"My Sweet Lord"

Last night, I watched the DVD of Concert for George (a tribute to George Harrison performed at Royal Albert Hall exactly one year after his death). It had some wonderful music as well as some Monty Python goodness with the original cast members (Harrison was a big fan and close friend of the Pythons. He even helped finance some of their films).

Among the musicians on stage was Harrison's son, Dhani, who is a musician himself and looks as natural on a guitar as any human being can be. Not only that, but he bears a spooky (and I mean spooky) resemblance to his dad.

Beatle DNA: Strongest stuff on the planet.

Hey! I'm trying to stay on a diet here!

Oh, for cripes sake! Did I have to see this (via Metafilter):

"Some places have a very thin, crisp skin; some places have more garlicky, sticky sauces; some advertise that they are healthy because they fry in 100 percent olive oil," said Mr. McPherson, an English teacher, who writes a food blog called zenkimchi.com/FoodJournal.

"Suddenly there will be a long line outside one chicken place, for no apparent reason, and then the next week, it's somewhere else."

Even Korea's corner bars and fast-food chicken chains are preoccupied with the quality, freshness and integrity of their product.

With Korean-style chicken outlets opening recently in New York, New Jersey and California, fried chicken has begun to complete its round-trip flight from the States to Seoul.

"I really think we make it better than the original," said Young Jin, who opened a friendly little chicken joint called Unidentified Flying Chickens in Jackson Heights last month. "We use fresh, not frozen, chicken, always fried to order, no trans fats, no heat lamps."

In Korea, chickens are much smaller, so the whole chicken is fried and served, hacked up into bite-size pieces. But the large breasts and thighs of American chickens are a challenge to cook evenly.

According to Mr. Jin and others, that's why the Korean-style chicken places here serve mostly wings (true connoisseurs can specify either the upper "arm" or the "wing") and small drumsticks. The chicken is typically seasoned only after it is fried, with either a sweetish garlic-soy glaze or a hotter red-pepper sauce that brings the dish into Buffalo wing territory.

But do not look for blue cheese and celery sticks, or even biscuits and gravy. The typical accompaniment to Korean fried chicken is cubes of pickled radish and plenty of beer or soju; the combination produces an irresistible repetition of salt and spice, cold and hot, briny and sweet, crunchy and tender.

"People — even Americans — say the combination is really addictive," said Ryan Jhun, Mr. Chung’s brother-in-law and business partner.

Yeah, no sh*t! Now you'll excuse me. I've got to see if this damn town has a Korean restaurant.

A Cable Flashback

My memories of watching Comedy Central back in its infancy is chock-a-block with comedians that have come and gone. Back then, they filled up a lot of their airtime with video of stand-up comedians doing their thing at comedy clubs. This is not to belittle this programming choice, but too much of it got old really fast and we were happy for actual original programming when it emerged (Thank you, MST3K).

So I tune in to The Huffington Post this morning and find an essay by none other than Elayne Boosler. There's a flash from the past. And though she never went out and got her own show like some others that frequented Comedy Central back then (Tim Allen, Ray Romano), she's still got a great wit:

When people write, "Is America ready for a female president?" they need to know how insulting that is to women. These are the doubt planters. Tell 'em to go to hell. They're not asking, they're undermining. If you want to make someone feel unwell, don't say, "You look terrible", because he'll immediately bounce back with, "I feel fine!" But if you ASK, if you say, "Do you feel all right?" the doubt sets right in. "Why? Why do you ask? What's wrong?" That's what they're doing. "Is America READY for a woman president?" "Why? What's going to happen??"

Is America ready? The rest of the world probably reads that and shakes its head in bemusement, or incredulity, plain confusion, or maybe even sadness. Is America ready for sliced bread, covered wagons, indoor plumbing, math, the wheel, air travel, computers? Duh. You're so cute.

This actually ties in with the whole Biden-Obama snafu of last week. Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck expressed exasperation at the whole business and felt as if they need to walk on eggshells around blacks for fear of offending them. No, you dolts, you just need to use some common friggin sense when speaking (which, granted, you probably don't have a lot of practice in).

Phrasing it as he did, Biden made it sound like the the discovery of an articulate and clean African American was about as rare as a Stradivarius. It's all in how you say it.

But let me give O'Reilly and Beck a better example: Why don't one or both of you guys take a trip down to the Deep South, walk into a bar or restaurant and chat up the first married couple you see. Ask about their family history and then express in utter astonishment, "That's wonderful that you two aren't cousins!".

Maybe that will better communicate the difference to you and you can go on your shows and talk about it ... through what little teeth you have left.

Battle for the Biggest Badass of the British Isles!

Having watched Cold Mountain, Troy, The Proposition and The Departed in the past four months (as well as re-watching X2 and Goblet of Fire), I think that Ray Winstone, Brian Cox and Brendan Gleeson should just enter a three-way cage match to see who emerges the victor. That way it would be England vs. Scotland vs. Ireland!

I'd put out serious money for that.

Ditto

Via Boing Boing:

...and furthermore...

BOOGAH BOOGAH!

Delroy Lindo Quote of the Month: February 2007

Despite his powerful dramatic turn in Malcolm X, Lindo has been mostly tapped for comedy, often in crime films (as the selections for this year will prove out). In spite of the typical banter that has become cliched in this post-Tarantino world, you can be assured that folks like David Mamet will be able to match great dialogue to an actor of Lindo's intelligence.

I have mentioned my love/hate relationship with Mamet once before, but it doesn't stop me from seeing his movies. Heist was a good flick, and had some new twists on how criminals would pull off certain crimes (oh, what you can do with a stack of books and a cup of coffee). Mamet also delivers the goods in terms of the script, and Lindo (who plays tough guy Bobby Blane) gets some sweet lines:

Bobby Blane: "There's nothing wrong with prayer. We knew this firefighter, this trooper, who always carried a bible next to his heart. We used to mock him, but that bible stopped a bullet."

Jimmy: "No shit."

Bobby Blane: "Hand of God, that bible stopped a bullet, would of ruined that fucker's heart. And had he had another bible in front of his face, that man would be alive today."