November 22, 2009

On a rogue excursion to Montreal this past year, I made it my mission to rock out with the francophones. I didn’t have as much luck as I wanted to with the ones in La France the previous year: despite my love for Phoenix, and all bands that are non-native English speakers singing in English, I had no success finding music in French that I liked legitimately as much as what I normally listen to.

So I stopped into a record store near the park with the three human chess boards (gotta love Montreal), and told a kindly looking Quebecoise hipster girl to “donnez-moi ce que est bon” (“give me whatever’s good.”) S’il vous plait, of course.

The first thing she thrusted into mes mains was Malajube and I haven’t stopped listening since. They’re known as the francophone Radiohead, but I think they’re more fun and freewheeling than those cold British brooders. I love this track “Pates filo”, but ”Montréal -40°C” is tres impressive aussi. I still have no idea what their name means, even after having employed Google Translate. I put in “Malajube” and it spit out at me again “Malajube”. But you know what else is the same in both languages? Rocking out.

Really it is, I put that in Google Translate too.

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November 21, 2009

Davis, CA —Another day, another farmers market. This time, however, my eco-conscious snacking occurs at supposedly the #1 farmers market in America, according to American Farmland Trust’s poll. I’m not so sure about this designation, though, since I am coming from the other college town with a world-class market, who came in #2 in the poll. In fact, I believe that the voting was fixed! I smell a cover-up, and possibly MURDER. But Friend Who Listens to Music on Tapes goes to school in the “#1” town, so I checked it out. Pshh, it was like, cool, or whatever, I guess.

If I’m going to be objective about it, there are a few little things the Ithaca Farmers Market is lacking compared to the Davis Farmers Market. Like pony rides. Or a rock climbing wall. And a moon-bounce/ astro-jump / cosmo-jump for our Soviet brethren. The freaky hippies are all in tow in both places, and the ethnic foods from around the world represent as well. The produce and foodfare are equal in amazing quality, but Davis has the popsicle people, who offer such creations as strawberry coconut, Thai iced tea, and honeydew wasabi. I think that might give them a slight edge. But we’re all the same fundamentally. We are all smug in our environmental politics and pay slightly more for grapes to feel awesome about ourselves. Davis Farmers Market accepts me as an exchange student, and I happily eat their snacks in an effort to learn about new (mostly similar) cultures. Cultures with pony rides. Those are the best kinds of cultures.

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November 20, 2009
San Francisco, CA — I know, I know. Food porn of this level is barely legal and I’m toeing the line showing it to you. But this is a really an altruistic act because if there’s one thing you should know about San Francisco and one thing only, it’s to go to El Farolito. El Farolito is the meeting place in San Francisco. The nachos on the left were bought for Friend Who’s Name People Mistake for “IKEA” by a suitor she now dates. The same night, I ran into two kids I knew from college there, after a Peruvian man who happens to be Dave Matthews’ personal chef sat next to me and told me all the best places to go in San Francisco for sangria. That dude is the man. And El Farolito is just that kind of place. Furthermore, the carne asada super suiza quesadilla (front) is something I would honestly probably kill you for. It’s no offense or anything. Once you try it I’ll expect the same from you. This is why world peace and the American way are contingent on the fact that El Farolito serves everyone who stops by before the 3 A.M. closing. Life, liberty, and greasy goodness.

San Francisco, CA — I know, I know. Food porn of this level is barely legal and I’m toeing the line showing it to you. But this is a really an altruistic act because if there’s one thing you should know about San Francisco and one thing only, it’s to go to El Farolito.

El Farolito is the meeting place in San Francisco. The nachos on the left were bought for Friend Who’s Name People Mistake for “IKEA” by a suitor she now dates. The same night, I ran into two kids I knew from college there, after a Peruvian man who happens to be Dave Matthews’ personal chef sat next to me and told me all the best places to go in San Francisco for sangria. That dude is the man. And El Farolito is just that kind of place.

Furthermore, the carne asada super suiza quesadilla (front) is something I would honestly probably kill you for. It’s no offense or anything. Once you try it I’ll expect the same from you. This is why world peace and the American way are contingent on the fact that El Farolito serves everyone who stops by before the 3 A.M. closing. Life, liberty, and greasy goodness.

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November 19, 2009

One of my best kept secrets of my chronic and incurable anglophilia is the secret obsession i have with the BBC Radio1 Live Lounge. Most every popular artist of today — from the Arcade Fire to Ne-Yo to Panic! At the Disco — stops through, perform a song they’re promoting, and then they must sing a cover song or have their face ripped off by the jaws of life! No one has yet dared to disobey the rules, and so everyone leaves with their head intact so far. But I keep tuning in, waiting for the day …

It seems half the time that good bands cover other good bands, which can be cool when you get the effect of the Scissor Sisters covering the Gorillaz “Dare” and the Arctic Monkeys doing Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good.” The shit people cover their brethren as well, leading to much less interesting combinations, like Asher Roth doing “Boom Boom Pow”. Or the Jonas Brothers doing Katy Perry. Woo hoo. What a stretch.

Sometimes it can be entertaining when a crap band does a cover of a good song, like My Chemical Romance doing Blur or Katy Perry doing MGMT. It’s like, if only you sang better songs generally, maybe you could earn my respect? But the best is always when someone good covers a fantastically shitty ditty, like when Florence + The Machine does Beyoncé. They actually make “Halo” a song i can listen to without shoving a sharp object in my ear.

Often the covers are awful, but there’s times when the covers are almost as good or better than the original, like the Lily Allen version of “Naive” by the Kooks — it should be in everyone’s iPod alongside the classic version. And there is something really cool about David Gray singing “Smile Like You Mean It.”

Here’s White Lies with “Love Lockdown”, where post-rock meets hip-hop, another example of a top-notch effort.

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November 18, 2009

San Francisco, CA — Dolores Park Happy. It’s a term I’ve already introduced you to but haven’t yet fully explained. Dolores Park has an invisible forcefield around it that doesn’t allow anyone over the age of 35 to enter. Then, once inside the park, there are generally understood rules by which everyone abides. Here are the 10 Commandments of Dolores Park.

1. In the summertime, every attractive male must take off his shirt and play at least three games of frisbee/ and or fetch with a very cuddly dog.

2. Every male is attractive. With the exception of really pudgy dads with their adorable four year old children.

3. All females are attractive, yet also slightly less attractive than you, if you are female as well.

4. Every part of the park must have highly listenable indie music playing, that is of course unless some sort of latin music is playing — latin music you will enjoy so much that it will momentarily inspire you to take salsa classes. The music will never clash.

5. Everyone will be happy.

6. Every cafe bordering the park will be impossibly trendy, and will have preposterously delicious snacks.

7. The sun will always shine. There will never be fog.Tanning will happen, and nobody will get a sunburn.

8. You will see beautiful Mission Dolores and behind it the beautiful San Francisco skyline.

9. Everyone will be happy.

10. Everyone will be happier than happy.

Basically, if the entire world could fit in Mission Dolores Park, there would be no wars. I hope that everyone gets to experience this at some point in their life (before they are 35).

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