Of my actual brackets we shall speak no further other than to say: Ohio? Northern Iowa?!?
Another fun pop culture bracket (and probably my fave so far): cake vs. pie. Unlike the beer bracket, this one's done by online voting and not just the opinions of the blogger. Which can give a more diverse perspective. But also can lead to results that are just wrong!wrong!!wrong!!! I know... if I want results I can 100% support, I should create my own bracket.
Maybe next year. (Okay, probably not)
It might be ridiculous (okay, it almost definitely is) but I could kinda identify with this heartfelt ode to a favorite slot machine. The upside of only going to Vegas (or anywhere, for that matter) every couple of years is that there's always something new to see when you go. The corollary/downside to that is that while there's plenty of new there's plenty of stuff that disappears or gets pushed aside to make room for that new stuff. Buildings that get torn down or restaurants that close and stuff like that are the obvious changes. But a lot of what makes some place fun are the little idiosyncratic things that maybe hover around the edge of the frame. And in Vegas, for me at least, one of those things is slots. I try not to get too attached to ephemeral cultural objects but I still look for, and generally don't find a few faves. Like the Sinatra slots they used to have at Bellagio, the French bakery at Paris, and (of course) Chainsaws & Toasters.
Hey, hey, check this out. Brand spankin' new Hall of Human Origins just opened at the Smithsonian. We've been talking about getting up to DC sometime this spring or summer and that definitely goes onto the shortlist of things to do. I'm not sure how much federal support the Smithsonian gets but I'd like to imagine that all of my tax dollars went to support a bright, shiny new exhibit on EVOLUTION. And hope that somewhere a wingnut is having a brain aneurysm as a result.
science!
XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 14 mar 10)
Lazy Bones :: Witch
Rising Sun :: SoulJazz Orchestra
Undersea Poem :: Undersea Poem
Medicine Show, vol. 2: Flight to Brazil :: Madlib
el Inolvidable :: Tito Rodriguez
Umberto Echo: Dub the World :: various
Me Lo Genté :: Calle Real
Blood Spirit Land Water Freedom :: Curtis Brothers Quartet
Balkan Beats :: various
Zebu Nation :: Razia
this week's video feature: SoulJazz Orchestra
Serious Eats discovers mini-donuts. The place is called Sil's and it's in Milwaukee. So my first thought, of course, was: when am I going to Milwaukee? Cos the state fair's not until October. But I am forced to conclude that the physical distance from here to Wisconsin is actually much greater than the temporal distance from here to October.
Also, it's Marching to Madness time which means lots of fun things on the internets which are bracket-shaped in one way or the other. Last year I think there was a meat bracket and of course there's the fug brackets over at GFY (I'm pretty sure I blogged about a couple last year but search function on House of Dioxin is broken right now and I'm feeling too lazy to sift thru the archives to check). The first one I've seen this year is a beer bracket. I'll be interested to see how blind his tastings are going to be cos some of those it's gonna be pretty visually obvious which is which.
A couple of interesting things about this song, which is themed around the Holi festival. For one, the music is by Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia, who I know better as classical musicians. I've reviewed at least one of Chaurasia's albums for XDU and we saw Sharma last spring in concert at Duke. I had no idea they had an ongoing career writing music for Bollywood films. The other notable thing is that, at least according to IMDB, Amitabh does his own singing in this number. That's pretty uncommon, as I understand it. Almost all songs in Bollywood are done by playback singers like Lata Mangeshkar or Mohammed Rafi.
Quote of the day:
"If Obama punched 50 pit bulls in the face and then defeated them in hand-to-hand combat, but still refused to torture detainees, what would that do to his toughness quotient?" - Ezra Klein
I love this piece by Penn Jillette on aging. Give that man some pie!
Or some bacon s'mores. The internets are an endless source of wacky bacon creations and concoctions. Many are better honored in the breach than in the observance. But this I might have to try. Maybe I'll even remember to come back with an update on how they turn out.
XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 7 mar 10)
Rising Sun :: Souljazz Orchestra
el Inolvidable :: Tito Rodriguez
I Speak Fula :: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
Fruta Madura :: Viento de Agua
Medicine Show, vol. 2: Flight to Brazil :: Madlib
Undersea Poem :: Undersea Poem
Umberto Echo: Dub the World :: various
Concrete Jungle :: Nneka
Bollyhood Bass :: David Starfire
Rare and Glorious :: Ravi Shankar
this week's video feature: Undersea Poem
So I gotta say that I'm generally a pretty unapologetic food geek. But there are definitely times when I understand why some people hate foodies so much. Today's example is this quote I saw on Chowhound, from a thread discussing a new Indian restaurant opening in Chapel Hill: "why does every place have to make Sag Paneer? That's just so tiresome, I don't even make it at home anymore I'm so sick of it."
Oh where to begin. First off, is this not like complaining about Italian restaurants serving fettucine carbonara or sushi places serving hamachi? Why, yes, I think it is. Also, how in the hell do people get so spoiled and self-involved that they think the entire frakkin' universe is supposed to kowtow to their tastes. Everyone is different. And, hey, that's why there's lots of CHOICES on the menu. If you don't want to order saag paneer then how about not ordering it. Because the restaurant is there to make money by selling things that people want to buy not to satisfy someone's precious ideas of what is or isn't "tiresome."
There, I feel much better now.
Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.
You know what I hate? Well, this sinus infection or whatever that's had me alternately congested or runny-nosed since Saturday. Not to get all cliché here but I'm really sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Also highly hate-able, when I make a comment on a friend's update on Facebook and then someone else rolls in and says something dickish. I mean, one wants to respond, right? But it's someone else's wall. And I think that's just really piss poor etiquette. It's like going over someone's house and then getting into a fight with one of the other guests.
Something I don't in any way hate. This insanely cool musical number from the 1977 Bollywood movie Dream Girl. Cory Doctorow linked this over at boing2 last week but somehow I misread his description and thought it had been shot in Disneyland. I looked again today and realized, no, it's Disney World. In 1977, which was the same year that I was there with my family. Unlike the kids in the movie, my brother and I were semi-jaded teens so were more into the Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain type rides. I regret not having gone on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and I think the Nemo submarine ride was closed. Otherwise I just didn't go on it for some reason. Maybe the line was too long. I can't remember (it was a long time ago). I also remember the Enchanted Tiki Room being lots o' fun. That was probably my first exposure to tiki/exotica culture, even if in a Disneyified stylee.
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