A Counting Song

Peculiar choice for a counting song, especially because the progression past 4 in the original is not quite mathematical. Feist doesn't seem terribly into it either.

My personal favorite:

Of Weddings and Roadtrips

This coming weekend promises the most excellent Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. The only possible dint is the increasing probability of rain come Saturday and Sunday. Well, at least Public Enemy will be shower free.

Last weekend was a wedding in Minnesota. This trip in a rental car brought me through Wisconsin and Minnesota, with quality time spent in Madison and a lake house outside St Cloud. Madison is as good as people often claim: small city, bustling culture. Reminded me of Chattanooga, except for the alternative lifestyles being more on the prowl in Madison than Chatt. The pizza at The Roman Candle was particularly good.

The wedding proper nailed several things that are essential to good weddings. The music was live, and bumping. At least as bumping as oldies can be. But the band was genuinely excited about being a wedding cover band. Second, and this is related, the bar was open, and well stocked. I don't need a lot of encouragement to throw down, but others...maybe need more. And the last hour (of 3) of dancing saw a lot of new faces on the floor, and the bar looked a little empty. I'm just sayin...

This wedding also did a good job of balancing the couple friend/family friend/family family issue. Too much of any leaves out the other. Although I'd rather tilt towards having all my friends out there, when done right, the balanced demographic is great.

Dance Party

I had a good dance party to ring in the 4th. A good dance party needs to have enough people to fill up a space without making it cramped, plus an additional number so that folks can get their rest on without killing the vibe. Oh, and the playlist needs to bump. For my living room this magic number is 12 to 18 people. We started at 930, ended at 2. I think the pink shirt above was my second of the night, at about 1130 or 12. Upside of hosting a dance party is the ready wardrobe change, downside is the dirty kitchen floor the day after.

I did the playlist, which I repeat below. A couple songs on there were requests which I wouldn't have thought to put on there, I also made it a little heavy on Girl Talk in recognition of the Feed the Animals just coming out. I think any playlist that doesn't need a hasty skip-to-the-next song equals success. This one=success.

Stand out track, courtesy of my cousing Will who someone manages to keep up with remixes while spending the summer in Kigali is downloadable here. "It's A Fact" by Matt & Kim.

Track-Artist
Young Folks-Kanye West
99 Luftballoons-Nena
Heart it Races (YACHT's I Should Coco Remix)-Architecture in Helsinki
Like A Prayer-Madonna
Billie Jean-Michael Jackson
99 Problems-Jay Z
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)-Sly & The Family Stone
Smash Your Head-Girl Talk
Take On Me-A Ha
D.A.N.C.E. (Paste Black Remix)- Justice VS Date
Knife (Girl Talk Remix)- Grizzly Bear
F*** Tha Police-NWA
Sealion (Chromeo Remix) [Bonus Track]- Feist
Superfreak-Rick James
Mo Money Mo Problems-Notorious BIG
Just Cant Get Enough-Depeche Mode
Safety Dance-Men Without Hats
It's A Fact (Mano Remix Feat. Hollywood Holt)-Matt and Kim
Beastie Boys - Girls - Hello Tokyo Remix-Hello Tokyo
She Drives Me Crazy-Fine Young Cannibals
Stronger-Kanye West
Wot (Captain Sensible Cover)-Lismore
Gone Daddy Gone-Gnarls Barkley
I Turn My Camera On-Spoon
Tainted Love-Soft Cell
Let's Get It On-Marvin Gaye
C.R.E.A.M (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)-Wu-Tang Clan
Play Your Part (Pt. 1)-Girl Talk
Crazy-Gnarls Barkley
Just Cant Get Enough (Depeche Mode cover)-Mon04
Kiss-Prince
Sexx Laws-Beck
Meddle-Little Boots
A Milli (Produced By Bangladesh)-Lil Wayne
Going On-Gnarls Barkley
Encore-Jay Z
Bad-Michael Jackson
Can't Tell Me Nothing-Kanye West
BirdFlu-MIA
Set It Off-Girl Talk
Beat It-Michael Jackson
I Want To Take You Higher-Sly & The Family Stone
Bounce That-Girl Talk
Senorita-Justin Timberlake
Here's The Thing-Girl Talk
Hips Don't Lie-Shakira Feat. Wyclef Jean
Fancy Footwork-Chromeo
Cecilia-Simon & Garfunkel
Cupid (Christian Flores Edit)-Christian Flores
L.E.S. Artistes (Ooh Ee Remix)-Santogold

Going On

This video made a lot of sense to me. It captures really well the way that the Africans I lived among danced. The theme of the video too, this idea that there is a special way to escape one's surroundings to go somewhere else that promises to be better is also very true to the experience of my students in Africa. Many of them talked to me about their dreams of being somewhere else, somewhere unknown, but imagined. Skyscrapers, beaches, snow, other places. I don't think they envisioned a portal in a door that had to be carried to a certain place, but it is true that many of my kids dreamed of escape and freedom, but few found it.

Few Pieces of Eastern Goodness

Here are a couple of slightly strange links, but worthwhile.

I don't know much about this artist, but it's some nice surrealist fare. (There's more on the site where this came from).

And here's a slightly terrifying investigation of some Beijing street food. Serious diversity! Serious gross-out. I've had my share of street food meats in East Africa. They were all a constituent part of some readily identifiable farm animal though, albeit maybe a non-traditional part for an American white boy. Is the place where you eat seahorse and starfish on a stick a place where the white man's dream will die?

Research Paper

The big thing I have to show for my first year of graduate school here at Notre Dame is this 30 page research paper. It's based off of archival research I did in Philadelphia over a few weeks last October and this Christmas break. I'm pretty happy with it's progress so far. The next step will be to revise it so that hopefully it get's published in a journal. But after the jump are the first few paragraphs, let me know if you want to read the whole thing.