orange peel and garlic

every time i make carnitas, it seems i blend several recipes. in this case, added some sugar and spice. also used beer instead of the mexican coke since i, you know, didn’t have any available. let’s just say the pig didn’t mind!

did i mention the pig? four pounds of pork shoulder… (well, that’s actually five pounds; there’s a bound in the freezer waiting for another day).

also added half an onion. brought the whole thing to a boil, simmered for two hours, then reduced it to a heavenly brown mess!

we have tacos! can’t wait to do it again, but have enough leftovers to last quite awhile. in the meantime, i have a new favorite food blog to read for inspiration! now, i too can say, i made that!

haven’t tried making tortillas yet, but as soon as i find a source for freshly rendered lard, look out!

Frequent listens over the last year or so:

Download audio file (truthcalledlove.mp3)

I can only imagine this is what it must have been like to see the John Coltrane Quartet (just a little before my time).

The best news? You too can watch and listen to this performance:

Songs performed:

1. 2 Down & 1 Across (Songbook)
2. Chief Blackwater (Standard Of Language)
3. Organized Colors (Simply Said)
4. Sing A Song Of Song (Songbook)
5. Medley – Kenny Garrett (ss) & Benito Santiago (p)
6. Happy People (Sketches of MD – Live at the Iridium)

i love this album, especially the title track and “everything happens to me.” that sentiment, that we should always say goodbye, is very powerful, indeed.

i attended a charlie haden master class around the time this came out. very powerful stuff. his advice to musicians: “risk your life for every note” and “play every note as if it’s your last.” still working on understanding that. and fixing to get ready to start thinking about possibly one day maybe coming close to approaching that ideal.

but i digress…

for dinner, i ate biscuits. a lot of them. the beginning of a life-long love affair. those biscuits were the best i’ve ever had, but let the record show i also had great biscuits growing up in, yes, newark, nj.

btw, i still love fried chicken. as long as the chicken comes from the store…

From www.amateurgourmet.com:

Is there such a thing as biscuit terroir?

In wine, as in coffee, we can talk about the soil and growing conditions of the grapes or beans and how that affects the end product. But with biscuits, there are so many variables — the butter, the flour, the baking powder and the buttermilk — you can’t explicitly tie the biscuits to a place. For all you know that baking powder came from Newark, New Jersey.

some new, some rediscoveries, and a few old faves. haven’t exactly worried about order but shuffling works nicely. let me know what you think.

what, you haven’t tried rdio.com? if you love music, you owe it to yourself, and doesn’t cost anything to try. works for me!

I’ve heard some criticism of the memorial as being too upbeat, too much like a political or pep rally. What that reminds me of is a funeral I attended several years ago. The minister pointed down at the casket and said:

She’s dead. This funeral is not for her. Funerals are for the living!

It was kind of shocking at the time, but it explains the need to help us heal and keep moving forward in the face of immeasurable loss and sadness and pain. All I can think right now is, “Amen!”

Transcript.

Christina Taylor Green was born on September 11, 2001 and was among those killed in Tucson last Saturday. After listening to President Obama talk about this idealistic nine year old and seeing a bit of the news coverage of her funeral today, I couldn’t help thinking about Tom Harrell’s “Wise Children.” I have no idea what motivated this mournful tune, but it certainly fits the occasion. I especially liked these words from the President:

Imagine — imagine for a moment, here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that some day she, too, might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council. She saw public service as something exciting and hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us -– we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.

Wise children indeed.

Update: On rdio.com I created a playlist containing songs inspired by the events of 9/11. It’s since been updated with songs inspired by Hurricane Katrina and, today, songs that seem fitting for the events of Tucson, and especially the death of Christina Taylor Green:

In an early-2008 presidential campaign discussion, I mentioned Sarah Palin, for the first time, as a possible VP candidate. I’d only read a little about her, but it seemed conservatives-in-the-know were enamored with her. I was as surprised as anyone that she was picked by McCain, and also surprised by her lack of depth.

Fast forward. Even before the events in Tucson, the media has maintained its Palin fascination, focusing on every tweet, every Facebook update. Today they’re telling us about her defensive crouch, her use of loaded words, how she’s playing the victim card. Etc, etc, Blah. Blah. Blah. Ad nauseum.

Maybe the media could show a little self-restraint and only update us when she’s politically relevant (i.e., someone who is both a serious contender for the Republican nomination and who has more than a prayer of a chance actually being elected president)? That (or my very own personal Palin filter) would be nice.

Until she’s serious (and has serious prospects), just ignore her, OK?

Oops, I’m doing it too. Never mind.

My music discovery/listening/acquisition/sharing regimen is in a state of, well… It’s not in flux; that’s way too negative. In many ways, things are better than they’ve ever been. No, thanks to technological advances, how I do those things is changing.

I try to find music I’m interested in, new or old, in a variety of places. I usually buy what I want to have permanent access to. That’s been the pattern almost from the beginning, starting with 45s, then vinyl albums followed by CDs. Digital music ended up on series of ever-smaller and yet more spacious ipods.

The iTunes Music Store started a transition to downloading music, with the vendors expanded to include emusic.com, Amazon, among others. Bye-bye, Tower Records!

Lala.com seemed almost perfect for finding and serendipitously discovering new music. Most importantly, Lala evolved into a great place to meet people who shared an interest in my favorite spot on the long tail. Lala added community to the music mix.

Communities have sprouted on a variety of other services (with varying degrees of success), including emusic.com, mog.com and, now, Rdio. There’s also Apple’s Ping. The thing about these services is they’re designed principally to sell music, or eyeballs. They’re about making money selling a product. That’s where their development time goes.

Maybe providing social networking tools (necessary to facilitate growth and maintenance of communities) costs these services more than it creates in additional revenue. Not sure. Lala seemed to get the balance right, until Apple came along and ruined it. Perhaps the Lala model was unprofitable or unsustainable, but Ping represents a gigantic step backwards.

Some aspects of Rdio are particularly galling. For example, let’s say you create a playlist containing a few songs. Later someone leaves a “review” on the playlist (a comment or question). You might not discover their review until weeks later because there’s no notification that the review was posted. Without notifications, opportunities for conversation (and community) are lost.

There are also serious problems with the Rdio user interface. Suppose you search for a song entitled, “Solar” (a great Miles Davis composition that’s been covered hundreds of times). Rdio informs you there are almost 2400 such songs, but the first 22 it lists have some other title. Most don’t even have “solar” in the title. More song titles contain “solaris” than “solar.” Several are merely songs by a band whose name contains “solaris.” Bug or feature?

I can’t speak about their numbers and have no idea how Rdio’s business model is working, but even with fewer useful features, the Rdio community seems even stronger than Lala at this point (maybe that’s because memories of lala are fading). Rdio remains useful despite its flaws because the competition is worse, it has a growing catalog, and it has a vibrant and growing community. But there’s something else…

One. More. Thing.

Late last year I hooked up an Apple TV to my audio receiver and television. That allowed me to access and play my entire digital music library through the stereo for the first time. Shortly thereafter, Apple updated its operating systems to include Airplay which permits music and video streaming from iPhones and iPads to the Apple TV. With the introduction of Airplay, I could stream Rdio from the iPhone to my stereo¹.

For me, major change. I can listen to music I don’t own through a great sound system. The iPhone version lets me carry Rdio tracks with me on my long winter walks. Now I find myself questioning whether I need to buy and download a new song or album rather than just use the subscription model.

Rdio is good. Rdio + Apple TV + an iPhone with synced Rdio music: much better! All that and community too? Priceless!

BTW, there’s a great template for Rdio: just copy more of what Lala was doing!

¹ AirPlay streaming also works with other music service apps, including Pandora, MOG, and Last.fm.

“It was naïve to think I could change the world with the beauty of music, but you must have your dreams…” — Charles Lloyd

Charles Lloyd and his “New Quartet” with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers, and Eric Harland light up the ethers with transcendent music and commentary from Lloyd. Mirror, Lloyd’s latest recording for ECM was released in September 2010. It’s serious contender for Best Jazz Album of 2010, and this promotional video is the best, most artistic I’ve ever seen!

Charles Lloyd “Mirror” from Dorothy Darr on Vimeo.

I love how Herbie describes Miles’ reaction to him playing a “wrong chord!” This seems like verification for a Miles quote I heard about long ago. Asked what he does when he plays a wrong note, Miles, in his raspy voice, said, “I play it again!”

Alas, the cover art is a little jarring…