A one-person debate

Two reasons why I like this video:

1) It's funny

2) It's true

Two reasons why I don't like this video:

1) Where's the companion piece about equally stupid shit guys say?

2) Yet another thing created by guys that sets girls up to hate each other in order to look better to dudes -- "I'm a girl, I've never said most of those things because I'm not a vapid bitch like most girls"

My least favorite comments from today's NYT article about US sexual assault survey

Here's the article if you haven't seen it already. Now... onto making fun of people's dumb opinions! (Underlined emphasis is mine.) Oh, and this is just from the first page of comments...

Colin:
"What is a crime unlike any other crime, and worst than any other crime, is a false accusation of rape and the subsequent wrongful conviction of an innocent man."

Really? The WORST crime of all?

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Mos:
"It is terrifying how blindly PC America is when it comes to rape and sexual assault. The idea that 20% of women have been raped or have suffered through an attempted rape is ludicrous simply based on numbers.

Just flip that around and say that 20% of the male population are rapists, and yet somehow manage to steer free of any other crime, and presumably do not rape multiple women, and it doesn't even pass the most basic logical questions."

Bro, don't talk about logic and all that shit when you can't do math. Also, most rapists DO rape mulitple women. So again, don't base your argument on what you incorrectly "presume" and then talk like you have the logical upper hand.

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Katherine said:
"I'd wager that there are legions of women who have experienced the grey-area violation that I think of as relentless pursuit. It goes approximately like this:

[extended conversation between a woman and a man, where the woman refuses the man's advances multiple times before finally saying "okay, if I do this one time will you leave me alone?"]

This is not consensual, but some would argue that it's not strictly rape either. It's more like a dog chasing a deer until the deer is so exhausted that it can't run anymore. It's a crappy substitute for courting, but the fine art of gentlemanly conduct isn't well known these days.

It would be helpful it teenage boys were taught that no-means-no-so-quit-asking. Instead they are taught not to take no for an answer. And girls are taught to be accomodating, helpful, and not cause a scene, but maybe they need to learn some self-defense moves that say no in a more physical way if words are insufficient."

MH responded:
"Women who are elusive are more attractive/valued to men. Men who are persistent are more likely to succeed and win over the valued female. This is of course natural selection at its best.

A man trying to win over a woman, either by asking once or 10 times is not a crime, it is life."

What a great life for men, and a shitty life for women! Does that not bother you at all? Do you even pretend to yourself that you're a decent person if you're okay with that?

MT also responded:
"I'm sorry, but in your example, any sexual activity that results from these exchanges is, indeed, consensual. Your own wording makes this plain as day: "if I say okay".

Here's the point: If you in fact say "okay", or imply it through your actions, then you have indeed consented! You cannot later claim that you did not consent. You were not under duress. You were not duped. Regret after the fact, or claiming that you were nagged, does not retroactively negate your consent.

From an individual perspective, no one likes or wants to be nagged, whether a male or a female attempts it. If you are already being nagged (for sex, money, favors, or anything else), the best response is to walk away."

Duress... I do not think that word means what you think it means. And walking away... have you ever tried to do that to someone who is harassing you or physically intimidating you? Try it sometime, and see how it goes.

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Paul B.:
"I seriously doubt this number. Nothing to stop women from exagerrating in a survey, or being vindicative, And what do they call rape, a little pressure n the bedroom? Lets count the men who are assaulted verbally by women in their life time, would be 90%, And many men are physically assaulted by women, but dont even count it"

No emphasis needed here -- your entire comment reeks of horrible. People like you are the absolute worst; at least you appear to be forthcoming enough about your hatred of women that none of us are likely to be around you long enough to experience the adverse effects of your proximity.

Sometimes raves are creepy

First things first -- the word "rave." I don't like it. Using it today makes people sound like they're equating the massives today with the underground shit from back in the day. And I am not even coming at this from the "it was so much better back then!" angle per se, because I wasn't around back then. I just think that the kind of event a "rave" referred to is not the same as what we're doing today in the EDM scene. I use the word "rave" sometimes because it's a lot less clunky than, say, "DJ show" or "Electronic music event" or "EDM massive" or whatever other overly-descriptive substitutes have been offered. So there's that. "Rave" it is. (Sometimes.)

When I first started going to these things, whatever they were, I went with Casper. We were kind of the only people who liked this stuff, and we liked doing it together. It wasn't until much later that I started going with other (female) friends and couldn't help but notice a slight difference in the way that my presence was received when I went without Casper. It was different, and it was a little creepy.

At first, for awhile, as someone who hadn't ever done the whole ecstasy thing and really couldn't put myself in the shoes of someone who was on it, I just accepted all of the touchy-feelyness as "what just happens." It's PLUR, man! It's love! It's love through music! We're connected through beats and synths!

But then I realized more and more that it wasn't like guys were walking up to other guys and just touching them. No, guys were only walking (dancing?) up to girls and touching them.

I can't speak for anyone else, but as a girl, this is what makes it hard to have hobbies. Seriously. My enjoyment of music has to stop at me listening to it at home, because when I go out and my boyfriend isn't around, I have to accept being arbitrarily fondled. And that's something I don't really want to accept.

Some people will say, "Hello, do you see what girls WEAR at raves?" I direct those people to all of my prior photos of what I've worn to raves. I've gotten groped wearing jeans, a tank top, and chucks. So have a lot of other people. Women who wear burkas get groped. I got groped when I was thirteen years old, wearing braces, a t-shirt, and jean shorts, the first time I ever went to a "discotech" in Italy, while I was on a school trip, with my teacher chaperones standing not but 10 feet away. So no, I don't accept any variant of the "she was inviting it" as a good argument, reason, or explanation why this shit happens.

Groping happens. It blows. So why am I talking about raves again? Well, I guess it has to do with what I mentioned above -- the PLUR effect. The idea that if you still want your personal space, you're missing out on the "experience" of lovingly touching and being touched by other people. Sorry, it's not for me. Sometimes I just want to listen to music because I like the music, not because I want to buy into whatever bizarre counter-culture springs up around it.

Public service announcement

Do NOT get a kidney infection.

Okay?

Just don't. They're horrible, painful, life-sucking experiences. There is no comfortable way to exist. You can't sit, you can't lay, you can't stand, you can't walk, you can't pee, and you can't curl up into a ball and cry.

You'll get a fever so high you'll believe you're in Greenland (because you're that delusional and shivering that much.)

So just don't do it. Drink plenty of water and kick your urinary tract to the curb if it starts acting a fool.

You'll thank me for this message!

Smartphones and dumbusers

One of the more confounding aspects of my geekery (to myself) was the disconnect between technology I embraced and technology I scoffed at, with no obvious set of rules or standards that distinguished the two categories.

Despite teaching myself HTML around 11 years old (Web 1.0 HTML, but still, I had my own website that I have to think, for the era, was pretty nice -- not a disgusting Geocities mess of animated backgrounds, flashing, text, and Comic Sans; yes, I've always been a little elitist!) and building my own PCs and following tech news closely and engaging in any manner of other proto-geek pursuits, I was never much of a gadget person. Paying for a cell phone -- not just paying more  for a phone, but paying for one at all, when a perfectly adequate one could be had for free -- seemed silly. I didn't like answering the cell phone I had, and when texting eventually came about, I found it absolutely exasperating. (It's still not my preferred form of communication, but I understand the convenience.)

Behold: my first cell phone.

At some point, I transitioned into a "phone person." It's still not clear to me at what point in my head I decided I'd had enough with my dumbphones, but I went and bought myself the first generation Moto Droid on eBay a year or so after it came out. It was all downhill from there.

Progress.

I still often finding myself staring at my (newer model) phone as it sits in my hand, because I've already done all of the routine checking on it I tend to do every couple of hours, and I ask it (silently): now what am I supposed to do with you? Aren't you supposed to be great? Aren't you supposed to entertain me for HOURS? Of course, I'm supposed to be the one to put the apps on it that entertain me for hours. I'm supposed to be the one that wants to stream video. And yet. I can go on for ages about how useful this thing is. I can get technical about the ways I've modified it and overclocked it for performance and underclocked it for battery life. But. I still get this nagging sensation that I'm not really using it.

Periodically I come across apps that are so handy and useful that I don't know how it's possible I never knew about them before. I feel, both as a person who likes convenience and as a person who is now supposed to be a (pretty knowledgeable) smartphone user, I should have known about this! Why didn't I? Is it still the remnants of me, the person who didn't want to deal with having a cell phone, much less one that was more complicated than something I could use to call my parents when I needed them to pick me up? Or is it just the natural process of moving through a world that is, technologically-speaking, advancing more rapidly than the average person can follow?

Part of what's interesting, as an observer, is the way that high-tech has gone mainstream. For so long, tech-culture was this esoteric thing that interested people followed, but didn't necessarily participate in because it was accepted that to really be a savvy, top-of-the-game user you needed to have money (to keep up with the high turnover rate) and/or connections. Apple can be credited with always being at the forefront of taking the most current technology and making it accessible. They did it with the Lisa and the Macintosh (even though they didn't invent the GUI), and they did it with the iPod (even though they didn't invent mp3s or music players), and they did it with the iPhone (even though they didn't invent ... ok, this is a can of worms I don't want to open.) The smartphone "revolution" has been particularly fascinating because, for all practical purposes, it means that people carry their computers with them wherever they go. This is a conversation we've all had before, but for me, what it boils down to is that now that technology is pop-culture, not being current goes beyond aspiring techies simply not having the means (or the time) to keep up; now it seems that to evolve at the rate of our whole culture, you need to be gadget-friendly. You don't need to have the top-of-the-line, but being connected in our system does require buying into the smartphone effect.

MOAR GIFs

If I can be bothered to update this thing regularly at all, it will be to participate in a new special feature entitled "GIFs from shit I liked last week"

 

I even made these myself! They're a little slow, but I'm learning.

-_-

To those of you with slow internet connections: I'M SORRY

There has been a whole lot of text in between this post and the bottom of the page. I like colors and things, so here are some GIFs.

 

How much of the 60's do we want back in our lives?

This post was inspired by a comment I left on a thread over at Pajiba. I was so pleased with myself I decided to re-post a more filled-out version over here, apropos of this being my blog and a more appropriate forum for going out on tangents.

With regards to Pan Am and The Playboy Club, I'm fairly certain that the initial feeling of many people, after learning that these shows were to premier this fall, was that they were trying to capitalize on the Mad Men phenomenon. People without extended cable may have never seen Mad Men, but they've surely heard of it winning tons of Emmys and influencing fashion by re-introducing several flourishes reminiscent of the 1960's. My immediate concern was that these shows would capture all of the visual flair of Mad Men without any of the depth or critique of the era. The review of the two shows, appropriately written as one comparative piece, more or less confirms my suspicions but allows Pan Am the distinction of being the better show.

Without having watched the pilots, what strikes me about the descriptions of both shows is how much they give away about their protagonists in the first episode. One thing that I love about Mad Men is how each episode helps to review a new detail about the character, but it's a very small detail. You have to look at the show cumulatively to even come close to understanding him or her. These shows have taken the much more flashy approach of "she's married, but they're both gay!" and "she's a stewardess, but she's actually a spy!" which, though immediately interesting, is ultimately superficial and causes writers to work backwards and fill in details behind the already big reveal.

Ultimately, the popularity of either The Playboy Club or Pan Am could be an interesting case study in what works on American network television. Though anyone who actually brought their brain with them to a remedial high school course analyzing media and/or literature could see that Mad Men is a better show, it wouldn't be in the least surprising if the instant-gratification aspect of the new network shows garners them more immediate success.

That success could, as a feminist and as someone interested in social commentaries, be frustrating or even devastating. It is too early to tell if either The Playboy Club or Pan Am is going to sacrifice the dignity of its female characters and racial/ethnic minority characters by glamorizing an era which was, as we generally understand now, pretty unapologetically shitty to those classes of people. What Mad Men does right is that it allows us the visual pleasure of looking back in time, but it certainly doesn't valorize the social and cultural mores of the time. It's pretty frank in its portrayal of how women and people of color were openly treated as second-class citizens (compared to today, in which explicit racism and sometimes sexism are unacceptable, but insidious forms of both still shape our culture.) I'm unsure that the network shows will be able to be as constructively critical. That they are network is damning enough, as much of network television tends to be superficial and banking on cheap thrills. The fact that both shows are ostensibly set in particularly oppressive fields for women at the time doesn't help matters, even if marketing wants us to believe that the female protagonists are "empowered" despite their subjugated positions in the workforce. Protip: sexualizing your character is not the same as making her "sexual." The former objectifies her; the latter gives her personal agency and generally respects her as a human being. There is time yet to see if these shows can get it right, but in the meantime I won't be holding my breath.

Cement blocks for feet

I think my body and mind might be at war with each other, and within themselves. I've been getting in better shape, slowly, but every day is still a struggle to get in the gym and to stay in the gym for long enough to get a decent workout.

This is my body: Flabby, out of shape, too big for most of my pants. That is, in a nutshell, both my motivation to work out and a source of my difficulty in working out. I just can't do what I used to.

This is my mind: I know that fitness is important. I know that the health benefits of exercise are innumerable. But I hate working out. If I could afford to go back to dance class, I would. Even though I would suck, because (technical) dance isn't just something you can drop and pick back up again, and even though it would be endlessly frustrating to be so crappy at something I used to be pretty decent at, I'd enjoy it. I wouldn't have a problem working at it. But for now, I've got this whole self-demotivation complex and even thinking about going to the gym is endlessly torturous.

Also? I have this recurring dream. It's that I'm playing soccer, but I'm slower than everyone else. I get the ball, everything seems great, and then all the sudden the ball is too fast for me and I can't keep up. The defense takes it away from me, every time, and I let down my team again. Is this trying to tell me something? I mean, I'm no professional dream analyist, but the most literal interpretation I can think of is that my body is incapable of doing what I want.

Doublethink

There is a pretty consistent rhetoric that is inexorably present in mass media coverage of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment cases, which is that the "incident" itself is but a moment in time, therefore short-lived and easily brushed aside; meanwhile, the accusation itself of committing such an atrocity follows the unfortunate soul throughout the rest of his/her life, branding them for all of society to scorn and dismiss them at will.

This argument makes no sense.

In order for the latter to be true, that is, that being accused of such a crime carries with it the implication that the person may have done something unforgivable, the former must not be true. In other words, if being raped, or sexually assaulted, or sexually harassed is not a big deal, then being accused of rape, or sexual assault, or sexual harassment should also be not a big deal, because the crime itself is not a big deal.

This is rape culture.

This is the type of cognitive dissonance that we absorb and dispense when we treat victims of these crimes as if they are the true criminals for having the gall to accuse someone of harming them.

Mainstream niche

Full disclosure: the following post is probably going to be at least a little bit hipstery and douchey.

I'm not the first person on the internet to write about this, but it is something that I find a little bit amusing. There is this phenomenon where there are certain things that are pretty damn popular and mainstream, that people for some reason treat like they are eccentric or unique tastes. A popular example that comes to mind is Star Wars. I hear people all the time say things like, "Oh, I'm such a geek -- I love Star Wars!" It always makes me think, "Dude, EVERYONE likes Star Wars. It's not exactly offbeat and geeky if EVERYONE likes it." Which isn't to say that people shouldn't like it, because obviously Star Wars is awesome. It's just that I don't necessarily think liking it earns you geek cred. And I also think it's kind of weird in general that people are clamoring all over themselves to earn geek cred. Didn't it used to be that being a geek was kind of a weird thing? Does real geekery even exist anymore if geek = mainstream? Does it even matter? People have been fighting against "labels" for so long, mostly by reclaiming tarnished labels, that maybe in the end the thing that makes the most sense is for people to be mainstream and geeky, popular and nerdy, weird and cool, all at the same time.

Another one is Daft Punk. A performance group used a Daft Punk track from the Tron: Legacy soundtrack on So You Think You Can Dance last week, and I read a few responses online implying how unexpected and awesome it was that a Daft Punk tune appeared on the show. My reaction was like, "First things first -- Daft Punk is an insanely popular group. Pretty much every oxygen-breathing organism on this planet has heard of them. Secondly, you're talking about a song from a very well-known, heavily marketed, rather successful Disney movie as if no one will have any idea what it is." Foolishness, I tell you! And given what I wrote up there, I guess it really doesn't matter whether they're "popular" and "mainstream" or not. I just can't help but laugh a little to myself when people treat these very popular entities as if they have some kind of subcultural cache.

Anyway, so this will be one of those posts that really doesn't have much of a point to it, other than being my less-funny version of a standup routine where they make all of these humorous observations about life and people's little oddities.

Beer blog problem - fixed!

Well, in a way. The way I "fixed" it was just to port everything over here, to blogger.

So if you're actually interested in reading my beer musings (including the incredibly hilarious aspect of me trying to pick apart scents and flavors,) feel free to head on over and comment too, if you wish!

http://alwaysanswerbeer.blogspot.com/

You suck at puns

Okay, here's something really quick, given my propensity to be ranting about something at any given time:

I see this a lot and it makes me squirm. I know that young progressives hate Fox News, but when you're trying to capture the intellectual upper ground, PLEASE don't go for the low-hanging fruit and call it "Faux News." For one thing, it's so old hat. For another thing, you guys do know how to pronounce "faux," right? It's just not a successful play on words if it requires you to willfully mispronounce the word to get the joke.

Wow

Oh my god, can you believe I last published in April? I knew it had been awhile, but I had no idea it was that long ago that I last sat down and gave myself the pleasure of hearing my own e-voice at length.

So, what's new around here?

I finally made it to Europe with Casper, a trip I was looking forward to for years. I enjoyed meeting his grandparents, who were genuinely wonderful people, with a FANTASTIC foliage-filled backyard. I hope someday to cultivate a green thumb like his grandfather's.

I'm still chugging away at school with no publications in sight. It was at this time a year ago that I was in the thick of my first big project, which unfortunately turned up no meaningful results in early 2011, forcing me to approach my data at another angle. That "other angle" is also turning out to be a royal pain. One of my assays is hopelessly unreliable and I've just been testing conditions to get it to work for the last two months. I'm not even actually using my sample set yet, just testing small batches! It's quite frustrating, but I'm closer than ever to having good working conditions, so hopefully in the next few weeks I'll actually be able to begin the real work and start seeing usable results.

I took the written portion of my qualifying exam in the beginning of June, which explains some of my radio silence on here -- I spent a good portion of May studying for this thing, and though I didn't divorce myself from the Internet entirely, I was too drained to devote a lot of brain energy to blogging. Thankfully, I found out a few weeks ago that I passed! So that part is done and over with, but I still have to complete the oral portion at some time in September. This part basically requires that I do a grant-style proposal for my thesis project to my committee of advisors. So that should be interesting. I obviously know my project very well, but I do tend to panic and freeze when I am put on the spot. Public speaking training much?

I'm also finding myself potentially having to move AGAIN. My current roommate has decided to take the plunge and move in with her boyfriend, so while I'm hoping to find someone to move in here and take her spot, I'm not getting a lot of interest yet and may unfortunately have to clear out of here and find myself an affordable one bedroom or studio. GOOD LUCK! And too bad, because I really am quite settled here. I don't want to move too far away from where I am now. I really like my location and have grown very attached to some of my neighborhood spots (Eagle Rock Brewery, I'm looking at you!)

That seems to be as good of a summary as possible of my little life since April. I can't promise anything, but maybe I'll get back into some more interesting commentary when I'm done with qualifying exams round 2.

Tom Hanks is a lot of Animals

Here is my submission... hope they like it!

http://tomhanksimals.tumblr.com/

UPDATE: I made it!!!

Eagle Rock Brewery - Women's Beer Forum

One of my local beer spots, Eagle Rock Brewery, has started holding "Women's Beer Forums" every third Wednesday of each month. For $10, you can show up and try a tasting flight of four different beers that so far have been themed for the evening.

The first theme in March was affectionately called "Fru Fru" and highlighted fruit beers -- the idea was partly a play on how women seem to be directed and/or gravitate toward fruity drinks, but none of these beers were sickly sweet. The first was Ephemere Apple, a white ale brewed with apple as an adjunct (apple was actually added separately to the brewing process, as compared with notes that are present simply because the particular strain of yeast adds that flavor to the beer.) As someone with a soft spot for white ales, I enjoyed this beer and thought it was a nice way to open the flight. The second beer was Eagle Rock's own Limbo, a summer saison brewed with citrahops and Brettanomyces. This beer was freaking delicious. The citrahops gave essences of tropical fruits, and the Brettanomyces contributed a piney, earthy funk (in a good way) that gave a dry twist to the finish of the beer. The third of the flight was an old favorite of mine, Dogfish Head Aprihop, an apricot IPA. As I'd found apricot ales to be among the first beers I remember enjoying, I am especially fond of the apricot addition to my perennial favorite beer style, the IPA. Lastly, we tried Maui Brewing Company's Coconut Porter. As this was available to go, I bought two cans (yes! it comes in cans!) The coconut is delightfully subtle, but what really drew me to this beer was that it woke my nostalgia up in a major way by reminding me of Double Rainbow Ultra Chocolate Ice Cream , which to this day is the best chocolate ice cream I've ever had. And I'm not really a big ice cream person, but if someone handed me a bowl of this I would eat it happily.

Last week, I attended April's Forum which was themed "Spring Flowers" -- we would be sampling beers with floral notes. The first was Jolly Pumpkin Artisanal Ales' Saison IO, which was brewed with rose hips and rose petals as adjuncts. As I'm increasingly finding myself a bigger and bigger fan of the saison style, I really enjoyed their rose-infused take. Secondly we tried  Williams Brothers Fraoch Heather Ale. It was a very light, mild beer that was (unfortunately) a bit skunky by the time it got to us on its journey over from Scotland. It didn't make  much of an impression compared to the rest of the beers we tried. The third beer was Elysian Brewery's Avatar Jasmine IPA, which was AWESOME. The hops were woodsy and citrusy, but the real star was the jasmine, which was reminiscent of drinking jasmine tea, but in a beer. None of the flavors overpowered each other, and the synergistic product was a truly beautiful beer. The last beer of the evening was Craftsman Brewery's Sour Lavender Ale. Craftsman is located in Pasadena, so we're lucky around here to have access to their beer, as they don't bottle their products. The Sour Lavender ale is a special seasonal beer that I rather liked, for a sour, which is a style I usually don't favor. I liked the lavender element, and I also didn't find it very biting or bitter for a sour, which was nice.

I like the idea of the women's beer forums because it gives women an easy opportunity to learn a bit more about beer vocabulary and try different styles. For some reason, despite the origins of beer being attributed to women, beer has become something of a men's domain in popular culture. It's not as profound in the beer geek / craft brewing world, but there is still something of a disparity in numbers between male and female aficionados, not to mention craft/micro brewery ownership -- again, surprising, since there is at least some evidence to demonstrate that women are at least as good, if not better, than men at detecting certain taste elements in beer.The bottom line is that there is definitely room for women in the beer world, and given the popularity of the two beer forums so far, as well as the alleged eagerness of the participating breweries to provide their brews just for the event (this was the case at least with Craftsman and Elysian, and particularly in the case of the latter, which is based in Washington and doesn't ordinarily ship beers here at all) it seems that the beer world is ready and eager to accept more women into the sausage fest.

It's a nice opportunity for women to first learn the tools to be beer geeks in an accommodating environment, as there is ample research that demonstrates any number of psychological burdens women often experience when trying to participate in male-dominated environments (Impostor syndrome being a particularly common and damaging one.) It's therefore perfect for a woman who is just becoming interested in beer, but might feel intimidated walking into an established "beer bar" and trying to establish some kind of repartee with bartenders and bar owners about which beer she might want to try while having limited experience in the matter. I know I felt that way -- I'd tried beers I know I liked, but other than "It was golden, and Stone made it" I felt very lost at the beginning of my beer journey. I still feel like there are some styles I'm pretty established in, but others I don't have a taste for at all. Slip me into a conversation about the minutiae of which glassware is most appropriate for certain styles, or about the brewing process itself? I'm not really up on all that - yet. I've already learned a lot about brewing from the Forums, for instance the tidbits about adjuncts vs. yeast and hop flavor contributions. I now feel like I can hold my own with a lot of dudes, the majority of whom -- surprise! -- don't actually know jack about beer at all, but are just loud enough to seem like a commanding presence in these types of conversations.

Given all of that text and whole-hearted recommending of the ERB forum, I thought I'd end on a song of the day that I've been playing a lot lately. I love her voice and the particular eccentricity of this song really does it for me right now.

My kind of day.

Saturday, April 9, 2011 was a lovely day filled with beer and bacon.

There were two separate beer events going on: the Drink|Eat|Play LA Beer Festival, and the ColLAboration mobile craft beer garden celebrating Tony's Dart's Away 1-year anniversary. Having attended the LA Beer Festival and other events like it for about 2 years now, I was intrigued by the ColLAboration event, which promised keepsake glasses, full pint pours, and my favorite local beer darlings Eagle Rock Brewery. I was not disappointed in my choice, which ended up offering a wider variety and more hard-to-find beers than I've been privy to try in the past at the LABF and Septemberfest. Though my four tokens were used on some easier-to-acquire beers that I haven't had yet, the communal tables at the (not too crowded, thank god) event made it easy to make friends and try more beers.

I started with Eagle Rock's Populist, their IPA. I've had it before, but it has been awhile since they often run out of it at the brewery and I haven't been able to have it in awhile.

I kept forgetting to take the picture before I started drinking -- you'll see this is a theme as the post wears on.

I next tried the Lokal Red from The Bruery, which I quite enjoyed. It had a nice floral element and some great hoppiness, which I always appreciate. I plan on trying to find this in the store to purchase, as apparently it is one of their standard brews.

Next I tried the Steelhead Extra Stout from Mad River. I didn't get a picture of it at all (fail) but it was a nice, thick, full-bodied stout. Good drinkability, but not one I think I'd buy again. My last beer of the day was Eagle Rock's 2011 Yearling, a sour ale. I don't usually go for sours, and this was a STRONG sour, so I can't say this was one of my favorite beers. Still, I am glad I got the opportunity to try it, as it is one of their "vintage" seasonals at this point and not generally available at the tap room.

As you can see, we had a rousing game of Apples to Apples happening in the background, which I won, obviously.

Did I mention all of this started at noon? So at about 4:30, I made it back home and took a power nap. Day drinking is a trip. This wonky day schedule eventually led me to Denny's at about 12:30am for BACONALIA.

Thanks to Noche for this photo.

Their bacon menu is absolutely ridiculous, as one might expect. I ended up going with the Triple Bacon Sampler, an arterial nuke complete with two strips of pepper bacon, two strips of hickory smoked bacon, two strips of turkey bacon (cheating), two eggs, and hashbrowns with cheddar and -- you guessed it -- more bacon.

It was obviously delicious.

Blog notes! Or, rather, notes about other blogs.

**UPDATE: I can see that the privacy settings on the BfC page are a bit wonky. As far as I can tell, everyone should be able to see my profile and blog, but instead outside visitors to the site are being directed to a login page. I've submitted a bug report to the site, so hopefully it gets resolved. But if not, maybe if you're a beer lover, consider joining Beer for Chicks (even if you're not a chick!) since you presumably care enough about beer to want to read those blog posts in the first place ;)

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You may have noticed that I'm writing a bit more about beer-related events I've been attending. You may have deduced that this is because I'm really getting waist-deep into my beer education! As part of this, I've decided to open up a separate pseudo-blog off of the Beer for Chicks site, which is itself an offshoot of The Beer Chicks, a beer blog run by two LA-based lady beer sommeliers who got their start at Father's Office.

My intention is that for every beer I try, I'm going to try to write more in-depth specific detail about it in a blog post over at my BfC profile. I will probably continue to do write-ups of beer events over here, since they're more comprehensive and what-I'm-doing-with-my-life related, which befits a personal blog. The other blog will be just about the beer. If you're interested in that at all, please feel free to check it out!

** My beer blog! **

Some choice thoughts on the "UCLA Racist"

• Was this blown out of proportion? Yes and no. Yes in the sense that she's inextricably linked to UCLA, and now the university feels the need to defend itself as a whole against the actions of, obviously, one individual. No, because even though UCLA's eating it right now, it's not like she's the only person at UCLA who feels the way she does. She was just the one who was stupid enough to put it on YouTube. People calling her a "bad apple" are really missing the point that there are still a lot of people out there that harbor racist feelings, which is bad, even if those feelings manifest themselves as cringey YouTube videos rather than, say, slavery. Maybe somewhere next to the shock and outrage people are expressing about "How someone could say such things!" they might also be examining themselves and learning why it's not only bad to say such things, but also to feel them, and possibly adjusting their own silent attitudes accordingly.
  
• So... about all of this shock and awe. If there is one thing I know about white people, it's that among even the most socially-conscious of us, there are people who love to get away with telling a racist joke - that is, they're in comfortable enough company to know that their peers know they are just joking, and they're not really racist. But let's think about this a bit. It is exactly that kind of permissive environment that allows people like Wallace to post videos like that and think that it's just a little bit of humor. She lacked the sense to realize that The Internet ≠ Your Private Circle of Friends, but I think more of us with a certain racial privilege (read: white people) should be willing to, in said Private Circle of Friends, be like "Hey man, that's not cool. If you don't really believe that stuff, maybe you shouldn't say it. And if you do believe it, then you should probably accept that you're being a little bit racist and try to work on that."
  
• Asians are kinda bearing the brunt of overt racism right now. There is this idea that Asian Americans are a "model minority" because they don't contribute significantly to the crime or detention rate, and because they are often highly educated and perceived as being very hard working. Most educated white people know have a little bit of liberal guilt at this point about racism toward blacks and Hispanics, and we know better than to say nasty shit about them publicly. This veil of public anti-racism doesn't always extend to Asians because there isn't necessarily a repeated history of the white man holding Asians down, in this country or others. So it seems a little more okay, for some reason, to employ racist humor against Asians. The more you think about this, the less sense it makes.
  
• Finally, in regards to the "feedback" Wallace has received. I'm very interested in the responses to the video, and in the responses to those responses. (It all gets very meta.) There are the "appropriate" responses, which address the content of the video. The "inappropriate" responses, in my mind, are the ones that address her rather than the content of the video. These responses include the death threats and the "ur a slut" and the "typical blonde bimbo." Neither of these epithets may be as damaging as, say, racial discrimination, but they do succeed in bringing the focus away from what she did, which we know for certain and we can discuss with certainty, and directing it toward who she is, which the majority of us don't know and can't talk about with any authority at all. That weakens our position. Doing your hair and makeup and wearing a low-cut top may mean you want to look nice (to someone's standards) in your video, but it doesn't under any circumstances automatically mean she's a whore. Interestingly, even amongst feminist circles, there seems to be little condemnation of the "who she is" conversation, and even some suggestions of happiness and satisfaction that she is receiving death threats. I mean look, I have no sympathy for this girl, but let's be clear about one thing - violence, and threats of violence, are never okay. Furthermore, I can't exactly understand the anger toward people who are calling out some of the more unsavory feedback. There was an interesting article on Feministing, back when Chris Brown beat up Rhianna, that though what he did was absolutely inexcusable, it's worth examining how his race might be flavoring the particular nature of the discussion around the incident. There was a lot of anger about that article, a sense of "Why are we making this about race when we should be talking about gender?" -- or more specifically: "Race isn't what matters here - it's that a man beat up a woman." In their personal relationship, no, race did not matter. But in the larger societal context, it is obvious to any who pay attention that black men get, on average, a whole lot more flack for their crimes in the media than white men get for their equivalent crimes. So the consensus was, at the end of that discussion, that acknowledging that Brown might be in for a larger world of shit than a white guy in a similar situation isn't the same as giving him a pass for it; likewise, acknowledging that a lot of the specific commentary directed at Wallace has to do with her being a busty blonde lady isn't the same as being sympathetic toward her. That's why I steadfastly disagree with the "Why are you making this about gender when it's really about race" people. As a society with limitless access to the tomfoolery of individuals and the ability to comment (often anonymously) to our heart's content on those things, we should be aware of how our contributions to the discussion shape the discussion. In this case, a sexist contribution, even against someone who has done a repugnant thing, is detrimental and moves the discussion backwards. Fighting one -ism with another doesn't work toward anyone's equality.

I'm blogging, so it must be test season!

And it is! I will not have a midterm get in the way of my insatiable desire to procrastinate. For the time being, this means another beer post (or two) since that's kind of what my extra-curriculars have involved lately (who says college ever has to end?)

So you may remember Verdugo Bar from my last post. Much like the Russian River night they hosted in February, last week they hosted a Ballast Point night.

Ballast Point, a brewery in the San Diego area, is particularly well known for their medal-winning IPA, Sculpin. I personally had been blinded by my devotion to Sculpin and was really not familiar with any of their other brews, so this was a nice opportunity to try some of their other beers and even talk to one of the head brewers (a bunch of the BP guys were actually all chilling at the bar that night, so it was nice to see some representation and talk to them about the beer.) First up I tried the Habañero Sculpin.

  

It tasted quite like how you'd expect! Which is to say, like Sculpin, but spicy. Original Sculpin has a fantastic blend of tropical and citrus fruit taste with very palatable hops on the finish. The spice in this version came in after the initial hit of fruit and stayed on through the finish. I wouldn't say it wiped out the hops (such things are difficult to do in IPAs) but it definitely provided a strong counterpoint to what is traditionally a dominant taste in this style of beer. I don't know how often they brew this, but I'd recommend trying it if you see it. It's not going on a favorites list, but it's definitely worth the novelty of trying.

Next up was the 2011 Sea Monster, an Imperial Stout.

They also offered a barrel-aged version of this on tap that night, which Casper opted to try. I'm still developing a taste for barrel-aged beers since the scotch and bourbon notes that are often present in these are overpowering for me, at the moment. So I went with the regular 2011 Sea Monster, which I found light in flavor for a stout. It's possible that my taste buds were a little warped by the punch of the Habañero Sculpin, so I'm giving this the benefit of the doubt, but that night I found it unremarkable.

Finally, after gulping down a burger from the Grill 'Em All truck (seriously, try this one if you get a chance) I finally went for the Abandon Ship Smoked Lager.

The picture is a little wonky - apologies. It was a full pint. Anyway, I don't usually go for lager styles. They're a little light for me, generally, and I am not sure if my palate is really refined enough to pick up on the subtleties of the style. I mean, generally I tend to go for really brash, overconfident beers, so particularly lagers/pilsners tend to get lost in the fold if they're not packing some kind of punch. Enter the smoked lager, which I thought would be an interesting adaptation. Suffice it to say I did like the smoke element, though as I am sitting here recapping I'm having a hard time putting my finger on some of the other flavor essences in the beer. I definitely remember liking it, but obviously as I suspected the subtleties were lost on me besides the smokiness.

Here is a picture of the full list of beers and burgers that were offered that night. I was in heaven, guys.

Anyway, I'm really growing to love this bar and Eagle Rock Brewery, which I am going to post on next time I feel like hammering out a post.
Also, as an aside - right at the end I got to try Nitro-Sculpin, which was awesome. I love beers on nitro - it gives them an interesting creaminess in the texture that can be a quite appealing addendum to the taste of the beer. Generally I've had darker beers on nitro, but I found it also added a worthwhile element to the Sculpin that puts it in the "definitely get this" realm if you ever see it available on tap.

Pliny the Delicious

Behold Pliny the Younger.

 Last Wednesday, February 16, was a day of celebration for some 50-65 (I'm not sure of the exact number) LA Eastside beer lovers.

There is a brewery up in Santa Rosa called Russian River - they produce several beers year round that are all considered very good. One of them is BeerAdvocate's #2 beer in the world, Pliny the Elder. I have several bottles of this and have tried it on tap, and it truly is great. I'm an IPA person, so I'm sometimes asked to describe my favorites, and sometimes even further asked to describe what's different about them. I think what sets PtE apart is that it's a double IPA that has the smoothness and drinkability of top "single" IPAs like Ballast Point Sculpin. In comparison to Stone's Ruination, another double IPA that I quite like, it seems much more well balanced, not like the flavors are overcompensating for the added hoppiness.

That background all serves the purpose of setting up THE EVENT. Which is that every year, in February, Russian River releases the limited batch of Pliny the Younger, which is a "triple" IPA and falls at #3 on BeerAdvocate's list of top beers. It's difficult enough to get at the brewery and in NorCal, since hopheads clamor for it and make pilgrimages to Santa Rosa to try and get it. It's even worse to try and get it elsewhere. In SoCal, Russian River sends one keg each to several respected beer bars including Father's Office, The Surly Goat, Verdugo Bar, and Blue Palms. Some of these bars tap the keg quietly (Father's Office, Blue Palms) and others put the information on Facebook etc about when they're going to open the keg. The Surly Goat tapped it Tuesday the 15th after (apparently) running radio ads, and was greeted with a line around the block at opening.

I went to Verdugo and got in line at around 5:30 PM for a 6PM opening. I'll cut the drama of waiting in line short and merely mention that there was a scare, but that Casper and I were able to get our hands on the magic tickets that were good for a pour of the good stuff:

sorry the picture is horrible.

We decided immediately that an obviously good choice was to get both the Younger and the Elder versions and do a taste test.

Younger is on the left; Elder on the right

What struck me immediately about Pliny the Younger is that it was delicious. What struck me second about Pliny the Younger was how very similar it was in character and balance to Pliny the Elder, despite being 30% stronger in alcohol and dry-hopped twice as many times. The increased hopping should theoretically increase the bitterness, but actually Pliny the Younger is a slightly sweeter beer.

It's really a shame that this is such a limited release (though I suppose we ought to be lucky that we can get ahold of it at all, compared to the #1 beer on BeerAdvocate's list.) It's insanely drinkable with an 11% ABV that you won't even notice until you stand up (whoops!) Fortunately I live within walking distance to Verdugo Bar! This is the kind of beer that will make you a beer-liever.

"If tech discussion was really about tech, it wouldn’t be sexist."

"More women than men discuss sexism, and it is not because we find the topic more fun, entertaining, or enjoyable than men.[sic] It is because sexism gets in the way of our freedom. I blog about sexism in geek culture not because it’s my passion, but because it gets in the way of my passions. My struggle against my marginalization is not my hobby."

from this post at Geek Feminism Blog.

DineLA Restaurant Week Wrap-Up

In the usual fashion of me doing everything several weeks behind, I wanted to do a little write-up of DineLA Restaurant Week, which happened the last week of January and the first week of February.

Being as I am broke, but with a significant appetite, DineLA's specialty-priced menus appealed to me. There were three price brackets, of which I stuck with the lowest one. For $16 per person at lunch and/or $26 per person at dinner, we were presented with a menu where we could choose one from each of several appetizer, entree, and dessert options.

The first of the restaurants I tried was Starry Kitchen, a precious Asian-fusion cafe with quite an interesting back-story. My appetizer was the Pandan Chicken, which was juicy little bites of chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and then fried. As I was eating this chicken, I was thinking to myself "This could be my whole meal!" it was so good. But before I had the chance to get too caught up in thinking that the chicken was gone too soon, I tried the Spicy Korean Pork Belly Sandwich with onions:



So freaking good. You know I can't argue with pork belly, and their spice blend was pretty awesome. I'm not cultural enough to know exactly what it was, but I do know that it took me less than 5 minutes to eat it. Finally, for dessert, amongst the options, the one that stood out to me in a "I really have to try this" way was the Durian Flan Cheesecake:



Just in case anyone isn't familiar, durian is that notoriously stinky fruit used primarily in Southeast Asian cooking. The smell is strong and offensive to so many people that it's actually banned in a lot of public places in SE Asia; however, many people do enjoy its distinctive flavor. I have not traditionally been one of those people, but I still wanted to try the cheesecake on the principle of trying something new. It tasted pretty much what I expected it to taste like - the durian taste was not overpowering, but just off-putting enough for this non-believer to not want to go clamoring after another piece. Still, I am glad that I tried it.

Overall, Starry Kitchen gave us a lot of food for our measly money, which I was very happy about, particularly since my two proteins and salad were most delectable.

Next, for dinner, we tried Magnolia, a "new American" restaurant downtown right next to The Original Pantry. My appetizer, the Burrata and Artichoke Crostini, was right up my alley and also my favorite part of the meal, which was (unfortunately) otherwise mediocre.



My entree was the Steak Gorgonzola. On the menu it said "Steak Gorgonzola over pappardelle". Even though I recognized that there would be pasta involved, what I was not prepared for was a pasta dish with little chunks of steak in it, smothered in a gorgonzola cream sauce. I mean, from reading that, I was expecting a steak, with some noodles. I guess it makes way more sense the way it came out from a price standpoint, but I still found the dish title to be very misleading. I might have gone for something like "Gorgonzola Pappardelle with Steak" if I wanted to convey that this is, in fact, a pasta dish. Finally, for dessert I had the Marscapone Chocolate Toffee Bar with salted Caramel Ice Cream. The ice cream was good, but I found the toffee bar to be too sickeningly sweet, and I suppose I was just expecting more out of it in general since I really love marscapone.

Finally, we allowed ourselves one last lunch before laying our wallets down to rest. We stopped in at Soi 7, also downtown, which claimed a Thai/fusion menu. On this last trip, we made much more of an effort to try to order different things and get to try a bit of each (not hard to decide on, since everything sounded so delicious.) For the appetizer, I ordered the Spicy Yellowtail Crudo, which sounds Japanese, but the spice was all Thai. Hoo-boy! I was able to handle it, partly because it was otherwise soooo tasty and partly because I'm less of a spice wimp than I used to be. I also was able to try the Tom Kha Gai coconut soup, which was insanely tasty. I'm a huge fan of coconut, which is partly why I sometimes go apeshit for Thai food, and this soup just did it for me. A+, would order again. My entree was a late addition to the DineLA menu, and unfortunately I don't remember exactly what it was called. I know that it was beef/steak (probably to make up for the steak disappointment from the night before) with caramelized onions and SOME MORE OF THOSE OBSCENELY HOT THAI CHILIS (it's kind of like they were trying to kill me.) I would say the sauce was teriyaki-esque, but that description doesn't really do justice to what it actually was, frankly. Bottom line is, it was really good.



I also was able to try the Fish Panang, which was good, as expected, if you're into panang curry. Finally, for dessert, I was able to try the Rua Mit (chilled coconut milk with "exotic" fruit) while others ordered Banana Samosas with green tea ice cream.



The Rua Mit was so good - coconutty, with a hint of what seemed like rose water - although I am a bit picky about textures and got a little squicked at the gelatinous fruit in the bowl. So I just drained the liquid and let my compatriots have at the weird fruit (some of which was lychee, I understand, which - no thank you. Lychee looks like fetus and eating it I cannot abide.) Since I'm not a nanners person, I also refrained from trying the samosas, but the green tea ice cream was very good and not too sweet.

Overall grades:
Starry Kitchen: A. I plan on returning, and since their menu rotates, I'll be interested to see what they've come up with next!
Magnolia: C. I don't plan on returning, and based on how empty the restaurant was at peak dinner hours during DineLA week, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't last much longer.
Soi 7: B. Good food, but given that they're trying to do "upscale Thai" and their prices reflect that, I would really have to consider whether or not I want to pay their prices when I could just go to the hole-in-the-wall Thai in Silverlake that I love and pay half as much for.

This is why America's science education needs to step up its game... NOW

pegd said... I have 4 boys. When I was pregnant with #4 the odds were less than 20% for it to be a boy.

Char said... the chances of having a girl is around 50%. For each pregnancy. No matter how many boys you've had before. (ding ding ding!)

fairylights said... 50% per pregnancy, although there are some, er, natural ways to try and swing the balance in your favor. One of them worked with our third child, but they sure as heck aren't full proof. (?)

Mooshki said... Actually, pegd, if all of your kids have the same father, I think the odds were even better than 50/50 that your fourth would be a boy, because the first three were a sign that he has a genetic predisposition to father sons. (facepalm)

pegd said... Yes Mooshki, you're right, my ob/gyn told me I had less than 20% chance for a girl with the last one (think the actual # was around 15%. My boys have the same father. (Your OB/GYN needs to go back to medical school... or take high school statistics, post haste.)

Checking in on some checklists

Here are some lenticular clouds, just because I wanted some colorful-ness up in here.


Two among my most recent posts were checklists - the first being things I wanted to accomplish this year, and the second being acts I hoped might be at Coachella this year. Here's an update on those.

- Finally getting to go to Vail with Casper for New Year's
- Coachella 2011
- Trying lots of new restaurants
- Getting back in shape (working on it! Taking zumba and kickboxing at school. Still not ready for p90X I don't think)
- Beating Super Mario Galaxy
- Staying sober (JUST KIDDING!)
- Passing qualifying exams
- Getting published (ALWAYS working on it)
- Becoming a better cook
- Finishing classes
- Possibly being able to afford a full-frame DSLR camera
- Mobilizing my street gang and forming a motorcycle unit
- Improving my h4x0r skillset (working on this too!)
- Fixing the audio insulation on the right front door of my car
- Learning to drift
- Learning another language

And here's my Coachella wishlist. I bolded the names that are actually going to be there this year! Sweet!

David Bowie
Daft Punk
Duran Duran
Roger Waters
Lady Gaga
Yeasayer
Kode.9
Skream
Sasha / Sasha & Digweed
Gabriel & Dresden
Moby
The Pixies
Grace Jones
Royksopp
Janelle Monae
Flying Lotus (missed him last year, really butthurt about it)
Burial
MSTRKRFT
Fatboy Slim
Pendulum
Goldfrapp
Bjork
Roisin Murphy
Caribou
Alanis Morisette
Santigold
Bat for Lashes
Snoop Dogg
The Roots
PNAU
RJD2
Cut Copy
UNKLE / James Lavelle
Massive Attack
Garbage
Rolling Stones

So actually I didn't do that well this year! HOWEVER. The following is a NEW LIST (omg.) of people who are on the lineup that I am pretty stoked to see:

Magnetic Man (Benga and Skream aren't playing individually, but they are playing as Magnetic Man. Sweet!!)
Ozomatli
Sander Kleinenberg
Robyn
Tame Impala
THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS! (why the f weren't they on my list anyway??)
Scissor Sisters
Empire of the Sun
Animal Collective
Caspa (again, why wasn't he on my list?)
Death from Above 1979
Delorean
DJ Zinc
Kanye (yeah, I'm down to see Yeezy)
Leftfield

Thank you for being so good and reading all of those words. Here is a silly bird for you!

I'm smarter than most people in general, so I'm definitely smarter than everyone else who has seen this movie.

I read a (possibly made up) statistic once that something like 75% of surveyed Americans believed that they were smarter than the average American. Now certainly, perhaps the sample group for this survey was in fact composed of above-average Americans. But generally speaking, this is impossible, if we accept that the "average" represents middle value of the data set. If 75% of people were on one side, and 25% on the other, then "average" wouldn't be a true middle.

Knowing what I know about people, and observing time and time again interactions with strangers where it's not just that someone makes a mistake -- it's that s/he is a MORON -- this kind of illuminating survey doesn't surprise me at all.

I think about that idea of most people thinking they're smarter than most other people almost every time I read pop culture critiques. I tend to see a lot of comments like "Well, of course we (the readers of this sophisticated critical review blog) understand that it is satire, but I'm worried that it will send the wrong message to the majority of viewers, who aren't likely to understand what the director/author/playwright/musician is really trying to say." It's the elitist assumption that you are smart enough to get it, but most other slackjawed Americans aren't. The irony of course is that I read this kind of thing often enough that it is no longer a select group of legitimately brainy critics declaring their analytical superiority. It is truly a rather cliche viewpoint among many, many media consumers that they (individually) are privy to the true interpretation (thanks to their huge-ass brains,) but we're all stuck with feeble minds that can't process what we just took in.

Some days I'm cynical and feel like most people are idiots. Some days I'm depressive and feel like I'm the biggest idiot in the room. I've met people who look stupid but are smart, and I've met people who act smart but are actually kind of ignorant, and I've met people who say really bone-headed things but actually kick ass in school. And all of that probably depends on the day I catch them on, too.

Day 30 - Whatever tickles your fancy

Here's a New Years' Resolution - finally finishing that 30 Day Challenge I began back in, er, July. [facepalm]

In any case, this is the last post of that "challenge," which I obviously failed, and it's an open post. The last thing I wrote about before starting the challenge was Coachella, so it seems only fitting that the last post of the challenge might be a wishlist of acts I would love to see at Coachella this (or any) year.

I feel like I need to mention that I know one of my favorite groups ever, Incubus, would not be asked to perform (at least not in the near future, but they may eventually if they prove to have any staying power, at which point they'd be a "throwback" invite) since they have zero indie cred. (Sorry boys, I love you, but you're not a Pitchfork darling.)

So I decided to put on my list acts that I think would feasibly be asked to come to Coachella, even if they wouldn't per se choose to perform. I also didn't include acts that I already saw at Coachella - not because I wouldn't want to see them again, but because it's redundant - however, because I'm not super up on knowing everyone who's ever played Coachella, there may be people on my wishlist who have already played the festival.

David Bowie
Daft Punk
Duran Duran
Roger Waters
Lady Gaga
Yeasayer (this is a cheat, since I saw part of their set last year, but now that I'm much more familiar with their music I'd love to see them again)
Kode.9
Skream
Sasha / Sasha & Digweed
Gabriel & Dresden
Moby
The Pixies
Grace Jones
Royksopp
Janelle Monae
Flying Lotus (missed him last year, really butthurt about it)
Burial
MSTRKRFT
Fatboy Slim
Pendulum
Goldfrapp
Bjork
Roisin Murphy
Caribou
Alanis Morisette
Santigold
Bat for Lashes
Snoop Dogg
The Roots
PNAU
RJD2
Cut Copy

...and this list is probably incomplete. But my brain hurts good enough for me to think I wrung all of the ideas out of it, at least for now.

ADDED!:

UNKLE / James Lavelle
Massive Attack (I can't believe I forgot this one, DUH)
Garbage (another duh, obvious one)
Rolling Stones (rumored this year for some reason? That would be sick.)