12 hours only, folks. Jump on it.
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Author: Dan Dickinson
So after some discussions with people at work, I’ve realized that it’d be nice if I had someway to force my musical tastes on you lot.
So, behold, as a sort of holiday gift, I’m going to be streaming 12 hours of meticulously selected music tomorrow, from the moment I leave in the morning (8 AM) until I get home post-dinner (roughly 8 PM). I’m streaming with Nicecast at 56kbps; I should have enough bandwidth to squeeze the entire audience of the six people who read my blog daily in.
Like I said, this is the result of my meticulousness. Each minute of aural pleasure is hand-crafted from my absurd range of ratings and metadata to provide the optimal polyphonic auditory experience. Look, I even have a schedule (all times are Eastern and VERY approximate):
08:00 – 08:28 | Wake Up Mix
A handful of random songs, all having to deal with sleep in some way. Prodigy, TMBG, Ted Leo, Akira Yamaoka, and more.
08:29 – 09:30 | Best Of Beatmania IIDX
One of my existing playlists – three songs off each of the OSTs I have, taking you chronologically through what I consider to be the best music from my favorite music game. Plus, a remix at the end.
09:30 – 10:00 | Taste Of FPM
A very small handful of Fantastic Plastic Machine, the very finest in Japanese House.
10:00 – 11:00 | Get Your Bootleg On
An hour of bootlegs, mashups, and fan-made remixes. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll demand to know where I found this stuff.
11:00 – 12:00 | My Bizarre Tastes In Hip-Hop
From MC Chris to Asletics to Jurassic 5, this only proves I’m mentally insane.
12:00 – 02:00 | Burnout 3 Custom Soundtrack
Two hours of music I use when playing Burnout 3; all good driving music – also good working music. Death In Vegas, Underworld, Green Day, Chemical Brothers, and many more.
02:00 – 03:00 | Afternoon Nap
For the post-lunch sleep we all need, some downtempo and trip hop. Massive Attack, Tosca, Thievery Corp, etc.
03:00 – 03:30 | Ben Folds Interlude
Finishing off the nap, a handful of Ben Folds, including a number of songs off his new EPs.
03:30 – 05:00 | DJ Shadow’s “In Tune & On Time” & “Pushin’ Buttons Live”
An hour and a half of DJ Shadow live. Hear him mix his own stuff first with “In Tune & On Time”, and then listen to him, Nu-Mark, and Cut Chemist go nutty with the drum machines on “Pushin’ Buttons Live”.
05:00 – 06:00 | Best Of M-Flo
If you don’t like m-flo, what the hell is wrong with you? Japanese hip-hop with some eclectic twists.
06:00 – 06:30 | Obscurity
The most random stuff you’ve never heard. Strange covers, local hip hop, and oh yes, MC Pee Pants.
06:30 – 08:00 | Best Of Orbital
Closing out the night, my selections of the very best of a band I wish hadn’t broken up this year. Closing out with the epic, unmatchable 28+ minute version of The Box.
In total, it’ll be 141 songs of bliss. I hope you’ll tune in and enjoy. Link to the streaming server will be posted in the morning.
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Chef’s Choice at Matsu
I raved about Matsu in my recently posted Restaurant Guide for the Winter. Katie and I had long ago decided we’d hit it up for her birthday (which was today – she’s 25. Be sure to wish her a happy birthday!), and go for the adventurous “Chef’s Choice” dinner for the two of us.
While I didn’t have the camera on me to continue the trend of photographing what I’m eating, I can textually describe the entire affair:
First: Seafood soup. Clear broth, with crab + shrimp + whitefish + mussel + scallop. Broth was delicious, fish was too.
Second: Baby clams (each half was about the size of a penny) in a soy garlic sauce. A little hard to eat but extremely tasty.
Third: Shark Fin salad. The delicate flavored of shark fin was matched with sesame, which helped bring down the strong flavour of the shark fin. (Anyone who’s watched Battle Yogurt on Iron Chef with me should get that.)
Fourth: Ebi sashimi with wasabi tobiko on top, and prawn tempura. The ebi was good, but I’ve never been much for prawns.
Fifth: Toro tartar, I think with a little bit of yellowtail in as well. Heaven, absolute heaven. My favorite on the night, because I’m a huge mark for toro.
Sixth: Scallops steamed in sake, and served cold. At this point we started feeling full – then were told that we had sushi coming and then the main course.
Seventh: Sex On The Beach Roll (shrimp tempura inside, rice, seaweed, grilled eel, tobiko, three kinds of sauces.), plus six giant pieces of sashimi (two salmon, two tuna, two something else).
Eighth: Tuna Teriyaki. Whole sushi-grade tuna steak, done teriyaki style, with vegetables and a bed of onions. I know I keep saying this, but man, this was good.
Ninth: The big surprise – one I had known about from Monday, but managed to hide from Katie and she was completely shocked. They had bought Katie a small birthday cake – sponge cake with white icing, and Gary had put fresh fruit on top.
Add on to that a few sodas, two free beers, and green tea – we are unbelievably stuffed. I am in a near food coma, and the bill came to $90 for the two of us (not including tax and the absurd tips we tend to leave).
I don’t think I’ll have a better Japanese meal than this one for the remainder of my life.