cinghiale

Rapeman were really good, too.

He didn’t make it. https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/10/dennis-thompson-dies-aged-75-death-mc5-drummer?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Vividly remember a Big Black show in Hamburg in 1986. The band threw a hissy fit about the sound at the club and stomped off the stage. Someone did something, and after a spell, they came back out and tore it up.

Another depressing tale of late capitalism. Is this a real problem or just niche hyperbole? The piece does name-check big restaurants.

Had dinner there in 2005 - in fact, Christmas time, and also had the tortellini in brodo. Have a photo somewhere of him showing me partridge breasts that local hunters just brought in. Stayed at the connected albergo, something like “Design Inn”? Loved the bottega, too. I live relatively nearby now and have thought often about revisiting.

So having read this piece about Jim Gordon in today's Guardian, I decided to burn one and listen to Let it Rain (collaboration not even mentioned in the Guardian!). IMO this is among Clapton's best work, but the drum solo is right up there with Baker and Bonham. Curious: were any old MFFers going to shows at the Garden back then? I am an old yet now must realize the I was just 13 at the time. Do share.

The poet Gabriele d’Annunzio created – apparently at the behest of Mussolini – a number of neologisms in Italian to expunge foreign words from the language, particularly English ones (much like Hitler did). So “lo sandwich” became “il tramezzino”, from the Italian “to partition”. Other inventions, like for basketball and boxing, haven’t survived anglification. But a big one did: in football, the top team doesn’t win "the championship" (with a trophy, I guess), but instead “lo scudetto”, or the badge, whose design he also apparently created.

I think their version of City Slang is actually better than Fred’s.

Dodge Main has a great lineup. Deniz Tek in the Sonic role. From his website In the early '90s Patrick Boissel from Alive Records began a crusade to resurrect the Detroit Sound. He had the idea of forming a "Detroit Super Group" of surviving players who were still active in music. Deniz and Wayne Kramer were asked to lead the effort, and both agreed. Less than a week after touring Europe with The Deniz Tek Group, Deniz flew to LA to record. Scott Morgan (the Rationals and Sonics Rendezvous Band) had been recruited to sing, with Wayne's touring band Paul Ill on bass and Brock Avery on drums and percussion. Recording was done at a small studio in West Hollywood called the Music Box. Some songs were written on the spot, others in Deniz' motel room. MC5, Birdman, and Sonics Rendezvous standards were included. The entire album was done in less than 5 days. "Dodge Main" (1996), named after the now defunct automobile assembly plant in central Detroit, was released by Alive to rave reviews and a 4 star treatment in Rolling Stone. Dodge Main has gotten together for occasional live shows since then to rowdy and volatile midwestern crowds, Currently there is an unreleased live concert tape waiting in the wings featuring the band at peak power in Cleveland with bassist Gary Rasmussen and drummer Scott Asheton, with a guest appearance by Jimmy Zero of the Dead Boys.

My wife has a late model. Really likes it. But no face ID, right?

I'm not really a fan. I find them kind of cloying. My wife likes them, though, so we sometimes pick up Lacrimas from Ma.Ri.Ca when we're in the area; they're quite good. If you ever find yourself in the Ancona province in late May, you can try all the Lacrimas you want at the annual Cantine Aperte event. €10 gets you a glass, a little tote to carry it in and free tastings at something like 75 vineyards in the province, which open their doors to the public for the weekend of the event. There's also one now during harvest time, it seems. They also take place in other regions, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Umbria would be great, I'm sure.

Thanks, Ori. I’ll look into that.

Some would say that chicken liver is important, but it’s not always included. The polenta around here always seems to be sauced with lamb liver though.

Not quite. Mostly done by home cooks for special occasions in my experience. My bartender made one for Christmas, for example.