Smell-O-Rama

While out on my daily walks I've had the chance to sample the many and varied aromas of my neighborhood: laundry, cinnamon(?!), barbecue, freshly mown grass and it's evil twin ChemLawn. That shit makes the back of my throat seize up like a mofo.

In my tiny little hamlet, there's been talk that the three lakes of the village have been getting damaged by the Canadian Geese that like to hang out. We have some in our smaller lake in the back yard as well. There been an increase in algae that they think is coming from the goose crap, so they either want to shoot the geese, or put out feed that causes the goose eggs to die. Like the geese one day said -- "hey, I know, lets start going to those lakes!" They've been here longer than the village, dumbass. I think some folks just don't like all the noise they make this time of year because it's egg laying time and they get very territorial when other geese try to come around their nests.

Then, somebody pointed out that, because the lakes are all fed by the runoff drains and storm sewers from the rest of the village that perhaps the lakes were getting filled up with lawn chemicals. Hmmm... you think? Every time I walk by these run-off after a rain, I can see and smell the shit in the water.

Since then, things have been quiet from the "kill the geese" camp, although I know they'll make a comeback soon enough...

5 Random Links

1. July/August 1977 Synapse Magazine

2. Dead Man Eating

3. Typoholism

4. CyberPanHandling For Tuition

5. BurgerPerfect

5 Random Links:

1. Strong Bad Atrai 2600 Game

2. D & D Turns 30

3. Playstation 2 -> PC Case Mod

4. Garmin ForeRunner With Satellite Maps

5. YamEdit

5 Random Links

1. Word HTML Cleanser

2. DigiPen Institute of Technology

3. Internet Radio 1 | 2 | 3

4. Circuit Bending Video

5. FoodExpert-ID Array

Kitchen Confidential

Despite some of the back room kitchen drama on Saturday, I should point out that the front of the house had no idea (unless they read this) of the equipment failure -- they just liked the food. While it was hardly a tragedy, it was just enough to throw me off for two courses. But, if that's the worst thing that happens while doing these tastings, then we're doing OK ;)

The good news was that we sold the second most amount of wine in two years of tastings -- almost 17 cases...

Random Links

1. Star Wars Kid vs. Kill Bill Trailer

2. Northside vs. Southside

3. Foam

4. London Booted

5. Afraid Of Swords!

Italian Tasting Wrap-Up

Well, where do we start?

First Course: The power goes out three times killing both the microwave and the stove while trying to serve the first course (rici e bisi soup). The wine has been poured -- and there's no hot food. So, the lukewarm soup goes out. Not Good (although it does taste good) Later, we determine the culprit to be a dehumidifier plugged into the same 15 amp fuse. We do not even look at the microwave for the rest of the evening.

Second course: Polenta Stack (polenta, spinach and roasted red bell pepper) -- the oven is back, and I start to cut out the polenta, but no matter how many times I cut the damn red pepper with my knife, it does NOT want play nice, and slides around screwing up the first 15 pieces to the point where I have to grab them by hand and plate them. Once again tastes good -10 points for presentation.

The third course is the chicken w/ almonds, so I get a breather while Monica and Patrick get that together, but course four (stuffed savoy cabbage, with gnoccetti and peas served with a carrot cream sauce) follows quickly on it's heels.

At this point, we notice that we're absolutely flying through these courses, with almost zero prep time inbetween. We beg Bob to have winemaker and importer Martin slow down or talk longer. He does, and the listing ship finally comes to balance...

The rest of the evening and dishes (Lasagna w/ Mushroom and Lentil Ragu, Roasted Eggplant stuffed with Pesto and Steak w/ Tomato Confit and Basalmic Reduction sauce all follow without any further problems. Even the desert (Hazelnut Torte) is blissfully quiet.

Thanks to Patrick (as always) for getting the antipasto (Zucchini Carpaccio) together before I arrived and more importantly, for not panicking when I was about to ;)

Hello, Mr. Apocalypse? I Think I Have One For You...

I'm not sure where this one falls in terms of "signs of the apocalypse", but it must be wedged in there between number 4 and 5...

Armed with 2 turntables and a spatula, celebrity "DJ CHEF" Marc Weiss will bring the party to Food Network come this June. The new, primetime Food Network show "What's Hot! What's Cool!" will be featuring DJ CHEF on one of it's debut shows. Weiss' unique concept of fusing food & music is buzzing around entertainment circles as he has been performing his red hot "cooking class parties" for the past five years.

"Cooking classes are the hot thing. Marc turns your cooking class into a party, whips up the margaritas, turns up the music and gives you the whole package." Says Kathleen Finch, VP of programming at Food Network. Weiss has been a regular on TV news morning shows and has hosted a NY radio show ---"DJ CHEF FOOD 411".

Next on MTV... "Pimp My Food"

Tasting Review

Last night went really well, and only came home with a small amount of food (always a good sign of judging the food/people ratio). Charlie Meeker was very entertaining, discussing not only his wines, but also his days an entertainment lawyer, movie producer and head of MGM studios for three years. Turns out he's been a vegetarian for 20 years and was even vegan for five. So he appreciated the food -- note: always good to make the winemaker happy ;)

here's a brief rundown of the foods we made

Five Spice Glazed Almonds
Sushi (avocado and tempeh filled)
Olive Tapanade
Tofu Salad Sandwiches
Hoisin Tofu Rice Paper Salads
Curried Tofu Phyllo Cups
Stuffed Grapes Leaves
Black Bean Salsa in Endive Leaves
Chipotle/Tomato Pizza (Patrick)
Chocolate Brownies

Time to make the doughnuts

We spent most of yesterday afternoon getting ready for today's tasting at Riverside. Usually Friday's include making sure all the recipes have all the ingredients (it's always a pain to have to run out to the store Saturday morning), there's some prep work, making the desserts (brownies) and preparing a few of the dishes that will improve overnight (roasted almonds w/ five spice powder, olive tapanade, black bean salsa).

Tonight's tasting is buffet style, so there's not as much late afternoon work to be done -- by late afternoon, I mean dishes that need to be prepared just before leaving to go on-site. The kitchen at the tasting site is circa 1952, electric (not gas) and is only really good for reheating -- but it's reliable. We'll be making sushi, stuffed grape leaves, curried tofu in phyllo cups and Hoisin tofu in rice paper salads.

Also, one less thing to worry about tonight is that Patrick is making a dish (Chipotle/Tomato Pizza) for the buffet. That saves us about a half-hour.

Next week is the biggest tasting we've done to date -- 32 people crammed into the house for an eight-course northern Italian wine dinner. It should be a good test to see if we've learned anything about catering in two years ;)

Swine Verite

Via BoingBoing comes this site from Germany where you can watch (and listen) to the goings of wild boars.

From what I've listened to today, you can hear trucks, cars and church bells in the distance, some very spooky bird sounds, but as of yet, no boars. If nothing else it's a good way to get some nature sounds in your work space...

Random is better...

An interesting article from Wired called "Music Magic Found In The Shuffle" -- I had this conversation with my wife yesterday about the random button on my mp3/cd combo player from RCA. Although it "only" holds about 180 songs per CD, putting it on random has been great -- songs I've forgotton about, songs I haven't heard in ages, weird (and occasionally brilliant) segues, complete mash-ups... I really like it when I take my daily walks.

Showtime

A great show last night at the Valley Art Center in Chagrin Falls. Matt Borghi & Jason Sloan, Steven K. Smith and myself played at the opening night reception for the "Self-Portrait" exhibit.

My set was all improvised and the gear consisted of:

Roland GR-300 Guitar Synth (w/ E-Bow) plugged into
GSP-21 Pro Guitar rack (delay/reverb)

Roland R8 Drum Machine running into
Korg KMS-30 (MIDI -> DIN) syncing with
Roland CR-8000 Drum Machine triggering
EH Sequencer feeding
Boss SYB-3 Bass Synthesizer

Casio SK-1 (circuit bent) running through
EH Bass Micro Synthesizer
EH Memory Man Delay/Chorus

There were some confused looks from some of the older patrons, but the overall response was very favorable and Steve will start booking other shows there very soon...

Back To The Future

Yesterday was spent driving 500 miles round trip to La Grange, IN and back over the course of 18 hours.

In between driving, I attended the annual Analogue Heaven Midwest 2004. Now in it's sixth year, it's a get together of synth geeks from the Analogue Heaven mailing list. As I mentioned elsewhere, it was like attending a NAMM show in an alternate universe where modular synths rule the planet. You almost needed a drool cup...

I'll try to get my pictures up on our (always) gracious host Andrew Scheidler's site ASAP...

My Day In A Nutshell

It was 75 degrees

I bought new cookbooks (Charlie Trotter & Roxanne Klein)

I ate sushi for lunch

My shipment of Coturri Wines came in today

We made a fabulous Asian dinner

Sat on my deck and drank wine while watching deer and geese.

Awww yeah.

Wine Dinner Wrap-Up

Patrick has written an wrap-up of the Bonny Doon wine tasting we had Saturday at Riverside Wine and Imports.

We prepared all of the food (w/ the exception of the chicken, shrimp and hors d'ouevres), so here's the wine/food pairings.

Bonny Doon Wine Tasting
February 21, 2004

Wine 1: Bonny Doon Big House White 2002
Food 1: Hors d'ouerves

Wine 2: Bonny Doon Malvasia Bianca
Food 2: Spicy White Bean Gumbo Soup (w/ cornbread) and Cajun Black Bean Salad served in marinated Endive

Wine 3: Bonny Doon Pacific Rim American Dry Riesling 2002
Food 3: Cajun Shrimp

Wine 4: Bonny Doon Clos de Gilroy California Grenache 2000
Food 4: Pasta with Cajun Green Beans, Potatoes and a Creamy Pesto

Wine 5: Bonny Doon Big House Red 2002
Food 5: Mirliton Ratatouille served in Red Pepper Rings

Wine 6: Bonny Doon Domaine des Blagueurs Syrah 2000
Food 6: Jambalaya, served in a Portabella Mushroom bowl

Wine 7: Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant 2000
Food 7: Cajun Chicken

Wine 8: Bonny Doon Muscat Vin de Glaciere 2000
Food 8: Bananas Foster in Phyllo

Live Show

I've been working on an upcoming show (April 2) and hauled out a few old toys to work with -- my trusty Roland GR-300 guitar synth, the always unpredictable EH Sequencer, coupled with the Roland SYB-3 bass waveshaper run through the newly acquired Electrix Filter Queen, all controlled by the Roland R8 and CR-8000 blender drum machine. Outboard FX include the Alesis AirFx (bit reduction/filtering) and EH Memory Man.

Very 1982 ;)

The gig is at the Valley Arts Center (155 Bell St. / Chagrin Falls, OH 44022) and I'm playing w/ Steven K. Smith as well as Matt Borghi and Jason Sloan. I had the pleasure of booking Matt and Jason at SynFest 18 months ago, and I'm looking forward to opening this show. My set will be different than usual in that it will all be improvised, ambient, with no safety net this time around... ;)

As soon as the flyer is available, I'll post it...

Open Source Record Label

Magnatune -- "It's a record label, but it's not evil."

I especially like the licensing area, and it's use of Creative Commons licensing

All our music is available under the "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike " license from Creative Commons to promote these goals. Specifically, this means:

You can listen to our Internet radio stations, download our free music, and share with anyone you like.

Derivative works (for example: remixes, cover songs, sampling) is explicitly allowed. Many of our artists publish the "source code" to their music so you can rework and improve it. This includes scores, lyrics, MIDI files, samples and track-by-track audio files. If you make a great new version of our music, we'd love to know so that we can promote it!

Non-commercial use of our music and its "source code" is free. However, if you make money ("commercial use") with our music, you'll have to "share the wealth" and give us and our artists a share.

Music For Buses Vol. 1

After seeing a call for music and video entries for upcoming Minneapolis Light Rail project, it got me to thinking that it might be a good idea if the proposed RTA Euclid Corridor project budget had a spare couple of thousand dollars (less than five figures) to spend on honorariums for short pieces of music to go along with the art. And not crappy boosterish jingles either -- just short pieces of music written by the people who live here.

I know it's easy to overlook audio in favor of the visual impact that a physical piece of art would have, but Cleveland has always had a sense of sound about it as well.

Other possible uses

• replace the "on-hold" music when you call RTA or for that matter, the new Greater Cleveland Tomorrow (or whatever they end up calling it), or hell, why not City Hall?.
  
• Put all of the music on a website where people could download the tracks they liked, Also, make it a Creative Commons project so there's less squabbling...

Of course, something like this at Cleveland Hopkins Airport would be a great idea too, but that's just me ;)

Catching Up

After the whirlwind month of December, January has arrived and things have returned back to "normal" (i.e. getting the kids back on the bus at 8 a.m.)

Spent most of the late afternoon yesterday shoveling my driveway so my wife can get her car in without getting stuck in the nine-inches of snow that dropped out of the sky yesterday. It just wouldn't stop...
Now I look like I went to a crappy tanning salon (oxymoron?) with splotches of red from windburn...

So, here's a round-up of mixes/remixes/tracks from the last month...

More remixing for Patrick -- a "regular" remix of "Nostalgia", a radio edit and a 8:50 club mix that actually turned out pretty cool. When Patrick puts them up online I'll add the link.

UPDATE: here's the link to the remix and club mix...

There's a brand new tofu track, called "Eyes, Sighs, Lies, Thighs" , which sound like an electro track circa 1979 if you crossed The Flying Lizards* w/ The Normal.

Also knocked out a Karmacoda remix, but haven't uploaded it yet. soon...

UPDATE: it's now up -- Karmacoda - All That Depth (hypnogogic mix)

..and as a bonus link -- "Why Rush Are Better Than The White Stripes" (site may not be safe for work)

* If you ever come across David Cunningham's solo record called "voiceworks" snap it up... it's a really nice collection of cut-up vocals and minimal music. I believe it came out in '92 -- on Eva Records in Japan.