(More) February 2008 Soundbites

A few more bites - or "small plates" for you to wrap your heads around from the ever-fragmented mind of Cafe Drake.

BOOKSHELF

After owning a copy for 15+ years, Cafe Drake finally cracked open the 20th-century classic The Immoralist by Andre Gide. Sometimes you know more about an author than their actual work (Wilde, Genet anybody??) and are pre-disposed to their prose prior to actual consumption. Now we know our Gent and Wilde but has Gide has arrived as a revelation, a writer concerned more with living and practical philosophy than literature perhaps, but deeply compelling all the same. Get thyself one of the million copies of this stalwart text and learn the reason why it remains so relevant today. An essay in the power of the Now, The Immoralist pushed our existing beliefs to the next level, and confirmed any notion we harbored that sensual pleasure via food, drink and tactile excess is to be savored guiltlessly and with reverence.

A heady, wonky treatise is just the thing for a winter's read, when we eschew the potboiling (Q: How many snarky food references can we insinuate in a website devoted to food you may wonder? A: Thousands!) purple prose of summer's trashy page-turner novels. Nassim Nicholas Taleb has turned out a tome for the permanent home library, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Listen kids, Life turns on a dime as we all know, and this book explains Why and How and the best method of dealing with daily unpredictability. Now who doesn't need that? Easy to read but demanding of further thought, Taleb's theory espoused teaches and encourages us to imagine the impossible. So now we're imagining a perfect cheese souflee at Cafe Drake.

Just when we're ready to sink into a difficult novel, oops Steven Millhauser did it again. No surprise from the low-key author of so many eerie yet oddly moving books, and Millhauser has returned to his most successful form - the short story - with another collection of creepily beautiful tales sure to haunt every sensitive psyche out there. Dangerous Laughter resounds with the gorgeous prose we've loved for 15 years, and tosses out like candy from a pinata - i.e. random, projectile missiles - tales more akin to modern fable than today's spare, self-congratulating short fiction.

To those addicted to party favors, pick up a copy of The Family That Couldn't Sleep (by D. T. Max) and be grateful your insomnia is chemically induced. A real-life mysterious illness with antecedents over four centuries old, this study of prion disease is fascinating and heartbreaking and illuminating and a quick read at the same time.

iPod

Grab yourself some stunning free tunes and then go buy the CDs from Sam Amidon at his website. Intriguing video clips and homemade short films abound as well.

Of course Radio Cafe Drake - FIRZ FM remains your preeminent source for live streaming music, but damn if Samuri FM is not hot on our heels (though on a different sound wave altogether). Before it's taken down treat thyself to a live mix from the jaw-dropping DJ duo of Caspa and Rusko, Leeds' lads who did the unthinkable and converted us to a loathed musical genre; Cafe Drake has spent a short lifetime defending our right to not have to listen to dub tone, dub house or spacey dub reggae - even when being graciously hosted in the homes of potheads - but C & R re-invent the sound by utilizing only the funnest (is that a word? is it spelled correctly if so? do we care?) aspects of dancehall distortion technology, wrapping listeners in a world of eclectic crate-digging bliss. While at Samurai also play Daniel Meteo's anniversary mix for consistently genius Shitkapult Records. Celebrating a decade of releases on the same label is Hakan Libdo, who we haven't heard from in a long time, but prove still hawter than hawt after all these years.

FAVORITE INGREDIENT OF THE MONTH

Dahi Chiles are a local speciality of India's Gujarat region, but happily for us available at all better Indian groceries and supermarkets. Dried and slightly intimidating with their wizened, pale appearance, these are not dried chiles common to many of the recipes here at Cafe Drake. Rather than adding to stews or soups, or in the Mexican versions, soaking then pureeing for sauces and seasoning pastes, dahi chiles are fried quickly in a decent amount of oil till re-crisped fully then thrown atop dhal, lentil soup or simply snacked on alongside any food needing a kick. The chiles attain their rather unique flavor - mild in heat but salty and deliciously tangy - through a process of being air-dried after soaking in yogurt and salt for several days. A $2 bag is huge and will last forever.

From the mind of Cafe Drake pal Meridith Pingree comes another new show. Details from the press release are below. Why not show up at the opening and say Hi to the artist (and Cafe D as well)?

unDrawn : Lucas Monaco and Meridith Pingree

This exhibit seeks to engage critical interest in drawing and asks the viewer to entertain the question of what a drawing can be. Drawing, in this exhibition, is seen as a verb and not a noun. Drawing, as a verb, can be observing, mark-making, delineating, setting boundaries, gesturing, abstracting, and pulling out, in a variety of media.

Marymount Manhattan College Hewitt Gallery of Art221 East 71st Street, NY, NY 10021February 25th - March 25th

opening reception: February 28th 6 - 8pm