sen_no_ongaku | Top fives, part II

sylvantechie:

Ways to cook (and eat) beef:

It occurs to me that I don't know all that many ways to prepare cow. You don't need to get all that fancy with it to make it tasty, I suppose.

0. Bloody, bloody, bloody. When asked how I want my meat at restuarants, I sometimes reply, "As rare as you can legally make it."
1. My mom's steak. I've never been able to quite do what she does, but there are at least four spices involved, and a substance more intensely salty than soy sauce.
2.

cute_fuzzy_evil makes a mean peppercorn-encrusted filet mignon.
3. Steak tartar. Raw cow, with raw egg mixed in.
4. Big, juicy burgers are hard to argue with. Even your basic combo with lettuce, a slice of red onion, and a slice of pickle makes me very, very happy.
5. I'm loathe to admit a weakness for Hamburger Helper's Beef Stroganoff. So there.

Sadly, good beef is expensive, and I am poor.

sal_sal:

Ways to kill someone in Grand Theft Auto:

I'm going to assume this is all the three major ones...

1. In GTA3, if cars are stopped at the edge of a raised drawbridge, giving them a love tap will somehow override the driving protocol and cause them to proceed normally. Into the ocean.
2. Landing on somebody after doing a crazy stunt in a fast car is embarrassingly entertaining..
3. I must admit that burning someone to a crisp with the flamethrower is damn satisfying.
4. Taking down a 'copter with the bazooka feels pretty good, too.
5. And who can deny the katana?
5a. I haven't tried it -- are bike-by shootings possible in GTA:SA?

ltlbird:

I want:

1. A joker purple zoot suit, with all the accessories.
2. A tuxedo.
3. Tight leather pants, and black boots to match.
4. A sweet monocle.
5. Tabi boots would be kind of neat to have.

sanj:

Pieces of classical music:

Caveat: Basically, the classical music I listen to is Bach, and 20th- and 21st-century. I'm just not interested in the Classical or Romantic periods any more, with the exception of Beethoven.

1. Music for 18 Musicians, Steve Reich.

The apotheosis of austere minimalism, I consider it a piece about ecstasy.

2. War Requiem, Benjamin Britten.

This piece was commissioned to celebrate the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral in 1962, destroyed during WWII; for its premiere, one of its three soloists was British, another German, and the third Russian. It interleaves the Requiem Mass with poetry by WWI poet Wilfred Owen, using three major instrumental blocks: full orchestra and chorus with Valkyrie soloist singing the mass, chamber orchestra with two male soloists singing Owen's poetry, and creepy-ass boys choirs and organ.

3. Svadebka, Igor Stravinsky.

For chorus, four pianos, and percussion. So frickin' cool and exciting and fun, I think it's my favorite Stravinsky. If

wavyarms ever gets around to conducting it, I want to try to play. My piano chops may no longer be up to the task, sadly.

4. Black Angels, George Crumb.

I first saw this piece on an archived concert program. Upon noticing it was for electric string quartet, I had to check it out of the library that very instant. I once described it as excruciatingly beautiful. Not for the faint of heart, it's about spiritual annihilation and rebirth. I believe it was written in protest of the Vietnam War...er...Conflict.

5. Symphony No. 9, 1st movement, Gustav Mahler.

Some say Mahler considered this piece a goodbye to the world. This may be getting overly abstruse, but there's a false recapitulation in which the opening comes back, but changed, and sounds wrong and twisted and grotesque, and it's a crushingly sad moment, the realization that what joy you once had can never return.

Also, the four movements have in common constant modulation to the minor submediant.

This is a hard five. I want to give shout-outs to Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time and the opening and final sections of Philip Glass's Satyagraha, but I won't.