Have a need for some creative gift-giving this holiday season, Reader? How about a framed historical map of your favorite coastal locale?

We’ve always loved seemingly overly functional maps. There’s something oddly beautiful about the juxtaposition of the curving, chaotic, organic shapes of the natural world and humanity’s mathematical, sharp-edged, vector-filled interpretation of it. Old-school nautical maps, with their detailed shipping routes, funny hold-over names, and “THAR BE DRAGONS” are the height of the cookily arcane when it comes to mapping, and we stumbled across a pretty nice online resource for them recently.

Sea Heritage is an online database and marketplace for thousands of digitally ‘remastered’ nautical charts from more than 30 US states and random other places. You can look up, preview, and then order anything from a map of the New York Harbor to sketches of the Sandwich Islands from 1798. Mmmm, Sandwich Islands.

It sounds like most of their framing might be a bit on the lightweight, metallic side, so we’d recommend ordering the frameless prints—it makes for a less hefty price, cuts down on time + shipping, and allows you to get the job done at your favorite local frame shop.

Then you can let that chubby kid hold it until he drops it, get the mouthy kid to translate the Spanish, and GO FIND ONE-EYED WILLIE’S RICH STUFF, READER!

PS—You can look at a larger version of the map above over at Wikipedia. Zoom in for area details. Pretty cool.

Reader, we’re taking and the ball and running with it, as it were, building off the inadvertent maritime theme we laid out last week with the posting of the invite we designed for Oceana/Christie’s/Susan Rockefeller (below). Thus we bring you (drumroll, please)…Nautical Week!

That’s right, this week, we’ll be bringing you all these nautical.

Er. Maybe not all things nautical, more like…some things nautical. Like, five, maybe. Four if we’re pressed for time or there’s a Cosby Show marathon on or something.

First up this musical Monday—Cleveland, Ohio’s The Lighthouse and The Whaler. Though Lake Erie doesn’t necessarily conjure up images of great white whales and stories of hubris and flawed human souls on a journey to conquer the unconquerable, the band nonetheless takes its moniker from Melville’s classic tale, Moby Dick.

The sound of the band, however, strikes listeners as far less…heavy, let’s say. The music leaps around playfully and frontman Michael LoPresti’s falsetto yelp comes off as happily fey, drawing immediate comparisons to Ra Ra Riot‘s Wes Miles. Honestly, for anyone who’s slightly disappointed with what’s been heard of that band’s new, sans cello, electronic-heavy album, The Lighthouse and The Whaler may well be your cure…but then again, what band likes stark comparisons like that? Let’s leave it at: “They’re really good; you should give them a listen.”

“Prove it,” you say? You are demanding, Reader…but will do. Download + listen to their album’s title track—”This is an Adventure”—below. You like? Continue your downward scrolling, Reader, and check out the whole album, which you can buy digitally directly from the band on their bandcamp page or via the iTunes if that’s more your jam.

The band will be touring in 2013, supporting Kindness of Ravens fave, matt pond PA (you can read our 2010 interview with Mr. Pond if you’re curious), and the also awesome Jukebox the Ghost. They’ll be at Webster Hall February 8th and you, but find a full show listing on TL+TW’s Facebook page.

Alright, Reader, stay tuned for further posts of a most seaworthy nature. Extra credit to anyone who preps with this handy list of nautical terms. Our favorite—chock-a-block! As in, “Troy, that page layout is chock-a-block all to hell! Shake a leg and up your leading or I’ll give you a shot across the bows and may well have you walk the plank, lad!”

That was Admiral Katie saying all that, by the way.

This is an Adventure by The Lighthouse and the Whaler

Reader, you may not know what kaffir lime leaves are, but, if you’ve ever eaten traditional Indonesian, Malaysian, Burmese, or Thai cuisine—especially red, massaman, and panang curries—you’d likely recognize the leaf’s distinct flavor. It’s one of those flavors that I realized in my adult life I really really loved, but it’s not one I ever thought to employ in cocktails or other libations.

Then came Pok Pok NY, the hot new Thai street food spot a short walk from our apartment where one of the delectable drinks they feature is the Pok Pok Gin + Tonic, “house-infused kaffir lime gin served tall with tonic.” At first taste, I knew I had fallen head-over-heel in love with this drink. Even Katie, who usually isn’t a huge gin fan, loves the drink. The kaffir taste both compliments the bittersweet taste of the tonic and builds off of the piney, juniper berry flavor of the gin to create an altogether new, refreshing, exotic taste.

Infusing may sound like an overly daunting task not worth the time, but it’s actually quite the opposite. Essentially, you put a thing in a bottle of liquor and let it sit for a while; longer for more solid, less porous things, not long at all for less solid, more porous things. We’ve been doing it for a while now—our habenero-infused tequila has been a painfully raucous party mainstay for years now—and have to say, kaffir lime leaf infused gin is definitely one of our favorite liquor infusions.

Again, all you need to do is get a clean, sealable bottle (like the swing-top above), add your washed, whole kaffir lime leaves, and then fill with gin. We recommend using a separate bottle at first so you’re not committing to a giant bottle of infused gin, but if you’re feeling bold, go ahead and just throw them in the original bottle. We do like using clear bottles though so you can monitor the liquor color and watch the leaves—if they’re not fresh enough, there’s a chance that they’l start to brown if kept in for too long and not used. As to how many to use, it all depends on how flavorful you’d like the end product to be, but we use a large handful—probably about 20 leaves—for a 750ml bottle. Then we just let it sit in a cool, dark place for a week or so, until the gin becomes fragrant and tinged with green.

Honestly, the hardest part might be actually tracking down these elusive leaves. If you’re lucky enough to have a Thai specialty store in your town, they’re a great bet—they might have them fresh but, more likely, they’ll be frozen. But, even in Chinatown’s large asian markets, the leaves can be hard to find, if they’re available at all. We get ours at a small Thai specialty store on Mulberry where the leaves are sold in tiny resealable bags from stand-up freezer.

But, whether it’s an easy find for you or not, if you’re fond of the tastes of southeastern asia, fancy green-tinged drinks, and gin, we assure you—it’s well worth the challenge.

And remember, as they say in Thailand, เล่นกับหมา หมาเลียปาก.

Lovely photo taken by Keith De-Lin last week at out Thanksgiving dinner party.

The other night, Katie and I watched the documentary feature, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the story of 85-year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the most gifted sushi chef in the world. He works with his adult son and a small staff out of a tiny 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant oddly located inside of a Tokyo subway station. Despite that, he has bookings months in advance and was the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a three-star rating from the Michelin Guide. Which is, we hear, a big deal.

Clearly we weren’t jonseing so much on the copious shots of dismembered sealife atop rice or the idea of sushi involving fish et cetera—we’re still very anti-that. What we were into, though, was the idea behind this guy’s life.

Via the film, he introduced to us the Japanese idea of shokunin. According to Tasio Odate:

“The Japanese word shokunin is defined by both Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries as ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan,’ but such a literal description does not fully express the deeper meaning. The Japanese apprentice is taught that shokunin means not only having technical skills, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness.… The shokunin has a social obligation to work his/her best for the general welfare of the people. This obligation is both spiritual and material, in that no matter what it is, the shokunin’s responsibility is to fulfill the requirement.” Here is An all-inclusive psychics index that one can check out in order to get psychic help.

And no, I have no idea who Tasio Odate is. Try to search for the dude online. I swear, all you get is that quote.

So, yes, ol’ Tasio could be some random ne’er-do-well who sells meth down by the Yokohama docks, but that’s not the point. The point is, we really like that idea. The idea that what we do is greater than the sum of its parts and that, most importantly, what we do, we do for the purpose of bettering the world, be it through making the most kick-ass sushi this side of anywhere or, say, creating what—in our minds at least—are the best possible designs we can create for our clients.

Doing good work feels good, especially when you’re doing it for good people. Phoning it in—totally does not feel good. Jiro would not phone it in.

So, despite our vegan ethics, we implore you to check out Jiro and his fellow shokunin.

And no, I am not getting that tattooed on the small of my back. Shokunin staaaaaaaaamp!

Reader, you should know that we consider Thanksgiving the penultimate holiday. Not because we think the idyllic picture of Native Americans + pilgrims sitting down to a big hokey dinner holds any historical water, mind you. No, the primary appeal for us has always been three-fold: First, we love cooking a lot of food and entertaining guests—I mean, our default is to prepare so many elaborate dishes that we could feed a small vegan army, so it’s nice to have an actual real-world demand for vast spreads of food from time to time; second, we really enjoy just hanging out with friends and just gabbing it up, especially when we can play host and do it in the comfort of our own home—bring the party to us, as it were!; thirdly, we totally love not traveling on a holiday and enjoying the bizarre ghost metropolis of New York City as half of its gargantuan populace leaves us contentedly in the dust…it’s kinda like that persistent childhoof fantasy of being locked in a toy store at night. But with more pigeons + booze.
This year we teamed up with friends to create a truly coma-inducing menu, which you can see pictured above, but we’ve also detailed herein. Behold!

appetizer
herb roasted nuts

avocado salsa

butternut squash handpies
chipotle cream sauce

salad
arugula + shaved fennel salad
roasted pecans, dried cranberries, lemon vinaigrette

protein
hazelnut cranberry celebration roast en croute
orange glaze, carrot & red pepper coulis

vegetable
roasted brussels sprouts
smoked shiitakes, roasted pecans

crispy fried potato skins
vegan cheese, smoked tempeh, house made sour cream

curry kale & potato galette

candied yams

dessert
pistachio olive oil cake
fig compote filling + cream cheese icing

oven roasted banana rum cheesecake

pecan pie tartlets

I know. I’m full again just reading through that.

Our friends Stacy + Keith documented the extravaganza with the photos below and many more over on their blog, Vegan Fatty Boomblatty. We’ve linked to the handpie + olive oil cake recipes above and Stacy + Keith have written up basic instructions on how to do the potato skins (which were really good) and provided a recipe for the tartlets (ditto) over at VFB.

Oh, and for the record—ultimate holiday: the day before Thanksgiving, when you’ve four days of awesomeness ahead of you and a world of possibilities, most of which revolve around eating, drinking, and/or watching The Cosby Show. Best.

Photos below by Stacy + Keith De-lin.

Reader, I’d never call myself a hero. Much less a superhero. But—MARK MY WORDS—I think I may be developing super powers. No, I can’t leap over buildings or shoot destructive beams from my eyes or eat a lot (no, for real—there was a kid called Matter Eater Lad in DC comics in the 60s who just…ate a lot), but I believe I may be showing signs of precognitive dreaming.

Last night…get ready for this…I had a dream that LA’s Local Natives had a new album coming out. And that I wrote about a song from it. And now…IT’S FUCKING HAPPENING!

Holy shit, right? I mean, yes, when we last wrote about the band it was spring of 2010, so some new material by them is certainly well overdue as is…and yes, true, maybe I heard that the band’s sophomore full-length—Hummingbird—would be coming out in the new year and just lodged that away somewhere in my musical subconscious…and yes, I kind of control what I blog about, so that is kind of like saying “Hey buddy, I can tell the future: I’m about to smack you in the face” and then smacking some poor fellow in the face (fair warning though)…but I’d still like to think I might be the next New Mutant or some such thing. Visionem Nocte? Trivial Future-Telling Dream Man?

Eh. Beats Arm Fall Off Boy.

Anyway, be you a believer of the supernatural, Reader, or a naysayer + skeptic, I’ll at least wager—NAY, PREDICT!—that’ll you’ll really like this new track from one of our favorite west coast bands. Catchy, driving, heavily rhythmic, and sounding a bit more subdued and mature than their Gorilla Manor days, I’d say it bodes well for the new album, out January 29 on Frenchkiss/Infectious.

The band’ll be Europe-bound next week but then back in Cali to celebrate their album release with a couple shows at the end of January and then playing three back-to-back sold out shows in NYC at the top of February. You can find a full tour listing on the band’s site.

Alright, stay tuned for more predictions of musically mystic import! HUZZAH!

Peace out, Reader.

Man. Will you look at that, Reader. We’ve got nearly solid music posts all the way back to the beginning of October. It’s like we don’t even care about wonderful vegan recipes, or well-crafted design, or crazy animated GIFs of cats that just can’t handle it. It’s like we DON’T EVEN CARE!

PS—we totally care about all of those things.

Well, one more music article, just to keep with the regularity of our daily features, then we promise to get back to some solid design/art/food/small business shopping/cat writing.

Yannick Ilunga—AKA Petite Noir, born to an Angolan Mother and a Congolese Father and now based in Cape Town, South Africa—has got us brimming with anticipation for what’s to come. The 21-year-old is single-handedly writing intricate electronic music that he provides a solid base for using live instrumentation and deep, soulful baritone vocals.

Give this week’s Song—his dark + moody but equally catchy, “Till We Ghosts”—a listen to see what we mean. Then check out his video for “Disappear” (directed by South African, Travys Owen), below.Ilunga is currently on tour with a full band, opening up for one of our favorites—Foals—as they make their way across the UK. Fingers crossed he’ll make it stateside soon.

And now, Reader, we bring the post-CMJ week to a close, finding we’ve come full circle.

Monday, when we kicked this whole thing off after two weeks of radio silence and a massively debilitating natural disaster in the New York City area, we featured a Brooklyn band with its sites set on giving back to this city that’s given us all so much. Today, we’re doing the same.

Although Brooklyn’s People Get Ready are new to the music scene as a group, they’re made up of a whole bunch of notable creative types—Luke Fasano (ex-Yeasayer; far left), James Rickman (ex-Lizzie Trulie, ex-Slow Gherkin; far right), Jen Goma (A Sunny Day in Glasgow; second from the right). Steven Reker (second from the left) formed the group after moving to New York from Arizona and performing as a dancer + guitarist in David Byrne’s touring band, working as a composer for Yasuko Yokoshi‘s dance work, and choreographing for Miranda July‘s film, The Future. So yeah, PGR roll deep in the arts cred, both musical and performing. And it shows, both in the subject matter of their songs and in their live performances.

The band premiered a video for “Windy City” just yesterday via NPR’s All Songs Considered. Here’s what NPR’s Bob Boilen wrote about the band:“I saw forty shows during the CMJ Music Marathon this year, and the one by the Brooklyn-based band People Get Ready was by far the most creative. Part of what I love about the band is the way its members think outside the box…way outside the box. For brevity, I’ll describe People Get Ready, led by guitarist, dancer, and choreographer Steven Reker, as an indie-rock-performing-art-dance troupe. This is magical musical theater. In the carefully orchestrated live show I saw during CMJ, the video featured here was actually one of the props the band used. Picture this: Some of the group’s members stand off to the side of the stage making music while two other members “play” the Masonite flooring. They pull up floor panels, make them wobble and buckle and generally create cool sounds. At some point the panels fly into the air using hooks and ropes, and – bam! – projector lamps come on and play this very video on the panels.”The video mentioned (which you can watch below) is for the song “Windy City” and both the video and song itself are inspired by Cindy Sherman‘s Untitled Film Stills—a longtime favorite Sherman series of ours. As PGR’s Reker puts it:

“I spent a long time looking at those pictures, and then I got so into them, I mean really in to them. I found myself wanting to see things from the perspective of the characters she had made. So the song is basically me having this desire to take over her spot in the picture – forever. It’s a dialogue. I try to do it, it’s fine for a bit, but I end up getting super tired because I can’t hold the pose as long as she can. And then I imagine I’d rather be an inanimate object. Like I’d rather just be her dress or the glass that she’s holding, the match that she’s striking, the book she is getting off the shelf, and stuff like that. All these objects are endowed perfectly by her, the way she handles them. It’s very romantic to me, not in a lovey-dovey way at all but in the way the work feels…livable. It’s a livable world she made.”

The video was directed by Ty Flowers and shot on Governors Island, where the band held their residency this past summer. And yes, it features the band members dressed up in gold lamé + Statue of Liberty outfits, respectively.

Watch the video and click the player to give the infectious, jangley, upbeat “Windy City” a listen. If you like what you hear—which you really should if you’re not an cold, unfeeling robot—head over to the band’s bandcamp page to listen to the full album and buy the digital vesrion. You can grab the vinyl + CD over at Brassland, the artist-operated independent record label started by Alec Hanley Bemis and Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the National.

Where does the NYC disaster relief come in? People Get Ready are playing a show next Wednesday at Williamsburg’s Death by Audio—an intimate little space that I’m betting’ll be perfect for their performance—with Formica Man + Grooms. They’ll be using the show as an opportunity to collect donations for New York areas affected by the storm (the Rockaways, Staten Island, Coney Island, and Red Hook). Most needed items as of now are coats, hand warmers, diapers, baby food, blankets, sleeping bags and hypothermia blankets, batteries (D), carbon monoxide detectors, fold up chairs and tables, sternos, and catering equipment. They’ll be updating the list—which you can see on the event’s Facebook page—up until the day of the show.

Peace out, Reader, and let this first-class tune lead you into a wonderful weekend.

Photo by Jenn Nielsen.