Saturday, May 31, 2008

Moroso - Sofa Pixel

Graduado no Royal College of Art, Cristian Zuzunaga desenvolveu um tecido, baseado no conceito do pixel. Produzido por uma empresa alemã, o tecido é comercializado pela Moroso. Tem tudo para se tornar um best-seller.
A Moroso é sem duvida uma marca importante em "peças" de design Italiano.
Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal
Não Decoramos apenas Casas Grandes e Espaçosas.
Temos Soluções para Todos os Casos.
Somos Criativos e Inovadores.
Teste-nos / try 4udecor
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal

Friday, May 30, 2008

(05.30.08) Recommends:

Ema and the Ghosts.

After yesterday's Beirut post, we got an email tip to check out Ema and the Ghosts. So we went to her myspace and, honestly, the first thing we noticed was her profile introduction:

ema is a girl who would like to make a sound to make a feeling to make a revolution. yes, she understands the unlikelyhood of this daydream being realized but she does not care. she has more important things to worry about.

Okay, as far as myspace profiles go, that's pretty crush-worthy. The next thing we noticed was the music. It's one female, an accordion, a ukulele, random bells and whistles. Completely charming. If you like Beirut or Jens Lekman or Andrew Bird or the Moldy Peaches or if you breath in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide, we're willing to bet that you'll enjoy Ema and the Ghosts.

Ema and the Ghosts at Myspace.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Exposição - Le Corbusier, Arte e Arquitectura, Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisboa

19 de Março - 17 de Agosto
Le Corbusier ( 1887 -1965 ) Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, mais conhecido como Le Corbusier foi um arquiteto francês de origem suíça considerado um dos mais importantes arquitetos do século XX. Suas obras e ideias estão espalhadas pelo mundo.
Temos todas as peças de Le Corbusier.
Encomende Já
Telf: 214 867 378
Cascais

(05.29.08) Recommends:

The Los Angeles Return of Beirut.

Oh, Zach Condon. What more can we possibly say about him? He released music in 2006 and it was among our favorite music of that year. He released some more music in 2007 and it was among our favorite music of that year.

He's an interesting artist for many reasons, but one of the things that strikes us is this. If you read this blog because you're really into music, you're familiar with Beirut. If you read this blog simply because you know us, you're probably not familiar with Beirut. And if you get out from beyond your computers right now and ask the first five people you come across if they know of Beirut, after clarifying that you're talking about the band, we can almost guarantee that you'll be meet with blank stares. So here's what's awesome. Last time Beirut came through Los Angeles -- October '07 -- they played two shows at the Avalon (the first of which we know for sure was sold out). The Avalon is not the Hollywood Bowl, but it easily fits in excess of 1,000 people. It's quite impressive playing, let alone selling out, a venue that size while being a band that is in large measure obscure.

And not only did Beirut sell out the Avalon. The crowd was as attentive as any crowd we've ever seen. Hanging on his every word. Singing along to every word. And at the time of these shows Beirut's second full length album had been officially released less than a week, yet we overheard at least two people claim various songs on the album were their favorite songs of all time. And we don't think this was simply hipster hyperbole. Zach Condon has an effect on people that is true and pure and above all else real. (As an example, after the show, we went home and were inspired to start goofing around with our camera. We took a picture of the concert ticket and within thirty minutes had created what has turned out to be easily one of this blog's most viewed posts).

People of our generation, we're the Mtv generation. We've been advertised to our entire lives. Since our earliest years, we've been sold soda and shoes and lifestyles and dreams. It's become hard to tell the difference between what we really think and believe and feel and what we're told we're supposed to think and believe and feel. It seems that every time we stumble upon something authentic and different, in come the marketers to repackage it and sell it on a mass scale. It's enough to make one crazy. Unfortunately, cynical, we think, is what it's made most of us. There's a sense of sadness that pervades our generation because we desperately seek things real -- real emotions, real connections, whatever -- but too often feel we are left with the manufactured, facsimiles. We want to know that the emotions that we experience are the emotions we actually have, and not the emotions that marketers and advertisers and media executives are feeding us.

And into this vast space steps Zach Condon. He is real and pure and haunting and haunted and seems like he arrived in our speakers straight out of a novel. People are responding, we suppose, because they fear this moment is fleeting. That Zach Condon will one day just up and vanish. Well, for now Beirut is back for two shows. This time at the Wiltern. The band is still pretty obscure. But that hasn't stopped them from already selling out the Friday show.

If you sometimes feel overwhelmed with the cynical and the snarky and the snide and the sarcastic, we really recommend going to one of these shows. We guarantee they will be life affirming. And that's a good thing.

Beirut -- various tracks -- streaming audio.
Tem que Fazer Obras em Casa?
Não sabe quem é que o pode Ajudar?
Efectuamos todo o tipo de Obras e Remodelações.
Com o Rigor e Profissionalismo que nós caracterizam.
Solicite-nos Orçamento Gratis !!!!!
Telf: 214 867 378
Cascais / Portugal

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

(05.28.08) Recommends:

The Track "Creeper" from Islands' "Arm's Way" (Anti, 2008).

We're so underground that we've been anxiously awaiting Islands backlash since Nick Thornborn was still in the Unicorns. We're kidding, of course (click here for some background history); there are few bands in recent years that we've listened to with as much awe as the Unicorns and then Islands (though we've always thought Islands makes some of their songs about 90 seconds too long). So we waited with baited breath for the newest Islands release -- literally: we were on a strict fish bait diet for like three weeks prior to the release.

It came out several weeks ago but we've held off writing about it because we wanted to fully dig into it. And, frankly, it's also taken several weeks because it leads off with Creeper and it took us about nine days before our brain would allow us to move on to track 2.

So today we're gonna drop some Islands crumbs. If you listen to only one track on Arm's Way, it should be this one.


Tuesday, May 27, 2008

(05.27.08) Recommends:

Bharta.
Surya India,
8048 W. 3rd St.

We've lived in both the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles. We notice certain differences between the two. There is a certain rivalry between them, though probably not as much as people outside of the two areas would imagine. We've also come to appreciate certain similarities between the two as well. And say what you will about the two areas, but this much is hard to argue with: living in either one is pretty different than living in Kansas.

There are many differences that we expected, and expected to enjoy, before we moved -- the weather, the geographic diversity, the concentration of ambitious young people who flock here from all over the country and world. But these are pretty much the differences that lured us here in the first place. There are also differences that we didn't really think much about, but that we now find ourselves loving and they leave us unable to imagine how we could have gone so long living without them. One of the most pleasantly surprising differences that we've come to love is the diversity of ethnic food. We have never really been Food People; pasta and chicken pretty much got us to our early 20s. And still today, we cannot be considered foodies or food snobs (mostly because we just eat what is put in front of us with little understanding of or regard for the ingredients or how it's put together or the proper verbs used to describe food and ambiance), but we have been surprised to find out how much we love exploring new restaurants, and particularly restaurants that offer cuisine that is rare or non-existent in Kansas, it of the 91% white population.

So this weekend's revelation: bharta. Pardon our French -- we're talking food here, so an illusion to the French somehow seems necessary, right? -- but: Holy Shit. We ordered this, along with three or four other dishes, from Surya and had it delieverd. And when a Fellow Blogger put it on the table it looked to us like a container of tomato puree and we were neither excited with its look nor sure what to do with it. And even now, all we know for sure about bharta is that it is a vegetarian India dish made out of eggplant. But we were told to put some on our plate over our rice and we did what we were told and, again: Holy Shit.

We don't think we've ever thought of eggplant and crack at the same time, but bharta was bridging all sorts of divides this weekend. And again, because we are not foodies, we don't know if Bharta is "authenthic" (but trust us when we say we don't care). For all we know, bharta might be the Indian equivalent of a chili dog or a funnel cake -- something unsophicated for which your love can only be expressed to yourself while you are driving alone in the car or taking a shower.

Whatever bharta's story, we loved it and ate the whole container and when it was gone insisted on scraping up the container with nan, to make sure every last lick was gone.

And here we sit, Tuesday morning, and all we can think about is the next time we get to have it.

Surya India:
On the web.
Reviews.

(05.27.08) Recommends:

How Me Breaking Up With You Is Like Jon Lester Pitching A No Hitter Against The Kansas City Royals.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Lista de Casamento

Lista de Casamento
Entregue-nos a sua Lista de Casamento
e aproveite estas magnificas vantagens !!!

Cadeiras Ice

As Cadeiras Ice são um dos Best Seller da Calligaris
Muito modernas e exclusivas
Existindo em varias cores
Para a sua casa, escritório, consultorio, espaço comercial, etc
Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Se está a pensar em remodelar o seu espaço comercial
opte por estes elegantes bancos bombo
reconhecidos internacionalmente
Dê aos seus clientes o que eles merecem
o melhor !!!

Carfree Times issue #50 is up


This month has some good stuff on offer. Aside from beautiful photographs of carfree places, you'll find interesting articles about carfree living like:
Expensive Gas Drives Down Suburban Housing Values
Buy a McMansion? Bad idea. But they are cheap. And probably getting cheaper. Housing prices are probably nowhere near their bottom. (There's a scary thought.) But some neighborhoods are holding value. And it's no surprise which neighborhoods. It's the ones that aren't 40 miles from work.
[...]Near the city center, people are still buying and new listings attract plenty of interest. In the city proper, prices are actually up 3.5% over the past year. Good access to public transport is especially important to buyers.

Simply put, the longer the commute, the steeper the drop in prices.


In addition to the 10 or so articles, there's an interesting interview towards the bottom - "Cars Are Driving Us Nuts: We drive ever longer distances in order to satisfy the same needs".

Check it out.

(05.21.08) Recommends:

Karma Police.

Question: What do you get for inventing bands like Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync?

Answer: Why, 25 years in prision, natch.



Tuesday, May 20, 2008

(05.20.08) Recommends:

Carbon Dating.

As an alternative to, you know, Online Dating.

Think about it, people. Think about it.

Decore a sua Casa e pague em 5 ou 12 Meses sem Juros !!!!
4UDECOR em Parceria com o Banco Credibom
Criou uma linha de Crédito que lhe Permite
Pagar em 5 ou 12 Meses sem Juros !!!!
Escolha já os seus Moveis !!!!!
Documentação a Apresentar:
* Fotocópia(s) do (s) bilhete(s) de identidade (frente/verso)
* Fotocópia(s) do(s) cartão(ões) de contribuinte
* Fotocópia de documento c/ NIB
(Cheque c/ NIB, extracto de conta com NIB, talão Multibanco c/ NIB + cheque
ou documento passado pelo Banco).
* Comprovativo da morada: recibo de conta do telefone
(recibo de telefone de rede fixa, Água ou Luz )
* Comprovativo dos rendimentos:
a) Trabalhadores por conta de outrem - um dos dois últimos recibos de vencimento
b) Trabalhadores por conta própria - última Declaração/Nota de Liquidação de IRS

Monday, May 19, 2008

(05.19.08) Recommends:

Mount Righteous.



This is some kind of 11-piece acoustic-indie-rock-punk marching band. We keep seeing this name pop up in our inboxes and they're playing a bunch of local shows in the coming weeks so we're very excited to catch them live. We've been listening to their myspace all day and we like what we've heard. They kind of remind us of Head of Femur, (myspace) which is another old live favorite of the blog.

Howard Zinn on Anarchism

Abridged from an interview with Ziga Vodovnik:
Ziga Vodovnik: From the 1980s onwards we are witnessing the process of economic globalization getting stronger day after day. Many on the Left are now caught between a "dilemma" - either to work to reinforce the sovereignty of nation-states as a defensive barrier against the control of foreign and global capital; or to strive towards a non-national alternative to the present form of globalization and that is equally global. What's your opinion about this?

Howard Zinn: I am an anarchist, and according to anarchist principles nation states become obstacles to a true humanistic globalization. In a certain sense the movement towards globalization where capitalists are trying to leap over nation state barriers, creates a kind of opportunity for movement to ignore national barriers, and to bring people together globally, across national lines in opposition to globalization of capital, to create globalization of people, opposed to traditional notion of globalization. In other words to use globalization - it is nothing wrong with idea of globalization - in a way that bypasses national boundaries and of course that there is not involved corporate control of the economic decisions that are made about people all over the world.



ZV: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon once wrote that: "Freedom is the mother, not the daughter of order." Where do you see life after or beyond (nation) states?

HZ: Beyond the nation states? (laughter) I think what lies beyond the nation states is a world without national boundaries, but also with people organized. But not organized as nations, but people organized as groups, as collectives, without national and any kind of boundaries. Without any kind of borders, passports, visas. None of that! Of collectives of different sizes, depending on the function of the collective, having contacts with one another. You cannot have self-sufficient little collectives, because these collectives have different resources available to them. This is something anarchist theory has not worked out and maybe cannot possibly work out in advance, because it would have to work itself out in practice.
[...]
ZV: Most of the creative energy for radical politics is nowadays coming from anarchism, but only few of the people involved in the movement actually call themselves "anarchists". Where do you see the main reason for this? Are activists ashamed to identify themselves with this intellectual tradition, or rather they are true to the commitment that real emancipation needs emancipation from any label?

HZ: The term anarchism has become associated with two phenomena with which real anarchist don't want to associate themselves with. One is violence, and the other is disorder or chaos. The popular conception of anarchism is on the one hand bomb-throwing and terrorism, and on the other hand no rules, no regulations, no discipline, everybody does what they want, confusion, etc. That is why there is a reluctance to use the term anarchism. But actually the ideas of anarchism are incorporated in the way the movements of the 1960s began to think.
[...]
ZV: Do you thing that pejorative (mis)usage of the word anarchism is direct consequence of the fact that the ideas that people can be free, was and is very frightening to those in power?

HZ: No doubt! No doubt that anarchist ideas are frightening to those in power. People in power can tolerate liberal ideas. They can tolerate ideas that call for reforms, but they cannot tolerate the idea that there will be no state, no central authority. So it is very important for them to ridicule the idea of anarchism to create this impression of anarchism as violent and chaotic. It is useful for them, yes.
[...]
ZV: On one occasion Noam Chomsky has been asked about his specific vision of anarchist society and about his very detailed plan to get there. He answered that "we cannot figure out what problems are going to arise unless you experiment with them." Do you also have a feeling that many left intellectuals are losing too much energy with their theoretical disputes about the proper means and ends, to even start "experimenting" in practice?

HZ: I think it is worth presenting ideas, like Michael Albert did with Parecon for instance, even though if you maintain flexibility. We cannot create blueprint for future society now, but I think it is good to think about that. I think it is good to have in mind a goal. It is constructive, it is helpful, it is healthy, to think about what future society might be like, because then it guides you somewhat what you are doing today, but only so long as this discussions about future society don't become obstacles to working towards this future society. Otherwise you can spend discussing this utopian possibility versus that utopian possibility, and in the mean time you are not acting in a way that would bring you closer to that.



ZV: In your A People's History of the United States you show us that our freedom, rights, environmental standards, etc., have never been given to us from the wealthy and influential few, but have always been fought out by ordinary people - with civil disobedience. What should be in this respect our first steps toward another, better world?

HZ: I think our first step is to organize ourselves and protest against existing order - against war, against economic and sexual exploitation, against racism, etc. But to organize ourselves in such a way that means correspond to the ends, and to organize ourselves in such a way as to create kind of human relationship that should exist in future society. That would mean to organize ourselves without centralize authority, without charismatic leader, in a way that represents in miniature the ideal of the future egalitarian society. So that even if you don't win some victory tomorrow or next year in the meantime you have created a model. You have acted out how future society should be and you created immediate satisfaction, even if you have not achieved your ultimate goal.



ZV: What is your opinion about different attempts to scientifically prove Bakunin's ontological assumption that human beings have "instinct for freedom", not just will but also biological need?

HZ: Actually I believe in this idea, but I think that you cannot have biological evidence for this. You would have to find a gene for freedom? No. I think the other possible way is to go by history of human behavior. History of human behavior shows this desire for freedom, shows that whenever people have been living under tyranny, people would rebel against that.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

IITTALA Toikka Birds

IIttala Toikka Birds
Esta colecção de passaros é a obra mais conhecida de Oiva Troikka.
São uma magnifica peça de decoração em vidro soprado.
Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal

Friday, May 16, 2008

Too Many People?

You know, I get really irritated when people talk about overpopulation. So does this guy. To me it seems like a way of shifting blame. It is about blaming people who live in the global south for environmental problems that were caused by exactly not them. I think a far more pressing need is to reduce our constant striving for unlimited economic growth and overconsumption.
The places where population is growing fastest — sub-Saharan Africa, rural China and Bangladesh — have virtually no carbon emissions, and pitiful food consumption rates. The gap is so huge that to be responsible for as many gas emissions as one British person, a Cambodian woman would need to have 262 children. Can we really sit in our nice homes, with a fridge-full of food we will mostly chuck away and an SUV in the drive, and complain that she is the problem?

Of course, there's only so many people we can fit on the earth- and, you know, feed.
But if this is a problem, is there a solution that isn't abhorrent? Some people seem to reach instinctively for authoritarian answers. The government of China has bragged that its "greatest contribution" to the fight against global warming has been its policy of punishing, imprisoning or sterilising women who have more than one child. Some environmentalists — a small minority — eye this idea jealously.

There is a far better way — and it is something we should be pursuing anyway. It is called feminism. Where women have control over their own bodies — through contraception, abortion and general independence — they choose not to be perpetually pregnant. The UN Fund For Population Activities has calculated that 350 million women in the poorest countries didn’t want their last child, but didn’t have the means to prevent it. We should be helping them by building a global anti-Vatican, distributing the pill and the words of Mary Wollstonecraft.


So we do need to reduce our population growth to something manageable, but improved social justice, security, and women's rights take care of that pretty neatly. For instance here in Canada, where women can be pretty independent, with (mostly) good access to birth control, and a relatively comfortable economic situation, we have a below replacement fertility rate (1.53 per woman). Reproductive rights are a very important part of the puzzle (Unless you're China) - just one more reason we must keep fighting that fight. As I wrote previously:
Give women more choices and they won't have as many babies - they may work outside the home, delay marriage, and use contraception. Children are expensive and less of an asset in industrial, urban societies as opposed to agricultural societies. Wealthier populations tend to also be healthier, which means less infant mortality (which generally correlates with having fewer babies).


It seems that population growth is inversely proportional to the degree to which a society is egalitarian, urbanized and economically secure. You can play with this yourself using Gapminder. Just press "play" to see how the indicators change over time.
Here, correlated with total fertility rate, is Life expectancy at birth. As life expectancy increases, fertility rate decreases. This one shows under 5 mortality rate. This one relates total fertility rate to the percentage of girls who complete primary school. Again, the trend is clear. Similarly, an increased Urban population also correlates to a lower fertility rate. Finally, increased income per person means fewer babies born.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Thursday Thoughts

From Torontoist:
Tory MP Jason Kenney complained that Romeo Dallaire was overly harsh when Dallaire criticized the federal government's handling of the Omar Khadr case. Kenney is a former general who is credited with using meagre resources to save the lives of over 20,000 people during the Rwandan genocide in the face of massive indifference from the west…no, wait, sorry, that was Dallaire. Jason Kenney is a lifetime party hack who didn't finish his bachelor's degree. See, they're almost like twins!


From Paul Graham: al Naqba at 60 and the reflections of a recovered Zionist:
Looking back I am amazed at how easy it was to adopt completely contradictory political positions, for example, to cheer on American blacks in their struggle for civil rights and to be blissfully unaware of the grinding poverty and racist oppression of aboriginal people in my own community; to see the American invasion of Vietnam as a horrendous crime while cheering on the Israeli army as it triumphed in the "Six Day War" of 1967.

Young people are idealists by nature with an instinctive sympathy for underdogs of all kinds. Messages of freedom and equality resonate with youth, in part because they experience the inequality and lack of freedom that accompany parental control.

The direction their idealism takes and their ability to identify underdogs depends pretty much on what they learn, at home, at school, from the media. As the ‘60s progressed it became possible to understand the injustice and horror of the Vietnam War and the just demands of the American civil rights movement: these were on display on the evening TV news. Aboriginal people didn’t have a media voice; they were invisible. And as for Israel and my youthful Zionism, well, I blame American novelist Leon Uris. (Read the rest here)


Via illvox, Bolivian President Evo Morales' 10 commandments to save the planet:
1. In order to save the planet, the capitalist model must be eradicated and the North pay its ecological debt, rather than the countries of the South and throughout the world continuing to pay their external debts.

2. Denounce and PUT AN END to war, which only brings profits for empires, transnationals, and a few families, but not for peoples. The million and millions of dollars destined to warfare should be invested in the Earth, which has been hurt as a result of misuse and overexploitation.

3. Develop relations of coexistence, rather than domination, among countries in a world without imperialism or colonialism. Bilateral and multilateral relations are important because we belong to a culture of dialogue and social coexistence, but those relationships should not be of submission of one country to another. Read the other 7 here.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Doimo CityLine

Marca de Mobiliario Italiano Infantil de Design Moderno e Criativo.
Permite Varias Combinações Consoante as suas Necessidades.
Porque os Seus Filhos Merecem o Melhor.
Já disponivel na nossa Loja.

Encomende já / Order Now:
geral@4udecor.com
Telf: 214 867 378
Tlm: 966 312 602
Cascais / Portugal

(05.14.08) Recommends:

Willy's Favorite Burrito (w/ grilled Skirt steak instead of chicken).
Bossa Nova,
7181 W Sunset Blvd.

We carry three things in our pockets (we actually carry things in our pockets Huck Finn-style, long ago eschewing the notion of wallets and whatnots) at all times: (1) a bank card; (2) a form of government-issued identification; (3) a card that says "We Love Burritos."

So take it from self-styled burrito fiends, when we say there may be no better burrito available in this country than Willy's Favorite Burrito at Bossa Nova, a Brazilian place in the middle of Hollywood. Who woulda figured, right? We had previously believed that the best burrito available in this country was the orange-sauce ladened crack burrito of La Victoria. But Bossa Nova is making us question the very principles around which our world is organized. And never has such disorganization and chaos satisfied us and fortified us and bowled over our little burrito-loving brains as Willy's Favorite Burrito.

If you live in Los Angeles and act on one recommendation from this blog this week, make it to go to Bossa Nova and order this. Also: you should probably invite us along.

Two Additional Notes:
One. On the menu, the burrito is found under "Sandwiches". Do not let this alarm you. You are in Hollywood after all and they just do things a little differently here -- an artist's constitution and whatnot. You say tomato, we say tomahto. You say sandwich, we say burrito. Whatever. We'll deal.

Two. There are several Bossa Nova locations, but the great thing about the Hollywood location is that before or after your burrito you can go across the street and catch some live theater. Seventh Veil specializes in putting on what we guess is termed Off Broadway productions. The first time we heard about the Bossa Nova/Seventh Veil combo was back in the fall, during the heat of the writer's strike. Our friend went and told us -- we presumed that it was in solidarity with the writer's -- that the cast members choose to perform the play totally naked. Frankly, our friend found the whole thing was a bit startling and we're not sure every show is like this. But you'll basically just have to go and find out for yourself. And if you act on that recommendation? There's no need to actually invite us along. Once bitten, twice shy and all that.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

(05.13.08) Recommends:

The track "We're From Barcelona" by the band I'm From Barcelona.

Okay, since last Thursday we have had this stuck in our head for the first time since late-'06/early-'07. Here is the tale.

Part 1. We were living in Northern California when this song was first released, back in 2006. By January 2007 we were dating a girl who lived in San Francisco. She did not just live in San Francisco though, no no, she lived on California Street at the peak of Nob Hill. Now, anybody who has spent any time in San Francisco on California Street at the peak of Nob Hill understands that this area offers some of the most breathtaking views of anywhere in the United States.

Part 2. At the time, we were also living the Student Life, and sometimes -- in particular Friday's, when we had no classes and could go roam around freely -- the Student Life is the Best Life Their Is.

Part 3. So on many of these Friday afternoons in January 2007, we'd find ourselves driving up to San Francisco to spend the weekend with said girlfriend. And we burned a CD that featured only this song -- anybody who reads this blog with any regularity knows that when we get a song on the brain, we will listen to nothing else until we've completely mastered the song -- so we would be driving windows rolled down radio cranked up, slowly enveloped by the smell of the Bay and breathtaking views and this song. Intoxicated with life. We would shout the lyrics at the top of our lungs -- the band is, a bit confusingly given the name, from Sweden and even though we think the song is mostly in English, the only part we knew we were getting right was the "la-la-la-la-laaaaa la-la-la-laaaa lalalalaaaaaa." [1]

Part 4. When this relationship ended -- which is the terminus of all relationships that are predicated almost entirely upon the stunning vistas afforded by the significant others' neighborhood (yes, yes, we're horrible people for saying this, but let this be a Lesson For Us All) -- this single song CD got shoved to the bottom of the CD pile/got lost somewhere amid all the crap in the backseat/trunk/under the drivers or passengers seat of our car. One of the two. It's been a long time since we've seen the CD so it's location, really, could be anywhere at this point.

Part 5. But the song made an unexpected reprise in our lives at the Ben Solee show on Thursday. It was played over the speakers between Ben's sound check and the beginning of his set proper. The show was great, but now we're retroactively wondering if having this song as a lead-off didn't put us in a particularly sentimental mood. And since that show, the catchy song has lodged its way back into our brain. We've literally been whistling it in the shower. Whistling it on the metro to work. Whistling it in the office. If we're feeling particularly giddy -- and we're sure nobody is within earshoot of us -- we've even been belting out the old "la-la-la-la-laaaa la-la-la-la-laaaaa lalalalaaaa" line. Then, last night while taking the metro home, we got a deep-seated urge for edamame. So we stopped into our neighborhood crap sushi joint (a place so crappy that we refuse to even recognize it by name it in this space) for a pre-dinner snack. And what instantly popped up on the speakers as we sat down? Why, "We're From Barcelona." So we figured that the gods, in addition to being crazy, must want us to blog about this song.

Part 6 . So here we are. Blogging about the song. We really hope everybody will click on the mp3 below and give the song a try. It really is one of the most catchy, whistleable, damn near perfect pop songs crafted in the last twenty fives years.



I'm From Barcelona -- We're From Barcelona -- mp3.


---
[1] A little known fact is that many school children in Sweden actually speak French. So, if our recollection of high school French is correct, this lyric, translated from the original French means roughly "the-the-the-theeeeee the the the theeeeeee thethethetheeeee."

Monday, May 12, 2008

An Open Letter to People Who Smoke While Driving

Dear smoking drivers,

When you are finished smoking your cigarette, please do not throw it out of your window. There may be a cyclist right in the trajectory of its burning ember.

Sincerely,
Your friendly nonsmoking cyclist

p.s. You could also be a real pal and refrain from honking a cyclist out of her lane so that you can illegally pull over into said bike lane where you aren't supposed to be, seeing as how you are in a car and all.

(05.12.08) Recommends:

Cheap Thrills.

This is Andrew Bird's latest installment in the Measure for Measure blog.

(More info here and here).

Friday, May 9, 2008

(05.09.08) Recommends:

Ben Sollee.

So we just received an email about this gentleman earlier in the week. The email basically said: this dude is kinda like Andrew Bird and he's playing an early show at the Silverlake Lounge on Thursday and you like both Andrew Bird and early shows at the Silverlake Lounge so go check this out already. And so we went and checked it out.

Ben Sollee is 24 and plays the cello. He is a bit like Andrew Bird, we suppose. He's also a bit New Grassy, and jazzy. Here's the thing. We spend lots of time consuming obscure-to-somewhat-obscure media. And then we come here and make recommendations. Often very enthusiastically. We do this despite our knowledge that many people will never act on the recommendations, or click though to the linnks we present (sad, true, but we understand that everybody is under a constant delgue of stuff that must be done, so we understand sometimes people just do not/cannot take the time to take chances with culture), and that which we recommend might not find an audience as big as we believe it deserves.

But this recommendation is different. As a general rule, solo cellists do not perform at the Silverlake Lounge to the rapt attention of a roomful of hipsters. But here's the thing. He also plays in Sparrow Quartet, a band that also includes Bela Fleck (the offical banjo hero of this blog), so he'll play to the rapt attention of the bluegrass festival circuit this summer. We could see him catching on big with the Dave Matthews Band crowd.

He reminds us a bit of someone like Andrew Bird, or someone like Zach Condon of Beirut in that he is obviously inspired by a force that touches few people. Most young people do not wake up and say "I want to be a cello player. I want to fuse jazz and bluegrass and rock. And I want to do it in front of both small rooms in Silverlake and large fields of the Rockies." But -- and god bless him for this -- Ben Sollee does walk around with thoughts like these in his head. And that's why we're convinced that he is very needed. Because society is better for people who think these strange, but captivating, thoughts.

Endnote: For people in LA, Ben is opening for Tapes 'n Tapes tonight at the Troubadour.

Ben Solle @ myspace.
Ben Sollee featured on NPR.



Love Food Hate Waste

My new favourite site: Love Food Hate Waste


Around a third of all the food we buy ends up being thrown away and most of this could have been eaten – it's not just peelings, cores and bones.

90% of us just don't realise how much good food we throw out, yet in the UK we throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food each year.

It's not just an issue of good food going to waste, or that this costs us as consumers a significant amount of money, but that there are serious environmental implications.
...
The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food.

I really hate wasting food, and I can't compost at the moment, living in an apartment not yet serviced by the city's green bin collection. I try to eat everything I buy. I freeze leftovers if I know I won't be able to finish them before they go bad. I make stock out of vegetable scraps (keep a bag in the freezer until it is full, then pop it in my crockpot with some water and herbs overnight... mmm). I make muffins out of overripe bananas and not-so-fresh yogurt. But sometimes I just don't know what to DO with my leftover food.

This site has all kinds of great tips. They have a portion planner for those who never know how much to cook, ideas on how to make food stay fresh longer, and all kinds of recipes to help you use up those odds and ends in the fridge.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Bigotry: it's not just for adults anymore

New! "God Hates Fags" T-shirts, now in toddler sizes.

You know what they say: if you want 'em to grow up without a shred of care or compassion for fellow human beings - start 'em early. If you want 'em to become hate-filled, rage-filled, closed-minded, we suggest you work on 'em while they're still malleable. Start with these tees, so the message burns itself into their soft, innocent hearts. Ah, the next generation of little Pat Buchanans:

These kids are going to need some serious deprogramming later in life.

Statistically speaking, some of the kids whose parents dress them in these shirts are going to be gay themselves.

Reminds me of the fact that many (some even say most) victims of homophobic violence (bullying, gay-bashing, etc) are not even gay - but are usually those who others mistakenly think are gay. This is just one reason (you know, aside from the morality aspect) that even straight folk should be concerned about homophobia. Gay bashing is about more than just punishing homosexuality; it is also a method of enforcing social conformity. Boys are punished by their peers for stretching the strictures of masculinist behaviour. Of course, those who do the enforcing don't come up with the idea on their own, but pick it up from heterosexist society, communities, churches, and parents - especially those parents who buy their kids "God Hates Fags" t-shirts.

In case you weren't aware, godhatesfags.com is a website run by Fred Phelps, leader of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. They're the ones who have anti-gay protests around the U.S., including at some points showing up at the funerals of gay men, and have moved on to a general "God hates America" theme, due to all our depravity. He makes Jeremiah Wright (Obama's pastor) look like a teddy bear–at least he was just saying God ought to damn America.

From the fantastic site: Sociological Images

(05.08.08) Recommends:

Blogging Your Way To Work/Proving Your Critics Wrong.

So after yesterday's post, we received no less than two messages challenging the assertion that we actually take the metro to work. We've long suspected that the readers of this blog are primarily ne'r-do-wells; however, we did not anticipate that they were also faithless.

We figured the only way to prove the nay-sayers wrong is to turn our morning commute into a Bloggable Event.

We like to call this first pic the Pre-6AM Hollywood Blackout Blues. LA -- we're not being fair here, this is pretty much applicable to California as a whole -- doesn't really get started until 10:30am, 9:30am tops. Which is great for us, as we grew up waking to the crowing of roosters and whirling of blow dryers at 4:00am every morning, so we can get started with our work without having to, you know, like, interact with people and stuff.



This next pic doesn't really do this building justice. But it's built in this weird castle-inspired architecture that is oddly prevalent throughout Los Angeles (was castle-inspired architecture big in, like, the 50s? Is this some residual Disney effect? Is this an elaborate joke we're not in on? If anybody has any info on LA's obsession with castle-based architecture, we'd love to know).



Franklin Ave. and Beachwood Dr.



Sushi Ike. Perhaps our favorite sushi in LA. Another peculiar California-ism is they put really excellent restaurants in totally sketchy strip malls. This has taken us years to get used to.



See what we mean? We remember the first time we (hurriedly) walked by this sign and thought rather than Al Wazir Chicken it said Al Jeezera Chicken. We figured that explained the existence, in the same strip mall, of a store called Security Training (which, no doubt, is a Department of Homeland Security it's-so-unsubtle-it-becomes-subtle front). However, upon noting our error, we're now pretty sure it's Thai Massage that the feds may or may not be monitoring.



We go to LA music venues all the time. We walk by the Henry Fonda every day. But we've never seen a show here.



Looking westward on Hollywood Blvd. The streets of where I'm from are paved with hearts instead of gold...


Our red line station.



The Alice in Wonderland decent.



The Metro is well-known for its use of alliteration.



Our g ride.


Our exit.



The view from the 7th Street Metro stop.



The view outside our office.



The view inside our office.


Wednesday, May 7, 2008

(05.07.08) Recommends:

Public Transportation.

So over the past several weeks we've finally wised up. We have finally stopped trying to find secret routes! -- here and here for some background -- and started taking the metro to work. And my oh my. We've always believed that travel by train is the most civilized way to travel. And our belief has been reconfirmed. It is so lovely not having to deal with traffic. We sit peacefully on the way home now. Sometimes we even -- gasp! -- read books and magazines. We are reducing our carbon footprint. We are reducing our blood pressure -- we'd venture to guess we've lowered it anywhere from one-half to two-thirds. And we're the kind of people who always must be stressing to the point of a nervous breakdown. So with public transportion eliminating many of our known stressors we're very curious to see what will come up over this month to make us edgy. With public transportation on our side, we're willing to take on all comers.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

(05.06.08) Recommends:

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, by Jennifer 8. Lee.

If you monitor the world of books (or, if you're like us and pay attention to a few sources that monitor the world of books for us), you most likely haven't gotten through a book-reviewing source in the past few months without seeing a review of this book.

The idea for it began with a March 2005 Powerball drawing. Powerball statisticians expected there to be 3.7 second place winners for this particular drawing (second place meaning correctly picking 5 of the 6 numbers drawn). Instead, there were 110. The winners came from every state in the country, but of them 104 had picked the same six numbers. What's more, under the rules of Powerball, if 110 people had all won first place (i.e., correctly picked all 6 numbers), the jackpot would just be split 110 ways. However, there is no such limitation on second place -- Powerball had to pay out 110 fixed amounts. And they suspected fraud. So, one by one, they interviewed the winners. What they found were 104 people who had put their Powerball number picking faith in the same string of numbers received from the fortune of fortune cookies.

From this story, Jennifer 8. Lee traces back the fortunes to the Chinese restaurants and develops her thesis that Chinese food is now more American than apple pie. Along the way for her search for the lucky fortune cookies, she tells the story of the modern Chinese restaurant in America. The history of fortune cookies -- where they're from, how they're made, who writes the fortunes, intellectual property litigation of the fortune cookie. The history of those stacks of Chinese delivery menus piled up in the corner that anybody who has ever rented an apartment has experienced. The history of chop suey. The history of General Tso's chicken (and why nobody in his home village has ever heard of it). Why, of all Americans, Jews have a particularly strong attachment to Chinese food (and what happens when the only Kosher Chinese restaurant in town might not be, well, kosher). The path -- almost always illegal and harrowing -- of the average Chinese worker to an American Chinese restaurant -- first from their home village in China to New York City, then to points throughout the entire U.S. methodically plotted by companies whose sole purpose is to track the best places for Chinese restaurants to be located (and the myriad struggles faced by the immigrants once they arrive in the US). The history of Chinese delivery and take-out and those ubiquitous take-out containers. The history of soy sauce, and a search for the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world.

The book is as entertaining as it is ambitious. It's like a mix between The Tipping Point, Fast Food Nation, your favorite episode of This American Life and just sitting around with your most interesting friend over Chinese take-out and tall bottles of Tsingtao.* Our biggest complaint is that it's only 300 pages -- it could easily be three times that length to allow some of the chapters to be explored a bit deeper and we're still sure it could be read in two days, even at that length.

The book is a charming page-turner and we can't wait to see what Jennifer 8. Lee comes up with next.



*An interesting aside. We wrote this post yesterday morning but didn't have time to post it until this morning. And in between we, by complete coincidence, actually had dinner with an interesting friend -- rather than Chinese, it was done-up up pub food in the LA via NYC style; rather than Tsingtao it was a "beer flight" of yummy beers. And this friend, by further coincidence, informed us that she wrote for her college newspaper with Jennifer 8. Lee. Blogging, like Chinese food, has mysterious powers.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Howard Zinn makes me swoon - even when he's a cartoon character

Seriously, he's my hero.

Check out the cartoon version of Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire
by Howard Zinn
Narrated by Viggo Mortensen