yonatan’s random thoughts

around ten years ago, I visited some music shop. I asked for a Jazz recommendation, and the guy recommended "Relief" by meir ben michael.he told me to ignore the cover, that wasn't appealing, and listen to the good stuff inside.

I did and never regretted since.

I was going over some CDs (sorting out the empty ones which's whereabouts are now lost, and the ones in wrong sleeves),

and I came across this CD which I haven't listened to in a while. I am listening to it as I write this and my insides are happy (autumn happiness, even though the thermometer says it's 27.5 degrees and 80% humidity).

when I put the CD in my computer, I was surprised to find out that it wasn't recognized... I googled "meir ben michael relief" and only came across his myspace page. it's still worth a visit to hear some good stuff!

and so there's no bad sentiment I'll end by a video - this is meir playing in yitzhak clepter's song, but meir's stuff is what you should really listen to.

Tzlil Mechuvan

happy new jewish year! let's eat and not mention the jewish calendar
again for a year.
here's a traditional jewish dish for rosh hashanah:

     

Click here to download:

seitanism.zip (337 KB)

ori and hila's roasted seitan in apples and date honey recipe

(see images for visualization of this lovely treat)
ingredients:
1kg defrosted seitan (loaf)
2 apples, sliced
silan (date honey)
grenadine
demerera sugar
tamarind concentrate (paste)
cranberry tea
soy sauce
cinammon stick
southern comfort (another brandy will also do)

preparation:
please change and play with the ingredients, we don't want to become
embalmed in our own smugness.

apples:
1. boil ~1/4 cup water in a pan
2. melt 2 spoons demerera sugar, 3-4 spoons of silan, 2 spoons
grenadine, 1 spoon southern comfort, cinammon stick
3. add sliced apples and boil (covered) for a few minutes (apples should
soften up)
4. remove cover for a few (~5) minutes to reduce liquids

the sauce:
5. prepare tea essence in a separate bowl (filtered)
6. add a spoon of tamarind, 2 spoons silan, 3 tea spoons quality soy
sauce (you can also add some ground cinammon).
7. stir well

finish:
8. slice the loaf - not all the way through so it will stay one and
doesn't tear up.
9. place the apple slices in the loaf
10. pour sauce over
11. cover with aluminum foil and bake (175 degrees celsius) for 30 minutes.
12. remove aluminum foil, wet the top of the load with the sauce, and
keep baking and moisturizing for 15 minutes.
13. make sure the loaf doesn't dry up. praise the lord for his
benevolence and ingenuity, for governing his chosen people over seitan.
amen.

serving:
14. serve, eat and impress your family and friends.

best thing since sliced bread! (or as close as an app launcher can get).
launchy is like the quiet guy that gets the job done without drama.
others might be more appealing at times (gnome-do or the generally great deskbar applet),
but at the end of the day you can always cuddle in bed with launchy.
here's what it looks like on my monitor:

the recent war at Georgia gave me a flashback to growing up in the '80s.
I'm never sure if it's my own memories or just adopted memories from
other people's reminiscing.
for instance, Mariane Satrapi's recollection of her parents smuggling a poster of kim
wilde to Iran (portrayed in the excellent illustrated novel Persepolis.
I wasn't even exposed to Pop music at the time, more like red army
choir, classical music from my mom etc - that's the records we had at
home. but I can imagine my childhood was full of these sounds: