Oscars: The Winners

I didn't watch the ceremony, but I read the results. My picks did pretty dismally, as the following list will show. The winner is listed first, with my pick in [brackets] after it. In the rare instance that I chose correctly, the brackets say "correct."

Best Picture: The King's Speech [The Social Network]
Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth in The King's Speech [James Franco in 127 Hours]
Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale in The Fighter [John Hawkes in Winter's Bone]
Actress in a Leading Role: Natalie Portman in Black Swan [Correct]
Actress in a Supporting Role: Melissa Leo in The Fighter [Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit]
Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3 [Correct]
Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland [The King's Speech]
Cinematography: Inception [True Grit]
Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland [I Am Love]
Direction: Tom Hooper for The King's Speech [David O. Russel for The Fighter]
Documentary: Inside Job [Exit Through the Giftshop]
Documentary Short: Strangers No More [Killing In The Name]
Film Editing: The Social Network [127 Hours]
Foreign Language Film: In a Better World [Incendies]
Makeup: The Wolfman [Barney's Version]
Music (Original Score): The Social Network [Inception]
Music (Original Song): We Belong Together from Toy Story 3 [Coming Home from Country Strong]
Short Film, Animated: The Lost Thing [Day and Night]
Short Film, Live Action: God of Love [Correct]
Sound Editing: Inception [True Grit]
Sound Mixing: Inception [Correct]
Visual Effects: Inception [Correct]
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Social Network [Winter's Bone]
Writing (Original Screenplay): The King's Speech [Another Year]

It is worth noting, as per my hopes from the earlier post, that "The Social Network" did not win best picture, and the "God of Love," the live-action short film that I chose solely for its hilarious synopsis, won.

The Low Anthem

I) Album

It was back in December that the Low Anthem announced, as bands are wont to do these days, a pre-release sale on their upcoming album. And as a fan, I ordered it: A copy of "Smart Flesh" on vinyl, including a free copy of the CD and a tour poster signed by the band. It was scheduled to be delivered on the album's release date, this past Tuesday.

So when this past Tuesday came and went without an LP-sized package appearing on my porch, I was perplexed. When this past Thursday came and went without an LP-sized package appearing on my porch, I was concerned. I called the post office. No package waiting. I checked my paypal account. The payment had cleared. So I emailed the band.

As it turned out, it was not the band's fault that my record had not arrived. Whether through a fluke of internet recordkeeping, or through a fluke of my subconscious, my record had been shipped to a previous address. Not my college address, or my parents' house in Allentown, but the address of my childhood home in Treichlers.

Treichlers is a small enough town that Google does not have enough Street View data to process images for the Arcade Fire's recent music video experiment. "Smart Flesh" is not particularly an album about childhood or rural America, but I still find it touching that it went to Treichlers, where an old neighbor had to pick it up at the post office, mail delivery not being a service offered in Treichlers.


II) Concert

On Friday, I was still in the dark as to the status of my record, but that didn't stop me from going to Philadelphia to see the Low Anthem play at the First Unitarian Church. 

First Unitarian sanctuary, from the stage/altar.

Those who follow this blog will remember my having thrown down the gauntlet to the Low Anthem with regards to a concert by David Wax Museum; namely: "Top this, or relinquish favorite-band status." While I find such terms as "favorite band" to be sometimes unnecessarily reductive, I have, in the past, espoused the virtue of picking favorites.

Ultimately, it didn't matter. Though I doubt that they follow the blog, the Low Anthem brought it all into the Unitarian church: pump organ, crotales, jaw harp, banjo, violin, guitars (electric and acoustic), basses (electric and acoustic), musical saw, clarinet, shakers (made of pill bottles), trumpet, dulcimer, and a drum kit (with a huge concert bass, rather than a traditional kit bass, rigged to the pedal). They also brought a level of musical sophistication that David Wax Museum (sorry, y'all) has no way of matching.

Not my photo; not from the show I saw.

 The Low Anthem took their own songs apart and put them back together in new ways. Most notable for me was "Home I'll Never Be," a Kerouac poem recorded as a rock ballad on "Oh My God Charlie Darwin" and performed as a tender lament with four-part vocal harmony and a banjo on Friday. They opened, as they did this past fall in Harrisburg, crowded around a single mic to sing "Ghost Woman Blues." They turned into a full-fledged rock-and-roll band for a few tunes off of "Smart Flesh." They performed the song as they perform all their songs: with a sincerity so full and powerful that it always, no matter how many times a song has been heard, live or recorded, overwhelms this listener.

Favorite band status successfully defended, Low Anthem. Keep up the good work.

III) Notes

A few things I wanted to mention that just didn't fit in the body of the piece:

- The Low Anthem's openers on this tour are Dan Lefkowitz and Bobby (no link, because, well, have you ever tried searching something as general as "bobby"? and because I want to route no traffic to their site; see below). Lefkowitz is a former member of the Low Anthem, now embarking on a solo career. He joined them onstage for one of their last songs, and the resulting five-part harmony was divine.  Bobby, on the other hand, is trying, but where the Low Anthem's music is tender, powerful, handmade, and expressive, Bobby's is cluttered, forced, and grating. They are experimenting with new things, their beats are danceable, their vocal harmonies are beautiful, but in this writer's opinion, they really shouldn't be on this tour.
 - Tom Waits also does a version of "Home I'll Never Be". I'm not sure if they're similar enough for the Low Anthem's "Charlie Darwin" recording of the song to be considered a cover or a new song.
 - I bought a t-shirt, making this the first time I've bought a band t-shirt since high school. It has a ship on it.
 - Recent articles about the Low Anthem can be read here and here.

Concerts

I'm not sure if I've spent a post detailing all of the things that make Harrisburg a great town, but if you've been following the blog, hopefully you've gotten the sense that I love living here. One reason is that Harrisburg has a great music scene.


View Larger Map

Though it is located in middle-of-nowhere, Pennsylvania, Harrisburg sits at the junction of some major roads, making it an ideal stop for bands traveling north-south (to/from the happening scene in Baltimore), and east-west (to/from Philly/Pittsburgh, and, in a grander sense, NYC/Midwest).

Since moving here, I've seen The Low Anthem, David Wax Museum, and Bess Rogers, among other more local acts (Colebrook Road put on a great show last week at local venue Stage on Herr). I post this now because 1) I'm going to see The Low Anthem again, this time in Philly, and 2) there are some great concerts coming up.

Yes, they won a Grammy, but NC folk group The Carolina Chocolate Drops have had a special place in my heart since before then. They revive Appalachian mountain music, playing banjo, fiddle, jug, bones, and kazoo, and backing it with some powerful vocals. They're playing the Appalachian Brewing Co. on March 4. I'll be busy working (another concert, coincidentally), but y'all should drop on by and see this show.

Also coming soon to ABC is the Baltimore throwback rock and roll outfit J. Roddy Walston and the Business. If the name alone doesn't sell you, check out their second Daytrotter session (their first is mediocre).

I'll also be missing this show, since that is the day Heather arrives back in the US from Kenya. You're great, J. Roddy, but I've got priorities.

Pan-Seared Sausages With Oven-Dried Grapes

A week or so ago, I posted about a recipe. This past Sunday, I cooked it. The recipe, quoted from "Cooking 1-2-3," follows, with my photos and comments:

I)
2.5 lb.s seedless grapes (half red, half green)*
8 large sweet Italian sausages (or hot if you like)**
1 cup dry red wine***


* I hadn't read the recipe properly when I went to the market, so I had all green grapes. It is more true to the "3 ingredients" idea if you only use one kind, but I would recommend trying red, especially if you go with my recommendation below:
** Definitely choose the hot sausages. The spice of the sausage and the dry wine complement each other well.
*** On the advice of the clerk at the liquor store, I bought a Dancing Bull zinfandel. I recommend it.

II)
Preheat oven to 275F. Wash grapes and remove stems. Place 1 cup each color on a rimmed baking sheet*. Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, shaking pan often, until grapes shrivel and caramelize. This can be done in advance.

Place 1 cup each color uncooked grapes in a food processor and process thoroughly. Pour contents through a coarse-mesh sieve, pressing to extract juice. You should have 1 cup grape juice.

* I don't have a lot of kitchenware, so I used a glass baking pan. It worked fine.

III) 
Prick sausages all over with a fork. Place in a very large nonstick skillet* and cook over medium-high heat until browned all over and almost cooked through. Add grape juice and remaining uncooked grapes. Cook until grapes have softened but not collapsed. Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausages and grapes to a platter. Keep warm.

* Again, I don't have a lot of kitchenware, so I used two medium-sized skillets and distributed everything between them evenly.

IV)
Raise to high heat and add wine. Cook until sauce has thickened substantially, about 5 minutes, and pour over sausages and grapes. Scatter roasted grapes on top. Serve hot*.

* Because the sausages I was using were homemade (no, not by me), they fried up kind of messily, so I found it helpful, in terms of presentation, to strain the wine sauce before serving.

V)
Serves 4*.


*I served it to five, and with the remainder of the Dancing Bull, and Jon's risotto for a side dish, it didn't last long.

100

This is the one-hundredth post to this blog!

In commemoration, I present a few links:

I) Smart Flesh
The latest album from my favorite band, The Low Anthem, is available for free listening on NPR.

II) Pennyroyal Caxton
While researching for my recent posts on Moby-Dick, I found out that illustrator Barry Moser has illustrated the entire King James Version of the Bible. As I am wont to do, I viewed the worst reviews. I found the top two to be particularly hilarious.

III) Mad Farmer
The inspiration for this blog's title.

Ur-Texts: Moby-Dick II

"All these things are not without their meanings."
-- Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, Chapter 7, The Chapel

*     *     *

"Moby-Dick" is the most recently re-read of the books on my ur-texts list. I finished it for the first time in the fall of 2008; being no wine connoisseur, I will not fine the book for its recent vintage. Taken in another light, though, this a book of oldest vintage; published in 1851, it has only "The Practice of the Presence of God" (set down in the 17th century) to compete with on the aforementioned list.

A large part of this book's impact on me is contextual, in particular, due to the location in which I read; namely, at the Mystic Seaport Museum and at sea. I studied in an undergraduate program at the museum that involved reading "Moby-Dick." Figuring that I would never be motivated to read such a tome without the prodding of the academy, I signed up. 

Reading "Moby-Dick" at the museum almost guarantees a love for the book. I read chapters in all parts of the Charles W. Morgan, a ship built in the same year as and across the river from the Acushnet, the ship Melville sailed in during the trip that inspired "Moby-Dick." I read out on the head rig of the SSV Corwith Cramer as dolphins swam by underneath. I read in my bunk when the raising of the anchor chain kept me from sleeping.

Additionally, the museum is where Barry Moser came to do research for the illustrations in the University of California edition. The whaleboat, the try-works and, most often encountered in my twice-weekly visits to the blacksmith's shop, the harpoons are all familiar friends. As a museum collections intern, I was able to cross the ropes and touch (for inventory purposes, of course) pretty much anything on the museum's grounds.

So how could I not be affected by "Moby-Dick"?

p.s. The first three sentences contain semicolons not only for their punctuational value, but as an homage to Melville.

p.p.s. My classmates and I participated in a dramatic re-enactment of excerpts from "Moby-Dick." Watch highlights here, featuring me as Ishmael, in bed with Queequeg and as Tashtego, going overboard.

Ur-Texts: Moby-Dick

"I have swum through libraries and sailed through oceans; I have had to do with whales with these visible hands; I am in earnest; and I will try."
-- Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, Chapter 32, "Cetology"

*   *   *

A few notes on "Moby-Dick": I was hoping to title my blog posts on this book using chapter headings from the novel itself, but my desire for consistency in blogging (in all things, really) has led me to title this post not "Loomings," but "Ur-Texts: Moby-Dick."

Yes, the book's title includes the hyphen, and the full official title is "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale." Melville demonstrates his love for semicolons from the get go.

And though it has one of the most famous opening lines in all of literature (see the page above, excerpted from the beautifully illustrated University of California edition), "Moby-Dick" does not actually begin with "Call me Ishmael." Instead, it begins with a less-than-accurate etymology of the word "whale," followed by an introduction "supplied by a sub-sub-librarian" entitled "Extracts," consisting of quotes regarding whales from sources as multifarious as the Bible, "'Something' unpublished," Darwin's "Voyage of a Naturalist," and a few whaling songs. In my edition (the aforementioned University of California printing) the extracts take up six pages. Only then are we invited to call him Ishmael.

There is much more to say about this book, and about my re-reading of it as a part of my ur-texts project, but this is a blog, not an American antebellum metaphysical sea novel, so I will curtail my musings here for now.

The David Wax Museum

Yesterday, Boston's David Wax Museum performed a free show at the Appalachian Brewing Company (ABC) here in Harrisburg. They're a fairly new band, at least on the national scene, having made their big break at this past Newport Folk Festival. Recently, they were featured on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series, where I first heard them.

David Wax, Suz Slezak.

They arrived unheralded, but as soon as frontman David Wax set his 8-stringed jarana jarocha on the stage, they started sound-checking instruments and the vocal harmonies that define their sound. David Wax Museum's lineup is an ever-changing list, from the drummer and mandolin player listed in their second album to the bassist and saxophone player seen in the Tiny Desk Concert to the accordion player on stage at ABC. Wax introduced him as "my cousin, Jordan Wax." Suz Slezak rounded out the trio.

The Museum's style could be described as Mexican-inflected American folk, or perhaps as revivalist Mexican folk by way of Boston. Their compositions run the gamut from nostalgic laments (Lavender Street, Let Me Rest) to foot-stomping rock-mariachi tunes (Unfruitful, Born With A Broken Heart). The band was touring on their new album, "Everything is Saved," released just this past Tuesday.

Having heard a few of these songs arranged for a (slightly) bigger band on the NPR video made the experience of hearing performed by a trio no less enjoyable. The band played all their "hits" (if Daytrotter, NPR, and XPN can be considered to be hit-makers) and plenty of tunes off of their earlier album, "Carpenter Bird." Slezak, who, with Wax, is the other of the band's two permanent members, switched between the violin and the donkey jawbone, a mesmerizing, traditionally Mexican, and completely non-vegan percussion instrument.

Though the crowd in ABC's upstairs Abbey Bar was not the most attentive, there were ten or twenty of us down front paying close attention to the band, listening for their three-part harmonies and the playful accordion/violin four-bar trades. To their credit, the band kept their energy up, playing to the back of the room even when the back of the room was trying to drown them out with conversation. David Wax tilted his head back to belt out the lyrics, stomping his cowboy boots in time as Slezak swayed back and forth, jawbone in hand.

This raucous joyfulness paired well with the band's down-to-earth attentiveness to those of us who were there for the music. They directed their stage chatter to us in the later half of the show, and they stuck around afterward. At one point, they walked away from their microphones, stepped off of the stage, and played a song right on the darkened floor in front of us. The stage stood empty, and we who were listening were the only ones who heard the intricacies of the nostalgic waltz-like tune until Slezak jumped up onto a chair and belted the chorus into the back of the bar.

"All I'm saying," I said as we walked out, "is that the Low Anthem is gonna have to do a pretty bang-up job when I see them later this month if they want to keep on being my favorite band."

---
Carpenter Bird and Everything is Saved are available here.

One Two Three

Most of you probably know that I work in a bookstore. Part of my job there entails straightening the shelves. This is a dangerous proposition for someone living on the income of someone working in a bookstore, especially since my areas to straighten are music, film, poetry, and childrens' lit.

This post, however, is about a cookbook. I don't usually spring for cookbooks, not often straightening in that section, and finding most of my recipes on allrecipes.com or, recently on Helen's food blog. But this one had an interesting premise: It is entitled "Cooking 1-2-3," and features recipes requiring only 3 ingredients. Initially, I suspected that this would be a gimmick; the "ingredients" would in fact be other recipes: soup stocks, sauces, breads; things that would undo the simplicity of the concept.

But I was intrigued, and browsed it on my dinner break, when I found the recipe that convinced me: Pan-Seared Saugsage with Oven-Roasted Grapes. It asked for sausage, grapes and wine. That's it. Other recipes are of similar simplicity (some require spices in addition to the three main ingredients).

A post about the cooking process to follow...

Recording

I'm off to New York (using FREE megabus tickets!) to record some music with Nicole Singer. I hope to have some photos and stories from the recording process and perhaps eventually, an album.



P.S. Those free megabus tickets were acquired using the discount code "WOW200K" through which megabus will give away 200,000 free rides this winter.