By now you all know that I am in awe of Gavin Castleton. I mean seriously. I was working while he was doing this set live on the legendary Morning Becomes Eclectic, but fortunately, KCRW puts these performances up on their site.

Gavin is the type of artist we don’t get to see very often. Watch and be amazed.

 

This morning I finally got around to putting up the show I recorded with my pal Joey Piscopo only to discovering that the recording was jacked up beyond repair. Please take a look at his video short of outakes from the ShamWow guy as you bide your time for the next podcast!

p.s. if you like the video, take a minute to visit youtube and drop a comment and then tell your friends!

 

I have been tweeting about this dish so much and people have been asking for it so here it is. Isa Chandra Moskowitz gave me permission to post this, it’s from the Veganomicon. Buy it. I included the recipe correction from The Post Punk Kitchen forums

3 large yellow onions, peeled and sliced into thin rings
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup long grain basmati rice (brown or white), rinsed
1 cup red lentils (I have been using green cus I can never seem to find the red ones when I need them)
1 cinnamon stick
½ teaspoon allspice
1½ teaspoon ground cumin
generous pinch of ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 400°

In a large, deep baking pan, toss the onion rings with the olive oil to coat. Be sure to separate the rings and spread them out in the pan. Roast in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring often. The idea is to get most of the onion rings deep brown, crisp and even burned on the edges. The deeper they roast, the sweeter they’ll taste. When done, remove from the oven and set aside.

Bring four cups of water to a boil in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Add the rice . cinnamon stick, ground cumin, ground cloves, and allspice. Bring back to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Uncover and add the lentils, stir gently only a few times (too much stirring can break the rice grains); cover, bring to a boil again, lower the heat to low, and cook for an additional 45 minutes, until the liquid is completely absorbed. Remove from the heat and set aside the covered pot for 10 minutes.

Use a fork to gently fluff the lentils and rice. Remove the cinnamon stick. Gently fold the caramelized onions into the lentils and rice, making sure to drizzle on any remaining olive oil from the roasting pan. Stir thoroughly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

Despite the fact that Anji Bee and I have both been podcasting for nearly three years, it has been just recently that we realized how much we have in common and begun a friendship. Still, I have always had great respect for her work and am really honored to be a part of her most recent Collabocast.

After receiving a letter from a Northern Illinois University student who was comforted by her show during the terrible time of the recent shooting, she pulled together 16 music podcasters to produce this show in support of a listener.

I strongly believe that the most valuable gifts we can give to one another have little to do with the material. This podcast is a fine example of the type of soul hug so many of us are in need of.

Give it a listen.

Anji Bee’s Chillcast #102: NIU Support Collabocast

 

There was a mistake on the podcast: the web address for Ian’s book is www.diabetesmiracle.org NOT .com

 

I first met this month’s featured artist, Ann Karp, as I was planning my four month internship at Koinonia Partners in 2006. She was welcome source of calm and serenity during my time as a part of the community, always able to put things into perspective by taking me out for a run through the pecan orchards or keeping me laughing with her covert “vegeterrorist” actions. Maybe we will cover vegeterrorism in the podcast interview!

I had planned on starting the new year with an interview discussing her work, but had to reschedule when I came home to find my trusty mixer has apparently bitten the dust. Instead, I offer you this, a look at some of her artwork accompanied by her own comments about her work. Enjoy! (please note that clicking on the images will take you to a full size version.)

‘This Machine Kills Fascists’ was the line famously lettered by the old folk singer and wanderer Woody Guthrie on the front of his guitar. In this design I wanted to give my own generation a sense of his vagabond, subversive, uncertain freedom.

This ink-on-paper was drawn from an arresting photo from the book A Day in the Life of America. The caption: “Lizzy Mack, 12, lives with her mother, brother and sister in a single room on Manhattan’s West Side. The room is paid for by New York’s Emergency Assistance for Families program. Photographer Letizia Battaglia says, ‘Lizzy is like a First Lady, a star of society. She is intelligent, good and beautiful–but she is poor. That is the only difference.’” With both the photo and the drawing, I felt almost as if I should say “Good night, Lizzy” before shutting the book–she’s so tangibly there. The photo is from 1986. I wonder where she is now.

These fallen leaves were gathered from trees at Koinonia, the community where I live, and dried, lettered, gilt-edged, and glazed by hand. I like the idea of small, portable totems that remind the bearer of a truth. Usually, though, the truth is cliched. I’m not challenged by a stone that says “Love”–I too easily reduce it to an easy ideal. I’d rather have words that magnify and complicate a leaf’s simultaneous qualities of miraculousness and commonness, power and frailty, structure and decay–qualities we humans also embody.

This creature “grew” out of an ottoman in my friend Jo’s cozy living room one morning. I was in a daydreamy stupor, vaguely worrying about wrapping a lot of Christmas presents, and my pet rats were romping over the furniture. I’d like to do a whole series of spooky children’s furniture beings sometime.

All of these (and most of the others on my flickr site) are available either in the original or as prints. I also adore commissions; you dream it, I dream it onto paper (or leaves, wood, etc.)

-Ann Karp

 

I haven’t said it here for realz yet, but I am trying again to stick to being vegan. Today is day three. YIPEE!

 

I have been trying for some time to think of a way to involve the visual arts in what I do here at MikeyPod. When my pal Ann Karp and I started talking about an alternate cover art design for the podcast it dawned on me that I could invite some other artists to do the same.

MikeyPod Cover Art by Ann Karp

Here’s how it works:
Each month I will feature a new artist with a podcast interview and spotlight entries featuring his/her work. Ann’s design is up at the blog now, and I will be interviewing her soon (after I get some technical difficulties worked out with my soon to be old mixer).

I still have space for a few more artists this year, so let me know if you have any suggestions!

 

oooooops. my old voicemail expired! Here’s the new one: 206-202-4178 look for a new podcast today!

 

Yes, it’s been a long time between podcasts, sorry ’bout that! If you need a MikeyPod fix, hop on over to my friend Chef Mark’s show. We had dinner last night and saw Love in the Time of Cholera , podcasting all the way.

I am editing the interview with George Tabb this morning, so it ill be up Monday!