A few years ago I read an interview with Les Claypool, bassist and lead singer for Primus and a man known for performing many virtuosic feats on the electric bass. At one point the interviewer asked whether he used alternate tunings, and he said no, that maybe when he felt like he’d mastered the standard tuning, then he might try another one.

This is kind of how I feel about flavored breads. I feel that bread bakers should master yeast, flour, water, and salt before thinking about things like cheese, prosciutto, nuts, or dried fruit, which are often used to add flavor to an unnecessarily bland product. And my own preference is for plain bread.

That said, I was back at the Columbia City Bakery today (I’m working on a review of a nearby restaurant), and the walnut levain was calling out to me. Nobody could accuse the CCB of failing to master the bread basics; indeed, at this point I’m convinced they’re the best bakery in town (maybe tied with Dahlia, though). The walnut just looked like a beautiful loaf.

It tasted like one, too. When I got home, after a hearty lunch, I tore a corner off the loaf and ate it. Then I tore off a little more, and suddenly half the loaf was gone. There’s no better definition of great bread, I think, than bread that makes you snack on it compulsively like Doritos.

I always seem to give extra props when I enjoy a work of art in a category I usually dislike. For example, I feel the same way about flavored beers as about flavored breads, but I absolutely adore Unibroue’s Ephemere series, their annual fruit blend, especially the apple. (They’ve also done pear, currant, and cranberry.)

To bring it back around to music, I’ve always been a big fan of short songs. Many of my favorite songs are under three minutes, and when a song goes beyond four minutes, I reach for the remote. (Please read this as an indictment of my attention span, not of any particular song.) But when a long song does wow me, it tends to really blow me away.

This could just be circular reasoning. But I think I’ll grab the rest of that walnut loaf, pour a glass, of Ephemere, and listen to a mixtape of The Loud Family’s “Sister Sleep” (8:25), The Fiery Furnaces’ Chief Inspector Blancheflower (8:58), The Good Life’s Inmates (9:39), and to keep things old school, Elton John’s Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (11:09).

And hey, by the time those songs are over, it’ll be, like, Thursday or something, and I can go get more bread.