From KFC: Chicken strip as Seahorse

This needs no introduction.

Raspy Voices (Carry) on NPR

Ahhh, NPR. Only in the magical playland that is National Public Radio can you, devout listener, tune in and hear within 10 minutes of each other: David Lazarous of the Los Angeles Times discussing insurance issues relating the San Diego wildfires, a guy talking about how he translated Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities into Morse code, and then Michael Marotta revealing his love for Til Tuesday’s "Voices Carry" to a national audience.

They played (re-played?) my Here & Now segment on 90.9 WBUR today, and aside from the horror of realizing my voice is really raspy and creepy sounding over the radio airwaves, I’m relieved I whispered nary a controversial note. The fact that my parents tuned in from sunny Tampa kinda blows my mind, too, even though I sound like a dispatched offspring from one of the Simpson's aunts.


Overall it was a cool experience at BUR, and I had no idea their offices were on Comm. Ave. in the middle of BU. They didn't play the Information's "A Simple Plan" like they promised, but the peoples were friendly, and hopefully it gave some props to the Rock the Hub competition, which sets out to find the best Boston song of the past 25 years. Yes, I still think "Voices Carry" should win, but with Red Sox fever sweeping the region, I fear "Tessie" will come out on top. Oh well.

New dance night at Redline

So Kane's Sunday night gig at Redline has shifted to Thursdays, and since we're all friends among friend he's enlisted the pill to cross the river and throw down with him. Shit kicks off tonight, there's no cover, no name, just DJs Ken, Kane, Terence and myself living the high life in a dope room that needs to be taken over like the Drowners. Hit us up. xo

Tale of the Tape leftovers

Earlier I posted my Denver Vs. Boston tale of the tape in preparation for tonight’s World Series. The published list had 13 categories, but I submitted 20. My long-time goal of getting the Quebec Nordiques and Denver the Last Dinosaur into the Herald’s new section must wait another day. At the risk of getting fired, here’s what was edited out:

Category: Famous street near the ballpark
Boston: Lansdowne Street
Denver: Blake Street
Verdict: Boston – Dante Bichette knows both very well.

Category: Reasons to retire Ray Bourque’s number 77
Boston: 21 years of All Star-caliber defense
Denver: One successful Stanley Cup run
Verdict: Boston – The Avalanche retiring Bourque’s number is a joke.

Category: Infamous stolen item
Boston: Independence, from the British
Denver: The NHL’s Nordiques, from Quebec City
Verdict: Denver – Independence didn’t win a Stanley Cup a year later.

Category: Worst Super Bowl Loss
Boston: 46-10, by Chicago, 1986
Denver: 55-10, by San Francisco, 1990
Verdict: Denver – They got us on this one.

Category: Best Super Bowl Victory
Boston: Shutting up the Rams, 20-17, 2002
Denver: Shutting up the Packers, 31-24, 1998
Verdict: Denver – John Elway’s TD lunge was an instant highlight.

Category: Cartoon-like mascot
Boston: “Wally” the green monster
Denver: “Denver the Last Dinosaur” ‘80s cartoon
Verdict: Denver – That lovable teenage t-rex was from California, but he’s got more pride than Wally the shameless marketing cash cow.

Category: Homegrown Pro Athletes
Boston: Patrick Ewing, Nancy Kerrigan, Jeremy Roenick, Tony Amonte
Denver: Roy Halladay, Chauncey Billups
Verdict: Boston – We have too many to list.

World Series fever

Red Sox fever has swept the region, and it's the rare time of year where my professional life as an A&E writer crosses paths with my love for baseball. So aside from my Boston Vs. Denver smackdown in today's paper, I'm sitting at my desk wearing swim goggles and sliding pants, looking like Lord Jon Papelbon, and writing a shit ton of Red Sox-related stories. So this morning I offer up some fairly interesting sports links in honor of the 2007 World Series, which the Sox should take home in 5 games.

- I dug this up because Max was asking for it, and it never disappoints. During a moment of silence before an Isles-Sabres game at the Nassau Mausoleum on the night of the Virginia Tech shootings, a fan displays his dislike for the Rangers. Very disrespectful, but so freaking amazing. The way it echoes through the building is priceless.

- I consider myself a fan of the Devil Rays (yup, I'm the one), but not the hideously sunkissed blue-and-yellow uniforms they'll wear next year. What's even more bland than the uniform is the news that Kevin Costner will unveil it at a party sure to be attended by dozens.

- Us Long Island folk lived through the Fish Sticks Era, but this is just cruel.


- And they say Cleveland is a glutton for punishment. Looks like the Cleveland Plain Dealer, on deadlines tighter than Travis Hafner at the plate, made a writer pen two stories, one if the Sox won, another if the Tribe came back. Here's the draft of your 2007 American League Champion Cleveland Indians!

All in together now

King Richard's Faire, glass squids and Lord Pap

My first real "clean weekend" resulted in me feeling better than ever, and got my once-Elmered ass out of bed and into society. After last week’s emergency cancellation, I finally got down to King Richard’s Faire with Lady Riley of NH. I didn’t bring a camera, but it was just as ridiculous as I hoped it would be: knife throwing, arrow shooting and turkey leg gorging. And the drive down to the South Shore was therapeutic as well – it was the first time I’ve seen the leaves this season. Oh yeah, baseball has been epic, as well. Other things of note this weekend:

-- Scientists have found a glass squid in a remote underwater mountain area of the North Atlantic. Holy fuck. I don’t know if I want to stuff it with izm and smoke it or raise it to learn showtunes.

-- The MBTA, in all its infinite wisdom, is now pumping T Radio in subway stations at North and South Station and the Airport stop, with plans to expand to all stops (even the ghetto fabulous Orange line) by Thanksgiving. Now, before the excitement runs through your heads at the thought of hearing Bonnie Tyler or Bernie Higgins while chill-ackin’ on the Red Line, this will effectively kill off the T’s myriad street performers. If you don’t view these people as a societal scourge (and hey, Eli "Paperboy" Reed once did this in Harvard), sign the petition to stop it. Do this.

-- If we needed another reason why dried up llama flatuelence such as Van Halen should not reunite, check this out. Apparently the pre-recorded synth loop to “Jump” ran a bit too fast. Jesus these dudes are washed up.

-- What’s this? Oh, just Jonathan "Lord of the Dance" Papelbon dumping a can of Bud Light onto the American League Championship trophy. And people wonder why I love this city so much.

-- If anyone listens to NPR, listen to me discuss local music and other stuff on Boston’s WBUR 90.9 FM. I’ll be on at 2pm. Full report to follow. xo.

Halloween

Vanya killed the Radio Star / Randomness

I make my radio debut this Tuesday at 2 p.m., as I’ll be a guest on NPR’s WBUR 90.9 FM for a segment on local music. The show is called Here & Now, and I’ll be talking ragtime about the Boston Herald’s Rock the Hub online music tournament. An appearance on ‘BCN later in the week will follow. Cool shit.

Other random crap:

- Apparently the Blur reunion is off. From Blur's official site: "In light of recent press speculation, blur.co.uk would like to confirm that Alex, Damon, Dave and Graham met for an enjoyable lunch on Monday, but there are currently no other music plans for Blur."

- Now granted, I wasn’t paying full attention to the television, but last night I was watching the remarkably entertaining 50 Cent flick Get Rich or Die Tryin. (Quick Note: Anything that stars Simon Adebisi from Oz and the immortal Bill Duke gets Four Star treatment in my grade book). Anyway, about midway through, I flipped through the channels, and after about 15 minutes, went back to Get Rich. The only problem was that I stumbled on Hustle and Flow, and watched that for about 30 minutes until I realized I was watching a completely different fucking movie. Whoops.

- The Cleveland Plain Dealer asked fans to redesign the Indians uniforms, though it seems only 8 year olds got the memo. This, at the very least, bodes well for the future of journalism. We’re told no one under 45 even reads the newspaper. (Speaking of the Tribe, this ALCS is going back to Boston. Bet on it.)


- Who knew, Vol. 67: Did you know that Gremlins 2: The New Batch received three fucking stars? This was a three-star film in late’80s America.

- Ominous messages floating around about a possible return of Boston post-punk band Read Yellow. It seems this is no reunion, just the long-awaited news that their final album will finally get proper distribution. We’ll see.

- Can someone confirm that Spoon’s new single "The Underdog" sounds a lot like an old Billy Joel song?

Hot Springs

The best part about writing for Spin is being exposed to a ton of bands I'd probably never get to hear until Ticketmaster surcharges are involved. Without getting too deep into the process, we get to hear a ton of shit every week, and call dibs on what we'd like to write about. I've gotten into The Blakes, Grand National and Great Northern this way, and the latest discovery is the blistery punk of Hot Springs, out of Montreal, QC, CA. Peep it here