andy has gotten me hooked on BBC television. we started off working our way through all of the french and saunders videos (a comedy duo w/ some amazing parodies, including practically perfect parodies of fellini, star wars episode I, and the lord of the rings). then we explored some of french and saunders' spinoffs, including jennifer saunders in ab fab and dawn french in the vicar of dibley (see above). the vicar of dibley is set in a quiet english country town that's thrown into a whirl when their old vicar is succeeded by a female vicar with a big personality. a couple of choice quotes:

Reverend Geraldine Granger : You were expecting a bloke... beard, bible, bad breath? David Horton : Yes, that sort of thing. Reverend Geraldine Granger : Yeah. And instead, you got a babe with a bob cut and a magnificent bosom. David Horton : So I see. Alice: You know that stuff they're selling now at the local shop, 'I Can't Believe it's Not Butter'? Well, you know, I can't believe it's not butter. Then yesterday, I bought this other stuff, like a sort of home-brand you know. Well, I can't believe the stuff that is not 'I Can't Believe it's Not Butter' is not 'I Can't Believe it's Not Butter', and I can't believe that both 'I Can't Believe it's Not Butter' and the stuff I can't believe is not 'I Can't Believe it's Not Butter' are both, in fact, not butter. And I believe they both might be butter, in a cunning disguise. And in fact there's a lot more butter around than we all thought there was. Gerry: What's so special about Jesus? Kid: His name's a swear word!

so anyway, although i resisted getting sucked into the miss marple series (based on the agatha christie novels, of course) and the inspector lynley mysteries, i think i've fallen for all creatures great and small, which as you prob. know is based on the best-selling series by english vet james herriot (also set in a small town). (thank god for netflix.) what is it about british television that's so addictive? is it the accents? is it that they know how to avoid crossing the line into the realms of the intolerably maudlin? if the japanese reign supreme on cuteness, the british are definitely the masters of charming. i mean, how can you resist the escapism of a beautifully green countryside full of high-spirited, smiling country folk? i know i can't.

had a pretty busy (and spontaneous) weekend. on friday night andy and i saw dubravka tomsic at symphony hall (thanks, bess!). beforehand we went to one of the worst indian places i've ever been. shanti (huntington ave near mass ave) had food that looked like it would be okay, but despite its appearance of being seasoned and herbed was just about the blandest indian food i've ever had. they also had a penchant for big balls. the aloo tikki came as two huge balls whose exteriors were strongly reminescent of hush puppies. (at least it wasn't cold like the last time we'd gone.) the malai kofta also consisted of two gorilla-sized balls, rather than the customary chimpanzee-sized. needless to say, that is another one to avoid. is there any decent eatery around symphony?? recently andy and i also went to the franklin cafe. i started with the mashed potatoes, which were nice and creamy although rather too oily. i had the cannelloni which was good but not incredible, but andy and i agree that tomato-based pastas tend to be same-y. (well, in america anyway. the tomatoes seem to dominate the dish so that it's hard to add much subtlety.) andy had the rigatoni with italian sausage and escarole in fennel cream, which he quite enjoyed. saturday morning i found out that pj harvey was playing at avalon that night. needless to say i was psyched. i got a pretty decent view, and the show was about what i expected: thoroughly enjoyable but no huge surprises (although she did a song by the fall and a song off of dance hall at louise point which was a bit on the obscure side). apparently it was her birthday, which may explain her unusually short set. today andy and i went to the franklin park zoo. i don't know why people speak so disparagingly of it; we thought it was actually pretty decent (although the giraffes and the koala bears weren't out). we'll have to check out NY's zoo (and london's). speaking of london ... someone send me some recommendations of sights and eats to check out for when andy and i go over thanksgiving weekend. please?

this mix came together pretty quickly. it's one of those mixes that's been in the back of my mind for a while. i decided early on to stay away from remixes, and i wavered about including any tracks with vocals, but in the end i made just a few exceptions for a change of pace. i tried to mix up the types of sounds (hence the inclusion of the club-y darude track and the method man track), but i noticed my general preference is toward insect-y, skittery, and/or bleepy-bloopy kinds of electronica, often with instruments included; i guess more "textured" than groove-oriented. unsurprisingly, pretty much all of these tracks are one-offs for me (and i know next to nothing about the artists and i imagine neither do you, with a few exceptions), although the autechre track is from the pi soundtrack which is uniformly good. i'd say about a third of these came from my own poking around the 'net and the rest from compilations and friends' mixes. some of these tracks are quite exquisite and i'd almost say symphonic (the darkhalo track is particularly noteworthy, imo). anyway, there's my october mix ... heh. keep bouncin' (and crank it up) electronic music mix 9/30/04 1 UNKLE (feat. ian brown) . be there 2 darude . sandstorm 3 korai orom . tavalyi 4 darkhalo . analog snow bunny girl 5 roy davis jr . rock shock (live) 6 marcel wanders . nightingales 7 super jupiter/method man . judgement day (remix) 8 arovane . tascel 7 9 autechre . kalpol intro 10 remixer?/tanaka . metroid (remix) 11 aphex twin . alberto balsalm 12 alexkid . nightlines 13 sebastien tellier . la ritournelle