My Rushmore

How about a Kelly Clarkson/Yeah Yeah Yeahs acoustic mashup?

greg — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:50:56 +0000

Yeah, I thought so:

I’m Not Seein’ It

greg — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:51:14 +0000

Today is a sad day for me. I am a big fan of M. Night Shyamalan – I like everything he’s done. Yes, The Happening too. I also love Avatar: The Last Airbender, the 3-season animated Nickelodeon series. My family’s watched it all the way through at least two full times, and we love it.

Of course, the day that Shyamalan releases a live-action version of our beloved TV show should be a great day. Until I read these. Rotten Tomatoes says The Last Airbender is bad. REALLY bad. The primary criticisms are the atrocious special effects, bad acting (one reviewer said worse than that kid in The Phantom Menace), and very poor direction. Here’s what the AV Club said: “If any movie ever warranted a class-action lawsuit against the filmmakers, it’s The Last Airbender.”

So I’m not seein’ it. I like Shyamalan, I love Avatar: The Last Airbender, I guess the meeting of the two just wasn’t meant to be, and I don’t want to end up hating either.

Albuquerque’s best sushi is in Rio Rancho.

greg — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:52:05 +0000

I recently expressed frustration with poor-quality sushi joints which have infested Albuquerque. My favorite sushi place in town has been Shogun on Central, but I don’t love it, it was just the best I’d found.

On a recent date night, Lisa and I decided to have sushi, and I literally Googled “best sushi in Albuquerque.” All the usual spots were there, like I Love Sushi, Sushi King, or Azuma. By the way, those are not the best in Albuquerque. I saw another one nestled in there that I had never heard of: Noda’s. Billed as “authentic Japanese cuisine,” and up on Southern in Rio Rancho, Urban Spoon and Yelp! are filled with rave reviews, some dating back 10 years.

We went. Noda’s quickly became our favorite sushi restaurant yet. You see, sushi isn’t a kitch thing there, it’s just part of the menu and has been for over a decade. It’s not a sushi restaurant, it’s a Japanese restaurant. The sushi was unique and incredibly tasty – there was no Gryffindor Roll, thank goodness. There was a very limited amount of cream cheese in the rolls, too (I recall seeing only 1 that had it) and almost no tempura-based rolls.

A unique thing they do was make the sushi rolls, then pile some more fish on the tops. I tried the “green mustard roll,” and the salmon roll (pictured below) and they had a lot more flavor than I’m used to in sushi. They were filling without being heavy.

The rolls were well-built and the service was pleasant. The fish tasted amazing and they used some wonderful ingredients in the rolls like the sprouts in that salmon roll. So my current favorite sushi place in Albuquerque? Noda’s. Without a doubt.

HFCS and balance, or, how to lose 50 pounds in 2 years

greg — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:01:23 +0000

I am not a doctor or scientist, nor do I report to be – I’m simply recording my own personal experience with and without HFCS. Any info I’ve put here is either from documentaries I’ve seen or my own experiences.

In January of 2008, I saw a 5-minute Youtube video about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Since I can’t find the video now, I’ll summarize: it basically covered the fact that it’s sticky, chemical, unnatural, and may have some serious effects on your “normal” digestive system. Diabetes was mentioned, too.

The video really bothered me. We committed as a family to stop eating any foods or drinking drinks with HFCS. We were (and still are) very stringent about it. If I discover anything had HFCS, I would not eat or drink it. I discovered the “usual culprits” at grocery stores and restaurants: sauces, dressings, breads, pre-mixed cocktail mixers, and ice creams – these were more likely to have HFCS. I avoided the items I suspected might contain it. I didn’t eat less food or change my diet any other way, yet.

By that summer of 2008, I had lost 40 pounds and dropped 5 inches off my waist – then my wife and I saw King Corn on PBS. It covered HFCS and the role corn plays in our food supply, especially as it relates to beef. You see, cows like to eat grass, but almost all cows in the US are fed corn, which fattens them quickly, but they cannot digest it, so antibiotics must be introduced to keep them healthy. The guys in King Corn say that if you were born after 1970, it’s likely that you have never even eaten grass-fed beef (they address why this is better beef than corn-fed is, too). I read Fast Food Nation around this time also. We stopped eating beef and pork.

Also around this time I decided to look at balance in my day. If I had toast for breakfast, I tried not to have a sandwich for lunch or rolls with dinner. That’s a lot of bread. I realize that there’s a food pyramid that says to eat a lot of bread/grains, but I see it as a balance thing.

In the 2 years since I lost my initial 40 pounds, I’ve lost another 10, and another inch or so off my waist. In that time as well, Jason’s Deli has removed HFCS from all foods and drinks (except brand-name sodas) in their restaurants, and many others have done so as well, like Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback, Jones Soda, Snapple, Heritage Dr. Pepper, Hunt’s Ketchup. Oh, all of this happened after the Corn Refiners Association has launched an ad campaign defending their gooey bastard son. Heh.

Link: Ban HFCS Page on Facebook

Because Roger Ebert’s the smart one

greg — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:18:14 +0000

I’ll just let Ebert tell you why The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is good. Lisa and I saw it Thursday night, and the house was packed. It’s in Swedish, and I’d recommend seeing it before it’s Americanized and therefore ruined, and my buddy Roger Ebert says so too. It’s showing at the Guild until Wednesday.

EDIT: This movie’s not technically rated, but it’s a definite R-range flick for disturbing violence – be warned.

Links:

Ebert reviews The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Guild Cinema

I wish it was The Best Of….

greg — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:00:04 +0000

The Best of Doves (“The Places Between”) was released on April 5, and two months later, I have a beef. Doves are a stellar band with a great body of work, and I love their most recent albums The Last Broadcast, Some Cities, and Kingdom of Rust. Admittedly, their albums tend to run out of steam by the later tracks (especially The Last Broadcast), very much like some Snow Patrol albums. Because of this, a greatest-hits-type album showcases Doves in a very good light, featuring all the stellar tracks: The Places Between: The Best of Doves.

A grave error has been made though. I looked through the tracks today for the best song Doves have recorded, “Satellites,” from The Last Broadcast, which I also happen to consider one of the best songs ever recorded by any band. Also missing were songs I love like “The Greatest Denier” and “Sky Starts Falling.” Now I realize that ultimately, you’ve got to appease the greater audience with a “Greatest Hits,” so I can forgive the last two, but leaving off “Satellites” is a shame.

Links:

Listen to/buy “Satellites”

The Places Between on Amazon

The Last Broadcast on Amazon

Some Cities on Amazon

Kingdom of Rust on Amazon

Tetris vs Tetris

greg — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:52:22 +0000

My wife and I love to play multiplayer Nintendo DS games against each other, usually in bed right before going to sleep. The real stand-out titles for us are Mario Kart, Planet Puzzle League, and especially Tetris DS (TDS). This version of Tetris was only available from 2006-2007, and is now out of print – I have heard something about Nintendo’s license to publish it expired, so they had to pull it, but I’m not sure why it had such a short run.

Now, Tetris DS’s most unique quality is that it remains the only DS game that allows 10 players with one game cartridge. It’s also got lots of Nintendo themes like Mario, Link, Yoshi, and Metroid, and the music is remixed from those games, too, not the canned, klinky “Russian” stuff that they normally use.

Because Tetris DS is now out of print and therefore rare, it’s more valuable. It usually goes for $50-100 online, and I have read several stories of people who get a copy on eBay and it won’t run on their DSi’s or other newer systems (ahem, piracy).

Now, 3 years later, a new company’s got the license to sell Tetris on the DS, and it was released today: Tetris Party Deluxe (TPD). The bottom line? TPD is a good game, but TDS remains one of the best handheld games ever made, and is definitely still a better game than Tetris Party.

TPD is fun, of course, but often too plain. Multiplayer is now capped at 8 players, and after a few dozen games, we’re getting used to the new items (weapons that you use against opponents, powerups you use on yourself) and they’re pretty cool. TDS used familiar Nintendo icons for items and they were totally different than these. Unfortunately, the majority of the multiplayer modes in the new game require each player has their own copy of the game. TPD makes no use of the touch screen on the DS whatsoever, not even in the menus, though occasionally you blow in the the microphone for defense. Tetris DS at least had “Touch Tetris” mode. Oh, and Tetris Party defaults to the aft-mentioned klinky “Russian” music.

In the end, Tetris Party Deluxe is good, fun, and worth the money. Tetris DS, however, is still amazing, brilliant, and worth double the price – which is about what you’ll pay for it. If you find it.

Links:

Buy Tetris Party Deluxe from Amazon

Buy Tetris DS from Amazon

Follow my wife on Twitter

Tetris DS on Wikipedia

Tetris Party family of games on Wikipedia

In 2010, The Punks Are in Crystal Castles

greg — Thu, 20 May 2010 19:29:08 +0000

Check out my guest post over at the new Promotions Crew blog, it’s a review of Crystal Castles’s second album and a discussion of dancepunk in general: http://www.promotionscrew.com

5 albums you probably don’t own (but should)

greg — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:41:44 +0000

Here’s 5 albums and bands that I have in my collection that I talk about a lot, but most folks have never heard of. There are Amazon affiliate links with each one to listen and buy if you wish. By my count, 4 out of the 5 bands listed are long broken up, but regardless, they made some great albums.

#5: “Caution” by Hot Water Music.

I discovered HWM after they had fizzed out. Hailing from Florida and releasing albums sporadically since the mid-90s, I always describe them as “swamp-water punk,” and I think it’s really fitting – throaty, thick music with a nice southern thwomp. Their later albums are the better ones, and this is my favorite release from them.

#4: “Year of the Rat” by NY Loose

NY Loose came and went with one release in 1996. I offer this as a mid-nineties predecessor (and truthfully, a better alternative) to Paramore. New York City grimy rock with a female vocal. Plus, they cover Velvet Underground!

#3: “Hoarse” by 16 Horsepower

I know like 4 people who’ve ever heard of 16HP. 16HP released 8 albums from the late nineties until they broke up and made little more than a ripple in the alt-country scene. They’re from Denver, and I tell people to imagine if the Cure made a country album, but I think that doesn’t give enough credit to 16HP. They’re dark, dreary, hard, and spiritual in all their recordings and as their releases went on, they got darker. This one is a live album with most of their best songs, so it’s a good start.

#2: “Smack Smash” by Beatsteaks

Beatsteaks are a German band who’ve been around since the mid-nineties, but unlike most on this list are actually still together. This album is one of their most recent and is unbelievable. It’s a punk album with incredibly catchy songs but none of the pop-punk goofiness. The vocals are beefy and cool, the music is tight and refined. As far as I can tell, there were initially no US releases of their stuff, though through the miracle of the internet, you can get them on Amazon and iTunes now. I got this album in 2004 from a German friend and it’s one of my favorite albums ever.

#1: D-Generation’s self-titled album

This album is so cool, you can’t even find it anywhere. If you do, buy it! With Jesse Malin on vocals (who has some great solo albums as well), D Generation single-handedly introduced the US to glam again in the 1990s. The link above is for their second release, No Lunch, which features a few of the songs here, but this one is a gem – think Appetite for Destruction. Rumor has it, DGen was so frustrated with their original record company Chrysalis, they took the masters of this album and threw them in the East River. Don’t bother with their third album, Through the Darkness, my friend Jason is the only person I’ve ever met who likes it.

Summer Cocktail: GT and K

greg — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:39:18 +0000

Time for a soon-to-be-regular-feature of the blog: drink reviews and recipes.

Yesterday I made a gin and tonic for a friend and I didn’t have any limes on hand. I usually like to use lots of lime juice in my G&Ts because I love the combination of citrus with tonic water. Searching for an alternative in the fridge, I found a box of these adorable bite-sized Asian fruits:

Now kumquats are like an orange that’s the size of a grape, though they are bitterer than oranges and frankly can be outright sour. As a snack, you eat the whole thing, skin and all.

So here’s the recipe for my GT and K:

1 1/2 oz gin
top with tonic water (I use Schweppes Diet to avoid high fructose corn syrup)
4 juiced kumquats
garnish with a sliced kumquat

I estimate the ratio at this: 3 kumquats = about 1/2 a lime, so add based on your taste. Use a hand juicer because a single tiny kumquat can have lots of seeds in it.

My servee said “the kumquats really make the drink.”

I also worked up an alternative without the gin, modified a Tom Collins recipe, and called it a kumquat soda:

4 oz club soda
1 tsp of simple syrup
4 juiced kumquats (remember, use a juicer, too many seeds)
drop in some kumquat wheels

So now I have a fun new citrus to play with in my summer drinks, and can finally say that my life-long search for kumquat uses has reached an end! Plus, how many times do you see the word “kumquat” appear in a blog post? Not enough. The tally’s 10 for this one.