Vox lalitree

The Vox question of the day is a shuffle meme:

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)

"Back to the Sea" The Futureheads
"Like Eating Glass" Bloc Party
"Invitation to a Suicide" John Zorn
"Rusted Guns" Art Brut
"Dress" P.J. Harvey
"A Bit Of You" Rufus Wainwright
"Concerto for Cello and Orchestra: Movement III" Philip Glass
"I Hear An Army, Op. 10, No. 3" Samuel Barber
"Cells" Teenage Fanclub
"Not Waving" This Heat

Not quite as cool as the last time I did this, but I guess lightning doesn't strike twice & all. That new Futureheads album just isn't quite doin' it for me, and that Bloc Party sound is wearing a little thin, n'est ce pas?

Airport express + Airtunes? I was not expecting it to sound this good. Wow.

Quoth the Vox hunt:

Show us something interesting in the sky.

Holey leaves

We invented a new dish the other day, and I think it's my duty to share it with all of you. It's called Tacoroni and Cheese, and I think you know where I'm coming from on this.

Ingredients:
    1 box Macaroni and cheese (we used white cheddar) + milk and butter
    1 medium tomato, diced
    1/2 cup vegetarian taco filling (we used Smart Ground)
    optional: green pepper, diced

Make mac & cheese as directed, looking at the box like you don't already have that stuff memorized for life. Dice that tomato (and green pepper, if you like) and add it to the prepared mac & cheese. Add the taco filling, adjusting amount to taste. Mix it all up and serve! Yums. Serves two comfortably, or one with plenty leftover for tomorrow's lunch.

Googling "tacoroni and cheese" turns up a couple of mentions of the word tacoroni, and one page in which someone uses the actual phrase, but their version entailed mixing a packet of taco seasoning into mac & cheese. So not the same thing! Therefore we totally invented this most excellent dish. I hope you enjoy it too!

The question du jour asked me to show you my desktop. Here be:

Desktop

Okay then.

When Eddie speaks

I know most of you already saw this on my LJ, but in case any Voxies might be interested: I put up a set of photos from this past weekend's Pitchfork Festival. And actually if you already saw this because you are my dear friend on LJ, you might like to visit my Flickr page again because I just added a few more.

Additionally, yay for wider Vox pages! Much more usable this way. Nice job!

Hit Bull Win Steak

Like everywhere else in the U.S. this weekend, it was hot where I live, so Saturday we didn't do much. Frankly I'm not sure if we left the house that day. Today though, we got a call from a friend who was passing through town & so we went out to show him JD's office/studio space. Afterward we wanted to get some lunch and so went to the excellent pizza joint called the Mellow Mushroom, across the street from the Durham Bulls' ballpark.

Turned out a game was scheduled for 5:00, and it was about 3:30 and perfect timing for a doubleheader of pizza and baseball. We stuffed our bellies and then headed over to the ticket booth, where we happened to be in line behind one of the guys who shares JD's office/studio, with a group of his friends. We bought tickets separately but ended up sitting right next to them, which was very cool.

The Durham Bulls' new ballpark is very nice--all the seats are good, basically. Ours cost $8 and we were just a handful of rows from shallow right field. It was hot--mid '90s probably--but there was a nice breeze that made it tolerable. This isn't the same park that was featured in the movie Bull Durham, but that park still stands just a few blocks north & they're currently trying to figure out what to do with it.

The Bulls were playing the Yankees AAA affiliate from Columbus. A young pitcher named Hammel was on the mound. I always like to keep score when I'm at a baseball game, though the Bulls program didn't provide the handy cheat sheet for correct scorecard marking that you normally get at a major-league game, I did my best from what I remember (though I'm sure I did stuff like "thrown out while trying to stretch single into a double" wrong). After about three innings I noticed on my scorecard that the other team was getting mowed down in a neat fashion, and by the end of the 5th it was striking. Three up, three down. In about the 6th or so, he walked one, and an inning later hit a batter. By the end of the 8th he'd given up two walks and the outfield had made an error, but nobody from Columbus had gotten a hit (in the meantime, the Bulls had scored 4 on productive and timely hitting). 

In the top of the 9th, after retiring the first batter, he got a little wild and hit another batter. Then a ball squibbed through the glove of the second baseman and the right fielder over-ran it. Everyone groaned but then looked at the scoreboard--they scored it as two errors. The no-hitter intact. If only he can get two more outs. But then--what's this? A meeting on the mound? THEY'RE TAKING HIM OUT?! Everyone booed, but to no avail. The Bulls yanked a guy with a no-hitter going, and put in a reliever who promptly threw a ball that got past the catcher, allowing a runner to score. Next guy grounded into a double play to end the game. Bulls win 4-1, the first no-hitter since they became a AAA team, but we were all a tad disappointed that they didn't let the starter go the distance. Still, JD went and got my scorecard signed, so if this guy becomes a big-league star, that'll be a cool piece of history.

High notes

1/2 of Wetnurse, a metal band from NYC. If you want to see four guys with some f'n dedication, catch their live show if they come to your town (and bring your earplugs).