the mennu method celebrates Israel at 60...musically, of course

Israel At 60: Musical Overview

Part I: A Musical Retrospective

A look back at Israeli music can tell us a lot about the country, the national mood, the way Israelis see themselves and the world around them, and most of all, the songs that are at the lips of Israelis as they sing their way through work and play. As Israeli music changed through the six decades of its existence it reflected changes in Israeli society going from the romantic socialism of the early pioneers, rooted in the folk traditions of Eastern Europe, to an international melange of sounds from around the world creating a unique Israeli style of music. Current music in Israel features sounds from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, South America and Africa. There are Israeli forms of jazz, hiphop, pop, reggae, punk, electronic and trance. By following the careers of significant Israeli artists and following trends in Israeli music, Americans can find an access point into the world of Israeli music.

Some artists have had such a great influence on Israeli music, and their careers have been so enduring, that by following them, we can learn more about the country itself. These artists include:

* Arik Einstein: His musical career spans five decades and includes collaboration with many other significant Israeli artists.
* Aris San: A non-Jewish Greek immigrant to Israel whose blend of Greek and Mediterranean sounds opened Israeli music to other styles of ethnic music.
* Shlomo Artzi: A musician whose lyrics spoke about the day to day concerns and anxieties of average Israelis.
* Kaveret: A supergroup whose members would continue to flavor the Israeli music scene for years after the band broke up.
* Mashina: The quintessential Israeli 80s band.
* And more...


There are also a number of trends and institutions that influenced the development of Israeli music. Lehakot Tzahal, or the Army Bands were a proving ground for many aspiring Israeli musicians who would later achieve fame as civilian musicians. The annual Eurovision song contest provided an international stage for Israeli performers and showed that Israel was a peer to European countries that participated in the contest. The progressive rock movement in Israel in the 1970s was influenced by musicians in the United States and Europe, but its expression was uniquely Israeli. Jews from Middle Eastern countries brought their own unique style of music, and while it took a while for their music to be accepted by the rest of the country, it is now a staple of Israeli music. There are also historical and biblical themes in Israeli pop music which represents a reinterpretation of the Jewish tradition for the modern era.

Part II: Current Israeli Music

Israeli music today is full of diversity. There is a growing Israeli hip-hop scene dominated by acts like Hadag Nachash and Subliminal. Ethnic music is blended into the Israeli sound, exemplified in the music of Idan Raichel, which combines pop, Yemenite and Ethiopian music, and has gained popularity around the world. Israeli trance DJs are thought to be the best in the world in their genre. There are also pop musicians like Banot Nechama, Shy Nobleman and MC Karolina who sing in English, seeking to appeal to a broader audience. There's the interesting story of Beit Habubot, a band that was made so popular by Israelis backpacking through India, that they returned to Israel to sold out shows with a crowd that new their lyrics before they officially released an album. Many of today's Israeli musicians take their inspiration from the Israeli rock scene of the previous generations and some are forging new and interesting connections with klezmer, jazz, funk and sampling. And then there are some Israeli rock groups like the Girafot who are just plain good. There is something for everyone in today's Israeli music scene.

Part III: Israeli Radio Online

Many Israeli radio stations now stream their broadcasts online. Galgalatz is a format-free, commercial free radio station with news and traffic on the hour. Kol HaCampus broadcasts from the Israeli Broadcasting School, and is like a college radio station, where the DJs bring unique flavor to their own shows. A comprehensive list of these stations will be provided in the full Israel at 60 package.

• Galgalatz
• Radio Tel-Aviv
• Kol HaCampus
• Radio Emtza Haderech
• Radio Yo Eilat
• Galatz
• Reshet Gimmel

Part IV: Shopping for Israeli Music

Whether online or in Israel, there are a number of excellent stores with knowledgeable salespeople to help you find the Israeli music that appeals to you.

• http://www.israel-music.com/
• https://www.psychprog.com/indexs.htm (preferred) 93 Dizengoff St. Tel Aviv: Knowledgeable and friendly staff.
• http://kremboshop.com/ (good for Israeli trance) Shenkin St. Tel Aviv
• http://store.bluewhitedirect.com/ Internet shop based in New Jersey, special pricing for Jewish organizations.
• The Eighth Note (Hatav haShmini): A reasonably priced CD shop with a location in Ben Gurion Airport, perfect for getting rid of those last shekels in your pocket before departing Israel.
• Sifrutake

Aris San:

In 1957, a young Greek musician named Aristidis Saisanas sailed to Israel, and on his way changed his name to Aris San. He claims to have traveled to Israel in pursuit of a girl who had made aliya. When he arrived in Israel he found out that the girl was already engaged, but he realized that it was no the girl that he loved, but Israel. Another theory is that he left Greece in order to avoid mandatory military service. He started out, at age 17 playing in a Tel Aviv nightclub called Arianna, popular amongst the Salonikian population. By the time he was 20, through the connections he had made in the nightclubs, he had become close to the political leaders of the time, including Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon. Somehow, through these connections, he was granted Israeli citizenship even though he was not Jewish.

At 25 he began singing in Hebrew. His fame continued to grow in the nightclubs and with the cassette vendors who sold their wares in the Central Bus Station of Tel Aviv, but he was frustrated by his lack of airtime on Israeli radio which was dominated by Israeli artists like Yoram Gaon, Chava Alberstein and other Israeli vocalists still playing a folksy style of Israeli music. Then, while playing at the Zorba Nightclub, Aris met Aliza Azikri, a young Israeli singer fresh out of a Tzahal Band. The collaboration provided a tipping point for Aris San, and people would line up out the door of Zorba to catch the new sensation.

After the war in 1967, Aris went out on tour to entertain the troops of his beloved adopted country in all their far flung borders of the newly expanded state. 1967 was a critical year in Israeli music, where other musical influences, like the sound of Mizrachi music crept into the mainstream. Aris began blending Arabic music into his style, which today seems only natural with the likes of Idan Raichel and Tippex topping the charts in Israel. His use of Arabic themes brought suspicion onto Aris. Rumors started spreading that he was a spy. It seemed a bit strange to people that this foreigner seems to have endeared himself to the political establishment, and would perform regularly in the halls of power and on military bases. There was even a rumor that his guitar housed a small camera which he would use to photograph army bases. It was at this point that Aris retreated to the studio and recorded his most popular single, "Sigal." With the tabloids filled with stories of his romantic exploits, and the rumors of his alleged espoinage, Aris started to feel unwelcome in Israel, and in 1969 he left Israel for New York.

Upon arrival in New York, Aris San shaved off his moustache and traded in his trademark plastic framed glasses for tinted oversized gold wire frames and opened up a nightclub called Cirocco. The rest of his life story is similar to a VH1 Behind The Music story with a little mystery at the end. After brief success in New York, Aris fell into trouble with money, drugs and the mafia. He died in the 1990s in Budapest. Only his close friend and manager saw the body, which was allegedly cremated in Hungary, and his ashes are allegedly buried in Flushing, Queens. Some people, have an almost Elvis-like conspiracy theory that he's still alive and has only gone into hiding.

His influence on the Israeli musical scene is profound. By bringing Greek and Mediterranean sounds with him and blending it with Israeli lyrics he would open the door to other types of ethnic music to become part of the cosmopolitan blend that is Israeli music. Yemenite, South American, and even Arabic are part of mainstream Israeli music today. Aris San would pave the way for another Greek artist, Yehuda Poliker, a son of holocaust survivor from Salonika, to put out an album of Greek music with Hebrew lyrics after attaining national stardom with his rock group Benzeen. Even Arik Einstein would do a popular song with a Greek theme to it, Shekshenavo, from his album with Miki Gabrielov. Aris San helped Israeli music find its own identity.

Suggested listening:
Aris San - Yasas Vre Pedia


Aris San Documentary (in Hebrew) in Five Parts on YouTube:












Arik Einstein

Arik Einstein's accomplished career spans five decades from the 1960s until today. Arik's music has accompanied the country throughout most of its history. His songs evoke the Tiny Old Land Of Israel (Eretz Yisrael HaKtana) of the past. He's been entertaining the nation through good times and bad, a deep and familiar voice like a close friend to an entire country. Throughout his long career, his music is always relevant and up to date, incorporating new artists and different influences while keeping true to his own unique style. He's recorded over 500 songs, and 34 albums and has collaborated with many of Israel's premier musicians including Shalom Hanoch, Yehudit Ravitz, Shem Tov Levi, Miki Gabrielov and most recently with Peter Rott. Arik also dabbled in acting and comedy. He was part of an early 70's sketch comedy show called Lool, and appeared in a few Israeli movies.

Arik first started performing with Lehakat Tzahal, and upon his release performed in a band called Green Onions with Chaim Topol (who would later star in the film Fiddler on the Roof). Arik released his first solo album in 1960, a four song EP, after which he performed as a soloist under the stage name Ari Goren. After that he was in The Yarkon Bridge Trio together with Yoram Gaon until 1964, but Arik felt that the music that they were performing was similar to Russian ballads or the Beatles and didn't really constitute a new musical style. During his time with the Yarkon Bridge Trio, Arik still continued to record as a soloist, act and sing in stage productions and on soundtracks. During the 1965 and 1966 song festivals, Arik took first place as a soloist and came in second with the Yarkon Bridge Trio.

Arik put out "I Sing For You," his first full solo album in 1966. It was influenced by jazz and South American music and integrated the sound of an electric guitar on a few of the tracks. He performed a number of Beatles covers, along with other pop favorites like "The Lemon Tree," and "The House of the Rising Sun." But Arik was always looking for new musical influences, and together with Shmulik Krauss and Josie Katz, he would form the first Israeli pop trio, The High Windows. Their song "Yecheskel," a catchy pop tune released in 1966 about the biblical prophet Ezekiel can still be heard on Israeli radio today.

In 1967, Arik met with and started to collaborate with a young musician and writer named Shalom Hanoch. The songs that they recorded appeared on a album released in 1968 called "Mazal Gedi" (Aries). At around this time, Arik's contract with CBS records had expired, allowing him to seek out new business relationships. He started his own production company called Hagar. In the 1969 song festival, Arik's submission came in next to last, and he decided from that point on that he would never compete in the contest again, and beyond that, he would no longer care about market demands or public expectations. Arik was looking for a new band that would accompany both in the studio and in concert and help him develop a new sound. He was introduced to The Churchills, featuring Miki Gabrielov on bass and Chaim Romano on guitar, and together they would record the first Israeli rock album, "Poozy," in 1969. This album featured electric guitars with distortion.

Einstein would continue to develop a unique sound together with the talented group of musician he surrounded himself with. In 1970, he released the film "Shablool" which had clips from their own lives and featured Arik Einstein and Shalom Hanoch as themselves. The film and the accompanying soundtrack were both commercial failures at the time, but they marked a turning point in Israeli music. The upbeat sound was heavily influenced by the international pop scene in general and The Beatles in particular. The language and themes, though, were contemporary Israeli: the lyrics of the songs echoed the way that Israelis spoke at the time, rather than attempt some kind of classic Hebrew poetic style. Einstein and Hanoch wrote the bulk of the tracks either individually or together, and Einstein sang lead vocals with Hanoch accompanying with the exception of "The Deeper The Bluer," where Hanoch sang the lead vocal. Shablool led to the 1970 television series "Lool," a sketch comedy and music show. Later that year, Arik Einstein and Shalom Hanoch released another album called "Plastelina." In the end of 1970, Hanoch moved to England for a brief period of time affording Einstein the opportunity to create new musical connections.

Suggested listening from Shablool:
"What Do You Do When You Wake Up In The Morning?"
"Take Yourself A Wife and Build Her A Home"
"Why Should I Take It To Heart?"
"The Ballad Of Yoel Moshe Salomon"

Suggested listening from Plastelina:
"What's With Me?" (Duet between Arik Einstein and Josie Katz)

After putting out a children's album in 1971, Einstein collaborated with Miki Gabrielov on "At Avigdor's Grass." This album combined rock and roll with romantic music and a Middle Eastern touch. The themes included longing for childhood as seen in the songs, "You and I (Will Change The World)" and "I See Her On The Way to the Gymnasium." The album cover features a picture of Einstein in the place near the beach in Tel Aviv where they used to practice. There were also allegations of drug use in that location, giving the English translation of the album title more significance. Soon afterwards, his backup band, The Churchills set out for England and again, Einstein had to find a new band, and led to brief collaborations with the rock-jazz fusion band The Platina, and later with the psychadelic rock band Apocalypse. When performing with Apocalypse, the first part of the concert would be Apocalypse songs, and during the second half, the band wolud back up Einstein on his songs.

In 1972, the Churchills returned to Israel and Einstein recorded the album "Jasmine" with them. Later that year he would co-star in the Uri Zohar film, "Peeping Toms."

Suggested listening from Jasmine:
"Good To See You Home"
"Mother Earth"

In 1973 Einstein re-recorded some old songs in a collection called "Good Old Land Of Israel." Among the songs were updated versions of "Could It Be That It's Over?" and "Yoel Moshe Solomon." The album was a commercial success and coincided with the fourth Lool TV program. Shalom Hanoch returned from England later that year, and joined Einstein in concert. Hanoch would open the concerts playing solo with his guitar and then would stay on and play with Einstein and his band, with the two of them singing "Why Should I Take It To Heart?" together. The two set out to tour together, but with the outbreak of the Yom Kippur war, both were called up for a half year of reserve duty where they would play at army bases throughout the week, leaving only the weekend to play for the civilian crowd. During that period, Einstein and Miki Gabrielov continued working on new material, the fruit of which was the album "Slow Down." Einstein even managed to find the time to star in Uri Zohar's movie, "Big Eyes." In 1974, Einstein went on tour with Shalom Hanoch who had formed a band together with Ariel Zilber which Einstein named Tammuz. Tammuz would be one of the most influential Israeli bands of the 70s.

Suggested listening from Slow Down:
"Slow Down"
"Big Eyes"

In 1976, Arik Einstein asked Yoni Rechter to engineer his next album. Einstein was impressed with Rechter's work on the album "Fourteen Octaves." Rechter enthusiastically agreed. The result was a short but beautiful album called, "Love Has Many Faces."

Suggested listening from Love Has Many Faces:
"What Do The Deer Do?"

Throughout the rest of the 70's he recorded and performed with some of the up and coming talent on the Israeli music scene including, Avner Kenner, Shem-Tov Levi, Shlomo Yidov, Corinne Alal and Yehudit Ravitz. In 1979, Einstein and Hanoch reunited for another tour, which would include shows in New York and finally end up in Hechal Hatarbut in Tel Aviv.

More suggested listening from Arik Einstein's Albums of the 1970s:
"When There's A Light In Your Window" - Good Old Land of Israel Part II
"Atur Mitzcheh" - Good Old Land of Israel Part III

Suggested listening from Armed With Glasses:
"Tel Aviv (Yarkon 1950)"
"San Francisco on the Bay"

Suggested listening from Sitting On The Fence:
"Sitting on the Fence"
"In Praise of the Samba"

Suggested listening from Time Out:
"He Made Teshuva"

Suggested listening from A Home Loving Man:
"When We Arrive"
"A Home Loving Man"

Arik Einstein

Here's Arik Einstein pretending to be Greek:


Atur Mitzcheh: Arik Einstein with Yehudit Ravitz, Corinne Alal and Avner Kenner:



Arik Einstein in a comedy sketch called the Bible Quiz from Lool: (English Subtitles)


Arik Einstein in a sketch from Lool which shows how each wave of Jews to arrive in Israel viewed the next group off the boat: (Hebrew Subtitles, but most of the sketch is spoken in gibberish.)




Panas HaRechov: Tammuz featuring Shalom Hanoch and Ariel Zilber:


Author's Note:

I've had a lifelong interest in Israeli music which I inherited from my beloved father and his fantastic record collection. This love was only increased when I moved to Israel in 1985. In the late 80s, I was drafted into the IDF and found myself fully immersed in Israeli music. I used to kid my army buddies about the music they listened to, and they would try gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) persuasion, trying to prove that Israeli music had genuine quality and not just the meaning and value that they themselves placed on it.

I recall a bunch of particularly long nights at the Lebanese border where I would be up all night with my commander listening to our little transistor radio to an overnight program called Lo Rotzim Lishon or "We Don't Want To Sleep." By that point I had observed that when Israelis hear a song that they really really like, they make a face that almost looks like they are in pain and then they say something to the effect of, "Yo eizeh shir! Shir gadol! Shir anak!" This translates loosely as, "Whoa! What a song! It's a big song! A HUGE song." My commander was skeptical about my observation, until one night, the DJ on the radio, in his deep overnight Hebrew said, "Uvechen, shir anak, umutzak..." which means "And so, that was a huge and solid song."

I hope that my efforts in this project will expose a wider American audience to the plethora of huge and solid songs that have come out of Israel for the past 60 years.

Mennu at Tonga Room

Mennu at Tonga Room, originally uploaded by chicagodust.

Here's a picture of me drinking a Volcano Bowl in the Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The place is like two Disney themes at once: The Tiki Room with Pirates of the Carribean; like a Polynesian village near a docked boat. There's a pool in the middle of the bar, and in the middle of the pool is a small ship where undersized Polynesian musicians do live covers of Madonna songs, or at least so I'm told. I don't know about that though, since there was no music there late on Monday night. There were, however, constant indoor rainshowers. Every once and a while some indoor thunder and lightning would be followed up by movie-set rain which would noisily fall directly into the pool. It was playful, interesting and fun.

For more pics, click, here, here and here.

And thanks to Flaggs for helping me amass KNOWledge about SF. It's as though I was born there...

Ready for Simchas Torah!

Schedule of madness:

Wednesday Dinner: Newmania!
Thursday Lunch: Schpence!
Thursday Night: Richter Brothers!
Friday Lunch: We'll see...
Friday Night: Bracha
Shabbos Lunch: Schpence!

...my life is a media event.

I Hate My Job Day

So, like, I'm having an "I Hate My Job Day," and my father notices that by the fact that I was throwing a trantrum first thing in the morning. A "trantrum" is a cross between a rant and a tantrum. Anyhow, he printed out the following chain email joke and put it on two pages to increase the impact. It was very sweet:

When you have an "I Hate My Job" day, try this:
On your way home from work, stop at your pharmacy and go to the thermometer section and purchase a rectal thermometer made by Johnson & Johnson Be very sure you get this brand.
When you get home, lock your doors, draw the curtains and disconnect the phone so you will not be disturbed.
Change into very comfortable clothing and sit in your favorite chair.
Open the package and remove the thermometer.
Now, carefully place it on a table or a surface so that it will not become chipped or broken.
Now the fun part begins.
Take out the literature from the box and read it carefully.
You will notice that in small print there is a statement:
"Every Rectal Thermometer made by Johnson & Johnson is personally tested"
Now, close your eyes and repeat out loud five times, "I am so glad I do not work in the thermometer quality control at Johnson & Johnson."
HAVE A NICE DAY AND REMEMBER, THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE ELSE WITH A JOB THAT IS MORE OF A PAIN IN THE ASS THAN YOURS.

I didn't find anything on J&J's site, of course. But I did find something on Snopes, a website that debunks urban legends. In a very Captain Obvious way, snopes illuminates,

"the point that some people are apprently missing is that rectal thermometers aren't tested by using them the very same way end consumers would."

They said, "end consumers." Reminds me of South Park episode 608 where Martha Stewart shows how to "prepare a Thanksgiving turkey for interorecto."

Ahoy!

Jewish Pirate Jokes from JewSchool were funny, but the comments were funnier:

"YashARRRRRR koach, hazaq u-bARRRRRukh, and gmARRRRRR hatima tova, ye
scallywag."

They left off the one about the pirate's favorite shabbat song: Yaarrrr RRrrribon! (Which is a joke I pillaged from The ReJewvenator.)

Yarr!

Yarr! It's almost heeeerrrre!
I found some good parrrrrty resources, including a printable flyerrrrr for yer cubicle, here.

Shiver me timbers!

What's My Pirate Name

This Wednesday is Talk Like A Pirate Day. I got my pirate name from a generator. Here's the results:

My pirate name is:
Iron Sam Bonney

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Muppety New Year!

May 5768 be filled with muppety goodness for us all.

Two Years Later

There are still people living in FEMA trailers.

In New Orleans, things are fine if you live on the high ground. But if you're poor...

Many people who left New Orleans have not returned, or have since moved on.

I'll be hanging out with one such person tonight in New York.

In the meantime, we should mark this day by showing our fleur de lis, and by shouting SLIDELL!

National Institute for Musical Healing

I know most people still haven't finished digesting the summer series, but, I had to make another mix. This was made while out of town at a conference. Without going too deeply into the process and circumstances of making the mix, let me just say, the music is all from 2007, except one song from 2006. I'm not sure I'll make a CD out of it, and I might make a zipped folder of individual mp3 files, but for now, enjoy the wma by clicking on the title.

National Institute for Musical Healing

1-Rilo Kiley-The Moneymaker
2-Spoon-Don't You Evah
3-The Shins-Australia (Peter Bjorn & John Remix)
4-Peter Bjorn & John-Young Folks (beyond the wizard's sleeve re-animation)
5-Tegan & Sara-Back in Your Head
6-Au Revoir Simone-A Violent Yet Flammable World
7-Northern State-Away Away
8-Stars-Ageless Beauty (The Most Serene Republic Mix)
9-The Most Serene Republic-Sherry and Her Butterfly Net
10-The National-Black Slate
11-Grand National-By the Time I Get Home There Won't Be Much of a Place for Me
12-Low Line Caller-Over The Counter Kids
13-Iron & Wine-Boy With A Coin
14-Anja Garbarek-I Won't Hurt You
15-Mono in VCF-Escape City Scrapers
16-Bat For Lashes-What's A Girl To Do?
17-My Latest Novel-Wrongfully, I rested
18-Throw Me The Statue-Conquering Kids

Got The Splint Removed!

Although my hand is still bloated and swollen, and my second metacarpal is still fractured, the doc removed the splint. It looks pretty gross and I plan to add a picture of it later.

I have two splint pics below that were taken by friends with high tech pda cameraphones:

This picture was taken with a blackberry of some kind. It was August 2, 2007 and I was in Spingfield Park in Queens to see Roy Ayers. When I had the cast on, I was supposed to keep my arm elevated. So I went to a lot of concerts, aoided auctions (for the most part) and kept a ready supply of questions. "You in the back! You've had your hand up for the whole presentation. Do you have a question?"

"Yes, I do. I'd like to ask the chairman..."

This picture was taken with an iPhone on August 5, 2007. I was bopping around the city with some friends who used to live in New York. I had just recieved a phone call from my nephew, who was experiencing culture shock upon his return to Memphis. He asked where I was. I said, "Houston Street."

"So, you're like, in SoHo?"

"Actually, I'm in the middle of Houston Street. Neither SoHo or NoHo. I guess I'm just in Ho."

A meaningless milestone: this is the first picture ever taken of me with an iPhone.

In New York

...with my bloated freakish Kevin Mawae disco club hand.

Fractured Second Metacarpal

I fractured my second metacarpal in a jacuzzi mishap. Won't be typing much for three weeks.

Summer Series Artwork

Here's some design concepts for the CD label designs for my summer mix series.

I was having difficulty with the CD design. I tried using images from the web and a graphics program to create the labels. But the graphics, and the software were too difficult for me. I was unable to achieve the results I wanted.

So I recalled the way that James T. Kirk dealt with the Kobayashi Maru scenario when he was in Starfleet. Since the test was too hard, he changed the test. So instead of getting bogged down in a computer graphics project where I was doomed to fail, I changed the nature of the project. I decided that it would be a photo/craft project instead.

And so, with the help of my nephews Yonadav and Lavi and my niece Racheli, we were able to create the following pictures with fruit and beads.

• cover art slideshow
• summer series 07 page - with downloads!

Summer Series 2007: Almost Ready for Release

The Summer Series 2007 is almost done. You can now download all the mixes. Playlists, artwork and a dedicated page on mennu.com are coming soon.







You can download the music here:

• Hammock (zip) (wma)


• Sexy Poolside Groove (zip) (wma)


• Tulsa (zip) (wma)


• Advanced Listening (zip) (wma)

I've even made a tee shirt to celebrate. It's got the summer seal on it! More merch coming soon.

Click here to check out the mennu method store.

Summer 2007 Mix Series

My ambition this summer is to create a four mix series. I am happy to say that I'm halfway done with the music. You can download the first two mixes as .zip files. The other two mixes are still in development, but I'm still working on the order of the songs.

So here's what's good to listen to now:
Sexy Poolside Groove: My intention here is not to make you get up and dance, but rather, it's to make you shuffle in your seat a bit, or press down on the accelerator in the car.
The Hammock: Put this on before getting into a hammock for a summer afternoon nap.



In development:
Tulsa: Tulsa is just the production name. On my notes it's called "rock mix." This mix will need a title. It's got some really good and really interesting music.
Advanced Listening: This mix also needs a name. Last night I got to work on making it an actual mix. It's not a mix for everyone. Many of the songs are over 7 minutes long. Those who "get it" will love it.

On the cutting room floor:
B-Sides and Outtakes: There are a bunch of songs that didn't make it onto one of the four mixes, but they were part of the list at one time. This includes horrors like Rick Astley and Lisa Stansfield, and The Streets. This would be like my last B-Sides which was for the Global Paradigm Shift.
Revisions to the Hammock: I was going to make a number of changes, but then I figured, I shouldn't overthing things. The songs in this list could be the seed of another mix.

What I need to do now:
Artwork for the discs: I have a vision for how the discs should look. I need round fruit cut in half, and mounted on a white background. Then I need something that looks like a stamp for the summer 07 series.
Raw Materials: Yellow CD envelopes, green CD envelopes, disc labels, little round labels, quart sized ziploc bags and a whole hellovalotta blank discs.

Gratuitous exra ideas:
Make postcards or recipe cards to add into the ziploc bag with the discs.
Write liner notes with the whole "I wanna thank all my peeps cause without them..." and mabye a little "These mixes were inspired by long car drives, jacuzzis, airport bars, sand in my beard, etc..."
Have a really cool webpage for the mixes. Well, I'll probably do that anyways.

When I finish these mixes, I'm look forward to listening to a completely different playlist. Here's what I have lined up:
Dimitri From Paris: Both Playboy Mansion Discs
Mark Farina: Mushroom Jazz Volume 5
The Aluminum Group - Cannot Make You Out
Jerry Garcia - Legion of Mary
The Parson Red Heads
And anything played by any other DJ!

Fewer Chuckles; More House Music

I made a few modifications to the mix with the colloboration of my nephew, Yonadav. Here's the current mix (version 0.89) and tracklist:

• Merlot Warrior - Andy Caldwell vs Patton Oswalt
• Beginning People - Stockholm Cyclo
• Reality Check - Stigmato Inc
• If I Lost You [Michelle's Mix] - Michelle Shaprow
• Point of View - DB Boulevard
• A Stronger Man - Ben Watt/Sananda Maitreya
• Battle - Ben Onono/Tim Deluxe
• Didn't Mean To Turn You On - Colette
• Can’t Get Away From You, - Walk Drink, Mood II Swing
• K&M Feat. Joy - Pink Is The Colour - Hed Kandi
• Beautiful (jask's original mix) - Jask feat. Jocie
• The Realm And V - One Chance - Miguel Migs
• Let The Sunshine - Milk & Sugar
• Let The Sunshine inHair - Hair - Original Soundtrack

Refill the Flagon of Chuckles!

I am no longer ashamed of the mix I'm working on. You may as well download the current version because I'll be making some changes to it.

The following is the current playlist for Version 0.82. Just a few words about the format of the list. The name of the track is first, followed by the artist, the number of beats per minute (BPM) the time of the track and the album. Pay attention to the BPM. It's had too much influence on the song order of this mix, and I may play around with some of the track order. One of the changes I know I plan to make is to put "A Stronger Man" and "Battle" together. Then again, their beats will match well, and so do their themes. Unfortunately, the Afrobeat track will be cut in the next version. I like the track, but I have to come to terms with the fact that this is turning into a vocal house mix. I also need to figure out an ending to the mix. More notes follow the list.

• Merlot Warrior - Andy Caldwell vs Patton Oswalt - 112.4 - 4:38 - the mennu method remixes
• Beginning People - Stockholm Cyclo - 113.7 - 5:13 - Hed Kandi : Nu Cool - Lounge Grooves & Sassy Beats
• Reality Check - Stigmato Inc - 110 - 3:48 - The Sex the City The Music
• I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters - 108 - 4:48 - Ta-Dah
• Point of View - DB Boulevard - 128 - 3:25 - Escape St. Barth's
• Wakafrika - Manu Dibango - 120.1 - 4:48 - Afrobeat
• Didn't Mean To Turn You On - Colette - 123.9 - 4:06 - Destination Lounge: Las Vegas
• Battle - Ben Onono/Tim Deluxe - 125.3 - 7:05 - The Little Ginger Club Kid
• Psycho Killer - The Black Mighty Orchestra - 127 - 5:01 - Seriously Good Music: Cocktail
• A Stronger Man - Ben Watt/Sananda Maitreya - 125 - 6:46 - Buzzin' Fly, Vol. 1 [Bonus Disc] Disc 1
• If I Lost You [Michelle's Mix] - Michelle Shaprow - 124 - 5:02 - This Is What Radio Should Sound Like
• Ooh La La - Goldfrapp - 146.4 - 2:58 - Ooh La La - Single
• Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head - Kylie Minogue - 125.8 - 4:05 - Love At First Sight
• Can’t Get Away From You, - Walk Drink, Mood II Swing - 125.9 - 5:50 - Base Ibiza 2003 CD1
• Where's My Merlot? - Patton Oswalt - 99.9 - 0:02 - Feelin' Kinda Patton
• K&M Feat. Joy - Pink Is The Colour - Hed Kandi - 126 - 4:45 - Summer Mix 2003

More notes about this list:

• The transition between "A Stronger Man" and "If I Lost You" is just awful. Good thing I'm moving the tracks around.
• Lisa Stansfield got cut. The sound quality was, really, way too crappy. And I never did find a jazzed up version of it. I suppose this is good. I've been in a bit of a rut with bad music. It all started when adult swim started running a Family Guy promo with Brian covering Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Then again, the song was initially lodged into my head when I heard it in the background of an episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia...I think the one called "Charlie Has Cancer."
• I need some good cover art for the .wma file. I have an idea which involves bikini-clad women and a certain beach house.
• I redid Merlot Warrior. I cut out most of the clips and just left a few at the start and finish. I guess you can call it "The AA Remix." I'm still dissatisfied with the way the clips are laid out, particularly in the end. The beginning is OK.

Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

I have a rather extensive music collection. I haven't even heard all the music on my hard drive, and each day I add more. Last night, I was working on a house mix until very late at night. In the morning, I wanted to burn an archive CD so I could review my mix on the way to work. My car stereo plays mp3 CDs, so I can always fit about 5-10 albums on a regular CD. Sometimes, I will add something from the hard drive that either I haven't heard before or haven't heard in a while. And thus, I filled space on my disc this morning with Baz Luhrmann - Something For Everyone. As I was reviewing last night's mix (the whole reason I burned the disc) I decided that it needs so much work, it's not worth listening to. I instead perused the rest of the disc to see what else was on it. And in that way, I stumbled across:

Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free [To Wear Sunscreen]

I was blown away by it. The words were so relevant to me. When I got into the office I did a little more research into the song. Wikipedia has a rather long entry about the song. Here's what I've learned:

The song started its life as an essay called "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997. In her introduction to the column, she described it as the commencement address she would give if she were asked to give one. The column soon became the subject of an urban legend, in which it was alleged to be an MIT commencement speech given by author Kurt Vonnegut in that same year (in truth, MIT's commencement speaker that year was Kofi Annan). Luhrmann read the speech and then had some real difficulty contacting Vonnegut's agent. After doing some web research, he learned that it was really by Schmish who was a fan of his movies, Romeo + Juliet and Strictly Ballroom. By the next day, the hired an actor in Sydney to read it, and the rest is history. There are a whole bunch of parodies of the song, but I think the original is great. Here's just a bit of it:

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

The rest is just as groovy. Click here for the original essay.

I would like to dedicate this post to all my Central Hebrew High students who just graduated. Mazal tov and stay in touch!

Sexy Poolside Groove

I'm working on a house mix: Something for people who walk around the pool as if it's a model's runway. You can donload a preview as one big .wma file, right here.

Nope! I removed the link. It sucks for a number of reasons:

• I need to use my old version of Mixmeister. Every time I need to download it again, it's become more expensive and I need to buy it again. Fie on you, Mixmeister! I don't need your free trial version software! And stop creating some kind of clutter files in my music directories! I was happy with version 3. Version 5 is awesome. But no! I'm not spending $169.95 so your "intelligent" software can beat match for me! Grr!
• Merlot Warrior: this was a great idea, and it was made in an afternoon with live mixing. However, I would like to redo this, with the samples distributed a little more sparsely. It's like when I made my first real dance mix "Smells Like Hot Dogs." It had a sample of Ralph Wiggum saying, you guessed it, "smells like hot dogs." At first I played the sample far too often for it to be good or amusing. It was just annoying so I had to remove most of them. The final version was subtitled "Lower Sodium."
• Lisa Stansfield - Been Around The World: The audio quality on the track sucks. Like, it really really sucks. And I feel like the song can stand to have a makeover. Isn't there a house version of this song? And if there isn't, shouldn't there be? Perhaps I can send an email to Frankie Knuckles; he'd know what to do.
• Manu Dibango - Wakafrika: I will get Afrobeat to fit into a mostly house mix.
• The Benny Benassi stuff: I am not Benny Benassi. I should not try to be. I will remove his stuff from the mix. It's a little too hard. Perhaps I'll add it to my advanced listening mix.

Playlist:

• Schpenster vs Patton Oswalt vs Andy Caldwell - Merlot Warrior
• Stockholm Cyclo - Beginning People
• Stigmato Inc - Reality Check
• Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
• Lisa Stansfield - Been Around The World
• Manu Dibango - Wakafrika
• Colette - Didn't Mean To Turn You On
• Ben Onono/Tim Deluxe - Battle
• The Black Mighty Orchestra - Psycho Killer
• DB Boulevard - Point of View
• Ben Watt/Sananda Maitreya - A Stronger Man
• Deep House Souldiers - This Is Why We Dance
• Michelle Shaprow - If I Lost You [Michelle's Mix]
• Goldfrapp - Ooh La La (Benny Benassi Remix Extended)
• Benny Benassi - Satisfaction

♣

Underpants Haiku

check out this ensemble
hope I have an occaision
to, maybe, drop trou

Fenster vs Patton Oswalt vs Andy Caldwell

A live mix of Schzpensczter and Patton Oswalt and Andy Caldwell.
Click here.

Romance

Ever notice that in English we say:
"Fall in love" and
"Break up."

Post-Vacation Post

What's on my mind today?

My intense sunburn. Idan Raichel Project at Summerstage. Los Amigos Invisibles in Amagansett. Staying outside the fence and listening to Paul Van Dyk in Central Park. Tamigi's new blog. Dungen. The lyrics to Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit.

And what have I missed?

International Talk Like Bob Dylan Day. Professor Murder. Dingle.

Packing for Vacation

Tomorrow morning I will leave for a 6 day vacation. My longest period off since last summer.

I'm bringing my laundry, hawaiian shirts, bathing suits and one of the 500 gig hard drives I have lying around. So tonight I should be packing. But I'm not bringing a lot of things. I'm packing music for the ride.
I assume I have the staples in the car:

• Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus (for driving on Sunset Highway)
  
• Kruder and Dorfmeister - The K & D Sessions Disc 2 (for driving on Dune Road after rain)

And new-ish additions for the drives:

• Afrobeat
• Blue Note Trip
• Destination Lounge: Las Vegas
• Funk Spectrum III
• Hamdulillah: Fes Festival Of World Sacred Music, Vol. II (or as I like to call it: Allapalooza)
  
• Hed Kandi : Nu Cool - Lounge Grooves & Sassy Beats
• Merl Saunders - Keepers
  
• The Bossa Nova Story
• Tokyo Lounge
• Ultra Lounge Sampler
  
• Untinted- Sources For Madlib's Shades Of Blue
• Vital Organs

And a few of my own mixes:

• boon-o-rama
• science
• spy rock 1
• spy rock 2

And all the while, I'm building a playlist for the car...

...you know what? Just to play it safe, I'm gonna burn The Feat and K & D onto a disc....

Sneak Peek Into The Hammock

Here's a new mix for this summer. I might make some changes, and then again, I might just leave it as is, and get to work on the next one. A wiser man than myself once told me, "anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly."

I have a theme for this one: A CD that you put on right before you climb into the hammock for a nap on a summer afternoon.

Download the zip here and the wma here.

1 - Los Amigos Invisibles - Comodón Johnson
2 - Cut Chemist - The Garden
3 - Brazilian Girls - Lazy Lover
4 - charlie megira - da koochie mama swingers
5 - Ane Brun - Drowning In Those Eyes
6 - Zero 7 - Left Behind
7 - Amit Erez - Heart Away
8 - Jose Gonzalez - Don't Stop The Music (Radio Edit)
9 - Emerson, Lake And Palmer - From The Beginning
10 - Traffic - John Barleycorn
11 - A Little Diffrent - Sweet Song
12 - Nick Drake - Pink Moon
13 - The Kings of Convenience - Leaning Against the Wall
14 - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déjà Vu
15 - Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins - Happy
16 - Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
17 - Elcho - Lazy Summer Days
18 - The Flaming Lips/Thievery Corporation - Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)
19 - Saint Etienne - I'm Here To Mix The Nuns
20 - Shpongle - Flute Fruit

Too much java?

My computer is a little slow today, so I'm gonna switch to decaf.

Podcasting on Podcasting

Last night Dude and I recorded a podcast on podcasts.
It was interesting.
I have other witty things that I wanted to write about:

• The outbreak of contact lens cases on my shelf.
• A wrapup of the boon-o-rama. (It was good.)
• The sleep clinic.
• Old army buddies crawling out of the woodwork.
• My life turning into the home version of "The Royal Tennenbaums."

But not today.

Gig Alert: Boon-O-Rama! Thursday, May 3, 2007

Next Thursday, I will be DJing for The Boon and Michelle.
They're having a party at Via Della Pace, which is on 48 East 7th Street, near the corner of 2nd Ave.
It's gonna be a lot of fun. The party is called for 9:00PM, and we will be spinning until 2:00AM (but the party will go on after that). I will be combining forces on this gig with Nick "Kid Lightning" Catania. When freindly DJs battle, the audience wins!

Evite
Schlep
Method
Horse

Happy Springtime!

Finally!

The rains have stopped.

The sun came out.

We had great weather all weekend.

I did a lot of walking and a lot of bicycling.

If you live in New York City, or are just visiting, I recommend riding The Greenway.

First Seder Menu

First Seder Menu
Originally uploaded by mennu.

"Southern Fried Seder"

Meat Stuffed Matza Balls
Fennel Salad
Broccoli Kugel
Brussel Sprouts
Coleslaw
Mashed Potatoes
Fried Chicken
Lamb Roast with White Wine and Dried Fruit Reduction Sauce
Roast Beef

When I arrived home from work, I found that the fried chicken was prepared, and the lamb was roasted. Unfortunately, my sister, who was supposed to be the "lead chef" fell ill. She had contracted all 10 plagues. I looked at the clock, surveyed the kitchen, and sat down to have some coffee with my two kichen volunteers. Taking a page from Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba, I wrote out my menu, thought through the timing of everything and got to work.

The rest of the production was performed in a calm that had been absent for the weeks preceeding the holiday.

One of my more interesting dishes was the sauce I made for the lamb. I sauteed some shallots in grapeseed oil and spiced it with nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. Then I added white wine, raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots, some apricot jam, and fresh mint.

Second Seder Menu

Second Seder Menu
Originally uploaded by mennu.

Here's the menu from the second seder:

Meat Stuffed Matza Balls
Seder Salad
Fennel Salad
Coleslaw
Brined Citrus Herbed Turkey with Mushroom Gravy
Garlic Zuccini
Asparagus with Shallots
Indian Spring Festival Rice

I brined the turkey for 5 days. On the day day of the seder, I prepared all the food listed above in three hours.

Meat Stuffed Matza Balls

Today I will speak with Leonard Lopate and Joan Nathan about my meat stuffed matza balls. So I made a nice batch of them this weekend, took pictures, and wrote out step by step instructions. Click here for the slideshow. Or here for the step by step instructions.

To listen to a podcast of the show, click here.

Why Rob Tucker Can't Bring Key Lime Pie To The Seder

My good friend Rob Tucker wants to bring a key lime pie to the seder. For all his good intentions, he can't seem to figure out the whole kosher thing, let alone the kosher for passover thing. So when the key lime pie issue came up, I knew Rob and I would have an interesting conversation about it. Rob got off to a good start. He found a kosher for passover pie crust recipe.

I set up a BlogTalkRadio show for us today. You can listen to it by clicking here:

If that doesn't work you can download the file here.

It was a fun phone call. A chef named Richard from Charlotte, NC called to participate in the conversation. He's a Christian head chef at an Orthodox Synagogue, and he had some good points.

Here's links to some of the things discussed in the show:

• Kosher for passover pie crust recipe
• Chabad calendar for times
• The Getting-Rid-Of-Chametz Wizard
• OU's passover product search page
• Leonard Lopate Show on Matza Balls
• Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Charlotte, NC

Professional Glacier in Washington, DC

On March 20, 2007 I attended Climate Crisis Action Day on Capital Hill. Climate Change doesn't just effect cute polar bears and majestic caribou. It effects us all, man! Particularly the community of glaciers! I carried a sign that said PRO GLACIER, and by that, I meant Professional Glacier...
Click here for more pictures from that day, including a really nice one of me with a guy in a polar bear suit.

Call Me O'ded

It's once again time to pretend we're Irish.

Here's some music to get you in the mood:

seamus o'ded and the mennu method st pats day long player

Bringing Back The Cup!

In the early 90's, I was invited down to Long Beach Island to spend the weekend with some friends. They had a summer place in Beach Haven, and were nice enough to open their beach house to me. Actually, they didn't have to open the house, just the driveway. I used to come down in my father's van, which had a couch that folded into a bed, and four captain's seats in the front that could be positioned into a kind of living room/salon area. So the van was my bedroom.

They had a refrigerator with a beer tap on it, so the cold beer was always flowing. To keep things clear, they kept a sharpie near the cups, so you could write your name on your plastic cup. I'm not a fan of drinking out of plastic, so I decided I needed a cup of my own. On my next trip down, I went to the Ron Jon Surf Shop and bought THE CUP.

For many years, I would kick off the summer by bringing THE CUP back to LBI.

But that house has dissipated, and I have relocated my summer activities to the Hamptons. At some point, I seem to have lost THE CUP.

Well, two nights ago, I was excavating a niglected part of my house, and I uncovered THE CUP. Tears welled in my eyes as I remembered all the good times and good friends that I associate with THE CUP. How I long to bring THE CUP back to LBI. Oh well, I guess it'll have to settle for the Hamptons.

PS: I dont' think they make THE CUP anymore...

It Went Well

The Annual Richter Brothers Purim Party went particularly well.

Click here for a requestable song list. Soon I will post an analysis of the songs requested.

For now I would like to thank Joe and Saul Richter and Adam Smoler for giving me the opportunity to DJ the best purim party in town.

If anyone has any pictures from the party, please email me.

Purim 5767: March 3, 2007

It's official.

It will once again be my honor to DJ the Richter Brothers Purim Party. This year they are partnered up with Adam Smoler.

The suggested donation is $20, and proceeds will go to The New Israel Fund and the Friends of the Israeli Defence Forces- Israel's friends in War and Peace.

I will prepare a list of requestable songs, and I promise to be nice this year.

El Taller: 2710 Broadway, 3rd floor;

103rd & Broadway, New York, NY

Saturday, March 3, 10:00pm

Evite

Snow...Hour?

It seems that the existence of the world, the global economy and national security all rely on Jewish Communal Workers being in their offices at all times. This morning when I called the general number at work, the recorded message said, "Due to the weather conditions, the organization's building will open at 10:00."

10:00??? Every school in the area has a Snow Day. We have a Snow Hour. The agency has remote desktop and we have the ability to access Outlook and voicemail from home. So I really don't understand why we should be forced to brave the road conditions or risk loosing a personal day. Then again, I'm not the chief here, I'm just an Indian. Or should I say I'm not the general, I'm just a soldier. (Yeah. That's better, more PC, and more accurate.)

So I got all bundled up with boots and galoshes, and even wore jeans, but I brought slacks with me, since jeans are not allowed according to the dress code. I decided to take the local roads to work because of the hazardous road conditions. There were so many accidents on Route 80 that the traffic reports didn't say where they were, they just reported how many. I stopped for gas on my way to work. "Fill it up. Regular. Credit" I reached into my pocket to take out my debit card, and realized that my wallet was not there. Two pairs of pants but no wallet! In all the confusion, I left my wallet at home. So I drove back, picked up my wallet and started out again.

I got to work at, like 11:30. I trudged in like Mennu of the North with my puffy coat, ratty scarf and golden shades. The woman at the reception area said the building was closing at 3:00. Good thing I was there!

When I got to my desk, I saw that I had a voice mail message. It was my colleague from Rochester. He said they had 27 inches of snow, and counting, but they still had to come in to work. Every school was cancelled in Rochester, but he had to be at work. It sounded very familiar to me. He was just calling around to see who else was in the same boat. He told me that they had a meeting yesterday to discuss whether they should cancel programs or not. I think it’s a no brainer: parents who send their children to these programs don’t think, “Gee! We really should bring little Shmully to the program even though there’s 27 inches of snow…”

Anyhow, I found an email in my box from one of the human resources demons saying that there’s a lunch meeting at 12:30. At first I thought, “Lunch! I like lunch. How nice!” Then I thought about what the possible subject could be, and that caused me concern. So I decided that I should put on the slacks that I brought so I wouldn’t be in violation of the dress code. As I finished putting on my pants, and was about to head to the lunch thing, one of my colleagues told me that our agency wasn’t invited for lunch. And to think, I changed my pants for nothing!

Then my boss rolled by my office and tells me to hang up my coat. “Joker,” I thought. I haven’t had a coat hook since my second day at the job. I sent repeated requests to facilities for a coat hook, all of which were unheeded. My boss even sent a few. But today, finally, after six months of being on the job, I got my coat hook!

“Happy birthday,” my boss said. I jumped out of my chair to see the shiny new coat hook on the back of my door.

As I hung up my coat, I had a kind-of-Borat-like moment. “Ha ha ha. Look at me. I am hanging my coat up on a coat hook! Look how fancy I am! Just like royalty! The king and his coat hook! It’s nice.”

To anyone who was brave enough to drive to work today, I salute you! Have a safe ride home!

Rum Balls

The rum balls made by Stephanie Soffer were very popular this weekend. Here's how you can make your own.

Rum Balls

• 1 box graham crackers, crumbled
• 1 stick margarine, melted
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 3/4 cup water
• rum - according to your taste (recipe calls for one capful but I just poursome in; then I add more; and then even more)
• Mix all together.
• Roll into balls.
• Roll in sprinkles, coconut flakes,powdered sugar, chopped nuts, etc.

Glaze for the Turkey

I made a turkey breast for shabbos machvis.
Here's the method:

• Buy an Empire frozen turkey breast (5.5-6lbs) and defrost in the fridge for 48 hours.
• Preheat oven to 385.
  
• Remove the skin and any other nastiness from the turkey breast.
• Cover the exterior of the bird with margarine and then sprinkle with salt and fresh cracked pepper.
• Stick in the oven for forty five minues.
• DON'T PEEK! 45 minutes won't cook the whole thing.
• Make the glaze: mix 1/4 cup of molasses; 3 tablespoons of mustard; and a shot of bourbon.
• After the breast has been in the over for 45 minutes, remove from oven, close the oven door (keeping the oven hot) and paint the bird with the glaze.
• Return to the oven. Repaint every 15 minutes until the turkey has cooked for over an hour and a half or until a thermometer indicates that the interior of the turkey breast is 170°F.
• Remove from the oven, gently cover with foil and let cool for at least two hours before slicing.
• Serve with carmelized onions, and a variety of mustards.
  

Steve Guns

A friend of mine recently sent me this article from Der Spiegel:
Life Insurance for Palestinian Suicide Bombers

As the bus began to pull away, a man ran up to the side and the bus driver stopped and opened the door. The man was wearing the black suit and skullcap of an observant Jew. But his beard was too thin. Seeing a bulge underneath the man's jacket, Averbach quickly stood up and headed toward the stranger. But Bassam, disguised as a devout Jew, was quicker than Averbach and he ignited his belt of explosives.

Bassam died and Averbach survived seriously injured for life.

The article is about the trail of money that pays the families of suicide bombers. They incorrectly refer to Steve as "Weapon Steve" instead of "Steve Guns." I suppose it has something to do with the translation to or from German. It's four years after the incident and Steve remains paralyzed.

One of these days I will edit my original story about Steve so that it's more coherent, but you can download the story here.

Two Stevens Make Bold Statements

Interested in stimulating your mind? Looking for some good topics to discuss over dinner or drinks this weekend. Look no further. Here's my suggestions:

Steve Jobs: Thoughts on Music

I couldn't beleive it when I read this one. It seems that the company that sells the most mp3 players and has the most popular digital music store would prefer to remove the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system from the music they sell in their store. It's a rational approach to a problem created either out of the greed or ignorance of the four big record companies that own 70% of the music distributed in the world today. Here's a quote from the article:

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free,what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Read the rest of the article here.

Steven M. Cohen: A Tale of Two Jewries: The "Inconvenient Truth" for American Jews

As usual, there's a ton of controversy when Steven M. Cohen writes an analysis of the state of American Jewry, and then makes some recommendations. What's the crisis all about? Here's an excerpt:

Responses to the statement “I have a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people” are especially relevant here. The proportions who strongly agree drop from a maximum of 72% among those 65+, to 62% for those 55-64, to 58% for the 45-54 year olds, to 52% among those 35-44, and down to a low point of 47% for adults under 35.

Read the whole report here.
Read some articles about it here. And even more here.

Shabbos Machvis

• Q: What is this? When is this holiday? Are you having Pessach in Jersey? Oh my....
• A: It's this shabbos. You wanna come to NJ?
• Q: Sorry, I can't. So whats machvis about?
• A: When The Chairman was growing up in Milwaukee, he and another kid were the only Jewish kids in their class. Whenever they cut school, and the teacher would ask why they were absent, they would tell the teacher that it was a Jewish holiday: machvis. So machvis is a made up holiday from The Chairman's childhood in Milwaukee, or as we call it, "the good land."

We're taking it seriously, with a spreadsheet and everything:

Brined Turkey Breast With Googly Eyes

A friend called me and said that there was a contest on The Leonard Lopate Show which involves putting googly eyes on food. Luckily, I work in a place where they keep googly eyes handy. I asked a colleague where I might find googly eyes. She took me to a closet which had a whole bunch of drawers, one of which was clearly labeled "googly eyes."

"What size do you want?"

"Big, I guess."

In retrospect, I probably should have taken an assortment of sizes. I also should have brined the turkey for less than five days: it came out a bit on the salty side. Well, not a bit, quite a lot really. I think it was salt cured. I could have sliced it raw and served it as sashimi, or carpaccio.

Space 2007

I've been working on a space mix for about three years now. I finally feel that it's getting closer to be worthy of a release. I'm going to take my time on this though. I think that I might do a storyline to go with the mix.

Chapter One: The protagonist decides to leave the earth in order to explore space. He takes a rocket to the moon which is a staging ground for further exploration.

Chapter Two: While on the moon, the protagonist sees the sites, visits the Moon Landing Museum and stops off at the Lunar Cantina for dinner, drinks and a show.

Chapter Three: The protagonist boards the spaceship and heads out on an exploration.

Chapter Four: After a wrong turn at a nebula, the ship is lost, the protagonist must deal with the possibility of being lost in space...forever!

Chapter Five: The return to earth.

All that goes together with the following tentative playlist:

• 01 - Zero 7 - Today
• 02 - Smashing Pumpkins - Rocket
• 03 - Stewie Griffin - Rocket Man
• 04 - The Herbaliser - Moon Sequence
• 05 - Apollo 11 - Landing
• 06 - Papa Project - Can You Feel?
• 07 - Neil Armstrong - One Small Step For Man
• 08 - Tim Motzer - Starship
• 09 - Jan Turkenburg and his pupils of the Geert Grote School - In My Spaceship
• 10 - Steve Miller Band - Fly Like an Eagle (original version)
• 11 - A Space Odyssey - The Blue Danube
• 12 - Mo´ Horizons - Walk Into Space
• 13 - David Bowie - Life On Mars?
• 14 - The Karminsky Experience Inc. - Exploration
• 15 - Radio Trip - Lost In Space
• 16 - Say Hi To Your Mom - Let's Talk About Spaceships
• 17 - Chaser - Blue Planet

It would be ideal if I could find an illustrator to make a comic book of some kind to accompany the mix. Another option may be to work with a blue screen and photo shop.

The story can get more fleshed out, and I can still play with the track list. I have been thinking about some kind of space battle scene (which would have "Battle" by Ben Onono as the fight scene track: but the connection to space seems far too tenuous), but this mix is about space and exploration, not necessarily science-fiction.

The Vastater

• 1-Beck-Missing
• 2-Gomez-Hamoa Beach
• 3-Scissor Sisters-The Other Side
• 4-West Indian Girl-What Are You Afraid Of (Dert Remix)
• 5-Belle & Sebastian-Sukie In The Graveyard
• 6-Professor Frink-The Sound of Professor Frink Flinging a Microscope
• 7-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-In This Home On Ice
• 8-Built To Spill-The Plan
• 9-Say Hi To Your Mom-Blah Blah Blah
• 10-Bow Wow Wow-Fools Rush In (Kevin Shields Remix)
• 11-The Radio Dept.-The Worst Taste In Music (Extended)
• 12-Cornelius-Chapter 8 - Seashore and Horizon
• 13-Caribou-Hello Hammerheads
• 14-The Polyphonic Spree-The Beginning Stages, Part 9 (Reach for the Sun)
• 15-America/Deepsky-Ventura Highway [Deepsky's Blizzard in L.A. Remix]
• 16-The Flaming Lips-The Sound of Failure
• 17-Ryuichi Sakamoto-War & Peace (Cornelius Remix)
• 18-Mathis from the Bronx-You gonna vastate me with those yankee tickets?
• 19-Nouvelle Vague-This Is Not A Love Song (Thievery Corporation Mix)

...and now you can download the mix as a zip file.

The War Room

This is me at work.

I turned my office into a war room.

More Cover Art

I took this picture on my way into work today. I was thinking that maybe the CD cover could have a bare winter tree with an overcast sky in the background as a cover.
I took three pictures, this is one of them.
The other two look pretty similar.
Alright. Now I need to do some work-style work.

Deciding on Cover Art

I need to decide on the cover art. I just designed two covers based on the concept I had. Here's the idea, or perhaps I should say, here was the idea. I wanted a picture where both my arms were up, my right hand forming a "V" and my left hand clutching a few CDs. The "V" would form the first letter of the word Vastater. The image of me would be warholized in some way, and my arms would go up either side of the hole on the CD. Like I said: that was the concept.

This weekend I was out on a balcony in midtown Manhattan with the whole city beneath me. It would have been a great background for the picture I wanted to get. The only problem was finding someone who could take the picture. I ended up with a lot of bad, blurry, or otherwise poor-looking photos. There was only one picture that I thought I could salvage.

Here's the original picture:

Graphics are the bane of my existance. I don't have any real graphic programs other than Picasa, Paint, a picture resizer and the CD cover maker program. I can't ever seem to do the things I want to do. Here's what I would have prefered to do with the picture below. I wanted to invert the background so that it's white instead of black, and distort my own colors so I look orange. I got the orange part to work, but not the rest. This cover is going to suck for a number of reasons: black backgrounds never come up good. Also, the Astron Boy font is too delicate to show up well on a CD label printed on an inkjet printer. But here's what it looks like.

I removed the "The" in "The Vastater" because I didn't like the way it looked near "The Mennu Method." Then I tried to invert the colors, but instead I got an embossed image.

Again, if I could figure out how to make the backgound white instead of grey, I'd be in much better shape. If I could find a font that would look more embossed it would be cooler. Wait, I think I have one. Let's have a look:

It still looks like crap but I need to do a little work on the mixing, and really, I just want to go to sleep. Maybe I can get another photo tomorrow. Maybe I should turn off the computer and watch the end of the football game.

Incidental Poetry

We'll take notes
to the place
where taking notes
is taking place 

The Making of a Mix

I wanted to have a new mix ready for “the holiday season.” I made my first CD mix in three years this past summer. It was very well received. In the three years between proper CD releases, I’ve handed out four hour archive mp3 CDs. While those CDs had limited distribution, the people who received them were always more than happy to sift though them and cut them down to a size and a composition more to their liking. I’ve also made some mixes that are available either as huge hour long .wma files, or even better, as web-only mixes. You can check many of those out at mennu.com/extras.

People like CD mixes and they make great gifts. There’s a lot that goes into a CD mix and I’m a perfectionist when it comes to these things. I don’t want to release it until I’m completely satisfied with it: which is almost never. But this time, I’m determined. I’m going to have the mix ready to roll in a week. I have some ideas for the cover art: it’s going to take a camera, someone to use it, some digital photo effects, CD envelopes (preferably blue), labels of various shapes and sizes and lots of printer ink.

In order to get the process started, I threw a bunch of the songs that I’ve been listening to into a playlist in some kind of order. Version 0.5 is the first version: I won’t go into the song selection in too much detail, but here’s a general idea:

Version 0.5

• 1-Pet Grief-The Radio Dept. (I discovered The Radio Dept. on the Marie Antoinette soundtrack which my nephew Yonadav sent me. I got hooked instantly and downloaded their album so I tried two tracks out on this proto-mix. I didn’t want to use anything from the soundtrack, since I was already going to use the Bow Wow Wow track.)
• 2-Missing-Beck (In 2005 Beck released two albums, Guero and it’s mutated brother Guerolito, the remix of the former. The remix version of this track was called Heaven Hammer and was done by Air, one of my all time favorites. I was infatuated by it, particularly in the summer of 05. This year, Beck released a new album called The Information, which my father (!) bought. I did a little revisit of the recent beck corpus and decided that I like this version of this song better than the remake.)
• 3-Hamoa Beach-Gomez
• 4-Oh Shoplifter-The Stills (A risk. I’m not really sure if this fits, but I like it.)
• 5-The Worst Taste In Music (Extended)-The Radio Dept.
• 6-Blah Blah Blah-Say Hi To Your Mom (When I tell a friend of mine that I’m putting Say Hi To Your Mom on my mix, he’s instantly disappointed that I’m not using Let’s Talk About Space Ships. I remind him that I’m ostensibly saving that for my Space Mix. This offers my friend no comfort since I’ve been working on the Space Mix for three years now. I just feel that for a topic that awesome, I need to make sure all the tracks are perfect. I also think this track goes well with the next one.)
• 7-In This Home On Ice-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
• 8-The Other Side-Scissor Sisters (Been listening to a lot of Scissor Sisters: particularly their remake of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. This track has a smooth feel that, like a seedless grape, is hard to refuse.)
• 9-What Are you Afraid Of (Dert Remix)-West Indian Girl (The regular mix of this is pretty good too, but I like the upbeat feel of this one.)
• 10-Friendship Update-The Go! Team (Yes, I know I put this on the online playlist, but it’s so good!)
• 11-Chapter 8 - Seashore an-Cornelius (An acoustic sounding pop track by a Japanese DJ.)
• 12-Moonlight Feels Right-Starbuck (Dreaded Midnight Oldie. I remember hearing this song on the AM radio when I was a kid. What does that make me, 100? I’ve also been watching the new Battlestar Galactica on Netflix, and there’s a Starbuck, but she’s a woman.)
• 13-Joy-Apollo 100 (Heard this one in an underground grotto called Double Happiness in Chinatown. It made me crazy that I couldn’t quite spot the song even though it sounded so familiar. I sought out the DJ and when he told me who it was I wrote it down on a cocktail napkin. Turns out I had it on the Boogie Nights soundtrack. I’ve been told it was also used on the 40 Year Old Virgin soundtrack.)
• 14-The Wait-Built to Spill (Slow but good like carmel.)
• 15-The Sound of Failure-The Flaming Lips (I used The Flaming Lips on my Wednesday mix.)
• 16-Hello Hammerheads-Caribou (See #10)
• 17-Fools Rush In (Kevin Shields Remix)-Bow Wow Wow
• 18-War & Peace (Cornelius Remix)-Ryuichi Sakamoto (Listen to this with headphones.)
• 19-This Is Not A Love Song (Thievery Corporation Mix)-Nouvelle Vague (Nouvelle Vague and Thievery? Like a peanut butter cup: two great tastes in one candy track.)

Before the above version could make it to CD it needed some changes. One of the Radio Dept. tracks had to go. I also added in some sound clips, which were, as in Belmar, taken from Patricia T. O’Connor’s monthly visit to The Leonard Lopate Show.

Version 0.8

• 1-Missing-Beck
• 2-Hamoa Beach-Gomez
• 3-The Other Side-Scissor Sisters
• 4-What Are you Afraid Of (Dert Remix)-West Indian Girl
• 5-to vastate-The Leonard Lopate Show
• 6-Blah Blah Blah-Say Hi To Your Mom
• 7-In This Home On Ice-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
• 8-Oh Shoplifter-The Stills
• 9-The Worst Taste In Music (Extended)-The Radio Dept.
• 10-Friendship Update-The Go! Team
• 11-Chapter 8 - Seashore an-Cornelius
• 12-Joy-Apollo 100
• 13-Moonlight Feels Right-Starbuck
• 14-Hello Hammerheads-Caribou
• 15-Fools Rush In (Kevin Shields Remix)-Bow Wow Wow
• 16-The Wait-Built to Spill
• 17-The Sound of Failure-The Flaming Lips
• 18-War & Peace (Cornelius Remix)-Ryuichi Sakamoto
• 19-You gonna vastate me with those yankee tickets?-The Leonard Lopate Show
• 20-This Is Not A Love Song (Thievery Corporation Mix)-Nouvelle Vague

I handed out a number of copies, and have asked for feedback by tomorrow. I only got a little quality feedback. I also made a few decisions about the order, flow and song selection. It’s always a shame when you have to remove a song because of some kind of skip in the track. It’s like putting your beloved pet down because you can’t afford the cure. That was the fate of The Go! Team. See more notes near the track listings.

Version 0.82

• 1-Missing-Beck
• 2-Hamoa Beach-Gomez
• 3-The Other Side-Scissor Sisters
• 4-What Are you Afraid Of (Dert Remix)-West Indian Girl
• 5-to vastate-The Leonard Lopate Show
• 6-Manitoba-Tapes 'N Tapes (I wanted to put another track, called Insistor on this mix, but it’s got too much oomph for this setlist. Manitoba starts gently and then works its way up.)
• 7-Sukie In The Graveyard-Belle & Sebastian (I can’t believe that this wasn’t on the previous versions. I sent myself an email from work to remind me to put this track on.)
• 8-the sound of frink flinging-professor frink (I needed something to ease the transitions between these two songs. This one second clip does that nicely.)
• 9-In This Home On Ice-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
• 10-Oh Shoplifter-The Stills
• 11-The Wait-Built to Spill (Moved up.)
• 12-Blah Blah Blah-Say Hi To Your Mom (Now separated from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I may drop it entirely.)
• 13-Fools Rush In (Kevin Shields Remix)-Bow Wow Wow
• 14-The Worst Taste In Music (Extended)-The Radio Dept.
• 15-Chapter 8 - Seashore an-Cornelius
• 16-Joy-Apollo 100
• 17-Hello Hammerheads-Caribou
• 18-The Beginning Stages, Part 9 (Reach for the Sun)-The Polyphonic Spree (Glad I could squeeze this one in. I was going to use The Beginning Stages, Part 7 (Hangin’ Around), but I decided on this one.
• 19-Ventura Highway [Deepsky's Blizzard in L.A. Remix]-America/Deepsky (Replaces Starbuck as the Dreaded Midnight Oldie, except this has more modern production in this remix version.)
• 20-The Sound of Failure-The Flaming Lips
• 21-War & Peace (Cornelius Remix)-Ryuichi Sakamoto
• 22-You gonna vastate me with those yankee tickets?-The Leonard Lopate Show
• 23-This Is Not A Love Song (Thievery Corporation Mix)-Nouvelle Vague

And I’ve been thinking about adding a track by The Decemberists. Cool bands have names that start with “The.” An 80’s band capitalized on this by naming themselves “The The.” Anyhow, I’ve been listening to the new Decemberists album called “The Crane Wife” and I can’t decide which track stands out on its own. It’s a concept album that I think sounds good as a straight listen-through. On the other hand, there’s a track called “On The Bus Mall” from their 2005 album, Picaresque. I think I can squeeze it onto this mix. But I also want to put on “Casimir Pulaski Day” by Sufjan Stevens. If I add those two tracks it would create a whole new mix. Maybe that one can have The Acid House Kings on it. I don’t know if I can make a whole acoustic sounding mix. I would definitely put on “Real Love” by Mike Doughty and “Getaway” by Danny Golub if I were to make an acoustic mix. But I fear that I would be picking up stuff that I should have put on a mix two years ago. Ah the deliberation! But this is why some mixes never get made and I end up with a huge 4 hour archive.

I’ll deal with these thoughts on another occasion. This mix has a definite deadline: it needs to be done in a week so I’ll have enough post-production time before Chanukah. So I’ll leave it for now.

The acoustic mix should also have Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins on it. But should it have Happy or Rabbit Fur Coat? (Oh, here I go again!)

Now I’m really leaving it.

(How about something from Thom Yorke’s album?)

Halfway There

I'm working on a new mix. I would like to have it done in the next week or so while I have a few free evenings. It's starting to take some kind of form. At this point I have about half an hour of music; about half of a mix. That's where making a mix starts getting difficult. I have some choices to make:

• keep it poppy?
• make it more rocking?
• be more spaced out?
• mellow?
• 80's redux sound?
• some slick 70's?

Well, whatever. I'm sure my desicion will be the right one, or at least I would prefer that it seems that way.

I reorganized my "extras" page. Now it has all my downloadable mixes in one place. Some are zipped folders of mp3s and others are wma files. I should probably clarify which is which on the page. Ach. Alright, here goes:

• Belmar (zip)
• Darkside of the Covers (zip)
• Under the Covers...(zip)
• Wednesday(zip)
• The Future (wma)
• Yonadude (wma)
• Taxday (wma)
• Nordic Invasion (wma)

So, enjoy the music, and stay tuned for my forthcoming half done mix.

I've Been Warholized