Drink some cherry wine!

I did some massive archiving/cleaningup of my laptop harddrive last week, mostly a ton of music to an external drive (or deleting the unlucky altogether). And before I knew it, I had kept only a few selected CDs and mixtapes downloaded over the past year or two; hundreds of others bit the dust..

So this was the elite.

Among those left digitally-intact on the ol' laptop was the "We Are the Future Mix", by Futurecop; I had found it back in July on the everspring-of-dopeness that is the Disco Dust blog. (I need to dig through those archives for my next mix! Soon!)

"We Are the Future" starts with the warbled piano (piano?) of "Borderline" by Madonna. And that pretty much sets the stage for this epic-80's-lovefest. C'mon.. one of the middle tracks is "Hungry Eyes"?!

I mean, none of the songs are going to blow your mind; they are all familiar (to most), yet slightly obscure (for anyone in their, ahem, early 30's or younger, anyway). In fact, it sounds like the whole thing could have been mixed by your buddy-with-the-turntables playing at your houseparty. Maybe that's the appeal?

Yeah -- this mix would be awesome at your next houseparty.

No crazy technical whizz-bang; but after a few listens, you come to realize that this simplicity fits with the vibe of the songs themselves (i.e. songs from a "simpler time"). And, somehow, the whole is so much more than its FM-lite constituents..

In short, it's not brain (um, ear?) food, but it's totally fun; here's the tracklist:

1. Madonna – Borderline
2. Cameo – Word Up (video)
3. Phil Collins – Sussudio
4. Belinda Carlisle - We Want The Same Thing
5. Janet Jackson – Principle Pleasure (video)
6. Jermaine Stewart – We Don't Have To Take Clothes Off (video)
7. Futurecop! – Tonight's Hero
8. Eric Carmen - Hungry Eyes (video)
9. Bruce Hornsby – The Long Race
10. Kenny Loggins – St Elmo's Fire
11. Robert Tepper – No Easy Way Out
12. Simple Minds – Don't you (Forget About Me)
13. Futurecop! – Transformers
14. Robbie Robb – In Time (Futurecop! Edit)

And the funnest -- the funnest! (funniest?) -- part of all comes in at minute 11:55.. Jermaine Stewart lets us know that he's not a piece of meat on "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off". A little bit silly, yes; but it's oh-so-catchy.

Drink some cherry wine! Check the video here. (video)

I've basically been playing it non-stop for the past two weeks. Really! Yeah, so, beyond any hipsterbusiness I download from the music blogs over the next couple of months, this song is definitely going on the next mix. I gotta. haha.

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Branching off, you'll find a couple remakes (tributes?) of "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" on youtube; most are crap, but I actually like this poprock version by Lil' Chris:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGVqEDk9YpE (video)

I mean, his voice is a little too young and emo (for lack of a better word) and the production is a little too "clean" for my tastes, but I can get beyond those things. To start, I love the na-na-na part of the chorus up front, and, besides, the filled-out band sound (guitars, drums, etc.) really works. Overall, this version makes for a totally different vibe, but still captures the essence of the original for a new audience. Naiveté is universal! haha.

Oh -- one last Jermaine Stewart-related thing.. do not adjust your television set (um, computer screen) for this last video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGVqEDk9YpE (video)

There is no irony in its creation or delivery; it's just a totally tripped-out piece of work (in the best way possible.) hahahah.

Huh.. I think it *does* have artistic merit, regardless of the director's (danceyman's?) intention. At the least, it could (should!) be employed as a wonderful hypnosis device; add some research-grade ecstasy, and let the healing begin! Amen! And hallelujah. haha.

Yeah -- we gotta get this thing into the MOMA (SF or NYC); if I'm not mistaken, I think they're trying to bolster their respective video art collections. This shizz is gold.. nice one, Christopher Reynolds (i.e. the young man *feeling* the music in that last video); I'm willing to share any tribute payment MOMA bestows on me for such a quality submission. ;)

Watch out for flying spoons, at Humphry Slocombe

When I was younger, I didn't like cake. Yeah: a kid that didn't like cake! Whaa?

Even at my elementary school birthday parties -- wow: I can still remember the feel, the snap, of the cheap stretchy string that held cone birthday hats on our heads, the same cheap stretchy string that could also be used to launch various projectiles at a younger brother or sister -- yeah, my mom would get me an ice cream cake from the local Carvel, black cookie crumbs sometimes pressed into the sides. The spread also included sickly-sweet sherbert from Pathmark, served directly out of their clear plastic containers.

No cake.

While I've grown, over the years, to like a selected variety of cakey things -- give me ginger or carrot or lemon anything -- I've never lost that love affair with ice cream. In high school, I used to eat it by the half-gallon (rocky road, natch). Whew! But cut to 2009; and while I'm still into the stuff, I indulge in MUCH smaller quantities, refined quantities.

I got my latest fix just last week at Humphry Slocombe, a new, innovative ice cream shop in the Mission. Folks on yelp, on chowhound, on dailycandy -- not to mention in the local print -- are writing up a storm about it. Have you been? Have you been? Have you been?

Humphry Slocombe is the buzz of the town, it seems.

And, I think, with good reason.

First, you gotta check out the list of flavors that they have made or will make. At any given time, they will be selling maybe 12 or so of them (which seems to be the limit of the freezer in the front), with some favorites always on-the-ready and a rotating cast of, um, creamy-dreaminess(-and-sometimes-whimsiness).

I'm looking at you, foie gras, and, you, Andante chevre + strawberry jam.

On my particular visit, I got to sample quite a few of the offerings (the scooper seems to be patient enough to allow you to sample pretty much as many as you want -- on a quiet night, anyway): the Guiness gingerbread, the Valrhona fudgesicle, the Blue Bottle Vietnamese coffee, the balsamic caramel, the olive oil, and the Secret Breakfast.

Without getting into individual reviews, my lasting impression is that the ice cream of Jake Godby -- owner/chef of Humphry Slocombe -- really embodied the ingredients. And given their high quality, this makes for a wonderful experience for the palate. Tummy too.

Now, I'm not saying that you'll like all the flavors -- for example, the balsamic caramel wasn't for me (I'm not a fan of vinegar tang in general) -- but you're going to really like something. Even for the ones that aren't totally up your alley, you're going to appreciate the flavors on an academic level (well, maybe if you're like me and occasionally dabble in foodie-dom); you'll say, "I've never had this flavor of icecream before"; or, "this flavor has never been captured in icecream so well". Word.

Well, like I said, I ain't the first one to say it, but here goes: check this place out! Humphry Slocombe, on the west side of Harrison St., a tad north of 24th Street (map).

You'll see a few tables outside.

You might even see me there, Secret Breakfast in hand.. er, dish. One warning though: if I'm wearing a cone birthday hat with one of those elastic string things, watch out for flying spoons. Whap!

Fluo Kids: keep the pics coming; music too

Since when do I wax French? Since never.

(Waxing French *people* is another matter.) Damn girl, I will s’il vous plaît. For reals. Wait!; I mean..

Nevermind; yes, I should save any discussion of waxing *anything* for a future post.. probably in the less-titillating context of endurance sports (ex. biking or swimming).

Ahem; where was I?

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My lack of Francotextual knowledge doesn't stop me from getting off on the dancey track postings at the Fluo Kids music blog. It's straight dope, through and through, and that sort of thing pretty much translates in any language. In fact, they've been one of my go-to's for new-new music for the past year or so. (Sorry to keep it a secret for so long.) haha.

And with the emergence of the Diamond Street radio show this past September -- produced by some of the contributors to the Fluo Kids blog -- I really can't keep it to myself anymore, at least not in good conscience.

Already, they've got five episodes out and available for download; listen now! Find them at Fluo Kids, of course, or, more directly, at their myspace page.

Episodes seem to come out every 2-4 weeks.

Ah yes -- let me note that even as the blog commentary and radioshow is in the French (95% of it, anyway), most of the music is in English. For example, check the track list for the most recent episode (Saison 1, Episode 5):

Kleerup - Until We Bleed (feat. Lykke Li)
Happy Burger - Pizza All Around
Cheap Time - Glitter And Gold
Miami Horror - Don't Be On With Her
Del Shannon - Gemini (Pilooski edit)
Flight - Crackerjack Woman
Clinton Sparks - Still Got It 4 Cheap (feat. The Clipse & Pharrell)
Jay Z - Brooklyn Go Hard (feat. Santogold)
Dj Mujava - Township Funk (Radioclit remix)
A1 Bassline - Girl Thing
Octet - Euros Vs. Dollars (Pilooski edit)
Hot Chip - Touch Too Much (Fake Blood remix)
Tommie Sparks - Im A Rope (Yuksek remix)
Brodinski - Oblivion (Noob remix)
Digitalism - Home Zone (Proxy remix)
Meterhead - Biggie Dance (inst.)
Jesse Rose - Forget My Name (feat. Hot Chip)
Santogold - Say A ha (Phones remix)

In short, I gotta add these guys to the "Aural Delites" link listing over on the side there. That's it!; gotta keep my own shizz fresh, right?

And speaking of fresh, did you check out the pictures that the Fluo Kids post with each blog entry?.. snapshots of goodlooking young women frolicking in fields or rocking-out in clubs or whatever; the occasional racy photo doesn't hurt either. Do they take those themselves? If you read French and can find that out on their site, please let me know! haha.

For me -- and maybe this is because I can't read the postings -- the pictures became one of the main attractions; they allowed the blog to stand out among a cast of hundreds out there on the 'net. "Oh yeah -- Fluo Kids is the French music blog with the (tasteful) pics of hot chicks on it." To be honest, I think that was the only reason why I started going there regularly at first. haha. But now, it's straight-up for the music -- especially the Diamond Street entries.

That said, keep the pics coming. ;)