life lately, as seen through a lens.


way cool. nick managed to massage the top off of his ebay violin to stash some noisy lil' electronics inside. doesnt the instrument lose some of its, mmm, symphonic virtuoso arpeggio magic when you see it all in pieces? well, to be honest, this violin didn't have much magic to begin with, probably made on an assembly line with cheap wood and cheap labor. china, baby. but check it out, you can see the pencil lines on the inside, and the base board getting some air. the dismantling seems so beautifully sinister, like a silent, ritualed dissection.


the matmos concert was amazing. after reading their interview in the dig earlier this week, some of the portraits they performed made more sense. i loved the the rose has teeth in the mouth of the beast, with the percussionists gracefully malleting their marimbas with fistfuls of roses. i also really dug the larry levan portrait, with sequin bling galore and a deep dance disco dub. the whole performance was seriously intense, but i didnt see hardly anyone in the space moving! like, you can bob your head or tap your toes or whatever, but the breakbeats are flyin' and the crowd is a'dyin'! i suppose you can blame the venue, regis auditorium, for being so 1970s-highschool-theatre, with its avocado upholstered movie-style seating. but man. boston needs to get its groove. i snuck a photo of the coat room queue, there was no denying the hipsters and hipsterettes getting good eyeballfuls of each other. matmos are so cute, they are mad talented but will always be associated in my mind with ernie + bert. and now that i've told you, you shall think that too. forever.


so, did you notice it snowed today? nah, me neither.


breaking in the bundt pan, ooh baby. i used this random recipe for german chocolate bundt cake, and pretty much stuck to it except i used organic chocolate cake mix and substituted 1/2 cup slivered almonds for the coconut/pecan combo. i might have scalded the 'frosting' (it's more like sweet custardy topping, has the texture of honey + eggnog) while it was on the stove, but no matter. it's still tasty with its grand proportions of butter and sugar. so, i suppose the cake is not german anymore. hmm... perhaps southern america meets bavaria? the incorporated pudding mix makes it really fudgy-tasting, yum. i wonder what would happen if i did the exact same recipe but used, like, party swirl cake mix with pistachio pudding? and topped it with hazelnuts and mint extract?

i think that is what they call a future experiment.

p.s. oh yeah, link of the day:
balmyduck :: box cake mix reviews. for serious.