living in twilight

Dear Ones,

I just got off the phone, and I wanted to send you the song for today, and to send you this amazing image of the Telefontornet of Stockholm, circa 1890.

Your song today has a touch of melancholy & maudlin melodrama, and much of the grandiose, symphonic loveliness of Electric Light Orchestra.   Not everyone goes in for that, and so, you needn't stay on the line if you have somewhere else to be, some other song to listen to today.

Oh, and one more thing, she said, when she rang off:  "Have a good one!," and that is where I want to pick up our next conversation, and soon!








PS
Close and regular readers will notice that Dodo links to YouTube uploads of music often favor low view counts.  If you noticed, you can probably guess why: here at the Dodo, we love the imperfect, the ignored, the overlooked, and the seldom visited.  We dig the weird offshoots of the internet search that can be found on page 8 of the results.

convention

Dear Missing Music,

It's been a while since the day has had a song, but this is undoubtedly the song for today.

Amazement.

Dear Friends,

This just in from a co-worker, and oh!  It is amazing!  You will gasp, laugh, and weep at the beauty and whimsy of it all.  I am reading a book, which I know you would love, called The Book of Delights, and I think maybe this film of Polly Verity heralds the beginning of a new Dodo Feature: The Delight of the Day.   It won't be everyday, of course, just like the song of the day; you will get it when it comes, and no sooner, but, be ready to be delighted!

808

Dear Eights Again,

Your song for today.

Hang on to your joy.

800

Dear Lucky Eights,

Sometimes I wonder why I am telling you these things.  I guess it's a sort of whistling in the dark, but I don't want to just entertain you; although, that will do in a pinch.  Would we have loved a life working as a Tele Skater Girl?  I wonder.  The old things always look so good when you are sitting here in the now with your plastic devices and your instant, cord free communication.

I heard a fellow on the radio some years ago talking about working to live versus living to work, and he said that when people made the joyful hobby they had into their livelihood, the fun quickly drained out of doing it.  I ask myself very often if that is how I would feel, looking out at a large rink full of 8 year olds having skate birthday parties on a Sunday.  I try to imagine the difficult customers I might get; Drunks maybe?  Frat boys?  Inline booted hockey hellions?  What about when the roof leaked all over the wood floor?  Would I still find joy in skating everyday to songs like this one, which would be my actual job?   I sure hope I get to find out one day.

A film to celebrate the 800th day of skating:

rough & puff

Dear Bakingest,

A dear friend lives with a beautiful backyard plum tree, and so around now, there are plums.  This is a special plum, not like those sour-skinned black things you get elsewhere.  They are small, and inside they are riotous burgundy fuchsia.  This year I made some of these rustic crostata with them.  The crostata, or, if you feel more French than you do Italian, the galette, is a homey, form-follows- function pastry.  Nothing special is needed- a plain old cookie sheet or baking tray suffices: no pie or tart pans needed.

You can see that my pastry really puffed, and threw the fruit filling plum out of the galette, but to demand symmetry in your food is quite mad.  Enjoy your baking, puffy, warty, crumply, & cracked: it will be delicious and beautiful in its own uncontrolled way.

Here is the (un)recipe that I used:

a slab of rough puff pastry dough (see below)

plums without pits - no more than 2 cups- you want the fruit to caramelize; not to stew in its juice

sugar - use as much or as little as you like

Roll out the rough puff dough, into something kind of 12 by 9 or 10 inches.  Lay your plums in the middle, leave about 2 inches of pastry to fold up to make an edge.  Sprinkle with sugar, fold up the edges, and bake the heck out of it: 40 minutes at 425 degrees.  

Rough puff pastry is a terrific thing- I got the recipe from my Judy Roger's cookbook some years ago.  Here is a link to the recipe.  This version would have you put sugar in the pastry, but, that is not necessary, and the original recipe does not have sugar in it.  Oh, it does take time to make, and a certain amount of pleasure should be taken in the smushing of the butter into the flour.  If you think you can't enjoy a buttery floury 20 or 30 minutes of tactile mud-pie action, then just get that stuff in the box from the store.  It is good, but not as much fun.

no use in trying to deal with the dying

Dear Ramona,

Here is your song for today.  Did you know, my friend, that we could have a Bob Dylan written song everyday, for a year, and there would still be half a year's more?   I haven't even written one, but I think maybe that should be a project of mine- to write a song.  I know I want to use d minor in it.  And I think 3/4 time.  It should rhyme, at least a little.  And it should be performed in a suit like Jenny Lewis wears, but in a less 21st. century unicorn color scheme.