Earlier this year, I was attending a dry seminar at a bleak airport hotel, and the catered lunch carts rolled into the conference room like a SWAT team response to a hostage crisis. Oh, Subway. And under one of those clear plastic lids, a bowlful of equal parts snickerdoodle and chocolate chip.
“Mm. I haven’t had a cookie in years.” I meant it, too. For reasons I’ve only recently begun analyzing, the cookie has been out of my dessert rotation for some time now.
Another attendee, in front of me in the chow line, without looking in my direction: “They’re still good.”
On last week’s Bandcamp Weekly, Andrew Jervis playfully gave Ben Sterling a hard time for taking five years to release an album following the breakup of Mobius Band.
It’s good. Like snickerdoodle good. Like soul-charged, finger-snapping, synth-pop good. Still good, like this weekend… I was waking up on the couch of a too-warm apartment in Santa Monica, and the TV was playing someone’s Pandora station. Hey, I recognize this song. It was “Parentheses” by The Blow. I blinked to make sure I was reading that correctly: released in 2004. Ten years ago?
Time flies, I feel old, but damn if that shtick doesn’t still wake me up. When people say it has a fun 80’s feel, they’re not suggesting something sounds like a Midnight Oil album. As soon as the Germans put their electronics on the stage in the 70’s, they started making dance music. [I think the 90’s might have been an electopop Dark Age.]
I’m not calling anything timeless. That’s presumptuous. But let’s give it up for still being good. Like me. I’m old. But still good.
And another thing! Cupcake fads, cheesecake palaces, and gluten-free scones. What do they all have in common? They’ve been getting between me and my cookies for years now. A few months ago I enjoyed a huge scoop of Schulzies bread pudding at their new storefront in Hayes Valley. It was delicious, but… really? Bread pudding? Where has Mrs. Field’s gone? Hmf. No wonder people have been trying to tip over tech shuttles.
Every Dragging Handclap 