Rawwwwr

I came across this link recently, and I don't think I've laughed that hard in ages. Isolated vocal track from Van Halen's "Runnin With the Devil".

If you know where there's more of these, PLEASE post them here.

And drank em both up. Or any other interesting flavor combinations I run across in the coming year.

See, one of my New Year's Resolutions was to become a stellar chef. I can kind of fake it in the kitchen at this point, to follow a good recipe and make it come out okay, but I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes down to it. So I'm going to try to go back and really learn the basics, learn about flavors, learn about technique, learn about the way different ingredients interact with each other.

In that spirit, I made a set on Flickr that I'll be updating regularly. I've also realized that I don't know a single thing about food photography, but that might have to wait for next year's resolutions.

Well, in personal news, I moved this last week, and didn't have internet until this afternoon. So that's why there hasn't been anything new in a while. But the good news is that it's all set up and working fine, and I'll be back to posting on this blog, as well as reviews, in the coming days.

Second: I noticed this article on Tati's Jour de Fête, my most recent movie love. Worth a read, and it gives a pretty good description of the action, and why the comedy works so well. Also, this is an 8 minute clip I somehow didn't see earlier when I was searching around online about it. It's from early in the movie, not the great sequence at the end when he decides to be a speedy American postman, but there's some great physical bits in there as well.

As I've indicated elsewhere, I'm a bit of a periodical junkie. There's no way I can make my way cover-to-cover through all of the magazines I subscribe to - at least not if I'm going to do anything else with my life. But there's so many situations when a good magazine or paper comes in handy, when I have a quick chance to read (like an article-length stretch of time), but not enough patience or brain-power to dive back into a book I've started. So I'm always on the look-out for new ones that have some kind of unique coverage of something I'm interested in.

I've recently found two that are definitely worth a mention. A shout-out, as the kids say.

Happy New Year, in Kinyarwanda. To 2008 being better than 2007. New beginnings, including with this site.

There are now some links buried on the bottom of the right-hand side; just some places I go to read and hear things that are interesting. I'll keep adding more. But I was inspired to do that when I ran across a link for Awesome Tapes from Africa earlier today. I went to Ghana about five years ago, and probably my biggest regret is that I didn't buy a whole suitcase-full of tapes before I left, because with the exception of some Daddy Lumba mp3's I found on Soulseek, I've never been able to locate much in the way of real African music, either here or in Europe. I mean the stuff people in Africa actually listen to (which varies so widely in quality), not just the lucky few who travel around the world, are well marketed, play venues in Paris and New York, and are heavily marketed by Western record companies.

So, once upon a time, there was a little website called Sudden Thoughts. Some people thought it was pretty cool. Most never saw it. (Though more than ever saw Chad's Chicken Shack.) I had a lot of fun doing it, but life got in the way.

Anyway, I'm going to give it another go. It's retooled: less formal, less professional, and a lot more fun for me personally. Not 100% sure of everything I'm going to use this space for in the long run, but that's how I want to keep it right now. Definitely going to be truer to the idea of sudden thoughts. Emphasis on the little s and little t: it's not a company.

For now, I'm collating; there's space for books, movies and music. You can hear some of the music I listen to on the right. You can also click through the Amazon button and buy me things. Or you can drop me a line. Thanks to my brother for setting this up for me (again).