I Knew It!!!

Amazon is sick of Apple kicking their ass so they finally gave in and hired the criminal mastermind Lex Luthor to sell the new Kindle Fire!!! 

"We are excited to bring you the new Kindle Fire, it is smaller than the IPad and you can get Apps, browse the web, read books, and defeat Superman... uh, er, I mean stream over 17million songs!  It is wifi ready, is able to save content to the cloud, and is run by a small amount of kryptonite, I mean a 200MB chip.  We are expecting big things from the Fire and the whole Legion of Doom, um, I mean Amazon, is very excited to usher in a new day of global domination!!!  Shit... am I fired?  F*ck you Superman, and f*ck you Steve Jobs!!!

It's BBQ Time!!!

So on Friday I had the pleasure of joining friends for a bit of a new and exciting BBQ delivery experience.  These local folks have a website where you can order food on Wed. and have it delivered on Fri.  These homegrown do it out of the garage experiments are fun and often quite delicious so I was pretty psyched to check this one out. http://miserylovescopresents.blogspot.com/p/event-brite.html  This Barbecue did not disappoint.  We took a run at the whole menue.  The chicken was well cooked, tender but cooked through w/ nice smokey flavor.  The ribs tasted ok but were a bit overcooked and dry.  The Brisket was great.  Tender, fatty, and great flavor.  The sauce was tangy and sweet and a nice oaccompaniment.  The coleslaw and potato salad were good.  I did not try the beans but heard they were very good.  The apple pie was also surprisingly good.  It looked like a store pie but the filing was solid and the crust was soft, a little flaky and covered w/ delicious sugar.  I thought the whole thing was really quite good and I would check it out again.  1 3/4 thumbs up.

Another quick aside, I had the opportunity to watch Machete this weekend and it was GREAT!  Blood, guts, jokes, boobs... Steven Seagal!  It was a really solid 2 hours and well worth the look if you like fake schlocky shit.  It was also better than watching the Red Sox or Patriots this weekend... ugh.

Jay About to Recover

This weekend we rolled down to Foxwoods for my buddy T-Pain's bachelor party and it was really something.  I won't get into all of the gory details but let's just say I fell asleep in my clothes (better than naked) and possibly barfed upon seeing a bloody mary first thing Saturday morning.  The casino itself was fine.  I am not a big gambler but it is fun to sit and play a few hands of blackjack w/ friends.  It was not super busy and certainly was not as "glamorous" as Vegas but we had a fun time.  I would like to thank Marlene for all of the awesome cards she dealt herself.  I didn't need that $200, you have it!  It is weird to be indoors where you can smoke.  Thanks Mashantucket Pequots!  Did you know Foxwoods was actually the brainchild of a Malaysian guy rather than a Native American?  Well, not you do.  Lim Goh Tong. Care for a fire water or diseased blanket joke here?  Me neither. 

We stayed at the newer MGM Grand hotel.  The rooms were decent size, comfortable, clean... and most importantly noise and idiot tolerant.  Dinner was at the Pan-Asian joint Shrine.  I was expecting overpriced buffet food but it was actually pretty good.  They need a larger sake menu.  I bad a pretty solid cucumber avocado and Toro sashimi and then flattened chicken in hoisin sauce on an onion pancake.  It was all pretty good.  The fish "tartar" dish was also very good, pretty fresh w/ some crunchy chips on top.  It was expensive, probably more than it needed to be but was not egregious as casinos go. 

After that we played cards and had a "couple" drinks.

The next morning we drove up to Mass. and played golf at the Pleasant Valley Country Club.  Membership was slightly younger than dead but T-Pain's brother did us a solid and got us all set up to play there at a more than reasonable price.  The building looked like a high school and definitely needed a revamp but we had a nice and very cute bartender and were on our way!  The course itself was beautiful.  It was long and and tree lined.  While it was not overly difficult and pretty hard to lose balls, the length and the numerous sand traps together with very fast greens made it a challenge.  How did you like that last sentence alluding to balls and length?  Boo-Ya!  Anyway, after a few holes I shook off the hangover that was crushing me and it was fun.  On the first tee I whiffed and then sent a tee shot 10 feet on the ground.  It was not my best start.  The course had great flora and was well maintained w/ nice fairways and greens.  It was a best ball scramble but I am pretty sure I would have shot a 70! 

After that it was in the car and home w/ a quick stop and McDonald's.  That tasted good going down but hurt pretty bad later.  I paid for my sins Sunday when I re wallpapered the downstairs bathroom.  Overall a fun time and one which I am glad I will never have to repeat for my liver's sake!

Jay About to Turn the Mike Over

So last night Phish played a benefit in Essex, VT for the Hurricane Irene flood victims.  I went w/ my special lady and our pals the LB^2.  Now I could have written a review but I have a buddy who is a much more thoughtful fan and as you are about to see... this is much better.  Harry Hoodwink, take it away!

"Soundchecks provide a rare glimpse into the mood of the group and shed some light on the interactions between the band members. When playing outside and the soundcheck emanates throughout the valley, there are often chances for the crowd to hear glimpses of the upcoming show, or oddball rarities. On Wednesday, updates began popping up online, noting that Phish checked Peaches in Regalia, a Zappa cover that popularly frequented late 80s setlists. And then, surprisingly, the whole soundcheck, Peaches included, was recorded by the band and released prior to the show, sending a buzz around the online community. Here’s a link to the soundcheck download if you’d like to listen yourself. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ABJXZXAF The intro jam is particularly compelling starting at 3:30. At 6 PM, on Phantasy Tour message board, Matzo notes “Right after the first jam you can hear Trey and Mike talking about how great a groove that was. Mike says that should be the whole next phish album. Trey tells mike to have "john" e-mail it to him. Mike says he sends out for recordings of every soundcheck. Awesome.”

This soundcheck also gives fans a view into the lighter side of the band. After Ginseng, left in a void, Page starts monkeying around with his theremin. As the eerily wavering electronic instrument (best known for its role in the Star Trek theme) dominates the PA, Trey leans into his mic and begs, ”Page, stop it, Page, I think the time has come for the vacuum theremin to end,” referring to the Fishman’s penchant for playing vintage Electrolux vacuum cleaners, then continues, ”They sound exactly the same.” Page responds, ”that’s a good idea….” And cuts out the exploration, but then Trey follows on and offers Page, ”Silent Night. Play silent Night” and so Page obliges with eerily oscillating theremin wavering out the Christmas classic. This leads to an impromptu made up on the spot “Too Much Fried Dough at the Fair”, and eventually, a tightly checked “Peaches en Regalia” instrumental to warm up the fingers.


Ticket time for the show was 7, with a hard cap at 11 PM due to noise ordinances. Right around 7:30, Governor Shumlin sauntered up to center stage to shake hands, kiss some babies, and give us all an update on VT flood relief, and to get things rolling. As the lots cleared and the crowd filtered in there, were pinch points where crowd control barriers pinched the crowd in certain places restricting flow and creating high traffic avenues, but eventually worked itself out around the outer edges of the stage, providing plenty of General Admission room on the field or in the Grandstands depending on where you wanted to anchor down.


The end of the summer tour came last week in Colorado where Phish played an entire show sponsored by the letter “S”, with every song following suit (Sample, Sparkle, Sloth, Sweet Virginia…) Then later during that run, Fishman wore his standard moo moo with “Xs” dotted everywhere instead of his normal “O”s. Following the show, many fans speculated that the band maneuvers were a veiled attempt to allude to a benefit show to be played at “SX”…or Essex Junction, Vermont. Soon after the Denver run closed, the benefit was announced. On this Wednesday evening show in Vermont, Fishman set up shop behind his drum kit sporting a newly crafted moo moo special for the occasion, instead of the O circles normally dotted evenly around the garment, this one featured hurricanes with a shout out to Irene.
The first set was an approachable rock ‘n roll jaunt with a fan-appreciated NICU and a solid Wolfman’s Brother > Julius set closer. Phish.net writes “Of course, leave it to Phish to stick the landing, as they did with a really nice "Wolfman's" > "Julius" combo. A few minutes into the "Wolfman's" jam, Trey made the first hard left turn of the night, modulating into a very unexpected harmonic space. The "Julius", though, provided the arguable highlight of the entire evening and will gain a reputation as one of the best if not the best "Julius" of 3.0.”
The second set blazed open with Carini > Down with Disease > Slave sequence that the band is wont to do right out of the gates after setbreak. This three song sequence was probably the highlight of the show in terms of energy and exploration. Pete Carini, drum tech for the band, was in attendance for his first show since before the first hiatus. Before the band kicked off the second set, Trey noted that the Pete and Tara Carini were the only local friends they hadn’t had a chance to catch up with since being back in Vermont, and then dedicated the song with their namesake to them to kick off the second set.

Following a high energy, if not truncated, Carini > DWD, Slave to the Traffic Light takes off at 1:30 during this video, screaming into overture, with Trey taking the lead at 1:55, white lights blaring out over the crowd on the field and into the grandstands beyond.  Then without hesitation, at 3:00 the band takes right off into the Velvet Underground’s Rock & Roll. http://www.youtube.com/embed/0_nqCDnOkCA

Theme from the Bottom was another favorite to see outdoors under the stars.  As always, Chris Kuroda was solid on lights, pulling out some great organic textures, developing color palettes that convey desired moods during jams, and executing on timing changes that always enhance the showgoing experience.  http://www.youtube.com/embed/PvcV3uz2bDg

Note at 1:04, 1:08 & 1:14 in this video when Page pings his upper keys for punctuation how Chris has flashes of light synced with his piano to punctuate the effect. The jam begins building at 3:15, with Page laying down a base of grand piano major chords for Trey to dart in and out of before he hits that overture at 3:55 and screams out through his guitar, washing out over the crowd. The whole band drives forward for the next two minutes with Trey taking the lead until he ducks out at 5:30 and makes room for Page to build into starting at 5:40, Vocal rolling jam at 6:05 “From the Bottom, from the Top”, and the underwater coral lighting Theme from the Bottom to match:

Character Zero is an all-in rocker that never fails to get the crowd chanting along and fist pumping, starting here at 0:25. Everyone get those fists ready to go again at 1:25. http://www.youtube.com/embed/jYBK1GRX9DE



All in all, a great way to spend a Wednesday night, and enjoyable Phish show if your expectations weren’t set too high. Of course, there are those that expected to be led into the Promised Land, or Gamehenge, whichever the case may be. Greenwigmonster at 10:45 PM offers,”I F#CKING HATE CHARITY”, while SatchTheDog agrees “2011'd” and ForgetPhull writes “3.0’d” suggesting that the band in its most recent incarnation doesn’t have the same energy, exploration & jamming as highlight years such as 1993 & 1995. Well, of course they don’t, that was close to 20 years ago. “Harry Doyle” takes it a step further, “Not only do Vermonters have sewage in their basements, now they have piss in their ears,” referring to a scene in the Phish documentary “Bittersweet Motel” where the Director Todd Phillips forces Trey to read bad reviews of the band on camera to catch a glimpse of his emotional reaction to the critiques. It gives you a (sometimes painful) glimpse of the pressure and expectations forced upon a band, and in particular, the lead singer/songwriter/axe-man.

Meanwhile, people are filtering out of the venue, and CheeseSteaks, in a thread labeled “Handy Suites” asks “Okay, so what's the post-show looking like back at the motel? Tim and Eric? Fresh fruit? Light stretching?”


In the end B-B sums it up right: “Organic lights, funky and deconstructed beats, cavern, Julius, rock n roll, and lovin cup. #phish, you've done vermont well.” All in all, a great community feel for a fun school night out, so much fun to see so many Vermonters out to see the band in their home state, and it was all for a great cause. "

***So there you have it!!!

Really... the summer is over?

It was nice this weekend the the evenings are getting quite brisk.  Couple quick things, my special lady and I went to a food fair at the Shelburne Orchard and it was pretty fun.  The food was ok, there was a pretty good corn and cheddar salad from Shelburne Farms, some not very good wine from Lincoln Peak, and really good whoopie pies from a local baker I always forget.  We also had a nice time wandering around picking a few apples in the sunshine. 

On the flip side of the coin was a Saturday lunch trip to Il Gatto.  We rolled in around 2pm or so and the whole place had maybe 6 full tables for 3 servers.  We waited for awhile before getting some chips.  Our drink order was not taken.  After another very long wait while our server wandered around like a moron and chatted up a table outside we finally placed the drink and food order.  After another 15 minutes we got our drinks.  I had no idea they picked their own limes in Mexico, and shipped them to order? After another 30 minutes or so a waitress who was not ours asked how it was going and if we needed more chips.  I responded it was going "slow" and my wife pointed out that 2 tables who had come in well after us had already been served while we were still waiting for our nachos and 2 tacos.  Not exactly a 7 course meal.  By the way... for lunch you can order all of the components of a taco platter but not the platter itself.  Sure, why not waste plates?  Our waitress also neglected to tell us what the specials were.  She seemed very confused by the new fangled "computer" she was constantly working on.  Come to find out the "computer" had failed to print our order in the kitchen so it never got in.  Our waitress was too busy w/ the other table she was serving so she never noticed. Offering to put a "rush" on it we declined w/ extreme disgust.  To their credit they compted our drinks but this was a very disappointing trip to a place already on watch negative.  Pull your shit together Il Gatto. 

Well shit...

I am listening to that Jay-Z/Kanye song Otis and the first time I hated it.  The second time, hated it.  The third time still didn't like it but it was catching like crabs (or so I am told). Now I can't help but listen to it when it comes on the radio.  Damn!

Speaking of love/hate... Obama presented his jobs speech last night and he is a dynamic speaker and certainly looks the part of a leader.  The problem is that he starts off ok and then says stupid shit.  He played too much to unions and the tax the rich crowd.  Neither side of the aisle seem to be able to open their mouths w/out creating class warfare and in the process they create deeper divisions. If you told me you were going to look for ways to create jobs and in the process those employed may need to sacrifice to create security for the future I would find that much more palatable than... we will pay for this plan by increasing taxes on the rich because they can afford it.  Many people that are "rich" have money because they worked hard to make it.  And they may not have several million like Obama or billion like Buffet.  So they will be reluctant to give up those hard earned gains, especially for the guy on the street addicted to heroin begging for cigarettes who will need to be supported due to bad choices not bad luck.  So change the tone.  We all want to help the folks who have had bad luck or are busting their asses but got screwed by the asshole risk junkies of the world, and hope we get help when we need it too.  Take out the attack and bring people together and you would make it harder for the Boehner's to come out and immediately dismiss your plan.  Which they did.  Now, we have next to nothing.  Except a stock market down 4% today.  Shit.  At least we have Europe to... Awwww, too soon?

BTW, that Green Bay/ Saints game last night was a pretty good start to the season.  Lots of speed, talent, offense, excitement.  I enjoyed it.  I was not a buyer of Green Bay and the hype but they looked pretty darn good last night.  New Orleans did too.  So many weapons how do you cover them all.  These guys dropped 8 in coverage and it still seemed like 4 guys were always open.  So much speed.  Like a party at Lou Reed's house in the 70s. Well, except minus the eye shadow, transvestites, abrasive music, and shiny silver balloons on the ceiling?  Nice work by Kid Rock in the pre-game.  Drop the huge American flag and you can be singing anything.

Jay About Maine

Last week my special lady and I went on our annual trip to the family camp in Belfast Maine.  It almost seemed like it was not going to happen when a f*ing hurricane blew through VT and left half the state under water.  It really was a tragedy and affected many lives.  We were lucky, it blew and rained but we did not even lose power.  Odd.  In any event, we were able to get on the road Monday and after the storm it was sunny and very pleasant.  We dropped our asshole cat w/ my folks and made our way north.  It is a long drive to Belfast so we decided to take a break in Portland for the evening.  It was really fun.  We stayed at the Davenport which is a very nice place in Old Port.  The rooms are spacious and clean.  They have beautiful views and several sitting areas as well as a nice billiard room in the basement.  The only criticism I have is that the breakfast was not very good.  There was a blueberry crumble that was good but it was put on top of banilla yogurt which was gross.  There was nice fruit and the potatoes were good but the Mexican fritata was way too big a portion and did not taste that great, not enough salsa, a little burned, and too heavy on the cheese to egg ratio.  Otherwise it was a very nice place to stay.  Monday night we went out in Old Port and did it up.  We had dinner in the bar at Fore Street and it was very good.  The space is dark and very cool.  We sat on a couch and had delicious oysters, very fresh lump crab, and a also fresh seasonal salad.  Add to that some very well made cocktails and some nice white wine and we were in business (and nearly broke!).  It was expensive but the food, service, and setting were all top notch... 1 7/8th thumbs up.  We then wandered up Congress Street and closed down Bistro Jaqueline w/ a nice glass of champagne and then some other bar w/ a load of delicious local brews. We then proceeded to get lost and walk off our dinner in a quite unintentional way around Portland.  It was a very nice evening however.

Belfast itself was same old.  @ Tides was typically good.  Dockside was a little disappointing, Young's Lobster Pound... delicious and fun. 

Thurs. night we rolled down to Rockland and went to highly regarded Primo.  They are known for using local ingredients and embracing the farm to table ethos.  The place was a little off the run but the space was nice.  We went upstairs to the bar and waited for our table.  The cocktail list was extensive and pretty decent.  Then on to dinner.  The amuse bouche chicken pate was very good.  Then things went a little down hill.  We started w/ fried green tomatoes and oysters 2 ways.  The tomato had a bad consistency and the fry was like burnt cheese, not burnt cheese in a good way either.  The oysters were ok but nothing special, breaded and cooked. The wine was over priced and ok, not great.  The main courses were also uninspiring.  My snapper was pretty good and the lobster/potato mash was very good.  My wife's pasta was way over slated.  It was better the next day as a leftover.  The service was quite good.  The biggest problem was the prices.  For $15 an overly salted pasta dish tastes a whole lot different than a $32 one.  Even in New York they don't generally rip your face off that bad.  We thought the whole meal was just ok but priced for exceptional plus.  1 thumb on the atm taking out more cash. 

One last non-Maine related note.  Saddie Katz closed its doors last week after an all to brief stay in Burlington.  They made delicious sandwiches.  Biscuit and I ate one last meal before they closed and as always it was great.  I had a delicious greasy but not too greasy Reuben and the potato salad was solid.  2 thumbs up and hope to see you back in the mix some day...