Action Coalition Rapid Response team here. There are only a few days left. Make a couple phone calls and feel better! And, if you're sick of seeing protesters get arrested and want to know what's really going on, check out live video coverage and tweet feeds at theuptake.org.

I keep telling myself we will get what we want, with or without a strong international treaty.

An update on the awesome work of MassPowerShift here. Good work Dan!

Look Mom, I'm big time!

Wyatt and I are officially rock journalists, having just been published in the December issue of Performer, a music magazine for indie musicians. The magazine can be found at the Middle East and other music venues around Boston. (I'm not sure of distribution in other cities.) If you can find it, read my review and check out feature on Atlas Sound.

A review of The Painted Lights and Elliott Brood (also featured previously on Commandeered), with pictures taken by Wyatt, can be read here on the Perfomer Blog. Apologies for the typo in the last two lines, it's meant to say "Little," not Lohr.

Dirty dancing and my boy JT

Not everyone knows of my secret affinity for dirty, dirty dancing. One of my favorite memories from college is a drunken dance moment, specifically dancing especially close and suggestively with a closeted gay boy at a frat party. We may have talked once in the rest of our four years in school together. Since I no longer have ready access to the free beer, pop music and sweaty men that come with college frat parties, I make do by watching Justin Timberlake dance. I've found it is a really great way to distract myself from myself, and its less dangerous than looking at puppies. This video is particularly dirty, with one of the backup dancers actually sucking on his finger. Enjoy!

What your name is? Plus the Bowerbirds and Elvis Perkins in Dearland

Tonight my housemate Claire brought the Beyonce "Video Phone" video, complete with toy guns and a Lady Gaga cameo, to my attention. Beyonce makes Lady Gaga look small and silly, and the whole thing looks like a weird porn movie intro. I think it would be better suited for footage in the background at a hardcore show.


Monday, Wyatt and I saw the Bowerbirds and Elvis Perkins in Dearland at the Paradise. The Bowerbirds were neat. Both dudes, the lead singer/guitarist and the drummer, sported big fuzzy beards and pearl snaps, and the beautiful lady singer alternated between keys and accordian. Their folksy tunes favor environmental themes, i.e. "it takes a lot of nerve to destroy this wondrous earth." The music isn't cheesy though and being from North Carolina, their intersong banter was real nice and hearfelt, and all three of them smiled throughout the entire set.


Elvis Perkins really impressed me. His album stuff is good but he's much more impressive live, both alone and with the hilarious and energetic backing band Dearland. They took the stage only after making a loop around the venue, weaving in and out of the crowd while playing a gypsy tune. The joined Elvis on stage just in time for him bust out the first of many emotional, powerful and well executed songs. Their material ranged from gospel to old school rock n' roll to whatever you consider Jeff Mangum to be. Instrumentation included a trumpet, stand up bass, harmonium, harmonica, keys and 12 string guitar, in addition to the usual rock band set up. These guys really know what their doing but they aren't prententious and have an awesome time on stage. I felt like I was seeing something really special and it was a treat to be a part of it. I think the entire crowd felt that way and as a result we were graced with two encores. While it is a nerdy thing to say and you probably don't care, the sound for the whole show was excellent. It really makes all the difference and it was a refreshing break from some of my recent ear-twisting concert experiences. Thank you Paradise.

Top 25 anticipated albums for 2010 and neat music videos

1. I'm excited that artists are making sweet music videos again. Here are three I found recently:
"Womanizer" (Sliimy covering Britney)
"Cousins" Vampire Weekend
"Bad Romance" Lady Gaga

More by the Frenchman Sliimy here. Make sure you listen to"Paint Your Face." He dresses like Prince and sings like Lily Allen. Pretty funny.

2. I wanted to share this list of highly anticipated 2010 album releases from Stereogum. It's gonna be a sick year for music, kids! I'm going to start saving my pennies for shows now. Of all the gems on the list, I'm personally most excited for Yeasayer (Check out this wild track "Ambling Alp"), Hot Chip, Beach House, The National, MGMT, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol and Panda Bear. OMG.

AND Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown) is going solo!

New Animal Collective EP

Animal Collective made a aggressive move this week by releasing a 28 minute EP called Fall Be Kind, in the same year that they put out their most successful album ever,

The EP's title is a play on "fall behind"- that phrase grandmas say when you turn the clocks back for daylight savings. Avey Tare was quoted in a Pitchfork interview saying that they typically like to put out albums according to the seasons and, though it came out in January, the last album was meant for a spring release. Don't worry Avey, I'm pretty sure people liked it so much they were still listening to "My Girls" on repeat this summer.

Fans who got hooked on AC with the super-accessible, almost poppy Merriweather Post Pavilion, may be disappointed by the EP. Where last year's EP Water Curses was a clear transition between the two full-length albums Strawberry Jam and MPP, Fall Be Kind has the ultra-mellow, airy feel of Panda Bear's solo album Person Pitch. Of course, that album was super successful too so it may not be an issue. While it is not going to make you yelp or jump up and down, Fall Be Kind is pretty, complete with the usual simple this-is-what-I'm-doing-and-feeling-and-thinking-lyrics sung through vocal harmonies so rich and smooth you could frost a cake with them.

Fun Fact: The second track, "What would I want? Sky" samples the Grateful Dead and maybe whale songs? Even with all the drugs he did, I doubt Jerry could have imagined such a repurposing of his work. Wikipedia says its the first ever liscensed Grateful Dead sample. It is Wikipedia, so take that as you like.

This Atlas Sound + Panda Bear collaboration is neat too.

Fur Coats Repurposed as Street Art

Read about it on the GOOD magazine website.

Hittin' the Spot All Night

Tuesday night Sam and I met at Paradise to see the sold out Dirty Projectors show. When they first took the stage it seemed like they really didn't want to be there but as they loosened up and rocked out it turned into a really solid show. They played almost every track off Bitte Orca (bonus!), some from Rise Above, some I wasn't sure about, and then they ended their encore with "Knotty Pine" off Dark Was the Night. Solid.

David Longstreth is brilliant for sharing his limelight with the vocal harmonies of three beautiful ladies. And, they are all really talented kiddos, making their signature mash up of vocal and musical styles really work. I haven't always felt that way. A lot of the band's pre- Rise Above music is a little too wild for me to listen too all the way through.

Sam just gave me a New Yorker article about the band in which pop-music blogger Sasha Frere-Jones shares her similar struggles with the old material and new-found excitement for the band, given the accessibility of the most recent album. His more technical description of the music was illuminating for me, especially this bit: "Longstreth employs a method of arranging voices knon at hocketing, which stretches back to the work of thirteenth century French monks. To hocket, you split up a melody or a chord and assign the notes to different voices." I saw that in action on stage and it had a little, "so that's how they do that!" moment. It was cool.

I also liked Frere-Jones' description of Bitte Orca's opening track, "Cannibal resource" :

"Unaccompanied, Longstreth plays a series of small, torqued-up chords through tremolo and a phaser. We could be anywhere at this point - there's no telling what continent we're going to land on when everyone else shows up."
Frere-Jones is good. He makes me want to step up my game in real reviews. I believe he was also named one of the top 30 critics in the world. Someday.

Opening for the Dirty Projectors, the Tune-Yards really blew the crowd away. I already sent a mass e-mail about how much I loved that band so I won't elaborate here but they may be my new favorite and I hope I get to see them again very soon.

I also wanted to mention that Sam, who hates Halloween because you have to dress up, got into the rock show spirit by Robert-Smithing his hair, donning tighter clothes and even dog tags for the occasion. Damn Sam, we should go to shows every week. And clearly Amy Parker is a good influence.


Wednesday, Wyatt and I saw his buddy Ross' band The Painted Lights, singer songwriter Drew O'Doherty and Canadian folk rock trio Elliott Brood. Ross' drumming was good but the rest of TPL needs work. Headliners Elliott Brood, with harmonica, banjo, growley singing and fast guitar, made me feel a bit like I was train hopping in a wild west adventure movie. I liked them a lot and they looked great, all dressed up in black suits, and the fedora-sporting drummer sat framed by a ghetto, ahem, DIY but endearing light show. They also handed out plates and wooden spoons so the audience could join in on the percussion. Wyatt and I also got our first picture together. Unfortunately it's much too dark to save for the future grandkids.

Emily and I watched "Trouble the Water" earlier in the week. A brutal account of Katrina, anchored on amatuer footage taken by a female wannabe rapper in the Ninth Ward, it is easily one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. I didn't see Spike Lee's Katrina series but I can't imagine it's as good as this piece. "Trouble the Water" rules because it masters the art of showing, not telling. Be ready for it when you watch it. The 911 calls in particular will twist a hole in your heart.

On the upside, its almost Thanksgiving! Mmmmm. Stayed tuned for epic food descriptions and reviews of Ula's pumpkin pie and quince tart.

Jason Derulo + Imogen Heap = SO hot right now

I'm really glad I heard this on the radio today. It's gonna make the rain so much more tolerable. I know I've hated on auto tune before but I think it really works here. You may have to watch a short ad before the video starts but it is worth waiting for.

Jason Derulo - New Music - More Music Videos

THE FUTURE

In an effort to premptively fight the winter blues I am embarking on three projects:

1. Making a winter mix for all my friends. I am borrowing the idea from my fair maiden of the North, Melanie Kowalski. Mel, I hope that's okay. You'll get one, promise!

2. Planning a big or at least significant 25th birthday for myself. Christmas babies always get screwed. Not me. Not this year, bitches!

3. Concocting a plan for making my long dreamed of epic cross country road trip a reality. I need a car and I've been brainstorming ways to get a sponsor. Most ideas revolve around food and having somekind of food blog that would be sponsor worthy, i.e. the Organic Potato Grower's Association sponsors me to travel around the country and write about good food made with organic potatoes. If you have good ideas for this kind of project, do let me know. I already started mapping out places I'd like to go on Google Maps. It is not complete yet but feel free to leave comments and suggest a stop.


View EPIC road trip in a larger map

Its Persimmon Season, Motherfuckers!

I stole that line from a great McSweeney's post on gourds.

We recently acquired a juicer in the Commune and it has been quite a treat. That and the new Lovewhip album Love Electric. The Jamaica Plain locals really own their version of the post-glam, Scissor Sisters, I-wanna-tear-my-clothes-off sound. You can listen to some of the new tracks here (I recommend "Automatic" and "Gimme That", or the more bluesy, aptly titled "Chaueffer Blues") but get the whole album if you can. It may not change your life but it is a solid booty-shaker.

But, I guess I was talking about juice. My favorite combination is by far ginger, apple, lime and carrot. Those flavors were made for each other. This week I got fancy and threw some persimmons in the mix, since they're in season and all. I find them a little too sweet but still neat and kind of exotic.

I'm liking the juicer for two big reasons:
1. drinking your vegetables is a fun alternative to steaming, roasting, boiling, etc. and
2. it's called the Juiceman Jr.
3. it's very good for using up sad-looking produce in the fridge. That saggy carrot? Wilty spinach? Bruised apple? Jump in the juicer, Baby! Then in my belly, mmm. Go vitamins, go! Fight the germs!


If juice doesn't keep the Swine Flu away, hopefully these two winter staples will.

1. Noley's Magic Sicky Face Tea- I was reluctant to share this recipe because I worry that, with knowledge of the secret ingredients, the people I make this tea for now won't need me anymore and I'll wither up and die like a grandmother with no one to dote on. Of course, when you've got the sniffles, or worse, its always better to have someone else make tea for you. And, I'll probably make it better, so don't forget me.

To start the healing, you will need:
- sliced fresh ginger (powder will get the job done but it doesn't taste as nice)
- whole cinnamon stick
- chamomile (you can get big bags of loose Cham for CHEAP at Latino grocery stores, FYI)
- 1 TBSP cayenne pepper (it's the best part, promise)

Pour hot water on all this business, leaving about an inch of room at the top of your mug. Cover and steep for 3 minutes. Fill the rest of your mug with OJ, stir, smile and enjoy. : )

2. Perfect lentils- they aren't a big deal but they are delicious.

Put dried lentils in a pot with some water and veggie stock, ideally homemade. If your veggie stock isn't very salty, salt that shit too. As the liquid reduces and the lentils start to soften, add a dab of concentrated tomato paste and a quarter cup of ketchup. We like the Nature's Promise organic variety in this household. I'm no ketchup connoisseur, but NP doesn't have high fructose corn syrup and Emily swears it's the best ketchup in the world. I recently added these lentils to a last minute shep pie. The scraped-together beauty included radishes, peppers, apples and onions with a mustard and cider vinegar sauce, topped by a carrot, potato, parsnip crust. We just threw the lentils on top after it came out of the oven and enjoyed some homemade apple sauce on the side. People were pleased.

I'm currently trying to learn more about food to fight pain and chronic illness so expect more on that soon.

The Color Men Choose When They Attack the Earth

This is a little belated, but I have a few things to say about my recent Halloween trip to Houston, where I was visiting Laura Richardson, an old partner in crime and now a PhD candidate in English Literature at Rice University. Not only did I have fun partying with a bunch of English nerd for 2.5 days, but I was pleasantly surprised by the city of Houston, especially Laura's Montrose-Westheimer neighborhood. Apparently it's known as the gay neighborhood and, like JP, gay = cool. Obvi. There were yummy eats- like the black bean burger at Ziggy's and the good breakfast Mexican food at Tacos-a-GoGo. I had some other yummy Mexican food too but the restaurant name escapes me. I especially enjoyed the peoplewatching at Anvil, a classy spot with specialty drinks and a popular stop along the annual Houston Halloween bar crawl. One guy was the karate kid, complete with a showerhead and shower curtain. In the small, crowded bar, he quickly became very annoying.


The Magritte and wooden sculpture below were from the Menil Collection, a small eclectic art gallery with unecessarily creaky floors. My favorite piece was a giant, bright yellow rectangle with a tiny stainless steel plate in the middle that read, "THE COLOR MEN CHOOSE WHEN THEY ATTACK THE EARTH." The artist is Walter de Maria. The pictures online suck and they wouldn't let me take one at the museum so I guess you'll have to see it for yourself.

All the houses surrounding the museum, the adjacent Rothko Chapel and the surrounding park are owned by the Menil endowment and are painted gray to match the museum. Laura, Lucy (the beast) and I spent some quality time hanging out in the park, playing frisbee and singing songs. It never gets colder than 50 degrees in Houston and, as a result, there are palm trees and the big gnarly trees you only see in other Southern cities like Savannah, New Orleans and Mobile. They might be Southern Live Oaks but I'm not sure.





Enjoying the warmth and sunshine in my hangover daze on Saturday morning, I almost forgot we were in Texas. Then we walked past Planned Parenthood. Six PP volunteers in flourescent yellow jackets were hanging out and chatting, presumably keeping tabs on the 40+ anti-abortion activists that lined both sides of the street in front of the clinic. Most of the protesters were young girls in pink shirts. It looked a lot like a sorority volunteer event. I suppose it could have been. Yay Texas!

Gem of the Week

Introducing Justin Townes Earle. The son of folk legend Steve Earle, his middle name comes from his dad's buddy, another legend, Townes Van Zandt. Justin's stuff is definitely country, but he's more old school and soulful than what is now thought of as the Nashville Sound. Think Hank Williams more than Brad Paisley (who makes me want to vomit in my mouth a little). Fans of Cory Branan and Ryan Adams circa Heartbreaker will like Justin, especially his song "Who Am I to Say" off The Good Life, "Yuma" and the title track off Midnight at the Movies. I'd like to go barhopping in Nashville with this guy and bring a pocketful of jukebox money. He's got Television's Marquee Moon listed as his first influence on MySpace. Nice!

Justin plays the Paradise in Boston on Monday, November 9th.

Shoutout to MAPS

Mass Powershift (MAPS) pulled off a flashmob dance (which included "Call on Me" and other legendary dance party jams) at Government Center in downtown Boston yesterday.

They officially kick off their campaign this Sunday with their first sleep out, part of an effort to get the Massachussetts legislature on board with 100% renewable energy for the state in 10 years, before Copenhagen! Yes, they are sleeping outside, every sunday, from now until December 7th. No one ever said saving the world was easy.

See pics from the dance and read more about the campaign here.

Untitled

Last weekend I went apple picking with Annie and Sam in Natick. There I acquired four different varieties of Nature's toothbrush. They were so tasty! Post adventure I was perusing Papa Googs (Google) to learn more about different kinds of apples and was sad to learn than Googling "apples" just brings up pages of crap about iphones and mac books. Thank God I eventually found AllAboutApples.com. It includes information on all apply varieties grown in the U.S., including several with neat names like Swiss Limbertwig and Xavier De Bavay. It also made me wonder if the Yellow Transparent apple is in fact transparent. How crazy would that be? That's how exciting my life has been lately.

Last night I made some pesto and spaghetti sauce to freeze for the winter. As much as I like to cook, I'm also a big lazy ass. I've been known to eat Chef Boyardee beeferoni straight from the can, cold. This way I can put in some effort now and lazily enjoy good homemade stuff later.

Project number one was pesto ice cubes. What would you need to them? Basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, parmesan (optional), a food processor or blender and an ice tray. At first, I didn't drizzle extra olive oil on top and I realized the frozen pesto blocks wouldn't come out of the tray. I defrosted and tried again but it'd be best if you drizzled with olive oil the first time.

Project number two was a variation of my signature spaghetti sauce. Ususally I do the mire poux thing and use lots of red pepper flakes but I forgot both last night, hence the "variation". Emily and Veronica were still really excited about it so I am including the recipe here:

1 big or two tiny onions, sautee in butter (F olive oil!)
2 sausages, taken out of their casings (my favorites are sweet or spicy italian chicken sausage)
garlic, half a bulb (with the way I chow garlic I better have a healthy ticker)
1 green pepper
italian seasoning (oregano is most important)
1 bay leaf
fresh basil
1/2 glass of red wine
1/2 a beer
large can of stewed tomatoes
fresh tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
water

Sautee onions first, then add sausage and Italian seasoning, then the wine. Let that hang out for awhile, then add everything else. Cook that baby down for at least an hour and presto! It smells so good in your kitchen people think you're a good cook. I let it hang out in the fridge overnight and then pureed it in the blender this morning. Let me know when you want to come over for spaghetti!

And here are some songs for you to enjoy this weekend.

Wyatt introduced me to Grooveshark. It's somewhere between Pandora and imeem but I like it better than both of them. I'm going to start using it for sharing songs on here but let me know if it doesn't work for you.

1. "Vegetables" by the Beach Boys, Off Smiley Smile
Thanks K Momma for finding my new theme song, with its chomping and random water sounds. "I love you most of all, my favorite vegetable..." Smiley Smile was considered a failure when it came out in the 60's but clearly it worked for some folks, namely Panda Bear. When I listen to this album I totally understand where Animal Collective and Panda Bear's solo stuff came from.

2. "Ego" (Remix) by Beyonce, featuring Kanye West
This song is so dirty but so awesome.

3. "Stadiums and Shrines II" by Sunset Rubdown
An oldy but goody off of Shut Up I Am Dreaming, the guitar in this song is so triumphant. Singing loudly along with Spencer Krug is always fun but this one in particular is a solid pick me up.

I'll leave you with this killer beard picture of the Beach Boys.

Commercial Fishing

I saw this bumper sticker on a car in JP and I'm not quite sure what the message is meant to be.
So we've got commercial fishing no matter what and we might as well keep the jobs here? We talk about overfishing in the Enviro community but do other people care about it enough to make bumper stickers? Maybe they're just from Rhode Island?

I'm not sure what to think of it. If you can shed some light on it for me, please leave a comment.

HONK! FEST and band of the week

My band of the week is The Dodos from San Francisco. Though they are often described as indie-folk, their music originally caught my ear with a song reminiscent of Animal Collective. The Dodos too are into rich vocal harmonies, delicious layers and occasional yelping. But, more than that, they've got horns, fun lyrics and a unique drumming style that sets them apart from the other kids in the business. If you're sick of everything you have and you're looking for a new band to get you through the winter, this is it. I promise. I've been listening to last year's The Visiter but I'm sure this summer's Time to Die is good too.

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to witness Honk Fest, an annual three-day festival of activist drum collectives in Somerville, Mass. The event featured 27 groups from across the country and one from Rome. In seven parks and parking lots, cool kids, nerds, dancers, musicians, singers, babies, dogs and dancing grandmas came together and broke it down. Personal highlights included the all-percussion Cakalak Thunder from Greensboro, North Carolina, the dancers of the Rude Mechanical Orchestra from New York City, and costumes worn by the members of Seed & Feed from Atlanta, Georgia (See photo below).

Raphael Saadiq, So hot right now!

I have a new celebrity crush. His name is Raphael Saadiq. You too will swoon after you watch this video. I think it is cooler than Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video. That's right Kanye, I did!

In addition to being a good performer, he's also a pretty big deal producer, responsible for songs by Mary J. Blige, Joss Stone and another one of my crushes, John Legend. Fun fact: Saadiq's record label, Pookie Entertainment, shares its name with the favorite alias of Green Corps alumna Emily Southard.

Saadiq's last album The Way I See It, was released in 2008. He plays the House of Blues in Boston December 9th.

As reported Friday, October 9th in the New York Times

It was announced today that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. The first and only word that came to mind in my pre-coffee morning daze was "LAAAME." I mean, really? The New York Times headline said he received it "for his extraordinary efforts to strenghten international diplomacy and cooperations between peoples." Yes, the international community likes him a lot but he HASN'T DONE ANYTHING YET. I feel it's no longer just America that has lost all it's imagination. And, from what I understand, this is one of the widest interpretations of Alfred Nobel's orginal guidelines for choosing the award recipient. I really like this response from Friends of the Earth, which points out that, between Afghanistan and the climate crisis, my boy has A LOT of peacemaking left to do.

My friend James said he'd hoped the headline was a joke, perhaps part of a larger fake news day, after reading in the Space & Cosmos section that NASA bombed the moon. I wish, in this economic crisis, we could put all the NASA folks to work doing something else. I'm sure they'd all hate me for saying that but can't Space wait?

After the Obama story, I gave up on real news for the day and came across this audio piece by actor and ladies man John Keegan. After a bad breakup a few years back, Keegan challenged himself to master the art of charming women, setting personal quotas for phone numbers and dates to be achieved each week. He was so successful, the Manhattanite now coaches single men on how to pick up ladies, for the small price tag of $200 a session.

That's nice and all but I'd like to point out two things:

Number one, Keegan is an actor. He's not bad looking and he was getting paid to charm way people before he started using it to get broads in his bed.

Number two, women can't do this as easily. He didn't say they could, but it is something I think about. I'm frustrated with how easy it is for guys to pick people up. It's not just about social constraints but also physical advantages and disadvantages. I had a short conversation with someone about limitations of sex at our house party over the weekend and he asked me, if I was born a man, would I be a different person. My answer? Absolutely. I would do all kinds of things I am too scared to do as a woman, namely hitch hiking and hitting on random strangers.

People may disagree, some women are fearless, but personally, I feel I can't just pick up any guy I meet. There are considerations, the biggest one being potential for sexual assault. Living in fear sucks, let me tell you. It's so limiting. John Keegan, I salute you and your abilities and am very, very jealous that you can meet a million ladies a week and never worry that one might strangle you in an alley and try to rape you.

Rock!

My musical pick of the week is Atlas Sound. It is dreamy, electronic and wonderful. I can't stop listening to it, especially while I run, of all things. If you can find the track "Airdales," start there. Atlas Sound is a solo project of Bradford James Cox, lead singer of the Atlanta-based five piece Deerhunter. The band sound is similarly good, though less electronic and more about straight guitar rocking. I would argue that Deerhunter is better than Deer Tick, and much better than Deerhoof. At some point, I am going to investigate the origin of all these deer-themed band names. There are a plethora of bands with names about wolves, deer and bears. What's next? I'm rooting for meerkats.

Atlas Sound plays the Paradise here in Boston, with Broadcast and the Selmaniares on October 22.

While I'm writing about music, I want to give a shout out to the Improper Bostonian for its current music issue. They did a nice piece on Boston-based breakout bands and an interview with Passion Pit front man Michael Angelakos. Check it out.

And if you haven't heard the Run Toto Run cover of "Sleepyhead," please watch the video now. It might be better than the original. Might be.

Where the Wild Things Are, Part 2

My mom sent me this article about WTWTA that clears up a couple things:

1. CGI technology was used for the faces of the Wild Things. Someone told me there was no use of computer technology. That person was incorrect.

2. Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs put together the soundtrack for the film, hence the weirdness and awesomeness of the music.

3. The MoMA is currently running a film retrospective entitled Spike Jonze, The First 80 Years. Who's up for a trip to New York?

As part of the show, they are showing the classic tear-jerker, and one of my childhood favorites, The Black Stallion. From a description of the screening:

The Black Stallion. 1979. USA. Directed by Carroll Ballard. Screenplay by Melissa Mathison, Jeanne Roseberg, William D. Wittliff. With Teri Garr, Mickey Rooney, Kelly Reno. An enchanting yet rarely seen film adaptation of Walter Farley’s beloved 1941 book, about an American boy and an Arabian stallion who forge a nearly mystical bond of love and empathy when they are shipwrecked and forced to take refuge on a deserted Mediterranean island. “As soon as we started working on the script for Where the Wild Things Are, The Black Stallion was the first movie Dave Eggers and I watched. It was our aspiration to capture what Carroll Ballard had: a boy on an island finding his way with wild creatures and the camera trying to tag along—not to get in the way, but to capture the beauty of it all” (Spike Jonze). New 35mm print courtesy Academy Film Archive. 118 min.

Monsters

In support of 826 Boston, the 2nd floor of 34 Robeson attended an advance screening of Where the Wild Things Are last night. Author and screenwriter Dave Eggers and Oscar-winning actor Chris Cooper (the scary dad in American Beauty) spoke before the film, and there was a charming video of Martin Sendak, author of the original children's book, recounting a story from his youth. Eggers talked a little bit about how he and Spike Jonze spent the last 5 years unravelling the 388 word (or something like that) book into a feature film. I was pleased to hear that naps are a big part of Jonze's creative process. Got to love Eggers for letting you in on those special details.

So was is good? Yes. Should you see it? Fo sho. Is it the best movie ever? I didn't think so. I actually felt like there might be something wrong with me when I walked out of the theatre and found that I was the only person without tears in my eyes. I was less into the story and more impressed by high quality of craft.

Being a Spike Jonze film, WTWTA was artistically mouth-watering. That man did not spare one detail. (His budget for this film is estimated to be between $80 and 100 million.) I would watch it again for the cinematography alone. Each scene is like a weird but very well composed earth-toned photograph. The settings shift between an Australian forest, massive desert mountain, ocean and a huge fort made of sticks, among other awesome dream-like landscapes. And the sound! The banging of Max around his house as he chased his dog, the sighs of the monsters. I was distracted by the attention brought to even the smallest sounds in this film. I love it. And if that raving wasn't enough, I couldn't get over the incredibly realistic facial expressions of the monsters. They were so good that I knew the actress playing the character of KW was actress Lauren Ambrose, before I even heard her voice. This is partly because I spent much of last winter watching Six Feet Under episodes (she plays the little sister Claire), but mostly because the monster's face moved just the way hers does. Amazing! My guess is that the monster suits use computer technology to read the faces of the actors inside. I haven't been able to find a good article on this yet so I hope Jonze elaborates on the technology after the film comes out in theatres next week. Until then, read more about Jonze and WTWTA in this NY Times Magazine piece.

After the film, we went to a pretty sweet funk show at Wonder Bar in Allston. More on that soon.

Good Friends Are Like Good Soup

I've been really into soup lately. Above are some ingredients from the latest experiment. I followed this recipe, minus the marjoram, savory and cream, plus salt, pepper and a little cayenne pepper. Having homemade chicken broth in the fridge was a plus. While Emily liked this one, I think my last was better, made from a farmer's market squash, a potato, celery and carrots from the garden, with homemade croutons.

Here are a few more pictures from last weekend's Cape Cod Adventure. The big dunes were in Hyannis. Running down that hill was the best thing I've done since the last time I jumped in a leaf pile.This last one is the sunset from Race Point, past Provincetown. It's at the tip of the Cape or the top of the fist, if you're using the bent arm analogy.


As far as tunes go, Emily and I recently remembered this song by Souls of Mischief and how friggin' awesome it is.

Dispatches from Cummaquid

I'm in Cape Cod with friends this weekend. Today I cooked, ate, drank and played with the kitty. Highlights included clams (dug up by my buddies this morning), stuffed and baked heirloom tomatoes, grape nut custard and pumpkin ice cream.



















'Maters, 'mater stuffing (all local!), zinnias, the crew, E Smith and clams, Bernadette the free purebred.

The Spree, Jay-Z and Internet Freedom

1. Death of Auto-Tune

Jay-Z's new Blueprint 3 is rocking my world. My world, and that of most Americans I'm sure. Along with friends like Rihanna, Kanye, Drake and Kid Cudi, Z hates on auto-tune, a method of real-time pitch correction in audio recording, and reminds everyone that he is the Frank Sinatra of hip hop, in case we've forgotten in the 2 years since American Gangster came out and Jay-Z announced his retiremnt.

I find it very interesting that Kanye is on the record, given that his last album 808s and Heartbreak included no rapping and all singing, exclusively through an auto-tune device. Apparently T-Pain helped him out with that decision. I thought it sucked but it still went platiunum and debuted at number one on Billboard. Whatevs America. You love on your auto-tune. I'm with Jay-Z on this one.

In "Death of Auto-Tune", Jay Z says straight up, "Y'all niggas singing too much. Get back to rap, you T-Painin' too much." Ooooh shit Kanye! And you were cool with that?

You can stream Blueprint 3 here and imagine you're in the club with Shorty while you process income or move shit around in Excel spreadsheets.

2. Man Hunt '09 Gets a Rocky Start

My late summer dude hiatus has morphed into Man Hunt 2009 with rockin' roommate Veronica as my partner in crime. We launched the operation last Thursday at a Southern Comfort sponsored *free* Polyphonic Spree show at Paradise. I've been listening to the Spree half-heartedly since high school but I really understand now that listening to them is just dumb. You have to see them. Watching 22 people play and sing Nirvana's "Lithium" fulfilled my awesome-show-moment-quota for at least a coule months, even if they didn't have confetti cannons, a prop the Dallas-based band has been known to bust out in particularly jubilant singalongs. Maybe it didn't fit with the SoCo image. We managed to get up front and center for the "Have a Day", "Soldier Girl" encore, and lip synching the words with the fabulous faux-hawked gay man in front of me really put the icing on the cake. Still, while V-Ron ran into a couple dudes she knew, no real potential mates were identified.

The next night we were a little more agro. We busted out some dresses and trekked to Davis Square for the Macrotones and Love in Stockholm at Johnny D's. The Macrotones were great. A ten piece Afrofunk band, they've got great presence. Budos is one of their biggest influences so naturally I loved them. Allston-based headliner Love in Stockholm really surprised me. I hadn't been that impressed with their songs on My Space but they really tear it up on stage, in suits, ties and fedoras, no less. If you can imagine a grittier Adam Levine (lead singer of Maroon 5), with tight pants, no ass, a skinny tie, fedora and lots of jumping up and down, you'll have Love in Stockholm front man Charlie Rockwell.

3. Net Neutrality
If you're like me and you aren't really confident enough in your understanding of net neutrality to blab about it at a cocktail party, watch this helpful video. Thank you Melanie for bringing that to my attention with this e-mail note, "Did you hear about the FCC and Net Neutrality!?!? Fuck yea. Open Access to Information on the net prevails, bitches!"

And I'll leave you with this wheat pasting from Jamaica Plain:

Oil on canvas

(a poem about the rhythm of art galleries)


Oil on canvas.
Graphite on paper.
Courtesy of Geoffrey and Melinda Hotchkiss.
b. London, 1961
I wonder if this is the artist's boyfriend. If someone paints a fullsize nude portrait of you and you breakup, does your partner get to burn the piece? Do you?
Silver gelatin print.
b. Michigan, 1943
b. Antwerp, 1980
Oil on linen.
Mixed media on wood.
I like that one.
I could do that.
I want to make art like that.
I need more time to make art. I need things to make art about.

Acrylic on newspaper.
Cute boy with a beard. He's carrying a moleskine,
Just like mine
Oil on canvas.
Art student? Grad student. Looks older. I'm gonna say sculptor. Big, rough hands. Nice.

Woodblock print.
Courtesy of John and Ginger Friedman.
Feathers, sequins, acrylic on cardboard.
I wonder if he saw me gawking. I'm gonna marry an artsy boy. It has to happen.
Cast bronze.
Graphite on paper.
Oil on canvas.

September, busy busy

A lot has happened since the last post so I'll start with an update: work at the coffee shop is fun. Good people. Good music. All the good bread is definitely gonna make me fat. I always end up bringing some home so holla if you want a loaf. I just began interning at Corporate Accountability International, doing video work. On the side, I'm looking to get involved in Mass Powershift's Fall campaign, courtesy of Dan Abrams- my awesome former intern. Film Camp in Waldoboro, Maine was excellent. The guys (and girl) at Wicked Delicate are some fun, smart cookies and they've got some culinary prowess. We had lobster, blueberry pancakes and other Maine-tinted loveliness. I felt bad about the shoddy lemon meringue that John Carroll and I brought and even worse when they tried to tell me it was good. Unfortunately the beautiful topping (see photo) didn't make up for the fact that the filling looked and tasted like rubber cement. The next one will be better! This other photo is from inside the john at Swallow's Rise Farm, the site of WD Film School. The place is like a museum, with treasures in every nook and cranny. Highlights included a stuffed turkey, a framed photograph of Mr. Rogers, elementary school art projects and magazine advertisements from the 50's as decor.

In other news, all my veggies got the blight. But, while they all looked like they had plague for awhile, everything is producing again, or for the first time in the case of the patty pan squash. I've been waiting on those suckers for months.

Being busy and on my feet a lot has been a good distraction. Still, I struggle with feeling like an 80 year old woman, between the back pain, fear if loneliness and my intense need to feed other people. Are there other 24 year olds who cook and then feel sad when they've got no one to feed? I can only hope that I'm aging in reverse and at 40 I'll forget what it feels like to hurt.

I've been thinking a lot about the value of idleness. More on that soon.