A few years ago dj BC made a great album of Wu Tang tracks mixed with New Orleans brass, and called it Wu Orleans. In honor of Mardi Gras, I’m going to share it with you today. Two of my favorite tracks, plus the full album as a zip file:

“Boxing Fats Domino”

“Bogalusa Shimmy”

Wu Orleans Album (.zip file)

I am totally in love with Canada as a country and their national identity after watching the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Olympic Games. And also, I want to send the public speaking textbooks that my friend Rebekah sent me to John Furlong, who gave perhaps the worst large-scale public speech I have ever seen. Totally check out the transcript. Some beauts from it:

You are role models for our children – heroes – giants–human champions – the best ever.

You are living proof that men and women everywhere are capable of doing great good. (Doesn’t he mean grood?)

And tonight the longest domestic torch relay in Olympic history ends in this Stadium after an epic, unforgettable journey of discovery – across a land visually blessed – rich in history — and profoundly human. (Visually blessed? Profoundly human?)

And my favorite, invoking Harry Potter #4: As the Olympic Cauldron is lit – the unique magic of the Olympic Games will be released upon us. Magic so rare that it cannot be controlled by borders – The kind of magic that invades the human heart.

Seriously dude. Did you not have anyone double check your speech before you read it? Oh well. The rest of the opening ceremony was fucking awesome. Some guy doing aerial dancing to Joni Mitchell singing that Judy Collins song “Both Sides Now.” A bunch of punk kids doing riverdance. k.d. fucking lang singing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Wayne Gretzky. And some other crazy shit that I probably forget now. Plus every famous Canadian ever, except for Celine Dion, who evidently was in a hospital trying to get fertilized. Oh, and maple leaves. A metric shit-ton of maple leaves. Hooray for the Olympics!

The final of three singles released by Pinback, “Penelope” is from 2001.

Weirdly nostalgic for 2001 over the past few months. What was your favorite song that year?

I’m always up for trying out a new TV show, so when a friend told me that she had a great suggestion, I was psyched. When she then told me to check out some Korean “soap operas” (a genre with which I have no familiarity), I was slightly less psyched, but still game. I’m not too big on American soaps, what with their melodramatic heterosexual romances, white middle class woes, and BO-RING costumes, but figured that this might be different. Her first recommendation was a series called My Girl (“Mai geol” in transliterated Korean), which I started watching this weekend.

I’m not sure if My Girl is an accurate reflection of the genre at large, but it’s pretty freaking fantastic. The heroine, Joo Yoo-rin, is a well-meaning, sharp-witted (though occasionally clumsy) young woman, with a talent for perpetrating hilarious “victimless crimes.” She also dresses like an Ewok designing for Delia’s:

Joo Yoo-rin, in a "dressier" outfit

She’s quick on her feet, has a flair for the absurd, and is generally sort of impossible not to like. Her main love interest, from what I can tell from the first episode, is going to be the dashing and handsome director of a large chain of hotels, a young man named Seol Gong-chan: More »« Less

I got the new Magnetic Fields album, Realism, last night (thanks, Nonesuch!). I listened to it once while falling asleep, and I’m on my second listen through today. At 33:17 in length, it’s a zippy little burst of an album, with crystal-clear production. First impressions of 5/13 of the tracks:

• “We Are Having a Hootenanny Now” is the sort of form study, nearly drained of content, at which Stephin Merritt excels. I love the multi-part vocals, with Merritt’s canyon-low creak holding down the bottom, and Claudia Gonson’s light-as-a-feather voice floating over the top.
• “The Dolls’ Tea Party” features what sounds like a great toy piano and banjo combo, and I love the refrain.
• “Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree” is unparalleled in its 60s sound, coming across almost like an alternate universe early Cat Stevens.  And has this great couplet: “Stop mumbling and cheer up/Put down the book, pick beer up.”
• Is “Always Already Gone” a nod to Derrida? I think Stephin Merritt is perhaps the last great Post- structuralist, so I wouldn’t be surprised. What a beautiful idea, applying it to a ballad.
• And of course, of course, I completely love “The Dada Polka.” Listening to this last night, in that liminal place between waking and sleep, I was giddy and grinning during it. I love the weird underlying sound effects during the pauses, like the void is about to sweep in and take away the musicians, and the return of layered group vocals like in “We Are Having a Hootenanny.”

I love The Magnetic Fields so much that it’s almost a palpable relief to have more music by them released into the world. And this album is a great little taste of more of that TMF genius. I’m going to relisten to Distortion, the companion album, over the next few days, and hopefully attempt a side-by-side review later this week.