Drinking whiskey clear!
From the home office in London, here’s this week’s list of Top 10 songs!
1) Lana del Rey – “Video Games”
2) Marsheaux – “Pure”
3) Marsheaux – “The Promise”
4) Nina Gordon – “Straight Outta Compton”
5) Marsheaux – “Summer”
6) Marsheaux – “Stand By”
7) Marsheaux – “Destroy Me”
8) Joy Division – “Disorder”
9) Freezepop – “Pop Music is Not a Crime”
10) Marsheaux – “Faith”
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I’d never even heard of the Greek electropop band Marsheaux until the middle of last November. But since then I’ve listened to them 304 times according to Last.fm, an average of five songs a day. Heck, I’ve even become one of their “top listeners” on Last.fm:
So… what’s the appeal? Well opinions about music vary, of course. But if you’re a fan of female-led, throwback 80s electropop, Marsheaux is Leonardo Da Vinci, Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan and Albert Einstein all rolled in to one. Check out “Summer”, the track that initially caught my ear:
Beats, beauty, atmosphere… it’s all there! The music… almost seems like a musical security blanket. Or a pair of comfy slippers. Or a favorite old sweater. Or a hot bowl of chili on a cold winter’s night (substitute your favorite soup as needed). Check out this tune, “Stand By”, also from the album Lumineux Noir:
Cool, hip, beautiful… what more is there to say? The band also does a few covers, too. Here’s their version of When In Rome’s “The Promise”:
Here’s one last tune, an older song of theirs called “Dream of a Disco”, which sounds like a beautiful, updated Flock of Seagulls:
The band, whose name comes from the first syllables of the band member’s names – Marianthi Melitsi and Sophie Sarigiannidou – really is all kinds of awesome! Check out their MySpace page here and their Last.fm page here.
Growing up in the 1970s, vicious rumors abounded about Twinkies snack cakes. If one ate 10,000 Twinkies, so the schoolyard story went, you’d go crazy and kill someone! The story changed a bit later on: if one ate 10,000 Twinkies, he or she would be considered “legally insane” in the state of Georgia (or California, or Texas, or…). This later rumor was obviously a riff on the old “seven hits of acid makes you insane” urban legend. But where did the story come from in the first place? Why Twinkies? And did it have any basis in fact?
Actually, the story was born out of a great tragedy.
Daniel James White was born in Los Angeles on September 2, 1946. The second of nine children, he was expelled from Riordan High School for violent behavior in his junior year. He subsequently transferred to Woodrow Wilson High School, where he graduated as valedictorian. After a stint in Vietnam in the Army, White worked as a security guard at a school in Anchorage for a couple of years. He then moved to San Francisco and became a police officer. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, he quit the SFPD after squealing on a fellow officer who beat a handcuffed black suspect.
White transferred to the San Francisco Fire Department, where he became a hero after rescuing a woman and her baby from the seventh floor of a burning apartment building. White used this fame to get elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (San Francisco has a unified city-county government, so a “supervisor’ is the equivalent of a city councilman and county commissioner). Although a Democrat, White was pretty conservative, and often defended his mostly white, middle-class district against what he called “homosexuals, pot smokers and cynics”.
Continue reading “RIGHTING THE WRONGS: The “Twinkie Defense””
Here are my Top 10 songs for the week, courtesy of the good people at Last.fm:
1) Lana del Rey – “Video Games”
2) Ambra Red – “Killer Princess”
3) Marsheaux – “Stand By”
4) Marsheaux – “Summer”
5) Blouse – “Videotapes”
6) Ambra Red – “She’s a Model”
7) Ambra Red – “Game Over”
8) Marsheaux – “The Promise”
9) The Sound of Arrows – “Into the Clouds”
10) Ambra Red – “It’s Just A Dream”
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OK, I’ve looked at my favorite albums of the year and my favorite TV shows of the year… so why not take a look at my favorite podcasts?
Unlike the album list (which was restricted to albums released in 2011) and the TV list (which was restricted to new TV shows that debuted in 2011), the podcast category is simply all the shows that I enjoyed listening to this year. They’re also ranked, but don’t put too much stock in the rankings. Some podcasts are for learning, others are strictly for entertainment, so my rankings could vary day-to-day depending on my mood.
And so… the list!
#5: This Week with Larry Miller – You know how Seinfeld was described as “a show about nothing”? Well, Larry’s podcast is pretty much like that, too. It’s just comedian Larry Miller talking about whatever crosses his mind that week. Sometimes it’s funny stories about his college days, or his early days as a stand-up comedian in New York City (there’s a great story about him working at Studio 54’s “haunted house” one year). Other times he talks about being on the road or his family life (there’s a long-running feature called “Hamper Update”, in which he discusses his attempts to get his wife to buy a new clothes hamper for the bathroom). This show isn’t always funny, but I like it because it comes from the heart. Larry is genuinely a great guy, and it comes through in his show. More info here.
#4: Judge John Hodgman – If you’re a nerd, you probably who know John Hodgeman is. If not, he’s Jason Schwartzman’s arch-rival Louis Green on Bored to Death. Or you might remember him as the “PC” from Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads. In any case, Hodgeman has created a podcast where he creates a “People’s Court” style courtroom to decide the real issues that Americans care about. In one case, a friend asked another friend to record something on his DVR, then never came over to watch it. The friend asked Judge Hodgeman to either force the friend to come over and watch it, or give him his blessing to delete it after a few days. In another case, Hodgeman had to determine when it’s OK to crash at a friend’s house, and if age and\or financial status come in to play. It’s a funny podcast, and definitely worth a listen! More info here.
OK, so I’m probably the last person on earth to hear about this recipe. But a friend of mine made a version of these at a Halloween party and they’re so simple to make and so yummy that I’ve made them several times for parties since. It only takes a few minutes, and they’re just sooooooo good!
HARDWARE
1 cookie sheet
1 plate
Parchment paper
SOFTWARE
24 small pretzels
3 bars Rolo candy (24 individual candies)
24 pecan halves
Note: I like Snyder’s Butter Snaps pretzels for this. Not only are they tasty, they’re square-shaped (they look like little window panes or grids). This minimizes the chocolate seeping through. Also, Rolo “bars” (8 pieces wrapped in a single piece of foil) are easier to use than bags of individually-wrapped candies… although it’s surprisingly difficult to find the “bars” here in Charlotte.
1) Preheat oven to 300F.
2) Line a cookie sheet with parchment, then place pretzels on the sheet in a grid.
3) Place one Rolo candy, top side up, on each pretzel.
4) Bake for 3-4 minutes. Candies should retain their original shape, but should be very shiny.
5) Working quickly, remove pretzels from oven and top each one with a pecan half. Be sure to press the pecan down so that the chocolate covers the entire pretzel.
6) Let cool to almost room temperature, then place on plate and store in fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to set.
If you don’t like pecans (and, if so why do you hate America?) or are allergic, you can substitute M&Ms or Hershey’s Kisses for the pecans.