Good Day For A Guiness

Drum Pattern Awareness

You should check out this DJ Spooky mix that he did for the Biennial in Venice.  It is some of the normal Spooky type stuff mixed with his favorite music originating in Africa.

One of the cool things is that he does not limit himself to music but adds a lot of speeches and found sound / collage stuff.  I know I make it sound exciting but the speeches are by some of the best in history (Malcolm X & Nelson Mandela).  The music is ridiculous.  Ginger Baker for those from an earlier generation (Cream), Fela for everyone, Abdullah Ibrahim for the avant garde in us all, Akon for the kids and my personal favorite Konono No. 1.

http://www.djspooky.com/articles/venice_2007.php

Holiday Travels, Pt. 2 AKA Chrysler, Ford Or Foreign

As heard on the radio in this land of Buicks and Oldsmobiles.  That's right this version of the holidays is coming to you straight from the great lakes state.

It is always good to go home.  There are a lot of things that are uniquely Michigan and it is great to see and experience them.  It is also a lot of fun to catch up with family, both old and new.

Yachi and I have spent a week here shuttling between her and my families homes to see everyone.  Along the way we have run into some great things. 

We started out in Lansing (after a brief stop for rest, food and TV in Detroit) where we got to catch up with my family.  We got to see the home of Jiffy <Link here> mix for delicious corn bread and muffins after having a spectacular lunch at the Common Grill.  Surprisingly that was my fist time eating there and I am glad I finally was able to sample their wares.

We also were able to see a trailer park in the shadow of a landfill which I think wins the award for worst place to live.  I also managed to develop quite the addiction to Project runway by watching the entire Third season and all the Fourth season episodes that exist now.

On Thanksgiving it snowed quite a bit which made for a really beautiful day.  It was a wonderful day with lots of food and family.

I also got to see Trixie who has to win an award for cutest and smelliest dog ever.  She is 14 and about to die so appropriately she smells like death.  She had a great Thanksgiving as well as she managed to scarf down half a blueberry pie and step all over the pecan one.  She is getting frail and there was some discussion of digging a grave for her now before the ground freezes.  I am pretty happy that I was able to see her and spend some time with her.

We then went back to Yachi's parent's place and had another Thanksgiving dinner with her family (on Friday).  Her mom brined the turkey for about 36 hours and it showed.  Normally I do not really eat much turkey (the night before I just had a lot of my Aunt's outstanding stuffing) but this turkey was good.  I mostly ended up eating that.

Saturday we had a reception for Yachi's family friends whom were unable to make it to the wedding which was cool.  Great food and fun times were had by all.

Overall a most enjoyable holiday and fitting with the whole theme of what I picture Thanksgiving to look like and be about.  Hopefully everyone else enjoyed theirs.

Holiday Travel, Pt.1 Of Possibly 3

Yachi and I just got back from Vegas and I am writing this on a plan to Michigan.  We were in Seattle for about 17 hours.

To go to Vegas I had to betray my basketball team and miss a game.  From what I heard it was a bad game to miss as we needed more players.  I felt bad for a couple of minutes but then sat down at the poker table and the guilt rapidly disappeared.

I am glad Yachi and I got married as we both are partial to gambling.  Every night we both played our respective games until way too late.  The biggest thing I learned is that I am a limit game poker player as opposed to a no limit player.  In limit I have to ignore the voice that keeps telling me to push all my chips into the pot.

Our room at The Hotel:

Yachi and I went to see our first Cirque De Soliel show which I highly recommend.  It was really entertaining both from a music and physicality standpoint.  The performers were amazing and the stage made me turn into a huge geek.

Us before the show:

 

After the show, they offer you glamour shots of yourselves taken during the show.  Yachi and I might have purchased one for an excessive amount of money.  A airbrushed photo of yourself is something ever house needs.

Yachi with flowers which cracks me up:

I was also able to catch up with a friend who I found out was in town for a conference.  It was good hanging out with him as he was unable to make the wedding.  Yachi hung out with us for an hour until her obsession with video poker took a hold and she had to head back.

 

Alright the plane is landing, on to the next part of the trip, family.

Amateur Banksy

It appears that we have someone who has been following Banksy in our very own neighborhood.  My favorite so far has been the following:

Maybe it is cause I am compulsive?

Another good one was this.  Here is the setup:

 

And the punchline: