How About That Sturgill Simpson

Last night my special lady and I had date night. We grabbed a bite at the bar of The Guild and then cruised over to Higher Ground to check out a new age country singer Sturgill Simpson.  I have reviewed the Guild several times before so no need to get into the weeds but it was excellent. Very good service including the host who was hustling big time. The drinks were well made and delicious and the food was also great. It was packed on a Wednesday night. Packed. We were very pleasantly surprised by the whole experience.

On to Sturgill. Well, I think I went in with my expectations a little high. I had been watching Youtube videos and was expecting a pretty high energy situation. The guy said he was sick and maybe that was the case. The music was fine but there was no soul, no fire. It seemed like they were just cashing a check and not super happy to be there. It is amazing the voice that comes out of that little guy and the band is obviously pretty talented but Simpson mumbled the words to songs and they really only unleashed on two tunes. Overall it was fine, nothing I would recommend though the tickets were only $15 a piece so for that I guess it was worth the price of admission. The whole thing was over by 10:30PM by the way.

Fun little post game at the Upper Deck pub at the Windjammer. Pretty decent nachos and cold beer. Nice work Upper Deck Pub!

Jay Back to Puerto Rico!

My folks were down in PR for a conference and stayed for what is turning out to be an extended extended vacation down there and invited the bird family to join. Trade in bitter cold with very little snow for warm sunny days on the beach? Hell to the yeah.  The flight down was pretty easy w/ a short layover and pretty on time flights. We picked up our rental car and headed for the beach. The Mazda 6 was ok to drive I guess and was very roomy for a mid size car but the it was very difficult to get the seat in a decent position and rear visibility was terrible as the A-Bars? over both shoulders were huge. Change lanes at your own peril.

We were staying in a condo in Luquillo Beach which is an odd but pretty cool town. The beach is wide, pretty clean and beautiful. There were rougher surf spots as well as some very serene spots great for the kids. It is always fun to watch the surfers head out and never actually try to catch a wave. They just float out there. Call it the lifestyle if you want but I think you can't actually surf and are scared to death you might actually catch a wave. We saw 4 girls go for it in pretty choppy surf our last day. A for effort as they got right in the mix. F for execution which actually was an A+ for entertainment.

Right next door to our condo was the bar Boardriders. It was great. Super chill, no pretension, decent food, and cold drinks. We were among the regulars. A band played the first night who could not have sucked worse. Couldn't sing, or play instruments, or keep time. The next night a reggae band was very good though. The main drag in front of the bar was a spot where Puerto Ricans drove their pieces of shit super slow with the radios turned up to a volume no stereo should ever go. That was fun. I also enjoyed the regulars who grabbed a beer to go for the ride home. Didn't even opt for the U.S. obligatory paper bag.

The town was interesting. There were nicely kept houses up on the hill behind the grocery store but on the beach places were in varied states of disrepair. Many houses were abandoned all together. Premium beachfront just left empty and busted. It was weird. The town square was very nice though and on Friday night the town packed in with a mixture of tourists, families, and retirees all listening to live music, eating street food, and having a fun time.

If you go, check out the kiosks featured on one of those Anthony Bourdain shows. They are fun and the food ranges from yikes, to delicious. Plus it is a great place to grab a beer walk around and check out the nice beach behind.

So I had never noticed but in PR they have this shit called Gasolina. It is weird booze packaged like a Capri Sun. Seriously. Booze in a pouch and it is called Gasolina!!!

The missus and I had a night away at the San Juan Water and Beach Club. Nice beach, beautiful view from our cool but small room. The elevator is a cool glass thing where you can watch the ceiling come at you. It is fun. The rooftop bar has a great view but service is excruciating and expensive.

The restaurant in the hotel was very solid though. Very good service. People not even eating there came and gave our waitress a hug. No lie. The apps were very good, we had a nice watermelon soup with a great broth and lamb empanadas which were a nice size, not at all greasy and delicious. Our main course of fried Snapper was way too salty and the mufungo was dry. The pumpkin donuts got us back on track though!

Overall a fun trip except the 7 hour layover in Philadelphia. It really sucks to fly these days. United f*d us over and re booked us on a shitty flight that then got delayed a few hours. Try keeping 2 toddlers entertained in an airport for 7 hours.

BTW. congrats to LB squared, who are now cubed!

Boom!!!

What a game. I almost lost my shit several times last night. Should have been 34-14 Pats but the same old leaky defense had some big lapses. Still so many Brady haters... of course he is the best QB of all time now. If you are still picking Peyton than clearly your number 2 is Dan Marino. And Carmelo Anthony is your favorite basketball player. Hey Sherman, you mad bro?

Was I partying and making it rain last night?! Yup, if by party you mean sitting alone on my couch watching it on an IPad while eating Trade Joe's pot stickers while my kid hacks up a lung upstairs? Then yes. Yes I did.

Why I Hate Your Driving

1. You are driving 30 MPH in a 45 MPH zone.
2. You are doing this in the passing lane.
3. You just came to a full stop at a yield/roundabout/right hand turn.
4. You don't use your blinker... ever.
5. You are on your phone or texting while slowly drifting from lane to lane.
6. You just slowed down as the light turned yellow then gunned it through the red leaving me at the longest red light ever.
7. Even though you are the slowest driver on the road you just busted into a wide open passing lane creating all sorts of unnecessary traffic.
8. You have no idea where you are going but rather than pull over to look at a map or GPS to are creeping along at 25, randomly flipping on a turn signal but not turning, starting left then careening right, jamming your brakes, then just stopping in the middle of the road.
9. Your are driving a Prius or Volvo wagon.
10. Bumper stickers.
11. Your are turning around talking to your dog who is all over the backseat.
12. Teenager.
13. Over 60.
14. Hey, it's snowing... let's run red lights, jam our brakes for no reason, cut in front of oncoming traffic to turn into the Bagel Place!
15. Rain? I have never seen this wet stuff... better turn it down to 15 MPH just to make sure. Of course once it turns to snow it is time to launch at 80 through parking lots!
16. The light just turned green, um still green, yup still green and you are;looking at your phone/talking to your passengers/reading a book/brushing your teeth/I don't know... jerking off, but you certainly are not moving your f*ing car!!!

There are probably other ones. In fact it is probably safer for you to just stay home or at the very least pull over when you see the ill tempered (and quite handsome) guy in the silver car w/ VT plates right behind you (just to be on the safe side).

Let's get back on the horse, shall we?

Not sure if any non spammers will see this after the long hiatus but f*** it, I do what I want here. So last Friday I had a biz thing down in Stowe and we stopped for a quick bite at the Prohibition Pig. Before heading upstairs we stopped in at the newly oped brew room down back. Very cool space.  Pretty much just a large L-shaped bar with some smaller tables behind. It is totally separate from the main Pig but they offer 8 beers or so including a few of their new in house brews and a small menu of chow. Of the few options they offered they were not serving 2 which was weird. We grabbed chips and guac. The chips were good but the guacamole was pretty flavorless and actually seemed like they used old avocados. It was made to order so maybe just a bad fruit. Needed more salt and lime. The beer was good. The barley and oats IPA was really pretty good, nice hops and an earthy base. We then cruised up to the main space for lunch. My pulled pork sandwich was gray and pretty bland. Too bad the food was so blah because the spaces are both great and the beer/booze selection is quite good.I'll give the brew house another try and maybe grab a taco or something to see what's up.

Just started Homeland season 2 after a long wait. Really enjoy it though Carrie is pretty whiny.

We had a kid inclusive brunch at Kismet in Montpelier the other day. That was very good. The hipster staff was not really impressed with our animals but they were nice enough. The bloody mary was great with a nice heat and great hint of pickle juice. Very fresh. I had basically an eggs benny on polenta. The polenta was nicely cooked, as were the eggs. Great light dressing on my greens. Very fresh, nice flavor, decent price. The french toast we got for kids that I ate were also really good if a touch sweet for my taste. Overall I really liked it and would give 1 3/4 thumbs up.

I had high hopes for that movie Frank. Very ehhh. 1 thumb kind of disappointed.

Do I care that Patriots maybe deflated footballs? Only a little. Kind of embarrassing but did not decide the game. Just seemed unnecessary which is why it is sad. If even true. Probably is. Good for Ravens joining the fray. They whine every time they lose to Pats. Kicking balls are held with the refs the whole time you dumb shits.

The NY Daily News is of course all over the story because their football teams stink. How into sports is the Daily News? They currently have a reader pole for top all time 2 guard in the NBA. Top on their list? Allen Iverson followed by George Gervin. Jordan is tied for 7th behind such luminaries as Reggie Miller and Clyde Drexler. That is ok, Magic Johnson was like #4 for point guards behind Jason Kidd.

Uhh... better save some bullets for my next post in March.

Jay About The String Cheese Incident

So my buddy LB sent me a text asking if I wanted to go see STI at Memorial auditorium. I had never seen them live and thought of them as a jammy bluegrass kind of band. I kind of like their stuff and a live show is a live show so I checked w/ the boss and was in!! We started off with a beer and a slice of pizza over at Manhattan Pizza which was really not too bad. My pizza was a little doughy but not too oily and tasted pretty good. Then we cruised to Memorial. It was cold. BTW, Memorial Auditorium sucks as a venue. And we f*d up. They did not serve beer, anywhere in the venue. It got hot as f***, they ran out of water, and to smoke people had to crowd onto a small balcony which created a huge mess at the intermission. As for the show? We got in early and got pretty close to the stage. The band had a huge sound set up and a great stage and light show. The music was great. 2 blistering sets w/ jams that veered from bluegrass twang to aggressive shredding techno rave. The crowd looked out of townie and pretty young. There were lots of capes, weird hats, and glitter. I was a little out of place but thought the band really ripped. The first set was a pretty much non stop assault and I was a big fan. After a short break they got back after it with a slightly more meandering but still very hot second set. http://www.friendsofcheese.com/incident.php?id=1496

I thought the show was fun. I wish I had drank more beer beforehand or had one of the enhanced lollipops everyone seemed to have on hand. We did have a very solid post game at Finnegan's Pub which has really upped their beer list game. Special points for the big old fat dude who was in front of us in the concert and kept backing up a half step every 20 seconds. He had backed LB up to Highgate before we pulled a quick 2 step and were all of a sudden in the huge space in front that the big man have carved out a shuffle at a time! Boo-Ya!!!

Sen. Elizabeth Warren... You suck

When it comes to politics I generally find myself disgusted by the antics of notorious assholes like Eric Cantor, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry... any of the god pushers who stand for a party committed to personal freedoms and limited spending but give them a bully pulpit and they will spend your last dime while lowering taxes that they need to fund these programs while simultaneously telling you how you should live your life (in the name of our Lord). On the Dem. side I am sick of Obama because he is a fraud and a rampant over taxer and the politicians like Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch here in VT are uniformed windbags who just like to hear themselves talk. One article I read today though made my brain melt and it was a blog post from noted hypocrite Elizabeth Warren. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-warren/presidents-wall-street-nominee_b_6188324.html

Apparently the Obama administration is a little too Wall Street friendly. For a branch of government who cannot bash the finance industry enough and who has effectively blamed them for citizens borrowing too much money they knew they should not have... it seems curious that Obama has too many Wall Street cronies? Sure the top brass at banks have more money than ever. You can blame the Fed and various regulation for creating free cash but dis-incentivizing lending of risk for this cash hoarding. In any event... Sen. Warren does not like that Obama has nominated a 20yr Lazard vet and head of investment banking to a job in the Treasury Dept. She does not like that he worked in Europe and made deals that made the bank and their clients money. Forget that he is well educated and very qualified. Sen. Warren most likely would like a local bank teller or farm hand for that job. Hey, you don't like tax inversion? Make it more attractive for companies to stay here and they will. Stop trashing banks and companies and then acting hurt when they turn their back on you.

Furthermore... Warren is a major proponent of the working middle class and the common man. Of course the need for sacrifice in order to create equality should naturally fall to someone else. Here is a little snapshot of Sen. Warren's hypocrisy... http://elizabethwarrenwiki.org/income-and-net-worth/  Only 2.7% charitable giving? The average American gives over 3% and certainly do not make close to 1MM per year with a net worth of over 14MM? Also a pretty nice effective tax rate as the average was about 2% higher for the given tax bracket each year. She is only the 76th most wealthy member of the total 535 Congressional members so there is that. She has pulled shady shit w/ the "native American" thing, Whatever. Really I just people like Elizabeth Warren to shut the f*** up. You feel comfortable collecting mad cash at the expense of other Americans but you are opposed to others trying to do the same. This is America and we are all entitled to work hard and earn as much as we can. I don't care what you do but don't tell me that I cannot do the same. 

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