Just saw the news that the founder of Taco Bell has died.
For several years, I was under the impression that Chris Bell, of Big Star and "I Am The Cosmos" fame, was the son of the man who created Taco Bell. I even used to enjoy sharing this bit of false trivia with people, helping to spread my own inadvertently created rock'n'roll "urban legend".
I only recently learned the truth and realized the cause of my confusion. Somewhere along the line, I had taken two pieces of accurate but incomplete information - Bell's father owned a restaurant and Taco Bell was founded by a Mr. Bell - and put them together. In fact, Chris Bell's father was a restaurateur, but his place was called the Knickerbocker. And the founder of Taco Bell was named Bell, but he was from Southern California, not Memphis, and was apparently no relation.
As for Taco Bell, my fondest memory of the place is the time that a high school friend accidentally threw away his retainer along with his greasy taco wrappers and climbed into the dumpster behind the restaurant to retrieve it. I didn't offer to help with the search, but I can only imagine that what he encountered there was just as terrifying as that thing behind the restaurant in Mulholland Drive (I would link to the clip, but I don't want to be responsible for any heartattacks).
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Notes From The West Coast, Part Two - Food
The second installment of my notes from a recent trip to the SF Bay Area and points north, in which The Selected Ballads tries his hand at food writing. The third and, mercifully, final installment will be stuff I drank.
Acme Bread - Berkeley, CA
I've been describing this place to people as looking like the photos in coffee table books about bread - everything about it is pure, archetypal artisan bakery. This location (the original?) is mostly a working bakery with only a small walk-in sales area, leading to a perpetual line out the door. I tried Acme a few times during my stay in the Bay Area, but on my first visit I was thrown off by the local convention of labeling non-sourdough breads as "sweet" (as in "sweet baguette" rather than just "baguette").
I've eaten a lot of bread in NYC, and I'd say that only Almondine and Sullivan Street are in Acme's league. Unfortunately, I didn't get to find out who else in the Bay Area is in Acme's league - maybe on my next West Coast trip.
Flour + Water - San Francisco, CA
Apparently, this place has had a lot of buzz in SF food circles over the past year, as evidenced by the crowd assembled outside the door 15 or 20 minutes before they opened for dinner. The menu is split evenly between pizza and pasta, with some ambitious appetizers and mains, but I seemed to be one of the few diners who ordered pizza. Maybe pizza as an upscale dinner option hasn't quite caught on in SF the way it has in NYC. In any case, the pizza (size and shape conforming to the lately en vogue Neapolitan style) was quite good, especially the crust, as might be expected from the restaurant's name. (Adam Kuban of Slice was not overly impressed, though he also noticed that most diners didn't seem to be there for the pies.)
What I tasted of my dining companion's pasta was also good - pastas made in-house from unusual ingredients (like beets) seem to be the focus. We also had a lamb's tongue and potato appetizer. I was initially thinking that lamb's tongue might be a green (turns out I was thinking of lamb's ear), but of course it turned out to be exactly what it said it was - the tongue of a lamb - and it was delicious.
Cafe Reyes - Point Reyes Station, CA
I had another good pizza at Cafe Reyes, near Tomales Bay, one of the major spots for oysters on the West Coast. I was slightly disappointed the cafe didn't offer the local specialty, BBQ oysters, but in the end I was happy I ate them raw. I'm not really a great oyster lover, but eating these was an intense sensory experience, tasting so strongly and purely of the ocean that they produced sense-memories of childhood beach vacations (seriously).
Returning to the pizza, I ordered it because it was clear that they took their pizza (a little too?) seriously - prominently displayed peels, wood-burning oven in full view, flour info on the menu. As with Flour + Water, the crust was the highlight, though I may have erred in ordering sausage - the overgenerous portion of crumbled topping caused severe "tip dip" and overwhelmed the sauce and cheese.
El Dorado Kitchen - Sonoma, CA
The trendy boutique hotel vibe of this restaurant was cause for trepidation, but it turned out to be a good experience, with some well thought-out food and old-fashioned good service. Cheese and charcuterie plates were the highlight, each meat and cheese successfully paired with some complimentary flavor (honey, sauerkraut, and prunes were involved, among other things) instead of just being sliced and arranged on a board.
Acme Bread - Berkeley, CA
I've been describing this place to people as looking like the photos in coffee table books about bread - everything about it is pure, archetypal artisan bakery. This location (the original?) is mostly a working bakery with only a small walk-in sales area, leading to a perpetual line out the door. I tried Acme a few times during my stay in the Bay Area, but on my first visit I was thrown off by the local convention of labeling non-sourdough breads as "sweet" (as in "sweet baguette" rather than just "baguette").
I've eaten a lot of bread in NYC, and I'd say that only Almondine and Sullivan Street are in Acme's league. Unfortunately, I didn't get to find out who else in the Bay Area is in Acme's league - maybe on my next West Coast trip.
Flour + Water - San Francisco, CA
Apparently, this place has had a lot of buzz in SF food circles over the past year, as evidenced by the crowd assembled outside the door 15 or 20 minutes before they opened for dinner. The menu is split evenly between pizza and pasta, with some ambitious appetizers and mains, but I seemed to be one of the few diners who ordered pizza. Maybe pizza as an upscale dinner option hasn't quite caught on in SF the way it has in NYC. In any case, the pizza (size and shape conforming to the lately en vogue Neapolitan style) was quite good, especially the crust, as might be expected from the restaurant's name. (Adam Kuban of Slice was not overly impressed, though he also noticed that most diners didn't seem to be there for the pies.)
What I tasted of my dining companion's pasta was also good - pastas made in-house from unusual ingredients (like beets) seem to be the focus. We also had a lamb's tongue and potato appetizer. I was initially thinking that lamb's tongue might be a green (turns out I was thinking of lamb's ear), but of course it turned out to be exactly what it said it was - the tongue of a lamb - and it was delicious.
Cafe Reyes - Point Reyes Station, CA
I had another good pizza at Cafe Reyes, near Tomales Bay, one of the major spots for oysters on the West Coast. I was slightly disappointed the cafe didn't offer the local specialty, BBQ oysters, but in the end I was happy I ate them raw. I'm not really a great oyster lover, but eating these was an intense sensory experience, tasting so strongly and purely of the ocean that they produced sense-memories of childhood beach vacations (seriously).
Returning to the pizza, I ordered it because it was clear that they took their pizza (a little too?) seriously - prominently displayed peels, wood-burning oven in full view, flour info on the menu. As with Flour + Water, the crust was the highlight, though I may have erred in ordering sausage - the overgenerous portion of crumbled topping caused severe "tip dip" and overwhelmed the sauce and cheese.
El Dorado Kitchen - Sonoma, CA
The trendy boutique hotel vibe of this restaurant was cause for trepidation, but it turned out to be a good experience, with some well thought-out food and old-fashioned good service. Cheese and charcuterie plates were the highlight, each meat and cheese successfully paired with some complimentary flavor (honey, sauerkraut, and prunes were involved, among other things) instead of just being sliced and arranged on a board.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The Dean In The Bookstore
Strange days indeed. The new year, 2010, finds Robert Christgau's annual Dean's List being hosted at barnesandnoble.com. I'm just glad it's somewhere.
And as always, the essay accompanying the list is required reading. If you can read the essay without at any point becoming at least a little pissed off or annoyed, then you don't have enough opinions on music.
This Monk piece is really something, too.
And as always, the essay accompanying the list is required reading. If you can read the essay without at any point becoming at least a little pissed off or annoyed, then you don't have enough opinions on music.
This Monk piece is really something, too.
Notes From The West Coast, Part One - Books & Music
The Selected Ballads spent some time in the Golden West during the holiday season. Here's the first batch of my notes from the trip:
1. One Fast Move
If you're planning to drive any of the more scenic stretches of California's Hwy. 1, allow me to recommend some driving music: Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard's One Fast Move Or I'm Gone. Some might consider it a bit too obvious or literal to listen to songs about the California coast while driving along it, but I'm not that sort. I've listened to the Beach Boys driving around L.A., and I'd do it again (oops). I've fallen behind with my Farrar fandom in the last few years, missing his recent NYC appearances after being underwhelmed by The Search and the last Son Volt show I saw at Irving Plaza. He's given me so much pleasure in his career, though, that I'm very glad to be able to enthusiastically endorse One Fast Move.
Like the rest of Farrar's fans, I would've never predicted that he would team up with Ben Gibbard or that the pairing would work as well as it does. Although he wrote almost all of the songs on the album (taking the words from Kerouac's Big Sur), Farrar only sings half of them, and I wonder if his voice, one of my all-time favorites, sounds better when he's contrasted with another, very different, type of singer (like Gibbard, or Jeff Tweedy). Maybe part of the ho-humness I've felt about some of Farrar's albums and live shows has come from a kind of fatigue with that voice, like having too much of a rich food all by itself.
The melodies are simple and beautiful in a way that the best Farrar songs are, and they seem to suit both singers. The experience of hearing some of Farrar's characteristic melodic moves coming out of another singer's mouth is jarring for a second before it becomes refreshing. Gibbard pulls his weight. The lyrics at times seem shoehorned into the melodies (weird scansion?) - this is a trait typical of later Farrar, but it somehow works with the Kerouac text, calling attention to words that can stand up to the scrutiny. I'm looking forward to listening to this album in a less awe-inspiring setting to see if it can give me chills on its own. I've also got the One Fast Move documentary at #1 in my Netflix queue, so maybe I'll report on that soon.
2. City Lights (plus: a ride on my bookstore hobby horse)
Speaking of Beats on the West Coast, I was glad to finally get to the famous City Lights Books. It was a blast to browse, but I'm a little ashamed to admit that I didn't buy anything. I tried to justify this to myself on the grounds of limited space in my carry-on baggage, but I ended up buying books later in the trip (see below) and squeezing them in. The truth is, I have a hard time paying list price for books in a world with the Internet and the Strand, and I continue to question the business model of shops that sell nothing but new books at full price.
I think, and hope, that City Lights will get by on the basis of its amazing selection (you're not gonna find those small run poetry chapbooks and zines on Amazon) and, of course, its reputation, but I wonder about the future of places like the lovely Three Lives in the West Village (same deal: all new, all full price, and I've rarely bought anything from them). By contrast, the almost-as-historic Moe's Books in Berkeley has a nice mix of used and new. St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village is all new books, but it has a secret weapon: a killer sale table almost hidden away in the back of the store (the genius of the sale table is that people with sick brains like mine can convince themselves that buying one book for $10 off list and one at full price is the same as getting each of them for $5 off - a variation on "the more you buy, the more you save" - thereby justifying the purchase).
3. Treehorn Books, Santa Rosa, CA
As much as I enjoyed City Lights and Moe's, this is the kind of bookstore I really love to find - one that sells used books, has a great selection, and is located in a small or out-of-the-way town, with the type of pricing that's possible with low overhead. Here is the thrill of the hunt - you see a couple of titles you wouldn't expect, you check a few prices, and you know the game is on. My best find here was a 1st edition of Rock and the Pop Narcotic, the notorious critical screed by Joe Carducci. My traveling companion struck gold in the art & architecture section, coming away with an armful of well-illustrated suitcase busters. With this store and the Russian River Brewery (to be covered in Part Two), Santa Rosa made a strong case for itself as my future place of retirement.
1. One Fast Move
If you're planning to drive any of the more scenic stretches of California's Hwy. 1, allow me to recommend some driving music: Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard's One Fast Move Or I'm Gone. Some might consider it a bit too obvious or literal to listen to songs about the California coast while driving along it, but I'm not that sort. I've listened to the Beach Boys driving around L.A., and I'd do it again (oops). I've fallen behind with my Farrar fandom in the last few years, missing his recent NYC appearances after being underwhelmed by The Search and the last Son Volt show I saw at Irving Plaza. He's given me so much pleasure in his career, though, that I'm very glad to be able to enthusiastically endorse One Fast Move.
Like the rest of Farrar's fans, I would've never predicted that he would team up with Ben Gibbard or that the pairing would work as well as it does. Although he wrote almost all of the songs on the album (taking the words from Kerouac's Big Sur), Farrar only sings half of them, and I wonder if his voice, one of my all-time favorites, sounds better when he's contrasted with another, very different, type of singer (like Gibbard, or Jeff Tweedy). Maybe part of the ho-humness I've felt about some of Farrar's albums and live shows has come from a kind of fatigue with that voice, like having too much of a rich food all by itself.
The melodies are simple and beautiful in a way that the best Farrar songs are, and they seem to suit both singers. The experience of hearing some of Farrar's characteristic melodic moves coming out of another singer's mouth is jarring for a second before it becomes refreshing. Gibbard pulls his weight. The lyrics at times seem shoehorned into the melodies (weird scansion?) - this is a trait typical of later Farrar, but it somehow works with the Kerouac text, calling attention to words that can stand up to the scrutiny. I'm looking forward to listening to this album in a less awe-inspiring setting to see if it can give me chills on its own. I've also got the One Fast Move documentary at #1 in my Netflix queue, so maybe I'll report on that soon.
2. City Lights (plus: a ride on my bookstore hobby horse)
Speaking of Beats on the West Coast, I was glad to finally get to the famous City Lights Books. It was a blast to browse, but I'm a little ashamed to admit that I didn't buy anything. I tried to justify this to myself on the grounds of limited space in my carry-on baggage, but I ended up buying books later in the trip (see below) and squeezing them in. The truth is, I have a hard time paying list price for books in a world with the Internet and the Strand, and I continue to question the business model of shops that sell nothing but new books at full price.
I think, and hope, that City Lights will get by on the basis of its amazing selection (you're not gonna find those small run poetry chapbooks and zines on Amazon) and, of course, its reputation, but I wonder about the future of places like the lovely Three Lives in the West Village (same deal: all new, all full price, and I've rarely bought anything from them). By contrast, the almost-as-historic Moe's Books in Berkeley has a nice mix of used and new. St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village is all new books, but it has a secret weapon: a killer sale table almost hidden away in the back of the store (the genius of the sale table is that people with sick brains like mine can convince themselves that buying one book for $10 off list and one at full price is the same as getting each of them for $5 off - a variation on "the more you buy, the more you save" - thereby justifying the purchase).
3. Treehorn Books, Santa Rosa, CA
As much as I enjoyed City Lights and Moe's, this is the kind of bookstore I really love to find - one that sells used books, has a great selection, and is located in a small or out-of-the-way town, with the type of pricing that's possible with low overhead. Here is the thrill of the hunt - you see a couple of titles you wouldn't expect, you check a few prices, and you know the game is on. My best find here was a 1st edition of Rock and the Pop Narcotic, the notorious critical screed by Joe Carducci. My traveling companion struck gold in the art & architecture section, coming away with an armful of well-illustrated suitcase busters. With this store and the Russian River Brewery (to be covered in Part Two), Santa Rosa made a strong case for itself as my future place of retirement.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Underrated, Underappreciated (#5 in a Series) - The Bobby Fuller Four
The Fantastic Mr. Fox, with its final scene use of "Let Her Dance" rivaling but not quite surpassing Rushmore's "Ooh La La" finale, reminded me that I hadn't listed to my copy of The Best of the Bobby Fuller Four in years. Produced by '60s indie mini-mogul Bob Keane, Fuller's records feature heroic scale reverb, doubled guitars (and, I think, vocals), and some unusual mixes (in "Never To Be Forgotten", the cymbal seems about twice as loud as the vocals, though maybe I just need to tweak my equalization). The result is a big, enveloping sound, like Buddy Holly updated from the Jet Age to the Space Age. In fact Fuller did more with the Holly template than anyone I can think of outside of The Beatles and Marshall Crenshaw (a Fuller connoisseur himself), developing one of the great Stratocaster sounds of all time. Unfortunately, Fuller also followed in his hero's footsteps by dying young - his death is one of rock'n'roll's strangest, most compelling mysteries, unsolved after more than 40 years.
The idea of the BF4 as "one hit wonders", encouraged by oldies radio's reduction of their career to "I Fought The Law", is easily countered by listening to the concise wonders of "Let Her Dance", "Another Sad and Lonely Night", or "Julie" (covered by Crenshaw on his excellent My Truck Is My Home live album). Although the guitar work is always the first thing to jump out at me from Fuller's records, he was also a fine singer - witness his thoroughly convincing, lovelorn crooning on "A New Shade of Blue", a masterful retro (even then) doo-wop-y slow dance number.
Although love and girl songs were his specialty, Fuller also had quite a few car songs (with titles like "Phantom Dragster") that I haven't heard yet (the older Best Of that I have skips them). There are also a couple of volumes of early Texas recordings that I'm interested in checking out. Despite having recorded one of the most instantly recognizable songs of the '60s, Bobby Fuller remains an underrated, too often overlooked figure in the history of rock'n'roll, with a surprisingly deep catalogue worthy of exploration.
Bonus Link
Fuller puts down the Strat and picks up a Vox (?) to back a midriff-baring Nancy Sinatra in this YouTube clip
Although love and girl songs were his specialty, Fuller also had quite a few car songs (with titles like "Phantom Dragster") that I haven't heard yet (the older Best Of that I have skips them). There are also a couple of volumes of early Texas recordings that I'm interested in checking out. Despite having recorded one of the most instantly recognizable songs of the '60s, Bobby Fuller remains an underrated, too often overlooked figure in the history of rock'n'roll, with a surprisingly deep catalogue worthy of exploration.
Bonus Link
Fuller puts down the Strat and picks up a Vox (?) to back a midriff-baring Nancy Sinatra in this YouTube clip
Monday, January 4, 2010
End-Of-Year List #3 - Best Live Music Experienced in NYC - Top Nine in '09
I'm not posting a best albums or singles list. I think this list of live music better represents my "year in music". Plus, with the possible exception of Alasdair MacLean (whose records with the Clientele seem perfectly realized), all of the artists on this list are better experienced live than through their recordings.
I could make another list of the live music I most regret missing out on, and it would probably look as good, if not better, than this list. There's so much good stuff out there. I resolve to catch more of it in 2010.
Please note that the following are in alphabetical order, not in order of preference (ranking stuff is hard, maybe even pointless):
#1
The Bottle Rockets at Mercury Lounge - the Mercury Lounge is the place to go to hear the rock'n'roll, most especially when the Bottle Rockets are in town (related post here)
#2
Anthony Braxton (with the Walter Thompson Orchestra) at The Irondale Center - there was talk of a possible release of the recordings from these shows - I'd love to have the opportunity to relisten to this music, but I think this was a case where the cliche truly applies - you kinda had to be there (my original review is here)
#3
Ornette Coleman at Jazz At Lincoln Center - still reinventing, searching, and making music that sounds like no one else (my original review is here)
#4
Bill Frisell Trio at the Village Vanguard - I saw Bill Frisell in several different contexts this year - tough to choose the best - getting to see Ron Carter work his magic up close in a trio with Frisell and Paul Motian was a rare pleasure, and the annual Motian-Frisell-Lovano run at the Vanguard was certainly up to their high standard - but I'm going with this trio set because I think it was the best I heard Frisell play this year (my original, kind of goofy, review is here)
#5
Fred Hersch Trio at Smalls - I saw Hersch (with different drummers) at Smalls and the Vanguard this year - both were excellent, but I'll give the nod to Smalls because it's pretty much the place to see piano (my original not-really-a-review is here)
#6
Alasdair MacLean at Joe's Pub - playing with members of the Ladybug Transistor, this was, surprisingly, even better than the most recent Clientele NYC appearance (my original review is here)
#7
Paul Motian/Jason Moran/Chris Potter (Trio 3 in 1) at the Village Vanguard - I saw a few different Motian groups this year - I enjoyed them all - this one was the best (my original review is here)
#8
Eric Revis/Jason Moran/Ken Vandermark/Nahseet Waits at Jazz Gallery - a hot group that I hope we haven't heard the last of (my original review is here and Mandatory Attendance has an embedded video here)
#9
The Yayhoos at Mercury Lounge - take what I said for #1 and substitute "Yayhoos" for "Bottle Rockets" - I once saw a double bill with these two bands - it was mighty fine
I could make another list of the live music I most regret missing out on, and it would probably look as good, if not better, than this list. There's so much good stuff out there. I resolve to catch more of it in 2010.
Please note that the following are in alphabetical order, not in order of preference (ranking stuff is hard, maybe even pointless):
#1
The Bottle Rockets at Mercury Lounge - the Mercury Lounge is the place to go to hear the rock'n'roll, most especially when the Bottle Rockets are in town (related post here)
#2
Anthony Braxton (with the Walter Thompson Orchestra) at The Irondale Center - there was talk of a possible release of the recordings from these shows - I'd love to have the opportunity to relisten to this music, but I think this was a case where the cliche truly applies - you kinda had to be there (my original review is here)
#3
Ornette Coleman at Jazz At Lincoln Center - still reinventing, searching, and making music that sounds like no one else (my original review is here)
#4
Bill Frisell Trio at the Village Vanguard - I saw Bill Frisell in several different contexts this year - tough to choose the best - getting to see Ron Carter work his magic up close in a trio with Frisell and Paul Motian was a rare pleasure, and the annual Motian-Frisell-Lovano run at the Vanguard was certainly up to their high standard - but I'm going with this trio set because I think it was the best I heard Frisell play this year (my original, kind of goofy, review is here)
#5
Fred Hersch Trio at Smalls - I saw Hersch (with different drummers) at Smalls and the Vanguard this year - both were excellent, but I'll give the nod to Smalls because it's pretty much the place to see piano (my original not-really-a-review is here)
#6
Alasdair MacLean at Joe's Pub - playing with members of the Ladybug Transistor, this was, surprisingly, even better than the most recent Clientele NYC appearance (my original review is here)
#7
Paul Motian/Jason Moran/Chris Potter (Trio 3 in 1) at the Village Vanguard - I saw a few different Motian groups this year - I enjoyed them all - this one was the best (my original review is here)
#8
Eric Revis/Jason Moran/Ken Vandermark/Nahseet Waits at Jazz Gallery - a hot group that I hope we haven't heard the last of (my original review is here and Mandatory Attendance has an embedded video here)
#9
The Yayhoos at Mercury Lounge - take what I said for #1 and substitute "Yayhoos" for "Bottle Rockets" - I once saw a double bill with these two bands - it was mighty fine
Saturday, January 2, 2010
End-Of-Year List #2 - Best Stuff I Watched On DVD in 2009, Categorized
Since my draft "Best Movies of 2009" list was so underwhelming and incomplete, I decided to focus on things I saw at home this year. With the exception of the last category (leftovers that didn't fit anywhere else), the titles on my list seemed to lump together pretty naturally into some vague genres, as follows:
Semiautobiographical Non-Fiction
Moving Midway - though the ostensible subject (moving an NC plantation house) seems better suited to a paint-drying hour of HGTV, Godfrey Cheshire's film manages to capture the contemporary South like nothing else I've seen
Of Time & The City - Ode to Liverpool (and the editing room); must be some kind of high water mark for the use of archival footage
TV on DVD - Warning: Drug-Related Content
The Mighty Boosh: Season 1 - comedy team given the means to project the contents of their heads onscreen - results are both very weird and LOL
The Wire: Season 5 - don't know how it will look in 10, 20 years, but right now all the "best show ever" talk doesn't sound like hyperbole
Rock'n'Roll Lifestyle
Over The Edge - quintessential teen rebellionsploitation from 1979; early Cheap Trick sounds more badass than ever
Heavy Metal Parking Lot - underground VHS swap classic gets deluxe DVD treatment, padded out with near-essential "special features"
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream - you'd never guess Bogdanovich was responsible, but give the man credit: he made a four-hour-plus rock doc that flies by on Rickenbacker wings
Tough Guys and Bad Sumbitches
Payday - Nashville Babylon
The Friends of Eddie Coyle - rediscovered piece of archetypal '70s grit filmmaking; could be one of Mitchum's best, which is really saying something
The Wrestler - Aronofsky goes to polar extremes with ring gore and weepy sentimentality but Rourke holds it together
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie - some kind of a masterpiece
Euro-Grotesques
Let The Right One In - the Swedish vampire movie that everyone was talking about, for good reason
Triplets of Belleville - one of the best animated movies from a decade full of really good ones
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