Daily Log

I made a small dinner tonight, for Janice and Tim. There's a couple pictures and a report on Facebook. The initial pic was of the prep ingredients, explained:

All prepped for dinner tonight. In just a few minutes, I'll reduce this to twice-cooked pork (with the orange bell pepper and bamboo shoots), stir-fried baby bok choy, grilled eggplant with peanut sauce, and curried fried rice (with everything else, except for the chocolate pecan pie, reserved for dessert, with ice cream).

I added another comment with a plate pic:

Well, here's what it looks like when plated. Pretty close to as good as expected: pork sauce could have been reduced a bit more, with a bit more kick (recipe called for hot bean sauce and sweet bean sauce; I used ground bean and hoisin sauces, and a very small bit of chili oil). Pie used a store-bought gluten-free graham cracker shell, which made it super easy, and a bit saltier than I expected, but I loved it.

I added a later comment on the "raw materials":

Mostly not raw (that would be a very different picture, especially the long purple eggplants), just the bell pepper, shallots, garlic, ginger, scallions, although I also just chopped up other things that were pre-processed (bamboo shoots, bacon, sausage, duck eggs, tofu). The rice was cooked earlier, the eggplants grilled, the pork and bok choy boiled, the egg fried, the peas blanched, the zucchini stir-fried, the pie baked, the sauce mixed, but all of those were discrete operations I could do one or two at a time, all prep for the final stir-fries. Unusually, I had all of this done an hour before the final cooking, which took less than 20 minutes.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, May archive (final).

Tweet: Music Week: 41 albums, 3 A-list

Music: Current count 44276 [44235) rated (+41), 22 [22] unrated (+0).

New records reviewed this week:

• Marshall Allen's Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia (2022-23 [2025], Otherly Love/Ars Nova Workshop): [sp]: B+(***)
• Eric Bibb: In the Real World (2024, Stony Plain/True North): [sp]: B+(**)
• Bloodest Saxophone Featuring Crystal Thomas: Extreme Heat (2024, Dialtone): [sp]: B+(*)
• Chris Cain: Good Intentions Gone Bad (2024, Alligator): [sp]: B+(**)
• Chuck D: Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio: Radio Armageddon (2025, Def Jam): [sp]: B+(*)
• Paul Dunmall Quartet: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (2022 [2024], RogueArt): [cdr]: A-
• Early James: Medium Raw (2025, Easy Eye Sound): [sp]: B
• Bill Frisell/Andrew Cyrille/Kit Downes: Breaking the Shell (2022 [2024], Red Hook): [sp]: B+(*)
• Don Glori: Paper Can't Wrap Fire (2025, Mr Bongo): [sp]: B
• Larry Goldings: I Will (2023-24 [2025], Sam First): [sp]: B+(*)
• Homeboy Sandman & Brand the Builder: Manners (2025, self-released, EP): [bc]: B+(*)
• Ute Lemper: Pirate Jenny (2025, The Audiophile Society): [sp]: B+(*)
• Magnus Lindgren & John Beasley: The Butterfly Effect (2023 [2024], ACT Music): [sp]: B
• Taj Mahal & Keb' Mo': Room on the Porch (2025, Concord Jazz): [sp]: B+(***)
• Fergus McCreadie: Stream (2024, Edition): [sp]: B+(***)
• Nate Mercereau: Excellent Traveler (2024, Third Man): [sp]: B+(***)
• Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas: Totality (2025, Drag City): [sp]: B+(***)
• Nikara Presents . . . Black Wall Street: The Queen of Kings County (2022-23 [2024], Switch Hit): [sp]: B+(**)
• Bruno Parrinha/Carlos "Zingaro"/Fred Lonberg-Holm/João Madeira: Enleiro (2023 [2025], 4DaRecord): [cd]: B+(***)
• Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band: Honeysuckle (2025, Family Owned): [sp]: B+(**)
• Dan Phillips Trio: Array in Brown (2025, Lizard Breath): [sp]: B+(***)
• Ron Rieder: Día Precioso! (2025, Meson): [cd]: B+(*)
• Scheen Jazzorkester & Fredrik Ljungkvist: Framåt! (2023 [2025], Grong): [cd]: B+(***)
• Elijah Shiffer: City of Birds: Volume 2 (2024 [2025], self-released): [sp]: B+(**)
• Luke Stewart/Silt Rembrance Ensemble: The Order (2023 [2025], Cuneiform): [dl]: B+(***)
• Melinda Sullivan/Larry Goldings: Big Foot (2024, Colorfield): [sp]: B+(*)
• Sumac and Moor Mother: The Film (2025, Thrill Jockey): [sp]: A-
• Tune-Yards: Better Dreaming (2025, 4AD): [sp]: B+(*)
• Kali Uchis: Sincerely, (2025, Capitol): [sp]: B+(*)
• Nasheet Waits: New York Love Letter (Bitter Sweet) (2022-23 [2024], Giant Step Arts): [bc]: B+(***)
• Michael Waldrop: Native Son (2024 [2025], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• David Weiss Sextet: Auteur (2023 [2024], Origin): [sp]: B+(***)
• Ben Wendel: Understory: Live at the Village Vanguard (2022 [2024], Edition): [sp]: B+(**)
• Carolyn Wonderland: Truth Is (2025, Alligator): [sp]: B+(**)
• Carlos "Zingaro"/Flo Stoffner/Fred Lonberg-Holm/João Madeira: Na Parede (2023 [2025], 4DaRecord): [cd]: A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Ella Fitzgerald: The Moment of Truth: Ella at the Coliseum (1967 [2025], Verve): [sp]: B+(**)
• Masahiko Togashi: Session in Paris Vol. 1: Song of Soil (1979 [2025], We Want Sounds): [bc]: B+(**)
• Masahiko Togashi: Session in Paris Vol. 2: Colour of Dream (1979 [2025], We Want Sounds): [bc]: B+(**)

Old music:

• Nate Mercereau: Joy Techniques (Deluxe) (2019 [2020], How So): [bc]: B+(**)
• Sumac: The Healer (2024, Thrill Jockey): [sp]: B+(*)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Coco Chatru Quartet: Limbokolia (Trygger Music) [06-00]: LP
• The Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra: Mixed Bag (Summit) [05-23]
• Joe Morris/Elliott Sharp: Realism (ESP-Disk) [05-30]
• Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp String Trio: Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms) [06-20]
• Kathy Sanborn: Romance Language (Pacific Coast Jazz) [07-11]
• Deborah Silver/The Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks! (Green Hill) [05-02]

Book Roundup

See blog post.

Daily Log

I started processing Robert Chrisgau's Xgau Sez, and ran across a link to part one of a 1999 documentary on him, which I watched:

• Rock n' Roll Animal (1999) Part 1 of 4: It took some digging, but I also found:
• Robert Christgau Rock n' Roll Animal (1999) Part 2 of 4: I'd particularly like a transcript of this for what he says about why he started the Consumer Guide, about he moral imperative to listen to everything he receives, etc.
• Robert Christgau Rock n' Roll Animal (1999) Part 3 of 4
• Robert Christgau Rock n' Roll Animal (1999) Part 4 of 4

Music Week

Expanded blog post, May archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 38 albums, 6 A-list

Music: Current count 44235 [44197) rated (+38), 22 [21] unrated (+1).

I published a Loose Tabs on May 14 (actually, late Tuesday night). I figured I should clear the decks, as I would be cooking on Wednesday and Thursday. I had shopped on Tuesday, and planned out a fairly grand Thai menu -- panang curry duck, pad thai, tom kha gai (soup) -- plus that Burmese tea leaf salad I wasn't able to pull off for my birthday dinner. I thought of pineapple upside down cake for dessert, with ice cream. I also picked up some odds and ends, which turned into three side dishes: cucumber salad, water chestnut salad, and grilled Japanese eggplant with Thai peanut sauce. I wrote up lots of notes as I worked. Rather than trying to recap them here, you can find them in my notebook.

The two days of cooking took my mind of writing, including reviewing any records. That's reflected in the reduced rated count this week, but not severely. I think we have a nice mix of exceptional records this week, although I did fall down on my promise to tweet about them on the fly. I don't feel like I'm getting much value out of Bluesky at the moment, although I'll concede that part of the problem there is I'm not putting much work into it.

I have very little idea what I'll be doing this coming week. I could try to wrap up a books file, but the amount of stuff worth mentioning is huge -- especially if you include the propaganda and nonsense that one can only ridicule.

New records reviewed this week:

• Julien Baker & Torres: Send a Prayer My Way (2025, Matador): [sp]: B+(***)
• Jon Batiste: Beethoven Blues [Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1] (2024, Verve): [sp]: B+(*)
• Blondshell: If You Asked for a Picture (2025, Partisan): [sp]: B+(**)
• Buck 65: Keep Moving (2025, Handsmade): [bc]: A-
• Mackenzie Carpenter: Hey Country Queen (2025, Valory Music): [sp]: B+(*)
• Lucy Dacus: Forever Is a Feeling (2025, Geffen): [sp]: A-
• Erik Friedlander: Dirty Boxing (2024, Skipstone): [sp]: B+(**)
• Erik Friedlander: Floatinig City (2024, Skipstone): [sp]: B
• HiTech: Honeypaqq Vol. 1 (2025, Loma Vista): [bc]: B+(*)
• Jenny Hval: Iris Silver Mist (2025, 4AD): [sp]: B+(***)
• Salif Keita: So Kono (2025, No Format): [sp]: B+(**)
• Alex Koo: Blame It on My Chromosomes (2024 [2025], W.E.R.F.): [sp]: B+(*)
• Jinx Lennon: The Hate Agents Leer at the Last Isle of Hope (2025, Septic Tiger): [sp]: B+(***)
• Model/Actiz: Pirouette (2025, True Panther/Dirty Hit): [sp]: B+(**)
• Willie Nelson: Oh What a Beautiful World (2025, Legacy): [sp]: A-
• Enrico Pieranunzi/Marc Johnson/Joey Baron: Hindsight: Live at La Seine Musicale (2024, CAM Jazz): [sp]: B+(**)
• Simona Premazzi/Kyle Nasser Quartet: From What I Recall (2024 [2025], OA2): [cd]: B+(**)
• The Gary Smulyan and Frank Basile Quintet: Boss Baritones (2024, SteepleChase): [sp]: B+(**)
• Billy Woods: Golliwog (2025, Backwoodz Studioz): [sp]: A-
• Neil Young: Coastal: The Soundtrack (2023 [2025], Reprise): [sp]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• James Moody: 80 Years Young: Live at the Blue Note March 26, 2005 (2005 [2025], Origin): [cd]: A-
• James Moody: The Moody Story: James Moody Septet 1951-1955 (1951-55 [2025], Fresh Sound, 3CD): [sp]: B+(***)
• Pink Floyd: Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII (1972 [2025], Columbia): [sp]: B+(*)
• Louis Stewart & Jim Hall: The Dublin Concert (1982 [2024], Livia): [bc]: B+(**)
• Sun Ra: Inside the Light World: Sun Ra Meets the OVC (1986 [2024], Strut): [sp]: B+(***)
• Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 (1971 [2025], The Village): [bc]: A-
• Hiroshi Yoshimura: Flora (1987 [2025], Temporal Drift): [sp]: B+(***)

Old music:

• Armonicord: Esprits De Sel (1977, L'Électrobande): [yt]: B+(***)
• The Buttress: Endofunctor (2023, self-released, EP): [sp]: B+(**)
• The Buttre$$: Stgructural Stabilization of a Historic Barn (2011, self-released, EP): [bc]: B
• James Moody: In the Beginning (1949 [2017], Inner City/Solid): [sp]: B+(**)
• James Moody: Moody's Mood for Blues (1954-55 [1994], Prestige/OJC): [sp]: B+(**)
• James Moody: At the Jazz Workshop (1961 [1998], Chess/GRP): [sp]: B+(**)
• James Moody: Homage (2003 [2004], Savoy Jazz): [sp]: B+(**)
• Torres: What an Enormous Room (2024, Merge): [sp]: B+(**)
• Joanna Wang: Modern Tragedy (2018, Sony): [sp]: B+(**)
• Carl Winther/Richard Andersson/Jeff "Tain" Watts: WAW! (2023 [2024], Hobby Horse): [sp]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Larry Ochs/Joe Morris/Charles Downs: Every Day → All the Way (ESP-Disk) [04-11]
• Bruno Parrinha/Carlos "Zingaro"/Fred Lonberg-Holm/João Madeira: Enleiro (4DaRecord) [04-25]
• Scheen Jazzorkester & Fredrik Ljungkvist: Framåt! (Grong) [04-01]
• Carlos "Zingaro"/Flo Stoffner/Fred Lonberg-Holm/João Madeira: Na Parede (4DaRecord) [04-25]

Daily Log

I cooked dinner for six (well, actually enough food for 10-12) on Thursday: mostly Thai, plus a Burmese salad. I shopped on Tuesday, and started cooking Wednesday afternoon. Gretchen Eick came over on Thursday to help pull it all together. I've written quite a bit in letters, so rather than try to recap here, I'll just quote myself.

From 5/14 (Wednesday):

Some background: Laura took me to a Thai restaurant in Brookline for our first date, and we returned there regularly while in Boston. I almost always ordered the panang curry duck, which they made with chick peas and spinach. I tried making it once, about a decade ago, for one of my birthday dinner bashes, with a dozen or more side dishes, including most memorably a half pineapple stuffed with coconut milk rice. When a friend was talking about making Thai curries, and later invited us over for dinner, I started thinking on my own, and was spurred on by the knowledge that I already had a duck in the freezer. We're having those friends, plus two more, over tomorrow, so this will be a dinner for six.

Centerpiece will be the panang curry duck. First step is to roast the duck. I've found two recipes: one is very simple: rub some oil in and season with salt and pepper; stuff the cavity with shallots, scallions, lemongrass, and cilantro; roast at 350F (30 minutes per pound, so 2.5-3 hours); use the broiler to crisp the skin. The other is much more complicated, with a more complex stuffing, trussing, a boiled sauce with sugar and red color ladled over the duck before drying and roasting -- there's a 21-minute YouTube video going through all of this. The latter reminds me of Chinese recipes: I've made Peking Duck, also Szechuan Duck, and they're both multi-day affairs for wonderful standalone dishes. But since I'm just intending to slice the meat off and bury it in a peanut-based curry, I'm leaning toward simple (although I may throw in some extras, both in the stuffing and the spice rub; I don't care for the food color, but I may still have some maltose). I should get that done this afternoon.

Once I have the roast duck, I'll carve off the meat and skin for the curry, and possibly reserve some meat for a soup. What's left, plus the neck and possibly giblets, can go into the stock pot, along with the usual flavoring. I don't often serve soup, but the opportunity is too obvious here to pass up. I figure I'll turn this into a variant of tom kha gai, possibly with duck meat (since I forgot to buy the traditional chicken), oyster mushrooms, and coconut cream. I should get the stock done this evening.

I also figure I'll make the curry paste today. I'll use a can of chick peas, and can steam the spinach, so making the finished curry dish should be very easy tomorrow.

I'm inclined not to bother with rice this time, but just offer pad thai, with shrimp and pork (I have a "country ham" shank that works very nicely here). I usually skip the bean sprouts, which Laura dislikes, but I bought a package, and thought I might stir fry them on the side, so anyone who wants can mix them in. I make this all the time: if someone shows up late and hungry, I always have the ingredients on hand, and can turn this around in less than an hour.

The other "main" dish will be Burmese tea leaf salad. I wanted to do this last birthday dinner, but couldn't find the fermented tea leaves in any of the six Asian groceries I checked, so I wound up ordering it, and it came too late to include. So this one is unfinished business. I also ordered a package of "crunchies" to add to the salad (things like toasted yellow split peas), plus I have been collecting similar things that might work (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, garlic chips). I'll mix up the dressing tonight, then assemble the salad tomorrow. It's mostly shredded romaine, plus the toasts.

That strikes me as a fairly well-rounded menu, and easy to do once it's properly organized. Which may leave me time to slip in some little dishes on the side. I have a cucumber, so can make a salad of that. I have four salted duck eggs, which could be turned into another small salad. I have a bag of fresh water chestnuts, which I can combine with a can of crab meat for another small salad. I have some Japanese eggplant. Best thing I can do with them is to slice and grill them, then top with a Chinese peanut sauce. I just bought a package of frozen squid, thinking of a garlicky appetizer the local Thai restaurant serves. Not sure what else I might find if I dig around. I know I have soft shelled crabs in the freezer, but they're too precious to get dropped in here as just another amuse bouche. Another favorite from the local Thai is what they call "Y Wings," which are fried chicken wings in a bright chili sauce. I should try my hand at them some time, but I didn't shop for them, so they're off the menu.

Dessert will be pineapple upside down cake, with vanilla ice cream. A down home favorite, although the pineapple offers a tie in. I'll make that tonight. I've been using fresh store-cut pineapple of late, which works quite well, and makes this pretty easy.

That evening (by then, 5/15):

Status debrief on tomorrow's Thai dinner:

1. Duck is roasted. Came out spectacularly good. I sliced the meat and skin off the bone. Didn't produce an awful lot, but should be enough for the curry. I'm less certain about the soup. Probably should have bought some chicken for that.

2. Panang curry paste is dubious. Recipe calls for pounding ten ingredients to a paste one at a time, but I chop them as fine as possible, then dump them all into the blender for further shredding before using the big mortar and pestle. I couldn't get the latter to work, so I wound up dumping the whole thing in the food processor. Part of the problem was that there wasn't enough liquid for tools like blender or food processor to work, and part was that some of the ingredients (especially the lemongrass) were just too tough. I tried compensating by adding peanut butter and/or peanut oil, since for me the whole point of panang curry is peanuts, but it only got a little better. And taste is extremely harsh. (I used 5 dried Chinese chiles, minus seeds, which may be too much.) Two hopes and a B-plan: many of the ingredients mellow out a bit when cooked (e.g., garlic); the paste will be diluted in coconut milk, and I can experiment with the ratios. The B-plan is that because everything that goes into the curry is pre-cooked, I can hold it back until I'm satisfied with the curry, or could even start a new one from scratch, without wasting the duck, chick peas, etc.

3. Duck stock is done, but I'm not sure about it. I threw the carcass, including the stuffing, into a pot with water, and added a few spices (cloves, cardamom, peppercorns, etc.). Given the amount of garlic, ginger, scallions, cilantro, etc., in the stuffing, I didn't feel any need to augment that with fresh herbs. Came out less clear than I expected, cloudy with a slight green tinge. I may just need to adjust the seasoning.

4. Pineapple upside down cake is done. It didn't fall cleanly when I turned it over, so I had some patching to do, but doesn't look too bad, and the crumbs I sampled are excellent.

5. I sliced the Japanese eggplant, brushed it with sesame oil, and griddled the slices. I usually do this with a Chinese peanut sauce, but I may make a Thai peanut sauce instead (like you get with sate).

That's decent enough progress for today.

Evening of 5/15:

Dinner done, served, mostly eaten. Gretchen came over about 4:45 to help. It was complete, uncoordinated madness by that point. I'm not good at directing other people, but she did a good job on everything I assigned to her, so I probably owe her much of the success (or at least that we were able to serve around 6:30. Dish notes:

1. Panang curry duck: I used 1/2 c of my paste to 2 cans of coconut cream. It came out paler than expected, and also milder, with some (but not many) hard bits left. I used 1 can of chick peas (skins removed), 1 sweet potato, most of the duck. The curry thickened up nice, and was pretty yummy.

2. Soup: Duck stock was darker than expected, and retained a ruddy color even with 2 cans of coconut (1 milk, 1 cream). I found some frozen chicken thighs, so used two of them for meat. I had dried shiitake and fresh oyster mushrooms, as well as the various flavor bits (galangal, lemongrass, lemon leaves, jalapeno rings), as well as lime juice, tamarind paste, and fish sauce. Aside from the color, it was very tasty.

3. Pad thai: I used dried shrimp as well as frozen, and threw in some langostinos, as well as the country ham, and an extra egg. Big scallions. Possibly the best I've ever made. I didn't, however, get around to fixing the bean sprouts on the side.

4. Burmese tea leaf salad: I wound up pressed for time, so rather than read carefully through the recipe, I mostly just used a cup or so from the "fried beans" bag plus some extra garlic chips and cilantro and a tomato. It was still pretty amazing.

5. Water chestnut salad: I couldn't find any crab worth using, so grabbed a bag of frozen sea scallops. Thawed them out, put them in a velvet marinade, then boiled them. The water chestnuts and scallops look similar but have very different textures, so they work well together. I also included some duck (recipe called for chicken, shrimp, and crab). Sauce had citrus and tamarind. Also pretty amazing.

6. Eggplant with peanut sauce: I went with a Thai peanut sauce, made from curry paste (I used my panang) and coconut milk, with brown sugar and fish sauce. Very good.

7. Cucumber salad: I made a mistake here subbing brown sugar for white. Probably didn't hurt the taste, but would have looked better clear.

8. Pineapple upside down cake with ice cream. Nothing to screw up there.

I didn't get to the duck eggs, or the bean sprouts. Just as well. Probably shouldn't have done the cucumber either. Kitchen was as messy as I've ever seen it afterwards, but cleaned up pretty quickly. Lots of leftovers: not enoug soup left to save, but I kept the last four eggplant half-slices, and I have a lot of peanut sauce left over.

Further reflections from 5/18:

I always regarded panang as a peanut curry, like massaman. The "True Thai" recipe doesn't have peanuts, but mentions that sometimes peanuts are added. I looked it up on the web, and was informed that "panang is a hot curry; deal with it." But the Sawasdee dish I always ordered was called "panang curry duck," and that was what I wanted, so I dealt with it. I cut the recommended dried Chinese chilies down from 20 to 5, soaked and seeded. In retrospect, I could have used more: while the paste was distinctly hot, the curry itself turned out to be milder than necessary. This was probably because I wound up putting a lot more peanut into it than even the most generous recipe called for.

This was partly because I flubbed up the process. When I read the "True Thai" recipe, I found that it specified starting with the garlic and salt, and pounding that into a paste. Then add the other 8-10 ingredients one at a time, each time pounding into a paste. I wanted to reduce the labor by getting the bits as small as possible in the chopper, blender, food processor. The blender turned out to be useless, as there wasn't enough bulk and fluid to move the ingredients into the blades. I wound up using the small bowl of the food processor, and even there I didn't have enough to properly process, so I bulked up the paste by adding gobs of peanut butter and oil. Even so, I never got all the hard bits dissolved. The lemongrass was by far the worst problem. I'm tempted to just use lemon (and lime) zest in the future.

The duck was pretty easy. I made a stuffing out of shallots, scallion, garlic, cilantro, and lemongrass, with salt and black pepper. I chopped all of that, and rubbed it in. The recipe used bigger chunks, which would probably have worked just as well (and been better for the stock later on). I rubbed a little oil on the skin, plus salt and black pepper, then I mixed up a spice rub (if memory serves, mild curry powder, paprika, cumin, five spice powder, more pepper) and rubbed that around, but it was pretty light. I wrapped foil around the wing tips, and tried to tie the cavity shut (didn't do a very good job). I set the oven to 350F, put the duck on a rack in a baking dish (back side up), and roasted it for 2.5 hours (4.5 pounds, 30 minutes per pound), turning it over midway. Once it was cooked (thermometer measured 175-180F), I flicked the broiler on for 5-7 minutes, to crisp up the skin, but was careful not to overdo it.

The duck came out perfect, and was better at that point than later in the curry. I cut the meat off, then took the carcass and put it in a pot, covered with water. I left the stuffing in place, although if I had it to do again I'd scoop it out and discard it, then add fresh chunks of everything (but less cilantro). I also added some whole spices I used in Chinese and Indian stocks (cloves, cardamom, anise, cinnamon stick, peppercorns). I brought it to a boil, didn't really have to skim it, and let it simmer for 2-3 hours.

With the duck cooked, I wanted everything else for the curry also pre-cooked, so I could just focus on the curry itself, then add the ingredients. So I used a can of cooked chick peas (which I peeled). For the sweet potato, I wrapped one up in aluminum foil and put it into the oven for an hour while the duck was roasting. Sawasdee just used chick peas and spinach, but the sweet potato was suggested by a pretty good Nigella Lawson curry (also a big plug for peeling the chick peas).

Later that day, I noticed that I already had a panang curry recipe, from that birthday dinner long ago.

On 5/16, I posted a plate pic on Facebook, with this explanation:

I took two days (+ shopping) out from the usual grind to cook some Thai/Burmese food. I started by roasting a duck. I cut the meat off for the panang duck curry top of plate, and made stock out of the bones and stuffing (shallots, garlic, scallions, lemongrass, cilantro) and used it to make tom kha gai (the dark stock overwhelmed the coconut milk; with chicken, mushrooms, extra flavor). The pad thai is in the middle of the plate, with shrimp, langostinos, and country ham. Clockwise from right: grilled eggplant with Thai peanut sauce; water chestnut salad with scallops and duck; Burmese tea leaf salad; and a cucumber salad. Dessert was pineapple upside down cake, with ice cream. Good enough I ate leftovers for lunch and dinner today, which I almost never do. Most of our guests not only enjoyed but went out to demonstrate today. I wasted most of the day trying to figure out how to get Facebook to stop auto-refreshing (after one such refresh wiped out photos from the demo I meant to at least like, maybe even comment on).

The dinner was enticing enough that I ate very little but leftovers through Sunday, when I finished the the duck and cake. (Still have a bit of water chestnut and cucumber salads left.) I also added this comment, with the panang curry link above:

By the way, I found (much too late) I had another panang curry duck recipe written down, from my previous attempt. My file has a link to still extant page which goes into more detail on technique. The advice to build up the curry paste one ingredient at a time is sound, as is the gradual addition of coconut milk when cooking. I'd add that once you get the curry mix right, add the meat and other ingredients in small batches to get whatever balance you want.

As I have leftover duck stock and some chicken thighs, I figured I should make a second batch of soup, for Monday dinner. I don't have the fresh mushrooms, but plenty of dried ones.

PS (5/19): I made the soup, but it wasn't great, with Laura actively disliking it (too sweet? she asked). Both times I used tamarind paste instead of tamarind-chile sauce, but I may have overdone it this time -- soup came out much darker brownk almost chocolate milk color. Also, I ran out of fish sauce. I tried using shrimp paste, water, and some soy sauce, which also added to the dark brown look. I thought my bowl was tasty enough, but after Laura objected, I threw the rest out. Also got rid of the last leftover salads, so the only thing left is some peanut sauce.

Some Facebook cleanup: dropped friend requests from Casey Michael (?), Aram Bajakian, Devin Gray. Probably many more I should drop, but that was just the top of the stack, who were in the way for some reason. My intention is to only recognize as friends people I know in person, although I've allowed a few dozen virtual friends in who I've had direct email contact with -- in some cases, quite a lot. I almost always ignore requests from musicians and publicists.

Shopping for plastic for air conditioner base repair. Several candidates at BuyPlastic.com:

• HDPE sheet 5/8 x 6 x 48: $31.70
• HDPE sheet 1/4 x 24 x 48: $48.13
• HDPE sheet 1/4 x 12 x 48: $28.51
• HDPE sheet 1/4 x 6 x 48: $16.98 (would need 2 of these, plus one 5/8)

I ordered the 5/8 x 6 x 48 plus two 1/4 x 6 x 48 sheets, which came to $88.41 (including $29.32 USPS shipping, which they warn may take up to two weeks to deliver: ugh!). I hesitated when I saw the shipping, but Amazon only seems to be offering bigger and more expensive sheets, or smaller pieces, and other sources aren't any better.

I did a Google search for "what does a modern website look like," and was surprised to get quite a few answers. Most along the lines of:

• Modern websites use strong typography, bold photography, micro animations, selective minimalism, and more.
• You can tell a website is more modern by its consistency and focus on basic geometry.
• Characterized with bold typography, simple layouts, and unpolished elements, this trend pushes back against years of polished, template-driven . . .
• The trend seems to be minimal and flat design without any frills. Just cutting straight to the information.

Lots more advice available. Something to look into later.

See blog post.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, May archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 47 albums, 2 A-list

Music: Current count 44197 [44154) rated (+43), 21 [21] unrated (-0).

Another week, and not a hell of a lot to show for it, although the rated count remains rather high -- boosted by wrapping up the rest of the Strata-East reissues I hadn't prioritized last week. Since then, and with my demo queue mostly caught up, it's been a struggle to find things to check out, although I now have a fairly sizable checklist based on the DownBeat Critics Poll ballot, which is sending me back to 2024 records, many of which never even placed in my 2024 EOY Aggregate (which among other things means they went unmentioned in the 2024 Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll).

I blew out a full two days of my time filling in the 73 categories DownBeat asked me to vote for. As usual, I took notes, this time being careful to copy down all of the nominees they offered in all of the categories. To save time, I dispensed with attempting any sort of running commentary -- as I've often done in previous years (which start in 2003, well before they first invited me to vote) -- although I may return and add some later. As my method is to start with last year's notes and edit them as I go, I'm aware that most of what I dropped were lists of snubbed musicians (which in major categories like alto sax and piano could be very long; but to do them properly, as opposed to just reiterating last year's lists, would take a lot of effort, something I was in no mood for).

I also have thoughts on the design and implementation of the poll, but they would do little good. Some I've actually shared with DownBeat, like splitting Hall of Fame into separate living and dead sections, since they tend to be judged differently, and the two-per-year process is too limiting -- cf. the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's by-the-dozen approach, which, easy to say, is way too much. I also think the album categories should be calendar aligned: that critics should have an extra 3 months to consider the past year, and that readers should have 9 months, should not just be deemed a feature but relished as a luxury. It takes time to catch up, and more time for things to sink in, so why not take advantage?

I have a million other complaints -- ok, more like a couple hundred, but the mass is way too daunting to detail. The least I can do is mention this line from the invite: "As you already know, it's a LOOOONG ballot and will probably take a little less than an hour to complete, but your input is truly valued." I've never completed it in less than three hours, and that was only by cribbing from past note sheets and voting for 90% of the same people again. Even this year, where my revotes came close to 80%, it took me 6-8 hours, spread out over three days. There are 73 categories, and each one offers 40-75 nominees (with new jazz albums peaking at 136 -- only 22 on my A-lists, out of 110 for 2024, so 80% of my top picks don't even get nominated).

Other than that, I managed to get a small amount of house work done last week. I cleared out a pile of dead, decrepit, and/or just disgusting electronics and hauled them off to recycle. I've done some sweeping, some window cleaning, and some yard work. I more-or-less fixed a porch rail that's been leaning alarmingly. I found where an air conditioner plastic slab has broken, so I need to figure out how to straighten it out and get it level. The big task of finding proper places for all the CDs and books, including weeding a few out, remains, as does the more confusing job of sorting out the tools and hardware and putting them where I can find them. The garage and basement need major cleaning.

I should go shopping for glasses. While my eyesight is improved, short/medium distances are still troublesome. I need to work on my planning, especially for writing, website development, and finding a new car. Unclear how long the current one will even keep running. It certainly doesn't inspire me to consider any sort of road trip.

I do have enough material for a Loose Tabs this week. Possibly for a Books post as well: draft file has 16 main section books; while in the past my standard has been 40, I've been wanting to cut that down, especially as the sublists have grown, and I once posited 20 as a good size. We're beginning to see the first post-2024 election books, and there are a number of important new books on Israel. I also have a big section on jazz books, which I've rarely compiled before. And I still have a lot of tabs open.

I also have a couple of questions I hope to answer -- I considered knocking them out today, but don't want to delay posting any more than necessary. How much of this stuff I'll get done next week is anyone's guess. The only project I'm actually enthusiastic about is a dinner, which will give me a chance to combine the salad I missed from the Burmese birthday dinner last October with a couple of old Thai favorites (including one, panang curry duck, that I haven't made since a birthday dinner over a decade ago).

Minor housekeeping note: as I've been listening to 2024 releases, I've been adding them to the appropriate 2024 files, including tracking, jazz and non-jazz, and even the EOY aggregate (although I'm making no active effort to collect more data for it). I've basically given up on the idea of including previous-year albums that were unknown to me in the new year lists (as I had done for many years). Eventually, I think that all of the older annual lists should be resynched to calendar year, although at this stage the amount of work involved is hard to imagine doing.

I'll also note that my Bluesky account has finally topped 100 followers. I got nervous for a while when the count dropped from 100 to 99, especially as that happened right after a non-music post that no one seems to have understood.

New records reviewed this week:

• Albare: Eclecticity (2025, Alfi): [cd]: B+(*)
• Håkon Berre: Mirror Matter (2025, Barefoot): [sp]: B+(**)
• T Bone Burnett: The Other Side (2024, Verve Forecast): [sp]: B+(**)
• Cyrus Chestnut: Rhythm, Melody and Harmony (2024 [2025], HighNote): [sp]: B+(***)
• Yuval Cohen Quartet: Winter Poems (2023 [2025], ECM): [sp]: B+(**)
• George Colligan: You'll Hear It (2024, La Reserve): [sp]: B+(*)
• Alyn Cosker: Onta (2025, Calligram): [cd]: B+(*)
• The Coward Brothers: The Coward Brothers (2024, New West): [sp]: B+(*)
• James Davis' Beveled: Arc and Edge (2024 [2025], Calligram): [cd]: B+(***)
• DJ Dadaman & Moscow Dollar: Ka Gaza (2025, Nyege Nyege Tapes): [sp]: B+(***)
• Djrum: Under Tangled Silence (2025, Houndstooth): [sp]: B+(***)
• Maria Faust Sacrum Facere: Marches Rewound & Rewritten (2024 [2025], Stunt): [sp]: B+(**)
• Satoko Fujii This Is It!: Message (2024 [2025], Libra): [cd]: A-
• Galactic and Irma Thomas: Audience With the Queen (2025, Tchoup-Zilla): [sp]: B+(***)
• Hamell on Trial: Harp (for Harry) (2025, Saustex): [sp]: A-
• Joel Harrison: Guitar Talk Vol. 2: Classical Duos/Jazz Duos (2023 [2025], AGS, 2CD): [cd]: B+(*)
• HHY & the Kampala Unit: Turbo Meltdown (2025, Nyege Nyege Tapes): [sp]: B+(**)
• Hieroglyphic Being: Dance Music 4 Bad People (2025, Smalltown Supersound): [sp]: B+(***)
• Art Hirahara: Good Company (2023 [2024], Posi-Tone): [sp]: B+(*)
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis and Bryan Stevenson: Freedom, Justice, and Hope (2021 [2024], Blue Engine): [sp]: B+(**)
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis: The Music of Max Roach (2024, Blue Engine): [sp]: B+(*)
• KnCurrent: KnCurrent (2024 [2025], Deep Dish): [cd]: B+(***)
• Hedvig Mollestad Trio: Bees in the Bonnet (2024 [2025], Rune Grammofon): [sp]: B+(***)
• John Patitucci: Spirit Fall (2024 [2025], Edition): [sp]: B+(***)
• Pé: Æzæl: Eternity of Nonexistence (2025, Tokinogake): [sp]: B
• Sault: 10 (2025, Forever Living Originals): [sp]: B+(*)
• Joona Toivanen Trio: Gravity (2025, We Jazz): [sp]: B+(**)
• Gregory Uhlmann/Josh Johnson/Sam Wilkes: Uhlmann/Johnson/Wilkes (2023 [2025], International Anthem): [sp]: B+(**)
• Julia Úlehla and Dálava: Understories (2021 [2025], Pi): [cd]: B+(**)
• Jordan VanHemert: Survival of the Fittest (2024 [2025], Origin): [cd]: B+(**) [05-16]
• The War and Treaty: Plus One (2025, Mercury/UMG Nashville): [sp]: B-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Borghesia: Clones (1984 [2025], Dark Entries): [bc]: B+(**)
• George Colligan: Live at the Jazz Standard (2014 [2025], Whirlwind): [sp]: B+(**)
• The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe: A Spirit Speaks (1974 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B
• Shamek Farrah: First Impressions (1974 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(***)
• Shamek Farrah & Sonelius Smith: The World of the Children (1976 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(**)
• Art Pepper: An Afternoon in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (1980 [2025], Elemental Music): [sp]: B+(***)
• The Piano Choir: Handscapes (1972 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B
• The Piano Choir: Handscapes 2 (1974 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(*)
• Albert White: The Definitive Albert White ([2025], Music Maker): [sp]: B+(*)

Old music:

• Khan Jamal: Cool (1989 [2008], Porter): [sp]: B+(**)

Limited Sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.

• Isaiah Collier/William Hooker/William Parker: The Ancients (2023 [2025], Eremite): [bc]: ++

Grade (or other) changes:

• Marshall Allen: New Dawn (2024 [2025], Mexican Summer): [sp]: [was: B+(*)]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Albare: Eclecticity (Alfi) [05-02]
• Paul Dunmall Quartet: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (RogueArt)
• Michika Fukumori: Eternity (Summit) [06-06]
• Ramon Lopez: 40 Springs in Paris (RogueArt) [05-25]
• Madre Vaca: Yukon (Madre Vaca) [05-26]
• Polyfillas: Rude Boys of England E.P. (self-released, EP)
• Ron Rieder: Día Precioso! (Mason) [05-15]
• Transcendence: Music of Pat Metheny (FMR) [07-01]

Daily Log

Michael Tatum became my 100th follower on Bluesky. Then I dropped back down to 99, which bummed me out, tempting me to quit the rat race. I see today I'm up to 101, but notifications isn't telling me who joined. I took a look at Tatum's following list, and decided to follow several: Cam Patterson, Maura Johnston, Will Hermes, Greg Magarian, Jeff Melnick. Could have picked a few more, but I tend to err on the side of caution. Several more on his list I'm already following. Also several who follow me but I haven't yet reciprocated.

Working on DownBeat Critics Poll. Last night just got to the albums page. I'm copying down all of the nominees, but also throwing away my previous years' side-comments. I've collected the album nominees, but haven't checked them against my grades yet (except for A-list, to decide how to vote). While I could hardly care less about the role categories, the album categories are useful checklists. My notes are here.

Daily Log

I just noticed a new form of URL which looks possibly useful. Evidently this can be used to search out a specific text string within a page:

#:~:text= . . .

Perhaps this is just specific to Wikipedia, which is where this particular example comes from.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, May archive (in progress).

Tweet: Music Week: 47 albums, 7 A-list

Music: Current count 44154 [44107) rated (+47), 21 [25] unrated (-4).

Another week, with little to show for it, other than a high rated count, thanks to being able to use the Strata-East reissue bonanza as a checklist (in turn pointing me to some related albums). I also followed up on social media mentions to dig up a few old albums I had missed but by artists I've listened to much by (Don Cherry, Dudu Pukwana). I also largely caught up with the release schedule of my demo queue, but I have so little sense of the current date that I may have slipped behind again.

I might also note that I while I rarely request review copies, I did ask for the Murray album, and despite what I took to be a favorable reply, never got it. But since I could stream it, I did. I also didn't receive the Eskelin, nor have I heard the remaster, but I graded both constituent albums A- when they came out, and relistening showed that the grades held up, so I went ahead and wrote the best review I could. One more note is that I got a nice letter from Jon Gold hoping I like his album, a day or two after I plainly didn't like it. Seems like a nice guy who probably deserves a more sympathetic ear than I could muster at the time.

I published a fairly substantial Loose Tabs last week. I didn't update the file this time, but have some new material in the Tabs and Books files. I finally got around to updating the books archive, clearing the way for a new column.

I have an invite to vote in DownBeat's Critics Poll, deadline May 12, so I'll probably try to knock that out. The invite promises it will take less than an hour to fill out, but I've never done it in less than 3-4 hours, and the only way I can do it in less than 6-8 is by shifting to a mode where I stop caring and just copy down answers from previous years. It occurs to me that George Russell may finally be eligible for their Hall of Fame Veterans Committee. They have a weird system that makes it easier for someone who died young to get into their Hall of Fame (e.g., Booker Little, Scott LaFaro) than someone like Russell, whose career was long with many remarkable aspects.

Carlos Lozada's The Washington Book is stimulating a lot of thought on my part. One nice thing about it being an essay collection is that when I run across a chapter I like, I can usually find a link to the original that I can share. The biggest and most important piece so far is 9/11 was a test. The books of the last two decades show how America failed. I've read about half of these books, plus twice as many more, but reached this same conclusion before I read any. I'm not sure I can find the citation, as I wasn't blogging at the time, but my initial reaction was that it was a "wake up call," a challenge to reexamine one's values and make remedies to get back into the right. But I started with a pretty keen awareness that America wasn't always right or honorable or even decent. While that much I learned since growing up with the Vietnam War, what the last twenty-four years have taught me is that Americans have not only "failed the test," they've become much worse people as a result.

New records reviewed this week:

• Kris Adams/Peter Perfido: Away (2021 [2025], Jazzbird): [cd]: B+(*)
• Anika: Abyss (2025, Sacred Bones): [sp]: B+(***)
• Gustavo Cortiñas: The Crisis Knows No Borders (2022 [2025], Desafio Candente): [sp]: B+(***)
• Alabaster DePlume: A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole (2024 [2025], International Anthem): [sp]: B+(**)
• Destroyer: Dan's Boogie (2025, Merge): [sp]: B+(**)
• Joe Fiedler Trio 2.0: Dragon Suite (2024 [2025], Multiphonics Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Jon Gold: Chasing Echos (2025, Entropic): [cd]: C+
• The Haas Company Featuring Samuel Hällkvist: Vol. 3: Song for Mimi (2025, Psychiatric): [cd]: B+(*)
• Christoph Irniger Pilgrim: Human Intelligence Live (2023 [2025], Intakt): [sp]: B+(**)
• Melissa Kassel & Tom Zicarelli Group: Moments (2022 [2025], MKMusic): [cd]: B+(*)
• Kingdom Molongi: Kembo (2025, Nyege Nyege Tapes): [sp]: B-
• Marilyn Kleinberg: Let Your Heart Lead the Way (2022 [2025], Waking Up Music): [cd]: B+(***)
• Le Vice Anglais: Vas-y (2023-24 [2025], 4DaRecord): [cd]: B+(***)
• Mira Trio: Machinerie (2022-23 [2025], 4DaRecord): [cd]: B+(**)
• David Murray Quartet: Birdly Serenade (2025, Impulse!): [sp]: A-
• The Reddish Fetish With the Jersey City All Stars: Llegue (2025, F&F): [cd]: B+(***)
• Clay Wulbrecht: The Clockmaster (2024 [2025], Instru Dash Mental): [cd]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Charles Brackeen: Rhythm X (1968 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(***)
• The Brass Company: Colors (1974 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(***)
• Stanley Cowell: Musa: Ancestral Streams (1974 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(***)
• Stanley Cowell: Regeneration (1975 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B
• Stanley Cowell/Billy Harper/Reggie Workman/Billy Hart: Such Great Friends (1983 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: A-
• Ellery Eskelin: Trio New York About (or On) First Visit (2011-13 [2025], Ezz-Thetics): [dl]: A-
• Joe Fiedler's "Open Sesame": F . . . Is for Funny (2018-21 [2024], Multiphonics Music): [bc]: B+(**)
• Billy Harper: Capra Black (1973 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(**)
• John Hicks: Hells Bells (1975 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(***)
• John Hicks: Steadfast (1975 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(**)
• The New York Bass Violin Choir: The New York Bass Violin Choir (1969-75 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(**)
• Billy Parker's Fourth World: Freedom of Speech (1974 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(**)
• Cecil Payne: Zodiac (1972 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(***)
• Charlie Rouse: Two Is One (1974 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B
• Strata-East: The Legacy Begins (1968-75 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(***)
• Charles Tolliver With Gary Bartz/Herbie Hancock/Ron Carter/Joe Chambers: Right Now . . . and Then (1968 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: A-
• Charles Tolliver's Music Inc: Live at the Loosdrecht Jazz Festival (1972 [2025],, Strata-East): [sp]: B+(***)
• Charles Tolliver Music Inc: Compassion (1977 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: A-
• Charles Tolliver: Live in Berlin: At the Quasimodo (1988 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(***)
• Harold Vick: Don't Look Back (1974 [2025], Strata-East): [sp]: B+(**)

Old music:

• Don Cherry/Lennart Åberg/Bobo Stenson/Anders Jormin/ Anders Kjellberg/Okay Temiz: Dona Nostra (1993 [1994], ECM): [sp]: B+(***)
• Stanley Cowell: Brilliant Circles (1969 [1992], Black Lion): [sp]: B+(***)
• Stanley Cowell: It's Time (2011 [2012], SteepleChase): [sp]: B+(**)
• Joe Fiedler: Will Be Fire (2023, Multiphonics Music): [bc]: B+(**)
• John Hicks: After the Morning (1979, West): [sp]: B+(**)
• Cecil Payne: Patterns of Jazz (1956 [1959], Savoy): [yt]: B+(***)
• Cecil Payne: Cerupa (1993 [1995], Delmark): [sp]: B+(**)
• Dudk Pukwana and Zila: Life in Bracknell & Willisau (1983, Jika): [yt]: A-
• Harold Vick: Steppin' Out (1963 [1996], Blue Note): [sp]: B+(**)

Grade (or other) changes:

• New Orleans Party Classics (1955-91 [1992], Rhino): [cd]: [was: B+] A

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Alyn Cosker: Onta (Calligram) [05-02]
• James Davis' Beveled: Arc and Edge (Calligram) [05-02]
• Dickson & Familiar: All the Light of Our Sphere (Sounds Familiar) [05-31]
• Mark Masters Ensemble: Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance! (Capri) [06-06]
• Mark Masters Ensemble: Sam Rivers 100 (Capri) [06-09]

Daily Log

I saw a post on Bluesky about "proud of the garden I created from nothing 6-8 years ago," which has "been 100% neglected (no watering, pruning, etc.) for 3+ years." Advice: "plant drought-tolerant, location suited flora." Now if only I knew what the fuck that was?

Apr 2025

Jun 2025