March, 2009

Politics/News — Comments Off
13
Mar 09

Underreported

Now a quote from Mary Kane, via Spencer Ackerman:

The most troubling and overlooked aspect of the foreclosure crisis has been the discriminatory and most likely illegal behavior of many lenders in targeting minorities for high-cost loans. The damage done will be felt for decades.

Steering minorities into abusive loans isn’t fodder for entertainment. It probably won’t be dissected and excerpted all over the Internet. It’s just exactly what it seems — a tragedy. And maybe someday it will get the attention it deserves.

The blame surely has been spread around to the point that it has worn thin (greedy mortgage companies! dems for pushing banks to give loans to minorities! stupid borrowers!) but at this point, aside from understanding the reasons to better regulate the industry, we really ought to be looking at the long term community consequences of what this means to start heading it off. Predatory lending affected communities that were already facing challenges (hence their need to get the risky loans) and this just compounds it all and in a way that, as Kane points out, will leave long term damages. So when people rail against mortgage relief and greedy borrowers, think about the unsaid message of it and who the wealthy class thinks is deserving (if they aren’t profiting from it).

Uncategorized — Comments Off
12
Mar 09

Oh yeah

I’m mostly putting stuff up over here these days.

Good Times / Hawaii / Homies / Music — Comments Off
12
Mar 09

Devil’s Pie LA 3/18

So for this month’s devil’s pie, Phatrick and Roza are counting down with music and pastries that fit the party’s theme. Since I’m doing a guest set this month, I figured I’d throw one helping of music and dessert up over here (and also because my tastes are decidedly different….but best believe I’m bringing some dusty burners to DPLA! Party details at the end of this post.)

a-heeeeeere we goooo:
MUSIC

Donna McGhee – Make It last Forever

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From her 1978 album of the same name, this joint is one of those slow deep disco burners that just never gets old for me. The string arrangement on this is bonkers and at 8 minutes it leaves lots of room for Donna to moan and make it, uh, last forever. The album, produced by Patrick Adams and Gregg Carmichael (it was on Carmichael’s “Red Greg” label) features “It Ain’t No Big Thing” which is a classic, but for my money, this is the cut (of course, with Adams on arrangement there are gonna be nuff bangers).

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splendor grrrl.

The Micronauts – The Jag

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Now to veer from Devil’s Pie territory, in 1998 “Make It Last Forever” was sampled by the Micronauts for “The Jag,” a kinda groggy joint used in Gregg Araki’s Splendor (you know, that boring threeway movie) with an equally cliched tripped out pansexual rave-ish drug store video for the song (stay away if you’ve got heteronormative hang-ups…but come on, watch it and spill the L U L Z with the rave fashion, and it’s the guy from GO!). Highlight of “The Jag” is the voice getting pitched up and the stabs of “Make It Last Forever.” It’d be kind of impossible to not make a sexy-ish song from the sample material, but it’s one I listened to on repeat in high school (is that weird? my brother had passed it on to me along with all manner of musical madness). But enough of the rave-aside: “Make It Last Forever” is one in a long tradition of over the top beautiful disco songs with production values that should make a lot of people jealous.

p.s. when uploading the track, I realized that acronymified, “Make It Last Forever,” is MILF. LATE PASS! Also, two Greggs in one post.

DESSERT
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Dobash (Hawai’i)/Doberge (NOLA)(?) /Dobosch Torte (Viennese) (?)
All I know for sure is that back in Hawai’i this joint is dobash and next to some guava cake, it is one of the few desserts i will fux with (i see you too malasadas! what’s good my portuguese (a-hem potagee) fam?). Anyway, the dobash i like has super rich but thin pudding-y layers of filling between super spongy cake, all chocolate. Looking at recipes, they call for at least 7 eggs, so can i get protein from this? Whatever: it’s the bomb and smooth like the strings in “Make It Last Forever” I don’t get all “OMG YUMMMM MMM UMMMM ohhh OHHHH” with pastry usually, but a good dobash is fer sure on the road to bonerville. Aside: When we moved from HI, my mom was craving the cake so she went to the nearby bakery and of course they had no clue as to what she referred, the only thing they came back with was “divorce cake???” HELL YEAH IT IS.

(note: you can get passable dobash in southern california at King’s.

Party info after the jump:

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