Need a good last minute gift idea? Try this recipe for Heath Crunch Cookie Truffles. It makes 3-4 dozen truffles (depending on how big you make them) so you can get a lot of gifts out of one batch. But be warned, these are addictive little treats so package them up quickly or you’ll find yourself snacking on them endlessly.
Alan Wilkis - "Come and Go (feat. The KickDrums)" from David Sosnow on Vimeo.
Getting to watch an artist evolve is one of the coolest parts of being a music blogger. Some acts show a lot of promise when you first hear their stuff but it never goes anywhere and they drop off the radar. Other artists are pretty rad from the start but with time prove themselves to be much radder than you initially suspected. Alan Wilkis is one of the later. He’s definitely no stranger to TWIAPC – I most recently posted his ambitious new project Prints – and now he has gone and blown me away with the video for Print’s single “Come & Go.”
Shot in 360˚ with help from David Sosnow to capture the euphoric feeling of the song and capture is does. The amazing film technic is only partly responsible for the smile the video puts on your face. The free wheeling dreamscape it evokes is responsible for the rest. As Wilkis continues to explore and evolve it’s with 100% certainty that I can say great great things are still yet to come from him.
[MP3] Come & Go
I consider myself pretty lucky that my parents always invited us into the kitchen with them when they were making meals. My dad is a recipe kinda guy and was always cruising through cookbooks for ideas to try while my mother loathes recipes and usually just cooked according to taste, memory or curiosity. From the two of them I learned a lot about cooking and experimenting in the kitchen, something I thought every parent imparted on their kids. However, over the years I have realized that is not the case. In fact, most of my friends have a very limited understanding of how to cook or improvise when making a meal. I am always happy to share my kitchen know-how with friends who ask.
“Hey Mom, write a blog post for me today” Sure Em, I will just pull more random thoughts out of my head on music for you because there is enough there for the whole world. And here they are…
The first time I heard the Beatles I was 12 years old, doing dishes (yes a recurring theme, I listen to music while doing dishes) with the local rock station playing the same old, same old. Probably Skeeter Davis or some Jan and Dean car song or you get the picture. “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” squeezed itself between all the pap and I was open mouth, staring into space. It was different. It was good. I wanted more. And thank you music gods you gave me more.
You know what I mean because you are reading a music blog. You are talking with someone and there is a song in the background and your companion gets all fuzzy and all you can hear is that music. You’re in a record store (remember those? they still exist. Get yourself to one as soon as possible. Some place like the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis) and they are playing a tune that is infecting your mind with goodness. What is it? You gotta find out.
I can remember these moments in my life because honestly, there have not been many. They are the musical mileposts of my life. Continue Reading →
I can really geek out when investigating desserts tied to holidays or various cultural traditions. I think this has a lot to do with the central role meals take during the holidays for my family. Christmas is my aunt’s molasses bars, making julekake with my mom and fresh cardamom coffeecake. New Years is something ridiculously decadent with equally indulgent breakfast sweet in the morning. Tucking into these traditions each year brings me such pleasure that over the years my eye has wandered to the culinary traditions in other cultures. I’ve made celebration breads from a middle eastern cook book, eaten my fair share of Mexican wedding cakes and dedicated a weekend to making a variety of pancake recipes from all over the world. Continue Reading →
“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you that music has boundaries. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.”
- Charley Parker
One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is the tradition of the meal. It makes menu planning simple but also allows for some creative wiggle room. We’ve all heard about the crazy ways you can prepare a turkey – deep fried, basted, smoked, stuffed with numerous other fowl – and seen the many great things you can do with pumpkin. There is a true sense of success when you offer up a new take on a “standard” dish that is so well received it is requested the next year.
I especially love that opportunities for improvisation continue the day after the big feast when you open your fridge to face all the leftovers. This year, for work, I had to actually create leftover recipes before the big day so I made small simple batches of roasted turkey breast, sweet potato casserole and pumpkin bread just so I could then re-imagine them as other dishes. After a few false starts (pumpkin bread sausage cakes were a little hockey puckish) I struck on a winning combo with this sandwich recipe and can now say after having finished my second batch of the salad mixture that I may have my first day-after-Thanksgiving traditional dish. Continue Reading →
The Everybodyfields - Lonely Anywhere from Live & Breathing on Vimeo.
The Everybodyfields are one of those bands that I fell in love with right as they were breaking up which is a pain all avid music lovers are familiar with; finding yourself wrapped up in a new “favorite” band only it’s got the tinge of regret knowing that you’ll never get to see them live. While the members Jill Andrews and Sam Quinn have both gone on to fruitful solo careers but it’s just not the same as the wonderful dance Jill’s voice does with Sam’s guitar. This morning Live & Breathing (a really fabulous blog you should check out) posted a video of The Everybodyfields from their archives. “Lonely Anywhere” is incredibly heartbreaking but and comes from such an honest place it has earned a permanent spot on my “a good cry” playlist. This performance in the studio of their friends at Live & Breathing is a very tender performance and a great way to introduce yourself to an often overlooked group.
Cloud is the new “the” and sometimes it’s difficult to keep all of the new cloud bands straight so I was a little slow on listening to the stuff from Cloud Control. At some point over the last few weeks their new album Bliss Release come up and more than once I found myself checking on the source of what I was listening to. CC isn’t making anything really wild music but they’re well invested in playing cool retro neo-surf pop. It’s breezy with a fair touch of charming lyrics. The male-female harmonies tend towards the homey sweet end of the spectrum but not in an annoying way, it actually end up being rather soothing. Bliss Release is the first release for the Australian group and it’s definitely a strong showing out of the gate.
[MP3] Gold Canary
Miami’s Another New Republic (aka ANR) snuck up on me. They’re another group that initially I didn’t give enough of a listen to but stuck on my “to review” playlist long enough that they slowly began to grow into my consciousness. Now that I’ve given their newest album Stay Kids a few listens straight through I am embarrassed it took me this long. They call their music “apocalyptic synth-pop” which certainly touches on the weight of the material – this isn’t all fluffy dance music (although they have their moments) – it’s smart lyrics delivered with a well chosen variation of synths, drums and effects to lend the right mood. On the second trip through Stay Kids I definitely felt the comprehensive ebb and flow that it the mark of a well curated album. Now I just need to make sure to catch them the next time they pass through town.
[MP3] New Armor
All cooking demonstration videos should be this beautiful. Tiger In A Jar capture the essential grace and art of a kitchen session in her food videos. We may not all be this smooth in our baking endeavors but it’s something to aspire to.
