And cut...

Well friends, if you stuck around long enough to even read this I am impressed. It doesn't take a genius to see where this blog was headed and I think I've decided to finally stick a fork in it. My heart's not there. It's not here either. My heart is not in recommending things anymore, so with this I bid FriendsRecommend a fond farewell. I wish we could have ended on a high note, and that may be forthcoming. Ricky B has agreed to share the account of his first and only bar fight with us via video. I am hoping this works out. If I can get Ricky to tell the story of this fight I can recommend it already without ever having seen it. It doesn't even exist yet and I can recommend it to you.

My one regret is that I never even made one of these lists myself. I'm not doing it tonight, so that probably won't happen either. We had a good run. I thank all of the guest bloggers current and past, Wardo, Ricky B, Todd, thechristophermyers, and Timmy Huff for their dedication to recommending things. You guys really recommended some things. Some good things at that. Thanks to all the list folks as well. I've discovered a lot of great things via those lists and will continue to do so. You all rule. Really.

I leave you with something I love. Super-musician Self's version of the Doobie Brother's "What a Fool Believes" recorded completely on toy instruments. I can't recommend this enough:

Zurich

Well, JesKA sort of called this. I am being nice to JESKa today, because she just sat through a really long show and didn't complain about it...at least not to me. Maybe to my brother, but not to me. Before I went away she said "you are going to go on vacation to Europe and just come back and recommend going to Europe on FR". This isn't completely true, but I do have something that I feel like a lot of you would really enjoy. The whole trip (Venice, Soglio, Zurich) was awesome and I liked them each for their own reasons. Venice for the classic-ness (word?) but was also too crowded and hot, Soglio for it's relaxing-ness (again?) and it's being 3/4 of the way up a Swiss Alp in a town of 200 people, and Zurich for a whole lot of reasons.

My recommendation today is if you are planning a trip to Europe, I highly suggest Zurich be a stop during that trip. My reasons are as follows. I love big cities. I think I will always (at least in the long future) live in a city or live really close to a city. I like the urgency, and being near the center of goings-ons. Something that you miss being in a city however is somewhere to get away...somewhere like vacation that gets you outside of the city. The solution in Zurich to this is there is a huge effing lake (Lake Zurich) right in the middle of it. And the water is clean. And you can swim in it. Imagine if you could walk down to the Harbor on a hot day and jump in and have that be refreshing and normal. I bet most of you can't even entertain that thought. This is what it is like in Zurich. It's a really cool big city with a vacation spot built smack in the center. I can't think of any other place anywhere that has this going for it. Anyone? Now, I don't just recommend Zurich as a place to go. Staying somewhere in a small town, with rolling hills, and mountain air is awesome and is part of the reason I loved Switzerland so much. But I'm just saying...if you are going all the way over there try to make Zurich part f it. Some pictures of the city, lakes and not lakes:

The Girl on the Bridge

I wasn't going to recommend anything today because it's the end of the summer and I just didn't feel like it. Still, I have two great recommends that I felt compelled to share.

The first is The Girl on the Bridge, by French director Patrice Leconte. I first saw this movie at my at my parents house on the Bravo channel when that was still a movie channel. I never knew what it was called or who was in it, and finally after two years Netflix recommended it to me. The thing about this movie that first caught my attention is the wonderfully attractive actress Vanessa Paradis, though I soon was completely taken in by some of the most beautiful black and white film footage I've ever seen. So many B&W movies are muddy and gray, never exploring either black or white, but The Girl on the Bridge spends its most captivating scenes in a high contract of the brightest whites and the darkest blacks, making for very compelling cinema.

The movie isn't heavy on the plot. A knife thrower rescues a girl about to end her life and takes her on as his assistant. You're never quite sure where the movie is going, and that's largely due to the fact that it never goes far, but it still pulls you in to the world of these two characters whose lives have suddenly intersected and become inseparable If Chris hated my use of the vibrant to describe a book, he's going to really hate my use of the world sensuous to describe this movie, but I think this scene makes a good argument.




The other movie I need to recommend is Inglorious Bastards. I just saw it this weekend, and it's one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's certainly Tarantino's best movie thus far. From the plot, to the banter between characters, to the acting, to the visuals, to the everything. Go see this movie. Tarantino is really at the peak of his career here. I could watch this movie again and again. Here is a trailer you may not have seen yet. There's a little bit of a spoiler in here, but nothing too serious.

Man Show Boy

So in the spirit of the last post, I thought I'd present the Man Show boy. Remember this kid? Inspired by Letterman, Adam Corolla and Jimmy Kimmel sent this kid around and made him say some hilarious stuff to unassuming folks.

This was one where he was selling Girl Scout Cookies.

Diggity Dank

Hey guys!!

So, its been pretty awful around here since Adam left. I really miss that guy. I thought I'd lighten up the joint by embedding one of my favorite David Letterman videos. As a teenager, I always loved when Dave left the studio and did some man-on-the-street stuff and caught lightning in a bottle by accidentally finding amazing secondary characters. I had another great clip embedded featuring Manny The Hippie, but YouTube just removed it! Its possible that you can find it via this link but work is telling me I need to update some software before I watch it. If it plays for you, its well worth it.

Either way, here's Dave having some great fun with Rupert Jee from the Hello Deli.





UPDATE: Here's Dave working at a Taco Bell:



And more!

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

It's almost not fair that I even post this recommend because I'm not even half-way through this book yet. However, it's one of the most enjoyable, entertaining, vibrant and clever books I've ever read.



This is basically a retelling of the Orpheus / Eurydice story, but set in the 1950's, 60's and 70's in Bombay, London and New York.

Everything about this book feels alive. From the very first few pages, you already have a clear picture Vina Apsara, the "her" in the title. Characters are revealed so vividly, that you instantly know each and every one of them. You can picture the fez on Darius Xerses Cama's head, and you imagine the dopey smile on his crippled son's face.

Rushdie so effectively conveys the passions, worries and fears of each character. Every character's entire personality is told in just a few sentences. And when Rushdie spends a hundred pages devoted to just a few main characters, you feel as if you've lived their lives a hundred times.

The other characters are the cities themselves. I've only been reading Bombay so far and am just getting to London, but I feel like I know Bombay and lived there for decades during a period of great change. Change is really what is at the heart of this story. Lives change, cities change and so does the world around them. Change occurs across generation, and affects politics, music, culture, families and individual lives.

I could describe this book forever and never quite explain it. Rushdie is a master of language in a way that Nabokov was.

I highly, highly, highly recommend this book. And if I finish it and that changes, I'll be sure to let you know. Just to help convince you that this could be awesome, here is a picture of Salman Rushdie.

Windy City Heat

Hey everyone,
I'm back after a hiatus of buying cars, and taking out loans; which took up a good deal of last week.

Today I wanted to talk about a favorite movie of mine that I'm betting most of you have never heard of: Windy City Heat. This is a made for TV movie from Comedy Central that aired in 2003. It's all a documentary of a fake movie the one star thinks he's making, but it's all an elaborate prank that everyone is in on...The lengths they go to fool this guy are pretty amazing, and the movie he thinks he's making is completely ridiculous. Also, everyone involved in this fake movie introduces themselves to the main guy, Perry, as some funny fake name. Perry never once catches on that the whole thing is a sham. The producer says his name is John Quincy Adams, the casting director says his name is Roman Polanski, the personal assistant says his name is Burt Ward.

One of the funniest things about this movie is Bobcat Goldthwait. He directs this fake movie, and is constantly making Perry re-take awful scenes. One scene they make Perry drink this terrible concoction of milk, beer, chinese food, donuts, eggs, etc, all blended together....Then Bobcat says they didn't get it, and make Perry do it again. Anyway, what I'm getting at is this movie is a comedy gem. Constant laughs the entire way through. Borrow it from me.

Here's a my favorite scene from the movie:

Vacation

Dear faithful readers. I will be on vacation for the next two weeks, so the Monday and Friday posts of FR might be a little bare. If I can get some good pictures or find something Swiss to recommend other than chocolate and cheese, and have an internet connection I will be sure to do so. In my absence I give Chris Myers permission to post on Monday/Friday if he pleases. This might only happen if he has a beer lunch at work though. Sorry for the absence. Hopefully I will be somewhere like picture #1 doing something like picture #2.

Shameless Plug and Jerseyband

Let me begin by saying I need to hang out with Ricky B. This guy has been getting himself into all kinds of things lately, and I want to be a part of it. Ricky, let's make this happen and I'll film you telling the tale of your first and only bar fight.

Today I bring you something that isn't really a shameless plug. At least not on the surface. It is inspired by a shameless plug, though. Since I leave for Switzerland in the middle of next week I've been trying to wrap up a lot of things before I go. One of the biggest being all of the promotion for an upcoming show Quartet Offensive is doing at the Ottobar. Our first Ottobar show, and since that place is so huge I am hoping it is well attended, hence the promotion. Now, I am not posting this blog to promote the show. That would be truly shameful. However, if you are interested it is on Thursday August 27 at the Ottobar with Jerseyband, Soul Cannon, and Leisure Icons. Quartet Offensive will play a one-time-only all Pavement cover set.

Anyway, the reason for the recommends is Jerseyband. This band amazes me, and the more I recommend them to people the more great feedback I get from them. Jerseyband's lead singer/trumpet player Brent Madsen lives in Baltimore. I have the pleasure of performing with him regulary in a band called Turn Around Norman. Anyway, while at The Eastman School of Music Brent formed Jerseyband with some of his classmates (some of who are now at the forefront of the NY jazz scene). They've created a new genre of music called Lungcore, which is like heavy metal but with a full-blown 4-piece horn section. I promise you this makes for very interesting music.

Brent recently gave me a copy of Jerseyband's latest album "Beast Wedding" which is honestly one of my favorite records of the year (right next to The Dirty Projectors "Bitte Orca"). It is awesome. I don't say this because Brent is my friend. I say it because it is awesome. I never use this blog to recommend friends' projects, so this one must be special for me to do so. Anyway, I've included some videos as an introduction to Jerseyband. There is a chance it might not be your thing, but at least give it a chance? You might like it more than expected. I love it.

Nothing and Everything

Sorry I didn't post anything today. I'm kind of a mess these days, what with my bar fights, drunkenness and devil-may-care attitude.

If Netflix was a little faster, I could have recommended the movie Girl On the Bridge, but I'll save that for next week when I can get a second viewing in.

I am really, really enjoying The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie. I'm less than a hundred pages into this 573 page book, but it's amazing so far. Anyone else read any Rushdie? I've only heard good things and I enjoyed East | West, but only as much as I can enjoy a book of short stories (sorry Todd).

For now all I can recommend is letting things go and stepping out of your comfort zone. It's been a blast for me.

Oh, and for anyone who was wondering, I apparently gave last week's bar fight guy a real shiner of a black eye.

Summer Vacation Recommends...

I am going to take a break from my short story collections recommendations this week to try something different. I am a school teacher that teaches summer school and this is my first full week off for the summer. This makes me very happy. Last Wednesday was my last day of work until the end of the month. So I've been looking for little things to do to keep me occupied.
This past Thursday I decided to go to Bowie Baysox baseball game that started at 11 am. We got there early, about 10 am, and we were just about the only people in the stadium besides employees and ball players. During warm-ups we were able to observe the players up close and get plenty of autographs. These you minor leaguers are crazy and say ridiculous things. This guy Ambiorix Concepcion kept on stealing everyone Else's hat! Among the notables autographs were Brandon Erbe and Brian Matusz.
When the game started I sat back with a breakfast hot dog and beer and watched a pretty exciting game. Erbe started and pitched pretty well. He lost the game because of an inside the park home run. A lazy fly ball down the right field line turned into an inside of the park home run when the right fielder dove for the ball and after he missed it refused to get up and chase it! maybe he hurt himself, I don't know.
Anyway it was an incredibly enjoyable way to start off my summer break. Drinking an AM beer and watching a ball game. Up coming games of interest in Bowie include, Star Wars Night on the 22nd and Nick Markakis T-Shirt Night on the 11th.

Post script: Please enjoy this video of some pre game warm-up banter....

Funny People (bonus comeback blog)

Hello everyone!

Its your old friend, Chris. I used to post on Tuesday. The last time that I posted, I recommended something about one of my favorite TV shows these days, Chuck, and everyone said it was bad! It really hurt my feelings. I felt like you weren't giving old Chris the benefit of the doubt. I really thought I had found something for everyone to like. Some light-hearted fare that would make this crazy, crazy world appear to be a little more manageable, if even for just an hour a week.

Anywho, I saw this Funny People movie this weekend. Anybody else see this? Recommending a Judd Apatow movie is hopefully on par with recommending a Wes Anderson movie. They're no-brainers and unnecessary recommends, right? People sometimes complain that his movies are too long and that he turns an amazing 90 minute movie into a so-so 140 minute movie. Well, people, I respectfully disagree! I could have watched another 40 minutes of this stuff, and I nearly did!! Adam Sandler is a pure delight. Would we have ever stopped loving him if he never made Little Nicky? This movie made me want to hang out with Adam Sandler.

Anywho Part II, I bought the soundtrack to this movie even before I saw it. This Judd Apatow seems to have a thing for Warren Zevon, whom I've written endlessly about at another blog of mine. Early in the film, and I'm not going to give anything away, but this song brings about a very emotional moment in the film:





Zevon wrote that one knowing full well that he was about to die. Does it get any more tragic than that? Cry with me.

Anywho: Whoville Spiez, another song that plays a real pleasant role in this movie is "Real Love," a John Lennon demo, which later was finished by his Beatles bandmates for the Anthology series. This reminded me of something that I think about far too often...and I nearly did! What if the Beatles would have chosen to release this BEFORE the less-amazing Free As A Bird? They both made the Top 40 charts, but I feel like if Real Love was labeled as the "first new Beatles song in 25 years," this would have been an absolutely phenomenon. It would have been like the British Invasion all over again. It would have made Oasis hang up their cleats and admit that there was no use even trying. I've embedded the Beatles version and the John Lennon demo. Either way you listen to it, its just so wonderfully pleasant!





So, my dear friends, I recommend to you..."Real Love."

Beirut--March of the Zapotec/Holland

Happy Monday, Friends Recommend. In an unexpected turn of events I have decided to (at least occassionally) return to the original concept of FR and start dealing with these lists. Over the weekend I bought an album from emusic.com of this band Beirut that JESKa mentions in her list. She recommended the band and not an album in particular, so it figures that the album I bought was one that she hasn't heard. What can you do. She strongly recommends their first album though...she told me this.

I must admit that I was terribly confused at first listen. The album started with this great brass music, which had a really strong vibe of the streets of Mexico or Italy. Like some band of old men that just set up and started playing in the middle of the day. My reason for buying the album this past weekend is that I'm going to Italy and Switzerland in a week and a half and thought this music would 1) put me even more in the mood/get me more excited about the trip, and 2) give me something fun to listen to while over there, eating chocolate and drinking wine at a lake. The first half of the album is exactly what I expected. The first six songs follow this style, and do it in a great way. Then at song seven the album takes an unexpected turn into mostly electronic music, with a lot more vocals. I didn't dislike the electronic side of things, it just came out of nowhere after the first six tracks of really non-american sounds. This left me confused, and I don't think I liked it initially.

My confusion was cured when I came home, searched for the albums and found out that it is actually a double EP. The first half being music written by Beirut and recorded in Mexico with The Jimenez Band. The second EP highlights frontman Zach Condon's electronic side project Realpeople. This makes much more sense now. I must say that while I like the electronically stuff, I definitely prefer the first EP of Mexican brass band music. Like JeSkA said, it is a different and refreshing approach, while the electronic thing is like a lot of other things I'd heard before. If I bought another of their album's (which is likely) I would try the first album Gulag Orkestar, which can be sampled HERE.

Below are two videos from the double EP. The first clip from the first, March of the Zapotec, the second from Realpeople's Holland. You decide for yourself which you prefer:

Fantastic Mr. Fox--Wes Anderson

I don't know how I can top a recommendation for a bar fight. There isn't much to say after that. Ricky has promised to share the story with us. I'm hoping to video tape his telling of the tale and sharing it with all of you via Friends Recommends. That should be something. Really.

My recommend today comes as a quick one. It also comes to you blind, because the movie isn't out yet. While I do have my favorite Wes Anderson movies, I've never not loved one so I don't see why Fantastic Mr. Fox--an adaptation of Roald Dahl's book--will be any different (even if it is animated). Still has a lot of that great character quirkiness W.A. is known for. A super-star cast of voices (Bill Murray, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, etc.), not surprisingly. I'll be there when it comes out on November 13. Trailer:

BAR FIGHTS!!!

This recommend is a little off the deep end today, but my brain is too beat up to recall a good book or movie.

I recommend getting into bar fights. Whether it be to protect a woman's honor, to get some idiotic douchebag to stop rubbing your head, or to let some guy know that you just don't like his ugly mug.

I make this recommend because I got into a bar fight last night, and while I took some hard blows to the top of my head, I doubt I lost any more brain cells from the punches than I did from the beers I drank. It's all worth it just to be the one to throw the first punch. Plus, if you play your cards right and make nice with the bartenders before the fight, you can get away with throwing the first punch and still be the guy who doesn't get thrown out of the bar.

BAR FIGHTS!!!

The Time Traveler's Wife

I'm not sure if anyone has read this yet/recommended here, but I've been reading the Time Traveler's Wife this past week.

As I may have mentioned previously, I love anything to do with time travel. I love when characters from the future meet people they know in the past and have to explain things. I also love when characters go back in time to "change the past", but actually realizing that everything has happened before, they are in fact just making things the same. All of this is here in this book.

Usually when I read something, it takes me over a hundred pages to get involved. This one, though, I was instantly hooked. The story involves a guy who will time travel at random to various places at any time, and just show up places completely naked, then have to steal clothes and food until he warps back to his own time. He has a condition which causes this to happen. He is also married, and sometimes when he warps, he goes to various times in his wife's life, which creates the future from where he came. He also will warp to points in his own life, and help himself out. The dialogue is all really well done, and the story itself is completely inventive. Anyway, even though I haven't finished it, this has been the best thing I've read in a long while.

In our time.

So keeping with my short stories for a short summer theme (It's almost August!) here is another one of my favorite short story collections. Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time. I've always really enjoyed this book, which is surprising to me because I really dislike Hemingway. I can't stand his novels. I find that his style of short to the point sentences wears on me the longer I have to read it. But if I only have to deal with it for a couple of pages I eat it up. Hate his novels, think the novella The Old Man and the Sea is just okay, but love the short stories. Highlights of the collection for me are The Battler and Big Two Hearted River. This is the perfect book for a camping trip. Thats that.

Recent Baltimore Restauranting

I feel like I do a lot of apologizing in this blog. The apologizing mostly comes when I miss a post that was supposed to happen either on Monday or Friday, which are my assigned times. I don't have much of an excuse most times I miss. I assigned myself these days, and even enlisted the help of three great friends to cover the middle of the week to give me more of a fighting chance to get the Monday and Friday posts in on time. This past Friday my Mac Book blew up. I didn't have any way to post. So while I am sorry, I also feel like this is an adequate excuse. I type now on a laptop I borrowed from my parents and hope that tomorrows appointment at the Mac genius bar will solve my computer problems. I am not optimistic that it will be so quick. Mac laptop problems, anyone?

Like I said in a previous post, I haven't seen many movies lately. I love movies, I just haven't seen any lately to recommend. I hope to change this soon. I am excited for THIS even thought it is a ways away. More CGI than I expected/had hoped for, but what can you do. I still have high hopes and still think I will enjoy it more than the Willy Wonka remake. That's all.

Also recently I've been thinking of giving It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia a second chance, because the first chance didn't leave a great impression. I'll be back with an update on that. In the meantime just watch Arrested Development in it's entirety again. I can't imagine that getting old.

Something I have been doing is eating. July is a birthday packed month, including my own and eating out seems to be a thing that happens around birthdays. I'll keep these short, but a couple of recent highlights for me for Baltimore eating (these aren't ranked, just numbered for organization):

1. Lumbini Restaurant--322 N Charles Street--Heather and I went here for lunch on my birthday. I'd been to this Indian buffet before, but as far as the downtown Indian buffets go this is my favorite. I used to love Akbar, but then there was a weird sewage rumor and although I'm not sure if it was true or not I haven't been back. Not saying I won't go back, I just haven't been. Sewage rumor or not I prefer the Lumbini Buffet. There is more of a selection (especially for vegetarians), their Chicken Tikka Marsala is great (which is the dish I judge all Indian buffets by), AND they have chai tea with the buffet. Most places don't do this, but the chai really ties the meal together. Really. Chtry it. Also, this is cheap. I think it was $8.99. I'm not sure, but it was well worth it.

2. The Yabba Pot--2433 St. Paul Street--One of Baltimore's well-known vegan restaurants. I am not a vegan and I probably would have never picked this restaurant. Heather is a vegetarian so it was her choice for her birthday. I was pleasantly surprised. While it was all vegan, I left full and happy. They call it soul food. I guess that generally implies spicy, which a lot of it was. You basically go into the place, tell them how many sides you want (sides are basically what they call any kind of food there), and point to them. Then you go eat. Heather and I each got six sides and rice which is like the Rolls Royce of Yabba Pot dining. I couldn't finish, and for a vegan meal I was pretty full. If you are feeling adventurous or in the mood for some sort of healthiness check it out. Maybe skip the ginger beer. It was OK but the plant outside seemed to enjoy it more than we did. No sign of alcohol in this place if that is your thing.

3. One World Cafe--100 W University Parkway--Another very vegetarian friendly place (you can tell that Heather had a birthday in July too!) This was also great. Maybe the greatest part, aside from the coffee, was the wide range of vegetarian options. You could get almost anything. Heather got a meatball sub. Seriously a vegetarian meatball sub. You can even get that. I got some kind of noodles in some kind of sauce. It was good. Also cheap. I've never been impressed by vegan desert and this place didn't change my opinion of that, but the meal was good. If you are up by Hopkins, and you are feeling more like a hippy than normal you should definitely check it out.

4. Lebanese Taverna--719 S President Street--If you are down in Harbor East during lunch time you should only go here. I'd been for dinner and I loved it. I went for lunch and I still loved it. I got a shwarma (sp?) which is a lot like a chicken souvlaki with rice and salad and it was $7.99 I think. And it was awesome. I felt full, but still ready to run a race after it. Not at all heavy, but filling. If you park in Whole Foods lot and buy anything from Whole Foods you get your parking validated. So we ate at Lebanese Taverna which I already mentioned was awesome, and then I got a Naked Juice from Whole Foods and got my parking validated for free. Maybe my favorite place on the list, but that shouldn't knock down the other places. I just really like this one. Really. For real.

Grayson by Lynne Cox

Boy, Thursdays do really sneak up on me. I had a lot of things that I wanted to recommend in this space, and I also wanted to dedicate a post to things I've checked out because of this blog, but I don't thing I'm going to do either of those.

Recently, I've begun taking full advantage of my mornings -and boss' willingness to look the other way- by coming into work anywhere from a half an hour to two hours late. During these extra hours I read, exercise, cook and eat breakfast for as long as I can. Yesterday, during my morning procrastination session, I picked up a newly-purchased book called Grayson by world-record breaking swimmer, and author, Lynne Cox.

I had never heard of Lynne Cox, or any of her books or world records, but something about this cover made me buy it. I initially wasn't going to read this book yesterday, but it was short (153 pages) and looked like it would be easy to read. Grayson ended up being the first book I've ever read from beginning to end completely uninterrupted.

Grayson is autobiographical, but it reveals only about 3 or 4 hours of Lynne Cox's life. When she was 17 and an already accomplished swimmer, she was out for her usual morning three-mile swim off the coast of California and encountered a baby whale. It quickly became evident to Cox that the whale was motherless. What follows is the search and struggle to find the whale's mother.

To be honest, reading Grayson was like watching a PG movie. The big smiling, cartoon whale on the book cover makes it clear from the beginning that Grayson is no tragedy. However, as both Cox and Grayson struggle to stay afloat in choppy waters a mile and a half off shore, you can't help but get caught up in the drama. Grayson is not about a whale finding it's mother, it's about the energy and attitudes that connect all living things, even different species, despite language barriers, cultural differences or physical challenges.

The other really captivating aspect of this book is Cox's descriptions of the animal life beneath the surface of the ocean. As Cox gets washed further and further from shore, she acts as a tour guide to the oceanic metropolis that is just too far off shore for casual swimmers to be familiar with. She encounters sea turtles, jellyfish, dolphins, tuna and plenty of other fish I had never hear of. Each encounter adds an element of wonder and drama to whole story.

Part (I think) of why I really enjoyed Grayson was because I read it in almost real time. The story begins at some point between 5 and 6am, (I started reading at 6:30am) and ends approximately at 10am (I finished the book by 8:30). As the sun was coming up in the book, so it also was from where I was reading it. I highly recommend trying to do the same. I felt it added a sense of reality, like it was all actually happening while I was reading, ala Never Ending Story.

I thought I'd end with these lines from the book which occur right before Cox decides to journey farther out into the ocean to help look for the baby whale's mother:

"Many people are happy with things as they are. They are comfortable with what they already know. But if I didn't move outside my comfort level, how would I ever experience anything new, how would I ever learn, or see or explore? I believe that each of us has a purpose for being here, that we have certain gifts and certain challenges we need to learn from and fulfill for our lives to have meaning and richness."

"I'm going to swim with him"


It's not at all eloquent, but right on!

A New Movie

So Adam was asking about good movies, and I haven't seen a whole lot lately, besides Bruno, (which I don't think I can discuss without ruining some of the best gags in the movie) but this one looks amazing:



It's playing at the Charles right now. Right in time for the anniversary of the moon landing.

I love Sci-Fi movies. People trapped in space, robots turning against humans, ships controls failing...love it all.

There was a Netflix movie I got based on someone's recommend here...Sunshine, and it was pretty great. Directed by Danny Boyle who directed Slumdog Millionaire, about a crew who basically have to dump a hydrogen bomb into the sun, because the sun is dying. Some stuff goes wrong on the way, and they encounter things they don't expect...anyway, I won't ruin it. Here's the trailer for that one:

Just Do It

This is sort of a stange one, but bear with me. I have made a decision to get back to some of these lists that I have been neglecting for the past couple of months. But that takes a little bit of time and won't happen today. Today I have a special treat for you. You might not find it a treat, but I really love it.

Great friend, artist, film maker, musician, etc Nick Prevas (magnificentlore.com for more info) taught high school art and film making at Carver this past semester. Carver is a magnet school for the arts in Baltimore so it attracts a lot of really talented students. Prevas has a lot to say about his experience teaching there, but today's recommends is something great that came out of it.

The following video, entitled "Just Do It" was made by two of Nick's students in his film making class at Carver. I don't know anything about them...I don't even know their names. I know them as Chas and Steven. This might not be for everyone, but these guys crack me up. I think they are the next generations' Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter, just give it time.

Before I even saw the video Nick had pretty much reenacted the entire thing so I knew what I was looking for. While you are watching also keep in mind that they showed this at the years-end video festival for parents, faculty, and students alike. That is funny to me. Without any further babbling here is "Just Do It":

Upside Down Recommends

What a week here at FR! Everybody got a post up on time, except for me today. Maybe we're back on track.

For a while there was a stream of reverse recommends going on around here, where everyone would trash something that another person seemed to like. Rachel Getting Married seemed to be a big one to be reverse recommended. This post is not a reverse recommend.

I have been really out of the loop with movies lately. I didn't even know what Bruno was until late last week. The only movie I have seen recently is Gran Torino which was good, but not 8.4 stars good like IMDB would suggest. The acting was a little bit weak/awkward at points but I still enjoyed it.

What I am looking for from you is some modern movie recommends. These can still be in the theater if you like, or they can just be a movie that came out fairly recently. I'd like to get back in the movie loop, as I really love movies. What do you have for me? If you recommend a movie I will definitely see it, and then it will definitely get a Friends Recommend post all to itself. Not that it's any kind of motivation for you, but a little help please? A little help from my friends, please:

Magic Bullet

Since food posts are so popular here, I thought I would keep with that theme. I highly recommend the Magic Bullet Blender.



I don't even have one, I have a knock-off brand, and the quality is certainly poor, even the knock-off is an amazing kitchen tool. I use mine almost every day to make smoothies. This thing makes smoothies in less than a minute. Don't believe this everything-in-ten-seconds crap they sell you on TV. It takes nearly a minute to get a well-blended smoothie, but that's still pretty damn fast.

You can quickly mix fruits that you wouldn't -or at least I wouldn't- normally mix together. Cherries + Mangos= Great smoothies. Banana + Blueberries = Great Smoothies. Peaches + Strawberries = Great Smoothies.

I stock up on fruit and make a bunch of smoothies and then freeze them. That way I can have a smoothie anytime I want one -well, about a half an hour after I want one-and it keeps the fruit from rotting in the fridge before I can eat it all.

Not only does this thing make great smoothies, but it also grinds coffee beans, a big plus if you drink a lot of coffee at home like I do. I've used it to chop onions and other vegetables. It doesn't make consistently-sized chunks, but it' a lot faster than a food processor and with way less cleanup.

Did I mention how easy this thing is to clean up? All of the mess is on the blade, and in the cup. That's all the cleanup needed. It is so great. My one suggestion is to not leave a dirty cup in the back of your car for a week, because once the fruit dries on the cup, it takes another week of soaking before it can be properly cleaned.

I'm certain that this thing makes plenty of other great stuff, but it's worth it for the smoothies alone. It is such an easy, affordable, quick and tasty way to eat healthy. A smoothie for breakfast is so much better than cereal, yogurt or an english muffin.

Go get a Magic Bullet, or better yet, do what I did and have your mom buy you a knock-off brand for your birthday.

Napping

In today's recommend, I'm going to talk about the importance of a fave activity of mine: napping. I've been reading a few things about naps and one thing I came across says this:

Snoozing for a half-hour can be an enjoyable way to promote physical well-being, and naps have been known to improve your mood and memory. A 20-minute nap can sharpen your senses and revitalize you, while a ten minute nap can leave you feeling more cheerful. Falling into a light sleep during the daytime can feel meditative. The thoughts you have as you are taking a nap and the dreams you experience may offer you insights about your life that you may not have at night when you are in a deep sleep.

- DailyOm.com

I personally recommend a 50 minute nap for even more sharpened senses. More from DailyOM.com:

In order to fully enjoy the benefits of napping, you may need to give yourself permission to nap. Feeling guilty about snoozing or worrying about your to-do list won't do you much good when you are trying to take a nap because your thoughts or feelings will keep you awake.

No problem here. Let's continue:

If you go to an office, try to crawl under your desk for a nap.

This sounds great, but I probably would be fired.

One crucial element to a good nap is a comfortable couch. I have this old couch from the 1970s that I like a lot. You are going to want to get something that has soft cushions that you just sink into. You also are going to need to make sure that before buying your napping couch, making sure that it's as long as you are. Let's get serious–trying to stretch out on a love seat just isn't going to work. Also, I don't recommend using a futon (not comfortable enough) or a bed (too comfortable). You don't want to create the atmosphere of night time, otherwise you'll wake up at 8 pm, and will be up all night. So, make sure you leave a light on, OK? I also read that if you do decide to get into napping, it's good to have a set routine. I try to nap the same time everyday. Afterwards, I feel like a new man, ready to take on the rest of the day. When I skip a day napping, and I have to be out late, and up early, there's a major difference in how I feel the next day, than if I hadn't skipped...so get your nap in!



***Also, fave snowball flavors: Cherry, Lime, Skylight.

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

To me nothing screams 'BEACH BOOK!' like a good short story collection. You can read a story, jump in the ocean. Read a story, fly a kite. Read a story, talk to Aunt Beth about your adopted cousin Nathan. Read a story, play whiffle ball Home run derby with your nephew. You get the idea. So over the next couple weeks I am going to recommend my favorite short story collections.

Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard To Find is a great read. I know, you hear the title and you think it's some sort of Sandra Bullock film. But it's not. It's a collection of Southern Gothic tales filled with distorted Catholic imagery. The collection is named after the first story in the book. Its about a family with a pushy grandmother that gets murdered by a serial killer named the misfit. There's a good chance that you've read it, as it has been anthologized in plenty of high school literature text books.

That's it. Short stories= short recommends.

Ziggy's Snoballs

Near the conclusion of a family gathering yesterday Heather and I decided to have a good, old-fashioned foot race. She decided actually and I reluctantly agreed. After giving her a good five foot head start I proceeded to race her into the ground in front of my whole family. In front of my uncle, two cousins, and father anyway...far from my whole family. The word was that I ran like lighting, Forrest Gump, or a nerd. I'm not sure what the final decision was. We'll go with lightning for the sake of this blog. This post isn't about footraces, although I do recommend a good foot race anytime you have a worthy competitor close-by. I'll take anybody anytime of day and I urge you to challenge me to that.

Foot races are summery. After this footrace I realized that I hadn't really done much of anything summery this whole (summer). July is half-over and I haven't even had a snowball from my favorite Russian snowball stand which is only blocks away from my house. There are plenty of things that I like to do in the summertime, but I think this summer has felt a lot less like summer (even though it has been pretty hot out) because I haven't made it a point to do most of them. Some of my favorite summer things that have been missing this year:

1. Ziggy's No-Balls
2. Sunday Baseball/Softball
3. Ocean City, no matter how dirty
4. Pretty Boy Reservoir
5. Andy Nelson's for lunch
6. Rita's Italian Ice
7. Wild Wood NJ

Now that I think about it I haven't even been in a pool yet this summer, and summer is more on the way out than on the way in. Some of these things I need to take care of fast. Ocean City might not happen, and I'm OK with this. I suspect that I would gladly substitute
Switzerland for OC any summer of my life. Swimming in Pretty Boy Reservoir, no matter how illegal it becomes, is something anyone living in the Baltimore area should do at least once a summer. If you don't know where to go, I'll give you the spot. The other things on the list (minus Wild Wood) I can take care of pretty easily.

Possibly the biggest hole in my summer fun has been no visits to my good friends Ziggy and Ziggy's wife at No-Balls snowball stand in Parkville. It is called no balls because a sign that should read Sno-balls has been without lights in the first "s" for as long as I've been going there. Without going into a series description of what I get there (because everyone has different no-ball tastes) I will just tell you that they are hands down, without any competition the best snowballs that I get in Baltimore. You want a delux delight reeces peanut butter cup snowball? You got it. Ziggy's got you covered. Even if it makes the thirty people behind you really mad because Ziggy puts everything he's got into that four dollar snowball, and it always takes at least two minutes to make. You like the standards? They've got the standards, and they shave their ice so it always tastes better. Can't decide on one standard? Get three flavors rainbowed! Man, this place is awesome. Just talking about it makes me want one. How do you get there? You can't really google it because I don't know the technical name of the place (it might be Ziggy's, but it might not). It is pretty much on the corner of Old Harford Road and Putty Hill, just up the hill from the Charcoal Grille. More detailed directions are available upon request.

So here's my question for the readers. What are your absolute favorite summery things to do? Things that if you didn't do them, it just wouldn't feel like summer. Sound off.

*Disclaimer: The snowball pictured is not a Ziggy's No-Ball. It isn't even a snowball that I would ever purchase myself. But it is the best I could find. No marshmellow here.

Here's Your Chance + Dog In Hat

Ricky, you can take today if you'd like. I'm really looking forward to these recommends you are waiting to get out. If I posted today I would probably just tell people to come to The Windup Space tonight at 9pm, and no one wants to hear about that.

Just in case Ricky doesn't post, to make it worth your trip to FR today here is a picture of a little dog in a littler hat:

My apologies

I apologize to everyone for not having a post last week. I was out of town and was denied the internet access that I was expecting. Regretfully, I am neglecting my duties this week as well. I have been in a three-day training that continues today. The fact that I am posting this (from work) at 6:49am should indicate my dedication and desire to not just leave you hanging. I feel like I have some good recommends to make.

I'll make up the post, I promise, even if I have to steal one of Adam's days. I hope I didn't ruin the blog for two weeks and possibly forever.

Food from my vacation

So I've been on vacation a lot lately. Part of the fun of being on vacation is going to places you wouldn't normally find around here for eats. So I've outlined a few good ones that I did while away.

Sonic
These places aren't in Maryland at all, but boy do they have some nice food on their menu! I've been here a few times, and it's really hard to decide what to get. They may have the best drink selection of any fast food place I've ever been to. What they do well:

1. Shakes. My favorite is the Orange slush treat. It's really amazing. Tastes like an orange creamsicle. The flavors available for the shakes alone are something you'd probably only find here.
2. Breakfast all day long.
3. Lime Aid. Comes in several flavors. Also, slush versions.
4. Tater Tots. Instead of fries!
5. The drive-in style ordering.

In 'N Out Burger
This is my favorite fast food place of all time. I love this place more than any other. I don't expect everyone to agree, but if you ever are in California, for God's sake, find one. The burgers are great because everything about is fresh. I strongly urge you to try the regular burger first. It has lettuce, tomato, thousand island, etc. The fries are shoe string style. Crunchy and delicious. Looking at their menu is the complete opposite of Sonic. They only have 3 combos you can get. A single burger/cheeseburger/double cheeeseburger. Sometimes it's nice not having to pick from so many things. The bad thing is they are adamant about not expanding anywhere east of Nevada. Something to do with their strict meat storage policy.

Cracker Barrel
So for our beach trip that Myers and I took, we kept talking about how we were going to stop at Cracker Barrel on our way back. The more we talked about it, the more excited about it I got. I had one of the best turkey dinners there back when I was younger. As it turns out, the turkey dinners are only served on Thursdays. What I got instead was a boneless chicken breast dinner, and it was pretty delicious. I'll go here again when I want chicken or turkey with mash potatoes, and corn muffins. Also, have you played this peg game they have there? It's pretty fun.

5 Things on Both Sides

Ricky was out of town this week, or on vacation, or something. And I don't post on holidays. And everyone had off on Friday, right? If you didn't have off on Friday and you were looking for a Friends Recommends post I am very sorry. I don't know who you could be, but I am sorry. Also, I was in Buffalo/Ithaca for wedding things all weekend and hadn't thought much about F.R. So while we are being honest, this is a pretty off-the-cuff kind of post.

Here are Five things I've been enjoying a lot lately (in no particular order). And here are Five things I have been checking out, but not enjoying so much lately:

5 Things I Like:

1) Dirty Projectors--Bitte Orca--I already wrote a blog post about this one. But I checked it out another time coming back from Ithaca to Baltimore today and it only gets better. I really recommend this one.

2) Blond Redhead--Misery is a Butterfly--I've had friends try to get me into Blond Redhead a couple of times in the past. Initially I thought they were terrible, and then with some Huff recommends I started liking them. Then another friend very recently recommended this album and I've gone from tolerance to being a legit fan. Certainly worth the time.

3) Arrested Development--OK this should have been a number one. Good thing this list wasn't in any kind of order. I had really liked Arrested Development before (having seen random episodes here and there) but only when I watched the entire series all the way through did I really appreciate it to the fullest. This is comedic genius and could very well be the funniest thing I have ever experienced. I was sad to see the last episode but can't wait for the movie.

4) Igor Stravinsky--Currently rediscovering my favorite classical composer, and finding new things to love about it in the process. For newcomers to Stravinsky's music The Rite of Spring and The Firebird are often recommended classics (rightly so) but try something like Symphonies of Wind Instruments for a very short but great introduction (I think the whole piece is under 10 minutes). Youtube clip:



5) Pavement--Quartet Offensive is doing a Pavement cover show at the end of August at The Ottobar, so we've been listening to a lot figuring out what we want to play. I don't get tired of them, especially Brighten the Corners.

5 Things I Haven't Liked So Far:

1) Of Montreal--Skeletal Lamping--Ugh, I should have listened to brotherHop about this one. What a disappointment after Hissing Fauna. I'm not sure what it is (maybe I sort of am) but I don't like it.

2) Eels--Hombre Loco--In it's defense I have only listened once. But this thing got pretty rave reviews, and I've been an Eels fan in the past. This one just isn't doing it for me right now. Hopefully it could grow on me.

3) Xiu Xiu--The Air Force--That's all I have to say about this one. Didn't get it. Tried hard, but still didn't get it.

4) Running With Scissors--Augusten Burroughs--Well, it's been over a year since Heather and I listened to this book on tape on a trip to and from Ithaca. I was trying to think of the last book I hated, and this was it. Sorry, not so recent.

5) It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia--I definitely won't say that I hate this. I'm not even in a position to say that I don't like it yet. But it is a show that was talked up to me so much by so many people that when I saw a couple of episodes I was really disappointed. I have the first two seasons on DVD sitting in the shrink wrap, so maybe once I watch a full season it will turn around. Right now it is a pretty big fail, though.

Vacation Mysteries

Hey everyone,
Just got back from California. What a fun place!
Anyways, near where we were staying, there are two places that seem really interesting. One is called the Winchester Mystery House, the other is called the Mystery Spot. We went to neither of these places, as it turns out, because of time issues...but we talked about them quite a bit because their stories are strange...

The Mystery House


This place was occupied by the widow of the Winchester rifle inventor. She moved in in 1884, and for the next 38 years, carpenters and builders worked 24 hours a day adding additions to her house. They were building up until her death. This widow visited a psychic who told her that she had to build a room in her house for every person that was killed by the Winchester rifle. As long as the workers were building, she was told, the spirits would leave her alone. Up in the attic, there are still doors and windows that were never installed because she died while all of this was ongoing. As you can see from that picture, though, this place is massive. Besides building lots of rooms, she also had things like stairways that led to nowhere, and optical windows so she could look through without her glasses on. This place is right outside of San Jose.

The Mystery Spot
This place had maybe the worst vacation brochure I've ever seen. That's probably why I grabbed it in the hotel we were staying in. Anyway, this place is 10 minutes north of Santa Cruz. This place is supposedly where gravity works differently. Some people theorize aliens buried something under it to make gravity go nuts. I don't really understand that part of the story, but I found this video that you should watch, which explains a little better.

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.

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.

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.




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.



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.

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!

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.

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:

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?