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Music: Current count 25871 [25829] rated (+42), 388 [399] unrated (-11).
We've had a very pleasant autumn here in Wichita, but the weatherfolk forecast a turn toward miserable for Thanksgiving through the weekend. Objectively I doubt it ever got that bad, at least here. A cold front went stationary along a diagonal which probably extended from Amarillo to Chicago, but which cut across Kansas just north of Wichita. Along this front, wave after wave of rain/sleet/snow-storms slid northeast. In northwest Kansas this was the fourth blizzard of November, although in Wichita we never saw more than an isolated flurry. North and west of Wichita, the rain froze into a thick coat of ice on everything, and there were reports of power outtages in Hutchinson. In Wichita all I noticed was rain, which froze overnight, making driving and walking treacherous. Our solution for that was to stay hunkered down in a warm house. I like to cook when it's miserable out, so made cacciatore on Friday, and braised some pork ribs with garlic-ginger-scallions and fermented black beans on Sunday.
On Thanksgiving we did go out, to a hotel buffet with some friends. Although I've rarely cooked on Thanksgiving, that was the first time we ever took that option. The meal was fairly good as I skipped past the usual fare and found other things more to my taste -- a very moist baked salmon, a nice succotash, some salads, a slice of ham. But the desserts were mediocre: I sampled the pecan pie and carrot cake, and watched others leave half-picked-over slices of cheesecake. I thought I could have done better on each of those, and for that matter on the bread pudding which no one even bothered to taste. Wasn't overfilling, and we weren't stuck with any leftovers, so those are pluses.
Should warm up a bit over the next few days, not that there is anything here to melt, but we should be able to get out and around. Experienced another earthquake last night, just before I went to bed. It measured 4.7, located just over the Oklahoma border northwest of Enid. Heard the house groan, then watched various things sway back and forth for 20-30 seconds. I thought I felt a couple of smaller quakes after I went to bed, but I don't seen them in the USGS log: there was a 3.0 near Edmond 2 hours later, and since then a 3.1 and a 2.7 west of Perry and a 3.2 east of Cherokee, all in Oklahoma and unlikely to be felt here. That's quite a bit of seismic activity for one day. Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington had one quake each in that period (2.6, 3.4, and 3.0 respectively). Puerto Rico had two. California none, although they had a 2.6 at Gilroy the day before. Earthquakes in Kansas and Oklahoma were unheard of as recently as five year ago. They are clearly caused by injection wells, which are drilled in declining oil fields to dispose of the large amount of water that is being pumped up along with the last drops of oil. I think the largest earthquake to date in Oklahoma was a 5.7 -- big enough to do some actual damage (where last night's earthquake was merely creepy).
Pushed quite a few records through the mill last week. Eleven came from my new jazz queue, but those were the most promising 2015 releases there. I also picked up two Mali groups and Craig Finn from Christgau's Expert Witness, and tried out a few Black Friday Special nominees from correspondents. Most other records popped up in EOY lists: John Moreland was in the top ten at American Songwriter; Flako topped the list at Bleep; Gwenno and Ryley Walker were on several lists (and Kurt Vile and Unknown Mortal Orchestra were on way too many lists).
Still too early to say much about EOY lists, but here's the top 20 in my EOY Aggregate File:
Stevens is up from 3rd last week, and Lamar is up from 5th. I still expect Lamar to pull away. I've factored in a couple long lists from user-rating sites (Rate Your Music, Sputnik Music), although I don't think they have had much impact. No jazz lists yet: the British mag Jazzwise has published a list of 20 albums (I think) but all I have seen is the top three, and I decided that's not enough to count. Some lists come out in sections. I should be patient, but in one case I've already counted [21-40], while waiting for the top 20.
Would have more, and more comments, but it's gotten late.
New records rated this week:
Old music rated this week:
Grade changes:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week: