After The Future is part political/cultural theory and part manifesto, Franco “Bifo” Berardi’s grand romantic vision of our present and our future. Among the the more compelling concepts in this book are his analysis of the “cellularization” of labor, his indictment of the “criminal class” who controls the current profit economy, and his view of activism as a narcissistic reaction to the fear of being crushed under capitalism. Related to the last point, Berardi calls for a “passive resistance” based around his manifesto near the end of the book. I found it to be a great read, equally interesting when discussing the financial collapse of 2008 and the more theoretical tracing of the concept of the future through the last century.

Lucky Peach is simply the best food magazine on the market. When the first issue came out around a year ago, it made a huge impact with its great design, and its emphasis on writing. Now on issue 3, I definitely recommend a subscription.

1Q84, Murakami’s most recent novel, is a giant book (three if you buy paperback) that you can easily finish in a week if you (as I did) quietly refuse to do anything else you’re supposed to do. I lugged this thing around constantly, read it over breakfast, in between customers, in traffic. If you’re a fan of Murakami, this will deliver the familiar in a distilled, perfect form. If you’re new to his work, this book, despite its length, is a great place to start.

Labyrinths is a collection of Borges stories, each one a small but deep hole to jump down. Ingest one at a time before breakfast, and keep it in your brain all day.

One of the craziest things I have ever eaten, for sure. The right side is a Thai omelet, rich and slightly dark from frying in an ample amount of oil. The left side….is a curry of fish kidneys, chopped seafood, pumpkin, and various unidentifiable vegetables. This was so intense to eat, I had to pause in between bites. It was incredibly spicy, with this salty funk from the kidneys that you could smell across the room (and especially when I reheated leftovers the next day). I could definitely not eat this every day, but it was amazing. Jitlada in Echo Park.

First homemade sushi attempt. Raw carrots, quick fried mushrooms.

Boudin Sourdough

Gibraltar from Blue Bottle Coffee in the Ferry Building, San Francisco

Preserved lemon, asparagus, and cheese panini from The Cheese Board

San Francisco style lox from Capn’ Mike’s: A truly great breakfast

Duck confit, oxtail, and squash blossom tacos; Spiced hot chocolate. Cacao.

Linette’s order: chicken and green chile enchilada.

One of the best meals of my life: Shanghai dumplings from Yank Sing. Pork dumplings that explode soup when you bite them, on a spoon with vinegar and ginger,they are light but insanely flavorful. Order the hot tea when you go.

My first attempt at soondubu Jjigae; spicy Korean tofu stew. Roughly based on this recipe.

Langer’s No. 44: Pastrami, sauerkraut, nippy cheese. Absolutely unquestionably the greatest pastrami sandwich I will ever eat. All these years I have been eating things that people have told me were pastrami, but it wasn’t. This was my first time eating it the way it was meant to be.

In all its glory.

Homemade tofu bahn mi.

Homemade kimchi

Jen’s french toast

]]> http://dandipiero.com/2012/05/07/various-foods/feed/ 0 dandipiero 120418_001 120422_001 120416_002#1 IMG_2459 IMG_2367 IMG_2487 120329_001 120318_001 120318_002 IMG_2456 120426_006B 120505_004 120505_003 120503_001 120501_002 120501_001 http://dandipiero.com/2012/04/27/blogging/ http://dandipiero.com/2012/04/27/blogging/#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:18:08 +0000 Dan DiPiero http://dandipiero.com/?p=2470 Read More

For the past four years, I have had a blog of some sort; first here, then here, and with this bit in the middle. I am abandoning all of those, which will continue to exist for archive purposes like obsolete satellites in space.

Still, I can’t see giving up blogging altogether. I just don’t want to be limited to a theme other than the ultimate narcissistic one: “me”. As such, this will be where I post from now on, about anything I like.

Thanks for reading.

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This track: Steven Van Betten: Guitar, Patrick Kelly: Bass, me: drums/composition.

*The full program is four bands: Quartet (vilola, vibes, accordion, bass) Two guitar trios, and a nonet.

Will Wulfeck: Trombone

Steven Van Betten: Guitar

Darek Oles: Bass

Me: Drums

More of this soon, probably by next week.

Check out the tunes…the head out of ‘Sea Change’ is perhaps the most fun thing to play ever. More to come.

There will be more in the very near future, because it is the height of recital season currently. Look out.

Phil Rankin-Piano, Lauren Baba-Violin, Rusty Kennedy-Bass, Myself-Drums

Good.

Story is, I’m trying to consolidate/change things up here again, and have been running into issues with my domain name registration that I don’t understand. Hopefully that will be fixed soon.

In the meantime, a short update:

-Alex Burgoyne has commissioned new works for his jazz ensemble at OU. I am excited to be a part of it, and hopefully soon you will be able to see/hear some of the work. How could writing new original music for improvising music students not be the best idea ever?

-This semester I am in a quartet with Darek Oles. We had our first rehearsal yesterday, and it was surely too good to continue this way. I will be making an attempt to record something for here soon.

-My MFA Graduation recital is April 21st. The tentative plan is a guitar trio, another guitar trio, an accordion, vibraphone, viola, bass quartet, and an octet.

-My good friend Steven Van Betten is having a recital this Wednesday in the ROD at 8. You should be there, for sure.

-I have continued to talk about things here. Don’t ask me why.