- Squirrel Stew and the Persistent Pleasures of Hunting (review of Steven Rinella's Meat Eater for Paste)
- True Love Obeys (Her.meneutics)
- From Homelessness to Skilled Employment (Fieldnotes)
Lastly, if you've been meaning to buy Andrew Bird's latest album Break It Yourself, and you're partial to mp3s, would you consider buying the download code that came with my ticket? I'd really prefer a CD, but it chaps my hide to buy the album twice. I'm happy to match the iTunes price ($9.99) and would even throw in some homemade granola or something. Money refunded if the download doesn't work, of course, but I promise I haven't used the code, and I'm not aware of an expiration.
:: film & video ::
- I'm slow to share this trend, but the Korean music video for "Gangnum Style" has become something like this summer's "Macarena," the Wall Street Journal reports, though its originator, Psy, told Ellen DeGeneres the mindset of the song is "dress classy, dance cheesy."
- In case you missed it, Old Spice returns with a "muscle music" video. Kind of creepy, but funny.
- A new documentary on health care system follows several patients and the staff of Oakland's Highland Hospital. The New York Times reports on The Waiting Room.
- Mako Fujimura has been a fairly long-time resident of New York City ... until recently, according to this new piece for Christianity Today's This is Our City project
that explores the move from city to country. Though the article doesn't
mention it, poet Dana Gioia recently made a similar move, leaving
Washington, D.C. to return to his more rural home in Sonoma.
- Shepherd Fairey sentenced to probation, fined in criminal suit regarding his "Hope" poster
- Seen the Cindy Sherman show yet? Here's one first-person account. Don't wait too long to go see it yourself; show ends Oct. 8
- I love pieces that delve into art in unexpected places, like this WPA mural in Harlem that's being restored.
- Man goes for Guinness record with drawn maze, but he still needs someone to solve it.
- I guess you file this under found art. The curator of this photo collection
has pored over Google street view, resulting in some pretty interesting
photos. In a way, it made me said that some of them were so arbitrarily
taken, and not by any direct human choice -- which has interesting
implications -- but I was still fascinated by several of the images.
- Charlie Peacock has a new album out -- and a Bay Area show in October. You can catch him at Hotel Utah Oct. 18. Stream his new album on Paste.
- This is the fascinating story of a violin the Nazi leader Goebbels gave to a Japanese violinist,
an instrument that has always been followed by rumors about its origin.
Now a Berkeley scholar is trying to research instruments stolen by the
Nazis
- I forget how I heard about Nick Waterhouse, he has a cool sound ... and he's coming to San Francisco later this month (playing Bimbo's on the 20th, if I'm not mistaken).
- My friend Adjoa has a new album out called Songs for Tall Women and the Short Men Who Love Them. I first met her at Charlie's house (the gent from bullet #1), which will be no surprise once you've heard her sing.
- Paste has a full-length stream of Bettye LaVette's new album, Thankful 'n Thoughtful,
which includes a number of covers -- Bob Dylan and Gnarls Barkley among
them. Not a bad album, if you like your songs bluesy and soulful.
- Mumford and Sons' second album Babel debuted last week, and NPR has video of one song from it, "Whispers in the Dark." On a related note, this Ann Powers piece
is an interesting look at the nature of rock-n-roll (must such
musicians always be outsiders?) and why some critics have disliked the
Brits' sound.
- Jazz flute probably sounds like the basis of a solid SNL skit, but it also describes some decent tunes, as this NPR piece demonstrates. A standout is the track by Yusuf Lateef, whose transfixing song "The Plum Blossom" I heard on the radio recently.
- File under fun music: nine-year-old banjo player and his brothers perform on Letterman
- Two
years into my time in New York, I switched which Redeemer Sunday
service I attended, trading the classical-themed morning service for the
jazz-themed evening one. Keller's repeated emphasis on grace was doing
something to my heart, but the morning service felt too formal and
sterile for me to really let go; I couldn't let my guard down. Once at
the evening service, though, I wept frequently and freely. The band
never got quite as close to true gospel-music territory as I wished they
would, but sometimes they came mighty close. One song I particularly
remember was Cannonball Adderley's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" -- a piece whose joyfulness this NPR feature says is typical.
- The Wall Street Journal has a preview of Diana Krall's new album, Glad Rad Doll, due Oct. 2. I've not bought one of her CDs in more than a decade, but this one sounds intriguing.
- Beck covers Brazilian Caetano Veloso as part of a new tribute album (Paste).
- Bob Dylan's 35th album Tempest was released last month. Here's a round-up of reviews (funniest so far goes to the Guardian). On a related note, there's also a video for his new song "Duquesne Whistle," which the Brits got first. That video's offered on a blog I just heard about from Bryan, part of the Guardian's cultural coverage.
- Fun, technology-themed poem from Aaron Belz: The love song of J. Alfred Capslock
- Have you been drinking real buttermilk? Probably not, according to this New York Times story. I'm on the hunt for a local provider of the butter by-product, but I may just have to try making my own butter to get it.
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