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“Pocketful of Money” by Jens Lekman
Forcing myself to update before work all right!
I was working on the senior design project this past Spring in the lab and started playing this album. And, slowly, over the course of the album, more and more people started asking me who it was by. It was by Jens Lekman, a gorgeous young Swede who deserves every bit of your attention. He’s simply delightful.
I saw young Jens last year with my brother. We had each been waiting for a specific song to be played. Rohit was waiting for “Shirin.” I, for “Pocketful of Money.” He had announced that there was “one more song” coming. Then he played both of them back-to-back. The night ended with the crowd singing the backup vocals to this song. Heavenly.
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“Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division
Yeah the title is pretty emo. And yes this band sounds depressing as hell. But if you’ve ever listened to Interpol and bopped your head or hummed a Cure song or wanted to love something Radiohead does, you should be listening to Joy Division. This, the band’s final single, is the best example of their ability to craft a sinister pop song with lyrics that subvert cultural conventions. And it’s pretty fucking catchy too.
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“Summer Babe (Winter Version)” by Pavement
Yeah, let’s go with an old favorite.
When I discovered Pavement in high school, it pretty much changed the way I digested music for the rest of my life. I had started to part with my friends, musically, in subtle ways up until that point. But Pavement was that first real step where I established my own taste independent of any single person. It was also the first band I connected with my brother over. Summer Babe was my first favorite song, the first track off their first LP which was, for a while, my favorite too. Other songs and another LP are my favorite now, but you never forget your first.
Sidenote: Pandora tells me that if I like Summer Babe, I would like the Pixies and Built to Spill. All right.
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Neil Gaiman as featured on The Moth.
Fumbling through the archives of The Moth, I nearly shrieked with prepubescent glee when I saw this story. Gaiman is definitely one of my most favorite storytellers. Regardless of the medium (he’s a New York Times best-selling author, a masterful orator, and one of the most talented graphic novel authors of all time who managed to reshape the entire industry with his first major series, The Sandman, and I wish to have his babies post-haste), he has never failed to engage me with his poofy Halloween hair and a voice that reminds me of Cadbury Fruit & Nut. Here, he is in top form, offering a story about waiting at a train station for his parents at the supple age of sixteen.
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“Hardcore UFOs” by Guided By Voices
“If you don’t listen to GBV, you’re not indie.” Try as I might, angry young woman with a cigarette in her mouth, I never could love them. Even tracks that GBV-fanatics swear by, like “Tractor Rape Chain,” left me nonplussed. But this song is different. It is, to me, an example of a perfect ‘Track 1.’ Quick, catchy, engaging, wistful.
I done made me a pizza.
Twasn’t nuthin’ fancy. I bought a whole bunch of stuff from Trader Joe’s and whipped this up. In the future I’m going to try my hand at making my own dough but right now I don’t have the proper tools. I’m waiting for September’s paycheck to get them so until then any and all baking is store-bought, sadly. But that don’t mean it can’t be delicious.
I took some Garlic & Herb pizza dough and stretched it out on a lightly oiled pan. I then stuck it in the oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes until the dough was cooked through so it was still chewy but not stretchy. I removed the pan and then poured some marinara (which had been simmering with some onions and garlic for 20 minutes) on top. I put a little mozzarella on top (cut into 1/2” thick, 5” long matchsticks). Then I added some chopped Chicken Sausage (the Pesto kind), a little bit of Prosciutto, some dollops of green olive tapenade, and julienned Shitake mushrooms. Finally, some more mozzarella and a little Parmesan were added. Then I baked that bad boy till the crust got nice and brown. The final product was pretty good albeit a bit heavy. I had it for dinner and the leftovers for lunch today.
My next pizza venture will likely be something lighter. Some zucchini and goat cheese perhaps. Or something with arugula and a Dijon Vinaigrette I made on top.
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“Skinny Love” by Bon Iver
I just found out Bon Iver is going to be playing a concert in a cemetery in Los Angeles. Not only does the $25 ticket include a coffee+pastries breakfast but the concert is also at sunrise. Plus! the cemetery is also the home of Estelle Getty aka the indomitable Sophia from legendary sitcom The Golden Girls. I don’t like to go to concerts alone so I’ll probably sit this one out unless by some miracle I meet someone who enjoys Bon Iver here or someone from back home visits that weekend who I don’t mind dragging along with me.
This song is gorgeous on my headphones. A little depressing, but gorgeous.
New Adventures in Gastronomy: Iced Espresso
I’ve decided that I’ll periodically discuss cool stuff I’ve been doing in San Diego and a lot of cool stuff I’ve been doing recently (besides intense Ikea-expeditions) is cooking. I thought I’d start the series off with something simple.
Last night, I made a variation of Lifehacker’s guide to iced coffee. It’s a bit time-consuming (I brewed mine for 16 hours, though LH recommends at least 12) but you can brew this before or after cooking dinner and save it for the next morning. You can find the original article here: http://bit.ly/mp9Z3
Ingredients:
1 cup coffee grounds (I used Starbucks Espresso Roast)
4 cups cold water
1 coffee filter
Optional:
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Take a large tupperware container and mix the water and coffee together. You can add any infusions you want now. The vanilla added a nice sweetness but the cinnamon was a bit prominent so feel free to half that and add later to taste. Make sure the lid is tight on the container and shake the shit out of it. Like real good so the water and the coffee are all over one another. And then store that baby in the fridge. You may want to periodically shake it up as the grounds will settle to the bottom (I might try an engineering experiment to figure out the weight of the coffee ground by seeing how long it takes to settle!!).
In the morning, you can do two things. I put my pants on and then placed my reusable coffee filter in my coffee machine and simply poured the contents through it slowly and deliberately and with incredible purpose and tenacity, collecting the iced coffee in the pot. I poured some in my glass, adding milk and sugar to taste, and stored the rest for afternoon coffee.
An alternative is that you can keep your pants off. And if you’re lacking a coffee machine and pot, find another tupperware container and rubber band a coffee filter over its opening (do it loosely with a dip in the container so the mixture doesn’t spill out when you’re pouring). And it’ll be easy to store for later. You could also use one of those fine-mesh strainers if you have them lying around. Or put the coffee filter in a colander and hold it over the tupperware and pour slowly. Get creative, people.
I’m also thinking of trying my hand at Irish coffee (1 cup whiskey, 1 tsp brown sugar, in short shorts) or Mocha (swap espresso for mocha coffee beans and maybe 3 tbsp cocoa powder, in a banana-hammock).
I also made some chicken in a pineapple-balsamic glaze that I ate over arugula last night but I’m still figuring out the recipe. It was delicious but I think needed some more sweetness to play with the spice of the arugula and the acid in the balsamic. I’m also thinking up a new way to crust chicken legs that I’m going to try out tonight. I hope I can make it sing like Bea Arthur in a negligee reclined on a baby grand piano.
Being a San Diegan
Quick status report!
I flew into San Diego last Monday night after a terrific weekend. My car got here before me but luckily my new roomie Nikhil intercepted it. I slept that night with a pillow and a towel (ghetto fabulous, I know) and so made it a priority to buy a bed the next day. Mission accomplished. I went with a NYC night-sky theme (as opposed to the greenblack thing I had last year and the previous year’s Love Boat theme). The bed I got is from the Manhattan collection and the dude who sold it to me is an ex-Nuclear Engineer from the Bronx who plays in a metal band (Party’s Over) and knows the one Bklyn metal band I know semi-well. I’m thinking of getting white christmas lights and arranging them in a cool way over the headboard.
I went into work for the first time on Wednesday. I met my new PI and my coworkers. For the most part, I’ll stay off work on Tumblr (never good to discuss work on the internet) but right now I just want to say I’m excited. Everyone is doing cool things and seem like cool people and things are just…cool. Coolio, in fact. Adam (my PI - principal investigator aka pinata-party instigator) bought me some coffee and we shot the shit. He’s a cool dude whose research is cool and I’m excited to work for him for the next few years because it seems like it will be cool. Cool times ahead.
Thursday I played with stem cells. The government is paying me to do things to stem cells. Be afraid.
Yesterday I waited for the cable guy to set up internet which is why I can now write this post on Tumblr in a towel on my bed after a shower.
Today I’m going to continue my errands. I’ve been ferrying things from Ikea Target etc and today I’m going to hopefully load 200lbs of furniture into my car and single-handedly bring it up to my apartment because Nikhil’s in Vegas till tomorrow night. Yeah, wish me luck.
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“All For the Best” by Thom Yorke (originally by Miracle Legion)
I simply love this song. The jittery opening drums. The organ moving forward and back in waves. Mark Mulcahy’s bittersweet lyrics delivered by my favorite vocalist (Thom Yorke, of course). Andy’s smoky backing vocals. The sudden injection of jarring guitars. And the last minute is possibly the most beautiful music Thom has arranged since Pyramid Song.
There’s something weird about Thom Yorke singing “say you love me. Say you love me. Let’s just say you love me.” They’re not his words but I can see why he chose to cover this song. You’re such a sap, Thom.
