spam: the moon

Part of the allure of spam isn’t just the nifty way it looks (both the food and the communication) but how neatly it can fit its way into everyday life. Much like one of my favorite tv shows, the Simpsons, spanners are great at mustering up reliant and timely references to get attention, and I can’t help but think today’s is yet another example.

Of a sky serene and pure. And at night by the light of the Mulberry Moon. Look up and stare. Feel it in you a most agreeable and noteworthy thing. Unable to resist you become intoxicated by the existence and want more. You know you want to, so just let go and do it.

quip: death of a relationship

I hate to make too light a situation that very much isn’t right now, but every once in a while I do pull an insightful line out that turns a conversation. This one was so spontaneous, and somewhat insightful, that it actually completely changed the course of the conversation on a dime. I cannot say for better or worse in the long run, but it did inspire a giggle at the time. The back-story is a friend of mine is going through the demise of a long term relationship. They are being indecisive as to how to proceed and rather than picking fight or flee are standing right in the crossfire doing nothing, which prompted this from me:

you’re mourning the death of the relationship when you don’t believe it’s dead… that’s like trying to bury a person on life support who hasn’t quite croaked yet. If you’re gonna throw dirt on the casket and lament the passing, then accept it’s passed and begin the healing process, otherwise buck it up and get to surgery doc

rooting against a routing

Cheaper, quicker, familiar. A mantra, especially in these tougher economic times is becoming more and more important as people’s time and money becomes more stretched thin.

Perhaps that is, in part why, one of my favorite little local chains went out of business recently. It is sad too, this little shop made some amazing Mexican food, considering, it is, of course, in New York City. They put a nice spin on it though, something that reflected the wonderful personality of the city both in the food and the staff.

There is now another national Mexican fast-food chain near where this legacy once stood. It serves up a homogenized, assembly line prepared, generically presented version of something claiming to be (but hardly) authentic for a few pennies less and maybe a few paces faster. But at what cost really?

In this case the cost was a great local dive being sacrificed to the American way, I suppose. Why try something new, when one can have something familiar? Yeah, sure, it is consistent. It has to be. It’s all made exactly the same from Seattle to Santa Fe and presented with that same stoic indifference meant to get you out the door quicker than you can fart up a storm from your refriend beans side dish.

Don’t get me wrong. I have been to mom-and-pop restaurants where the food was atrocious and the service was underwhelming bordering obnoxious… just like I had some great meals and service at major chains.

For me though, it is more than just the comparison of the actual food and service from individual place to place. It is the concept behind cross-country corporate identities versus those local specialties.

A more poignant example for food is pizza. The tri-state is a pizza mecca. A NY slice is a thing of beauty that no matter how hard any chain will try, they will never recreate. No, it’s not just that it is something in the water as the locals joke. It is because a Bergen County pie and a Brooklyn pie are, although related, two completely different animals. Many a time in towns in North Jersey I lived in, some big name mass-manufactured pizza pusher comes along. Their life fortunately is short lived. The boom of business quickly fizzles out because pizza is indeed a way of life here and their ‘what’s good in Kentucky is good in North Jersey’ presentation just doesn’t fly for enough of the locals that they cannot sustain, no matter how much they try and compete on price and speedy service, they miss the main point that the people here crave a specific, unique, localized flavor.

Working in the entertainment industry for as long as I have, another phenomenon in the homogenization of culture is occurring beyond food. It began many years ago when the family run radio stations were bought by the regional networks, who, in turn where turned into national communication conglomerates. It just about killed what was once beautiful about broadcast radio: the localization of it.

When I first began in radio stations programmed to their market. They understood the local demographic and appeared to really hone the programming to it, both in the music they selected and how the air talent presented it. Some places the jocks were chatty, would talk right over the bleeds for the song right to the vocal bumper or place a huge emphasis on really well executed segues. Others were more cut and dry and almost terse but with this really cutting presentation that seemed to fit the listenership. I used to love traveling and hearing the accents of the jock and their approach to relating to the audience and the difference in programming from edgy to conservative from town to town and how they would integrate their best local talent.

Now, in my travels, every town sounds the same. DJs voiceover shows rather than doing them live, sometimes for multiple stations of different genres in different towns. Playlists are developed from corporate offices on a national scale for what is assumed to be a congruent audience to sell advertising to. It is sad, because it truly has stripped some places of the personality that once made them grand meccas of music.

It comes across in dozens of other things too. Towns and cities becoming cookie cutter versions of one another featuring the same retailers, entertainment and cuisine but not the same people living in them. At least, not yet.

I am all for quicker, cheaper, more familiar – I do it myself on occasion because I do have the time, the money or the spontaneity. However, when it becomes the leviathian devouring localization it frightens me.

As a marketer it is all about personalization and customization, and yet, in the things that should be most unique, our local community, this is the place where the least amount of those occur. Rather, we allow the illusion that the big box retailers and international chain give us something special while serving up the same exact thing half way across the country or halfway around the world.

I miss the days of going to a store, knowing the clerks, getting advice on the products that was as much about satisfying me as it was moving the right stock at the right time off the shelves. I miss when i could get to know the wait staff at restaurant and get expert advice on the best things on the menu because the chef decided to switch things up for the next season’s fare. I also miss when I used to be able to go to a new town and learn from those same kind of people the subtle things about the town that make it unique and special

Rather, sometimes now, it seems we come to rely on the same six places that are cropping up in every town to eat and shop and entertain ourselves at. Which then begs the question, why leave my town to experience something new if the next town over is exactly the same?

There’s no good answer except we know what to expect, quick, cheep and familiar. Well, I’m not quite that boring a person and I find myself rebelling more against it than ever as I continue to strive to find new places off the beaten path still defying the routing of the blessings of local culture.

quip: earplugs & lovesongs

I was talking to a friend of mine, who was contemplating selling his music.

His pitch: Who likes sappy bullcrap and/or noodle ridden rock?
My response: Depends, what is the reason for this maple syrup flavored ramen??
His reply, Well, I need to start selling my songs. $3 each or 2 for $5 plus publishing.
My retort: why should i pay, i can get that on the internet for free, well, if you don’t include the cost of the connection, the storage, the virus software, the ear plugs to block out the crumby sound…!

recipe: mushroom stew

Honestly, I really wasn’t sure what to call this, so we’ll call it a stew. I came home from a hike and wanted something really cozy but not a lot of work necessarily to cook. Although I do begin this with a roux to thicken up the sauce, it is not absolutely necessary. Furthermore, you could do it as a very light blond roux if you are looking for time and simplicity, or even add the flour in during the cooking by sifting it because the meat should give up some fat to which the starches in the flour could bond rather than them clumping in the liquid. Remember when making this, the centerpiece of the meal are the mushrooms. Good hearty flavors like portabellos work well. The are going to work at being both a base flavor and a top flavor so be sure to pay attention and not dump them all in at once.

Flour
Olive Oil
Mushroom

recipe: thai style – satay chicken and pear stirfry

So, I love cooking with a bit of a challenge. For a special meal for a friend I was put up to the challenge of using a number of ingredients including peanut butter and a pear. Needless to say, that’s not an easy combination to work with but after giving it a little thought I came up with the idea of doing a bit of a Thai inspired fusion. I love Thai cooking because of the delicate balance it creates on the palette between, sweat, spicy, sour and salty. I am not very well versed in all of the subtleties of how to create that balance but I do appreciate the concept and try to honor it as best as my limited cooking skills with it allow. In this case, I pulled the peanut butter into a satay style chicken and the pear into a basic stirfry concept. The rice i served on the side was a tea steeped rice, in part, because I didn’t have the jasmine style to work with, and in part because the meal already had a bit of a non-traditional flair that I wanted to bring yet another approach to it to keep it unique. All, in all, what really stuck out about this recipe was the mirror it creates in the cooking experience it was intended for, it is a delicate balance of concepts bringing together bold thoughts with subtleties, things that could overpower with things that could be underlying distractions, exciting or forgetable, yet when all put together come out so efficiently ideal. So, in the end, it’s always nice to look back on a meal, especially one, like this, that I went into with no expectation of reality and walked away from the day with a, wow. It’s not often you can say that.

That being said, here’s the recipe in three parts based on the notes I took along the way. It actually sounds way more complicated than it is, when really if you do all the prep and let the flavors just sit, when you get to cook time it’s only about 25 minutes beginning with the rice, then the chicken, then the veggies.

Satay Chicken
peanut butter
light soy sauce
lemon juice
curry powder
minced garlic
minced ginger
brown sugar
cayenne or other hot ground pepper (or hot pepper sauce)
a large holding vessel

chicken breasts or thighs
Heavy skillet

Combine equal parts soy and lemon juice with an nearly (slightly lighter but close to equal by) weight of peanut butter
Add curry powder, minced garlic, brown sugar and pepper in about equal parts
Mix thoroughly until it becomes a thick liquid consistency
Cube the chicken, rinse and add to the marinade, all to meld for between 1/2 hours and overnight
Place chicken in a large skillet, add a little of the marinade to the pan as well, and cover
Begin to simmer over medium heat (this is a slow cook technique for the chicken cubes, don’t allow the sauce to come much of a boil or it will burn!)
Once the chicken is cooked through remove from heat, but keep covered and allow to rest before serving

Pear Stirfry
Pear slices
Rough chopped Onion
Rough chopped mixed bell pepper
Rough chopped celery
Rough chopped garlic
Rough chopped ginger root
olive oil
large fry pan or wok

Vegetable stock
Light soy sauce
Lemon Juice
Minced Ginger
Minced Garlic
Lemon Zest
Brown Sugar
holding vessel

Chai Tea Rice
short grain white rice
equal parts veggie stock and filtered water
chai tea (2 bags per about each 1/2 cup rice)
olive oil
pot or small saute pan

Coat the rice in a little bit of olive oil and toast it over low heat
Add the stock, filtered water and the tea bags
Allow the pot to come up to a boil, then bring down to a simmer
Cover and allow to cook until all the liquid is absorbed, stirring on occasion.

spam: Triskaidekspamaphobia

Happy Jason Vorhees day! did you know jason survived on spam? No, really, he did. Because there isn’t that much meat on high school sluts. The hacker of today thrives on spam as well, though he’s butching motherboards and not potentially unwed mothers. HAHA. Anyway, today’s spam poetry in honor of the day itself:

Thirteen queens in a deck? That’s what you could be playing with if you go to some casinos, and they’re all in the hands of the house. If the deck is stacked against you, take better odds than today

quip: metallia

So, recently a friend of mine from back in my metal radio days began dating again. He, like I , turned to the internet for introductions. His experience is less than special so far, so, in a recent conversation with a mutual friend of ours, she and I were discussing his interesting escapades. It, of course, resulted in me noting it was he and his well man parts / metallica love that was holding him back

Me: he said he had horrible luck, he’s prob just too metal for them all
Friend: he’s a good looking guy and really he’s a gentle dude
Me: i disagree, his metallia is intimidating

stereotypes and signs

I do not typically go for the stereotypical signs thing, but virgo spit up this one for me, ” You are feeling a lot of compassion for a friend who seems to have worked themselves into a muddle they can’t get out of. Unfortunately it may be difficult for you to spend too much time helping them, because you have a new and exciting project to work on. ” and it seemed perhaps a bit too true for today… I just finished sending out my usual monthly or so job update email and am now posting the insights I began to come up with among the contributors and recipients to it

As for the job hunt, with the latest figures coming in at double digit unemployment nationally and the international numbers not looking much better the competition is fierce for a position. Here’s three tips I want to pass along on the search and rescue for your career, I hope they help:

The internet is your friend as well as your enemy
1. Do it over, do it right! the internet can, and does make sending our resumes 100% easier than the old school days of hand typing them on resume paper. However, the black hole of the job submit inbox is your enemy, so combat it by doing a couple of simple things such as – sending a hard copy to the jobs you most want snail mail, try fax as well – make everything look customized from the cover letter to the resume to the follow up (no less than 5 days no more than 14) and specifically address the company and position – don’t be put off by having to recopy things into forms as well as attaching the pdf / doc / ppt you already created, the more the merrier. you might need to input the same shit 100 times but it’s that dedication that will get you 10-15 great resumes out per day as opposed to 20-25 that will be trashed and waste your time.
2. Look everywhere, often and with an open mind! There are the typical job sites like Monster, HotJobs & Career Builder and that’s a good start, there are the aggragators like indeed, simplyhired & topusajobs.com that make good second choices, then there are career specific like media bistro, entertainmentcareers.net, showbizjobs.com & variety, and of course the most overlooked one is the actual corporate sites of the companies you might want to work at (warner, viacom, ogalvy, universal, fox interactive, sony, att, ascap, harry fox, nokia, apple, whatever) but also, and the one that is shocking people don’t look enough at, the professional orgs & assoc (aaaa.org, marketing.org, sempo.org, marketingpower.com, eifoundation.org, eiconline.org) and professional newsletters (fierce, techcruch, adage, etc) and don’t forget to think OUTSIDE of the box, what skills do you have that are really multi-verticle or multi-industry that you might be overlooking because you are being myopic in your vert or indust in the search
3. Follow up, follow up, follow up. Do you want it? Show it. Have a follow up letter and a one-sheet brief that’s different from your resume you can send a week to a month out on jobs you have the access to follow up to and really want. Don’t be afraid to tap into your network on linked in or variety jobs or even facebook or your old school Rolodex to see who knows who, where. If you don’t get a no, you need to treat it as a potential YES and therefor you need to hammer the walls till you get cracks and fissures in them till an answer comes about. And, if it’s a no, find out why! you have nothing to lose, ask ask ask, the reason you didn’t get it could be the key to getting it next time

recipe: frango assado de alho e arroz coriander

I don’t get to cook big meals very often to share a really special meal with many people so on the occasion that I do it makes for a really great experience. Not only do I get to sit back and be proud of the creation, but I get to share the experience and witness the reaction of someone else enjoying it, perhaps more than I. It even gives me insights into what was right and wrong depending on what their interpretation is of the dish compared to my expectation. This one was particularly fun, to say the least. I could not be more excited than to have shared it and I am enjoying going over my notes from it to transcribe here.

The core of the meal is roasted garlic chicken loosely based on a traditional Iberian recipe. Each town has their own take on the subtleties of the dish so it allows for a lot of variation in the execution. The rice takes advantage of the Azures spice trade roots and brings in a lovely coriander flavor that offsets the chicken nicely. Round the dish out with a veggie like sauteed collard (in garlic and lemon) and a bottle of Lancers and you’ll be all set. It’s not quite the way I served it the other day, but it’s a good way to go.

Chicken thighs (bone in, skin on, hand trim the excess fat)
garlic
olive oil
chicken or veggie stock
lemon zest
black pepper
onion
bell pepper
celery
rice
coriander
cilantro
paprika

Finely chop the garlic. Slide the chopped garlic under the skin of the chicken and slip into any of the openings or folds as well as along the bone.
Place in a roasting pan with some oil, lemon zest and additional garlic and allow to marinade
Preheat oven to 350
Rough chop the bell pepper, onion and celery
After the chicken marinades, add half the veggies, a little more fresh chopped garlic and a few tablespoons of stock to the roasting pan and crack from fresh black pepper over it
Place in the oven and cook for about an hour or until the juices run clear
While the chicken slow roasts place the other half of the veggies (including garlic) in a large skillet
Add a little olive oil and sweat the veggies until they soften, add the rice and allow the rice to toast a little
Add the stock to the rice and season with coriander, a little bit of paprika and black pepper.
Allow the rice to come to a boil and back down to a simmer. Cook until the rice becomes tender
In the last five minutes of cooking add the cilantro