#ok back to posting the regular way this was just an interlude between talking about being sick and loving my cat

[offbrandvegas]

if i gotta see one more dragon age fan complaining about no blood magic in veilguard im going to do some REAL blood magic (go to my primary care and get a long overdue cbc)

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #107

Sat April 7 2018 [00:42:57] <Wackd> Folks, a big hand for our regular artist for the next three years, Mr. John Buscema! [00:43:41] <maxwellelvis> This is actually a good reason to cheer. [00:44:21] <Wackd> So! First order of business--get all this fucking ice out of here. [00:44:22] <Bocaj> Woo John Buscema! [00:44:27] <Bocaj> You're better than some other johns [00:44:34] <maxwellelvis> He is a DAMN FINE artist http://static.flickr.com/2700/4325639064_d49953295d_b.jpg [00:45:04] <Wackd> well uh he DID give iron man a creepy human face [00:45:08] <Wackd> so let's not overstate things [00:46:13] <Wackd> So Johnny has to basically insta-evaporate the ice as soon as it melts back to water, so that no water touches any wires. [00:46:41] <Wackd> Clearly throwing fire at it is the best way to accomplish this and this is all perfectly safe. [00:48:33] <Wackd> The procedure works! [00:48:52] <Wackd> And now Ben can switch between being the Thing and being human at will! [00:49:34] <Wackd> (Reed says this is something Ben "didn't expect", but for the record, this is something that was mentioned two issues ago.) [00:50:27] <Wackd> Right now, it takes Ben strain and effort to transform, but Reed assures him it'll get easier with time. [00:53:18] <Wackd> GOD i just want these two idiots to be happy without falling into a pit of mutual self-loathing

[00:54:31] <Bocaj> Damn't alicia [00:54:47] <Wackd> like, i think this is why i ship them so hard, is because seeing them work through their issues and be happy together would be SO SATISFYING [00:55:13] <Wackd> i dunno how i'm gonna feel about the, like, three other love interests ben is gonna have at some point [00:55:22] <maxwellelvis> I think this is like, the first of at least TWO times in the 70's where Ben is human briefly. [00:55:58] <maxwellelvis> Well they try to redo the two-person pity-party ping-pong with Sharon Ventura, but not nearly as deftly, I think. [00:56:41] <Wackd> We'll get to that when we get to that. [00:57:15] <Wackd> So anyway Johnny sees Ben and Alicia happy and immediately starts angsting about Crystal. [00:57:47] <Wackd> "Not a single word from her--since she rejoined the Inhumans!" Johnny. Buddy. That happened EARLIER TODAY. [00:58:07] <Wackd> I'm pretty sure Sue didn't even know this was a thing that happened until you said that, that's how recent this was. [01:01:38] <Wackd> So Johnny's sulking transitions into how he's the youngest and no one takes him seriously and so on and so on. [01:02:07] <Wackd> Which okay fine but Johnny, right now you're angsting that your girlfriend left you because she was in mortal peril, and hasn't called you since she left like an hour ago. [01:02:16] <Wackd> That--that's kinda hard to take seriously! [01:02:49] <maxwellelvis> Not to mention worrying, because the last time you got like this, you nearly committed a war crime. [01:02:57] <Wackd> Also true! [01:02:58] <Bocaj> Oh right [01:05:05] <Wackd> hahaha ok sure sue

[01:05:10] <Bocaj> Look, who hasn't committed a war crime in the throes of passion? [01:05:20] <Bocaj> I haven't but I assume that at least three out of five people have [01:06:07] <Bocaj> I'm constantly surprised that Reed/Sue is the one marvel marriage that has stood the test of time [01:06:15] <Bocaj> I know the doylistic reasons why [01:06:18] <maxwellelvis> And I'm pretty sure if he tried to pull that a second time, the others might not FEEL like pulling your bacon out of the frying pan. [01:06:20] <Bocaj> But I'm still constantly shocked [01:07:01] <Wackd> Okay so I wanna make it absolutely clear, Sue's talking a load of bullshit, and this "bad temperedness" has only been happening the last, like, page or so.

[01:07:31] <Wackd> The Four haven't gotten along any better or worse than usual in the past few issues, give or take Johnny, again, nearly committing a war crime. [01:08:35] <Wackd> Sue contemplates a temporary separation but says that being apart from Reed would be more than she could bare, and therefore she can sympathize with Johnny. [01:08:46] <Wackd> Johnny is busy burning Crystal's name into the roof of a water tower. [01:09:35] <Bocaj> Have we seen hatemonger yet? [01:10:08] <maxwellelvis> Yes. [01:10:08] <maxwellelvis> That was ages ago. [01:10:10] <Wackd> Yeah. [01:10:29] <Bocaj> Is it perhaps Hatemonger or Hatemonger's sidekick Irritationmonger? [01:10:48] <maxwellelvis> I still commend Kirby for the whole idea of making him Hitler dressed as an Inquisitor. [01:10:56] <maxwellelvis> Makes it absolutely sure no one would sympathize with him. [01:11:23] <Wackd> https://f4liveblogarchives.tumblr.com/post/171641387078/fantastic-four-vol-1-21 [01:11:26] <maxwellelvis> I think at this time, the Hate-Monger who would next return would actually be the Man-Beast in disguise, and operating a cult. [01:11:36] <maxwellelvis> Using Brother Sun and Sister Moon as his puppets. [01:11:49] <maxwellelvis> (Can you tell that this plot came when the Moonies were in the news?) [01:11:56] <Wackd> Turns out Ben with these new powers is a real jerk. [01:12:14] <Bocaj> Dammit ben [01:12:18] <Wackd> First he turns into the Thing in the middle of a crowded train to freak people out. Alicia doesn't like it. [01:12:34] <Bocaj> Wait he was a jerk without the new powers too [01:12:46] <Wackd> Then he lays flat some hijackers, and then wakes them up so he can wail on them more. [01:12:53] <Wackd> Alicia REALLY doesn't like it. [01:13:06] <maxwellelvis> I'm assuming the later period where he loses his powers entirely and uses a Thing-shaped suit of power armor he's less of a jerk. [01:13:39] <Bocaj> It could look like anything so why did he choose a thing shaped suit [01:14:02] <maxwellelvis> Because the duality of Ben: He doesn't want to be the Thing, but he also feels weird NOT being the Thing [01:14:13] <Wackd> aw jeez poor alicia

[01:14:51] <Bocaj> Dammit ben [01:14:54] <maxwellelvis> Okay, NOW I can believe something's messing with their emotions. [01:15:04] <Wackd> Oh yeah, absolutely. [01:15:32] <maxwellelvis> Something is slowly but surely magnifying their negative traits. [01:15:35] <Wackd> Though I do know the Reed/Sue split is coming so I was half-betting on it happening here. What with Sue saying maybe it'd be good for them to split up for a bit. [01:15:57] <Wackd> But nah, Ben hurting Alicia seals it. Emotion fuckery is happening. [01:16:19] <maxwellelvis> Reed's even more distant than usual, Sue's taking it in less and less stride, Johnny's even MORE pining for Crystal than usual, and Ben is so angry he's taking it out on everyone around him. [01:17:10] <maxwellelvis> This isn't DC, so we can cross Psycho Pirate off the list of suspects. [01:17:51] <Wackd> So, another bit of timeline fuckery brought on by me trying to corral all the Kirby stuff to one side. [01:18:27] <Wackd> We here get our introduction to Janus, who lets himself into Reed's lab, shoots Reed, and lets himself into the Negative Zone. [01:19:08] <Wackd> Next issue, Janus will be revealed to have, like, some kind of second personality or something? And then he'll let Annihilus into our world in issue 109. [01:19:31] <Wackd> Anyway. [01:20:33] <Wackd> We also get a brief Sue interlude where she visits Franklin. She tries to sneak up on him invisibly, but he spots her. [01:20:44] <Wackd> Despite her insistence that she didn't make a sound. [01:21:16] <Wackd> It's weird to me that the craft she took to get there was running silent--though weirder things have happened--but it certainly wasn't invisible. [01:22:06] <Wackd> Anyway, Ben and Johnny get into one of their usual fights, but much angrier than usual. Reed breaks it up so they can solve the Janus problem. [01:22:37] <Wackd> And cliffhanger. [01:22:48] <maxwellelvis> Janus is using his negative powers to- D'OH!I I called it and I didn't even realize it. [01:23:01] <maxwellelvis> I honestly forgot Janus was a thing, and that we were coming up to him again. [01:23:04] <Wackd> I mean. [01:23:07] <Wackd> It's possible? [01:23:09] <Wackd> I dunno. [01:23:25] <maxwellelvis> How defined was his negative powers in the Kirby version? [01:24:22] <Wackd> He mostly had the power to change the world to his whim in physical ways. I don't remember him changing emotions. [01:24:31] <Wackd> I did look at the real 108 already--that hasn't changed. [01:24:40] <maxwellelvis> Ah [01:24:43] <Wackd> But I wouldn't put it past Stan to pull something like that out of his ass. [01:25:05] <maxwellelvis> That one just had Janus in it, no Annihilus, right? [01:25:22] <Wackd> Yeah. [01:25:35] <maxwellelvis> Ah. [01:26:05] <maxwellelvis> Also, I want to put it out there, Janus is very forgettable as a villain. [01:26:07] <maxwellelvis> Visually at least. [01:28:36] <Wackd> Huh. He didn't reappear at all until 2001. [01:28:42] <maxwellelvis> Y'see? [01:28:51] <maxwellelvis> He's just a guy with a bad haircut and a worst costume. [01:28:56] <Wackd> Yeah. [01:28:58] <maxwellelvis> Or the other way around. [01:29:23] <maxwellelvis> And it looks like in the story to come, he doesn't realize how short his arms are. [01:29:35] <Wackd> Literally the only interesting thing about him is that he's Kirby's last Four villain, and circumstances have made it so that makes him LESS appealing.

[thechocolategarage]

From Vietnam & Eastern Congo to Browned Butter

August 4, 2017

Happy Friday! Guess what we are tasting tomorrow? You'll get to travel from Vietnam, through Madagascar all the way to Eastern Congo, to end in a cast iron skillet with butter browning... All while you are happily ensconced in our cozy, blue velvet corner, feet firmly grounded on our happy chocolate floor, imaged above. Mmm. No better way to start your Saturday! Which reminds me, if you want to do something helpful for The Chocolate Garage, I am not a partaker in Yelp, on either end, business side or consumer, but we would love it if you are a regular and love what we do, if you could go find our page on Yelp and write an honest review, what you love, what we could improve on, why you come visit us. We recently got a not so great review, so we would love for you to help populate our review page with additional experiences and describe your relationship with The Chocolate Garage! Thank you. Now, I decided to spend most of today's newsletter going into some depth about each bar. I have been focussed quite a bit on additional activities around Happy Chocolate, that make it possible for us to keep doing what we do Wednesdays and Saturdays at The Chocolate Garage, and I feel a consequence has been more talk and excitement around our trips, and perhaps less focus on each bar we are holding up, tasting and celebrating. So, I by no means I am less excited about our trips, they are a great way to go deeper into understanding the infinitely complex set of steps that have to happen to result in Happy Chocolate, and they are also our chance to not only share the trips with those ON the trip, but also let folks who can't come, have a peak into some of the challenges in the supply chain, and learn about inspiring projects that are starting to build alternate models that are more thoughtful ways of doing business. Saturday Tasting Menu Arete Fine Chocolate Lam Dong 73% Patric Madagascar 67% Original Beans Femmes de Virunga 55% Patric Chocolate Browned Butter Bar Arete Fine Chocolate LAM DONG 73% For the new folks to our happy chocolate world, let's dig deeper into this bar. And the makers. David and Leslie Senk are high school sweethearts who found each other once again later in life and are so sweetly in love with each other and with small batch chocolate making. Leslie left her job in the dental world, and has been full time into chocolate making for at least a few years, and David has held on to this tech day job, joining Leslie nights and weekends to live the chocolate life. They have the long game in mind, with plans to bring their company to a certain level, learning more and more, before eventually moving full, full time into chocolate. David and Leslie have been coming in to The Chocolate Garage since soon after we opened in 2010. I remember they once played with germinating some seeds and they brought a half dozen cacao seedlings to give away to customers to grow in their hopefully hot an humid bathrooms... they brought in chocolate tests that were back then all vegan, experimenting with how to use cocoa butter to add various flavors, I remember finding the early tastes not delicious. What I think worked really well with this company, is that David and Leslie were super open to feedback, and kept bringing in more and more samples, they sent their samples off to other well versed chocolate industry folks, sometimes including a bar they thought was bad, to test whether their ideas lined up with other "more experienced" tasters. For years they made test batches, got feedback from many people, both citizen tasters as well as folks deeply steeped in the industry. Then they started building out a factory, they made batch after batch, until we were super excited about their Brasil 75% and their Brasil 70%. They launched these bars at The Chocolate Garage, and immediately our customers fell in love, and almost always, loved one or the other bar better. These were 2 ingredient bars, using an origin that had not been very common at that time, and the love affair with Areté was real. As they keep experimenting with various origins, making tiny batches, learning how to work with so many different origins, tweaking roasts, tweaking conching, they have come to their style. What fascinates me is that their attitude about learning, testing, improving is still there. I sense they still feel that they are in school. Learning, experimenting, sharing and finding their own point of view, all while building new machines to improve their process. I am so excited for their next big steps, and I am honored to get to work with them so closely. Lam Dong, from Vietnam, let's talk about that. This is the third or fourth bar using cacao from Vietnam. Most of you who have been coming to The Chocolate Garage for some time, probably first tasted this origin when we had brought in Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat. Marou really brought Vietnam to our attention, and showcased the varied flavor profiles from various farms located in different parts of Vietnam. After launching their beautifully designed bars with award winning packaging, they also were committed to making sure cacao farmers who produced high quality cacao also had access to a market that was paying top dollar for cacao. We started to see smaller craft chocolate makers in the US and Canada and Europe and ok, the world (craft chocolate is definitely an international phenomenon now), making bars from these beans. We loved Areté's version of Tien Giang, and Ben Tre, and now, tomorrow we are featuring the Lam Dong. We also carry their Lam Dong 100%, which I think may be the first 100% Vietnam bar. Tomorrow we will taste their 73% version, which has 12% added cocoa butter that was pressed in house from the same beans. So, what does that mean? It means most of the time, when craft chocolate makers do add cocoa butter--which many do not because they stick to two ingredient bars-- they add cocoa butter (natural or deodorized) that was pressed from other beans, usually without much traceability. What Areté is doing is pressing those same beans they are using for the bar (Lam Dong) and adding 12% same origin butter to total a 73% bar. The first maker I know of to do this as a matter of principle, was Shawn Askinosie, who usually added about 2-3% butter to his bars, but always same origin. The reason more makers don't do this, is because it is a huge pain. :) It is hard, hard work, your machine breaks down, you need to work out what to do with the cacao cake left over (remember our bake off with Areté cocoa powder?), your bars end up being more pricey. That was a little interlude, I am realizing I have SO MUCH I WANT TO SAY! So, one more tiny bit of education, if you want to get into what the 73% means, in this case given the 12% cocoa butter, it means that this is what the little picture would look like if you wanted to see the ingredients of this bar: 61% cacao beans in a pile + 12% cocoa butter + 27% cane sugar. Yup. Maybe I should move on to some of the other bars, because at this rate, this newsletter ain't ever going to end. Patric Chocolate Madagascar 67% Mr. Alan. McClure. I remember the first time I talked to him. He was off to Sweden for some reason, they were doing some work around craft chocolate, maybe wanting to showcase his work, don't remember the details, and he is too busy with school and making chocolate for me to call him to ask him that detail... but he called me as he was heading to the airport, to answer questions about my recent shipment, which at that time, I had stored in my home closet, to keep it in a cool, dry, dark place. This was 2009 or early 2010, I had been tasting his bars for some time by then, but was finally bringing these in to sell in my soon to open retail space. I got my first glimpse of his perfectionist nature, with how he shipped and wrapped the bars, to protect what was obviously a deep work of love. The bar we are going to taste tomorrow already existed, but the formulation, the packaging, and even the man behind the bar were all very different. The energy and optimism was strong, the bars were two ingredient, much smaller, and the packaging was a small dark colored cardboard box, with a golden Patric logo, and a deep orange-red alien looking cacao pod on the cover. This man was *way* ahead of his time. I remember tasting these bars with a dear friend who was making amazing confections back then, and we were both blown away by the variety of flavors, even between the different Madagascar bars: the 67% and the 75% were each dramatically different. Alan was sourcing beans from Bertil Åkesson, the man responsible for almost every Malagasy origin bar you on any store shelf (an example of an exception: Madecasse uses cacao from other Malagasy farms) and his original line up was all Madagascar. 10 years later, this cacao still exists and is top notch. We used to say this was a bean you couldn't mess up, but I suppose that would be a whole other post... Alan makes magic with these beans, and has been doing so for years. If you want to do something fun and creative, buy a Patric Habanero tomorrow, break it open and taste it up against his plain 67% and see how the Habanero infused salt drives the citrus notes in totally new directions. It is a fascinating experience, it turns into more lime notes, and the balance of the heat and strong fruit and chocolate notes is perhaps perfection. Even if you don't like super fruity bars, like me. Somehow Alan just brings it all together in such a masterful way. So much to say about Alan, but suffice to say, there is also a connection between Areté and Alan, I have said this before and will say it again, to all budding makers: If I were to get into making chocolate, my first stop (after reading the relevant books on this topic) would be Colombia, Missouri, to consult with Alan on how to make chocolate. Spend the money, it is so worth it. David went to spend a few days with him, and says it saved him so much learning and time. Alan is a man of his word, a man of incredible integrity, has become a dear friend and we have both been deeply involved in each other's evolving business model, always making time to advise one another, share our expertise to the other's benefit (I am not a perfectionist in the same way Alan is, and I hate building spreadsheets ;) and I would not be where I am without Alan's trust, friendship and dry sense of humor. He is not the only one to recognize, but since we are talking about him right now, there it is. Original Beans Femmes de Virunga 55% This is an interesting story. And I suspect we will see more and more of this in the future. Actually, if I were to move into making chocolate, this may well be the model I would use. Our next film (after Hawaii which is imminent!), on Switzerland will showcase this model, and we will meet and visit with the latest maker to start working with this company, effectively outsourcing the chocolate making part, to very competent makers, while focussing on all the other sections of the supply chain. Original Beans works very closely with Max Felchlin, perhaps the Happiest Chocolate maker in Switzerland, and sources the beans and oversees the recipes, producing bars that they then sell internationally. While we were visiting this summer, we saw Vera Hofman, from Original Beans, who was on site that day to work on some product development. Max Felchlin is an amazing company, that both makes their own products that serve confectionery companies internationally, and also do private labelling with various chocolate makers and other brands who want to promote their products (think chocolate Swiss Army knives by Victorinox, or Mövenpick chocolate ice cream). Original Beans has taken on working directly with the bean origins, and marketing their product and educating the customer, and leaving the chocolate making expertise in the hands of the chocolate maker. They are definitely involved in developing how they want their bars to taste, but they let the technical aspects of chocolate making rest in the hands of Max Felchlin. The bar we will taste will be the 55% Stong Dark Milk made with cacao from Virunga Park in Eastern Congo. You can read more about this and other projects on their website, the truth is this is the company I have the least direct relationship with, having met Vera briefly this summer, and having had some virtual interaction with one of their original founders back in 2008 or 2009, I cannot give you as much info as I would like. So far, all the pieces of data I have collected and learned about point in the direction of Happy Chocolate, but my depth of knowledge on this company is more limited than most of the other companies we carry. And, in my experience, digging and going deep is the only way to really know and build a relationship. It takes time and interaction. While I keep doing that, please enjoy this delicious bar, that is working towards positive change in Eastern Congo. Patric Chocolate Browned Butter I won't go into more detail about Patric Chocolate, since I did that above, but: This Bar. I think it exemplifies the process Alan goes through to make a fantastic bar. I tell this story all the time at the Garage, as I lovingly call our teeny, weeny space, that is an old carriage house/garage, Alan did two test batches a week, for three and a half months, before he was feeling this bar was ready. He experimented with the brand of butter he used, how he browned it, which brown sugar he would use, what blend of cacao worked best. I think this is why his bars are always masterfully made, even if they are not your exact taste preference. I have some bars of Patric's that are not my cup of tea, but they are always made to such a quality and thoughtfulness, that leaves most other inclusion bars ashamed. Patric Chocolate does not use an inclusion to cover up flaws, he uses the best mix of beans and other flavors and ingredients to make the best combination of flavors possible. That alone is rather rare in the chocolate industry. Sometimes it makes sense to take some harsh cacao and do a dark milk, arguably that brings out the best in a dark milk. But most of the time what I am tasting and seeing, is inclusions as distractions, attempt to cover up flawed beans or a lack of technical skills. Alan's wide range of inclusion bars is responding to a market that wants new, change, flavors, and fun! He excels at single origin, and also rocks the playful bars! So, enjoy! I hope you have a fantastic tasting tomorrow, I will be deep into working on the films, and preparing the next trip to India... and Nicaragua. Please email us if you would like to learn more about either of these trips, you can also go back to earlier newsletters (past few weeks, on our blog) to see more info on each trip, I must run off to another meeting and cut this newsletter off! :) Happy Friday again, Sunita p.s. for those who are curious, wrote this in under two hours! Hope there are no mega typos! Please forgive!

I can't wait to share Episode 4 of The Chocolate Garage in Switzerland, where we talk more about Choba Choba's team (above) and their inspiring work. 

One of the many beautiful natural scenes in Switzerland, here I am admiring the terraced vineyards above Lac Leman and the majestic mountains rising up across the lake on the French side. 

[edibleflowerseu]

SOUNDS

Alexandre Bazin / Full Moon (2016) [Umor Rex]

“Eleven stunning compositions with a neo-classical signature, an obsessive focus on structure and a refined sense of melody. Emotional compositions serve as interludes to relaxing, post-new age moments, with plenty of space for intuitive beat journeys. An independent-minded composer attuned to the society that surrounds him, he channels the fury of the world into exceptional music marked with poetry. With a free-thinking approach to writing, Alexandre transcends context and genres. Full Moon is the meeting point of early electronic analog exploration and classical minimalism.” (---)

...

What the fuck does that quote even mean. I dunno, bruh. I'm feeling kinda sick and beat af. Need to sleep. Didn't do enough of that last night or the two nights before.

Anyway I've only listened to like four tracks off this but its a lot of fun, I think. I think its fun. I can't tell what is fun anymore, but I still try to have it. U know??

I wanna listen to this more when I have the time but rn gotta meet up with a gal, u know how it is. I honestly just wanted to include this cause it has bangin' artwork I'm very into. An aesthetic I would like to emulate for my own work, whatever or whenever that will be. A reminder to return here when the weather improves.

Burial / Rival Dealer (2013) [Hyperdub]

“Few electronic artists from the last decade have been pigeonholed like William Bevan. Since the London producer behind Burial gained widespread attention with 2007's epochal second album, Untrue, listeners and critics alike have spoken of "the Burial sound"—pitched-down vocal samples, rustling noise, blocky garage rhythms in perpetual decay—as if it were straight gospel ... As imitators big and small have lined up to pay respect, the phrase 'sounds like Burial' escaped the connotation of wishful thinking and started sounding almost like, well, an insult.

Insulting because, as this decade so far has proven, one person who doesn't sound like Burial anymore is Burial himself.” (---)

...

Burial has long been in the domain of “shit I fuck with if I ever decide to fuck with it.” I've known about him a long ass time, been in my radar, and showered with praise in every corner of the internet in which his named is dropped. Good dude, mysterious dude. Wintery dark type dude.

I don't know shit about this genre front as I may. But I like the way it makes me feel, and I want to feel like this more.

Max Richter / The Blue Notebooks (2004) [Fat Cat]

“Conceptually, Max Richter's The Blue Notebooks – German-born composer mixes contemporary classical compositions with electronic elements in a dreamscapy journalogue featuring excerpts from Kafka's The Blue Octavo Notebooks as narrated by Tilda Swinton – reads like a relentlessly precious endeavor, as new age music for grad students, the sort of record that sagely pats you on the back for being smart enough to seek it out. And yet in practice, despite the fact that it is exactly as outlined above, Kafka quotes and all, there is absolutely nothing exclusive or contrived-feeling about it.” (---)

___

“[U]nlike his influences, he's not remotely interested in subverting the traditional rules of composition. Short of one very beautiful moment that plunges an electronic sublow bassline into a deep sea of harpsichords and violas (see: the literally perfect "Shadow Journal"), there is nothing here to suggest that Richter is concerned with anything other than melody and economy. It's a formula he singlemindedly exploits with staggering effect.” (---)

...

I have a problem with Max Richter. Back in college, I took a summer semester film course in which – among other things – I had to watch old ass movies. One of those old ass movies was a bit called Intolerance, which was D.W. Griffith's attempt at redemption after he massively fucked up with the famously racist Birth of a Nation**. Within, it's a handful of unconnected narratives set throughout history (Babylonia, the Renaissance in France, Jesus getting his ass whooped by a cross, and one set in “modern” times a.k.a. 1916). It's pomp, it's pretentious, it's James Cameron in the 1910s. But most importantly, it's two hours and silent. I had to watch a shitty two hour silent film for class. I guarantee u I was the only one who actually did it.

I survived by endlessly looping Richter's Memoryhouse as a quasi-score for the film. It worked incredibly well and I got very into the movie. But now, every time I hear that album or anything from it, an image of a huge and horrifically expensive historical set piece being set on firefor some weak high art film snobbery wedges itself into my subconscious.

The Blue Notebooks wholesale revisits some melodic motifs here and there, which instantly conjured up my past woes. That being said, it was still a killer, moving album. It has Tilda Swinton reading some excerpts from Kafka's journals, which teeters between “ooh this is fun” and “try-hard city.” Generally it is the the former, and upon multiple listens, maybe its always the former.

**ok looked this up actually an urban myth, he apparently made this film in reaction to the intolerance he perceived the NAACP and others had for him after making the famously racist Birth of a Nation. deadass this is Griffith's “you're the real racist for calling me racist.”

UPDATE: briefly checked out Richter's 24 Postcards in Full Colour and its probs my fav thing by him so if u wanna fuck with this dude start there, is what I say.

The Pharcyde / Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde (1992) [Delicious Vinyl]

“Nearly two decades after it was released, Bizarre Ride's dizzying mix of SoCal 420 culture, jazzy bohemianism, self-conscious rap smarts and postmodern pop-cult potpourri is still as entertaining and emotionally satisfying as ever, and with the benefit of hindsight, stands as a perfect snapshot of rap's rapid, diverse ascent to pop status in the early 1990s.” (---) ___

“"We're serious about certain things, but everything is basically a joke. We live through hard shit, but we can laugh about it." (---) ___

“She keeps on passin’ me by”

...

The landscape of the 90s rap canon is some shit. People cite The Pharcyde among the secretly smart, playful-type about-some-regular-shit school of rap, as opposed to the hard, violent and larger-than-life drama of gangsta rap. But there are holes in that view and p much everyone got down w/ Pharcyde despite or because of their foolish fun times. The group is class clowns with classics. “Oh Shit” is one of those transphobic “found out she had a dick, DAAAAAYUM” rap songs that really don't hold up in 2017. Or rather, you can forgive it as a relic from a less-informed time, but it still sours a room if u play it in mixed company.

Anyway, my boi Jesse sometimes reminds me of The Pharcyde (very much without the transphobia), and every disciple of REAL RAP knows wassup. I think I'm getting a fever or some shit can't think straight at all rn. Oh well, I'm still chugging forward. Progression n shit.

Royal Headache / High (2015) [What’s Your Rupture?]

“The ferocity of punk intimidates some. For those entering the field, High is a pair of training wheels. Even the album’s title track, a good-natured romp through the park with friends at your side, sounds like a muted clink of beers in celebration of revolt to come. It’s cheap, sure, but mediocre songs level out the uproar on others.” (---)

...

Another thing involving my boi Jesse. When he was in Budapest he ran into an Australian dude in the Hungarian equivalent of Staples. They became buds and he was visiting him the other weekend. We talked music for a minute and I name-dropped one of the few Australian bands I was legitimately about and the dude lit the fuck up. He was a huge fan of Aussie garage rock and his sister was a pretty big name in the Melbourne scene. Every time the conversation veered back to Royal Headache, I mentioned how huge they were in the US in terms of the scene. Every time he would say, “Royal Headache? Really? Of all bands??” He showed me some music and a lot of it was just Australian versions of Wavves and videos of dudes drinking and smoking. Nothing I was wild into but I saw the appeal.

Later on, high af w/ him and some dudes from my friend's pop punk band and the frontman/drummer asks if the Australian dude knows Royal Headache. Once again, Australian dude was like “of all bands??” People who know whaddup know that Royal Headache is one of a kind. Pop punk frontman tells me Joyce Manor fucks with them. And that's some cred right there.

Soulful croon-shouts, lo-fi power chords, sweat + beer.

Sleater-Kinney / Dig Me Out (1997) [Kill Rock Stars]

“A life-or-death seriousness is omnipresent with Sleater-Kinney, but they never rejected rock's base desires—sex, dancing, proverbial milkshakes—although sometimes they vaguely mocked them. Sleater-Kinney stole from men what men had in turn stolen from the margins: electrified blues that all still made girls scream.” (---)

...

While it's not going swimmingly, I continue my reacquaintance with quintessential guitar rock of the 1990s. I banged through the first couple of Sleater-Kinney albums and was semi-into em. Not something I would reach for immediately but something I would be down with if I was in the right mood.

This is the first album I listened to that sounded like it was made by a band as revered as Sleater-Kinney. The vocals are a clear precedent to the howling vibrato of Screaming Females (Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein share vocal duties and I'm pretty sure the aforementioned howl belongs to Tucker?), and the guitar-work sounds deft and deliberate, something by people who knew what they were trying to do. This is in contrast to the earlier albums I had heard, which were good but banked more on raw guitar slamming and ~rebellious~ lyrics. I get the feeling that once I poke around Sleater-Kinney's catalog more and get a real feel for their sonic world, I'll be able to confront older albums I was mixed on with new insights and appreciation. Let’s see what happens.

Sleater-Kinney is a monumental band and I wanna do them justice.

Other shit:

Mobb Deep / The Infamous

DJ SVYATOPOLK / Original Moscow Sound

DJ Camgirl / Problems

Merchandise / A Corpse Wired for Sound

Swum / Runway

Saiko / Breezin’

Jinsang / Gratitude

Jinsang / Solitude

Especia / Gusto

Mounika / Basket Sound