Accept no substitutes

Author: Paul (Page 60 of 147)

Hillman Pedersen – I am a weiner!

A few minutes ago I was listening to WCOM and noticing an interesting mix of music — some modern country, some North African singing, the Byrds doing the not-often-heard “Tribal Gathering” etc. As the announcer/DJ began to go over the setlist, I was listening to hear what he had to say. The next thing I know he’s announcing a contest. The prize for the first caller is a pair of tickets to the upcoming Chris Hillman – Herb Pedersen concert at the ArtCenter.

I was the first caller. Woo! Woo! Just for paying attention while I was washing dishes.

The show was Roots Rampage and the DJ was Triangle Slim. Thanks Slim. I’m looking forward to seeing Chris Hillman.

Jones in the Marketplace – On On Demand Books

Book ATM?
Just did a little bit on OnDemandBooks with Janet Babin for tomorrow’s Marketplace on NPR.

My 15 seconds may be about the first “on demand books” I saw in 2001 – 2002 when Brewster was getting the Internet Bookmobile going with what looks like an early version of the same technologies.

And a little about the costs to a library of keeping and loaning books.

Then some on non-market production and market opportunities

She’s building the story starting from this Fortune Small Business/CNN story.

@ WCOM in an unclaimed slot

About half of the Teen Spirit DJs are here at WCOM picking up an unclaimed slot. Interesting to hear the off-air chatter of 13 year olds who have become music experts in the past few months. Forget your assumptions about what they will like and what bands they will revere.
Talking Heads and REM get play but also get dissed along with the Smiths, the Ramones, and Radiohead.

Caldo Verde de Sur de USA

It worked out great and tasted great too. And I have some left over. I combined the ideas from several recipes to come up with:

1.5 large red onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 pound chorizo
6 medium potatoes
1 can of black eyed peas
1 large sweet red bell pepper
6 or more baby carrots
1 pound of kale
8 cups of water
enough olive oil for sauting

First finely chop the onion, crush the garlic and dice about 1/4 of the chorizo.
Saute in the large pot in olive oil til the onion is transparent.
Next add the potatoes, peeled and diced in about 1/4 inch cubes, with some of the peas and saute for about 2 minutes.
Add the water and bring to a boil then down to a simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
Remove from heat and cool enough to puree. Puree.
Dice the carrots, pepper and the remaining chorizo.
Thinly slice or chop as finely as possible, or as I did use a food processor to shred the kale.
Return the puree to the pot and add the rest of the ingredients (peas, chorizo, pepper, carrots and kale)
Bring back to a boil and cook until the kale becomes tender and dark green — about 10 minutes.
The carrots and pepper will still have some crunch to them and will add texture and color to the soup.

The combination of greens (could have used collards) and black eyed peas will bring you wealth and good luck if eaten on New Year’s Day.

Things I learned for next time: Strip the kale for the stalks before shredding. Perhaps add spices — hot pepper, bayleaf, thyme — that I expected to get from the taste of the chorizo. Add a few of the cooked black eyed peas as garnish near the end for better visual effect. Consider a spicier chorizo to better suit the palettes of this house. Serve with corn bread. I used sourdough which was great, but good cornbread would be perfect with this.

Phil Meyer on Citizen Journalism in LATimes and Guardian

Colleague Phil Meyer talks about Citizen Journalism in the LA Times in “Reporting’s mass appeal” reflecting on the past and how it will likely inform the present and the future. He ends with a great take away:

“I close every semester by saying, ‘I’ve just taught you journalism as it was practiced in my day. The journalism in your day is going to be different,’ ” Meyer said. ” ‘It’s up to you to invent it, please don’t mess it up.’ “

also cited at the Guardian UK

Caldo Verde

Had a great bowl of caldo verde at the BBQ Joint yesterday and decided that with a few tweeks that it would make a great New Years pot. So off to the last Farmer’s Market Saturday til March where I picked up locally grown taters, kale, onions, and locally made chorizo to which I’ll add black-eyed peas, sweet pepper and carrots.

Perfect Portugal meets Eastern NC for the New Year.

Will report back later.

Il Quartetto Basileus

A little over 20 years ago, I saw an Italian movie in Italian called “Il Quartetto Basileus.” I remember the incredible music of the quartet and the passion brought to the music and to the quartet by the young and destructively life engaging new member.

Tonight I saw the movie again. I was entranced by the lighting and by the music again. But the story now that I am the same age as the older members of the quartet who had been together for 30 years to the exclusion of all else. I saw the movie more vividly. The movie is the tale of change in age and of the attraction to life that might be lived on the brink by those who have postponed or avoided joy and risk. Each of the older members of the quartet reacts differently to the young prodigy that has joined them after their original violinist dies. Is the movie life affirming? That I could not say. It is poignant and touching and reflecting life and the costs of avoiding it or postponing it.

Not on Netflix.

Femme Fatale – blast from several pasts

Was mourning the closing of the Daily Grind (for remodeling they will be back) and speculating on what Pepper’s will be like in its new location while working from Jack Spratt’s with Don and Ken when the REM version of Lou Reed’s song, “Femme Fatale,” came on the sound system.

I knew it was familiar. I knew it way back as sung by Nico of the Andy Warhol sponsored Velvet Underground featuring Lou Reed and John Cale.

Sure enough I found a version of Nico and the Velvets doing a live version of the song on YouTube — and a recent version live by Lou Reed in which Lou mocks Nico a little before getting into the song.

The South in Black and White

Tim Tyson will be leading a course through the Center for Documentary Studies called “The South in Black and White” to be held January 16 – April 24, 2007 Tuesdays 7:00 – 9:30 PM at the Hayti Heritage Center, 804 Old Fayetteville Street, Durham, North Carolina.

The class is open to the general public and is given for credit for students enrolled at NCCU, Duke and UNC – Chapel Hill.

“Joy is Here” is bumped to New Year’s Eve

An exchange of notes with my editor goes like this:

She: [other poet] sent me a christmas poem, so i’d like to run yours on new years eve. okay?
Me: You mean it’s more joyful than mine?
She: Not necessarily. [other poet]’s is more Christmasy.
Me: More Christmasy that a contingent and contextual look at the compromises we make to achieve joy?
She: [other poet]’s has a star in it.
Me: if i add a star somewhere in my poem can i be the christmas poem? i already have birds and a tree.
She: yours will be the perfect poem to greet the new year.
Me: What if someone shows up with a poem with party hats and champagne in it, will I get bumped again?
She: hmm. well .. let me think about that.
Me: Wait! Wait! I’m rewriting now. Mine will have a party hat. And it will have a very large acorn.
She: ok! you’re secured!

Such are the battles of literature.

Mourning the closing of the Daily Grind

Our favorite social space and coffee provider is being boarded up and moved out of their/its building for renovations. The Daily Grind was moving into a trailer yesterday. Not even an Airstream (to Don’s disappointment), but a rectangular FEMA trailer or one like you might see at the State Fair or at a, say, steeple chase event (to cover a couple of ends of the social spectrum).
Don and I are now in Carrboro working outdoors at the Weave.

Interestingly enough, we are running into many of the people here that we often see at the Grind — or make that saw at the Grind.

The Grind will reopen in the trailer then in the renovated space. But in the meantime, we’re in mourning.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 The Real Paul Jones

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑