One wok and one vintage purple couch (which is already Edie's favorite scratch-toy) later, I'm back in business--the place is starting to feel a little homier. Baked a squash, stir-fried some veggies from the place down the block with Prof. Andy Smith's Secret Ingredient, boom I've got dominion over the stove.
Also bought two very strong reminders that the year is not over until it is ovah, best-wise. Number one: the Rapture's You Are Here, apparently a bootleg of the mix they did for BBC Radio, which kicks their own album up and down the block (and I sort of like their own album). Does Max Pask's "Stupido" really sound like that? Why doesn't all music sound like the B-52s' "Mesopotamia"? How have I managed to not hear Frankie Smith's "Double Dutch Bus" until now? Will Special Ed get into heaven on the strength of "I Got It Made" alone? (Answer to that last one: yes. At a Prince Paul show I went to a few years ago, he pointed the mic at the audience for all 17 rhymes with "made" near the end of it, and they remembered every one ("and when my dishes got dirty I got--" "CASCADE!").
Number two: Goodbye, Babylon, which, uh, WOW. I'd say something stronger than WOW, but it would not be in keeping with the spirit of the thing: an alchemically potent collection of Southern gospel from 1902 to 1960 (but mostly ca. 1929-1935), organized for theme and flow rather than for history or category. Aims very high; does not miss. At all.
Posted by Douglas at December 17, 2003 12:09 AMEven among the products of obsessive people, Goodbye, Babylon looks like a huge effort. I was going to say that the website was light on product description, but I suppose you don't have to with that kind of press coverage.
May they play it during Saddam's psychological torture. Somebody, play it for me first... Douglas?
Posted by: Rob on December 20, 2003 9:40 PMMore on the secret ingedient theme:
A few years ago, a Gujarati friend of mine, whose family has been living in the U.S. since he was maybe 12 or so, asked his mother to teach him how to make dal. She gave him very careful directions, and he tried following them at home.
Got good dal, but not exactly perfect. So he called her up. "Do you really want to learn how to make it just the way you like it?" Mmmmm-hmmm.... well, turns out the key was to stir in a couple spoonfuls of ketchup, at the very end...
Posted by: Elizabeth on December 23, 2003 11:42 PMAny chance I could copy your Rapture bootleg.. I've been searching all over for it, seems the limited 200 prints are gone :(
cheers,
Max