Curio

Flâneur Before & After

2012-01-24T14:45:00.000-08:00

The winds that have come with the January rains may occasionally blow my windows open, and the hair from Callie's cat may jam up the printer once in a while, but I've still managed to spend a good chunk of the month working in the studio printing and editing and sequencing "Arcana." That project is pretty much wrapped up (I just have to decide on including a handful of images and one possible re-shoot) and now my focus has turned to "Flâneur."

To digress for a moment, I generally create a new printing technique for each of my projects — without being too technical, this can include large choices, such as black & white or color, what kinds of papers (watercolor or Luster), how I work with the images digitally (Lightroom or Photoshop) how I work the images inside those programs (for instance, curves or levels for dodging). While I always strive desperately to avoid trying to be the photographic equivilant of prog rock's overly technical noodling, I do pride myself on being a good craftsman. "Flâneur" is probably the most subtle project I've shot which curiously means that my printing technique has to be even more refined than normal so as to avoid being overly flashy (such as "Bridges of Desire"'s highly-wrought grainy images).

As I sit here staring thoughtfully at test strips, I figured it would be interesting for those of you who follow my work to take a look at some before and after comparisons of some of the new pieces I'm currently printing. The first image is directly from the RAW as shot and the second is as printed.

"Faded ‘Bar at the Folies Bergères’" (As Shot)
Eron Rauch, 2011

"Faded ‘Bar at the Folies Bergères’" (As Printed)
Eron Rauch, 2011
Archival Inkjet Print

"Bird" (As Shot)
Eron Rauch, 2011
Archival Inkjet Print

"Brid" (As Printed)
Eron Rauch, 2011
Archival Inkjet Print

"Garage" (As Shot)
Eron Rauch, 2011
Archival Inkjet Print

"Garage" (As Printed)
Eron Rauch, 2011
Archival Inkjet Print

"Falling Star, Fallen Angels" Mix by DJ Harmless

2012-01-18T16:14:00.000-08:00

After some encouragement from my friends I have made a DJ mix to celebrate being retired from spinning records for a decade. My old DJ name was DJ Harmless and I mostly spun parties and clubs around Chicago and Minneapolis from ages 17-21. Mostly spun lots of bad trance at first, but a couple of friends I made in the scene got me interested in jazzy house and more sophisticated techno (and even some drum and bass) — Jose and Shannon, wherever you are, you gave me good taste in dance music. From there, I got burnt out and stop playing the club and party scene pretty quickly, being more of an introvert focused on loving the music (specially the IDM scene), and finally quit all together during art undergrad for photography, selling my tables and records when money was in direly short supply. Not having to worry pleasing anyone elseThis mix grabs lots of diverse, dark, glitchy, sub-pounding elements to titillate both your mind and groove. It was a fun experience learning the new software-based mixing methods, since I only ever spun on vinyl, and I want to say thanks to Callie, for bringing the idea of doing a new mix up at Royksopp concert, and for Mixmaster Massey and DJ Softcore for constantly encouraging/harassing me over beers to make a comeback and though out a new mix.

You can download an mp3 of the mix, "Falling Stars, Fallen Angels," here.

Or, I posted it to stream on Mixcloud! Whoo, technology!

Anyway, on a personal note I turned 31 yesterday, and I'm mostly huddled in the studio trying to make as much art as possible (also play lots of AI Wars) while Callie gets better in Maryland. I miss her encouragement and love of life every day! She's doing an amazing job getting better and will be home soon though!

New Year's Resolutions 2012

2011-12-31T09:45:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year's Eve! In my usual tradition, I just wanted to post up my "reasonable" resolutions. I don't ever plan on finishing all of them, but I try to make this list as a general framework for my art & life in the coming year. These aren't big nor general things, but rather good trail markers so I can judge my progress. Also, I feel like publicly stating my goals helps me stick to them. Without further adieu, here they are:

Pay Off Debts (Car + CC's from grad school shows)

Plan Tokyo Trip

Pick Up a Few Words of Japanese

Learn 4-6 Actual Songs On Bass (i.e. stop noodling!)

Go Hiking Twice a Month at Least

Learn To Make My Own Pasta

Blog About Art Twice a Month

Finish Old School RPGs I Own (DQ7 etc.)

Buy More Jazz Records (Those contemporary albums always pop up and eat up my budget)

Reread Gene Wolfe's Book of the Short, Long & New Sun

Do Monthly Artist Salons (nothing formal, just get people together for an art talk night)

Portfolios and Statements and Business Cards for FotoFest Houston (mid march)

Get More Art/Photo Books

Get Monitor Calibration Working

Video Converter Dongle for Work

Digital Darkroom Blog

Finish Apartment Homes Fake Book #3 & #4

Finish Full Arcana Portfolio Printing

Finish Printing Anime Portfolio (Small, portfolio-book form)

Finish Flaneur Portfolio Printing

Continue to Explore Different Generative Ways for Writing Poems

Japonisme Proofs

Do Selects of Travels (digital form)

Do General Artist's Statement/Why/How I make work statement.

Do Specific Artist's Statements (Flaneur --> Arcana --> Bridges --> Travels --> Japonimse --> Eternal World --> AHFB --> Japonisme)

Redo Art Site (maybe not?)

Combine Fantasy Trilogy

Proof Rennfaires

Shoot Rennfaires This Summer (Try to get backstage Access)

Shoot LA Mornings for Poetry Book

Do Test Print-On-Demand Book for Eternal Garden

Submit 2-4 Poetry magazine a Month

Search for Gallery Shows (2-4 Per Month)

A New Mix: Shadowside

2011-12-11T15:42:00.000-08:00

Callie is safely back in Maryland recovering and as I take a break from packing up our apartment I wanted to share a new mix I put together since she left. I'm not deliberately trying to play the emotional card, but this mix is designed to be an archeology of of the musical journey that I went on through the 40 days where Callie was hospitalized. This mix takes some very strange turns, starting off far more pop-y than usual for me but still very abstract and introspective. Okkyung Lee's "Noisy Love Songs" has been a constantly relevant and engaging album that I've had on constantly — if I had to pick one album to sum up these tough months out of all of these amazing albums, that would be my choice.

Thankfully I don't and from there the mix goes much heavier and darker but with an anthemic and personal vibe. 40 Watt Sun's "Inside Room" is representative and has been on constant repeat in my car lately, being a perfect twist on the usual expectations of thicker sounding metal going deeply lyrical without loosing any of the gut-wrenching heaviness.

After that, well, let's just say my experiences with Callie's accident has done nothing but increase my appetite for [but curiously even more, my understanding of why I gravitate toward] the darkest, hardest, fastest, most howling, challenging and harrowing music around. From track 12 onward, it's listener beware, but turn the mix the hell up and let it rush over you. I spent many nights at 4AM driving back to the apartment blaring these later albums until my ears almost hurt.

Yeah this mix is weird, yeah there are sad moments, yeah it gets really dark, yeah it gets really really brutal, but dammit, this is a mix to celebrate the strange gardens of art in the shadow-side of life.

http://www.eronrauch.com/downloads/shadowsidemix.zip

(both .m3u and .txt export-playlists included this time to make importing easy!)

***Edit 12/30: I just realized that I already used "Old, Dim Light" when I redid my Summer Sirens Mix. Whoops. But to give myself I little slack, this mix was a bit unique anyway, being that it was supposed to represent what I was listening to through the course of Callie's hospitalization. Enjoy it twice, it's a nice track. ***

Artist - "Song" - Album

1) The Black Atlantic - "Old, Dim Light" - Reverence for Fallen Trees
2) Arctic Plateau - "Amethyst to F#" - On a Sad Sunny Day
3) Tame Impala - "It Is Not Meant To Be" - Innerspeaker
4) Quest For Fire - " The Greatest Hits By God" - Lights From Paradise
5) Okkyung lee - "One Hundred Years Old Rain" - Noisy Love Songs
6) Tera Malos - "Frozen Zoo" - Patagonian Rats
7) Shabazz Palaces - "Youlogy" - Black Up
8) SubRosa - "Borrowed Time Borrowed Eyes" - No Help For The Mighty One
9) 40 Watt Sun - "Between Times" - The Inside Rooms
10) Tim Hecker - "In the Fog 1" - Ravedeath, 1972
11) Black Autumn - "The Threefold Life" - Aurora
12) Big Satan - "Property Shark" - Souls Saved Hear
13) Blood Red Throne - "Altered Genesis" - Altered Genesis
14) Miseration - "Dreamdecipher" - The Mirroring Shadow
15) Pig Destroyer - "Terrifyer" - Terrifyer
16) Mamaleek - "You Can Bury Me In The East" - Kurdaitacha
17) Big Satan - "Emportez Moi" - Souls Saved Hear
18) Disma - "Purulent Quest" - Towards The Megalith
19) Svart Crown - "Nahash The Temptator" - Witnessing the Fall
20) Solstafir - "Necrologue" - Kold

I probably won't be posting much until January, but I'd love to know what you think of this mix, or any tack on it. As always, go buy the album in whatever format you prefer if you like it!

On Safari, In My Head

2011-11-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I know it's been a long couple of weeks since I made a post. It's been a combination of things, but mostly I've been really woodshedding on my art, but in less positive news, my girlfriend Callie was severely injured in a car accident when a driver ran a red light and hit her car. She's in the ICU still and just now starting the long road to recovering. If you want, a friend of her's has a blog post about a fundraiser she did here: http://jessiawesome.blogspot.com/2011/11/concluding-callie-care-at-comikaze.html If you want to help out pop on over there, or just go out and give blood in her name to help out someone else at your local Red Cross!

If you want something to tide you over until I get back in the swing of posting, I'd recommend the two relatively short but very multilayered books that comprise Gregory Frost's "Shadowbridge." These are obtuse, surreal and very deeply structured fantasy novels that are about the role of stories both personally and culturally. One part Guliver's Travels, one part Alice in Wonderland, one part Earthsea, they were my companion sitting by Callie's bedside for the first week. Filled with both moments of wonder and moments that are painfully human, I can't recommend them enough, especially if you like books by authors such as China Mieville, Michael Swanwick, John Crowley or Mary Gentle.

Travel Sketches @ ART + SOUL

2011-10-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hi! In my previous post I promised videos from my recent video art show with Astronaut Disco Soundsystem, and here they are:

First, a quick clip of the actual event:

Here's one of the videos that set the tone for my project, titled "Chinatown Walk." This is the first in what will hopefully be a full series that explores immersion and perception of the self in LA's tourists destination.

This next video is called "Cavern Duet (Pt. 3)" and it along with the preceding two parts, takes as it's source material glitches while playing virtual fantasy games (can you tell this is Ironforge in WoW?) combined with datamoshing techniques to draw out the underlying organic rhythms of a non-physical world. To play the world like an instrument, as it were.

Then, if you want to see how we used the videos at the event:

Thanks for looking, and if you haven't already, check out the work I have up at The Arava Review right now!

ART + SOUL

2011-10-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all! I just wanted to post some photos from the video installation I did with Astronaut Disco Soundsystem at the art and music event ART + SOUL that Nu-Soul magazine threw in downtown L.A. last weekend. My project, the first video art I've done in a while, jumped off from my interest in virtual spaces both real and digital as well as the visual poetics blooming from the cracks and glitches in perception. (Full artist statement at the bottom!)

Full Artist's Statement:
With these video works-in-progress I set out to explore memory and the creative fertility of virtual places, both physical (like Chinatown or Japanese magazine advertisements) or virtual (such as online games like World of Warcraft or Team Fortress 2). My interest is in the systems we each use to mine and use chunks of these pre-planned worlds — How we might not own the spaces, or even the characters we use to explore them, but that those experiences still tangle up inside ourselves, triggering unplanned memories and emotions. Poetry seems to spring forth when we wedge ourselves in to spaces between cues that are forced on us, like Chinese dragons and Medieval architecture.

Once inside the glitch, the halftone dot, the tourist marker, we find a twilight world filled with darkly luminescent landscape formed from massive human effort throbbing along to some new beat that wasn't apparent from the surface. Combining a love of remixing, bedroom recording tactics, glitches, irony, abstraction, meandering walks, incongruities and found fragments, these fascinations also become tools for growing art from the world's increasingly controlled and premeditated places.

Video clips to come soon!

Art: On Endings

2011-10-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

One of the strangest, and perhaps from the outside enigmatic, questions to grasp about art is, "When do you know a project is done?" In my case, I'm referring to what often is called "a body of work" such as Robert Frank's "The Americans" at a quite literal level, or more loosely Pciasso's "Blue Period." How did they know that that was that. It's time to move on. That nothing but maybe a bit of polish was left to cap off all of that parcel of their art.

The reason I bring this odd topic up is that I recently decided that I had completed most of the work for the Japonisme project. I've spent about three years working on the various pieces of it and to be honest, the decision was quite literally made while walking around late on night photographing in Little Tokyo. My mind, wandering alongside my feet in the night, little thought, "I'm done." Not in a negative, exasperated way, but quite simply stating with great assurance that I had what I needed.

In my case, this by no stretch means that I have no more work to do on the project. With my rather meandering, collecting, organic method of working I suppose this realization might be very akin to finishing principle shooting for a film. It's in the can but there's still lots of busywork to be done. It's a tremendously physical reaction for me. I often will literally spend a week playing crappy RPGs, drinking a little too much, with insomnia or sleeping 14 hours a day (I'm pretty much a workaholic normally, sleeping 7 hours tops and working out almost every day). And what is perhaps most amusing to myself, considering I've wrapped up 7 or 8 projects now, is it surprises me every time.

While my mind, pondering the spiraling and morphing might have stated a very concise truth, like in a long-term relationship coming to a end, it takes a while for the rest of my being to catch up. In this case, I had been anxious, moody and miserable for about a week after that moment near midnight in Little Tokyo. Walking to get a cup of coffee, unshaven, un-showered, buried in my peacoat one morning (okay, morning for me, I had been up until 5AM the night before laying in bed poking a book) I laughed once, and remembered. "Oh yeah, I do this every time I finish a project." And the two selves - the intellectual artist and the physical being who inhabited that work for years, met, shook hands, and agreed to an amicable breakup.

The best way to describe the sensation to someone who isn't involved in a creative endeavor his way, is something similar to that old party trick where if you have someone push against a wall for a while, then stop and stand up suddenly, you fall over because your body is expecting to meet resistance. I think that my physical reaction is so strong to finishing a body of work because of my tendency as an artist to make work from inside my topic. These projects are interwoven with my personal life. That aside, I'm sure every artist has the post-project blues. My way of coping happens to involve more Dragon Quest than most.

Aside from the sensation for me as the artist of a body of work wrapping up, there is of course the seemingly very difficult artistic decision about what constitutes a finished body of work. That is, what does "completeness" or "finished" mean? How do I know that I have every good photo I could make in a project? Honestly, I know I don't, that's the answer. That I could go on forever making good pieces on any topic. But like in a good conversation, there is a pretty decent sense of when things start to repeat themselves, even if the exact sentences might be different. That the underlaying current has washed the object ashore and is just beating it against the beach's dunes (for someone else to pick up and find, to take an art historical view).

WIth my project oriented and personally involved approach [that is I jump in to a tangled and shadowy world within then construct my work by exploring, cultivating and reporting on the ways the various threads of my topics interact, and respond to my prodding] I feel a bit lucky — the boundaries of a project tend to define themselves as a go along. The Japonsime is a very clear example of this tendency. I started as totally nerdy fan, but interposed the camera when I stared having glimpses of self-awareness. By the time the project was finishing up, it became ever clearer that in many ways I was making a project about the way that being self-critical in a closed social group has an inevitable trajectory. Which is outward. So the project's stopping point was when I wasn't identifying as an anime fan anymore.

The same story happened with Flaneur. As some of you may remember the rather unfortunate working title I used was the "SM Blues" — It was a project started when my first long-term relationship began to become tumultuous and I started to question the idea of "home" and how I was situated physically in the world by the marks of stories, like mine, that went on all around. The project, fittingly enough came to an end a few years later when I broke up with that woman and moved to another part of the city.

It's not that the end point is when I'm physically incapable of continuing the project. I could still go to conventions to this day. I could go back to Santa Monica easily. I could still shoot the style of works that I used for both. But because my work is kind of "meta-", that is my work is really about the modularity of how we perceive things, not some concrete statement about the thing itself, the way that the projects become self-structured, the embedded flow of ideas naturally leads to having the meeting of a closure in my relationship with my broader subject being the most elegant place to stop telling the story I'm telling. It's the point that is like a singularity of the work — the defining place of gravity where everything collides before expanding again.

Sure, I could go on and on and on expanding and colliding on a single topic, but that velocity is implied in the work, and I would much rather give the work the freedom to resonate and my viewers the freedom to ponder the results than write a million sequels and prequels. My work isn't about knowing, it's about coming to a more intimate knowledge of the history, quirks and personal ways that we know things.

[Please Note: This is a working draft so I'd love any feedback you might have!]

A Small Guide To Improving Your Classic Cocktails

2011-09-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

A "Callie's Way" which is a modified
Hemmingway Daquiri that I make.

I'm no cocktail wizard. In fact, if you probe the depths of the trivia-lobe of your brain, you might recall that I had "learn to make more cocktails" on my New Year's resolution list. And by "learn to make more cocktails," I am excited that I am now master of 7 different drinks! (I make a Jack Rose, Manhattan, Trinity, Dry Gin Martini, Regular Martini, Hemingway Daiquiri, and Daiquiri as well as almost anywhere in town if you are curious.)

That said, I have had the of making innumerable more cocktails and a few punches, as well as had access to the blooming cocktail renaissance in Los Angeles from being a member at Cana, to chatting with Eric at the Varnish about vermouth, and tasting Chartreuse with Julian at Rivera. So I wanted to offer a few quick pointers to people who are just now discovering the joys of classic cocktails but might be getting less-than-stunning results at home.

1) Your ice has to be really good. Go to the freezer and pop one of those cubes you've been using to try drinks in your mouth. If it tastes at all stale, funky, bitter, mineral, dusty, musty, freezer-burnt or anything besides like wondrously clear January skies, you're probably going to be boned no matter how good your technique and ingredients. Depending on the severity of the issue you might just have to get fresh trays and use filtered water (as was my case) or do more crazy things like cleaning your freezer and making your ice with filtered water and then putting the trays in doubled ziplock bags (like my friend Brendon had to do). You can always go buy ice if your home water and freezer are terrifying.

2) Dilution is vital. This includes ice size. If you've ever been to a good cocktail bar you know they chip their ice differently for each kind of drink. It's not just to look fancy, it's because they're trying to get the dilution of the drink right. Same with the amount of stirring and/or shaking. Agitation and time takes water from the ice and incorporates it in to the drink. While the foremost thing ice does is make the drink cold (a general rule in classic cocktails is that getting the drink as cold as you can is good), what you are also doing is watering down the drink slightly. Much like a barrel proof whiskey (50%+ abv) can be too "hot" to be pleasurably sipped without a bit of water, so too you're bringing the abv of the cocktail down a bit. If it's not diluted enough it will taste really hot (not just strong, but burning strong and almost syrupy) but it will taste watery and thin if diluted too much. This is why you don't interchange things like large chunks of ice and crushed ice - remember from high school science that surface area is a big part dissolving an ingredient (as is agitation). As with snow piled up on the side of the road that stays frozen until March, using larger amounts ice also means that they will stay colder longer, thus adding less water but still chilling the drink and visa versa.

3) Measure measure measure. Please make drinks by measuring very precisely. You can't learn anything if you're sloppy about how much of each ingredient you're adding because then you have no way of knowing how much more or less of an ingredient will be needed. They did a test and found that even professional bartenders regularly miss eyeballing a shot by +/- 50%! I know that the trend at the moment is to be all fanciful with tricks and gimmicks while shaking and pouring the drinks, but honestly, I could care less about how many flips the damn bottle does if the drink is whack.

4) Practice one drink A LOT. Vary the ratios of on ingredient at a time slightly (three dashes of bitters instead of two - using different kinds of biters - use slightly less Chartreuse - use more lemon - use higher proof booze etc. etc.) and if you make 10-15 of the same drink you can understand how the balance of the drink works and most importantly what each ingredient is adding. This also lets you "fix" drinks. Your citrus is not always going to be the same acidity, you're not always going to have the same bourbon, you're not always going to have access to the same brand of creme de violet. But if you've meticulously worked through variants of a standard drink, you can taste it as you go and make adjustments because you know what to adjust! I usually focus on one kind of drink at a time. Besides, being able to make two A+ drinks is way more impressive than being able to make twenty D+ drinks.

5) Even before you get mixing, taste your ingredients! If you've never tried something on it's own, pour a little glass of it and sip or on the rocks on it neat to get a feeling for what it is. I was all over the place on vermouth until I started drinking if on by itself and suddenly I understood what it was doing in drinks. Same with any liquor, syrup or bitters. Start making an archive in your head of the base flavors and next time you're out and someone asks your opinion of a drink you can look like a rockstar when you say "oh, it tastes good, but I think another dash of Angastura would balance it out better."

6) Non-tiki cocktails are the art of balance. (Tiki cocktails are their own game - just pick up Beachbum Barry's books to learn about them). We can't figure out who to attribute this quote to, but apparently some 1800's bartender said that a good cocktail should never make you full, it should always make you hungry. What this means is that sugar and acid are harmoniously aligned. That the body is firm, not flabby. That the flavors aren't cloying. That the drink tastes unified.

7) Learn to make your own syrups; learn to squeeze your own juices. Making simple syrup is amazingly easy. Making your simple syrup with real Turbinado sugar (which has this molasses funk to it) like they did back then will change your drinks from "decent" to "glorious." And while I know I don't have to tell you, always squeeze your own fresh juices for each session. If getting a dozen or two fresh limes at the local chain market seems pricey, try to find a Korean, Japanese, or Mexican market near to you. Do you know how to pick good citrus? If not, pick it up - it should feel heavy in your hand. The skin should be unblemished. It should be firm, but have some give (old citrus will feel mushy, or like a rock).

8) Do your homework. These drinks have been made by professionals for upwards of a century, so go grab a copy of David Wonderich's Imbibe and get reading! You'll be amazed at how much of what you thought you knew turns out to be hearsay and advertising jiggles. Learn to be highly skeptical of recipes online — look at the source. If it's not someone who has a clear knowledge of cocktails, beware, you're probably looking at a recipe for disaster (see what I did there?) Cocktail ~~virgin~~ slut is a great blog to get you started. As is http://Ohgo.sh

9) Have a good soundtrack! Might I recommend my recent funky jazz mix, Saturn In Rain?

Flanuer @ The Arava Review

2011-09-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

"Cyan, Aqua, and Tree"
Archival Inkjet Print, 2010
11.33" x 17"

Hi everyone — I just wanted to share with you that the online journal The Arava Review has a number of photographs from my Flâneur project featured on their current issue (along with some great poetry) that just went live tonight!

"Former Stairs"
Archival Inkjet Print, 2010
17" x 11.33"

At it's core, Flâneur is about a home that is no longer home — A walking home. About the way that personal history gets intertwined into the stucco-walled apartment labyrinths and the bleached stunted trees and forgotten lawns from accidental urban planning. Flâneur is about the ways that wandering and photographing even the most familiar paths places can cause them to become estranged. The more I look at the places outside of me with the camera the more I inevitably find myself expressing a world inside that is filled with gaps, screens, ruins, artifacts, outdated color pallets, shadows, tourism and advertisement-lingo.

"View To The Ocean"
Archival Inkjet Print, 2010
17" x 11.33"

So too Flâneur is an attempt to learn to leverage a stubborn perseverance to see the way that places and memories can switch places with each other back and forth. By attempting to use a camera and years of walking the same sidewalks to learn to see the strange poetics of the obvious and latent histories that bubble in the surfaces on every trip to the grocery store and every stroll to the coffee shop — About the feel of a miniature sun-drenched plot of the California dream that is being renovated and gentrified before my eyes. Flâneur is a project of learning to see the story that our wandering feet tell of the places we unknowingly haunt.

Visit The Arava Review site!

CSA Recipe: Cumin Pork with Chickpeas and Heirloom Carrots

2011-09-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

This is a simple, but long-cooking pork dish with hints of Moroccan flavors goes wonderfully over some basmati or jasmine rice.

Braised Pork with Chickpeas and Heirloom Carrots

Serves 4

1 tangerine or tangelo, juiced and zested

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 bunch of heirloom carrots, peeled and cut in to 2" lengths

1 onion, finely chopped

1 lb pork shoulder, cut in to 1" chunks, well seasoned with salt and pepper

4 c filtered water

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

2 tbs olive oil

1 tbs chopped fresh mint or cilantro

1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in an oven-proof braising pan (dutch over or such). Saute the onions for 4-5 minutes, until golden and soft.

2) Add the cumin and coriander and cook for another 3-4 minutes, until the spice-onion mixture starts to lightly brown.

3) Add the pork chunks, stir to coat with the onion-spice paste, and cook the pork for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is lightly browned on all sides.

4) Add enough water to cover the meat, cover the pan and place in the oven. Braise for about two hours, stirring occasionally until the meat is really tender.

Since you'll need something to amuse yourself for those two hours, especially if you've finished your work and your girlfriend is at her job, might I recommend shooting a portrait of your pet? Here's a shot of Mau (Callie's cat) that I made during the braising process.

5) Pull the pan out, uncover and set on a burner. Add the carrots, juice and chickpeas and simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until the carrots are tender. You might need to add a bit of water if the pan is too dry.

6) Turn the heat off, stir in the zest. Taste for salt and pepper. Scoop the braise in to bowls and garnish with the chopped mint or cilantro. Serve with a side of rice and a glass of viognier, roussane, Pouilly-Fuisse, gewurztraminer, or sauv blanc (a balanced white).

CSA Recipe: Braised Kale, Young Potatoes and Ricotta Salata

2011-09-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

This luscious, earthy braise that is accentuated by the salty chunks of salata and the bright lemon. Some beans, a little pinch of red pepper flakes, or even some fresh corn would be fun in this if you want to change it up.

Braised Kale, Young Potatoes and Ricotta Salata

Serves 4

1 big bunch of any kind of kale - tuscan, black or dinosaur preferred - washed, stems removed and chopped finely

1 can of whole italian plum tomatoes, chopped up and juices reserved

1 lb mix of any firm, waxy fingerling potatoes (or yukon gold), cut in to 1" chunks

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs red wine vinegar

juice of 1 lemon

2 tbs olive oil

1/2 c chicken stock + 1/2 c water

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 c crumbled ricotta salata

1) Parboil the potato chunks in lightly salted water and drain them. They should be just shy of fully cooked by 2-3 minutes.

2) Heat the olive oil over medium heat and cook the onions and garlic for 5-7 minutes, until golden.

3) Add the kale and cook for an additional 4 minutes until it's wilted.

4) Add the tomatoes and diluted chicken stock. Simmer on medium low for 10 minutes, until the kale starts to get soft.

5) Add the potatoes, red wine vinegar, and half the lemon juice. Simmer until the potatoes are finished cooking - 2-3 minutes - then add the crumbled ricotta salata

6) Let sit for 3-4 minutes and season with salt and pepper as needed. If you want it to be more lemon-y, add some of the remaining lemon juice to taste. You might need to add a touch more salt if you do that. You can also drizzle a bit of good olive oil over it.

Serve with a balanced white wine (chenin blanc) or a light, acidic rural Italian red. And lots of crusty bread.

CSA Recipe: The Perfect Tomato

2011-09-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

So what to do with those tomatoes you only get for a couple weeks during the peak season of late summer? The ones that seem like sacrilege to cook? The ones you have nearly erotic dreams about? Well, maybe that's just me, but when I get ahold of perfect tomatoes this is what I do for a first course with dinner. While some may cry that this is "Shopping, not cooking," (the foodie equivalent of people who say some metal isn't "cvlt" enough) I'll stick by one of the traditional Japanese chef's in the Izakaya cookbook who said that the better ingredients, the less you should do to them. Serve with a sparkling rose of a lightly chilled light bodied red wine.

The Perfect Tomato

Serves 1

1 large, perfectly ripe heirloom tomato (or a selection 2-3 smaller heirloom tomatoes)

1/4 tsp best quality olive oil

1/16 tsp best quality balsamic vinegar

1 tbs basil or other microgreens (or 1 tsp chopped fresh basil)

1/8 tsp best quality sea salt

1) Slice tomatoes in to 1/3" slabs, reserving the top portions (the part that is mostly skin on one side). Salt and eat reserved portions.

2) Sprinkle the remaining slabs with salt and drizzle on the olive oil and balsamic.

3) Top with basil. (Grind some fresh pepper on if you want).

Art Sale!

2011-09-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Hi! While I've been extremely busy in the studio drinking coffee and rewriting my artist statement what feels like a thousand times (new recipes for fall coming soon, I promise) I wanted to bring your attention to a new section of my online shop, Fey Illumination, which features a rotating selection of limited-time discounted work from my projects. Right now I have two pieces up for 33% off my usual studio prices. One of my more iconic images "Saint Patrick's Day In Metropolis" from Arcana and the first opportunity to buy a work from my forthcoming Japonisme project, a decollage titled "Two Women Standing."

"Saint Patrick's Day in Metropolis (2701 Main St.)"
from Arcana, or, Fidning Context
Arhival Inkjet Print
Buy Here!

"Two Women Standing"
Anime Advertisement Decollage
from Japonisme
Paper, Gloss Acrylic Medium, Board, Wood
Buy Here!

Let me know if you are interested in any other pieces, or if you have certain works you'd like to see featured on sale!

Saturn In Rain: A Cowboy Bebop Inspired Mix

2011-09-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

I was jamming some great rare jazz finds while I cooked dinner one night, that kind of impeccably period music with with funky horn hits and electric guitars that was knocked off to accompany all sorts of car chases and kung fu in late-night theaters. Callie looked up from her Kindle and said "You should make a mix of music for Cowboy Bebop fans." I'm a huge jazz nerd and I love to share great music and while I haven't really watched anime in hyears I have a fun collection of rare and cool music that could litterally have been on mix they sent Yoko Kanno when they asked her to make the music for the show. Until Callie said something it never occurred to me to make this mix even though getting more younger folks listening to jazz is a passion of mine! Simple as that (along with a couple late nights drinking whiskey and bugging the neighbors) "Saturn In Rain" was born. I want to thank the cool cats at inconstant sol and ORGY IN RYTHM for a few of the great rare gems that are featured here.

I'm not going to talk about each track, but nothing on this mix was in the show. Some of it is vintage and a few of the tracks are modern — but let's just take a look at that first song by Toshiko Akiyoshi & Lew Tabackin Big Band (a live performance recorded in 1979), does that opening riff sound familiar? How about that outro? I was howling with laughter the first time I heard that track. One of the other challenges was picking a specific Sun Ra track. Much of his body of work is really challenging, very free and epic work, but I had to include him since he pioneered the whole idea of people in weird costumes making space jazz and singing about traveling planets and interstellar trains over huge big band arrangements. The rest of the stuff, as you'll hopefully hear, should be fun and interesting for both fans of the show and anyone with an interest in retro-funky jazz!

Get the mix here!

("Track Name" — Artist — Album)

1) "Warning! Success May Be Hazardous To Your Health" — Toshiko Akiyoshi & Lew Tabackin Big Band — Stuttgart, December 2nd, 1979
2) "Tom Cat" — Muddy Waters — Electric Mud
3) "Saturn" — Sun Ra — Greatest Hits: Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel
4) "If Only" — Gustav Brom — Plays For You Pop Jazz & Swing
5) "Attica Blues" — Archie Shepp — Attica Blues
6) "Nostalgia" — Matumoto Hiroshi & Ichikawa Hideo Quartet — Megalopolis
7) "I'm a Fool To Want You" — Donald Byrd — Royal Flush
8) "Saturn In Rain" — Alpha — Stargazing
9) "The Stakeout" — Matthew Shipp — GoodandEvil Sessions
10) "Green Caterpillar" — Masuarau Imada Trio + 2 — Green Caterpillar
11) "Wiggle-Waggle" — Herbie Hancock — The Complete Warner Brother Recordings
12) "Jeep On 35" — John Scofield — A Go Go
13) "Tuija" — P.E. Hewitt Jazz Ensemble — Winter Winds
14) "If You Want Me To Stay" — Sly & The Family Stone — Fresh

I hope you like the music and if you have any questions or if you are curious about some of the music, feel free to hit me up!

CSA Recipe: Chard Tart With a Glimmer of Fall

2011-09-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

This is an adaptation of the classic Patricia Wells "Bistro" recipe that bubbled up on a cool evening that hinted of fall. Even though it's been some of the most blisteringly hot days in L.A. the sun is setting earlier and earlier, I'm listening to some slow music, drinking a whiskey and realizing it's September. Normally I give wine pairings, but for this dish, I would make sure to musically pair it with the Les Discrets album "Septembre et Ses Dernieres Pensees" and a glass of calvados while you cook.

Serves 4-6 with a solid salad

For the crust:

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup water

For the filling:

1 bunch chard, well washed, stems removed and finely chopped (not dried)

1 tsp olive oil

1 ear of corn, kernels trimmed off

1/4 c walnuts, lightly toasted in a skillet

1/8 cup raisins

1 cup grated parmesan

3 eggs, lightly beaten in a large bowl

salt and fresh pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2) Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the water and then the oil. Mix until totally blended. Patricia Wells suggests that you kneed a bit, and I agree, the texture of of the final tart crust will be better. To cop from her again, she reminds you that this kind of tart dough will be more like a cookie dough than bread.

3) Press the dough in to a 10 inch pastry tin (the kind with the bottom that comes off).

4) Heat large skillet over medium-low heat and wilt the chard until all the liquid is gone. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the corn kernels and olive oil and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, until the corn is cooked through.

5) Add the parmesan to the eggs. Mix.

6) Add the walnuts, raisins and the chard/corn mixture and mix it all up. Add it to the pastry crust.

7) Bake for about 30-50 minutes until the crust golden and the chard mixture is cooked firm. Let cool some before serving.

Aside from the music, have this with a nice salad and a glass of viongier, gewurztraminer, chenin blanc or other mid bodied white wine that loves darker, nuttier fall fair.

CSA Recipe: Summer Pork Chops with Heirloom Tomatoes and Pepita

2011-09-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

This is a lovely fast dinner for a late summer evening (or even an amazing Sunday lunch). You can double it and double it again up to the size of your grill or grill pan. Using thin pork chops lets you get the outside nice and crispy and still cook everything through so that the contrast to the tomatoes is more prevalent.

Serves 2

4 thinly sliced pork chops

1 tbs pepitas, lightly toasted (or pine nuts)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 lb heirloom tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/2 cup micro greens, especially micro basil or micro mustard greens

1 tbs canola oil

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil, divided

salt and white pepper

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp high quality balsamic

1) Preheat your grill, grill pan or skillet to medium-high heat. Brush the pork chops with half of the canola oil. Sprinkle with salt and white pepper and rub it in.

2) Grill the pork chops for 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden.

3) As you grill the chops, heat the 1 tbs olive oil in a small skillet over low heat. Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and lemon juice and cook just to warm through, 2-3 minutes.

4) Plate the chops, split the tomato mixture over the top of both plates. Toss some micro greens on top, sprinkling the pepitas on that. Drizzle with a tiny amount of good balsamic (1/8 teaspoon maybe on each plate). [Also note: don't add as many micro greens as I did, if just from an aesthetic perspective: My plates looked more like topiaries than pork chops.]

Serve this with a side of smashed and fried potatoes with capers, chickpea and green bean salad or a pasta salad. It would pair well with any medium-bodied white. We had it with a lightly vegetal Sauvignon Blanc (the kind that sort of tastes like hints of raw green and red bell pepper) from France and it was fantastic.

Art Mixup!

2011-09-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share a little behind-the-scenes moment with my art. Up late one summer night recently, I got thinking about how my projects tend to be very well defined. That is, something like a novelist or a band, I make large but discrete bodies of work; whether is it traveling with anime fans; walking around Santa Monica; or probing the weirdness of virtual worlds. But it made me curious to look at what connects all of my different works and projects. The themes, topics, obsessions, modes and even mistakes and assumptions that transcend the way I frame the works.

As a way to pry behind the scenes of my creative process, I built a Lightroom mashup that contains 18 images from each of my eight major bodies of work (except my writing) but sorted randomly so any piece of art can rub shoulders with any other piece.

I also turned one of these randomized presentations in to a video that I posted on Vimeo so I could let other people take a look at my work on a macro level. I'd love to get your feedback — anything no matter how small or epic — any idea or thought that comes to mind about my work; about how it's connected, how it's not connected, themes and topics I seem to return to, ideas that I don't seem to be interested in, historical connections, or any other random thoughts!

(Make sure to watch it on HD in full screen!)

Eron Rauch's Art Mixup from Eron Rauch on Vimeo.

Summer Sirens Mix Redone!

2011-09-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy making mixes to share the music that really gets me inspired. I also am by no stretch a professional musician, professional music reviewer. Nor am I even that much of a die-hard music nerd that writes zines, reviews and such. The reason I bring this up is that my novice status aside, I am usually quite pleased with my mixes, having spent numerous hours selecting and sequencing the tracks to make them flow together well, highlight the various parts of the music that I want to show, and to capture the mood of the season (and the music that is filling it) accurately. Listening to the "First Sirens of Summer" mix that I made a few months ago I realized I didn't think it lived up to the quality level it should have been. So I spent some time redoing it and the result were more than worthwhile! The new version has way better flow and much wider scope of vision — it starts very dreamy, the haze of the morning burning off. Gets massive like a summer afternoon storm — then crazy WAY hard by the end so you can drink cheap beer and pump your first until the AM. This is the siren calling from depths of the sweaty nights of summer.

Grab it here!

1) "Old, Dim Light" — The Black Atlantic — Reverence for Fallen Trees
2) "Tokyo Wonder Land" — Boris — Attention Please
3) "Blue" — Whirl — Distressor
4) "It's So Easy" — Witchcraft — Witchcraft
5) "Rabbit" — Mr. Gnome — Deliver This Creature
6) "The Siren" — Graveyard — Hisingen Blues
7) "Vampire Circus" — Earthride — Vampire Circus
8) "Deerslayer" — Black Math Horsemen — Wyllt
9) "Grasping Air" — YOB — The Unreal Never Lived
10) "From Their Coffined Slumber" — Hooded Menace — Never Cross the Dead
11) "Eyeballing" — Dam — The Difference Engine
12) "Dreamdecipher" — Miseration — The Mirroring Shadow
13) "Demoralizer" — The Red Chord — Fed Through the Teeth Machine
14) "Ov Fire and the Void" — Behemoth — Evangelion

CSA Recipe: Cowgirl Creamery Pierce Point Pasta

2011-09-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

I was very lucky that a friend, Claudine who works at the Silverlake Cheesestore recommended an amazing cheese that was washed in wine and rolled in herbs. With a creamy texture and a bit of artichoke flavor I knew this cheese would work well in cooking (though we did eat a large portion of it as we were cooking!) This simple, mild pasta dish was designed to let the cheese itself be star and then to have the wonderful season beans from the CSA be the understructure. If you can't get Pierce Point, this dish should easy accommodate any softer, milder cheese you want to feature for dinner.

Cowgirl Creamery Pierce Point Pasta

Serves 2 With Leftovers for Lunch

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 lb yellow wax beans (or other mild bean) cut in to 1" chunks

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 tsp white wine vinegar

6 oz. dried farfalle pasta

1/4 tsp freshly ground white pepper

1/8 tsp sea salt (to taste) + more for pasta water

4 oz Cowgirl Creamery Pierce Point cheese, cut in to small chunks

1) Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil (about 1tbs salt). Add the pasta and cook until al dente (firm tot the bite but cooked through).

2) Wait until the pasta is about halfway done. Heat the olive oil large skillet over heat just above medium. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.

3) Add the green beans and cook for 3-4 minutes until crisp but tender.

4) Add in and stir together the chickpeas, salt, vinegar and about 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Cook for 1-2 minutes then turn off the heat.

5) When the pasta is done drain it well and add it to the skillet.

6) Add the white pepper and the cheese and mix it in well with the pasta and beans.

Serve with a full-bodied white wine (basically the same wine you would choose for the specific cheese!)

Fey Illumination Shop Lauch!

2011-08-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

Hello loyal readers and wandering from the drifting internet currents alike. I just wanted to officially announce the long-awaited launch of my secret project, Fey Illumination. These organic-form chandeliers are the perfect way to add a magical flair to your home living space. From sleek modernist lofts to the most Baroque interiors Fey Illumination's organic chandeliers will provide a stunning and whimsical central focus in your interior. Evolved from numerous installation projects from his art career the shop will also occasionally feature select pieces of art from his body of work. Custom orders welcome!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/eronrauch

Arts Endowment Fundraiser Show This Friday!

2011-08-24T11:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you in the L.A. area, free up your Friday for an hour or two and drop by the Sancho Gallery (1549 W. Sunset, Los Angeles, CA) for a benefit show to help raise funds for the James Philip Ribiat-Finley Arts Endowment. I have one of my more iconic Arcana pieces (be sneaky and take a look here) that some lucky person will be taking home with them! More info at: http://www.james-philip-ribiat-finley.com/home.html

CSA Recipe: Korean-Style Fried Carrots and Rice Noodles

2011-08-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

This is a take on the classic Chinese XO rice noodle and shrimp dish.

Serves 4

Sweet Soy-Ginger Sauce:

2" Ginger, cut in to quarter-sized pieces

5 cloves garlic, sliced

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp cracked peppercorns

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup rice wine

1) Heat the ginger, garlic, peppercorns and water. Simmer lightly for 10 minutes. Take great care to avoid boiling off the water (you want to extract the flavor). Add a little water if you need to keep about 1/2 cup in the pan.

2) Add the rice wine, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Cook for another 3 minutes. Let cool. This will make more than you need for the recipe, but is a great marinade for meats or tofu!

Noodles:

1/2 package thin rice noodles ("rice vermicelli")

1 bunch young carrots, peeled and split, cut in to 2" pieces

1 leek, halved, washed and chopped

2 tbs canola oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup Ginger-Soy Sauce, divided

1 tsp korean red chile flakes

1) Cook noodles by package directions (boil for about 5 minutes, then drain and rinse under cold water).

2) Heat canola oil over medium heat. Quickly fry the carrots, garlic, red chile and leeks for about 3-4 minutes until just tender.

3) Add the cooked rice noodles and fry, stirring/tossing for 1 minute.

4) Add the sauce and cook for 2 more minutes while still tossing everything.

5) Serve with a portion of each of the toppings and large bottles of beer or soju.

For toppings:

2 green onions, sliced

1/2 Japanese or English cucumber, cut in to matchsticks

4 radishes cut in to small strips

4 hardboiled eggs, sliced (or you can use fried eggs too!)

Fey illumination In Progress Shots

2011-08-22T10:52:00.000-07:00

For those of you who follow this blog, you know I've been working on launching a series of sculptural lights called Fey Illumination — These twisting, organic chandeliers-of-sorts evolved out of a series of installations I did about wilderness and virtual landscapes. I built the prototype for my loft with no intention of doing another. But the response to it has been so tremendous I've decided to make a bunch more and sell them! Here are a bunch of shots of me working in the studio, suffering a myriad of scrapes and bruises, covering myself and the cat in dust. The final paint coats go on them this weekend, so be on the lookout for the official launch (probably via Etsy) soon.

CSA Recipe: August Squash Stew with Fennel Seeds

2011-08-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

This light and flavorful soup won't take long to make but as long as your squash is good it would still be worthy to serve for a dinner party. Maybe make some homemade bread to serve alongside? /sagenod You might be tempted to add garlic to this, but it will overwhelm the subtle flavors.

1 tbs olive oil

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 ear of sweet corn, kernels cut from the cob

1/2 red onion, chopped

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1 can cannelloni beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 c macaroni or farfalle

3 crook-necked squash, cut in to 1" pieces

2 c. chicken broth or veggie broth

2 c. water

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

1/4 tsp dried thyme

fresh pepper

1) Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pan. Add fennel seeds and onion and cook until translucent and lightly browned, 5-6 minutes.

2) Add the corn kernels, squash chunks, thyme, vinegar and paprika. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

3) Add the chicken broth and water and bring to a simmer.

4) Add pasta and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the beans, kill the heat.

5) Taste for salt and pepper. Serve warm with crusty bread and a simple salad. Also with plenty of light red or full white wine. This might go really well with a chardonnay (not that you heard me say that!)

CSA Recipe: Two Kinds of Ricotta Fritters with Chile-Honey

2011-08-19T13:25:00.000-07:00

Other than corn or green beans, these fritters can be made with just about any summer produce. Try whatever looks good in the farmer's market.

Serves 4 with an appetizer or salad

For Honey:

1/2 tsp olive oil

1 dried New Mexican red chile, crushed finely in a mortar and pestle

1/2 c honey

1) Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add crushed chile bits, cooking for a minute or two, until lightly darkened.

2) Reduce heat to very low and add the honey. Stir to combine. Turn the heat off and let sit until you are ready to use it.

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup ricotta

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tsp baking powder

1 ear corn, kernels cut from the cob

1/2 lb green beans, trimmed and cut in to 2" lengths

olive oil

salt

1) Heat 1/2 tsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium high and quickly saute the green beans with a pinch of salt for 2 minutes. Set aside.

2) Do the same thing with the corn.

3) Make the batter by mixing the eggs and ricotta then adding the flour, 1/2 tsp salt and baking powder. Mix well.

4) Split the batter in to two bowls (or you can make mixed fitters), adding the corn to one and the green beans to the other.

5) Heat 1 tbs olive oil over medium heat and make the fritters like you would pancakes, scooping up about 1/3 c of the veggie-batter per fritter. Cook until the edges look set, then flip. Serve each person one corn and one bean fritter topped with a sprinkling of the toppings.

For the toppings:

chile honey

green onion tops (the green part) thinly sliced

toasted pine nuts or papitas

I'd serve this with a sparkling wine or a good light Belgian beer like Orval, or the French perennial favorite Saison Dupoint.

CSA Recipe: Peach, Ricotta and Microgreen Salad

2011-08-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

Simple is the best way to use those peak summer ingredients. This salad is very easy to make but will be a huge hit at any dinner party or brunch!

Serves 2

1 bunch washed, mixed micro greens (arugula, radish, mustard etc.)

1 white peach, pitted and cut in to thin slices

1/2 c ricotta

freshly grated nutmeg

1 good pinch sea salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

high quality balsamic

2 tsp lightly toasted pepitas

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1) Toss the micro greens in the olive oil, salt and lemon juice.

2) Plate greens, arrange sliced peaches over the top and put half the ricotta on top of that. Sprinkle with pepitas.

3) Grate some nutmeg on top of each mound of cheese. Grind some pepper on each salad. Pour a tiny amount (1/4 tsp or less) balsamic on the salad.

4) Serve immediately with a glass of Riesling Sekt or Prosecco!

Audio Guide Part 5 - Options for Flat Round Things

2011-08-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

My delay in getting the guide up was partially due
to photographing at the Little Tokyo Nisei week.
Not pictured: me being partially deaf from seeing
Eyehategod, All Pigs Must Die and Pentagram.

So now you have an amp, speakers and a DAC. Whoohoo! You're probably rocking out, air-guitaring to your Slayer collection on iTunes as we speak.

If you missed the previous installments check out part 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Now let's look at other options you might need for playing those outmoded discs such as a CDs or the ever-intimidating but hip vinyl.

1) CDs

Let's get the easiest one out of the way first!

This one is easy because there is basically one good option on the market, if your collection and listening habits are mostly CDs: the Marantz 5004. Sure it's $350.00 but I've owned one and you can seriously tell the difference between the music coming from it and a regular CD player from outside with your windows closed sitting on the roof drinking all night on the winter solstice. Not that I've ever been there… just trust me. It's a technical comparison.

But basically, your output device you are going to be using to drive about $1000.00 in equipment - don't send it a $50.00 Wal-Mart signal

The one trick here is that CDs, while awesome to support artists and all, can be much more easily ripped to lossless files and managed in iTunes these days than ever. Even piraters are being kindly and using 320/kbs encoding (not as good as CDs but still pretty good). As internet speeds increase we're sure to see a rise in using what might be termed HD digital audio for sale directly from the artist. Some basic math: even if you own 1000 CDs, you can rip them in lossless file and still have 300 GIG left on the decently cheap terabit firewire 800 external had drives these days.

But I can say if you do still want to spin those CDs, the Marantz 5004 is awesome, and certainly less work than ripping 1000s of CDs! (I heard that the Cambridge Audio Azur 350C CD player is really good too, at around $450 if you're more serious about CDs.)

2) So you love vinyl… but are confused about good turntables.

Most people don't even know how to put a record on a record player but there has been a real resurgence of interest in vinyl in the past few years. There are probably numerous philosophical reasons for it (including, but not limited to a rebellion against the digital, nostalgia, hipster-ism, or in my case, the desire to support the bands I love as well as the larger art pallet of the 12") but the case is clear — Vinyl is back.

So I'm going to start with saying that even though I collect records, DJed, and was the last generation to grow up around vinyl, the more I research the more that I find that vinyl lovers and turntable fanatics to be the most esoteric of all the audio cultists.

Once upon a time (in the 1990's), you could get decent cheap vintage turntables galore. You will see this as a recommendation on almost every audio forum online. The myth goes that you could spend $50.00 on eBay and get a pretty decent classic turntable. Everyone was moving to CDs and vinyl seemed dead. Fast forward 15 years and the only record stores that are booming are vinyl speciality places. Increased demand has quadrupled (or more) used prices on turntables.

Also, those turntables from the "classic" 60's and 70's manufacturers are increasingly dying or worn-down to the point of needing serious overhauls. I mean, most of them will have been subjected to 30 or 40 years worth of use before you, novice audio nerd, have touched them! If you have the skills to rebuild a classic turntable, you can still get a great deal, but it's very unlikely you (nor I) have those skills and are reading this guide guide for noobs.

Which leads to our conundrum. I'd love to recommend buying any random used turntable, but I can't. Nor can I recommend buying a cheap new table. Even more than speakers, CD player or having a great functioning turntable matters. Why? Because a, cheap and/or improperly functioning (and improperly set up) table can wreck your precious records fairly quickly!

So, that all said and done, if you are obsessive enough to track down, buy and lug around records, just suck it up and buy a decent table. Depending on your threshold for self-inflicted pain, I'll provide two options.

The first choice you should consider, if you are quite the masochist/purist, is the much beloved Rega RP-1. Yeah, it has no automatic speed change nor automatic tone arm control. Yeah it's $450.00. But everything I know says that with this player will last you many decades and sound better than anything anywhere near it's price. If I had to buy a new turntable, I'd buy this.

However let me reiterate that it is full manual. Meaning you have to set the arm on the start of the side and pick it up at the end or it will spin around forever. And more, if you want to change from 33rpm to 45 rpm, you have to take the platter off and manually change where the belt is seated. This wouldn't be a huge issue if you collection is mostly older records in 33, but a few presses are recorded in 45 too (like that damn "Monoliths and Dimensions" album which has alternating sides at both 33 and 45………….) But the sound quality and upgradability is fantastic.

[A quick note about "upgradability" - this is basically the ease with which any given item or system will take an upgrade. A highly upgradable turntable would be one that you can easily find, buy and install new and better parts. In the case of the Rega, everything from the needle to the wires to the whole tone arm has plenty of available upgrades if you want. Which translates to not having to buy a whole new turntable if you have the itch for better quality. (Something with terrible upgradability would be one of those Wal-Mart all-in-one systems with the amp, DVD player and everything ell in one box with proprietary connectors. If you want to upgrade, you just have to throw them out and start over.)]

So let's say that replacing the belt every time you need to switch RPM strikes you as a bit too much effort. The other turntable option is to get a Denon DP-300F which we'll add a couple of upgrades. It's probably the best mass-market turntable around $329.00. But has some problems. But we can correct for most of them.

Back to our more-automated Denon, most reviews note that it is a light turntable that has problems with isolation with "loud" (i.e. metal/rock/hip-hop/electronic/my) music. Isolation, being that it has added noise caused by the jostling caused by the speakers. So now add another $24 for Vibrapods which extra "feet" that cushion it. The cartridge it comes with sucks. The Needle Doctor recommends an Ortofon 2M Red at around $100. And new total cost? $450. About the same cost as the Rega. It won't sound quite as good, but it will be more convenient as it is fully automatic!

The third option is buying a professionally refurbished used turntable. This is probably the ideal cost-benifit ration though only folks in larger cities will have this opton. You might have a very cool vintage audio speciality-repair shop around that sells nice turntables they have refurbished. In Los Angeles we have a place called The Audio Specialist which at any given moment will have fifteen or twenty used high-end turntables that they have rebuilt for sale at good prices (around $250-450 for very nice gear). Like record shops, some of these places can be quirky, but don't let them scare you. I ended up buying a very excellent Technics SL-1700 mk2 for my table.

So after you get your turntable, if you recall when I was discussing amps I mentioned how most of the built-in phono preamps suck (and the rest didn't even have phono preamps)? Well, if you love vinyl, a phono pre amp is the best $70 you can spend.

What is a phono pre-amp? The sound coming from the turntable needs to be amplified significantly as it is very weak compared to a CD player or such, and a special EQ curve needs to be applied to expand it to full frequency. Basically, it's the device that takes the tiny signal from the needle and cartridge and turns it in to a regular signal that comes from something like a CD player.

What a separate phono-pre-amp does is do both of these things as it's only job. The phono pre-amp that regularly gets rave reviews is the TCC TC-760LC. Get it, love it, and be happy.

(Another more pricey option at $120 is the NAD PP-2 which was for ages the standard phono-pre. The reference point for most folks is the Cambridge 640P, even more pricey at $180).

Also necessary is to get some sort of record cleaning / anti-static setup. It wouldn't hurt to get a force gauge and an anti-skating guide. You can also upgrade the needle on your cartridge. Getting a good Elliptical needle will improve the sound quite a bit regardless of cartridge — Getting a Linear Tracking (or the pricier "nude" Linear Tracking) needle will be even better. Why? Because the close the needle shape is to the one that cut it the closer the sound will be to what was intended!

Vinyl is still a wilderness for me, technically speaking, but you'll just have to get one of the two turntables and jump in there with me and flail around - You can always lurk at Audio Karma and learn tons.

Next up - headphones!

CSA Recipe: Lemongrass Roasted Chicken Breast with Basil Fried Rice

2011-08-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

The last of the CSA recipes I came up with this week. Thanks to everyone at Silverlake Farms and their partners for the great inspiring produce!

Lemongrass Roasted Chicken Breast with Basil Fried Rice

Serves 4

Loosely inspired by the cool folks at Starry Kitchen.

For the chicken:

4 chicken breast

2 stalks lemongrass, bruised

1 bunch heirloom yellow carrots, halved (CSA buddies - these were AMAZING this week!)

4 scallions, cut in to 2" chunks

1 tsp siracha

1 lime, cut in to slices

2 yukon gold potatoes, cut in to 1" chunks

1 tbs canola oil

salt and pepper to taste

For the fried rice:

1 tbs canola oil

1/4 c sliced basil

2 heirloom red scallions (or shallots) finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups day-old rice

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp soy sauce

1) Preheat the oven to 375.

2) In a large, oven-proof skillet, heal canola oil over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides. Add and cook for 3 minutes on each side to brown.

3) Kill the heat, and add all the veggies and Siracha. Stir well.

4) Tuck the stalks of lemon grass in to the dish and place the slices of lime over the top. Put in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.

5) While the chicken is baking, make the fried rice! Heat the canola oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for 4-5 minutes, until transparent and lightly golden.

6) Add the rice, crumbling it by hand. Stir in and cook for 2 minutes.

7) Scrape the rice to edges, leaving the skillet bare in the middle. Add the eggs and cook, stirring, until runny scrambled eggs. Then combine the egg and rice.

8) Add the soy and basil and mix. Turn off the heat.

Put a portion of fried rice, a chicken breast and some of the veggies on each plate (discard the lemongrass and lime slices). Serve with an off-dry white wine like a Riesling or a Gruner Veltliner. Though a Sauv Blanc or Viogner would go okay too.

CSA Recipe: Stuffed Patty-Pan Squash, Korean Style

2011-08-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

I was stuck at home working all day, Callie was coming home from a late shift and I was feeling the itch to make something creative that she would really like. This is a fantastic recipe, and easier than it looks. Note that you're increasingly seeing cheddar cheese used in korean rice dishes — the combination of the rich, spicy chile paste and the cheese is decadent!

Stuffed Patty-Pan Squash, Korean Style

Serves 4

1 lb patty-pan squash, though you could do this with regular zucchini

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch heirloom red scallions, sliced

1 tbs canola oil (optional)

4 slices thick bacon (or 2 slices of pork belly)

2 c rice (leftover is fine)

2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

1 tsp soy sauce

1/4 c Kimchee, Chopped

1/4 c grated sharp cheddar cheese

1-3 tbs Korean red chile paste ("gochujang" - to taste - I would use 3)

1) Heat the oven to 400. Cut squash in half and scoop out most of the inside flesh leaving a small bowl.

2) In a large skillet, fry the bacon until crisp. Drain, chop and set aside.

3) Either use the bacon drippings or clean skillet and use canola oil, and heat at medium. Add the garlic, cook and stir for 45 seconds. Add the scallions and kimchi. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

4) Break up the rice with your hands and add it to the pan, stirring to combine it with the scallions and garlic (kind of like fried rice). Cook for 1 minute. Turn off heat.

5) Mix the soy and red chile paste (mostly done to thin the paste so you can mix it in easier). Add to the skillet along with the sesame seeds and chopped, fried bacon. Mix well.

6) Add in the cheddar cheese. Let cool for 3-4 minutes.

7) Place the hollowed squash halves on a baking sheet. Scoop the rice mixture into the squash halves, mounding like a snow cone.

8) Bake for 20 minutes. Serve with some ban chon (korean appetizer dishes) and a nice german lager or Belgian wit beer. Or man-up and drink sochu! ;)

*Variant Note: Like the whole Korean taco fad, this dish would very quickly change costumes to become a Mexican dish. Just swap adobo sauce, which is what chipoltes in a can come in, for the chile paste and swap queso for the cheddar cheese. Leave out the kimchi. Use 1/2 tsp salt instead of the soy sauce. Voila!

CSA Recipe: Broccolini and Chile Pasta with Goat Cheese

2011-08-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

I wrote this up for Callie to make for a couple of her friends coming over as a simple supper to have with wine. I couldn't get a photo of the food, but as you can tell by the pan, it was a hit! Also, if you can't tell, we had goat cheese around the house, and got more from the CSA!

Broccolini and Chile Pasta with Goat Cheese

Serves three

3 small cloves garlic, minced

1 bunch broccoli thingers, ends trimmed and cut in to 2" chunks

1/2 new mexico mild red chile pepper, seeds removed and smashed/chopped very finely

1 heirloom scallion, red part only, sliced thinly

salt and pepper to taste

2 tbs olive oil

2 tsp red wine vinegar

goat cheese (about half a small tub - divided in to three portions)

pasta for three

1) Bring well salted pasta water to boil. Add pasta so it will be al dente as the skillet stuff finishes (probably as soon as the skillet is heated.)

2) Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds until just aromatic. Add chile pepper and cook for 30 seconds more. Add scallions and cook for 60 seconds.

3) Turn up heat slightly. Add broccoli bits. Cook for 3-4 minutes until just browned on the edges and tender on the stems.

4) Add red wine vinegar. Cook for 30 seconds or so more.

5) Add 1/2 cup pasta water to the skillet and turn heat off.

6) Drain pasta and add to skillet.

7) Plate, adding mound of goat cheese on top.

CSA Recipe: Watermelon, Arugula and Goat Cheese Salad

2011-08-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

Don't mind if I abuse the amazing Watermelon we got from the CSA this week! It was yellow and so sweet and delicious.

Watermelon, Arugula and Goat Cheese Salad

Serves 4 as an Appetizer

2 cups watermelon cut in to 1" cubes

2 oz goat cheese, crumbled

1/8 toasted pine nuts

1 tbs red onion, minced

1 small bunch arugula, stemmed and washed

1 small bunch micro-greens, washed

juice from 1/2 lemon

1 tsp rice vinegar

1 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper

1) Toss watermelon chunks with 1/4 tsp salt. Place in a strainer or colander to drain for 10 minutes (the salad will get very watery if you don't drain the watermelon).

2) Make the dressing by whisking together the lemon juice, onion, rice vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Then very slowly drip in the olive oil while whisking.

3) Toss the greens and watermelon chunks with the dressing.

4) Sprinkle with pine nuts and crumbled goat cheese serve with a glass of Prosecco or Cremant!

CSA Recipe: Orecchiette with Nubby Carrots and Chorizo

2011-08-04T15:56:00.001-07:00

I had some really amazing leftover chorizo and goat cheese from the Silverlake Cheese Store after going to see Stevie Wonder at the Hollywood Bowl with Callie & my parents, who were visiting from Chicago, so I turned it in to a summer night pasta dish!

Orecchiette with Nubby Carrots and Chorizo

Serves 4

1 bunch "nubby" (aka "ball") carrots (or baby carrots) halved

1 clove garlic, minced

pasta for 4 (about 1/3 of a box)

2 oz spanish chorizo (the hard kind) chopped

1 can cannelloni or butter beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/8 cup soft goat cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tbs olive oil divided

1) Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil for the pasta (about 1-2 tbs salt).

2) In a small skillet, crisp the chorizo by heating 1 tbs of olive oil over medium heat and cooking until crisp about 4-5 minutes. Drain on a paper towel.

3) Get the pasta boiling. In another skillet over medium heat 1 tbs olive oil. Add the carrots and garlic and cook until just starting to brown, about 7 minutes. Add the beans.

4) Add 1/2 cup pasta water to the carrots and continue to cook until carrots are nicely soft, about 3-4 more minutes.

5) Drain the pasta and combine along with the cilantro to the carrots and beans in the skillet. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6) Plate by putting a couple scoops of the pasta-carrot mixture on the plate and sprinkling with the crisped chorizo and a chunk of goat cheese.

Serve this with crunchy crusted bread and a hefty white or a fruity red wine (or a rose!)

Audio Guide Part 4 - Options!

2011-08-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

(Audio Guide Parts 1, 2, and 3.)

Options Segueing to Not Options!

So now that you have the rudimentary stereo components I wanted to step in to the ever-increasingly complex world of input options.

Sure you can just continue to plug in your iPod via a cheap RCA cable, but you'll hardly be getting the full potential out of your amazing amp and speakers!

What you need to do now is sit down and think about how you primarily listen to music and any other form of listening you need to accommodate.

For instance, I primarily listen to music on my computer; Additionally, I listen to lots of vinyl; I have all of my CDs ripped so I don't ever need to play them (I don't even own a CD player).

I'll spare you for the moment, but there will be a point where I will force you peruse my rants (in the appendices) for why plugging a $50.00 record player in to a $1500.00 system might be a poor idea.

But…

Can I toss out into the celestial heavens that I'm going to guess almost every one of you have digital files of some sort as your primary or co-primary source of music? Especially since this guide is aimed at folks who don't have lots or any audio experience, this is very likely to be the case.

Later I'm going to go on a rant/useful-conversation about making good digital files, but for now what you need to know is that DAC stands for Digital Audio Converter. So with that said, we're going to set aside the Options Path and delve in the…

Abyss of DACs

Honestly, you already have tons of DACs around in various forms on the stuff you already own, but you might not know it. A DAC is simply a circuit that takes all those ones and zeros of data (like from an mp3 or your iPhone) and makes them in to an audio signal that we can actually use. Your iPod has one, every CD player, phone, computer and game system. And actually, by all rights the iPod DAC is not too bad. You can pick up an Mini to Stereo RCA cable and run it in to your amp. It's passable, but that sushi restaurant in the mini-mall that only gives you food poisoning a couple times a year is "passable" as well.

The best way to avoid the Passable Blues is to get an outboard USB DAC. You might wonder why you need to buy another pricey component even though you have a headphone jack on your computer? Computer manufacturers, especially on laptops, are trying to cram tons of circuits and electronic components in a very small space. They are also making, what is probably a correct assumption, that most people these days have a pair of middling $50.00 computer speakers. Those onboard DACs sound terrible compared to one that is designed for music fans.

Not us! We now have seriously amazing amps and speakers. So let's bypass all of that garbage, cramped circuitry, and use a custom USB2 DAC. It's super easy, not very expensive and a massive upgrade. This is a device plugs in to your computer and can be selected as the output device just like a pair of USB headphones but has a set of RCA outputs. It's basically an external sound card that is designed precisely for quality home audio applications. They will eliminate computer noise, and provide a much more dynamic and musical signal compared to the purely functional built in outputs.

But the details on DACs get even more tricky yet. Partially because it is an area that hasn't been totally embraced by the hard-core audio testers and partially because being the most technological and "new" part of the equation, the terrain keeps shifting! I've gone and nosed around and provided a number of options for differing budgets and intents.

First off, there are basically two kinds of DACs that we need to worry about. A DAC to take our audio to a home speaker system, and a DAC with a built-in headphone amp to drive a pair of nice headphones. Some do both. Which one(s) you get will depend on how you want to deal with your headphones setup.

There are two basic contenders at the sub-$200 level. The HRT Music Streamer II and the Audinst HUD-MX1. The HRT Music Streamer II is a "pure" component, in that it only converts digital audio to go to a home stereo (the "+" at the end of the name when you do a search for it is confusing and detonates the higher-end version which we won't be using). The Audinst (which the Korean company sells on eBay in America) also has a very passable built in headphone amp. In terms of sound the HRT is more nuanced and more open. While the Audinst is still great, it is considered to be little more confined and colored (audio-speak for "not neutral" - which isn't always a bad thing - some reviewers have called the Audnist "musical").

I've got the HRT and it sounds so much better than just plugging in an iPod via a RCA cable. WORLDS BETTER. I was honestly shocked at home massive the difference was.

Headphones fans: Read the upcoming section on a headphones specific setup because this distinction gets tossed aside!

Three IMPORTANT DAC notes.

1) You can not under any circumstance use wireless USB to transmit to a DAC. Sorry, they just don't have the technology figured out to make the two work together yet.

2) Related to #1. You really don't want to run RCA cables any further than you absolutely have to. Six feet is considered maximum for acceptable audio loss (three feet is ideal). So you have to put your DAC quite close to the amp. What you do if you need headphones near your computer, but your computer is far from your amp (and what I'm going to be doing) is grabbing the HRT for my home stereo and also getting the Audinist to run headphones for my computer. You can simply select your USB output device between the two in the preferences of your computer.

3) The maximum run length of a USB cable is 15 feet. What if your computer is further than that from your stereo + DAC? You use one of these powered extender cables, that's what! You can link up to 5 together! Do the manufactures say that the quality is lower? Sure, but you know, it seems to work fine and I haven't gotten a straight answer about why you shouldn't. Shrug.

Now you have a DAC! Up next, turntables, CD players and the like!

The Eternal Garden

2011-07-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hello loyal blog followers! (Just imagine my voice sounding like Henry Rollins for that moment.) I just wanted to give you a sneak preview of my project on Gothic Lolita / EGL called "The Eternal Garden." I'm going to publicly announce it tomorrow, but here are a couple images from it as well as the full artist's statement.

"Lauran"
Shirt: Metamorphose, Pants: Innocent World, Shoes: Angelic Pretty,
Necklace: Vivienne Westwood.
from The Eternal Garden
Arhival Inkjet Print

"Sewing Room"
Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
from The Eternal Garden
Archival Inkjet Print

"Venice Beach"
Left: Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, Right: Metamorphose
from The Eternal Garden
Arhival Inkjet Print

"Jenny"
Skirt and Parasol: Metamorphose, Jacket: Maxicimam, Bow: Angelic Pretty
from The Eternal Garden
Arhival Inkjet Print

Japonisme is a term that refers both to an assortment of antique objects made in Western Europe which emulate Japanese goods as well as more broadly to Europe's obsession with Japanese art, culture and aesthetics after the Black Fleet forcibly reopened the country to Western trade during the nineteenth century. From the Impressionists, to the cultural elite, to the artisans the popular imagination of the time was obsessed with imagining the East as an exotic and sensual escape.

Today we have the virtual “Vocaloid” Japanese pop star Miku selling out shows Los Angeles and anime as a major player in the entertainment world across the globe while numerous magazines, academic journals and touring museum shows are dedicated to Japanese-pop-influenced art. So too there are legions of Hello Kitty fanatics, a sudden growing market for vintage avant guard Japanese photography books and the towering art phenomenon that is Takashi Murakami and his "Superflat" circle. We are experiencing a new Japonisme era.

Built out of rephotographed collages of anime advertisements, fan-created porn comics (hentai doujinshi), Japanese photo history and the lingering rich and troubled history of Japanese immigrants in Los Angeles, my work tries to delve past the slick, cute, glossy advertised surfaces to examine the orientalist legacy and erotic inspiration which bubbles under the surface of this new-millennium Japonisme.

CSA Recipe: Spanish Hash

2011-07-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

This is the best way to use leftover braised meats and the amazing produce from the Silverlake Farms CSA. Feel free to substitute and roasted chicken, braised short ribs or what-have-you — It will still be amazing! Here's the original pork recipe I posted that you can use for this.

Next Day Spanish-Influenced Braised Pork Hash
Serves 4

1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1 lb Chile Braised Pork, chopped
1.5 lb yukon gold potatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/4 c raisins
1/8 sliced almonds, chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika
3 tsp chopped cilantro
4 fresh eggs
2 tbs olive oil + more for drizzling
salt and pepper

1) Parboil potatoes in salted water (boil for 3-4 minutes). Drain.

2) Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat (maybe a touch higher than medium). Add onions and cook until translucent (4-5 minutes). Add potatoes and cook until browned, 5-6 minutes.

3) Add bell pepper, cook for 2 minutes.

4) Add pork, raisins and paprika. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until pork is lightly re-cooked. Add a decent amount of pepper, taste for salt.

5) While the hash is making, fry the eggs olive oil in another skillet. I'll recommend over-easy so you can stir the yolky-goodness together with the hash.

6) Stir cilantro in to hash, serve in wide bowls with a fried egg on top and a slice of crusty bread. Feel free to drizzle a touch of olive oil on each each.

I had this with a fantastic bottle of funky, rustic Crotatian wine called "R6" which was recommended to me by the staff at Buzz, a stellar new wine and beer shop open in downtown L.A. at the corner of 6th and Spring. Check them out!

CSA Recipe: Braised Chile Pork and Kale Stir-Fry

2011-07-27T15:00:00.001-07:00

The pork portion of recipe is very loosely interpreted from a Rick Bayless recipe via the Santa Fe cooking school cookbook, but is really a pretty standard recipe across cultures.

Chile braised pork over kale and corn

Serves 4, with leftover pork for hash the next day!

Making the braised pork:

3 lb pork shoulder, cut in to 3" chunks

2 kinds of dried chiles, seeds removed or chile powder*

1 onion, roughly chopped.

2 tbs vinegar

1 bay leaf

4 garlic cloves

1 tbs mixed mexican herbs, such as oregano, thyme and marjoram

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp salt

1 tbs canola oil

1) Soak the chiles for 30 minutes in hot water. Drain, reserving water. Chop the reconstituted chiles. Preheat over to 325 degrees.

*Note, let's be honest, who has 2 kinds of dried chile pods around? Well, I happened to. But normally I don't. However I do have at least 3 or 4 kinds of dried chile powders. For this recipe, you can use 1-2 tsp each of anything like smoked paprika, hot paprika, regular paprika, chipolte, new mexican chile, korean chile powder etc. DON'T USE CAYANE. You will just add heat and no flavor. Just skip the soak step if using powder, and add more water.

2) Add the chopped chiles and everything but the pork to a food processor. Blend into a paste, adding water if it is too stiff.

3) Heat the oil in a dutch oven add the chile paste and cook until browning/darkening for about 5 minutes over medium high heat. Taste and season with salt.

4) Add the pork shoulder, stir to cover with the paste and add a little water so that the pork is covered with enough water to braise. Cover the pan and pop in the oven for 2.5 to 3 hours. Spoon liquid all over pork throughout cooking. Remove from oven and let stand for about 20 minutes before eating over the kale mix!

Making the kale and bean veggies.

1 bunch kale, stemmed and sliced

1 onion chopped

3 ears of corn, kernels cut off

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pinch cumin

1 pinch red chile powder

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbs olive oil

1) Heat olive oil over medium heat and saute onion and garlic until lightly browned (about 5-6 minutes).

2) Add Kale, and cook for 1-2 minutes.

3) Add corn and cook for 1-2 minutes.

4) Add black beans, red chile, cumin, salt and pepper to taste., mix and heat the beans for about 1 minute.

5) Serve in bowls with the braised pork on top. Make sure to have plenty of nice rustic, slightly fruity, slightly earthy red wine from Spain or South America handy.

Note: Save about 1 lb of the pork for making the next recipe I'll post, which in my opinion is even more tasty than this!

CSA Recipe: Green Bean & Gorgonzola Bake

2011-07-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

After a bit of an audio hiatus, I've got three new recipes developed from my CSA bounty to share this week!

Green Bean & Gorgonzola Bake
Serves 4 with a side salad

1/2 lb green beans, trimmed, cut in to 2" chunks

1/8 c mild blue cheese like gorgonzola

1 tsp lemon juice

3 slices of french bread cut in to 1" chunks

1 small or 1/2 large chopped sweet onion, chopped

1 tsp olive oil

1/8 c cream

8 eggs

1/8 c pine nuts

2 tsp chopped fresh herbs

salt and pepper to taste

1) Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil (about 1 tsp salt in the water). Preheat oven to 350.

2) Boil green beans for 1-2 minutes, until just tender but still bright green.

3) Saute sweet onion for 7-8 minutes over medium low heat in the olive oil, until soft and lightly browned. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

4) Lightly taost pine nuts in a dry skillet for a minute or two.

5) Beat cream, eggs, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add half of the pine nuts, the lemon juice and all of the fresh herbs.

6) Lightly oil a medium baking dish, round or square. Place the bread chunks in the bottom and the onions on top of the bread. Put the green beans on the onions.

7) Pour egg mixture over the bread, onions and eggs. Sprinkle the remaining pine nuts over. Crumble the gorgonzola on top.

8) Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the eggs are set the the top is lightly brown.

Slice and serve with a crisp, simple salad. You can drizzle with a tiny amount of aged Balsamic for an extra flavor burst!

Audio Guide Part 3 - Speakers!

2011-07-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Your music will sound this posh.

If you missed them, check out Part 1("An Introduction") and Part 2 ("Amplifiers").

Now that you have an amp, you need speakers! I'm going to give you 3.1 (ha! some audio humor there!) speaker options. All of the speakers we're looking at are what are called "bookshelf" speakers which despite there name, should never be put in a bookshelf. All the monicker means is that they are somewhat small and don't sit on the floor (called "floor standing" cleverly enough).

Speaker Option 1 - "The Honda Civic" (around $350 for speakers):

In this setup you use two bookshelf speakers with your amp.

In my mind, it's hard to beat the Axiom Audio M3v3's.

These are the third incarnation of a much-beloved bookshelf speaker. I own a set of the V2's and have to say they are beautiful sounding. For small speakers they really have a ton of presence a volume. They display a wonderful soundstage, filling the room with very clear, minute renderings of the music. You can hear the feedback from the pick touching the string, the intake of the singer's breath right before the snarl.

This speaker priced simply at $348.00 for the pair, no shipping, no tax, is a steal. Besides having serious audio cred (read some of those reviews), and not paying a middleman, Axiom is one of the friendliest companies I've ever worked with. One of my speakers got damaged and they had a new diver shipped out to me at a very reasonable price in no time!

(If you have to be a non-conformist and go with another speaker, though I haven't owned them, I have found that people like in the $300 range is the Wharfedale Diamond 10.1, which has a mature, if not totally exciting sound. The same reviews are often be said of the Mordaunt-Short Aviano 1 and the Polk Audio RTI A1.)

Speaker Option .1 - "The Doom-bringer!":

For this setup we're looking for speakers around $350 and a sub for around $300.

Basically, what a subwoofer does is add more bass range to your stereo. It extends the ability of the speaker system to render tones downward, like adding a bass section to a choir made only of tenors, altos and sapranos. Most bookshelf speakers, like the kind we're looking at, are just like that choir without a bass section. Electronic, metal, hip hop, and even most rock benefits from a fuller bass range the most, especially since most of the speakers in part one aren't able to reach anywhere near the lower limits of human hearing.

To start, you'll pick a pair of speakers from Speaker Option One section. Let's assume you get the recommended Axiom's.

Now if you want to hear and feel every sludgy rumble of that copy of "Dopethrone" by Electric Wizard (http://newmusicexcess.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/terrorizer-critics-albums-of-the-decade/) leap to your ears and touch your bones, you add in a subwoofer.

Poking around many forums and review sites I found it can be a bit tricky to find a good sub for listening to music, seeing that most discussions focus on home theater, which is mostly raw boom and blast. We need something more nimble and musical. Something that will make an upright bass seem to be sharing our living room. And in our apartment-sized case, something that won't convince the downstairs neighbors that Jesus has descended in the midst of the whole seven-fold heavenly host to split the earth asunder every time you are dancing around in your boxers with a mop when the girlfriend is at work.

From everything that I researched, the Hsu Research STF-1 (http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/stf-1.html) fits that bill perfectly. And at $299 direct from Hsu, this is a killer deal on a sub that will outperform anything near double it's price at a Best Buy or Magnolia, at least from when I was listening to them to pick mine out.

The subs we are talking about are called "Self Powered" - which means they have their own amp. You just hook them up to the Sub Out on the amp with a long RCA cable and you're set.

Also note, while this is only a 150 watt sub, holy hell this is loud. It will easily shake my concrete floors and annoy my neighbors if turned way up. However, it is really naturally integrated even on the most subtle jazz if its set up correctly (I had a listening party when I got my copy of the Vandermark 5's "Four Sides to the Story" and it sounded totally natural), which we'll cover later in the setup sections.

Option 2 is the option I run *exactly* at home and I am in love with my albums, from jazz to metal to electronic to folk, all over again.

Speaker Option 2 - "The Ritz":

If you have some extra money and really listen intently to vocals, singer-songwriter, classic pop, jazz or classical, you can take a more classic audiophile approach (i.e. no subwoofer) and step up your main speakers and get extra precision and clarity which will make you giggle with glee.

So for this setup, we're looking at the same price point as "The Doombringer" but we are looking for a great pair of speakers at around $500-600 (with no sub). The trick is, at this range, matching speakers and amps becomes a much more important deal. Some speakers in this range get picky about their amp preference owing to the individual design tastes of the producers become more pronounced at the upper echelons of audio gear. Frankly, if this is your first system, I'd recommend just going with the basic (Yamaha + Axioms) and then you can step up later if you really love it.

A couple options in this range:

Price to performance, I like the KEF's Q300's. They usually gets mentioned very positively in comparison to the B&W's and have very high reviews. They are a bit on the "thin" side which means a warmer, fuller amp like the Outlaw or even the NAD would be the best match.

Bowers and Wilkins 685. These are just solid, all-around great speakers and around $700. A perfect match for those of you starting out with serious tastes in jazz, classical and vocals. Very full range-speakers which should leave you happy without a sub. The only thing is these technically are a bit "dark", needing an amp that favors treble a bit. The Yamaha is a passable match, but the Cambridge is perfect.

A bit of cheaper option, that has been called the "Honda Accord of speakers," is the PSB Image B6 at $500. Most reviews point out they are clear and natural with a light touch. This would pair great with the Outlaw or the Yamaha.

Another option is the M22v3 from the cool Canadian direct sale audio company, Axiom. These are very transparent but maybe not as refined as the other options, but a good deal at $488.00 shipped, and would pair with almost any amp we mentioned.

As you can see, the budgets range quite drastically in this third section, and it gets progressively more complicated, so novices beware! Any of these speakers would be an okay match with the Yamaha. Any of these setups would happily take an addition of the Hsu subwoofer too if you just have to have the best!

Speaker Option 3 - "On the Cheap":

So let's say you have a small listen room and not much money. But $350 is so much for speakers you say! Well, I'll call you a wuss. Just kidding (no I'm not). To be totally honest $350 is about the cheapest speakers I could recommend that you'll be happy with going in to the future. Remember, this is an investment that will last you longer than just about anything else you'll buy! You'll go through a half donzen cell phones, 4 TVs and 2 or 4 cars before you have to replace this gear.

Your best budget option is buying the Axiom M3's or such and skipping the sub.

But I will say, I've heard (but not listened to them myself) good things about the Cambridge Audio S30 which are around $219. They won't sound nearly as full or dynamic as the Axioms but they'll pair well with the Yamaha amp and lower your total cost for your system by $150.

Now you have an amp and speakers! We're getting close to listening - up next is a selection of input options to get your music to your system.

How to Find New Music Online

2011-07-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

You know the old saying, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and feed him for life? Well, aside from the fact that a modern equivalent would probably have to include warnings about mercury poisoning and overfishing and such, my goal today is to explain how I find all the strange and intriguing music that I do AND to show you that it's actually not that hard. In fact, it's actually quite a bit of fun and refreshing if you've had a long day at work and like to play detective and cultural wanderer. So grab a beer and let's get going.

First off, to use another hackneyed quote, in the realm of being able to find new music today is the best of times and the worst of times. With the internet it has never been easier to find, access and listen to music. But in turn we have never been swamped with such a deluge of crap. The task in trying to find new music isn't to find music, in fact you probably get spammed by crappy bands to check out their MySpace (lulz) page. The task is to sort through the massive pool of music and actually find things you want to listen to.

So let's start with what you know - the music you already love! This is my #1 tool for finding new music. Pick three of your favorite albums right now. Aside from just plugging that in to Pandora and hoping in vain that it won't make you listen to Radiohead again, which it will, let's look that band up!

Let's start by me asking if you know what subgenre all three of those albums actually fall under? Not just "Rock" or "Pop" - the specific kind, since saying Radiohead is "rock" is like saying early Picasso is "painting" instead of "cubism." If you can pin down what it is you like, you will have a much clearer trailhead to start your search at!

The best way to do this is look up the band [in our case Radiohead] on www.allmusic.com - for instance, on the left side the Genre is "Pop/Rock" but the "Styles" (aka subgenres) have "Britpop," "Expirimental Rock" and "Indie Electronic" listed among others! Click one of those links. Let's say, "Indie Electronic," since that's really trendy at the moment. Now you go to a whole other page which has Related Styles, Album Highlights, Top Artists, and Top Albums which you can click each for more info! Oh snap, that's like 10 albums and 15 artists to check out right there and that's only one of the 6 sub genres/styles that we've briefly looked at!

To jump away for a second, one way that I keep all my new music organized is that I have a giant-ass playlist in iTunes called "New Music" which serves as an Inbox for every new album I get. I add every new album directly to that list, and then eventually delete it out of that list once I've heard it a couple times and rated it.

Returning to Allmusic, let's jump back to the Radiohead main page. Scroll down a tiny bit, and you have massive lists of "Similar Artists," "Influenced By" and "Followed" as well as "See Also" (a category for side projects or work they have done in collaboration with different bands.) Well shit, that's like another 30 or 40 bands to scout out that are directly related to the band that you like.

Now, how will you tell if you actually will like that music? Delving a bit further, let's click one of those bands. You don't have a million years to listen to every album so read the bio quickly. In my case I clicked "The Flaming Lips" - their bio was a rambling mess. I could care less at the moment, so instead click "Discography" - amazingly, I've found Allmusic's assorted paid reviewers to be fairly straight ahead in their ratings and reviews. That is, while they probably don't agree with hardcore fans, they don't have much bias, so they recommend (a check mark represents a "pick") they are very stingy with 4 and 5 star reviews, so in this case, two albums are flagged - "Transmission from Satellite Heart" and "The Soft Bulletin". Additionally they mentioned in the bio that "Toshimi Battles the Pink Robots" was the album that catapulted them to bigger fame. Rad, that's two or three specific albums to check out. You should probably read the reviews, but hey, you don't have to - you could just let your ears do the judging!

I don't know how you check out albums, but illegal download, iTunes, amazon, whatever… just grab and listen and repeat!

Speaking of Amazon, one other amazing trick is to search user lists in their "Listmania" section (http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/A17WPVXRSJO6BK). Here is where users put together lists of things they like, and often if you search for a band or even genre/sub genre you can find a number of people who have already gone out and done research to find albums similar to the ones you are looking for! So I did a search for Sonic Youth, but it just turned up a bunch of fan lists of everything Sonic Youth has done. Not useful. So I did another search for a specific album: "Daydream Nation" and voila! 4 lists full of similar sounding/era/genre albums! The same happens if you search "Noise Rock". The goal is to find people/lists who already have and want to share similar artists to the ones you like!

Notice how most of these searches end up relying on your own music? Well Pandora and Last.fm are both sites that are supposed to expose you to new music. They each act different, and neither really work very well. Pandora actively tries to outsmart you, to bait you, to dare you. It's basically doing that Allmusic crawl with a few additional criteria, actually, it's using the Allmusic data! But it also has many behind-the-scenes rules, such as paid record labels and songs (ever wonder why no matter what you pick sometimes you always get the same artist?) It's also trying out new, but often tangential genres and styles. It's like, well, this one artist you like uses hip hop beats, so for the next 45 minutes I'm going to play gangsta rap to see if you like or dislike it. Because it is actively trying to push around the edges of what it knows, you have to constantly be up and down voting. (And like a bonsai, one mistake and your station goes to hell - you like one Wilco song and your station turns into the Grand Ol' Oprea for the next week. Just note, if you go in to the preferences for each station, you can remove artists and songs you liked or added.)

Last.fm has the exact opposite problem for the most part. Because it uses literal connections and fan suggestions, it ONLY plays bands and songs almost exactly like the artist you entered. At least for me, when I'm hunting for new music, the last thing I need to hear is 25 bands doing what are basically covers of a song I like. Last.fm has much more underground music, but also more user-submitted crap. It's great to learn the rudiments of a genre though. For instance, I was digging on jazz musician Eric Dolphey super hard, so I ran a Last.fm on his name and damn, I found like 25 classic jazz players in a couple hours I wanted to check out more.

Both Pandora and Last.fm also suffer from quick depletion - that is, they only have so many artists, so many songs. Especially if you're knowledgeable about music going in, you'll find that you'll get some good stuff for the first couple of weeks, but then very quickly you'll find less and less good new stuff being tossed your way.

Where to then? Well, you go even further underground - the blogging community! Music blogging is easily one of the most active blogging scenes online. But also the most inscrutable. You can't just go to any random music blog and expect to enjoy what you find — hell, you'll probably end up with 55 trance mix albums and a couple of bad metalcore albums. Yet, the same principles apply as our searching in Allmusic and Amazon. If you run a search for an album you like and want to find more music similar too and "blogger" or "blogspot" or or "wordpress" or "review" you'll be looking at a number of reviews of albums you like. (Note: you can search using "blog" but that is fairly general and tends to turn up less useful links). For instance, I did a search for the massively cool post-rock band And So I Watch You From Afar + "blogspot" and on the first page got a review of their new album and a discography. http://www.thesirenssound.com/2009/02/14/and-so-i-watch-you-from-afar/

Now here's the trick - you want to find a blogger not who you agree with necessarily, but who you understand their review code. One blogger's "heavy as hell" is another blogger's "cheesy power metal" — one reviewer might only like retro-disco, and another might really hate indie-pop. It will take time, but poke around and try to find active blogs that post up reviews or download links that you'll have a good chance of liking! You don't need to like everything, you just need to have some clue if it's even worth your time! It might take a while, but poke around for a bit. You only need to add 4 or 5 solid music/album blogs to your reader to start finding new music without much work. Log in once or twice a week, skim the 10 or 15 reviews, grab what sounds interesting. If you find a great blog, make sure to go through it's archives too!

Make sure you scope out the right (or left) columns that have their tags, and also a list of affiliated or recommended bloggers! (Often called "Blogroll").

Even wikipedia can be a great link-hopping exercise. I actually found out a lot of the American black metal scene there (great bands like Xasthur and Leviathan, as well as the classic album "Dead as Dreams" by Weakling were all wiki-finds). I also use The Metal Archives to find reviews on bands in the metal genre.

To get you started, here's a couple of my favorite music blogs!

Noizine - http://noiz.wordpress.com - Lots of crazy genre-crossing underground music. From ambient to pure noise to doom this blog is always posting gems that end up as fovorites, even if the music can be a bit challenging.

Utvaer - http://utvaer.blogspot.com - An art & experimental music blog. Very intellectual and abstract. I can't say I always like what they post, but it's always interesting!

Cosmic Hearse - http://cosmichearse.blogspot.com - Head trip rock, heavy metal, occasional hard bop or blues albums, this blog is always fun to follow.

Don't Count on It Reviews - http://dontcountonitreviews.blogspot.com/ - Mostly a metal blog with occasional deviations, this very active review site has some prog metal leanings, but also a really legible review system. Unlike Pitchfork, who's reviewers seem to strive to rave about music that would make their 35-year-old unemployed asses seem attractive to 20-year-old emo girls, these guys seem to like music. I don't agree with their reviews, but I find a couple good albums every time I poke around over here. Also great interviews.

Free Jazz - http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com - This is THE free jazz and improvised music site on the internet. I get more amazing music from this site than almost any other. A 5-star review is rare and meaningful. Even 4-stars is likely to be a gem. Very knowledgable review staff who finds incredible rare contemporary albums and artists.

Free The Music - http://freethemusic-olatunji.blogspot.com/ - Weird, arty, pretentious, groovy music.

Inconsistant Sol - http://inconstantsol.blogspot.com - Lots of incredibly rare jazz, funk and improvised music. I usually find this place and the next blog have the only reviews and postings of obscure albums that can fetch hundreds of dollars on eBay or Japanese record stores on the rare times they come into public sale.

Orgy in Rhythm - http://orgyinrhythm.blogspot.com - tons of obscure and brillant avant and free jazz releases. So great solid bop and cool jazz too.

Requiem of Madness - http://requiem-of-madness.blogspot.com - solid metal blog.

Soundweave - http://soundweave.blogspot.com - a great mixed site with metal, funk, electronic and vintage music. Really worth it to go back through their archives!

100th Post Special! A Cocktail History of Los Angeles

2011-07-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Classic cocktails are all the rage with speakeasies garnering double-page spreads in main stream magazines, newspaper articles posting once-secret recipes with ingredients such as "lavender vanilla simple syrup" and long waits for a rare seat in the upper echelon gin joints. Now most decent restaurants pride themselves on having a cocktail menu! However, it is easy to forget how recent this accessibility and fervor has been. i.e. even though it is an institution, the Varnish only opened in 2009. Herein lies the short, wandering, and possibly informative tale of my personal cocktail history watching from the inside as the scene explodes in Los Angeles.

Prior to moving to Los Angeles (let's say about ten years ago) in the icy nights of the midwestern January winters I threw my first cocktail party. It was ostensibly in honor of an art show I had just finished. It was perhaps to hit on a gal or hook one of my perpetually single friends up with a gal. Either way, I thought it would be funny/classy (that luscious limbo of irony) to make martinis and cosmos the party theme. I wore a suit jacket and mixed the drinks based on a book I found at my parent's storage unit using Gallo vermouth or some-such drivel. They were terrible and I promptly forgot about it once someone brought a bottle of absinthe which we drank neat as we sat out on the snow-clad patio furniture and smoked and complained about art history.

Jump forward five years and a couple of states and I managed to land a spot in a prestigious art graduate program in California. When moved to go to school I ended up moving in with my then-fashion designer girlfriend. She happened to live on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. The bars surrounding us, swarming around us in fact, were of a level of classy that I had never been privileged to partake of before. Trying desperately to maintain some semblance of cool I took to ordering dirty martinis.

Though another part of my booze-fogged memory seems to claim that I took to ordering dirty martinis a couple years previous to impress another woman who was a film buff. I even had a preferred top-shelf vodka - Chopin (which, amidst all my cocktail faux pas I realize now to still be a quality vodka!)

As I acted cool and pretended not to care to fit in at 2AM, increasingly I was exposed to the love of fine dining. I had never known foodies before. Taco Bell was a birthday dinner in my family. But in Los Angeles, food was coming to the fore - dining fine enough to far exceed my meager job as a darkroom Grad TA (which honestly would have been anything above al pastor street tacos if I had had my wits about me). But I was lucky to experience many classy places that started to prompt a love of cooking that, as you can see on this blog, has stuck with me to this day.

One of those overly classy places that we started to frequent was Pacific Dining Car. A classic business and investment-set steakhouse that was also the haunt of newly monied computer and entertainment folks. Though meals would exceed $75.00 for a salad and entree, the bar was open late and in true old-school Santa Monica fashion didn't discriminate against any old local in sandals and shorts that might just want to grab a beer and watch a Dodger's game.

Always being a whiskey fan, I had transition to Manhattans at some point around 2006 (bourbon, not rye, being the novice I was) and spent a decent amount of time listening to stories of Ireland from our favorite bartender Carl while sipping. One night we had a chance meeting with a couple, Brendon and Stephanie, who were in the their early 20's, loved fine dining and punk rock and had a taste for pretentious "old man" cocktails.

Perhaps the best way express the attitude we were cultivating was that even to this day Stephanie describes Brendon and I as 70-year-old Italian men who happen to be in their 20's and live in L.A. Note: we might have been sitting on his balcony smoking cigars and taking about the finer points of grappa and socioeconomic theory when she made this comment.

At this point in Los Angeles, there weren't many accessible options for what we now call "Classic" cocktails besides old steakhouses and upscale clubs. Anywhere that had any ingredients past the basic grocery store brands was considered exotic. Vermouth was still to be dreaded.

St. Germain was still a new product. In fact, a local bartender by the name of Josh resided at Renee's courtyard cafe (a sprawling divey place made from various rooms from various homes on Wilshire) had developed a penchant for classic cocktails and took to wearing vests and handlebar mustaches. If you could catch him on a slow night he might even have a bag of exotic ingredients like fennel fonds or absinthe rinses that he would pull from behind the sloping red shadows of the bar and experiment. It had never occurred to me that drinks were invented! Josh eventually went on to win second place in a St. Germain mixology contest, then grow disillusioned with his job bar tending in the Santa Monica salt-air nights and off and joined the Army without telling anyone.

After Josh left our policy of only ordering cocktails at cocktail-specific places set in. A rule that is best expressed as "almost no one can fuck up a gin and tonic or a beer" and is still in effect to this day in that any bar gets one try at a cocktail and then becomes labeled as a "g&t joint" if they fail.

Air Conditioned Supper Club on Lincoln was probably the first "no sign, no web presence" venue we found. I can't even recall why I heard about it, but it might have been that I was invited in to photograph a TV pilot being filmed in the space. They made a decent manhattan and had swanky leather sofas and a dark, chill ambiance on weekdays. Honestly, there wasn't that much else to recommend it, but it felt very different than the hyper-trendy clubs favored by the D-list actors and party kids where we had started drinking martinis.

But the the most important place at the time for us was Bar Chloe on 2nd in Santa Monica, and only then for a couple of months. Bar Chloe was an very intimate space with victorian furniture, a dress code for it's bartenders and most importantly a drink list that specialized in classic cocktails such as Pimm's Cup or Vespers. Additionally they had brought two young men with experience mixing in the San Francisco scene (home to the influential Absinthe and Library, which we didn't even know about).

Even if they sounded more like guys who might have spent more time trying to look handsomely disheveled, these two dudes knew the difference between a rye and bourbon, between quality of vermouths and how to serve a drink in the correct glass. The bar became a hot-spot for media production types, which kept us away except for late weekday nights and early afternoons, but it's Rococo chairs and solid old drinks lit a flame.

Going back after even a few years of world-class drinks I feel the same embarsement that any band or writer might have on hearing their old demos. I can honestly say that they weren't even close to above average (and a few were quite bad) but they had a focus and a bar menu pulled from the past which was enough to fan the Vesper-fueled flames of cocktail lust.

This was just about the time that the food podcasts and blogs were bubbling with interest about cocktails — maybe 2006 or 2007. Maybe about the same time Brendon and Stephanie moved to Beverly Hills. About the same time that we discovered that Seven Grand's real gems weren't the whiskeys but instead their whiskey cocktails. This is when David Wonderich's Imbibe was released and became the Rosetta stone to let us understand the mysteries of the cocktail throughout history.

About the time that Comme Ca was discovered to have trained their first couple rounds of bartenders at Milk & Honey (a fabled place we had only heard about via the preposterously patronizing "Restaurant Guys" and the much more congenial guests of Evan Kleiman's "Good Food" program on KCRW) and even based our short lived cocktail club, called "The Society for the Appreciation of Ice", out of their dining room.

By 2008 and 2009 we were making giant crystal bowls filled with Philadelphia Fish House Punch for 4th of July, traveling to the Violet Hour in Chicago and Jardiniere in San Francisco to taste their special winter drinks. Judging the Edison to fall short on almost every drink, and the Roger Room to be successful only in their Japanese Maple we had reached the level of true cocktail snob.

This was also the time when you could go the the Varnish on an average night, get a seat without waiting and char for half an hour with Eric about ingredients and techniques. The Varnish was the last great love of our sepia-toned cocktail romance. In comparison, only a very tiny amount of places could reach anywhere near the exalted heights we had found in even the simplest cocktails at the Varnish.

(So too Brendon and I had found, after one drunken evening, that our love for Tiki Ti's only grew when we laughed our way through a night of ordering classic tiki drinks at the Varnish. It was like watching jazz musicians try to play rock. Embarrassingly refined. But damn I still can't match their cocktails nor can I do anything but thank Eric for introducing me to Picon Punch!)

But with prices starting to top $14 for a daiquiri and the economy imploding the novelty began wearing off. Anyway, it seemed to us that only a few bars were actually worth the steep prices (and by consensus that craft beer remained the best value on the dollar for epicurean drinks).

Our drift away from the public houses and toward our own parlors was also partially due to our experiments in mixing out of our kitchens (in my case nearly two months of making Manhattans of every stripe and proportion). Once you can best all but the top ten or fifteen bars in the city at your drink of choice, and most of those bars require reservations farther in advance than Animal, it's only natural for people who pride themselves on acquiring knowledge and skill on a topic to hone their own work at the expense of socializing.

To put it more simply, it's almost impossible to get in to the Varnish these days, but you can drive the 10 minutes to Silverlake and go to Bar Keeper and collect any odd ingredients you might want — As long as your ice is good, you're in business. And you can plop some Eric Dolphy vinyl on the record player rather than be forced to listen to that mediocre ragtime pianist. (Though I do heartily recommend 7 Grand's Monday night jazz session - it regularly features stellar players!)

Even looking back on the dusty past, the shear creativity of Julian's Rivera cocktail list or a Disco Mariachi at Las Perlas remain transcendent to both novices and experts! Cocktails have their place outside of perfect craft as well — Sometimes I want nothing more than to sit on the patio at Pete's Cafe with a passable but unexceptional Manhattan and watch the city mull over itself in the summer midnight.

Increasingly now we want to see a drink made with perfect measuring rather than showmanship. But that level of cocktail as performance more than taste - of having the right mustache and pocket watch over a refined palate - is new and with any hope will be fleeting.

But this was a history that I was telling, and the next time your bro cousin is talking about a new place to get an old fashioned or the next time you order a food-paired lavender gimlet at a trendy snout-to-tail restaurant or get asked if you want Dolin or Antiqua vermouth in your Manhattan at the hotel bar, remember that only 5 or 6 years ago there were just a few dedicated wanderers searching to unearth slim, small treasures the unknown towers and ruins that was the great unknown history of the cocktail in Los Angeles.

Anyway, thanks for letting me take a break from posting recipes, art and audio equipment guides to rant about this.

Audio Guide Part 2

2011-07-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

Replace wine with "stereo" and you'll
have the right idea.

If you missed Part 1, please feel free to start here.

Part 2 - Let's start with a plan!

This system guide is tailored for listening to amazing music in an apartment, not for massive multi-channel home theater surround sound madness. I might write a guide on doing home theater, but as I don't even have a TV at the moment, such a guide will have to wait.

In audio terminology we're going to be building you a "2" or "2.1"
channel system. Which means two speakers sitting left and right ("2"), as well as possibly a subwoofer handling the bass (".1" in audio notation). That means we will need a pair of speakers and an amplifier to power them. Then we'll figure out what input options you need (turntable, iTunes, CDs) and other accessories like headphones. The way the guide is set up you can get the core components and then branch out getting more extra stuff as you have money. Basically, you can buy a pair of speakers and an amp and plug your iPod in and already be worlds ahead of any shitty dock or package system.

First step. Das amplifier!

The first piece of gear we're going to talk about is the receiver/amplifier. The receiver, clever enough, is the the piece that you plug things in to like CD players, and receives the audio signal from them. The amplifier is the thing you plug the receiver in to that sends loud sound to the speakers. Technically these are two pieces, but all the models were going to be looking at come "integrated." (Fancy audio-speak for a box that has both a receiver and an amplifier in it). Other than the speakers, this is the most important piece of gear for how you setup sounds. If you amp sounds like crap, not even the best speakers will be able to do anything but project crappy sounding audio coming from your amp.

Basically, I went on the search for an integrated amplifier for under $500 for this part of the guide.
There is one amp that is the clear winner on the market right now. I'll include a few options in the apendix, but they aren't really better, just different (and mostly more expensive!)

Best Overall Choice: Yamaha A-S500 ($400)

So, going down through the options, my personal choice (and what I own and love) is the new Yamaha A-S500. (Note: there is an R-S500, which is no where near as good - do not confuse the two).Everyone in the audio community was pretty shocked to see Yamaha put out a serious contender for budget audiophile 2-channel amps, but was then doubly shocked when it could go mano-a-mano with any of the other options in it's class, even though the competition costs more! Super-clean sound, simple design, plenty of inputs, tons of power (85w per channel ***see footnote) and even three cool options: optional direct iPod dock, totally variable loudness, and a "Pure Direct" button which bypasses all of the processing options for even more pristine sound if you have a good room for listening.

The only negatives are that: it doesn't have a tuner for radio, which is normal on good integrated amps - you can buy one separate if you need; it's phono pre-amp sucks (not an issue unless you listen to lots of records, but if you do, read the vinyl section, specifically about pre-amps since almost all integrated pre-amps suck); and while the circuitry and case are robust as can be, the knobs etc. are a little weak/cheap feeling.

The sound is a touch bright, but not harsh. It is a great match with any of my recommended speakers. Price to performance to convenience, this amp is truly amazing and it's becoming a regular class leader at it's price. I can vouch for many hundreds of pleasurable hours listening to it! This is the one to buy right now if you're starting out!

The competition:

Best Retro Looks: Outlaw 2150 ($699)
Solid Performer With Good Bass: NAD C326BEE ($500)
Alternate Proven Performer That Is Bright: Cambridge Audio 650A ($700)

Okay, if you've got money to blow, be my guest to get one of these other amps. They all cost more and offer slight performance upgrades. They're all good gear and will work fine for the rest of the article.

The Outlaw 2150 has tons of hype, with good reason. It is an extremely serious piece of gear for listening to music. With gloriously warm sound and the most killer retro-Art-Deco looks, it's worth every dime. It even has a built in USB DAC (more on that later) to directly connect a computer. The only negatives are that it has a smaller number of inputs (3 + the DAC + Phono, which is a bit weak again), that it allegedly doesn't have the tightest bass sound and that because the DAC is internal, you can't upgrade it as technology advances without using one of your already scare inputs (and it is already a little out of date). But oh, those cool looks! If you just have to have the eye-candy item, this is perfect for you.

The NAD C36BEE is a super solid choice too. It particularly shines with it's handling of low/bass frequencies which are traditionally a weak spot in budget audio gear. It has a decent price-point and tons of inputs (7). No phono pre-amp, no tuner and a very plastic build. While this is a warhorse of budget audiophile amps, the Yamaha seems to be a better choice since the NAD is more expensive. I don't really know why you wouldn't buy the Yamaha over this, but it's a good piece of gear.

From what I hear, the Cambridge amp is a bit more nuanced than the NAD, but it's also by far the most expensive at $700. It, like the Outlaw, probably has a bit more "musicality" (a term that describes the ease with which the amp makes music sound lovely) than the Yamaha, which seems to strive for a more neutral, passive sound, but at almost double the price it's hard to recommend. The one reason you might want to use it is that it is the budget amp that is rather treble-heavy. It's technically a flaw, but if you were to pair it with a darker sounding set of speakers it would make them shine. Particularly Bowers and Wilkenson speakers in our more pricey build might benefit from this amp.

***Footnote:

Now that we've presented the options you'll notice most of these amps are something between 35 watts per channel and 85 watts per channel.

"But wait! That's so little power!, "you howl. "My car stereo/boombox/toaster oven has 20,000 kW of audio power /flex!"

I respond: Something interesting happened sometime in the 80's and 90's, which is that the way that most mainstream amplifier manufactures measured the strength of their amps changed. The number you see in giant Techno x Street style typefaces on the shiny boxes is the hypothetical peak output number if you are only driving one speaker on the whole system. With the units we're looking at, made by talented designers and engineers, that wattage number is the actual average output under normal home listening conditions. In real terms, that means that a 50W audio-nerd piece of gear is REALLY loud (probably way louder than Best Buy 7 channel, 150W per channel home theater amp from some generic company.)

Now you are worried the other way — that you will destroy your speakers. One major myth of the home stereo mythos is that huge amps wreck speakers. In fact, it's mostly the opposite. What wrecks speakers way more often is bad signal. i.e. unclean/distorted signal that comes from a weak amp being pushed way past it's comfortable working strength and feeding ragged sound to speakers. Most amps do usually sound best in the middle 1/3 of their volume range (33% to 66%). Think of it this way: that you want the system loping along like a mustang enjoying himself out on the open plain. Not cheetah trotting in a tiny zoo cage, nor a pony running in terror from a predator.

Anyway, up next when I get some time free from making art is the portion where we talk about speakers!

Audio Guide Part 1

2011-07-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

An Audio Gear Guide Special!

So I've been working on documenting my trials, tribulations and glories of researching and putting together a really amazing home stereo for listening to music. My neighbors might unionize with your neighbors to stop this information from spreading, but until then, I'll be posting a long series of articles explaining every step you need to go from a complete novice to being a paragon of musical reproduction geniuses!

The Boring Short Introduction:

What this guide intends to do is take you though putting together a new home stereo — From recommending what gear to buy, to any options or upgrades you might want, all the way to hooking up and placing the gear.

This guide is aimed primarily at people who are novice or completely uninitiated in terms of building a component audio system. Nor is this guide meant to be completist - it's not a home audio reference manual, but rather a lower-cost guide to putting together and getting running a home system for listening to music in much more exciting way than almost any pre-packaged system could hope to offer.

The Long, Only Slightly Less-Boring, Introduction:

I love music. Adore it even. My art is deeply inspired by it. (I got a cracked rib at a Decapitated show if you need proof…) Much like when I love a photo I want to see a real decent print of it, not some tiny, dotted, reproduction in a magazine nor a thumbnail on a computer screen. As such, I want to hear my music in all it's nuance and grandeur. I mean, everyone hates shitty sound at a club so why would you put up with it in your home - the place where you (other than your car) probably listen to music the most?

If you've ever had similar thoughts, but feel nervous about putting the wrong ends of the cord in the wrong places (insert "That's what she said joke," here) at doing much more than plugging your iPod in to your car, this guide is for you. Good quality music at home is a lost art in the age of boom boxes and ear buds. Despite it's esoteric reputation once you know a few of the details and leap-frog from my mistakes and research, you'll easily be able to set up a stereo at home that will make you very happy.

Assumptions:

The first assumption I am making is that you have a desire to take your home music listening into the glorious wilderness beyond the rustic farm village boarders of those tiny, LED-lit Walmart speakers, garage sale turntables, or plastic-y iPod docks. Have you ever noticed how sometimes those bands you love sound flat, bass-less, muted, or tiny? Like there is a miniature, wizened, lounge-lizard version of your favorite band playing that album you so love? Well with a tiny bit of study and effort that can be fixed!

The second assumption I'm going to make is that you don't need any prior experience with audio gear; In fact, this guide is really just a documentation of my recent experience putting a system together for myself when I moved to a new loft in downtown Los Angeles. I have some solid experience doing live A/V, but I'm hardly an audiophile. When I built my system, a primary goal was that I just wanted a hassle-free system that will let me appreciate my music better. So this guide is for the music lover first and foremost.

The last assumption is that you have a bit of money and that you want to make a long-term investment. One of the coolest things about great audio gear is that, if you are even half-kind to it, it can easily last you twenty or more years! So the initial price might be a little steep, but it's a very good value on the hour of enjoyment ($400 only is like 10 bar tabs!) These are items that also usually take well to being repaired if something is damaged (and have great resale - often in the 80%+ range).

But yes, even though this is a budget guide, I am not magic, so be aware that your new system will cost you a bit of money. I'm going to provide a few options along the way, and a few different "builds" to suite your budget. Even if you want to spend at the higher end if you go through all the planning first you can easily spread the costs out over time. I'm broke too, so I wrote this specifically to maximize price to quality!

That is, even putting aside the fact you probably live in a tiny stucco box with terrible acoustics (nothing you nor I an do about it, so worry not!) if you've never even owned a nice stereo before, this guide is going to assume you aren't particularly interested in listening to reference vinyl of Hayden symphonies on a $10,000 turntable in an isolated room, so while that stuff is *neat* we'll just totally ignore the vast majority of the wondrous and awe-inspiring and wallet-crushing high-end audiophile products and focus on things items with excellent core performance. Even in the early stages, people will beg to come over to drink PBR/Schlitz/Whatever-hipster-beer-is-making-the-rounds and listen to their favorite albums on this setup.

What elements particularly tend to be enhanced with a better system?

Just to give you some basic ideas, here are three simple, easy to hear benefits. First off, you can much better hear important dynamic details — There is a huge difference between a piano being played very softly and with intense gusto. A better system will do a better job doing justice to both, as well as all of the nuances in between.

Another is sheer range of tones - a quality system will more accurately (and more naturally) render the lowest 5-string bass thumps to the highest cymbals chatter. The full sweep of a piano. The full crush of doom metal. The physicality (not just volume) of the instruments and voices will be so present that you will get goosebumps. Outside of Top 100 pop, the people who make the recordings often use very pricey monitors in in the studio, so if your home system is a bit closer to what they are using, you'll hear more what they intended.

A third benefit is differentiation between the musical elements. There is a reason that Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew" album is one of my standard system test albums — at times it has 12 or more instruments playing complicated parts at once, in many cases duplicates (two basses, two keyboards etc). On most cheap systems it is very tough to tell more than 3 or 4 instrument-voices apart, but on the systems we're building here, you can actually hear what all 12+ members of the band are individually doing, just like if you were at a wonderfully mixed, intimate, live show! Honestly, you'll probably pop a couple albums on after finishing hooking up everything and be shocked at how new the recordings sound. You'll constantly be finding new stuff in the music - hearing "deeper" details.

These are just a couple advantages you'll hear, but in general, it will just sound damn better.

Two caveats — One I'm going to ignore, another I will deal with later:

The first caveat: Remember how I slipped in that parenthetical reference to the fact that your car is probably the foremost place people listen to music? Well, it's true. I'm fortunate enough to work from home many days by myself (and living with my girlfriend) being an artist and all, but that's rare to be home most of the time and not have to worry about bugging roommates or whatever. However, if you are like most people you listen to most of your music in the car. And if your car stereo sucks, you will likely get a much higher price-to-enjoyment radio if seriously consider buying a decent receiver with an iPod dock, an iPod and maybe even replace the speakers etc. I know next to nothing about car audio though…

Caveat two ("caveat" is a great word!): I mentioned above about not having roommates to bother… well, that is a half truth. I love free jazz and death metal, which are far from the most accessible musical genres and though my girlfriend Callie is amazingly tolerant of my quirks, our musical tastes are, shall we say, quite distinct. Not only that but she often has to be at work at 6AM while I stay up working until 1AM or 2AM with great regularity. If you spend 90% of your time in a situation where you can't really play your stereo, I'm going to guess you rely on headphones to rock out?

I'll be blunt — Failing to invest in a serious computer headphone rig was my biggest mistake in building my system. For $300-400 (the cost of one component of a home stereo) you can get a killer headphone setup. If you consider your situation and find that you would rather spend the money on a great personal audio setup, never fear, I will cover headphones and pre-amps and DACs in this guide!

But now we're ready to dive in and make some music happen and buy your receiver and amp - Part 2 will be coming along within the week.

[For future reference these prices and availabilities are as of July 2011. Also massive thanks to the guys and gals at audiokarma.org where I lurk. They are a fantastic resource.]

Source Tags and Mixtapes Mix

2011-07-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

"Night In Little Tokyo"
from Japonisme

Subcity Radio has a very cool program called Source Tags and Mixtapes that came to my attention via the cool guys at Enemies List Recordings (home of the transcendent album "Deathconciousness" by Have a Nice Life"). Ross, the host, recently had a birthday and simultaneously asked for recommendations for new music similar to the esoteric/artistic black metal vein of Negura Bunget's classic album "OM."

To digress just slightly, I'm actually a metal novice... I was feeling deep in the doldrums of nearly a decade focusing on noise rock, hardcore and experimental electronic when I happened to catch Wolves in the Throne Room as an opening band one night about three years ago. I remember making a crack that they looked exactly like a Dungeons and Dragons group while they sat around and drank beer before they played. But they got on stage and DAMN, they sucked the light out of the place. I had no-the-hell-clue what to make of what they were doing. I mean, I liked hard music like Dillinger Escape Plan and Botch and had a passing familiarity with Pelican and even owned that one Mastadon album every music hipster owned. But Wolves, damn, that was different. And it bugged my friends to no end. And I bought their album and went home and promptly learned that they were part of a genre called "black metal."

Then I listened to tons of crappy black metal, because if I've learned one thing since then, black metal is worse then any other genre in terms of being filled with crappy knockoffs of crappy knockoffs of people in capes posing on tombstones shot by cell phones and photoshopped to add snow or skulls or snowing skulls. But I also found brilliantly unique and esoteric artists creating some of the most uncompromising music that I had ever heard.

So to honor his birthday, here's a random collection of tracks by black metal artists similar to that album "OM" both well known and unknown. Put these in a playlist, hit random, turn the volume up and marvel at the sheer strangeness, the audacity of anti-aesthetic, and direct power of these tracks.

Download the Sourcetags & Mix Tapes Birthday Mix here!

If you want a bit of commentary, I'm happy to ramble about a few of the bands and tracks:

I've always been a fan of Mick Barr's projects (like Orthrelm) and one of my early loves was the first Krallice album. More than any of the many bands he's played in (or ear-destroying even solo shows) he found his home in the directly recorded hypnotic dissonance and tremolo picking of black metal. His deftness on the guitar, volume and quirky melodic sense combined with a great band and great recording (they made the players play in the same room as the amps for more of a live sound) produced a really stunningly dark and well-realized album that even musicians from other genres tend to appreciate.

Blut Aus Nord has come to be known for very slick epic folk-inflected albums (Memory II was a classic) but their true achievement in my mind is the bleakly idiosyncratic "Ultima Thule" which has a million small and large counter-intuative musical elements ranging from full silence fade-outs mid track, crystiline keyboard melodies floating above the most grungy distorted guitars imaginable. Really strange music that manages to almost never-fufilled promise of evoking an icy winter at 3AM with all it's danger and beauty.

I hardly know anything about the band, but Darkspace makes music that almost seems to want to avoid human listeners. Huge sheets of sound, flickering drumming and endless plate reverb and distorted stereo screams with synths that might be the Monolith from 2001's jogging music.

Leviathan and Xasthur are two of the best black metal artists from America in my mind. Both focus on their ultra-dark one-man projects with Xasthur recently calling it quits. Xasthur ranges into the realm of audio-art with complete abandonment creating alternatively fractured moments of the cinematic and ear-melting noise elements all rooted in a very subtly sophisticated idea about metal history. Leviathan on the other hand is balls-to-the-wall dark and gross. Most black metal bands reference Cthulhu, but if Cthulhu's neighbors were blasting Leviathan at 4AM, Culthuhlu would be scared to ask them to turn it down.

Fauna's album "The Hunt" represents the best of black metal's concept album fringe - taking an excerpt from the album is almost a travesty, but it is primal, low-fi and a highly-varied album that doesn't pretend to be much other than a mediation on the physiologically voracious.

Menace Ruine is a great Canadian band that at turns varies into the realms of noise blasters Wolf Eyes, Merzbow and to neo-Medival electronics. Often repetitive, stunning brutal, you could almost see these two playing at the Smell if they weren't so sophisticated.

If you're curious what black metal artists listen to in their free time, it's certainly black metal, but even more esoteric than usual. If you can get over the totally SHITTY recording and Gollum+vocoder vocals, Stribog is the epitome of outsider-art. He doesn't care if you or anyone listens. And that's black metal, I guess?

Thralldom is an experimental black metal band that borrows a few elements of the noise-walls from My Bloody Valentine and American doom and sludge, and spins it back in to great black metal.

Trist is a fantastic German project that combines intimate black metal, soaring choral elements and field recordings into epic albums.

Weakling's "Dead as Dreams" is probably the best black metal album recorded on the North American continent. Amazingly, most people would agree with that. Elements of convoluted prog song structures and raw thrash meet black metal beats and a band that broke up before they released an album. This is my #1 most sought-after vinyl album.

Moonsorrow is an anarchistic collection of folk musicians and brilliant black metal players that have impeccably massive songs that weave in and out of numerous emotional modes and instrumental textures. Absolutely no one else out there in the same league as these guys for this kind of music. Lots of buried details that only appear after many listenings.

As for the other bands, I know way less about, but they are all amazing and just ask and I'll wax poetic about them too!

CSA Recipe: Arugula Pesto with Fresh Corn and Grilled Steak

2011-07-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

Callie and I skimped on our monthly date and got a nice food processor instead! Here's my first attempt to do something fun with it - a great summer dinner that combines charred steak, fresh sweet corn and a slightly tart pesto made from arugula. I'm a little stumped with wine pairings for this, but a good solid lager or wheat beer would be nice. So too, a hefty rose or a light red would be lovely!

[Also, I am sad to report that my recipe inventions were not terribly successful last week. Nothing bad, just nothing that was so tasty I wanted to share other than this. Well, there was a killed grilled nectarine relish on pork chop dish that was really simple, but really good too. Maybe I'll post that if people want something quick and easy?]

Pasta with Arugula Pesto, Corn and Steak

Seves 2

For the arugula pesto & corn pasta

1 cup pasta, such as farfalle

1 bunch arugula, stemmed and roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 c olive oil + 1/2 tsp olive oil + 1/2 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp balsamic

juice of 1 fresh lemon

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbs pine nuts

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

2 ears fresh sweet corn, cut from the cob

For the steak:

1/2 lb ribeye or other nice, thick steak

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp olive oil

1) Get a large pot of water salted with 1 tsp salt starting boiling.

2) Get a grill or grill pan heating up to lower medium. Mix the salt, pepper and olive oil in bowl and rub in to both sides of the steak and let sit.

3) In a skillet, heat 1/2 tsp olive oil over medium heat. Lightly saute the garlic for 30 seconds, and add arugula one handful at a time lightly sauteing it until it's all just lightly wilted.

4) Add arugula, garlic, balsamic, lemon juice, honey, salt, parmesan, pine nuts and 1/4 cup olive oil to a food processor. Pulse until almost smooth and blended like pesto. Scoop in to a bowl and set aside.

5) Heat the remaining 1/2 tsp olive oil in a skillet, and saute the corn kernels for 45-60 seconds, until just barely cooked.

6) Mix the corn to the the arugula pesto.

7) Put the steak on the grill. Cook for 4-5 minutes, turn, cook for 4-5 more minutes. Turn up heat to high (or move steak to hot side of a charcoal grill) and cook for 2 more minutes on each side. Move to a cutting board to rest. Turn occasionally while resting (this lets the juices permeate the whole piece - Harlod McGee did a test and this works!)

8) Put the pasta in the water while steak is resting. Boil gently until almost done. (8-10 minutes)

9) Scoop 1/2 cup pasta water in to the pesto mixture and stir around.

10) Drain pasta and then toss with the pesto and put servings in to shallow bowls.

11) Slice the steak thinly and place on top of each portion of pasta. Sprinkle a few pine nuts and a touch of parmesan on top for aesthetics if you want.

Secret Japonisme Preview!

2011-07-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone has been enjoying their day off - I just had some amazing kabobs in Glendale with Callie and have spent the rest of the day drinking tea and putting the finishing touches on the online preview portfolio for Japonisme. I normally won't post work-in-progress but I've been chugging along on this project for about a year now and wanted to give a tiny view in to what is going on with my newest work!

You can skip the rambling and jump straight to the portfolio!

For those of you who don't know, Japonisme is a term that refers to both an object (chairs, mirrors, clothing, etc.) made in Western Europe in the style of Japanese goods as well as more broadly Europe's obsession with Japan, Japanese art, culture, people and aesthetics during the 1800's after the Black Fleet forcibly reopened the country to Western Trade. From the ubiquitous stories of Monet trying to find wood block prints used to wrap goods, to Whistler's fireworks paintings, to Van Gogh's obsession with Japanese prints both the avant art word and the popular imagination were obsessed with the ideas of the East as exotic and sensual.

So too today, we have the virtual Vocaloid pop star Miku selling out shows Los Angeles, anime is a major player in the entertainment world, whole magazines are dedicated to Japanese-influenced and -obsessed art (such as Giant Robot and Juxtapose). Not to mention the leigons of Hello Kitty fanatics and the towering art phenomenon that is Takashi Murakami and his "Superflat" artist circle. We are experiencing a new Japonisme era.

Built out of anime advertisements, fan-created obsessive porn comics (hentai doujinshi), fragments and shadows of the rich and troubled history of Japanese immigrants in California, Japanese photo books, and amateur origami "Japonisme" as a project tries to pry at the often ignored but overtly present ideas of orientalism, exoticism, aesthetic differences, art history, high culture vs fan culture novelty and radical inspiration that swirl around the far edges of this new worldwide Japonisme of the 2000's.

Now that you've read more, hop over and take a look!

CSA Recipe: Squash, Mint, Goat Cheese and Almond Pasta

2011-06-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

This week I accidentally made up a very tasty extra dish with the bits of remaining produce from the CSA - it was so tasty in fact that I decided to post it up!

Summer Squash, Mint, Goat Cheese and Almond Pasta

Serves 3-4 with a side salad

1 lb Summer Squash, Crook-Neck Squash or Italian Squash cut in to 2" slabs, about 1/3" thick.

4 Oz. fresh goat cheese

2 tbs sliced almonds, lightly toasted

1 tbs olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 -2 tsp freshly chopped mint (depending on taste)

1.5 cup farfalle or other pasta

1 can cannelloni or butter beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 tsp fresh pepper

1/2 tsp salt

juice of 1 lemon

1 pinch mild red chile powder (like Korean chile powder or hot paprika)

1) Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salted with 1 tbs salt. Once boiling, add pasta.

2) Heat olive oil over medium+ heat, and sauté the slabs of squash until lightly browned, 6-7 minutes.

3) Add the chopped onions, chile powder and garlic, cooking for another 3-5 minutes until the onions are cooked through.

4) Add the beans and 1/2 cup pasta water, stir to combine.

5) Add mint, drained pasta, pepper, lemon juice, stir to combine.

6) Stir in goat cheese. Taste for salt.

Serve in shallow bowls sprinkled with toasted almonds and a spring of mint with a thick slice of garlic bread and a glass of Sancerre, Sauv Blanc or even a dry Prosseco or Cava if you're having an outdoor lunch.

CSA Recipe: Tofu, Mizuna and Red Chile Stew on Rice

2011-06-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

Again, you'll notice I made a few changes/improvement
in the recipe compared to the photo.

Inspired by the classic Korean dish, soon tofu, which is a tofu stew with red chile paste and egg, this simplified version makes for a wonderful dinner.

Tofu, Minced chicken and Mizuna Rice Bowl

Serves 2 over rice

1 block firm fofu, chopped

1/2 lb chicken, chopped

1 small bunch mizuna (1/2 lb - about half a large bunch), stems removed and roughly chopped

1 tbs red chile paste

2 tsb pine nuts, lightly toasted,

2 green onions, sliced

1 tsp sesame oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs rice wine or sherry

1 tsp rice vinegar

1/2 tsp freshly ground white pepper.

1 tbs corn starch

1/2 tsp sugar

steamed rice

1) Mix the soy sauce, rice wine, pepper, corn starch and sugar in a bowl.

2) Add the chicken and let marinate for 20-30 minutes in the fridge, covered.

3) Heat the sesame oil in a work or large skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken mixture and cook for 2-3 minutes.

4) Add the chopped tofu and the chile paste, stir well to combine and cook until chicken is done, 5-8 minutes.

6) Quickly add the mizuna a handful at a time, stirring to combine, until all the mizuna is added and only barely wilted. (Maybe 60 seconds total).

5) Stir in the pine nuts, green onions and rice vinegar. Taste for salt and add more if you want.

7) Turn off heat. Add the egg, stir to combine. Let sit 2 minutes.

8) Serve the fried stew over rice with cold beer or soju!

CSA Recipe: Fried Potato Pasta with Capers

2011-06-27T14:57:00.000-07:00

Potatoes and pasta? Yes! It's double-carb day here on Curio! The trick to this recipe is balancing the acid and tart factors - it's actually a light tasting summery dish if everything is in harmony!

Also, if you are curious why there are so many recipes on my blog, cooking is one of my main ways to decompress after a long day in the studio, and these last six months have been massively productive. I actually have a whole bunch of prints running in the printer for my "Japonisme" project as I type this.

Fried Potato and Caper Pasta

Serves 2 with leftovers for lunch!

1 lb potatoes, peeled and cut in to 1" chunks

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 c grated parmesan

1 tbs capers, rinsed

4 stalks green onion, sliced, green and white parts divided

2 tbs sub dried tomatoes, chopped

3 tbs olive oil.

juice of 1 lemon

1 pinch crushed red pepper

1 anchovy fillet, chopped

1/2 tsp freshly ground white pepper

1/2 tsp salt + 1/2 tsp + 1 tbs divided

1 c. dry pasta

1) Put the potato chunks in a medium pot with 1/2 tsp salt and cover with water. Cover pot, bring a gentle boil until the potatoes are par-boiled (just firmer than you'd want to eat - not mushy at all). Maybe 4-5 minutes. Drain and pat dry with a paper towel.

2) Meanwhile, bring a large, covered, pot of water to a boil (for the pasta) with 1 tbs salt in it.

3) Put the sun dried tomatoes in a small bowl, add 1/2 c. of the boiling pasta water to the bowl and let stand 15 minutes, until they soften. Drain after that.

4) Heat the olive oil over heat just above medium. Add the potatoes and fry until just golden on each side, stirring just occasionally. Maybe 8-10 minutes.

4.5) Start the pasta boiling during step 4 so it will be ready by step 8.

5) Reduce heat to medium, add the garlic, red pepper, capers and anchovy fillet. Stir and cook for 1 minute.

6) Add the sun dried tomatoes and white parts of the green onion. Cook for 2 minutes.

7) Add 1/4 cup of the pasta water, white pepper and lemon juice.

8) Drain the cooked pasta and add it to the potato mixture.

9) Add the lemon juice and the green parts of the green onion. Stir up well and taste for salt.

10) Serve in shallow bowls sprinkled with parmesan. A simple green salad of toasted pine nuts and arugula with balsamic and olive oil would be wonder, as would a glass of Pinot Gris or Sauv Blanc.

CSA Recipe: Faux-Indian Cumin Seed Beets with Goat Cheese "Raita"

2011-06-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

Callie and I took a basic Uncurry Indian Spices cooking class with Kaumudi Marathe at Surfas recently and this dish was very loosely inspired by some of the techniques we used there. I have no idea if they have goat cheese in India, but I was out of yogurt and I always adore the ubiquitous goat cheese and beet salads at restaurants, so I figured with the glorious Drake Family Farms soft goat cheese we got in our share of the Silverlake Farms CSA this week I'd give that a shot. It was absolutely delicious and quote Hedonism-Bot from Futurama, "I regret nothing."

So anyway, here's a totally not authentic recipe for beets with Indian flavors, which will be the color of the richest stained glass you've ever seen!

Totally Inauthentic Indian Cumin Beets & Carrots with Goat Cheese Raita

Serves 4

For the raita:

4 oz. soft goat cheese

2 Tbs Milk

1 teaspoon canola oil

1/4 tsp sugar (to taste)

1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1 pinch turmeric

1/2 tsp chopped cilantro

1) Mix the goat cheese and the milk in a small bowl until it is a creamy, smooth consistency, much like yogurt.

2) Add sugar, salt and cumin. Taste to adjust - it should be slightly sweet, slightly tart, slightly salty.

3) Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat and toast the mustard seeds (Kaumudi says to do this until they "pop" - my mustard and cumin seeds seemed to be lazy and would hardly pop… maybe they don't like Wednesdays either? I just toasted them until they would taste good - i.e. very lightly, maybe 30-40 seconds). Remove from the heat and add the turmeric.

4) Stir the oil mixture and cilantro in to the goat cheese faux-yogurt. Refrigerate until you're ready to use it.

For the Main:

1 lb beets, greens trimmed

1 lb young carrots, greens trimmed, cut in to 1" chunks

1/2 onion, chopped

2 tbs canola oil

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp cumin seed

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp tumeric

1 teaspoon salt

Fresh pepper to taste

Juice of 1 Lime

1 tbs cilantro, chopped

1) Roast ze beets! Wash well and pierce a couple times with a fork, and wrap each in foil. Put in a 425 degree oven for about 45-50 minutes, or until they are very tender.

2) Let cool, peel, then cut in to 1" chunks.

3) Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the cumin seed and pop them (45 seconds-ish).

4) Add the garlic, turmeric, garam masala. Cook for 30 seconds.

5) Add the onion and carrots. Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent and the carrots are just softened.

6) Add the beets, pepper, salt, lime juice and stir up, reheating the beets for 1-2 minutes.

7) Stir in the cilantro and serve with the raita and steamed rice!

SM Blues is no more...

2011-06-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

"Steps and Courtyards"
from Flâneur
Archival Inkjet Print

...And reborn as "Flaneur"! I've been wanting to change the name, but only as I've been finishing up the project have I had the confidence to use such a loaded, but important, word for the project. Also, I made a major change in the portfolio to be more similar to the physical portfolio I have. Check it out: http://www.eronrauch.com/smb.

Gallery: Fantasy Trilogy Pt. 1

2011-06-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

"The Shaft (Adventurers #4)" from Fantasy Trilogy, Book One

Acrylic, enamel, pencil, ink, Magic the Gathering cards, canvas. 60" x 40"

Hi all! I'm going to take a brief break from recipe mayhem and music fanaticism to alert you to a major update to my art web site. I spent the last two days archiving the ever-spawling paintings, sculptures, drawings, collages and installations of the first part of the Fantasy trilogy and building an online portfolio to share!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Fantasy Trilogy, they are a series of three (whoa! bet you didn't expect that!) interconnected projects that chart the changes in the fantasy genre-fandom over the past century. "Book One", the first in the series and also the newest update, deals with emergence of social gaming like Dungeons and Dragons from fantasy literature such as Lord of the Rings. "Arcana, or, Finding Context" traces the fading landscape of social gaming into the realms of home video game console RPGs like Final Fantasy, and "A Land to Die In" takes the plunge from single-player fantasy games into the breaking waves of the virtual realm of Massive Multiplayer Online RPGs such as World of Warcraft.

But the darker undercurrent of all three projects - the shape being traced by the negative spaces - is a meditation on about the ways that art and imagination are shaped, constrained and changed by the forces of culture, genre, education, history and technology.

Also there are a couple of really good jabs at C.S. Lewis, art school and Harry Potter thrown in the mix that might make you smirk.

CSA Recipe: Apricot and Pork Belly Fried Rice

2011-06-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

Similar to the duck fried rice, but with the interesting glints of flavors from the apricot, this light dish is full of flavor (and possibly a perfect dish for Sunday brunch with a glass of Prosecco or Cava!)

Apricot and Pork Belly Fried Rice

Serves 2-3 as a main, 4-5 as a side.

1/2 Onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 stalks green garlic, chopped

2 ripe but firm apricots, seeded and chopped

1/2 block firm tofu, drained for 10 minutes, cut in to 1/2" chunks

1/4 cup brandy

1/4 lb pork belly or bacon, chopped

1 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp rice vinegar

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp lemon zest

freshly ground white pepper to taste

salt to taste

2 cups day-old rice, crumbled by hand

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 handfuls arugula, washed well and sliced in to thick ribbons

2 green onions, thinly sliced

matchstick pickled ginger to taste

1 tbs + 1 tbs canola oil

1) Heat 1 tbs canola oil over medium-high heat in a wok or large skillet. Add the tofu chunks and fry until lightly golden on all sides.

2) Add the brandy and a pinch of salt. Cook off the brandy, about 1-2 minutes. Remove tofu to a bowl. Wipe the pan clean with a paper towel.

3) Over medium-high heat, quickly crisp the pork belly chunks and a pinch of salt. 2-4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and add to the bowl with the tofu.

4) Leaving the pork drippings in the pan, add the remaining 1 tbs of canola oil. Over medium heat add the chopped onion, garlic and green garlic. Cook until the onion is starting to go soft, about 5 minutes. While this is happening, mix the soy, vinegar, sugar, white pepper and lemon zest.

5) Add the apricot and cook for 1-2 more minutes until the apricot is cooked but still firm.

6) Add the rice, crumbling the grains apart as you add it. Stir and cook for 1-2 minutes.

7) Add the tofu and pork belly. Stir to combine.

8) Make a large empty spot in the middle of the pan. Pour the eggs in to the spot and as though making scrambled eggs, stir and scrape breaking up and fluffing until just starting to set the immediately mix in with the rice at the edges.

9) Stir in the sauce, then the arugula, stirring to combine. Taste for salt.

10) Serve in bowls topped with some pickled ginger and sliced green onions. Serve Siracha on the side.

Not a CSA Recipe: Garlic Shoots and Sweet Potato Stir Fry

2011-06-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

Callie and Mau take a nap while I cook.

Garlic Shoot & Sweet Potato Stir Fry

This isn't a CSA-specific recipe, but rather a recipe that I came up with to use up bits of ingredients that I had left in the kitchen! Also, those long, just slightly curled green strands of garlic shoots at the Korean market overwhelmed my curiosity and I had to try to make something with them. This is a fairly simple recipe, but because you have to stir fry a couple things separately, it will probably take a solid 45 minutes to make. Also note, the pork in this recipe can be happy left out to make it vegetarian. I only used it because I had a small amount leftover from making mandu earlier in the week.

Serves 4 with steamed rice on the side

1 bunch garlic shoots (about 3/4 lb), cut in to 2" lengths

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in to 1" chunks

1 block firm tofu cut in to 1" chunks

1 onion, cut in to fat 1" chunks

1/2 lb ground pork

1 tsp Siracha

1 tbs low sodium soy sauce

1 tbs mirin (or white wine in a pinch)

2 tsp rice vinegar

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tsp + 1 tbs + 1 tbs canola oil (divided)

1) Bring a small pot of water to a boil and parboil the sweet potato chunks for 5-7 minutes or until not-quite-done. Drain.

2) Heat a large wok or skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the ground pork and fry until lightly browned, breaking up as much as possible with a wooden spoon. (The wooden spoon helps so much for this!) Maybe 5 minutes or so.

3) Using a slotted spoon, remove the pork and place it on a paper towel to drain.

4) Add 1 tsp oil, let heat over medium high heat, then add the tofu chunks, cooking until browned and crisp on all sides. It helps to let them sit for a minute or two between stirring to get a good crisp. 7-9 minutes.

5) When they're done, scoop the tofu chunks out with the slotted spoon and set aside.

6) Add 1 tbs oil, let heat, then add the potato chunks. Using the same wait-between-stirring technique as the tofu, fry until golden on all sides, 6-10 minutes.

7) Scoop the potatoes out with a slotted spoon and set aside as well.

8) Add the last 1 tbs of oil, let heat over medium heat and add the green garlic shoots. (These delicious oddities seemed to be prone to being fibrous when undercooked.) Cook for 5 minutes.

7) Add the minced garlic and the onion chunks. Cook for an additional 4-5 minutes, until the onion starts to turn golden and soft.

8) Add the pre-cooked pork, tofu and potatoes along with the mirin. Cook, stirring for 1 minute.

9) Add the soy, Siracha, pepper and rice vinegar. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes, stirring, until everything is heated and mixed.

10) Taste for salt, add a bit of salt if you want, and you're done!