Nothing new

I haven't had time, or cared very much, to post anything worthwhile lately. But here are a few things:

I'm working on a documentary that celebrates the 150th anniversary of The Peabody Institute, which includes my school, The Peabody Conservatory. For Baltimoreans, it airs on May 31st at 8pm on WYPR, 88.1 FM. For those out of town, it will be available by podcast on the WYPR website: www.wypr.org

In the meantime, check out dontnotgo.com, a new site about the social scene of New York City. That is, I guess, if you live in New York City. Otherwise, it probably won't make any sense.

Cheers for now.

It's probably better than lumpy gravy.

I found this recipe on the NY Times web site. No longer an ancient family secret.
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Recipe: Zappa Family Spaghetti Sauce

Salt and pepper
1 pound pork spareribs, neck bones or pork chops
1 pound beef chuck roast, blade steak or brisket
3 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 bay leaf
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, preferably Italian
1 28-ounce can tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, roughly chopped
4 small or 2 large pickled peperoncini
Cooked meatballs (see recipe)
1 pound dried spaghetti for serving
Grated Parmesan for serving.

1. Sprinkle salt and pepper all over pork and beef. Place large pot over medium-high heat; when hot, add olive oil and brown meat. (Or cook meat in same pot used for meatballs, browning in the leftover fat.) Remove meat to a platter. Turning heat under pot to medium, add onions, and cook 3 minutes, stirring. Add garlic, and cook 2 minutes longer. Add tomato paste, and stir: cook until it absorbs fat in pan. Add oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, kosher salt and bay leaf, stirring to combine.

2. Add cans of tomatoes and tomato sauce, then 4 1/2 cups water. Stir in sugar, parsley and peperoncini. Return meats to pot with their juices. Bring sauce to a gentle boil. Turn heat down to a simmer, partly cover and leave sauce to simmer 21/2 hours or more, stirring regularly.

3. About 20 minutes before serving, add meatballs to pot. Boil spaghetti according to package directions. Drain, return spaghetti to pan and add 3 cups sauce. Toss pasta in pan for a minute to coat with sauce, and place on a large platter. Pour 2 more cups sauce over pasta. Place meat and meatballs on pasta, slicing large pieces. Serve with bowls of remaining sauce and Parmesan.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Word is bond!

Like most major industries, I know little about hip-hop as a business. But, at least to me, it's blatantly obvious that industry suits exploit entertainers every single day for the benefit of money. This New York Times article about a raid supposedly over the illegal proceedings by the Atlanta mix-tape crew, the Aphilliates, makes for an interesting situation involving the relatively useless RIAA.

An Inconvenient Truth

One of the things I look forward to most about the annual Academy Awards nominations is the documentary category. Each year, I get to see which films slip through the cracks of major movie houses and practically straight to the video shelves (read Netflix browsing page.) And in the past, the Academy has generally picked some great films, some that go on to be my favorites and others that are entirely new to me.

My personal favorite documentary of 2006 was Jeff Feuerzeig's "The Devil and Daniel Johnston", a fantastic look at underground music's most well respected delusional, which could not have been presented more eloquently. It was much more than a typical biopic. But this film is nowhere to be found in the "Best Documentary" column. (Note: Looking more closely, I believe the film was technically released in 2005, but it's neither on the ballot for the 78th awards nor the 79th.)

Instead, it is filled with melodramatic, headline-laced choices about corrupt religion (“Deliver Us from Evil”; "Jesus Camp"), the Middle East (“Iraq in Fragments”;"My Country, My Country"), and of course, "An Inconvenient Truth." All of these films are certainly more than worthy of a nomination, and they are all great topics to discuss. But this only encompasses a small fraction of what a documentary can be.

Although one of the objectives or documentary is to pull viewers further into the unknown world, but I'm convinced (if only formed by my own opinions) that people also want to watch them to escape from the world just for a couple of hours.

On a related Oscar note, congratulations goes out to Ryan Gosling, the Cinderella nominated for leading actor in "Half Nelson", a film that sits somewhere near the top of my 2006 films. Watch out for "Little Miss Sunshine"; Best Motion Picture all-the-way.

TV Junkie

On this, the day that I mourn the down-grading of my cable to "basic" status, I must admit that I have had somewhat of a love affair with my television. This is common among most winter dwellers; as temperatures drop, so do the chances of me leaving the house after dark (or at all.)

But thankfully, there are a few good things on that idiot box and one of the funniest new shows I've seen lately is 30 Rock, on NBC. And luckily the network picked the show up for a full season. A miracle, if you ask me, considering the way that major networks handle shows of this nature (i.e. Arrested Development.) If you haven't seen it yet, you're in luck. NBC posts the most current episodes on its web site for watching in their entirety.

I have to admit that I don't find most comediennes to be very funny (Margaret Cho and Sarah Silverman ranking among the worst), but Tina Fey is astounding with her marginally-believable story lines and clean, witty jokes. The under-worked and under-appreciated Tracy Morgan plays a scarier version of himself, Jack McBrayer is dead-on with is portrayal of Kenneth the NBC page, and Judah "Why Doesn't That Guy Do More Work" Friedlander also plays a small part as a writer for "The Girlie Show," the fictitious sketch-comedy show within the show. The third major player behind Morgan and Fey is Alec Baldwin who just recently received a Golden Globe for his role in the series, which I hope would leave the network execs feeling comfortable with their decision to proceed with the show.

I'm telling you, watch this series.

Reunited Against the Machine

The LA Times reported today that Rage Against The Machine will reunite for a one-time show at this year's Coachella Festival in Southern California.

This news is only marginally exciting for many reasons, one being that the rap-rock movement is completely stale and out-dated. However, I will be the first to admit that if any band from that era made any sense it would be Rage. There is hear-say as to why the band split in the first place, probably the most believable being that MC Zach de la Rocha felt the band wasn't making the political impact he set out to make in the first place, and capitalize too much on an image that someone else was selling.

I'm curious myself as to why this is even happening, but it's great to know that with our country in such a state of limbo that popular musicians (other than Toby Keith) are making statements to their fans and the general public.

Miles Ahead

God bless the YouTube revolution.

Not too long ago, my professor, Mike Formanek, a great jazz musician and all-around nice guy, spoke eloquently about the impact of YouTube with music history. Many clips have already been posted of rare footage (albeit sometimes grainy and noisy) of music performances, interviews, etc. ; material that over the years has been passed hand-to-hand or shared with one another through whatever means possible.

But as most issues with copyrighted material often turn out, these commodities can only last so long before they must be removed for "legal purposes." I've already seen this happen as one of the most notorious clips in jazz history has been posted and subsequently removed from the video-sharing site for such reasons: Paul Gonsalves "sleeping" on the Duke Ellington's bandstand at Newport, just feet away from the pounding drum kit.

So I'm sharing with you (while I can) this clip of the Miles Davis Quintet performing "So What" on CBS in 1959, near the time of the release of "Kind of Blue," which is appropriately the best-selling jazz album of all time and one that any music-lover should own. This quintet features Davis and John Coltrane playing at peak form, and also includes drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and pianist Wynton Kelly.



Sometimes, my generation can really take for granted the technology that is available to us, and can't truly appreciate the simplicity of typing a few words into a search engine, which returns gems such as this.

"Donde Gucci?"

I'm not much for Hollywood gossip, but I stumbled upon this commentary from The First Post, a British publication.

I'm sure the Beckhams will fit in perfectly.

Mountaintop Removal and you

I recently (although not too recently) had the privledge of attending the Baltimore premiere of
"Black Diamonds," a documentary from Baltimore-by-way-of-southern-West-Virginia filmmaker Catherine Pancake, at the Creative Alliance. After the viewing, a small panel discussion took place with speakers who were featured in the movie. The film centers around the Appalachian people's struggle with the everyday problems of Big Coal and more particularly the strip-mining method commonly referred to as "mountaintop removal" (MTR.) the most problematic being flooding the endangerment of citizens lives.

Like myself, Pancake spent a significant time in her life in West Virginia, where this subject is often quiet yet ever present. It tends to polarize those who either see themselves as "for" or "against" the clearing of mountaintops to get to seams of coal, and then dumping the fill into the valleys and streams. Of course this is a complex subject that can be approached from many directions, but is mostly seen as a debate between industry (i.e. jobs) and environment. I feel that, no matter what side of the fence that anyone sits upon, this doc focuses directly on the human aspects of this "elephant in the room." Particularly, the filmmakers choose to direct the attention to residents of southern West Virginia, such as Marie Gunnoe (pictured) and Julie Bonds, who live on the frontlines of this battle that has been slowly wagging for over 25 years.

Pancake shows an obvious environmental slant in the film, which makes it more a passionate document and less of a news-magazine profile, by placing more blame on the coal industry than any other source. My personal beliefs are that the coal industry giants (companies such as Massey and King Coal) have taken advantage of Appalachia and its people, by turning over major profits while over-looking the environmental backlash. However, it can't be that simple. Production is only a part of the equation; what the film failed to address, but was highlighted in the post-film discussion by Mrs. Bonds, was the role of Americans in consuming energy and electricity. Appalachian coal provides electricity for many states outside of the region, and we should all make the concerted effort to cut back on consumption.

I encourage all citizens of this country, and possibly the world, to actively research this topic on his/her own. It hits home for me very hard because my father's company relies on the commerce of the coal industry, and he and I have discussed this matter in a dignified manner and he makes some pretty convincing arguments the suggest the necessity of MTR... and it mainly has to do with consumption.

Here are some of the links on the topic:
Larry Gibson and Kayford Mountain
An article from the Mother Jones Journal
www.ilovemountains.org