Music Monday-7/21/2014 Broken Bells

Aleathia says:

I first heard Broken Bells several years ago when their self-titled debut album came out.  I was hooked as I tend to like that vacuous version of white noise and haunting vocals.  The band is made up of James Mercer from The Shins and Danger Mouse, both of whom I enjoy.  So when I heard that they had a new album coming out I was pretty excited.  

Music is definitely hit or miss these days so I try to listen to albums rented from the library or on MySpace before purchasing to be sure I get my moneys worth.  I'm pretty glad I sampled the new Broken Bells album After the Disco before buying.  I pretty much can't stand most of it.  

I am a Cancer so though I enjoy new things I don't always do well with change.  I gave this album a second listen to be sure I wasn't just being judgmental.  I wasn't.  I am going to post a few videos of the songs that I liked pretty solidly.  Their opening song Perfect World had a Death Cab For Cutie vibe and another song called The Angel and the Fool has shades of Portishead, but most of the songs left me wanting more....or maybe less.  The beats were a bit to flashy towards disco and the vocals a bit to like The Shins for my liking. I love The Shins, but if I wanted that I would just listen to them.  Anyway....here are the few songs that did tickle my fancy.

Holding on For Life by Broken Bells

Leave it Alone by Broken Bells

The Changing Lights by Broken Bells

OM-7/20/2014 Buddhism, Change

Aleathia says:

In 1997 I put a tattoo on my body that sort of embodies this idea.  It is the Ko from the I Ching and its representation is that of a cow hide split open to dry.  The understanding is that one can be transformed at any time into something new.  I would get this tattoo only a few months before I started practicing Buddhism.

When times are tough and I feel that sense that hope is lost or that I could just lay down everything, I look to that tattoo as a reminder that through all the other times when I felt all was lost, I found some way to get back up and recreate myself.  This requires patience and trust.  These are hard to learn, but two of the most valuable tools I have ever learned.

Quills and Frills-7/19/2014 Aleathia Drehmer. Poetry

Aleathia says:

Frank Auerbach

E.O.W. on her Blue Eiderdown II, 1965

I live in a river of blue,

my body naked against

the light.

There is nothing more revealing

than the shapelessness

of my heart—

more frightening

than my expressionless face

formed in layered peaked pigments.

How can he understand me so?

How can he scratch out

my existence with better craft

than I live my own life?

I want sleep more than breathing.

I want to drown in this river,

in the contemplation of reality,

in the indistinguishable

melancholy of my face.

Aleathia Drehmer 2010

Art Bomb-7/18/2014 Rene Magritte

Aleathia says:

Today we are going to wander down the more controlled side of the Surrealist movement looking at the paintings of Rene Magritte.

Rene Magritte was born in Lessines, Belgium in 1898.  His father was a tailor and his mother a seamstress until she jumped from a bridge to her death when he was only 14 years old.  This was a huge marking in his life and this sentinal event showed up in many of his works throughout his life.

Magritte took art classes as a child but didn't start formal training until 1916 when he was 18 years old.  He went to the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and then later spent a few years in Paris, France in the 1920's.  He returned to Belgium and lived the remainder of his life there.  In 1922, he married a childhood sweetheart named Georgette Berger who remained at his side the rest of his life.

While in art school, Magritte was heavily influenced by the Impressionists, as were most painters of the time, and then later he would discover the Futurists, especially Giorgio de Chirico, who would influence him the most.

In the 1920's he earned a living designing wallpaper and making commercial drawings.  He met several artists during this time namely Pierre Bourgeois, Camille Goeman, Lecomte, Paul Nouze, and Andre Souris. They were designers, teachers, biochemist, and civil servants painting on the side.  This group of painters would be known as the Belgian Surrealists and were much less flamboyant than their counterparts in Paris.

Surrealism, like Symbolism, started out as a literary movement championed by authors Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Paul Eluard, and Antonin Artaud.  Their primary goal was to use automatic writing to create which was to allow free flowing thought create images and to unhinder the conscious mind.

This was a difficult translation to painting and the literal automatic painting failed, but the group of painters retained the idea of Freudian unconscious as their source of activity.  Magritte departed from the other surrealists as he did not use the free association of dream states for the root of his art.  His was a rigorous, logical intellectual process. He looked at unusual realities of everyday life.

Rene Magritte made simple dislocations, conflicting associations and paradoxical associations that he continually refined throughout his career.

Displaced Objects:

The Traveler by Rene Magritte

The Beautiful Relations by Rene Magritte

Metamorphosis of Objects:

Philosophy in the Boudoir by Rene Magritte

Treasure Island by Rene Magritte

Conflicting Images:

The Listening Room by Rene Magritte

Personal Values by Rene Magritte

Interior/Exterior:

Promenades of Euclid by Rene Magritte

The Human Condition by Rene Magritte

Absence/Presence: 

The Unexpected Answer by Rene Magritte

The Great Family by Rene Magritte

and lastly one from his collection called The Dominion of Light, my favorite one... Empire of Lights.  I wrote a poem about it.

Rene Magritte

Empire of Lights, 1949

The street lamp
just buzzed on
like a robotic, cold
lightning beetle.

It reminds me
of our youth—
the one where
you promised me
a love that would grow
out of the darkness
that would fly
heaven-bound and rain
down as the sparks
of independence.

But here I stand
on the cobbled street
outside your childhood home
watching the sky fade
behind, the trees dissolving
the edges of history
and reality with one
swipe of its sword
thinking of that innocent night.

Your bedroom window
is alight, but you have since
gone to other worlds.  You
promised me warmth
and eternity and hope.

I am left with air passing
over my bare palms
hanging limp beside
the hull of my body.

I cannot even be
your memory.

Aleathia Drehmer 2011

Foodies-7/17/2014 Tacos

Aleathia says:

This week's cook book review takes a look at Mark Miller's book Tacos.  Who doesn't love a damn taco? These are pretty fancy.  I'm giving you one veggie and one meat example.  This book has recipes for vegetarian, chicken, turkey, seafood, fish, pork, beef and breakfast tacos.  It also has a few recipes for salsas and slaws.  Get busy cooking!

Mushrooms with Roasted Corn and Marjoram

Makes 6 Tacos

2 medium poblano chiles (oil roasted, peeled, cored, seeded)

3 T butter

6 oz Portobello mushrooms, 1/4 inch slices

1.5 oz shiitake mushrooms (stemmed, cut in 1/4 inch slices)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 cp fresh corn, dry roasted

1 T olive oil

1 tsp chipoltle puree (1 jar chipoltle peppers in adobe sauce, blended)

1 tsp fresh lime juice

2 tsp loose packed chopped fresh cilantro

1 tsp chopped fresh marjoram

white corn tortillas

garnish with fresh julienned basil or toasted pine nuts

*saute mushrooms in a large pan with butter, add garlic, salt and pepper until golden

*remove pan from heat.  Stir in corn, olive oil, chipoltle, lime, cilantro, marjoram.  Serve immediately

Paired beverages:  Pinot Noir or Tempranillo

Chicken with Chorizo

Makes 8 Tacos

1/2 cp water

1 T fresh lime juice

1 poblano chile, stemmed

1 jalapeno chile, stemmed

leaves from 1 bunch of cilantro

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp green chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin seed (toasted and ground)

1/2 tsp coriander seed (toasted and ground)

1/4 tsp Mexican oregano (toasted and ground)

1 tsp salt

1/4 cp fresh flat leaf parsley

1 bunch green onions, cut in big pieces

1.25 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast (cut in 1/2 inch wide strips)

6 oz Mexican pork chorizo

1 T vegetable oil

1/2 white onion thinly sliced

yellow corn tortillas

*blend water, lime, chiles, cilantro, garlic, cumin, coriander, chili powder, oregano, salt, parsley, and green onions in a blender.

*cut chicken in strips and pour marinade over the chicken, cover and let stand 1 hour.

*saute onion until carmelized, then add chorizo.  Cook through fully.  Remove from pan but leave the fat.

*cook chicken in the same pan.  Pull chicken from the marinade without excess marinade.  Cook until done.

Serve with salsa of your choice.

Paired beverages:  Dark Beer or  Chilled Rose

Lit Bits-7/16/2014 Mark Lewisohn

Ally says:

It all boils down to this. They were four war babies from Liverpool who really did change the world, and whose music and impact still lives on in so many ways, after all these years. I say, let’s scrub what we know, or think we know, and start over: Who really were these people, and how did it all happen?

I read multiple books at a time - been doing it for a couple years and I feel like it works because it satisfies my "gimme gimme" grabby hands when a shiny new book crosses my path. But lately I've been reading some big ones. And by big I include this 900 page mama.

Do you see what it says under The Beatles: All These Years?

It says Volume 1.

Volume 1 of 3 in fact and I bought the "abridged version" at 900 pages. I know what you're thinking. It was the same thing I was thinking when I bought this as a Christmas gift for my husband. There is now way, with all the books written on The Beatles that we need, what will probably be, 2,700 pages on The Beatles. I mean, honestly, this is nonsense.

Except you would be wrong. Because this book, while heavy enough to do some damage should I nod off while reading it one night, is amazing. Funny, insightful, full of documentation - everything you could want in a biography. It IS The Beatles.

And there is little to no speculation. If Lewisohn doesn't know for sure what happened exactly when, and he's quoted The Beatles and their fuzzy memories, he'll tell you point blank that no one knows exactly what happened. But those occasions are so few. You know it's well researched when the author has a call in the back to the reader, asking if you have ever had any personal encounter with the Beatles whatsoever to please contact him.

Tune In covers the years 1958-1962, (with a bit of family history) from the creation of The Beatles to the release of their first single. If you think that doesn't deserve 900 pages (much like I did originally) I humbly disagree.

Here's a little snippet of Mark Lewisohn talking about the first book. You know he's an authority when his name gets dropped on the Mendips tour in Liverpool.





The second book is due out in 2020.
The third book is due out in 2028.

Lewisohn will be 70 by then. Buckle in kids, it's gonna be a hell of a ride. Got your ticket?

See what I did there? Ticket to.....oh forget it.

And just for a laugh:

Let's Go Somewhere-7/15/2014 Stratford Upon Avon

Ally says:

I'm a bardolater. I would be a card-carrying bardolater if any of us bardolaters bothered to make cards.

Bardolatry is defined as the facetious idolatry or excessive admiration of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the English dramatist and poet. 

So back in 2009, I went to London and then up to Stratford Upon Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. It’s an amazing place and going there is like stepping back in time. If you have the opportunity to go, I highly suggest you visit the Garrick Inn.

It’s Stratford’s oldest pub. And considering how old Stratford is, that’s OLD. The building apparently dates back to the 1400′s. And, according to the plaque inside, it’s where the plague started in 1564, the same year old Will was born.

The whole town is amazing. You can tour his home, including the room he was born in. 

Not to mention the home of Anne Hathaway’s cottage, including the bench they sat on when Will proposed and promised her his second best bed. Such a charmer!

It was an amazing trip for me – not only because I am a self-proclaimed Bardolater but also because it was Shakespeare and specifically his grave that inspired my first novel, Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb. William Shakespeare has the best epitaph in the world:

“GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE TO
DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE.
BLEST BE YE MAN YT SPARES THES STONES AND
CURST BE HE YT MOVES MY BONES”

It’s cursed for heaven’s sake!

So Shakespeare is buried at Holy Trinity Church inside the chancel. When my husband and I arrived at Stratford, his first question was “What do you want to see first” and without hesitating I said, “His grave.”

Off we went, crossing down the cobblestone streets, weaving through centuries of history. I could barely believe I was about to see Shakespeare’s GRAVE. The greatest playwright – nay, greatest writer – who ever lived. It was  a dream come true.

Until we reached the church and right there at the door was a sign informing us that they Chancel was closed due to repairs.

Remember that scene in Vacation when Chevy Chase's family finally arrive at Wally World and the damn thing is closed. It was like that, only with a transcontinental flight.

My husband, ever the diplomat, pulled aside the lovely gentleman who ran the church and explained in no uncertain terms that we had to see Shakespeare’s grave. That we had crossed an OCEAN to see Shakespeare’s grave, that it was the most important thing to his wife, who was standing there slightly gobsmacked, to which the lovely British man answered in his lovely British voice:

“I’m sorry, sir. Couldn’t be avoided.”

“Sorry folks! Shakespeare’s grave is closed. Moose out front should have told you!”

So the closest I got to seeing Shakespeare’s grave was being about 20 feet away from the Chancel ledge, but in a way, it was close enough. On the way out, I took a stone from the garden which I keep on my writing desk.

There it is, behind all the scaffolding.

My husband, always my partner in crime, suggested we jump the scaffolding and risk imprisonment - after all I was already kicked out of Monaco at the age of 16 - (long story) - so why not? But in the end we decided to save it for another time.

We’ll go back, I know that. And this time I’ll make sure the church repairs are finished. In the meantime, at least it won’t be me who moves those bones and gets cursed.