Episode 141: Rick Moody, Shower Muses, and Snail Eggs
Photo by Thatcher Keats/Rick Moody
This week: Author Rick Moody dives into his gene pool… Jonah Lehrer showers us with inspiration… Escargot Eggs… Comedian Moshe Kasher’s train-wreck mem’ries… And etiquette tips from world-class concierge Michael Fazio. Plus, a little night music from jazz star Esperanza Spalding, billiard-inspired booze, a super joke from Of Montreal, and vibrating tattoos.
Icebreaker: Kevin Barnes
Kevin Barnes — frontman of beloved indie outfit Of Montreal— shares a super joke. His band is in the midst of touring the album Paralytic Stalks.
Small Talk: Madeleine Brand
Madeleine Brand, host of her own eponymous show on member station KPCC-FM in LA, tells us about Finns who’re itching for new technology.
A History Lesson With Booze: Willie Mosconi and "The Smoke and Honey"
This week back in 1954, Willie Mosconi performed one of the most brilliant feats in sports, ever, draining 526 consecutive billiard balls. Learn about the child prodigy-turned-15-time-World-Champion - then rack up a set of these custom cocktails.
THE SMOKE AND HONEY, as devised by David Strauss at The Ranstead Room in Philadelphia, Willie’s birthplace:
In a pint glass, over ice, pour:
- 3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
- 3/4 oz. honey syrup (3 parts honey, 1 part water)
- 1 3/4 oz. blended scotch whiskey, e.g. Famous Grouse
- 1/4 oz. smoky peat Scotch, e.g. Laphroaig
Add to a classic glass, with large (billiard ball-like?) ice chunk. Sink it and then repeat. (NOT 526 times!)
Dinner Party Soundtrack: Esperanza Spalding
Jazz star Esperanza Spalding, who bested Justin Bieber and Drake at last year’s Grammys for the Best New Artist award, just released her new highly-anticipated album Radio Music Society. To celebrate, we revisit her soundtrack of go-to tracks for an evening soiree:
- “Florcita de Amor” by Aca Seca Trio
- “Twice” by Little Dragon
- “Spanish Tinge” or “A Toodle-oo Toodle-oo” by Jaki Byard.
Etiquette: Michael Fazio, Concierge Extraordinaire
One of the country’s premier concierges, Michael Fazio lives to serve… and fittingly, he was quite willing to answer our listeners’ etiquette questions. He delivers the goods with tips on plate-snatching, brutal honesty….and breastmilk storage? (Michael’s book Concierge Confidential is out now in paperback.)
Eavesdropping: Moshe Kasher
Comedian Moshe Kasher is best known for stints on the stand-up circuit and on TV’s “Chelsea Lately.” His first book, a memoir, comes out this week. It’s called “Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland who Became a Drug addict, Criminal, Mental Patient….and Then Turned 16.” Don’t worry, he survived. This week, we overhear him read a dinner-party-worthy tale about his own (near) train wreck.
Main Course: Escargot Eggs
As if escargot or caviar weren’t unusual enough, we can now nibble on “escargot caviar” — yes, that’d be snail eggs. Still a rare ingredient on U.S. menus, Rico pays a visit to Beverly Hills Caviar to sample some of what owner Kelly Scheiner calls a fairy-tale food.
Chattering Class: Jonah Lehrer
Wunderkind writer and science evangelist Jonah Lehrer has picked apart Proust and decision-making in two widely acclaimed books. His latest offering, Imagine: How Creativity Works, blends science and storytelling to explore how certain people (Shakespeare, Dylan, etc.) have achieved sublime moments of inspiration. He offers Brendan a speedy primer on what drives the creative mind.
Guest of Honor: Rick Moody
Novelist Rick Moody is best known for his novels Garden State and The Ice Storm, but he’s long held a passion for music, too. His new book On Celestial Music: And Other Adventures in Listening brings together these worlds with freewheeling essays about music he can’t live without - everything Otis Redding to Captain Beefheart to The Pogues. Like a true jazz artist, he jumps from one line to the next without missing a beat. He tells Brendan about the perils of film adaptation, dying for music, and his genetic discovery.
One for the Road: Tanlines - "All of Me"
Brooklyn duo Tanlines just released their debut full-length Mixed Emotions. The new single (and Julian Barrett-directed video) is All Of Me. Best heard while gelling up your asymetrical haircut far from the prying eyes of Brezhnev’s KGB.
Other Music in this week’s show:
The Sea & Cake - “The Argument”
Aphex Twin - “Boy/Girl Song”
Tipsy - “Liquordelic”
Original Dixieland Jazz Band - “Sensation Rag”
Kenyon Hopkins - “The Hustler (closing credits)”
MFSB - “The Sound Of Philly”
“Black Gold” - Esperanza Spalding
Aca Seca Trio - “Florcita de Amor”
Little Dragon - “Twice”
Jaki Byard - “Spanish Tinge” or “A Toodle-oo Toodle-oo”
Status Quo - “Whatever You Want”
Rob Dougan - “Clubbed to Death”
Ooberman - “Running Girl”
Bob Dylan - “Like A Rolling Stone”
Kings of Convenience - “Gold For The Price Of Silver”
Captain Beefheart - “Drink Paint Run Run (Instrumental)”
Tanlines - “All of Me”
I was just reading in Bill Bryson’s At Home: A Short History of Private Life that in the 1850’s caviar was so abundant that it was served in bars and saloons, in the way pretzels and peanuts are served now, because the saltiness encouraged patrons to drink more.
(another awesome fact along the same lines is that it was routine for servants of the same period to have written into their contracts that they were only to be served lobster three times per week. Lobsters were also a food that was so abundant at the time, that it was considered food for the poor.)
05/15/12 10:27 AM
Hi Damon! We’d love to have you read your comment about caviar and lobsters for our next listener letters segment. It blows our minds that these were once lowly peasant foods. Do you have a sec today or tomorrow (Wed) when I could call you up? The call should just take 1-2 mins, and we’ll air it as on this weekend’s show.
You can reach me here: jmusker@americanpublicmedia.org
Thanks a lot! Jackson (and Brendan and Rico)
I was just reading in Bill Bryson’s At Home: A Short History of Private Life that in the 1850’s caviar was so abundant that it was served in bars and saloons, in the way pretzels and peanuts are served now, because the saltiness encouraged patrons to drink more.
(another awesome fact along the same lines is that it was routine for servants of the same period to have written into their contracts that they were only to be served lobster three times per week. Lobsters were also a food that was so abundant at the time, that it was considered food for the poor.)
03/26/12 4:16 PM
Man; that is simultaneously fascinating, tantalizingly hunger-inducing, and sad. There’s a similar sentiment in the sushi film “Jiro Dreams Of Sushi” that we covered last week — Japan’s renowned sushi chef Jiro Ono recalling how plentiful various seafood once was… some of which is now just plain gone.
Guys, this week’s show was spectaculous!!! Yes, yes. I’m sending you money… #supportpublicradio
03/26/12 4:10 PM
Thanks Cassandra! For the kudos and the dough. We thrive on both.