shortbread and inquiry

two noteworthy discoveries to report, thanks to some downtime at work and the magic of the internet.

firstly: earlier this morning i happened upon a small snack-pack of lorna doone shortbread cookies, which i'd never tried before (and found to be a tasty accompaniment to my green tea breakfast, despite the off-putting packaging and nabisco certification.)

this prompted some musing (so why are they named lorna doone, anyway?) which prompted some "research," which led to finding this question listed as the first subject line in my google search: " Who was Lorna Doone and why does she have a cookie named after her?" astounding, no? i will not reveal the answer here, but if you'd like to know, be my guest. and thanks to cheryl, from fredericksburg, for asking.

secondly: was catching up on old big shed podcasts and listened to one that consisted of field recordings from a very cold camping trip backed by an unobtrusive but helpful guitar melody. followed a bunch of links and ended up at question_the_podcast which offers a perfect mix of experiment, improvisation, melody and noise, with the occasional mud-pit frog, john fahey tribute or unintelligible answering machine message thrown into the mix. turns out that layne garrett's up to all sorts of things, maybe you'd like to know/hear more.

hallways!

since november 15 i've been in the process of moving, so there hasn't been much time for musing about audio. though i have been enjoying the sound of my boyfriend walking and/or the cat sprinting from one end of the apartment to the other, down the enormously long hallway that runs through our new place. the past two and a half years were spent in a fine but very compact, hall-less living space, and i hadn't realized what i was missing.

have you hugged your hallway today?

and with that, i hope to be back with semi-regular posts starting again in december...

woo-hoo!

got a ticket for music for tomorrow's world: a dedication to sun ra, lifting off tomorrow night at the hideout and featuring none other than the man i named my beloved dearly departed dog after, almost sixteen years ago.

in fact there's a whole lot of sun ra love floating around chicago right now, thanks to the traveling the spaceways program. including a free program of events and 2 day symposium at the hyde park arts center this weekend.

i'll see if i can dig up that polaroid of me and TM standing in the back room at the ozone record store, where i worked forever ago. i'm looking extremely mortified in the shot, and can remember FEELING extremely mortified in the moment. it's hard work, coming face to face with your rock'n'roll hero...

the sound of bodies dropping - later, nov 11

...from exhaustion, that is. come out to hear/watch/participate as dozens of intrepid and fearless danceaholics gun for the winners' circle at the they shoot shorts, don't they dance marathon this weekend. the evening's a benefit to raise funds for the premier season of the chicago short film brigade, which is new to chicago, promises to deliver quarterly doses of 'uncommon short films for regular people,' and is bound for legendary status (given the natural fire and grace of its founder) soon enough. why not tell your grandchildren you were there at the beginning?

the benefit also includes a silent auction, with such treasures as a bundle of small press goodness from featherproof books, a dozen bottles of fancy olive oil and vinegars from o olive oil and a certificate for southern-style banana pudding lovingly cooked by the captivating chanteuse kelly hogan. i'm offering one-time services as an oral historian / audio documentarian to anyone who thinks this is missing from his/her life, but have no idea what the actual worth of such an item might be. starting bid, anyone?

so grab your most durable dancing shoes and make your way on over to the hideout (1354 w. wabansia, chicago) this saturday (november 11) to show your love for short film, good taste and endurance sports. registration for the dance derby is from 8 - 8:45; the dancing starts at 9 pm sharp.

(i'll meet you on the dance floor for the rumsfeld resignation rhumba.)

more about versus - nov 11

next weekend the third coast festival is presenting a listening event in conjunction with the 17th annual chicago humanities festival. the CHF has programmed over two weeks of pretty amazing presentations, ranging from films to speakers to debates to musicals, all revolving around this year's theme: "peace and war: facing the human conflict." lucky for us, this is JUST the sort of topic that radio producers like to tackle and we've selected a handful of stories that tell the story of opposition* - from the smallest to the gargantuan - in some fairly atypical ways. in other words: this isn't your average collection** of war stories. but you'll just have to come out to hear exactly what i mean.

- "the sounds of conflict"
- saturday, november 11th / 3:30 - 4:30 pm
- chicago cultural center - claudia cassidy theater / 77 E. Randolph
- i think the cost is $5


* now that i think about it, we're not sharing any stories of peace. just conflict. hm...
** i'm actually not sure what YOUR average collection of war stories sounds like.

and

the beautiful tree photo is by joel meyerowitz.