Aja

The smart-ass Steely Dan fans in college (my best buds) insisted that their pinnacle was the virtuosic and cynical Pretzel Logic, and who could disagree? Meanwhile, the slick jazz-rock of Aja was a sell-out: still the Dan, and still excellent, of course, but fully satisfying to neither the Dan fanatic nor the jazz aficionado. And yet... the (2nd?) greatest hip-hop collective of all chose to sample "Peg" for a reason: the slick over-production had a devious purpose... that every word and every note of every song would drill straight into the pleasure center of your brain. Or so it seems to me nearly 40 years after the fact.

Satsuki is a comfort-lover...

... and far be it from me to disrupt her comfort!

Neil Young is not a fan of Monsanto...

... or Starbucks, or GMOs. As for me... Starbucks has made it possible to find a drinkable cup of coffee wherever you go, a net positive for humanity; GMOs, a mixed bag, but hardly deserving blanket condemnation (ask Pope Francis, Laudato Si, ¶131); Monsanto, ditto.

As for Neil Young, the question is always whether the politics inspires the good Neil or the bad... by good I mean "Southern Man." Bad? This new song is a candidate, but there is a goofy earnestness that somehow redeems it for me...

Laylita's recipes

I stumbled across Laylita's enticing Ecuadorean cooking site tonight while searching for roast chicken with chimichurri. Her recipe for chimichurri butter was straightforward and delicious. Not all of her recipes are so simple... here's one that looks quite a bit more elaborate and that, as any good recipe must, makes you eager to give it a try.

I suppose everyone has their own favorite form of internet pornography...!

Oops, that was YOUR undersea mega-cable?

My bad, dude!

Vince Gill

OK, I confess, I occasionally watch Country's Family Reunion on RFD TV. Vince confesses that he sings like a girl. Good for the girls, I say.

The gall!

On scrub oak in Foothills Park...

I won't dance...

Ella and Louis. Jerome Kern. Oscar Peterson!