SYP Says

Best Songs of 2008: Week of 7/21-7/28: Symphony 6 by Emily Wells

"Symphony 6: Fair Thee Well & The Requiem Mix" by Emily Wells 

I absolutely love The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties, the new album by Emily Wells. It is completely original and mixes classical violin and strings with hip hop beats, electronic drums, and her unique voice (or what Emily likes to call Symphonic Folktronica Fantasy). According to the write-up on LastFM, "to get the sound of a full orchestra, Emily didn’t take the easy way out and simply loop the layers of violins; instead, she played up to 21 separate tracks of violin on each symphony, often using an octave pedal to create the tones of an underwater cello or viola." As a violinist myself, let me tell you, this took an incredible amount of work to do.

KCRW recently named "Symphony 6" a top tune of the day. It's nice to see Emily's work get more attention.  Here's a fun bit of trivia--her piece, "Joan of Arc," was used during Rami Kashou's Project Runway Finale Collection in Feb 2008.

I wish I'd been able to make the launch party at LA's Hotel Cafe last weekend, but in lieu of that, this is a little shout-out to Emily. Great job on the new work! It totally rocks.

Dinner in Medford, Oregon (almost)

Heard about a new restaurant in Medford called The Wharf. Sort of an odd name for a restaurant that is landlocked, but anyway... Medford, OR is not exactly overrun with great food choices, so anytime I hear of a restaurant that is supposedly good, I feel like I should check it out.

I called The Wharf to make sure they were still open and see if we needed reservations.

"Dinner starts at 5."

"OK," I say, and as I go to hang up, I can hear that she is still talking. I put the phone back up to my ear, and ask if she can repeat herself.

"Yeah, what I was saying was that it's because of the baked potatoes."

"Sorry...what?" I ask, bewildered.

"You can come before 5 for dinner, but you just won't be able to order baked potatoes."

Now I have never called a restaurant and gotten this kind of helpful advice, so I'm a little confused. What does this mean--that they bake all of their baked potatoes way in advance so if I go there at 7, the baked potatoes will be wrinkly from a heat lamp and 2 hours old?

Needless to say, I'm now less than enthusiastic about trying out The Wharf and decide to stay in Ashland. Granted, The Wharf at least does not bill itself as a "family restaurant," a surefire way to convey that your food is hopelessly bland and mediocre, but still...we're in a recession, aren't we? I don't want to waste my hard-earned money on restaurants that can't serve baked potatoes until 5 o'clock dinner!

I go to T's Restaurant, my favorite in Ashland, and the only one that really reminds me of Manhattan. They have great modern food, drinks, and an ambience right at home in Flatiron/Gramercy. Our grilled squid, Jeff's steak, and my roasted eggplant lasagna were all delicious. Thank god for small miracles on a Sunday night.

UPDATE: The baked potato saga continues here.

Best Songs of 2008: Week of 7/14-7/21: It's the Love by The Breeders

"It's the Love" by The Breeders 

Originally formed by Pixies' bassist, Kim Deal, and Tonya Donnelly of Throwing Muses, the latest incarnation of The Breeders teams Kim with her twin sister, Kelley. Their newest album, Mountain Battles, is a bit of a hark back to the good 'ol days of '90s alt rock. I've liked The Breeders and their punk-pop sound ever since college, and not just because they're my hometown band from Dayton, OH (way better than Guided by Voices btw).  Kelley and Kim Deal are quite a bit older than me, and I've never met them, but my boyfriend did kiss Kelley Deal once in high school.

"It's the Love" is a cover of a song by another Dayton, Ohio band, The Tasties.

For more about their current tour and what the girls are up to, check out their blog or MySpace page.

Best Songs of 2008: Week of 7/7-7/14: Beat by Thao

Beat (Health, Life and Fire) by Thao 

Female singer/songwriter Thao (Nguyen) from Falls Church, VA  has an interesting, lilting voice reminiscent of Cat Power and her songs have a sweet playfulness that's perfect for summer drives and afternoons on the beach. I'm in sand and surf mode this week in San Diego so her new album, We Brave Bee Stings and All (which includes a languid cover of The Beatles's "You've Really Got a Hold on Me") is fitting my sunny mood perfectly. Listen and see if you can't stop smiling.

Thao and The Get Down Stay Down are on tour now--more data at MySpace Thao Music.

Thao live at The Black Cat

Zombie Garden Sculpture -- yow!

Thanks to Max for bringing this to my attention. I am totally creeped out now.

Courtesy of BoingBoing.net:

Zombie garden sculpture brings the flesh-slavering undead to your daffodil bed

      Posted by John Brownlee, July  8, 2008  4:49 AM     | permalink

Precisely why you call the 1-800 number on the side of the canister when you accidentally spill 2-4-5 liquid Trioxin in the flower bed. A garden sculpture by Alan Dickenson, only $89.95.

Zombie of Montclaire Moors Garden Sculpture [Design to Scano via Nerd Approved]

Precisely why you call the 1-800 number on the side of the canister when you accidentally spill 2-4-5 liquid Trioxin in the flower bed. A garden sculpture by Alan Dickenson, only $89.95.

Zombie of Montclaire Moors Garden Sculpture [Design to Scano via Nerd Approved]

E-Commerce Manager at ExerciseTV.tv

Tom Heymann who I know from A&E forwarded me this job description. If you know a qualified candidate, please email Kelly McSweeney at [email protected]

Company: ExerciseTV: Comcast

Job Title: E-Commerce Store Manager

Description: ExerciseTV, a multi-platform, on-demand media company dedicated to motivating and inspiring people to live healthier lives by exercising is looking for a hardworking E-Commerce Store Manager to drive the company's online commerce initiatives. The ideal candidate will possess the ability to work independently running all aspects of the online store, but also take direction in a team-based environment. This position requires a utility player with strong user experience skills, marketing and merchandising savvy and proven expertise in maximizing online commerce revenue, including online lead generation, SEM, performance measurement and analytics. Demonstrated experience is essential.

 

The E-Commerce Manager will report to the General Manager and work closely with the Marketing and Finance teams. ExerciseTV can be found online at www.exercisetv.tv

Download ecommerce_mgr_exercise_tv_july_2008.docx

All-Star Game 2008--VOTE for Giambi aka the Moustache!

It's been tough being a Yankees fan the last several years. I've stopped watching until after the All-Stars because lately we've been basically terrible until after the season mid-point.

I've decided to enjoy the All-Stars this year though and want as many NYY players on the team as possible, especially because this is the 79th Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the last to be played in the current Yankee Stadium.

This year's final fan vote is all position players. I'm obviously going for Giambi because he is a Yankee and I can't get over his '70s porn star moustache. It takes guts to sport that around town, plus it's being credited for an improvement in his play. Go IAMBIG!

Hurry -- the Final Vote ends Thursday, July 10 at 5 p.m. ET. VOTE NOW (but only if you're a Yankees fan).

Note: Thanks to Zell's Pinstripe Blog for the Giambi pic.

Best Songs of 2008: Week of 6/30-7/7: Believe by Famous L. Renfroe

"Believe" by Famous L. Renfroe 

In celebration of July 4th, I'm posting a few days early and highlighting a slice of down-home gospel/blues Americana from Famous L. Renfroe's 1969 album Children recently re-released on CD by Mississippi-based Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum Records (home of other artists I like, including Andrew Bird and A.A. Bondy).

Renfroe (a.k.a. The Flying Sweet Angel of Joy) is a one-man band who's a bit of a mystery. Even his record company doesn't seem to know anything about him. According to eMusic, his label refers to him as the "J.D. Salinger of soul gospel" and the editor did quite a bit of research and turned up basically nothing.

What can't be denied is that Renfroe is pretty amazing. Not only is he supposedly playing all of the instruments, but on some of the tracks, he recreates all of the parts in quartet style singing. For more about him, visit eMusic. For a while, I think eMusic had an exclusive on the album, but it is now also available on iTunes. This is truly transporting music. Check it out.