march 20 flyer

Basement Tapes March update

After travels abroad, I'm back in the States and playing shows again.  The next Sterile Garden performance is at Dunes in NE Portland with I Died, Hobby Knife, and Redneck(Suicidal Tendons) on April 2nd.  

     I'm also starting to work on the covers for some new Basement Tapes releases, including:

 a split C10 between Fletcher Pratt  www.myspace.com/midorirec and Heat Wilson  www.myspace.com/heatwilsonny     

 The masters are finished for the Drowner/Sterile Garden split CDR as well, and will appear in an edition of 50 with screenprinted covers.  

  other releases down the line include a Skozey Fetisch/ Pigs in the Ground split, Swan Lake issue #2,  and a CDR compilation.

Accidentals 2

A Steady Diet of MSG 10

                             Baozi in the Muslim Quarter, Xi'an

         Baozi is essentially steamed dumplings containing ground meat(usually pork) or vegetables.  You dip them in a vinegar/  la jao sauce that is very spicy.  They're served on the  wicker baskets that they were steamed on.  This was perhaps my favorite Chinese snack.   Cheap, tasty and filling, they were the perfect complement to nights of swilling cheap 3.2 beers outside on a street corner, watching groups of men play dice games and shout things I didn't understand while dogs ran around looking for scraps to eat.

                                                                                                                                          
                                                   Hashbrowns at the  Market in Lijiang

            

A Steady Diet of MSG 9

                                                                    Pig Ears

              So our group of friends had a day in Jinghong where we drank a beer at one convenience store every block on our way back to our dingy hotels.  China has convenient stores everywhere, usually at least 4-5 on a typical city block.  Needless to say, within a few hours we were fairly trashed on Dali beers and starting to get hungry.  We devised a system for scoring points in a game:  smoking weed in front of a police officer was 100 points, taking a swim in the drainage ditch was 70, stealing a Chinese child was 120, eating pigs ears was 40, and so on...  Being afraid of going to prison for smoking dirty Naxi ganja or getting a staff infection seemed too daunting for myself, and i don't want kids at this point in my life, so I chose pig ears.  We went to the night market and found this stand that sold them roasted and flavored oh so delicately.  They even sliced it up thin and put some cilantro on it.  I got about a third of the way through eating mine when I began to feel sick.  Perhaps the combination of cheap Chinese beers and swine cartilage isn't the best on a near-empty stomach.  Parts of the ear were actually very tasty and not too tough.  I can see why dogs enjoy these so much.  Only in China!

A Steady Diet of MSG 8

Publish Post                                                               Blue Cow Beer

      I bought a can of this at the supermarket in Qingyang, thinking it might taste like PBR given the blue-ribbon and working-man's appeal of the farmer hoisting a cold one after working all day in the fields.  Boy, was I wrong. This is the worst tasting-beer I've ever had.  

a Steady Diet of MSG 7

                                                                    Beef Noodles

      These are one of the specialties of Qingyuang City, where my girlfriend teaches English at Long Dong University(Chinese men aren't well endowed, so this is a bit of a misnomer).  A hearty dish of thick noodles surrounded by a delectable broth covered in heaps of cilantro and basil, with little chunks or thinly-sliced pieces of beef depending on which restaurant you get it at.  Throw in a couple spoonfuls of lajiao(a Chinese spice that's in almost everything), and you have a party in your mouth.  Yum.