animal blanco

Sonida Animal Blanco- Estilla Andina 2011

2011-05-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

Some Cumbia Andina/Folkloric vybez here, checkete checkete!

Estilla Andina 2011 by White Animal

tracklist is something like

Immortal Technique- Peruvian Cocaine instrumental AKA Bolivia Theme by Giorgio Moroder
Siouxsie and the Banshees- Peek-A-Boo (screwed)
Chancha Via Circuito- Cumbion de las Aves
Busta- Break your Neck (Instrumental)
Duran Duran- The Chauffeur (outro)
Timbaland- Indian Flute (Instrumental)
Matias Aguayo- Juanita
Carlitos Headset- Cumbia Dub Murder
Jaime XX- Far Nearer (screwed)
Apt One- Bells and Whistles
Los Jaivas- Foto de Primera Comunion (White Animal Moombedit)

Promo Minimix for Project Parlor

2011-03-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

Promo Minimix for Project Parlor by White Animal

2011-03-05T14:29:00.000-08:00

New York will Change You

2011-02-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

White Animal Sight- 12010 Minutes (video mixtape)

2010-12-09T10:29:00.000-08:00

Do you think there is no good new music coming out but are too old and busy to really find out for yourself? White Animal Sight 12010 Minutes is designed to put you back in touch with the Alternateen you once were and introduce you to whole bunch of new indie rock/punk/electronic weirdo music. Hit play and leave it on in the background or skip from track to track using the forward/backward arrows. 12010 minutes of bizarre, stoned, 90s garbage regurgitating music videos selected by White Animal Sight.

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WHITE ANIMAL SIGHT- 12010 MINUTES
(02:01:39)
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1. MTV 120 Minutes - Show Intro (00:24)
2. Kurt Vile - "Freak Train" (05:00)
3. funny-tamil horror clips by feroz (00:19)
4. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Bright Lit Blue Skies (02:30)
5. Fox 25 Commercial (July 1991) (Volume 12) (00:31)
6. Tennis "Cape Dory" Video (02:11)
7. umbrella zombie mistake (00:15)
8. EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING which way to go (03:27)
9. Fox 25 Commercial (July 1991) (Volume 12) (00:10)
10. Uh. 1 G0T B0R3D. (01:21)
11. Lazer Tag... Hotter Than Ever (00:36)
12. Fox 25 Commercial (July 1991) (Volume 12) (00:04)
13. THEE OH SEES - MEAT STEP LIVELY (OFFICIAL VIDEO) (02:49)
14. Wavves - "Post Acid" (02:26)
15. Creature Double Feature WLVI TV56 (00:27)
16. Glitter - No Age (Music Video) (03:48)
17. WSBK-38 - Movie Loft - Audrey Rose - Breaks (00:55)
18. WILD NOTHING - LIVE IN DREAMS (03:31)
19. 1991 CCAD 50 cent old school skate video part 1 of 2 (00:17)
20. Future Islands - Tin Man (03:15)
21. 1991 CCAD 50 cent old school skate video part 1 of 2 (00:01)
22. RAVE: EXPOSED! (00:21)
23. El Guincho "Bombay" (Official Video) (04:29)
24. Woven Bones - Your Sorcery (02:43)
25. DARK GREEN (00:13)
26. Mount Kimbie "Would Know" ((OFFICIAL VIDEO)) (03:21)
27. Evil Bong Trailer (00:11)
28. How to Dress Well -- Ready For the World (03:45)
29. 720 waves 360 waves (00:16)
30. SALEM - "Asia" video teaser (00:56)
31. A little creepy...but VERY funny!!! (00:16)
32. The Bug - Catch a Fire (Official Video) (03:46)
33. balam acab - see birds (moon) (03:49)
34. Flying Lotus - MmmHmm music video (taken from Cosmogramma) (03:44)
35. Twin Shadow 'Slow' (NSFW) (03:41)
36. Twin Sister - All Around And Away We Go (04:22)
37. Bruce Haack - Party Machine (Prince Language's Afterparty Edit) (05:39)
38. Pocahaunted - All Of Is Of (03:44)
39. Pocahaunted-Ashes is White (00:02)
40. "the peace tape" (04:01)
41. Com Truise - Sundriped (04:13)
42. TV CARNAGE vs ROMANCE (00:08)
43. Boyd Shropshire - Yes You Have (03:37)
44. Theodore Rex(1995) (00:19)
45. Small Black - "Despicable Dogs" - SXSW 2010 Showcasing Artist (03:54)
46. Night Of Vultures 2/2 (00:18)
47. Yuck - Rubber (07:46)
48. 1990s Water Ski (00:11)
49. Neon Indian "Mind, Drips" Official Video (03:07)
50. Weird Atari Games #1: Garfield's Nighttime Spectacle! (00:08)
51. Lone - Summer of Summer (03:28)
52. FREEDOM OR DEATH X Spike Jonze - "Lost In Dances" (02:31)
53. Mansions on the Moon - Love Is Going To Destroy Me (01:15)
54. Tobacco - Stretch Your Face (02:46)
55. Farewell, Target, War Hero Dog (00:21)
56. Porcelain Raft 'Tip of Your Tongue' (03:30)
57. MTV 120 Minutes - Show Intro (00:24)

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Created by whiteanimal (Thu Dec 09 14:20:05 UTC 2010)

Brookfast

2010-12-06T12:42:00.000-08:00

The Bible

2010-12-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

My First Dunkin' Donuts Sausage Pancake Bite

2010-12-06T12:01:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving morning I woke up early to go oystering and had breakfast of coffee, a vicodin, and my very first Dunkin' Donuts Sausage Pancake bite with Maple flavor. Here's my full review:

Find//Tacos

2010-11-09T16:39:00.000-08:00

Best of Summer 2010 mixtapes Vol I & II

2010-11-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

R.I.P. Summer 2010, you will be missed! Here are my picks for my favorite new tracks of the summer (although some of them were just new to me), in mixed form. Some of these I was playing out DJing and rocking out to with my friends and others were bigger hits at home in my bedroom or at the party that is usually going on in mind.

Volume #1
Summer 2010 vol. 1 by whiteanimalsound
Cults- Go Outside
Animal Collective- Daily Routine (Phaseone remix)
Sleigh Bells- Run the Heart (Bassnectar remix)
M.I.A.- I'm a Singer (Haters)
The Pixies- Where is My Mind? (Wally remix)
Rick Ross feat Wiz Kalifa and Curren$y- Super High (remix)
Janelle Mon'ae feat Big Boi- Tightrope
Future Islands- Flicker and Flutter (Javelin remix)
The Tallest Man on Earth- The Gardener
Big Boi- Shutterbug/Foals- Miami (Hood Internet mash)
The Black Keys- The Only One
Cee Lo- I Want You (feat. Gilles Peterson with a crucial pull-up)
Best Coast- I Want To
Mayer Hawthorne- No Strings prod. by Classixx
N.E.R.D.- Hypnotize You prod. by Daft Punk
Aeroplane- We Can't Fly
La Roux- Cover My Eyes (Cosa Nostra riddim blend by Major Lazer)
Nubian M.O.B.- Farway to Go
Javelin- Vibrationz
El Guincho- Bombay
Yeasayer- Ambling Alp

Volume #2:
Summer 2010 vol. 2 by whiteanimalsound

Damien Marley & Nas- As We Enter
Wiley- Never Be Your Woman (Herve rework)
Ciara- Ride
Dragonette- I Get Around (Midnight Juggernauts remix)
Riva Starr- I Was Drunk
R Kelly- Be My #2
Blaqstarr- Oh My Darling
Robyn- None of Dem
Ratatat- Neckbrace
Bonobo- Eyesdown (Floating Points remix)
Talking Heads- This Must Be the Place (Youth's edit)
Adrian Lux- Teenage Crime
Tanlines- Real Life (Memory Tapes version)
The Dream- Turnt Out
A Trak- Trizzy Turnt Up
Flying Lotus- Do the Astral Plane (Them Jeans house remix)
Stromae- Alor on Danse

Find//Drugs

2010-10-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

Xanadont II: Electric Xanadeux

2010-05-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

My friend Dylan is throwing another Dark Disco party May 30 at The Dark Lady (124 Snow St. Providence), which happens to a Dark Gay Bar. The party's name alone says it all.

here's the promo vid:

and Here's a promo mix Dylan whipped up:

Go if you dare!

My Tacos

2010-05-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

Let me show you them.

Nounnoun

2010-05-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

My boy C.W. Wang and his cohort Taylor Levy are on some genius-futurist imagineer business. Currently they are in Shanghai at the World's Fair Expo installing a project commissioned by Johnson&Johnson involving giant digital projectors, text messaging, cartoon avatars and "interactivity". You can see a lot of their experimental clocks, meta-flashgames and other tinkerings at CWwang.com and cwandt.com.

The last time I saw him Che-Wei had just come up with this idea: the noun-noun generator.

It takes two nouns from a list 7000 words long and turns them into noun-noun combination neologisms. It's remarkable how many of these new words describe things that already exist in the modern world, or could, or seem to describe some very specific thing in a concise, almost poetic way like certain German words (which are largely noun-nouns) are supposed to.
Che-wei imagines the generator could be used to generate novel ideas for new inventions or just to stimulate a stuck brain.

One suggestion I have is that there should be a repository where people can send the best of these and take turns defining them like on Urban Dictionary. That way Che-Wei might someday be able to feel like the indirect father of some improbably apt, overnight celebrity neologism that this thing is bound to eventually spit out.

I mean, I just got "Buzzchill", which I would use regularly. I imagine it as a milder variant of the Buzzkill, wherein someone doesn't quite kill your buzz, but just puts some icy notes into it. You know, maybe plays it a Joy Division record and whispers to your Buzz, "Do enjoy yourself, but just remember that we all die alone."

Wha Do Dem

2010-05-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Once again I have proven myself prescient about where the whitepeople cultural winds are blowing. From this film's arrival now we can deduce in hindsight that last year was all about going to Jamaica. In fact, this film looks a lot like the last year of my life, except not at all. (although I did recently date Norah Jones)

Wah Do Dem from sam fleischner on Vimeo.

To be honest this looks like it might be some precious twee indie bullshit with a dash of exotic negro wisdom, but that Nyabinghi song near the end of the trailer is sublime.

The Do-Over @ WMC Miami

2010-05-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

If any of you are wondering what the hell I was doing at the Winter Music Conference in Miami, let me assure you that it's not all about paying 150 dollars to see David Guetta, buying 20 dollar Red Bull and Vodkas and trying to ply dead-eyed Russian 10s with your designer drug stash. In fact, I barely spent any money on events, had an amazing time and met lots of fun, down-to-earth people.
The culmination of this aspect of the WMC had to be the final Sunday's Do-Over party at Bar, the hipster spot on the edge of Little Haiti. The Do-Over is usually held in L.A. and has a sunny, Sunday backyard bar-b-que vibe with a "DJ's choice" musical policy that focuses on classic Hip Hop, Soul and feel-good grooves. The Do-Over's Miami premiere was no deviation from this steeze, offering a day's worth of secret special guest DJs that included Maseo from De La Soul, Rich Medina, Cosmo Baker, and Thee Mike B, as well as cheap beer and free burgers.
You can catch me in this clip (I'm wearing a purple T-shirt) rocking to Fela and later on sippin a Tecate and listening to Maseo's inspiring words: "No more top 40 in Miami!"

For me, the surprise champion DJ of the day, and therefore perhaps the whole week, was L.A.'s Jeremy Sole from WPNRY radio, who brought an A-game selection of Afrobeat, Latin, Soul, and Boogie re-edits: (the sweaty white dude at Jeremy's right is none other than the BBC's Giles Peterson)

He also provided the live P.A. for Aloe Blacc to perform his modern soul classic "I Need a Dollar": (you can spot me in this video briefly, too)

And the day was capped by da God Cosmo Baker, who was rocking his Dashiki and bringing the tunes to match:

Ting and Manao Soda

2010-05-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

The U.S. is undoubtedly the world capital of soda. I mean, we invented Coca Cola, the greatest soda of all time. But, then we fucked it up with corn syrup and now you have to track down the glass bottles stamped "Hecho en Mexico" if you want "the real thing". We invented carbonated beverage bottling and nearly all of the name brand sodas that are available worldwide. So why is it that the best kind of soda in the world (aside from Coke) is not available widely in the U.S.?

To my tastes, the perfect soda is slightly sweet from real sugar and refreshingly tart from either real lime or real grapefruit. Ting, Jamaica's favorite soda, is a good example. It is grapefruit-tangy enough and not too sweet to actually quench your thirst. It is something you crave on a hot day, and makes an amazing mixer with Rum, Vodka or Gin. It makes complete sense that Jamaicans love Ting and need not mess with 7UP or any of that syrupy garbage.

But Ting is not the only great, slightly sour soda I have come across in, perhaps not coincidentally, other of the world's hot climate countries. Schweppes Manao Soda, available only in Thailand, is maybe my favorite soda of all time. Debuted in 2003, Manao Soda (Manao is Thai for lime), is uncharacteristically unsweet for a Thai soda, most of which taste like undiluted cordial. And it is made with real lime juice, about which a Coca Cola Thailand represenative says "We believe that this - Prew Sa tung nam tung naur (fresh taste of the real fruit and juice) - has been to our success".

In India, if you order a "lime soda" in a restaurant you get bottled plain soda water with fresh squeezed lime juice and either sugar or salt. The salt bit might seem a bit odd, but if you are in the desert in Rajasthan and sweating more than you can imbibe, the salt begins to make sense as a desperate bid to retain some liquid in your cells. The sweet version of Indian lime soda has been bottled and sold in the form of Limca soda, available in India and some Indian ex-pat hubs like Detroit and Toronto. This stuff is a bit more in line with your average lemon-lime soda and probably there is no real juice in it, but it does have an odd, slight taste of ginger.

The only sodas you can source readily in the States that come to close to that crucial sweet/sour dichotomy are a bit more of the Euro high-end variety: San Pelligrino Limonata, San Pelligrino Aranciata, and Orangina. Oh, and please do get out of my face with that "Fresca" bullshit. That stuff tastes more Crystal Lite than soda.

As We Enter

2010-05-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

Damian Marley and Nas sampling Mulatu Astatke! This beat is pretty bananas. Nas kind of struggles at this tempo, though, Damian could have carried the whole song, he's a beast!

Expect to hear that intro pulled up at least twice if you see the W.A. Sound spin this Summer- "As we entah..."

Jerk Pork

2010-05-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

I was excited to try real Jamaican jerk chicken as soon as I got to Jamaica, but when we got to the Jerk Center on the road from Montego Bay to St. Elizabeth I was surprised to be given the choice of Jerk pork, which I jumped at. For some reason Jerk pork is not a concept that I have run into the states. Maybe that's because unlike its chicken equivalent, Jerk pork truly requires the hardwood smoking it receives in a real jerk set-up like you see below. You can make passable Jerk chicken in an oven at home, but bad Jerk pork is just terrible, as you will discover even in Jamaica at a half-assed Jerk stall. When it's done right, though, it becomes smoky pink on the inside and charred black and caramel crisp on the outside. The large swaths of fat in the meat will have essentially been transformed into spicy bacon. Hacked up and doused in the incredibly hot scotch bonnet homemade pepper sauce and sweet Jerk-flavored barbeque sauce you can find at Jamaican Jerk centers, it is like alpha-barbecue, like the superior progenitor of the entire culinary milleu. As you can see from the menu below, most Jerk centers are pretty straight-forward deals, offering only Jerk and a bit of starch to quell the scotch bonnet burn. Once you've had a quarter pork paired with festival (sweet fried-dough that tastes to me like the coating on a corn dog) and a Red Stripe, you won't miss side dishes.

2 Pints of Lager and a Pack of Rizzla!

2010-04-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

New mix from the Midnight Mongo Sound is right on time and in tune. Skinhead reggae, punk dubs, whiteboy skanking. Perfect tunes for an anglophile afternoon watching football, sipping lager and feelin' irie, innit?

2pintsoflagerandapacketofrizzlas
2PintsOfLagerAndAPacketOfRizzlas by MidnightMongo
Symarip-skinhead girl
The Clash-Robber Dub
x-ray spex-Germfree adolescents
The Ruts-Love in Vain
scientist -The mummy's shroud
jennifer lara-My Man
Shane Macgowan & the popes-B&I Ferry
Patti Smith-redondo Beach
bad Brains-Stay Close to Me
Splodgenessabounds-Two Pints (dub)
P.I.L.-Careering (peel sessions)
the Mighty Two-Baldhead Brigade
Mikey dread-Problems
WayneJarrett & Rankingtrevor-Money Problem-Only jah can solve it
Stiff Little Fingers - Johnny Was (peel Sessions)
Thin Lizzy-half caste
The specials-Longshot Kick de bucket (live @moonliteclub)
New Age Steppers-Love forever
The Slits-Instant hit
Jah Wobble-tales from outer space
Doctor Pablo & dub Syndicate -A taste of honey
The Terrorists & LeePerry -Guerrilla Priest
sham 69-the reggae pick up pt.II

Dinner in Prison

2010-04-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

Now we check in with Animal Blanco's resident food Vlogger, Henry Hill. This week's report is a reminiscence on dinner in prison, with an important tip for garlic lovers:

"In prison, dinner was always a big thing. We had a pasta course, then we had a meat or a fish. Paulie was doing a year for contempt and had a wonderful system for garlic. He used a razor and sliced it so thin it would liquefy in the pan with a little oil . It's a very good system."

Tomorrow, we eat sangwidges. You gotta go on a diet!

Lagos Disco Inferno

2010-04-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

Last week Mike from Academy Records gave me a copy of his label's newest reissue compilation, Lagos Disco Inferno, so I thought it would only be right to give it a bit of shine here. Not that it needs it, apparently this thing is selling out all over the place. Academy's label seems to happily be finding itself right in the center of the dovetail of several trends in NYC that have been going strong for a few years: the eclectic African sound being bolstered by things like Awesome Tapes from Africa, The Very Best and indie bands like Vampire Weekend, the resurgence of all things disco, especially the reissue/re-edit variety, and the record collector scene in general, which never really goes away but seems to be enjoying a strong push in New York lately thanks to the rarer-is-better mindset of the "weird punk" scene.

This video gives you an idea of what this comp. is all about: one man's quest in Nigeria to do some seriously adventurous digging and unearth rare, scorching afro-disco records for your ass-shaking enjoyment! Big ups to Academy, Voodoofunk.com and to this record!

Peep Show and In the Cut

2010-04-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

I've been rewatching the BBC comedy Peep Show (watch), and it occurs to me that as over-the-top as it's internal monologe voiceovers are, they also can be horrifically accurate representations of what it's like to be male.

Peep Show has a POV camera style which puts you inside the heads of it's hapless male leads as they try to cope with the baffling loveliness and irresistible irrationality of the females in their world. I think most guys would have to admit at any given moment our perspective in dealing with the opposite sex hovers somewhere between the helpless, desperate cluelessness of David Mitchell's Mark (left) and the unearned self-confidence, entitlement and essential cluelessness of Robert Webb's Jeremy. These two characters come to represent in miniature the duality of the male psyche in our dealings women, like a highly reductive, extra-horny version of the cast of characters in The Brothers Karamazov (or "Herman's Head", LOL).
Appropriately reductive, I should say, as the show seems to stick to portraying the diminished, distinctively male mindset mostly experienced when badly needed brain blood is occupied elsewhere. There is a wincingly familiar moment that occurs in the third act of most the episodes where either Mark surveys his abject romantic failure and says to himself "You. Fucking. Idiot.", or Jeremy appraises his unfounded, inexplicable romantic success and says to himself "You fucking bastard."

On the other side of the chromosomal scale, my friend Lilah recently showed me Jane Campions' (In the Cut (watch)), the romantic thriller starring Meg Ryan. While I can't declare that In the Cut was a complete success as a film, it did seem to me to be perfectly successful in transporting you into the female mind. The difference between this movie and most other serial-killer thrillers is analogous to the difference between mainstream Silicon Valley grindhouse porn and the soft-focus story driven lesbian variety they make for women. Everything here: the over-saturated colors, the disconcerting sound design, the grotesque and lyrical images seem designed to conjure a particular sensuous and hormonal female mindstate. From our heroine's perspective, all of New York, all the people and things in her world are imbued with Eros and muted, strangely alluring menace. Blood, murder, sex and romance swirl around her in the thick sweaty air of a Summer in the city. Even the way the film is plotted seems to transmit a feminine sensibility, eschewing the linear, implicitly masculine thrust of the average thriller's plot development for a languorous, organic pace more attuned to our main character's indecisive, overheated state. Oh yeah, and it has some hot, hot sex, which I think is something that we can all appreciate no matter our gender perspective.

Javelin and KaraokeCrime @ Santos Party House

2010-04-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

The New York Times did a review of a show by Providence-boys-gone-bigtime Javelin that also served as big-upping of their openers, Worchester friend Holmes Wilson's KaraokeCrime project and local Providence favorites The What Cheer? Marching Band.

The reviewer describes Holmes' interactive performance as "a boisterous one-man spitfire", "inspiring a mix of enthusiasm and revulsion" in the crowd. I'm sure this notation is going get Holmes a lot more opportunities to bring his subversive sing-along Ableton insurgence into a lot more faces, which I think is overdue.

Javelin "Vibrationz"-

Skateboardanimation

2010-04-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

This is hella sick tight rad:

Skateboardanimation from Tilles Singer on Vimeo.

Hellbent for Cooking

2010-04-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

I was visiting Armageddon Shop in Providence a few days ago, soaking up the unintentional comedy and genuine graphical genius you can find in equal measure on the LP covers in the metal section, when I noticed this book from Bazillion Points books out of Brooklyn:

The idea of a metal cookbook definitely seems like a joke and one would guess that even if you got the concept off the ground, the actual book would turn out worthless either to cooks, metal fans, or both. But, this book seems to have been put together with the perfect balance of humor and dutiful respect to both food and to the musical culture of metal. More than that, it has nice graphic design and food photography and a great glossy feel to the pages.

Asking metal bands to submit recipes also seems like a terrible idea, opening yourself up to getting dumb, jokey recipes like "Bacon and American cheese and Beer and Cigarette Butts" or something. And although some of the American bands' recipes approach that level of stupidity, the book's real strength lies in the global nature of metal. Many of the bands featured here hail from far-flung countries with strong culinary traditions and they seem adorably eager to share them with you. Probably all the contributors, who include members of Amebix, Brutal Truth, Budgie, Electric Wizard, Eyehategod, Judas Priest, Mayhem, Nuclear Assault, Obituary, Pentagram, Possessed, Saint Vitus, and Sepultura, were excited to be a part of a project that would highlight the lesser-known, improbably friendly side of metal that is typified by the sharing of local foods and imbibes between international touring bands and their hosts.

One disappointment here, though is Annick “The Morbid Chef” Giroux's curatorial Chef's notes. She seems hesitant to criticize the recipes of any of her contributors, legendary or not, and so we are left with mostly fawning notes on every dish that invariably end with an exclamation point. This has her coming off as more of a metal cheerleader than the clever editor she was in compiling this book.

One of the most touching recipes here is from the mother of Phil Lynott, the late frontman of Thin Lizzy, who tells us that her Irish Roast Leg of Lamb was her son's favorite. Isn't it an interesting bit of revisionist history that Thin Lizzy have become so embraced and beloved by the metal community in recent years when during their career they were regarded as more of a groovy, heavy-rock band that was probably held at arm's length by metalheads? In hindsight I agree that musically and stylistically Thin Lizzy do belong in the pantheon of proto-metal godfathers like Sabbath and Hawkwind, but that's probably because I come from the same generation as the young metal fans who have brought this view into fashion: the crusty punks, travelling kids, scensters, stoner audiophiles, and skater dirtbags. These neophytes have have swelled metal's ranks in the past 20 years, bringing DIY ethics and energy from the punk scene and shaped it's new sophistication. One might argue that without that injection metal would just be the overblown commercial joke you see in things like Rock Band and on VH1 specials, and there would be no shops like Armageddon (owned by Ben, formerly of the hardcore crusty thrash band DROPDEAD) and no books like Hellbent for Cooking.

Jamrock, and Welcome to it

2010-04-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

Animal Blanco, Jamaica.

Thug Life.

King of Tandoor, Brooklyn

2010-04-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

They don't call him the King for nothing:

I went to King of Tandoor, a newish North Indian restaurant, in the very Caribbean neighborhood of Prospect Heights which I stayed in and used as a kind of decompression chamber just before my descent into Jamaica. As it was, the place was not making any concessions to the thrifty Carribeans or time-pressed Muslim cab drivers who frequent the other spots on their block: there were no steam trays or sneeze guards visible, no chicken wing specials, no "Tropical Rhythms" juices being offered.
The place is just a direct port from India of the kind of pseudo-fancy Punjabi restaurant that upper-middle class Indians go to on a Friday night. They have the too-numerous, over-eager waitstaff clad in ill-fitting tuxedos, the wonderful homemade chutneys and pickles served with papadams to start, the DVD of Hindi romantic musical comedy playing in the background. Just as it would in India, my request to slightly modify a non-veg thali took multiple attempts and clarifications, worried looks, other servers being called over, and finally a managerial executive stamp of approval before it could go to the kitchen. The thali was not super cheap, something like 12 or 14 dollars, and it took a bit of time to come out, but this was a good sign: they were actually cooking things to order.
When it came out, the portion was huge and the Tandoori chicken was royal. Like the best Tandoori chicken it was slightly charred on the outside and so tender on the inside that it seemed slightly undercooked. This texture is slightly disturbing at first and then blissfully sensual when your mind reconciles the fact that your are in no way risking salmonella by enjoying it. It's just the yogurt and citrus that have gone to work enzymatically on the chicken flesh and left it all limp and tender like raw veal. And as you can see in the photo, the cooks also put the bird through the ritualistic red food-coloring bath, which to me needs about as much explanation or over-examination as the yearly colored-powder fights in the streets of India at Holi- it just kind of looks cool.
Big ups to the King!

Jamaican Journalism

2010-04-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

These were the headlines on the day I arrived in Jamaica:

Which of these stories do you find the most surprising/gripping: The angry man crapping on a woman's lawn, the chef who was beaten after confessing to serving dog soup, or the cops charging Barrington Levy? Let's just say it wasn't a slow news day.

Probably the only headline I saw down there that rivaled these ones was "Baby Falls into Pot of Soup!".

Until the End of Time

2010-04-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

New mixtape from the White Animal Sound cartel: Until the End of Time (March 2010). Recorded in Jamaica and Miami, this one is some of the more laid-back stuff I was listening to all last month. Lots of content from the Hollerboard here, plus two exclusive White Animal blends (available as separate downloads below), herbalist tunes, a bit of DnB, dubstep, and starin-at-candles hip hop. Thanks to my friends who were putting my broke ass up in tropical paradises while I worked on this!
Until the End of Time (March 2010) by whiteanimalsound

Click the Down arrow icon to download the continuous mix, or Click here to download a .zip file of the separated tracks.

Vybez Kartel- Marie (Bomb Drop riddim prod. by Russian)

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"That Tree" Blend by Kenny Meez
Snoop Dogg feat. Kid Cudi- That Tree (prod. by Diplo)

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Mr. Lexx- Nuh Gal Nuh Wann Dem ("That Tree" Riddim blend by Greg Nyce)

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Stacious- Stop Me from Shine ("That Tree" riddim blend by Greg Nyce)

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Rihanna- Rude Boy (Emynd's "Sun God" Blend feat. Baby Cham)

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Erykah Bad- The Healer/Hip-Hop

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Madlib- African Voodoo Queen

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Sade- Soldier of Love (DJ Critical Hype blend feat. Ghostface and Black Thought)

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Taken by Trees- To Lose Someone/Tupac- Until the End of Time (White Animal Blend)

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Download that shiiiiittt!
Mavado- Dying/DJ Shadow- Six Days (White Animal Blend)

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Down load that shiiiiiiit!
Major Lazer feat. Collie Buddz and Linda Ortega- Good Enough

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Thunderball- Bam n' Bass

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Groove Armada- Superstylin' (Bassnectar remix)
Joy Orbison- Hyph Mngo
Gorillaz- Stylo (MAK dubstep bootleg)
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Starkey and Ludacris- How Low, Luv? (DJ Cable Blend)
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Kingdom feat. Shyvonne- Mindreader (CFCF remix)
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Jah Vinci- Baby Girl I'm Alone

Supreme Clientele – 10 Years Later

2010-03-02T19:48:00.000-08:00

"YAW! NEW GHOSTFACE!" Remember when that was an accurate opening remark?

Here is a really well-written article from Richiestyles.com called "Supreme Clientele – 10 Years Later"

Elephant Man - So High (Fireflies)

2010-03-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

When I got down here to Jamaica last month and a new link was giving me his rundown of the "tunes dat a mash-up Jamaica right now" he mentioned, along with hardcore Vybz Kartel joints, "Firefies" by Owl City.
If you think it's incongruous that a song that even teenage emo boys in the U.S. would call "gay" could "mash-up" the most homophobic country in the Western Hemishere, you don't know how weird it can get down here.
Immediately when I heard this I said "So when is the Elephant Man dubplate coming out?", to which my friend said "Oh, it definitely will." Turns out it was already out there:

Elephant might not be Jamaica's best deejay, but he is the quickest to jump on every U.S. hit, probably hoping for some crossover U.S. radio airplay. He also has to be careful not to use homophobic slurs as that would prevent radio airplay here in Jamaica. This remix seems like it should get big in the next couple weeks, as Diplo reports on the Maddecent blog after his gig in Kingston last week :

"The biggest track was either "Pon the Floor" or an Elephant Man Owl City" dubplate! ?!?"

And apparently the man was in the building! (pics from The Fader):

Seriously, how fucking bummed am I that didn't make it over to Kingston for this party?! Lykke Li and Prince Zimboo like what? Why am I broke and on the other side of the island?

The Liberty Elm, Providence

2010-03-01T08:09:00.000-08:00

Why do earnest do-gooders always do things just half-assed enough to prompt you to go "Aw, but.. at least their heart is in the right place."?
The Liberty Elm is a diner in Elmwood Providence that is serving locally sourced organic products, using biodegradable take-out containers, and giving 1% of their profits to buy disease-resistant Dutch Elm trees to "re-green" their neighborhood. We went there on New Years Day for a mimosa brunch with extreme needs for quick service of multiple forms of beverages and large amounts of food. Unfortunately the service, though friendly was totally shoddy, with everything coming out in random order between long unexplained intervals. And the food was just the sort of mishmash of bland fake Mexican and vaguely healthy randomly combined vegetarian items that make the "real Americans" of the Heartland hate us liberal elites. Luckily I opted for the least healthy and least fuck-upable choice on the menu, the Monte Cristo sandwich, which was actually very good.
Maybe I'm being too hard on the Liberty Elm. I just think that if they put as much thought into their food as they do their social consciousness they could create an even more profitable business, which would help them do more good in their neighborhood. But.. at least their heart is in the right place!

NYE in Providence

2010-02-28T21:26:00.000-08:00

New Year's eve at JC's in Providence may not look very punk, what with all the finger foods and crudites, but it turned punk-as-fuck later on when some crazy-ass girl they know blacked out and decided to smash every piece of glass in the house, including all of their fancy beer mugs. After the coffee table had been overturned and all the counters cleared, she added her piece de resistance by reaching in the cabinet and grabbing a bottle of high-end balsamic vinegar and a bottle of extra-virgin olive oil, smashing those to create a dressing for the broken glass salad she had left on the kitchen floor. This last move, I thought, showed a certain panache and sense of the absurd that I find lacking in many other fits of drunken destruction.
Anyway, earlier on things were more of the "D.I.Y" variety of punk, with JC busting out his home-brined corned beef and cabbage and homemade Rye Egg-Nog.
Homemade Egg-Nog takes at least a few days to get good in the fridge (and will continue to improve for a year or more, a mind-blowing fact considering that it includes uncooked eggs), but is a good way to get many people very drunk for very little, using copious amounts of affordable Rye whiskey. Corning your own beef also takes some forethought, but saves money and helps you avoid the preservatives, saltpeter and/or red dye they put into the store-bought variety. It also makes for some truly banging Ruebens the next day.
Here's a recipe (via Recipezaar.com) that's probably close to what JC uses:

Ingredients

1 (8-10 lb) beef brisket
4 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in thirds

The Brine

2 quarts water
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup white vinegar
4 tablespoons sugar
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon peppercorn
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 pinch ground cloves

The Simmering Liquid

water, to come up 3/4 to side of brisket
1 teaspoon peppercorn
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
4 garlic cloves, sliced

Directions

Combine all of the brine ingredients and bring to a boil, then cool.
In a huge plastic roasting bag (do NOT use a garbage bag), place the beef brisket, the cooled brine, and the 4 garlic cloves.
Make sure that all of the meat is covered by the brine (cutting the brisket in pieces if you need to), tie off tightly, place in a pot large enough to hold it all, and refrigerate for 6 to 7 days, turning occasionally.
After the 6 to 7 days, remove brisket from the brine and discard the brine.
Rinse the meat thoroughly, then place in a Dutch oven or other large pot and add enough water to come up 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up the side of the meat.
Add the rest of the Simmering Liquid ingredients (peppercorns, mustard seeds, allspice, cloves and garlic), bring to a boil and skim off any foam.
Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook, covered, for at least 3 hours, but 4 hours doesn't hurt anything. Meat will be SO tender and delicious!

I would venture that JC also added some beer to his simmering liquid, as good beer seems to be the binding principle of most recipes and events at their house. One new beer label JC introduced me to on this visit was Pretty Things, who are a tiny company of "gypsy brewers" currently operating out of Buzzard's Bay Beer Co.'s brewery and making some awesome "real beer". This is a company you should definitely support- seek them out! Their beers are served at some Animal Blanco-approved bars in the Northeast such as Bukowski's and Redbones in Boston/Cambridge, The Foodery in Philly and Barcade in Brooklyn.

BTW, Yes, as far as we could tell the beer is named after the awesome British garage/psych band of the same name, which is kind of reason enough to drink it for me.

Salem @ Glasslands Gallery

2010-02-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

I don't think the author of this New York Times review of the Salem show with Gatekeeper at the Glasslands Gallery last month understood what he was seeing. He does a decent job of describing Salem's sound, but concludes that "(their) performance was hollow at the core, aspirated, almost soothing in its inconsequence" and that Gatekeeper had offered "a far more productive, and convincing, approach to the dark".
Gatekeeper were somewhat "dark" but still squeaky-clean Art Institute of Chicago gayboys who sounded exactly like Italian horror film-score maestros Zombie with an 808 drum boost. The NYT reporter downplays this part of their sound and says that they sounded like "80s club music", which I read as "I luv Depeche Mode!". I would guess that the NY Times heard this was going to be a cutting edge gay cultural event (Micheal Stipe and Terrence Koh were also in attendance) and sent a music reporter who was enthralled by the "bright, erotic, alive" atmosphere during Gatekeeper's set ("OMG, goth twinks!"), but couldn't get his head around Salem's real witchery.
I have to admit, though, that I was completely under Salem's spell from the moment the video screens started flickering with candles and burning cars, soiled mattresses and grainy police footage. Through the heavy smoke-machine fog you could barely discern the three members of Salem file onstage looking like solemn, wolfish, preternaturally cool black-eyed backwoods Michigan teenagers. The attention to aesthetics was boldfaced from the start: this was River's Edge as directed by David Lynch and scored by Burzum. The leader was a gaunt pretty boy with Nordic blackmetal blond locks who immediately started slurring a chopped'n'screwed rap, "Trapdoor" without any wiggerish gesturing or self-consciousness. They rotated for the next song and another pale whiteboy stepped up and mumbled his way through a woozy, muffled dirge, looking as hopeless and drug-addled a Midwesterner as eminem ever tried to be. Next up was the girl, a roots-showing peroxide blonde wearing an oversized men's dress shirt as if fresh off some kind of long harrowing night, who smoked and sang an even slower, dreamier song that brought us all into Badalamenti territory, like one of those transcendent numbers from the floorshow at One Eyed Jacks.
Through it all dirty-south rap drum fills rattled and the low-end just warbled and peaked. I would be hard pressed to have to explain to music journalists in attendance what they weren't getting, I was too busy writhing around and intentionally falling over photo-taking hipsters, trying to stir up some chaos on the floor (I had snuck in and proceeded to blow what I'd avoided spending on PBR tallboys). If I had to try to explain it I'd say it was all cigarette burns, dark secrets, ghetto Chicago minstrelsy, heroin, speed, horrorcore rap, midwestern teenage hopelessness and arch darkwave posturing repackaged musically as a gay high-art project that still bangs. As the inevitable influx of Salem copycat bands emerge, I hope the reviewer from the Times will realize that the last word he should have brought anywhere near this futuristic performance is "inconsequence".

White Animal Radio # 669: "Fantasy Tropical"

2010-02-15T13:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a brand new mix of Tropical House, U.K. Funky and Indie remixes. Caribbean vibes, wall to wall 4x4 beats and a little bit of wistful daydreaming.
"I wanna take u far away"
fantasy tropical by White Animal

Dr Bronner's sexy side

2010-02-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

I think my favorite passage from a label of Dr. Bronner's Soap (A big 1 quart bottle, not those weak little ones) is when the Doctor takes a sudden unexpected turn from his usual Christian-Marxist-Eco-Utopian blathering into... the erotic.

"Passions that quicken your senses, fulfill, quench the thirst of lonesome years! Yet, the sun has shadows: learn to control your will, to enjoy life-long happiness, not tears! Wait, rise to the stars above and thrill! Arouse the very flames of life! Sweetheart, kiss me! Hold Still! Hold still! Listen to God's reward for strife! Rosebuds, slowly woken, break budding open, delicate, sweet, so on soft fingertips, shivering up your spine, red pulsing blood, in lightning speed through your pure body's lips! Caressing deep, searching way out of sight! Oh, beautiful spirit of God's Eternal Spring, heat of passion in a warm moonlit night, ecstasy to be buried in heaven, within! Relax, then, through long, dreamless sleep, body & soul join close in life's most brilliant bliss; revealing clarity-beauty-harmony-peace, sailing on far-away sun laden ships! Yet-what-cunning-feminine-touch, can draw new desire to pulsing lips?! When-soft-hands-wander-casually-such, deftly down near lingering tips?!"

Whoa... dirty! Mind you all this is written on a bottle of soap. I wish more of my toiletries featured such smut. Would it be too much for Colgate to slap a little bit of Anais Nin erotica on my toothpaste tube? I feel like some graphic yet poetic descriptions of lesbian sex would brighten up almost anyone's brushing time.

Future Reference

2010-02-14T09:39:00.000-08:00

My long-lost pal Emily is back to posting up her deceptively boring/insightful photo compositions on her revamped Brog: Future Reference.

Dance Party @ Spiritus

2010-02-14T06:58:00.000-08:00

Here's a rare moment of synergy between the twin preoccupations of this blog: food and music. Back in Provincetown for the holidays, I attended a dance party some friends threw inside of Spiritus Pizza, the local landmark with the legendary whole-wheat crust Pizza. Spiritus, like just about everything else in Ptown is shut down for the winter, so they blacked out the front windows, wheeled in a keg and set up turntables on the counter where they usually flatten the dough.
This was in the middle of darkest, deadest winter and the place was packed and going off! Gay dudes were walking in off the street at 1AM after the clubs closed and couldn't believe what was going on.

The Breslin @ Ace Hotel

2010-02-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

My lovely friend Lilah invited me for yet another culinary foray, this time along with her friend the "well-known food blogger". How else could I have ended up at the chef's table at The Breslin sampling things like shelled boiled peanuts deep-fried in pork fat? (Seriously, look at their menu, it's kind of bananas). Too bad, though, that I didn't realize how déclassée it would be to whip out an iphone and start taking food photos.
Trife as it may have been of me, I had to document this Bone-Marrow Soup somehow.

Anyway it was all worth it to get within an arm's length of this: 50 US dollars worth of dreamlike Braised pork belly. Thank you Lilah.

Apple Crepes @ Yaffa cafe

2010-02-14T05:30:00.000-08:00

Do you know how some pet owners can start to look like their dogs or whatever? Apparently it can happen with food, too. Apple crepe, Christina @ Yaffa cafe, St. Marks, 5:30 AM.

Notice the shiny contact paper on the tables? They are still as crazy for contact paper at Yaffa cafe as I was for like a week in seventh grade. The food there is kind of whatever, but if you go, order anything with their Carrot-Ginger dressing, it's drinkable.

Tacos @ The Woods, Wllbrg

2010-02-10T16:31:00.000-08:00

Can we for a moment get back to what this blog is supposed to be all about?
And by that I mean girls and tacos.
I think that the taco truck behind The Woods in Williamsburg has some of the best late-night tacos in Brooklyn. The folks who run it are incredibly sweet and make it tolerable to stand in line in the cold with execrable drunk hipsters who will invariably try to engage you in some way. Seriously, The Woods has the ambiance and clientele of a terrible house party where people from the bus stop out front wander in. This proves how good the tacos are because you're more likely too see me there at 3:30 AM than the truck at Union Pool. I go there just for Carne Asada covered in Guacamole and Lime and Green Salsa and just notice afterwards that its Karaoke night and this guy is singing "Common People".

I mean, I don't usually go in for that Look At This Fucking Hipster!.com stuff, but really do look at this bastard. He has no idea whether he is joking or not. He only wonders whether a 500$ Gucci Sweatshirt he bought in L.A. will show up on his Dad's credit statement if the purchase was made "in jest".

Thanks to my luvley models Alix and Chloe BTW.

Toy Selectah on NPR

2010-02-10T16:20:00.000-08:00

NPR's Morning Edition did a brief story about Cumbia in L.A. which featured Toy Selectah and Bomba Estereo.

2010-02-03T18:37:00.000-08:00

Every day down here I'm hearing or remembering a tune that should have gotten on that Jamaica mix:

Warbling autotune and pitched-up strings make the chorus on this one sound like some epic Pakistani pop shit.

White Animal Sound Jamaica 2010 mix

2010-01-29T22:03:00.000-08:00

I've been down in St. Elizabeth parish Jamaica for the past few weeks thanks to my awesome friends. Here's a mix of some the biggest tunes mashing up Jamaica right now. Everyone who has been down here recently should remember a few of these from the radio and clubs. Thanks to DJ Bag from the Wild Onion and all the Treasure Beach crew, Outlaw sound, Flex FM and Irie FM, "Rasta" in Junction and all the mixtape vendors!
Jamaica 2010 by White Animal
Download a .zip file of the individual tracks here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/10326420-afa

Blak Ryno- Bike Back // Go-Go Club Riddim prod. by Russian
Konshens & Dario- Do D Thing
Vybz Kartel- Go-Go Club
Merital- My Money (Ha Ha)
Vybz Kartel- Nah Let Go // England Town Riddim
Vybz Kartel ft. Shebba- Do Me Dat
Busy Signal- Cah Buy Me Out // Feel Free Riddim
Ricky Blaze- I Feel Free
Ding Dong- Holiday
Serani ft. Ding Dong- Skip to my Lou
Mavado- House Cleaning
Mavado- Starlight // Produced by Steven "Di Genius" McGregor
Chino- Pon Your Head
Collie Buddz- Eyez
Busy Signal- One More Night
Busy Signal- Night Shift
Queen Ifrica- Nun Bwoy
Tarrus Riley- Love's Contagious // Coming in from the Cold Riddim
BUJU BANTON- TIME AND PLACE (FREE THE MAN!)
Tarrus Riley- Human Nature (Micheal Jackson)
Elephant Man- Nuh Guh Make It // Sleeping with a Broken Heart Riddim
Wasp ft. Alicia Keys- Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart
Wasp- Unfair Officer

<3step Trailer

2010-01-13T13:22:00.000-08:00

Oh, 80s Ione Sky, where are you in my life?

Things I <3 about New York

2010-01-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving for Jamaica in the morning and I'm not sure if I'll be back to try and live in New York city anytime soon. I've been in NYC for the past few months and I feel like I've spent a distressing amount of that time engaged in the near-insufferable pastime of complaining about the city and what it has been offering me and whinging about things I don't like about it. I apologize to anyone who has had to entertain this nonsense. As a form of penance, here are a few little things that I truly do appreciate about this place, and of course this is just the tip of the iceburg.

Cheap food. This is a no-brainer. There are more under-ten-dollar meal options in New York than you can imagine and virtually every ethnic subgenre is represented. If you've been following this blog even intermittently you've already seen how much I appreciate and take advantage of this.

Talking to convenience store/deli/diner employees and cab drivers late at night. Somewhere in that giddy liminal space of an NYC party night you are bound to encounter a member of the sober, (generally) affable, and accommodating legion of New York's graveyard shift workers. Quite often, these folks are from exotic and far-flung places, and if you show even a rudimentary knowledge of their homeland and it's current events they usually will swell with pride and let you in on their opinions on them. If you read an international news story in the morning, there is a good chance that you could encounter someone from the location of that dateline later that night who can give you their insider's take. The fact that these opinions can often be eccentric, paranoid, racially charged or misinformed is irrelevant.
Talking to someone who is not condescending, belligerent or completely ignorant at that time of night is usually a refreshing change for them and they will express gratitude that you are even interested in their story. One of the best experiences I had in New York was talking to a fair skinned, blue-eyed ethnic Muslim from Azerbaijan who was slinging cheese fries and chili dogs in an all-night kiosk near St. Marks place. When I asked him about his faith his face lit up and he showed me how in between pumping nacho cheese he was reading the complete works of Rumi and the other ecstatic Sufi poets, in Farsi, on a bulky, outdated P.C. under the service window. "I do not drink, no drugs," he told me, "This poems, is my drug."
These type of encounters are readily attainable any night in New York. Just don't expect a discount.

Hot people. Sorry, rest of America, but most of them are here. Although being surrounded by babes all the time can be a curse as well as a blessing, there is no denying that if you spend a few months in New York and then fly into the Midwestern airport of your choosing, you will feel like you've been living in a cartoon and the producers have just suddenly outsourced the character design to some foreign firm with a drastically lower pay scale and quality standards.

Stomping on metal bulkhead covers, especially while walking home late at night. They are springy and make a satisfying booming sound. It's like jumping in puddles without the mess.

Watching people wearing earbuds groove to their music on the train. You can sort of guess what genre they are listening to from the manner in which they lightly tap their feet, silently snap, and rock back forth. There is a limit to my enjoyment of their enjoyment of their music, though: once they start to whistle or sing along it is funny for a like a minute and then just gets annoying.
I also appreciate that most of the Mexicans I have stood near that are wearing earbuds on the train are listening to Cumbia, which I can deduce from the tell-tale "Chi-chichi-Chi-chichi" of the claves in the song that they are listening to at what must be an ear-splitting volume. This makes me offer them an non-verbal, gestural "Que onda, guey?".
mp3:
Tzochitl Soundsystem VS Toy Selectah – Hay Guey (via audioporncentral)

Seeing the City through the eyes of it's tourists. It's easy to take the place where you are living for granted and get jaded. But, when I see packs of Chilean hipsters or Parisian teenagers wearing brand-new Chuck Taylors, Wayfearers, and some design t-shirt they just bought walking around New York, taking in everything with an awe-struck look that seems to say "We are really here! I is a Ramone now?", you can't help but get a little excitement-by-osmosis.

Dancing to New York hip hop classics with New Yorkers. As much as I've enjoyed the resurgence of disco, boogie and 80s funk that seems to be going on with the hipster DJ set in New York right now, there's still nothing that beats dancing to that rap shit with people that grew up in New York. It seems like no matter how lilly-white your party is there will always be at least one group of black or Puerto rican girls there looking fly and if you put on something like

they will go off. There is something Pavlovian that happens when real New Yorkers hear the first bars of "Hypnotize"- if they don't start dancing immediately, when Biggie says "Sicker than your average" they are powerless to resist. Follow that up with something like

Then you'll see big smiles all around, no more mean mugging, drinks in the air, mouthing lyrics and licking shots at the DJ. "Where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn at?"

One thing I don't like about New York, though is people's tendency to pontificate about it endlessly so I'll stop there. Next up on Animal Blanco: top things I like about sitting on a Caribbean beach eating fresh seafood and drinking an ice cold Red Stripe.

Udachi @ Trouble & Bass

2010-01-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

The heavyweight bass champion sound system of NYC, Trouble & Bass, hosted the DJ/Producer Udachi for their holiday gala and we were there to soak up the subwoofery.
That's Udachi in the center along with Drop the Lime, Star Eyes etc. who were trading off with Dubstep, Bassline House, Grime, Bmore and dirty Rave Bangers. We rolled in after 2AM and the place was crawling with sketchball ravers who kept asking us for E and ketamine. At this point the smoking ban was out the window and the air was thick with menthol smoke. It was, as the song seh, "Whaa whaa whaa whaa, whaa whaa whaa whaa, whaa whaa whaa whaa whaa... BONKERS!"

Here's an Udachi mix to give you a taste.
Udachi - mix for under140 by udachi 01 Udachi - JellyRoll
02 SL2 - On a Ragga Tip (Breakdown remix)
03 Rico Tubbs - Work This
04 AC Slater - Grab You
05 Drop the Lime - Good Inside
06 Burial - Archangel - (Boy 8 bit remix)
07 Lo-Fi-Fnk - Change Channel (Jitset remix)
08 Nick Supply - Hizniz (Stupid Fresh remix)
09 Donald Glaude, DJ Dan - Stick 'Em (TJR remix)
10 Herve & Toddla T - How Y'all Like Me Now
11 AC Slater - Jack Got Jacked (Udachi remix)
12 Herve - Cheap Thrills
13 B Rich – Can’t Take What I Got
14 Rico Tubbs - Ghetto Funk Baby
15 Crookers - Sveglia
16 Body Snatchers ft Yolanda - We Here (Big Pimpin')
17 RQM - Miss Pacman (Oliver $ Remix)
18 Chocolate Party - Wickid (Mark Mendez remix)
19 Estaw - Weird All
20 Midfield General - Disco Sirens
21 Boltan - Creepy
22 NAPT - Gotta Have More Cowbell
23 Hot Chip - Ready For the Floor (Soulwax Dub)
24 Fake Blood - Fake Blood Theme
25 M83 - Graveyard Girl (Yuksek remix)

BTW, this Udachi feat. Jubilee song/video is retarded and hilarious.

Another food photo

2010-01-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

Yo, what the motherfuck is the point of taking a photo and writing about some busted sushi I had on Graham ave.? What is the lesson to be learned here, don't eat sushi from a place where the whole staff is plainly from Bangladesh? If you don't know that already, you shouldn't be dining out. Go make yourself a sandwich. And pleaase, take a photo of that bitch, post it up, and rate it on a scale of 1 to who-gives-a-shit.
A food blogger? Who wants to be a food blogger in 2010? What am I, an intern for Rachel Ray's twitter feed?
Somebody start comping me some triple-digit meals and we'll talk. A food blogger?
That's about as fresh as wearing knockoff Wayfarers.
...C'mon Son!

Catering Part 3

2010-01-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

My third gig catering? Oh, just a little party for someone called Dan Graham, a conceptual artist who, amongst many other things, turned concert footage of Black Flag and Minor Threat into high art. This was at SculptureCenter in Long Island City, Queens. His guests were some some artsy types called Mirror/Dash, AKA Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. All of these folks happened to be at the table I was pouring wine at, so I was at their side all night, fighting the urge to drop my professional decorum and be all "Teenage Riot is the best pop song evarr!"
I did risk my burgeoning catering career by busting out the iphone to take some clandestine snaps, which apparently is strictly forbidden at events like this, but that's not what you see here. I swiped these photos from the official website because they were like mine, but good.
The whole night was surreal. We were serving fondue to bunch of Downtown conceptual art weirdos and their lovely teenage socialite daughters as well as straight-laced SculptureCenter benefactors and older art patrons. Meanwhile they were projecting the aforementioned Black Flag footage as well as other strange rock and roll counter-culture themed videos by Graham overhead. Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon got up and read a weird astrological tribute to Graham with video of Rams behind them.Dan Graham is an adorable little eccentric genius man!
Mirror/Dash played an acoustic but still abrasive and confrontational set which most of the older crowd could barely wince their way through. Kim Gordon kicked over a folding chair to heighten this tension and reassert that she was still punk as fuck!

Later on the band Japanther played out in the freezing-cold open courtyard surrounded by bonfires, with my fellow servers weaving through the crowd distributing hot whiskey and "red-hot" cinnamon bark. Keep in mind I was getting paid good money to work this event. Madness!

Smalltown DJs- Best of 2009 mix

2010-01-04T23:39:00.000-08:00

Anyone who was appalled by my last mix selection will be relieved that this week's choice actually involves some "good music" and "songs". There's quite a few of those on this best of 09 mix by Canada's Smalltown DJs, particularly in the second half. There are a few questionable ones as well ("Dominos" by Big Pink is a particularly painful choice), but that has always been Smalltown DJs role- to take you on a journey through white-people music that takes you just to the outskirts of your comfort zone and back again.
SMALLTOWN DJs - BEST 09 by Smalltown DJs
1) While you wait for the Others - Grizzly Bear feat. Michael Macdonald
2) Just ain't Gonna Work Out - Mayer Hawthorne
3) Stillness is the Move - Solange Knowles
4) Dominoes - The Big Pink
5) Nothing to Worry About - Peter, Bjorn & John
6) No You Girls (Grizzl Remix) - Franz Ferdinand
7) So Insane - Discovery
8) The Sticky - Black Moth Super Rainbow
9) Lizstomania (Classixx Remix) - Phoenix
10) Psychic City - Yacht
11) Blood Bank (Skinny Friedman edit) - Bon Iver
12) Home - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
13) Animal (Mark Ronson Remix) - Miike Snow
14) Shelter (Them Jeans Remix) - The XX
15) Cruel Intentions - Simian Mobile Disco feat. Beth Ditto
16) Walking on the Moon (U-Tern's Kris Menace blend) - The Dream
17) Bulletproof - La Roux
18) One Life Stand - Hot Chip
19) Rain Dance - The Very Best feat. M.I.A.
20) You Got the Love (The XX Remix) - Florence & The Machine
21) Night by Night (Skream Remix) - Chromeo
22) Pursuit of Happiness - Kid Cudi feat Ratatat & MGMT

Holiday Movie Round-Up!

2010-01-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

The holiday movie season is behind us, and a historic one it has turned out to be. Attendance records were smashed and box-office grosses surged to new heights, all without a Martin Lawrence vehicle in theaters! Now that the haze of 3-D graphics and the greasy sheen of incredibly expensive partially-hydrogenated butter-flavor popcorn topping has receded, we are afforded a blessed moment of solace to reflect on the kaleidoscopic maelstrom of images that have been beamed relentlessly into our retinas and inner minds over the past weeks.

This week saw millions of Americans flocking to theaters to take part in a singular communal event: witnessing an earth shattering visual spectacle that would revolutionize how we watch movies. Of course, you already know what I'm talking about. Unless you've been living under a rock you've already sat, wide-eyed and jaw agape and let the transformative power of Alvin and the Chimpmunks: The Squeaquel wash over you. I'll get to my official review in just a moment, but first up, an scrappy indie pic that it is limited release now: The Avatar.
The Avatar is a new film from the visionary director Kirk Cameron, the genius behind The Titantic, several episodes of Growing Pains, and the uber-hot Left Behind film series, which were screen adaptations of the Fundamentalist Christian pamphlets about the Rapture and the impossibility of Dinosaurs that you can find in most Greyhound stations.

His new blockbuster was made using a host of new movie-magic technologies, including "The C.G.I." which is a process in which a movie is put into a computer, which can have amazing results, including turning many of the characters blue.

The special effects wizards also developed something called "Motion Capture" where real people are filmed and then digitized. And here's an Animal Blanco exclusive: raw footage from the set of The Avatar. Here are the human actors portraying the Na'vi people before their "motion" was "captured". This scene is one of their tribal ceremonies.

This powerful technology was heightened by the work of art director Lisa Frank, who brought the same whimsy and rainbow color palate to the film's creatures and environments that have made her Unicorn pencil cases so legendary.
But it's not all flying dragons and hot, hot blue alien sex. There is an amazing message here about imperialism, ancient wisdom, and the need all primitive tribal people have for a civilized white man to come sleep with their women and save them by teaching them how to use guns. This is a message every child deserves to hear.

And speaking of children, they are going to LOVE the Squeakquel! This movie has everything- crudely blended animation and live-action, awkward attempts at "urban" humor (i.e. watered down black culture being parroted by an animated, ostensibly white anthropomorphic chipmunk), respected comedians like David Cross and Amy Poehler gingerly dipping their toes into the fetid open latrine of career-killing family film roles, an awesome tagline ("Get Munk'd"), and best of all, the greatest actor of our time, Sir Jason Lee. Honestly, looking at this man's film role choices is like getting a preview of the Critereon collection of tomorrow. Maybe Lee's drive for greatness can be attributed to the fact that he is a Scientologist, as they are always admonishing their converts to strive for personal glory and self-realization. He certainly has done that by scoring a role in this, the mother of all event movies.

And speaking of mothers, yours is squarely in the demographic of It's Complicated.

I don't know about you but I am scandalized and offended by this poster and by this film's whole concept. The picture up there is bad enough: Alec Baldwin's smug, post-coital reverie and Meryl Streep's embarrassed dishevelment just forces you to wonder want kind of messy aftermath lies beneath that typeface-covered duvet.
But, as it turns out, that is what the film is all about: hardcore gratuitous middle-aged sex.
I mean, I enjoy pornography as much as anyone, but mature porn (or granny porn) is just not a subgenre that I think should be seeing the light of day in such a mainstream forum. Couldn't they just find some preternaturally sexual teenagers looking to make a buck like other pornographers?
No. Instead we have to sit through Baldwin banging Streep for 90 minutes. Doggystyle in the dining room. Streep riding Baldwin in the pantry. Then, back to the bedroom-- uh oh, who's that peeking in the window? Steve Martin, that's who, and he brought K-Y. Now what you've got on your hands is hot-pressed Streep panini. Is this really what people want to see when they go out for a nice night at the Multiplex? That famously prolific Baldwin spunk flying all over the screen? Meryl Streep, an Oscar winner, a goddamn national treasure, being vigorously sodomized by a man who's next film is Cheaper by the Dozen 3?

I think it's an outrage, and I'm boycotting it, along with every other movie in wide release this holiday season, including The Sherlock Homes, so that I can wrap up this round-up and rest up.. for next year! See you at the movies theater!

Mexican Meat Pizza

2009-12-30T11:31:00.000-08:00

In "Lil Mexico", Sunset Park, Chris and I went to get some pizza (well, not Chris, he is vegan and was happy with a Squirt, his favorite Mexican soft-drink jumpoff). I asked the dude what was inside that mysterious double-crusted pizza he he said "Todos tipos de carne."
I didn't realize that he meant "TODOS tipos de carne", like, in el mundo. The thing had pepperoni, ham, ground beek, breaded chopped chicken and sausage. Look at that photo, it looks like the cover of a gory Mexican tabloid about narco-violence. I ate about a third of it. There's just something obscene about eating that much low-quality meat in so few bites.

The Brooklyn Laundry

2009-12-30T10:01:00.000-08:00

My second gig catering was with The Brooklyn Laundry, which is an awesome crew led by Fiore Tedesco (left). My friend Lee was working side by side with Fiore in the kitchen and I was out on the floor tending to the guests of a 50th Birthday party for a publishing executive. The party was held in a penthouse loft in the same Chelsea building that houses Tesla Motors, makers of incredible electric sports cars. The 5 course menu was Moroccan-themed and culminated in a lamb-shank roasted in a paper bag which you can see them plating below.

Brooklyn Laundry largely operates as a traveling supper-club that serves seasonal, thematic and local menus in various locations throughout NYC. In this capacity the company doesn't turn a big profit, so Fiore bankrolls his labor of love with special catering gigs like this one.

The punch was Bulleit Bourbon, Tangerine Nectar, Fee Brothers Peach Bitters and San Pellegrino.
And the afterparty looked like...

Sadat X- True Wine Connoisseur!

2009-12-29T07:52:00.000-08:00

Sadat X from Brand Nubian has found a new calling as a wine tasting expert on youtube! He's like the Gary Veynerchuck for the streets! His price-point range is between 10 and 11 dollars, he drinks the wine straight out of the bottle and rates the wine using the "fucked-up factor", e.g. how fucked-up it will get you. Do yourself a favor and click though the related videos to watch all the episodes this shit is hilarious. "Smoove!"

And if you don't know who Sadat is, here's a Brand Nubian throwback from 93, "Punks Jump up to get Beat Down" to jar your memory.

SALEM on WMIG

2009-12-23T00:46:00.000-08:00

A messy, fucked-up mix from messy fucked-up kids. Salem on record are all backwoods Michigan nihilistic druggy gay chopped'n'screwed black metal vibes and Chicago juke gone evil yet mopey. On this mix they play some of their own songs and other things that make you feel like you are tripping on Robitussin DM. You can read more about Salem's singer John Holland turning tricks at truck stops, smoking crack, and appreciating Mariah Carey in this interview from BUTT magazine.

Download We Make it Good Vol. 11: Salem (Click Here)

1. Psycho Drama – Alkuholiks
2. Salem – Pig Fucker
3. Skeeter Davis – The End of the World (Drag Remix)
4. oOoOoo – Seaw
5. AIDS 3D – Party Animal Dirge
6. Salem feat. Gucci Mane – Round One (SalemRemix)
7. Salem – Hoodrych
8. The Beach Boys – Whispering Winds (Drag Remix)
9. Sinistas – SZXZ
10. oOoOoo – Mumbia
11. Salem – Water
12. Twista – Hey Lover Boy
13. Tha Pope – Track 41
14. Light Asylum – Shallow Tears (Drag Remix)

Sopa de Camarones

2009-12-22T14:04:00.000-08:00

When you are sick in Sunset park with some kind of swine-like virus, dragging yourself out to get some Mexican soup and loading it up with lime and salsa Valentina is the best decision you can make. That is, until the jukebox fires up with some ear-splitting Banda music which makes your head pound X10 worse.

Catering Part 1

2009-12-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

Oh Hai, here is the view from where I worked my first catering gig. It was a holiday party for a cheerful bunch of folks called "Fiduciary Trust International". One overheard conversation:

Conservative financier #1: This "Mister" Obama is going to be a one-term-President!
Conservative financier #2: Oh, absolutely.
Conservative financier #3: And God forbid something happen to him during that term!
(knowing chuckles all around)

This was real old money. One gentleman there, I was delighted to see, was wearing a pinstripe suit, spectacles, and a name tag identifying himself as "Lark". "Er, it's a faamily name. Laarrk was Mummy's uncle.", I imagined him to explicate through Patrician clenched jaw.

Oh, and question: How Mi Look?

... answer:

Saltie

2009-12-22T12:59:00.000-08:00

Saltie is an aesthetically-minded sandwich shop on Metropolitan which which was started by a former chef from Diner. Their aesthetic bent is all-encompassing: the name is British slang for sailor. The shop is all navy blue and white. The sandwiches all have nautical monikers like the "Ship's Biscuit" and the "Captain's Daughter" (it's the fishy-smelling one). Add this to the seemingly all-lesbian staff presided over by a British lady bo'sun who looks and talks like a slightly less-pretty Shane McGowan and it's like traveling to some alternate reality where old-time seafaring Cockneys were largely concerned with sandwich preparation and scoring Teagan and Sara tickets.
I did go for the Captain's Daughter (is anyone surprised?), which was "high quality tinned sardines" with capers and flat-leaf parsley. It was sort of like an ultra-savory high grade Tuna sandwich served on a chewy homemade focaccia biscuit.

Jewish Christmas came early

2009-12-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

Later in the day after Egg and Bloody Mary's at Enid's, we decided to to have Jewish Christmas dinner- Old-School Cantonese Chinese enjoyed in a slightly depressing, seasonally decorated environment.
Chinese Musician is an awesomely unique name for a Chinese restaurant. Their food was maybe not as indelible as the name, but it did stand out for being decidedly more classic than most of the crappy Chinese in the Greenpoint. Little touches like carved vegetables and the shu-mai wrappers that come with the Peking Duck make you remember why this kind of food used to be such a favorite before things like Sushi and Thai food came to kick it's ass.

The only thing unenjoyable about this meal was when one of the British guys in the booth next to us tried to show off his worldliness by yelling "NEE-HOW!" to get the waitress' attention. Then they proceeded to complain about one of their dishes, which apparently didn't live up to the standards that they have grown accustomed to in London. These type of cunts are crawling all over New York right now, throwing around their exchange rate weight, wearing twee spectacles and Plimsoles and charming ladies with their Geico lizard-like cadences. It makes me want to watch some Rednecks stomp them while I listen to "Party in the U.S.A."

3 more seconds to choose your knife.

2009-12-22T02:16:00.001-08:00

Alicia Silverstone R.I.P.

2009-12-22T01:28:00.001-08:00

Goodnight, sweet princess.

Jesus Rides Beside Me... never buys any smokes.

2009-12-18T03:17:00.000-08:00

Egg

2009-12-16T14:19:00.000-08:00

When we got to Egg on south 6th in Williamsburg there were so many other parties waiting ahead of us, writing their names down on the guest list posted out front that we were nearly discouraged and sent off to one of the many lesser brunch options in the neighborhood. Luckily many of the parties ahead of us felt similarly and ended splitting before their name was called. The hostess crossed out like five names from the list and we were soon seated. All those quitters may have had a passable meal, but these is no way they found a place that is nearly as goddamn serious about breakfast as Egg.
The menu was deceptively simple. There were not as many adjectives and compound-words as I had thought there might be. This was not molecular gastronomy, it was really good breakfast. The quality was apparent right away from the excellent coffee they serve to you in your own personal French Press. As the caffeine takes hold and you wait for your food to arrive you can draw on the table with crayons. Chris waited patiently to enjoi his food. "Damn, Homie."

I went for the eggs Rothko, which was basically Toad-in-the-Hole, an egg and cheese cooked into the hollow middle of a slice of bread. We nerdily conjectured that this version must have gotten it's name not from being a favorite dish of the abstract painter, but for actually kind of looking like one of his works:

Actually, we are not nerds for figuring this out, they are nerds for thinking of it. The best kind of nerds!
There were confit tomatoes and everything, even the breakfast sausage was either local, sustainable, handmade, artisianal, theraputic, homestyle or some combination thereof. Xina went for cheese grits and there biscuits and blackberry preserves, mimosas and happy-pig pork products being passed around.

Cafe Luluc

2009-12-16T13:34:00.000-08:00

My reoccurring NYC dining partner Lilah and I traveled to what seems to be an hotbed of pseudo-Parisian bistros in Brooklyn: Smith street in Cobble Hill/Carol Gardens. We were drinking wine at Bar Tabac but left there for fear that the place was too theme-restaurant to have authentic French food and stumbled into what might be the most inauthentic bistro of all: Cafe Luluc.
This place is what happens when one group of the multitudes of Mexicans that are well versed and seasoned in French culinary technique make the logical step off breaking off from whatever French-owned institution they cut their teeth in to start their own brand of bistrot.
I could tell this was the case right away, but then got excited at the idea of sampling this new, post-modern branch of cookery. The fact that the entrees were all close to five dollars cheaper than any of the other more authentic joints in the area sealed the deal.
As I had guessed everything was just a bit off: the bread seemed to have been sliced from a half-stale Italian loaf from the bodega, the wine was a bit sweet, and my steak was more like carne asada with a sweet caramelized shallot sauce and handful of fries that I thought might have been imported from a McDonalds. The meat wasn't bad at all, but also not nearly rare enough. Lilah's handmade raviolis with a sage brown butter sauce were delightful, though- they displayed that certain Gallic magic of making something swimming in fat seem light. Vivre la Mexique, guey!

Sting 2009

2009-12-14T11:18:00.000-08:00

I just finalized my plan to go down to Jamaica next month for my friend's wedding, though I'll be too late for this shit:
Bounty Killer versus Vybez Kartel! If you don't know the deal, Vybez was basically Bounty Killer's protege, but has since stepped out of his shadow to become the biggest artist in Jamaica. The only other contender to that title is Mavado, who Vybez battled and defeated at Sting 2009. Now he has turned his sights on his former mentor in a dramatic development straight out of a kung-fu movie. This is the young, fiercely talented upstart challenging the leader of the old guard in the most theatrical of settings. Bounty is still highly respected but may be past his prime in term of lyrics and relevance. Whatever may happen at this Soundclash, I can still remember when Bounty was the undisputed king. Remember this one?

Look into my eyes, tell me what you see?
Can you feel my pain? am I your enemy?
Give us a better way, things are really bad,
The only friend I know is this gun I have.
Listen to my voice, this is not a threat
Now you see the nine are you worried yet?
You've been talking 'bout' you want the war to cease
But when you show us hope, we will show you peace.

Look into my mind, can you see the wealth?
Can you tell that I want to help myself?
But if it happen that I stick you for your ring
Don't be mad at me it's a survival ting.
Look into my heart, I can feel your fear
Take another look can you hold my stare?
Why are you afraid of my hungry face?
Or is it this thing bulging in my waist?
Chorus

Look into my life, can you see my kids?
Let me ask you this,do you know what hungry is?
Well in this part of town, survival is my will
For you to stay alive you've got to rob and kill.
Look into my house would you live in there?
Look me in the eyes and tell me that you care,
Well I've made up my mind to end up in the morgue
Right now I'd rather die, cause man a live like dog.

Look down on my shoes, can you see my toes?
The struggle that we live nobody really knows
Stop and ask yourself, would you live like that?
and if you had to then, wouldn't you bus gun shot?
Look into the schools, tell me how you feel?
You want the kids to learn without a proper meal
Den what you have in place to keep them out of wrong?
If they drop out of school dem a go bus dem gun

The South Philly Roasted Pork Sandwhich

2009-12-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

The South-Philly style roasted pork sandwich is one of those regional sandwich specialties that requires a very precise application of specific elements. These are: Roasted Pork loin which has been rubbed with Italian herbs and salt and pepper, an Amoroso Italian roll, shaved extra-sharp provolone, steamed or sauteed brocolli rabe, sweet-hot marinated Italian cherry peppers, and a extra side of the fatty juice from the bottom of the roasting pan. The bitterness of the Brocolli rabe and bracing intensity of real Italian sharp provolone make this a surprisingly challenging crowd pleaser, but it is the binding element of hot, seasoned liquid pork fat that has made this sandwich as dear if not dearer to the swollen, clogged hearts of Philadelphians than the cheesesteak.
When I was down visiting my Mom for Thanksgiving we attempted to find a real Roast Pork sandwich and were only marginally successful. This sandwich's pork, for one thing, was thin sliced and not lopped up in meaty chunks as it should be. Herr's Salt and Vinegar chips were a nostalgic accompaniment, however.
PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MA!

Saint's Alp

2009-12-14T09:48:00.000-08:00

Saint's Alp tea house (click that link, their website design is epic) is a newish bubble tea and snacks place across from where I was living on Bedford. This is the kind of place found all over Asia where teenagers hang out after school having good clean fun getting jacked on sugar and comparing Nintendogs or whatever. Although Saint's Alp is a chain from Hong Kong, the snacks and light meals they offered appeared to be largely Taiwanese, though I could be wrong about that. I went for a to-go rice bowl that included fried chicken, picked daikon, bok choy, and by far the best element: a sticky, sweet/spicy minced pork sauce that come with most of their rice bowls. This stuff reminded me of the Cincinnati-style chili you might get on a hot dog. This rice bowl didn't travel very well, even across the street to the beer store and back, but for 5 or 6 dollars it proved to be a worthwhile expedition into one of the more obscure of the Asian cuisines.

Storage Mart

2009-12-12T20:58:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else think that it's fucked up that this storage space in South Williamsburg wants you to store your pets in their units? I mean, no matter how much food you leave in there, you know the dogs are just going to eat it all right away and get sick and spend the next weeks just slowly wasting away. Even if the cats are a bit more conservative with their consumption, there is only so long they can last in those little spaces, howling for attention. And what about feces? They are bound to be ankle deep in the foul stuff by the time I return, if ever, from Turks and Caicos, with some little trinkets and a few half-hearted apologies.

Fette Sau

2009-12-10T11:37:00.001-08:00

When my Sister came to visit I finally had an opportunity to try out Fette Sau, the hella-serious Barbeque/Smokehouse place on Grand near my place that fills the surrounding blocks with the glorious smells of hickory and roasting pig. Caitlin was pleased with my choice, saying that the Brisket was some the best she had ever tried. We also went with some Ribs and some Burnt-End piece baked beans, which seemed to have absorbed all the delicious and dark elements of Barbeque, right down to the fat, the carbon, the caramelization, and indeed the essential transgressive thrill of being carnivore itself.
I was only disappointed that they didn't have more soul-food type sides. I could have dealt with some Mac and Cheese or at very least cornbread, but instead we were offered only white rolls and some cole slaw. Probably by even complaining about the paucity of sides I am exposing myself as a Barbeque philistine to the bearded grillmaster elite types they had working behind the counter there.

Lomzynianka

2009-12-10T11:35:00.001-08:00

Although it's kind of silly to sit there and google "Polish Restaurant Greenpoint", when you could also just go to Manhattan avenue and throw a pierogie and hit one, I did it anyway and came up with Lomzynianka. The restaurant review sites rated this place highly, saying it was huge portions of home-cooked food for next to nothing. Many of the reviews took issue with the decor, though. Apparently the visual sense of sitting in a Polish family's tacky dining room is distasteful to the rarefied sensibilities of the Chowhound cognoscenti. Some of the reviews also paradoxically promised that this place is only frequented by real people from the neighborhood, not yuppie trash, which begged the question in my mind "So who are the people writing all these reviews?!"

As I guessed, the place was filled with young Williamsburgers who looked like they were mentally preparing online reviews (especially me, because I actually was... you want some meta-Kielbasa with that?) and the only Polish being spoken was in the kitchen. But, the reviews were right about the food, it was plentiful and plainly being whipped up by a real Polish grandma. Her son, the owner was waiting on all the tables in between having adorable Sunday night quality time sitting watching TV with his teenage daughter. And though the prices had certainly gone up since the menu you can find on their website was posted (it promises things like a 5$ Polish platter), it was still a super-cheap way to get disgustingly full. I'm not sure if the pierogies and even the kielbasa were supposed to be deep fried like that, but otherwise it was an awesome Polish experience where the only strong flavors are dill and vinegar, and if you are sitting close enough to the owner and his daughter having family night, you feel like you are in an outtake from one of the more tender episodes of The Decalogue.

And, No, I cannot pronounce that name either. I had to re-google it to write this, because all I could remember is that it sounded something like "Lizstomania".

Winter in NYC

2009-12-08T20:49:00.000-08:00

One cool part about staying in New York in the winter is that the weather report on the news every night is just this:

|

"Vetty Cold!"

Sleepers Work Dec 20th

2009-12-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

This thing turned out to be pretty chill and loungey last time we did it, so come out and you'll actually be able to talk to your friends between bouts of weird dancing.

Cruel Intentions

2009-12-06T21:06:00.000-08:00

BIG Tune!!! You might have heard the O.G. of this on that Aeroplane mix I posted last month, but I must say Joker owns this shit with that Bristol Dubstep/G-Funk sound. That's Beth Ditto of the Gossip on vocals BTW getting all 90s R&B Diva on that ass. Beth seems commited to never recording a good song with own band and making huge dance singles with British DJs.

As a flipside to indie-rock chicks getting all R&B, here is Solange Knowles (who apparantly is now a pseudo-hipster celebrity DJ) covering the Dirty Projectors. She handles the vocal workout nonchalantly, all over the instrumental from "XXplosive" off The Chronic 2001.

La Superior

2009-12-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

La Superior is a real-ass Mexican place not far from the base of the Williamsburg bridge. They have Lengua, Sesos (Brains), Cebollitas (Grilled green onions soaked in Worcestershire sauce), and fucking Tortas Ahogadas straight out of Guadalahara. They have fresas Mexican hipsters working up front and naco Mexicans working in the back, they have Luchador memorabilia on the walls and cumbia nueva on the stereo, they are doing it right in my book. The only thing they don't have is a liquor license, which sucks because if they could serve micheladas I would never have to leave. As it is, I'm trying to get a job there so I probably shouldn't say much more, but the tacos de lengua and the incredibly spicy pavo en escabeche tacos were excellent. I would prefer them at Mexico city prices, but what can you do?
Bien pedos.

Flashback

2009-12-06T09:46:00.000-08:00

You know when you wake up on a trashed speedboat in the Mediterranean with vague recollections of partying in Ibiza with a bunch of British models before heading to the club where you reign supreme with your Handbag-house inspired vapid rave anthems with dubious melodies sung in your mealy-mouthed Scottish accent? This video totally captures that experience.

Beef Bourguignon

2009-12-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

What are my attractive, disgustingly wholesome roomates up to this time?
Beef Bourguignon, French wine and crusty bread.

Momufuku MIlk Bar

2009-12-05T12:22:00.001-08:00

At this point "blogging" about Momufoku Milk Bar is about as novel as proclaiming "I Love The Smiths!" in a Brooklyn Bar, but I had to go and do it anyway. Milk Bar is the latest spin-off of David Chang's wildly successful Momufuku brand.
My friend Laura is way up on her high-grade ice creams, and having steered me right before, to Mashti Malone's in L.A., I had to take her lead to the Milk Bar to try the Cereal Milk soft serve.

This stuff is wild- it tastes exactly like the milk at the bottom of bowl of corn flakes. Except instead of trying to make that flavor all desert-like, they keep the sweetness subtle and bring out the sour, salty notes you usually take for granted in corn flakes. The other soft-serve flavors they were offering on the night Chris and I visited were Salty Pistachio and Caramel and Double Malted Chocolate, but I've heard of them offering things like Stuffing flavor and Rosemary Flavor.

Their baked goods are equally insane: I went again with Laura's suggestion of a compost cookie: it has chocolate chips, pretzels, potato chips, caramel, coffee and oats. It reminded me of something they might sell in a Phish concert parking lot, the only missing ingredient was opiated weed butter. It was really good, though.

One thing we couldn't try were their breads, which had sold out as they apparantly always do, early in the day. These change every day, but in the posted schedule I saw things like Green Curry Banana bread(!), Blue Cheese Polenta Bread, and Kimchi Bacon Focciacia(!).
They also serve a few selected beers and David Chang's famous Porks Buns, which I am planning a return trip to experience.

The Grandma Slice

2009-12-05T09:53:00.001-08:00

Looking for an under-5-dollar meal I went to Vinny Vella's Pizza on Metropolitan, which was opened in 2007 by the eponymous actor, technical consultant, and mafiosesque pal to the stars best known for his roles in Casino and The Sopranos.
This guy is all over the walls and tables, posing in snapshots with celebrities and politicians: over here he is patting Gary Oldman's face like a beloved nephew, over there, mean-mugging along with Nas.
I ordered (not from Vinny himself) what I thought was a Sicilian slice, but was corrected "You mean the Grandma slice?".
"Guy!", I thought, "I don't care who made it! Gimme what I'm pointing at and I'll hand you money."
As it turns out the "Grandma Slice" is a hot Pizza trend in NYC, which means New Yorkers assume everyone must know about it, like how Midwesterners think the whole country is crazy for "Taco Pizza" (it involves corn chips and lettuce on the pizza). Originating in Long Island, this is basically a thinner version of a Sicilian, baked on a oiled sheetpan, which makes it crispier. I noticed that this version was also pronouncedly more garlicy than regular pizza and had the cheese and sauce separated into swaths, but those might just be Vinny's personal touches. It was very good- and that Cherry Doctor Pepper? A surprisingly enjoyable lark.
Interestingly, I've heard that the best Grandma pizza in Williamsburg is not at Vinny Vella's, but at Driggs Pizza, which is about 3 blocks away. That means that including Ana Maria's in my living room and Fornino down Bedford, there are at least four places that are making not just good, but very good pizza within 5 minutes of my doorstep. That's is more very good Pizza then can be found in most U.S. states!

BTW, I usually leave the Pizza coverage to Nick Sherman's Pizza Rules! Blog. I can't match his monomaniacal focus on the stuff, what with my interest in other kinds of "food".

2MANYDJS @ HARD HAUNTED MANSION 2009

2009-11-29T20:59:00.000-08:00

Amazing video synthesizer work with album covers from 2 Many DJs.

OMG!1!XKNJKW

2009-11-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

TRAVOLTA?! WILLIAMS?! TOGETHER? What a dream come true. These two hirsute behemoths colliding on celluloid will be unlike anything we've seen outside of Bear porn. But why did they get that little otter Seth Green to fill out the third role when they know that it should have been me? Look how well I fit into this poster:

Uncanny, isn't it? Our movie would be amazing: it could be about how Robin, after ODing on freebase, enlists the help of the Scientologists to save his life with their famous rehab program which has kept Travolta alive for many years despite the fact that he eats nothing but deep-fried heroin. They agree under the condition that Robin will star, alongside Travolta and an animatronic Renee Zelwegger in a series of films based on popular blogs, with all the proceeds going to the Church of Scientology. I am brought in as a technical consultant, but sparks fly on set as these twin titans of film comedy vie for my friendship and loyalty. This leads to an escalating prank war between Williams and Travolta, culminating in a disastrous ill-fated prank that shorts out the Zelwegger-bot and blinds Patton Oswalt. After this, the heads of the studio put the film on hiatus and send us all on a trust-building road trip into Southern California, where we all learn valuable life lessons working alongside Mexican migrant workers on a grapefruit farm. Pixar could CGI little faces onto the grapefruits!
Someone greenlight this shit!

Lilly Thai

2009-11-26T08:05:00.000-08:00

My search for authentic Thai in Williamsburg took me down to Lilly Thai on Grand St. for a solo lunch. I had an inkling that I had found my place when, after the first course's authentically trashy iceburg salad with anemic tomatoes and thick peanut sauce, they brought out a slightly spicy, not gloopy, complex-tasting pad thai with a nest of carved vegetables on top. Yes, the shrimps were a bit dubious, but that didn't really bother me.

My suspicion that this place was the real deal was further bolstered by the caddy of lovely, colorful homemade condiments that came out when I asked for chili sauce. But this suspicion was not fully realized until I heard the Scorpions in full-on balladry mode on the house stereo- "Still Loving You" followed by "Always Somewhere"... thats when I truly felt like I was back in Thailand.

Liquid Breakfast

2009-11-25T15:09:00.000-08:00

Lee and Tessa both had novel breakfast beverage recipes to offer the other morning: Lee was making espresso in a stovetop espresso pot and foaming milk like this: heat it in a pot on the stove, gently so it doesn't burn. Add maple syrup and scrape in fresh vanilla. Once it's hot enough, put it into a french press and agitate it with the press until foams up. Add that to a half cup of espresso. The foam on these was so thick it looked like meringue.
Tessa was serving what apparantly is a pretty common drank in Europe: Looza Banana nectar with San Pelligrino. I had never heard of bottled banana juice, and the idea of mixing it with bubbly water sounded kind of wrong, but on ice and especially mixed with some more of that real South Indian vanilla scraped into it, it turned out to have an appealing creamy/bubbly interplay, like a banana flavored egg cream.

2009-11-24T23:52:00.000-08:00

Saigon Bahn Mi

2009-11-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

It seems like NYC's latest ethnic food craze is for Bahn Mi, the cheap Vietnamese baguette sandwich. Five years ago everyone seemed excited about Pho when it comes to Vietnamese or they had just discovered Ethiopian food or something. Once these sandwiches were only for Vietnamese immigrants and punks with no money who knew a spot in Chinatown. Now Bahn Mi places are popping up all over (there are two new ones on St. Marks alone) and I'm sure prices for them are going up and quality is falling off.
Chris' boy Eddy took us to what I'm sure is one of the best, most authentic places in the city, surprisingly close to the epicenter of the Broadway fashion and retail maelstrom in which he works. Saigon Bahn Mi had the air of a seasoned local legend that had not lost it's magic. Aside from the sandwhiches they offered a deli case full of intriguing take-out items and snacks that must look like home to a Vietnamese immigrant.
We went for the #1 classic Bahn Mi with grilled, five-spice scented sweet pork, thick slices of bologna-like Vietnamese mystery meat, picked vegetables, fresh cilantro and slices of cucumber and (optional) raw chili peppers. At 4 something they were not as cheap as the skimpy, virtually free versions we used to get in Chinatown Philly, but they were beefy and still well priced considering the inflation in the surrounding neighborhood.

The baguette was fresh and crusty, the vegetables redolent of fish sauce and oily rock sugar, the pork was caramelized and moist, the raw chili stung when you bit into one. A perfect sandwhich.

Can't Tell Me Nuthin

2009-11-24T13:02:00.000-08:00

I made up E-holiday greeting cards early this year:

Keep it Goin Louder

2009-11-24T01:09:00.000-08:00

Another Eric Wareheim video for Major Lazer- At this point I'm really not sure if he's helping or hurting their brand with this kind of madness:

I'd say this previous treatment was a bit more respectful to the vocalists:

Anyway in both Nina Sky is hella cute, and also why does Switch not show his pale boozy face in either?

BTW, If you're interested in this track, this might be the one:
Major Lazer feat. Ricky Blaze & Nina Sky - Keep It Goin' Louder (So Shifty 1961 Ska Remix) by So Shifty

Summer Flashback part 1.

2009-11-24T00:02:00.000-08:00

Am I tripping or was I recently at a beach party with a whole fish wrapped in bacon?

And Liam may have been slinging sous-vide pork-skin sliders with butternut squash puree, heirloom tomatoes, some kind of crumbly white cheese and homemade buns.

And if I'm not mistaken I then DJed reggae and dancehall for like 8 hours for a bunch of Jamaicans while I was close to blacked out, screaming stuff like "'Vado AGAIN! The Gully God is in the building!" and "Kartel de Teacher! GAZA represent!" all off of two Iphones and a battery-power subwoofer.

Nha Toi

2009-11-23T14:35:00.000-08:00

Chris and I went to this little Vietnamese place, Nha Toi , which translates to "My House", and this proved to be a very appropriate name. It was basically like being in the living room of the chef/owner, a young Vietnamese-American guy, who was playing chess at the table next to us, only jumping up to help in the kitchen when he noticed that one of our meals was taking 20 minutes longer to come out than the other one.

Meanwhile they were projecting a movie over our heads and the owner's mom was standing behind us, totally absorbed in the movie and screaming at the screen. It was something suspenseful about a wrongly accused man being sent to the gas chamber, and as the poison traveled down the I.V., closer and closer to the man's innocent veins, the lady was shouting "No! No! Save Him! Why Can't They DO Something?!" as if she were watching a real execution on a close circuit monitor.

I would guess that she often reacts to movies like that from the way the owner, who was now in the kitchen, called out wearily "Mom, please! Not tonight. People are trying to eat!" It was a little more awkward intimacy than I usually like with my noodles, but the food was fresh and tasty.

The fried spring roll were just as they should be: like plump little skinless loose sausages of pork and shrimp wrapped in homemade skins, fried black in some places and served with crisp lettuce to wrap them in and funky, pungent and sweet nuoc nam dipping sauce. The Pork Pho was not spectacular, though, I would have liked some more aromatics and richness to the broth. Maybe I should have gone with a traditional beef pho. Chris got a vegetarian pho which he declared "fresh tasting" despite being slightly "salty"- which is like a 7.5 for him.

Biproducts of the Bad

2009-11-23T12:42:00.000-08:00

Simone Siegel's prints and artstuff. Lovely business.

http://simonesiegel.blogspot.com/

Can't afford to <3

2009-11-23T12:37:00.000-08:00

This stencil hits too close to home.

Young Coconut

2009-11-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

One of the upscale "bodegas" on Bedford below where I'm living is run by South Indians who offer healthy foods, vegan fake meats, and best of all, cold young coconut that they will crack open with a machete for you and insert a straw for sippin'. 3 dollars is certainly the most I've ever paid for a coconut, but its well worth it to be able to carry it upstairs and chill on the fire escape with one of the world's greatest beverages.

3AM Doner Kebab

2009-11-23T06:47:00.000-08:00

File this under: poor life choices. I went to the new Doner Kebab place on Bedford on my way home at 3AM. I wanted to try it after reading a good review in the Villiage Voice, and also Doner is one of the best drunk foods ever, that is why it is ubiquitous in late-night party towns like Berlin and Barcelona.

The review I had read said to go with the chicken kebab, as the doner itself was frighteningly close to lamb spam. But, they also offered a mixed kebab, and when given the option to get more than one thing "mixed", I am powerless to resist.

Alarm bells should have rung when the owner said "You should see the meat on Wednesday when it arrives, it's like 150 pounds! Right now we are down to the last bits." As I was pondering the implications in that statement, I failed to notice that the Kebab master was forgoing the chicken entirely and loading my sandwich up with grey meat product.

I didn't notice this until I brought the thing home, and at that point there was nothing to do but wolf it down. The spam comparison was valid, but my real problem was that the doner meat was so laden with slightly rancid grease that it tasted to me like catfish. The bread and toppings were all decent, and I'm sure if I go back for a chicken kebab I'll be much happier, but eating this sandwich "haunted" me all the next day.

Golden Curry w/ Che-Wei

2009-11-22T23:47:00.000-08:00

Japanese curry is not a food I've really been aware of, but my friend Che-Wei helped me out with that recently.
I had seen these Japanese curry boxes next to the Pocky before but I didn't know they were good for anything but having really hot embossed gold letters. Che-Wei's involved eggplant and tofu, was mild and wholesome tasting.
BTW, the hometowns represented at this curry summit were Monterrey, Montreal, Taipei/Tokyo, and Truro.

A Love Letter for You.

2009-11-22T23:03:00.000-08:00

It looks like ESPO has used West Philly as the forum for an elaborate marriage proposal or something. These murals are heartwarming. They were all made along the Market-Frankfort line so I like to imagine that his dream jawn must have grown up with him in Overbrook and now rides the train every day to some corporate Center city job, on which she will see these:

A Love Letter For You

Urban Outfitters or Diesel would be paying him a fortune for devoting this kind of time and effort into guerrilla marketing and typeface styling for them, but instead he's getting payed by the city of Philadelphia to spread <3.

Please Be Advised

2009-11-21T10:14:00.000-08:00

This was up at the Laundromat near my house:

What do you think has caused this profusion of Thongs and G-strings? Has there been an influx of Strippers and Russian girls?

This sign also makes me think: Job Opportunity! I should hang my own sign underneath it: "Are You Need of a G-String Folda?"

Pesto Omelettes w/ Micheal

2009-11-21T09:47:00.000-08:00

Michael Stuetz has been a great help in my move to New York- not just giving me work renovating the basement of his house in Williamsburg, but providing plenty of cold beer and cooking awesome meals like this breakfast: Pesto omelets with sauteed spinach served with Onion toast. Also pictured: Melinda's hot sauce, which was decently spicy and so chunky you could barely get it out the bottle, and an awesome throwback cap that Michael won at bingo!Michael had been expounding on his hatred of omelets filled with raw vegetables and took this opportunity to demonstrate: "You gotta cook the shit first!" Note the breakfast beer.

Thai Cafe, Greenpoint

2009-11-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

My quest for authentic Thai near my house took me this time to the creatively named Thai Cafe in Greenpoint.

I had Tom Yung Goong, which was mostly raw white button mushrooms. This tactic is not entirely inauthentic, cheap places in Thailand sometimes do the same.

I was happy to see that they offered that most Thai of lunches, perhaps my favorite meal in the world when done right: Som Tam with Chicken and sticky rice. This meal is best enjoyed on the street in Bangkok, bought from two seperate vendors who each have mastered their respective crafts of hacking up green papaya and frying or barbequeing chicken. Here at Thai Cafe the Chicken was served baked with a lime-spice coating which made the plate more like a homestyle American meal. It's interesting how a small twist like that, and a bit of loss-in-translation on the Papaya salad can bring this meal very close to the Southern plate it would most resemble: Chicken with Cole Slaw and a starchy side. Not exactly what I had come for, but I was not mad at it.

Rivers and Tides

2009-11-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday it was rainy and all about this movie about the land artist Andy Goldsworthy- Rivers and Tides: Working with Time

It made me think about how at their purest form, art and spirituality can be the same exact thing.

New mix- Feels So Good to be Back

2009-11-20T22:54:00.000-08:00

So Good to be Back Nov 09 by White Animal

New Mix recorded live.
I'm on my UK shit here- I made like I was auditioning for a opening slot at a dodgy club below a chip shop run by Afghanis.

Beyonce- Sweet Dreams (2-step edit)
Kesha- Tic Toc (Untold Dub)
Florence and the Machine- Raise it Up (Switch Remix)
R Kelly- Number One (So Shifty UK Funky remix)
Jack Penate- Today's Tonight (TLBG remix)
Kid Sister- Right Hand Hi (Kingdom Remix)
DJ POLstyle- Fearless Vampire Killers (DJ Donna Summer Remix)
Little Boots- Earthquake (Club Remix)
B.E.P.- Meet me Halfway (Richard Vission remix)
David Guetta feat. Akon- Sexy Bitch
MIke Posner- Cooler than Me (Gigamesh remix)
Micheal Jackson- You are not Alone/Bag Raiders- Shooting Stars (Viking and CJ Milli blend)