Just so you know, the annual thing where I comment on the music I got during the year is in the works. This year I am definitely well over 100 albums. If you are unfamiliar with it, I will do a sentence or sometimes a paragraph and sometimes a rant for each one. BE AFRAID. Seriously, I love talking about that stuff.

Also I love this song. I don't know why it took me forever to warm up to this album.

Also I will be posting... again... today. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

Until such time as someone jams music down my throat... I will continue providing that as a service to others.

I would also accept a link to an active full album mp3 blog as good as gyeeker.
http://gyeeker.blogspot.com/

I am getting rid of a clothes rack on wheels. It's not fancy. If you want it let me know. FREE!

I think the Buddhist house cleaning thing is starting again.

The Education of a Very Young Madam by Ma-Ling Lee


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ma-Ling Lee's memoir from her early life as a black market Korean orphan, her early years as a runaway, starting her first brothel at the tender age of 16, and subsequently running a successful brothel in New Jersey. Mostly this is about her road to being a madame, including a string of abusive boyfriends. Typical passages there would include things like 'I was really in love with him' and then paragraphs or pages later, the guy would be stalking her/screwing her over/beating her/having sex with her BFF in front of her/stealing her money. The most interesting portions of the book are about the business of running an illegal business. It also includes the handbook that she handed out to employees. THAT STUFF IS PRICELESS. A real page turner, but I doubt I would read this twice. Very quick read.

Not pornographic overall, but prurient in places, and definitely too much sex and drug use for the kids. On the other hand, this does NOT come off as a great life. Sure there's cash, but people end up dead, nobody seems happy, and very few people get away from 'the life' unscathed. It is also abundantly clear that the author doesn't like either prostitutes or johns as people. She likes business. And cash.

There's definitely echoes of 'The Great Happiness Space' in the author's emotional life. ( Documentary about Japanese host clubs: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493420/plot... )

Also I have to wonder:

A. If there is sexual abuse in her history that she's glossing over.
B. HOW MUCH OF THIS IS REAL? I am dubious. Some of it? All of it? None of it?

Worth noting this is available for about a penny from Amazon.

View all my reviews >>

Happy Birthday or Whatever: Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters by Annie Choi


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Essays about Annie Choi's life growing up in a loving but dysfunctional Korean American family. This is not a bad book. As memoirs go, it isn't a great one either.

The funny parts are not as funny as Shalom Auslander's Foreskin's Lament. The quality and selection of the funny/neurotic parts varies too much. The family stuff isn't as deep as Amy Tan. When you put it up against something like Angela's Ashes that has both in spades? It comes up sorely lacking. Granted, I don't think Choi set out to make this deep, just funny and thoughtful.

I feel bad about saying it because this is the author's life, and I feel like if we met, I would like her. She has the kind of bold personality that I look for in a friend, and she's clearly OK with making fun of her own more embarrassing moments and just being herself.

All of that being said, I did enjoy the book, and laughed more than once. I don't regret reading it. I don't think I would reread it though.

View all my reviews >>

There are (at least) two things worth mentioning that are going on when I'm out of town:

Oct 17 Orphee/La Belle et la Bete, NW Film Center
Oct 23/24 Blitzen Trapper, Doug Fir

The Joy of Mixology: The Consummate Guide to the Bartender's Craft by Gary Regan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Thoughtfully written cocktail book that divides drinks into related families, giving the reader a framework to create new drinks. History of mixed drinks, Prohibition, and instruction/description on barware, glassware, garnishing, and drink recipes.

The most useful section of the book is the chart of drink families. The families give you a structure to make drinks that aren't in this book or any book. I also found the section on Prohibition to be evocative. I knew about how booze made its way into the country and was how it was made in the country at the time, but not really how people drank it.

There is no attempt to index the drinks by primary or secondary ingredients. If you look at the charts, it's not a problem to find a drink by spirit (gin, vodka, etc.) If you know one of the secondary ingredients but not the name of a drink or if you want to know how other people have combined a secondary ingredient? FORGET IT. You just have to flip through the book. You can use the internet to get around most of that, but really, there's no reason this couldn't have a better index.

It would be nice to have a secondary grouping of drinks by flavor (drinks that are fruity, drinks that are savory, drinks that are nutty, etc.) I could enjoy drinking 'international sours' for a long time, but sometimes I just want something LEMONY. I want to know how to make something new, but I also want to be able to see what is already there. You can't neccessarily do that quickly with the book. Depending on what you are looking for, sometimes the families of drinks will help you find a drink, and sometimes not.

The book also does not teach you how to think about how and why drinks go horribly wrong and how they can be fixed or adjusted (which could be taught.) That is not something that has to be in the book, and I will not fault it for that.

So to recap... the focus is how to MAKE your own drink, but not to neccessarily FIND an existing drink. I would recommend the book. But I hope it will be released someday in digital format or rereleased with a better index.

View all my reviews >>

If you don't know about NPR's first listens, you probably should. I always space out about it until I listen to All Songs podcasts, and by then it is generally way too late to take advantage of it.

Until Tuesday there are upcoming Lou Barlow, Roseanne Cash, and Noah and the Whale albums. After that, you get the new Flaming Lips.

I like music, if you didn't know. Enough so that I think I need multiple headphones, I have more than one on my Amazon wishlist that I think I need to get, and am wondering what other people like me do for headphone storage. THERE ARE HEADPHONES ON THE WAY RIGHT NOW ON A UPS TRUCK OR PLANE OR SOMETHING. I AM A NUT, OK?

Also advice on headphones is one of two areas where you should not trust dp. The other one is CHINESE FOOD.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98679384

It's a picture of someone taking a picture of a chinchilla at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. Chinchillas are so amazingly cute, not even I can resist them.

There are times when the word 'knitted hat' totally fails to describe the awesomeness involved.

Witness the following:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloudberry72/2924941863/in/set-72157605044253011/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloudberry72/3089673069/in/set-72157605044253011/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloudberry72/3233081901/in/set-72157605044253011/

I am probably going to go see this when it comes out. It is actually one of my favorite books. I think they should have let Ewan do the English accent. Because it's better than the American one here. Also the reporter who wrote this (Jon Ronson) is English.

The book has that fascinating, funny, and kind of creepy quality that a lot of This American Life episodes have. Also, it's all true. YOU CAN'T MAKE UP CRAP THIS GOOD. In any case, I will let you borrow the book if you want to, and I see you semiregularly. If not, get it from the library.



PS I'M FINE. Thanks for asking.

That was the LAST thing you were expecting from me.

Guimauve hat

I think I like this, but I'm not sure it's me. I'm not ready for the hippie beret. It's also too big despite the fact that it is knit to gauge? May be reknit later. I like this yarn. (Thanks C!)
( Read more... )

You didn't think I had a post backlog... but I do!

Cinematic Titanic - "Danger on Tiki Island" - Newmark Theater - 2009-05-30

The crew from MST3K - Joel (uh, Joel?), Trace (Dr. F, Crow), Mary Jo (Pearl), J. Elvis (Crow), and Frank (TV's FRANK!!!): warmup (standup), movie/riffing, and signing.

( Read more... )

( Cool theme songs...or the coolest theme songs? )

D. told me my personal theme is 'Hot Freaks' by GBV, about 15 years or so ago. I think that's because I'm kind of cool, but I kind of don't make sense.

I spent a bunch of my day trying to export playlists and track down music produced by Germinal Tenas...

( Songs produced by Germinal Tenas )

The following isn't by Tenas



The amazing surf-type guitar... I want to wake up to that... it's 'sampled' from a song called In the Past by We the People.

DUNGEN NEXT WEEK (TUESDAY) AT BERBATI'S PAN. I WILL NOT MISS IT.

Today, Cat Power at Edgefield. Almost too tired... almost.

kthxbye

Seen today on Glisan near the 205/84 entrance: two lady bikers, one with the OR license plate THELMA and the other with LOUISE. Though it was not exact, it was in license plate-eze. I wish I had taken a picture. I will if I see them again.

casadetodd, if you see them first, take a picture of them for me.

Also, both weekend shows:
Oct 2 Datarock at Holocene with my friends. The only reason I wouldn't go is if I decide I don't like them by October. (I am more in the 'I barely know them' phase.)

Oct 23 and Oct 24 Blitzen Trapper at Doug Fir. I can't tell you how proud I am of Erik M., but I can tell you I don't see his band enough. Probably I will only go to one of two nights.

For iconoclastastic-

There is a short but wonderful acoustic live set from the Vaselines at the KEXP live podcast. It has Rory and all three songs that were covered by Nirvana.

Streaming here http://www.kexp.org/live/liveperformance.aspx?rID=29734
mp3 here http://feeds.kexp.org/kexp/liveperformances?format=xml (control f is your friend)

For willie_randolph-

Petra Haden does a really excellent cover of Journey's Don't Stop Believin' which you can find amongst other good things (such as Jenny Owen Youngs' version of Hot in Herre, which I was totally obsessed with for a while) in an episode of the podcast Coverville linked below. I know it must be excellent because normally I hate arranged acapella music. With a white hot rage. I am sure it is probably elsewhere on the internet as well.

http://www.coverville.com/archives/2007/12/coverville_405_1.html

For the rest of you, I don't know if you know this, but traditionally I do my laundry on Friday, and I sing 'It's Friday night, it's laundry night, oh what a night' to myself EVERY TIME. I know you are fascinated.

Also I forgot to mention:
Pretenders, Cat Power, Juliette Lewis, Edgefield, Aug. 25
Pixies (Doolittle live) Holt Center, Eugene, Nov. 14

I will actually be buying tickets when I get paid. I am sure we will have two extra seats in the car for the Pixies.

Also, wasp spray: neurotoxin, cheaper than pepper spray. Better range. Also good for killing non wasp insects from far away.