Squirrel Stew, Mumford, Muscle Music

Well. I think a month has passed between these, which explains the length of the following. I'm slowly posting the archives here, but it's proceeding slowly -- too many other writing deadlines of late! Speaking of which, I had three new pieces published last month, with more to come this month.

• 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)

A very busy weekend coming up, event-wise! Hardly Strictly runs Friday through Sunday, roughly the same schedule as Fleet Week. Litquake is Oct. 5-13. Don't miss the upcoming concert from Charlie Peacock at Hotel Utah! That should be a real treat.

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.
  

:: visual art ::

• 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.
  

:: tunes ::

• 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.
• The Guardian
• NPR

:: reading ::

• Fun, technology-themed poem from Aaron Belz: The love song of J. Alfred Capslock

:: food ::

• 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.

mucha music (Avetts, Dylan, Hawley!) + Cindy Sherman, molasses cookies

The last few weeks saw a 2,800-mile road trip to the Glen Workshop (sans a/c, con Thermador), a stubborn cold and a laptop demise that might or might not have been water-related, hence the gap in emails. But ya'll were probably enjoying your own summer vacations, right?

This week's email is a little music-news heavy, but then September's a huge month for new releases: the Avett Brothers, Mumford and Sons and Bob Dylan. There's even a new Richard Hawley out!

With the road trip, my writing slowed down a little, but I finally made a proper contribution to Paste magazine this summer -- an essay on the new book Overdressed that I wanted to title "Underwear Quilts in an Immaterial World."

I actually went to the Glen to work on fiction, but that's a more slowly gestating form. The Glen has workshops of many kinds, though -- songwriting, photography, poetry, life drawing and so on -- which is one of the reasons I'd encourage all of you to think of going at some point. I feel like I'll have to have a cocktail party where I can explain more, but it was a really great week. Get a small peek from this slideshow. It is something you might need to save up for, but if you start now, $80 a month would cover the cheapest option.

:: tunes ::

• New Bob Dylan! NPR has the first track from his forthcoming -- and 35th -- album Tempest, out Sept. 11. Play Duquesne Whistle and try to sit still. Dylan gave Rolling Stone a few quotes on truth, the Titanic and the title's possible Shakespeare reference.
  
• NPR's First Listen feature alone has really won me over to their music coverage, but I was recently reminded that they also do a decent job highlighting bands living or with substantial roots outside the U.S. A recent example is the Sierra Leonan musician Janka Nabay, who is frequently dubbed the "king" of bubu music (yeah, I didn't know what that was either). Paste has more on Nabay and his Brooklyn-based band's new album, but apparently "bubu" is a music style that draws on Muslim music and chant. In Nabay's hands, however, bubu's become a popular style in some dance clubs. Play more of his music on MySpace to see why.
  
• The Avett Brothers talk to NPR about their new album, which will be a First Listen stream beginning Aug. 30.
• Current First Listens of note: Cat Power, Animal Collective and Deerhoof, plus the wonderful Gaby Moreno. She happens to sing in Spanish, but her album's not anything like most of the songs featured as free "Latino" giveaways on iTunes. Highly recommended.
  
• Late in June, NPR Music gave a preview of upcoming albums, including the Avett Brothers' The Carpenter. I didn't like all of it, but my favorites so far are Bill Fay's "Never Ending Happening," which is just wonderful; Ivan and Alyosha's addictive, harmony-driven "Be Your Man"; and, of course, the Avetts' "Live and Die."
• Mumford and Sons will join the Avett Bros. in a September release. New album Babel is out Sept. 25. Watch the album trailer.
• Richard Hawley has a new album out, too, but so far Paste and NPR are mum on the topic. The British Independent rounds up a few other reviews, however.
  
• I don't know that many of you share my taste for jazz, but as some of you know, it extended to a couple stints as the pianist in jazz ensembles, first in high school, then my freshman year in college. Though I ultimately transferred schools, the leader of that college jazz band was a wonderful mentor and musician named Gabriel Espinosa. Imagine my surprise and delight, then, to hear his name on KCSM the other day, during a Latin-jazz program. Could it be the same Gabriel, I wondered? It must be, because his new album Celebrando, released in April has steadily risen up the jazz charts, from 342 in June to as high as number 12! Hear clips from the album on contributor Hendrik Meurkens' website.
  
• Bill Cosby is probably best known for his comedic work, especially as Cliff Huxtable, but he also has a talent for scat, as shown off on "Hikky-Burr," the theme song from his first sitcom, The Bill Cosby Show. Cosby may or may not appear on other tracks from the show's soundtrack album, Original Jam Sessions 1969 (AllMusic seems a bit inconsistent on that point), but it's a great, funky album.
  
• This story of "Ipanema's" enduring popularity is worth listening to for the clip of Mike Tyson's cover alone (yes, really!). 
• I think I shared a video of this Russian-grandma singing group a while ago, but the New York Times reports their continued fame and recent second-place finish in this year's Eurovision have helped their village water pipeline and other improvements. They've even earned enough money in a rebuilding fund to finally start reconstructing a long-demolished church. 
• Lastly, if you've been on the fence about subscribing to Paste's new mPlayer format ($2.99/month for weekly issues, each with seven new downloads), you get three issues free with a special offer they're running.
  

:: visual art ::

• Last week's big story in visual art got so much coverage most of you have probably already heard about it, but in case not, here's the botched restoration of a Spanish fresco of Jesus that the BBC's correspondent compared to "a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic."
• Photo-series stories seem to be the latest itiration of "listicles" (articles built around the structure of a list), at least if you read SFGate much, but these portraits of famous people jumping -- Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe and Salvador Dali among them -- was fun to look through.
• In case you've missed the posters around town, photographer Cindy Sherman has an exhibit at SFMOMA thru Oct. 8. Hers is an interesting body of work, nearly all self-portraiture, that is probably all the more relevant in the age of social media and obsessive self-presentation. I actually got to participate in a focus group on marketing the show, and I believe this may be the first major show of her work at SFMOMA.
  

:: your stuff ::

• Steve had a couple photos featured in Oakland Magazine's best-of story. 

:: food ::

• After surviving the road trip, I managed to send my housing thank-you notes with cookies for once. One of my favorite recipes for such care packages is a yummy molasses treat from the old Betty Crocker cookbook both my grandma and mom have owned. Both dough and cookie keep well, although that may not matter if you have a sweet tooth. The recipe's fairly quick to make, but does require some chilling time in the fridge before baking (try the freezer if you're short on time).