THE GURGLING COD

Joy Division, mon!

Anchower, and all that. I will be back whenever I recover from this:
A steel drum verz of Transmission? That's not bananas, that's a bunch of bananas in Sean Young's lunchbox after Duke and Gonzo pick her up hitchhiking at the Nevada border.

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving!

Eli Roth to make Thanksgiving film of Grindhouse trailer fame unapocryphal!

We are all prostitutes... except Martin Luther, I guess.

Balk gets after an unfortunate image in an LAT article on food blogging ethics:

Like Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to a church in Wittenberg -- itself a disputed bit of reporting -- in April two Los Angeles bloggers posted a suggested Food Blogger Code of Ethics.
Um, yes, exactly, if Martin Luther = two "bloggers" you've never heard of, (who happen to work in the food and beverage industry*), and the Protestant Reformation =  encouraging people who write about food online to a) be nice, and b) and behave as honorably as their print brethren. Um, yeah.   On the bright side, I guess this means that me and Ignatius of Loyola are shoulder-to-shoulder in the counter-reformation
*The whole "food blogging ethics" conversation has been carried out by folks who betray little sense of food, or blogging, or ethics, but it's interesting that this "Code" was ginned up by folks who respectively, work at a restaurant and write copy for a bakery, and used to manage a restaurant and work for a wine merchant. It would seem their day jobs, more than a finely tuned moral sensibility, might provoke them to attempt to encourage bloggers not to say mean things. In this respect, it's reminiscent of the Team Julavits "snarkwatch" of a few years ago, which, if memory serves, called for virtual fatwae against folks who said mean things about Eggers or his buds.

The Day is mine!

Never doubt that a "one million strong for ___" group can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that can. Back in May, I greeted the news of Bruni's departure with a call for the restoration of William Grimes, the former NYT critic -- the one who could write. To effect this restoration, I started a Facebook group -- One Million Strong for the Restoration of William Grimes. The thunderous roar of this legion has echoed all the way to Times Square, nay rattling the teaspoon on Sulzberger's desk: The Feedbag reports that Grimes will be returning. Mission Accomplished!

Please join me in my next effort  -- One Million Strong for Zooey Deschanel to deliver personally a restored Pinzgauer full of Benton's hams, rye, morels, and the cast of 8 Femmes to The Gurgling Cod.

The Man who ate every intern.

Via a correspondent we will call The Mammoth, plucked from the FCI listserv,  an opportunity that may be of interest to any Cod readers who are younger, , independently wealthy versions of the Mary Poppins-MFKF lovechild:

Interviews have begun for the incredibly sought-after job of assistant to Vogue magazine's food critic, Jeffrey Steingarten. Jeffrey is also author of the best-selling The Man Who Ate Everything & It Must've Been Something I Ate. He was co-host of the cable TV show NY Eats, & appears regularly as a judge on the Food Network's program, Iron Chef. Ideal candidate is equally skilled at library & Internet research, cooking & shopping, repairing Xerox machines, mise-en-place, keeping office & kitchen organized, writing clearly, doing errands, eating in a few fabulous restaurants, & possibly traveling. Ideal candidate is a total omnivore, or at least eager to become one. Ideal candidate does not, of course, exist. But Jeffrey is looking for someone who comes close, is near the beginning of her or his professional career, & willing to give a 2-year commitment. Jeffrey's assistant is paid by the hour as a Vogue freelancer, receiving, as he once did, no benefits whatsoever, but some expenses & free food. Candidates will also be evaluated by their abilities in 1) cooking, 2) academics in general, 3) knowledge of food history & food science, 4) practical knowledge of food products, produce, & agriculture, & proficiency in at least one gastronomic foreign language. So, in your cover letter, please list these 5 skills & write a sentence or two appraising yourself in all 5. If you are especially accomplished in some other pursuit & would like to talk about it, please go right ahead. And last, let us know whether you are familiar with Jeffrey's books & his articles in Vogue.
Applicants should email resumes & cover letters. The last time Jeffrey searched for an assistant, too many of the applicants lacked both academic & culinary qualifications. Re-viewing all the applications took forever, & nobody benefited from this waste of time. On the other hand, we're extremely appreciative whenever a qualified candidate
applies.

Good luck kids! I'm guessing the right kind of headshot might help. And have a good weekend!

Werner Herzog Cooking Show!?

As IFC points out, a Werner Herzog cooking show is a niche that's too probably too narrow for those big pitons they use at Food Net and Bravo, but as the cinetrix points out, "O.M.F.G":

Ribbons!

The Gurgling Cod spends rather more time than he ought on the subject of kitchen stuff you do not need. But here, from O&M Thailand, via EMD, is evidence, at left, of what everyone needs. New midrange knife from Wusthof, or an OCD chupacabra? You decide.
Alternatively, Damien Hirst, Fergus Henderson, and M.C. Escher have taken over  O&M's Thailand shop. In either case, worth registering for, stat.

Food porn, done correctly.

Not surprisingly, Mr, Chris Onstad has the solution to the problems facing Williams-Sonoma:
"Product-centric erotic literature for women."
For instance:
The kind of climax only the gentle agitations of a freestanding, $1,800 cabbage corer can supply.

NOLA Checkin

Happy Independence Day to all. As a non-food item, a missive from a New Orleanian* who is large, and named William, aka Biggwill:

Pitt for Mayor…Not Really That Funny 

Publicity Translates Directly into Dollars in Post Katrina New Orleans.

 

I don't know why it bothers me so much that the movie star (Brad Pitt) receives so much attention when it comes to the rebuilding of New Orleans?  There are many other matters that demand my concern (for example: the starting quarterback for the Tigers this fall or the Saints’ playoff chances this season), but it is July in New Orleans.  We are at the commencement of Hurricane Season (or what a good friend more appropriately refers to as Hurricane Fest), and issues associated with rebuilding and hurricane protection are top of mind right now.

 

I admit that when compared to our current mayor even “Homey the Clown” would be a better leader, but that does not provide enough of a reason for us to even jokingly consider Brad Pitt. 

 

Let's take a look at what other celebrities have done to help New Orleans.

 

Harry Connick Jr & Branford Marsalis - 76 Homes have been completed (soon to be 176) in the Musician's Village (Upper Ninth Ward).  A community center for music is almost complete.  Construction on a number of Elder Duplexes (retirement duplexes) associated with the village are also complete.  An additional 100 homes are being built in the Musicians Village by Baptist Ministries.  That project is well underway, and it is slated for completion by 2010 -11

 

Wendell Pierce & Terrance Blanchard - 215 Properties in the Pontilly Area of New Orleans (Pontchartrain Park and Gentilly) have been acquired by their investment group.  Demolitions of old structures began in March 2009, and construction is well underway on the first 35 homes.  Wendell Pierce and Terrance Blanchard donated between $3 to $5 million dollars for the construction of the first 25 homes.  They also secured another $2 million investment from Washington, D.C.-based Telesis Corp to build another 10 homes.  Their efforts have prompted other projects in the Pontilly area.  Development of a senior center and redevelopment of 6 parks/green spaces are currently in the works.  Also, the city and state have purchased an old mall in that area.  Redevelopment of that mall is in the planning phase.  Eventually, Pierce and Blanchard seem confident that they will be able to secure enough investments for the remaining 180 homes soon. 

 

Brad Pitt - 8 Homes (out of 150 planned) have been completed by Make It Right in Lower Ninth Ward.  They have received well deserved acclaim for their green design and sustainability; however they are experiencing problems in producing more homes due to the expense associated with the designs.  Imagine That!

 

Brad has created the most environmentally friendly neighborhood in New Orleans, but it is only 8 homes in the middle of a field of empty lots.  Imagine if he were to team up with Habitat for Humanity (like Connick and Marsalis).  They would likely have 200 homes near completion.  Instead, all we have is a nice experiment in Green technology and design. 

 

Pitt is clearly a good person with genuine intensions.  He has invested a lot in the effort to help New Orleans.  I simply would prefer more attention to be focused where it would do the most good.  While Pitt is struggling to build a 9^th home in the lower 9, Pierce and Blanchard are trying to get another 180 funded in Pontilly at more reasonable and sustainable costs. 

 

Who knows?  Maybe Pitt can start building normal homes in the lower 9^th ward, and send the Today Show to Pontilly this August when they return to commemorate Katrina. 

*Fun fact: New Orleans is in Louisiana, which is part of the United States! Yup, we bought it, and now it's our responsibility.

Worlds collide

The Blondie for 30 June echoes a major plot point of The Girlfriend Experience. Granted, Blondie is catering, not escorting, and the aspiring critic is not as creepy as Glenn "The Erotic Conoisseur" Kenny, but whoda thunk that a Depression-era syndicated fishwrap comic would have its finger on the zeitgeist in 2k9?