Instead of talking about music in an open thread, why not a music thread all on its own. Just for kicks, I listed the next ten shuffled songs from my music library.

1. Happy, by The Wrens

2. Hard as a Rock, by AC/DC.

3. Seven Nation Army, by the White Stripes. Love that guitar riff.

4. It's Only Rock and Roll, by the Rolling Stones. The odds are good that a Stones tune would turn up.

5. The Hand That Feeds, by Nine Inch Nails

6. Lights and Sounds, by Yellowcard

In Los Angeles County food trucks have become a hot commodity. They've always been here, and we used to call them "roach coaches", often found at construction sited serving cold, packaged 7-11 style cold sandwich fare, hot Denny's style coffee, (on a good day), and convenience store cold, fructose laden soft drinks, milk, candy bars, sweet rolls and so on. You know what I'm talking about here.

On to fish.

Coastal fish curries are heavily influenced by the chilli pepper brought to our shores by evil Europeans.  This prawn curry has coconut, too, showing up its connection to SE Asia, more specifically Malaya.

Prawn curry with coconut

1.  1 kg Asian Tiger prawns in shells, or alternatively 500 g shelled prawns from wherever. The prawns do need to be as large as possible, though.

2.  1 or 2 tsp of turmeric (depending upon how much of it you like) and salt 

George Monbiot.

Now the weak state, not the strong state, is fetishised by those in power, who insist that its functions be devolved to “the market”, meaning corporations and the very rich. Economic growth and the forces that drive it, whether they enhance or harm people’s lives, are venerated. And too many scholars seem prepared to support the new dispensation.

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You've read that former US President George W Bush has been painting dogs (and himself) "with a vengeance."

"I love the Obama administration because it is so easy to tell the Aaron Swartzes, the Glenn Greenwalds, the Chomskyites who actually believe in Chomsky (which may, or may not, include the master himself - who ever knows?), from the rest of the Morgul-army. I'm quite convinced that Glenn Greenwald really has no idea at all why liberal public opinion stopped giving a damn about torture in 2008."

My God almighty, I wish that *I* had written that!
 

TV Shows:

1. Battle Star Galactica

2. Futurama

3. Dr. Who

4. Twilight Zone

5. Mystery Science Theatre 3000

6. Max Headroom

7. Star Trek: The Next Generation

8. Star Trek: Original

9. Stargate Atlantis

10. I can't think of 10 decent Sci Fi tv shows, and I don't consider things like Lost, or The X-Files, or 3rd Rock from the Sun to be sci fi.

Movies:

1. 2001

2. Brazil

3. Blade Runner

4. Solaris

Two good stories for a change, from my very own home state of Washington.

(courtesy Meryl Schencker Photography)

This is a picture of one of the hundreds of gay couples who applied for a marriage license starting at midnight last night, as the passage of gay marriage in Washington State in the election took effect.

Also, a few blocks away ...

Quite a milestone, and really who in the 60s thought that any band would make it so long - especially one with their (well deserved) reputation.

Now I'm sure there will be naysayers here, and so let's make some concessions. Yes, they look like not especially well preserved mummies. Yes, they aren't at the forefront of popular music, and haven't been for the past 30 years. While they are still recording it's clear that their best work was in the late 60s and early 70s, and since then they've released more average albums than good ones.

I wanted to give some breathing room for Catchy's thread because we need an open thread.

And I think I'm going to go on a Picture Collection tear: