Friday, May 13, 2016

Feeling Baker



This is a cool recording because Baker is evidently too blue to blow his horn and there are two rhythm instruments but no bass. Kind of breaks all the rules but is still solid.

Chet Baker, vocals
Bobby Scott, piano
Kenny Burrell, guitar

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Grasshopper Tacos


Because one Phylum per taco is not enough. Grasshoppers on top of a Gringa taco
Cinco De Mayo in Chiapas is just another party. Do they celebrate Cinco De Mayo? Yes. Do they celebrate Dos de Mayo too? Yes. And come the end of the month they will celebrate Veinte-Cinco de Mayo. Because Mexico celebrates every day. You think they need a special day to set off fireworks or eat grasshopper tacos? No. I've heard fireworks and fiesta music every day for a year. The world could end and the biggest party would be in Mexico. Births, deaths, weddings, birthdays, Wars = Party Time. Mexicans have two types of activities: working while partying, and partying while working.

Gringas are pork pastor tacos but distinguished by a flour tortilla and cheese. Flour tortillas might be some kind of reference to pale skin. And the cheese is yellow like a blonde woman's hair, so that might be the reason they are called Gringas. I personally prefer the fresh flour tortillas but Mexican corn tacos are not bad either. Nothing like the Nicaraguan or Guatemalan thick blue corn tortilla that is dry like eating a ten day old corn pancake with no sugar. God, I will never eat one of those again.


Picante garlic and peanuts and some crispy legs too!


I went to a Oaxacan fair in Chiapas and bought some spicy peanuts that also had spicy garlic and spicy grasshoppers in them. The garlic caused my eyelids to roll open when I ate one. The grasshoppers are not bad. They don't have much taste, like a dehydrated sardine.

Not just a dance. If I drink enough Mezcal mixed with pina colada juice I might start to think Tarantino is a good director.


This is how they are served in Oaxaca

Monday, May 2, 2016

Pathetic

I was going to post a clip of myself revisiting some melancholy songs on the piano and I'll get around to it once my chops are back in gear. As you can imagine, living in a bathroom next to a car wash parking lot in Mexico, under a Zumba studio is not super inspiring. 

I like Mexico in general and am now on a first-name, "Your regular table?" status at the local Senor Pastor Taco joint as well as the Yong Feng Chinese Buffet. But this familiarity does not transfer to piano skills, which were painfully acquired and easily forgotten. Many mornings find me wearing only a stained tank top with a pillow over my face to block out the sun. I don't want to get up and the ringing in my head has reached Edgar Allen proPOEtions. I don't get to use Poe in a pun very often so I took my chance.

...Sigh...the fucking trials of life, brother, are really wearing me down. I weather one storm after another, one ridiculous blunder after another. Reliving all my mistakes, cursing my fate, my luck, my personality, my choices, my parents, my era, my culture, my van, God. It's pathetic and that's the name of this Piano Sonata #8 by Ludwig: Ode to Pathetic Oggy.

Enjoy Beethoven. If you like classical music then go support some symphonies. See a recital. Beethoven music is one of the few guaranteed joys in life.

 
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Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.