Tuesday, April 11, 2006

(unbaked) Cinnamon Rolls & *Success*

I must confess that these cinnamon rolls are not fresh. I made them while Rob's mom was visiting. Pictured you will find the pre-cooked roll, then the cut up rolls ready for me to bake. They take a little while to make as you must let the dough rise a few times.
But they get all puffy, sticky, and delicious. I know I took an "after" picture of them baked, but, alas, cannot find it. I am guessing this is another attempt by Beloved Cafe to sabotage Binge Cafe. He is, after all, open again, which explains my recent absence and resorting to old cinnamon roll pictures.

As many of you know, we recently recorded at the wonderfully great Zero Return Studios. The analog experience was amazing, sounds amazing. It is more difficult to record only in the sense that you need to be more prepared and cannot punch in/out as easily. We recorded live, so if one of us messed up we would start over. A few overdubs included backup harmonies, an old Hammond organ, and my beloved bouzouki. The sound is raw (without effects) and enhanced by a technique (by the Great Jim) that brings out the bass sounds of the guitar (since we don't play with a bassist). Our album will be named Other Places.

Last Thursday through Sunday was the biggest Documentary festival in the (country? world? universe?) called Full Frame. We're about a 5 minute walk from the festival. I bid on and won a pass so attended panels, workshops, and many documentaries. I highly recommend: And God Spoke (about Al Franken), My Country, My Country, one on Jim Jones, and another about North Korea.

In any case, one of the documentaries about domestic workers in the US called "Maid in America" had a tidbit of advice that is perhaps well-propagated, but nevertheless helpful. One of the domestic workers said "success is when preparation and opportunity meet." Though I hate one-liner inpirational crap, this very sentiment has me thinking less about how much one toils to no end, and more about efforts being productive potentially and therefore worthy of the expense. Efforts like activism, art, learning obscure bits of useless information. I suppose the framework of the sentiment provides hope - but there are no guarantees. In fact, the phrase has been recast as well to: "luck is when preparation and opportunity meet." Binge Cafe makes no claim to know the answer(s), but must attest that "success is when you meet Binge Cafe."

10 comments:

Dilip said...

Congratulations on the great recording session (that I read about already on ... ahem ... the "other" blog. What is bouzouki? And do describe the tall tree with a nest. How do your cinnamon rolls compare to those from Sticky Fingers Bakery in Washington, D.C.? See you soon!

Anonymous said...

I like to party. Are you guys "cool"?

Eleni Binge said...

Oh my, so many questions! Uh, first of all, we're not Cool, we're Luke-Warm, anonymous. With or without the quotations, but we prefer those kind of quotes that people make with the whole hand, sort of puppet-mouth open-close with all fingers together.

The bouzouki is similar to a mandolin, with a longer neck and 8 strings. Though mine has only four because many are broken. But I tuned a remaining string to D and it worked fine for the song "Greek Turkish Coffee."

I took that pic of the tree at Falls Lake. I'll make you the rolls sometime and you can tell me what you think...& I'll make special "party rolls" for anonymous.

Dilip said...

anonymous, these guys are cool! BC, I can't wait to try your cinnamon rolls - and would enjoy hearing your bouzouki.

Anonymous said...

Do you guys play rock and roll? Yeah, cinnamon rolls are pretty kool I guess.

Eleni Binge said...

weak be the chocolate.

Anonymous said...

I used to be in a rock and roll band, but that got gay real quick.

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