House of Dioxin

those crocodiles that shoot lasers out of their eyes

If you're at all into jazz, swing or other Divaville Lounge types o' musical goodness, then you should definitely be checking out TCM on Wednesdays in July. Their showing movies that feature bands like Tommy Dorsey or Benny Goodman. The movies themselves aren't all that but it's great to see early footage of the bands. Plus, they're wrapping up the overnight w/ short films (which must have been one-reelers that ran before features) with all sorts of bands. Some I've heard of: Jimmy Dorsey, Jimmie Lunceford, Woody Herman. Some are less familiar: Larry Clinton, Freddie Rich, Vincent Lopez -- altho he had Betty Hutton on vocals. Plus there was one short that had a jam session with musicians including Lester Young, Harry Edison, Joe Jones, and Illinois Jacquet.
Can't wait to see what they've got for next week.

so far, i've experienced coldness and evil

I have to say that it somewhat offends my sensibilities that notorious freedom-hater Jesse Helms died earlier today on the 4th of July. On the other hand, other than suicide, we can't really choose the manner and timing of our deaths.

beer goes very good with beer

Another entry in the cool-things-which-don't-quite-exist-yet dept. (Durm division, this time): Fullsteam Beer. Hooray, local beer! Eat at Joe's has some more info. I must admit, I'm a bit alarmed by the idea of a pomegranate saison. But I'd at least try one in the spirit of local solidarity...

stay a while and listen

OMG! And other expressions of delight. Blizzard has announced Diablo 3. No release date yet but, hey, lotsa jobs available if you're a game developer.

dig your own grave and save

I should give up on speculating on future weeks of NFNS as I've been wrong every time. So, no, this was not the big redemption week for Adamski. More on that later. FN personality o' the week was Cat Cora. First challenge was to take a pic-a-nic basket w/ 6 ingredients and create a dish in 30 min. Everyone gets savory items except Aaron (still too boring for a nickname). The back half of the challenge is to describe the dishes on camera. Of course, all assume they will be describing their own dishes. Psych! In easily the most brutal (and brilliant) switch-up of the season, they all have to describe someone else's dish. In 90 seconds. Without being able to taste it first. Savage! Sure, it's mostly a giant "gotcha." But it also tests them to see if they've been learning, oh, anything, about confidently presenting to camera. First big surprise is Young Shane. He had good energy and nailed a lot of specifics. K-bot was okay but lapsed into generalities and mis-identified habañero compound butter as citrus compound butter. Adamski was also okay, altho he screwed up by sticking a big honkin' piece of cake in his mouth near the end of his time and losing his wrapup. Ro is now getting K-bot's critiques from a few weeks ago -- that she's reading as fake or forced on camera. Aaron was brutal. Used most of his time tasting and still couldn't come up with anything interesting to say. And, of course, Boring Jen was boring. Plus she kept calling udon noodles linguini. I think she managed to get thru w/o apologizing for anything but she gave not the slightest hint that she knew what she was talking about. Almost as bad as Nipa and the squid.
Since the challenge was all about description, they don't really spend any time telling us who made good or bad food. But it seems like everyone did a pretty good job.
(more below the cut)

it's so different from the wrrld i'm living in

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 29 jun 08)

Made in Dakar :: Orchestra Baobab
Wild Animals :: the Pinker Tones
Bokoor Beats :: various
Merengue Tipico from the Dominican Republic :: la India Canela
A Tribute to Gonzalo Asencio: Tio Tom, 1915-1991 :: Orlando "Puntillo" Rios y el Conjunto Todo Rumbero
Gal :: Gal Costa
Nigeria Rock Special :: various
Radio Myanmar :: various
Saracen :: Jef Stott
Bollywood Steel Guitar :: various

this week's video feature: Orchestra Baobab

the president's neck is missing

Hey, it's time for another installment in the never-ending series "stupid people saying stupid things" :: Noel Gallagher doesn't think Jay-Z should play Glastonbury. For those who just came in, Glastonbury is a big UK festival/concert, Jay-Z is a rapper/mogul/owner of the NJ Nets, and Noel Gallagher is guitarist for Oasis/wanker. I'm kinda surprised that: a) anyone in 2008 cares what Noel Gallagher thinks about, oh, anything; b) there are still people who cling to the delusion that guitar-based rock & roll is objectively superior to all other music; c) Joe Strummer hasn't risen from his grave to kick NG's ass.
BTW, if you thought NG's remarks were the height of wankery, I advise you to stay out of the comments thread where there are way too many people expressing some version of the belief that "they" should stay away from Glastonbury and keep "their" music in Brixton (that's in between their wounded bleatings about how dare anyone say that NG is being racist).
I need a drink.

they came to burgle carnegie hall

This just in: Devo suing McDonald's. Altho it doesn't show up in the Serious Eats comments, in other places I've been surprised by the number of people who don't seem to get that Devo have the right to sell or not sell their music (image, services, whatever) to who they want. And to not sell to people they don't want to. It's not like they gave up all rights of refusal when they first sold ad rights to anyone. Casale really does have the money quote: "plus, we don't like McDonald's." That's all they have to say. Their not required to have a deeply philosophical or political rationale for who they do or don't want to license to.
And anyway, McDonald's is just ripping them off. I hope they get into them for some major cash.