The Associated Press / The Huffington Post
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP/The Huffington Post) -- The Twitter account of Venezuela governing party candidate Nicolas Maduro has been hacked and whoever is behind the takeover seems to have a sense of humor.
Shortly after taking control of the account, which has more than 700,000 followers, the hacker cracked a joke:
billtronWho are these bloggers, and why are they in my town? Dara cranks this wheel at least once a week.
We discovered the Diamont Grain Mill while strolling through the King Arthur Flour store. I saw the aquamarine flywheel from across the store and was compelled to investigate. I turned the wheel and watched the grains transform into fine flour. The mill is easily adjustable and can go from the finest flour to coarse cornmeal. As I searched for the mill I discovered Lehman's, a contemporary hardware store that I'm sure I will be browsing often. It looks to be an incredible resource for the home. The mill is now on our need/wish list.
Years Past
Welcome to the inaugural post of our new feature profiling African foods and drinks (plus other gastronomical related subjects); and the people on the continent and in the diaspora that are defining and reshaping our ideas and tastes of these. We’ll call it “Africa is a Kitchen”. To kick off the series, we will be speaking to a Chef in the diaspora who is defining African cuisine both on the continent and in the diaspora. Pierre Thiam is a chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He was raised in Dakar, Senegal. Thiam moved to New York in the late eighties and started working in various restaurants in the city. In 2003, Thiam opened his first restaurant, Yolele, a visionary African bistro and his second restaurant, Le Grand-Dakar Restaurant, opened in 2004 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Thiam now runs a catering and gastronomy consultancy: Pierre Thiam Catering. In addition to his work as a chef, Thiam gives lectures and cooking classes at venues such as the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE) and the International Culinary Institute. A very busy man indeed being a food ambassador for Africa all over the globe including South America and Europe. So we were lucky to catch him for this small chat.
Hello Pierre. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you. To start off, please tell us a bit about your background and how you got started in the culinary field. Did it involve a mentor or attendance of a formal culinary school?
Hello. I came to New York in the late 1980s. Prior to that, I was a Physics and Chemistry student at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. Unfortunately, the late 80s were marred with strikes in the Senegalese school system so I obtained a US student visa for Baldwin Wallace college in Ohio. My goal was to become an engineer but fate decided that I would stay in New York and that my first job would be in the restaurant industry. That first job triggered a passion that was sleeping within me. Cooking is chemistry. It has been over twenty years now and I am still cooking.
Being from Senegal, it never occurred to me that a man could consider cooking as a career. In Senegal, there is a general acceptance that the kitchen belongs to women. Ha! In fact, growing up, I knew only one man to ever step foot in the kitchen. That was my Godfather who was of Vietnamese origins. He was part of the Vietnamese community that migrated to Senegal after the French Indochina war. He was an excellent cook, combining Vietnamese and Senegalese flavors. He used to grow his own vegetables and herbs. He is my great inspiration.
What is your overall cooking style? How truly continental is your style and which regions of the continent have been featured in your cuisine? What are your favorite ingredients and spices to cook with at any given time?
I would not call it a style but I like to cook intuitively, preferably with jazz music in the background. By cooking intuitively, I mean I tend to be really present in order to communicate with the ingredients around me and sometimes be dictated by them. Africa is my main source of inspiration and the influences in my cooking have been very diverse, from northern Africa all the way to West and Southern Africa. I am a big fan of the intensity of flavors in our food. The fermented ingredients used in West African cuisine (i.e. netetou in Senegal or Dawadawa in Nigeria), the dried salted fish, the Yeet (fermented conch), the smoked catfish, etc. I also love using our spice mixtures like the Hausa’s Kankankan or the Moroccan Charmoula. All these layers of flavors are what makes our African cuisines unique.
I have always wanted to ask an expert this question, what makes a cuisine ‘African’? History, methodology, ingredients or spices? Is ‘African cuisine’ a misnomer? Do we need an “African food” historian or anthropologist? Why does there seem to be a dearth of famous female African chefs in the diaspora?
“African cuisine” is indeed a misnomer. The continent is so rich in its cultural diversity, in addition to the immense variety of ingredients from one region to another. It is therefore insulting to try to categorize African cuisine into one box. I also do not think the definition of African cuisine should be simply geographical. “African cuisine” transpires through the diaspora. That is where the food anthropologist (or historian) you mentioned might play an important role. African captives, during slavery, have influenced Brazilian, Southern American, Latin American cuisines. In Spain, the Moors brought rice to Valencia; today the national dish of that country is paella. Food is constantly evolving. Our food has also received foreign influences. Africans brought new ingredients like rice, okra, eggplant or black eye peas to the new world. Other ingredients also arrived to the continent through the Columbian Exchange (Cassava, corn, sweet potato, pepper, etc.). The genius lies in how we embraced these new ingredients and made it our own.
The dearth of female chefs is not particular to Africans only. One reason professional cooking is dominated by men is because it can be very physical. Especially during the early stages of the chef’s career. It requires long hours on one’s feet, heavy lifting, enduring cuts and burns. African women are often great cooks, the challenges are the steps one has to go through before becoming a chef. That can be the deterrent factor.
Speaking of continental style, you have a luncheon and book signing at NYU in New York City this coming Friday, please tell us more about that and your previous writings. And why do you not have a food column in the New York Times yet?
Hahahaha! The New York Times has not offered me a column yet. Friday, the 12th of April at NYU will be the culmination of an event that begins today (April 11) around a conference on food and economics. The idea of the conference is the brainchild of Dr. Yaw Nyarko (professor of economics at NYU). He will be joined in the panel discussion by my friend Jessica Harris, a renowned food historian who wrote extensively about African cuisine. Also in the panel will be Mexican scholar, Dr. Marco Hernandez De Cuella whose body of work comprises essays on the influence of African cuisine in Mexico. It will be an opportunity to sign my book Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal.
Are there other African food chefs we should be looking out for on the continent and in the diaspora? In addition, when should we be expecting the next restaurant venture from you in NYC?
Fortunately, there are many African chefs to look out for globally. Here in New York: Chef Abdoul Gueye at Abistro in Brooklyn, Ivorian chef Samuel Beket (Hill Cafe), another Ivorian chef, Morou Ouatara, to name a few. Of course, there is the Swedish-Ethiopian celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson at Red Rooster.
Presently I am enjoying this time away from the demanding restaurant activities to work on projects which involve lots of traveling. I am also consulting on a couple of food concepts in NYC and abroad. I have a few pop up restaurants lined up including a recent one in San Francisco and an upcoming one on Mount Kilimanjaro as part of charity events.
Your best cooking tip for a novice just getting into the culinary business, be it operational or entrepreneurial?
Passion. Love is key in this business. It is not always as glamorous as it appears. It requires lots of patience to succeed in the culinary business.
Have you ever cooked for any “famous” Africans with “interesting” gastronomical pleasures? Would you ever consider becoming a presidential chef (what are those by the way)?
Through cooking, I have met many incredible personalities indeed. Last week, I cooked for Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, who I hope will be the next president of South Africa. No, I am not interested in being a presidential chef and have my food being constantly scrutinized by the secret service.
Let’s shift gears a bit … from 30 April to 5 May, you are organizing an African food festival in Dakar. Do share more about this festival. And why in Dakar?
The festival, “AfroEats”, is a celebration of our cuisine: its past and its future. It has the ambition to become a movement to promote our rich food culture but also to encourage healthy eating. The goal of the festival is to offer a platform to all the artisans of food transformation as well as chefs and food entrepreneurs. Dakar was chosen for this first AfroEats because of its ideal location. It is easy to get to Dakar (only 7 hours from NYC and 6 hours from Europe).
It is a crucial battle that we are facing. Many of our ingredients are being threatened with extinction. It is our responsibility to save and preserve them. There are no other options, to give up is to accept that what we eat will be dictated by corporations.
What is your favorite meal to cook for others? And for yourself?
I do not have a favorite meal to cook per se. It depends on my mood, the season, the person, and several other factors. The goal is to try to be in the place where the food I am cooking at the moment is my favorite to cook. That’s perfection! I have not been very successful at it yet.
Last but not least, could you share a recipe of yours with our readers (hopefully something they can make easily at home)?
BLACK-EYED PEA PUREE WITH SAUTÉED EGGPLANT WRAPPED IN BANANA LEAVES (ABALA)
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
2 cups dried black-eyed peas, soaked
2 tablespoons palm or canola oil
1 small onion, diced
2 Japanese eggplants, cubed
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large banana leaf, cut into 6 (6- to 8-inch) squares
Procedure
1. Peel the soaked black-eyed peas by rubbing them vigorously between the palms of your hands to remove the skin. Alternately, drain the peas and place them in a blender or food processor. Add enough water to cover the peas and briefly pulse a few times, to break the skin free. Do not attempt to make a paste of the peas. Place the broken peas in a bowl and fill with more water. Then pour the water out through a strainer (the skins, lighter than the peas will pour out with the water, leaving the cleaned white peas in the bowl).
2. Return the peeled peas in the blender and process to a thick puree (adding a few drops of water to facilitate the process). It should have the consistency of hummus.
3. Heat the palm oil in a sauté pan, over medium heat, and sauté the onions until soft. Add the eggplant and cook until cooked through and eggplant is soft. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool.
4. Fold the eggplant mixture into the pea puree. Adjust seasoning.
5. Place 2 tablespoons of the mixture in the center of each banana leaf square. Close the leaf by folding the ends over. Secure with toothpicks or kitchen twine.
6. Place the packets in the top of a steamer or a hot grill and cook for 10 to 15 minutes (turning once). Can be served with a spicy tomato sauce or a tomato relish.
TOMATO RELISH
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
1 red onion, finely julienned
2 firm ripe tomatoes, chopped
½ cup fresh lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 habanero pepper, seeded and finely chopped
¼ cup peanut oil
Procedure
1. Place the onions and tomatoes in a salad bowl along with the lemon juice, salt, pepper and habanero. Stir well. Gradually add the peanut oil while still stirring.
2. Can be served with Abala or grilled seafood.
Surprisingly, my poster and essay was selected from the top ten in the country and was test marketed in Washington, D.C. I was the original creator of the Woodsy Character, name and slogan. However, I had just a green hat and a red feather on the Woodsy character but in test marketing they put on more clothes on the character and created an anthropomorphic owl. I won the contest and received a congratulatory letter. I also received my certificate of completion for an all expense paid week at the Rushford Conservation camp in Rushford, NY.
Since I was only 12 years old my parents and I signed a contract with the US Forest Service and the US Attorney General so that the US Forest Service could use the Woodsy Character, name and slogan that I had created for the campaign (reference: contract, US Attorney General and US Forest Service,USDA) I was sponsored by camping group in Buffalo called Ken-Tonawanderers which is a group associated with the national camping group called National Campers and Hikers Associatio ( NCHA) which is now called Family Campers and RVers (FCRV) in which the national headquarters is in Depew, NY (near Buffalo,NY).
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Deborah Kogan has something epic to say:
Fast-forward to 1988: I am raped by an acquaintance the night before my graduation from college. The next morning, before donning cap and gown, I stumble into the University Health Services building to report the crime. I'm advised not to press charges. "They'll smear you," I'm told by the female psychologist assigned to my case. I don't want to be smeared. I've got a life to live. Twenty-five years later, while watching CNN lament the effects of the Steubenville rape on two promising lives—the rapists', not the victim's—I'll hold two competing thoughts: nothing has changed; I wish I'd been braver. I decide to Google my rapist's name, something I've never done in the quarter-century since the crime. His promise, I note, has been duly fulfilled. He's successful. He's married—to a woman who recently spoke on a "Lean In" panel with Sheryl Sandberg.Because life's like that.
The whole thing is wow: "The author's 2002 book about her career as a war photographer was titled "Shutterbabe"—against her wishes." Don't miss a word of it. Or a word of this other article, which is mostly about men (and a few women) who are really, really great and righteous.
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See more posts by Nicole Cliffe
None of us was prepared for what happened next in Zuccotti Park. It was surprising enough that the police did not immediately evict the occupiers. We expected the most likely scenario was for hundreds of riot cops, backed up by horses and copters, to be unleashed against us that very night. This would certainly be in keeping with the style of the NYPD, whose usual strategy is to overwhelm protesters with sheer force of numbers. Yet in this case, someone made the decision to hold back.
One reason was the ambiguity of the legal situation: While public parks close by 12 p.m., Zuccotti Park was a public-private hybrid, owned by an investment firm, Brookfield Office Properties. Technically such “privately owned public properties” are accessible to the public twenty-four hours a day. Still, by our experience, the mere existence of such a law would have been of little relevance if the authorities decided they wanted to evict us anyway, but it allowed something of a fig leaf. But why did they even want a fig leaf?
Wealthy wine collector says he will use the money to further his campaign to highlight counterfeiting of bottles
A jury has awarded the Florida billionaire Bill Koch $12m in his long-running dispute over phony vintage wine. Vowing to do more to expose wine frauds, Koch proclaimed the court win on Friday to be his happiest day since winning the America's Cup in 1992.
"Out of sight. Over the moon," he said as he described his feelings after emerging, giggling with glee, from a courtroom in US District Court in Manhattan. "We weren't even expecting any damages and we got $12m. Unbelievable."
The verdict went against the businessman Eric Greenberg, who insisted that he had not intentionally sold a fake bottle of wine in auctions that generated about $42m for him over an eight-year period. The trial involved alleged that counterfeit bottles of Bordeaux were labeled as if they were made from 1864 to 1950. In a statement, Greenberg called the verdict "a disappointment because I believed all the consigned wine to be authentic". Outside court, Greenberg declined to comment further.
Koch's lawyer, John Hueston, suggested that a criminal investigation of Greenberg was underway, saying: "We're co-operating with the FBI." He declined to elaborate.
In a chilly drizzle outside court, the 72-year-old Koch celebrated with his lawyers, posed for pictures and met briefly with at least one of the eight jurors who decided on Thursday that Koch had been defrauded, awarding him $380,000 in compensatory damages.
Jurors returned Friday to hear Koch and Greenberg testify again and deliberate over punitive damages. "I'm very sorry I had counterfeit wine," Greenberg told them. "It's a horrible thing. Both of us have lost millions of dollars." The verdict was another blow to Greenberg, a former billionaire who built two internet consulting companies before the 2000 collapse of those stocks reportedly reduced his net worth by as much as 90%.
Koch said he planned to use the $12m to continue his crusade to clean up the wine auction industry, including by creating a website that highlights fake wines and who sells them. He said he would include in the list the 421 bottles he had identified in his own collection as fake after buying them for $4.4m.
"I'm sad at the amount of fakes," he said. "That's why I stopped buying very old wines."
So, putting armed policemen in schools is pretty much the best idea ever. I mean, I assume that when they’re not dealing with exceptionally rare school shootings I assume they just kinda mind their own business, and would never try to justify their existence by turning trivial disciplinary issues into criminal charges, right?
Yet the most striking impact of school police officers so far, critics say, has been a surge in arrests or misdemeanor charges for essentially nonviolent behavior — including scuffles, truancy and cursing at teachers — that sends children into the criminal courts.
“There is no evidence that placing officers in the schools improves safety,” said Denise C. Gottfredson, a criminologist at the University of Maryland who is an expert in school violence. “And it increases the number of minor behavior problems that are referred to the police, pushing kids into the criminal system.”
Oh. That’s surprising! But I assume once affluent suburban parents get sick of having their kids dragged away in handcuffs for sassing back at the teachers, it will all stop?
Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of students are arrested or given criminal citations at schools each year. A large share are sent to court for relatively minor offenses, with black and Hispanic students and those with disabilities disproportionately affected, according to recent reports from civil rights groups, including the Advancement Project, in Washington, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in New York.
Wow, this discretion is enforced in a selective and arbitrary manner against the relatively powerless? You learn something new every day! I wonder what freedom-hating states are taking the lead here — Vermont? Massachusetts?
Such criminal charges may be most prevalent in Texas, where police officers based in schools write more than 100,000 misdemeanor tickets each year, said Deborah Fowler, the deputy director of Texas Appleseed, a legal advocacy center in Austin. The students seldom get legal aid, she noted, and they may face hundreds of dollars in fines, community service and, in some cases, a lasting record that could affect applications for jobs or the military.
In February, Texas Appleseed and the Brazos County chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. filed a complaint with the federal Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. Black students in the school district in Bryan, they noted, receive criminal misdemeanor citations at four times the rate of white students.
Ah, a state where they really understand what freedom means.
Sound Clip: Abort Nerves by John Harvey
This excerpt is from the upcoming conference, The Noises of Art. The work addresses what is arguably the most prolific, varied, and groundbreaking period in the coming together, exchange, and mutual influence of visual art and sound-based practices (such as music and the spoken word). It aims to explore (principally) the visual artist’s engagement with sound, noise, music, and text while at the same time recognizing that there is a traffic of musicians, sound artists, and text artists moving in the opposite direction, who aspire to cultivate visual analogues for their work. Thus, the conference is situated at the intersection of several movements that are converging upon a point of visual-audio synthesis and exchange.
Everyone likes to people-watch in the subway (just don't make eye contact!), but some get paid to do it: Researchers from the NYC Transit Authority observed straphangers over three weeks last year to glean insights into the seating and standing behavior of subway riders. Now, they're publishing the findings in a study in which they offer some suggestions on how to improve our trains. [ more › ] 
We have made all kinds of cotton candy from foie gras to pistachio. We missed this combination. It has been in front of our faces for years. Thanks to an impromptu visit to a sugar shack our eyes were opened. I asked the syrup maker if they used straight maple sugar in the cotton candy. It turns out they blend the maple with cane sugar. It is delicious and light with a full maple flavor. Time to dust off the cotton candy machine and get to work.
Years Past
If you weren’t paying attention to the news in 2008, you might not have noticed that Zimbabwe’s currency went through a period of hyper-inflation as Robert Mugabe’s unspeakably-corrupt government printed more and more money to keep itself running. Part of the way they maintained value in these bills were to sell them overseas to currency collectors. This hun-trill-dollar-bill looks neat and it’s only $1.44, but it indirectly funded Mugabe’s tyrannical reign in which he seized private equity, persecuted the poor, openly murdered and abused protestors, bombed the offices of national media reporting on his corruption, and dozens of other crimes against humanity.
billtronMy grandpa, on gun safety, via his hunt club blog
billtronI'm not convinced this is sophisticated enough for rhythmically complex music. Give me a sample with some syncopation and I might believe it.
I don't read music so it's difficult for me to say how useful this is, but the folks behind Hummingbird claim their new system of music notation is "easier to learn, faster to read, and simpler for even the trickiest music".
Roll over, Beethoven. (via @veen)
Tags: design music
Little, Brown and Company 
Suburban-Angst Films
The Stages of a Woman's Life, in Photos
Margaret Thatcher in Pop Culture
This week, Salon published a great interview with Meg Wolitzer (whose just-released novel The Interestings is currently being enjoyed by more than one Flavorwire staffer). "Men," she says, "with very few exceptions, won't read books about women." Though not exactly a new idea, this pronouncement gains a little force by coming hot on the heels of GQ's "The New Canon: The 21 Books from the 21st Century Every Man Should Read," which contains (you guessed it, drumroll please, etc.) three books written by women.
Though I won't disparage any of the books that made the list, I will offer my own—as an attempt to work towards ameliorating the problem laid out by Wolitzer and neatly exemplified byGQ. After all, though there are three books by women on their list, only the Munro could really be said to be primarily about them. Below are 21 books by and about women that every man should read.
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is essential reading no matter your gender, and this chilling depiction of a dystopian future is one of her best. In the Republic of Gilead, women's rights have been completely eradicated, and the country is ruled by a racist, homophobic, misogynist, ultra-conservative cult. As Flavorwire editor-in-chief Judy Berman quipped, "This is every woman's worst nightmare that men have never thought about." So think about it.
Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
Gaitskill's incredible collection is filled with women walking the borderlands—of sexual experience, of self-actualization, of family. This book digs under your skin, titillates, forces you to re-evaluate everything you ever thought about sex and love and what it means to be a person in the world. This book is terrifying.
A Guide to Being Born, Ramona Ausubel
This one doesn't come out until May, but I'll recommend it now for good measure. Ausubel's luminous collection is organized around the origins of life—that is, the stages of love, conception, gestation, and birth—but her stories aren't as simple as all that. Men may never be able to feel the fetus in their stomach and be sure that it is a three-headed giraffe, but with this collection, they'll at least get a taste.
Bossypants, Tina Fey
Everyone likes Tina Fey, so this shouldn't be too hard a sell. The comedian's memoir is (obviously) hilarious, but also filled with reflections on being an awkward girl, a woman in show business, and a mother. You bros will be laughing so hard that you won't even realize you're learning about what it's like to be a real-life lady.
Speedboat, Renata Adler
In her aforementioned interview, Meg Wolitzer laments, "Something nebulous and thought-based—a book of ideas—people seem much more willing to have that from a man than a woman." Well, here is exactly that: a loose, penetrating, ruthless, glorious novel about a young journalist making her way through New York City.
The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
The modern fairy tale, whether in retelling or creation, has become a ripe area for feminist thought, for explorations of sexuality, for wit and irony and vulgarity to seep out of what was once a prim little moralistic package. No one does this better than Angela Carter, whose rich retellings of the classic tales thrum with blood and language.
The Flamethrowers, Rachel Kushner
Here's a special lure for all you male readers: girl racing motorcycles across salt flats. Past that, the book is gritty and searing and immediately essential, a subtle novel about art and love and truth and a woman on a knife's edge. Read it.
Self-Help, Lorrie Moore
No one does wry brilliance better than Lorrie Moore. In this collection, she will teach you everything you need to know: how to talk to your mother, how to be an other woman, how to become a writer, how to live. Darkly comic and dazzling, it's a way inside the head of all the smart women you've ever known.
Heroines, Kate Zambreno
In Heroines, Zambreno traces the impact—or rather, the exiling—of the female experience on and from literature, untangling the stories of "the mad wives of modernism" both historical and fictional, "who died in the asylum. Locked away, rendered safe. Forgotten, erased, or rewritten." Enlightening and intense, it's a must-read.
Kindred, Octavia Butler
In this novel, a 26-year-old modern black woman is suddenly (and then repeatedly) transported back in time to a slave plantation in the antebellum South, where she is subjected to all the harshest parts of slavery as she protects the son of a slaveowner. Rarely does social criticism come with such incendiary storytelling.
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
All right, I'm cheating with this one a little, since it can't be properly said to be about women at all—instead, it's about a human man who travels to an alien planet populated by a race of beings who are genderless, or rather unisex, able to assume either binary gender during reproduction. The novel is beautiful and filled with timeless philosophical insights as to the nature of humanity and society—a definite classic I'm happy to make an exception for here.
Dora: A Headcase, Lidia Yuknavitch
Yuknavitch's protagonist, the 17-year-old Ida, is a modern reincarnation of Freud's famous bisexual case study Dora, whom our most famous shrink deemed "hysterical." Ida may be a bit "hysterical" too—but she's taking back the term. She's raunchy, irreverent, filled with the desire to strip naked in the middle of "Nordfucks" or shave her head, sidekicked by a beautiful gang of weirdos. "I want to create new girl myths," Yuknavitch said of the book. I think everyone should read them.
The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
"I hesitated a long time before writing a book on woman," De Beauvoir begins. "The subject is irritating, especially for women; and it is not new. Enough ink has flowed over the quarrel about feminism; it is now almost over: let's not talk about it anymore." This was in 1959—and the sentiment is as fresh now as it was then, just like (most of) the rest of De Beauvoir's lucid book, equal parts literary and philosophical. All else aside, it's one of the most classic feminist texts in the language. And men should read more of those.
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston's take on the memoir blends her personal experiences with traditional Chinese folktales, examining the Chinese-American experience as well as the female one, taking on the cultural source of oppression, something we could all do to think more about. She writes: "There is a Chinese word for the female I—which is 'slave.' Break the women with their own tongues!" So why even be a girl? "I refused to cook. When I had to wash dishes, I would crack one or two. 'Bad girl,' my mother yelled, and sometimes that made me gloat rather than cry. Isn't a bad girl almost a boy?" This is the kind of thing most boys never have to think about.
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
It's pretty much a given that everyone should read The Bell Jar, but I'll just drive the point home again—it's a look into the conflicted mind of a tortured genius snuffed out too soon.
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
There is so much in this book that carries over perfectly to the modern era. Sure, maybe not the idea of tableaux vivants as party diversions, but the double standards for men and women, the vicious social games women play with each other, the perils of depending on another person—these issues are all alive and well. Plus, the novel is phenomenal. Can't go wrong.
Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
John Updike, male of all males, called this high comedic novel "a startling reminder that solitude may be chosen and that a lively, full novel can be constructed entirely within the precincts of that regressive virtue, feminine patience." What the never-married, witty but mild-mannered Mildred Lathbury would have to say about that, I cannot say.
The Complete Claudine, Colette
Though Colette's frisky stories aren't nearly as scandalous today as they were when they were first printed, she is still a giant of French literature, and her writing is just about as daring, sexy, gorgeous, and smart as she. As this book's introduction describes it, Colette is "[a]ccessible and elusive; greedy and austere; courageous and timid; subversive and complacent; scorchingly honest and sublimely mendacious; an inspired consoler and an existential pessimist -- these are the qualities of the artist and the woman." A must for any reader who sees female writing as only one thing.
Drinking With Men, Rosie Schaap
Men love bar stories, right? Funny, smart, and insightful, Schaap's memoir as a drinking buddy will make you a better person.
Inferno, Eileen Myles
Some men might be put off by a "poet's novel," but we bet they'll be on board once they read that killer first line: "My English professor's ass was so beautiful." Myles can be difficult, but she can also be incredible, and in this story of a young poet's self-actualization, she's both. Take note.
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
I maintain that Satrapi's beloved graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution is a must-read for absolutely everyone, so including it here is a no-brainer. What does it mean to be a tough little girl into rock music in a country that suppresses their women? What does it mean to be a tough little girl? Satrapi will tell you with grace, humor and delightful illustrations.
This post also appears on Flavorpill, an Atlantic partner site.
    
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billtronSPOILERS
I don’t have much else to say. I mean, I liked the game and all, but after an hour-long podcast and this article I’ve pretty much said everything I have to say on the game.
EDIT: And as soon as I posted this, I see that the new Errant Signal is out. I might be out of things to say, but Chris has another twenty minutes of thoughts.
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Link (YouTube) |
billtronIn a previous life I was a Wandelweiser composer in training. Even attended Donaueschingen!
And so on.
As if to remind us that releases on the Wandelweiser label certainly do not all sound the same, or are particularly silent, this recent release from the label sounds quite unlike anything else the imprint has issued, and, despite containing in part works by John Cage, there is no silence, or suggestion of it here. The album pitches the music of Cage against that of Hildegard von Bingen, the twelfth century German composer / writer / philosopher / nun. “Pitches” is possibly the correct term here as well, as the disc, all vocal works sung by the soprano Irene Kurka, who has appeared on other Wandelweiser releases in the past, is split into three parts- the first contains straight renditions of nine Hildegard compositions, the second being Cage’s Sonnekus(2), a 1985 composition for solo voice in nine parts, and then the two spliced together over the final eighteen track section, with the tracks from the first two sections presented again, alternating track by track between the two composers.
Its a simple idea, but also an original and rather nice one. Kurka’s voice is really very beautiful indeed, a slightly softer soprano than most, thoroughly warm and intimate in tone, but very much in the classical / early music tradition. She sings the two compositions in a very similar style, closest resembling the early liturgical works of Hildegard. The Cage piece consists of nine of his mesostic concrete poems, brief nine line works that all have the word Sonneries running vertically through them. I am not familiar with any other recordings of the work, though they do exist, most notably it seems performed by regular vocalist collaborator Joan La Barbara. Whether Kurka has chosen to sing the Cage piece in the same style as the Hidegard isn’t clear, but even after several close listens it isn’t easy during the third section of the album to tell which of the two composers’ works she is singing at any one time. The fact that both parts were recorded in a church, with all of such a venue’s familiar resonances present only succeeds in blurring the lines further. A line on the Wandelweiser website maybe points towards the simple concept behind the album: “all of a sudden 800 years of temporal distance seem to dissolve and the pieces communicate with each other.” This indeed happens, though how much is as a result of the composer’s intentions and how much conceit on behalf of Kurka isn’t clear.
Although very much different to anything else on the label, this idea of comparing music from such disparate times is close to some of the core elements of Wandelweiser related composition. Hildegard’s music is exceptionally simple. While quite beautiful, it (and much of the music of its time) does not contain the great variation in form or melody that later centuries of composition shaped music around. What mattered to Hildegard at the time were the words of the pieces- the material that the songs contained. Much of the music of the Wandelweiser composers has followed similar themes, the simple organisation of sonic material into unadorned but meaningfully placed structures. Perhaps sometimes the idea is reversed, with the composers providing the structure and the musicians offering the material to fit into it. Either way, all of the music here, none of which is actually by a Wandelweiser composer has a sense of simplicity and a focus on the placement of sounds that resonates with the label. Indeed the 800 year gap feels non existent. The subject matter of Cage is also close to that of Hildegard as he used biblical text of some kind, though the precise content of the material is lost in both of Kurka’s realisations. So the music here is beautiful to listen to- restful, enchanting, expertly crafted. Yet nobody could be forgiven, on anything other than a very careful listen for not realising the fundemental differences between the two compositions, their form, meaning and reasons for existing. The way they come together asks a number of interesting questions about how compositions reflect one another, or perhaps how musicians impact on them to make this happen. Alongside these thoughts however also sits an album of extremely beautiful, simple music
I really don’t believe in standing and watching DJ’s while they play. So the Boiler Room site is always difficult for me to visit. The Internet went crazy when the Buraka Som Sistema crew hopped on the decks in Lisbon some time last month at The Boiler Room. Super super super cool but sometimes it’s not good to jump on things immediately. I like for the sound to meet me in my own time.
Today in my part of the world there is a snow storm out and I just felt the need to heat things up inside. Right from the intro I can understand where the hype is coming from. Not that Buraka Som Sistema don’t deserve the love but you can truly feel it and that’s what is most important. Sometimes when things are the rage on the Internet the feeling gets diminished.
If you’re like me and prefer to dance to sounds like this you can get the mix through the Boiler Room site. Otherwise enjoy the video below:
billtron#soundstudies
