Monday, March 05, 2007

Ode to Stephin Merritt

Stephin Merritt, of Magnetic Fields, Gothic Archies, and other bands. He plays the ukelele, has a gift for writing love songs (of somewhat untradtional variety), and has a rather deep voice.

He's really the only reason that I even read the 13 books of Lemony Snicket. I heard "Shipwrecked" on an NPR show and just had to read the book since that song was from the soundtrack. The soundtrack "Tragic Treasury" is a collection of songs that were originally part of the audiobooks for Lemony Snicket. There's something about ukelele and accordion, I guess. Not sure if the instruments made it onto the CD since the CD sounds rather synthesized. The live npr piece did feature some nice melodies, though.

Okay, the books were very clever and had tons of literary allusions and references, too (warning, link has some spoilers). Tim Curry was also the best choice for reading the audiobooks. Yes, I've actually had to borrow some audiobooks since the library didn't always have the book I need on shelf. Navigating the Youth/Children section was at once funny and embarrassing. I don't mind though.

Besides the really melancholic Tragic Treasury, I also found good songs from the NPR concert and the help of youtube. The youtube video is a fan creation and deserves attention. She did a great job with the melody and vocals. I think the 3 disc set"69 Love Songs" would be a good investment. In truth, I want to buy everything written by the man.

Okay, no food in this entry but since I wanted this to be a permanent entry for reference and didn't want to start a new blog, here it is. Perhaps I'll do more of this sort in the future and change my blog's name to "Azulet's Delicious Food and Awesome Music Review".

Let's put a bit of food in this entry, shall we?
The LIRR train station is close to a take out stand that sells everything from small baozi to scallion pancakes and soymilk. I've never given much thought to the other foods. This evening, I was hungry, it was cold outside, and I simply was not in the mood to cook. So I walked up to the booth to check my options. Something that looked like Chow Mien caught my attention, it actually is Chow Mien made with vermicelli (rice noodle?). Lots of oil, thin strips of carrot and onions mixed in, it was actually quite good. Hey, quick and cheap ($1.50) is not bad. Although next time I think I'll try the fried rice since it looked quite good too.

1 comment:

Byron said...

i'm a really big magnetic fields fan. if i weren't so lazy, i'd attempt to learn the ukulele. Unfort, i am.