Monday, June 29, 2009

Bands with a gimmick

Nothing can take a mediocre band and make them freaking awesome faster than a good gimmick. Take a C+ band and give them a good shtick and you've got an A- minus band. It's that easy. I don't know why more bands don't do it. Bands don't seem to be following this formula very much anymore, but here are a couple of my favorites from a couple of years ago....

Man or Astroman? They claimed they were from outer space. They wore weird spaceman costumes. They played kinda futuristic surf rock interlaced with sound bites from forgotten Sci-Fi movies. I know pretty stupid. But they never broke character. And their shows were a lot of fun. I can remember seeing them with Les Savy Fav at Fletchers in 1997 or 1998. (Was it Fletchers?) I don't remember, but I do remember it being one of the most entertaining shows I've ever seen.

Here's a clip...


Servotron. These guys pretended to be robots bent on enslaving humanity. They dressed in really cheesy robot costumes, painted themselves silver and put on an amazing show. They sang songs about mildly famous mistreated robots(Vicki from Small Wonder! R5D4!), and also about how stupid human civilization is.



The Causey Way
. I discovered this group a little later on and unfortunately never got a chance to see them live. Their gimmick was that they were a cult posing as a band. Except they claimed they were not a cult. In fact that was their motto "The Causey Way is not a cult" I guess they tried to indoctrinate you at their shows or something. Sounds like fun! Oh, and get this, the band had two of River and Joaquin Pheonix' sisters in it. Crazy!

Doubt


Heather got me to watch this Doubt movie on Saturday night. I realized I hadn't seen a movie in a while (I haven't watched any of these married movies yet), but was neither excited nor dreading watching this particular one. It was nominated for all kinds of awards among them being Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), Best Actress (Meryl Streep), Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams AND Viola Davis), and Best Writing (whoever wrote the screenplay for this movie).

As you may be able to tell from the Academy Award nominations the acting was top-notch. Four of it's five nominations were for acting performances. I am a huge Phillip Seymour Hoffman fan, and I can't think of any movie he's been involved in that I disliked (Punch Drunk Love being one of my favorite of his roles). I think he's one of the best around and he gives another great performance in this. All of the ladies were good as well. As far as recommending this I'm not so sure. I think it was really well done, like I said the acting was great great, and the plot interesting. My hesitation to recommend is similar to my hesitation for recommending Hard Candy some time ago. There was definitely a discomfort level while watching it. I personally like to be uncomfortable when watching movies or TV shows (my love of Curb Your Enthusiasm is one example, also while I didn't love the movie, the discomfort that Meet the Parents gave me was also something that I embraced). So while I may be OK with some weird feelings when viewing a movie, I might hesitate to recommend it to everyone. Perhaps a plot synopsis will help you understand this. Take from IMDB:

It's 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A charismatic priest, Father Flynn, is trying to upend the schools' strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequence.
The whole Catholic school thing definitely brought back some Calvert Hall memories, but I am realizing that Calvert Hall wasn't so strict as the stereotypical Catholic school as portrayed in movies. Regardless, there were some similarities. Nothing relating to the main plot though, I swear. Anyway, Doubt was a really good movie. If the plot is something that interests you I say go for it full-force. I enjoyed it, and while I won't watch it again I am glad I watched it the first time.

One thing that I can recommend to lovers of weird music is an AMAZING interview with one of my all-time favorite musicians, alto saxophonist Tim Berne (interviewed by Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus). This definitely isn't for everyone but if you are a Tim Berne fan it is a must read. If you like weird music but don't know of Tim's music check out Part TWO where you can listen to some clips and read about them. The Bloodcount clip is particularly incredible (as could be expected). Anyway that article is on Do the Math RIGHT HERE.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Rant--Chuck Palaniuk


Ricky had a really nice post on time travel yesterday, and Heather mentioned this book as a recommendation if he wanted to continue to explore different takes on the subject. I will begin by saying that I loved this book. I love quite a few books, but this one is near the top of the books I have read in the past couple of years. I even bought the book for Brother Eric for some holiday, and he doesn't like to read books anymore. He didn't read this book I don't think, but that is beside the point.

Of anything Chuck Palaniuk I have ever encountered this is my favorite by far. I've read Survivor, and I've seen Fight Club and that stuff is fine, but Rant is where it's at. I swear. Very early in the book the reader is presented with the knowledge that Buster Casey (Rant) is dead, and the entire book explores the very strange events of his life, beginning with his obsession to get bit by poisonous spiders and snakes. If you want a complete rundown of the plot check it out here. It's been about two years since I read the book, so you'll get a better idea from reading that.

The time traveling element doesn't get introduced until the middle of the book, and it involves a nighttime activity called Party Crashing. If you read Rant and don't want to party crash you are not like me. I read Rant, and I wanted to party crash. You will have to read the book to find out what party crashing is. There are two more installments of the Rant series scheduled to be released in 2011 and 2013 and I will definitely read both. My explanation of this book isn't great, but it is coming to you as a very very high recommendation from me. Whatever that means for you...this book is worth a damn. Ricky, it isn't an option for you to not read this book. Eric has it, so does Heather...one of them will be nice enough to let you read it.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

BACK TO THE TIME MACHINE

Let me start this by saying that I love time travel movies. This stems from a much larger love of science fiction movies altogether, but time travel really brings out the “what if” questions. Most of them are preposterous like, "what if a women travels back in time, get impregnated and gives birth to herself?", and some are based on the chaos theory like "what if you make one tiny change in the past but it alters the entire course of human history?".
I guess what I really love about time travel movies is that they highlight the question of whether we (humans) are truly autonomous or are we following some predestined chain of events.

There are two time travel movies that I’d like to recommend, although one is just a half recommend and I’ve only seen it once and it was recently.

http://www.fullhalloween.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/timecrimes-2008-poster-upcoming-horror-movie.jpg


Timecrimes is about a man who experiences a bizarre series of events and eventually stumbles upon a time machine where he must hide to escape an unknown attacker. After traveling backwards in time he becomes so afraid of altering his past self’s experience that he does some awful things so that nothing is different from how he experienced it before. It’s an interesting concept and runs opposite of most time travel movies where characters are going back in time so that they can change what their past self experienced.

http://primermovie.com/images/PRIMER-poster.jpg

The second recommend was a recommend to me from Chris Dahl, and is called Primer. I was shocked by how much I enjoyed and continue to love this movie. Primer is different from other time travel movies in so many ways. First of all, the whole movie was made with less than a thousand dollar budget, but it feels like any high budget indie film. The filmmakers really knew how to work with what they had. Secondly, Primer leaves the hockus-pokery out of the equation and looks at time travel as any other innovation, a scientific experiment with unexpected yet explainable results, and accidentally discovered by two normal Joes in their garage. Lastly, Primer throws wrenches in the audience's perception of events because it's difficult (at least at first) to decipher which time line the audience is observing at any given time.

The characters in Primer are so real. Basically they are just like any IT guys you know. They are on the geeky side of normal, they talk shop even when they are not working and they have no real adventures in their lives. They are two pedestrian engineers who accidentally discover time travel and they struggle with how to utilize their new power without abusing it. Their awareness of paradoxes initially keeps them away from their past selves, but they eventually exploit their abilities to play the stock market and beyond. Ultimately, Primer examines what extremes the protagonists will go to in order to prosper, to learn, to experiment and to protect the biggest secret they’ll ever have.

Expect a lot of twists and turns in this one, but don’t expect to understand them all or even spot them all the first two, three or seven times through the movie. While Primer does have a David Lynchesque “what the fuck just happened” quality about it, each viewing rewards you a little more instead of leaving you even more confused. I highly recommend this one and will happily lend it to anyone or will come watch it with you. I never tire of this movie.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Obama's Blackberry

Hey everyone,
Have you seen this?

I got this book a few weeks ago, and LOL'd the whole way through. OMG WTF! Anyway, it's this book of made up stuff that Obama gets on his Blackberry. Text messages from Bush, emails from Bill Cosby...that sort of thing. What caught my attention was the front cover of the book. A text from Biden asking Obama if he can leave early. Funny! What's also great are the reoccurring themes through out the book. Dennis Kucinich keeps trying to find a buyer for his 1970s Volkswagen van, Arnold Schwarzenegger keeps writing Obama to let him go to find Bin Laden, Bill Clinton keeps asking Obama to send Hillary to Africa or China, Clarence Thomas keeps asking to hang out, etc. Here's how the book starts...an email from Bush:

From: George W. Bush
To: Barack Obama
SUBJECT: Did my dog show up at your house?

Hey Pardner,

My dog Barney has been missing for the last couple of hours, and I'm wondering if he did one of those "go back to the old house" situations. I know it's far, but he's a quick l'il sum'bitch. Wait, there he is. He's here. He's outside running up right now so... Hey there, good boy. Who's my little chunky monkey?

Lauura? He's back! He just ran up. I wrote to Barack. They hadn't seen him.

K,
W



Go get this book!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ben Kweller....

Oh man is it Tuesday already? You really lose track of the days when you're off of work. But hey I am not suffering because I am off work, only my blogging is suffering.

Did you know Ben Kweller put out a new album in February? I didn't. I just got it the other day and I am really digging it. If you don't know Ben Kweller you should. He was in a band called Radish as a teenager and has had released some pretty rocking solo albums. This new album, "Changing Horses" has a real big country tinge to it. I Love It! Here is a video from it.

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Dirty Projectors--Bitte Orca


I know I've recommended this one to a few of our FR readers already, but I have to give a strong recommend to the new Dirty Projectors album "Bitte Orca." I have liked the Dirty Projectors stuff before (I listened to Rise Above a bunch when I got it off emusic) but Bitte Orca is a whole new level for them (for me, anyway). I guess the title a lot of people give the band is avant-rock, whatever you want to take that for. Whatever you call it, it is really good. The new album particularly.

You can check out a wide range of their stuff at their myspace page, but the recommendation from me is that you just buy Bitte Orca. Maybe listen to a couple sound clips first and see if it is up your alley. The only person who didn't like it so far is Huff, but I don't know what is wrong with that guy. The album itself is really difficult to desribe, but their are a lot of great arrangements, really weird high vocals, strings, angular rhythms, etc. Just listen. If you don't like it I'll buy you a Natty Bo next time I see you. I am only making that offer because I don't think anyone reads this anymore, and if people do read this I bet they won't make it this far in the post.

One side note about the band...a fun fact that drew me to them in the first place. The 2007 album Rise Above is an attempt to recreate a bunch of Black Flag songs. This wouldn't be very interesting if they were just covers. Instead the band tried to recreate the songs from memory, not going back and listening to the songs (which they hadn't heard for years) before recording them. The result is something that sounds completely independent of the originals, with more references than covers occuring. Anyway, check out Bitte Orca...I think you'll enjoy. Here is a video from the album...the song is called Stillness Is The Move:


Friday, June 19, 2009

Best of FR (Timothy Huff Edition)

It might be obvious to some of my faithful readers that I am losing steam with this blog. I just don't quite have the motivation that I used to for posting here. Mike Ward and Ricky B both found new motivation this week, and provided two great posts after a failed recipe week. Bravo guys...a job well done. I'll get you a Natty Bo next time I see you. Consider it a business expense on Friends Recommends' tab.

Before I completely fail at this blog I wanted to revisit some of the things that have really stood out for me. When I first get these lists I try to check out everything possible. Albums, YouTube clips, some television shows, and some movies were all easy to check out in a relatively short amount of time, while books, etc. took a little bit longer to digest. There are things on each of these lists that stood out to me as being particularly great, and have stood the test of time. Since I've picked up a few readers along the way who may not have backtracked and read about these things I'm going to revisit a few from each list that I think are particularly note-worthy. My only rule for this is that these are things that I checked out as a result of this blog, and not things mentioned on the list that I was previously aware of. Sort of my thank-you to the list-makers, the movers and the shakers who provided me with some great picks that I have in turn re-recommended.

From the Huff list there are two (kind of three) recommends that are stand-out, knock-down great picks that I think everyone can enjoy. You have to be a little bit weird to enjoy the second one, but anyone who made it through recipe week and is still reading this blog is probably a little weird. So here they are:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close--Jonathon Safron Foer

This was the first thing I checked out as a result of Friends Recommends and it remains in my top-3 favorite things I discovered as a result of doing this blog. It is probably in my current top-3 favorite books as well. I know that Eric, Ricky, Heather, (Jessica?), and others all read it as a result and all had positive reviews. This book will break your heart, I don't care who you are. Break your heart in a good way. Well, not really a good way, but in a way that isn't bad, OK? I know it made Eric wear heavy boots on his cruise last year which he gave me crap for. Whatever, just don't read it if you are looking for something light. I have some Danielle Steele novels to recommend if you are looking for a beach read. Anyway, I would tell anyone I know to check out this book, and I would stand behind it strongly. So if you missed it the first time around you have a second chance. Here is the link to my original post about the book in case you missed that as well.

Cheap at Half the Price--Fred Frith

This one has also stuck with me for the past 8 months, and everytime I listen to it it gets better. I have since moved on to checking out some other Fred Frith work, but this one is still my favorite. Wacky music, but with a pop-ish, sing-along-ish element in a real weird way. I also think there is something for everyone in this pick...it just takes a little work and some repeated listenings. The reward will be that you end up loving Fred Frith. Link to my original post with some sound clips as well. Man, I just went back and listened to those clips and it made me smile. Great stuff.

Anything by Murakami

So far I don't feel strongly enough about Murakami to recommend anything by the guy, but some of his books have been stand-out great for me. I will discuss these further when we visit the lists of people who recommended specific books, and not just this little man.

Anyway, I highly recommend you go back and check these two things out if you didn't the first time around. I wouldn't have posted about them originally if I didn't feel strongly but the fact that I am willing to post again about them should make you run to the store and buy the things. Also, I am about to re-read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which says something, right?

Cory should be up next. We'll see how long I can keep this going...maybe I can get through everyone. If I don't get through everyone it is nothing against you, OK?

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Just because I can

I thought I would also recommend this, because it's great. The Ghostbusters video game just came out, and I want to play it despite the fact that I don't have a console that I could play it on. That doesn't stop me from loving this song more than anything in the world.



"You have done some freaky ghosts"

"Bustin' makes me feel good"

Architecture In Helsinki

Yeah, so thank you, Mike Ward for ending recipe week. I thought I would really enjoy that, but just wasn't in the mood for it all, this week or last. So I'm doing a music review instead and I'm really excited about it.

The Recommend: Architecture in Helsinki - Places Like This

This album is sooooo good. I've had this album for well over a year now and it is still one of the few albums I listen to at least once a week, and certainly the only one that I listen to over and over again without interruption.

I have no idea if any of AIH's other albums are any good because this is the only one I've ever heard, but it makes me think that their other albums are probably amazing as well. This band sounds like a bunch a muppets, and that's all I can think about when I listen to them. Just and try and listen to this music and not picture Red, Boober and Gobo from Fraggle Rock.

On the first few listens to this album, I thought they sounded harsh and too artsy/weird for my taste, but it totally grew on me. Lyrics that I initally thought were childish like, "My mom thinks she's in love with you", "Wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah", and "Ey yi yi wooh wooh" I eventually grew to love. These songs come off with such energy and vibrance that you can tell the band is puting their all into it, and having a great time doing it. There are no depressing or somber songs on this album at all.

The most interesting feature of this album is that while there are a few tracks that are slower or less intense, it still feels like the album's energy is building the whole time and that the slower songs are just generous breaks for the listeners to catch their breath, and not duds or throwaway songs.

Overall, the album is a jumbled mix of so many different styles and influences that it comes out feeling new and different from anything else. You could certainly identify some of their influences if really try, but even the ones that I'm hearing aren't half as fun as AIH. Here are videos examples of their sound and goofiness. If you do like these songs, there are at least three other songs on their 10-song album that are better than these.







Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Joint Movie Review


So, Netflix sent me a movie recently called Margot at the Wedding, because apparently I only put movies about weddings in my queue now...but, I wanted to talk about that today with the help of fellow recommender Jessica...(It's not recipe week still is it?)

Mike: I got this movie in the mail and started watching it, wondering why in the world I added it. I hated that Rachel Getting Married movie and this is another movie about a screwed up family, getting into arguments, preparing for some wedding. This one, though, I really enjoyed. Then I realized why. It was made by Noah Baumbach, who wrote and directed the Squid and the Whale. The writing is actually really good. It's with Nicole Kidman, Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh. I liked Jack Black in this one a whole lot more than in previous outings because he's not doing his whole Jack Black schtick. Nicole Kidman, is really good here, because you slowly see how crazy she is, but at the same time, I didn't hate her character. She was just really interesting to watch. The movie isn't really about anything, other than these people slowly revealing how crazy they all are. Jessica, what did you think of this? Are we finally agreeing on this one?

Jessica
: Margot @ the Wedding -- where do I start? The Squid & The Whale being Baumbach's most acclaimed production thus far was not the enticing factor for me when queuing this movie. I thought TS&TW was just okay, probably because as a 30.y.o. lady there wasn't much I could relate to in the formative years of adolescent boys. I queued it b/c of an appreciation for Jennifer Jason Leigh and an increasing appreciation for Nicole Kidman, as well as being pleasantly surprised with Kicking and Screaming (Baumbach's first effort). And having seen a third film of his, it is clear that he has a voice and an intent and a purpose. It's also another movie that would've lingered at the bottom of my queue forevermore until Ward came along and asked me to bump it up.

I would say (perhaps surprisingly) that the main difference between these two movies is that RGM is more formulaic than M@TW. It was the surprise performance from Anne Hathaway that I think really pushed RGM to be more "acclaimed" tha M@TW because most people are well aware of the acting abilities of JJL and NK. So, it's the difference between going to Dangerously Delicious Pies and expecting fantastic-ness and being wowed by the local diner's unexpected bakery selection.

Not to say that RGM is formulaic in general, it just is in comparison to M@TW. M@TW has a more natural flow, it's not out to tell a specific story the way RGM was, it was more interested in sharing an experience of people I thought. Or rather, it shows you who the characters are by their actions rather than telling you how they are -- you don't get any backstory of who these people are the way you do with Kym (Anne Hathaway) getting picked up from the health facility as the opening scene.

I'm sorry I'm not being more specific but I think part of the draw of the story is how the characters unfold and how you think you know someone and then you realize that maybe you don't at all. That might be a totally subjective lesson I'm taking from the movie, but I also felt that the characters felt the same way about themselves. They think they're this one thing or one way, but then they realize they're not either and it's like you're in it together, sort of...if that makes sense at all. And as crazy as these characters are, it was the first time in my whole life that it made me a little sad that I don't have a sister (same sex sibling rather), and that I can't understand that dynamic at all.

Mike: Well, I'm glad that we agree on this one. Your thoughts are right on par with how I felt, as well. Touching on how the characters develop throughout; that for me was the most exciting thing to watch. I also really liked the humor in the movie. There were several instances of "blink and you'll miss it" kind of things. Like when they are in the restaurant, and someone is doing awful karaoke. A lot of the humor is really subtle.

Jessica
: Well, it was really dense and I'm still undecided about whether I liked that or not. Like the whole weird neighbor thing and the pig and the tree. I liked that that made it sort of true to itself/reality in the sense that totally odd random things can happen in the midst of a story/plot and they weren't weeded out as unnecessary but at the same time, it made for a pretty fast paced story where at times I was just trying to keep up. All in all, I liked it and I wish more movies where made like it. I wasn't as impressed with the Jack Black aspect....I wish another actor had played that role. He wasn't horrible, he just felt a bit awkward. There were moments of greatness, but it still felt like he was using his schtick in a movie that wasn't schtick-y.

Mike
: Well, maybe a bit, but it was definitely downplayed a lot, I think. Maybe it isn't possible for him to entirely do away with it. Anyway, that's our review! If you liked Noah Baumbach's previous work, give this a try. Thanks Jessica for helping me out on this one. It was good to have your insight.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Colmus Recipes and Blog Disasters

Hello friends. I am sorry for my absence this past week. I was away for a nerd convention, and one would expect such a convention (which took place at Penn State) to have some sort of internet for visitors. This wasn't true, so I couldn't check my email OR update this blog. I came back to Friends Recommend to see what kind of good stuff our Tuesday-Thursday bloggers had for us and saw that it was Recipe Week! My original intention was for the week starting today to be Recipe Week, but something was lost in translation. Since everyone who posted thought last week was the week, I must have done something wrong. I apologize. This might work out well though, since the only recipe I have is from Colmus. I'll post that here today, and if Todd wants to do something tomorrow not related to recipes that would probably be great. A big thanks to Colmus for this. This guys blog posts are some of my personal favorites:

Since I'm pretty sure this Recipe Week mess is partially my fault, I feel honor-bound to submit an entry. I'm sure the history books will show that this week peaked on Monday and careened off the clif like Toonces was at the wheel. But we managed to trick Ricky into giving out his mashed potato recipe, so mission accomplished. (Sorry Ricky.)

Anyway, I don't really have any Knock-Out dishes. Not one. I'm not a dreadful cook, but I'm usually too lazy or theoretically busy to bother with much in-depth cooking. I likes 'em fast and no-fuss. Like my coffee.

But I have picked up a few things in the kitchen that I don't mind passing along. They taste pretty good to me. I'm comfortable with their taste-effort ratio - the "torque" of the meal, if you will. Enjoy.

Quesadillas

Mike Ward might consider me a purist with my spatula and frying pan, but I'll never let a damn machine make my quesadilla.

In fact, the only Recommendation I can make for this simple ethnic treat is in the way that it's cooked. (In a pan, for chrissakes.) You've all probably got your favorite ingredients, and I'm not going to recommend any here because I usually keep mine simple - usually sauteed mushrooms and red onions, with diced jalapenos sprinkled inside. Add an egg if it's before 2pm.

But my endgame goes like this:

Heat an ungreased skillet over medium heat for about two minutes. When it's properly warmed, place a tortilla in the skillet for about 20-30 seconds on each side, nicely toasting them. After you've removed the tortilla from the pan and started heaping your filling in, fold the tortilla over the filling. (Don't do this two-tortilla Mexican Pizza shit.) Drizzle the outside of the tortilla with about a 1/4 teaspoon of olive oil, spreading it all the way to the edges. Then sprinkle with salt, about 2-3 shakes of the shaker.

Carefully slide the quesadillas onto the heated skillet (still at medium heat), oiled sides down. Now repeat the oiling and salting on the newly-exposed other side of the tortilla, and prepare that to be flipped in about a minute-and-a-half to two minutes, just until it's nicely browned. I was pretty surprised by how much something as simply as the oil and salt add to the taste, even for dessert quesadillas (like "King Killers" - peanut butter and banana).

And no goddamn robot is gonna top that.


Roasted Green Beans

Everything tasted better roasted - nuts, vegetables, legumes, Andlers. But the dish I turn to the most often is roasted green beans, mainly because a ton of fresh green beans anyway. They might be my favorite vegetable (narrowly edging out Betty Crocker Mashed Sweet Potato Mix).

Here's my take on it:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and begin snapping off the stems and whatnot from your green beans. (Run them under some water while you're at it.) Put your cleaned green beans in a mixing bowl and pour a tablespoon of olive oil over them, tossing to coat. Then add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and toss again.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spread the green beans evenly across it. If you're making a lot, like I do, it might get cramped. Deal with it quickly and move on.

Place the sheet on the lower middle rack of the oven for about ten minutes, flipping them afterwards (or at least pushing them around). These things take to sizzling pretty quickly, and you might notice you can hear them from outside the oven.

Put the beans back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes, removing them when they're lightly browned and pretty well shriveled. (If you burn them, you've got about five minutes to eat the entire batch before they harden. It's totally doable.)

The roasting brings out an almost nutty flavor to the beans, and the salt contributes to that. (You can use a pinch less salt and it'll still taste great, but not quite as great.) Pair this up with some Stovetop Cornbread Stuffing and some leftover birthday cake and you're good to go.

Bon Voyage!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Recipe for the Lazy

This is an easy one. If no one is going to post today, I'm going to.

Ingredients:

3 Avocados
1 Can of Black Beans
Half a red onion
3 Tomatoes
Fresh Cilantro
Salt and pepper
1 Tablespoon of olive oil

This requires no cooking at all. You basically just cut up all of these ingredients into chunks for the Tomatoes and Avocados and dice the onions and cilantro, stir it all together and eat.
Enjoy

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Recipe For Disaster

Ingredients:

1 kitchen
1 me

mix ingredients together.


that's all I got.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Mashed Potatoes

Contrary to Adam's belief, I do not have a Mashed Beer Potatoes recipe. I do however have a mashed potatoes recipe and I once suggested substituting the water for beer. Yes, it might work, but I've never tried it because cream and beer sounds awful together.

I don't have measurements for these ingredients because that isn't my style, but you can use a lot more or less of any of these without screwing up the final product. Here is an approximation of what you need to start:

3-5 Pounds of Red Potatoes
2 sticks of butter
1 qt of heavy cream
1 large (16 0z) container of sour cream
(I usually use far too much of all three of these and end up with a lot leftover. I advise you to use too much the first time and determine how much you actually need to get the flavor you want the next time around.)
1 Wedge of Parmesan or Asiago cheese
1 Bunch of Chives
Salt & Pepper

Preparation:

1. Cut the potatoes into fourths if they are small to average sized. If they are larger, cut them into chunks about the size of the face of a watch.
2. Chop the chives into little flakes
3. Use a fine grater and grate the cheese. Again, I usually grate way more than I need, but then I use it all anyway to make the MP's extra cheesy.
4. Cut the butter into chunks. About 8 chunks per stick.

In a large pot:
1. Boil enough water to cover all of the potatoes
2. Once the water is boiling, carefully drop in the potatoes. I usually place them on a plate, and with a large spoon, slide them off the plate into the water to avoid splashing.
3. It's better to over boil the potatoes then to under boil them. You'll know they are done when the skins fall off the potatoes. If the skin stays attached at all, let them boil longer.

While the potatoes are boiling...

In a medium sized pot:
1. Combine about 3/4 of the quart of heavy cream, half the sour cream and one an a half stick of butter.
2. Heat the three ingredients at a low-medium heat
3. Wisk the mixture about once a minute to keep the ingredients from separating. As they melt, keep wisking so that they will blend together.

Once the potatoes are done:
1. Drop the potatoes into a strainer, but DO NOT run any water on them. You want the starch from the potatoes to stay on them. This helps everything stick together better. If you rinse the starch off, you end up with mushy and kind of runny mashed potatoes.
2. Put the strained potatoes back into the pot, or a large mixing bowl.
3. Add in the chives, salt and pepper to taste and a handful of cheese.
4. Slowly add some of the cream mixture. You just want to add a little at a time.
5. With a hand masher (or in a mixing bowl) mash the potatoes, cream mixture, chives and salt& pepper together.
6. Keep adding more of the cream mixture and more cheese a little at a time. Mash it until the cream mixture and cheese are all mixed in, and then add more of each and mix again. Keep doing this until you have very creamy, cheesy mashed potatoes. My rule of thumb is: If I think they are too creamy or too cheesy, I add more cream and more cheese.

You'll end up with a lot of mashed potatoes. If you refrigerate them, they will get hard over night. Just add more of the leftover cream mixture and microwave them and it will be like new.

Friday, June 5, 2009

A Call For Recipes (Recipe Week Part 1)


After many requests (is two people considered many?) I have decided to open it up to the readers again to help with our very first Friends Recommend Recipe Week. This will function exactly like The Top-5 Week, but it should be much easier for people to come up with a recipe to share than to pick their top-5 favorite songs of all time.

These don't have to be fancy recipes. The only stipulations:

1. Ricky must share his mashed potato recipe.
2. Don't just submit a recipe please, give us a some sort of overview, or a funny story about how one time Ricky dropped this dish in his lap when you made it for him.
3. I guess that is pretty much it.

Next week is a normal week of Friends Recommend. I'm giving you a heads-up right now that I'm taking a vacation day on Monday so there won't be a post. So you have a whole week to get these to me. Email them to hopkinak at gmail.com. Just like with the Top-5 week this will probably last longer than a week. We'll let the recipes go until they run out. Guest bloggers are strongly encouraged to post a recipe. I have never cooked anything in my life, so this will be interesting. It would be really special if we had a Friends Recommend recipe gathering and everyone cooked these things for each other, but who am I kidding. Let's just sing some Karaoke instead. There are no limitations to the type of recipe. It can be a curry (Mike Gittings can't submit curry again though, he already did that), a cake, some eggs, or even your favorite after-hours cocktail. Yeah, more cocktail recipes. OK. 1-2-3, go!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Adult Books by kids

I thought I would try and keep with the book theme of the week by making two recommends. I recently finished two (back to back) stunning books, both written from the perspective of a child. The first one, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a short and easy-to-read novel is a story told by main character Christopher, an autistic fifteen year old. I say it's easy to read because although it deals with some heavy emotions, there is also a lot of humor and mystery to propel the story.

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The heavy emotions are mainly those of Christopher's parents. He lives with his father and occasionally digresses from the main storyline to reveal a memory of his mother. The book adequately conveys the stresses that any parent goes through compounded by the additional stress of being a parent to an autistic child, though it does so through Christopher's own voice. Although Christopher understands that his father is angry because it's a "black day" (if Christopher sees four yellow cars in a row the day becomes a black day and Christopher does not speak for the rest of the day), the reader is able to read into the father's frustration far more than Christopher does and it adds a sad tone to the entire text because the reader sees that the parents are losing hope whereas Christopher only understands that his dad is angry.

Overall this is a story of loss, hope, responsibility and acceptance. It's humorous and short enough to be a great beach read, but it's also emotionally driven enough to be a good book club contender.

The other book that I wanted to recommend was I Live in a Chickenhouse by Max Amichai Heppner. This book came to because the author is a mediator where I work and I heard about the book and requested a copy from him. Amichai, as he is known to me, is a Hollocaust survivor and his book is the story of how his family hid from the Nazis by living in a chickenhouse in Holland between 1943 and 45. Although the premise is very similar to The Diaries of Anne Frank, this book was written specifically for children. Also instead of just being diary entries, each chapter revolves around a picture drawn either by the Author or someone else living in the chickenhouse with Amichai's recollections filling in the story of the picture as well as historical events.



The tale is a dramatic one though the child's perspective brings an additional sense of excitement and energy to the events and also a greater sense of melancholy because this is a child dealing with the usual pains of being a child stuck in a world of adults, but caught in more abnormal circumstances.

I don't have a copy of the first book, but I will be happy to lend I Live in a Chickenhouse to anyone who wants to read it.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Art Project

Hey everyone,
So in typical Ward fashion, I'm going to stray a bit this week...

I really love hearing about people's off the wall dreams. I have plenty of them myself, and think they make for interesting discussion. Last week I dreamt I was shooting people dressed in Donald Duck costumes with tranquilizer darts. In talking about this, it gave me an idea. Next week I will be in Rochester, NY for 6 days with absolutely nothing to do, so I thought I would create some kind of art based on dreams. What would be great is if some of you could tell a weird dream story, and I'll pick a couple, and create my art, and then post them here down the road. ***[I'm not a good artist, so what I make could really suck]. I have a rough idea of how I'd want to make things...and I don't know how long this will take. But anyway, I thought this would be a fun idea, so let's give it a try!

That's all I had.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Jpod

Oh man, is it book week already. I feel like I just showed up to school and realized that I have a book report due. The only problem is that I really haven't read any good books in a good long while. I just don't seem to have the time anymore. Don't get me wrong I love to read; I majored in books in college. Just don't have the time right now.

So instead of a book recommend, I'll give you a TV show recommend that is based on a book. That's the best you're going to get out of me today. Sorry. Anyway, unless you live in Canada you've probably never seen the show Jpod. Jpod was a CBC show based on the Douglas Coupland novel of the same name. I've never read the book, but I've read most of Couplands earlier works. At one point I considered him one of my favorite authors. But at this point, looking back at his literary career I kinda consider him a one trick pony. But at least it's a pretty pony! All of his books blend together to me. I know I am doing a bad job on selling you on the merits of Douglas Coupland, but if you stick to just one or two books of his you'll love him. (Those two books being Shampoo Planet and Microserfs).

But this isn't a book recommendation. This is a TV show recommendation. The show lasted for one 13 episode season before it was cancelled in 2008. Its about a bunch of generation Y video game programmers in Vancouver and all there wacky exploits. The main character is called Ethan Jarlewski. He's young and smart and confused unsure about life, etc. He's your standard likable young lead character. The real stars of the show are his father Jim Jarlewski, portrayed by Alan Thicke! in by far the most amazing role I've ever seen him in, as well as the Chinese mob boss Kam Fong.

I don't think there has been a DVD release of Jpod, however you can watch the entire series on the WB website for somehow.

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao--Junot Diaz


This is a bit of a recap for Friends Recommends. I wrote a post about this book HERE back in February, based on the strong recommends it received. I hadn't read it but still made a post...what a book! Anyway, I bought it in preparation for my trip to San Francisco some weeks ago along with Michael Chabon's Mysteries of Pittsburgh (a good book, but maybe not worthy of a full-on recommend at this time) and Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which I often site as my favorite book, although like a top-5 song list I'm not sure how completely accurate that is). Regardless I have read Perks at least 7 times in my life, and love it enough to buy it for the second time since I lent it to someone who never gave it back. Perhaps a future recommend for that is forthcoming.

For those who need to know, is the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao worth the hype it has received in these parts? Recommended by HSV, Mike Gittings, and indirectly by Jenny Kinniff I would say that yes, with 100% certainty it should be read by everyone who checks this blog. It was an outstanding book...although for me it started a bit slow, but that might have been the mood I was in where starting to read it. Regardless, I put this on par with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Windup Bird Chronicle, and Skinny Legs and All as the best books that have ever been recommended for me to read. Top-notch, A+, prime-cut, top-shelf kind of reading.

I don't really want to go too much into the book itself. If you haven't read it yet my recommend to you is to do so. Be warned that it is heartbreaking. There isn't a whole lot of good that happens to poor Oscar Wao, or anyone in his family for that matter but this is a great book. One small thing that took away from my reading is that my Spanish is horrible, even though I studied it for 5 years in middle/high school. Some of the character dialogue in the books goes untranslated (usually just a one or two-word phrase) but taken in context you can usually figure out what it means. It really didn't present much of a problem, but if I were to read it again I would probably look up all these little phrases to make sure I knew what was going on.

To be specific Heather's recommendation was to listen to the author read this book on tape. She has some strong feelings for this guys voice, and she certainly thinks it is worth a damn. In a recent conversation she actually told me to post THIS CLIP which isn't from Oscar Wao, but it gives you an idea of the kind of voice we are dealing with. She says the speaking starts at minute 1:50 and assures our readers that it is worth the listen. What do you have to lose? Upon listening to it, I could see her argument. It has some nice flair. Better than the voice in my head when I read, that's for sure.

All I can say at this point is read The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It is worth it. I'll let you borrow it if you want. Mike Ward, I have an Eric and Jessica copy of Skinny Legs and All on my floor. You should read this too...I just need to get it to you. That's all. Todd tomorrow.

*This post was not proof read or edited. Deal with it!