House of Dioxin

everything in the world is derived from grilled cheese sandwiches

This ran back in December, during the height of pre-holiday baking madness, but it's still worth checking out -- a state of the cookie roundtable from Slate. Participating were food writer Sara Dickerman, Dorie Greenspan (baker, author, and one of my personal baking gurus), and former pastry chef David Lebovitz, whose blog may have been the first place I ever read about bacon ice cream. Lots of interesting conversations about exactly how you define a cookie (this might strike you as a silly question but it's hard to come up with something -- sweet? round? contains butter? -- where there aren't lots of things which don't fit the description yet are still obviously cookies) , what makes a cookie uniquely American, childhood favorites, and possible future trends. I share their disdain for over-sized cookies which are too easy to underbake plus just too damn big to eat in one go. Then you're left with a half-eaten cookie that you've got to find a way to store until you can finish it later.

someone has to play the part of eccentric patron

Now, no one likes snark as much as I do. Well, there are probably a few people but whatever... But there's definitely such a thing as unearned snark and this article from yesterday's NYTimes is a classic example. In just over 1200 words, he dope-slaps: downtown hipster bars, drunk account execs, cigar bars, puns, Steve Miller Band, Interpol, designer sneakers, John Varvatos, soul patches, brushed nickel appliances (huh?), puns, theme bars, happy hour, publicists, the Lower East Side, the Upper East Side, getting gifts from your parents, Carl Bernstein, licorice, Sambuca, hand-rolled cigarettes, key parties, earrings for men (what? is it 1979 again?), tattoos for women (note: men w/ tattoos apparently still OK), pole-dancing aerobics, TMI blogging (probably all blogging implicitly), stoner culture, Williamsburg, Chuck Norris, RPGs, the entire internet, and newspaper trend stories. Oh, and absinthe, dissing which was the point of the article. Not that many of these things don't invite ridicule but, yeah, okay, I get it. He hates everything. From his lofty perch as a NYTimes free-lancer. Talk about unearned sophistication.
(and now I've bitched about it in a blog which completes the circle of pointlessness)
(or would, if I was drinking absinthe while I wrote this)
(note: I was going to point out that the NYTimes tends to bury this kind of stupidity in the less-read Saturday edition but that's a print edition distinction that doesn't have much meaning in the online version)

it really doesn't matter where you put your wrrld

XDU wrrld music top 10 (year ending 31 dec 08)

Venus on Earth :: Dengue Fever
Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump - Original Heavyweight Afrobeat, Highlife and Afro-Funk :: various
Super Afro Soul :: Orlando Julius
Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru :: various
Nigeria Disco Funk Special: the Sound of the Underground Lagos Dancefloor, 1974-1979 :: various
Sprechen Sie Pop? :: various
New York City :: Brazilian Girls
Funky Nassau: the Compass Point Story, 1980-1986 :: various
Calypsoul 70: Caribbean Soul and Calypso Crossover :: various
Sonantes :: Sonantes

So world music at XDU was down by percentage from last year (21% for 2008 vs. about 30% in 2007) but much better at the top. Five of the overall top 10 at the station were world CDs and that's pretty cool. As you can see, it was an afrobeatastic year.
I'll be hosting Mondo Mundo next Saturday, 1/10, from 1-3pm and spinning some stuff from the top 100 plus some more of my faves from 08.

why is the neurons are gone?

And following up on yesterday's followup, here's a whole blog dedicated to dropping oddball things on New Year's Eve. Not only that, but it's local. He notes the walleye and the sausage and has an excellent feature on the Mt. Olive pickle drop.
...good times, indeed...

penguins smoking cigarettes

Following up on last night's post, here's a story from Ohio about different and interesting things being dropped to celebrate New Year's. The giant electric sausage is weird and Mad Anthony Wayne bears a disconcerting resemblence to Buster the beleagured crash test dummy from Mythbusters. But the giant walleye is mad impressive.

Also on the holiday close-out front, here's a tragic tale of pickles at the holiday season.

which is it going to be, love or gin?

Long-time readers of (and/or sufferers thru) this blog will recall my fondness for New Year's celebrations which involve dropping oddball giant objects like peeps or pickles or acorns or whatever. Didn't hear about any new advances on that front, but (altho sadly I'm a bit late with this post for Chanukah) in semi-related news of holiday celebrations using unconventional materials, here is a marvelous thing indeed -- a 15-foot menorah made of kosher salami. Meatastic!

Merry New Year, y'all.

your song still needs a chorus

Here's part 2 of the 08 faves mix. If nothing else, listening to all this gave me a way of getting the brain worm that is "the Bad Horse Song" out of my head for a few hours. Damn AV Club for reviewing the Dr. Horrible DVD.

SI SE PUEDE (part 2)
01. "killa soundboy" :: Fort Knox Five [w/ Sleepy Wonder & Zeebo] (from Radio Free D.C.)

02. "move" :: Q-Tip (from the Renaissance)

03. "enladeirada" :: 3 Na Massa [w/ Thalma De Freitas] (from 3 Na Massa)

04. "tchiribin" :: Watcha Clan (from Diaspora Hi-Fi)

05. "samba machine" :: Kassin+2 (from Futurismo)

06. "nouveau americain" :: Brazilian Girls (from New York City)

07. "looks like to kill" :: Sonantes (from Sonantes)

08. "quique" :: Cordero (from De Donde Eres)

09. "pebble to a pearl" :: Nikka Costa (from Pebble to a Pearl)

10. "panj bindiyaan" :: Ominous DJs (from DJ Rekha presents: Basement Bhangra - VA)

11. "harampa rija" :: Cankisou (from Le La)

12. "hollaback girl of constant sorrow" :: DJ Erb (www.djerb.net)

13. "end of the road" :: Tom Jones and Jools Holland (from Tom Jones & Jools Holland)

14. "this will never end" :: All Girl Summer Fun Band (from Looking Into It)

these beats are twenty years old

End of year = fave music mixes. I started pulling mine together tonight. Right now it's looking like it'll wind up being 3 CDs worth. Interestingly, when I went back to look at the 2007 mixes, I ended up editing them down from 4 discs to 2 discs worth of stuff. That probably tells us something about perspective and distance and staying power. Or some such profound-osities like that there.

SI SE PUEDE (part 1)
01. "strange overtones" :: Brian Eno & David Byrne (from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)

02. "fulero" :: Zuco 103 (from After the Carnaval)

03. "the whistling song" :: the Pinker Tones (from Wild Animals)

04. "rag mop" :: the Ames Brothers w/ the Roy Ross Orchestra (from Cookin': Choice Cuts from the Famous Fifties - VA)

05. "policia" :: Pistolera (from En Este Camino)

06. "here sat i (off jumps the don)" :: Don Cavalli (from Cryland)

07. "maraou oran" :: Toumast (from Ishumar)

08. "beni beni" :: Niyaz (from Nine Heavens)

09. "bob" :: Otto (from What's Happening in Pernambuco - VA)

10. "medina stepper" :: Jef Stott (from Saracen)

11. "tanta pena" :: Juno Reactor (from Gods and Monsters)

12. "barvoslepej svet" :: Gipsy.cz (from Reprezent)

13. "game set and match" :: the Herbaliser [w/ More or Les] (from Same As It Never Was)