Crème Fraîche

Crème Fraîche is a cultured dairy product. In America it's a specialty product and you pay dearly for the French label. The quickest work-around is to buy Crema Mexicana ( Crema Agria, Crema Español, Crema Fresca), available in just about any big box grocer. The drawback to these commercial products is their standardization. If the pH (tang), viscosity and fat content are what your recipe needs, you're home free. If not, you can make your own.

Take whipping cream, half & half or industrial cream ( used in commercial kitchens with about 2% more butterfat than whipping cream ) and warm it to 89°F. This is baby bottle warm. Add two tablespoons of buttermilk per cup of cream. You can also buy a culture, but again, cost comes into play. Cover your warmed bowl, pot or container with plastic, let it sit at room temperature for eight hours, then pop it into the fridge. Wait a day or two for everything to meld and there you are.

Advantages: Crème Fraîche has some flavor.(it won't fix canned green beans, however) Unlike sour cream or yogurt, it won't break in a sauce or when heated. It can be whipped, think topping on a savory. If drained, ( cheesecloth and colander ) it makes a fresh cheese similar to Mascarpone.

The Language of Birds

the language of birds

The Language of Birds was installed at the corner of Broadway and Columbus, just a block from my hovel, late last year. It flies above a small plaza that was originally a right hand turn lane and an island. A video of the unveiling is here. Usually I'm a bit leery of art (or music: pace Bailey) that can't explain itself, i.e. needs an artist or publicist to provide an exegesis, but at night the lights and placement of this piece provides its own raison d'être without need of the backstory. During the day you can see the wires and hanging equipment, but it's easy to overlook the mechanism behind the illusion in the overhead tangle of the bus line and crosswalk infrastructure. All-in-all, a nice addition that graces a previously schlumpy corner.

Joe Pass

A band was playing downstairs, and they decided to cover Duke Ellington's Satin Doll. They did a pretty credible job of it. Even the squawk-'o-matic player set aside his squeals and honks and tried some of that melody stuff. Here is Joe Pass, showing that he's pretty clear on both melody and harmony. Here is a link to the chords. Definitely try this at home.

Backstage Yiddish

Yiddish has for a loaned the English language words, phrases and attitudes in general and provided sharp working tools for performers in particular. A subset of Yinglish has been appropriated, meanings twisted a bit and set to work backstage.

Bubee - Form of address. Usually morphs into bubba as the tour move into the heartland, unless your from N.Y. Then it's bubbleh all the way.

Cuppah - overhead drapery on a set (excluding the teasers)

Kosher - A power hook-up that supplies correct grounding and phase or a hang that's been signed off on. Everything else is copacetic.

Farpotshket - Something that's been repaired so many times, so deep in duct tape, that it can't be fixed no more.

Kvetch - The singer

Potch - Percussive maintenance.

Tchotchke - Little specialty tools. i.e. fret files, coffin keys, projector alignment drivers..

Megillah - A shows hardware. "We got the megillah out of the truck and powered in two hours."

Pisher - New guy on an experienced crew.

Drek - The instruments.

They're plenty more, but most are used in the same sense everyone else does. Smuck, klutz, putz, farblondjet and so on.

Spelling reference: The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten (What's green, hangs on a wall and whistles?" ......"A Herring" (you can paint it green, nail it to the wall and the whistling part is added just to make the riddle hard).

Bald Eagle

Anthony attended the Riverside convocation of the Eagles this weekend. True to his word, he raffled off chances to shave his head, resulting in over one thousand dollars being raised for Locks of Love and the fight against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Pride, S.F., "09

I wonder if the folks at Stonewall could guess that trying to keep their butts from being beaten in a jail cell would lead, forty years later, to a parade on Market street where you could shimmy in your tie-dyed undies while servicing a transnational clothing consortium?

All Right