Janelle Monae, The Archandroid (2010, Rhapsody)
Media announcement: I cordially invite you to get down with Chuck Brodsky, Mose Allison, and Cohen & the Ghost in this week's Record Crate blog for 225 Magazine. I take a swipe at Tom Waits while I'm at it, mostly because it's fun.
The Huế-style vermicelli soup and bánh mì at Little Saigon (my friend Frank captures the scene rather well in this review) both corrected my drifting compass. We weren't sure if the waiter said there was pork butt or pork blood in the soup. Guess which it was!
The aroma was wonderful and the way those three jalapeño rings looked floating atop seemed almost spiritual placement, but really, it was only good in flavor and interesting in spectacle. A more adventurous array of ingredients will be difficult to find in this town, bur f'real, get the phở instead.
The bánh mì on the other hand... half of this mini-po-boy of pork and pickles and peppers will leave you in a state unable to rattle off those tongue-twister ingredients without drunkish giggling. $3 of perfect sandwich heaven.
The Archandroid is the bomb. The "Tightrope" video is like Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon reimagined by Prince in those years he was making art films. Or at least at the end, anyway.
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