Carolina Chocolate Drops -- Genuine Negro Jig CD Review

Went CD shopping the other week with the idea that I'd get something unfamiliar and bring it home to review here on NME (HA! just thought of that!) This caught my eye out of the folk section. It fits in to my personal fascination with identity, hits my string band sweet tooth, and had a pretty cover. I didn't realize it until later, but I've actually seen them live at Old Songs Festival 2006.

As I thought about this purchase more, I began to feel a little uneasy about the fact that they blazon themselves with the "genuine black string band music" label, but over time and with multiple listens to the CD, I've become more comfortable with the idea. They win me over with their facility with the string band music style, as evidenced by this performance of one of the songs from the CD -- "Cornbread and Butterbeans" for a show from North Carolina called "Blue Plate Special"



They also have won me over with their eclecticness. They may be waving a particular banner right there in your field of vision, but they cover a lot of ground on this 12 song CD. Here's another example from the same program, a pop song called "Hit "Em Up Style"



What you're getting as examples are from the first half of the CD. Worth noting that that half of the CD pretty much sets you up with fine examples of what you'd expect from such a band as they are, so what's revelatory here is the second half of the CD. English folk balladry, a Tom Waits cover, beautiful modal love songs. They cover a lot of territory in that single CD, lots of switching instruments happens (as you can tell by the two performances here), and yet a single throughline of unified sound emerges.

As a commentary on identity, I find it really comforting and affirming. Everything can find its way into a particular context, a whole world can be explored from pretty much any point of view, and that point of view can remain intact.

Then & Now

9/12/08



6/11/10



These photos were taken with the built-in iSight on my work computer, a year and nine months apart. I know I don't get flattering pictures from that camera, but for my purposes here, 'twill serve.

Dior New Look

This is new territory for me. I've been watching Project Runway for the last few seasons, and really enjoying it. I know, really, nothing about fashion. I'm currently reading two books -- Fashion for Dummies by Jill Martin, which is, from my naive but not insensible point of view, good basic advice on how to dress, and The Thoughtful Dresser by Linda Grant, which is reflections on the meaning of clothes and fashion, and which I am finding really insightful (to be fair, most writing on fashion is going to seem insightful to me). Linda Grant is a British novelist a few years older than me, but close enough in age that I can catch a lot of her cultural references and know exactly what she's talking about. I'm just starting the second chapter, and having read a reference to Dior's 1947 "New Look", I went to see what was available at youtube that might show me some of the couture that revolutionized fashion in the postwar era.

One of the things that is really striking to me is the seemingly impossible waists -- some of those models must be corseted to within and inch of their lives! But they are beautiful dresses, I love the third one, the white(?), textured, sparkly fabric, the wide flowing skirt. It seems like such a happy garment, meant for celebration. I also like the dramatic suit you see fifth. and, actually, pretty much all of what this vid shows. These designs were shown first when my mother was, by my estimation, a freshman in High School, and I know that she loved these sorts of looks.

I can't discuss them intelligently, sorry, but I do find them to be beautiful.

CONTINUED: A couple of things should be mentioned: First, I miscounted the garments in the video, and I find, especially considering what I'm also going to add here, that this makes things confusing. The second look that I really wanted to mention because I thought it was beautiful and dramatic was the sixth one, not the fifth. The fifth look (the checked suit) was the outfit I saw that most looked to me like it made use of a rather severe corset. My girlfriend tells me that there were no corsets used in the New Look, so I'm not sure how they achieved that very restricted wasp waist.

I'm Gonna...

...do a redesign on this blog coming up here. My blog idol and one of his regular commenters were talking about how light colored text on a dark background is hard on the eyes, and I can see the point. (It's never been a problem for me...) I've put lots of photos here & I kinda like the photos being on a black background, but I keep thinking I wanna do more writing for the blog, so I want to make it a little easier to read whatever I actually do write. So, hopefully over the weekend, I'll get to that long-promised CD review writing assignment and a little playing around with the blog template.

And now, back to whatever.

A Random Memory

I worked at a call center a few years ago. Many of my fellow workers were a lot younger than me, in their early twenties.

There was one girl in particular, someone I liked a lot. She was smart and funny and fashionable. She was obsessed, like many of the kids I worked with, with celebrity culture. A particular favorite of hers was Paris Hilton. I think Paris was very important to her. One time, we were on a break (probably once when the phone system was down) we somehow got onto the subject of Paris, and as I have no respect for the Hilton woman, I said, "Don't you understand that Paris is short for Parasite?" which was really funny to me, but which hurt (I will call her) Samantha's feelings. She never spoke to me again. It's true, we didn't work together but another couple of weeks, but I think she was truly offended by what I said, and we never said a word to each other after that.

I've always regretted being so acerbic in that situation. If Samantha ever randomly happens to read this and recognizes herself in this little story, please understand that I'm really sorry. I was mean.

What I wish I'd gone on to say is -- "I think you are a hundred times cooler than her. You are braver and tougher and, actually, far more beautiful than Paris HIlton could ever be. Any time PH gets into trouble, she's always got daddy's millions to fall back on. You're out here in the middle of the night calling people and struggling to make it and doing OK. Sam, you rock." That's how I feel and I so wish I hadn't left it where I left it w/ her.

The bad, bad "art" of the OCDC dungeon

The bad, bad "art" of the OCDC dungeon, originally uploaded by madduane.

John

John, originally uploaded by madduane.

This came out nicely. John thinks his beard is a little long, but I think this look works, and I like the expression I captured here.