Lazing the Summer Away

I'm on vacation! First order of business was to attend a fabulous wedding and reconnect with some of my bestest friends from home. Then, 4 days all to myself wherein I did a ton of languishing chores and set up a little basement workshop area for myself where I can sew and be crafty any time. I have already hemmed one entire pair of pants. The weather has been perfect--high clear summer days shading into fall (that is, not too hot). There are still a lot of things on my to-do list for the week, thanks to Labor Day I still have 3 more days off coming my way. Being on vacation is really, perhaps inordinately, exciting. If only I could take off weeks and weeks like a French person.

Here are a load of Beef Jerky Time playlists, for the record...
Music for Calculators show, 8/13/08--your multi-function calculator from high school came to life and DJ'd this show

• Mobira: Printed Circuit
  
• Number 1: Goldfrapp
  
• Married Young (The Glass remix): Robbers on High STreet
  
• The Move: Boom Bip
  
• Nobody Lost, Nobody Found: Cut Copy
  
• Disco Infiltrator: LCD Soundsystem
  
• IMpossible: Figurine
  
• Escaping the Game Grid: Technicolor
  
• Disconnect the Dots: Of Montreal
  
• Mecha-Mania Boy: Devo
  
• Around the World: Daft Punk
  
• Casium: Marumaki

Show from 8*20*08, including a Gorilla set

• Sad Song: Au Revoir Simone
  
• Pom Pom: Matthew Dear
  
• I Was Never Young: Of Montreal
  
• Think I Wanna Die: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
  
• Sky Saw: Brian Eno
  
• Blue Black Jack: Mos Def f/Shuggie Otis
  
• Breakdance: Irene Cara
  
• The Gorilla: Dee Jay & the Runaways
  
• Gorilla Girl: The Dead Milkmen
  
• Kids with Guns: Gorillaz
• Warlock: Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Oh Sheila: Ready for the World
• Cold Star: The Hectors
• Astronaut: Shy Child
• Bag of Hammers: Thao Nguyen
• Think: Medeski Martin & Wood
  

Show from 8*27*08, 80s nite

• You Spin Me Round (Like a Record): Dead or Alive
• I Would Die 4 U: Prince
• Tarzan Boy: Baltimora
• Can't Fight This Feeling: REO Speedwagon
• Let's Go all the Way: Sly Foxx
• Good Thing: Fine Young Cannibals
• PYT: Michael Jackson
• Hello Again: The Cars
• Sunglasses at Night: Corey Hart
• I Wanna Be a Cowboy: Boys Don't Cry
• Things Will Only Get Better: Howard Jones
• Bizarre Love Triangle: New Order
• theme from "Crocodile Dundee"
  

Cold soba salad with eggplant

One of my favorite flowers, the nasturtium.
Better because you can eat it!

I was reading a back issue of Cook's Illustrated and saw a recipe for sesame noodles with chicken. It reminded me of another recipe for eggplant and buckwheat noodles (that is, soba) in Laurel Glen's Quick Food. I studied both recipes and invented this mashup to serve cold on a summer's evening. I threw in a zucchini because I always need more ways to get rid of zucchini. And I recommend using one of my favorite garnishes: nasturtiums! Here are some of the main players: farmer's market eggplant plus herbs and nasturtiums straight from the garden.



Ingredients
8 oz soba (buckwheat noodles)
sesame oil
4 T toasted sesame seeds
1 thumb ginger, coarsely sliced
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
5 T tamari
1 T rice vinegar
1 T honey
1 T lemon juice
1/4 c peanut butter
2 T pasta water
2 T oil (peanut or canola)
1 Japanese eggplant, sliced into thick sticks
1 zucchini, sliced into thick sticks
parsley, chopped
chives, chopped
nasturtiums, 10 or more

Assembly

1. Cook the soba according to the package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Splash on sesame oil to keep the noodles from sticking together. Set aside.
   
2. Add 3T of the sesame seeds to your food processor. Put in ginger, garlic, tamari, vinegar, honey, lemon juice and peanut butter. Blend until well combined and even starting to emulsify--perhaps about a minute.
   
3. Heat the oil in a pan or wok and stirfry the eggplant and zucchini until they are starting to brown but not floppy. Turn heat down and add parsley and chives.
   
4. Stir sauce and vegetables into noodles. Serve and garnish with nasturtiums! Serves 4.

My fellow diner suggested I also add an "after" shot. Yes, it was really good!


I'm submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking, a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks celebrating the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient.

The host this month is Palachinka.

If you would like to participate or to see the secret ingredient, check who's hosting next month.

Dog Days of Aug

According to my playlists The Rosebuds have been around on my show since July 2007. They have been around in the real world for years longer. I mainly know their 3rd album "Night of the Furies," described as having been conjured during the wind and chaos of a tropical depression. Driving beats, pretty choruses (pretty in a good way), some dark slow vocals that sound a bit broken-hearted, a bit blasé. And there's just enough synth stuff going on for me to be contented. In fact "Night of the Furies" reminds me of the Cure. Not that it sounds like The Cure, but it's nice when good pop music comes with some graveyard themes. When I need to score a movie about vampires in high school, I'll use a track from this album.

Assorted facts: "Night of the Furies" has been remixed by various artists as "Sweet Beats, Troubled Sleep", including a track by--hey!--Roger O'Donnell from the Cure. They blog at therosebuds.blogspot.com. Their new album "Life Like" drops in October!

Beef Jerky Time playlist, 8/6/08

• E.M.P.T.Y: The Clientele
  
• Quedate Luna: Devendra Banhart
  
• I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes: Tom Vek
  
• Pum Pum: Lee "Scratch" Perry
  
• Stuck for the Summer: Two Hours Traffic
  
• 3 Women: Stereolab
  
• Leaves Do Fall: The Rosebuds
  
• I Live for the Sun: Sunshine Day
  
• Hearts on Fire (Knightlife remix): Cut Copy
  
• Of Moons, Birds & Monsters: MGMT
  
• Dancing Behind My Eyelids: múm
  
• Until We Bleed: Kleerup f/Lykke Li
  
• I Know But I Don't Know: Blondie
  
• The Casio Fight Song: David Shouse & the Bloodthirsty Lovers
  
• Snow Capes: Caribou

A celebration of Beck

Modern Guilt is out and I played an hour of Beck on WVEW-LP to celebrate. That was a good drum break. I note a fellow program host on Saturday mornings was digging Modern Guilt too. Rock on!

7/30/08 Beef Jerky Time playlist (album in parentheses)

• Nicotine & Gravy (Midnite Vultures)
  
• Walls (Modern Guilt)
  
• Earthquake Weather (Guero)
  
• New Round (The Information)
  
• Youthless (Modern Guilt)
  
• Tropicalia (Mutations)
  
• Sissyneck (Odelay)
  
• End of the Day (Sea Change)
  
• Gamma Ray (Modern Guilt)
  
• Hell Yes (Guero)
  
• Pressure Zone (Midnite Vultures)
  
• Think I'm in Love (The Information)
  
• Where It's At (Odelay)
  
• Modern Guilt (Modern Guilt)

A Walk in the Woods

It's been a wet summer. We decided to go for a Sunday morning walk this August 3rd. The almost-daily rain had not started yet... would not come for another 3 hours. The whole woods was moist and wonderful with leaf litter sun-dappled. The air smelled of fungus. Here are some snaps we took.

The first newt: I had promised we'd try to find one on our woods walk. There were so many dogs on the path I thought we should go into the woods a bit to find a newt. So veering off-track and heading toward a bright orange toadstool, we very soon found our quarry.


Almost immediately, my companion begged for another newt. I had my doubts. But we soon came across one right on the main path.


My companion then requested a third newt. I thought we were pretty lucky to have found two. As I was explaining this, we came upon #3. This one had a very long tail and was on its way somewhere.


Other things we saw: many stands of Indian-pipe. It was growing everywhere. I have always been rather fond of this chlorophyll-less plant. I like its other sometime name, "Ice plant." It does look like it will deliquesce in the hand if touched--right down to the beads of water clinging to its cold blossoms. My Peterson's Guide tells me it's related to wintergreen, and called monotropa uniflora.


Below: I was amazed to find these next to a stand of regular white Indian-pipe. Rather than a pure translucent white with single bell-like flower, these were cream-colored with multiple bells. Looked it up when I got home and it's a relative called "Pinesap" ( monotropa hypopithis).


Here is a little flash/without flash study. First, lovely white toadstools taken with flash. They're so bright that it works OK--they look like a "specimen."


But using flash in the woods makes everything look sorta artificial, so I try to get away with no flash. Usually things just turn out blurry, but with these white toadstools, the flashless effect is more a ghostly glow.


Here are some red toadstools with flash. These are moist and vibrant-colored. Use of flash makes them look like they've been caught in the act.

Perpetual spinach, caramelized onions & fried polenta

The spinach came from the farmer's market. It was called "perpetual spinach" and billed as being similar to chard. The leaves are huge. Here they are in my sink for scale:



I made up a small batch of polenta last night and let it harden on a buttered plate. I just needed one more thing--some fresh farmstand onions to caramelize.



Now I'm ready!

Ingredients

• about a dozen (or more) small white onions
  
• big bunch of spinach or chard
  
• 4 T butter
  
• polenta that you've made & hardened in advance (my recipe was a fast-cooking kind, I used 3 cups chicken stock to 1 cup polenta, added 3 T parmesan cheese, all according to the package)
  
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 2 T olive oil

Assembly
Wash the spinach. Here it is again in our drying rack. HUGE!



Cut the top & bottom off each onion and slice it into sticks/crescents. Melt 2 T butter in a pan and start sauteing onion slowly.



Keep stirring now and then for about 20 minutes, keeping covered while it cooks. Add another pat of butter once in a while. If you have the time and the butter, you can do this on super-low heat for up to an hour. The longer you cook, the sweeter and smaller the onions will get.

Next, prepare the spinach. Cut it into 2-3 inch strips and put it, still wettish, into a large pot with 1 T olive oil. Crush 3 cloves of garlic over it. Ideally you'll have enough to fill the pot.



Cover and heat the spinach over medium-low heat. You don't need any water other than what's clinging to the leaves. (But if you get paranoid and add a little extra, that's OK.) It'll cook down a lot.



Meanwhile, heat the other 1 T olive oil in a nonstick pan. Cut your plate's worth of polenta into pie-shaped wedges--as thin or wide as you like. Fry them for about 3 minutes per side, until each side is mostly golden brown.

To serve, spoon caramelized onions over a few polenta wedges, with spinach on the side.

Busy July

The heat makes my brain stop working. Seems to me that in my winter posts, I mention that the cold stops my brain too. So the only times of year when I can think are possibly spring and fall. Will have to remember to try thinking about that then.

There will be no Beef Jerky Time on July 23, but I'll be back on the 30th with an ALL-BECK special edition, to celebrate the release of his latest, Modern Guilt. Keep it tuned to wvew.org for all your community radio needs. Here are some recent playlists--happy Bastille day & stuff!

Playlist 7*9*08

• Happy Hour: The Housemartins
  
• Messenger: Pinback
  
• Naked As We Came: Iron & Wine
  
• Voila l'été: Les Negresses Vertes
  
• Banquet: Bloc Party
  
• You Can't Push Me Away: The Sinking Ships
  
• Keep Your Eyes Ahead: The Helio Sequence
  
• Crawlspace: Beastie Boys
  
• Bookshop Casanova: The Clientele
  
• London Bridge: Fergie
  
• Baby Boy: Crystal Skulls
  
• Let Me Go Where My Pictures Go: Ludus
  
• Shaded Forest: Deastro
  
• Valerie: Steve Winwood

Playlist 7*15*08

• D.A.N.C.E.: Justice
  
• Poison (Van She Tech remix): Martina Topley-Bird
  
• Walk Like An Egyptian: The Bangles
  
• L.E.S. Artistes (XXXChange remix): Santogold
  
• Destroy Everything You Touch: Ladytron
  
• The Underdog: Spoon
  
• Monkey Woopie Song: The Wiyos
  
• Birds of Prey: Von Iva
  
• Rainbowarriors: CocoRosie
  
• Future: Cut Copy
  
• Merry Making at My Place: Calvin Harris
  
• Balloons: Foals
  
• Can I Get Get Get: Junior Senior
  
• Ezy Ryder: Jimi Hendrix

Quickie post

Just got back from vacation but want to get this up for fans of Beef Jerky Time! This is from ages ago, back on July 2, 2008. 'Member then?

• Ana Ng: They Might Be Giants
  
• Melody Day: Caribou
  
• La Vie en Rose: Grace Jones
  
• Blessed Light: Great Northern
  
• It's Love: Misty Wizard
  
• Stop Being Perfect: The LK
  
• I Feel It All: Feist
  
• Hotwax: Beck
  
• The Kid's Don't Stand a Chance: Vampire Weekend
  
• Middle Man: Bright Eyes
  
• Gronlandic Edit: Of Montreal
  
• Turn You Inside Out: R.E.M.

Golden Tofu with Baby Bok Choy and Scape Confetti

It's that time again, when the scape hits gardens and farmer's markets all around New England. We didn't have a chance to plant garlic last fall, but fortunately some friends of friends sent over a bunch of lovely large scapes. I decided to adapt one of Kay Scarlett's recipes from the gorgeous book "Family Food" (part of the adorable Laurel Glen paperback series, with huge pictures of each dish). Here it is:

Ingredients
4-5 garlic scapes, blended fine in a food processor
2 T. vegetable oil
4 blocks of firm tofu, cut into bite-sized cubes
1 pound baby bok choy, cut into thirds
1 thumb ginger, also blended fine
2 T. oyster sauce
2 T. soy sauce
2 t. sugar
handful cilantro, loosely chopped




Assembly
I don't have a wok so I had to improvise. Heat the oil until very hot in a large saucepan. Keep the tofu moving until it seems sealed off on all sides. Then turn the heat down and continue to gently stir and turn until it starts to get golden. This took me about 20 minutes. If you have a smaller pan, do this in batches.

Meanwhile, stir together the oyster sauce, soy sauce, processed ginger and sugar.



When the tofu looks nice and golden, turn up the heat again and stir in the sauce. If needed, add a little water to stretch out the sauce. Let it bubble and coat all the tofu pieces. Next, add the bok choy and processed scapes.



Cover the pot to let the bok choy cook a bit. (Add a touch water to steam fry if the sauce is just about gone.) Stir together and serve with cilantro garnish.


Serves 4--recommend brown rice on the side. I'm submitting this garlic scapes recipe to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Kalyn's Kitchen.

Coco-nutty: 5 Bowl Salad

Funny story. I went to a potluck and my fellow diner took a big spoonful of what he thought was potato salad. But I could tell that wasn't a potato in mayo... it was a PIECE OF PINEAPPLE in something creamy. I ate the whole thing for him, dissecting the recipe as I went. Then I went online and found that it's usually called "5 cup salad." Since I'm more into guesstimating, I'm going to call this "5 bowl salad." It's a little desserty, a little kitsch-y. I'm submitting it to the A Fruit a Month--Coconut blog event, hosted this month by Tasty Palettes.

Ingredients
Aim for about a cup of each:

• pineapple chunks
  
• mandarin oranges
  
• coconut flakes
  
• sour cream (or use yogurt instead)
  
• mini marshmallows

optional: chopped pecans



Assembly

Mix together gently but thoroughly.



That's it! You're done. Consider refrigerating for a few hours or more to let the yummy coconut really permeate the other ingredients. Needless to say, I recommend this as a good potluck dish. (If you want to make larger amounts, just keep the ratios 1:1:1:1:1, with as many or as few pecans as you like.)

Buddhist about Bugs

As a child I was taught not to kill things (bugs, I'm thinking) unless they are actively biting you. A beetle or an ant or even a wasp should be gently captured (possibly in a special glass jar kept with a piece of card expressly for this purpose) and taken outside to freedom. However, a flea or a tick or a mosquito or blackfly... or an evil deerfly... can be terminated with extreme prejudice. Probably because when you notice one of these creatures it is already biting you. (I also save spiders even though I am not a huge fan.) I am especially good at saving ants. They're the only bug I'm not afraid to pick up with my bare hands, unless they are upwards of half an inch long. Maybe it's some kind of Arthur Dent thing--a hapless fly or ant could be an ancient relative... Also I'd rather release something whole into the wild than have to clean up its icky carcass.

Moving on, here are 2 weeks-worth of Beef Jerky Time playlists.

June 18, 2008

• GfC: Albert Hammond Jr.
  
• Heatstroke: Magic Bullets
  
• Remember Me: Tame Impala
  
• The Bomb: New Young Pony Club
  
• The Kids Don't Stand a Chance: Vampire Weekend
  
• Working Bees: The Pinker Tones
  
• Sometimes: Midnight Oil
  
• You Make Me Feel: Milosh
  
• My Man My Moon: Feist
  
• They Made Frogs Smoke Til They Exploded: múm
  
• Warm Tears: Alsace
  
• Rat Is Dead: Cansei de ser Sexy
  
• Shoot the Dog, Chop the Tree: Taxi Taxi!
  
• You're Not All That: The Herbaliser f/ Jessica Darling

June 25, 2008

• So Haunted: Cut Copy
  
• Spitting Out the Demons: Gorillaz
  
• This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody): Talking Heads
  
• I Am John: Loney, Dear
  
• Stuck for the Summer: Two Hours Traffic
  
• Sweet Dollar Bill: Louis Philippe
  
• Loves Me Like a Rock: Paul Simon
  
• Another Sunny Day: Belle & Sebastian
  
• Ask: The Smiths
  
• Lowdown: My Morning Jacket
  
• Electric Feel: MGMT
  
• Crazy On You: Heart
  
• Ivanka: Imperial Teen

Tasty Swedish pop

A lot of the music I like lately is from Sweden. Therefore this edition of Beef Jerky Time is devoted to a brief survey of the genre. Here's the playlist (6/11/08--just 5 day's after Sweden's National Day...):

• Objects of My Affection: Peter Bjorn & John
  
• The End: David & the Citizens
  
• City: Lo-Fi-Fnk
  
• Man Must Dance: Johnossi
  
• Stop Being Perfect: The LK
  
• Little Bit: Lykke Li
  
• Heaven: Club 8
  
• Until We Bleed: Kleerup f/ Lykke Li
  
• Does Your Mother Know: ABBA
  
• A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill: Jens Lekman
  
• Danger!: The Sound of Arrows
  
• Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls: Pelle Carlberg
  
• Cuckoo: Santa Maria
  
• Neverland: The Knife
  
• When the Night Turns Cold: Tobias Froberg

Myspace is My Jukebox

However you may feel about Myspace as a personal networking site, it is definitely an awesome place to find all kinds of music from all kinds of bands. Artists are putting up a lot of tracks, not necessarily to download, but to play. More and more I use myspace as my personal customized radio station. It is an opt out technology--if you click on a band's homepage, the music WILL start playing for you unless you do something to stop it. And me, I just can't stop it.

Here's Beef Jerky Time playlist from 6*4*08, larded with links:

• Too Shy: Kajagoogoo
  
• Cold Star: The Hectors
  
• From Nothing to Nowhere: Pinback
  
• Electric Feel: MGMT
  
• Future: Cut Copy
  
• The Good Old Days: The Lodger
  
• Everyone Knows Everyone: The Helio Sequence
  
• Tane Mahuta: The Ruby Suns
  
• Bang On: The Breeders
  
• Language City: Wolf Parade
  
• Pom Pom: Matthew Dear
  
• Untrust Us: Crystal Castles
  
• Astronaut: Shy Child
  
• Love Story on the Moon: The Canadians
  
• Last Walk Around Mirror Lake (Boom Bip remix): Boards of Canada

Strolling of the Heifers, Year 7

I will once again be attending the parade and events for Brattleboro's own Strolling of the Heifers this weekend (always first Saturday in June). For some photos of past parades, including Strolling of the Heifers 2006, check out my "Parades" set on Flickr.


Here's playlist from Beef Jerky Time 6/4/08:

• Gypsy Dave: Bert Jansch
  
• The Last Time: Gnarls Barkley
  
• Ocean Breathes Salty: Modest Mouse
  
• In My Nerves: ADULT
  
• Fancy Dancer: The Commodores
  
• Good Things: James Pants
  
• Machita (La Nueva Ola): Superaquello
  
• Beanbag Chair: Yo La Tengo
  
• Kicks in the Schoolyard: The Rosebuds
  
• Married Young (The Glass remix): Robbers on High Street
  
• The Henney Buggy Band: Sufjan Stevens
  
• The Littlest Birds: The Be Good Tanyas
  
• Midnight Moonlight: Old & In the Way
  
• Adrenaline: Emma Pollock
  
• After It All: Cat Power

Asparagus Risotto: In Season

A typical risotto recipe--good for a late spring potluck. The key is to cook the asparagus separately and cut off the delicate heads to use as a garnish.

Ingredients
1 pound fresh whole asparagus
1/2 Vidalia onion, chopped fine
1/2 white onion, chopped fine
8 cloves garlic (more or less), minced
4 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 stick butter
2 cups arborio rice
1 bottle white wine
4 cups broth or homemade stock
1/2 tsp salt
many handfuls of parmesan or romano

Assemblage

1. Preparing asparagus: Trim off the very ends of the asparagus, and any extra woody bits. With a peeler, shave off all around the tough end of the spear. See photo above.
   
2. Heat olive oil and butter together at medium-high heat. When butter is all melted, add the onions and garlic. Stir stir stir.
   
3. Add the rice. Stir until everything is coated and starting to get toasty. Then, add a good ladle-ful of either stock or white wine.
   
4. Separately, boil a pot of water.
   
5. Now is the fun part. When the rice starts to seem dry, which is basically every couple minutes, add more liquid and stir it in. Alternate between ladles of wine and stock. It can take about 30 minutes.
   
6. Meanwhile, put the whole asparagus into the boiling water. Set the timer for 5 minutes. Pull it out and cut the stalks into 1/2 inch pieces. Set the heads aside.
   
7. When the rice starts to clump up instead of eating more liquid, turn the heat down. Add the asparagus pieces (NOT the heads). When almost ready to serve, add the salt and cheese and stir in thoroughly.
   
8. Plate the risotto and garnish with the asparagus heads. Here's how it looks next to some toothsome salmon.

I'm submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking, a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks celebrating the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient. The host this month is Wandering Chopsticks. If you would like to participate or to see the secret ingredient, check who's hosting next month.

Pain at the pump: ow!

I just paid $4.949/gallon for diesel. That hurts my feelings. I figure I have 3 options: 1. convert my car to a veggie oil system that burns cheap (but food-based) oil most of the time, 2. make my own biodiesel or at least contribute to some local biodiesel cooperative, 3. carpool. #3 seems so easy, that's the one I'm going to start with. More on my financial situation and revelations anon.

Meanwhile, playlist from Beef Jerky Time May 18, 2008:

• A Good Egg: Leo Kottke
  
• The Ghost In You: Psychedelic Furs
  
• b.b.v.u. (give me give me): 800 Cherries
  
• Puerto Rican Jukebox: Panther
  
• Poison (Van She remix): Martina Topley-Bird
  
• I Can't Wait: Nu Shooz
  
• Bring the Noise: Public Enemy
  
• Feel the Love: Cut Copy
  
• Fire Eyed Boy: Broken Social Scene
  
• Oregon Girl: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
  
• Sound & Vision: The Sea & Cake
  
• Take My Time: Junior Senior
  
• Promises, Promises: Naked Eyes
  
• Tamagotchi Freestyle: The Lovekevins
  
• Theme from Paris: James Pants

Beauty tips for moms

If you wear lipstick (I do cuz it's easy and looks nice), find a shade that you like in one of these new-fangled stay-on formulas. These kind of stain or paint your lips so you can forget about your lipstick for the rest of the day (which you do anyway). Some days I completely forget to apply, and that's fine too.

Wearing mascara is a quick way to help you look put-together and awake. Anything that has those results is good in my book. I suggest a waterproof mascara—it stays on better and you can cry in it. You'll also need to invest in some eye makeup remover to get the stuff off gently but thoroughly.

Use a moisturizer with sunscreen. Reason? Multitasking saves time. I have an oil-free "moisture lotion" that is SPF 15 and formulated for the face. I put it on during my "morning makeup moment." (This is the moment around 10 or 11am when I'm sitting at my desk at work and realize that I am awake and should fix myself up a little bit.)

Invest in a good/fancy razor. Let's face it, you probably won't use it that often anyway, so the cost will amortize nicely. (Many busy moms suggest just shaving one leg per day, maximum two per week.) After cutting myself outrageously with cheap single-blade disposable razors, I lost my temper and purchased a $9 thingy that has "lotion cartridges" or something and triple blades. It even claims that no shaving cream or moisturizer is needed, you just wet & go. Love it.

More on sunblock: Make it easy to put on first thing and be done. I got my first burn of the season back in April innocently sitting on a deck enjoying an unseasonably nice spring day. I burned the same place as always, the delicate decolletage area. I have vowed to Do My Best to not get burned there again. Yuck. My weapon is SPF 25 sunblock that I keep on my bathroom sink. After I step from the shower and towel off, and before I run out to do the billion things that are simmering in my head, I pause. 30 seconds to rub on that SPF 25. Done and done.

The common theme here is that some mothers are short on time and memory power. If I do remember to do something for myself, it has to be done right then and fast. Because something else is coming up in 2 seconds. Right now that would be... radio show playlists!

Beef Jerky Time playlist 5/7/08

• Remote Control: Trans Am
  
• House Fire: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
  
• Katie Cruel: Karen Dalton
  
• Danger!: The Sound of Arrows
  
• Sweden Hasn't Changed, You Have: Fast Computers
  
• Call It a Ritual: Wolf Parade
  
• Birds of Prey: Von Iva
  
• The Upstairs Room: The Cure
  
• The Land of La La: Stevie Wonder
  
• Far Away: Cut Copy
  
• Kelly: Van She
  
• We're Through: James Pants
  
• So Long: Fischer Z

Beef Jerky Time Playlist 5/14/08, kids nite

• Be Nice to People with Lice: Alan Sparhawk
  
• Baby Beluga: Raffi
  
• Camptown Races
  
• Cricket Song
  
• Clever Gretel: narrated by Danny Kaye
  
• La Mer by Debussy: Baby Einstein Music Box Orchestra
  
• You Gotta Have Skin: John Lithgow
  
• Sheep: Zoe Lewis
  
• Clementine
  
• The Old Gumbie Cat: written and read by T.S. Eliot
  
• Wizard of Oz selections
  
• Sonata No. 1 in G for Cello & Piano: Bach at Bedtime CD
  
• Come All You Bold Sailormen: Pete Seeger
  
• Puff the Magic Dragon: Broken Social Scene
  
• Bathtime: Raffi
  
• ABC-DEF-GHI... : Big Bird
  
• I Like to Eat Apples & Bananas
  
• Hop Up Ladies: Dan Zanes

Coachella

Music blogs are all up in it. A few people actually got to go to it. It is Coachella, annual music festival thingy. The lineup was so diverse and W I D E this year I can't help using it as a theme. It's easy to pick out a bunch of bands I like from this packed schedule, and play some of my faves for you! Everybody below was at Coachella 2008.
Beef Jerky Time playlist, 4/30/08

• Raspberry Beret: Prince
  
• Quero te Amar: Bonde do Role
  
• Endless Shovel: Rogue Wave
  
• Bittersweet Symphony: The Verve
  
• L.E.S. Artistes: Santogold
  
• Je Veux Te Voir: Yelle
  
• Lights and Music: Cut Copy
  
• Under the Blacklight: Rilo Kiley
  
• Bird Flu: M.I.A.
  
• Paris is Burning: St. Vincent
  
• Superstar: Tegan & Sara
  
• Slide In: Goldfrapp
  
• Keep on Looking: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings

I love Cut Copy

As I said on my show, I'm psyched that an awesome new (to me) band is not from Brooklyn, Sweden or France. Cuz it seems that things I like lately are from those 3 places, which is rather odd. Cut Copy: 80s-esque, sometimes getting beyond the sweet New Order synth into Eye of the Tiger territory. It's just that good. They're from Melbourne. They're playing Boston May 12. I WISH I COULD GO!!

Two week's-worth of playlists below. It's raining out. Should I have a Rusty Nail?

Beef Jerky Time 4/16/08

• Tru: Stars
  
• The Charging Sky: Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins
  
• Stop Being Perfect: The LK
  
• Night of the Furies: The Rosebuds
  
• The Henney Buggy Band: Sufjan Stevens
  
• Myriad Harbour: The New Pornographers
  
• Paris 2004: Peter Bjorn & John
  
• People: Gorillaz
  
• So Haunted: Cut Copy
  
• She's a Beauty: The Tubes
  
• Blinuet: Zoot Sims
  
• Doledrum: The La's
  
• You Got the Silver: Rolling Stones
  
• Wake Up Dolores: Los Lobos
  
• Saxx Laws (Night Flight to Ojai): Beck remix

Beef Jerky Time 4/23/08

• Pop Goes the Weasel: Marcy Marxer
  
• Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo: Jens Lekman
  
• Requiem for O.M.M.2: Of Montreal
  
• Merci Madame la Vie: Charles Aznavour
  
• edit: hollAnd
  
• Our House: Madness
  
• La Vie est Belle: MC Solaar
  
• Set Adrift on Memory Bliss: PM Dawn
  
• Fresh: Pacifica
  
• 4 Minutes: Madonna f/Justin Timberlake
  
• Lysergic Bliss: Of Montreal
  
• Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds: The Beatles
  
• Walk Don't Run: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
  
• Mon Oncle (jazzy mix): Mr. Untel
  
• Daily Sisyphus: Paloma
  
• The Underdog: Spoon
  
• Quiet Beauty: Paul Berliner

Sick again!

Flu or something, ugh. So I missed the 4/9/08 show to convalesce. Here's the list from the 4/2/08 Beef Jerky Time:

• Good Ol Boys: The Apple Brothers
  
• King Dork: The Mr. T Experience
  
• Clash City Rockers: The Clash
  
• Be Good to Me: Apollo's Apaches
  
• What if I was Right: Sleater Kinney
  
• Like a Riot: Ann Beretta
  
• The Way We Get By: Spoon
  
• Some Weird Sin: Iggy Pop
  
• Glander's Biennial: Kleenex Girl Wonder
  
• Why Ain't Love Fair: Thee Wylde Maniacs
  
• Digital: Joy Division
  
• Prime Numbers: The Two Gentleman Band
  
• Drivin' Thru My Heart: The Donnas
  
• With My Love: Shades
  
• Double Day: The Afghan Whigs
  
• Cryin Cryin Cryin: Bomb Bassets
  
• Squeaky Clean: The Mopes
  
• Cans of Love: Smugglers
  
• Trem Two: Mission of Burma
  
• Rock the Casbah: The Clash

Spring happy

The bloomin' snow is finally melting. More is gone every day. It's still 20F at night, but a few days have gotten up to 50F. Every winter that I'm alive is harder to take than the one before. And every spring I'm more surprised to start feeling normal again. I feel so normal by September that I forget to move away somewhere warmer, and then winter strikes again. OK that's the cycle, but let's not dwell right now on winter being only a few months away... Let's celebrate!

Playlist from Beef Jerky Time 3/26/08:

• Take on Me: a-ha
  
• Look Back: OK Ikumi
  
• Destination Unknown: Missing Persons
  
• Blue Whale: Fantasy Mirrors
  
• Things Can Only Get Better: Howard Jones
  
• Stakeout: Freezepop
  
• People Are People: Depeche Mode
  
• Kelly: Van She
  
• It's My Life: Talk Talk
  
• Fraud in the 80s: Mates of State
  
• Perfect Kiss: New Order
  
• I Lust U: Neon Neon
  
• Don't You Want Me: Human League
  
• On the Lam: Panther

Obsessed with a remix

of Santogold by XXXchange "Les Artistes"--it can be found here: http://this.bigstereo.net/2008/02/28/santogold-xxxchange/. Can't stop listening to it today. Checkit.

If this were Twitter

I'd say that right now I have Justice's DVNO stuck in my head (see Youtube below). Also Thao's "Beat (Health Life Fire)." I became convinced I was getting a cold so I made a concoction of lemon juice, honey, cayenne and hot water and then sat here adding all my most memorable books to my new Goodreads account. In general I don't believe in putting personal information online, but somehow listing books I've read has become an exception.

New notebook

I'm about to retire my current Beef Jerky Time playlist notebook because it's full. Tonight's show (3/19/08) had to be written on the inside back cover because there were no pages left. I've written down all my playlists since my very first radio show over 5 years ago (just before the war started). I have one other notebook that starts with my first show ever, The Mixed Tape Revue, plus a lot of Makin' Candy, my show for a couple years afterward on ye olde rfb. So I'm finally closing this second (green) notebook. Looking back, I see the first entry is for the 6/26/04 edition of Makin' Candy, with still-current favorites twinkling in that ancient list--Stars, Club 8, The Sea & Cake, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, Memphis, Fred Astaire.

So I'm putting notebook #2 in the vault. And I'm posting my last 2 playlists at once to finish things off. Looking forward a fresssssh notebook nexxt week!

3/12/08 show

• Bedstuy Parade: Mos Def
  
• The Young & the Guest List: Paradise Boys
  
• Rainbowarriors: CocoRosie
  
• Birds of Prey: Von Iva
  
• Henri: The Heavy Circles
  
• Il ne rentre pas ce soir: Eddy Mitchell
  
• Rompiendo el Hielo: Superaquello
  
• Cuckoo: Maria Eriksson
  
• Your New Cuckoo: The Cardigans
  
• I Didn't Mean to turn You On: Robert Palmer
  
• Bag of Hammers: Thao Nguyen
  
• Fa-Fa-Fa: Datarock
  
• Pretty Rock: Marie Möör
  
• Wintertime: Under Electric Light

3/19/08 show

• Les Artistes: Santogold
  
• Guyamas Sonora: Beirut
  
• Bang On: The Breeders
  
• DVNO: Justice
  
  
• Faberge Falls for Shuggie: Of Montreal
  
• Aht Uh Mi Hed: Shuggie Otis
  
• Thank You for the Music: ABBA
  
• Empty Bottles: Reed KD
  
• Supernatural Superserious: R.E.M.
  
• Harbercoat: R.E.M.
  
• Second, Minute or Hour: Jack Peñate
  
• Why Do You Let Me Stay Here: She & Him
  
• Little Bit: Lykke Li
  
• In Transit: Albert Hammond, Jr.
  
• I Steal and Do Drugs: hollAnd

Jointly and Severally

I like parties. There I said it. Feel free to invite me to yours.

Here is playlist from 3/5/08. All favorites of a special someone! Please stream Beef Jerky Time if you can, Weds 7-8pm... http://wvew.org.

• Is This It: The Strokes
  
• Use It: New Pornographers
  
• Strawberry Letter 23: Shuggie Otis
  
• Kiss Me Deadly: Lita Ford
  
• Standing on the Verge of Getting it On: Funkadelic
  
• Young Folks: Peter Bjorn & John
  
• Galvanize the Empire (Chemical Brothers vs. John Williams): Party Ben
  
• Frankly Mr. Shankly: The Smiths
  
• The Greatest: Cat Power
  
• Drug Test: Yo La Tengo
  
• White Trash Heroes: Archers of Loaf
  
• Dirty Work: Steely Dan
  
• Fame: David Bowie

My tummy hurts: Healing with "Pearl Tea"

Used to be that when I heard of people calling into work with a "24-hour bug" or a "stomach issue" or whatnot, I thought they were TOTALLY making it up. But now I've made that call, and it's been for reals, twice in the past 4 months. I'm just coming off the latest purge, feeling weak... grateful that it's over... marveling that it really does only take 24 hours... but during that time it's rather dreadful... I won't go on. Highly recommend spoonfuls of "pearl tea" every 5 minutes for once the tummy unclenches but is still not ready for prime time. Picture black tea with milk and sugar, but without the tea. Add a small pinch of salt. Delicious. Nourishing. Even cures toddlers.

Playlist from 2/27/08 Beef Jerky Time:

• Walking Song: Meredith Monk (Big Lebowski s/t)
  
• We Got the Beat: Go Gos
  
• Beat (Health, Life, and Fire): Thao Nguyen
  
• Past in Present: Feist
  
• Molly's Lips: Nirvana
  
• Déjà Vu: Beyoncé f. Jay-Z
  
• Wondergirl: Peplab
  
• Third World Lover: Kid Koala & Dynomite D
  
• New Day: Kate Havnevik
  
• The Sweet Escape: Gwen Stefani f. Akon
  
• Disconnect the Dots: Of Montreal
  
• Oh Sherrie: Steve Perry
  
• Acceptable in the 80s: Calvin Harris
  
• The Man in Me: Bob Dylan (Big Lebowski s/t)
  
• Una Onda Bajo: Fax vs. Pepito

My cat sits on my mouse

My computer mouse that is--the cat sets herself up by the window, which puts her squarely on top of the mouse sometimes. This seems oddly appropriate.

Here's the playlist from the 2*13*08 Beef Jerky Time.

• Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous theme
  
• Love Will Tear Us Apart: Susanna & the Magical Orchestra
  
• Lazy Lover (free mix): Brazilian Girls
  
• There She Goes: The La's
  
• Mr. Jones: The Talking Heads
  
• Twin Evil Stars: Dead Cowboys
  
• Now Now: St. Vincent
  
• A House is Not a Motel: Love
  
• buy/sell/trade: Billy Schuh & the Foundry
  
• (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction: Cat Power
  
• D.A.N.C.E.: Justice
  
• Für Paris gilt das nicht: Merricks
  
• Bi-Pet: Lali Puna
  
• Avec Grande Vitesse: Mondfähre
  
• roygbiv: Boards of Canada

Class: Andrew McCarthy as 80s quintessence

I just saw the movie "Class" for the first time (how had I missed this before??). I discovered that it contains many interesting elements that are dispersed, diluted, echoed and reseeded in many similar films over the next few years. The genre is 80s teen/Brat Pack--could this be the ur-film in that category? I have started a table for comparison purposes. It is by no means complete, so please tell me if you know for a fact that there should be another checkmark somewhere. (I only checked off things I was Really Sure about.) Note that "Class" is in the bottom row here, with checks in every single column.

Title	Andrew McCarthy	Chicago	Older woman	John Cusack	bare breasts	alcohol/ drugs	convertible	Rob Lowe	year
16 Candles				√	√	√	√		1984
Breakfast Club		√				√			1985
Pretty in Pink	√								1986
Ferris Bueller...		√					√		1986
Adventures in Babysitting		√							1987
St. Elmo's Fire	√	√				√	√	√	1985
Less than Zero	√					√	√		1987
The Sure Thing				√					1985
Wierd Science			√						1985
Oxford Blues								√	1984
Better Off Dead				√					1985
Class	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	√	1983

Brief note: I was excitedly expounding on this film at home, so we did a quick search to look for info. We found the following writeup of "Class" on German Amazon, and ran it through a translate program just for the pleasure. The descriptions that result are as good as any:

Brief Description: "For a newcomer like Jonathan turns out to be the oldest thing in the world suddenly as the most difficult. A bit too shy and inexperienced, the prospective stumbles Examenskanditat chosen for his first erotic Gehversuchen into a completely verzwickte history. Heavy head over heels in love, far from all Earth, it is rather ungently on the floor of the facts back. Seine "remedial teacher" in matters erotic turns out to be the mother of his best friend. no surprise that such a seduction risikogeladene leaves its traces. however, it would be laughed if Jonathan his exams in all respects with distinction there. Schmunzelspaß A sexy, peppy staged, gorgeous played. Teeny a cheeky comedy, the mood is easy! "

Video Market: The neunzehnjährige Jonathan friends at the College after brushing with room mutual colleague Skip. Soon after he learns the attractive Ellen know, 35 years, stunning and - what Jonathan did not know - mother of Skip. Ellen Burroughs, in the coldness of her husband suffers, seduces Jonathan and robs his innocence. As Jonathan visited the family in a country house herself, Skip finds his mother in Jonathan's bed. The boys beat up and clean their dispute after Männerart. Ellen ended the affair.

Homeless Marathon

is on the air tonight on WVEW, so no Beef Jerky Time til next week. Meantime, here's playlist from 2/6/08 show.

• Gypsy Dave: Bert Jansch
  
• Ennui: Halcyon Blue
  
• Voices Are Your Best Friend: Glissandro 70
  
• Get Out of Bed: Spring Factory
  
• Dim Stars: Low Lights
  
• Nobody's Baby: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
  
• People: Gorillaz
  
• Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse: Of Montreal
  
• Fiesta: The Pogues
  
• Bill Gets Funky (aka Spacefunk): Freaks & Geeks s/t
  
• Rockit: Gorillaz
  
• Don't Even Tell Me You Miss the 70s: Orange Cake Mix
  
• Metaphor: Sparks
  
• See You on the Moon: Great Lake Swimmers
  
• Merry Making at My Place: Calvin Harris

Grumpy week

Not sure why I am a total crank lately. My attention span is also surprisingly brief. Today I actually considered firing up a stockmarket ticker Widget or something to keep me entertained. Just to see something moving, telling me something...

Last week's Beef Jerky Time was pretty good! (1/30/08)

• Busted Bicycle: Leo Kottke
  
• Ask: The Smiths
  
• Slow Wildcat: Essexboy
  
• Crazy Egypt: John Cale
  
• 1952 Vincent Black Lightning: The Mammals
  
• French Lessons: Metrovavan
  
• I Walk the Earth: King Biscuit Time
  
• Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel #8): Dolly Parton
  
• Woman King: Iron & Wine
  
• Rebel Rebel: David Bowie
  
• Sea Legs: The Shins
  
• Hey Bulldog: The Beatles
  
• King of the World: Steely Dan
  
• What Headphones?: André Previn