couple beers and some chips

dear herr's
i have lived in the city of philadelphia for about two years now. i moved from michigan and a lot of things were different, including the potato chips. herr's has been one of the most pleasant subtle surprises coming to this part of the country. i am particularly a fan of the kettle cooked line, especially jalapeno and salt and vinegar.
as far as the regular chips are concerned, i prefer the old bay and red hot varieties, and this brings me to my suggestion. lately, i have purchased these flavors in both one ounce size and also the package that sells for 99 cents. i was surprised to discover that the chips were wavy style; i expected standard thin cut potatoes. while this is still an indisputably quality product, i would appreciate knowing precisely what i am purchasing. i realize that changing the labeling is a hassle in some respects, and perhaps even impractical in current conditions. however, the situation also heightens consumers' desire to know precisely what they are purchasing. please consider distinguishing different styles of chips on all packaging.
on another note, i am curious about whether the cheese steak flavor kettle chips have been discontinued. i would also like to note that i have recently been enjoying herr's hot fries, however, the supply seems to have run its course. please continue promoting this product at its present excellent value and overall quality.
thank you, sincerely
ben franklin

and i ate some good stuff

obviously, things wrapped up and we made it back to america without significant incident. i didn't get a chance to detail some aspects of the trip, mostly because a lot of those aspects aren't that interesting for other people. food, however, is a pretty universal topic, and there were some notable things to eat along the way.
the first stop was in the carousel capital of the world, home of the square deal, the one and only parlour city, binghampton new york. we weren't there all that long, but i saw a few things. i liked the feel of the place a lot; it reminded me of some places i have been back in the midwest, trying hard to find its place and assert its primacy in its niches. it is just over the northern border of pennsylvania, pretty much due north from philly. there is a SUNY location there and the broome county arena, host to a couple notable phish shows once upon a time. but our purpose was not carousels, colleges, up and coming jam bands, or even parlours. no, we sought a square deal in the form of the city's famed sandwich, the spiedie. basically, it is some tasty marinated pork (or some other meat) on italian bread. i was trying to keep things cheap on the trip, so i just picked up a basic six inch. to my surprise, the sandwich was straight up meat and bread. nothing else. fortunately, this turned out to be because nothing else was required. that was some damn tasty meat, and just the right amount of juices transferred to the bread to soften it up without approaching sogginess. totally delicious, would eat again, a++. perhaps i will even return for one of the multiple festivals dedicated to this unique and proud sandwich. the big one also includes a balloon rally. i'm sold.
the next stop was rochester. i felt quite at home there; it is totally the gun rue of new york. comparable size, climate, and cityscape. that feeling that there was something going on, but one had to know how to find it and help to make it happen. our stop was once again wholly food motivated, only this time we were in search of a unique combination of flavor and experience, as opposed to the more pure culinary delight that was the spiedie. our quest took us to the wizened establishment of nick tahou hots, an institution for nearly a century in a building that had to be a couple decades older. this restaurant is famed for and the holder of the unlikely trademark "garbage plates". while the name is certainly not particularly appetizing and a description of the dish might not tickle your fancy, we concluded this was an experience we could not pass up. the concept is fairly simple: there is a base of some combination of french or home fries, macaroni salad, and/or baked beans. on top of this base there will be a typical american meat item, i.e. hot dogs or hamburger patties or a fish fillet. on top of this there must be something akin to a medium-bodied bean-less chili called hots sauce (not to be confused with hot sauce), which is in turn topped with onions. spicy brown mustard, cheese, or other enhancements may also be implicated. i tried to find a better picture than the one used in the wikipedia article i linked above, but let's face it, food photography is never easy, and making something like this look good is pretty much not going to happen. but the concept is pretty easy. i must say, it was an overall satisfying experience. i got plenty of solid food in me and a novelty experience at a reasonable price, and this ninety year old hot dog shop gets by on its gimmick. kind of cool if you ask me. we were kind of nervous about ordering because of the old-school feel of the place and the grizzled employees. this is because we have all been living in philly and such a setting there means you had better know what you want and how to ask for it if you want a modicum of pleasant service. turned out everything was fine of course, and there was nothing to worry about, but it was definitely a not in kansas anymore moment. big ups to rochester.
we crossed at buffalo, but since we had just finished the plates all of like an hour ago there was no desire on anyone's part to look into the possible advantages of the original authentic wings bearing the city's name. maybe some other time. beyond buffalo, the border, and then to toronto. while there are certainly plenty of definitively canadian food items (i love this list) and many normal foods available "quebec style", we did not get to a whole lot of those due to budget, region, and the fact that toronto is a global city in canada more than a canadian city. there were endless food options in toronto, but i mostly ate peanut butter sandwiches this time around as restaurants weren't all that cheap and are loaded with some pretty striking and unexpected taxes. sometimes that is the way it goes. however, there was one canadian food item we had all been set on from the get-go and would not be denied: poutine. french fries. cheese curds. brown gravy. what's not to like? this is one of the best possible combinations of food ever. so savory. so delicious. so filling. my friend summed up the experience pretty well: tastes great, but as soon as you're finished you feel like you just swallowed a pound of quick-set concrete. but damn was that stuff unbeleivable. my mouth is totally watering now as i meditate on the street culinary genius that is this dish. just think about how good this would be right now.
in other canadian junk food news, i checked out a couple chip flavors unavailable to me normally. the definitive canadian potato chip flavor is ketchup, but i didn't bother with these as i had looked into them before back in michigan. if you're curious, they are a lot like barbeque, but without the sweetness. pretty good. the flavors i tried were both from a company called old dutch, which of course amused me. i do not really associate the dutch with potato chips, but maybe i should. the first kind was creamy dill. the name was not misleading. imagine a sour cream and onion chip but with dill instead of onions. that was about it. the dill doesn't cut through the cream as well, but instead leaves room for some sour taste, which might have been the first time i associated sour cream with anything bearing the attribute of sour. they were pretty strong and a little cloying, as was the other variety i tried. i checked out the "ranch" because i am always curious about what qualifies for that title and the french translation on the bag bore no resemblence at all to the english, instead proclaiming the flavor to be something about three peppers. these were some damn flavorful chips. pretty tasty, but i think my breath would have felled a horse at twenty paces. they were actually so strong that i didn't finish the single serving bag all at once. overall, solid stuff, a change of pace, but nothing so exotic as what i hear tell of and had an opportunity to sample slightly from the other side of the atlantic.
that is about it for the good food news. like i said, it was a lot of peanut butter sandwiches for me. i did have an epic enormous hot dog from a cart. that was delicious. we also scored two for five falafel, which was a great deal. but yeah, that was about it. and since there is no more food that must be discussed, i would like to say a word about the beverages. by beverages, i pretty much mean beer. i am not sure if i mentioned this in passing in a previous post, but damn did it leave something to be desired. first of all, ontario has some pain in the ass booze laws which are not entirely dissimilar from pennsylvania, although less restrictive in some ways and moreso in others. mostly it was a real pain in the ass to get takeout beer, which is near-impossible to acquire outside of the state run booze stores that have liquor wine and beer or the beer store (that is its actual name). after some difficulty locating a beer store, we broke down and went to a state store, and happened to wind up at the largest one. the good news was they had an impressive selection compared to the other one we had looked at, the bad news was that prices are not only fixed, but are fixed by the container, meaning no breaks on quantity. understanding that the situation was not going to change, we hoped to make the best of it and take advantage of the wide singles selection. most of what i got i believe was imported into canada, but much of it i had not seen in the states before. a lot more packaging in large cans. i picked out a couple familiar things, lowenbrau and a warsteiner dunkel, a couple of varietal bocks from the same brewer, a canadian ipa, some ten percenter man can needed for bang for buck, and another thing or two. my god, was that stuff bland. for all their restrictive ad laws (borne out through not-so-subtle changes to american ads on canadian networks), i can't believe they let this company call that beer an ipa. i think the brewery is owned by labatt or something? in any case, this was just ridiculous. it looked like fucking budweiser, and was about as hoppy as pbr. it wasn't a crappy beer, but there was just nothing about it that said ipa. it was kind of like yuengling's lord chesterfield. those bocks? apparently from the same school of bock as texas' own shiner. huber bock has at least quadruple the flavor, and that ain't sayin much. i mean they weren't offensive, but they were not that pleasing either. the bang for the buck beer was not worth it at all in a steel reserve kind of way. the saving grace in all this comes from the one canadian craft brewery we all know and love: unibrou. 750 ml bottles were widely available at the standardized price of $5.40 canadian. now that my friends is a deal. la fin du monde and maudite kick the crap out of the other options, especially at the price. now you know.
as i mentioned, the beer was kind of tricky to get the hang of aquiring the first couple days. but hey, we were all on vacation, it was the boys, we didn't have a lot of money to go out, weren't sure about how to get beer, and we were going through the duty free. that meant liquor. we had some bombay sapphire, which was nice because i haven't had good gin in ages and i rather enjoy it. that being said, i don't think bombay had ever been mixed with such shitty orange juice (thanks all night convenience store across from hostel) or such flat perrier. oh well, it was still alright. i am bad at making decisions about things to eat or drink when i have a lot of appealing options, so i was looking around back at the duty free for a while. i wanted to go cheap but not too cheap, enjoy my savings in quality more than quantity, but the setup wasn't completely conducive to that. so i'm looking around for a while and change my mind a couple times. jager sounded real good, but cost a little more than i wanted to spend. however, one shelf down a bottle called out to me. it said hey, i have as much liquor of equal strength and that strong licorice flavor you're looking for. all this at a savings of approximately ten us dollars. my name is sambuca. so sambuca it was, and i like the flavor but i didn't remember it being so thick and sugary. so yeah, i still have like a significant amount of sambuca. i think people drink it after italian. come over and i will make you pasta and we will drink this stuff. i could use a hand with it.

totale

i have seen a lot of baseball in the last few days, and it has been excellent. i got to see the us hang up 8 runs on venezuela in the sixth, the italians upset the candians, and the terrible result of a near-mercy match between italy and venezuela. all sorts of great stuff, huge home runs, a bunch of triples, the best defense i've ever seen. don't let anyone tell you that this is supposed to be spring training. i've seen spring training games, this is far from it. the competition has been intense in most if not all cases. the whole competition is pretty compelling at this point, things like australia scoring a massive upset, the korean's dramatic 1-0 win over japan, and more importantly, the dutch beating the domincan republic in not one but two unthinkable upsets to advance to the next round, and the finale tonight in shocking fashion further heightened by the competition's esoteric rule about starting with two runners after twelve innings, which isn't too offensive of an idea really. tomorrow we find out the groups for the next round. the dutch could play the americans, and that is a wild prospect. the cubans are playing the aussies right now, and it is tied 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth with two on two out and a full count. i can get into this.
but it is really the setting that brings it all together. toronto, ontario, canada is an incredible place. the stereotype is that the people are really nice, and while this certainly proves true in some cases, it isn't pervasive. "courteous" and "thoughtful" are more accurate. this is still a big big city, but the underlying interactions of its inhabitants result in a populace that leads a less stressful atmosphere. human beings are very fickle creatures, and slight changes in environment undoubtedly have occasionally far-reaching influences. obviously, i'm on vacation, and away from some cares people at home here aren't. but from where i'm standing, this is a place with all of the upsides and opportunities of a major city in this region of the world and but missing a lot of the downsides of many different other places. this is a marvelous city.
and the aussies just pulled ahead. if you are into names that begin with "y" you should really see the wbc cuban baseball team roster (which is sadly missing yunieski bentancourt - perfect combo) also witness the pants of the cuban team. yeah, it is always like that. they have hit three batters this inning, and should cut that out. the thing is, you can do a good job of "accidentally" hitting someone with a pitch, whereas you cannot "accidentally" charge the mound like richie sexson.
anyway, enough baseball for a moment. let me say something about curling. the most important curling tournament in canada is also playing right now. i like just about everything about it. it is inexplicably called the brier. it is sponsored by tim horton's. they have an ad that is funny enough but still makes some sense and they play it enough but it isn't overdone. the teams are determined by nationwide competitions that go as low as different groups of clubs within the same small town. this is totally possible with games that are not very strenuous and have teams of four. i think it is pretty easy to learn the rules of a game that has simple basics while you watch it and have rules references in front of you. there are some pretty good terms. let's go stack the brooms, eh. can't quite tell if they got a biter there or not. this is our favorite dude, who yells incomprehensibly (in an extremely quebecois manner) whenever his team is curling. martin crete, ladies and gentlemen: "I'd like to think I'm passionate and I'm loud," Howard said in a break from covering the curling chorus from the broadcast booth at the Canadian men's curling championship. "I know I sound annoying to a lot of people. "I've had many older people come up to me and say, 'You're the reason they invented the mute button.' "

"Martin Crete? He's a little aggressive," Alberta lead Ben Hebert said after Monday morning's 7-4 victory over Saskatchewan's Pat Simmons.

"Just today, I was in the hack on one of Jean-Michel's shots. Martin was losing his mind, so I just sat there and waited a couple of seconds. Usually, it doesn't bother me at all, but that was a little over the top.

"I don't know what he's yelling. I think he just yells, 'Ah' as loud as he can. His girlfriend must get an earful."

once you understand the game, it is kind of like the love child of pool and bowling. there is a ton of great strategy, gameplay is very deliberate, and it is totally relaxed to play. it has been great to have it on to fill gaps and often because it is not tough to play a few games a day. i really really want to try it.

even if you don't like sports, some things are just cool as cultural institutions. that is certainly the quality of the hockey hall of fame. this was like a museum/shrine. the sign says welcome to the cathedral of hockey. i don't know french, but the french version of that sign uses the same word as it does in the translation of just plain "hockey all of fame". it seemed a little silly until i got inside: it is a house not simply of artifacts, but relics. i had a friggin blast, but the cup would have been worth it all on its own. it is in an extremely own building that was once the bank of montreal location. the kind of place that has a sweet vault. but it isn't like a bank, it is like a train station mixed with a church. the atmosphere is hushed. no one speak loud when they are near the cup. i think the best friggin stained glass ever might have something to do with that. the main thing is that unlike almost every other much revered comparable item, you get to touch the stanley cup. the real friggin thing. it makes the trip a true pilgrimage. really an incredible and indellible experience.

more to say than there is time to say it, and that makes it a great trip.

classic

i am in toronto to watch a bunch of baseball because it is spring break and there is the second world baseball classic which had cheap tickets. toronto, as everyone probably knows, is an awful lot like america but it is much nicer in some ways. the world baseball classic is major league baseball's attempt to grow global interest in the game and hold an international tournament similar to the world cup. this is the beginning of the competition, where teams are playing in pools of four. the countries in the pool here in toronto are the us, canada, venezuela, and italy. two teams emerge from each group, and the us and venezuela were heavily favored in this one. oh wait, i'm in canada, they were favoured. anyway, the games today were us/canada and venezuela/italy, in that order.
the us/canada game was of course viewed as a huge deal. there are a decent number of talented canadian players, but as the competition is somewhat fledgling, it doesn't draw all the marquee names that any of the teams involved might boast, including the states. last time around, the canadians did beat the us, adding some steam to a game that was already pretty significant in toronto. the games were at the rogers center, which is enormous. the size of the venue is breathtaking from the outside, as it has a retractable dome that adds more height to an already generously sized arena (it ordinarily houses the baseball team and the argonauts, the canadian football league team - canadian football needs a very large field, bigger than american). so this large stadium was totally packed out, and mostly with canada fans, but there were a lot of americans too. the interesting thing was that despite the tense atmosphere and the obvious passion of the fans, there was little to no jawing between opposing supporters. the game itself was absolutely amazing and extremely competitive. there were a lot of home runs. in fact, i think it was the only way the us scored at all. maybe not quite. it was not much different from the way the tigers play, speaking of which, there were a lot of detroit fans there, not too surprising given proximity and the glut of representatives on the venezuelan roster. at the end of the game, the canadians were behind by one with a runner on second and a great player batting. the count worked to full, followed by a couple of foul balls. needless to say, this was pretty tense. the ball was hit hard into play, and with the dowmed roof it was difficult to gauge how far it might go, but it dropped into middle right field and was caught to end the game. good times.
the venezuela/italy game was much different. whereas the the us/canada match was expected to be competitive if not as close as it was, everyone was quite certain venezuela would crush and perhaps mercy the italians. also, toronto is not in or near either of those two countries. however, there were a lot of venezuelans in for the game, which was great to see. their fans brought a great atmosphere, sort of the world cup feel i am sure baseball would like to achieve: lots of country colors, face paint, silly hats, various percussion instruments, good chanting. if you make it from venezuela to canada, you are probably pretty serious about this stuff. as for italy, well, not the same sort of presence, but a respectable amount of canadians of italian heritage showing support, bringing some flags and such. the italians batted first, and things started out as expected. before the third out, though, the italians got a couple hits but didn't push anything across. good enough for the venezuelans as they set in to their strength, hitting. the second batter cranked a ball to the gap in deep right, and my thought was well, here we go. the right fielder, however, had different ideas, and hustled his best, but it didn't look like he would get it. he made a great dive and made a shocking catch, quieting the vociferous venezuela supporters. it was totally a game-changer, as for the next few innings the italians looked a lot better than the venezuelans. despite much threatening, however, no runs were scored. eventually, things shook down more or less as expected and venezuela won like 7-0 or something, but that it happened is not as important as how it happened.
the story of the significance begins a couple years ago, with the aforementioned detroit tigers. the tigers, while showing some great stretches over the last couple years, have had little luck with their relief pitching. one of the lowlights of the tiger bullpen recently was a man by the name of jason grilli. although he was born in america, the world baseball classic rules allow him to play for italy because his parents or grandparents moved to the states from there. although there have been several terrible tiger relievers over the last couple years, and probably a couple are in this tournament, jason grilli was markedly one of the worst, and has become somewhat of a representative joke between myself and my buddy from law school who went to grand valley. he also has a disdain for italians based on his experiences in rome and greater italy this past summer, and so on the way up here i was making jokes about getting him a game-worn jason grilli jersey. before then, it was always an autographed one or something along those lines. point is, we hate jason grilli, have hated him for a while, and have had several conversations about how terrible of a pitcher he is. the tigers did trade him away last season, and jim leyland was forced into talking about why, and talked some great smack on grilli. basically, this is one of our favorite dudes to dog. he showed up in a bunch of promos because he is one person on their roster who has flawless english, and we boo him every time they show him on the screen, and we booed him when they announced him on the roster, and so on. so the game is headed into the fifth or six, the italian starter has held the powerhouse venezuelans scoreless, and we see grilli is warming up in the bullpen, and sure enough, they bring him in. we boo him when he is announced. he warms up a little and the inning begins; the first batter is carlos guillen, former contemporary of jason grilli in detroit, but unlike jason grilli, a player worth having around, good hitter, some good skills in the field, not a superstar power hitter, but a solid daily guy. grilli delivers, and it is high and outside, not a close pitch, not a good pitch. grilli throws again, and guillen sees it well and gets all of it, sending it well over the left field wall. two pitches, and grilli gives up a home run to a guy who rarely hits them, and things begin to unravel from there. grilli gets a little help from his defense on the next ball in play, and then serves up back to back walks. despite being one of the few major leaguers on the roster, grilli has quickly run to the end of his manager's patience, and gets yanked. venezuela scores three more times, and the batters grilli walked are charged to him and he gets the loss on the night. grilli finishes with a era of 81. if you don't know what that means, it means he is fucking awful and was completely useless. in a bizarre way, it totally made my night. i'm having a great time, and i don't expect that to stop tomorrow with the highly anticipated us/venezuela tilt.

in which i review the shit out of chinese democracy

i love the leading off with "in which" and i decided to snag that one, thanks to my sister and i think someone else a little while ago and the beginning of the let it be album. i've been giving chinese democracy a lot of thought since the most recent and finally true release information came out. hope i don't jinx it somehow, since it hasn't technically been released yet. i like guns and roses just fine, but they are not exactly my favorite of all time. i think they squandered what they had in a lot of instances. but they also made some pretty damn good music. enough to make me pretty curious about what axl rose would do over the course of fifteen years with a small army of sometimes bandmates. they're streaming it now, and i'm not doing much, and i was mostly unsatisfied with the reviews i've read thus far. so i am going to review it myself. probably favorably. if you do not want to hear a lot about chinese democracy, do not read this. or for a fun trick, imagine all references to the title of the release refer to the notion of democracy in china. don't forget your free doctor pepper.
starts out epically enough by building with ambient noise and gradually crescendoing unintelligable speaking? deliberate note-by-note guitar lead in before dropping into super heavy riff and an old school axl howl. starts off with pantera-esque bombast, giving way to prevalent overdubs of axl over himself in his upper end of the range. the rocking guitar is enough to carry this track on its own, although it seems to shift a lot, i am assuming different people played parts for this one. but hot damn. the song is satisfying overall, even if most of it sounds like late 90s metal acts (the ones not flirting with rap stylings) that had obvious g n r influences and a sick lead guitarist.
i guess the next one has been out for a while, and it is pretty grating at first blush. it sounds like it wants to grind along like something that could keep background, but then decides to assert itself rather intensely again. this one is a little over the top but not in a funny yet totally awesome way like the finest gunners stuff, just kind of silly, screams pay attention to me. there are a lot of abrupt changes, and now the sort of barked vocal noises are more like the awesome stuff i was references. but it has to change again and end the monkey noises, and just goes in reverse like it had started out. a definite listening experience, intriguing if not entirely pleasurable to hear.
things slow down at start out with a sort of trippy drum track and vocals. things snap together into a lean riffing mid-tempo rocker that trudges on methodically before predictably once again giving away dramatically and cranking it up to eleven. this is really my kind of track at some points, and it seems like axl might have actually been paying attention to the world around him and not just what he already had. i like that he managed to pick up some influences of major-league indie rock (not an oxymoron, i say). overall, my favorite track so far.
ballad time, which for axk means piano plinking time. i can dig that. stays pretty low key for a while before going monster ballad style. pretty old school right here. the strings come in to complete the scene. crunching riff and a guitar solo that doesn't soar quite as high as it could or should, no reason not to sustain the notes on something like this. it goes all the right places, but there are way better solos in this set, and that would have been prime time for one that was wasted alongside another elsewhere on the record. false ending, oh hell yes. almost makes the guitar fail forgivable, this is what i love about this band, epic cheese and unashamed. great structure to that track.
next one starts out with some flamenco guitar over electronica drum machines before a funk riff and strings (why now?) kick in. very strange stuff, axl trying to move in new direction is interesting. i hate to say it, but chuck kobesaw was totally right about this song. he said it sounds like a late pierce brosnan-era bond film both titularly and musically: "if the world". this is the counterpart to when the smashing pumpkins tried their hand with electronica influences for that batman and robin movie around that time. so while it is an update on gnr, it is not really current. total gorillaz moment there, sounds good but also dated and derivitive. it is not bad, just kind of forced indutrial sounding.
next one kicks off with some choir and then jerks into something that sounds like the backbone of a mid-tempo rap song. things shift into ballad mode again, and once again there is a lot of muscle backing it. this is some classic axl singing. there are some strange samples kind of muffled in the background, chalk that up partially to streaming from myspace i guess. kind of dragging a little before getting to the guitar solo, this one is more appropriately sonorous, if a little mournful, appropriate for the melancholy lyrics. everything comes together for a while before another solo, this one more of the bitchin' variety. things get pretty extreme here as they really rock it out, very well-orchestrated. incredible guitar part, really letting it all go. the conclusion is exactly what is expected, and does not disappoint at all for what it should be, and bring that choir back to finish things up.
another plodding rocker with a desparate, dramatic feel. this song would probably be much more appealing in a different place in the order, but at least the synthetic drums elements aren't present three times in a row. more good to great guitar work, enough to spare. this song is a somewhat definite member of a species, and a fine specimen at that, but out of its natural habitat. the listen begins to take on a little bit of an indulgent feel at this point. i must say the piano playing is right on and the guitar remains a respectful distance at appropriate times. this song is like a mountain without a peak, carrying a lot of weight and considerable height but it doesn't lead to anything in particular since it tries to be the big punch everytime the music shifts.
this starts out with some positively ridiculous vocal exercizes, almost an r&b kind of a thing but with an awful lot of axl. the guitar is menacing but immediately loses its effect as a result of the high-pitched response backup vocals and becomes merely cartoonish. once those go away, this goes back to the late 90s power metal feel and does do a great job of it, yet remains consistent with the proto-version of the sound the band named the same thing these guys are using did early in its career. predictably, the backup vocals return for the refrain. i don't really care for most things that come of as trying to be anthematic, and this song crosses the line at certain points. if i spent fifteen years on this song, i think i would realize that the lyrics sounded a little ludicrous even by gunners cheese standards. don't try and stop you axl? don't worry about it. we all wanted that dr. pepper.
this doesn't sound like axl at all at first, or like gnr for that matter. axl just did something really really weird with his voice there. slow tune but not a ballad. wait for it, you know it is coming... psychedelic rock out. the whole thing is like some perverse interpretation of late-era beatles and its descendents up to and including the turn of the century. yet another stylistic element comes into play with a notably bluesy guitar solo. the song takes on a very comfortable feel, a more resigned angst than the bitter nervousness that gives some gnr material its edge. this is like a take on alice in chains, and it works out well overall. still, a lot going on and some parts are better than others.
brooding opening, tries to be spooky and then spacy before picking up a dancy feel for a moment. more vocal shenanigans before any lyrics. another abrupt change here, another strange electronic noise there. rocking out pretty hard for the most part, a song that lurches between classic driving guns and roses and iron maiden filler album cuts. those vocal shenanigans return, and it sounds like he is almost trying to do his own immigrant song thing. fortunately, guitars to the rescue. pretty sweet, sounds like something zakk wylde might play.
classic rock time, and they do it up right and proper. there is a fine line between a feel-good song you just want to sing along to and trying to be anthematic, and axl gets it right this time around. i don't know the words yet, but i am considering learning them and ordering a whiskey and putting this on a jukebox somewhere for a good time. not that i would really be able to keep up with some of the screeching axl does here. i really wonder when that part of the vocal track dates to. this one is a highlight for me, but there isn't any real ending to it, which is unfortunate, i wouldn't have been opposed to another false ending in all honesty.
horns first, then strings on top of it. once again, it is unclear who is even singing here. it is the same person always, but it wavers between sounding like axl rose sounds and sounding like no one else ever has sounded. kind of strange. things slow back down but not too far. more mechanical-sounding drums drive a steady pace, and things culminate with the guitar paired along more samples from cool hand luke and something else, i don't know. the strings add some bravado at the right time but then put things back to where they came from after a brief rock-out. for some reason this track seems like it should be the last one on the record. it is just that kind of a song. not bad, not the greatest all the time, but really good when you want to hear it. when you don't want to hear it you can be pretty comfortable about ending the listen there, and that is why it should be last. anytime you sample martin luther king jr, that is just something that should finish things. this one fades out the way it should but the final strings flourish is a little unnecessary.
this is not a cool ballad right now. painful axl. too much, even the piano isn't doing it for me right now. predictable strings. the soft music just makes axl seem that much more piercing. this is one of those times he should stay down in the range. the mandatory guitar solo is quality but restrained.
the final cut is not as good as the song that should have ended the album, but it does have that same the record finishes here feel. the two songs are relatively disparate, but they accomplish the same feel in different ways. this one almost seems even more deliberately crafted for that regard. makes sense, if you're going to spend fifteen years on something and keep it from sprawling out of control, presumably you also have an interest in some album-craft to the point of specific beginning and closing songs. this is a long, dramatic, choreographed farewell sequence. it serves its purpose well. personally, i was so ready to say goodbye at the twelth track that i am more than ready to do so with this one. it was, however, good to me.
all of these songs are really full of ideas and the 15 years thing makes some sense. i think he could have made just as good of a record, and bizarrely as cohesive, if he just spread things out instead of trying to do too much at once. this could have wound up like the white album. being what it is, chinese democracy stands even less of a chance of a fair review than just about anything else in some time.
people almost always approach any given thing with the sum of their life's experiences in relation to whatever the context is. lots of things factor in, and just about all of them, at the end of the day, are opinions. the point is, a lot of people have a lot of opinions about this record before they have even heard it. it works that way for everything, but in this instance, those opinions are particularly strong among certain segments of the population, namely just about everyone who has any interest in hearing a guns and roses album that was fifteen years in the making and is made up of basically axl rose and a bunch of other dudes who are not recognized for their extensive credits on previous studio material under the name guns and roses. those are just a few of the aspects that make people inclined to either want to love or loathe this record.
music is by its nature a very subjective thing, but the people interested in chinese democracy can probably agree on a few basic things. axl rose has previously been involved with quality studio material. he is, whatever else one might say about him, a reasonably talented individual. fifteen years is a lot of time to spend working on a single release. there are therefore bound to be at least some good points about chinese democracy.
all that aside, people have several reasons to know how they want to feel about this music before they have even heard it. admittedly, i wanted to like it. i also wanted to appraoch it as objectively as possible, but it just doesn't work like that. music is a language that doesn't function as one. this is why everyone has different ipods and pandora stations, and moreso why you'll always skip something on someone else itunes library or especially why your carefully whittled internet radio station eventually plays something you have no interest in hearing or downright detest. the pandora thing is based on the objective elements, and sometimes they just do not add up right at all.
this is not too far off from what is going on with chinese democracy. axl has an established palette to draw from, but he adds to it appropriately for the most part. the occasional offending elements are certainly present, but most of the time, this record is actually precisely what it should be considering the incubation and perfectionism. it has its own relative spectrum of good and bad. as a whole, though, this is really pretty good music. everything on chinese democracy is well-crafted if a little too deliberate at times. it deserves to be listened to closely. i just wrote down my first impressions and certainly went back for more. if you think you would like something like what was described above, this will be worth checking out. if you don't like guns and roses, of course you won't like it. if you think fifteen years means it will be the best album ever, you won't like it. if you just want to listen to a strange record some time, you might like it.

i heart google ads

i did find something to do yesterday after that blog post. it was quite an adventure, but it is not the story i intend to tell at this time. right now, all i want to say is:
(link) Supreme Court
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hot dog

oh man i just ate a couple of pretty excellent hot dogs. on par with epic sandwiches? not quite. it is, after all, a hot dog. however, this has been a breakthrough in its own realm. this was achieved with the assistance of the achewood cookbook. a number of small but important adjustments make all the difference. first of all, toasting the bun. this is very simple and absolutely key. also, cooking in a little bit of water in a frying pan. this is probably the ideal way of heating the dog, very even and undamaging. typically all i really care about on a hotdog is ketchup; other things seem to get in the way of this basic enjoyment. i do like onions, but you never need a whole onion's worth of onion for a hot dog or two. fortunately, roommates with the assist. the fridge had half a small red onion (still only needed a couple slices), some dank mustard and crucial relish. this was truly the budget gormet, and having the little things required in small amounts on hand makes all the difference. i have not felt this good about eating a hot dog in some time. i mean, yesterdog is good, but it has been a long time and also i still recall that one almost never feels good about eating yesterdog.
the whole hot dog thing started with a conversation a couple days ago that dwelled on them for a while, although i cannot recall the exact point of the conversation. i awoke the next morning with an acute desire to eat a hot dog. i thought about it for a second and decided that was a silly thought. after a while i realized the craving had been ignited by that conversation and that i still wanted a hot dog. after about four hours i decided that i really truly did want a hot dog and would probably be pretty satisfied if i had one. it isn't a huge investment, after all, and they make for reasonably priced personal food units. and so i did indeed purchase hot dogs to sate myself and i thought it hit the spot. i must say that the much-desired albeit overly and unevenly microwaved and ketchup-slathered object possessed a very small fraction of the crude culinary delight i have just experienced.
the point is, sometimes the little things kill, and sometimes the little things never let you down, never run around and desert you. if you have also gone some time without a hotdog, you should probably have one. a delicious one. that goes double if you are a vegetarian. no matter who you are, do it for taste. do it for america. do it for freedom.
sweet jesus, did i just write a blog post about hotdogs and close out with references to bush and rick astley? i should probably go do something.

breaking news

i am not up to a whole lot. very little, in fact. just wanted to keep you posted. in non-news:
exams are drawing perilously near. i have not been over-committed to concerning myself with them, but we are approaching the point where there is just too much ambient angsting to ignore around the school. in that environment, the worst things thrive and multiply. this is one of the many reasons i do not like to study there. there is so much anxiety and fear-mongering and even the inoculated succumb to the pandemic. i'm doing my best though. i'm not going to buy any fucking flash cards. all answers will be in the book. i already bought that. these people go through life solving problems by throwing money at them. i try to solve most problems by doing nothing. recent studies suggest that the two approaches have a nearly identical success rate. both of course fail when compared to logical, well-reasoned courses of action. that being said, i think logical inactions result from the preferred method more often than monetary transactions do. the takeaway comfort here is that, in law school at least, i am confident that i am just as well off as those poor souls oozing stress and returning that unique and putrid scent to the bunker we call a school. i don't know if it is them or flooding or something dead in the heating system anymore. however, the proximity of actual events does demand some attention that may or may not be forthcoming, as remains to be seen.
and just a little more law school: this morning i had the misfortune to sit by people before class. these were the sorts referred to above. amid other exam bitching, a girl mentions that she "doesn't get" why explanations for answers are an essential part of law school exams. after all, if she knows the answer, why should she ever need to understand it? just like math, she says: if she can write down the correct answer, why should a showing of methodology be demanded? foolishness, but a basic sort. this is only the set-up, though. then she adds that professors should assume she possesses requisite understanding if she has a correct answer because, of course, "i'm already in law school, they don't let idiots in here." shoot me now, folks.
just a little more law school: that one girl i used to complain about and may or may not have labelled as my personal nemesis? i have a class with her this year again. as it turns out, she is not so bad. not entirely unpleasant to talk with. really a pretty alright human being. i do not know which of us changed much, if either or both, but i suspect it is largely perception. although i swear she was a real bitch last year. we're not going to be best friends forever or anything, but she is a friendly acquaintance at this point.
not law school: i am currently sporting a moustache i must say i feel pretty good about. the beard is not entirely gone because for one thing, i didn't want it to be, and for another thing, that would require a razor that i do not own and do not wish to purchase. so basically i trimmed everything pretty far down except the moustace. the ends are curled up and kind of point toward my nose, as they can't quite complete the full circle yet. with a little more length or a bit of murray's, this should be doable. it is pretty silly, but also pretty old school. it goes well with the notorious h.a.t.. the best explaination so far is that i look like other a prospector or haberdasher. also, take that, law school. hah, snuck it in there on you.
pandora is treating me pretty well these days on jimi hendrix radio. the cool thing about pandora isn't always so much discovering a new artist with more than one song you dig or a deep cut from a favorite as much as it is hearing music you know and love but do not get to hear very often and wish you had purchased back when you bought a ton of music. the kind of albums a friend has and you always meant to get a copy of and never did. music you knew you like but had no idea how much.
recently made a christmas list. strange exercise, really. i'm not sure what it says about someone, but a collection of twelve or so items that one would enjoy but not necessarily independently purchase says something. it was also bizarre to put it together as a series of hyperlinks. a good thing, really, as there are more things available through the internet than any physical place in the world on its own. i do not understand how dhl fucked up in an era where so many things are shipped, but that is neither here nor there. i was able to suggest something that doesn't even exist in the specific form, and there is some mystical appeal to personalization these days. people have commissioned things for a long time, and this is simpler, but i think the appeal is somewhat similar.
finished that riddley walker book a while ago. very thought-provoking. my preferred kind of fiction, good story with lots of hazy metaphor and playing with language. the style forces you to constantly think and interpret and makes for slow going, but is ultimately fairly rewarding. if you don't like the idea of reading a book with everything spelled unconventionally, then you should probably make sure you do not read this book. if the concept doesn't bother you and you enjoy literature from when people still worried about nuclear war a whole bunch, this comes highly recommended.
the heater is finally kicking on. it has turned cold here, but no snow yet by any means. allegedly some shall fall soon, but i remain skeptical about its significance. i actually kind of want to see some snow fall though, and might even go outside and look. in any event, i am sure i will see enough when i go peninsula stlye. yeah, i went there. should be back on or around a week before christmas, and for a while. looking forward to seeing everyone.

tonight is a good night i think for updating neglected blogs

if you are picking up what i am putting down that is good and we are friends. if you are not, we are friends and you should spend more time with your friends at qwantz.com, official home of always making me laugh on the internet. i believe i have mentioned this previously, but i also believe that it bears repeating.
what have i been doing? the same things i normally do. i have been remiss in relating many adventures of the past month or whatever it has been. some of these adventures: philly won that world series, there was some dancing in the streets. they had a parade on a day that also happened to be halloween. i wore a milk crate on my head most of that day in the crude semblance of a costume. i did the same thing at night that i did last year and chronicled in this space and it seems like a lot of time has passed. i went to go see rocky horror picture show as a stage production. my friend was frank n furter and he showed up just about everybody else by being fucking amazing. another friend was also in the production and i was unaware of that until he emerged as rocky from the lab table wearing very very little. i taught my buddy how to brew beer. despite my repetition of the fact, he was still amazed at the ease of the process. i went to baltimore and hung out with mando and the dwy. we went here. there was good beer and delicious garlic-rosemary fries. that man who speaks eloquently and raises hell of funds won a contest that night too. i assume the people who live in this house around the corner (across from the old place) from me were pretty excited. seriously, click that link and look around. i promise that one will not barackroll you.anyway, i probably did some other stuff over that month that was fun too but is not presently springing to mind.
law school is still law school. i don't know if i hate it less than i used to or if i just hate it differently. i choose classes now and i feel like maybe i could do some kind of lawyering perhaps someday, i don't know. trademarks are pretty alright. there are still a lot of unpleasant people to be around though and i do not feel like i am engaging with things too much or even like i could if i just tried a little harder. it is less fun now because one of my best friends is not going anymore. i mean, the people i am friends with at law school share my distaste for the ordeal, but we are mostly talk and stuff. but she is gone and it is kind of different not having one of five people i am actually friends with not be there anymore. but she lives close by now. i can't blame her for doing what she is doing and i do not know if i wish i could or not.
i have not been forced to leave my current housing due to lack of respect or anything else. i like living here and i think i do better when i have people around. my hope of working more and harder because i lived alone mostly just resulted in being lonely and having a lot of trouble getting out of bed for like anything except class. i wonder what will happen in a year when some of my friends here say they will move to portland. i would like to move to portland maybe. it seems to be a pretty common sentiment among the people i know and spend time with. but i have things to do here. nobody knows what will happen ever.
i have had some pretty exceptional brews over the last month too. victory's hop wallop is out again and you should enjoy some of that. i found founders harvest ale and i was happy to find it and happier to sip it. weyerbacher's fresh hop was also top notch. i must say i was not overwhlemed by that magic hat you kids have been extolling, the fall brown whatever it was. it was okay. i look forward to tring the winter odd notion. roxy rolles is out again too. i cannot recall if i mentioned that imperial pumpkin ale or not. if you ask and also say nice things to me i might bring one for you for christmas. it is pretty remarkable. the real revelation in the world of brew for me over this past stretch has been some heady cans. i knew oskar blues' dale's pale ale pretty well, the ultimate beer for events where you can bring beer but not in glass. that could not have prepared me for the big fat malt fest of old chub scotch ale (watch out old founders dirty bastard) or the sticky hoppy nirvana of gordon. i do not know why these folks wanted to do the can thing; they do not need a gimmick.
i have been enjoying the musical stylings of band of horses. as usual, i am not at the forefront or anything, but those guys are pretty frigging good man. i have a fever and the only cure is more reverb on the vocals. i get the my morning jacket comparisons and i like both but i hear some pretty significant differences. horses have put out much less material and thus it seems to me like they are more consistently good, but that is because my pandora keeps playing obscure primitive mmj tracks. i have also been digging on modest mouse and do not think their most recent album is quite as bad as everyone else does. also on the music front, tea leaf green is playing a lot of shows pretty close by but not in the city. i am pretty frustrated because i can't seem to find a way to any of these gigs. hopefully something will give; i have to believe there are other people on the internet who are making at least the short trip to lancaster, if not stroudsburg and towson. i am listening to the most recent philly show and i still recall it as one of the best nights of my whole life.
i feel like i haven't really gotten much on the table here, and yet the whole typing is kind of cathartic. questions or comments? please fill out a survey card and put it in the box.

timesuck

so i have been wasting time all over the interwebs (int0rwabs? teh? the gore? i just don't know anymore), pretty much everywhere but here. this has, however, led to some maintenance (can never spell that one right; i swear i tried it that way already) of the links section. so here is your shocking update: the comic linked under 'funny' has been removed because it has not really been funny at all recently. boo to that, so i dealt the site the crushing blow of removing it from my links. it has been replaced with another one, though, of course. this other one is somewhat reminiscent of dinosaur comics (which should really be moved to funniest) but there are some differences. the artistic concepts (although this one changes every time) and humor are along the same lines. also added a link to my sister's new blog that she is writing from the land of thai chili crisps, a.k.a. england. she is a super good writer and this is a great chance for you to learn everything you wanted to know about libraries in london (and some other stuff) but were afraid to ask. check it out.
in addition to tons and tons of stuff i have learned about that no one else would care to hear about, i recently turned up one item that is probably of fairly pervasive interest: npr's website will stream the new dylan album for the week leading up to its release, starting september 30th. i'm sure plenty of people knew that already, but either way, i think it is pretty cool. this is a perfect thing to have streamed because it is something that has the opportunity to be really good or er, not, and plenty of people are going to purchase it anyway.
as i mentioned earlier, my sister has departed to a place across the ocean with confusing signage. before she left, there was a send-off soiree at her place where i had a good time. while many people show up to these sorts of things with somewhat convoluted connections, i always seem to be a little out of place despite the gene pool thing. in any event, this party was also talk like a pirate day, so i made grog. i thought grog was just rum and hot water, but there is other stuff in it like sugar, citrus juice, cinnamon and cloves. in fact that is all the other stuff that is in it. it comes out kind of like mulled wine. kept it warm with a rice cooker which did the trick splendidly. however, there were an awful lot of bevarages present and not all of it got consumed during the party. it sat around at my place for a couple days until a few of us were up late drinking and ran out of beer. this led to the invention of quite a delicious drink combining about equal parts grog and a iced tea/lemonade mix. pretty diluted at that point, but also entirely delicious. i do not know if letting things sit about for a day or two has any effect though, and we decided we should probably make it again and find out.
the next night brought a crab feast, which was pretty frigging awesome. the whole idea got started because we took on an additional roommate for a couple months, a friend of a current roommate who wanted to get out of baltimore. so this guy is coming up from maryland, and the idea is to have him bring up a bushel of live large blue crabs. we will wait here for him and drink beers and get things going in the afternoon. well he was late out of the gate, and upon attempted purchase of crabs discovered that prices had skyrocketed and the desired type of crab was not even available. fuck that, we said. what wound up happening was many phone calls resulting in a lengthy expedition into the northern part of the city and a savings of roughly eighty dollars. the girl who drove actually left before we even got the crabs cooked though! i felt bad. fortunately, we had copious amounts of boulder brewing's 'hazed and infused' which is a quality beer that is ideal for protracted good times such as a crab feast. somewhere between a pale and an ipa in terms of bitterness, with a svelte body that makes for smooth and easy drinkability, especially combined with the overall refreshing floral character. a good time was had by all.
speaking of baltimore, i found myself there again the other weekend. i was in exactly the same part of town that i had been to before for the kinetic sculpture race. at first i was surprised, but when i thought about i realized that the sorts of things that would draw me to go down there would probably be in the same general vicinity. checked out the american visionary arts museum, which was very intruiging but kind of small. it looked like there would be more from the outside. the outside is almost as good as some of the stuff in there though. to be fair, one of the floors in the main building was closed for the instillation of an upcoming exhibit, and we got discount admission. still, the permenant collection just wasn't as expansive as i assumed it might be. size aside, that stuff was really really cool. the artist bios are also a lot more interesting than the typical fare. the idea with the museum is that everything it has comes from entirely formally untrained artists. so there were some pretty crazy people who had stuff in there, and it was pretty nifty. the set-up of the museum is also a refreshing change of pace, three different buildings with different layouts and purposes. i think i would have been a lot more blown away by it had i not seen so much of the cool stuff outside when i was there before, but it was still worth exploring fully.
the real reason to go to baltimore was for a concert, though. we had a bit of a tough time finding the venue, which turned out to be a little embarrasing. it was at this place called the pier six pavillion, right, but all the stuff around had signs for what was on pier five or four or whatever. we had no problem finding those piers. but we were trying to hard to follow directions instead of common sense that says pier six is probably not too far away from pier five. oh well, we found it with time to spare.
i was unaware that the first band was even going to be on the bill. they were called [someone's name, justin something?] and the driving rain. pretty innocuous and a little bland, but very adherent to solid americana rock and roll. mid-tempo country rock with a lot of organ. the guy played whatever he had through a leslie, and that sounded pretty damn good. frontman could sing. just nothing i could get all up in arms about. kind of reminded me of the wallflowers.
i was not there to see a band of that description. rather, i was there to see the avett brothers, who i have been raving about and constantly listening to ever since i got talked into riding along to a free show of theirs in pittsburgh a few months back. they did not disappoint. i don't think they could if they wanted to; it is just not in them. it was a much different experience to be intimately familiar with the catalog this time around. spent more time being pumped about what was being played than looking around and enjoying myself but a little of unsure about how incredibly excited everyone around me was. great show, could tell the guys were a little tired but giving it every once of energy they had, and the crowd was just wild the whole time, couldn't get enough and couldn't calm down, although people were impressively respectful during quieter numbers. seems like this band is always on tour, and i cannot stress enough how worthwhile it would be to get into this band through a live show or any sort of recording. let me know if you need something, seriously.
despite the unbridled enthusiasm of the crowd for the avetts, they were not the headliner at this show. that would be the drive-by truckers. i feel like most people who should be into this band already are, but if you've enver heard them you probably should. some serious southern-fried guitar orgy balls to the wall rock. it was really good live and loud as fuck. they played their asses off too. one of the three guitar players spent a decent chunk of time on the pedal steel, and i can never get enough of that. their backdrop had some things on either side that looked like demonic swans. i am not sure what was up with that, but whatever. let there be rock, indeed. all together, it was a great show at a chill venue in a beautiful setting; an ideal combination. saw some wire-status parts of the city on the meaner out, just to keep things interesting. and then there was the ride. i like rides. that was a good day.
i know today is supposed to be friday night or whatever, but i'm totally just going to sit around and watch the debate. i don't know why; i usually don't bother. kind of curious, and it is one of those things it feels nice to have one's own interpretation and understanding of. i'm sure plenty of people i know here are going to go out and watch it. to me, going to a bar seems like the worst possible idea. no good can come of that.
in fact, as i was writing about this, one of my roommates said goodbye. i asked where she was going. to the bar to watch the debate, of course. but apparently she is watching it in a semi-private room with some organized group of obama supporters. as long as your someplace where you can avoid a fight, you're alright. i don't feel like that is real likely a lot of places i would go to. freedom, terra, etc.

hat

i am currently wearing a hat. this is not a normal thing for me. figured i would give it a shot. it is kind of weird to see it in reflections. i have tucked all of my hair under it in an effort to simulate to some degree my appearance without all of that hair. kind of livable. but i think i would need to keep the hat. maybe i can get used to this. it is not an ordinary style of hat. sort of like engineer style. the main issue is that it is maroon and sort of clashes with a lot of what i own. oh well. it is only a hat.
in addition to acquiring said hat, the last few days have not been lacking in activity and amusement, due in large part to a visit from my mother, her mother, and a family friend. although the visit was on short notice and consequently of some stress, a good time was had by most if not all.
i got to go to a play. i like plays and i rarely see them because i have not made it enough of a priority. unfortunate as that may be, it made it that much nicer to see one again. it was about joe hill, who was an early folk singer and iww union organizer. sounds like a pretty solid guy. it was a one man show, which was impressive because it was well-executed. the guy sang very well and played the banjo and accordion adequately. overall i thought it was a strange show for my family to select but i rather enjoyed it. some pretty cool theater trickery, excellent use of a minimal set, and a thought-out design of the set in the first place made it a solid experience.
the next night we were supposed to go see a baseball game, but it got rained out. instead, we went and ate a bunch of delicious food. it was sort of tapas-style, and highlights included a barbeque chicken quesedilla, calamari, cheese steak eggroll, and a thoroughly decent shiraz. this also marked the first time i have visibly prayed in a restaurant in as long as i can remember. afterwords we got gelato. if you enjoy ice cream and have not had gelato, do not eat gelato. it is exponentially superior and you may find it difficult to settle for inferior frozen dairy desserts after experiencing the rich, savory wonders of gelato.
i also went to a small-scale neighborhood music festival sort of a thing the other night. it was supposed to start at like four or something and i knew roughly five people wou were sure they were going to be there. well, of course nobody else went when i did, for various reasons. that was acceptable. kicked around the park it was at for a while. nice little place, as much a garden as a park, really. it was up in a neighborhood that has been hip for some time, and as a result the only people other than me at the park toward the beginning were parents with children who were not older than three or so. there were several of these units and then me, and also the few people who had something to do with the festival. i am always open to hearing new music, especially live, especially free, but admittedly the strongest draw of the even came from the alleged offer of free beer with purchase of ten dollar cup. and not shitty free beer either; i thought it was going to be yard's but it turned out to be pbc. those guys are pretty good too. the thing was, as the event got rolling with the speed and grace of a two-toed sloth, no beer was being poured. there was a setup for it, brought by a large truck covered in the brewery's regalia. there were people to serve it. but something wasn't right. i didn't want to be the one person hassling the people who were there to serve beer and not serving it, as there had to be some sort of a real problem to keep absolutely everybody on the scene from not even having a beer. and yes, there was a problem: the regulator for the co2 tank was broken and they had to wait for another to be delivered. it was kind of a long wait. i felt bad for the first band because there was almost no one around and even fewer people listening and no one at all with a little fermented lubrication to incite a little dancing. but they were troopers and pretty enjoyable. they are called blivit. anyway, by the time they were totally done, there was beer. and it was good beer. so i had as much of this beer as i wanted and the time began to slide past a little quicker. before i knew it, dusk was settling and some of the people who said they were going to be there at four-ish showed up at maybe eight-ish. these weren't even people i really wanted to see there, but they were indeed people i knew, and they were indeed there. i got shuffled off to one of their houses, which was right around the corner. it was not a place i anticipated ever finding myself in life, knowing the homeowner. no matter. i had enough beer in me to not navigate social situations in the manner i am accustomed to, and thus wound up at this house for quite a while. a lot of people wound up showing up and it was kind of a party, although the beer was markedly inferior to what i had been enjoying. some of the peopel who showed up were pretty cool though and actually live by me in a different part of town. i was surprised i didn't already know them, really. so that was enjoyable, but i'm not sure why they were there at all. after more arrivals and ensuing shenanigans and confusion, i wasn't entirely sure what to do. i wound up back at the festival, which was still going but wrapping up. last band was pretty good too, but my own quality was in decline after a rather lengthy afternoon. i walked my sorry ass a few blocks to the el, got on, and went as far as they would take me, which was about where i needed to be. however, it was actually even closer to the grocery store, and i decided that this would be a good time to do a little shopping. honestly, it could have gone much worse. i think i will probably eat most of what i purchased. good thing i was already totally full when i went or i probably would have purchased a lot of things i was not going to eat ever or at least before they were no longer worth eating.
i am currently killing the last few minutes i have before my night class. mondays are kind of brutal, and not because of class, but more because of sheer time spent in this god forsaken building. just being in this space is taxing for me. it shouldn't be, but it is. also, if i hear one more person talk about tonights upcoming eagles game, i may have to punch them.
speaking of eagles, i had a rough night... no. i just read a funny case where don henley was the plaintiff. he successfully sued these folks in texas who made a pun-based ad for their henley shirts. i do not know if i was aware that he shared a name with a garment. but i like cases with things i know about, like don henley.
and finally, RIP richard wright. if i didn't have class i would be trying to sort out and play each contribution he made to the floyd cataglogue. maybe i'll just stay up late. in my hat.

kwame kilpatrick was forced to leave due to lack of respect

ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of detroit. i know i'm a little late on this one, but hey, i've been busy. kind of. at any rate, it is more difficult to blog when not home and alone most of the week. the point is, it took kwame an even more unreasonable amount of time to remove himself from office. beyond that, i strongly desire to acquire a "free kwame" t-shirt. preliminary internet searches have proven fruitless. lots of stupid puns on "text" and so forth. but the streets of the d have to hold a trove of kwame-related merchandise. i would like to think so, anyway. so someone closer than me should probably go to shitty parts of detroit and get me some kwame swag. these will be collector's items, people. he was, after all, the first hip-hop mayor. just ask him.
i'm even later in reporting this: my favorite sentence of all time that i have read on wikipedia is no longer there. i mean, i guess they didn't have a citation, but i feel like someone in the know was just sharing the truth. through a series of events (you know how wikipedia goes) i wound up at the entry for the kottonmouth (this is not marked. something is wrong.) kings. background info: their first album prominently featured a rapper who left the group not long after the release of said album. he has not appeared with them since, and there has been no explaination for this course of events. someone who helps the world's knowledge through wikipedia knew though: saint dog was forced to leave due to lack of respect. i promise this is absolutely hilarious if you are familiar with the kottonmouth kings and wikipedia. it's still pretty funny anyway. forced to leave. there was no choice. lack of respect. who was not respecting whom? it is unclear. what was the nature of this lack of respect? also unclear. we just can't be certain. all we know is that saint dog was forced to leave due to lack of respect. if the world was a perfect place, "[noun] was forced to leave due to lack of respect" would be the next major internet meme. i feel like i could make it happen with the right picture, just spamming the hell out of 4chan until people agree that it is funny. i was actually directed to something worthwhile recently from 4chan: metallicats?
other than those important things, there has been some other stuff. i moved. it went alright, dude's everything got a little dinged up. it is over though. i like the new place and having people around again. jack is probably the happiest cat in town and straw is coming along fine as well. my shit is still in total disarray, but whatever. it really doesn't make all that much of a difference to me just yet, although there will be some improvements. but really, my bedroom was pretty much a mess the whole time i lived alone; i took more care of the areas i actually hung out in. there are plenty of places to hang out here, and they're not even all my responsibility. we added an additional room in a way a couple days after i moved in. we cleared out the basement, which had clearly not happened for some time. it was mostly just full of crap that should have been thrown away, and so that is what we did with most of it. but now we have like an additional living room down there, got a drum set, my buddy has his turntables and all his records, couple guitars, couch, tables, shit. i wish i could say i have a car and everything (fuck yeah!) but it will be a while before that happens. for now it is prefereable to have a sweet space to hang out in.
there have been plenty of misadventures and minor bitching points over the last couple weeks, but i'll spare you all but one. on saturday, i went to the red bull soapbox derby thing. figured it would be alright, maybe see some cool rides, maybe some carnage, at least a new part of town. well, that new part of town was manayunk. manayunk is fucking terrible and i will never go back there. but i'm getting ahead of myself. so saturday here was a monsoon, ass end of hurricane who fucking knows what, one of those seven that went through the other week. just pouring buckets. and we figured we'd go, maybe there would be less of a crowd. well, we got there, and it did not apper to lack a crowd. at first i thought the place was just kind of stupid, lots of stupid shops with stupid punny names and such. and there was no parking, but i wasn't sure if that was just normal, like most of the city. so we're trying to find parking for a long time, which is always kind of a drag. and then we were like fuck it, we'll pay, and we went to the lot. they wanted twenty bucks, so it was back to the search because this was not something we were about to sink money into. eventually we found a space a ways a way and took a rather long walk in the rain, arriving at the course near the start of the festivities. but the walk there made me wary: we suspended the 'teams' game due to an overabundance of douchebags. it was a good thing we suspended it early, because the roving bands of drunken jersey types couldn't have prepared me for the scene at the actual event. it was not a place where i felt like i fit in so well. there was almost no room to maneuver and everywhere one moved there was a constant press of drunken morons trying to shove their way against the flow of the crowd. just a load of crap. it took us about twenty minutes of mostly standing around and listening to the obnoxious morning-show style announcing before we decided to get the hell out of there. on the walk back to the car, one of the few middle-aged residents of the area called out to us to ask if the race was already over. not over, i replied. just stupid. now that i write it all down it doesn't really sound that bad, but i promise i was pretty unhappy about it at the time. i guess it wasn't that great of a story. oh well, i already typed it.
school has continued to progress as well of course. it is still mostly pretty stupid. i like evidence a lot more than i thought i would, and international law a lot less. probaly because i've been reading a ton of stupid fucking statutes for it. that shit just doesn't read, you know. globalization and the constitution is godawful. just absolute bollocks, people running their damn mouths. it gets worse every time. unfair competition is kind of intense, the prof talks a mile a minute. but i can pay attention the best in that class because everything communicated is worthwhile and substantive. it is quite engaging. jurisprudence is also kind of intense. i like it because i get to go back and read a bunch of philosophy stuff. the bad news is that we are spending the entire class on natural law. i feel kind of screwed, because that isn't really the way the class was described at all. not the end of the world, but still kind of lame. also, the prof is blind. and intense. he reminds me of an old-school football coach or a state trooper, all with his reflective aviators and serious demeanor. he also gets real close to people. he says he speaks softly and that is why, but i hear him just fine wherever. he has one of those delightful accents that tags r onto the end of somewords, especially "lawr". that one comes up kind of a lot. he also drops h from the front of words. we talk a lot about uman (okay, not marked, spell check is just broken i guess) beings in this class, what with the natural law focus.
normally, this would be the part where i start complaining about football season being up in my shit and how awesome tea leaf green is playing right now and how a worldwide poll about the desirable outcome of the american election is asinine, but i'm not going to do that. this is because i don't have a good place to sit and type and my shoulder is giving out and also i would like to go drink a beer downstairs with my roommates. i don't think you're missing much. what really matters is the propogation of the phrase "forced to leave due to lack of respect".

back to bollocks

the first crack back at it was notably less than inspiring. i really did try to have the best attitude i could about things, i swear, but i guess it just wasn't enough. kicked things off with evidence, which might not have been the right foot, but then i didn't get to write the schedule. it has like a hundred people in it and an awful lot of them want to be trial lawyers. this fails to thrill me. however, today i got into the homework (i didn't have books before that first class) and that went alright. very concrete, and i appreciate that. part of my beef with the first year curriculum is that it is supposed to be the portal into the central focus of the school, which is training people to be lawyers. the problem is that the material, while relevant to people becoming lawyers, and in fact foundational to that endeavor, is hurried and unfocused. it is taught by people who have a vast grasp of the material and understand how much of a gloss they are giving it, and yet no one wants to blow the whistle and say wait, we aren't really teaching in a comprehensible manner. in a rush to be comprehensive, the true goal is sacrificed. all that is left is a bizarre and arcane competition to fulfill lofty expectations that have no actual bearing on an individual's competence. the idea is not to identify critical thinkers or those who grasp the material on a deep level, rather, the goal is to discover who among the masses is willing to waste the most time on such an ultimately immaterial exercise. sorry about that. my point is that the purported goal of teaching people practical skills and knowledge is not the foundation of the introductory curriculum, and that it should be if that is how they are going to talk about it.
anyway, the material for evidence is all produced by the national institute for trial advocacy, which is more or less run by my school, and it serves its purpose remarkably more deftly than anything i have previously encountered. unfortunately, the course is taught through the lens of the courtroom, and that does not thrill me. i guess i was hoping, ironically, for something a little more broad-based. i want to know what is and is not admissible evidence, not how to object about it later. in the end, though, i will concede it is fair for them to do it the way they do. just doesn't get me fired up is all.
after that it was on to globalization (marked. huh.) and the constitution. this is one of the ones i expected to be a little more my speed. good theoretical underpinning, maybe fewer people. no. it is another huge class full of braying jackasses who string together buzzwords and jargon in an inane attempt to impress others rather than make a meaningful contribution to the discussion. this is the kind of course that i would probably have loved if it were taught as an undergrad poli sci class. but no. it is going to be a crock of bullshit where i listen to people i think very little of express opinions i care even less about. the only good news is that it doesn't have a book.
no book is great news because even though only three of my five courses have books, i have already dropped ab out $450 on books. and i am still missing the hardcover for one class, which should tag on i think about another $120. faaaack. the real kicker is that previous experience has demonstrated how pitifully little i shall even make use of some of these texts. my only hope is to recoup some money later on and blow it senselessly, ideally on high-quality beer.
this year i have my first evening class, and it holds much more promise than the rest of the schedule for a few reasons. first of all, it is the first reasonably sized class i have had here. that right there is enough to make me relatively thrilled about the prospects. secondly, it is the only class in the area of law i am hoping at this point to pursue, namely intellectual property. this class focuses on unfair competition and trademarks. this class is also the first i have had that is taught by an adjunct. normally this sort of thing would set me off, but this guy seems promising. spends most of his time practicing, has a nice long personal story of how he wound up where he is, and it is pleasingly organic compared to much of my tenured faculty. real job, real dissatisfaction, real solutions. none of this ducks-in-a-row clerked for supreme court bullshit. hopefully my optimism is rewarded.
today brought the first installment of international law, my initial fancy and contributing factor to the specifics of my current situation. i am reserving judgment on it thus far. it is, however, chock-full of all my least favorite people from last year. the prof i think is newer at my school, i think she taught somewhere else before. she called someone out on normative language though, and that is kind of cool. the text holds early promise, but i said the same thing about my torts book last year, and that turned out to be the biggest disaster i have ever encountered in professional printing. i could have shit out something better knowing nothing about the material. there is not a doubt in my mind about this. this was the class where they gave us a free updated edition (unheard of) and i turned it down. i didn't want to be personally responsible for book burning.
the one class i haven't had yet is jurisprudence. it is another one i feel could go either way at this juncture. the reading was fine by me, so we'll see how the class goes. the text was made up of selections from socrates, aristotle, and aquainas. nothing i hadn't seen, and kind of tough to approach without thinking about way too many things i had considered about these folks over the years. that is all fine and good, but we all had those couple of people in our first college philosophy class that just couldn't just the fuck and said nothing anyone else wanted to hear. i'm not worried about that happening, really. i made it through that before. no, my real concern is that as far as i can tell, a frightening percentage of "those people" decided to go to law school. this does not really seem implausible to me even abstractly. and in my experience, well... i've met plenty around here. we'll see what happens. i'm hoping for the best since the class is like two hours long.
so that takes care of school. let's have some good news. i was cleaning the other day and found these khakis, the only ones i moved out here with me. they were the only ones i had ever felt even somewhat comfortable in, probably mostly due to the cargo pockets. anyway, i hadn't worn them in a long time. i immediately recalled that this was due to their having an enormous hole in the crotch. but i still moved them here for some reason. anyway, it was the kind of tear that only rips when repaired, and so i was gonna pitch them. searched the pockets though, and found some scores. two dollars, first and foremost. all crumpled up with some other shit. other shit included an absurd amount of camel cash, a mulligan's receipt, and a gruv unit set list (from teazers!?). i was happy to find all of it, but it proved that i had not worn these pants in like just about three and a half years. and yet i moved them out here with me.
brief story about the hole in those pants: i was trying to catch one of the cats one time when he was out around auburn. i believe i went over a fence.
in more good news, i had the extremely good fortune to be the recipient of a couple old school camel wides filters the other night. i cant believe how much better they are than the new ones. they hit the spot so unbelievably well. i tried to write a complaint letter to those fuckers but i wouldn't cough up enough information, so they claimed they couldn't verify my identity. i don't want your fucking coupons, i shouldn't have to prove i'm eighteen to say you fucked up your product. just fix it already. i'm pretty resigned to the fact that such a thing is not likely to occur.
my current recourse to old school is lilly, rosemary, and the jack of hearts.
i haven't made it to any shows since dr. dog, but a few good ones are coming up and i hope to have money to see at least one and hopefully two and ideally all three, but it would be a stretch. philly slick is playing at world cafe on sunday, old crow medicine show is coming to town at a lousy venue, and the avett brothers are playing with drive-by truckers in baltimore, both sometime in later september. wish me luck.
one good thing about being back at school is hitting up a couple old lunch favorites. definitely got a cheesesteak one day and the notorious chicken b.l.t. the other. just what i was looking for. the food is alright, but sometimes just getting what one wants is as good as something high quality that just isn't fitting the mood. nice to have something work out at school, sitting around and talking shit, watching first years not believe their ears. whatever, the most important lesson for law school and many other things is to be able to have some real good laughs at it.

epic sandwich

oh man. it was so good. hell, it is still good. i live quite near to a well-regarded deli. they have won some awards and stuff which is meaningful in a place this big with so many delis. but this is the real deal. i had never been, mostly due to my aversion to paying ten dollars for a sandwich. forget that, i decided. today will be the day i taste and judge for myself. as it turns out, the quality of the ingredients alone pretty much justifies the price. however, if that wasn't enough, the sandwiches they make are roughly the size of a more or less average human head. and dear god, are they ever delicious.
i had the restaurant school special, which is a double-decker sandwich on rye featuring corned beef, smoked honey turkey breast, brisket of beef, cole slaw, and russian dressing. i don't think much of cole slaw, really, in it's usual habitat of a small plastic cup. never really bother to eat it. it was damn good on this though, even though it was a primary contributor to the hellacious mess eating something along these lines makes. i even ate the pickle spear, and i never eat pickles. for some reason i thought it was tasty. i just think i was so happy about the sandwich that everything started to become delectable by association. even the ginger ale seemed better than normal. all this, and i only ate half of the thing, and i am the perfect full. not overly stuffed or uncomfortable. just in the sweet spot. it is going to be tough not to take a nap.
my main regret is that it took me so long to check the place out. i mean, it is really close. and i knew it would be a cool place, check out some pics here. it was, like i said, the cost barrier. but it was all illusory. i would not think much about paying six to seven dollars for something i thought would be a decent sandwich at say, jimmy john's. but i would more than likely eat all of it at once. and it wouldn't be half as good and i wouldn't have much to say about it. but this sandwich is not a basic PFU (personal food unit for those not in the know); it is easily two meals. in any event, this place has been there forever so i'm glad everyone wasn't as slow as me on the uptake that at ten dollar a sandwich, this is actually quite a good deal.
in other news, there is a new wilco album coming out in the spring. i look forward to that, although probably no one else cares anymore. i had noticed one or two new songs popping up in set lists and got interested. although now that i think about it, they will be more or less due to put out a new one by the time spring rolls around. time flies whether you are having fun or not, you know. also, they are playing here, but as an opening act. on the one hand this is surprising but on the other hand it is mostly just cool because they are opening for neil fucking young. i will probably not be able to afford that ticket or find anyone else who wants to afford a ticket and go along. it is in early or mid december anyway, and that will probably be exam time anyway. on the other hand, tea leaf green the night before an exam went alright last time. oh well. if anyone cares, that bill will also appear in chicago and detroit. jeff has an upcoming solo run in spain. what a dick.
i have gotten a little ways into riddley walker. this is not a book that can be read at a fast pace. this is of course due to the fascinating things hoban does with language. it is strange to read a novel at the same pace as semi-brutal non-fiction (i.e. husserl, any law commentator, etc.) but, i feel, even more rewarding. it allows for the interpretive creative space of well-contextualized artistic vision while demanding a careful and close reading. additionally, my current take on the book is that it constitutes a strenuous examination of transcendence as a natural historical human phenomenon. this gets me all kinds of excited. i might even break out the heidegger, but more likely that i will just think about it. i'll think about it when i take a break from thinking about how i clearly fucked up by going to law school and not doing something i enjoy instead. oh well, at least that sandwich was pretty good.

week? weak

until recently, i was blissfully unaware of the noose draped around my neck. i turned a blind eye to all the indications in the neighborhood: piles of ikea packaging on curbs, longer lines at the cvs, lots of people walking around with name tags. hell, i was considering metaphorically getting out of dodge entirely, to some other metaphorical place that had no metaphorical extradition treaty with the proverbial dodge. but then i decided i would do what i had to do, pay the price, and accept my sentence. no sooner did that happen then i discovered the noose was not only around my neck, but tightening. quickly.
classes begin in a week. i just found out what mine are today. but i can't do anything about them until wednesday. i am not sure if i am going to do anything or what it will be. i'm still kind of adjusting to the fact that i have accepted returning to something i have so much distaste for. it was a narrow thing, i could just as easily have said screw it i guess. i just have a tough time saying that for certain things. like this. things where everyone i know is going to have to know about it. and i didn't really know what else to do i guess. that was probably a contributing factor. i wish i could joke about not wanting to work. honestly, though, i would rather just have a somewhat decent job. even a lousy one doesn't sound that bad. go, do your thing, make a little money, go home, forget about it. plenty of people lead fine existences without graduate degrees, or degrees of any kind really. but for some reason i decided i needed another one, and even though i'm not so sure about that now, i already started, and to me that means i should probably finish. and like i said, i wasn't really sure what else to do. would have been awkward for a while.
so it will be back at it before i know it. i haven't really done much this summer, it seems. then again, it never seems to me that i do all that much in any context. oh well. it has gotten me this far. i did a few things i guess, i could always go back and check old posts. that would probably simply reveal that the things i feel are of note appear to be so only to me. tough to do the truly notable on a thin budget. sometimes that doesn't matter though, like the free show in town the other night. went to go see dr. dog. those guys are great, check 'em out, they have some stuff on archive. psychedelic indie pop type stuff. think tripping daisy/polyphonic spree (lead vocals sound like tim, and the second half of the show featured string and horn sections), flaming lips, my morning jacket circa a few years ago. a fun show, even solo, and a pleasant walk home from rittenhouse.
i actually found out about the show from this neighborhood quasi-bum type guy named omar. i see him pretty frequently and he is unfailingly enthusiastic about almost everything and he usually wants a cigarette, except when he has some he insists i take one. as the band took the stage, i saw this very same dude run up and introduce the band from the central mic. i saw him after the show and thanked him for telling me about it. he looked shocked (and drunk) and exclaimed "it's over!?". this was a couple blocks west of where they even played.
all that aside, after he introduced the band, one of them commented that those were wise words from a wise man. partly tongue in cheek, but partly factual. omar does say the damndest things. pretty observant guy, or at least more so than one would expect. under unfortunate circumstances, i feel like i could be that guy, which is part of the reason i elected to continue in a debt-accruing hell hole. he is completely off-base at all times, but never fails to say something that could be classified as thoughtful, along with a generous helping of absolute bullshit. he has a stopwatch now that he wears about his neck. he says it is to time people on their bullshit, because he can only spend so much time listening to peoples' bullshit, you know? the irony is not lost upon anyone.
in better news, i have enjoyed a nice new beer or two recently. if you get lagunitas, make sure to watch out for sirius, a supposed "hi-gravity" cream ale. very unique character in the beer; familiar flavors delivered in an unconventional manner. medium-bodied, highly viscous, sweet almost but not quite cloying, not entirely unlike common cream soda in fact. but then boom, a fairly legitimate hop kicker comes in and clears out everything else. overall a thoroughly worthwhile beverage experience, try not to miss out as it is a supposed special release.
also had the good fortune to come across rogue's double ipa on tap. wow. maybe there just isn't a hop shortage in oregon. a very very rich iteration of the style, very gratifying. my sister says it smells like armpit. i beg to disagree. find out for yourself and report back.
i have had some pretty good luck these last couple days. or at least what counts as good for me. this included my biggest score ever from a free book pile. typically when i look at a pile of free books, i think hmm, that might be interesting. worth having around. and then i rarely if ever read them. at least no one is throwing them away. there is a whole bookshelf full of my stuff back home, and a lot of it is just books that school wouldn't buy back or books i acquired from free book piles. suffice to say that i have not found anything life-changing in free book piles just yet. yesterday, i found a book i had actually looked for in stores before. like one i was totally willing to buy. one i would certainly read. russel hoban's riddley walker. i have only just started it, but i am probably going to read a lot more later today. if you're not familiar with the book, it is a post-apocalyptic novel written entirely in a posited pidgin form of english, lots of phonetic spelling and such. i may have some questions about spelling conventions in old and middle english.
the other score just happened. i'm at the coffee shop. before i went in i was finishing a smoke and a dozen of the multitude of new penn students around went in before me. i was kind of worried. for some reason, they all left without ordering. this was good enough for me. but then i tried to buy a soda. dude behind the counter, though, is like IRON MAIDEN! YEAH! (i have my maiden shirt on) and he doesn't let me pay for it. it's like a secret club, he says. i guess i can support that. i left the money for the soda in the tip jar, so everyone wins. everyone who is physically present anyway. i'm sure whoever owns the place is doing just fine and is probably not going to miss a single soda. plus not enough people tip at this place in my experience. barista wages are not known for being exorbitant, either.
the internet of course also continues to yield some treasures. those with a taste for some seriously dark humor would be well advised to check out a softer world. kind of a cool concept too; the visual aspect of the comic is one or more photos split up into panels with superimposed text. one person takes the pics, the other writes the words. it appears to work pretty well. the humor reminds me of some dinosaur comics strip, which is not too surprising as the guy who writes the text is friends with the dinosaur comics guy.
given my background being brought up in what i would consider more or less a fairly conservative christian setting, i am surprised i have never heard of jack chick, or his tracts. but now i know. thanks achewood. if you already know of them, well, then you know that they are ridiculous. absolutely ludicrous, really. an embarrassment to respectable christianity in my humble opinion. if you like to laugh your ass off while shaking your head, i would recommend angels?, dark dungeons, and bad bob! for starters. from then on check out stuff on muslims and catholics, and anything "adapted for [insert demographic]". this guy really really doesn't like catholics. i am glad i was not raised to believe that catholics aren't christians. i didn't actually hear anyone make that claim until quite late in life, and it rather shocked me. apparently it is more widespread than i thought. although i guess there is a lot of history of protestants having some pretty not-nice things to say regarding catholics. at any rate, these tracts are completely outrageous. if you were familiar before now, let me know how you were and why i wasn't.