looka, <lʊ´-kə> dialect, v.
1. The imperative form of the verb "to look"; in the
spoken vernacular of New Orleans, it is
usually employed when the speaker wishes to call one's attention to something.
2. --n. Chuck Taggart's
weblog,
hand-made and updated (almost) daily, focusing on food and drink, cocktails as cuisine, music (especially of the roots
variety), New Orleans and Louisiana culture, news of the reality-based community ... and occasionally movies, books, sf,
public radio, media and culture, travel, Macs, liberal and progressive politics, humor and amusements, reviews, complaints,
the author's life and opinions, witty and/or smart-arsed comments and whatever else tickles the author's fancy.
Please feel free to contribute
a link if you think I'll find it interesting.
If you don't want to read my opinions, feel free to
go elsewhere.
Page last tweaked @
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RSS Feed (such as it is):
If you like, you are welcome to send e-mail to the author. Your comments on each post are also welcome; however, right-wing trolls are about as welcome as a boil on my arse.
"Doctors, Professors, Kings and Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans"
is a 4-CD box set celebrating
the joy and diversity of the New Orleans music scene, from R&B to jazz
to funk to Latin to blues to zydeco to klezmer (!) and more, including a
full-size, 80-page book.
Produced, compiled and annotated by Chuck Taggart (hey, that's me!), liner
notes by Mary Herczog (author of Frommer's New Orleans) and myself.
Now for sale at your favorite independent record stores, or
order directly from Shout! Factory Records,
where all profits will be donated to New Orleans disaster relief
through the end of March 2006.
The box set was the subject of a 15-minute profile
on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition" on Feb. 6, 2005, and
a segment on Wisconsin
Public Radio's "To The Best of Our Knowledge" on Apr. 3, 2005. Here are
some nice blurbs from the reviews (a tad immodest, I know; I'm not
generally one to toot my own horn, but let's face it, I wanna sell some
records here.)
*
*
*
"More successfully than any previous
compilation, Doctors... captures the sprawling eclecticism,
freewheeling fun and constant interplay of tradition and innovation that
is at the heart of Crescent City music." -- Keith Spera, New Orleans
Times-Picayune.
"... if you DO know someone who's
unfortunate enough to have never heard these cuts, press this monumentally
adventurous box and its attendant booklet upon them. It's never too late
to learn" -- Robert Fontenot, OffBeat
magazine, New Orleans
"... the best collection yet of Louisiana
music." -- Scott Jordan, The Independent, Lafayette, Louisiana.
"This four-CD box set doesn't miss a
Crescent City beat ... For anyone who has enjoyed the New Orleans Jazz
& Heritage Festival, this is Jazz Fest in a box. ***1/2" -- Dave
Hoekstra, Chicago Sun-Times
"... excellently compiled, wonderfully
annotated ... New Orleans fans will know much of this by heart, though
they may not remember it sounding so good; those who don't know what it's
like to miss New Orleans will quickly understand." -- Terry Lawson,
Detroit Free Press.
"... a perfect storm when it comes to
reissues. This box set is musically exciting, a complete representation
of its subject matter, and just plain fun to listen." -- Charlie B. Dahan,
AllAboutJazz.com
"... one of the best impressions of a
city's musical blueprint that you're likely to ever find." -- Zeth Lundy,
PopMatters.com
"... an unacademic, uncategorized album
that suits the city's time-warped party spirit." -- Jon Pareles,
The New York Times
Digital Dish
is the first ever compilation volume of the
best writing and recipes from food weblogs, and includes essays and recipes
contributed by me. Find out more and place an order!
U.S. orders:
Non-U.S.:
How to donate to this site:
Your donations help keep this site going. PayPal's the best way -- just click the button below, and thanks!
You can also donate via the Amazon.com Honor System, if you wish (but they deduct a larger fee from your donation and I keep less).
CocktailDB
The Internet's most comprehensive
and indispensible database of
authenticated cocktail recipes,
ingredients, reseearch and more.
By Martin Doudoroff & Ted Haigh)
Museum of the American Cocktail
Founded by Dale DeGroff and many
other passionate spirits in Jan. 2005.
Celebrating a true American cultural
icon: the American Cocktail.
(Their weblog.)
* * *
The Sazerac Cocktail
(The sine qua non of cocktails,
and the quintessential New Orleans
cocktail. Learn to make it.)
The Footloose Cocktail
(An original by Wes;
"Wonderful!" - Gary Regan.
"Very elegant, supremely
sophisticated" - Daniel Reichert.)
The Hoskins Cocktail
(An original by Chuck;
"It's nothing short of a
masterpiece." - Gary Regan)
* * *
Chuck & Wes' Cocktail Menu
(A few things we like to
drink at home, plus a couple
we don't, just for fun.)
* * *
Peychaud's Bitters
(Indispensible for Sazeracs
and many other cocktails.
Order them here.)
Angostura Bitters
(The gold standard of bitters,
fortunately available everywhere
worldwide. Insist on it.)
Regans' Orange Bitters No. 6
(Complex and spicy orange
bitters for your Martinis,
Old Fashioneds and many more.
Order them here.)
Fee Brothers' Bitters
(Classic orange bitters,
peach bitters and a cinnamony
"Old Fashion" aromatic bitters.
Skip the mint variety, though.)
In the cinema:
Syriana (****)
Match Point (****)
Underworld Evolution (**)
Munich (****)
Transamerica (****)
The New World (****)
V for Vendetta (****)
On DVD:
The Frighteners (***1/2)
Eating Out (**)
Dead and Buried (***)
Heavenly Creatures (****)
Minority Report (****)
Tarnation (***)
Crash (**)
The Constant Gardener (***-1/2)
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
-- Theodore Roosevelt,
26th President of the United States (1901-1909), speaking in 1918
"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier."
-- George W. Bush, describing what it's like to be governor of Texas, Governing Magazine, July 1998
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
-- George W. Bush, CNN.com, December 18, 2000
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."
-- George W. Bush, Business Week, July 30, 2001
Déanta:
This page is coded by hand, with
BBEdit 4.0.1 on an Apple
G4 15" PowerBook running
MacOS X 10.3
if I'm at home; occasionally with telnet and Pico on a FreeBSD Unix host
running tcsh if I'm updating from work. (I never could get used to all those
weblogging tools.)
"Eating, drinking and carrying on..."
-- Adelaide Brennan
Budino di pane saporito con guanciale, formaggio
Taleggio e funghi porcini.
Or, if I got the Italian right ... Savory Bread Pudding with guanciale, Taleggio cheese and porcini mushrooms.
You're gonna wanna make this.
Savory Bread Pudding with guanciale, Taleggio and porcini (Budino di pane saporito)
One 12 ounce (340g) loaf of Italian bread or baguette
1/2 pound (about 250g) frozen or fresh porcini mushrooms
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1-1/2 cups (350ml) very hot water
12 ounces guanciale or pancetta, sliced thin
12 ounces Taleggio cheese, thinly sliced as best as you can
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
12 large eggs
3-1/2 cups (28 fluid ounces, or 825ml) half-and-half
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Bunch of fresh basil
Few sprigs rosemary
Few dashes Worcestershire sauce
Several dashes hot sauce (Crystal, Tabasco, Cajun Chef, Texas Pete, whatever you like)
Slice the bread into 1/2" slices and let dry out overnight. You may also dry them in a 200°F (95°C) oven
for about 30-40 minutes until they're completely dried; make sure you don't brown them.
Soak the dried porcini in the hot water for 30 minutes until
reconstituted. Filter the mushroom water through a coffee filter and reserve. Rinse the reconstituted
mushrooms and reserve. Slice the frozen porcini and reserve any water that's squeezed out of them (you
might want to give each 'shroom a gentle squeeze). Slice about 1/4" thick and gently sauté
until most of the excess moisture has come out of the mushrooms. Remove the mushrooms and reserve;
deglaze the pan with the dried mushroom water and reduce by about half, reserve.
Spread the slices of guanciale (or pancetta if you can't get guanciale) on two large baking sheets (or as many
as needed) and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven until browned. Remove with a slotted spatula and drain on
paper towels; reserve all the fat.
Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter with the olive oil in a skillet and sauté the onion and garlic over low
to medium-low heat for 15 minutes or so, until slightly caramelized. Reserve.
Whisk the eggs together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined, then add the half-and-half and 2
tablespoons guanciale fat (save the rest for cooking); whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the oregano, basil,
Worcestershire, hot sauce, the reduced mushroom liquid, about 2 teaspoons of salt, plenty of fresh
ground black pepper and Creole seasoning to taste.
Butter the bottom and sides of the baking dish with the remaining tablespoon of butter (use more if you need
it), then make one layer of dried bread slices on the bottom. Use little broken-off pieces if you need to fill any
little spaces. Cover the bread layer evenly with 1/2 of the custard mixture, giving it a whisk just before
pouring to distribute the seasoning, then start adding layers -- spread both batches of reserved mushrooms, then
the Taleggio, then spread out several whole leaves of basil. Remove the leaves from the couple of rosemary
sprigs, roughly chop and sprinkle those evenly as well. Then evenly spread the onion-garlic mixture, and top with
the guanciale or pancetta. Season with a bit more salt and pepper, then place a second layer of bread over that
middle layer, filling the holes with broken pieces as needed.
Give the custard a final mix with the whisk and pour evenly over the entire surface of the bread, making sure
you wet everything. Season the top with more black pepper and a sprinkling of salt, then wrap the pudding
thoroughly in plastic wrap and weight the top down. You can use a couple of boxes of brown sugar or something like
that, but I found that a couple of telephone books worked perfectly. This helps compress the layers of the
pudding so that the custard will soak all the way through and so that it'll cook more evenly. Refrigerate for at
least 2 hours or overnight.
When you're ready to get going, take the pudding out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for
about a half an hour. Cover with foil then bake in a preheated oven at 350?F for about 15 minutes, then remove
the foil and sprinkle the top with the grated Parmigiano. Continue to bake until golden brown on top and the
edges and center are puffed up. Let the pudding cool for about 5 minutes, then slice and serve.
This is the best savory bread pudding I've ever made.
Well, he's right, of COURSE.
Via Tom Tomorrow, who said that
"[a]nyone who's spent any time reading right-wing blogs already understood
this
to be true":
[Christopher] Lohse, a social work masters student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has
proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support
for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three
Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohses study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor
Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a persons psychosis and
their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohses explanation.
"Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader," Lohse says. "If your world is very
mixed up, theres something very comforting about someone telling you, 'This is how its going to be.'"
The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go
to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.
The study used Modified General Assessment Functioning, or MGAF, a 100-point scale that measures the
functioning of disabled patients. A second scale, developed by Rakfeldt, was also used. Knowledge of current
issues, government and politics were assessed on a 12-item scale devised by the study authors.
Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who
supported Kerry, the study says.
I'm fat.
Well, I hope this is a temporary situation, but we've had a very filling
weekend. It's rabbit food for me for the next few weeks.
We did our (in)famous Second Thanksgiving on Sunday, in which we have
friends over and let it all hang out, foodwise. I contributed an old-fashioned Kentucky country ham
from Col. Bill Newsom and family, topped with the
famous New Orleans root beer glaze, as well
as a couple of side dishes. I did Dubliner Mac 'n Cheese again (third time in a week!), and
instead of a dressing I made a savory bread pudding with frozen/fresh and dried porcini mushrooms,
Taleggio cheese and
guanciale. It was a new, experimental recipe
of mine, and it was staggeringly good, if I do say so myself.
There was also a tray of Wesly's famous Bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with
Parmigiano Reggiano, a recipe he got from A.O.C. restaurant in West Hollywood and for which our guests clamor
(the bacon from Neuske's, and some of the best anywhere), Opelousas Yam
Crunch, roasted Brussels sprouts (which were fabulous), cream sage biscuits (which are amazing, and just three
ingredients -- flour, cream and sage), a tray of various salumi (including pepperoni, Genoa
salame, sopressata and cappacola) with insalata Caprese and a pesto sauce,
cranberry-orange relish ... and a bunch of desserts too. Banana cheesecake with fudge topping, Rocky
Road cake, chocolate marshmallows, a panettone, and fortuantely we didn't get to our idea of
dipping little Snickers bars in batter and dropping them into my new deep-fryer.
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving(s).
(*urp*) ... excuse me.
They're not that hungry, really.
After the above description I feel embarrassed to post this, but I will because it
makes me angry enough. Is this a joke, or a travesty?
(Given this awful, awful administration it's the latter, and just one of many.)
Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry
The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience "very low food
security."
Every year, the Agriculture Department issues a report that measures Americans' access to food, and it has
consistently used the word "hunger" to describe those who can least afford to put food on the table. But not this
year.
Mark Nord, the lead author of the report, said "hungry" is "not a scientifically accurate term for the specific
phenomenon being measured in the food security survey." Nord, a USDA sociologist, said, "We don't have a measure
of that condition."
The USDA said that 12 percent of Americans -- 35 million people -- could not put food on the table at least
part of last year. Eleven million of them reported going hungry at times. Beginning this year, the USDA has determined
"very low food security" to be a more scientifically palatable description for that group.
Yeah, it'll be news to the 35 million people who go to bed hungry that
our government no longer considers them actually hungry, perhaps because they're tired of being
compared to third world countries and repressive dictatorships in areas like hunger, press freedom
(where we rank at #53, with countries such as Botswana, Croatia and Tonga) and number of executions, including execution of minors (where we rank alongside Iran,
Saudi Arabia and China).
I truly despise these people.
"If this isn't civil war, I don't know what is."
The President and the National Security Advisor still say Iraq is not in a state of
civil war. The people who are actually there beg to differ.
Michael Ware, reporting from Baghdad, outside the Green Zone:
Ware again, on how the president, the ambassador to Iraq and the
generals are "divorced from reality":
Ware: "The debate about whether or not this is a civil war is fueled
either by the luxury of distance -- those who aren't here living on the ground -- or by the spin of
those with a political agenda to deny its existence."
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope today is not a day full of family arguments
joy, horrendously annoying travel delays quality time spent with family and friends, and
bloated, distended bellies to the point of physical discomfort and gastrointestinal distress lots of great
food.
Here's a little bit of Thanksgiving cheer, the (in)famous episode of
"WKRP in Cincinnati" featuring Mr. Carlson's legendary WKRP promotional turkey giveaway, in three
parts.
The long goodbye.
Goddammit ... I'm really tired of my heroes leaving us this week. One of the
world's great filmmakers, one of America's greatest artists and one of my own top two or three favorite film
directors since I first became aware of cinema as art -- Robert Altman has died
at the age of 81.
One of the great, lost, lamented movie theatres for me was the
Gentilly Orleans, on Gentilly Boulevard in New Orleans. By the time I got to it it had become an art and
repertory house, and that's where I received my Altman education, along with the Prytania Theatre uptown.
That's where I saw what was then his newest film, 3 Women, and it absolutely mesmerized me. I devoured
everything of his I saw, and I even appreciated films of his that received critical drubbings. (I felt
empowered, however, by the then-film critic of the Times-Picayune, whose Top Ten Films of the Year list
was always topped with whatever Altman film came out that year; I think her name was Laura Vincent, but I
don't quite recall.) I even liked Quintet, and a few friends and myself may have been the only ones;
I even built a Quintet board and we played the game! (It's a pretty good game, too, without the murders, that
is.) I've had some friends who've worked for him, and I'm insanely jealous. From everything I heard, he ran a
great set, and was wonderful to work with.
Bob Altman gave me many wonderful gifts over the years, including some
of my all-time favorite films. Here's everything of his I saw, and the list makes me boggle.
That Cold Day In The Park. M*A*S*H. Brewster McCloud. McCabe and Mrs.
Miller. Images. The Long Goodbye. Thieves Like Us. California Split. Nashville. Buffalo Bill and the
Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson. 3 Women. A Wedding. Quintet. A Perfect Couple. Popeye. Come Back
to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Streamers. Secret Honor. Tanner '88. Vincent and Theo. The
Player. Short Cuts. Kansas City. Cookie's Fortune. Gosford Park. A Prairie Home Companion.
Pretty friggin' amazing. I've got some holes to fill, and I'll fill
them soon.
Thanks for everything, Bob. I think we'll be watching some of your
movies this weekend.
Mícheál Ó Domhnaill tribute.
I'm not sure if any of yis will be near your radios or computers on Thanksgiving
evening, but I'm preparing a musical tribute to Mícheál on "Down Home," which I hope you'll tune in
to as you're digesting your turkey, before your tryptophan comas kick in.
It'll feature some extremely rare material from the Celtic
Folkweave album Mícheál recorded with Mick Hanly in 1973 after Skara Brae and before The
Bothy Band which was never released on CD and is very hard to find on LP these days. I'll also play
some Bothy Band material, some of his duet work with Kevin Burke, some Relativity tracks and maybe even
a Nightnoise track or two.
The program will also feature a set of rare recordings by Planxty as
well, so if you're a fan of Irish music tune in this Thursday, Thanksgiving evening, from 7:00 to
9:00pm Pacific Time (9pm Central, 10pm Eastern, 0300 GMT) locally at 88.5 FM, and on the web at
KCSN.org.
Oh no.
I read some shocking and sad news over the weekend, and it made me feel even worse
in that it happened four months ago, and for some reason I didn't hear about it at the time.
Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, one of Ireland's best and
most preeminent traditional musicians, formerly of Skara Brae, The Bothy Band, Relativity, Puck Fair
and Nightnoise, died in a fall at his Dublin home on Saturday, 8 July, 2006. He was only 53.
If there was one other band that would be the equal or near-equal of
Planxty in its influence on Irish music in the latter part of the 20th Century, it would be the Bothy
Band. Their unbelievable energy, drive and ferocity set them a bit apart from Planxty but they had no
less respect and devotion for the tradition, while bringing it to a younger audience, setting it in marvelous
arrangements and playing the old music the excitement and modernity of a rock band. The band consisted of
Mícheál (whose name is pronounced MEE-hall O'Donnell) and his sister Tríona Ní
Dhomhnaill (TREE-na nee GHunn-ull), Dónal Lunny (who had recently departed Planxty), Paddy Keenan, Matt
Molloy (currently with The Chieftains for the last 27 years) and Kevin Burke (preceded by Tommy Peoples and
briefly, Paddy Glackin). They were legendary for the energy they brought to their performances and the
even greater energy they brought to their on-the-road lifestyle of revelry. The group unfortunately
burned itself out after a few years, but left behind five astonishing records, three studio and two
live.
An obiturary in the U.K. Herald notes quite accurately that
Mícheál has left behind "a priceless legacy of traditional music."
As a crucial part of legendary 1970s group The Bothy Band's rhythm section, Ó Domhnaill created the
blueprint for guitar accompaniment in Irish music.
Along with his sister, Triona, he introduced new audiences, attracted by the group's instrumental virtuosity,
to the wonders of Gaelic song. He also named the group. On a trip to Scotland, he'd spotted a photo of Irish farm
labourers taken in the 1890s outside their hovel, captioned The Bothy Band.
The Ó Domhnaill family grew up in Kells, County Meath, but spent their summers in the Donegal Gaeltacht,
where their aunt Néilí would share a store of songs that they later took out on to the international
stage.
Mícheál, Tríona and sister Maighread formed their first group, Skara Brae, with guitarist
Dáithí Sproule, in 1970. Their only album, while considered too adventurous when released in 1971,
was hailed as a landmark on its CD reissue in 1998.
Mícheál and Maighread joined Tríona in Seachtar [Irish for "seven people"], which became
The Bothy Band. He collected many songs in Donegal for University College, Dublin, and "Calum Sgaire" and
"Tiocfaidh an Samhradh," sung in his quiet, rich-in-the-tradition style, became Bothy Band showstoppers alongside
their rumbling mouth music tour de force, "Fionnghuala."
After five years, The Bothy Band split in 1979. Mícheál and Tríona settled in America,
where they worked together in the long-running group Nightnoise.
In 2001, The Bothy Band re-convened for a Celtic Connections concert that was an affirmation of the magical
quality that siblings singing together can create. Later that year, Micheal and another ex-Bothy Band fiddler,
Paddy Glackin, released Reprise, an album which, with Micheal's gorgeous reading of Loch Lomond and his inventive,
apposite accompaniments to his friend's fiddle mastery, forms a fitting if far too premature epitaph to a great
musician.
More from the Irish Times:
It was Mícheál, along with Dáithí Sproule, who introduced the DADGAD guitar tuning
to Irish music, having been influenced by John Renbourn and Bert Jansch of Pentangle. (This tuning enabled
countless musicians to unpick the harmonies and underscore the melodies in traditional and folk music with a
finesse previously unknown.)
The group set the bar high with this early recording, aided in no small way by their deep appreciation that to
sing a song well, one had to understand its provenance. It was here that Aodh Ó Domhnaill's long summers of
music collection bore fruit.
Mícheál inherited his father's passion for delving deep beneath the skin of the tradition, and he
spent well over a year in the company of his blind aunt, Néilí Ní Dhomhnaill, in Rann na
Féirste [Rannafast, Co. Donegal].
Her unique and formidable store of songs fuelled a lifelong love of forensic musicianship in
Mícheál, a passion he later pursued by collecting songs in the Hebrides and western isles of
Scotland. This attention to detail was also repeatedly evident in his magnificently detailed arrangements of songs
and tunes on two albums with Relativity and seven album recordings with Nightnoise, not to mention his superbly
innovative recordings with Kevin Burke, Portland and Promenade.
Ó Domhnaill was a musician who had a deep appreciation of the space between the notes as much as he did
the notes themselves. He had an equal facility with songs in both Irish and English.
In that he united disparate audiences, with his arrangement of the Scots Gaelic song, "Fionnghula," becoming a
keystone of The Bothy Band's repertoire; while his interpretation of "Lord Franklin," a seminal English seafaring
song, has yet to be matched, in terms of both the sensitivity of his arrangement and the subtlety of his vocal
delivery. His more recent forays into the recording studio resulted in the excellent collaboration with Paddy
Glackin on 2001's Athchuairt/Reprise.
At his funeral, the remaining members of The Bothy Band convened, along with piper Liam Ó Floinn,
accordion player Tony MacMahon and Máiréad Ní Mhaonaigh, an apt farewell to a musician whose
talent remains peerless.
I'd only ever seen Mícheál perform live one time, at a
performance by his jazz/trad Irish group Puck Fair with flutist Brian Dunning, which later morphed into
the Celtic-jazz-chamber music ensemble Nightnoise. After seeing Planxty, it was one of my life's musical ambitions
to see Mícheál play with a reunited Bothy Band, and I'm terribly sad that not only will I never see
this, and more so that Mícheál is gone and none of us will hear him play again.
There was a tribute to Mícheál
on RTÉ radio's "Rattlebag" that's worth listening to.
I'd recommend, if you haven't done so already, that you get all of the
Bothy Band albums you can lay your hands on; they're all still in print. For an example of
Mícheál's wonderful guitar playing and gorgeous voice, have a listen to The Bothy Band's
performance of "The Death of
Queen Jane", one of Mícheál's most beautiful vocal performances ever (and thanks to Richard
Silverstein for hosting this).
Here are a couple of wonderful video clips I found on YouTube. The
first is recent, from a TG4 (the Irish-language TV network) tribute to Prionsías Ó
Maonaigh (Francie Mooney, the father of Altan's singer/fiddler Mairéad Ní Mhaoniagh) who also passed
away this year. Fiddler Paddy Glackin and Mícheál, who accompanies on guitarplay three reels:
"John Kelly's", "The Merry Sisters" and "The Silver Spear." (Following is more chat as Gaeilge, and some
more tunes from Francie along with daughter Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and grandson Ciarán Ó
Maonaigh.)
Next is a rare clip of a Bothy Band performance from 1976.
Mícheál is unfortunately mostly in the background on this clip, but it's wonderful
nonetheless. His sister Tríona is on lead vocals for a song called "Pretty Peg," followed by a
tune called "Craig's Pipes."
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilis.
Decency prevails.
In the wake of nationwide outrage and the growing list of FOX Television Network
affiliates who were refusing to air it, News Corp. have cancelled their upcoming O.J. Simpson media presentations,
both the 2-part TV interview and the subsequent publication of his book. Rupert Murdoch himself
apologized for the affair, and for "any pain this has caused."
Thanks!
Well, I don't know how many folks who read this humble webblawwwg kicked in (there
was one I know of, at least!), but in any case, thanks to everyone who helped support
KCSN and "Down Home" during the pledge
drive last night, to the tune of $1,544!! That'll go up once matching grants kick in, so there'll be a nice big
wheelbarrow full of money to dump on our general manager's desk (clear some space, Freddie!).
Pimming!
No, that's not something dirty.
In fact, I was perusing recent back issues of the San Francisco
Chronicle and came across an article about Pimm's,
the English gin-based "semi-sweet fruity" liqueur. Apparently the Pimm's Cup cocktail is making a comeback and is
popping up on bar menus all over the Bay Area.
Except for some of us, though ... the Pimm's Cup can't make a comeback
because it's never been away. It's the house cocktail at New Orleans' legendary
Napoleon House, the world's most civilized bar, and has
been for decades. N.O. food writer Pableaux Johnson notes the irony in
such a beverage being the signature drink of a bar named for (and a building originally bought for) the
deposed Emperor of France: "In 1821, then-owner and former New Orleans mayor Nicolas Girod offered the
building to Napoleon as a base of New World operations while the ex-emperor was imprisoned on St.
Helena. After a storied career fighting British forces for Euro-domination, would the "Little Corporal"
approve such an Anglified beverage?" Probably not, but it'd be fun to see the look on his face if he
were offered one.
The Pimm's Cup cocktail is perfect for sweltering summer days (and
long nights) in New Orleans, due to its relatively low alcohol content and its nearly endless ability
to provide refreshment. Napoleon House uses a fairly simple recipe: a shot of Pimm's No. 1 Cup, two
shots of lemonade, fill with 7up and add a cucumber slice. The Chronicle offers a variation
that I find intriguing, though ...
Pimm's Cup Cocktail, updated
2 ounces Pimm's No. 1.
1 ounce gin (Plymouth or Tanqueray, I'd say).
Ginger ale.
Soda water.
Cucumber slice.
Add the gin and Pimm's to a highball glass full of ice. Fill the remainder of the glass with a 2:1 ratio of ginger
ale to soda water. Stir and place the cucumber slice in the drink (rather than as a garnish).
Ginger ale or ginger beer is the way they're made in England, and I
like the idea of cutting it with soda to take out some of the sweetness. I'm gonna try this next time
it gets hot. Hell, I might just try it tonight anyway, and just crank up the heater.
The Cocktailian.
I missed this column from last Friday, but at the time, the Professor, our
cocktailian bartender, serves up a cocktail from San Francisco's Nopa Restaurant. It's called the
Washhouse, and consists
of fresh basil, lime juice and simple syrup muddled together then shaken with Square One, an American-made organic
rye vodka. (Vodka again, oy ... I might try this, but I might also have to try this with gin so we'll get some
flavor from the spirit.)
That horrid, horrid woman.
Judith Regan, who's publishing *. J. S*mps*n's vile book and conducting the
unspeakable TV interview with him next week, has released an eight-page apologia supposedly
telling why she did it:
"[B]ecause she was a victim of domestic violence and thought the proceeds would go to Simpson's
children."
Oh, for fuck's sake.
Yeah lady, his children really want to hear how he "theoretically"
killed their mother and stepmother, on TV and in bookstores ... and that's only for starters.
"I didn't know what to expect when I got the call that the killer wanted to confess," Regan said in the
statement titled "Why I Did It." "But I knew one thing. I wanted the confession for my own selfish reasons and for
the symbolism of that act. For me, it was personal."
Although Regan has acknowledged that Simpson does not directly say he killed the pair, she said she considers
the book to be his confession.
[...] Regan said the book was a way to undo the "criminal injustice system" that let her own abuser go
free.
She said she was abused while in her 20s by a man "who could charm anyone" and with whom she had a child. "And
then he knocked me out, with a blow to my head and sent me to the hospital," she said. She said police initially
didn't believe her story.
"I made the decision to publish this book, and to sit face to face with the killer, because I wanted him, and
the men who broke my heart and your hearts, to tell the truth, to confess their sins, to do penance and to amend their
lives," she said.
When Wes and I read this article this morning at our respective jobs,
unsurprisingly the first word that popped into both our heads was this one: Bullshit.
He and I were pretty much of the same mind on this one, but I'll relay
his words:
My mind is a-whirl with responses.
1. Bullshit.
2. It took her eight pages to issue a non-apology apology? She needs a better editor. Surely she has one
sitting around somewhere.
3. She really thought he would confess? That the money would go to the children? So, she's not saying "I'm
sorry," she's saying "I'm the stupidest person ever in the history of stupid people on this planet full of stupid
people."
4. She made a professional publishing decision for personal reasons? That makes me feel so much better.
5. Wonderful, the Hitler defense. We all know what that means.
6. Oh, and did I say BULLSHIT?
And horseshit. And chickenshit. And all the nuances of meaning of
the aforementioned scatological slang terms.
Regarding the final quote from the above article, Steve said in email
this morning, "O.J. didn't confess, he'll do his 'penance' on the golf course and the only thing I can imagine
that's been amended is his checking account. So does this mean that she's going to pay off every guy who ever
dumped her? Should Bernard Kerik expect a check in his mail?"
Awful, awful, awful.
Interesting side note: Bill O'Blather-- er, Bill O'Reilly joins me and almost
everyone else in outrage over the impending broadcast, and adds this disclaimer: "Shamefully, the
Fox Broadcasting Unit is set to carry the program, which is simply indefensible, and a low point in American
culture. For the record, Fox Broadcasting has nothing to do with the Fox News Channel."
O' really? That last part must have come as shocking news to O'Reilly's boss, Fox News Channel chief
Roger Ailes, who also chairs Fox Television Stations, the group behind the forthcoming "low point in American
culture." The shared "Fox" moniker is no coincidence, either. Fox Broadcasting and the Fox News Channel are both
owned by Australian overlord and News Corp. founder and chief Rupert Murdoch. And the Fox Broadcasting
Corporation -- the people who program prime time for the Fox network -- regularly air Fox News-produced
programming, from coverage of presidential speeches to O'Reilly's special "documentaries" about people who hate
children and Jesus.
In other words, Fox News Channel was conceived, launched, and continues to be run by the man who is responsible
for running the selfsame stations that will, shamefully, broadcast Simpson's fantasy about killing "those two
Americans" to millions of other Americans.
[...] Surely, Judith Regan, who will be conducting the interview with O.J. and whose imprint at HarperCollins
is publishing the Simpson book, has nothing to do with Fox News Channel, though. Just ask Fox News bloviator Sean
Hannity, whose books Regan publishes. Or Roger Ailes himself, who once gave Regan a show -- Judith Regan
Tonight -- on the Fox News Channel.
Sorry, Billy me boy. You're all the same slime coming out of the same
cesspool.
Pledge drive!
Yep folks, it's that time o' year again, time to support your favorite public radio
station! In this case I hope that your favorite or favorites include good ol' KCSN,
where Your Humble Narrator has been spinning discs for over eight years now
(my, how time flies).
Find out why Los Angeles magazine named KCSN "The Best
University-Sponsored Radio Station" in Los Angeles! (Funnily enough, there was no mention of that Santa
Monica station.) Broadcasting with digital HD Radio technology and
streaming worldwide via the web, KCSN is truly eclectic when other radio
stations only say they are. If you already know how good the station is, please consider becoming a supporting
member. I especially wouldn't mind if you became a supporting member tonight during my "Down Home" shift, so call
(800) 795-5276 ... that's 1-800-795-KCSN (easy to remember), or else you can
pledge securely via the web.
A basic membership is $50 (and take a KCSN license plate frame, CD wallet or
baseball cap as our gift to you), supporting $88.50 (and take home a KCSN t-shirt or sweatshirt), but we
particularly like pledges of $120, for which I've got a little something extra for you.
I've got a nice little goodie bag of CDs put together ...
JOHNNY ADAMS:"The Great Johnny Adams R&B Album"
A new compilation of some of the legendary New Orleans singer's greatest R&B tracks from the latter part of his
career.
THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND:"What's Going On"
A superb, song-for-song remake of Marvin Gaye's classic, socially- and politically-charged 1971 album, released on
the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and "recontextualized," redirected Marvin's anger and bewilderment over the
times of 35 years ago with the horrendous aftermath of Katrina and the flood, and the human inaction that's caused
the city to remain so broken a year later. Brilliant.
LINDA RONSTADT & ANN SAVOY, THE ZOZO SISTERS:"Adieu False Heart"
Linda's marvelous collaboration with Cajun singer Ann Savoy, who worked together on a few tracks on Ann's previous
Cajun and Creole/zydeco tribute albums for Vanguard. They harmonize so beautifully together it's actually
astonishing, and makes you wish they'd been at this for a lot longer. From bluegrass to Cajun to Richard Thompson
and an amazing cover of The Left Banke's 1966 hit "Walk Away Renee", and with instrumental backing from the
likes of Sam Bush, Sam Broussard and members of Balfa Toujours and the Red Stick Ramblers, Linda and Ann knock
this one out of the park.
SOLAS:"Reunion: A Decade of Solas"
The legendary Irish supergroup regroups with every single former member of the band for a massive stageful of
talent and a journey through ten years of amazing Irish music, recorded live. This is a 2-disc set, with a CD and
a DVD as well.
CHRIS THILE:"How To Grow A Woman From The Ground"
The latest solo album from the astonishingly talented mandolinist and singer from the band Nickel Creek. Original
tunes and songs, a couple of traditional numbers and covers of songs from Jimmie Rodgers, Jack White, Gillian
Welch and more.
Not bad, eh? You can take home one of those CDs for a pledge of $65, but the
better deal for you AND us is to take all five of 'em home for less than double that. Such a deal!
Help great radio keep being great! Pledge to KCSN!
The poor Martini.
It's gin and vermouth, people. How hard can it be?
Very, apparently, particularly once the word "martini" with a small m
got co-opted to mean any kind of alcoholic drink that's served up, with an eye-popping array of often
ghastly ingredients. This sad and nasty-tasting side to the otherwise excellent cocktail revival has
finally pushed New York Post writer Brian Niemietz
over the edge:
There it is, sitting behind the bar of the East Village's Double Down Saloon - an unlabeled vodka bottle in
which three bloated strips of bacon stand at attention looking like a med-school project gone awry. Ladies and
gentlemen, introducing a binge too far, the final olive-covered straw, the drink that leaves us shaken, anger
stirred: the Bacon Martini.
Considering that the world's most famous martini drinker hits movie theaters this week, perhaps it's time to
take a look at how perverted the drink has become. And the Bacon Martini, unappetizing and unkosher, may be the
best place to start.
"Nowadays if you pour straight liquor into a martini glass, it's called a martini," admits Double Down owner P.
Moss, whose bacon creation is made by marinating three strips of fine-cured Tennessee bacon in vodka for 24 hours,
then straining it through shaken ice. It's served in martini glass, with a piece of bacon on the bottom like a
tequila worm.
The problem, of course, is that none of these drinks - not the saketini, not the tequilatini, not the Pumpkin
Dream martini made with Bacardi - are actually martinis.
Yes, thank you Uncle Jesus.
I know, it's bacon. How could anything bacony be bad? But just look at that
picture. It looks vile. It makes the vodka (vodka, ugh) look like formaldehyde. I think they may
have gone too far even for me.
But this is just the beginning ... look at the list of drinks
proffered later in the article, and said list perfectly illustrates what's wrong with most cocktails
today. A few of them look okay, but mostly it's the typical overly-sweet, candy-like crapola or truly
bizarre combinations. (Vodka, black pepper and Tabasco in a salt-rimmed glass? Feck!)
Now, if you want to try a more reasonable bacon Martini, our friend
Michael has had moderate success by making a standard, proper Beefeater Martini, shaken until you can
practically skate across the surface on the flotilla of ice chips that form, and garnish it not with an
olive but with a half-strip of perfectly crisp bacon. It manages to impart a nie, subtle, smoky bacony
flavor to the drink and remained surprisingly crisp until the drink was gone, unlike the soggy,
bloated-looking preserved pig carcass part that's seen in that picture. Gick.
I quite literally could not believe what I was reading.
This morning Steve sent around an email item that I thought at first was from The
Onion, and then I thought, "Okay, The Onion has crossed a line here ... not only is this not funny --
at all -- but it's completely offensive as well. If it were merely offensive and still funny, that wouldn't be so
bad." It turns out that it was not in fact from The Onion, but is in fact
true.
O. J. Simpson to discuss killings
Fox plans to broadcast an interview with O.J. Simpson in which the former football star discusses "how he would
have committed" the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend, for which he was acquitted, the network said.
What?
Simpson has agreed to an "unrestricted" interview with book publisher Judith Regan, Fox said.
"O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were
the one responsible for the crimes," the network said in a statement. "In the two-part event, Simpson describes
how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade."
This ... does not compute.
The interview will air days before Simpson's new book, "If I Did It," goes on sale Nov. 30. The book, published
by Regan, "hypothetically describes how the murders would have been committed."
In a video clip on the network's Web site, an off-screen interviewer says to Simpson, "You wrote 'I have never
seen so much blood in my life.'"
"I don't think any two people could be murdered without everybody being covered in blood," Simpson responds.
I don't know where to start. I am speechless.
I did it, but because I'm broke now because I was sued by the father of one of my
victims and I need money, I'm going to make a beyond-sensationalist TV program and write a book and describe just
how I did it, except I'm going to say it's how I would have done it if I had done it. Wink wink,
nudge nudge. A public confession, essentially ... not because his conscience is bothering him, but
because he needs/wants the money. And of course, due to the double jeopardy laws, he can't be
prosecuted again even if he leaves out the "if."
The man is scum. The publisher, Judith Regan, is scum. The Fox
Network are scum for running it (and I hope they come to their senses before it actually airs); it's a
new low even for them. It'll also be a symptom of the deep sickness of our society if anyone tolerates
this, so don't. Don't let them make a penny off this.
Don't watch this travesty. And for God's sake, do not buy his book.
I wish that man could be exiled to a faraway island, forever. This is one instance in which I wish The
Phantom Zone was real.
Recoverin'.
'Twas a nice, relaxing birthday weekend, with lots of lying around being a lazy
bastard, a fair bit of drinking, a fabulous meal at Sona
(with food porn to come later), and (God help us) a deep fryer.
My first batch of crappy French fries tells me I need a lot more practice deep-frying (except I have to
be careful I don't end up looking like a guy who's getting a lot of practice deep-fat frying ...)
Andy Irvine's "O'Donoghue's".
Andy's got a relatively new song (he's only been doing it for a couple of years, I
think) which he did at some of the more recent Planxty shows as well. It's a fantastic reminiscence of his entry
into the early folk music scene in Dublin in the early 1960s, based around gatherings at the legendary
O'Donoghue's Pub. It was from sessions at that pub that groups like The Dubliners
formed, and where so many great Irish musicians sat and listened and learned and drank and reveled in the craic.
I've been reading a bit about that in the fantastic new biography of
Planxty by Leagues O'Toole, The Humours of Planxty,
and I managed to hear the song via an audience recording of a Planxty show in London last year. The song's
brilliant, and lo and behold, there's a video on YouTube of Andy playing it at Whelan's in Dublin. It's a
crap video with crap sound in two parts, but at least it'll give you an idea of how good the song is, and it makes
a decent enough music post for today.
This is an absolutely brilliant song, and Andy is at the top of his
form. It's beyond a ballad, beyond just a story told ... it's the whole history, essence, spirit,
feeling and music of a certain time and place, captured perfectly. It makes me want to pick up an
instrument, hop in the Wayback Machine and spend the next six years at that pub.
Andy and Leagues were kind enough to include the words in the book,
and I'll provide those for you, with a few annotations, so you can sing along ...
It was August 1962
When I first set foot in O'Donoghue's,
A world of music, friends and booze
Hastening towards me.
I never could have guessed as I walked through the door
Just what the future had in store;
A crossroads for my life I saw
Lying there to taunt me.
I was an actor, I played straight
I played at the Gaiety, played at the Gate,
My mother in 1928
Trod those boards before me.
I was getting tired of the company,
An actor's life was not for me,
I said goodbye you'll never see
Me back here in Neary's.
Paddy and Maureen, very very sound
Though she liked to camp on the moral high ground;
If you had long hair you were outward bound,
Go down you blood red roses.
Ronnie Drew in his suit of blue
And a voice like gravel that would cut you in two.
We thought he was Dublin through and through
But he blew in from Dún Laoghaire.
JoeRyan and John Kelly in the front bar,
Their fiddles are from the County Clare. JoeHeaney sings in the cold night air
In the laneway after closing.
Our sea shanties in perfect tune,
And SéamusEnnis in the afternoon.
It was all over much too soon,
Days of wine and roses.
Banjo Barney calling the tune,
Mary Jordan's a whiz on the spoons,
Up the Swannee and Down the Broom,
Barney's rising to it.
They carry him bodily out to the jacks,
He empties his bladder and they carry him back.
He swallows his pint and he's right back on track,
How the fuck does he do it?
In the afternoon you might find there
Luke Kelly and his banjo and his red hair.
Oh what a time, what an atmosphere,
What more could a young man wish for?
How I'd spend my time was never in doubt,
This is what life was all about.
A bowl of soup an a pint of stout,
Agus fágimíd siúd mar atá sé.
Dave Smythe, never short of a witty phrase, Sonny Brogan, love the way he plays,
Ted McKenna, God bless the days
Of Italian mandolinos.
At closing time we didn't go far,
Just down the road to the Pike Coffee Bar,
Ah! The usual suspects, there you are,
Have yez no homes to go to?!
Putting up a note on the message board, Sweeney's Men have a gig, oh Lord!
We have to meet at 12 o'clock
For the journey down to Galway.
But the Sweeney van broke down at the door
And we didn't get going till a quarter past four
To the merry tune of the Dolan snore,
Haul away, me Rosie!
It all came to an end in '68;
The rest of the world was lying in wait.
And I started out for a new landscape,
Set sail for the Pirin Mountains.
From the old North Wall I sailed away,
And all my friends were there on the quay,
I won't be back for many's the day
But it was bloody great while it lasted!
It was August 1962
When I first set foot in O'Donoghue's
A world of music, friends and booze
Hastening towards me.
I never could have guessed as I walked through the door
Just what the future had in store,
A blueprint for my life I saw
Lying there before me.
I hope he records it soon! (Ahem, if anyone's interested I could
probably part with an MP3 of that song from Planxty in London ...)
And while we're singing ...
Let's have a singalong!
C'mon, yis all know this one. The tune, at least -- this is a new set
of parody lyrics by M. Spaff Sumsion, sung to the tune of
the immortal "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," and dedicated to our favorite anti-gay preacher who bought
drugs he didn't take from a male prostitute he didn't shag ... Ted Haggard. Here's the first verse and
chorus to get you started ...
SUPERTELEVANGELISTIC SEX-AND-DRUGS PSYCHOSIS
I used to be a master of the anti-gay crusade
Until a butch disaster blew my pastor masquerade
But if it's true I'm pounding more than pulpits, don't blame me
It's 'cause I caught my hooker-tweaker-stud's infirmity
It's supertelevangelistic sex-and-drugs psychosis
Worse than plague and bird flu crossed with osteoporosis
We were playing doctor and he gave this diagnosis:
Supertelevangelistic sex-and-drugs psychosis!
Fair play to ya, Mr. Bond.
The new James Bond movie "Casino Royale" finally gets it right.
Agent 007 orders his signature drink, which was named "The Vesper" after his
love interest in the story but is often just called "The James Bond Martini", and finally orders it properly, with
the recipe word-for-word from Ian Fleming's original novel.
"Three measures of Gordon's (gin), one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet, shake it over ice then add a
thin slice of lemon peel," Bond asks a waiter as he duels with his adversary in a high-stakes game of Texas Hold
'em poker.
[...] Later, 007 orders another tipple to steady his nerves after matters have taken a turn for the worse. But
when the bartender asks if he wants his cocktail shaken or stirred, Bond replies, "Do I look like I give a
damn?"
Good on ya! None of this "bruising the gin" bullshit.
There's only one slight problem ... the final ingredient hasn't been
called "Kina Lillet" for many years now, it's just Lillet now. It
is possible to be a little too authentic ...
"I'm not feeling giddy as much as greatly relieved. OK, maybe a little giddy."
-- Paul Krugman
Tom continues himself:
That about sums it up for me. It's as if the biopsy results just came back and you dont have cancer after all.
You're not giddy, exactly, but you can finally take a deep breath and maybe let some of the tension drain out of
your shoulders. The future remains uncertain but you can begin to imagine it as something other than relentlessly
bleak.
As a general rule, I don't have much faith in Democrats, not having fallen off any turnip trucks within
recent memory, but I also think that we're suddenly in an entirely new ball game. At the very least, I believe
they will serve as a necessary bulwark against whatever residual craziness the Bushies may be harboring. They
won't be rubber-stamping any plans to invade Iran this time around. And maybe theyll even step up to the plate and
hit one out of the park.
They're newly emboldened, and this is their moment. They no longer have to worry about appeasing
the sort of people who believe that criticism of the president is an act of treason. Those people have been
shunted aside. They've been put back in perspective. They were never anything more than marginal cranks, but for
awhile there they managed to create their own reality, to create the illusion that they represented some sort of
majority consensus in this country. Well, sorry, freaks. You can go back to typing your little manifestos and
wanking over your war porn, and yelling at your mom to bring more Cheetos down to the basement for you -- but the
country has seen you for the pathetic creatures you are, and moved on.
It's time to have grownup conversations now. It goes without saying that the Democrats will to disappoint us,
one way or another. So what? The test results came back, and it's not terminal. We got a little breathing room,
and isn't that all you can really ever hope for in life?
Fingers crossed.
Chafee to block Bolton nomination."Payback is a bitch,"
says Chris at AmericaBlog, as he linked to CNN's report that outgoing Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), a member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will block the renomination of John Bolton as Ambassador to the United
Nations, which Bush was unable to get through even his GOP-dominated, rubber-stamp Congress and whom he
subsequently installed with a recess appointment. Bush's bullshit about wanting to work with Democrats pretty
much went out the window right away, as he apparently intends to ram Bolton and some other odious issues
through the congressional rubber-stamp while he still holds the puppet strings. Don't miss the bold bits at the
beginning of this excerpt, either ...
Along with Bolton's nomination, Bush said he would like to move forward on legislation to retroactively
authorize the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program.
Bush said he would like to see action on both issues before year's end. The Democratic-controlled Congress
begins its term in January.
But Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who was defeated in this week's election, said he would block Bolton's
nomination.
Chafee, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that he did not believe Bolton's nomination
would move forward without his support.
"The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one
of those is on foreign policy," the Rhode Island moderate told The Associated Press.
"And at this late stage in my term, I'm not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out
against."
Good for you, Linc.
Chafee, probably the most liberal of Republicans in Congress, is
actually a pretty decent guy. As Billmon pointed out,
Chafee was well-liked by his constituency, and "if [he] had quit the GOP when Jeffords did, he could
have stayed in the Senate for the rest of his life if that's what he wanted. I don't know whether to
admire him for refusing to let the Rovians run him out of his own party, or ridicule him as a fool and
a tool for not switching."
I heard Chafee interviewed on NPR the other day, telling about how
he'd go to restuarants and other public places in his home state, and person after person came up to
him, shook his hand, told him how much they liked him, but that they weren't voting for him, because he
was a Republican and they're fed up with the Republicans. Billlmon goes on, "On the one hand, Chafee
didn't seem to have any questions of conscience about accepting the GOP's money and help when he was
locked in a tough primary race this summer. On the other hand, Chafee voted against Shrub's folly.
(Given how many there have been, I should be clearer: I'm talking about the Iraq invasion folly). That
showed a hell of a lot more courage than many Democratic Senators I could name (*cough*Kerry*cough*).
So I'm inclined to give Linc a pass. His self esteem clearly has been damaged enough."
Two days after losing a bid for a second term in an election seen as a referendum on President Bush and the
Republican Party, Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he was unsure whether he'd remain a Republican... When asked if his
comments meant he thought he might not belong in the Republican Party, he replied: "That's fair."
When asked whether he felt that his loss may have helped the country by switching control of power in Congress,
he replied: "To be honest, yes."
In his first interview since losing the Republican U.S. Senate seat that has been in his family for three
decades, Lincoln D. Chafee yesterday said a lot of people had been coming up to him "and saying, 'We're sorry you
lost, but glad the Congress switched'" from GOP to Democratic Party control.
Asked if deep down, despite his personal disappointment about the outcome of Tuesday's election, he felt the
same way, Chafee looked into the TV cameras and said: "To be honest, yes."
"When you enact a divisive agenda, don't talk to the other side, I don't think thats good for the country,"
Chafee said. "At least now, I think the president is going to have to talk to the Democrats. I think that is going
to be good for America."
Yes, because the Republicans no longer get to rule. They now have to
participate in government, a government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people, all the
people, not just their looney base and the rest of the hair-thin majority who were frightened into
voting for them (and the ones who didn't but who were disenfranchised anyway).
If you've been a Republican, are perhaps fiscally conservative and
strong on national security, but are socially progressive and, as Jim Webb said, "concerned about
issues of economic fairness and social justice," then get your ass out of the not-so-Grand Old Party and go
blue.
Brother Ed is gone.
CBS news correspondent and "60 Minutes" reporter Ed Bradley
died today of leukemia
in New York, aged 65.
Ed was a tremendous fan of and friend to the City of New Orleans, was
a fixture at just about every single Jazzfest, often introducing acts from the stages, and will very
much be missed.
I think they should give him a jazz funeral.
Mehlman out.
CNN is reporting that RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman
will step down as head of
the Republican Party at the end of the year. I suppose this has more to do with his being an utter failure
to his party and his lies and prevarications about the horribly dirty tricks the desperate GOP pulled
toward the end of the election, and not his having been outed by Bill Maher on "Larry King Live" the other night.
(More on that here and
here)
You'll have to forgive me, but ... this is so much fun, watching all
these heads roll. I'm so giddy that if it keeps up, as it inevitably will, I might just explode.
My giddiness primarily stems from the fact that it's fun and
exhilirating to win for a change, to see some of the baddies go down, and to see this country finally
start to come to its senses with a wide-ranging rejection of Republicanism and neoconservatism.
As we discussed in one of the comments threads, I think we'll finally get a goverment that represents
the true diversity of this country.
And the few good people who are left in the GOP, who can perhaps convince the
rest of their party to help govern as gentlemen and not as the thugs they've been, deserve better than
that mewling shit Mehlman.
As I understand it, Sanders will be counted as a Democrat for committee
assignments (and will undoubtedly with them anyway), and even though Lieberman ran as an independent he's still a
registered Democrat, will be seated as such and will retain his seniority for committees. How much we
can trust his votes is perhaps even more uncertain than before, but still ...
That's fifty-one, baby.
More electronic voting disasters.
One such massive voting irregularity in Florida (which currently has the Republican
up by 368 votes) is very, very fishy.
Can we not scrap these goddamn things already? It's the Cone of
Silence of the American electoral process ... "But Max, that thing NEVER works!"
He axed for it, he got it. He spread his obsessed hatred of a
significant portion of his fellow Americans, and it bit him in the ass. If there as anybody who had it
coming on November 7, it was Santorum.
The Onion: "Republicans Blame Losses on Democrats."Hee hee.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Republican officials are blaming tonight's GOP losses on Democrats, who they claim have
engaged in a wide variety of "aggressive, premeditated, anti-Republican campaigns" over the past six-to-18 months.
"We have evidence of a well-organized, well-funded series of operations designed specifically to undermine our
message, depict our past performance in a negative light, and drive Republicans out of office," said Republican
National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, who accused an organization called the Democratic National Committee of
spearheading the nationwide effort. "There are reports of television spots, print ads, even volunteers going
door-to-door encouraging citizens to vote against us." Acknowledging that the "damage has already been done,"
Mehlman is seeking a promise from Democrats to never again engage in similar practices.
As Atrios points out, this almost isn't satire; he's heard wingnuts
actually say stuff like this.
WASHINGTON, DC-- After nearly six years of much-publicized service as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld
announced his resignation Wednesday afternoon, saying that he had "proudly accomplished everything [he'd] set out
to bungle." "Years ago, I decided to bog this great nation down in an extended, grueling foreign occupation, and
I'm happy to say that's exactly what I've done," said Rumsfeld in a farewell address at the White House, during
which he urged Americans to continue waging the ill-conceived, mismanaged, and evidently unwelcome fight for
democracy in the Middle East. "Each of my actionsfrom undersupplying troops with body armor to focusing on
capturing Saddam Hussein while Osama bin Laden remained freehas led America inexorably toward our current state of
extreme crisis. Well, anyway, goodbye!" President Bush expressed confidence that Robert Gates, his new nominee for
Secretary of Defense, will be able to "fuck everything up the rest of the way."
THIS is what I call a mandate.
The Democratic Party has retaken the House of Representatives,
easily, by a margin of at least 27 seats, and will probably double the Republicans' former lead in seats by the time the final 13
races are decided (the Dems are ahead in at least five of those races). Not a single incumbent Democrat who ran for re-election for
the House, Senate or a governor's office was defeated. There were massive Republican losses nationwide.
When the Democrats take control of the House in January, the Speaker of the House, two
heartbeats away from the presidency, will quite probably be a woman, for the first time in American history.
Control of the Senate still hangs in the balance, as we probably won't know that outcome
for at least a month,
but Democratic candidates Webb in Virginia and Tester in Montana are both ahead, and those two seats if won will give the
Democrats a Cheney-proof majority in the Senate (if you count Lieberman and Jeffords Sanders, and I'm not
sure of the former). Still ...
Rick "Man-on-Dog" Santorum is out of the Senate, defeated by 18 points in a landslide.
The odious Ken Blackwell was trounced in his attempt to take the governorship of Ohio, in
a 23-point landslide. Ohio, the state that threw the last Presidential election to Bush and solidly Republican, elected
Democrats to the state house, several to the U.S. House, and to the Senate; they also voted to raise the minimum wage.
Democrats now hold the majority of state houses and governor's mansions as well. Democratic and
progressive candidates swept the ballot in conservative Arizona, which became the first state to defeat an amendment to ban
same-sex marriage. A state that couldn't be much more conservative, South Dakota, handily defeated the anti-choice extremists'
attempt to institute the nation's most Draconian anti-abortion law, by a double-digit margin. Missouri handily approved a measure
backing stem-cell research.
George Bush, Karl Rove and mewling Ken Mehlman lost.
There were some setbacks ... most of the anti-gay marriage resolutions passed, although by
much narrower margins, and a plurality of voters seem to be in favor of civil rights for gay and lesbian Americans and
same-sex couples. Californians re-elected Ahnold (but Angelides was such an unappealing slug that that was unsurprising),
bowed to the oil and tobacco companies, nixed public campaign financing. But you can't have everything. Yet.
Will Bush and the Republicans, faced with a true mandate unlike the one they claimed in
2004, extend the olive branch and cooperate with the Democrats on a bipartisan basis to heal and renew this wounded nation?
Fat fucking chance.
White House allies suggest there is little reason to think Bush and the Democrats will work together. Bush has tied himself closely
to conservative movement leaders who bitterly disagree with Democrats for their opposition to tax cuts and to privatizing Social
Security -- two of the administration's top goals.
"When we want to go up and they want to go down, we want to go right and they want to go left, there's no compromise," said
anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, a close advisor to the White House.
Norquist said the Republicans' primary goal for the next two years should be making the case for GOP control -- not
bipartisanship.
"Nancy Pelosi will do for the Republicans what [Bill] Clinton did for the Republicans -- become the lightning rod to explain that
their congressman who they thought was a reasonable guy was really a left-wing wacko," he said.
On the issues that have been most important to Bush, he has given little hint of a willingness to compromise. He has made it clear
that he would much prefer to work with his partisan brethren than to cut deals with Democrats on such issues as extending tax cuts
that are due to expire and privatizing Social Security.
Once again, the Republicans, unwilling to accept a defeat that is clearly the will of the people,
demonstrate that they don't want to govern, they want to rule. If that's what they want to do, then let's make sure they get a fight,
not a rollover.
Let the governing begin. And let the
investigations
begin, too. Wonderful things, them subpeeneys.
Bye bye, Denny.
Although he was reelected to his House seat, outgoing Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert will step down from Republican party leadership in the House
and will not seek the position of minority leader or any other such position when the Democrats take the House in
January.
So far, at least. I don't think he's done with the Foley coverup just
yet.
Oh, and wanna know who Bush nominated to replace him? A Texan and longtime
Bush family friend, of course (why wreck his consistent cronyism?),
with an unsurprising pedigree:
Robert M. Gates was the Central Intelligence Agency's deputy director for intelligence (DDI) from 1982 to 1986.
He was confirmed as the CIA's deputy director of central intelligence (DDCI) in April of 1986 and became acting
director of central intelligence in December of that same year. Owing to his senior status in the CIA, Gates
was close to many figures who played significant roles in the Iran/contra affair and was in a position to have known
of their activities.
Yep, this is your new Secretary of Defense. Typical.
Cocktail of the day.
Wes and I will be celebrating with this one tonight. It's been a favorite of ours
for a while now, since we learned of it last year. It's usually called the "Jamaica Farewell", but I don't think
Daniel will mind if we temporarily rename it ...
The Rummy Farewell Cocktail (temporarily renamed from the Jamaica Farewell Cocktail,
created by Daniel Reichert)
2 ounces Jamaican rum (such as Appleton Estate).
3/4 ounce apricot brandy (such as Apry).
3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice.
2 dashes Angostura Bitters.
1 teaspoon pimento dram (Jamaican allspice liqueur), optional.
Combine with cracked ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake for 10-12 seconds.
Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.
I'm glad to say he's on his way
Won't be back for many a day
Then in a while we'll have a smile
When we see him there with Cheney at his war crimes trial.
(Ah, wishful thinking, but I'll drink to that.)
"Time to prove Dick Cheney right for the first time in his life."
Jonathan Schwartz, writing at This Modern World:
"Let's remember this section from Bob Woodward's book State of Denial:"
[Andrew] Card kept pushing, at one point raising the possibility of change at the Pentagon with Vice President
Cheney.
No, Cheney said, he was predisposed to recommend that the president keep Rumsfeld right where he was. Card was
not surprised.
In private conversations with Bush, Cheney said Rumsfelds departure, no matter how it might be spun, would be
seen only as an expression of doubt and hesitation on the war. It would give the war critics great heart and momentum,
he confided to an aide, and soon they would be after him and then the president. He virtually insisted that
Rumsfeld stay.
Yep.
Lies, lies, lies, yeaah.
Via AmericaBlog,
which is liveblogging Bush's press conference. "Bush just admitted he lied to the media last week when he said
that Rumsfeld was staying for 2 years"; apparently he knew full well Rumsfeld was going to resign. "And get this,
Bush claims he didn't mention Rumsfeld leaving last week because he didn't want to influence the election. Huh?
Why wouldn't Bush try to influence the election? That's what he just spent the last several weeks doing? So he's
lying again, about lying." Every single word out of that motherfucker's mouth is a lie, including "the," "and"
and "is."
More from John: "Bush is still defending Iraq. He says we're going to
stay. Oh boy, he's in serious trouble. The next two years are going to be all about the disaster in
Iraq. If you thought the Republicans paid a price last night for Bush and Iraq, just wait for the next
elections, congressional and presidential. It's going to be a disaster for the Republicans."
"Bush says Iraq is not having a civil war. Oh, keep it up.">
And now, the pièce de resistance ... "Bush just said
that the Republicans lost because the American people just didn't understand the importance of the
issues."
We just got the Senate.The AP calls Montana for Democratic senate candidate Jon Tester.
That leaves Virginia, and Webb is pulling further ahead as the last votes trickle in. It's now just a wait for
the formality of the state-mandated recount. Webb's gonna win. We're in.
Quote of the day.
I hadn't heard this one before. Thanks, Audrey!
And can someone tell me why they jump all over Kerry for a flubbed
joke directed at Bush, but don't jump on McCain for grievously offending the families of suicide
victims with a joke he didn't flub? Just wondering.
You know what to do.
Go to the polls, now, if you haven't done so already. Avoid the lines.
Vote Democratic.
Get the Republicans out.
If you're normally inclined to vote for a third party, please consider
that in today's election your vote will have more weight and efficacy if you give it to the Democrat this time, as
perhaps it might have helped in the Presidential election last time, and the time before that.
Molly Ivins
offers up a few more reasons to vote Democratic today:
Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, unprecedented presidential powers, unmatched incompetence, unparalleled corruption,
unwarranted eavesdropping, Katrina, Enron, Halliburton, global warming, Cheney's secret energy task force, record
oil company profits, $3 gasoline, FEMA, the Supreme Court, Diebold, Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004, Terri Schiavo,
stem cell research, golden parachutes, shrunken pensions, unavailable and expensive health care, habeas corpus, no
weapons of mass destruction, sacrificed soldiers and Iraqi civilians, wasted billions, Taliban resurgence,
expiration of the assault weapons ban, North Korea, Iran, intelligent design, swift boat hit squads, and on and
on.
Today's election stories.
One caller to Stephanie Miller's radio show (I forget from which state) reported
that she and several others in her area got telephone calls from Republicans offering helpful reminders of where
their polling place is ... and it was, of course, not their polling place. The put together a suit trying to get a
temporary restraining order yesterday, but despite six people testifying they had received these calls the ...
wait for it ... Republican judge refused to grant one. He did, however, scold the Republican lawyer. (Ooh,
that'll help.)
(1) Recruit homeless men in Philadelphia;
(2) Bus them into Maryland;
(3) Arrange for the Republican governor's wife to greet them upon their arrival;
(4) Outfit them in hats and T-shirts for the governor's re-election campaign;
(5) Have them pass out flyers in heavily Democratic areas that erroneously identify the GOP candidates for
governor and U.S. senator as "Democrats."
The complete primer here; a first-hand account
here.
Yes folks, you read that right ... the Republican Party are busing in
homeless people to distribute fake sample ballots in Maryland. And this is only one example. (By the way, in case I hadn't
mentioned it before, the Republican Party is evil and despicable.)
From Missouri, via Audrey: One man reports, "My wife just came home from voting
here in Webster Groves MO. She used the electronic touch-screen voting system... She touched Claire McCaskill's
picture and the machine recorded a vote for Jim Talent. She then called one of the people running the polling
center who helped her correct the problem. My wife then had to call the person over another time after it recorded
her vote a Republican again. In her frustration she asked the person who was responsible for the design of this
system. The polling person leaned in very close to my wife and whispered, 'We're fucked.'"
Today one TPM reader said,
"When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was to check whether there was any kind of
last-minute election-altering surprise.
"No Osama.
"No bombing of Iran.
"No military strike against North Korea.
"The best Rove came up with was Saddam's death sentence, and with Iraq weighing Republicans down like
concrete shoes the additional focus that story brought to Iraq was a mixed blessing."
Yep, the best they could come up with besides that was leaping on
Kerry's flubbed joke (which didn't work), robocalls,
and other chickenshit lies and dirty tricks. They know they have nothing, so they think the only way to get
elected is to lie and cheat. You're all better than that, so don't fall for it. Vote today, and get rid of
them.
Laura Ingraham needs to go to jail.
The aforementioned right-wing radio talk show host spent today encouraging her
listeners to obstruct efforts to protect voting rights by jamming a voter protection hotline.
Think Progress has the transcript and audio at the above link.
She tries to shut down voter protection hotlines on election day. This is now
the right-wing thinks ... intimidate voters, keep them from the polls, and keep them from seeking help if there
have been voter irregularities. This might be just shy of actual vote fraud, but she needs to lose her job, at
the very least. As I understand FCC rules, every station that ran this is subject to huge fines.
Our brilliant president and his followers, keeping us safe.
George W. Bush, ignoring the advice of people who thought, correctly, that this would be a really bad
idea, and under pressure from Congressional Republicans and others on the right, in March ordered the premature release of a huge
cache of documents captured in Iraq after the invasion. They hoped to "leverage the Internet" (i.e., get the frothing right-wing
bloggers to help them) to find the real, true, actual, smoking-gun evidence that Saddam had the WMDs that they were never able to
find. What they did was end up releasing the plans for Saddam's pre-1991 nuclear ambitions, which included a primer, written in
Arabic, on how to build an atomic bomb.
Congressional Republicans like Rick Santorum (who'll be out of work by next Tuesday)
seemed gleeful about this release back in March, proudly taking credit for it, and saying he's not at all concerned that
any of the information might be sensitive, even though he admitted that he had "no idea" what was contained in the documents.
This isn't just another instance of "the buck stops here" accountability. This is an instance of direct, personal intervention by
the president who countermanded the advice of his experts and ordered something to be done that resulted in nuclear secrets, written
in Arabic, landing on the internet.
He did this because he listened to the crew of childlike idiots, both in the congress and on the radio and internet, who comprise
the heart of his political movement. It illustrates something I don't think I've ever fully understood before. Bush listens to the
101st Keyboarders and believes their delusionary
drivel. In essence, the nation is being led by Limbaugh, Powerline and Michele Malkin.
If that doesn't scare the hell out of you, I don't know what will.
Just remember this on Election Day: The Republicans and their rabid-right followers
released nuclear secrets on the Internet in yet another attempt to prove themselves right about Iraq and WMDs, as recently as March
of this year, when we've known since right after the invasion that they were wrong, and there weren't any. These are
the fearmongers who say that only they can keep us safe, and that if you elect the other guys we'll all be blown up.
Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart W. Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on
bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons,
and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces.
And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Mr. Bowen's
supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip.
The order comes in the form of an obscure provision that terminates his federal oversight agency, the Office of the Special
Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, on Oct. 1, 2007. The clause was inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed
Services Committee over the objections of Democratic counterparts during a closed-door conference, and it has generated
surprise and some outrage among lawmakers who say they had no idea it was in the final legislation.
Does anyone need any further evidence that the government of this country -- George Bush
and the Republican Party -- are evil, corrupt and power-mad?
George wins!
The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. reports an international survey of
public opinion that reveals people in Britain, Canada, Mexico and Israel
believe that George W. Bush is
more dangerous than Kim Jong-Il -- "America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest
neighbours and allies ... [the survey] reveals just how far the country's reputation has fallen among former
supporters since the invasion of Iraq." Sure, how many countries has Kim invaded lately?
Aren't you proud?
I scream, I dream, we all scream for ...
Well, you know.
After being a lifetime ice cream fanatic, I kinda had to knock it on
the head for a while, what with the desire to lost weight and all. Unfortunately for my willpower,
I've come across two ice cream parlors (and apparently I'm very late to the game) that have driven me
absolutely mad.
The first is Pazzo Gelato, at Sunset Junction in Silverlake.
Velvety, intensely flavored gelati and sorbetti lie in wait for me there, ready to pounce. So far I've
been gleefully pounced upon by such flavors as Chocolate Martini, a deeply intense chocolate
gelato spiked with Grey Goose à l'Orange vodka; Grapefruit Sorbetto with Gin (which is
mad genius, and makes perfect sense); Strawberry with Basil and a savory Goat Cheese and
Caramelized Peach. This gelateria is dangerously close to home -- I can't walk there, but it's
less than a 10-minute drive -- and I fear it may threaten my waistline.
If this wasn't bad enough, Mary and Steve have been exhorting us to
try another place, on Heliotrope just north of Melrose, called Scoops. Scoops is a one-man
operation run by owner Tai Kim, who is ... well, an artist, a mad genius, you name it. He's a
whirlwind of frozen-custard creativity, that's for sure, and with a couple of exceptions he apparently
never makes the same flavor twice. After the Dia de los Muertos Festival last weekend, as Wes and I
were munching on our now-traditional post-festival bacon-wrapped hot dog,
Mary called and breathlessly recited a list of flavors currently to be had at Scoops. We rushed over.
We decided we'd try four and split the whole thing, and went with
these: Lemon Garlic, which was surprising ... a chiffon-like, perfumey rather than acidic lemon
flavor and a gentle, roasted garlic flavor that didn't overpower as the highly-overrated Garlic
Festival-style garlic ice cream does, and was lovely; Chocolate Cayenne, which I thought was
fantastic -- deeply chocolatey with a real bite from the pepper, chocolate and chile being a natural
combination ... Mary didn't care for it, as the burn was too much going down her throat, but I loved
it, and I hope he does it with ancho chile next time; Grapefruit and Lavender, which was subtler
than you'd expect anything made from grapefruit to be, again a perfume of it rather than an assault,
and it complemented rather than overpowered the lavender, which itselfe can be pretty overpowering; and
the pièce de resistence ... Maple and Black Truffle. It was astonishing. 'Nuff said.
Don't fall too badly in love with any of the flavors, as they're not
likely to be there the next time you go. More likely there'll be a similar one, or one that's along
another trail that was blazed by the last one you liked. It's always an adventure coming here, and reallly,
really frakkin' good.
All this prompted a really weird dream I had last night. I was lost
in some city that was near to yet far from my house, kinda like San Francisco crossed with El Monte,
trying to get somewhere on my bike while both kinda knowing yet not really knowing where I was going.
(I don't have a bike.) I ended up in a dank back alley, stumbled through a few weird little shops until I
found myself in a small but nice little ice cream parlor where the guy had made several savory ice cream
flavors. The one that immediately got my attention was Guanciale and Red Onion Ice Cream.
"You've got to be kidding me," I said. "You put guanciale
in ice cream?" "You, of all people," the guy said, "should find that interesting." (Well, he sure knows me,
whoever he is.) "The trick," he said, "is to get just enough guanciale fat in there for flavor, but not so much
that it's fatty and greasy ... it's really tricky." (This was a very vivid dream.)
The dream ice cream tasted amazing, although I have no idea if it
would in real life.
I'm sorely tempted to try this. However, I must face the question ...
this thing came to me in a dream, so do I make it and triumphantly declare that this genius idea came
to me in a dream? Or do I treat it as I should treat other dream ideas that might not be such a good
idea in the waking world, such as trying to fly unassisted?
I'll let you know.
Alan Richman = idiot.
I've never been terribly impressed with the "lauded" food writer Alan
Richman, especially since his appearances on the Food Network. I found him to be an arrogant blowhard, and with
his latest failed attempt at food "journalism" he proves that in spades.
Richman has written an article in the current issue of GQ that is essentially a
poisoned arrow aimed and fired at New Orleans, mercilessly, and like a bully he trashes the city, its food, its
culture and its people in the aftermath of their darkest hour. The article is not available online; I'd decline
to link to it except for the fact that I want to you to read it, so that you can see how much of an asshole
Richman is. Don't spend money on the magazine, as GQ deserves admonishment for publishing it; head to the
drugstore or newsstand and read it there, then buy something else from the newsstand guy to make up for
it.
If you do read this swill, you'll find that Richman seems to be the kind of man who'll
come across some lying on the street, someone who's been attacked and beaten ... only to chuckle and kick the guy in the
face just for grins and giggles. Fortunately, Richman (whose status as "arguably the most decorated food writer working
today" is astonishing based on the poor research, amateurism and outright wrongness of much of what he says here)
did such a shoddy job in his own attempts at satire and putdown that New Orleans should be able to shake this off fairly
easily.
Our own local food writer in New Orleans, Brett Anderson, wrote a
scathing rebuttal
and indictment of Richman as a writer and self-proclaimed "journalist", one that is richly deserved. Here's Brett:
The November issue of GQ magazine contains a lengthy story wrapped around this scoop: Not only have New Orleans restaurants
sucked for decades, but a full year after Hurricane Katrina, the problem has yet to be remedied.
This tells us a couple of things right off the bat -- New Orleans restaurants as a whole have not
sucked for decades, which demonstrates that Richman was already presdisposed to hate New Orleans, but since Katrina and the
flood many New Orleans restaurants have been better than they've ever been before. He'd have known this if he had bothered
to eat in any of them, and if he indeed had a palate.
The author is Alan Richman, arguably the most decorated food writer working today and, as GQ's globe-trotting gourmand for
the past 20 years, easily among the most privileged. He's prolific and, in recent years, has come to wear many hats. Besides writing
for glossy magazines, Richman is a restaurant critic for Bloomberg News, dean of food journalism at the French Culinary Institute and
a blogger.
Perhaps it's time for some of those privileges to be revoked. Not that he'll ever set
foot in New Orleans again, but if he does, I think most N.O. restaurants should make sure his name's in their POS system,
so that when he calls for a reservation ... "I'm so sorry sir, but there are no tables available. Ever."
Outrage harnessed as both a critical and comedic tool is a Richman calling card; its appearance in the New Orleans piece is an
early signal of the amateurism on display. He likens the French Quarter to Tijuana, dismisses New Orleanians as lazy, overweight
drunkards ("I believe their morning exercise regimen consists of stumbling out of bars") and wonders if Creoles are a myth, "faery
folk, like leprechauns," on the basis of having "never met one."
Leah Chase, the most famous Creole chef on the planet, whom Richman quotes extensively, apparently doesn't count.
He wonders if Creoles are a myth ... what an idiot. Imagine going to New York and wondering if Jews
or Italians are a myth because you've never met one. If anyone was as stupid and insulting as to say something like this it would,
among many other things, demonstrate that such a person had not spent any substantial time in New York, seeing what its people are
really like.
The barbs sink deeper plucked from their context than they do in their original printed form. The wisecracks, facts and
inaccuracies are blended so thoroughly as to dilute any poison that might sting, and Richman is writing about a population accustomed
to being painted in broad, clumsy strokes. Characterizing New Orleans, as Richman does, as a city of "crooks and cooks" is akin to
describing Richman as a neurotic East Coast narcissist whose idea of hardship is flying coach. Both are caricatures based on some
known facts but no formal research.
Like much of Richman's work, his New Orleans story flirts with satire while serving up occasional kernels of truth. (The Quarter is
kind of like Tijuana, or at least Bourbon Street is.) But the piece is not what its length -- several thousand words spread over eight
glossy pages -- and much of its tone imply: serious journalism.
The problem lies not in the harsh eye Richman casts on his New Orleans meals. His lunch at Bayona sounds truly bad, and I too found
Herbsaint's fried frogs' legs to be batter-heavy during recent visits.
Then again, every lunch I've had at Bayona, including
the last one, have been superb.
Also, if he's condemning Herbsaint based on one dish, he's being an irresponsible food writer. Sounds like that's par for
the course, though ... I despise food writers (and music and film writers as well) who want to spend more time showing off
their own self-absorbed "writing prowess" by coming up with more and more clever barbs and witticisms while putting things
down.
It's also difficult to argue with Richman's earth-shattering observation that New Orleans is home to an overabundance of mediocre
tourist restaurants.
Can we say, Court of Two Sisters?
Richman, a student of the tell-don't-show school of writing, is stingy with the details that might give readers a better
understanding of how he arrived at his many firmly held conclusions, some of which neatly discredit themselves.
He was displeased, for instance, with his trout amandine meunière at Galatoire's because "it looked and tasted fried."
Although the traditional French preparation of meunière calls for the fish to be sautéed, it is still a little like
dissing tuna sashimi for being raw, as Galatoire's has been serving trout amandine meunière fried for better than a
century.
And yes, I know this is a logical fallacy technically ... but let's just say that the
James Beard Foundation must have disagreed with Richman's assessment when they awarded Galatoire's with their honor for
America's outstanding restaurant last year.
Richman climbs on a high horse to imply that a glitch in the wine service -- they brought him the right wine, but the wrong vintage
-- at Restaurant August ("I tried not to be too distressed") is somehow relevant to the "tough decision" to spend "Iraq-magnitude
money" rebuilding New Orleans. I'm not making this up. Has Richman's self-involvement morphed into brain damage? Did it spread to his
editors? That is like saying Americans need to consider the soured sautéed skate I was served at Balthazar before supporting
the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.
A minor waiter's mistake is somehow relevant to the "tough decision" to spend
"Iraq-magnitude money" rebuilding New Orleans? Jesus Christ, what a spectaculr fucking asshole.
More egregious is the writer's calculation that he could execute his premise without sincere journalistic inquiry.
Members of the media who've filed credible work from the region over the past year have learned how difficult it is to do justice
to a story of Katrina-Rita's magnitude. Recognizing New Orleans as the victim of something more than a patch of bad weather and, as
Richman would have it, too much hollandaise, requires an immersion in the topic.
Dan Baum's writing in The New Yorker and Charles C. Mann's in Fortune are excellent examples of how magazines can add
flesh to a story most media don't have the time, resources or space to capture adequately. Their articles are the result of deep
reporting, inveterate curiosity, a whole lot of space to write and an understanding that conclusions can't be drawn until the work has
neared completion.
Richman has proven himself capable of handling complicated stories about weighty topics that just happen to use food and/or wine as
their prism; he is the first food writer to receive a National Magazine Award, the glossy world's answer to a Pulitzer. But in New
Orleans, he didn't apply himself enough even to grasp the assignment's challenges. Instead he mucks around in exhausted clichés
with the pride of someone who has uncovered hidden truths.
I admit that I've read almost nothing of Richman's actual writing (having found his
television appearances so off-putting), and he certainly may have had more of a distinguished past. Now, however, the
arrogance which was so plainly on display on television seems to have taken over his writing, given this example, to the
point of laziness and mere condescension.
For example, Richman seems genuinely convinced that discovering schmaltz in a tourist-heavy culture amounts to breaking news. And
he devotes endless ink to the Cajun vs. Creole thing, a topic he has mastered roughly as well as Rush Limbaugh has Parkinson's.
(According to Richman, Cajun food was "brought down from Canada.")
Ignorant fool. To be so wrong about the cuisine is one thing, but the
offhanded dismissal also dismisses an entire people, their culture and their food. Anderson continues:
Richman's story is a weakling's idea of what it means to be tough. Presumably, he conned his editors into believing it's an
exercise in tough love. But knowing that Richman cultivated his ignorance as if it had journalistic value is even more astonishing.
Richman and I are friendly professional acquaintances. When I saw him less than two months ago in Seattle, he
mentioned that he'd recently traveled to New Orleans. I bring this up not because Richman didn't contact me during
his journey south. It's why he didn't call. He said it was because he didn't think I'd like what he was going to
write.
It can be difficult presenting an opinion to a party who is likely to challenge it, and that Richman actively
avoided just such a conversation suggests how completely his journalistic instincts failed him. People in the news
business have a word for refining their viewpoint through discussion: It's called reporting.
On the French Culinary Institute's Web site, Richman is quoted as saying, "Whenever I'm asked what I do for a
living, I don't say I'm a writer, a reporter, an editor or, heaven help me, a foodie. I say I'm a journalist. I'd
love to see more people take up that cause."
If Richman had bothered to take up his own cause in New Orleans, he would have spared himself the
embarrassment attached to his byline in GQ. Deaf to his own sermon, he indeed wrote a story about failure:
his own.
Kenny G became persona non grata in New Orleans for daring to
overdub his circular breathed, horrendous squonk of an assault on an undeserving soprano saxophone over
the genius of Louis Armstrong. From the local reaction, I got the impression that if Mr. Gorelick were
to set foot in the Crescent City again, he'd end up covered in tar and feathers ... and all he did was
defile the music of our Number One Citizen and global cultural ambassador. After kicking New Orleans
repeatedly in the face via this article, as pathetic and weak as it is, I'd say that it would
probably behoove Richman not to set foot in our fair city again. I predict New Orleans' renowned
hospitality might desert us in his case.
Again, I have little knowledge of what he's written before. However,
this article puts him squarely in the Full-Of-Shit category. Rather than any traditional tar, feathers
and riding-out-on-a-rail, I think the best punishment for Richman will be for us all to ignore him from
now on, and forever.
Ardent Spirits.
Gary and Mardee have been busy lately, cranking out tons of newsletters and cocktail
recipes, and I've hardly been able to keep up!
The latest newsletter
features a bar crawl through Manhattan looking for the best Manhattan (which sounds like great fun, and
reminds me of when Wes and I crawled through New Orleans seeking the best Sazerac). There's a link to
Gary's Wine Enthusiast piece on the hot cocktails of 2006,
and more.
And in the latest edition of his fortnightly column The Professor, our
cocktailian bartender, puts a spell on you
with a drink called The Voodoo Priestess, based on VooDoo spiced Caribbean rum (vanilla, cinnamon and
cloves), orange, lime and lemon juices, brandy, orange bitters and a spiced sugar syrup.
Drink up!
Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks, Griffith ... Cruise?
Watch those seismographs, folks ... there are four Hollywood legends
oscililating in their graves
today. (Thanks, Steve!)
Horrific irony.Wonkette reports
that "Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff is the proud recipient of this year's 'prestigious Henry
Petersen award.' The award is traditionally given to Department of Justice criminal division careerists
who did their jobs well for a long time. Chertoff's honor hasn't garnered a lot of attention, but one guy
who did notice was Miles W. Swanson, grandson of Henry Petersen himself." Swanson writes:
Today with horror I read in the Washington Post that Michael Chertoff is receiving the Department of Justice
Criminal Divisions Henry Petersen Award, the most prestigious award for the DoJs Criminal Division. Besides being
my grandfather, Henry Petersen was the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, chief
prosecutor for Watergate, and career employee at the DOJ. What makes this situation so horrible, besides the fact
that Mr. Chertoff is a political appointee, an ass, not a career employee at the DOJ, and probably the exact
opposite of my grandfather.
I moved to New Orleans from D.C. a couple months after Katrina to do volunteer legal work. I staff a free
legal clinic in the 9th Ward with the Common Ground Legal Collective as well as several bankruptcy/debtor relief
clinics in and around New Orleans as part of The Pro Bono Project. As you can imagine, I deal with Mr. Chertoff's
mess on a daily basis. Normally, I go out to lunch with all the heads and award recipient and to the award
ceremony (being held [today] at the DOJ) every year with my grandmother and mother to present the award. It's
probably best that I dont go as they would have a tough time holding me back.
It descends into the offensively surreal when these people start
giving each other awards for the shit they've perpetrated on this nation and the world. Miles Swanson,
my new Favorite Person, wrote this letter directly to Chertoff:
Dear Mr. Chertoff,
My grandfather was Henry Petersen, the man whose award you are receiving tomorrow. Sadly, I am not able to
attend the ceremony tomorrow in the Great Hall. You see, I am an attorney working in New Orleans... I moved to New
Orleans from D.C. a couple months after Hurricane Katrina to provide volunteer legal assistance. I staff a free
legal clinic in the 9th Ward as part of the Common Ground Legal Collective. Furthermore, I founded and run
bankruptcy and debtor relief clinics in several locations in and around New Orleans.
As I have said, it is sad that I will not be able to attend; sad on many different levels. It is sad that you
are receiving the award. You, Mr. Chertoff, do not deserve anything bearing the name of Henry Petersen, let alone an
award. My grandfather was the source of inspiration in my decision to attend law school and devote my life to law
in the spirit of the public interest. You are the antithesis of everything he stood for in life and in memory. You
must realize that I struggle with the effects of your leadership of FEMA on a daily basis (and if you still cannot
hear the sarcasm in my voice, just insert inept before leadership). You have done nothing to deserve this award.
In fact, you deserve no place as part of the Department of Justice. Justice played no role in your authorship of
the PATRIOT Act, your unforgivable response to Hurricane Katrina or your notion of what constitutes torture.
Perhaps in the warped Orwellian minds of this administration or in the dark halls of the Department of Homeland
Security, the concept of justice is flipped so it revolves around violations of the U.S. Constitution and
intrinsic human rights?
It is sad that the Henry Petersen Award is being used so blatantly as a political reward. It is sad that a person's
memory can be so twisted that it fits into your image. I liken it to forcing the square block into the space made
for the triangle. In fact, I will be surprised if your hands will be able to clutch the award tomorrow; your hands
should be repelled by the aura of justice emanating from the text of my grandfather's name inscribed on the
plaque.
Yes, it is sad. It is sad that I will not physically be at the ceremony in the Great Hall when you get the award
(this one is only sad for me). It is sad for the attendees of the award ceremony that they have to sit through
your stupid little speech. It is sad for the person who photographs your lifeless body, complete with contrived
smile, receiving the award. It is sad for the people of New Orleans and of all the Gulf Coast. It is sad for every
citizen of this nation. Yes it is sad, ad nauseam.
In closing (because I have taken enough time out of my day to pay you any heed), I want you to remember every
single time your eyes peer at the Henry Petersen Award in whatever job you happen to be mucking up, that you do
not deserve it.
Sincerely,
Miles W. Swanson, Esq.
Heck of a job, Cherty.
Worst political ad ever.
Vernon Robinson, an astonishingly mean, truly
deranged,
stark raving madman and Republican who's running
for Congress in North Carolina, has been running this ad
(I refuse to sully this site with an embedded image), among many others of its ilk (some of which local stations
have refused to carry). From what I've been reading its only served to
have a negative effect on him, but demonstrates the depths to which the Republican party has
sunk (I think Honest Abe is oscillating in his grave as well). How anyone can take such an ad
seriously without being deranged themselves is beyond me.
Vernon Robinson shames this country. I hope the heirs of Rod Serling and
everyone associated with "Leave It To Beaver" sue this bastard, too.
KFDM continues to get complaints from Jefferson County voters who say the electronic voting machines are not
registering their votes correctly.
Friday night, KFDM reported about people who had cast straight Democratic ticket ballots, but the
touch-screen machines indicated they had voted a straight Republican ticket.
Some of those voters including Lamar University professor, Dr. Bruce Drury, believe the problem is a
programming error.
Saturday, KFDM spoke to another voter who says it's not just happening with straight ticket voting, he says
it's happening on individual races as well, Jerry Stopher told us when he voted for a Democrat, the
Republican's name was highlighted.
And it's always in favor of the Republicans. How odd.
Several of my friends and loved ones
(and a few kind strangers) contribute regularly to this weblog, providing
links, comments and sometimes lots more. Thanks to Wesly Moore, Mike
Luquet, Mary Herczog, Steve Hochman, Dave Schmerler, Nettie DeAugustine,
Diana Schwam, Andy Senasac, Michael Yasui, Steve Gardner, Michael
Pemberton, Steve Kelley, Barry Kelley, Eric Labow, Tom Krueger, Greg
Beron, Sean Burke, Shari Minton and Barry Enderwick.
This means that you may not copy my writing onto other web
pages or anywhere else without my specific written permission. (Quotes of
short passages, properly attributed, may be considered fair use.)
If you do copy my work and pass it off as your own, it's called "stealing"
and "plagiarism".
People who steal my stuff will be étoufféed and served to
Dr. Lecter, with a nice Chianti. (I'm serious. Just don't do it. Thanks.)
