Archipel-a-gogo!

PRINTEMPS 2010

January 9, 2010 · Leave a Comment

It may only be 12:30 a.m. here in Boston, but in la belle Paris, where I will be living for the next five months, it’s already 6:30 in the morning! Thus, I’m not sure how often I’ll be blogging from here, but I have a travel blog, PAS ENSEMBLE, that I will be writing with my friend Andrew, during my European escapades. So if this one gets a little lonely, be sure to check that one out for the latest in photos, videos, and reflections galore. Until then…

…bonne année!

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ALRIGHT FINE: My Top 10 Albums of 2009

December 31, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Since all the cool kids are doing it, and it IS the last day of the decade, after all, Iguess I’ll have to make a Top-10 albums of 2009 list. I feel so pretentious doing this. But bear with me.

Let me just note: this year wasn’t as easy as last year, and not for too many good releases. Looking at my list, I felt way more strongly about my favorites of 2008.

That being said, I did love these albums anyway. Here they are…

My Top 10 List of 2009 Albums

Honorable Mentions:
-Reservoir (Fanfarlo)
-When the Devil’s Loose (A. A. Bondy)
-Veckatimest (Grizzly Bear)

10. Wilco (The Album) (Wilco) – Just got this with a Christmas iTunes giftcard, FINALLY. Beautiful work from a longstanding band. Something I can listen to with anyone, including my family, without complaint. Go, Tweedy, go.

9. Merriwether Post Pavilion (Animal Collective) - People are calling this “freak folk.” I don’t understand this label. Also, I know it’s on every Williamsburger’s list. Yes. I know. But come on, this album came onto the scene in a big way and even though it’s no Strawberry Jam, I really, honestly enjoyed it.
8. The Fame Monster (Lady GaGa) – I can’t comprehend how anyone could say Lady GaGa is talentless. People say it. It’s untrue. Period. She is a phenomenal performer. This album is contagious and a twisted step forward for feminism, too…but that’s another story for another day. At any rate, she deserves every ounce of fame she’s gotten. God DAMN, I love GaGa.

7. Blood Bank EP (Bon Iver) - Beautiful, glorious proof that For Emma wasn’t a fluke. Oh, just marry me, already, Justin.

6. Hazards of Love (The Decemberists) – This album is on my list for how much effort this band has put into the creation of a narrative, gorgeous fairy tale of an album. The world had almost forgotten what a real album was, one with a underlying theme that tied the whole thing together. The Hazards of Love came with one of the best shows I’ve ever witnessed. The band put so much care into the lighting, costumes, and tireless professionalism of the concert and I sincerely respect that. Oh, yeah, did I mention they made a movie of it, too? That’s dedication. And talent.

5. Manners
(Passion Pit) – THIS IS A GREAT ALBUM. Haters (and you know who you are) are just in bitter denial. You know, just because something is played on Gossip Girl doesn’t mean it deserves to be the pariah of whatever hip world you live in. I was initially surprised by how much I ended up liking this album, but now, it’s infectious and I can listen to it at any time, in any mood, and enjoy myself.

4. Hospice (The Antlers) – I’d been listening to this album during paperwriting sessions and other fun activities for awhile without actually hearing the lyrics to these songs. Then I got a text from my friend Zach, which said something like, “MAN, Hospice is SO SAD.” I was confused. So I listened again, very closely, all the way through, while standing in line at the DMV for an hour and a half. And definitely cried a little. Also, their Takeaway Show on La Blogotheque is haunting and ephemeral. Props to this newcomer. Still a little nervous that subject matter might wear thin or run out on a sophomore album, but I think we all are praying NOT.

3. Eskimo Snow (WHY?) – There’s something unbelievably sexy about this band. Maybe it’s Yoni Wolf’s sneering-yet-smooth talk-singing. Maybe it’s the confusing-yet-realistically-poetic lyrics. Maybe it’s just because they reminded me of Cake. Whatever it is, I got into them right as this album released. I liked Alopecia better, but these guys have found a genre niche that I wish wasn’t so sparsely populated.

2. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Phoenix) - Come on. Don’t tell me you don’t LOVE “Lisztomania.” And Frenchmen. Also, one of the best performances of the year, at the Orpheum with Spoon and Passion Pit. This album’s sound is just so….right, you know? Like it belongs in my ears, all the time.

1. Bitte Orca (Dirty Projectors) – Can’t tell you how many times I listened to this album on repeat. These musicians are geniuses, and have created something I MOST admire: intelligent music. The masterpiece of 2009.
And, of course, my year would not have been half as great without these phenomenal live performances:
Top Shows of 2009

1. Bon Iver – Cape Cod Cinema (Dennis, MA)
2. Dirty Projectors – The Paradise (Boston, MA)
3. The Weakerthans – The Paradise (Boston, MA)
4. Andrew Bird – The Orpheum (Boston, MA)
5. Phoenix – The Orpheum (Boston, MA)
6. Jenny Lewis (ft. Conor Oberst) – Coachella (Indio, CA)
7. WHY? – Middle East Downstairs (Cambridge, MA)
8. Regina Spektor – House of Blues (Boston, MA)
9. Lady GaGa – The Wilbur (Boston, MA)
10. Old Hannah/Spitzer Space Telescope/Emperor X – Brighton Rooftop (Brighton, MA) – I’M SERIOUS ABOUT THIS. IT WAS MAGICAL.

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Happy Holidays!

December 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment

My Holiday Bliss: Wheat germ waffles w/ champagne, while listening to Wilco and Friendly Fires on new earmuff headphones. Seeing Grandma in a Snuggie, complaining that it’s “too long to walk in.” Winning the prize for buying-clothes-for-brothers. Wearing two watches at the same time.

What’s your Holiday Bliss like?

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Ciderfest

December 10, 2009 · 1 Comment

I know this is a little late, but here are the best photos from Ciderfest 2009! Special thanks to the McFarland family!

more about "Ciderfest", posted with vodpod

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In Honor of the Snow Day,

December 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment

I’ve decided to give my readers a gift. This is, by far, the best Genius playlist I’ve ever gotten. Maybe I’ll hook you up with some of these tunes, sometime soon. Check it out.

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An Ode to Oatmeal

December 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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Happy Turducken Day

November 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Every Thanksgiving, millions of Americans sit down to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner: mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and of course, a turkey.

There’s no historical evidence that turkeys were actually served at the first Thanksgiving dinner in 1621. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, it is more likely that the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Native Americans shared ducks and geese, which were much easier to hunt than the native wild turkeys.

Today, there are also plenty of alternatives to the traditional oven-roasted bird out there. Many Americans deep-fry, brine-soak, or barbecue their turkeys. Others bake hams, roast ducks and boil geese. Vegetarians even cut out the meat altogether, opting for the meatless tofurkey.

But one holiday meat (that number to be used lightly) stands out from the rest without question: the turducken.

It sounds like the title of a children’s book. Or maybe a science experiment gone wrong. But no, the turducken is a Cajun culinary tradition that’s been turning heads for nearly thirty years. Made popular by Louisiana Chef Paul Prudhomme in the early 1980s, one turducken can feed as many as 30 people.

But turducken isn’t a bird you’re going to find at a run-of-the-mill supermarket. It’s not even one bird—it’s three. A turducken is a boneless, skinless chicken, inside a boneless, skinless duck, inside a boneless turkey.

Ron Savenor, owner of Savenor’s Market in Cambridge and Boston, is a turducken purist. According to Savenor, the only kind of turducken worth having is one made locally.

“You can buy frozen ones online, but we make them out of local turkeys, fresh Long Island duck, and local chickens, which are all as good as it gets,” he says. “The flavor and moisture are far superior. You can really taste the difference.”

Savenor’s store is one of the only places Boston residents can grab of one of these giants, which can cost upwards of a hundred dollars.

But Savenor’s general manager Juliana Lyman says that people who buy such an expensive bird say it’s worth the price.

“These are people who enjoy the extravagance side of holiday food,” Lyman says. “They’re fascinated by the idea of having three animals in one sitting, on a big platter, waiting for them to dive right in.”

So what are turducken rookies in for when they sink their teeth in for the first time? Savenor says you can’t describe it any other way: “Tastes like turducken.”

Although you’ve probably already made your Thanksgiving meal plans for this year, here are some places around the Boston metropolitan area to find turduckens for Thanksgiving 2010:


View Larger Map

Too expensive? Interested in making your own? Check out this how-to video:

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Just a Thought

November 21, 2009 · Leave a Comment

©2009 photo by Devon S. Maloney

As I stood for a record-breaking 20 minutes in the pouring rain, with no umbrella, no raincoat, in an all-wool-and-cotton ensemble, waiting for the bus that would take me to Cambridge to do an interview with a guy who stuffs dead birds into other dead birds that people eat for Thanksgiving (true story to come), I had the following thought, that I would like to share with everyone, regardless of its lack of novelty.

Think about fire and water:

Everyone knows fire is dangerous. Hold your lighter to the palm of your hand: yeah, that’s what I thought. Even a TINY flame can give you a real bitch of a burn…I’ve lit enough Chanukkah candles to know.

A couple little drops of water, though, isn’t going to do much. I mean, our bodies are made up of 98% water as it is. BUT A TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR will make you pretty miserable, and a tsunami WILL kill you…

I guess the conclusion is, don’t be fooled…water is tricky lover. Could we live without fire? Probably…there’s electricity and gas now, you know. But water? Can’t live without it, but it could definitely kill us.

Yeah, water’s got us by the proverbial balls, doesn’t it?

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Post #11: The Real Deal

November 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Om nom! Now that's what I call RAW oysters! (image from Disney's Alice in Wonderland)

 

“It’s ridiculous,” said customer Nancy Chacere. “People are sick and dying of E. coli [from] eating beef. Why are they worried about oysters?”

– “FDA Bows to Pressure From Fans of Raw Oysters,” by Debbie Elliott


Everyone, I’ve found it. They’ve done it, and I’ve found it.

 

I found an audio slideshow on NPR’s website. It’s And it looks pretty delicious.

 

Okay, okay, so maybe the audio and the slideshow aren’t embedded in each other, but the radio story about the FDA giving in to outraged consumers and suspending the sanitizing process they had placed on raw oysters is accompanied by an independent click-through slide show as well as a full text story on the issue. This way, readers are able to click through the photos at their leisure, instead of being tied down to a timed flash-through.

This is a great package, especially because the story is off the beaten track, even though it involves one of the most important governmental agencies in the country. This kind of quirky story is idiosyncratic of its news source and, well, it made me kind of hungry.

Let’s see some more of these varied multimedia pieces, NPR!

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Central Square’s Hidden Treasures

November 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Check it out: You might find the best-kept secret in Cambridge at one of these independent shops in Central Square. Video by me (Devon Maloney), music by The Peasantry and You Can Be A Wesley.

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