Northwest Seth: August 2009

This morning on Facebook I saw a post from my good friend Julie Cross, of Davis Food Co-op fame. Julie was asking her web of friends to contribute food-related song lyrics she could include on the food quote chalkboard at the Co-op. Now, I need very little prompting to sit and filter through the old iTunes library for a couple of hours, and her request was an acceptable excuse.
Below I have posted the lyrics I came across. As per Julie's request, I attempted to only pick lyrics which were not too long and stood up out of context. For fun, I included some which are obviously not appropriate fodder for the public chalkboard - not surprising that many food references in music are not literally referring to food, but to other, less savory (pun intended) themes.
Thanks for the distraction, Julie.

(in no particular order)

“And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for dessert” – Johhny Cash

“Then I walked across the street, and caught the Sunday smell of someone frying chicken” – Johnny Cash

“She wore a raspberry beret” – Prince

“You can squeeze my lemon ‘til the juice runs down my leg” – Robert Johnson

“Hot tamales and they’re red hot, yeah she got ‘em for sale” – Robert Johnson

“The orange trees are in heat, and the summer air is good enough to eat” – Agent Ribbons

“The bees are buzzing all around me, because they heard you call me honey” – Agent Ribbons (fantastic Sacramento band)

“Who mistook the steak for chicken, who’m I gonna stick my dick in?” – Moldy Peaches

“Semolina Pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel tower” – The Beatles (is semolina pilchard a food?)
also,
“Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye” (mmm, custard)

“How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?” - Pink Floyd

“A bottle of red, a bottle of white, what ever kind of mood you’re in tonight” – Billy Joel

“One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go, to the valley below” –Bob Dylan

“I aint gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more” – Bob Dylan

“…and he screams back, ‘You’re a cow! Give me some milk or else go home’” – Bob Dylan

“A lot of people don't have much food on their table, but they got a lot of forks 'n' knives, and they gotta cut somethin'” – Bob Dylan

“She had brown shugga, all over her booga-wooga” – Bob Marley

“When she gets what she wants, she puts the rest on a tray, in Ziploc bags, in the freezer” – Cake

“Bring tea for the tillerman, steak for the sun, wine for the woman who made the rain come” – Cat Stevens

“Eat steak, eat steak eat a big ol' steer, eat steak, eat steak do we have one here?” – Reverend Horton Heat

“We should have each other to tea, huh? We should have each other with cream” – The Cure

“It’s pudding time, children” - Primus

“Well you'll work harder with a gun in your back, for a bowl of rice a day” – Dead Kennedys

“Talk about the pasta, pasta on the mountain” – Leftover Salmon

“Bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down, and won” – John Prine

“Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches, try and find Jesus, on your own” - John Prine

“It was Christmas in prison, and the food was real good. We had turkey and pistols carved out of wood” - John Prine

“Tangerine, tangerine, living reflections from a dream” - Led Zeppelin

“This ain’t no cartoon, no one slips on bananas, do you really think that that car killed Diana?” – Micheal Franti & Spearhead

“robbin’, cheatin’, stealin’ white collar criminal, McDonald eatin’, you deserve a beatin’” -Michael Franti & Spearhead

“I could be happy the rest of my life with a cinnamon girl.” - Neil Young

“Because there's never gonna be enough space, so eat the meek, savor the taste” – NOFX

“Have you seen my garden, it is most peculiar, have you seen my garden” – Oingo Boingo

“He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich” – Men at Work

“Our love is rice and beans and horses lard” – The Pixies

“I wanna drive a schoolbus, over to the Brady’s, and pick up Alice, and then we’ll bake some brownies” - the Rugburns

“Funny, I'm not familiar with this taste, well I said are these ribs or is this steak?” - SNFU

“I'm scratching in your pea patch, plowing through your beanfield, planting my seed” – Spinal Tap

“What’s your favorite dish? I’m not gonna cook it but I’ll order it from Zanzibar” – Tenacious D

“I need no fruit, I need no rice, I need no sweets, nor even bread” – the Byrds

“I like coconuts, you can't break them open, they smell like ladies, lying in the sun” – Widespread Panic

“I cool step to you, with a fresh pack of gum. But somehow I knew, you were looking for some” – Beck

“V-neck T-shirt with a mustard stain, rolling up a hose outside in the rain” – Todd Snider

Last weekend some friends and I took both Saturday and Sunday to immerse ourselves (literally) in another Seattle tradition - Sea Fair. Apparently, Sea Fair actually involves and entire month of aquatic-themed activities, but these events culminate in early August with a three-day whirlpool of hydroplane racing (those are the incredibly fast, spaceship-looking boats you see tumbling end over end on late-night ESPN) and an air show which included the Blue Angels.
I'll point out that while the event is called Sea Fair, the major three-day event all happens on a fresh water lake.
We spent day one on the shore overlooking the racetrack...er...race area, I suppose, since the racing is all water-bound. The scene was a NASCAR-like gathering of blue-blooded Americans and screaming boat motors. All branches of the military erected large recruitment booths, some with shiny spinning boxes - simulators I was told, though I never got so involved. Some photos from day one:

The boats rested on the wooden pier and were craned in and out of the water between races.

NAS-BOAT. They average around 135 MPH and displace some amazing misty waterfalls in their wakes. No blood and guts to be seen, though we did watch one spin out in a confusing spray of white water.

A 1959 champion boat on display at the event, looking very Star Trek indeed.

We spent day two out on the water in Cramer's boat. I enjoyed the freedom of the boat over the relative restriction of the shore. So many boats! Boats of all sizes and styles sped out under the air show flight path and turned off their engines and folks simply enjoyed the day. The frat boy contingent was high, some boats were sponsored by random vodka brands or Bunweiser, there were small bikinis and high school kids drinkin' and dirvin' daddy's boat (why would you EVER let your kid take your boat to an event like this?) Many families were out too, little kids in life jackets tossing water balloons at frat boys, bikin-clad girls and even pale white guys in their thirties. Most boats were well-stocked with water balloons and other sorts of water battle implements and so staying dry was not an option. One boat sported a gas-powered pump and hose which drenched our boat (Cramer is in th emarket for a new phone). Lake Washington was warm and the swim was tremendous all day.
The air show had been impressive from the beach the day before, when one could see the formations and tricks of the Blue Angels as they intended, but from our spot on the water this day, the planes would fly directly over us, incredibly close and incredibly loud. Two short video clips of the planes (turn on the sound!):

Of course these videos are a little shaky because I'm holding a small camera, following an incredibly fast-moving object and I'm on a bobbing boat. The noise was incredible. You get the idea.

Photos of day two:

Scantily-clad boys and girls everywhere. In addition to the bunny ears, she's wearing furry orange pasties.

WARNING: NOT A LIFESAVING DEVICE

When worn upside-down with the legs through the arms (or wearing two through the crotch as the Hawk is doing here), a PFD makes a fantastic diaper which makes floating in a sitting position positively effortless.