To the 5 Boroughs

I just picked up the new Beastie Boys album. It's a solid stripped back affair, leaning on old skool hip hop while riding recent trends. The first song indicates the influence of the Neptunes, and other tunes demonstrate their take on Missy and Timbaland's recent homages to the golden age of hip hop. Their voices belie their age, however, their vocal chords sounding a bit ragged. Still, it's amaizng they've been in the game as long as they have, producing good music.

A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisine

I just started this book, written by the guy who wrote Kitchen Confidential. After the success of that book, he convinced his publisher to send him around the world searching for the perfect meal. He starts in Portugal, where his Portuguese boss at Les Halles invites him to a family cookout where they slaughter and eat an entire pig, from snout to hoof. His travels take him to East Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Europe, and points in between, where he eats what he can. Throughout he's being filmed by the Food Network, where the cameramen are eating and vomiting along with him. He's a funny writer and already I can feel that I'll be hooked into reading this book well into the night.

Morrissey

I find myself sucked into the new Morrisey album these days. It's a decent album, reminiscent of his earlier work. It seems that there are a number of 80s artists who are re-emerging with albums that recall their prime. Ki.Hu was over and as she listened to the album she said she used to love one of the songs that was playing. I told her it was the new album. She was surprised, but it's not surprising. It's easy to like the familiar, and the new album is almost instantly familiar.

Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China

On the subject of museum shows, it appears that there is a new one at the ICP (unfortunately I missed the show on photographs from Iraq since I didn't have the time before leaving for the Middle East myself). This show purports to be "the first comprehensive look at the innovative photo and video art produced since the mid-1990s in China." Unfortunately the ICP site never seems to have a good sampling of what it has on offer. It's a shame, especially for those who can't make it all the way to New York. The exhibit is jointly presented with the Asia Society, with two sections at ICP and two sections at the Asia Society. I wonder if you have to buy two tickets? Looks like it's going to be a busy museum week for me next weekend . . .

August Sandler and Andy Goldsworthy

There's reason to go to the Met museum these days. Ch.Mo informed me that she had been to see the August Sandler exhibit at the museum. The photographs are taken from his project People of the Twentieth Century in which he attempted to create a comprehensive visual record of the German populace. I'm definitely going to see the show either this week or next. As an added bonus, there's a piece by British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy adorning the roof gallery. When in Cupertino I went to Palo Alto to see the wall he had built in front of the Stanford art museum, which was reminiscent of his work at Storm King (though the construction methods were very different). And I'm still waiting for Rivers and Tides to be released on DVD so I can finally see more of his work.

M*A*S*H* and MASH

When I was in Cupertino, I was starting to get into M*A*S*H* again. I had liked the show well enough when I was younger, but I was really getting into it at my aunt's house. It's just so smartly written at it's best. I was just thinking about the show and did a google search, and found a site where you can play MASH online. Not the tv show, but the mansion, apartment, shack, house game from elementary school! Oddly, there seem to be more categories than I remember . . .

Summer reading

I'm reading Kitchen Confidential these days, by the chef of Les Halles. It's a quick fun read (a friend lent it to me last night and I'm half done with it already) that I recommend to people who have been in the food industry or are vaguely curious about it. At times it reads like Less Than Zero or a Jay MacInerny novel from the other side of the bar at Odeon, at others he's laying down how it is. It's not an expose on the industry, really, which is how I think some people have fashioned it. It's more a cook telling you his side of the story and giving a glimpse into the kitchen, from his humble beginnings at Cape Cod fish fry joints to the big leagues of New York. Fascinating.

New music

I've been stocking up on new music since getting back. I finally got around to getting the new Madvillain album, Madvillainy, which is a collaboration between MF Doom and Madlib. I had first heard Madlib on his Shades of Blue album, where he was given the keys to the Blue Note records store. I was a little disappointed with the record, probably because I was expecting remixes of the hard bop sides. I've been relistening to Shades of Blue after checking out the Madvillain, however, to see what I was missing. I've also been listening to Quasimoto's The Unseen to round out the roots and influences, Q being a Madlib sideproject and character. I've also been spinning the new Prince album in preparation for seeing him in a month. The album starts in a funky groove and then mixes it up from there. I really only like about half of it, but I do like that half. And it's more than I can say for some of his other recent albums. Soon he'll be per4ming his hits 4 the last time with me in the audience. I can't wait! I picked up Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose after reading some good reviews. Produced by Jack White of the White Stripes, it sounds just like what one might expect, with the 60 year old Lynn singing sometimes over a country-fied garage groove, sometimes over more traditionally country arrangements. Rounding out this bunch would be the Street's new album A Grand Don't Come For Free. A single story spun out over its running time, I'm really into the spare beats and his casual flow. It makes me want to go back and listen to his first album, which I couldn't get into when it came out. I must have not been ready for it yet.

Photography exhibits in Los Angeles

This past week I caught two exhibits in Los Angeles. Both were excellent and excellently presented. The Getty is now offering the Photographers of Genius, a historical retrospective of photography presented through the work of 38 photographers. The exhibit celebrates the 20+ years over which the museum has amassed its colection of over 600 photographs. Unfortunately, the Diane Arbus exhibit at the LACMA has recently closed. If it comes to a museum near you it's well worth seeking out.

Carb Couture

Carb Couture looks like it's open for business and taking pre-orders. I'm getting me the shirt on the left. And yes, that's Jean on the home page. And yes, I did design the website. Though my friend Patty and her friends came up with the idea. So go and order some shirts! And apologies for being out of touch on this blog a little bit. I was travelling and posting on my text blog.

Spinning

I've been in a hip hop mood all of a sudden. Digging the last Non Prophets album Hope and the leaked Jaylib and MF Doom Are Madvillain album. The first has a nice laid back beat and solid production work by Joe Beats which reaches back towards an earlier era of hip hop. The latter is a series of cuts Jaylib had put on a mix tape to take to Brazil with him. The Madvillain album is out now and I'll have to get that soon. Rounding things out, I've been listening to Oval's 94 Diskont, a glitch electronic album with an ethereal initial 24 minute track that barely seems a song at all until it slowly reveals the music's patterns, and Nigasa Ni Te's Feel. The latter is a Japanese indie rock duo whose stripped back lo-fi album owes a bit to the Velvet Underground and Nick Drake.    

The Gates

On Feburary 12, 2005, Christo and Jean-Claude will launch their first project in New York City. 7500 gates, each 16 feet tall will follow the edges of the walkways and will be perpendicular to the selected 23 miles of footpaths in Central Park. Free hanging saffron colored fabric panels will be suspended from each of these gates, drooping to seven feet above the ground. The name comes from Frederick Law Ohlmstead's reference to the various arches already located throughout the park as "gates." I'm already trying to think of places above the park from which to take photographs. If there's a reason to stay in New York for another year, this would be it. Read more about the project here.

New music

O.K. I've been bad lately with updating this site. I'll try harder in the coming weeks. As far as recent music, I've been listening to Stars' Heart, Depeche Mode's Black Celebration, and Club 8's The friend I Once Had. At least those are the albums in heavy rotation. Lately, I've been having some trouble finding something else to listen to. The DM infatuation lingers, however. I actually rented 101 a week or two ago and was surprised how popular they really were. I also finally realized that the final concert was not in the Hollywood Bowl. For some reason it always played there in my mind. Stars is a somewhat twee indie rock band, and Club 8 are a poppy rock band where the lead singer bears a passing resemblance to Dolores O'Riordan.

New (and not so new) Music

Lately I find myself drawn to the electronic/rock mix of things. This time it started with the Morr Music compilation Blue Skied an' Clear, which then got me back into Ms. John Soda's No P. or D, mainly through the song "Solid Ground," which has a beautiful woody bass. Most recently, I picked up Lali Puna's new album Faking the Books, which starts off with a Radioheadesque sliced vocal sample over a song that has shades of Notwist in it. Rounding things out is Mum's Finally We Are No One. A friend was using "K/Half Noise" on the soundtrack of a project she was working on and I got sucked into the album itself.        

More penguin games

No. three here.

Weekly roundup

This week started with The Walkmen's Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone. Somehow this seems to fall into a similar Velvet Underground influenced rock that informs Interpol and, to a certain extent, The Strokes. I don't have their new album yet, but I'll probably get it sometime soon. Alirio Diaz's Five Centuries of Spanish Guitar Music is recorded by one of the masters of Spanish Guitar. Invited to become assistant and substitute for Andres Segovia in 1957, Diaz spent seven years working with the Spanish guitar master and sharpening his skills. Michel Legrand's score for Les Parapluies de Cherbourg bring back the movie with every note. As the entire film is sung, you could probably follow the entire plot without having seen the movie. If you could speak French. Salif Keita's Mouffou brings it back to his roots. The Malian singer combines African, jazz, funk, Europop, and R&B to fashion his own brand of Afro-Pop.       As far as singles are concerned, I'm listening to a lot of Vienna Teng's songs from her website. It's like a cross between Vanessa Carlton and October Project. Or something like that.

NY Songlines

Virtual walking tours of New York. (courtesy littlerabbit).

New Nickel

The U.S. mint is rolling out new nickels in addition to all the other new money that's coming out.

Spaced Penguin!

Try to get the penguin back to his ship. (courtesy littlefluffy).

Baa Baa black beats

Instead of counting sheep, let the sheep count the beats for you. You can also add keys and bass. I'm just happy with the drum and bass. I wish you could speed up the tempo . . . (courtesy to here knows when).