the musical fruit: movement #4.

the musical fruit: movement #4.
song: "blue diamonds," the long winters
fruit: blueberries
guest blogger: allison felus


photo from the original long winters-blueberry connection flickr page

when i was first introduced to them in early 2004, i quickly became smitten with the long winters. i spent many happy evenings that summer walking home from work listening to when i pretend to fall on my portable cd player. (portable cd player! this is pre-ipod, people! you know i was committed to the rock if i was carrying around a portable cd player and a small sleeve of disks everywhere i went.) depending on how fast i was going, i could basically get from "blue diamonds" through "prom night at hater high" by the time i was unlocking my front door. the band continues to be one of my faves, one of those groups that i will unquestioningly go see whenever they're in town, and i will buy whatever albums they release. all their stuff is great in its own way, but when i pretend to fall is probably their masterpiece (so far). it's just an immaculate stunner of an album. friend of the band and general man-about-the-internet merlin mann says in this video, "it stands up to repeated listens like...like a dylan record. i mean, it's really, really good"; he even used that awesomely sneaky rhodes piano figure from album-opening track "blue diamonds" as the theme music to the merlin show (now sadly on hiatus).

unlike the kind of big "here i am, world!" album opener that grabs you by the lapels and insists you pay attention, "blue diamonds" has a patient, insinuating charm. it's the perfect tone for telling this oblique story of some sort of criminal act gone wrong and also shows masterful restraint on the meta-level of the album's sequencing. any other band probably would have kicked the album off with that sublime organ whine, chugging drums, and honking horn section at the beginning of "scared straight," which follows, but the production team knew it was smartest to reel listeners in here. this song also contains some of my favorite lyrics ever penned by el-dubs impresario john roderick: "you make a gang sign framing your face," "it feels like this is happening in tree time," "these chickens are fish in a barrel." he also sings, in the first verse, "delight at my first try at being sly." which i invariably do every time i hear this song, knowing that it's going to set me off on a musical journey that remains as fresh five years on as it did when i first heard it in '04. it's left intentionally unclear where these blue diamonds are being smuggled from, or for what purpose, so i can only assume they're headed straight into our hearts.

which is a good ultimate destination for all the much talked about antioxidants in blueberries. filled with vitamins a, c, and e, blueberries consistently rank high on lists of easily accessible, often-overlooked, non-exotic superfoods. apparently a small serving--enough to cover the top of a bowl of cereal--gives you "1,773 international units of vitamin e." (international units! ooh la la! whatever those are.)

even if you think all this business about superfoods is bullshit, it's hard to deny the no-nonsense appeal of the blueberry. unlike cherries which must be pitted, strawberries which must be denuded of their green tops, and raspberries and blackberries which can occasionally feel grainy thanks to their tiny hairs and tiny seeds, the blueberry is exceedingly low maintenance. give 'em a quick rinse, and they're basically ready for action. you can make them into a pie--raw pies are deceptively easy to throw together and so healthy you can eat them for breakfast (check out an all-purpose recipe here). you can chuck 'em into the blender with a banana, some water, a tablespoon of almond butter, a dash of vanilla, and a sweetener like medjool dates or agave nectar for a thick and creamy and brightly colored shake/smoothie. or, of course, they're delightful to munch on by the handful, whether from a bowl (if you're fancy) or straight from the pint container (if you're lazy and eager to commence with the snacking, like me). speed and ease are always of the essence if you're on the run from the law, as any good jewel thief would tell you.

allison felus likes to turn people on to the long winters any chance she possibly gets--like here and here. she sometimes talks about other stuff too at wrestling entropy.

#111 - blue sky thinking.

to: eat!drink!snack! creative team
from: parowpyro.
re: summer promotional push!

hey team! eat!drink!snack! has been around for over a year now & i think it’s high time for us to take it to the next level, really start getting the word out there about our uniquely positioned snack blog. i believe that if we start doing some big picture stuff & develop a concept that we can all stand behind, something that really lets the masses know what we're all about, gets our message across to them, they'll check out the blog every free moment they have. it's about two different types of impressions, team--the one we make on the readers & the ones the blog gets, as measured by the almighty google.

here's the concept i have in mind: "eat!drink!snack! it's blue sky thinking." let me break it down for you. "eat!drink!snack!" because that's the name of the blog. "blue sky" because we're wide ranging. we focus on snacks & drinks in our pieces, but always leave the rest of the content up to our daily whims & ramblings & random stories. "thinking" because i think that the thinking man thinks & even the unthinking man eats & drinks & when he does, he often thinks, methinks.

i have a few initial ideas for the ad campaign. i'm just going to throw them out there, but you do what you can with them. that's why you're creative & i'm your overlord. we want to get one of those hip bands the kids like--preferably blue october or blues traveler or blue oyster cult--to record a song for radio & tv & online. maybe get them to do a surprise concert in the park. we'll partner with the toronto blue jays & the columbus blue jackets & get jet blue & amex blue as sponsors. we'll get vida blue as a spokesman & put up ads in the boston & chicago & d.c. subways--obviously on the blue line. to show that we care, we'll somehow tie in cleaning up the blue ridge parkway & saving the blue whale. the overall look will be TOTALLY ARTSY. i'm thinking something along the lines of derek jarman's blue or andy warhol's blue movie, with some music off of jandek's blue corpse.

with all that in place, i think we can solidly solidify ourselves as the #1 half-snack blog on the net. good luck, team. let's have a plan in place EOD tomorrow. i want to see major contributions from everyone. nothing less that 5000 percent! it's like rush's neil peart once wrote--"you don't get something for nothing. you can't have freedom for free. you won't get wise with the sleep still in your eyes, no matter what your dreams might be." LET'S THINK BIG, PEOPLE! EYES ON THE PRIZE!

regards,
parowpyro.

#111 - blue sky thinking.
snack: top crop blueberries
drink: blue point blueberry ale



last summer, i made no secret of my love for blueberries. love is a fickle fruit though, so i moved on from the blueberry within a matter of weeks, but like most relationships cut short too early, the love still lingered, so since i've been trying to rock the fresh fruit recently, i went back this past week & rekindled my love for the blueberries with a tub of top crop blueberries, grown locally in hammonton, nj. there's just something inherently satisfying & calming about eating a bowl of blueberries. they tend to last longer than other berries whilst walking the line between the sweetness of strawberry & the tartness of a raspberry. they're just plain & simple, middle-of-the-road blueberry joe, you know?

since i was eating a ton of them, i got curious about the science behind how they grow. the first fun fact i learned about them is that they're a "false berry" & a product of an "inferior ovary." you'd think that joke writes itself, but it turns out that it doesn't. while these ones are from jersey, a quarter of the u.s. blueberry crop comes for maine, who needs over 50K beehives just to pollinate the blueberry bushes. "maine. we're more than lobsters, steven king & torched topless coffee shops!"

a couple nights last week, i had myself a blue point blueberry ale along with a bowl of blueberries, in an attempt to create the most glaringly obvious snack-drink pairing ever.  blue point's been around for just over a decade & is brewed in patchogue, long island by the island's only microbrewery. i'm a fan of their toasted lager & hoptical illusion, but as for their blueberry ale, since i love blueberries & beer, i can't complain about it, but it isn't anything special.

my blue point is this: as long island's only microbrewery, they've got big shoes to fill. while they might please the masses with a so-so blueberry ale, they won't win any awards for fruitastiest beer. when you brew out of the same town that made a high school graduate of kevin connolly, E on hbo's entourage, you've got to reach higher than that. E would want more. E wouldn't settle for so-so. E would take that risk if he knew there was a chance it'd pay off. maybe they feel that since they're from strong island, they can't afford to be too fruity. if that's the case, all they need to do is look due south. fire island's right there, blue point brewery. it's ok to be too fruity.