Coffee/Album/Film of the Week

Coffee of the Week:
Espresso Blend

So here's the thing: espresso is one of the most flexible beans you can buy.  If you wanna brew coffee with it, go right ahead.  If you wanna pull shots with it, fair game.  If you wanna make iced coffee with it, it's got enough caramel notes to make it worthwhile and intriguing.  Or...

You could make iced americano!

Here's why americano on ice is better than most iced coffees you'll ever try:

It's all about body.  First of all, I highly recommend drinking your iced coffee black, it's more refreshing, and if you wanna add a little sugar (which you can do effectively by dissolving a little in hot water and pouring of the top), that's a nice touch.  The minute you add dairy, however, whether it be low fat milk or a dab of whipped cream to make a caffe olioso, things get a little heavy.  Have you noticed that?  The coffee literally doubles in weight on your tongue, and the next thing you know, you're full after 12 oz.  Ugh!

Americano on ice is a different animal entirely.  If you want, say a 16 oz. bev, that probably calls for two shots of espresso, but depending on your tolerance, you can add more or less.  Add 6 - 8 oz. of cold water, ice, and dairy extremities if you like, and you will find that you've made a light, refreshing, flavorful caffe bev that doesn't fill you up going down and has the requisite kick.

Go on.  You know you wanna try it...

Album of the week:
The Walkmen - You & Me

While we wait for the much-anticipated Lisbon due to come out later this year, we return to the sun-kissed postcard aesthetic of 2008's You & Me.

Interesting narrative arc running through the Walkmen releases.  On the first two records, they were focused on urban male ennui to mostly excellent results.  Then came A Hundred Miles Off, which you could say was the "divisive" third album, but it was not without its charms.  Whereas Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me and the excellent Bows & Arrows evoked a brooding, NYC landscape, A Hundred Miles, as the title suggests, was predisposed with travel, steeped in counter-culture Americana imagery and dry production.  There was always a rootsy side to the band, and they decided to indulge it.  Detractors found it scattered, unfocused, and something of an aural assault, as Hamilton Leithauser caterwauled his way through various Dylan poses.  All true, but compelling, I thought.  The band wasn't so much in search of an identity as ready to hop in a van and just get lost, a romantic bro-cation with maracas and Corona.

If A Hundred Miles Off was a road trip, You & Me was the return home, which isn't to say the D.C./NY band went running back to their post-punk start.  If anything, the album is even murkier and Dylanesque and waltzier than A Hundred Miles, adopting an orchestral approach to percussion and strings (guitars) that suits the warmer, lived-in vocals about returning home as a man and realizing that it doesn't exist in the way you romanticized.  The traveler is always the traveler, then, perpetually in search of a home, even as he makes his return.

Film of the Week:
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Dir. Werner Herzog

Nick Cage has given this kind of performance more often than we might recall.  You know, when it seems like his character walked off the set of another movie and stumbled into this one?  There's lots of stumbling in Bad Lieutenant.  And lurching.  And sweating.  And gun-wielding.  The difference between this and, say, Wicker Man, is that Herzog has given Cage room to create rather than flail.  The film is Herzogian in the sense that it's the lunacy of the man in relation to his environment that the director is most interested in (see Grizzly Man).  The camera is fascinated with the character and what he might do next, not the plot per se, so it follows him around, fretful that it should miss anything.  The anti-thesis of uninflected, montage filmmaking.

The role is a tailor-fit; Cage is hitting notes that another actor couldn't.  Or simply wouldn't.  And that's just it.  It's daring, it's inspired, and it's uninhibited.  Brilliant.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/movies/20badlieutenant.html?ref=movies

Coffee/Album/Film of the Week

Coffee of the Week:
Three Region Blend - Starbucks

While you should be wary of most Starbucks coffee, on occasion they'll offer an exclusive that gets it just about right.  Casi Celo was such a find, and now comes the Three Region Blend.   Sampling from the three coffee growing regions of the world, the blend is a little passive at worst, elegant at best.  A medium-bodied expedition, it's easy going down but provides enough cocoa/floral notes to make you feel like you've been somewhere.  The herbal touches are appropriately underplayed but do enough to counterbalance the more heavily Latin America-leaning characteristics.  Perfect late afternoon coffee.

Album of the Week:
Gotan Project - Tango 3.0

Advanced word on the latest release from the tango/downtempo trio was that it didn't go far enough in mixing up the formula.  Granted, 2006's Lunatico, with its emphasis on organic textures, rootsier arrangements, and a handful of hair-raising moments (the breakdown in "Diferente" constituting an instant classic) is a tough act to follow.


Tango 3.0 finds the trio in more eclectic territory, appropriating a wider array of genres and styles over the more coherent thesis of Lunatico.  The result is a mischievous little record with some fascinating detours; these include the ska-inflected "Desilusion" and, in the album's most surprising turn, "Rayuela," which features a children's choir, Ennio Moricone horns, and a spoken-word non sequitur.

Of course, none of this means that Gotan Project are able to avoid kitsch entirely (see the misguided "Panamericana" ), but more often than not Tango 3.0 sounds thoroughly playful... and modern.

Film of the Week:
Primal Fear (1996)

Ed Norton's performance as Aaron Stampler, a guy who may or may not suffer from a multiple personality disorder and who may or may not have killed an archbishop, is justly lauded.  It's peculiar because he's neither fully convincing as the polite, stuttering Aaron, nor as the leering sociopath "Roy" that is his other persona.  Which amounts to being wholly convincing as both, really.  And as it turns out, that is precisely the point.  The big reveal at the end may not be all that shocking, but as usual, it's the process of the getting there that matters.

World Cup M.I.A.

As the French succumbed to lethargy and then frustration against upstart Uruguay in the second match of World Cup play, it became glaringly obvious what, or rather who, they were missing.

Zinadine Zidane.

He needs no introduction.  One of the best players to ever grace a soccer field, he provided the grit, guts, and spectacular headbutt that left an indelible mark on the '06 cup.  The French displayed none of the above in their first round match.

Oh Zidane: how we miss you!  Perhaps we'll catch a glimpse of you ala Beckham at the rest of France's matches?

Coffee/Album/Film of the Week

Coffee of the week:

Bali - Matt's Coffee

I ordered a 12 oz. valve of wood-roasted Ethiopia Sidamo from Matt's Coffee, which is located in the tiny town of Pownal, ME.  I called the guy up to make sure the order went through, when he put me onto the Bali instead.  I wasn't sure at first; a great deal of coffee from Southeast Asia has an herbal spice to it that is much better for pairing with food than drinking on its own, and I've had iced coffee on the brain lately, so I wanted something with flavors tending toward the sweet and citrusy.

I lucked out.  The Bali ended up having all the notes I was looking for, and then some.  Hints of caramel, guava, and black currant make for an intriguing, well-balanced attack.

1 x 12oz Bali valve = $10.95

Album of the Week:

French Kicks - Two Thousand

This album is real pretty.

Film of the Week:

Army of Shadows, dir Jeane Pierre Melville.

Cool movie about the French Resistance, of which the director was a member.

Script Update

These have been a little hard to come by lately, it's true.  But the good news is that the script really is nearing completion, so much so that the first 30 pages or so are pretty much set in stone.  You can take a sneak peak at an excerpt on my website now, under the "Materials" section.