Re: OT: thoughts on music and cooking

On 6/7/07, Josh Carroll <josh@infinivert.com> wrote:

Of course!

Unless, that is, the cooking is done around the grill, in which case
a good beer should be substituted.

--Josh

On Jun 7, 2007, at 1:06 PM, aaron leese wrote:

>
>
> Yeah, me too ..... though I need to interject that for proper
> improvisational cooking, one must have a bottle of wine.
>
>
>
>> From: "Tony K" <bigtonyk@gmail.com>
>> Reply-To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>> Subject: Re: OT: thoughts on music and cooking
>> Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 13:04:35 -0400
>>
>> It makes complete sense to me.  I too love to cook.  But, I have a
>> different
>> approach.  I approach cooking in much the same way I do making
>> music.  I
>> just make it up as I go along.  I grew up in an Italian family, my
>> grandmother(s) just showed me how to make things.  A very few
>> thins there
>> were recipes for, but for the most part, it was just experience.
>> I have a
>> general idea of what I want (the basics), then I just start
>> throwing things
>> in.  So, my cooking and my music are never the same twice, but
>> always an
>> adventure. :)  Sometimes things fail miserably, you know like when I
>> accidentally put caraway seed in spaghetti sauce. not good.  And
>> sometimes
>> it's a gem.
>>
>> Tony
>>
>> On 6/7/07, Josh Carroll <josh@infinivert.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> In addition to creating music, I also like to cook.  I especially
>>> like to
>>> making (or rather, attempting to make) sauces.
>>>
>>> A few years ago I set out to make the perfect salsa.  It took me
>>> a few
>>> tries, but pretty quickly I came up with a recipe that embodied
>>> what I think
>>> salsa should taste like.  All my friends love it too.  I usually
>>> make it a
>>> little thinner and milder than I would personally prefer, but I'm
>>> still
>>> happy with the flavor, and I feel like it has something unique
>>> about it; a
>>> little bit of myself expressed in a sauce.
>>>
>>> This year I decided that my previous recipe was too complicated,
>>> so I set
>>> out to create a new recipe with half the ingredients.  I nailed
>>> it on my
>>> first try, and honestly I think the simpler recipe tastes better
>>> (though a
>>> couple of my friends would argue with me).
>>>
>>> However, I've also been trying to come up with a barbecue sauce
>>> recipe
>>> that embodies all I love about barbecue for a few years now, and
>>> after
>>> dozens of tries, I'm about ready to give up.  Everything I make
>>> sucks, and
>>> while a couple of my friends are nice enough to eat my
>>> experiments, I know
>>> it's never very good.
>>>
>>> I think there are several reasons for the difference in success
>>> rates, but
>>> perhaps the most important is this:  I have an exact idea of the
>>> way I think
>>> salsa should taste, and I'm familiar enough with the ingredients
>>> to make
>>> that happen pretty much every time I make it (a few flops
>>> excepted).  But
>>> when it comes to barbecue sauce, I've tasted so many different
>>> influential
>>> sauces that I loved, from thin and vinegary to thick and sweet,
>>> spicy,
>>> brassy, smokey, tart, etc. that it's nearly impossible for me to
>>> envision a
>>> sauce that captures my favorite things about each.  Furthermore,
>>> there are
>>> so many possibilities for different ingredients that I'm just not as
>>> familiar with, that when I taste a half-finished sauce and think
>>> "hmm... it
>>> needs a little of that sweet flavor from Sharon's house sauce,"
>>> I'm left
>>> guessing at how to make that happen.
>>>
>>>
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ---------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> All of that to say, I look at a lot of you guys (and groups like The
>>> Books, Sigur Ros, etc.), and it at least appears that your
>>> efforts at making
>>> music flow the way salsa-making does for me.  You know exactly
>>> what you're
>>> going for, and you stick with it.  Even when it takes a
>>> surprising turn, it
>>> still turns out great.  And I've watched with envy as several of
>>> you have
>>> sold-off gear and simplified your sets (stripped out half of the
>>> ingredients) and come up with a new recipe that's even more
>>> profound and
>>> satisfying that what you did at first.
>>>
>>> But lately, making music has felt like trying to make the perfect
>>> barbecue
>>> sauce to me.  I have so many diverse influences and sounds in my
>>> head that I
>>> want to combine, and I have all this technology at my fingertips
>>> that I'm
>>> just not as familiar with as I would like to be, that I feel
>>> overwhelmed by
>>> the endeavor.  And everything I have come up with so far is just not
>>> satisfying to me.
>>>
>>> And I'd like at least a few people to think it's good too, but
>>> right now
>>> the artists I'm hearing who come closest (check out
>>> http://www.myspace.com/sonlux for one example) are too much of a
>>> stretch
>>> for even my most musically inclined friends.
>>>
>>> Has anyone else been here, or am I even making sense?  Any words of
>>> wisdom?
>>>
>>> --Josh
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> -==-=-=-
>> Tony
>
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