At the (Irwin, PA) Big Mac Museum, which bills itself as the world’s most tasteful museum. The competition is the Silver Museum at the Pitti Palace, q.v.

Part of what makes the Big Mac Museum, which bills itself as the world’s most tasteful… well, so tasteful. Crystal Big Mac, crystal fries, crystal Coke. It is positively baroque!

Better shot?

You can tell from some of the pixels, and from seeing a few bridges in your time.

Pierre Aimard, peforming J. S. Bach - “Contrapuntus VII a 4 per augmentationem et diminutionem” (from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080)

I am convinced that Bach was not human, but rather a representative of an alien race composed entirely of musical harmony. Here, Aimard reveals him at his most Martian. There was an insightful critical review of this recording on Slate shortly after its release, which comments on how abstract a piece of music the Art is; I like to listen to it with sheet music in hand. In fact, the sheet music is readable in the complete absence of performance — I can’t think of another piece whose sere formality is so compelling. The Wikipedia article on the Art is a fine guide to its formal structure.

Sunn O))) & Boris - “Etna”

Formalism in music attracts me, and I find the minimalist movement in extreme metal, epitomized by Sunn O))), to be the most exciting front in the evolution of popular music. Here, they are paired with the Japanese extreme-metal icons Boris for a track of anxious, foreboding drone from their collaborative album Altar.

Wolves in the Throne Room - “I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks and Roots”

Extreme metal is a very, very big tent. When the dying earth speaks to you, for instance, calling for you to return to the soil and heal its wounds, what might you do next? Might you consider starting up a “transformative black metal” band? This is apparently not so unlikely as it sounds.

Nine Inch Nails, “1,000,000″

At this point, with all the news reports already in on the innovative, free release of Nine Inch Nails’ latest album The Slip, I don’t suppose I have anything new to add. I will toss my recommendation atop the growing pile, and add my critical observation that The Slip feels to me like a mature take on the themes and even techniques of Broken. NIN continues to produce the loudest rests in the business, in a direct line from “Wish” to this track. The whole album is available for free directly from the artist.

Irina Kluyev, performing Franz Liszt - “Mephisto Waltz no 1″ (S.514)

Rather than comment on this particular recording, I’d like to point out the existence of its source, pianosociety.com. This is a site which hosts free recordings and sheet music, including some of excellent quality, and it will reward your perusal.

Simone Dinnerstein, performing J. S. Bach - “Variation 26″ (from the Goldberg Variations, BWV 988)

Again, there’s an excellent Slate critical essay by Evan Eisenberg to go with this one. Bach’s ability to revel in setting and meeting the tightest of formal restrictions, and his impossible harmonic genius, is enthralling. Dinnerstein more than keeps up her side of the conversation, in a virtuoso turn that is easily the equal of Gould’s.

Bad Religion - “Heroes and Martyrs”

Whatever Bad Religion have been before, now they’re a capable metal band with a unique vocal texture. Here, they nock an arrow from the Ramones’ quiver: “We can perform an awesome rock song in a minute and a half. Why can’t you?”

He rolls one deep in the club. No posse.

giddy giddy.

What greeted me in my Amazon orbit today: New Neal Stephenson book, Anathem, dropping 9 Sept. The Ninth is a Tuesday, and the book is 2″ thick in hardcover, so there goes that Tuesday. If you see me in person or on the Internets, I do not want to know anything else about it, OK? I have seriously injured men for less.

For the uninitiated: Stephenson is a super-excellent science fiction writer who has written the best works in a handful of subgenres (techno-thriller: Cryptonomicon, cyberpunk: Snow Crash, retro-scifi/steampunk: The Diamond Age, alternate history: The Baroque Cycle). Whatever he’s doing, I enter into reading it with the very highest of expectations. It goes without saying that I recommend his earlier works (from Snow Crash onward and including the psuedonymous, collaborative techno-thrillers Cobweb and Interface) and that you could do a lot worse, come September, than having Anathem queued up.

New photos are up, tagged with their date of upload (20080516). Among the many adventures depicted therein: on Mother’s Day, Punam and Dante and I, along with Dante’s baby friend Ella and her parents John and Tammie, climbed most of the way up Marin County’s Mt Tamalpais, stopping at the West Point Inn for their pancake breakfast. It was a pleasant hike, and the various native irises were at the peak of blooming - you’ll see quite a few pictures of Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana) in there.

And there’s more! Several adventures are documented, including Dante’s VR grapefruit encounter, mysterious tomatoes, and yellow (not Coldplay). Enjoy!

At Gundlach-Bundschu, Sonoma.