Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, originally uploaded by real_voodooboy.

From the front

Passion fruit snowball with condensed milk, Ninja Snowballs

A most satisfactory snowball, though I told them next time I want to be confronted with a flavor that makes me go "I dunno about this..." like something with jalapeño in it, or hummus. Gazpacho perhaps... and they promised to name it after me. I can think of no greater legacy to have than an unpalatable frozen treat dubbed "The Cook Ball."

A roving snowball stand is a brilliant idea in the spirit of the Koji Taco truck in L.A. Follow it on Twitter, @NinjaSnowballs, to find out where it is located for the day.

Currently Reading: The World That Made New Orleans by Ned Sublette

per my GoodReads update:

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette

My review

Wow, the discussions about the semiotics of the street names in the first pages is blowing my mind. Genius


View all my reviews.

but also shaking different literary foundations is that I am reading it on the Kindle app for the iPhone, which I totally get now. I still think the Kindle device is a bit myopic in what it does, but the ebook experience so far is quite satisfactory.

straight against the mack

I half-wish Beck had followed through on his notion of making a full album-remake of Digital Underground's Sex Packets, an album that I have probably listened to more times than this one mostly because it was the default tape in my girlfriend's car for about a year way back when, and partly because it is unto itself awesome. I don't know if its more awesome than The Velvet Underground & Nico - ok, I do know, it isn't - but I can recite a greater percentage of "The Humpty Dance" than I can "Venus in Furs" if that's a measure of anything.

5 things about the non-musical aspects of writing about music

1. Publicists' emails are going to be overexcited by nature, but I get enough of them to notice the short time differential between when they arrive in my inbox and when they get mildly re-shuffled (sometimes) and re-posted on four or five blogs to which I subscribe. I don't really mind this, but the least these blogs can do is try to shade the message with a thin critical layer rather than transparently display it. Or be funny about it, or something. It's not that hard unless, of course, you are reporting on music about which nothing all that meaningful can be said, or so much of it that you don't really get to know anything.
   
2. The excited retelling of lineages of bands about which you might not care (yet, if ever) that is a tiresome yet helpful part of bloated PR copy but tends to clogs up the message on the public side makes me glaze over, and I just figured out why. It reminds me of when sports fans go in deep about players in college football; the game gets eclipsed by tales of where players to high school and what coaches they played under and what deals they are about to sign. I recognize that as a sports non-fan I am missing the gold to mined out of this particular stream, but er, wouldn't y'all rather watch the game?
3. I'm not so sure I would that ardently lament the disintegration of a holistically shared musical landscape that the Internet has the potential of bringing, allowing the rise of micro-niches and regionalism, making cultural experiences seem a little more exotic when explored. It would be like if off every exit, there was the chance of their being a Dutch windmill or the worlds largest shoe store or an Armenian flea market instead of another Bed, Bath and Beyond.
   
4. I used to treasure my collection 3000+ albums, countless tapes, 800 8-track's and a burgeoning collection of reel-to-reel tapes and now my CD's are in bags in a closet and I have 3 actual vinyl records, one of which is in a frame because it was signed by John Cage. I don't miss vinyl a bit, and CD's seem almost as cumbersome. In fact the whole "putting music on my iPhone via iTunes" seems quaint compared to Rhapsody and lala and what someone recently described as "the browser as iPod." Granted, services like these create uncomfortable dependencies that will no doubt be one day exploited, but for now, using them feels as freeing as eschewing a house full of books in trade for judicious library practices did years ago. Having everything at my disposal has made my listening habits a little more flighty and fickle, but then, that was also the main point of my having 3000 albums way back then. The other point was to gaze at them lovingly like a snowglobe collector might gaze drowsily over their crowded fireplace mantle, and that I don't miss a bit either.
   
5. I don't get too worked up about writing gigs not paying what they used to, or that the critical field is being infiltrated by self-appointed authorities, being one myself. The creative aspects of my life never struck me as monetary goldmines, rather as things that were borne of the privilege of making enough money elsewhere. I'd rather work for my art than make my art pay for me, I suppose. That is not saying I don't appreciate those freelance checks and the perks of being a semi-recognized music writer when I can get them, but I would still most likely be writing about music even if they dried up.
   

the morning will be confronted in red instead of being suffered in blue

Plastic Crimewave Sound - s/t (listen)

The Pasture a.We Know b. Dead ...

Suicide - Why Be Blue? (listen)

Universe - Suicide

Gang of Four - Entertainment! (listen)

Glass - Gang Of Four

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours (via OngakuBaka)



and, not to put too fine a point on it, King Crimson's "Red"

Moonflower, crepe myrtle, sunflower