Burma Superstar

From the beloved San Francisco restaurant, a mouthwatering collection of recipes, including Fiery Tofu, Garlic Noodles, the legendary Tea Leaf Salad, and many more. Never before have the vivid flavors of Burmese cooking been so achievable for home cooks.

A group of men parachute into Japanese-occupied Burma with a dangerous and important mission: to locate and blow up a radar station. They accomplish this well enough, but when they try to rendezvous at an old air-strip to be taken back to their base, they find Japanese waiting for them, and they must make a long, difficult walk back through enemy-occupied jungle.

Lots can happen in 22 years. Babies grow up, graduate college, start families. The onset of maturity is typically harder on rock bands. In 1972, the Stones released Exile on Main Street; by 1994, they were slumming in Voodoo Lounge. So it comes as a terrific surprise that Boston punk experimentalists Mission of Burma, who split shortly after 1982's Vs., sound as cutting edge as ever on this reunion disc. Opener "The Setup" features a midsection that sounds more like a jar of buzzing bees than any conventional solo, thanks to tape manipulator Bob Weston (borrowed from Shellac) putting guitarist Roger Miller through a barrage of effects. On a quieter note, the seductive "Falling" features backing vocals by Tonya Donnelly, while somber strings underscore "Prepared." Through it all, Burma still boast unerring melodic sensibilities; "The Enthusiast" and "Wounded World" are rife with sharp hooks. ONoffON was a long time coming, but well worth the wait.

For the first time in over 50 years, a team of wildlife film-makers from the BBC's Natural History Unit and scientists from the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution has been granted access to venture deep into Burma's impenetrable jungles. Their mission is to discover whether these forests are home to iconic animals, rapidly disappearing from the rest of the world - this expedition has come not a moment too soon.