And, as a final something for 2007: Wu-Tang Clan's "Campfire" (listen), track one from 8 Diagrams.
A very sobering and (dare-I-say) mature kung-fu sample; an incredibly spooky sample of the Persuasions' cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Gypsy Woman"; and an absolutely killer verse from Method Man to get it started.
Not a bad start to an album that's growing on me very quickly.
Favorite books:
Some of these were published in 2006, but when reading I'm always behind by at least a year, I figure--so I think it's safe to say that these were my favorite books that I read in 2007 (hey, they all start with "M"!):
- Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman's Union
- Mark Helprin, Freddy and Fredericka
- Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics
- Michael Ruhlman, Reach of a Chef
The following twelve songs are my personal favorites for 2007: they're the songs I most enjoyed and that, out of sheer narcissism, I suppose I'd classify as "best", whatever that means. More than anything else, they're the songs I'd like to listen to most, right now.
Some notes:
- R. Kelly makes an appearance on three out of twelve tracks: it was the year of R. Kelly, after all!
- There's no Ghostface or Wu-Tang, because I just bought Big Doe Rehab and 8 Diagrams last week and haven't had nearly enough time to digest them. This makes me sort of sad, but I guess gives me license to include them next year.
In alphabetical (essentially unordered) order:
- Celebration, "Evergreen" (listen)
- Ciara, "Promise (Remix) feat. R. Kelly" (listen)
- The Fiery Furnaces, "Restorative Beer" (listen)
- M.I.A., "Paper Planes" (listen)
- Of Montreal, "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider" (listen)
- R. Kelly, "I'm a Flirt feat. T.I. & T. Pain" (listen)
- Richard Hawley, "Lady Solitude" (listen)
- Rihanna, "Umbrella feat. Jay-Z" (listen)
- Robin Thicke, "Got 2 Be Down feat. Faith Evans" (listen)
- Siobhan Donaghy, "Goldfish" (listen)
- Spoon, "Black Like Me" (listen)
- Swizz Beatz, "It's Me Bitches (Remix) feat. Lil Wayne, R. Kelly, and Jadakiss" (listen)
I love this quote (among others) from a 1996 interview with David Foster Wallace:
And I know that when I started this book I wanted--I had very vague and not very ambitious...ambitions, and one was I wanted to do something really sad. I'd done comedy before, I wanted to do just something really sad and I wanted to do something about what was sad about America.
Which "this book", i.e. Infinite Jest, definitely is, i.e. sad, and which reminds me--again--that I really want to re-read it. One of these days, I guess.
(via Jason and Daring Fireball)
What's your favorite thing to drink when it's cold outside?
Over the last couple of weeks, I've really been enjoying an occasional Red Hook cocktail, which I first read about on the Cocktail Chronicles, and then again on gumbopages.com (which is also where I found the sazerac recipe I'm most fond of).
It's rye-based, so a perfect warming drink for a chilly fall evening. Yum!
The Red Hook Cocktail
(by Enzo Errico, Milk & Honey, New York City)2 ounces rye whiskey
1/2 ounce Punt e Mes
1/2 ounce maraschinoCombine with ice in a mixing glass and stir for at least 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Audio: What's your favorite carol or holiday song?
Without a doubt: Price's "Another Lonely Christmas".
I must admit that I'm still a little thrown by the pokeno & banana daiquiris, but that said, this is my #1 when it comes to Christmas songs.
I have a file of things to post to my blog about, and it's become clear to me that I'm not going to have the time/inclination/desire to write full posts about each of them. Some of these are old, so you may have read or seen them already.
So:
-
Wu Tang Clan, "The Heart Gently Weeps". I love this in concept; in reality, it's just okay for me, though Method Man's bit towards the end redeems it quite a bit.
- Richard Hawley's new album, Lady's Bridge, is gorgeous fall music. My favorite so far is "The Sea Calls".
- I'm enjoying Blake Lewis's "Break Another" way too much.
- A combination of a dead hard drive and annoyance at having something like 5 (all different!) iPhoto and iTunes libraries inspired me to do a little cleanup. Applications used both to combine the libraries and keep them in sync, all highly recommended: iPhoto Library Manager, Senuti, and Martian Slingshot.
Yesterday I started trying to use it again with a Nokia N73, and to my displeasure the Tiger version is actually less useful, and more confusing, than the previous version. There's a menu bar option that will, ostensibly, make syncing really easy--but in the 2.0 version of iSync, it only syncs with .Mac (not your other devices, like phones), unless you have iSync open already. So the menu option "Sync Now" does something completely different depending on whether you have iSync open or not.
Not only that, but if you do open iSync, there's a "Sync Devices" button that does something else--it only syncs to your devices, and not to .Mac:
I feel bad for the poor documentation writer who had to make this seem logical and intentional as opposed to a bizarre implementation choice.If you have .Mac, mobile devices, an iPod, and a PalmOS device and want to sync them at the same time, here's how: Open iSync version 2.0, then choose Sync Now from the Sync Status menu (not the Sync Devices button). When prompted, press the HotSync button on your PalmOS device's cradle.
... are the greatest thing in the world!
I made a batch of them the other day, and we all loved them. And they're so easy: take some pitted dates, stuff them with little sticks of parmesan, wrap with bacon, and stick in the oven for 10 minutes.
The most difficult part was finding our box of toothpicks.
Made from this recipe, found via The Amateur Gourmet.
"Lost Without U" + "Careless Whisper"!
So good!
What was the best football highlight of the past week?
For me, it was going to the Raiders-Lions game last Sunday. Not so much for the game itself (though the seats were great, so it was incredible to see the action that close up) but for the spectacle of the people, the Raiders fans themselves. I thought we were getting there early (around 9:30/10am), but most of these fans must have been there for hours: they had giant RVs; they had grills that had been going since 7am, probably; and, of course, there was a lot of silver and black.
This photo doesn't really capture it, but it's all I've got.
