Mr. Fine Wine's 2009 Food-Heavy Top Ten

 
1. Gories/Oblivians reunion show at the Majestic and afterparty at Muffy Kroha’s, Detroit. 

2. Vodka-and-caviar party at Wake and Bake keyboard player Sasha’s parents’ kitchen table, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

3. Barbara Lynn at the Bell House, Brooklyn, the first time I'd seen her when she didn't have a bum shoulder or a scratchy throat or a balky sound system. 

4. Repeated visits to the lobby and mezzanine of the Guardian Building, Detroit, the most stunning skyscraper in the world. 

5. Friday-night dinner at the Ivanhoe (a.k.a. the Polish Yacht Club), Detroit (it’s the only building still standing on its entire square block: a microcosm of much that is great and tragic about this screwiest of cities). 

6. Howard Tate at Joe’s Pub, New York City, and again at the House of Blues, New Orleans. 

7. Mighty Hannibal “Showtime” documentary trailer screening, Joe’s Pub.

8. Randomly bumping into Allen Toussaint at the Minneapolis airport exactly a week after catching the cheesy French Quarter T-shirt he’d thrown into the audience during his excellent late, late show at the Village Vanguard. 

9. Oh, yeah, the records: fantastic stuff from Eddie at Eddie’s 3-Way in New Orleans; from Brad at People’s Records in Detroit; from Bob Mays’s living room in Hazel Park, Michigan; from Chris at Street Corner in Oak Park, Michigan; from Jeff at Record Graveyard in Hamtramck, Michigan; from Wade at Hello Records in Detroit; from Dave G. and Asaf and Tattoo and Greg and everyone else in New York; and from all my faceless suppliers in cybervinylworld. 

10. TIE: The Greek salad at Yorkside Pizza, New Haven, Connecticut, made by the same gentleman who made it for me 27 years ago and tasting exactly the same; the carnitas at El Parian on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles; and the oysters handed to me one at a time by the shucker and washed down with Abita at the counter at Casamento's after I'd written the place off years ago.

To check out other WFMU DJ 2009 year end lists click here.

Comments

[Miles]

I feel you on the Guardian Building. That thing is AMAZING.

[Dan]

Haha! I spent some quality time in Bob Mays house this past summer. Dude does not believe in ventilation.

[Mr. Fine Wine]

You are correct about Mr. Mays, bless his hillbilly heart. And yeah, strange that the jaw-dropping Guardian Building is so under the radar, even for Detroiters. Sigh.

[Bob Hazy]

Viva la Greek Salad at Yorkside! I once estimated you had over 350 of those salads during our salad days in New Haven.... They were pretty good. Ok, not really 350, but a lot. Happy Holidays, dude!

[Chris Steller]

The new Atlas of American Architecture I got for Xmas doesn't have the Guardian Building. Detroit entries: Davison Freeway, Fox Theatre, Freer House, French Rang long lots, Grand Riviera Theare, Wayne State U. McGregor Memorial Center, Woodward Avenue, Woodward Plan. No Guardian. Bummer. Toussaint is toe tapping but did you see the famous men's room at MSP?

[Ben Goetter]

I'ma pour out a forty for the chicken salad grinders of yore.

[rosebudz]

Polish Yacht Club ~~~~~~~!!! A visit to the Detroit Hysterical Society for Soupy Sales installation and seeing Flaming Lips at the Howo Bowl... fave music explosions. (well that and the two graham nash songs in UP IN THE AIR, but I don't tell anyone that in public)