Thursday, February 09, 2006
Lunch with Uri
or Rubber spoon, rubber spoon, rubber spoon.
V and I have a standing agreement that makes our dreary Foggy Bottom school- and workweek bearable: meet at Java Green every Tuesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. for delicious lunch and chatter. This usually ends up with us convincing ourselves to go get a bloody mary elsewhere, but today was much more bizarre. There was still quite a crowd by the time we arrived today, and many people seemed to know one another. One of the employees was downright giddy, chuckling as he walked around videotaping a couple of members of the group. We bowed into our private conversation, oblivious to whatever the hell was going on. As we're finishing up, V leans in and whispers, "Hey, they're signing giant spoons." Har har, I think to myself, great attempt to try to get me to look but no dice. Eye roll. "No, um, seriously, what the hell is happening," she continued, eyes widening. So I turn, and, what the fucking hell?, there really is a guy signing a gigantic wooden spoon, the traditional rice-stirrers you see in Asian food markets. Is he a spoon player, some bizarre virtuoso in town to play for a vegan association? Did he win some contest and get free Java Green food for life? Curious, I lean a bit nearer the group in question and try to read the scrawled inscription. I can read the last name pretty clearly: Geller. But what's that first name? Uli? Uwe?
(Pregnant pre-1980 celebrity pause)
Holy shit, it's Uri Geller, spoon bender extraordinaire and occasional jewelry designer for QVC! My junior high library had a book about him, and I remember watching tapes of him and the Amazing Randi going head to head in spoonbending debunkery with him at (brainwashing) Arkansas Governor's School--what a weird encounter.
Long story short, he was doing something official in the city, and we got to watch him do his thing on a spoon brought from the kitchen by the obsessively smiling employee (the videotaper mentioned before--apparently Geller is his childhood hero). I have to admit, as cognitively that I suspect this man isn't charged with alloy-altering prowess, it was kind of cool to watch him perform so well after being ambushed over lunch. He gets additional applause for eating at a vegan, pro-sustainability spot frequented by the scientific skeptic crowds of D.C. Go Uri! Visit his wall-hung spoon, see the big group photo of everyone who was in the place for the event (us included!) and have a nice mushroom boolgogi while you're at it.
Relating back to the last entry, I caved in and bought the full Electric Company album Creative Playthings. It's fantastic electronic eclecticism, a little bit of ambient and dub to highlight the otherwise quirky and furiously sample-chopped material. Dig!
Electric Company, Is there another door to door?
Electric Company, iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Not from this album, but released as an appendix
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V and I have a standing agreement that makes our dreary Foggy Bottom school- and workweek bearable: meet at Java Green every Tuesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. for delicious lunch and chatter. This usually ends up with us convincing ourselves to go get a bloody mary elsewhere, but today was much more bizarre. There was still quite a crowd by the time we arrived today, and many people seemed to know one another. One of the employees was downright giddy, chuckling as he walked around videotaping a couple of members of the group. We bowed into our private conversation, oblivious to whatever the hell was going on. As we're finishing up, V leans in and whispers, "Hey, they're signing giant spoons." Har har, I think to myself, great attempt to try to get me to look but no dice. Eye roll. "No, um, seriously, what the hell is happening," she continued, eyes widening. So I turn, and, what the fucking hell?, there really is a guy signing a gigantic wooden spoon, the traditional rice-stirrers you see in Asian food markets. Is he a spoon player, some bizarre virtuoso in town to play for a vegan association? Did he win some contest and get free Java Green food for life? Curious, I lean a bit nearer the group in question and try to read the scrawled inscription. I can read the last name pretty clearly: Geller. But what's that first name? Uli? Uwe?
(Pregnant pre-1980 celebrity pause)
Holy shit, it's Uri Geller, spoon bender extraordinaire and occasional jewelry designer for QVC! My junior high library had a book about him, and I remember watching tapes of him and the Amazing Randi going head to head in spoonbending debunkery with him at (brainwashing) Arkansas Governor's School--what a weird encounter.
Long story short, he was doing something official in the city, and we got to watch him do his thing on a spoon brought from the kitchen by the obsessively smiling employee (the videotaper mentioned before--apparently Geller is his childhood hero). I have to admit, as cognitively that I suspect this man isn't charged with alloy-altering prowess, it was kind of cool to watch him perform so well after being ambushed over lunch. He gets additional applause for eating at a vegan, pro-sustainability spot frequented by the scientific skeptic crowds of D.C. Go Uri! Visit his wall-hung spoon, see the big group photo of everyone who was in the place for the event (us included!) and have a nice mushroom boolgogi while you're at it.
Relating back to the last entry, I caved in and bought the full Electric Company album Creative Playthings. It's fantastic electronic eclecticism, a little bit of ambient and dub to highlight the otherwise quirky and furiously sample-chopped material. Dig!
Electric Company, Is there another door to door?
Electric Company, iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Not from this album, but released as an appendix
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
From the air I breathe
I really like Numbers, so I'm especially happy that I was handed this nifty Tigerbeat6 compilation, Open Up and Say... @%_|^[!], a couple of years late. The Numbers track it contains, "Disease" from In My Mind All The Time, has been today's holy-shit-it's-cold-so-I-guess-I'll-take-the-bus soundtrack.
They also do a number with Caro (a new name to me) called "Intercom," culled from the Life remix album Death, that hits me right in the danceybone. Who is this Caro and why can't I find anything else featuring him? There are a number of other great acts I've never even heard of on this compilation. If you have loads of shit by Electric Company, Stars as Eyes or The Bug, well, we need to talk.
Articulatory Loop and Seeking Irony have put up their pictures from the Puppy Brunch. The puppies were delicious, almost as delicious as the fouteen pounds of hashed and fried potatoes that spanned the hours of eating and drinking.
Amber brings delight to Arkansans and Arkansans-at-heart with a lump of Crisco and a dozen potatoes.
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When I'm on the bus,
People are ill.
From the air they breathe
I could get a disease!
They also do a number with Caro (a new name to me) called "Intercom," culled from the Life remix album Death, that hits me right in the danceybone. Who is this Caro and why can't I find anything else featuring him? There are a number of other great acts I've never even heard of on this compilation. If you have loads of shit by Electric Company, Stars as Eyes or The Bug, well, we need to talk.
Articulatory Loop and Seeking Irony have put up their pictures from the Puppy Brunch. The puppies were delicious, almost as delicious as the fouteen pounds of hashed and fried potatoes that spanned the hours of eating and drinking.
Amber brings delight to Arkansans and Arkansans-at-heart with a lump of Crisco and a dozen potatoes.
