Journal of the Movement of the World

Man. We never use this blog for self-promotion. We should look into that more.  

Starting now! We just added to our online portfolio an invite we did a while back for Susan Rockefeller, Christie's, and the non-profit, Oceana, who is the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation.

You can read the full write-up on our site, but we liked it, so we thought we'd put it here too.

From the Nest

Reader, you may not know what kaffir lime leaves are, but, if you've ever eaten traditional Indonesian, Malaysian, Burmese, or Thai cuisine—especially red, massaman, and panang curries—you'd likely recognize the leaf's distinct flavor. It's one of those flavors that I realized in my adult life I really really loved, but it's not one I ever thought to employ in cocktails or other libations.  

Then came Pok Pok NY, the hot new Thai street food spot a short walk from our apartment where one of the delectable drinks they feature is the Pok Pok Gin + Tonic, "house-infused kaffir lime gin served tall with tonic." At first taste, I knew I had fallen head-over-heel in love with this drink. Even Katie, who usually isn't a huge gin fan, loves the drink. The kaffir taste both compliments the bittersweet taste of the tonic and builds off of the piney, juniper berry flavor of the gin to create an altogether new, refreshing, exotic taste.

Infusing may sound like an overly daunting task not worth the time, but it's actually quite the opposite. Essentially, you put a thing in a bottle of liquor and let it sit for a while; longer for more solid, less porous things, not long at all for less solid, more porous things. We've been doing it for a while now—our habenero-infused tequila has been a painfully raucous party mainstay for years now—and have to say, kaffir lime leaf infused gin is definitely one of our favorite liquor infusions.

Again, all you need to do is get a clean, sealable bottle (like the swing-top above), add your washed, whole kaffir lime leaves, and then fill with gin. We recommend using a separate bottle at first so you're not committing to a giant bottle of infused gin, but if you're feeling bold, go ahead and just throw them in the original bottle. We do like using clear bottles though so you can monitor the liquor color and watch the leaves—if they're not fresh enough, there's a chance that they'l start to brown if kept in for too long and not used. As to how many to use, it all depends on how flavorful you'd like the end product to be, but we use a large handful—probably about 20 leaves—for a 750ml bottle. Then we just let it sit in a cool, dark place for a week or so, until the gin becomes fragrant and tinged with green.

Honestly, the hardest part might be actually tracking down these elusive leaves. If you're lucky enough to have a Thai specialty store in your town, they're a great bet—they might have them fresh but, more likely, they'll be frozen. But, even in Chinatown's large asian markets, the leaves can be hard to find, if they're available at all. We get ours at a small Thai specialty store on Mulberry where the leaves are sold in tiny resealable bags from stand-up freezer.

But, whether it's an easy find for you or not, if you're fond of the tastes of southeastern asia, fancy green-tinged drinks, and gin, we assure you—it's well worth the challenge.

And remember, as they say in Thailand, เล่นกับหมา หมาเลียปาก.

Lovely photo taken by Keith De-Lin last week at out Thanksgiving dinner party.

The Find

The other night, Katie and I watched the documentary feature, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the story of 85-year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the most gifted sushi chef in the world. He works with his adult son and a small staff out of a tiny 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant oddly located inside of a Tokyo subway station. Despite that, he has bookings months in advance and was the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a three-star rating from the Michelin Guide. Which is, we hear, a big deal.

Clearly we weren't jonseing so much on the copious shots of dismembered sealife atop rice or the idea of sushi involving fish et cetera—we're still very anti-that. What we were into, though, was the idea behind this guy's life.  

Via the film, he introduced to us the Japanese idea of shokunin. According to Tasio Odate:

“The Japanese word shokunin is defined by both Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries as ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan,’ but such a literal description does not fully express the deeper meaning. The Japanese apprentice is taught that shokunin means not only having technical skills, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness.… The shokunin has a social obligation to work his/her best for the general welfare of the people. This obligation is both spiritual and material, in that no matter what it is, the shokunin’s responsibility is to fulfill the requirement.”

And no, I have no idea who Tasio Odate is. Try to search for the dude online. I swear, all you get is that quote.

So, yes, ol' Tasio could be some random ne'er-do-well who sells meth down by the Yokohama docks, but that's not the point. The point is, we really like that idea. The idea that what we do is greater than the sum of its parts and that, most importantly, what we do, we do for the purpose of bettering the world, be it through making the most kick-ass sushi this side of anywhere or, say, creating what—in our minds at least—are the best possible designs we can create for our clients. 

Doing good work feels good, especially when you're doing it for good people. Phoning it in—totally does not feel good. Jiro would not phone it in.

So, despite our vegan ethics, we implore you to check out Jiro and his fellow shokunin.

And no, I am not getting that tattooed on the small of my back. Shokunin staaaaaaaaamp!

Vegan Thanksgiving

Reader, you should know that we consider Thanksgiving the penultimate holiday. Not because we think the idyllic picture of Native Americans + pilgrims sitting down to a big hokey dinner holds any historical water, mind you. No, the primary appeal for us has always been three-fold: First, we love cooking a lot of food and entertaining guests—I mean, our default is to prepare so many elaborate dishes that we could feed a small vegan army, so it's nice to have an actual real-world demand for vast spreads of food from time to time; second, we really enjoy just hanging out with friends and just gabbing it up, especially when we can play host and do it in the comfort of our own home—bring the party to us, as it were!; thirdly, we totally love not traveling on a holiday and enjoying the bizarre ghost metropolis of New York City as half of its gargantuan populace leaves us contentedly in the dust...it's kinda like that persistent childhoof fantasy of being locked in a toy store at night. But with more pigeons + booze. 

This year we teamed up with friends to create a truly coma-inducing menu, which you can see pictured above, but we've also detailed herein. Behold!

appetizer

herb roasted nuts

avocado salsa

butternut squash handpies 

chipotle cream sauce

salad

arugula + shaved fennel salad

roasted pecans, dried cranberries, lemon vinaigrette

protein

hazelnut cranberry celebration roast en croute

orange glaze, carrot & red pepper coulis

vegetable

roasted brussels sprouts

smoked shiitakes, roasted pecans

crispy fried potato skins

vegan cheese, smoked tempeh, house made sour cream

curry kale & potato galette

candied yams

dessert

pistachio olive oil cake

fig compote filling + cream cheese icing

oven roasted banana rum cheesecake

pecan pie tartlets

I know. I'm full again just reading through that.

Our friends Stacy + Keith documented the extravaganza with the photos below and many more over on their blog, Vegan Fatty Boomblatty. We've linked to the handpie + olive oil cake recipes above and Stacy + Keith have written up basic instructions on how to do the potato skins (which were really good) and provided a recipe for the tartlets (ditto) over at VFB.

Oh, and for the record—ultimate holiday: the day before Thanksgiving, when you've four days of awesomeness ahead of you and a world of possibilities, most of which revolve around eating, drinking, and/or watching The Cosby Show. Best.

Photos below by Stacy + Keith De-lin.

The Song

Reader, I'd never call myself a hero. Much less a superhero. But—MARK MY WORDS—I think I may be developing super powers. No, I can't leap over buildings or shoot destructive beams from my eyes or eat a lot (no, for real—there was a kid called Matter Eater Lad in DC comics in the 60s who just...ate a lot), but I believe I may be showing signs of precognitive dreaming.

Last night...get ready for this...I had a dream that LA's Local Natives had a new album coming out. And that I wrote about a song from it. And now...IT'S FUCKING HAPPENING!

Holy shit, right? I mean, yes, when we last wrote about the band it was spring of 2010, so some new material by them is certainly well overdue as is...and yes, true, maybe I heard that the band's sophomore full-length—Hummingbird—would be coming out in the new year and just lodged that away somewhere in my musical subconscious...and yes, I kind of control what I blog about, so that is kind of like saying "Hey buddy, I can tell the future: I'm about to smack you in the face" and then smacking some poor fellow in the face (fair warning though)...but I'd still like to think I might be the next New Mutant or some such thing. Visionem Nocte? Trivial Future-Telling Dream Man?

Eh. Beats Arm Fall Off Boy.

Anyway, be you a believer of the supernatural, Reader, or a naysayer + skeptic, I'll at least wager—NAY, PREDICT!—that'll you'll really like this new track from one of our favorite west coast bands. Catchy, driving, heavily rhythmic, and sounding a bit more subdued and mature than their Gorilla Manor days, I'd say it bodes well for the new album, out January 29 on Frenchkiss/Infectious.

The band'll be Europe-bound next week but then back in Cali to celebrate their album release with a couple shows at the end of January and then playing three back-to-back sold out shows in NYC at the top of February. You can find a full tour listing on the band's site.

Alright, stay tuned for more predictions of musically mystic import! HUZZAH!

With Love

Peace out, Reader.

The Song

Man. Will you look at that, Reader. We've got nearly solid music posts all the way back to the beginning of October. It's like we don't even care about wonderful vegan recipes, or well-crafted design, or crazy animated GIFs of cats that just can't handle it. It's like we DON'T EVEN CARE!

PS—we totally care about all of those things. 

Well, one more music article, just to keep with the regularity of our daily features, then we promise to get back to some solid design/art/food/small business shopping/cat writing.

Yannick Ilunga—AKA Petite Noir, born to an Angolan Mother and a Congolese Father and now based in Cape Town, South Africa—has got us brimming with anticipation for what's to come. The 21-year-old is single-handedly writing intricate electronic music that he provides a solid base for using live instrumentation and deep, soulful baritone vocals. 

Give this week's Song—his dark + moody but equally catchy, "Till We Ghosts"—a listen to see what we mean. Then check out his video for "Disappear" (directed by South African, Travys Owen), below.

Ilunga is currently on tour with a full band, opening up for one of our favorites—Foals—as they make their way across the UK. Fingers crossed he'll make it stateside soon.

The Song | Post-CMJ Post no. 5 | People Get Ready

And now, Reader, we bring the post-CMJ week to a close, finding we've come full circle. 

Monday, when we kicked this whole thing off after two weeks of radio silence and a massively debilitating natural disaster in the New York City area, we featured a Brooklyn band with its sites set on giving back to this city that's given us all so much. Today, we're doing the same.

Although Brooklyn's People Get Ready are new to the music scene as a group, they're made up of a whole bunch of notable creative types—Luke Fasano (ex-Yeasayer; far left), James Rickman (ex-Lizzie Trulie, ex-Slow Gherkin; far right), Jen Goma (A Sunny Day in Glasgow; second from the right). Steven Reker (second from the left) formed the group after moving to New York from Arizona and performing as a dancer + guitarist in David Byrne's touring band, working as a composer for Yasuko Yokoshi's dance work, and choreographing for Miranda July's film, The Future. So yeah, PGR roll deep in the arts cred, both musical and performing. And it shows, both in the subject matter of their songs and in their live performances. 

The band premiered a video for "Windy City" just yesterday via NPR's All Songs Considered. Here's what NPR's Bob Boilen wrote about the band:

"I saw forty shows during the CMJ Music Marathon this year, and the one by the Brooklyn-based band People Get Ready was by far the most creative. Part of what I love about the band is the way its members think outside the box...way outside the box. For brevity, I'll describe People Get Ready, led by guitarist, dancer, and choreographer Steven Reker, as an indie-rock-performing-art-dance troupe. This is magical musical theater. In the carefully orchestrated live show I saw during CMJ, the video featured here was actually one of the props the band used. Picture this: Some of the group's members stand off to the side of the stage making music while two other members "play" the Masonite flooring. They pull up floor panels, make them wobble and buckle and generally create cool sounds. At some point the panels fly into the air using hooks and ropes, and - bam! - projector lamps come on and play this very video on the panels."

The video mentioned (which you can watch below) is for the song "Windy City" and both the video and song itself are inspired by Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills—a longtime favorite Sherman series of ours. As PGR's Reker puts it:

"I spent a long time looking at those pictures, and then I got so into them, I mean really in to them. I found myself wanting to see things from the perspective of the characters she had made. So the song is basically me having this desire to take over her spot in the picture - forever. It's a dialogue. I try to do it, it's fine for a bit, but I end up getting super tired because I can't hold the pose as long as she can. And then I imagine I'd rather be an inanimate object. Like I'd rather just be her dress or the glass that she's holding, the match that she's striking, the book she is getting off the shelf, and stuff like that. All these objects are endowed perfectly by her, the way she handles them. It's very romantic to me, not in a lovey-dovey way at all but in the way the work feels...livable. It's a livable world she made."

The video was directed by Ty Flowers and shot on Governors Island, where the band held their residency this past summer. And yes, it features the band members dressed up in gold lamé + Statue of Liberty outfits, respectively. 

Watch the video and click the player to give the infectious, jangley, upbeat "Windy City" a listen. If you like what you hear—which you really should if you're not an cold, unfeeling robot—head over to the band's bandcamp page to listen to the full album and buy the digital vesrion. You can grab the vinyl + CD over at Brassland, the artist-operated independent record label started by Alec Hanley Bemis and Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the National.

Where does the NYC disaster relief come in? People Get Ready are playing a show next Wednesday at Williamsburg's Death by Audio—an intimate little space that I'm betting'll be perfect for their performance—with Formica Man + Grooms. They'll be using the show as an opportunity to collect donations for New York areas affected by the storm (the Rockaways, Staten Island, Coney Island, and Red Hook). Most needed items as of now are coats, hand warmers, diapers, baby food, blankets, sleeping bags and hypothermia blankets, batteries (D), carbon monoxide detectors, fold up chairs and tables, sternos, and catering equipment. They'll be updating the list—which you can see on the event's Facebook page—up until the day of the show.

Peace out, Reader, and let this first-class tune lead you into a wonderful weekend.

Photo by Jenn Nielsen.

The Song | Post-CMJ Post no. 4 | J. Thoven

Reader, if you're a regular visitor to this little corner of the Internet, you know we have a running list of issues—pet peeves, let's call them. 

For instance, we—and let me be clear, when I say 'we' I mean more the Royal We, like when the Queen says 'we.' Actually, in general, when in doubt, you can assume that my behavioral patterns will usually follow those of Queen Elizabeth II.

Anyway, by way of example on the annoyances thing, we totally hate it when someone incorrectly corrects others on the 'an historical' thing. That's totally the wrong  pronunciation unless you speak with an accent that omits the consonant sound of the 'h' and therefore need to add a consonant to the end of the indefinite article in order to separate the two words and enhance understanding. Also, maybe it's not a good idea to let you kids ride their scooters around the very crowded, tiny Brooklyn market while you blithely browse the organic produce. Maybe. I don't know.

But the gripe that most often rears its head to remind me how very steadily I am becoming a grumpy old man is a seemingly blatant disregard for aesthetic values. It comes up a lot for me—a bodega that's attempting to appeal to me with a terribly shot photo of what looks like a green-tinged chicken sandwich; the new Brooklyn storefront that, while doing work to tutor kids that I'm sure is totally great, crowds their front display window with really terrible-looking signs and notices on sheets of paper; artists using food in any way in their work (totally grosses me out for some reason); Dr. Z ads. And yes, yes, I realize this reliably places me in the category of yuppie assholes who complain about things that are trivial—just take a look at the comments section of this article and you'll see I'm well aware of how this conversation goes—but I'm graphic designer. It's totally part of the job, right? 

You might see where this is going, Reader, but another such example of a violent affront to my aesthetic senses are 'bad' band names. Archers of Loaf made some badass, totally groundbreaking music, but GOOD GOD, did they lose an ill-advised bet‽ And I was one of the biggest fans of their neighbors, Superchunk, but it took me a solid year or two in my high school days to be able to say that name without gagging. We've written about this admitted snobbery before—we're still semi-convinced that we caused Gobble Gobble to change their name to Born Gold last year—and now it's surfaced again. 

The sign on the door of the downstairs stage at Pianos reading 'J. Thoven' during CMJ nearly kept me from entering the room. I somehow couldn't get the image of a shades-wearing Beethoven-Snoopy hybrid out of my head and was a hair's breadth away from turning right around and heading for the bar. I persevered though and, walking in mid-set, was, very sadly, immediately taken in by the band up on stage and the powerfully catchy, driving music they were churning out on stage. God dammit.

OC-based J. Thoven's sound strikes me as pleasingly reminiscent of mid/late-90s emo—that's like the second iteration of emo, after it was hardcore with singing instead of shouting and before it was mall rock played by guys with eyeliner. With the rapid rimshot percussion, melodic electric guitars, and rhythmic acoustic guitar, Jimmy Eat World's Clarity era comes to mind right off the bat. But the twang in frontman Jake Pappas' raspy voice and vocal harmonies root the band's songs in something a little more earnest and substantial than a 90s indie-emo throwback and their debut is excellent and compelling from beginning to end. So now, regrettably...tearfully, I must prepare myself to answer without wincing as friends and colleagues ask me 'Hey, who is this band, they're awesome?" It's J. Thoven. For fuck's sake, it's J. Thoven.

Listen to and download the title track from their debut EP, City Maze, below and then check out their video for the superb song, "Wash It Won't Make It Clean". Though we'll warn you Reader, if you, like us, are based in the northeast and staring down at snow-covered streets, the cheery scenes of the band running around sunny beaches and playing poolside might be a little tough to take. If you do watch it, be sure to stick with it until the end. There's a killed old-school emo vocal break.

In all earnestness, J. Thoven seem like top-notch guys. They're even giving away their entire EP for free. Download it on their site and keep an eye out for them on the road.

Photo by Matt Chenot.

The Song | Post-CMJ Post no. 3 | Little Green Cars

What better way to celebrate the re-election of our Irish president—Mr. Barack O'Bama—than to feature a young up-and-coming band from Dublin.

Little Green Cars is another band we serendipitously saw play while waiting for someone else to hit the stage at CMJ a couple weeks ago. And despite looking like wee babes these youngsters can rock out (they're actually all around 20 years old, but they started the band when they were a mere 15).
 
Even though the band hails from Ireland, their sound is decidedly + heavily influenced by traditionally American song-writing. Their songs range from folksy to emotively rootsy rock with multi-part harmonies and choral vocals. When we saw them, they actually brought the room to a dead silence with their mic check. Which is saying a lot when you're talking about a crowd of jaded New Yorkers who have likely already seen twenty bands that day.

Listen to their single—"The John Wayne"—below and watch the just-released video for the song.

The band will be releasing their debut album—produced by Markus Dravs (Mumford + Sons, Arcade Fire, Coldplay)—early next year. In the meantime, you can purchase "The John Wayne" + it's b-side, "Witching Hour," over at iTunes.

Obama go Brách!

The Song | Post-CMJ Post no. 2 | Field Mouse

We know you might possibly have other things on your mind today, Reader, so we'll keep this short and confine ourselves to a format you're likely currently used to given the goings-on around the nation.

PROPOSED MUSICAL AMENDMENT NUMBER ONE (1): Relating to the listening of 'noise-pop' or 'dream-pop', proposing an amendment to the Current State of Listening to Some Other Thing or (Potentially) Nothing At All, to increase the tonal reference points of the listener and potential aural enjoyment of 2012 (Proposed by Act No. FM2012-258). To vote in favor of the proposed amendment, click the play button below ONCE AND ONLY ONCE OR YOUR CLICK WILL BE COUNTED AS A VOTE FOR MITT ROMNEY. Or pause the song.

PROPUESTA DE MODIFICACIÓN NÚMERO MUSICAL UN (1): Relativo a la escucha de 'noise-pop' o 'dream-pop', que propone una modificación de la situación actual de la Escucha de alguna otra cosa o (potencialmente) Nada en absoluto, para aumentar la puntos de referencia tonales de la escucha y el disfrute potencial auditivo de 2012 (propuesta por la Ley N º FM2012-258). Para votar a favor de la enmienda propuesta, haga clic en el botón de abajo una sola vez O SU CLICK SE CUENTA COMO UN VOTO PARA Mitt Romney. Es evidente que él es el diablo.

建議音樂修訂NUMBER ONE（1）：有關“噪音流行”或“夢想流行的英語聽力水平，提出一項修正案，聽一些其他的事情或（潛在的）什麼都沒有的現狀，以增加音調參考點的監聽器和潛在的聽覺享受2012號法令FM2012-258）要投贊成建議的修訂，請單擊下面的播放按鈕一次，只有一次或您的點擊會被計算為一票，羅姆尼（Mitt Romney）。很明顯，他是魔鬼。

We'd heard Brooklyn's Field Mouse via OH MY ROCKNESS earlier this year but had yet to catch a show of theirs prior to CMJ. Live, the band comes off as wildly reminiscent of the early 90s noise-pop scene, reminding me alternately of the superb Pale Saints + early Velocity Girl, and sometimes sounding like a really nice hybrid of the two. The band's core is made up of singer-guitarist, Rachel Browne, and guitarist, Andrew Futral, whose playing is sometimes more minimalistic scene-painting and really reminds me of this great mid-90s Richmond-VA-based band, Minnow. 

Give their new track, "How Do You Know" a listen and, if you like it, pick it up in 7" form over at Lefse Records. Twin Peaks fans—be sure to listen on below after the main track to hear the b-side, their dreamy cover of the show's theme. Also below, the minimalist slo-mo video for their song, "Glass." They'll be playing a couple Brooklyn shows in the coming weeks too if you hunger for even more. 

Ew. That ended on a weird note.

The Song | Post-CMJ Post no. 1 | Buke + Gase

Holy fuck, Reader, what a couple of weeks that was.

We sincerely apologize for our prolonged radio silence. We initially only planned to take the week off after the illustrious College Media Journal Music Marathon two weeks ago, then, it turns out, a gigantic super-storn hell-beant on sinking New York City hit town and blogging about music + vegan food + artsy stuff swiftly struck us seriously ludicrous. We think the storm was totally somehow created by that same Super PAC that's been airing all those anti-Obama ads that have suddenly hit the airwaves in the metropolitan area, but we don't have any proof...YET!

We made it through the storm with just a few scrapes + minor bruises, namely a busted window in the design studio that was pushed in off of its frame and left precariously hanging over my work area, but clearly we got off easy when compared to residents of Red Hook, Staten Island, the Rockaways, and—sadly—many other neighborhoods and towns in the area.

We had also planned, post-CMJ, to have a week dedicated to the bands we had not featured in our previous pre-CMJ post (which you can still check out and listen through below, by the by); bands we either saw and unexpectedly loved or missed but heard were superb. We'll still be doing that—though a week displaced—but we also thought it fitting to start things off with an appropriately gentle transition from the serious, sombre tones of flooding + tragedy + and all the stricken souls on the east coast...to articles about bands we like. Therefore, our first post-CMJ post is on Brooklyn band Buke + Gase, who we interviewed WAAAAAAY back in the spring of 2010 (check that out here).

The band just announced that they will be selling their appropriately named song "Hard Times" (along with its b-side "Blue Monday") to benefit Red Hook Initiative, who has been working for the past week to organize relief efforts in the heavily hit neighborhood. As Arone + Aron of Buke + Gase put it:

"We used to call Red Hook, Brooklyn home, a neighborhood that's been greatly damaged by Hurricane Sandy. To help support the recovery process, we are donating a song from our upcoming album. All proceeds from the purchase of this song over the next week will go directly to www.rhicenter.org. We wish the best to all who have been affected by the storm, and sending gratitude to those who are helping in any way they can."

So start off the week right with some great music for a really great cause, Reader. "Hard Times" will be a track on Buke + Gase's sophomore LP, General Dome, out January on Brassland.

And for anyone who wants to lend a hand in the area, we highly recommend getting in touch with RHI—Katie + I volunteered with them last week and helped a kindly Red Hook family clear out and clean up their ravaged ground floor. There's a lot of work to do down there still and RHI's doing a superb job organizing efforts + gathering donations. Their Twitter feed is actually a great place to get real time updates on needs. Outside of Red Hook, the Gowanus Studio Space—166 7th Street, Brooklyn—is accepting donations to bring out to the Rockaways. You can take a look at their list of needs here, which they've been updating as they receive donations and new requests. Finally, our New York City Councilmemeber, Brad Lander, has accumulated a pretty comprehensive list of how to help all over NYC and you can also sign up to help out and find out about other New York needs at nycservice.org. 

We'll be back tomorrow with another new band we .

Band photo by Grant Cornett.