morgan autumn levy
Music I like, adventures I have, bits & pieces of Nashville and self-indulgent ramblings that I should probably not allow to be archived on the internet.
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Video reblogged from JONAS BJERRE
’ This Place Is Not A Place ‘
A collaboration between Agnete Hegelund and Jonas Bjerre
First shown at Galleri Hugo Opdal, in Flø, Norway
Fantastically bizarro.
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Link reblogged from NashvilleBen
Join me on March 28th in serving our homeless neighbors and friends at Project Homeless Connect. A one-day event designed to remove individuals’ immediate obstacles to housing.
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Today I made Yazoo Dos Perros cupcakes for Christy’s birthday since she was having a shindig at the Yazoo taproom and I like to get all matchy matchy with birthday themes (happy birthday, crusty! xoxo). 44 of them disappeared in a couple hours, so I think they turned out all right, and since I sort of made up the recipe I decided to blog it so that if I ever need to re-make these cupcakes I’ll be able to. Sorry to people who don’t like to read recipes on Tumblr!
For the cupcakes:
I adapted this recipe for Chocolate Stout Cake from Epicurious. I followed it pretty closely, subbing the Dos Perros beer for the stout in the recipe. Forgot to add the cocoa powder until the end, but no harm done. Dos Perros is a Mexican style beer with chocolate notes, so I added cinnamon to complement. At the end I also added a reduction of the beer (to intensify the beer’s flavor in the final baked product) and some malted milk powder to keep that malt-y flavor. Baking time was 25-30 minutes for cupcakes. This recipe makes 4 dozen cupcakes, so halve it for a more reasonable amount.
2 cups Dos Perros, plus 1 bottle for reduction
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream
1-2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1/4 cup malted milk powder
1/4 cup Dos Perros reductionPreheat oven to 350°F. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, malted milk powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Add Dos Perros reduction. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide into lined cupcake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes.
For the frosting:
I adapted this recipe for Blue Moon cupcakes by Miss Make which I fully intend to make one day. I liked it because the frosting was supposed to be light and airy, just like the foam on top of a beer! And it totally worked. I just made minor changes here - swapped the 1/3 cup water for 1/3 cup of Dos Perros, and subbed lime juice for the orange juice (again with the Mexican beer thing). Garnished them with little lime wedges so they looked less like something that a 5th grader cranked out, and voila! Dos Perros cupcakes.
2 egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp lime juice
1 c sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/3 c Dos PerrosIn a saucepan, mix sugar, beer and cream of tartar. Cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is bubbly. In a separate large bowl, beat egg whites, vanilla and lime juice until soft peaks form. Slowly add hot sugar mixture, beating continuously. Beat for 7 minutes until stiff peaks form.
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Audio post reblogged from "after all, it is the adventure that counts."[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]This track has had 2,298 playsDancing on My Own (Robyn cover) by Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes - Dancing On My Own (Robyn cover).
(Source: thestateimin: littlehand: lukewarmcoffee)
Awesomeness.
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It is January 16, 2012, which seems like as good a time as any to post my 2011 playlist. I was able to get all but two songs on this Grooveshark playlist, so I think this is as good as it’s gonna get.
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Awww. Lil’ baby Laura Marling and lil’ baby Marcus Mumford with a lil’ baby molesterstache!
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Video reblogged from Giving Up The Gun
Kermit and Bret McKenzie sing a song together from the new Muppets Movie!!!!
<3
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By the numbers and the memories.
Albums purchased: 51, not including singles, partial albums, EPs or freebies.
Top 10 favorites, maybe:- Bon Iver’s “Bon Iver”
- The Civil Wars’ “Barton Hollow”
- Adele’s “21”
- Florence + The Machine’s “Ceremonials”
- Feist’s “Metals”
- Ryan Adams’ “Ashes & Fire”
- Radical Face’s “The Family Tree: The Roots”
- Wilco’s “The Whole Love”
- David Bazan’s “Strange Negotiations”
- St. Vincent’s “Strange Mercy”
- Bonus from late 2010, Robyn’s “Body Talk”
Shows attended: 18 that I kept the ticket stubs from, not including festivals or secret house shows or shows in bars or shows where I paid at the door or instores or…
Highlights include:- Stumbling upon a secret Mumford & Sons house show attended by Jake Gyllenhaal
- Seeing many longtime favorites for the first time
- Tailgating for U2/Florence + The Machine
- Bon Iver at the Ryman (top show of the year, I think)
- Wilco at the Ryman
- Yann Tiersen at 3rd & Lindsley
- All of Next Big Nashville, er, Soundland
- Surprise Feist show at Third Man Records
- Road trip to Chattanooga on New Years Eve Eve to see the Avett Brothers
- The Civil Wars at the Belcourt before they exploded
- Memphis in May
- A hilarious evening sponsored by Groupon with Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj
- Seeing Sufjan Stevens play the soundtrack to “Beyond This Place” in Brooklyn
Highlights do not include:
- Adele at the Ryman because she canceled twice (still bitter, obviously)
Trips taken: 16
Airports: 13
Favorites include: All of them.- Flying to San Antonio with David, just because we could
- Memphis in May with Christy and Ben, dressing Ben entirely in Blue and literally running away from a tornado, seeing Ludacris and Ke$ha and getting into a fight at the Mumford & Sons set
- Flying to St. Louis and back in 24 hours
- Bourbon trail, teepee motel and caving with Molly in Kentucky (first of many 2011 Molgantures)
- First-ever trip to California - LA to visit Marion
- A beautiful day in rural TN on the lake celebrating Ben’s birthday
- A week in Vermont in the summer, eating hand picked raspberries and straight from the garden asparagus with my grandpa and escaping to the coast of Maine for 24 hours
- Rock Island weekends
- Mule Day
- HOLIDAY WORLD!
- Bourbon Fest and the urban bourbon trail with Christy
- Two Chattanooga runs - the aforementioned New Years Eve Eve Avett Brothers show and a spontaneous trip with Alison earlier in the fall
- The most perfect extra-long weekend at the beach with Molly
- Three trips to NYC (two with friends, thus two with lots of fun, plus one with a creepy expensive hotel)
- A trip back to family in Virginia for Christmas
Instagram photos posted: 311
New (food/drink) places in Nashville visited: 26-ish, as remembered by Foursquare. T’was the year of the food truck.
Top 10 new favorites: Sloco, The Wild Hare, AM@FM, Bar 308, Riff’s Fine Street Food, Tavern, Shish Kabob, DegThai, Jeni’s, YaYo’s OMGBooks read: 33.5
Books I’m in the middle of right now, even though they are mostly overdue at the library: 9
A handful of them I would recommend to anyone, even if you are a man and even if you don’t run:- Bossypants - Tina Fey
- Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling
- Born To Run - Christopher McDougall
- Just Kids - Patti Smith
- The Gift of Asher Lev - Chaim Potok
- Double Dexter, Jeff Lindsay
- A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
New favorite website: The Hairpin
Hairpin meetups attended: 1
Favorite thing I read on my new favorite website in 2011: ThisMemories made: Obviously I can’t number them, but…
…Here are 15 that will not be forgotten (and that were not included in travels/shows above):- Getting initiated into the iPhone club
- Becoming a NWS certified Storm Spotter and taking a self-defense class
- Running my first 5 miles on Thanksgiving morning
- Breaking my foot (twice)
- Skating a lot (no relation to above item, believe it or not)
- Santa rampaging
- Picking Marion & Kevin up at BNA for a quick pitcher at Wilhagens on their layover
- Watching fireworks in the Antioch Waffle House parking lot with a carload of awesome friends who were passing through town on the 4th of July
- Front porch parties at the new, non-roachy deuxplex
- Judging the Nashville Lifestyles Bartender’s Bash
- Dragon Boat racing
- Midnight swinging and sippy cup wine at the park down the street with Christy
- Getting my first tattoo
- Bonding with new (and old) friends after an evening in the ER with a broken leg (not mine!)
- Bottomless mimosa brunches in Brooklyn with Christy, Molly, Lauren and The Australians
