Tagged: djtroublesposts

I love the segue. I love to figure out which colors rock together (this summer is so yellow and magenta), which song picks up the tonality of the one previous, or the beat of the one previous to that. What spicy flavor tastes best with what sugary flavor (have you tried mint and watermelon lately?). Anyway, that said, I need to shout out about a huge problem in the world of movie theaters. Why do the previews frequently have jack to do with the movie you have just paid to see? If I am seated comfortably waiting for the credits [...]

I read that the invention of bicycles in France, way back when, added 6 inches of height to the average villager over the next several generations. Basically, the opportunity to marry outside the village one was born in, led to enlarging the gene pool and strengthening the stock. And of course, created the Tour de France many bicycle wheels later. So karma-wise it should be Lance Armstrong who is leading the cause for modernizing rural villages around the globe by creating bicycles that are more affordable and accessible. But he isn't. The Earth Institute at Columbia University here [...]

For those of us who don't have shacks in the Hamptons, the city is our summer playground. New York in the summer is not just for European tourists. Can you locate these inner city delights? Answers in the comments section.

Prunella Scales. What more do I have to say? The stage name alone offers up a certain oddity and eccentricity that her physical appearance continues to suggest. I fell in love with her portrayal of Sybil Fawlty, the off color and regal proprietress of the most ill-managed guest house in the history of England. Her economy of manner, so precise and suggestive, was a wonderful foil to the physical stammerings and mishaps of Basil Fawlty. Sunday night I watched Prunella in a remarkably un-Sybil role in a new Masterpiece Mystery: Miss Marple . The Jane Marple stories have [...]

I have this awful habit of gushing affection whenever I run into one of my heroes. Worse, it's the sort of affection that strangers don't take kindly too. It's not exactly a King of Comedy moment, but some of the looks it engenders suggest I need to rephrase my adoration. I was at a Lincoln Center event for the films of Claire Denis when I bumped into the filmmaker in the hall outside of the bathroom. I immediately blurted out " I love you, errr... I mean I love your films." She was gracious and warm [...]

Summer in my inner city neighborhood means lots of music streaming from neighbors' backyards, car windows and the nearby little league field. I don't mind the conflicting soundtracks, but the generic quality gets me down. In proper WFMU fashion, I want something more rarefied than the generic salsa beat. Yesterday I got it. Sitting in my mini patch of shade, eating elotes and tacos that we bought up at the corner, I heard the sweet strains of an old Cuban rumba. That intersection of good food and good sounds made me so very happy. Later in [...]

This is a picture of the bathroom at the ICA in Philadelphia. It's not my favorite image from my visit there this past weekend, it is the only picture I could take unnoticed. I tried to slyly sneak some shots in the Sun Ra exhibit , but the damn bleep of my digital camera gave me away instantly. It's an attractive bathroom, covered in wallpaper made up of vintage fashion ads. And while you are visiting this luscious WC , do check out the Sun Ra show upstairs. Last Sunday was the 85th birthday [...]

It's my favorite time of year. Strangely shaped buds are pushing to the surface, pollen is covering every car like natural gold leaf and small town flea markets are filling up green fields with shiny, shiny objects, patiently waiting to be scooped up and given a new home. Ahhhh, choo, spring! Seeds are seductive in their flat decorative packs, but root balls are so much more animated in their bondage. The ropes tied so tightly confirm that nature is untrainable and wild, hoping a good knot will subdue it's unleashable growth. Not as ripped as Wolverine, but more powerful. [...]

My brother-in-law lives abroad, and he works for the US government. We joke and say he's a spy, but we know he isn't much like James Bond or Jason Bourne. If he is a spy, wow, the life of a spy is pretty flat out boring. He is a regular old American, not one of those ex-pat types who actually relishes life abroad with all of its exotic flavor. So when he visits on this side of the pond, we frequently talk about the methods he employs to maintain the American life from afar. If [...]

Art museums have extremely finicky hours, always closed on the one day you are visiting a city far away. Starting today and running until April 26th the Newark Museum will give you no excuse as to why you can't visit: they are open 100 hours straight in honor of their 100th birthday . Admission to this great museum is free and activities are a plenty. There is a midnight flashlight tour of the Ballantine House, laser light shows and overnight films, dinosaur day, live music, early morning yoga and morning prayers at the Tibetan altar. [...]

There is obsession and there is obsession. Of course, many of us in the music netherworld understand the sorcery that beguiles a person to spend far too many waking hours searching for that elusive 7" or a mono version of a song that you fear you'll never see, but hoping with every flip of the record pile that you are wrong. That dedication, some say, fuels economies, creates magazines and sparks many long nights of conversation. But the kind of obsession that revolves around flavor and food can be a lonely outing. It is culturally acceptable to wait for hours [...]

I don't want to fall into that trap. You know the one where because we are seeing a film, or listening to music 40 years after it was made it doesn't seem to be all that shocking. As a teenager I walked out on Godard's "Breathless ", the very first time I went to a midnight movie. Of course, I am horrified at that juvenile snafu, but I didn't know any better. I had to be taught to understand French Cinema in all of it's oddities. Yet, I have been watching "Who are you Polly Magoo?" for [...]

I can't remember a two week period lately that has had more action packed moments. Two weeks of WFMU fund-raising is not for the weak of heart. Begging and pleading is serious business, necessitating hearty fare for all involved. DJ's, phone slaves, listeners: don't take on this job if you are hungry. But so many of us are hungry of heart these days; hungry for a sense of solvency, and a respite from the nonstop talk of doom that is forecast in the dailies. Unfortunately, I don't hail from a line of people who treasure the intricacies of food. [...]

There are movies that, 40 years after they were made, look even more fantastic in comparison to the swill that passes for contemporary cinema. There are movies that are truly eerie in the prophesies they seem to ooze out of every prescient frame; as if they were made to tell the future. And then there are those rare movies that were truly ahead of their day and are now even more so. Fahrenheit 451 is one of those movies. Based on the Ray Bradbury book of the same name, Francois Truffaut's only film in English [...]

Sita is singing the blues because her man done her wrong. We all know the feeling. One day you're flying high, completing an independent animated feature you've been working on tirelessly for years, writing and animating every frame yourself, and then the next moment your award-winning film is in copyright lock-down over fees for music written more than 60 years ago. Well that isn't exactly Sita's problem, but that is the dilemma of animator Nina Paley with her fantastic new feature film, Sita Sings the Blues . Layering several versions of the Hindu Sanskrit epic of [...]

When the temperature falls well below freezing my definition of comfort food includes lots of deep down warmth. Just opening the fridge this week has made me re-think why I was originally standing in front of this monstrous cavity of cold air. For the second time in this blustery run of arctic weather I have solved the comfort food dinner craving with a gorgeous mushroom risotto. Roasted beet risotto is a staple in our house, so changing the risotto menu wasn't the most natural jump. But a beautiful selection of mushrooms at the market changed all that. I love cremini [...]

It's kind of startling to discover how something can be so breathtaking and so influential, that you can't point to a time when this force wasn't felt in your life. I know many of us felt that TANG granulated soft drink was going to be that moment for us, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. I just came back from the William Eggleston retrospective at the Whitney museum and I am still agog with that feeling. His photos seem so effortless, but that's because we have been looking [...]

All around us year-end lists are summing up our collective experiences in an orderly fashion, reminding us of the things we missed or challenging us to change our minds about what we didn't. The last dark day of December is not radically different from the new gray light of January 1st. We wear the same clothing, eat the same out of season foods and continue to seek out places to put the holiday gifts that have recently entered our lives. I've been thinking a lot about [...]

I am never ready for this time of year. It always comes rumbling in demanding to know what I saw, heard, ate, and when. 1. Sheep . They are still the animal I most want roaming around in my backyard, and since I live in the city, they can not. Note to self: ask Santa for a farm... 2. 4 Women No Cry v/a Monika [...]

We all know that President-elect Obama has an awfully huge job ahead of him in the next few months. I suggest he brainstorm with Burt Lancaster's character from the 1964 film "The Train" for a few tips. In Hollywood-land Lancaster plays a French train engineer by day and Resistance hero by night. In MacGyver -like fashion he manages to halt a Nazi-led train of French artwork hightailing it for the border. In the moments leading up to D-Day, the real French resistance was a well-oiled machine plotting details as minute as how much draining of oil [...]