Friday, December 30, 2011

Joey Gee El

Perhaps JGL's recent movie work has overshadowed a certain venture of his, hitRECord, which is an honestly straight-forward attempt at connecting artists to collaborate.

After perusing the site a bit, I find the venture to be quite commendable. And from the looks of the some of the videos JGL has posted on the site and on his blog, he seems to be quite passionate about the idea. Good for him.

Here's a NYTMag piece about one of the "records" that was capitalized.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Touch of Evil

New York Times Magazine recently produced a series of classic, spooky vignettes featuring A-list actors/actresses (Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Ryan Gosling, Gary Oldman, etc.). The "cinematic villainy from the year's best performers" is worth checking out, if you haven't already. CLICK CLICK CLICK.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

It Really Does Require Paradise

Shit Burger? The following is an interesting intrigue about burgers.

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"A few years ago, I decided that it would be interesting to make a cheeseburger from scratch. Not just regular “from scratch,” but really from scratch. Like, I’d make the buns, I’d make the mustard, I’d grow the tomatoes, I’d grow the lettuce, I’d grow the onion, I’d grind the beef, make the cheese, etc.

It didn’t happen that summer, by the following summer, my wife and I had built a new house, started raising chickens, and established a pretty good-sized garden. I realized that my prior plan hadn’t been ambitious enough—that wasn’t really from scratch. In fact, to make the buns, I’d need to grind my own wheat, collect my own eggs, and make my own butter. And I’d really need to raise the cow myself (or sheep, and make lamb burgers), mine or extract from seawater my own salt, grow my own mustard plant, etc. This past summer, revisiting the idea, I realized yet again that I was insufficiently ambitious. I’d really need to plant and harvest the wheat, raise a cow to produce the milk for the butter, raise another cow to slaughter for its rennet to make the cheese, and personally slaughter and process the cow or sheep. At this point I was thinking that this might all add up to an interesting book, and started to consider seriously the undertaking.

Further reflection revealed that it’s quite impractical—nearly impossible—to make a cheeseburger from scratch. Tomatoes are in season in the late summer. Lettuce is in season in spring and fall. Large mammals are slaughtered in early winter. The process of making such a burger would take nearly a year, and would inherently involve omitting some core cheeseburger ingredients. It would be wildly expensive—requiring a trio of cows—and demand many acres of land. There’s just no sense in it.

A cheeseburger cannot exist outside of a highly developed, post-agrarian society. It requires a complex interaction between a handful of vendors—in all likelihood, a couple of dozen—and the ability to ship ingredients vast distances while keeping them fresh. The cheeseburger couldn’t have existed until nearly a century ago as, indeed, it did not."

Taken from this blog.

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I've said, on a handful of occasions, that I would be fine giving up beef and all other meats, 'cept for pork. In such a venture, burgers would be the only thing I truly missed. And I know there are other types of burgers besides beef, but I'm talkin' a good beef patty. In recent years, I've been intrigued by the "boutique-ing" of burgers. I feel I've been to a handful of cafes, restaurants that take the burger so seriously that they ruin the burger. The patty is too thick; the bun too creative; the toppings too absurd; the lettuce too overwhelmingly ridiculous; the presentation too inventive. These are the types of places where almost everyone leaves saying "oh yea, mmmhm, oh yea," and the few who don't go post highly self-righteous reviews online. (Perhaps they do both?) I'm not entirely sure I've ever left such a place without feeling deeply apathetic.

In contrary to the article above, the burger is quite simple, and (like many things in the modern world) depreciates as you try to 'church' it up. McDonalds holds a probable monopoly on our generation's perception of the burger, contrasted with the homemade-backyard-dad variety (why do all dads create meatballs when they mean to create burger patties?). Five Guys has an oddly respectable model that only falls short in its apparent lack of sustaining local ingredients. Diners typically do burgers better than cafes, and cafes better than restaurants. Sports venues are hit or miss. And sometimes the fine dining gets them right, mainly based on the quality of meat (I've heard Lugar's is great, never had it). It's brunch that's truly guilty of this boutique escapade.

Who do we talk to, to cease this charade of piling, masquerading as improvements on such an absurdist idea of a sandwich? It reminds me of a line from one of the greatest comedy films of all time, in which Cleveland Indians Manager Lou Brown says, "...we ought to hang around for a while and see if we can give 'em all a nice big shit burger to eat!"

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Keplancholia

I was sitting around a day or so after having seen Melancholia and Emily says to me, "they discovered a new planet."

"Ha," I thought, "what a clever little joke..." but she insisted. "Are they calling it 'Melancholia,' I asked. "No, it's called Kepler-22b... or something," she said.

Odd, I thought. And it got me thinkin...

Will...



become...



?

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Two Turntables and a Microphone?

I saw these guys over the summer and was absolutely blown away by their pickin', their singin', and their absolute embodiment of truly American music. Enjoy!

Chris Thile & Michael Daves

Friday, December 9, 2011

The Armpit Collection XL: I Know



A man whose work is ripe for exploration. Shepp has a deliciously broad approach to musical form, though his tone and sentiment is singular. A Sea of Faces illustrates this characterization very well.

Here's a great piece about Shepp's life and work.










"I did learn to accept whatever my limitations are..."

"I think of myself mostly as a man."

"Music is an intelligent pursuit."

"I really am bitter."

Friday, December 2, 2011

PJ20



I've honestly watched this documentary three times in the last week. Cameron Crowe put together an excellent mix of interviews, shows, and behind-the-scenes footage. This brought back a lot of middle school era nostalgia, rocking out to my Pearl Jam tapes. What are middle schoolers doing these days, besides taking naked pictures of themselves with their cell phones?! If you haven't had a chance to see PJ20 yet, even if they aren't you favorite band in the world, I highly recommend you do so soon.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

I'm not playing with you . . .



Last weekend, I was quite excited to find The Great American Rock Band on the front page of nytimes.com. Fugazi has spent the last few years cataloguing their entire history of live performance — almost every show from the first to the last is on tape. Today marks the launch.

Given the excitement most of my household shared in the announcement, our conversation inevitably turned to Bono and straight-from-the-ass hogwash. "Sometimes, nice guys don't where white," I told her. "This party is not for sale."


And just a few weeks earlier, I stumbled across an even stranger thing (scroll a few blocks down). Some is fun, some is dumb (the rhythm section has been all but dismantled), but it'll surely grab the attention of any proud-to-be-punk-ass from the 1990s.