Fave Albums of 2012

Dirty Money by Antibalas
Since we can't see Fela Kuti anymore, Antibalas is the next best thing. Their live show in Boston was unbelievable and the album is a dance-your-pants- off explosion that belongs in the Afrobeat Hall of Fame.

Bloom by Beach House
It's no Teen Dream but still delicious and addicting.

Fear Fun by Father John Misty
I just love this album. I think J Tillman should have gone solo a long time ago. I'll take his sound over Fleet Foxes any day.

O' Be Joyful by Shovels and Rope
This is a Southern folksy masterpiece. Every song is a gem. I'm partial to "Birmingham" because it mentions one of the best dive bars in Nashville, and the BQE, which I walked over at least twice a day when I lived in Brooklyn and always dreamed of writing songs about.

Mutt by Cory Branan
Even though I've seen Cory more than any other artist, I generally don't listen to his albums. They feel too shiny. Too produced compared to his gritty spare live performances. Mutt on the other hand, is a breath of fresh air, illuminating his stellar songwriting rather than distracting from it. As a long time fan, this was a big "fucking finally" moment. And, the album includes "Yesterday," a song I've been waiting for years to have on record so I could listen/sing to it over and over again.

Swing Lo Magellan by the Dirty Projectors
People like to hate on the DPs but you have to give them credit for being innovative and creating new sounds in an age when most music is recycled. They do pretty crazy stuff and it works, especially in "About to Die." That said, a couple of the songs on the album sound like Dylan rip offs. I like them anyway.

The Idler Wheel... by Fiona Apple
Wow. This one left me speechless at first. Then I told everyone I talked to to listen to it. Accompanied by just her piano and some percussion, Fiona really lets her voice go wild on this. I love how raw it is and how honest she seems to be with herself and audience alike.

Other fun things that got a lot of play at Robeson Labs:
- Beastie Boys (RIP A Rock)
- Mary J. Blige Pandora
- YACHT Pandora
- Donna Summer
- Kermit Ruffins' "It's later than you think."
- Fela's "Opposite People"
- Odissee
- The Secret Spot, Sunday nights on WERS
- Touch FM, "The fabric of the black community"

Happy New Year to all!

And a happy new year.

I’m pretty sure 2012 has been my best year yet. Maybe it was my magic birthday last December, turning 27 on the 27th, or rediscovering my passion for grassroots organizing and training, or being single, or the fact that I wasn’t in pain for most of the year. I live with a chronic pain condition and for reasons I haven’t yet put my finger on, this was my best year healthwise since I was 20, even accounting for a significant flare up this fall. This year was able to travel, exercise, work, play and, most importantly PARTY, like I hadn’t in years. It was marvelous and, like cheese, it made everything so much better. Here are some of my favorite moments from the 12 months of 2012:

My roommate Veronica and I rang in the new year elbow to elbow in a packed yoga class in South Boston. The city fireworks started above our heads just as we said “namaste.” Later in JANUARY, my friends threw me a surprise soul-themed birthday brunch. I was told only to go away for awhile and come back to the house with Amy Winehouse hair. I did as I was told and it was an absolute blast.

FEBRUARY took Veronica and me to Belize to visit our friend and former roommate, who runs a socially and environmentally conscious cacao exporting operation called Maya Mountain Cacao. I’m pretty sure Southern Belize is my soul place. I felt like I was in an alternate universe. Later in the month, we saw soul singer Charles Bradley, a.k.a. The Screaming Eagle of Soul. It was, without a doubt, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life (and I saw James Brown twice).

MARCH was sort of a throwaway month but we listened to the Charles Bradley album every single day, so that made it okay.

In APRIL I got to attend my first gay wedding. My cousin Fred married his longtime partner in front of an orange tree in Ojai, California. I saw all my California family, many for the first time in 10 years, one for the first time ever, and I danced my face off. April also brought the first of five volunteer trainings I led for the Boston Cyclists Union this summer, where I taught folks how spread the gospel of safer cycling in Boston.

MAY brought my college roomie Melanie to Boston for an epic Memorial Day party in my backyard. It proved to be the first of six consecutive backyard bashes that started with grilling and ended with boozy late-night hootenannies. I experimented with making cocktails and caipirinhas quickly became the drink of the summer.

JUNE was filled with bike work. I spent as little time as possible at my real job, hired 10 interns for the Union and ran around town with them, fixing bikes and raising money. I got really tan. It was awesome.

I got a concussion on the Fourth of JULY after getting doored by a parked car. I was dizzy for nearly two months and don’t remember too much but I’m sure it was all great. After I got him fixed, I took my bicycle on vacation. We took the ferry to Provincetown then biked to Truro to stay in a hostel right on the shore. The beach was virtually empty for three days. I read the paper in an old baseball cap and a green bikini and felt like a rock star. Or maybe a retired rock star.

Despite a pitiful tomato harvest, AUGUST brought a lot of tasty vegetables into my life. Between the garden in my front yard, a community plot and a CSA, I was swimming in absurdly healthy food. I’ve never eaten so many salads or fresh green beans. Other harvest highlights included butternut squash and several heads of heirloom Siberian garlic. It’s purple!

SEPTEMBER took me back to California, this time to Long Beach. I got a scholarship to attend the Alliance for Biking and Walking Leadership Retreat. It was on the historic Queen Mary cruise ship and I got to meet a butt-ton of amazing bike advocacy leaders from around the country. When I got back to Boston, I channeled all my new knowledge and enthusiasm into the Bike Union’s second annual meeting, where we raised more than three times as much money as in the year before. I was lucky enough to be the person on stage asking for big contributions, auction-style. There’s nothing like raising $12,600 in five minutes.

I ran a conference in mid-OCTOBER for my real job. The prep for it nearly killed me but it turned out to be a phenomenal experience. Seeing high level foreign policy leaders from the U.S. and the Middle East actually talking with each other about how we might address issues like the conflict in Syria gave me a lot of hope for the future of the MENA region. I also dressed as Ann Romney for Halloween.

NOVEMBER: Obama. Warren. Victory. Yes.

DECEMBER has been a month of resetting priorities before the end of the year. I submitted my resignation at my job, not because I hate it but because it feels like it’s time to move on. I signed myself up for a yoga teacher training at my favorite studio, which will start in early February.  I don’t yet know what will come next but I’m trusting it will be awesome.

Especially in case the world ends tomorrow, I want to thank all my amazing friends for helping me have such a productive, hilarious, and FUN year. I really appreciate all of you and the joy you bring into my life on the regs. Thank you so much.

Quote of the Day

Sometimes dealing with my body's challenges feels like trying to achieve peace in the Middle East. I mentioned something about headaches to a colleague today and he sent me this lovely quote:

"The church says: The body is a sin. Science says: The body is a machine. Advertising says: The body is a business. The body says: I am a fiesta."

                                      -Eduardo Galeano, journalist and novelist (b. 1940)

I want my body to be a fiesta.

Live Review: Darlingside in Somerville

Check out page 38. http://performermag.com/current-issue/

How a woman's orgasm can save a man

This is too great not to share. Ladies and gentlemen alike will appreciate it.

The Spanish Inqusition of Bicycle Crashes

This is a nice piece on dooring by Bike Safe Boston.

Song of the Week: Politics in Space

My girl L just introduced me to Kate Miller-Heidke. This song is super neat.

Reflections on being doored

From the Urban Dictionary:
v. to crash into and/or over a driver's side door(of a vehicle) while riding your bike. A painful biking experience where two conflicting world-views collide.

What dooring looks like. It is illegal in Massachusetts to door a cyclist.

It's been exactly two weeks since I crashed into a gentleman's car door on Washington Street, on my way to watch the Fourth of July fireworks at a friend's house. There are a lot of things I should have done the night of and in the days after that I didn't, either because I was in shock or because I was trying to be tough. I learned a lot from the experience about how to be prepared and what to do when something like this happens. So, in case its helpful for other cyclists, here are my four recommendations:

1. Call the cops
The guy who hit me gave me a fake number and at the time of the accident, I didn't think to take a picture of his license plate or anything like that. When in car accidents, folks always call the cops and let them deal with getting all the info. Why not do the same for a bike/car collision? It didn't even cross my mind. 

2. Carry the bicyclists accident report
I give these to people all the time but for some reason I didn't have one in my wallet the night of my accident. The report was created by Josh Zisson, a local lawyer specializing in bike law, who also launched Bike Safe Boston and has been making accident reports for cities across the United States.

3. Go to the doctor, even if you think you're okay, especially if you have health insurance.
I felt pretty banged up after my accident. I was initially dizzy and was in a lot of pain but nothing felt broken and it didn't feel like I'd hit my head. Later that night the dizziness went away so I thought I was fine. I was covered in bruises and it hurt to laugh for nearly five days but that's what happens when you smack pavement, right? Nearly a week after the accident I started feeling dizzy again I started having tiny panic attacks, something I've never experienced before. I went to the doctor Friday and learned that I had a concussion. I have had a couple before, but I didn't realize that you don't have to hit your head to get a concussion, even whiplash can cause head trauma. I also learned that mood swings, irritability and other psychological abnormalities can be symptoms of a concussion.

4. Ask for help
Trying to be tough is stupid and crashes are scary. Don't be afraid to ask friends or loved ones for help and hugs and whatever you need. Crashes are traumatic and I didn't allow myself to process the trauma until just a few days ago. My instinct was to tell myself and everyone around me that I was fine but I suffered as a result and missed out on the moral support and guidance I really needed.

What we really need in Boston is cycletracks, bike travel lanes that are physically separated from traffic. Luckily this is something the Boston Cyclists Union is working on and Boston may see it's first cycletrack before the end of 2012. Maybe someday we'll even get our own bicycle superhighway.

Rad music video

I'm proud to say I know the woman who directed this kick ass video. It's super gay and there are bikes in it. Enjoy.

Fourth of July & Beadazzling Bicycles

I had a surprisingly lovely 4th thanks to some good friends and roomies. We started out with a loose plan to bike to Walden Pond, and ended up going to Singing Beach in Manchester-by-the-sea. I got to ride a tandem bicycle for the first time (and watch my housemates master it), we enjoyed some wicked good ice cream, ate all kinds of good food (mozzarella-stuffed burgers and potato salad), and then we got to watch many, many fireworks displays from a balcony in Fort Hill in Roxbury.

Unfortunately, I got doored on my way to watch the fireworks but I didn't break anything and my friends picked me up so it all worked out. I also didn't get run over and the woman driving the car behind me stopped and gave me all her contact info in case I needed a witness. And, the guy who doored me was very sweet and apologetic. In a weird way the experience made me appreciate my neighborhood more. As far as getting all busted up, I'm going to consider it a right of passage, like maybe I'm a real city cyclist now.

Speaking of cycling, here is a cute piece I wanted to share from local bike blog Biking in Heels about meeting the challenge of bringing home a CSA by bicycle.

BEDAZZLE.

Ryan and Aaron brave the tandem at Singing Beach.

V conquers her rapidly melting ice cream.

Living With Lyme

WBUR is running a series on Lyme Disease this week. It's really well done. So well done that it's hard for me to listen to. It brings up all the dark experiences that I've worked so hard to get past. Even so, I'm so pleased that people are talking about the disease, the legal boundaries to treatment, and the other extreme hardship faced by people who suffer from it. It's nice to think that maybe someday soon people like me will actually get treated rather than spending years feeling like they must be crazy.

While listening to the radio series this morning I was particularly struck by the story of Barbara MacLeod. She's local, a former anchor and reporter for New England Cable News. She described a moment when she was on the air, reporting on a storm from Logan Airport and she couldn't remember the word for runway. Hearing that was so affirming for me. While I think I've overcome many if not most of my symptoms, whether their caused by Lyme, Fibromyalgia, XMRV or something else entirely, the brain fog is one I can't seem to get past. I struggle with recalling words almost everyday. While I'd much rather forget words than live in excruciating pain, my recall problem causes some mild emotional trauma. I try not to let it get to me but as a high-strung college-educated East Coaster, I HATE feeling stupid more than most things. I just hope my friends and colleagues will continue to forgive me when I forget words, tasks, and, worst of all, names.

Stuff on Washington Street

Check out this sweet speedometer!

My long lost Yankee cousin?

New sweetness from Delicate Steve

It's summer! Almost!

I've been desperately trying to be more focused at work but since I haven't posted in a month, and I've learned about all kinds of fun stuff recently, I'm going to squeak in a quickie.

First, I'm not that big into watching silly youtube videos but I am happy to have learned about the Chloe Sevigny spoof videos by Drew Droege. Since I'm not a big celebrity stalker, I never noticed how strangely Chloe Sevigny speaks, or just how boring she is when she goes on about fashion. Droege does a brilliant job making me laugh at her expense, just with the way he says "toast." Many thanks to my friend Eric Smith for the introduction.



AND




After a lot of coaxing from people I love, I finally downloaded the Alabama Shakes album. They are responsible for my song of the week, "Heartbreaker." 


The whole album is pretty solid and I sense it'll be in heavy rotation at the Commune this summer.

Speaking of my house, this Saturday's house party will mark the sixth consecutive celebration at our place. Four of the last five have been outdoors so, fingers crossed, this rain will stop again for the weekend.

Something magical is happening on our street, largely due to some super fun new Robeson St. residents gelling with the groundwork my next door neighbor and have been laying for a couple years. It's like we built it and they're finally all coming. We may have finally achieved the perfect congruence of bros, hippies, musicians, master grillers, mixologists and cornhole champions. I love it. It means I don't have to leave my house to have an awesome time. Sweet party in Somerville, you say? That's nice but I think I'll stay here and drink a fresh caipirinha in my hammock, after eating a bangin' burger and dancing my pants off.

Apricot Coconut Energy Bars and Song(s) of the Week

My co-worker just handed me one of these. Delicious, gluten-free and full of Omega 3s!

Apricot Coconut Energy Bars (From Shutterbean.com)

• 1/2 cup cashews
• 1 cup dried apricots
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 3 tablespoons hemp seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Line a 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper, set aside. Place cashews in a food processor and process until nuts are evenly chopped, set aside. Put dried apricots in the food processor and process for 3-4 minutes to finely chop. Add coconut, oats, agave syrup, coconut oil, hemp seeds, ginger and salt. Process until mixture comes together. Add the chopped cashews and pulse until well combined.

Put the apricot coconut mixture in the parchment lined baking pan and firmly press into pan. Cover the bars and place in a freezer for one hour. Unmold bars, trim ends and cut into even rectangles. Bars will last up to one month if stored in an air tight container in the fridge.

Song of the Week: Two-way tie between "Why Is It So Hard?" by Charles Bradley and "Love in the Dark" by YACHT. Somehow I missed the latter when it came out last year. The (now) duo from Portland, OR has a super-fun sassy electro sound reminiscent of Le Tigre. Enjoy!

Song of the Week: Cheater's Prayer

This song was everywhere in Belize. It still makes me giggle. Watch out. It'll get stuck in your head for days

Song of the Week: Celebration's "Heartbreak"

An oldie but goodie. Unfortunately, this version doesn't have the wicked horn outro that you'll find on the album but it's rad in its own right.

Celebration - Heartbreak from knox on Vimeo.

Facebook and music as prayer

1. If you haven't yet checked out the Texts from Hillary tumblr, I suggest you check it out now. In the same vein as the now famous Ryan Gosling memes, this one features photos of Madame Secretary texting with celebs from all walks of life. My fave so far is her suggesting that Mark Zuckerburg get a shirt with "a big boy collar."

2. The folks behind one of my favorite sites in Boston, Howfuckedisthet.com created this great graphic illustrating some neat things that could have been done with the $1 billion Facebook just spent on buying the photo-sharing site Instagram. Examples include:

- 12 years of funding for the Harlem Children's Zone
- 6.5 years of funding for the National Endowment for the Arts
- 285 wind turbines

3. I'm coming away from my third relationship-related crash and burn since the holidays and I'm trying to treat it as a blessing instead of being sad. More time for yoga and sleeping. One listen to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea has proven helpful and I think that after two more listens, I'll feel like a new woman again. If it wasn't cost-prohibitive and utterly ridiculous, I might get all the lyrics from that album tattooed on myself. Its not even what Jeff Mangum sings that's so great. Its more about its familiarity and staying power. Like a prayer that you say over and over again, solace can be found in its repetition.

Look Mom, I'm on TV! (On the internet)

I was recently asked by one of my colleagues to pose as a test subject in a video about Harvard Business School professor and social psychologist Amy Cuddy. Here is the resulting TIME video about her research on power posing. According to Cuddy, just standing in a power pose for a couple minutes can give you the confidence you need to nail an interview or give an awesome speech. Check it out! Yours truly appears around 2 minutes, 30 seconds.

A boy a girl and a rendezvous

Man, it's only Wednesday and it's already been a bit of a poopy week. There is a lot of sadness in the air and, while it's totally unrelated to the sadness, I seem to be everyone's problem child this week, which only adds to the poopy feeling. I messed up a printing order, sent a mass e-mail out with date for last November in the subject line, and my mother hates me because I accidentally de-activated the sim card in her US phone, just in time for her trip back to the States. I think I'd hate me too.

On the upside, Veronica and I had a great time writing a birthday song for our friend Emily on Tuesday. It's a little collection of inside jokes from our Belize trip, to the tune of Bob Marley's Sun is Shining. Come over and get me drunk and you may have the pleasure of hearing it. If you haven't already, check out Emily's cacao exporting outfit Moho River Cacao on Facebook.

I've been single for ten weeks now and the novelty of it has slowly started to wear off. I was feeling really free and pumped about all the new time I had to myself. I've directed a lot of the free time into bike work and have tried revisiting several old past-times (over the weekend I spent two hours making birthday cards) but I also feel this burning need to fill the time and share things with someone else. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the someone else I want to share with doesn't exist (yet). But this feeling, this need, has made me super angsty, restless and distracted. If you've noticed a significant uptick in the number of text messages I've been sending you, you now know why. Sorry! I'm sure it is just part of the process and it will pass. Getting over a significant relationship was so much easier in college, when there were tons of other young people everywhere to "get to know."

When writing to a friend about my daydreams of dashing long-bearded pirates, sexy young bankers on the T, and rendezvous with out-of-town lovers, I had to look up the word rendezvous to make sure I was spelling it correctly. This is hard to admit in real life, especially because I used to be fluent in French, but it was so worth it because I learned that one of the definitions of rendezvous is "the process of bringing two spacecraft together." I got excited, imagining that this new information would lead me to find lots of dirty pictures of spacecraft rendezvous, or orbital manuever pornography as I would call it, on the internet. I was sadly disappointed. This is about the best I found:

An artist’s rendering of the approximate positions of the Gemini 6 and 7 spacecrafts during rendezvous.

Still a little dirty seeming if you're in that head space, but definitely not the stuff of viral internet hilarity.

In completely unrelated news, a busload of Harvard Kennedy School students touring the West Bank as part of a spring break trip were detained this week by the Israeli Defense Forces. The Dean of Students called to alert me, because one of our fellows is on the trip. It was so hard not to say "Yep. Sounds about right." The comments on the linked article are worth reading.

New AfroFunk Out of DC

The Funk Ark, a fairly young afrobeat outfit from the District, is about to release their second album High Noon on April 3. You can listen to it here on their website.

Temporary Hiatus

Commandeered is on a temporary hiatus while I pursue other forms of artistic expression. It's not you, it's me. Thank you for your support and enthusiasm. I'm always surprised to learn who actually reads this babble. I'll leave you with this song that I can't stop listening to.

BELIZE

In a week I will travel to Belize with my beloved roommate, to visit our former roommate who is now a chocolate exporter in southern Belize. More on that operation here. If you've ever wondered what chocolate looks like in the wild, she's currently got some great pics up of cacao pods and common threats to the crop.

We're off to Punta Gorda, in the Toledo District, an area known for its rainforest, mountains, rivers and Mayan villages. I might just not come back.

Shut Up!

I've been talking about this song to people all week. The audacity of it amazes me more with each listen. And, how can you not love a song that employs "OMG" in the refrain?

It's been a wild week already. People talk about juggling responsibilities, having a lot of balls in the air. I feel like people are throwing balls at me left and right and I'm just trying to catch them before they hit my face, and then put them some place where I won't forget about them. It's not a bad thing.

Monday night was the very last Afro Flow Yoga (AFY) class at South Boston Yoga. I'm pretty sure every single person I've spoken to in the last year and half has gotten an earful about how amazing the class is. Yoga + Afro-Carribbean dance + live drumming + amazing teacher + diverse class. What more could you really ask for? I've had to say goodbye to great yoga teachers before (sadly, they're people too and they move and have babies and do that kind of stuff) but what really bums me out about the end of AFY, is that it makes my body feel better than anything else I've ever done. It was a key component of my pain management routine. I know there are other sweet things out there that could make me feel good, like Hip Hop Yoga, or inversion tables, but I'm going to miss the crap out of that class. Leslie Salmon Jones, creator of AFY, is a wise and wonderful woman. Thankfully, she'll still be teaching workshops here and there.

Tuesday night I saw Kurt Vile and Thurston Moore at the Somerville Theatre. I'm not really sure what you have to do to "make it" in the music industry these days but if Vile hasn't yet, he will soon. During a particularly beautiful part of "Dead Alive," my concert buddy, who's no stranger to ridiculously good music, leaned over and said he'd never seen anyone play guitar the way Vile was. It was mesmerizing. He played solo, with some harp accompaniment. Now, I just want to see him again. Thurston Moore, of the now defunct Sonic Youth, played an acoustic set with a band, which also included a harp, and a violin. The strings all sort of canceled each other out in a weird way that was neither pleasing nor interesting. The set alternated between seemingly soulless acoustic songs, spoken word poetry and straight up noise making, which was the one redeeming factor of the whole experience. Maybe I missed something but I found it hard to sit through.

Saturday promises a roaring night of rock opera in JP and baby making music with Daptone hero Charles Bradley.

Why targeting banks may be better than congress, or not

In his piece in The Daily Beast yesterday, Jeff Smith, a member of the OWS press team argued that the movement has been right in targeting banks instead of congress because the banks control congress anyway. He elaborates on that in this older piece. But isn't it Congress that ultimately has the power to end "legalized bribery" in our politics and pass laws subjecting our elected leaders to the same financial rules that we the people are subject to, i.e. no insider trading? Obviously convincing them to pass such laws would be no walk in the park but why not use the momentum OWS has built up to force the issue? Ultimately, it is the people, the voters, who can change this issue, not the banks or our government, but as we keep one hand clenched around Wall Street, we should use the other to poke at our elected leaders until we get a meaningful reaction.

Occupy Congress

I know I'm supposed to be boycotting the internet today but a) I had to go to work and b) I just really had to post this.


My father and I, and I'm sure many others, have been wondering why Occupy hasn't just taken to occupying Congress. Sure, it's important to wave your finger at the banks in the effort to illuminate economic inequality but why not go straight to the belly of the beast? According to this OWS post, the movement to occupy congress started yesterday. I wish I'd known! Come on, revolution, where was the reminder text?

Seriously though, let me know if you have good intel on this, and I will try to do the same.

Daptone Turns 10!

Daptone Records, home to Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Budos Band, Menahan Street Band, and many other great artists, just celebrated it's 10th year in business. The Brooklyn-based funk, soul and R&B label has received a lot of attention on this blog so rather than repeat myself, I will refer you to this comprehensive story from the Atlantic.

My buddies Chris and Mike first introduced me to Budos while we were cooking at their house in Nashville more than 5 years ago. I caught the Daptone bug bad and I haven't turned back. I can never thank them enough.

Exciting news: SJDK are playing Jazz Fest in NOLA this year. I have no business buying another plane ticket right now (I'M GOING TO BELIZE IN FEBRUARY, BITCHES) but that's what tax returns are for and I can make money when I'm dead right? Isn't that how the saying goes?

New Recipe! Multicultural Casserole

Sadly, I realized after I made this dish, that I was SO proud of, that the fake meat I used in it is not gluten-free. I ate it all anyway.

Here's what happened: I made a crap-ton of yellow rice and pigeon peas, or Arroz de Gandules, and got sick of eating it after a couple meals so I turned it into a casserole. I took it to work several days in a row with spinach on the side and it was really super banging after 2 mins in the microwave, all melty and shit. Mmm.

Ingredients:

1. One package yellow rice
2. One can pigeon peas (Can be found in any grocery store catering to Puerto Ricans, Haitians, and/or Jamaicans)
3. Some kind of cheese, shredded
4. Canned tomatoes
5. One jalepeno
6. One habenero
7. Corn tortillas
8. Some kind of vegetarian "ground beef". I used Smart Ground Mexican Style seasoned veggie protein crumbles (Not gluten free!!)
9. Onion
10. Garlic
11. One bell pepper of your choice. I use orange and yellow because they supposedly have more vitamin C and it's winter, so we could all use some of that.

Directions:
Cook a package of yellow rice according to the directions. Add a can of pigeon peas and mix well. Eat that if you feel like. Then, to make the casserole, start by chopping an onion, mincing some garlic, and throwing it all in a pan with some olive oil. Add in peppers, let 'em cook, then add tomatoes and stew for a long time. Throw in some S&P or whatever you like, maybe a little Slap* if you have some and you're feeling saucy. Grease a casserole dish and line the bottom with tortillas, the same way you'd start assembling a dish of lasagna. Then throw in the rice, most of the sauce, and the fake meat and stir. Add cheese and another layer of tortillas, then top it with sauce and cheese, pizza style. Then cook the whole shebang in the oven at 350 for 30 mins or until it looks delicious. Let me know what you think.

*Slap refers to Slap Ya Mama, a cajun seasoning made in Ville Platte, Louisiana. We use the white pepper blend at home but there are three varieties. I first had it on a delicious burger at little bar in Iowa City called George's Buffet. If you ever find yourself in Iowa, don't miss it. The burgers come from cows down the street, or at least they did when I was there.

Best of 2011

Oh, dear readers, after five days in Istanbul, four days in Riyadh, a breakup, a bathroom remodel, and the release of Said the Gramophone's Best of 2011, there is simply so much to write about that I don't know where to begin!

I feel an intense need to bitch about how annoyed I am at being shocked by static each time I touch a doorknob in my office but, to spare you that rant, I will begin with my own favorite music of 2011 list. I know it's already January 3rd but I hope you'll forgive me for my tardiness. I spent the weekend doing yoga and cleaning the refrigerator.

DJ Jankstarr's Best of 2011

Albums and EPs


1. How Do You Do, Mayer Hawthorne
Mayer Hawthorne is such a doll, and may well eclipse Aloe Blacc and Raphael Saadiq to become the king of neo soul, or retro soul, depending on how you like to categorize things. The point is that these guys make new songs that sound like old songs but have their own kind of integrity. I loved many of the tracks on Hawthorne's first, A Strange Arrangement, and accompanying EPs, but I didn't take him seriously until now. This is an album with serious staying power that you want to listen to all the way through every time because every song rules. "No Strings" and "The Walk" are particular faves.

2. El Camino, The Black Keys
I think this is there best one yet. We've played it so much in the house, if it was a record, it would probably be ruined by now. "Little Black Submarines" is such a shout out to "Stairway to Heaven" and I love it.








3. W H O K I L L, Tune-Yards
I don't think I need to spend anymore time on this blog talking about how much I love Tune-Yards and I'm not the only one who's said Merrill Garbus is of the most creative artists of our time, perhaps the most.







4. Videogames, Lana Del Rey
This EP has four tracks: "Videogames", "Blue Jeans," and two remixes of "Videogames." I think the remixes suck but the first two songs are the best I've heard all year. Delightfully creepy and heart-wrenching. Del Rey's much anticipated full length album will be released in the UK later this month.

5. RYEot powRR, Rye Rye
I don't know if this really counts, because it's a mix tape, but the second half of it was the best things to happen to my workout routine this year. Starting with "Bang," her duet with M.I.A, it flows into a crowd bumpin' remix of Mylie Cyrus' "Party in the USA," (regular readers will remember this video) then her workings of Far East Movement's "Like a G6," and then a remix of Ciara's "Gimme Dat" in which Rye Rye, with attitude for days, raps:

I'm gonna break it down now/can you gimme dat sound now?/
I'm gonna put on my crown now/shake 'em down to the ground style/
Got 'em screamin' like ow ow/work it out like pow pow/
I'm gonna get it like CC/shakin' all my goodies

Honorable mentions:

1. Soul Time!, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
I love SJDK, a renowned leader in the retro/neo soul genre, and this has some gems on it but it's just nowhere as awesome as last year's I Learned the Hard Way. A lot of the best songs on this album have also already been released. Still, if you haven't yet, it's worth listening to for "Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects," and the totally funktastic "What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes?" which might be my favorite song of the year.

2. House of Balloons, The Weeknd
I know a lot of folks are listing this as one of their fave albums of the year. It's pretty darn good, and Abel Tesfaye is for sure going to go places (he's only 20!) but I don't love any of the other songs on his debut as much as "Loft Music" which samples Beach House and is perhaps the only song of 2011 I've played more than "Videogames."

3. 4, Beyonce
I don't love 4 as a whole but "1+1" and "Countdown" are pretty magical. I still can't believe the latter isn't all over the radio with it's addictive dance floor-ready refrain:

Me and my boo in my boo coupe riding/
All up in that black with his chick right beside him/
Ladies, if you love your man show him you the fliest/
Grind up on it, girl, show him how you ride it

Listen to it here.

4. Stone Rollin', Raphael Saadiq
Compared to the hits that this former Tony Toni Tone star churned out on his albums Instant Vintage and The Way I See It, this album is mostly meh but the super upbeat "Day Dreams" and the single "Good Man" are pretty solid.

When I look at the best of lists on the music blogs out there I realize there is so much I've missed. Please send me your fave links, tell me what you've been listening to. I have a lot of catching up to do!

I haven't heard it yet but Ty Segall wins my award for best album cover of the year for Goodbye Bread.