The trick with eating chips & salsa is finishing the bag and jar at the same time. Otherwise you'll be trapped in a never ending cycle of buying one, then the other, so that the pairing of tastiness will not be disrupted. I wish that they came in quantities perfectly proportioned to each other, cause this might go on forever.

Slow ride, take it easy

This Saturday May 15th is the 3rd Annual Blessing of the Bikes & Dutchtown Bike Tour. Too busy to make it out myself, and who knows what the weather will be doing, but still interesting, worth sharing, and inspirational! ...by which I mean I feel inspired to go listen to Foghat.

Nationally annual Bike Blessings attract thousands of people and are generally held in April or May. The Blessing portion of the event is modeled after a similar, long running event in New York, that has been conducted for twelve years. The Dutchtown Bike Tour is a unique ride, focused on exploring the joys and history of city parks, and their relation to the scheme of city living. The St Louis event will begin promptly at 9:30 AM, Saturday, May 15, in the St Anthony of Padua church parking lot, 3140 Meramec, 63118. Come on your bicycles, skateboards, roller blades, what-have-you. After the short Blessing Program, participants will go east one block to Urban Eats Café, located at 3301 Meramec, to pick up their free Bike Tour Map for a ride around Dutchtown’s Historic Pocket Parks, through two scenic housing developments and the Cleveland High School grounds, accompanied by a narrative written by local historian NiNi Harris.

This year's event will also be adding the option of a Guided Tour of the route, led by St Louis Bike Fed volunteer, Bob Bailey. The tour can be self directed with the route map, or you may take the guided tour if that's more your style.

The first 50 people to arrive at the Café will also receive a free bottle of water and an energy bar for their ride, compliments of the Charless Home & Bethesda Health, plus a Café Coupon. If the Dutchtown Pocket Park tour isn’t long enough for veteran bicyclers, there is an extended ride available also, through the Christy Greenway. Riders can also pre order their lunch for when they expect to arrive back at the café.

Other participants in the event are The Charless Home and Maryville Gardens Apartment complex, which are opening their beautiful grounds, as part of the route and as an example of well-treed and planned urban living communities.

At the end of their ride, cyclists can return for Happy Hour and an art show at the Urban Arts Collective at Urban Eats Cafe, with Naomi Silver opening her Mayshow of work, In the Mood, from 4-6 PM. along with 4 other artists currently in the rotation.

For more details, check out the flyer.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up

Thing 1. Janelle Monáe + Erykah Badu @ the Fox Theatre on June 9. :-O. WANT.

Thing A. This video makes me want so many things. New shoes. New pants. New moves. Janelle Monáe, I think I love you.

If you don't cook, you can't eat

I have vague but fond recollections of the things I used to eat and enjoy as a child. I didn't have an opportunity to learn how to cook at the time though, so for the most part all of those things are effectively lost and forgotten to me. There was one thing in particular that I liked enough to cobble together a passable meal about a year or so after I'd left home, but not being all that into cooking at the time it fell into disuse and I eventually forgot about it again. While shopping at the farmer's market a couple weeks ago I happened across some of the main ingredients and, on a whim, decided to bring some home and see what I could do with them. A quick search on the webternets turned up something that looked like a fairly close approximation, the name of which not only do I not recall, but neither does the author who wrote the recipe I found. I've made it a couple times now, and I've gotta say I'm kinda digging it. I would have one helping for dinner and another for dessert, it's so good. In fact that's kinda what happened the first go 'round, and the seemingly huge pot I'd made that I was sure would result in tasty leftovers was instead polished off in one sitting. Nom nom, recipe (original). It's a little different than I remember, and I've been further tweaking based on my own preferences and the things I happen to have on hand at the time... I guess I should jot some notes down for posterity.

Polish Sausage, Cabbage and Potato something or the other

Ingredients:
~1/4 cup onion, chopped
~1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped or sliced
~1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)
~1/2 cup water
~4 tablespoons butter or margarine
~1/2 ring polish sausage, sliced
~6 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced
~1/2 large cabbage, washed, cored, and coarsely shredded
~1 tsp seasoning salt
~1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
~1/4 tsp cumin
~1/4 tsp paprika (I think...)

I'm fudging on some of these numbers a bit; I didn't really measure things and kinda went more by sight / taste.

Instructions:
1. Saute onion, bell pepper and garlic in 2 tablespoons of the margarine or butter until tender.
2. Layer cabbage, sausage, and potatoes and balance of butter and margarine in the pan. Add seasoning salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika and water.
3. Cover and simmer on low heat until cabbage is desired tenderness, stirring occasionally. This should only cook about 20 minutes or the time it takes to make the potatoes tender.

Hints & variations:
The second time around I chopped up most of the bell pepper and added as usual, but some I sliced and set aside to add after the potatoes, cabbage and sausage, maybe halfway through the cooking time. When it was all said and done, they were a little crisper and had a little more flavor since I'd left less time for it to be cooked out.

Cartoonize your life

Back when I used to spend more time reading the paper the Family Circus was not one of my favorite comics, but I did always like the strips where Billy would wander about leaving a dotted trail behind him. This week, my life resembled a cartoon in that I had a big red line showing everywhere I'd been, courtesy of mapmyride. Had myself a good week of cycling while the weather was nice, which turned into a not so good week for nutrition. It turns out suddenly revving up to roughly three times my weekly mileage makes my metabolism go buck wild and then I eat everything in sight because I am hungry all the time. Note to self: make sure you are well stocked on groceries before attempting any amazing feats of athleticism. Even with the near-disaster, riding is fuuun, and I love mapmyride. :-)

This just in...

Tryin' to keep up with the news more these days. Good to stay informed and whatnot. A brief rundown of stories of interest:

~1. A Japanese multinational conglomerate (headquarters pictured) investigates how some of its customers were accidentally sent back in time to the year 1999.
~2. The Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay evades authorities in St. Petersburg.
~3. The Russian Federation shrinks the country in time after a much-discussed Presidential decree.
~4. A member of the Rothschild banking family of England heads for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on a boat made from 12,000 plastic bottles.
~5. If you are reading this, the latest record-breaking experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider have not yet caused the end of the world as we know it.

Green Heaven

I saw today where a friend had posted this video. While I do value the contribution the artist has made to society both in terms of a piece of artwork and as a statement to bring people to a greater awareness of the world in which we live, I'm not entirely sure it's something I can get behind as a viable transportation alternative. Of course there are unsustainable costs to our continuing to live in a car-centric culture, but likewise are there costs to living in a horse-centric culture. Simply our infrastructure from one to the other is not necessarily a good and green idea. I don't know what all of those costs are, mind you, but the post and the discussion it sparked have now got me interested. I thought I'd try and do a little research and comparison.

Upfront the base MSRP of a 2008 H2 is around $53K. I'm not at all sure what a decent horse would run (looking into it); whatever it is would not accurately reflect what the cost would be if everyone ditched their cars and started riding them. With such a rise in demand the price would go up as well. In addition to what it costs at the outset, there is the cost based on mileage - which, for cars, is not limited to the price of gas x miles per gallon. Maintenance and depreciation figure into the equation as well, and these "hidden costs" raise the dollar figure significantly, though offhand I don't know by how much. I remember someone did... a study... or something, that took everything into account. Have to see if I can find that again. I have no idea what the cost per mile for a horse would be, either, but that's also something I'm looking into.

As far as environmental impact is concerned, according to one study driving cars results in emissions of about 2 to 5 tons of CO₂ each year, depending on vehicle model and fuel efficiency¹. My assumption is that horses are more efficient than cars, but by how much remains to be seen. I know that with livestock production there are more hidden costs associated with things like land and resources required to grow feed, but not being a horse person I don't know how those would apply. Also, waste would be an issue. As far as the "poop-poop-a-do" is concerned, at least it's biodegradable and could maybe even be used as fertilizer. (Except... how much poop can a horse poop? How many people are there who drive cars, and how high would that pile of poop reach when it's all added up? Would it be less or more than we actually need? Cause if it's more, then it kinda defeats the purpose and becomes more of a waste than a resource.) Although horses would not be putting out CO₂, they and/or their waste would, I think, release other not-so-nice like methane and nitrous oxide. I hear tell those are even worse in way of their greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide. Fifty times worse, in the case of methane. Which brings up the question: do manatees emit methane? Cause if they do, manatee farts are destroying the planet. Kill the manatees, save the Earth!

In the midst of this research, I found a few fun facts:
~Apparently there is a tax break that applies to purchasing giant gas-guzzling behemoths. It wasn't originally meant to favor large vehicles over smaller and more efficient models, but with the letter of the law that's how it works out these days. Ew.
~It's more environmentally friendly to live meat-free than it is to live car-free. While looking for research on what would happen if the world rode horses I came across an interesting article on being a Prius-driving vegan vs. a meat-eating cyclist. It's not a very large difference, only about half a ton of carbon dioxide in favor of vegans, but still it's a surprising and not exactly pleasant thing to learn. I LIKE meat. But it would seem the best of us would be a vegan cyclist... though I don't know that I'm ready to take that step just yet. Another thing to keep in mind.

1. Am I going to have to start citing sources for blog posts? This is not something I had ever contemplated... In this instance the study in question is by , and is based on driving about 8,300 miles annually. I haven't actually read the study itself; the numbers I give were pulled from an article I found on it.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Green Heaven

New Music Monday: Naked in the rain

Erykah Badu's latest album releases tomorrow. If the rest of it sounds as good as the track, I'll be quite happy to listen to it. Sister is still the Queen. While the video for the song is quite striking, before you check it out I suggest you set it up by watching the one that inspired it.





From Erykah, "[S]hot guerilla style, no crew, one take, no closed set, no warning, two minutes, in downtown Dallas, then ran like hell... I was afraid. But I was ready."

And from Questlove, "People were so stunned they forgot to break out camera phones."

The correct answer is TIME MACHINE

I sure do wish I had bit more wiggle room in my schedule this weekend.

Thing 1 that I'd like to check out is City Sound Tracks, this music festival event type jobber being hosted by... Trailnet? Metro? Alls I knows is, BANDS are playing, soma which I LIKE, half of it is in my NEIGHBORHOOD, and I'm BUSY for most of the day. Drat. Maybe I'll wander over and check it out, thought, since I could literally (okay, practically) fall out of bed and land in front of one of the stages. Who knows, might find something good.

Thing A is People's Settlement: Stand Up! Stand Together!, this ongoing protest dealy happening downtown. From what I can tell the event is kind of anti-everything. By which I mean there are a selection of groups involved speaking out on a wide variety of issues, so anyone with any sort of interest in political action and change can most likely find something they agree with. I sure hope they're not actually anti-everything, cause that gets real old pretty quick. Still, nice to see folks being passionate about something. Don't get enough of that these days.

The Juan Maclean - No Time

New Music Monday: Arms are too short to box with God

Turns out there's a terrible flip side to things when music is your religion. Sure, it's nice perpetually having a fat beat rocking on the soundtrack of life. And I certainly get a kick out of having music for everything. But sometimes - and I hate even to admit this - there can be too much. This the reason for my near tardiness this week, and very nearly pushing things off as a matter of fact. It's not because I haven't been listening to music, or that I haven't found anything new. On the contrary: it was cause I've been listening to so much stuff, both new and old, that I felt like my aural palette had become over-stimulated. I liken it to drinking too many different kinds of wine all at once. It's difficult to properly sort out what is "good" from what is simply "new", feelings get jumbled from song to song and artist to artist... Try to digest to much, and your brain explodes.

Luckily at the very end I did manage to settle down and find something to nod my head to. I recently happened across an interesting article about the DORF Matrix, a bit of reflection and theory on how skewed the music habits of NPR's listeners are, in particular when it comes to black music. (Woah! It's gettin all racial up in this piece! Except, don't worry, cause it's really not. ~M) The gist of the argument is, 1. black artists are underrepresented, and 2. the black folks that are represented weirdly come from music that regular black people don't actually listen to. According to this article, the NPR crowd - which is predominately white and college-educated - mostly listens to music which falls into the DORF categories, those being artists who are Dead, Old, Retro or Foreign. I have to say that I don't know enough about NPR or its listeners to speak on this with any authority, but I find this to be utterly fascinating. I feel like this should be posted on Stuff White People Like, for one. But also, in all seriousness, having had some experiences in my day hanging out with a largely white and college-educated crowd, I've seen some things that lead me to believe this theory may have merit. And, loosing track of seriousness again, there was mention of making a DORF drinking game which I think would be hilarious.

Anyway, this articles cites a whole pile of examples to back up its assertions in black musicians that have gotten airplay and recognition on NPR. I didn't come close to looking at all of them, but I did happen to click on one link that made a reference to retro hip-hop. I do loves the old-school stuff, after all, and I've got to keep my ears open for the good stuff that stays true to its roots. Can't be having that mainstream garbage made by sellouts and fools in my house. The link in question led me to a song by the Brown Bag AllStars outta New York, and left me wanting more. A little investigation into these record store employees by day, emcees by night led me to their blog and a few more songs that they've posted there. One of those I find incredibly striking, in that it is easily one of the most beautiful hip-hop songs I've heard in ages. In fact, I can almost remember the last time and place when I heard something so moving. Five or six years ago now I heard a track by a group called Pitch Black, and it knocked me out. I loved the use of strings in a hip-hop song, and to me the sound of the melody is just killer. I've only just realized that this song by BBAS is the first thing I've heard of that caliber in the last five years. I ran out and bought the Pitch Black album based on just that one song - kind of out of character for me - and then proceeded to be a little let down by the rest of their offering. It had its moments, but nothing else that rocked me so hard as that. In fact, I had to pull out Pitch Black and BBAS and listen to them back and forth and side-by-side, over and over, and it's quite eerie how alike they are. Definitely going to try and start some dialogue about this. But that is where the similarity to BBAS ends. I've been listening to a few more tracks by them, did that listening to too much music thing, gave em a break for a minute, came back for more, and find that the quality is steady throughout. Everything I've heard by them is just as awesome as that first song.

Pitch Black - It's All Real
Brown Bag AllStars - Brooklyn Queens Expressway

And for those of you interested, the article and the follow-up piece.

In the daylight anywhere feels like home

Hooray! Daylight Savings! I'd long planned to make a mix or maybe suggest it become a national holiday to commemorate the occasion, cause I do indeed love my outdoor time. Completely stoked for having the extra hours for more riding and frisbee-shaped-object-related activities. Only that whole wiping the music library thing means it's much harder finding proper songs than it used to be. And there are SO MANY hoops to jump through for instituting national holidays. Geez. So I wasn't sure it was gonna happen. But maybe, just maybe I can pull something off. Gotta find something to keep myself occupied. Am I actually celebrating having daylight by doing stuff outside? NO. Cause it's cloudy and dreary and RAINING. I mean, I'd only been planning on that play time since the beginning of Winter, Mother Nature, it's no big. Ho hum.

Who Loves the Sun? mix:
Matt & Kim - Daylight
Beck - Sunday Sun
Harlem Shakes - Sunlight
Deerhoof - Sunnyside
Ohmega Watts - Groovin' On Sunshine

There is such a thing as Cuddle Rabies?!? OH NOES.
I have to go.
...to the doctor.
...cuz I'm prolly infected.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In)

Things just got to get better

Google Maps now has biking directions! It remains to be seen precisely how useful they will be... a preliminary test looks like it calculates time based on a slower rider than I, and reading a little about how it works it seems it will take into account and try to avoid big hills (which don't really bother me all that much). Still, it's interesting, and about time. Can't wait for a stretch of decent weather so I can test it out a bit further. Ahwoooo!

Further reading: It's time to bike, and biking directions added to google maps.

Space tourist

Janelle Monáe is steppin out. The closest she comes to the Lou is is Chicago. How come they get two shows? Lucky sons a guns... Sure wish I could make a run up there to see her do her thing. I didn't get this before from listening to her, but watching this video I suddenly feel like I'm looking at something put out by Outkast. And I like it. Girl's got moves. Crazy moves. That reverse Moonwalk thing? Yes.



03.15.2010,The Black Cat,Washington DC

03.17.2010, Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA

03.18.2010, Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA

03.21.2010, Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco, CA

03.22.2010, Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco, CA

03.23.2010, Viper Room, West Hollywood, CA

03.24.2010, Viper Room, West Hollywood, CA

03.29.2010, Schuba's Tavern, Chicago,IL

03.30.2010, Schuba's Tavern, Chicago, IL
03.31.2010, Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN

04.02.2010, St. Andrew's Hall, Detroit, MI

04.05.2010, Smith, Atlanta, GA

04.06.2010, Smith, Atlanta, GA

04.09.2010, Joe's Pub, NY, NY

04.10.2010, Joe's Pub, NY, NY

New Music Monday: It's the rhythm you've been waiting for

Continuing the theme from last week, today's New Music Monday is on a girl with a funky 'do. I've been diggin' on Noisettes quite a bit these last days, and I'd love to tell you all about them. Only I have no idea where to begin. Is it soul? Rock and roll? Indie rock? Experimental? There's just so much going on, and each of the songs bounces between genres, sounding so distinct from the last that my brain is having trouble keeping up. It's just too much for me to wrap my head around. I like it, though. I don't care what it is, I just want more.

Noisettes - Don't Upset the Rhythm (Go Baby Go)

The Karate Kid.
Classic 80s cinema at its finest, right?
Except now it's being remade.
At best I would have mixed feelings about doing such a thing with a movie from my childhood.
(Well... okay, I just being born the year it came out.
But still, I saw it when I was a kid.
And it was new to me, so...)
But this... this is being remade with Jackie Chan.
And set in China.
And I'm all for Jackie Chan / movies set in China.
Only neither of them have much of anything to do with karate.
So I'm kind of bothered and upset by this right now.
Damn you Hollywood.

Oh, and that Tenacious D song "Karate"?
Also terribly inaccurate.
"With karate I'll kick your ass"?
Okay, I can see that.
"Here to Tiananmen Square"?
Um, no.

New Music Monday: Here come the future girls

Hello, is this Deltron 3030? I think I've just found your soul mate. Her name is Janelle Monáe, and she's got an interesting thing going. Of course if you're not interested I could maybe call Gnarls Barkley, but I figure the two of you have more in common. I bet one day you could make beautiful robot babies.

I'm not sure I'd agree with Sean "P Did-all Puff Diddy" Combs when he says she's one of the most important signings of his career... I mean, she's certainly got something, no lie. I've also got to give the girl points each for daring, creativity and theme. But the eclectic futuristic thing has been done before, ya know? And while it was a cool concept, it didn't change the world. In any case, she released an EP a few years back called Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase. Her first full-length The ArchAndroid - which will cover the second and third parts of the story arc - is scheduled to come out in May. The dance party rocker and nerd comic fanboy in me are having fights about which is more excited. Furthermore although she can stand on her own, how much better will this be featuring guest spots by Saul Williams (!) and Big Boi? The future, ftw.

Deltron 3030 - 3030
Janelle Monáe - Violet Stars Happy Hunting

Alright, it's gig time, what t-shirt am I gonna wear?

This weekend I stepped out to the Firebird for what turned out to be a perfectly awesome rock show.

We Landed on the Moon!: The flexibility and energy of this band is amazing. It is of course always great to hear someone playing some good music, which they surely did, but what really got me is how much fun they have doin' their thing. It's infectious. But not like "oh noes! I am disease-ridden!" More in a good way. Like, there has been an outbreak of rock n roll. People everywhere are coming down with it. Symptoms include smiles and wild dancing. Pleased be advised there is no cure; the only available option is to let the disease run its course, so if you find you are suffering the effects of this illness please report to the front of the stage for treatment.

Blind Eyes: What can I say about them? Local band, three white guys in standard arrangement. I was not wowed. I'm not knocking the idea of three white guys in a local band, mind you. I can think of at least one such group that has always impressed. But them... I believe I heard someone refer to them as "Bland Eyes", and that pretty well sums it up. My attention was not grabbed by the complexity or energy of the music, or by the depth of the lyrics. I did think they had a slightly interesting sound with their use of a blues guitar in a rock band, but it wasn't strong enough to stand out and make up for the band's overall shortcomings.

Elsinore: And speaking of complexity... I don't have any of their records, but I've now seen Elsinore a good three or four times. They're not local, but they come through St. Louis somewhat regular. It's only at this last show that I'm beginning to understand how much they've got going on in some of their songs. Somehow they managed to blend a beat that kicks with something as beautiful and sweet as a sea breeze. It's only because of their lead singer, I feel, that they are able to pull this off. The rest of the band is fairly adept as well, but it's he who really brings it all home. I was of two minds, torn between wanting to dance around and just bask in the music; ultimately I settled for dividing myself in two and using each half of my body to do both at the same time. The stage presence wasn't quite as strong as I've seen it be in the past - the last time they came through the lead singer was cracking jokes and bantering back and forth with the crowd - but I'm more than willing to forgive that as they were on day 28 of 28 of their tour.

But wait, there's more! Have some video goodness...





When I die, I sure hope I don't have pie all over my face...

Never had it so good

Wish my commute was that easy. The next bicycle I buy will have the power of flight.

In other stuff on the interweb developments, huzzah for the Pitchfork RSS feed. I am all caught up on music news (which goes along with my general theme of being more aware of news in general) and it's good times. Plenty of stuff that I won't post on the blog but will be shared on that Buzz thing...

I'd been having some virus drama for a while that was a perpetual annoyance as none of the programs I could find were able to get rid of it. Finally today I got around to trying a factory restore. I'd been reluctant to do something so drastic, but enough was enough. Sick to death of corrupted programs and crashes, and with this shiny huge new hard drive backing up my data seemed to be less of a problem. Boy am I glad I did. I didn't lose anything important, and I even downloaded the latest versions of the programs I use most. Included in that list was The GodFather, which is an awesome but cumbersome way to alter tags and file names of mp3s. With the amount of music I have dumped into random folders and the obsessive methods I have when it comes to organization it's definitely a must have. While I was looking around I came across Tag&Rename and decided to check it out since it had better reviews. Turns out this works way better. So much more powerful and intuitive. Should be much easier to make headway on the Great Reorganization now. How friggin sweet. Thanks you, cnet. I also played around with personas finally, so Firefox is now all infused with music. The only downside is I forget which theme it was I'd been using for Firefox, I seem to have lost the ability to add IMDB and Meriam-Webster to my toolbar search engines, and my FoxyTunes controls are a little wonky. Gotta see if I can work it out.