Music Lovers Only....

So, it’s been quite a long time since I’ve posted anything, due to my ridiculous class schedule at wonderful Fort Benning. But due to my endless frustration at the lack of true music lovers that seem to be left in the world, I though it appropriate to post a new listening list.
I believe there are three groups of music listeners. The first group are the ones who rely on radio and television airplay to inform them of new music. Not true music lovers in my opinion. The second group are people who otherwise could be true music lovers, but they are too comfortable remaining inside certain genre boxes. Also not true music lovers. The third group are the ones who rely on the internet, music magazines, and live shows to inform them of new music. These are who I would call true music lovers.
Those who primarily listen to the radio and watch music television channels are those that I would call ‘song lovers’. They claim to love certain musical artists, when actually the only songs they’ve ever heard are the three or so singles released by those artists. They don’t own the albums, they don’t really know all of the lyrics, and they probably don’t even know the names of all the band members.
The ‘genre lovers’ are well intentioned music enthusiasts, however they have limited themselves to only purchasing one style of music. These are what we would call scenesters. Hip-hopsters, metal-heads, emo-kids, indie rockers, or hard-core-kids would fit within this genre-loving description.
The true music lovers, I would say, are constantly trying to broaden their musical horizons. They most likely will have a potpourri of folk, rock, classical, metal, indie, experimental, or ethnic all in the same CD case. They know the names of every band member, and could probably recite all the bands the members have been in before. They know what instruments were played on the albums and who played them. They know what individuals the artists thanked inside the record sleeve. They’ve attended several live shows, and own more than one band t-shirt, purchased at the show, not the mall. They know the lyrics to all of the songs. They probably own every record the band has released, and would pay almost any price to get the limited edition, European import version, on colored vinyl. And they consider it normal to have several rooms of their house covered, wall-to-wall, with band posters, and memorabilia.
So, not to make myself sound any more pretentious, and although I don’t know where all the music lovers have gone, here is the list of what I’ve been listening to lately:

Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza: Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza (Decent sophomore record from these Tennessee tech-metal / grinders. Funny song titles too. My only complaint is that half of the songs had already been released on their first CD.)
Stephen Mark Sarro: Sympathy for the Living (One of the strangest records I’ve ever heard. This record walks a fine line of even being defined as “music”. Stephen primarily utilized sounds from things he found lying around the house, like pots and pans, alarm clocks, and other such oddities, for inspiration. Lyrically, the album exhibits some very heavy topics and personal issues that Stephen was dealing with at the time of writing. This record is kind of a downer, so I can only listen to it on occasion.)
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Howl (Very good third album from this rock and roll threesome. I got the chance to see them play at Cornell University last year, and just recently missed the chance to see them play in Atlanta. This record sounds a bit different than their first two, but I really like it. They make good use of acoustic / slide guitar, and I’m definitely digging it.)
Blindside: The Great Depression (Very good fourth album from this Swedish foursome. A unique rock sound, like nothing else I’ve heard before. I also love Christian Lindskog’s lyric writing.)
Lole y Manuel: Grandes Exitos (Beautiful middle-eastern influenced latin-flamenco. Manuel Molina’s flamenco guitar is some of the best I’ve ever heard, and Lole’s voice is extremely unique and beautiful. This record is a best-of from their early days in the late seventies, to the early-mid eighties.)
Between the Buried and Me: Alaska (Hands down, the most diverse tech-metal / grind record of 2005. This record is all over the spectrum, from metal to metal-core, to grind, to classic metal, to black metal, and even quiet, instrumental interludes. The album ends with a mellow, jazz-lounge number, which puts a perfect cherry on top of this truly awesome record. Tommy Rogers’ vocals are also all over the spectrum. One minute he’s screaming high, standard metal-core, then he’s going way low grind, and then he’s doing clean, harmonized singing. He can also do a very good black metal scream that can rival any of the big names out there.)
Leng Tche: The Process of Elimination (Really good, straightforward grind. Fast, technical, and innovative. This is their third record, and was just released in September. Their drummer is also the vocalist for Aborted if that means anything to anyone.)
Lovedrug: Pretend You’re Alive (Beautiful, unique, indie rock that you have to hear. And, although a big stylistic shift, drummer, Matthew Putman used to play percussion in Living Sacrifice.)
Other Desert Cities: Other Desert Cities (A unique five-piece that plays undefinably unique rock in the style of Havalina Rail Co. And actually, the CD was produced by Matt Wignal of Havalina.)
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster: Maylene and the Sons of Disaster (Thick, grove-oriented, classic metal/hard-rock. Very catchy. Featuring former Underoath vocalist Dallas Taylor.)
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (Conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas) (One of my favorite symphonies of all time, conducted by world famous conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas.)
Crowpath: Son of Sulpher (Strong sophomore effort by these Swedish metal-core masters. They have breathed a breath of fresh air into a stagnated genre.)
Headnoise: For Now We Know: In Part 1 (Fourth full length from this Chicago septet. Really good, female fronted aggressive street rock.)
Ed Gein: Judas Goats and Diesel Eaters (Second full-length from this Syracuse, NY, tech-metal / grind trio. It’s good, but I think their debut was better written and better produced.)
OkGo: OhNo (Capitol Records debut of catchy, power-rock /disco. Fun to dance to.)
MxPx: Panic (Definitely their best release in recent years. I don’t care what people say about these guys, I still really like them.)
Danielson Family: Tell Another Joke at the Ol’ Chopping Block (Need I say more? Pure genius.)
Denison Witmer: Are You a Dreamer? (The latest from this native Philadelphian folk soloist. We saw Denison play at Purple Door festival this year and it was a real treat, as always.)
Anathallo: Sparrows (Debut from this indie-rock / experimental group of guitarists, xylophonists / percussionists, and drummers. Very good. Very unique.
Demon Hunter: The Triptych (Although I’m not really a fan of this style of metal, I like to support Demon Hunter because they are fronted by Ryan and Don Clark of Training For Utopia fame. And TFU was, of course, the best band ever, in the history of rock and roll.)
Over The Rhine: Drunkard’s Prayer (Of any releases this year, I think this album has seen the most frequent rotation in the Darling household. Peaceful, down-to-earth songs of life and love. OTR is definitely a mutual favorite between Faith and I. Whenever these lovely melodies are played, we really can’t help but smile.)
Me Without You: Catch for Us the Foxes (This is a record that everybody needs to hear. If you’ve glossed over everything else I’ve reviewed, you need to give this album a fair shake. This record has definitely earned a coveted space on my list of best albums of all time, which, given the 700-plus records in my collection, is quite an accomplishment. Only 16 albums of the 700 have made this best-of list so far. I don’t even know how to adequately describe their style because they sound absolutely nothing like anything else out there. Highly recommended.)

baby kisses

Elijah cut his first tooth on Sunday. Since he won't allow me to take pictures of the tooth, here's some ridiculously cute shots of my two little men together:

Smokin!

For our church's pot-luck Thanksgiving dinner last Sunday, Greg mixed up this kick-arse coleslaw. The recipe is based on one that I found at Taste Of Home on the message board (a great, free resource). This slaw is a punch in the mouth of flavor, and the spicy, garlic-infused dressing is totally addictive. I've been eating the leftovers all week.

Greg's Smokey Spicy Coleslaw
1 bag shredded cabbage

Chipotle Dressing:
1 cup Aiole (recipe to follow) OR OTHER MAYONNAISE
6 tblsps cider vinegar
2 1/2 tblsps unsulphured molasses
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 canned chipotle chiles, minced, plus, for more heat, 1 to 2 tsps of adobo sauce from the can

Aiole:
1 cup mayo
1 1/2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp minced garlic
2 to 6 drops Tabasco sauce or other hot pepper sauce
In medium bowl, whisk the ingredients together. Uste the mayo immediately or refrigerate. It keeps, covered and refrigerated, for up to several weeks.

To prepare slaw:
Prepare the dressing, whisking together the ingredients in a medium bowl. Toss the dressing with the slaw and refrigerate for at least an hour for the flavors to develop. Serve chilled.

This is one of the best things about living down South:





You've probably had them at the gas station.  You've probably

never had them hot.  You probably never should.  Andrew never

should have.





First you have one.





Then another.

The next thing you know, a dozen donuts are gone, and no one knows how.

So just take my word for it: never eat them hot.

















Oh, for those with questions from last post:


Jessica, we don't know where we're going next -- the Army thinks it's

fun to keep you on your toes.  Also, we don't know how long we'll

be there -- refer back to the "toes".  =)





Megan, we don't know which post yet in Germany.  I wonder if it's the same one you guys were at? 





I'm pretty excited, but it hasn't sunk in yet that we're actually going there!!

news flash

Hey everyone, I don't have much time to write today, but I must give you the latest update on our little family. Friday, Greg called me from work to let me know that we got the spot in Germany. We'll be moving there probably in the summer. I'm a little sad because it's so far away, but really excited at the same time, because how often does someone get to just up and move to another country for a little while? We probably won't be there very long (maybe just a year, maybe more), but I'm going to try to learn German before we go. Does anyone know of a good home study language program?

Chop chop!

Just what does a full, messy baby look like? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here's The Messy Man himself, having just polished off an entire cup of smashed yams/bananas/barley cereal:

This came in the mail yesterday. I was beyond excited:

Greg bought it for me from Viking:

I love it! All of the things I cook are on the prep heavy side of things, since there's so much chopping and such, so this makes my job SO much easier. This knife happily made short work of this entire bowl of veggies for Medditerranian Roasted Vegetables:

Yes, Andrew knew he was being photographed, and chose to be a little snot.

("Andrew, put this stuff in the yellow bowl...ok, now put this in the red garbage bowl in the sink" "Wed bowl. Yeyow bowl.")

We then mixed up a bowl of spices to toss it with; cumin, cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, cayenne, lemon juice and oil:

Andrew, of course, had to taste the spices. Not only that, but he also ate some raw, sliced garlic. ("Need some!" "Andrew, this is kind of spicy..." "Need more spicy!" "Ok..." "Need more?")

After preping a dish this fragrant, the hardest thing to do is wait for it to be done, especially when you have a light inside of your new oven (the waiting is done with your cheetah, of course).

Note: This dish was then eaten over cous cous and sprinkled liberally with sliced almonds and sultanas (golden raisens). Yummy!

Milestones and catching up

Woah, the minute I don't make time to blog, I have a million things to say! Or show, more like it. So come along with me for a little pictoral journey.

Elijah (or "Ijah", as Andrew calls him) had been sleeping thorough the night (from 8 or 9 until around 6 in the morning, then back down again for a few more hours until Andrew woke up at 8!), but started to get up at least once every night to eat. I started to get very weary of this and suddenly thought (or actually my mom thought) "Hey! Maybe the little guy's hungry." So Grace and I gave him his first taste of banana.


As you can see, it wasn't a big hit at first.


Soon though, he was snogging down 3/4 of a banana per shot!! And that was after a full "both sides" meal of breastmilk. Woah. He was hungry.

So now he eats barley cereal mixed with banana, and today he'll try some sweet potato that I baked this morning. For those who care, his first taste of banana happened in Florida on September 11th.

Andrew has started potty training. I am a firm believer in "windows training", which is to say: I don't believe that there is a hard and fast rule that says what time you train your kids to do any one thing. You look for windows (which are usually fairly obvious) of opportunity and take them if it works with what you're doing in your life just then. Andrew probably could have started potty training a few months ago, but because of everything that was going on in our lives, I knew it would be time wasted on my part. Soooo....

On October 20th (this past Thursday) we went out to buy the new potty. I explained it to Andrew and told him that it was his, and he proudly held it on his lap as we went to the check-out. When we got home, he and Elijah tried to figure out exactly what it should be used for (aparently my detailed instructions were like water through as seive).


Because really -- there's a cup, so shouldn't we be drinking out of it?


OK, Mommy didn't react too well to that one. Well, no matter, if all else fails, throw the thing! That's always a good idea.


Aha! So this is what she was talking about. Cool!*


I have never cleaned up so much pee in my life. But he does get everything in there more than not, which is good. Also, not to go into too much gory detail, but he pooped in there yesterday and today, which is a big step. Usually toddlers are very upset about the idea of pooping anywhere but their diaper (Andrew feels this way too), but I was able to convince him otherwise.

Andrew will eat almost anything as long as it's dipped, and usually the dip is ketchup. Here he is dipping soup:


Yesterday (finally, I'm caught up!) Andrew and I made the Fabled Date Nut Bread from Sarah K's family recipe. That stuff is amazing, I tell you, and I have no idea why it took me so many years to start making it. Every year Sarah's family would bake up truckloads of the stuff in cleaned out coffee cans and hand them out at Christmas time. They'd be wrapped in foil with a little festive bow, and the bread would be so dark and sticky that you had to use a can-opener on the bottom of the can and push the bread out that way. There were some people who didn't use their noggin and thought the only way to get the bread out was by scooping it out with a spoon. But scoop they did, because that bread was not to be wasted! The best thing about the bread is that the longer it sits, the better it gets. There was this story (included in at least one of her dad's christmas letters, always taped to the bread) of some lady who kept hers for some unbelievable amount of time and when she finally decided to eat it it was still good. Sarah would have to back me up on that one, because I don't remember the details of it.

Anyway, Andrew helped me by eating flour (Mmmm! Good!)

He ate at least a 1/4 cup of it straight before I could add anything else, so I wasn't sure if they'd still turn out right, but they did

Elijah wasn't allowed to eat any, but he bounced away for most of the baking time in his jolly jumper:

As you can see, he was very jolly.





*Yes I do realize that Andrew will be mortified** in about 10 years when he realizes that his first potty attempt was blogged, but the picture was just so damn cute I couldn't help it. Anyway, it's a modest one, so I'm ok with that.



**If he ends up like Greg, he won't be mortified.*** He'll be proud.



***Have you ever read a footnote to a footnote to a footnote?

Amtrak

Ok, I was having all kinds of gallery troubles, but they're fixed. Everything's in order. So click at your own risk, and please forgive the confusion. Immerse yourself in an Amtrak trip. =)

shirt in panama city beach, FL

shirt in panama city beach, FL
Originally uploaded by faithdarling.

And then the shirt went to Panama City Beach. (A bit hot to wear it here, but we wanted to let you know that we were thinking of you even then) =)

shirt in atlanta, GA

shirt in atlanta, GA
Originally uploaded by faithdarling.

Becky, wish you were here! We miss you so much! Grace has your black sweatshirt you left behind. She's taking it to see the country before sending it back (...or so she says...)