I like cooking. Anyone who knows me knows that I like cooking. Don’t ask me why, but I do. I don’t have any formal training, and can’t say I’ve ever even been to a restaurant where the food is served in courses instead of all at one time, but I do know what I like and what I don’t like. I started preparing meals for myself when I was around thirteen years old or so.

I like experimenting with all sorts of ingredients and preparations. Today’s ingredient is real vanilla bean.

I know I know, vanilla is not an exotic ingredient, nor is it really that rare. It seems vanilla is in everything, although I suspect that most is artificial vanilla.

For years now, I’ve been using vanilla extract. It’s basically vanilla bean soaked in alcohol. It tastes pretty good and smells ok. In the grand scheme of things, though, adding enough alcohol-based extract to satisfy my cravings can change the texture of a recipe.

So I was searching my deal sites last week, and I came across a link for a deal on real vanilla beans. For $7.95, you will receive seven Premium Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla Beans. Shipping is free. Click this link to order through Amazon.

The beans are from JR Mushrooms and Specialties. The ones they sent me were moist and plump, and quite long as well. They have an amazing scent and a very mellow, smooth flavor. These things are amazing.

The vanilla beans came with a creme brulee recipe, so over the weekend Jaime and I headed off to the store to get ingredients. As we walked through the store, I could still smell the vanilla that had infused into the recipe during shipping. It is that strong.

We made the recipe, which turned out to be very good and quite a bit like Alton Brown’s recipe for creme brulee. The recipe called for dark brown sugar to be caramelized on the top, but my torch was having none of that. Dark brown sugar became very, very burnt very, very quickly. I tried light brown sugar. No go on that one, either. Instant carbon.

I settled on plain white table sugar. I have lots of experience melting it with a torch, so it was a piece of cake. I was able to achieve a nice, glass-like sheet of caramel on top of the brulees.

The texture of the brulee was amazing. I think I cooked it perfectly. It was incredibly light and fluffy, but very rich at the same time. The texture was the same throughout the dish, and it stuck to the spoon when turned upside down. It was nothing like the creme caramel that I made a couple years ago, which was more spongy and firm (and probably overcooked). The vanilla flavor was in perfect balance with the cream. Mmm.

Is that how creme brulee is supposed to be? No clue, I’ve never had it at a restaurant. But let me tell you, it was damn good.

Next time I make it, I’ll use vanilla sugar, and I’m thinking about trying turbinado sugar (vanilla infused).

If you like to cook and haven’t tried real vanilla bean, I highly recommend ordering some and giving it a shot. For $8, you have nothing to lose.

Mike

Since the beginning of the latest climate change “discussion” that is going on in the media, I have contended that the “scientists” who are most vocal about climate change are those who had already determined their positions well before any real research had been done.

An article from RedOrbit (I’ve never heard of it either) serves to prove my point. The article contains extensive quotations by Anthony Leiserowitz, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Oregon, speaking at a talk during the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.

Professor Lieserowitz discusses the contents of a book, Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change – Facilitating Social Change, of which he was a contributor.

Just read the title. I think we already know the conclusions the professor has drawn. And now, through this book and consensual science, he is disregarding science and allowing emotion to skew any shadow of accuracy that may be contained in both his book and his comments.

Here is a quotation from the article:

RedOrbit.com – Americans Believe Global Warming is Real, But Not a Top Priority

“We found no references, no associations, of the impacts of climate change on either human health or extreme weather events. Yet these are, arguably, among the most important potential impacts, because, ultimately, the consequences are going hurt people.

See what he did there? He assumed unproven consequences backed up by unproven science, and he assumed that those unproven consequences are definitively negative.

He says that certain potential impacts are arguabley going to cause consequences that will definitely hurt people. He didn’t say “the consequences have the potential to hurt people.” He said “the consequences ARE going to hurt people.

Professor, I have two words for you: Prove it.

Thank you.

So, for the past several months I have been receiving letters from SESAC regarding music licensing.

For any of you who are not aware, I am one of the co-hosts of America’s Debate Radio, and online political call-in show. The show airs once per week on Wednesdays. During each show, we usually take two breaks that last about 10 minutes each. During these breaks, we play music.

Now, before we started broadcasting I personally contacted every single music licensing agency for pricing and usage information: ASCAP, SESAC, BMI, SoundExchange, the Harry Fox agency. I contacted everyone. Some took months to respond, some never responded.

According to many of the agencies, we would need two separate licenses in order to broadcast music from their respective catalogs: One for the podcast since the music contained within a podcast is downloadable, and a separate license for the streaming broadcast.

The general summary of each licensing agency that responded is that the licensing costs per year were well above our total annual operating budget for the radio program– $200– and even above our entire annual operating budget — about $2,000– for America’s Debate in its entirety. Obviously, we could not afford to use commercially licensed music, and needed an alternative.

That alternative came in two forms: Music licensed under the Creative Commons license, and music released by independent artists and used only with permission.

The Creative Commons music that we use on America’s Debate Radio — ALL of it– is from GarageBand.com. Garageband allows artists to release their music to the public under several different licenses, one of which is the Creative Commons license. That license allows us to play and distribute that music within our broadcasts provided proper attribution is given. So, Jaime and I spent two days hunting through GarageBand.com for music released under that license. We saved every song we found, and we reviewed it for airworthiness at a later date.

The music released by independent artists is really music from one guy, his old band, and another band from right here in Georgia. Dirk Lind, formerly of Baaba Seth and currently a staffer from America’s Debate, gave me permission to use music from his old band. Not only did he give me that permission, but he also gave me permission to use the new music he has composed and listed at his website. The Georgia band is The Robbie Ducey Band, a blues band from Georgia. Robbie Ducey himself gave me permission via email to use his music, provided proper attribution is made.

So, that is the music we play. Free music used under its license, or music that has been given to us by bands who are unsigned and not under contract with any of the major music licensing agencies.

Back to SESAC. For the past several months, SESAC has been sending me letters accompanied by payment envelopes. These letters don’t so much as state that I have used their music in violation of their license, but it is certainly implied. Here is the letter I received today:

As you can see, it is quite threatening in nature.

“The unauthorized performance of copyrighted music represents an infringement of copyright and is a violation of Federal Law.”

Yeah, no joke. That is why we don’t use any copyrighted music. That fact won’t change, no matter how many implications of infringement you assert.

“Despite several notices of your need to obtain permission to perform the copyrighted compositions of our affiliates, we have not heard from you nor have we received the signed license agreement that would authorize such performances.”

Right, I ignored most of the notices since we do not play music owned by SESAC, and therefore we are under no obligation to pay licensing fees for music that we have not used. I did respond to the most recent letter stating that we only use Creative Commons music, and asking that I be removed from their mailing list.

“Enclosed is additional information regarding SESAC and the requirements placed upon music users under the United States Copyright Act. It makes good business sense to obtain a SESAC blanket license and avoid infringing the copyrights of our affiliated music composers and publishers.”

There was no enclosure. Regardless, I know the law, and nowhere in the law does it place any requirements upon me to license music I have not used.

“If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 928-757-5326, by facsimile at 952-674-1910 or by email at music.ross@starband.net.”

I did contact him. The results will be my next blog post.

“Please complete, sign and return the SESAC Performance License together with your license fee payment. Upon receipt of the signed license agreement and payment, an executed copy of the document will be returned to you for your records.”

Again, we don’t need to license music we don’t use. Just as the federal government requires a license before, oh, say, opening up a strip mine, that does not mean I must obtain a license just because I own a shovel and that shovel could be used to illegally strip mine without a license. Yeah, I’m capable of broadcasting your music. That doesn’t mean I have broadcast it, nor does it mean I need a license to broadcast it as long as I– you guessed it– don’t broadcast it.

“Additional information about SESAC and our licensing service is available at www.sesac.com.”

Great, I have a website too.

As you can tell, this letter is meant to scare me into paying for licensing I do not need.

If I had used their music without a license, all they would need to do is send a certified cease and desist letter to our Registered Agent as is on file with the Georgia Secretary of State. The letter would come from an attorney and not a Music Licensing Consultant. And the letter would specifically list the materials upon which I have infringed and the date and time of the infringement.

This appears to be nothing more than a bullying tactic based on a poorly-researched hunch, and backed up by federal law that they have interpreted as having granted them the right to bully and harass legitimate and legally-operated organizations.

I called the number listed. I will post the summary of the conversation as my next blog post.

Mike

Article: Valentine bouquets ‘are bad for the planet’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/10/nbouquet10.xml

Latest Government figures show that the flowers that make up the average bunch have flown 33,800 miles to reach Britain.

33,800 miles? Oh yeah?

About: Geography – What is the circumference of the earth?
http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzcircumference.htm

The circumference of the earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 kilometers).

Seems odd to me that they would grow flowers, and fly them the equivalent of nearly 1.4 times around the entire planet.

Does this seem odd to anyone else*?

Mike