    "Eating, drinking and carrying on..." -- Adelaide Brennan
More Planxty. The clip I posted yesterday seems to have gone over well. In the event you haven't gone and found the rest of them yourself, here's an old black-and-white recording of the lads performing "The Blacksmith" for Gay Byrne on RTÉ's "Late Late Show" back in the '70s (as if you couldn't tell from the forty pounds of hair in the shot ...) Speaking of Planxty ... well, I don't think I've ever mentioned this, because I'm not generally one to toot my own horn (except for cooking contests and the like, heh), but last year Christy Moore asked me for permission to publish my review of one of the 2004 Planxty shows in Dublin on his website. Several breathless boggles later, here it is. There's very little about anything else I've ever written that's made me prouder and more honoured than this. Incidentally, last year Christy, deeply moved by the images he saw on TV coming from New Orleans, started ringing musicians and put on a benefit concert at Vicar Street in Dublin featuring himself and Declan Sinnott, Damien Rice, Mary Coughlan, his brother Luka Bloom and more, during which they performed "Louisiana 1927". I'd give anything to hear a recording of that show, and I'm gonna start looking for it today (don't know why I didn't before). If you've any leads please let me know! Six words. Ernest Hemingway once wrote a short story that he called his best work, and it was only six words long: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. It's amazing how much heartbreak can be conveyed in six words, and how it's not the six words that tell the story, but the story you build yourself, in your mind. There's a great bit in Wired magazine where they asked 33 science fiction, fantasy and horror writers to make their brief contributions. Here are a few favorites of mine:
I might try that myself, but I'm afraid it'd be lame. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Oh, but the IRS isn't political, no. The Internal Revenue Service has announced a delay in collecting back taxes from Katrina victims until after the November 7 election "to avoid negative publicity... four former I.R.S. commissioners, who served under presidents of both parties, said that doing so because of an election was improper and indefensible." Rotten, rotten people. The sheer heartlessness and lack of humanity of those on the right who are attacking Michael J. Fox and claiming he's "exaggerating" or "faking" or "acting" his horrible illness are beneath contempt, and are seriously pissing me off. Digby had a great post on this yesterday:
Oh, and Matt Lauer is an asshole, too. Wanna know the real reason the right wing hates Fox's commercial? 'Cause it works..
They have reason to be worried. Get rid of 'em. Dick Cheney, torturer. The vile, evil thug who is currently vice-president of the United States (and its de facto shadow president, for the most part) has declared that the United States indeed carries out torture on other human beings.
The White House, via Snow Job, of course denies that Cheney was confirming that we use torture. When asked if "a dunk in the water was a no-brainer if it could save lives," Cheney replied, "Well, it's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there I was criticized as being the vice president for torture. We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in." When asked to define "a dunk in the water," Snow Job replied, "It's a dunk in the water." And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I would make one brief exception in my otherwise unequivocal opposition to torture -- I'd like to see this "technique" applied to Mr. Cheney himself. I'll bet he'll change his mind in less than 14 seconds. Let us reiterate: Waterboarding is torture.
This is what waterboarding looks like. It is a war crime;
the Allies executed Japanese interrogators who used it on us during World War II. Meanwhile, Larry Wilkerson, Chief of Staff under former Secretary of State Colin Powell, says that from his on-the-job observations he believes that 35,000 people are in Bush's secret prisons, and that probably less than 5% have anything even remotely to do with BushCo's "War on Terror." Some of you may not be letting this into your heads, but thanks to this administration we are not The Good Guys anymore. Sadly, Walt Kelly's words have never been truer: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." [ Link to today's entries ]
He's alive. Me, that is. Sorry. I do enjoy doing this weblog, but sometimes I have to make sure I don't get burned out or, like now, sometimes I have to take a break to recharge my batteries. I haven't been feeling terribly inspired lately. I'm coming out of it, and I hope it'll pass completely soon. In better news, Emeril's Delmonico reopened in New Orleans last night. On August 6, 2005, 23 days before the flood, I had one of the best meals in recent memory at that restaurant. Everything was perfect -- the friends, their company, the atmosphere, the food, the service ... perfect. They had a hard time later on, especially with regards to gallons and gallons of liquified, putrified beef that poured forth from their dry-aging room after the power went out and stayed out. (They had to break up the foundation and remove a foot of topsoil to get rid of the smell, I heard.) The good news is that a lot of the old staff is back, since Emeril kept them on at Emeril's and NOLA, and Chef Shane is still running the kitchen. (And I hope he's still amenable to that all-pig dinner we talked about for the Fat Pack a couple of weeks before the flood.) They're doing dinner Tuesday through Saturday so far, and I'm already planning my reservation for my Christmas/New Year's trip home. Forget the worm. Mezcal has a bit of a bad reputation. I've heard it described as "rotgut tequila" (which is a description I'd say more accurately describes Cuervo Gold), but it's a close relative of tequila. In fact, tequila is just mezcal made in the Tequila region of Mexico, to certain standards; along the same lines, all Cognac is brandy but not all brandy is Cognac, unless it comes from the Cognac region of France. There's one major difference, though. Both spirits are made from the fruit of the agave plant (called a "piña" for its resemblance to a pineapple), and for both spirits the agave fruit is cooked to convert its starches to sugars, but in tequila-making the fruit is steamed and in mezcal-making it's roasted in a fire pit, giving the distillate a wonderful smokiness. There are some great mezcals out there, with price tags to match, such as the Don Maguey I was introduced to at Topolobampo in Chicago. A fine article in the San Francisco Chronicle today talks all about mezcal, including a new one made by the co-owner of the Hangar One distillery in Northern California that sounds fantastic. Give mezcal a try, I think you'll like it. But if you see a bug in the bottle, skip that brand. Music clip of the day. I've been going a bit mad for YouTube lately. I've been using it fairly often all along, it just never occurred to me to search for certain things, and lo and behold, they pop up, one after the other. There doesn't seem to be anything you can't get on YouTube. (I'm waiting for videotaped proof that Dick Cheney does indeed devour the flesh of live infants; if it shows up anywhere, it'll be on YouTube.) In the meantime, here's a clip of Planxty from 1980, during their second incarnation and with the original lineup of Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, Christy Moore and Liam O'Flynn, recorded at The Pavilion in Dún Laoire, Co. Dublin, performing a song called "The Jolly Beggar" followed by a reel called "The Wise Maid." Caffeiney tipples. Today's Los Angeles Times Food section is mostly about coffee and its delights, and is well worth a look. In particular, though, I wanted to call your attention to one particular article about coffee-based cocktails; it's not just Irish Coffee anymore.
Yum. There are recipes. (I'm not entirely sure yet, but I think that Rum-Coffee Meltaway, a rum, Heering and lemon bitters concotion on coffee rocks, is genius.) Quote of the day. Or the millennium, really.
The current regime is incredibly guilty of most of those, with a few differences ("science gutted by ideology" would better describe them). They'd do well to practice this, and preach it, as would we all. Then again, look what happened to the Mahatma ... Our delusional president. I only say "our" because we're stuck with the bastard for another two years, unless the impeachment hearings (and war crimes trials) he so richly deserves come to pass. Nicked from Atrios, here's Bush to his media sycophants:
Atrios: "[Actually,] a strong majority support getting out. But more than that, we weren't attacked by Iraq. "No wonder they hate us." Uncharacteristic post of the day. (From the I-Couldn't-Help-Myself Department, via Mary.) Okay, I never post stuff like this, I don't even pay attention to these kinds of current events, since for the most part I despise the cult of celebrity. This is some funny shit, though.
Liveblogging the Oprah / Madonna interview about her purchased-- er, adopted kid. [ Link to today's entries ]
"Your words are lies, sir." Welcome to Amerika, a country where now, if the President doesn't like you, he can have you declared an "enemy combatant," imprison you indefinitely at his pleasure, denying you the ability to challenge your detention in a court of law and even have you put to death based on hearsay evidence you're not allowed to examine... and that goes for American citizens, too. Here's Keith Olbermann's commentary. Watch the entire thing.
We get the first opportunity to change things in three weeks. Vote the Republicans out, and when the new Congress is sitting, demand investigations and hearings. Terr'r! Terr'r! Boo, scary! It's funny, ain't it? We've gone by for ... oh, what, two years now, without any kind of "terror alert," and now just three weeks before the election, DHS dutifully rolls out the FEAR FEAR FEAR! If this is their idea of an October surprise, it's pretty lame ...
Of course, they immediately disclaimed it as being "not credible," but do you broadcast every not-credible alleged threat all over the front pages, on CNN at via their buttboys at FOX? Idiots. We did this. Billmon wrote an astonishing post about his, yours and my complicity in what's being done in Iraq, after reading heartbreaking posts from an Iraqi blogger and what her life and country are now like.
Read every word. Make sure you follow the link to Riverbend's post to which he was referring, and read every word of that too. Then, if you're not ashamed of what we've done, I'd have to doubt your basic humanity. [ Link to today's entries ]
AWARD! AWARD! No, it wasn't a Major Award, merely a minor one, but a fun one nonetheless. On Sunday I entered a Macaroni and Cheese Cookoff, and I won! It was the second annual event, held by some friends of friends of ours, and I got an invite because last year I had provided the winning recipe to Steve (Chef Emeril's Maytag Blue Mac and Cheese). This year I got to compete myself, and won with a variation/refinement of the dish I made for Mary's birthday several months ago. (Hey, when you take something that's already good and then add whiskey and bacon to it, how can you go wrong?) From what we heard, it won by a landslide.
My prize? An Icebat! Tower's demise, LMF's boon? I'm sure you've heard about the death of Tower Records, which is a sad thing (but I must confess I haven't shopped at one in years, and I think you'd have to be nuts to pay $17.98 for a CD). There's a different way of looking at its effects on New Orleans, though ... via OffBeat:
This is good news for the Music Factory, my favorite record store and a local business that has become part of the culture of the city, and which must survive and thrive. But this is still bad news all around ... the NOLA Tower location had a superb local music section as well as a knowledgeable staff, and with its demise local music fans will have no where to shop for classical music (and most world music that isn't carried by LMF in their small section) other than online. (No idea what may still be available in Jefferson Parish, other than Barnes and Noble stores whose record sections are more or less an afterthought.) I'm glad to see the Mushroom is still around, too. I spent lots of money there in my younger days (and even more at the late, lamented Leisure Landing). Back to the Times article, hooray for our friend Dave, getting quoted and gettin' his name in da papuh! Of course, he suffered the standard peril of being quoted by a newspaper -- they took quotes out of context and edited what he said down so far that the article made him sound like little more than a miserly bargain hunter. (In fact, the quotes came from a forwarded email rather than an actual interview.) Dave would have loved the opportunity to be more positive, to talk about all the amazing music he'd purchased at Tower over the years, special memories like meeting The Boss at the Sunset store several years ago, and explaining his years-long, slow migration from Tower to Amoeba and why Amoeba knows how to do it better ... but alas. Fortunately I got to point that out here! [ Link to today's entries ]
Give peace a chance. Happy 66th Birthday, John Lennon! (And happy 31st to Sean.) War is over, if you want it. Ardent Spirits. The latest edition of Gary and Mardee Regan's newsletter is out, chock-full of good stuff -- pisco and asparagus (?!), links to recent Cocktailian columns (and I've been getting behind on that ... there's an ouzo-spiked Margarita, turning Scotch and Galliano into a gift from God, and wondering if we can keep the doctor away with an apple brandy a day), and much more. Dig in! The new threat is pronounced "NU-clee-er", you fool. So now North Korea has nukes, apparently. Josh Marshall explains why this didn't have to happen.
All you people who voted for Bush, or who voted to keep the Republicans in power, for that matter, whose of you who voted because you were afraid, because you had allowed Bush and his minions to manipulate your fear ... do you feel safer now? UPDATE: The nuke might have been a dud, or even a phony. That still doesn't negate the points made above. Keith Olbermann's audience up 69%. Since Olbermann began his series of five incendiary anti-Bush commentaries recently, the size of his viewing audience has increased dramatically.
Right-wing trolls have come onto this site and accused me of being a "Bush-hater," blithely and ignorantly ignoring the issues I had brought up. My extremely negative feelings toward Bush aren't personal (although with that smirk and that attitude I would undoubtedly despise him if I knew him personally). I despise him because of what he's done to this country, what he's done to this country's reputation, and because he's taken everything I've ever learned and felt about what's great about America and being American and perverted it, turned it on its head and made me ashamed of my country. This is why I share Olbermann's outrage. [ Link to today's entries ]
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