finally finished this neverending mix. (while we're on the subject, i also finally put up my new and improved list of mixes i've made. i still have to go back and add some of the older stuff, but you can go ahead and marvel at it now.) at first i wanted to do a non-vocal mix of all types of genres, but i couldn't really find enough non-classical stuff so i just mostly stuck w/ classical (the exceptions being the two music box bjork tracks and the ravi shankar track). some of these tracks are super short, some super long; all of them feature a solo instrument. i also tried to find tracks featuring something other than violin, cello, and piano. i think it turned out to be an interesting mix of different types of classical music. so here's the tracklisting. w00t. o mio solo mix 1 bjork . vespertine . frosti [edited] 2 bach, heinrich schiff . cello suite #2 in dm . i prelude 3 vores, regina shenderovich . preludes . prelude #1: twinkletoes 4 torke, john harle/albany SO . saxophone concerto . iii 5 britten, julian bream . nocturnal . iii restless 6 szymanowski, chantal juillet/montréal SO/dutoit . violin concerto #2 . i moderato, molto tranquillo 7 stravinsky, maurizio pollini . 3 movements from petrushka . iii la semaine grasse. 8 vivaldi, oleg talipin/renaissance CO/korchin . concerto for bassoon in am . ii andante molto 9 britten, mstislav rostropovich . cello suite #1 . iii moto perpetuo e canto quarto: presto 10 bach, glenn gould . the well-tempered clavier, book 1 . prelude #20 in am 11 ravi shankar . in new york . nala bhairavi 12 britten, dennis brain . serenade for tenor, horn, and strings . prologue 13 cage, margaret leng tan . suite for toy piano . #2 14 harbison, janine jansen . four songs of solitude . song #4 15 debussy, soloist?/georgian FO/kahi . danses . danse sacreé 16 scarlatti, michael lewin . sonata in dm (andante) 17 bjork . cocoon (UK, EP#2) . pagan poetry (music box)

allow me a minute to rave about joanna newsom. i first read about her a couple of days ago in kelefa sanneh's review in the new york times. kelefa is the man. he could be a little harsher in his reviews sometimes, but he rarely steers me wrong; and in this case he steered me extremely right. andy and i were so intrigued by her music video (see below) that we ran out and bought the CD from newbury comics. joanna plays a full-size classical harp, but in a very folk style. it really reminds me of appalachian music, which is a bit weird that i recognize it, but i heard bits of it growing up in kentucky. anyway, she somehow taps into this odd mix of whimsy, childhood wonder, wise musings, and flat out craziness. it's been really addictive. her voice has been compared to bjork's in its style rather than its sound: immediately distinctive, free-wheeling, and reckless. definitely the best CD i've heard in a while. andy and my favorite lyric so far: "i killed my dinner. with karate." intrigued? check out these links: - record label: has a good video of one of her songs - official site: has three mp3s, esp. check out the third one - really good SF interview - boston.com review/interview in other news, ani difranco has hopped on the bootleg series bandwagon, via her site. i got the first one today (man, how much do i love getting stuff in the mail?), a solo concert from her 2003 tour. it's pretty good, although i'm not sure if i'm going to be getting all of them. supposedly a new one will be coming out every 6 weeks.

1550 hyde i am loving these discussions we're having, about the intricacies of asian vocabulary and food. but on my birthday, i went to 1550 hyde. we got a super-late reservation as they were basically totally booked. we started with a sparkling rose, which was served with a bit of lemon peel floating in it, which i've never seen before -- is this typical? we got four appetizers for the table. marinated olives, which made me decide i liked olives after all -- at least the salty black ones. the green ones, not so much. the antipasto was excellent, with the same olives, delicious slices of meaty goodness, some squishy bread like thing which i later identified on the menu but still don't know what it was, and some really yummy mushroom crostini. the softshell crab was served atop a bed of pea tendrils that were lightly sauteed. and an arugula and fig salad, i think it had goat cheese on it. for our entree, three of us ordered the chicken -- it was tender and flavorful and perfect with the morel mushrooms that had that wonderful 'Q-Q' (i like that) texture. This was atop a bed of whole corn polenta. Ohhhh yummmmm. I snuck a taste of the pasta dish which was pretty good. Also at our table was the rib eye but I didn't hear anything about how that was. For dessert, the chocolate pot de creme -- rich and perfect to split even between 4. They have excellent shortbread cookies. While I was waiting for the restroom, some guy in the kitchen offered me cookies and I got to try a couple almond biscotti. Oh and the zinfandel we had was good, but I always like it. Good stuff. Discovered that my roommie's new love interest (who was present) cooks at farallon, so we'll be checking that out soon.. I need to learn to write better food porn. In the meantime, here's an update on what's been cooking in my kitchen: Last week the farm share included: fingerling potatoes, a ridiculous looking armenian cucumber (quickly transformed into a cucumber/red onion/spicy/cashew salad), plums (megan reduced them to a plum sauce served atop tofu which was too light for the sauce), green beans, garlic, corn (i love this corn), grapefruit, zucchinis, and a couple tomatoes, as a preview.. On the less gourmet end, I made devil's food cupcakes (pillsbury) and threw in a bag of chocolate chips to make them really decadent. Yesterday I was really psyched to go to the supermarket (i haven't been in rainbow in about a month), but they were closed for gay pride day!!! I love my supermarket :) Have I expounded upon my love for rainbow grocery in this venue? It's the best. My only complaint, which isn't even a complaint, is that it is vegetarian and I have to go elsewhere to buy meat. The bulk section is the size of a convenience store. The produce is organic, fresh, and comparable to chain supermarket prices -- much cheaper than whole foods. The cheese department is super helpful, and buying eggs is always a traumatic ethical experience -- they carry about 8 different brands of eggs, and they have a spreadsheet on the fridge door explaining the pros and cons of each brand -- are the chickens.. free range? debeaked? fed a veg diet? kept in cages? force molted? and so on. I end up spending about 15 minutes comparing the spreadsheet to the prices and weighing my options. Y'all need to take a field trip here.

i've been going a bit mad trying to finish this mix that i've had haunting me for what feels like at least a month. i know for sure it's going to have a movement from john cage's suite for toy piano. more news hopefully soon; i think the finish line is in sight. i've been keeping track of the more bizarre ways people have made it to this little blog. here's the current list (fill in your own "WTF??" comments). i omitted the ones that can't be repeated in polite society, and i just know this list is going to single-handedly screw up google's search engine. shapely+korean+lady+pictures [yeah, joyce!] pic+of+an+oompa+loompa+by+itself how+did+lead+get+in+to++mexican+candy spicy%22+burger+king+.mp3 wine+with+a+pickled+cobra+pictures remedy+overprocessed+hair+mayonnaise happy+cow+commercials cartoon+made-up+stories+about+sea+cucumbers what++does+a+ladybug+have+on+it%27s+belly

this is what i've been listening to: radio paradise i'm addicted. last night was dinner at my cousin's house (cooked by my aunt) for my birthday -- like all of my relatives on my dad's side of the family, she is a fabulous cook. luckily my soon-to-be-cousin-in-law (who drools over this blog -- hi naomi!) wrote down the menu so i don't have to make up translations: twice-cooked bitter melon with spicy ground pork smoked chinese ham hock with napa cabbage and garlic dried tofu with bean sprouts, wood ear mushroom, and bell peppers fatty pork with stewed daikon pan fried ong choy times like this, i am really, really, really thrilled that i am chinese. only in the past few years have i really understood that i ate really fucking well in my childhood.

welcome back to fred's literary corner. just finished reading eats, shoots & leaves: the zero tolerance approach to punctuation by lynne truss. i imagine most people have heard about this book by now. all in all it was a quick and mostly diverting read. there was some correct usage that i didn't know, some i did know, some i didn't know i knew, and some i didn't know i didn't know. also, incorporates a lot of history about where our punctuation comes from, and choice quotes from famous writers such as shaw and gertrude stein about punctuation. surprisingly, given its trim size, the book could have been edited a bit; but it's still a good read and has me using semicolons more often with a little less guilt. the humor is a bit predictable, but there are some bits that made me laugh out loud like some sort of english major nerd. read the earliest english poems translated by michael alexander a while back. def. an interesting collection; most are of excerpts. had a good balance of the typical ragin' vikings fare and some surprisingly eloquent ballad-y type bits. also had great introductions to each selection. anyway, here's a bit from one that i found particularly worthwhile. "The Wanderer" ... Awakeneth after this friendless man, seeth before him fallow waves, seabirds bathing, broading out feathers, snow and hail swirl, hoar-frost falling. Then all the heavier his heart's wounds, sore for his loved lord. Sorrow freshens. Remembered kinsmen press through his mind; he singeth out gladly, scanneth eagerly men from the same hearth. They swim away. Sailors' ghosts bring not many known songs there. Care grows fresh in him who shall send forth too often over locked waves his weary spirit. ... The wine-halls crumble; their wielders lie bereft of bliss, the band all fallen proud by the wall. War took off some, carried them on their course hence; one a bird bore over the high sea; one the hoar wolf dealt to death; one his drear-cheeked earl stretched in an earthen trench. ... In the earth-realm all is crossed; Wierd's will changeth the world. Wealth is lent us, friends are lent us, man is lent, kin is lent; all this earth's frame shall stand empty.

food porn at home and away: last night we cooked out of the csa box again: baked pasta with pesto and zucchini (using last week's pesto made with last week's basil -- we have more basil for this week). cheese (asiago, fontina, and mozz), pasta, and tomatoes not from csa box. green bean salad -- green beans, quickly blanched, tossed with olive oil, garlic (finely chopped to a paste), parsley (from the herb garden on the back stairwell). apricot bars with walnuts, made from apricots from last week. still a bag from this week, i'll bake some sort of bread and perhaps freeze it.. last week i went to dinner somewhere in portrero hill. i can't remember the name -- it was a great dinner and astonishingly reasonably priced. dinner for two with a shared appetizer, dessert, and 1/2 bottle came out to be about $80 including tip. i had the fish special, which was a hawaiian fish (not mahi mahi but like it). my dinner partner had a taglioni (?) dish with various cheeses and i forget what else. the bruschetta was amazing -- i can't remember what was on it, but it was excellent and a pasty green (maybe artichoke derived?) with some sort of broad bean and some yummy cheese on top. see, i don't pay attention to menus until i eat the food, and then it's too late. for dessert we had a chocolate souffle, which completely destroyed me. last weekend in seattle was a delight -- dan took me to wild ginger in exchange for painting his apartment, and i can't even begin to describe the yumminess we had there. we ended it with an excellent apricot tart which involved almond paste. if you ever pass through the detroit airport, gayle's chocolates (near gate 20) has some excellent chocolates. the choc-covered mini oreos and the dark chocolate truffles were a hit with my lab.

andy and i went to ana sortun's oleana (134 hampshire, near kendall and inman sq) on saturday. i'm surprised we haven't been there earlier since it's one of the favorite restaurants of a group of andy's friends that we eat out w/ fairly regularly. anyway, we were outside in the surprisingly large back and it was a great setting, although rather cold. i had the vegetarian tasting menu. here's the food porn channel run down [actually i started writing this and found my memory to be woefully lacking. then i got the bright idea to look up the menu online.] 1) a little lump of pureed carrot (but more like finely grated, dense and chilled) w/ an "egyptian" spice mixture + a little lump of "armenian bean and walnut pâté" w/ homemade string cheese on the side. the bean and walnut thing was kind of dense and chewy. kind of weird. 2) the salad special. mostly arugula, roasted fennel (mm), and peaches. what can you say? it was a salad. 3) a side from one of the day's specials. olive puree w/ sugar snap peas (mm), something green (i forget. cress maybe?), and a bit of potato puree. 4) another side from one of the day's specials. filo wrapped around a roasted red pepper and corn mixture. side of fresh corn in a creamy sauce. 5) two little breaded cheese thingies. the dessert it came w/ wasn't so great. i forget what it was exactly; some sort of white nougat thing. but we also had this bing cherry granita w/ crème fraîche that was good. not too sweet. one of the better desserts i've had. all in all, this one's def a keeper. (btw, 3 of the 4 people i went w/ had the steak special, which they said was great.) i was reminded that i haven't been back to casablanca; i should check that out again as well.

in case you've forgotten what winnie and i look like, here are some pics from when we saw tom stoppard's jumpers in NY with debbie and andy i think in april or so.

modernhumorist.com has some pretty funny stuff. it can be hit or miss, but one of the definite hits is a "what if jewel wrote the theme song to the summer blockbuster x-men"? you can download it from this page.

ate at the bar at hamersley's last night. the food was very good, but andy and i both were rather offended actually at how the bartender was rude and condescending on two separate instances, so much so that we complained about it. mini rant: why is it so hard to get good service anywhere? andy points out that service in england is poor all the time, but still you'd think it wouldn't be that hard to teach your waitstaff, especially a bartender, to be gracious, polite, and eager to please. and it really does make a tremendous difference on how enjoyable your meal is. and then it's funny how you get perfect friendly and polite service in unlikely places, like some hole in the wall place like samraat or dok bua. i find the whole situation to be completely baffling. anyway, back to the food. mmm. i had the wild mushroom soup w/ white truffle oil which was very mushroom-y. i also had buttery/lemon spinach noodles w/ white asparagus which had a bit of sheep's milk cheese, spinach, and some nice little bits of some type of strong, earthy mushroom. andy had the tuna which he said was great, and it came w/ this beet "cake" (basically three layers of beet with goat cheese in between) that, surprisingly in a good way, had mustard on it. for dessert we had the orange meringue which i thought had a hint of sesame but which andy didn't taste. a note about desserts; andy summed it up the best. he said we end up ordering desserts not because we expect them to be any good, but because we wonder if this will be the one time that it is good. when we thought about the last time we've had a really excellent dessert we came up w/ a complete blank, though (although i have to say that i still have fond memories of the creme brulee i had at radius, and the chocolate plate at great bay was also good). where in the world can we get a good dessert?

Pop VS Soda This is the single greatest thing I have ever seen on the whole World Wide Web. I may as well stop using the internet, as nothing can be better. Thank you, technology. Thank you, Al Gore.

winnie -- squash blossoms were on the menu last night. M and I cooked up a storm, albeit a small one. squash blossoms stuffed with herbed goat cheese (our own herbs), fried in a tempura batter. pan fried trout fillets, served with a garlic-chile aioli. mixed garden greens (supplemented by some supermarket mesclun mix) topped with nasturtium blossoms and lighted sauteed baby zucchini. I was so full, and so happy.

this weekend in food ... went to two eateries for the first time. shabu-zen (16 tyler st in chinatown) is a bit more than a year old and is shabu-shabu all the time. shabu-shabu is "the latest Asian food fad to sweep through California". basically it involves cooking your own meat and veggies in a boiling broth. this boston.com review is a good intro to what it's all about. i had the vegetarian version and it was pretty good (although in retrospect i think it came w/ fish balls), although it's definitely more one of those places like fire and ice where the food isn't that exciting but where it's good to take a date or people from out of town to. also went to central kitchen (mass ave in central sq) w/ andy. the service was subpar. you know it's a bad sign when your server forgets to tell you the specials. anyway, andy had the roast lamb which he said was good but a bit overpriced for what it was. i had the stuffed sweet onion. it was in a creamy goat cheese sauce with a mostly artichoke/asparagus mixture and came on a bed of "fregola", which according to formaggiokitchen.com is "a grain sized toasted pasta from Sardinia". all in all it was better than most vegetarian things i get, although it wasn't that fantastic. (we would've gone to salts, winnie, but they were booked. soon.) incidentally, here's a tip for all you clueless restaurant patrons out there: don't ever feed someone else food in a restaurant unless they're under the age of 2. it really creeps other people out. another newer find is shino express (newbury st near dartmouth). i'm surprised that andy and i didn't try it sooner. it's pretty cheap, pretty tasty sushi. the rice and nori are a bit dry and bland, but last time i got the vegetable futomaki and some inari (fried tofu wrappers) and both were good, and the ambience is very cool.

farm box update: since i'm getting a new box tomorrow, i want to tell you about last week's box! 1 pt cherries (i am allergic.) 1 pt strawberries apricots (i am very allergic) 5 young zucchini bag of new potatoes 1 red onion small box last week -- short on the greens. but those potatoes were damn good. as were the strawberries. i can't believe i developed an allergy to those cherries. i'm mad!!