Congratulations, Senator Al Franken!

I wrote a very serious post about how proud I was of the clean democracy in Minnesota, the excellent work by the press and citizen journalists, but right now what I want to say is Up Yours, Republicans!

SHAKE IT, AL!


What can a comedian do in the Senate?


He can draw a map of the United States!

More Autotune the News, with Katie Couric and Rachel Maddow!

Autotune the news

For my sister

Powerful memories are tied to songs in our lives. To me, Michael Jackson will always be that kid that my little sister adored. I'm only 1 year older than Michael Jackson. My sister is only a year and a half younger. When we were girls, we loved the Jackson 5: ABC, Never Can Say Goodbye, I'll Be There, Got To Be There (1972) but she especially loved Michael. She had his poster on her wall, while her best friend was a Donny Osmond fan.

I lost my taste for his music with "Ben" and never really got it back. Sure, Thriller entertained me-- I met my boyfriend Bill at benefit for a dance magazine at a lesbian bar in San Francisco when we danced to Billie Jean; he won a dance contest for being the wackiest dancer out there. I loved meeting a guy who could let go on the dance floor, and I remember thinking that I didn't care how stupid the lyrics to the song were because it was so much fun to dance to it. I recognize his genius, but his music as an adult was not important to me.
I despised the way he mutilated himself, I loathed what he became later in his life. But every time I hear one of those early songs, it brings my little sister back to me.

Ritmo de pasodoble

Last week, Jean-Marc Genereaux, that savvy showman, choreographed a paso doble for Jason and Caitlin that was... a hot mess. Sorry, but I hated it. The costumes have been compared elsewhere to Disney's Aladdin (or I Dream of Genie meets Princess Leia) while the music (the same overblown music from Carmina Burana that Brandon used for his audition) was a crime against the paso doble because it simply was not the right rhythm. The poor dancers were told that they were supposed to hate each other and were given a lot of stomping and flailing to do, but whatever tenuous grasp of the character of the dance the non-ballroom public might have picked up over the last few years of watching SYTYCD (or even DWTS) was stamped out. I got so annoyed I couldn't enjoy a thing about it, even how ridiculous it was. I don't expect dance purity from SYTYCD, or even an attempt to educate us about the origins of various dances. But if they weren't going to even gesture toward the Spanish popular origins of the pasodoble at least they could respect more stylized conventions the ballroom paso! The dancers can't be faulted for their performance; Jean-Marc is a generally a crowd pleaser, but in this case I think he went too far trying to sell a spectacle to a non-ballroom audience instead helping his dancers understand something about the character of the dance that would make their posture, arm gestures, head position, promenades, poses convey something about the paso doble and look like something better than a kind of pompous hustle. I think that's why they ended up in the bottom 3 last week.

So, to rinse out my brain, I went looking for some REAL pasodoble, both Spanish and ballroom. Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, but enjoy dancing ballroom as an amateur, and I have spent a lot of time in Spain in the last fifteen years because my daughter's dad is Spanish. I thought I'd share some of my ideas about the paso doble, not as prescriptions for the show, but just to take us beyond what the show is able to show us about the dance.

Start with the rhythm. This 1902 composition "Suspiros de España" (presented on Spanish TV with reverence by opera tenor Plácido Domingo) is a Spanish example of the song genre called the pasodoble, Listen to the rhythm: this is the essence of the pasodoble whose very name tells us what is basic to this genre of music; translated as "two step" or "double step", the music that gives origin to the dance has the 1-2 1-2 rhythm of a quick march, but it's not a stomp stomp stomp.


The singer here, Rosa, doesn't camp it up like some of the copla singers of the past (Isabel Pantoja , Rocio Jurado are wonderful examples of great popular singers of the pasodoble) but gives it to us simply and from the heart. Spaniards are incredibly fond of this kind of song and see it as a part of their cultural heritage. This particular song is so iconic in Spain that it has been used in the soundtrack of two films about the Spanish Civil War to convey something about the conflict: in Soldados de Salamanca the song was reinterpreted in a slowed-down style that brings out the North African/gypsy elements of Spanish heritage, while in Ay! Carmela, Carmen Maura sings it when forced to perform for the Germans and Italians who were the allies of Franco. In both cases, the words and rhythm of this pasodoble are supposed to communicate something important about what it means to be Spanish, however complicated that might turn out to be.

The pasodoble is also a rhythm associated with the promenatde of the bullfighters, the entrance of toreros, because it's often played by brass bands (its probable origin in the 19th century is as a military march, later played by bands for popular entertaiment). This march was made internationally famous by Bizet in his opera Carmen, and even today famous pasodoble songs are performed on TV by some of the most iconic diva singers of Spanish pop culture. The social dance called the pasodoble (which, of course, looks almost nothing like they highly stylized and athletic dance of International Dancesport competitive ballroom dance) is danced socially in Spain (and in some other countries like Colombia) at events like weddings where families get together. I have dance the pasodoble at weddings in Spain--it's a hoot.

What is the "character of the dance?" In this clip from Carlos Saura's film of García Lorca's play Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), you can see the wedding band playing (and singing) a pasodoble as the wedding party poses for a photo, drinks a toast and begins the first dance. The bride (the splendid Cristina Hoyos) dances first with her groom, but then with the man she really loves (Antonio Gades, he of the wolfish eyes). The entire film tells the story using flamenco-based dance, but what I love about this scene is that is conveys the intensity that ballroom paso doble wants to convey, but using entirely Spanish cultural, musical and dance idioms.

The character of the dance is not just its basic rhythm, but also the posture, the gestures, the emotions: here the love that is a mix of lust and resentment, the danger of dancing with a former lover at your own wedding in front of everyone, the pride of both the man and the woman, is not just danced by the couple but by the entire group.

To convey the character of the dance, the choreography and performance of woman's part in the pasodoble should give us the FEELING of Lola Flores singing "Pena penita pena."

When ballroom instructors who don't know much about Spanish culture try to explain to students what the paso should look like they often fall back on the analogy of the bullfighter: the man is the bullfighter the woman is the cape (NOT the bull, please!) but what does that really mean? Here's an example of the movement of a bullfighter who is a master of the cape, the current idol of Spain's bullfight aficionados, Morantes de la Puebla (WARNING: don't watch this if you will feel sorry for the bull!). Look at his posture, the quality of his movements, the incredible stylization of this bloody ritual that survives in spite of the protests of those against animal cruelty because of its amazing artistry and danger.

This of the best ballroom paso doble as an extremely stylized set of moves, always set to a few basic Spanish paso doble songs. Although it no longer has much direct connection to its Spanish roots, it is almost always danced in competition to the pasodoble song "España Cani" (aka the "bullfight song") which preserve the musical rhythm of the popular genre, and attempts to capture some of the spirit of the Spanish attitude and movements that come from the bullfight, flamenco, and Spanish popular culturel. Here's a fairly straightforward example, danced as a showcase by international champions Michael Malitowski and Joanne Leunis:


Our SYTYCD dancers aren't going to be able to do this, but the judges need to have a talk with Jean-Marc.
crossposted at SYTYCD 5 Social

X, then and now

I saw the band X perform in Berkeley right when they were getting started... '78 or '79? ("Sheeeeeee had to leeeeeave...). They weren't yet as famous as they would become, but I WAS caught up in the excitement of this new music that was happening in LA and SF, the punk scene. The show was in some kind of co-op house, in a rec room or living room; there was room for about 3-5 rows of people in front of the band. Needless to say, we were all dancing like crazy. It was one of the most amazing show experiences I ever had. How fierce was Exene to my shy, 22-yr old self? She wrote these ferocious songs, she had a unique look (then, before everyone else copied the underground scene), she planted herself on stage and wailed in these amazing harmonies with John Doe. I didn't pay attention then to what amazing musicians they all were; I just knew they were tight, fast, and blew me away.
From an interview a few years ago:

“It was very inspiring,” Exene says of those days. “I remember that feeling of creating something completely out-there and new, and that’s fucking amazing as an artist. That’s what you’re supposed to do. We didn’t have any radio or music industry interest, so here’s a bunch of kids just screwing around with art and music, doing whatever comes into their mind, being totally left alone. By the time popularity happened, we’d been left alone for so long that we created this thing totally without influence. People asked, ‘How do you know to do that?’ Well, because I put those two things together and it sounded good to me.”

Exene created her iconic thrift-store vamp look the same way, working with whatever she found in dollar bins that caught her fancy. She would accent a dress from the ‘20s or ‘40s with diaper pins and flashy rhinestones, and pair the look with ankle socks and frumpy shoes. Her dark, bleach-streaked hair was the West Coast flipside of Debbie Harry’s black-tipped, platinum-blond ‘do. Ironically, for a girl whose fashion philosophy boiled down to “cover up as much as you can, because if you don’t, men will look at you,” Exene was also something of a punk pinup. “Yeah, but what was I wearing?” She smiles and laughs. “Good for me. That’s what I say to that.”

For women who found nothing to identify with in the soft-rockin’ ‘70s, punk opened up a new world. “It was the first time women were really in a position like that, to be onstage and be themselves,” says Exene. “You had girl groups and the Runaways and the girls from Fleetwood Mac, but you didn’t really have scary, upfront women like that, so I think people were real fascinated by that.”

I loved this band passionately then, and I still do. I went to the show they did last night at The Cabooze (a bar with a stage, best place to see them). 30 years later, they have lost none of their speed, none of their intensity, and their maturity makes them even better performers and musicians. The crowd was madly in love with their performance, and so was I. I managed to get a good place to stand and see them without getting crushed in the mosh pit, although there were lots of tall people in front of me. I could see Billy Zoom doing that ridiculous posing smiling thing he does while he's playing the hottest guitar around. John Doe plays the bass like few others and he and Exene still are able to give me goosebumps with what they can do when they put their voices together. The drummer, JD Bonebrake, who often gets ignored was as strong and rock solid as ever on their super fast, super tight songs. The set list had been decided by fan vote online before the show, and included a ton of favorites as well as some songs I didn't know. This was their last show on the tour, and they were generous with their encores.

Here they are in 1984 on the David Letterman show (before he got so damn lazy). Neither song rocks as hard as their earlier stuff, but you get the idea.

Check out the little interview Letterman does with the band between their 2 performances here.

Harry Potter, The Musical!

After watching the Tony Awards show, it seemed to me as if every novel or movie has been made into a musical--Shrek, Wicked, Billy Elliot. The show "Glee" on Fox has already got me hooked with its group of singing, dancing kids who come alive with their love of musical theater. And of course, I'm a complete sucker for SYTYCD. So I was delighted to find these videos, courtesy of Margaret Lyons of EW Online of HARRY POTTER: THE MUSICAL!

StarKidPotter has posted the complete show on YouTube with this introduction:

"Get ready for a musical adventure as Harry Potter and his pals go back to Hogwarts for another year of learning shenanigans! Only this year their wizarding world gets turned on its head when the Dark Lord, Voldemort, comes back from the dead to take his revenge on The Boy Who Lived. Filled with magical fun and original songs by Darren Criss and AJ Holmes, this is a Potter-spectacular that no fan should miss. So take a ride on Voldemort's flying machine and get ready to back to Hogwarts!"

To watch all the clips in order, you can either click here (there are 2 Act and 23 clips in all) or watch them below:

Highlight: Lord Voldemort's tap number "To Dance Again!" Probably a lot of musical theater gags are going right over my head, but I hung around the drama kids in high school, so there are plenty of laughs, as well as a great use of the original HP material (and the fan fic ending is priceless!)

Here's the background of the show itself and the video:

HP the Musical was written and produced in early 2009 by a bunch of college kids/recent grads through a non-profit student-run theatre company. It was a free show that ran for three nights (five performances) and will never be done again... but luckily we taped it so everyone can get a chance to enjoy its magical silliness. The songs were written by Darren Criss (who plays Harry Potter) and AJ Holmes (who plays piano in the band). The script was written by Matt Lang (who also directed the show), Nick Lang (who assistant directed and made the dragon puppet) and Brian Holden (who was busy working at a real job while the rest of us were making a goofy play). The full credits (including actor and tech credits) are at the end of the last video.

HP the Musical was a completely non-for-profit parody show made by Potter-fans for Potter-fans. All of us involved love the books immensely (and strongly encourage everyone to read them if you haven't) and it is with the utmost admiration that we celebrate and poke fun at them with this musical adaptation.

What a bunch of talented people! Talent scouts, agents, where are you?

Nerd power, oh yeah!

"Is the president truly nerdcore? or is it all an act, as fake as those prosthetic ears?"(comparison to Spock invoked several times).

Rock The Garden '09

I was sorry to miss Rock The Garden last year, with our local favorites Cloud Cult, so this year I made sure to get my tickets before it sold out. Co-sponsored by MPR's radio station The Current (here is their Flickr set from the event) and held outdoors at the Walker Art Center, it happens on the Summer Solstice. The weather this year was perfect for an outdoor concert.

I was a little hesitant about taking my daughter with me: on the one hand, she would probably like at least some of the music, the outdoor setting, and the crowd-watching. On the other, she has a low tolerance for high decibels, she's 14 and if she got bored that might put a damper on my good time. I remember how fried I used to get at outdoor concerts back when I was in college, and I wasn't sure if either of us could last until The Decemberists went on last.

We had a great time. First, lunch at Moto-i, on Lyndale where we were treated like royalty and had excellent food. We got a good spot to sit, and kicked back for great people-watching and a well-run event. I enjoyed the sets local band Solid Gold, the very trippy Brooklyn-based band Yeasayer, Calexico and then by mutual agreement (she tired, me keeping in mind I had to get up at 4AM to drive the gang to the airport the next morning and we still had an hour's drive to Northfield after the show) missing The Decemberists. Oh, well, we are big fans and will eventually own all their CDs, so too bad. But I didn't want either of us to burn out, and she will be in Yellowstone for a week with her dads, so it wouldn't be fair to wear her out!

Lathering up with SPF 70 meant neither of us got broiled. We brought our own water bottles, but happily indulged in shaved ice, lemonade, french fries, and souvenir t-shirts (I let her choose).

Two friends even found us in the crowd!
It was a "No waste event" co-sponsored by Eureka recycling, which made sure all cups, untensils, etc, were compostible, and set up compost bins with volunteers to help us get our stuff in the right bin. Apparently, after 8-9000 people ate and drank their way through several hours of music, there was only have a dumpster worth of garbage; all the rest was recycled to be composted. Hats off!



I tweeted a few #rtg09 haiku (didn't realize there was an official @RockTheGarden on Twitter!)

Masses of white meat
Gently broiling on the grass
Aztec monkey skull
#RTG09 haiku


Hands down, best tattoo we saw: complete arm sleeve with Digimon characters. The gentleman agreed to pose so we could get this close-up.
A good time was had by all.

Saturday morning in my neighborhood in Twitterville

Couldn't sleep until 2AM, but I'm awake with the birds. So it's back to bed with a pot of coffee, my laptop, and Twitter. I follow some fun and interesting people! Here's a sample of some tweets that gave me stories from my "everything but SYTYCD" Twitter account:
Update on GLBT reaction to Obama's shitty pro-DOMA brief:
Pam_Spaulding- NBJC''s Bartlett on gay DNC fundraiser: "I don't know of any board members that are intending on going."

Pams House Blend

amandafrench"What's on your laptop?" asked of coffeeshop denizens in Bushwick.

What’s on your laptop? Bushwick edition | Brokelyn

(how much do I love the blog title: "Brokelyn: Living Big on Small Change"?

AlGiordano #iranelection Iranian Bus Workers Join the Resistance:

narconews.com

Add Al Giordano' Narconews Site to the sources of breaking news from Iran.
negaratdukeIran-I-Am: with Green eggs and ham.

Iran-I-am - The Atlantic(June 19, 2009)

(via @Kawdess RT @naseemfaqihi: thanks @esperanca) #iranelection
Negar, I'm echoing your prayer for the safety of all.

jloriWeb support pours out for Iran protesters

AP News: Web support pours out for Iran protesters

barbarahui"Higher ed is stuck in the middle ages--will universities adapt or die off?" by D Tapscott

Higher Education Is Stuck in the Middle Ages -- Will Universities Adapt or Die Off in Our Digital World? | | AlterNet

(via @AlterNet)
My take on Tapscott piece? he's obviously never read Paolo Freire! nor does he have a real sense of how his suggestions have already been implemented in numerous faculty development initiative or by individuals with the same critique, and in my experience, he wildly overestimates the ability of "Net-X" students themselves to function in a truly interactive and inquiry-driven model of learning: the biggest resistance I've found so far to more engaged and interactive pedagogy is not "the universities" but (some) students who want me to be a lecture-delivering TV set so they don't have to work as hard!
yoanisanchez#cuba Generation Y (en): San Lázaro

Generation Y » San Lázaro

neilhimselfWonderful article by China Mieville about things he would like to read that other people have to write:

Omnivoracious: Leave an Idea, Take an Idea: Five Things Someone Else Should Totally Do (Guest Blogger China Mieville)

I've read King Rat. Must now read Perdido Station and China Mieville's other books!
JasonBarnettRT @theuptake: Video: Behind The Scenes Of Stephen Colbert's Hair Cut Gag With Obama At The White House.

theuptake.org :: TheUpTake

#obama #uptake
Here's the Colbert clip

hrheingoldRT @kzoodedoo: @hrheingold How To Smart Mob

"Always historicize"

It continues to be difficult but not impossible to get news from Iran. My heart goes out to the people of Iran for whom this latest crisis contains the vivid memories of earlier struggles.
Payvand Iran publishes Payvand Iran News, whose recent post shows the faces of peaceful protest on June 18, and the signs held by the protesters. Ayatollah Ali Khameinei's speech in response is being characterized as hardline, and threatening violence against further protests, and calling out Rafsanjani by name, a powerful leader who is supporting Mousavi (both of them previously held high office within the current political structure). You can see a video from The NewsHour on PBS on the same events here, at PBS Engage, with Abbas Milani again, and reporter Joe Klein who has just returned from ten days in Tehran. I can't embed the video, but it is well worth clicking here to watch it. Klein also reminds us that the U.S. helped overthrow democracy in Iran in the 50s to install the shah, and sided with Saddam Hussein in the dreadful Iran-Iraq war, that claimed millions of lives.
Obama must avoid playing into the regime's hands by replaying the role of meddling, and Scott Rosenberg reminds us of this history and new evidence of how the U.S. helped put the Shah in power in the coup of 1953, an event that Obama acknowledged in his speech in Cairo. Obama knows that if he is too public in his denunciation of the regime, this will create backlash.

Abbas Milani on how Iranian politics work

It's well worth listening to the talk explaining who's who and how things work in Iran, as a background to events going on now. (via Bob Collins' blog NewsCut at MPR). Don't forget that Nico Pitney is continuing his live-blogging round-up of information at HuffPo

Here's the YouTube description of this talk Prof. Abbas Milani gave as part of the Google series:

Abbas Milani's talk will be "Nuke, Kooks and Democracy in Iran: a discussion of Iran's current political situation, and the prospects of democracy, and a resolution of the country's nuclear program." His most recent book is Tales of Two Cities: A Persian Memoir.

Raised in Iran, Abbas Milani was sent to be educated in California in the 1960s. He became politically active and in 1974 received a PhD in Political Science. He returned to Tehran and taught at the National University but was imprisoned by the Pahlavi regime in 1977. After the revolution he became a professor at Tehran University, but by 1986 his utopian illusions had been shattered and he emigrated to the United States. Dr. Milani is the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian studies at Stanford University and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. Abbas Milani is also the author of the bestselling The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution, as well as the prize-winning Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity in Iran.

This event took place on August 13, 2008, as a part of the Authors@Google series.

What's happening in Iran?

I'm checking regularly in with Nico Pitney who is live-blogging (acting as a clearing-house for information) at Huffington Post. He is posting photos, videos, and news gathered from mainstream media but much of it from Twitter, which has turned out to be one of the few ways people can get news about of Iran in the face of the state's crackdown on protest against the results of the election. This gives us a sense of what is happening now.

But how do we interpret this information? "Follow the Developments in Iran like a CIA analyst" at The Atlantic (via Howard Rheingold), or, "don't assume anything." The Big Picture (the Boston Globe's amazing photoblog has some compelling images.

The BBC has posted a very thorough description of Iran's political institutions, and an analysis of why these protests might be different from those of earlier years. It also discusses the many Internet sources of information, including various blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Picassa and Twitter, that are being monitored, aggregated and amplified.

Global Voices Online, an international blog aggregator and news service, is collecting the voices of bloggers around the world who are writing about the events in Iran: "Storm of protest."

While we might emotionally want the Obama administration to leap to the microphone to take sides, the perception that the U.S.(under Bush) was siding with one group over another was one of the factors in the past that led to a increase in power by the fundamentalists. In addition, it may appear to outsiders that there is a clear division between the regime and the people, but the current political struggle is as much between two factions of the regime struggling for power as it is representative of the hopes of people for a less repressive state. The arguments in the comments of this post and also this one should remind us that the situation is extremely complex. I frankly don't know whom to believe about the voting, but I do know that the forces of state repression are hard at work.

Do you know these words?

"New York Times mines its data to identify words its readers find abstruse" (via Sanden Totten, producer of MPR's "In the Loop")

Back to London

It's summer,and I have booked two trips to visit family. I'll join my daughter and her Spanish family in Zaragoza in mid-July, and spend five days in London on my own, where i plan to go on long hikes through the parks and neighborhoods. Then she and I will visit my family in San Francisco in August. Each of those trips gives me license to make virtual excursions in anticipation of my in-person stays. I like the Spanish word that is used in opposition to virtual: "presencial."

So I've been looking for websites that give me good stories, pictures, ideas for my travels. Here is "The Big Smoke" from TimeOut London, which recommends these 50 websites from and about London. This time, I absolutely will not miss a day trip to Kew Gardens, one of their "Seven Wonders of London." I don't know if I'll have time for their "101 things to do before you leave London" but I can have fun browsing. I will certainly return to the Chelsea Physic Garden where I had a lovely tea.

Pink Hobo, a geek art gallery in Minneapolis

We want to go!

bye bye, emusic :(

I just canceled my subscription to emusic. I still totally love what they do, and have enjoyed exploring their site and choosing music every month for my subscription. But it's time for me to cancel. They have announced that they are acquiring Sony's back catalog (meaning stuff that's over two years old) but they are also changing everyone's subscription by cutting the number of downloads in half. In my case, that means cutting the number of songs I get each month for my $20 from 75 to 37, from 30 cents/song to 60 cents/song. Not a huge raise, when compared to iTunes at 99 cents/song. And totally understandable if we thought the money was going to the artists. But not if the money is going to SONY! I also don't like the weaselly way they did it: no survey of customers about preferences, just an announcement that "by the way, we're doubling the price for your downloads." Neither, apparently, does a vocal segment of their customer base who, like me, want to find good legal deals on music that may not be on the top 40 charts. It's another case of customers being perhaps more outraged by the shoddy communications than by the actual price. emusic distinguished itself from Amazon or iTunes because it catered to the discriminating music hound, and folks like that don't take kindly to be treated like mere customers. Paradoxes of the tension between sharing and marketing: I want to purchase music legally, not steal it, but I also used to spend hours in Tower Records in Berkeley, flipping through the used album bins, and I don't ever pay full price. OK, almost never: Lucinda Williams is an artist whose work I have purchased new. That's probably about it.

And another fact is that I have downloaded enough music from them over the last two years that I have hardly had time to listen to it all! My iPod is full (and I've only ever bought 4 songs from iTunes: all the rest is my CD collection + emusic) and I want to explore what I have. So I'm going to catch up on my listening, save some money, and see how the whole things shakes down. Here are the artists whose albums I have downloaded (legally!) from emusic over the last couple of years. Some are artists I've loved for a long time while others are new to me, but they each came recommended by other music fans whose reviews helped me discover new music.

• Adele
• Al Green
• Allison Moorer
• Amalia Rodrigues
• Andrew Bird
• Angelo Stefanato, Camerata Strumentale Di Santa Cecilia
• Antony and the Johnsons
• Arcade Fire
• Aterciopelados

• Baaba Maal
• Bebel Gilberto
• Bebo Valdes
• Belle and Sebastian
• Bettye Lavette
• Björk
• Bon Iver
• Bosque Brown
• Bossacucanova

• Calexico
• Camera Obscura
• Carlinhos Brown
• Carmen McRae
• Cat Power
• Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco
• Charlie Parker
• Chris Letcher
• Cloud Cult
• Cocteau Twins
• Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
• Copeland
• Count Basie
• CéU

• Dar Williams
• Dashboard Confessional
• Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
• David Byrne & Brian Eno
• Day For Night
• Dead Kennedys
• Devotchka

• Edith Piaf
• Eliza Carthy

• Famous L. Renfroe
• Forellen Quintet
• Franco
• Frank Sinatra
• Franz Joseph Haydn
• Fred Astaire
• Funkadelic

• Gary Numan
• Gil Scott-Heron
• Gillian Welch
• Glass Candy
• Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
• godspeed you! black emperor
• Gogol Bordello
• Gotan Project

• Heartless Bastards
• Henry Kaiser And David Lindley
• Hoagy Carmichael

• Iggy Pop
• Ike And Tina Turner

• Jacques Brel
• James Taylor
• Jennifer Warnes
• John Coltrane
• Johnny Mercer
• Juana Molina
• Judy Garland

• Le Concert des Nations
• Los Amigos Invisibles
• Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
• Los Munequitos De Matanzas
• Lura

• M. Ward
• M.I.A. (XL)
• Mahmoud Ahmed
• Manu Chao
• Maria Muldaur
• Mbilia Bel & Seigneur Ley Rochereau & l'Afrisa International
• Mirah
• Mos Def
• My Brightest Diamond

• Neutral Milk Hotel
• Nick Lowe
• Nortec Collective

• Otis Redding

• Pau Casals
• Peggy Seeger
• Plain White T's

• Question Mark and the Mysterians

• Radiohead
• Ray Charles
• Reverend Charlie Jackson
• Ruth Brown

• Santana
• Santogold
• Sarah Vaughan
• Schola Cantorum
• Seu Jorge
• Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
• Simone Dinnerstein
• Ska Cubano
• Soweto Gospel Choir
• St. Vincent

• The Decemberists
• The Kinks
• The Pixies
• The Raconteurs
• The Rolling Stones
• The Stylistics
• The White Stripes
• Thelonious Monk
• Thelonious Monk And John Coltrane
• Thomas Mapfumo
• Tinariwen
• Tony Bennett And Bill Evans
• Tracy Grammer

• Various
• Various Artists
• Various Artists
• Various Artists - Concord Jazz
• Various Artists - Doghouse Records
• Various Artists - Frochot Music
• Various Artists - Hybrid Recordings
• Various Artists - Luaka Bop
• Various Artists - Maison De Soul Records
• Various Artists - Music Resource Group
• Various Artists - Nacional Records
• Various Artists - Razor & Tie
• Various Artists - Shanachie Records Celtic/British Isles
• Various Artists - Shanachie Records Rock
• Various Artists - Shanachie Records Soundtracks
• Various Artists - Smithsonian Folkways
• Violent Femmes

• White Rabbits

• Youssou N'Dour
• Yves Montand

Marion Cunninghmam's recipe for Parker Brownies

Krista has requested the Platonic Brownie recipe. Now I cannot rest until I have found it. Scanning my cookbook shelf, which holds many volumes without brownie recipes, I fall back on the new edition of the Joy of Cooking. It has its original recipe for Brownies Cockaigne, a recipe for Cheesecake Brownies, and a lower-fat recipe for Chewey Brownies. I happen to like chewier brownies, but I don't have time to try them both. Another possible source is the Marion Cunningham book The Supper Book; Marion Cunningham edited and then rewrote the classic Fannie Farmer cookbook, among many other notable accomplishments in the food world before the rise of celebrity chef TV. She was someone my mother knew well. I met her a few times when I was living in the East Bay, and was impressed by her vivid presence and her passionate nature. Her recipe is called Parker Brownies.

Comparing the two recipes, I see that they are virtually identical in terms of ingredients, but JofC's calls for double the quantities of MC's, with one exception: JoC's recipe uses 4 eggs but Marion Cunningham's uses only egg. What would be the difference with half the amount of egg? The pan size is also larger and the heat is 350 instead of 300, but that could be because of the quantity. and the need to avoid the overcooked edges/not-done-in-the-center problem. Oh, and there is no salt and unsalted butter in JoC, but MC's calls for salt. Hmmm. Chemistry.

Time to look at Cooks Illustrated tutorials for the anal-retentive chef! What? recipes are for members only? How anal-retentive! (But yes, their test kitchen articles ARE the best when you are a nerd like me. I used to subscribe and read them like mystery novels: what IS the secret to perfect brownies?)

The classic SNL sketch of Eugene the Anal Retentive Chef (Phil Hartmann, RIP) is a family joke because my sister and her husband bonded when they discovered that each possessed an industrial kitchen-sized box of plastic wrap.


Marion Cunningham's Parker Brownies:
(makes sixteen brownies)
2 ozs (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla

Optional: confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter an 8" square baking pan. Line the bottom of the pan with waxed paper, the butter and flour the paper.

In a saucepan over very low heat, melt the chocolate with the butter, stirring to blend. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar, egg, salt, flour, walnuts and vanilla. Spread in the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for about 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and peel the waxed paper from the bottom. Transfer to a cutting board, and cut into squares. Dust brownies with confectioners sugar, if desired.
Discovered while writing this post: David Lebowitz's blog Living the Sweet Life in Paris, which combines gorgeous photos, pro foodie info, life-in-Paris stories (I lived on and off in Paris for probably a total of two years, but many years ago) and great writing. I shall enjoy reading it and fantasizing about my return.

So You Think You Can Second-Guess the Judges?

Cross-posted at SYTYCD 5 Social.
Well the auditions are over, the Vegas bootcamp has whittled the dancers down from 178 to the Top 20, and next week, So You Think You Can Dance, Season 5, starts showing us the dancing.

These audition rounds serve a purpose: they get us to invest ourselves emotionally in the show, even when those dancers that thrill us have been cut or have had to leave too early. We have been suckered into rooting for people with talent and charisma who then leave in tears or anger, but there are also "stealth contestants" who have suddenly appeared in the top 20 even though we have hardly seen them at all. Mark Kanemura, one of my all-time favorites, was kept up the producers' sleeve until the competition began. Sabra was invisible in the auditions, but went on to win. So I enjoyed the glimpses of the dancer's life, but the hard reality is that most dancers audition and get cut, even the great ones. If you are not what they want for the show, the company, the piece, you will not be cast, no matter how nice you are, or even how talented you are. SYTYCD is a great way for us to fantasize about dance, but it also has a lot of lessons to teach about the dance world: it's harsh; it's not always fair; your body betrays you; your desire may be bigger than your talent; your talent may not be enough without charisma; your life timing may interfere with your opportunities; it's a gypsy life that makes having a family next to impossible; you have to be at once convinced you can do it and humble enough to learn.

In twitterville and bloglandia there is already controversy over the elimination of Natalie, the Meanness! of the MEAN judges! and about poor Alex Wong not getting to be on the show this time even though he is clearly such a brilliant dancer. Oh, and let's not forget about the brothers! Ryan or Evan? so heartbreaking! Why only one?

So what do I think of the top 20? I think we'll see what they're like starting next week. It's too soon to call a favorite or predict who is going to win, especially since we hardly saw half the dancers before last night. But that doesn't stop the fans from working themselves up into a lather over all kinds of things, all of which translate into good TV, good ratings, and lots of publicity for the show. Settle back and make some popcorn.
Here's STEALTH CONTESTANT Ade Obayomi:


I tend to assume that the judges know dance better than I do, that they know what will work on the show better than I do, and that there is a lot of footage that got left on the floor after editing the show. The show is cast with dance talent, but it is also cast for characters, story-line, narrative arc, and maximum fan investment "so we will pick up the phone." If the pure dance fans had there way, there'd be none of this "personality crap" but if the show just gave us performance, the folks who "don't know much about dance but know what they like" would have tuned in to Obama's Day in the White House, part II.

Some reflections after this week's episode from this contrarian cultural critic: Natalie was cut. Big deal. Why is she so special? Because we knew her name and she had a backstory going in. Yes, she was very good, and Sonyah loved her. But how do we know if she was better than all the other dancers we never even got to see? Just because she was Katee's roommate and they staged a drama with the two of them last last year, does that mean she would be a better contestant than any number of other dancers that remained anonymous? I thought that in her performance of Sonyah's dance, she did not bring it the way she had in rehearsal. We didn't see her in the ballroom round or the hip-hop round. We did get to see another charismatic contestant, Gabi Rojas, do an insanely good audition, but then flub two of the choreo tests, and then show us her amazing talent again in a "dance for your life!" moment. And guess what? She got cut, too. Should Natalie have been given another chance to dance on TV? Maybe, but she still would have been cut. Should we have seen which rounds she flubbed? The fact is that we didn't; we got to see some other dancers instead. This was not the Natalie show. But many viewers decided that she was unfairly treated. It's called editing, people. You are being told a story, and you are playing your role perfectly. You are supposed to get riled up at the judges. Go ahead, if that makes you happy.

Same with the Brandon Bryant story. He almost made it last year, so he came in (like Natalie) with a backstory. And his audition was riveting, although I hated the music he chose and thought the sequence of moves he did was designed to showcase his technique rather than convey feelings or a story; to me it was incoherent. Tony Bellisimo is the exact opposite; he was all about the story, entertaining, communicating with the audience and the judges; he made people laugh, and he has enough dance skills to get a shot, although his audition did not showcase them. Technique-wise, Brandon has it all over Tony, but as an entertainer, Tony has it all over Brandon. Let's face it, folks, ef SYTYCD was only a dance talent show, Danny Tidwell would have won. So was Mia being mean and unfair when she said she doesn't like what he brings into the room? I suppose so, but Mia is what she is with no apologies. And apparently the dancers who work with her find her inspiring and generous, not cruel, in her classes and workshops. This is what separates TV land from the real world of dance. Your teacher/coach/choreographer/artistic director is not there to make you feel good, but to push you harder and harder and harder so you can break through your limitations, or hit the wall. Brandon is a brilliant dancer, but she was not talking about his technical abilities; she was talking about a quality that I think she'd call emotional honesty or connection. Is a dancer sitting in his or her head and watching himself? or is he or she completely in the dance? From my own limited experience as a dancer, I know the difference between those two states. My inexperience and lack of talent meant that often I was inhibited, holding back, not confident, and I sabotaged my movement, or communicated my inhibition. When Nigel spoke to Ryan (the older, balder brother) about how he was putting his self-image in the way of his dancing, he was putting his finger on Ryan's own self-doubt. Ryan said he'd talk off his hat now. He will have grown as a dancer because of that. (by the way, Nigel's tweet this morning points out that if Ryan choreographs for the show this season, as a lot of viewers have requested, then he becomes a Fox employee and cannot compete later).
When I social dance, I don't feel the need to perform because I'm focused on connecting with my partner, and as a result my dancing is freer, more grounded, more communicative, and I then also look so much better. Brandon may not be inhibited, but he may be keeping an emotional distance, and Mia is calling him on it. Do you like the way she did it? No. But in the dance world, this quality of emotional commitment may be what separates a technically competent dancer from a dancer who moves you, and the "best" dancers may be the hardest to get to open up. I thought Brandon's Carmina Burana audition music was pompous and distracting. Yes, he is spectacular, but will he open himself up to work with other kinds of emotions, other kinds of movement? or will he resist?

With Alex Wong, oh, my, we had the combination of technical brilliance and absolute hunger. He not only showed us his control and his freedom, he communicated with the judges and with us, immediately and powerfully. But Alex got caught in a dilemma of his own making. We don't have the details, but he is under contract to a company that has its season planned, its performances booked, its publicity materials out, its brochures printed, its season tickets sold: how could he imagine that the enormous investment the company has made in him could be simply thrown away? He's finding his position limiting, he wishes he could be free to go to "dance camp" for this wonderful opportunity, but he is a professional with obligations. He will have to do what so many other dancers have had to do, and come back when he is able to compete. Hok didn't have his visa. Chbeeb had pneumonia. Benji Schwimmer almost didn't make the top 20. Twitch had to come back another year. Alex Wong will have to get out of his contract and come back, and he will be a grand competitor. It's not the show's fault he can't compete this time. He got a hard lesson in the work world. I hope he takes Nigel's advice, gets the most out of his wonderful opportunity with Miami, and then comes back when he is done with his contract.

If season 5 is like all the other seasons, we will be surprised, thrilled, and ride the emotional rollercoaster with our discoveries of these dancers. Let's give them a chance to show us what they can do, without dragging in grudges over who isn't there.
Here's one of the sleeper contestants, Jonathan Platero, who was a finalist with his partner Sophia Luna in the World Salsa Championships in 2007:

Don't spit on the twit!

I haven't watched the new Conan O'Brian show yet, but this bit on Twitter had me laughing hard, thinking of a blog buddy who recently went off on Twitter as inane and annoying. This is for you, ProfaZero!

Pawlenty the lame duck

Governor Pawlenty, "Governor of Brigadoon"--a portrait by Michael Tortorello, posted on The Uptake, courtesy of Noah Kunin. It's a fascinating portrait of the governor who has just announced he will not run for a third term. What are his further political ambitions, given that he was supposed to be John McCain's running mate until he was unceremoniously bumped by Palin? I have always regarded him as a smiling villain, an ogre with a smile, in thrall to the Grover Norquist "no new taxes" line. He's governed to the hard right, without flinching. He's led us to a deficit of Bush proportions. He says that being a "lame duck" will allow him to be more agressive with the unallotment process of defunding social services and education. We're in a heap of trouble.