More Fun Saturday Music

It has been a beautiful Saturday in Northeast New Jersey. Its cool enough to have the windows open and fans going. CBS' college sports network was replaying football games all day. I cooked a decent breakfast (braunschweiger omelets will blow your mind), and I'm about to make steak, steamed vegetables, and lemon pie. Fortunately, I found some appropriate upbeat music to go along with all of this.

Harper Blynn perform "25 Years" from Gothamist House on Vimeo.

EELS Spectacular Girl from TOMORROW MORNING - out 8.24.10

EELS | MySpace Music Videos

Yu(c)k - Daughter from Yuck on Vimeo.

Cee Lo Green

I'm getting pretty excited for the next Cee Lo Green album. He was the voice of Gnarls Barkley, and he's released two solo albums before (besides working with Atlanta rap crew Good Mob). I am of the opinion that everything he touches turns to gold, so I'm stoked for his new album.

You can download for free two tracks from the new album by signing up for his mailing list at his website. I like both of them, but the song that he just released on YouTube really got my attention, too, and I'm hoping he includes it on the album. I hope you enjoy this:

What the Effin' Crap?!

Don't get me wrong. I am totally into the style and the music and the effects. The video....well....ummm....it makes me feel crazier than usual. If I'm crazier on any given day, this cranks it up to 11.

In other news, I would also go crazy working for Jimmy Fallon, and I would die young from laughing too hard.

Countdown to Mike's Bachelor Party

I'm going to start making a list of things I anticipate experiencing at Mike's bachelor party this August.

Coming in at number 10:

I really cannot wait for the guys to get smashed and imitate this video

BREAKING NEWS: Aquaman Releases Profanity-Laced Response to BP

Atlantis (CNN) – With midterm elections less than four months away, Republican mouthpieces are quick to defend their position as the party of "no" and point fingers at the reckless spending of Democrats. Democrats are quick to defend their spending, the slow swell of the economy, and their responsiveness to replacing generals in Iraq. Both sides are doing a fantastic job pointing fingers at this president and/or the last president in regards to who is responsible for the oversight of BP and the MMS.

In the midst of these squabbles, King of Atlantis, Arthur Curry (a.k.a. Aquaman) had this to say to reporters early Monday morning:

"You #$%*!#$% #%^*@#$ idiots! Stop !@#$% and fix this!"

Aquaman's official press agent was not immediately available for comment. Representatives from the Justice League have been surprisingly quiet on the matter until Aquaman's outburst this morning.

Namor has not been available for comment.

Bluegrass music, Bowling, Beer, Brooklyn

Oh man. Last night's concert was awesome.

First off, Brooklyn is a pretty cool borough. Marj and I took the subway from Manhattan, and from the time I got off the subway to the time we got to the concert, it seemed like the entire borough is populated by an age group that ranges from 21 - 31, and its a very eclectic mix at that. Marjorie said we were in the Bardstown Rd. part of Brooklyn. I told her we were giving Btown Rd way too much credit.

So Marj and I got off the subway, and as we walked to our concert at Brooklyn Bowl, we heard another concert going on down towards the waterfront. I recognized the music, and we realized Weezer was doing a concert, and it sounded huge. I heard "Jonas" and "The Sweater Song" live for free as I walked to a bluegrass concert. Its pretty neat having a loud rocking soundtrack as you walk the streets anywhere (this kind of ties to yesterday's e-mail about having entrance music), but for it to be Weezer as I walked through Brooklyn? Can't beat it.

It was a short walk from the subway to the Brooklyn Bowl. I wouldn't have minded a longer walk if it meant being serenaded by Weezer moire, but whatevs. The venue was hidden in what looked to be a re-emerging, formerly-industrial part of the area. The only thing that separated it from some dilapidated, poorly lit buildings was some pink and red neon lights. It's kind of how Jillian's in Louisville used to stick out from the crummy houses and boarded-window businesses.

But when you walk in, its beautiful. Darkly lit, the entire inside is about the size of Tailgaters Music Hall in Louisville, but its decorated with a Coney Island boardwalk theme. There are tables and booths and swank leather couches that serve as tables for dinner or drinking or watching concerts. There were two massive bars, each with at least 3 different draught stations. Behind each bar, instead of having shelves of liquor (which is hidden beneath the bar), the shelves are loaded with

shooting range targets. You know the flat, metal ducks and flags that you see in movies when a guy tries to impress a girl by shooting the flat, metal little targets with a BB gun? The entire back bar was covered in them. Very cool. And there was an entire wall of the weird, furry clowns that people throw balls to knock down.

Also, this place got huge kudos from me for not having a single macrobrew available. Of the ten beers at each draught station, they were either Brooklyn Brewery beers. Six were from the Brooklyn Brewery. two were from Sixpoint Craft Ales, and two were from the Greenpoint Brewing Company. I tried three different beers throughout the night, and the Kelso Nut Brown made love to my tongue like Antonio Banderas. It was a gentle beer/tongue lover.

I haven't mentioned yet that there was a bowling alley. Only about 20 lanes. But music never sounded so awesome as it does when you hear bowling pins being knocked down and big heavy balls cruising down a wood lane. I'm not a bowling connoisseur by any means, but I couldn't get over the fact that the pins were all hanging from strings like marionettes, which made replacing them after every set easy. But the technology there, it must be old, blew my mind, because the strings never interfered or prevented pins being knocked over. You'll have to see it to know what I'm talking about.

(OK...some quick internet research tells me this is called string pinsetting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEqSrZR0h2c. I never saw it take as long as it does in that video, but I challenge the Engineers to figure out how it works.)

The band was pretty incredible, too. Greensky Bluegrass was like a jam band for bluegrass. Very funky. Varied between being heavy and then back to light-hearted. Not like the bluegrass that dad used to take me to when I was younger. Its painfully obvious that bluegrass music itself is not entrenched in the Northeast, though. There were probably 100 people standing close to the stage to watch the music. Everyone else in the building was a casual bystander. I got really excited and sang along when they started playing Bob Dylan's "The Man in Me" which I recognize from the Big Lebowski soundtrack. When the band mentioned at the end of the song that it was from Lebowski, an over-weight drunk man that looked like Oliver Platt started shouting quotes from the movie. I must have been the only one that recognized them, because once he caught me smiling, he started shouting them at me. Oh well.

Bob Dylan - The Man in Me (The Big Lebowski version) from mue on Vimeo.

Of the 100 of us standing close to the stage, there were a handful of cute, drunk girls that tried to dance to it, and one guy trying to dance. This poor guy tried all of his tried-and-true NYC dance moves to make them fit for bluegrass, but he couldn't nail it down. But what was cracking Marjorie and I up was that he was switching through his repertoire of dance moves, one after the other, several times throughout the course of one song. So you'd see him thrashing like he was at a metal concert, then flailing his arms like he was at a hip-hop concert, and then he'd get chopped-and-screwed and start dancing in slow motion like he was listening to some trance music. Poor guy. I figured out how stoned he was when he started getting infatuated with the big ceiling fan. When people drop what they're doing to start staring at ceiling fans, you know they got their hands on the good stuff.

In general, the closest anyone got to decent bluegrass dancing was a couple that met on the dance floor and started some improvised ballroom/swing dancing. It was kind of neat to see two strangers meet up on the dancefloor of a bluegrass concert and just start dancing like that. Anyone else just looked weird trying their NYC dancing. I just leaned back and tapped my foot in time with the music and felt like I had achieved the correct way to enjoy bluegrass. I asked Marjorie if she knew of dances to bluegrass. She told me that in elementary school, mountain cloggers would come to school to demonstrate bluegrass dancing. Duncan, can you confirm or deny this? Either way, I didn't run home to get my wooden clogs so I could do a wood-heavy tap dance at the Brooklyn Bowl.

We ended up leaving the venue around 11:30 because we were both getting pretty tired. We walked to the subway. It was about 85 degrees still, and Brooklyn had taken on a hot-trash smell. The subway station felt at least 10 degrees hotter. And we happened to leave our concert right before the Weezer concert ended, because right before we boarded the train, about 300 people joined us. So the 30-minute ride home was jam packed with hot and sweaty Weezer fans. We both noticed the unique artisan cheese smell of the crowd. Not appealing.

And that was my night. It could not have been much more fun, and if anyone comes up here any time soon, that's going to be a new destination.

Enter the Paul

I know it sounds weird, but there are several times throughout the day that I wish I had a special entrance theme. Kind of like wrestlers.

More than half the time I think I'd like to enter a room like Jack Nicholson's Joker entered the museum in Batman. Strutting in with cronies carrying a boombox, blasting my theme. My theme would not be Prince, and I would not be dancing (probably not dancing).

The rest of the time I think I'd like to enter a room like Gangrel used to in the WWF. The lights go off in the room, then music starts playing with red strobe lights flickering throughout the room. Then a circle of fire ignites. Then I get lifted up through the floor via a platform.

Someday if I'm rich, I'm going to achieve both of these things.

Either entrance would be acceptable if I had to testify in front of Congress.

LebowskiFest in Louisville Metromix

So the 9th Annual Lebowski Fest is happening this weekend in Louisville. Being in New Jersey is this year's excuse for not attending.

Lebowski Fest: Achieving Greatness

I never attended any of them, but the Lebowskifests that started in Louisville always brightened up the parts of town that I kicked around in.

For the longest time, I knew nothing about the movie or the wild posters that seemed to pop up and slowly dissolve and disappear each year.

My friend Patrick sat me down to watch it once when we were in high school, but the humor of the movie escaped me.

After talking with people about the movie, and after reading about reactions to the movie, mine was not a unique experience. It seems nobody was completely tickled by the movie the first time they saw it, but, like bacteria and hair, it grew on them.

Its hard to nail what's so damn funny about the movie, too. I like the existence of the movie's characters. I think that's what gets it for me. Its about schmucks that get rolled up into one weird, self-styled noose-of-a-situation after another.

The entire movie is one coincidence that creates another coincidence that creates another. And in the middle is one unwitting, go-with-the-wind man that just rides the story.

And in one of the most brilliant themes of the movie, he's left no worse for wear, nor any better, at the movie's end. In hindsight, this is exactly my kind of theme.

And enough people agree with me that its one of those movies that you have to...well...not just own in the personal belonging sense....you have to own it by making it part of you. You absorb it and appreciate it like a good inside joke (even though its audience is getting bigger and bigger).

And like most good jokes, despite its growing audience, it doesn't seem to have been too terribly exploited or overdone. Its impervious to repetition (think Borat), and even those that DO quote the movie in casual conversation (myself) its not too bad, because there aren't any obvious jokes throughout. Everything is so subtle.

So, in a roundabout way, I'm wistful for an event that I never attended. And that seems fitting for a lot of reasons.

The costumes don't hurt, either.

Who knows? When the Lebowski Fest train rolls into Brooklyn this fall, maybe I'll catch it there. The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers never say "die," right?

Virgin Pie

So this is the result of the first pie I have ever made.

It was delicious.

I was nommin' on it like a zombie.

Musics Old & New for the ol iPod

Zeus - How Does It Feel from Arts & Crafts on Vimeo.

Bourbon Dinner

Below is the menu I've put together for this evening's bourbon dinner. Delicious.

Seafood Louisiana

3 oz butter

1/4 cup white onion chopped

12 oz, lobster meat

4 oz. bourbon

1 cup mushrooms sliced

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 cup celery, diced

1 pimiento, diced

6 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 cup tomato sauce

pepper to taste

salt to taste

paprika to taste

2 packages instant white rice

Melt 2 oz butter in heavy shallow pan and cook onion till soft. Add seafood and cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add bourbon. In another pan, melt 1 oz. butter and sauté mushrooms, green pepper, celery, pimiento, and tomatoes till tender. Add tomato sauce and bring to a simmer. Add seafood and mix thoroughly. Season to taste. Serve in a rice ring. Decorate with a little parsley and paprika.

Bourbon Mushrooms with Peas

8 oz. sliced mushrooms

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 tsp marjoram leaves

1/8 tsp ground mace

dash almond extract

1 oz bourbon

2 10-oz packages frozen small peas

Drain mushrooms, reserving liquid. In frying pan heat mushrooms in melted butter till sizzling; then stir in marjoram, mace, almond extract, and bourbon. Break up peas and pour into pan with mushrooms. Turn off heat and let stand. Just before serving, add 2 tablespoons of reserved mushroom liquid to peas and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Serves 6.

Bourbon Angel

1 pt vanilla ice cream

1 cup bourbon

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

grated orange rind

toasted chopped almonds

Soften ice cream slightly. Beat in bourbon; fold in whipped cream. Or combine first 3 ingredients in a blender and whirl until foamy. Spoon into glasses and sprinkle top with grated orange rind and toasted chopped nuts. Serves 8-10 in 4-ounce glasses.

Chocolate Walnut Pie

1 9-inch unbaked pastry shell

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

3 tablespoons bourbon

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a small mixer bowl, beat eggs slightly and gradually add sugar. Add melted butter, bourbon, and almond extract and mix well. Blend in cornstarch. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips; pour into unbaked pastry shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Cool one hour and serve with a dollop of whipped cream. Serves 8-10.

Morning Lift

A soothing pick-me-up created by Henri Jabeneau of Chicago's Ambassador Hotel

2 oz. bourbon

1 oz. cream de cacao

1 egg

3 oz. milk

Shake well, ice, and serve to patient

Bourbon Sidecar

1 oz lemon juice

1 oz triple sec

2 oz bourbon

Shake well, ice, and serve

Predator Vs. Sloth

I think we all know how this movie ends.

Sloth covers himself in his own feces, pirate/jungle-swings through the jungle, and rips Predator in half with his bare hands, because at the end of the day :

SLOTH > SCHWARZENEGGER

Sloth: You are one ugly mudda-fuckah.

Predator: I know you are, but what am I?

Sloth: WOCKY....Woad?!

Predator: (gurgles with laughter)

Sloth: Baby....WOOOTH?!

Predator: (gurgles with even more laughter. Can't catch his breath)

Sloth: (rips Predator in half while he's distracted by laughter)

Because I Missed His Phone Calls

I put this together because I feel bad that I missed David's 7 phone calls last night.

Sorry, Dave.

Explaining Beaver Fever

As we watched the news on Saturday morning, an anchor came on explaining where and where not to watch the fireworks. She was explaining that if you watched from the NYC side of the river, that you would run into some severely congested traffic. And it was only going to be worse because some of the celebrities that were going to be there. "But tough it out if you have Beaver Fever."

But she didn't really say "Beaver Fever" (even though that's what Carolyn and I heard, and subsequently laughed about for the next 48 hours). She said "Bieber Fever," because Justin Bieber was one of the "celebrities" that was performing on the NY side.

Personally, this made it that much funnier to me because we'd mistaken something presumably young and innocent with something that sounds like a carnal addiction that is so severe that it blocks traffic.

1 Degrees of Separation from Jesse Ventura: Billy Crystal

A friend of mine challenged me to explain with just one, just a single solitary degree of separation between Jesse Ventura and Billy Crystal.

When I got this challenged, I chuckled, because it was so easy.

Any Jesse Ventura aficionado (or Billy Crystal fan, for that matter) remembers the unfortunate Ventura-Crystal-Golden Coral incident of 1996. And if you don't remember that, shame on you.

The Scene: Crystal was riffing in front of the buffet line, trying some new jokes about the popularity of denim. Ventura had just woken up from his 3-month long Odinsleep, and although he was completely charged with all kinds of Asgardian bad-assery, he was still groggy and completely starved.

Partly because Crystal wouldn't budge mid-riff, and partly because Ventura believed Crystal to be jello, Billy Crystal was swallowed whole by Jesse Ventura.

The customers of the Golden Coral are said to have expressed their unanimous approval of Ventura's sudden feeding frenzy by standing and clapping for one strait hour.

Fortunately, Jesse Ventura passed Billy Crystal just in time for Crystal to make one of the greatest comedies of all time, My Giant.

So, again, this was one of the easiest degrees of separation challenges that I've been presented with. Keep them coming!

1 Degrees of Jesse Ventura

If Juliette Lewis ever hulked up, she would look just like Jesse Ventura.

It's a proven scientific fact.

Observe, below.

When the mood hits me, I will start sharing degrees of separation between certain celebrities and one, Mr. Jesse Ventura.