Columns

Columns

Giovanni Russonello | Look Both Ways

January 25

When I listen to the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" (1966), I often imagine all five members passing smiles to one another in the studio, feeding off a collective vibe as they sing into their microphones.     Usually, I sing along. When I listen to the experimental band Animal Collective, I get sucked even deeper into the musical process. I often find myself adding something to its explosive, communal music — perhaps I'll sing a rhythmic "dah dum" on every downbeat, or maybe I'll add a harmony line.     On "Pet Sounds," the Beach Boys' famous vocal harmonies comprise only a fraction of what makes this music feel so bright and inviting. And if there is one band today that builds on the Beach Boys' collaborative rubric, breaks down another wall, launches its musical pastiche into another universe, it's Animal Collective.     Nowadays, a huge number of largely unknown bands are building, in exciting ways, on the best of classic rock, folk, soul and '60s pop. I've decided to write a column that each week sheds new light on a recent album by comparing it to what I see as its parent, of sorts, from years ago. This week, I'll line up Animal Collective's just-released "Merriweather Post Pavillion" (2009) with "Pet Sounds," an album many critics consider history's greatest.     "I really want to do just what my body wants to," Animal Collective member Panda Bear sings on the swelling and exploding "Guys Eyes." Panda's vocals here immediately recall those of Beach Boys front man Brian Wilson: He takes one strong melodic phrase, belted in stretched-out vowel sounds, and builds above and around it with harmonies and background vocals centered on counterpoint.     "You Still Believe in Me" is "Pet Sounds"' closest analog to "Guys Eyes," musically and lyrically. Wilson sings a repetitious melody that climbs up, then dips down, and the Boys cap it with a chorus harmony so rich that it's hard to find the overarching melody.     The orchestral sounds of "Believe" (and of other "Pet Sounds" gems like "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "God Only Knows") are distinctly baroque. Harpsichords and chimes and horns swim around each other in a goopy warmth. "Guys Eyes" and the rest of "Merriweather" also give the feeling of an immense ensemble, but this is a wilder one. Continuing to move away from their earlier work as freak-folkies, the members of Animal Collective have essentially made an electro-pop album with high and hooky vocals backed by synthetic bass drums, whirly organs and indescribable sounds.     On these two songs, Wilson and Panda each demonstrate knacks for refreshing self-critique as they beat themselves up over questions of fidelity. Wilson sings, "I try hard to be strong, but sometimes I fail myself." Panda goes deeper inside his own head: "I want to do just what my body needs to/ If I could just hold all the thoughts in my head and just keep them for you/ I want to show to my girl that I need her/ If I could just purge all the urges that I have and keep them for you."     Some friends who have no patience for Animal Collective tell me that the group's music sounds like a broken record. There's some merit to their complaint. For an entire minute on "Brothersport," "Merriweather's" magnificent closer, we hear an overwhelming repetition of what sounds like an out-of-whack organ, a distant synthesizer and a police siren, brought to life and pissed off. But why not have some fun? Play Brian Wilson for a day and seize on these relentless phrases to add your own harmony to the mix. Now you're instantaneously a part of the Collective, and you understand how beautifully the line can be blurred between observing art and participating.

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Columns

David Heck | The Sauce

December 3

At this point, everybody's heard about the "Giant Idiot" Plaxico Burress. But just in case you haven't, here's a recap of the bizarre story. On Friday Nov. 28, Burress was in a New York nightclub with a loaded, unlicensed gun. At one point, he felt the gun start to slip down his sweatpants (perhaps someone should have told Plaxico about the existence of belts ... or maybe just fashion; honestly, what kind of superstar professional athlete wears sweatpants to a nightclub?) and when he reached for it, he wound up shooting himself in the leg. He was taken to the hospital, where it was deemed that his wound was not too serious, and he was released later that night.

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Columns

Mikey Goralnik | Paint The Town Brown

December 3

I love summer holidays. I can think of few things I enjoy more than getting my crew together on a hazy, hot Independence or Memorial Day afternoon to drink a few beers, have a few laughs and slowly spit-roast a wild pig with an apple in its mouth over a gigantic fire.

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Columns

Michael Sherry | Political Animal

December 3

For all the drama and excitement that has surrounded this year-and-a-half-long extravaganza of a presidential race, most of it remained in the American political system's "comfort zone" — that is, for the most part, we were still dealing with a recognizable, normal American national election.

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Columns

Caryn Horowitz | Cultural Culinarian

December 1

Yesterday, I gave a research presentation on the impact of urbanization on the foundation and development of eateries and a national cuisine in 17th-century Japan.

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Columns

Jeremy Greenhouse | Follow the Money

December 1

Has the Hot Stove gone cold? There's been a slow start to baseball's free agent period. I think everyone is waiting for one piece to fall into place before the action picks up. That piece happens to have the most talent, most value and most girth of all free agents, and that is CC Sabathia.

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Columns

Jeremy Greenhouse | Follow the Money

November 24

Last week, President-elect Barack Obama said on national television that it is about time for the NCAA to create a playoff system to determine a national football champion. A few days later, I read that Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff had suggested shortening the League Division Series to mere one-game playoffs. I liked both ideas, but if it ain't broke...

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Columns

Caryn Horowitz | The Cultural Culinarian

November 24

This weekend, The Food Network aired a special episode of "Iron Chef America," the Thanksgiving Showdown, which pitted two teams of Iron Chefs against each other to create a Thanksgiving feast. During the judging, restaurateur Donatella Arpaia said that Thanksgiving "is like a culinary marathon."

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Columns

Michael Goetzman | Spotlight

November 23

It takes a certain countenance and attitude -- a certain type of person -- to really pull off dreads. This fact is compounded when that person happens to be a woman. It's a hairstyle that clashes with our flawed but prevalent notions of how a woman is supposed to look; it takes issue with the idea that women, being ostensibly more dainty, refined and clean than men, can't have "messy" hairdos.

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Columns

Grant Beighley | Pants Optional

November 23

It's hard to believe, but Thanksgiving week is already here, and you're most likely going to have to go home to your family for a few days, whether you like it or not. And when I say "it," I'm referring to your family.

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Columns

Caryn Horowitz | The Cultural Culinarian

November 17

I started planning my 21st birthday on Oct. 27, 2007, over a year before the day arrived this past Saturday. I know this because I created a new Sticky Note on my Mac dedicated to my birthday festivities. Overly organized? Sure. Thinking way too far in advance? Yes. But don't judge me (yet) -- there was a reason for it.

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Columns

Jeremy Greenhouse | Follow the Money

November 17

The summer of LeBron James' free agency has oddly begun about 18 months early. Teams are already clearing cap space for his services. But before delving into potential earnings and destinations for LeBron, we have to remember that this will be a personal decision -- LeBron won't necessarily follow the money.

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Columns

David Heck | The Sauce

November 12

As a die-hard fan of major league baseball, I annually find this week to be one of the most frustrating of the year.

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Columns

Michael Sherry | Political Animal

November 12

Never is the expression that "hindsight is 20/20" truer than on the day after an election, when pundits and bloggers from coast to coast race to make the winning campaign out to be political super-geniuses while casting the losing campaign as a collection of drooling morons who can barely dress themselves in the morning. But it's a false dichotomy.

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Columns

Devin Toohey | Pop Culture Gone Bad

November 10

Remember LEGO, back in the good ol' days when we were growing up? You could use them to build anything you wanted ... granted, anything you wanted that you could build out of little plastic rectangular boxes. You could even splurge on one of those cool sets and build castles, pirate ships or dungeons. Heck, they even had the little LEGO ghosts and dragons and wizards!

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Columns

David Heck | The Sauce

November 5

This is a period of turnover in America. With Barack Obama winning the presidency and the Democrats picking up a significant number of seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, one thing is clear: The people were tired of the old administration.     After eight years under one of the oddest, least successful presidents in history, the country has moved in a new direction. The only real question that anyone has left to ask is, "What took so long?"     The same rings true for my New York Knickerbockers. Fellow fans and I have suffered for five years under a regime that even a toddler could tell is not doing its job. I would even go so far as to argue that Isiah Thomas has been worse as a general manager than George Bush has been as a president — and keeping this in perspective, most current polls have Bush's approval rating at under 30 percent.     Remember how Bush took over a country with a massive surplus and turned it into trillions of dollars of debt? Well, Isiah managed to one-up him. He took over a team already devoid of talent and well over the salary cap. Any reasonable person would have recognized the long and difficult rebuilding process ahead; the Knicks would simply have to wait out their overpriced contracts — a difficult task in New York, but a necessary one in this case — and build through the draft until they had enough money to make moves through free agency.     So what did Isiah actually do? He made trades that INCREASED the team's total salary, and in doing so traded away the team's draft picks that it was supposed to rebuild with. So instead of LaMarcus Aldridge or Brandon Roy in 2006, and instead of Joakim Noah or Al Thornton in 2007, we got three years of 14 points and six boards per game from Eddy Curry.     That's right, Isiah traded away the future talent and financial well-being of the Knicks for a career underachieving big man. And what did he do in New York? Surprise! He underachieved!     The most rebounds per game Curry averaged in New York — and for that matter, in his career — was seven. The man is 6-foot-11, 285 pounds, and the best he's ever done is seven boards per game. To put that in perspective, Jason Kidd, at 6-foot-4, 210, has bested that mark six times in his career, including last season when he was 34.     So obviously, I'm quite happy that through three games this season, the only thing Eddy Curry has recorded in the stat book is "DNP — Coach's Decision." This relic of the Isiah administration is just that: a relic.     But there's another remnant from Isiah that Mike D'Antoni shouldn't be so quick to discard: Stephon Marbury.     No, I don't like the guy either, but talent is talent. Curry never showed the ability to put up numbers; Marbury has. Curry was replaced at center by the similar but much more productive Zach Randolph. Marbury was replaced by ... Chris Duhon?     It doesn't make sense. The Knicks finally have a fast-paced system in which Marbury could thrive, and they're paying him $20 mil to sit on the bench. I don't care what anybody says about his decline; working under three coaches in three years and playing with the scrubs that Isiah brought in, anyone's numbers would have taken a dip. With Duhon averaging 6.7 points and 4.3 assists in the first three games, what's there to lose by giving Marbury a shot?     Team chemistry is obviously important, especially in a sport like basketball in which ball movement makes a huge difference. But are the Knicks playing more like a team with Duhon? I don't know — D'Antoni certainly has more inside information than I do, but it seems doubtful. Marbury can be quite the ball distributor himself.     So why wait for an excuse like an injury to insert him into the playing rotation? The Knicks, like America, should take a chance. He could be just the change that the team needs.

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Columns

Mikey Goralnik | Paint The Town Brown

November 5

If there's one thing I've learned from The Traveling Wilburys (there is only one thing), it is that supergroups tend to be less than the sum of their parts. It seems like a good idea: George Harrison is good, Roy Orbison is good, Bob Dylan is good, Tom Petty is pretty good and Jeff Lynne won a Grammy. If they all get together, they'll be good and win a Grammy. Q.E.D.     Granted, that same logic produced Cream and Blind Faith, but it also produced Audioslave, Zwan and the 2004 US men's national basketball team — aka the Cream Team. Having a slew of talented people doesn't guarantee a quality output. If you get that many elite cooks in the kitchen, issues of chemistry, focus and balance can get in the way of success, and the resultant supergroup sometimes just gets its ass kicked by Puerto Rico and Lithuania.     Lipp Service — the live-electro supergroup of producer Eliot Lipp, Lane Shaw and Alex Botwin from the Boulder band Pnuma Trio — formed when a promoter asked Lipp, whose solo performances consist of him, a computer and some synthesizers, if he could perform his buttery-smooth, head-nodding, rump-rousing electro/hip hop/IDM blend with a live band.     The live-music gods then intervened, serendipitously introducing Lipp to Botwin and Shaw at a festival in February. The trio kicked around the Lipp Service idea, settled on it, and rehearsed a few times. The rest, as they say, is history.     Playing to a haggard crowd of zombies, ghosts and slutty Joe the Plumbers, Lipp Service showed Austin, Texas how a supergroup can be at least, and at times way more than, the sum of its parts. With chemistry like peas and carrots and bass that shook windows, Lipp Service put on a Halloween performance that was scarily (SNAP!) good.     That these lads only recently met and have played less than ten shows together is absolutely astounding. On stage, the trio — Botwin on bass, Shaw on drums and Lipp playing keys and stripped-down samples from his songs — has such a visibly harmonious dynamic that you nearly expect them to finish each other's sentences backstage.     During "Eyesore," you could see Lipp look up from his keys/computer to nod/motion at Shaw to cue the next drum section. During Lipp's solo sets, cuing synthetic drum tracks would be something that he would do himself from his computer. During the Lipp Service set, the transitions were so smooth that Lipp might as well have been doing them digitally, with the added benefit of being between live drum tracks instead of programmed ones.     The live drums add an element to Lipp's songs, but, at times, Botwin's live bass makes the Lipp Service songs better than their digitally produced counterparts. Not only does Botwin handle Lipp's synth lines with his four-string, but on tracks like the swaggering banger "Vallejo," he turns them up, breathing even more life into my favorite songs.     The best was "Flashlight." I was outside the venue for the first few bars of this Lipp mainstay, and across the building, down two flights of stairs from the stage, the windows were vibrating from the bass. And it wasn't just the volume — Botwin holding down the bass lets Lipp focus on tweaking, cutting and cuing the melodies in ways he simply can't when he's responsible for the whole song.     Lipp Service is what happens when talented, egoless people cooperate. Playing off each other's strengths, the supergroup sounded infinitely better than they would have if they each showcased their individual skills, and that's exactly how they put on a killer show. If they could only play basketball...

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Columns

Ally Gimbel | When kiwis fly

November 5

There are two things that you are constantly warned about when preparing to study abroad: Don't lose your passport, and everyone will probably hate you a little bit at first when you tell them you are an American … it might even be best to just say you're from Canada.     Now, while liking your country is always a given, it truly irks me that the rest of the world loathes Americans so much. Not that I don't understand why — pointless war in Iraq, excessive lifestyles, globalization, just to name a few — but to negatively label me for it, without even knowing who I am? I just think that's a little unfair.     I mean, I'd consider myself a pretty cool person. Besides being your average 20-year-old college student, I have a passion for reading, cooking and walking barefoot. I like music and art and seeing movies. I read the newspaper and I actually do give a crap about endangered animals and the global food crisis.     I am also an American, and yet for some reason unbeknownst to me, I was told to act like I wasn't.     When I came to New Zealand, I initially felt extremely self-conscious about my appearance as a foreigner and did everything I possibly could not to stick out like one. It was difficult at first — constantly having to remind myself to walk on the left side of the sidewalk so as to avoid awkward pedestrian pile-ups, and alter my style of dress to fit in with my indie/hipster peers. Even my alcohol consumption habits changed, as I learned that being legal affords me the opportunity to actually enjoy drinking socially rather than making a complete ass of myself in frat basements.     I've learned how to dress, eat, drink and even act like a New Zealander. Though I could never fully adopt the accent, I've begun to lower my voice and inflect my speech accordingly. I now champion the correct sports teams, use proper phrases (like "hiring a car" and "having a shower") and converse about the weather using the metric system. I tell other Kiwis about red Solo cups and, yes, we all have a good laugh about it while we pretentiously sip wine out of glass stemware.     But in the end, I do still feel like the same person I was in America. I'm still over-opinionated about politics and I salivate over celebrity gossip, and guess what? Nobody hates me for it.     In fact, being American has been more of a social catalyst than anything else. Kiwis are genial folk and find stories about American culture amusing and intriguing, as it is so misrepresented by the media. Clearly, we understand that American life is nothing like Hollywood's portrayal, and yet I can't even calculate how many times a week I have to explain that not everyone in California looks like Marissa Cooper and that high school is not as one-dimensional as it is in "Mean Girls."     Furthermore, people like it when you are genuinely interested in their daily lives. Asking lots of dumb-sounding questions is probably the best thing you can do if you want to avoid seeming like an aloof snob. Rather than going in with a mentality of American superiority, it's important to be open-minded to other worldviews.     I've realized that when you make the effort to exchange cultural outlooks with Kiwis, they don't label you as an "American." They see you as a friend, just with a few cultural differences that really only take some patience and tolerant conversation to overcome.     One of my Kiwi flat mates posed the issue of anti-American sentiments in New Zealand this way: "We don't necessarily like America, and we have our prejudices about Americans … But we know you, so we like you."     Well, I like you, too, New Zealand. But please, don't steal my identity.

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Columns

Devin Toohey | Pop Culture Gone Bad

November 4

Three weeks ago, I voiced my hesitance culturally over Obama winning. I rescind that statement. I'm sick of John McCain and his cronies invading my television set and would like to see them banished like oh-so-many "Power Rangers" monsters-of-the-week.

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Columns

Caryn Horowitz | The Cultural Culinarian

November 3

As you go out about your business today — going to class, the gym, grocery shopping and whatnot — there are two nuggets of information that I would like you to keep in the back of your mind. Both involve food scandals and prominent Republican women. So remember to think about these tidbits during your Tuesday, Nov. 4 routine, which should include something like, say, going to the polls.     The first involves none other than the lipstick-wearing pitbull herself, Gov. Sarah Palin, in an event dubbed "Salmongate" by Barry Estabrook of Gourmet magazine.     Let me summarize: The Clean Water Initiative, or Ballot Measure 4, proposes to restrict the amount of pollutants that mines can dump into Alaskan water. The measure targeted a mine that was dumping upstream of Bristol Bay, a sustainable wild salmon fishery. Palin spoke out against the Clean Water Initiative, saying "Let me take my governor's hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop 4 — I vote no on that."     Here's where it gets interesting: According to an Aug. 22 article on "Salmongate" from KTUU, an Alaskan NBC affiliate, "It is against the law for the governor to officially advocate for or against a ballot measure." Palin said she had the right to take "personal privilege" to publicly discuss Ballot Measure 4.     The entire ordeal was extremely … fishy. Why would Palin clearly break Alaskan law to speak out against a ballot measure that is intended to help a $250 million business, which just happens to be one of the largest sustainable salmon fisheries in the world? Proponents of the bill called Palin's political ethics into question after she made that comment; you can't just pretend you're not the governor when you make a statement to the press.     The second scandal involves Cindy McCain and what has since been dubbed "Recipegate." Last April, a lawyer from New York Googled the ingredients from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe that she wanted to find. The top hits in the search were Foodnetwork.com and John McCain's campaign Web Site. Both had recipes that matched the ingredients of her search. Interesting.     There used to be a section of the McCain site called "Cindy's Recipes" that listed "McCain Family Recipes," such as ahi tuna with cabbage slaw and passion fruit mousse. The only source given for the dishes was Cindy herself. After doing some research, the lawyer discovered that every "McCain Family Recipe" had an almost identical match from the Food Network.     "Cindy's Recipes" were promptly removed from the McCain site when the story broke in April, but you can still find screenshots of the pages online; they are almost word-for-word the same as the Food Network recipes, which are protected under intellectual property laws. It would have been a different story if they were called "McCain Family Favorite Recipes" and were put on the site properly attributed to the Food Network with permission to do so from the celebrity chefs. This was not the case, however, and since Cindy falsely accredited the dishes to herself, this was recipe plagiarism. The McCain campaign called the incident a "low-level unpaid staff debacle," blaming the plagiarism on an intern.     So, while you are making other important Tuesday, Nov. 4 related decisions, you can decide for yourself why Sarah Palin would blatantly disregard Alaskan law with her advocacy against a sustainable salmon fishery or why Cindy McCain, or an aid of an aid or whoever in the McCain camp did it, would plagiarize Food Network recipes. These incidents are just some food for thought.

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