House of Dioxin

auditioning for a part as an intergalactic cowboy

2010-03-20T03:26:57Z

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.

bite it, ken ham

2010-03-18T22:38:51Z

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!

you flick a switch and the wrrld goes off

2010-03-17T01:13:48Z

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

your monkey should be working

2010-03-16T03:20:31Z

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.

we even learned how to make food out of pizza sauce

2010-03-14T21:50:49Z

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.

throw the egg at the pink dinosaur

2010-03-13T02:04:02Z

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.

what do we care if the wrrld is a joke

2010-03-11T04:47:33Z

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

tomorrow's nothing but ice cream on wheels

2010-03-10T04:54:38Z

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.

anyone who doesn't take a nap should be sent to jail

2010-03-09T01:15:03Z

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.

a bad experience with a potato gun

2010-03-06T16:20:45Z

Dammit, I think I'm coming down with a cold. I don't have time to be sick. There's too much shit to get done.
Anyway, while I'm trying to figure out if/what I might have, here's an interesting article from Slate (and, yes, every time I've pretty much given up on Slate as nothing but a bunch of professional contrarians, they manage to come up with something like this) about signs and wayfinding. Actually it's part of a whole series, all of which have been well worth reading. I love stuff like this that gives me the chance to learn about something that, altho I encounter it all the time, I've never really had much occasion to think about before.

Here's a squirrel that's really into Shake Shack, which should cute up your Saturday enough.

Also, this

but we don't want to listen to the music

2010-03-05T04:32:57Z

Sometimes I feel like the reason I got into DJing at XDU was to gain one more measure of control of the audio environment. I know that in today's webstreaming, iPod world, the notion of radio as a public audio space can seem a bit quaint. But I was reminded today that, quaint thought it may be, it's still a part of life. Had a dose of 80s classics over breakfast. Determined that Hall & Oates are less annoying than "Sussudio" and that it's a toss-up between "Paradise City" and "Who Can It Be Now?" Got another shot of dance hits at work later in the morning and determined that I don't really mind hearing "Like a Prayer" twice in one day, altho I would be just as happy not hearing it. Alas, while I was out of the room control of the audio space changed and when I returned it was no longer dance/pop hits radio but boomer classics. And I was reminded that I hate (hate!hate!!hate!!!) "American Pie." Srsly. It's on a short list of songs that seriously make me think about stabbing a pencil into my ear drum. That list would include "Stairway to Heaven" and anything from THE WALL. Probably other stuff too but those are the ones that come immediately to mind.

that's how we convince the atheists

2010-03-04T01:31:50Z

Go, D.C., go!
While this is clearly the photo of the day (week/month/year), here's some more pics from today.

all over the wrrld at the very same time

2010-03-03T02:48:46Z

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 28 feb 10)

Undersea Poem :: Undersea Poem
Concrete Jungle :: Nneka
Umberto Echo: Dub the World :: various
Rare and Glorious :: Ravi Shankar
Funky Fräuleins :: various
Retrospectiva :: Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca
Bollyhood Bass :: David Starfire
el Arte de la Elegancia :: los Fabulosos Cadillacs
Para Siempre :: Miramar
Agua del Pozo :: Alex Cuba

this week's video feature: Cultura Profética (from Umberto Echo: Dub the World)

the difference is that twice-baked potatoes are baked twice

2010-03-02T03:22:10Z

Some more examples of food-related rantage: I love this takedown of a Time article on foods that can KILL you. I know, right... go figure, a Time article was stupid. Who could've seen that coming? But the rantage is still inspired, even if there is a bit of fish-in-barrel action going on. Also fabu, Gawker smacks down a particularly stupid NYTimes article. It's nice when the internets are there to validate my disdain. I read the stupid NYTimes article (again... a stupid first-person story in the NYTimes? Surprised I am not). My reaction went from "okay, he may have a point" to "what a cheap bastard" in about nothing flat. I'll allow that having a barista ask if you want change from $10 on a $5.75 check is a bit annoying. But getting change in singles from a bartender? That's not annoying. And getting 20% added for parties over 6? I'm sorry, that makes perfect sense. Anyone who complains about that (because they always tip 15% or whatever) is clearly someone who knows nothing about the restaurant business. And also a cheap bastard.

when you move a couch, bad things happen

2010-03-01T03:20:44Z

Sad local news, as Rockwood Filling Station has closed. They had some consistency issues over their year-and-a-half run but they were my second favorite local pizza. I give a slight edge to Backdoor. But Backdoor is take-out only so RFS was tops for dine-in pizza. It's been interesting seeing the local comments since the shut down was announced. Of course, you're never gonna see total agreement about anything, esp. a restaurant that's closed. And plenty of the things people have said spoke to the kinds of reasons why people would stop going to a resto. But it's been kinda depressing to see all the haters show up to kick the place one last time after it's gone. Oh yeah, and to remind everyone who liked it that it sucked and we all suck for having liked it. Yeah, I love the internets sometimes... I think what I mainly take away from RFS closing is how razor thin the margins are in the food biz. Even a place with a regular following and good crowds can be gone just like that.

OTOH, I hear that the space will become the Fish Shack, owned and run by the guys at the Q-Shack next door. So that's a good thing.

Also, this (which is almost as insane as the Star Wars tuna advert)