From today's New York Times:
"Richard Evans Schultes, a swashbuckling scientist and influential Harvard University educator who was widely considered the preeminent authority on hallucinogenic and medicinal plants, died on Tuesday in Boston. He was 86 and lived in Waltham, a Boston suburb.
No one mentioned
Basil Wolverton last night.
b.1909, his bio
WFMU's most self satisfied
Douglas Wolk
Tangerine. 228 west 10th street NYC. 212.463.8585
Tangerine is a new Thai restaurant in the west village. If my sources are correct this is the first US venture for a prominent Hong Kong restaurant group. The space is sleek and modern. I think it looks good. The details (glasses, flatware, dishes, chairs) are some of the best I've seen. Obviously someone who knows about design is involved.
The food was quite enjoyable ranging on up to superb. The lobster pad thai was a personal fave. Lots of stuff for the fish and veggie crowd. The service, in marked contrast to everything else, was verging on comedy. I think there is some sort of language and/or cultural barrier adding to the mayhem. It didn't wreck our meal, but others, or even myself in a different mood, might have felt different. They are new, and I think they'll get it together, but for now don't expect too much in that department. On the other hand, maybe that will keep the crowds down for the time being. Quite empty when we went last week, but I bet it won't be for long. I guess this all amounts to a recommendation.
I was watching ccn last night as the plane taxied acoross the tarmac and took off live from china (7:30 pm edst). The tv crew had a hand held dig video camera with a (cell?) telephone connection. Then the cops came and made 'em stop. "W" listened in on a cnn audio feed and the Generals at the pentagon watched on cable.
Any links available for info on that broadband two-way satelite company ?
"Waiter? Bring me shad roe."
I love food that marks the season and for me early spring (april-may) means shad roe. I remember last year having a great breakfast on Shelter Island, and although I have trouble remembering the exact ordering of events, I know it must have been a year ago because it featured shad roe. It's sort of like a caviar hotdog. We just fry it up in a little olive oil (low heat, maybe 10 minutes, YMMV) and serve with scrambled eggs. I guess people use capers and other stuff, but the taste is so strong, I don't think they're necessary. MB did a repeat performance this morning (with a side of leftover brocolli rabe) and I was in heaven. Spring is in the air. She bought that great piece at Incredible Edibles in Grand Central Station, but I'm sure you can find it all over right now.
Here's some info on the mighty tasty shad. Give it a try. You won't be sorry.
Yesterday I killed 2 rats with one hawk: I saw the re-released Japanese animation classic
Akira and my first DLP (digital widescreen) movie.
Akira is playing at the AMC 25 on 42nd Street, which is a spectacle in itself if you haven't been. It's a five-story, high-tech, high-kitsch multiplex with stadium seating, perfect sound, and NO CUSTOMERS! It's like the home entertainment system from heaven--GO, before AMC declares bankruptcy and lets the whole thing get run down.
Anyway, about DLP: Everything is in sharp focus, the colors are bright and true, there are no hairs or specks, but there is a faint, evenly-distributed grain that runs through the entire image. After a half-hour or so you don't really notice it. No eye-strain, no headaches; like CDs, in some ways it's superior to analog and in some ways not. I'll have to see a non-animated movie before I completely judge the process.
And about the re-released Akira: WOW! I've seen it several times on murky VHS and wasn't prepared for the Blade Runner-like depth and complexity of the widescreen version. The movie's been cleaned up and digitally remastered and everything's bright and sharp. The scenes of Neo-Tokyo are incredibly densely-layered, and when Tetsuo turns into a giant, mutating, HP Lovecraft Mecha-blob at the end, you can see all the horrible, sublime stuff you only thought you were seeing on the video. The little snots at Time Out call the movie "incoherent," but I prefer the Voice's "hermetic." One goes to anime for gorgeous drawing, surreal imagination, and lightning-fast action, not Raymond Chandler-like plotting. Animes are always delphic, weaving together post-WWII nuclear terror, cyborg speculation, and weird meditations on childhood trauma. One thing I'd forgotten about Akira: the characters are naturalistic (i.e., Japanese-looking)--no Bambi-like, swimming-pool eyes. Don't get me wrong, I love the eyes and exaggerated coiffure, but it's interesting that Akira broke the mold back in '88 and '90s productions didn't follow suit.
Tomorrow's Thursday gathering serves as Bill's birthday party! (It's actually on Good Friday the 13th, so if we stay up till midnight you can ask him if he knows how old he is.) I don't think any firm plans have been hatched, so input is welcome. This could be an opportunity for early-comers to check out the Paul Laffoley show at
Kent (Prince & Crosby), which should definitely been seen. It's only up till the 21st, and till 6:00 PM.
The Harry Smith Archives site has a
message board in case you want to ask him somthing.
You just gotta love a rat eating Hawk
Wheel: I met the Butthole Surfers on the Lollapalooza Tour and we stays friendly until they stopped touring.
Paul Leary: Lollapalooza was the first tour where we didn't have to drive our own vehicle, set up our own equipment, tune our own guitars, and collect our own money at the end. That set us free so, we could get a
little bit fucked up.
Jim Berry: We all enjoyed it because we played the second slot in the afternoon. I'd be rolling the last case in by 4:30. They always took care of us, gave us plenty of beer and liquor. Our bus was a good escape for Perry Farrell and everybody else who'd want to hang out and not be bothered. No one would think, to look on the Butthole Surfers' bus.
Hale Milgrim: They totally were into improvisation. I'm a Deadhead, and I like the Butthole Surfers for some of the same reasons. This group kept on changing their sets, kept on growing and improvising. I knew that we would have some problems with key accounts that unfortunately are into censorship. I talked to the Capitol promotion department. I said, "Look, whatever you can get the group to go along with, the 'B-Hole' Surfers, would be appreciated [by the sales and marketing staff]." But I knew what I was signing. The A&R people didn't come to me and say, "Hey Hale, we want you to sign the 'B-Hole' Surfers."
Wheel: It was after the band signed to Capitol that the started playing the same show every night, I remember one day after 4 shows that were almost the same I said "You cant do this the same people come to each show" They played some different songs that night.
Yes, we experienced a fairly severe problem this morning. The server our site is hosted on went down. I'm still unclear as to the exact time (any help?) as I didn't check in as early as I usually do. From examining the logs, I believe the server was up as late as 8:18 eastern time this morning. Sometime after that it went down, and then it was back up again 12:52 pm. Not terrible, but I was a little paniced because I could tell that it was not an intermediate router that had failed (which is what usually happens when the site is slow or unreachable) but acutally our host server. Luckily everything seems to be O.K. Knock on wood, and maybe say a little prayer (or whatever you do) to the magic elves at hurricane electric for basically keeping everything working pretty well.
Yes, we experienced a fairly severe problem this morning. The server our site is hosted on went down. I'm still unclear as to the exact time (any help?) as I didn't check in as early as I usually do. From examining the logs, I believe the server was up as late as 8:18 eastern time this morning. Sometime after that it went down, and then it was back up again 12:52 pm. Not terrible, but I was a little paniced because I could tell that it was not an intermediate router that had failed (which is what usually happens when the site is slow or unreachable) but acutally our host server. Luckily everything seems to be O.K. Knock on wood, and maybe say a little prayer (or whatever you do) to the magic elves at hurricane electric for basically keeping everything working pretty well.
Restaurant Al Ponte in Sommacampagna very near Verona is one of the best eating experiences in Italy for 20 buck a head you can have 4 pasta courses plus all the fresh veggies you can eat, dessert plus all the Bianco di Castoza you can swallow--there is another restaurant (Merica) in town too that is supposed to be sweet and very regional cooking also, inexpensive and they have rooms to sleep (thank goodness as Verona food is bad, i dont know how/why)
going out to a fancy restaurant is always fun as long as you get a good meal for your hard earned money--the only factor IMHO is the fact that people are starving in this world and what the effect is on the enviroment to procure these yummy's--that being said we had a true orgasmic meal in Bergamo Italy at the 2 star Michelin Da Vittorio--Bergamo is a beautiful town at the base of the Alps famous for thier Art History etc--thier focus is fish--everyone in the room looked like a millionaire and the room was too poshed up for my taste but the food WOW--a twisted Frito Misto to begin followed by lightly cooked Langostines with very rare Zolfino beans (this was the best dish), than a pasta with mussels and clams that was singing, into tuna with a salad and a veggie medly that eaten together blended like no other i,ve tasted--we drank 92 Chambolle Amourese by Vogue followed by 90 Drouhin Charmes into 85 Daumas Gassac for the 2nd best cheese course in my life, all of them ripe to purrfection and had fruit sides that just rocked--than the fun began--a campari jello with white chocolate froth, followed by rich little multitextured treats and a Moscato from the island of Pantelliera--we were so happy and content but it didnt end--a roasted herbed pineapple came out which they served with some sauce sided with a hot pepper cake--well we said enough NOT, next they removed the flowers and put down a bouquet of lollipops some flavored marshmellow and others were hard and made from mint with red pepper, than they covered the table with little treats everwhere the best being these little balls that explode when you eat them filled with sambuca and coffee beans--i must go back but only after i donate many times what was spent to Oxfarm, Unicef, Earth Island etc.....
"NASA's main goal [in the Mars program]
is looking for life. And so life means looking
for water," said Arizona State University geologist
Phil Christensen. --AP Story
Every popular press article on Mars has a similar
quote, or line of argument. Mars-Water-Life.
Mars-Water-Life. (Christensen reversed the usual
order, but whatever.) Journalists fear that if they
don't raise hopes of finding ET in the first
paragraph, the public won't read the rest of the
story ("It's just about boring rocks and stuff"),
and scientists are afraid of losing their funding.
We're desperate, as a species, for an
extraterrestrial Daddy figure who's going to explain
it all to us: God's been something of a
disappointment the past few thousand years, so now
we're pinning our hopes on gnarly little beings with
big eyes and chicken hands. I keep hoping some
scientist will tell the Times, "Look, stop putting
words in my mouth about water and life
and all that crap. Chances are excellent
that Mars and Europa and every place else in the
solar system we're looking at are dead,
dead, dead as fucking doorknobs. Please tell your
readers that what this is really about is
astrophysics, geology, chemistry, and other
subjects they slept through in school."
It'll never happen, but I can dream.
Welcome home Wheel. Look what happened to the food page while you were gone - now it's all about art or something. Good to have you back around. I'm hoping your going to post something about all those italian meals.
'Blow,' 'Pokemon' Open
Johnny Depp plays a cocaine kingpin. And 100 new Pokemon make their big-screen debut.
--from Netscape News
Hey, isn't someone supposed to be keeping track? This has been going on for a month, but I had to see it listed in the New Yorker. It's a
Paul Laffoley mini-retrospective, and it's up until April 21st. A must for all independent visionaries.
wkcr (89.9)is playing non-stop billie holiday today, tonight and into the wee hours of the morning, so if you are home, tune in. she would have been 86 today.