Just now, I was on the verge of sleeping through a sports festival, when a 7.0 earthquake struck not far from where I live.
BEST. ALARM CLOCK. EVER.
(I squished under my kotatsu.)
Haha so, after that last post, I was thinking about No Mercy and how there haven't been many big Hispanic music groups featured on MTV and the like since. Then I thought, oh hey, what about that one-hit wonder, OMC? You know... "How Bizarre." (The lyrics have always sounded like "help is on.")
Well, I don't believe I'm alone in thinking that they were Hispanic - I swear that's what everyone thought back then (it's the style of music, I guess). As it turns out, though, the frontman is a Kiwi! Half-Maori, half-Niuean, to be specific. I honestly had never heard of Niue before this. Thank you for broadening my horizons, OMC!
It's especially hilarious because I think he bears a striking resemblance to one of our other JETs from NZ - one of our CIRs to be specific. Am I right, Sendai JETs?
This a long one, but it's worth it - I promise. It is very, very high on the kitsch/camp scale.
On my way home yesterday, as I was nearing my apartment, I suddenly had a powerful kick of musical nostalgia. Surprisingly, I wasn't yearning for the grunge, alternative, or hook-laden R&B and hip-hop that was popular in the mid 90's. Instead, I was thinking of the pulsing beats, talk-rap and percussive synths that really defined early-90's dance music (you know, along with the spandex, high-tops, and MTV's The Grind).
I'd been listening to Cut Copy, and while their album In Ghost Colours sounds kinda New Order / 80's New Wave overall, this one song, "Hearts on Fire," is very 90's. As in, reminiscent of La Bouche, Real McCoy, 2Unlimited, etc. Don't hide it. You remember those guys and you loved them, too.
In the early 90's, around 4th grade, my treasure was my Casio radio casette player. Like all my friends, I was doggedly loyal to the one radio station that was cool - and it also happened to be a radio station dedicated to dance music. It was called - and I can almost hear the DJs in my head as I type it - Hot 97.7. I think I mostly used TV for cartoons back then, so new music came in via FM and friends' mixtapes (CD-Rs had just been invented). God knows I didn't give two shits about independent radio stations, so alternative had yet to register as more than a blip on my radar.
Wiki calls this genre, "Rhythmic Top 40."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFFG
In January 1988, 97.7 became KHQT (Hot 97.7), with a Rhythmic Top 40 format. They became very popular in the South Bay [holla!], often besting San Francisco's KMEL in the ratings. The format continued until late July 1995, when the station was sold to Susquehanna Radio and turned into a simulcast of KFOG. [Boo.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythmic_Top_40
Rhythmic contemporary, also known as rhythmic top 40, rhythmic contemporary hit radio and "rhythmic crossover", is a music radio format that includes of a mix of dance, and upbeat rhythmic pop, hip-hop, and R&B hits. While most rhythmic stations' playlists comprised that mentioned above, some tend to lean very urban with current hip-hop, urban pop, and R&B hits that gain mainstream appeal. Rhythmic contemporary is usually the music played at clubs and school dances.
They will not play music with a harder rock sound or songs that sound too adult for their taste, leaving those songs to the conventional top 40 stations.
Most of its core listeners makeup a multicultural mix of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans, that include a core group of teens, young adults (mostly 18-34) and young females.
By the way, right there, they nailed my home demographic. And I am so many of those things!
Anyway, thanks to Hot 97.7, even to this day, when I hear a thudding dance beat and synthesizers, I can't help but shake my booty a little and get all fired up. Here now, for you, are some of my favorites. People, this is what got me started on music...but somehow I doubt any of the readers of my blog are nearly as obsessed as I am. Still, relive the magic!
Real McCoy - "Run Away" Oh GOD the club dancing!! And I don't remember the singer/rapper dude being...kinda fug.
Real McCoy - "Another Night" Oh yes, he is all about making love to the mic. Aviator helmet, what? I believe I owned this album.
No Mercy - "Where Do You Go" Gay? No, just typical 90's fare. Mmm, well, maybe a little gay, too. Lots of random arm-flailing bordering on vogueing.
La Bouche - "Be My Lover" Drag queen-y big hair and bondage.
La Bouche - "Sweet Dreams" Yes, I totally owned this album. A startling amount of vogueing here.
(Oh god but check out the European version! Extremely fetishistic.)
Corona - "Rhythm of the Night" More uh...strong black vocals, shoulder pads, and pagan imagery to boot.
Whigfield - "Saturday Night" A lesser known song, but a good one. E-piano chords and nonstop frog sounds. I once took a cheer/dance class, and we composed a whole routine to this song. Am I proud or ashamed? I don't know.
Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock - "It Takes Two" Crossing over into another genre here, seeing as these guys can actually rap and can actually dance. Old school hip-hop is a whooole 'nother blog post. But, the background "WHOO! Yeah" sounds are so, so characteristic of 90's dance. That's probably what really got me in the Cut Copy song.
Unlimited - "Twilight Zone" This is also crossing into another genre, maybe, but it's also got the "WHOO!" thing going on. Also, the breakdown in this song is great, and even more, it is reminiscent of the Mortal Kombat movie song.
Carla: i know HOW i know this song
me: hahaha
me: school dance?
Carla: as a kid...saturday mornings...JAZZ
If I've forgotten any real gems, feel free to put them in the comments.
For months now I've been dying to try my hand at making macarons (NOT macaroons!), those delicate yet toothsome, notoriously finicky, sublime little meringue sandwiches. I'd been hesitating because whipping egg whites to stiff peaks by hand...well, sucks. This weekend, however, I finally scored a hand mixer from my blessed friend Aki (助かったよ～！).
I used La Tartine Gourmande's Matcha/Chocolate recipe, subbing toasted ground sesame for wattle seeds. The sesame was a bit overwhelming - or maybe there wasn't enough matcha - but still quite a nice flavor. Despite the prevalent obession/paranoia (read the comments or google "macarons"), they were actually pretty easy. Unsurprisingly, most of the variability came via my weirdass Japanese microwave/oven/toaster. It turned into something of an empirical study, but I'm happy to say it CAN be done!
The first batch:
Nearly perfect. I piped them out a little wide and too close together, but I got the little "feet" and no peaks on top! Because I don't care for food coloring, they baked golden instead of "matcha" green. The only real issue here was that they were hard to separate from the parchment, so I think the bottoms were just a bit undercooked. To bake, I had set the parchment atop the ceramic plate that goes in my microwave/oven, and put them both in together. That plate is ultimately not the best conductor of heat in such a small space, but I don't have anything else that fits in the microwave. Here's the finished first batch next to the patiently waiting (slowly sinking) second batch.
For the next batch going in, I decided to put them on the still-hot plate and pop them directly into the oven while it came back up to temperature. The little microwave/oven heats up fast, so I didn't think it'd be a big deal...
Tops cracked and no "feet." They look like cookies! They were still incredibly tasty, though, and they separated easily from the parchment. I like the clean removal, but I think the overall cooking time was too long, and letting them come to temperature with the oven caused too much "oven spring."
Third batch was started on a cold plate, inserted into the fully preheated oven, for a slightly shorter time than the first batch.
Got the feet back, but this time they were even harder to remove! They almost ended up hollow because half the insides wanted to stick to the parchment. Oh well, I think the key is hot plate, hot oven, shorter cooking time (or lowered temperature halfway). More experimenting to come.
The important thing is that they are all fucking delicious. My brain likes to think of them as low-fat (hey, egg whites and sugar and just a teensy bit of ganache!), so I find myself popping them like chips. I've been kind of on a baking high recently (also made ciabatta, Mia has pictures!), and it's rooted in the gluttony that binds together my life. I love eating, and I love buying more food stock than I could ever eat. Now, I'm left with under 2 months to finish off masses of bread flour, all-purpose flour, pasta, rice, sugar...
On that note, I recently got my first Engrish shirt for a mere $10. It's about damn time, and it's pretty fabulous:
But possibly the brand is even more fabulous:
