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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

My albums of the year 2008

1. Black Moutain - In The Future
Throwback rock that is completely derivative but completely fresh at the same time. Do I sound like a real critic when I toss around words like derivative?

2. Beck - Modern Guilt
More throwback, but in a completely different vein. I love how every Beck album is so completely distinct, but yet undeniably Beck.

3. Max Tundra - Parallax Error Beheads You
Kind of a Commodore 64 pop album with some guitars. This album is so mind-numbingly awesome that I hate having it all the way down at #3. Seriously, if you haven't ever heard this (chances are you haven't), you need to at least check out a few tracks.

4. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
2008 was a good year for over the top pop music. If you like bands that aren't afraid of synthesizers and big, fat melodies, you'll like this band.

5. Alex Moulton - Exodus
Daft punk meets Vangelis. Hilariously awesome album.

6. Torche - Meanderthal
Metal for indie kids? I have never heard anything by this band I didn't like, and this album didn't disappoint in the least.

7. M83 - Saturdays=Youth
You might see this one hovering near the top of a lot of "professional critic" lists, next to TV on the Radio. However, as opposed to TV on the Radio's release, this album is actually awesome. Huge, lush musical textures and killer production.

8. Clark - Turning Dragon
Dirty, nasty electronics with an unrelenting beat. Best Warp Records release of the year (Flying Lotus is close but no cigar)

9. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals
Mashup of the century. ANYONE would love this album. Seriously, if you haven't listened to this, do it now. Starts off with Gimme Some Lovin' (think Blues Brothers), 45 seconds later into the Cupid Shuffle, and then a minute later into Twisted Sister?!

10. Ratatat - LP3
Not sure what to say about this one other than that I really enjoyed it. Catchy electronic songs, kind of video game influenced, with melodies that stick in your head.

Runner-ups: Squarepusher - Just a Souvenir; Deerhunter - Microcastle; Portishead - Third; Flying Lotus - Los Angeles; Adventure - Adventure

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Gas

For those of you not in the Southeast, you may be interested to know that we are going through a bit of a crisis at the moment. In a sad commentary on the state of our national infrastructure, various cities throughout the Southeast have been running almost completely out of gas for the last few weeks, in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Last weekend, it was reported that 85% of gas stations in Nashville and its surrounding suburbs were out of fuel. This week, it appears to have spread to Charlotte.

The gas station across the street from our home has been mostly out of fuel for the last week or so. This morning, they received a new delivery. Within 20 minutes, there was a line for about a half mile down the road of people waiting to fuel up. After an hour, the line stretched to a mile. Police had to be called in because some people were filling up multiple containers of gas, and other drivers were screaming at them, apparently causing altercations. The gas station employees, who I just talked to, were scared for their safety because some drivers were threatening them about the people filling up extra containers.

Yes, panic has completely set in. Every station I have seen in the last few days is out of gas, and nobody knows what to do. School is likely to be canceled next week because buses cannot find diesel fuel. This is ugly, folks.

I thought this might be an interesting tidbit for those of you elsewhere, that still have plenty of gas. How is it that our infrastructure is so poor that we, more than two weeks after the hurricane, are completely unable to get a more even distribution of fuel throughout the country? This also serves as a telling illustration of this country's absolute reliance on fuel for our everyday lives. Not that we didn't know that already, of course.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Jeopardy

Man, I haven't written in here in forever.

I think that it is awesome that even though the Olympics are on, the Charlotte NBC affiliate sees to it that Jeopardy STILL comes on at 7 PM. One does not fuck with Alex Trebec.

Pat Sajak on the other hand...well, apparently one does in fact fuck with him.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Pathetic

Audrey is gone this weekend. She left Thursday morning, and doesn't get back until tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon. Allow me to sum up how I have spent my holiday weekend while she has been gone:

  • 2 nights of excessive binge drinking
  • 2 days wasted working off hangovers
  • Watched "Star Wars V" and "First Blood" back to back
  • Spent roughly 14 hours sitting on the computer bored out of my mind (mostly because of the hangovers, but still)
  • Turned house into a complete trainwreck
  • Today I have eaten 3 eggs and 2 biscuits, instead of cooking a nice dinner for myself like I had planned
  • I have accomplished none of my not-too-ambitious goals for the weekend, including getting at least one long bike ride in, fixing the garbage disposal, and doing laundry
It is a damn good thing she is around, because my life would be frighteningly and dangerously pathetic if she wasn't.

That doesn't really say a whole lot for me, does it?

Saturday, June 21, 2008

5:55

About 4 or so months ago I downloaded the latest Charlotte Gainsbourg album named 5:55 on high recommendation from a music forum that I frequent. This was the description that ultimately sold me:

"Air wrote and played the music, the lyrics were written with Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon, and it was produced by Nigel Godrich with string arrangements from Beck's dad."

I am a huge sucker for Air, Jarvis Cocker is a killer writer, Nigel Godrich has produced some of the very best sounding albums of the '00s (including Radiohead, Beck, etc.), and Beck's dad I don't really know aside from the fact that he wrote all of the string arrangements on Beck's Sea Change, which remains one of my absolute favorite albums.

In any case, this Charlotte Gainsbourg album is just astoundingly good. It actually exceeded my expectations, even given all of those people that worked on it. But the weird thing is that the number 555 seems to pop up all the time in random places. I will buy a meal and it is $5.55. I will accidentally wake up at 5:55 AM. A few weeks ago I just glanced at my bike odometer and it hit 555 miles for the year. It is just strange.

I know that all of this probably happened before, but now I notice it just because of the song name. But now every time I see it, the song gets into my head. Which isn't a bad thing, because it is a great song.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Commercials

Hell yeah.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Dream

Slept in a hotel last night. Just woke up about 5 minutes ago. Terrible night of sleep; only got about 4 hours of actual sleep, since I was waking up every 45 minutes thinking it was time to get up. Terrible.

Had a dream that I was Barack Obama. I was at a gas station with my wife (Michelle I guess? Wasn't clear..) filling up the tank, then we drove to some party on a yacht that also featured John McCain. But the highlight, for me at least, was that somehow Raymond Watts (of KMFDM and PIG fame) was on the yacht with a more important and politically connected lady. I was very excited and started telling him that I was a huge fan. Then I realized that maybe this wasn't very politically savvy.



No hat or sunglasses in the dream, for what it's worth. He was definitely rocking the eyeliner though.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Clinton

Hillary's non-concession speech last night is roughly akin to a basketball team that loses a close game, but after the buzzer sounds one of the players grabs the ball from the ref and inbounds it, and they just keep playing, while the other team stands around and goes "what the fuck?"

Hey, run-on sentences are awesome. And I even thought of that great sports-related analogy myself! Aren't you proud, Mom?

By the way, I think Terry McAuliffe is seriously maybe the coolest human being alive.



Monday, June 2, 2008

Appetizer

Audrey and I went to a wine tasting party (read: get trashed, but in a classy way) on Saturday night, and everyone was supposed to bring some sort of appetizer, as well as a bottle of wine. To Audrey's chagrin, I decided to go a little off-beat and make mahi mahi based hors d'oeuvres. They will absolutely killer and were a huge hit at the party, prompting one woman to ask "are you a chef?" to which my answer was "sorry, I have a girlfriend."

Anyway, I thought I would share my recipe, since I just kind of made it up and I would like to remember this for the future:

Wesabe Mahi Mahi Crackers

Sauce Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup mayo
  • 3-ish tbsp. dry wesabe (you should be able to find this in the spices section)
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice (roughly equal to the squeeze of half of a fresh lemon)
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
Other Ingredients:
  • 2 mahi mahi filets (this recipe would also work with tilapia or maybe even smoked salmon if you want to go that route)
  • Chives
  • Water Crackers
Directions:

First make the sauce by whisking together all of the above, then cover and get it in the fridge. Doing this a few hours ahead of time is not a bad idea. It is essential that you refrigerate the sauce before serving. The sauce tastes terrible before it cools and the flavors come together. At which point it is awesome.

Once the sauce is finished, either grill or pan-sear the mahi mahi. You should need about 5 minutes a side on a hot grill or pan. DO NOT OVERCOOK. While the fish is cooking, slice the chives into about 1-1/2 inch long pieces, and set aside.

Mahi mahi is a flaky fish, so once it is done, it should flake apart fairly nicely, in just the right size for the water crackers. Tear off a piece and place it on a water cracker, then use a spoon to smear a bit of the wesabe sauce on the top. Top this with a couple of the chive slices. Eat the first one to see if you are using too much or too little sauce. Once you have the right amount, go ahead and finish the rest.

Friday, May 30, 2008

2.0

Fucking green squares everywhere, what the hell.

Stooges

Most awesome tour rider ever, courtesy of one of Iggy Pop's roadies:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/iggypop/iggypop1.html


My favorite part -- "We need one (1) monitor man who speaks good English and is not afraid of death." Or maybe [in reference to Iggy's dressing room] -- "just let someone loose with a little bit of artistic flair...Er, do you know any homosexuals?"

Hell yeah. I wish I was a rock star.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Memorial

In case you were wondering, I was indeed drunk when opened this blog and wrote that first post. In fact, I had just about the most manly day a guy could have:

  1. I spent most of the morning watching Sportscenter.
  2. I fixed my grill.
  3. I went to Home Depot.
  4. I ate cold leftovers straight out of the fridge for lunch, and washed it down with milk that I drank straight from the milk jug.
  5. I drank a lot of beer.
  6. I grilled and devoured a 16 oz ribeye.
  7. I went to the driving range, and only hit my driver. Irons are for pussies.
  8. I paid some kid to wash and vacuum my car out, then went back over it myself to get the spots that only the owner would care about.
If anyone can have a better Memorial Day than that, I'd like to hear what they did.

Question

I have been in my current job for two years. Another job opens up in my market that would be the next logical promotion for me. In other markets, when this has happened, the people in my job have gained automatic promotions to that job. In my case, they are posting the job, and looking for external candidates, while still asking me to apply and be considered for the job. The only reasons I can gather that they are going this route is that 1) the job would require relocation, and 2) the other people that have been auto-promoted have done this job before at other companies, whereas I have not. That said, for the 3 years I have been with this company, my performance ratings have been above average, and will remain that way for my upcoming review for my 4th year.

My question -- should I be pissed off that they are not just giving me the promotion? Or rather, am I wrong for being a little pissed off they are not just giving me the promotion? Or am I just being a spoiled brat for expecting that it should be handed to me, based on my previous work?

Monday, May 26, 2008

Steak

I'm starting a blog. This is an absolutely spur of the moment decision. I don't know if I will keep writing it or not, but whatever.

There is really nothing in life that makes a man feel quite as good as grilling a 16 oz ribeye to perfection, and then devouring the whole thing. God Bless America.