Results tagged “havei”

At this point, I guess most of you readers out there know that I don't eat to live – I live to eat. So it stands to reason that I've had a few dining experiences this year that have been especially memorable. Some of them appeared on Phillyist, and others did not. But gourmets and gourmands alike rejoice: they're all here, in all their mouth drooling glory.

To my dear, darling boyfriend:

Surprisingly, its not the usual bouquet of aged urine, fecal matter, and assorted garbage left to ferment. The Subway actually smells nice. In the last week and a half, I've seen crews at work at 30th, 11th, and 8th street stations actually mopping. Other times I've come across a slowly drying non-urine film accompanied by yellow signs telling me "Caution Wet Floor" and something or other in Spanish. Yes, they were mopping the subway. Not quite as shocking as the time I saw a pantless homeless woman cleaning her vagina on The Union League Steps (now that would be a great photo for their website—if only I had a camera phone then) but still, it takes one off guard. Isn't it supposed to smell awful? What's next, killing off all the rats? And it's not just pine I'm smelling down there, it's some exuberant pine scent mixed with something exotic—perhaps jasmine or goddammit, maybe even eucalyptus. Did they consult Bed Bath and Beyond prior to this?!

DJ Shadow - who's playing the TLA tonight - is not a band: he's a man. His name is no cutesy moniker, either; he's really a DJ. Thus his latest album, The Outsider (released last month), is not really an album: it's just a set of tracks he's helped compile and spin for us. From track to track, it's often hard to believe you're listening to the same CD; it sounds more like a very odd playlist or mixed tape. There's the fantasy movie epic spoken-word intro track, then the Frank Sinatra-style "This Time (I'm gonna try it my way)." Then all of the sudden we get some straight-up rap tracks featuring appearances by a number of San Francisco Bay Area hip hop musicians. The topics are typical: cruising for women, living the gangsta life. But then there's the catalog of political commentary/conspiracies that is "Seein Thangs," which seems to be leading into more of the same in "Broken Levee Blues," until that becomes more of a traditional blues/rock guitar instrumental, leading into a high-speed, beat-heavy dance rock instrumental ("Artifact"), leading into the incredible fusion of genres that is "Backstage Girl," an amusing story-song about some groupie nookie which drifts from blues to jazz to rock to hip hop to rap. Before you've recovered from that, it's time for a lovely string instrumental ("Triplicate / Something Happened That Day"), and then a handful of quite excellent contemporary pop rock tracks in the style of Radiohead and Coldplay ("The Tiger," "Erase You," "You Made It") with a weird but pleasant fantasy-spoken-word-folk-Enya-Legend-soundtrack kind of thing thrown in for good measure ("What Have I Done"), before finishing up with more rap and hip hop (including the inevitable remix of a previous track).