Some Chili
Make this when there’s snow on the ground. I’m not even sure if it’s officially chili but whatever it is, it tastes great. Maybe a bit healthy, too.
- 1 lb ground turkey (leanest you can find)
- 4 carrots, peeled
- 4 celery stalks
- 1/2 red pepper
- 1/2 green pepper
- 1 28 oz can peeled whole tomatoes
- 1 10 oz can black beans, drained
- 1 10 oz can garbanzo beans, drained
- 1 small can green chilies
- 1 medium white onion
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 C fresh cilantro
- 2.5 T chili powder
- 1/2 T ground coriander
- 1/2 T red pepper flakes
- 1/2 T cumin
- 1 t garlic powder
- Pepper to taste
- Brown the turkey in a pan, drain grease.
- Chop everything up and add along with the turkey to a slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours. Stir occasionally.
The Sense of Coming Night That Engine Calling Our Mountains
For your E-reader this holiday season: October in the Railroad Earth
The Albums I Enjoyed Listening To The Most In 2011
Here is my annual list of “Best” or “Top Albums”. I do this to log my listenings (not a word) for the year, not to put some sort of smug ranking on music. I do not put a lot of emphasis on the ordering beyond maybe the top ten or so. This isn’t a ranking of true albums, either, since a handful might be horrible albums with only a few tracks that I enjoyed. It’s simply a list of the albums I found myself listening to.
Honorable mention (unlisted):
- Radiohead – The King of Limbs
- The Black Keys – El Camino
- The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
- Lil Wayne – Tha Carter IV
- Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost
- Tapes ‘n Tapes – Outside
- The Decemberists – The King is Dead
The format is the same as previous years (2010, 2009): [ #Rank. Band Name - Album Name (fav song(s)) ]
In other news, this is my 200th blog post. Here’s the list:
30. (updated) Jamie xx Smith and Gil Scott-Heron – We’re New Here (remix album) (fav songs: Running, NY Is Killing Me)
29. Tom Waits – Bad As Me (fav song: Face To The Highway)
28. Bonnie Price Billy - Wolfroy Goes To Town (fav song: Quail And Dumplings)
27. Wild Beasts – Smother (fav song: Albatross)
26. tUnE-yArDs – w h o k i l l (fav song: Bizness)
25. Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will (fav song: White Noise)
24. Destroyer - Kaputt (fav song: Chinatown)
23. Death Cab For Cutie – Codes and Keys (fav song: Underneath the Sycamore)
22. Battles – Gloss Drop (fav song: Futura)
21. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (complete album)
20. The Antlers – Burst Apart (fav song: Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out)
19. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong (fav song: The Body)
18. Pantha Du Prince – Black Noise (fav song: Bohemian Forest)
17. Cut Copy – Zonoscope (fav song: Blink And You’ll Miss A Revolution)
16. Bombay Bicycle Club - A Different Kind Of Fix (fav song: What You Want)
15. Panda Bear – Tomboy (fav songs: Slow Motion, Tomboy)
14. A$AP Rocky - LiveLoveA$AP (fav song: Purple Swag)
13. Drake – Take Care (fav songs: Make Me Proud, Underground Kings, Headlines)
12. Atlas Sound – Parallax (fav songs: Angel is Broken, Te Amo)
12. Hercules And Love Affair – Blue Songs (fav song: Falling)
11. Holy Ghost! – Holy Ghost! (fav song: Wait & See)
10. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (fav song: The Shrine / An Argument)
9. Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital (fav song: Memories of the Future)
8. John Tejada – Parabolas (fav song: Subdivided)
7. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (fav song: The Glorious Land)
6. The Strokes – Angles (fav song: Under The Cover Of Darkness [on SNL])
5. Austra – Feel It Break (fav song: Beat And The Pulse)
4. Araabmuzik – Electronic Dream (fav song: Feelin So Hood)
3. Real Estate – Days (fav song: It’s Real)
2. M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (fav song: Klaus I Love You)
1. Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Meet araabMUZIK
I’ve liked this producer for a while now, though I’m still pretty sure I hate dubstep. I was lucky enough to see him this past year and now he has a video going viral.
It gets funny around 1:40, pretty radical:
Ask Bradford Cox About His Music
I’ve never wanted to listen to Cryptograms more in my life. This guy (Atlas Sound, Deerhunter) is great and holy hell am I’m glad he makes music.
The twelve minutes he takes to (kind of) describe one of his songs is pure gold. He doesn’t care if you don’t get it, either.
#TERROR
Alan Moore Talks Harvey Pekar, Cleveland
Love this video of the great Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta) giving mad props to Harvey Pekar while plugging the recent Kickstarter effort, calling Pekar “the greatest comic book writer of the past forty or fifty years.”
He also says, “without Cleveland, the current comic book world would be a very different place…”
Me in Cleveland Magazine
From the Detroit-Superior Speakeasy Bridge Party, with the always ravishing Katie O.
Click image for PDF:
A Journey to Moogfest 2011
FRIDAY
The Friday of Halloween weekend, I woke up early, picked up JM and headed to CP’s house to embark on our journey to Asheville, North Carolina for the second annual Moogfest. Our travel progress was immediately interrupted when CP realized he had his ticket stuffed in a book that he had left at home. He ditched JM and I at the Denny’s in Independence, drove home and met back up with us, waiting with a moons-over-my-hammy to-go. We were off.
We drove through some light snow, were nearly ran off the road, and made much of the journey with the driver side window stuck in the down position. JM stuffed his scarf that he bought in Russia into the window frame, but naturally, it flew out and presumably landed somewhere on the I-77 S median. We stocked up on some local staples before pushing through heavy fog in the great state of Tennessee.
We arrived in Asheville after the music started but were still able to see some of Holy F*ck‘s set.
- Holy F*ck – great start to the weekend.
- Chromeo – an awesome show at the outdoor venue. I totally dig Chromeo but felt they couldn’t deviate (read: play guitar) too much from their backing track(s).
- Moby – production value was up for this one, about 15 people on stage, good lights/sound, but just wasn’t feeling Moby.
- The Field – can’t remember this too much?
- Flying Lotus – was there to start the set, but left early, somewhat underwhelmed.
- TV on the Radio – caught a few songs, but not their biggest fan.
- AraabMUZIK – best show of the night, one man and his MPC, totally killed it. Small venue, we were lucky to get in before capacity.
SATURDAY
We had a killer brunch on the patio at Mayfel’s in the heart of downtown Asheville. We bummed around the neighborhood and grabbed some coffee before heading to Brian Eno’s Illustrated Talk. This was interesting and I enjoyed it, however I’m convinced that I was the minority in the crowd of Eno-freaks who literally gasped at every English one-liner and zany dry-erased scribble. We headed back to the hotel and rested up before heading out for a late night.
- Crystal Castles - my favorite show of the weekend. We were close and it was loud, lights were suberb. Alice Glass rage’d as expected.
- Flaming Lips – second row and Wayne’s ball rolled over us during the intro. The Lips never disappoint.
- Amon Tobin – quite possibly the loudest show I’ve ever been to (surpassing Hot Chip in D.C.). Pretty sweet, but the visuals didn’t fill the arena too well.
- St. Vincent – first time seeing them (her?) and enjoyed it.
- STS9 – good, as usual.
- Battles – impressed with this set, simplistic keys and drums, but a really fun show.
SUNDAY
Had a chance to sleep in which was much deserved (I failed to mention I was in Minnesota on Thursday). We ate some crepes somewhere and walked around downtown some more. We shopped and checked out some customary Asheville hippie places (and cheese stores). There was some more lounge time at the hotel which we spent watching Sweet Genius, perhaps the most underrated smug pastry chef competition show on television.
We had dinner at a place called The Southern and headed out for the night and checked out the Moogfactory which only increased my desire to own a true synth.
- M83 – awesome set – and Brian Eno even walked into our section (plugging his ears) to watch maybe 19 seconds of a song. We were star struck.
- Neon Indian – underwhelming, singer carries himself kind of douchey.
- James Murphy & Pat Mahoney Special Disco Set – OK, we were able to get super close but, IDK, kind of bittersweet and lackluster compared to the LCD Farewell Show at Madison Sq Garden in NYC earlier this year.
- Passion Pit – not the biggest fan, but they sounded much better than the HOB show in Cleveland last year, and even better than how they sound on the radio/car commercials.
We had an early Sunday night and vowed to be up early for the drive home. We were successful, waking up at 5:45 AM and getting back to Clevelandtown by 2:30 PM.
THE END
We had a great time at Moogfest, I would say it could be the best festival I’ve been to (Bonnaroo * 4, All Good, NOLA Jazz Fest). I liked how it seemed low key, maybe 10-15,000 total attendees, at most. It was so small, we would walk around town during the day and see and talk to people who had no idea the festival was going on. The venues were laid out nicely and we could walk to and from all them easily. Obviously, there are major perks to a low key, multi-venue fest where you can have the luxuries of a hotel room and time to hangout/relax while enjoying a stellar line up. Maybe SXSW or ACL is the next festival endeavor…
See you next year?
Never Settle, 1955-2011
It’s crazy that you grow up looking back at old black and white photos from generations you weren’t even alive to be a part of. Suddenly the era of your youth seems like ages ago. These pictures to me seem like they were taken yesterday.
I’m taken back to my Packard Bell 386.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. Never Settle.
Folk Week: Fleet Foxes and The Low Anthem Come to NEO
I haven’t been to the Kent Folk Fest since 2009 when I saw Old Crow Medicine Show. DT and I cruised down last Saturday to see The Low Anthem headline The Kent Stage. Great show from our front row seats. To close the night, TLA invited the crowd to come on stage for a version of Leonard Cohen’s Bird on the Wire (below, at about 8:32).
Wednesday was The Walkman opening for Fleet Floxes at the Cleveland Masonic Auditorium on Euclid. The venue was a perfect setting for the bands – I can’t believe I haven’t been there before. FF’s first time though Cleveland, I believe, and they pretty much made it through both albums. I prefer the first album.
Grainy Cell Phone Pics of Two Tribe Hall of Famers
Last night I went to my last of many Tribe games this season. Thome and Vizquel were there, both will enter the Hall of Fame as Indians.
There’s some old cards, too, for good measure.
Also worth mentioning was this guy, “The Dog Man”, who was the meanest and coolest vendor I’ve ever seen.
The Best Sandwich Under $10 in Cleveland…
…isn’t a grilled cheese!
The Cuban from Market Garden Brewery. Get it with an Old Zahm’s Oktoberfest!
East Coast Road Trip
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I had a bunch of time away from work and decided to spend some of it road-tripping down the east-coast. In my quest to visit all 50 states, I’m left with 12 to visit after this trip. The Northern Plains and the Pac-Northwest remain along with HI and AK.
I’ll do my normal trip breakdown since I know you love it:
FRIDAY
Rented a car and hit the road. CH had never been to Niagara Falls so we took a quick detour to ride the Maid of the Mist. Did the tour of the falls and got back in the car to drive through the Finger Lakes through upstate New York. We avoided the interstate and took Route 3 through Adirondacks, which was an incredible drive. It’s a different world up there, a part of Appalachia I haven’t seen before. Pines everywhere gave the place a unique smell. It was a lot cooler, too, a nice drive through winding mountain roads on a crisp night. We jammed through the state, passing little ski towns and shantys. We made it to the Lake Champlain Ferry and caught the night’s last boat to Vermont.
SATURDAY
Woke up in some hotel and quickly did the Vermont Teddy Bear tour. Grabbed some coffee at Village Win and Coffee where the barista knew every local’s name. We burned through the Magic Hat Brewery in South Burlington but felt it was too early to have a drink. Everyone there was saying how unusually humid it was, but it honestly felt like a chilly 50° to us. From here, it was a pretty drive to Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. We had a small serving and then hit the road to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill which was nice. Good cider in donuts, just like Ohio. We cranked up some Phish and in no time made it to New Hampshire’s White Mountains, which were marvelous. It was pleasantly desolate, houses scattered about white birches.
We crossed the state line headed for Bangor, Maine. CH drove while I did some schoolwork. We used Yelp to track down The Eagle’s Nest, a hole-in-the-wall eatery which apparently was known for the best lobster roll around. It was good. It was about 8:30 and after driving all day, our plan was to shack up early for the night. It was Labor Day weekend and we quickly realized that every hotel within an hours drive in every direction was booked. I had a guide and must have called about 15 different places. Finally, a lady directed us to the last hotel room in the state of Maine, a small hotel a one hour drive north (out of our way!) in Lincoln.
We drove to Lincoln, paid the $79 for the room before the front-desk lady said, “OK, follow me in my car, it’s just up the street.” Not exactly traditional directions to a hotel room… We followed her and were brought to an old house and went up stairs to a legitimate efficiency apartment. It was OK, super creepy and kind of dated, but more preferable than sleeping in our rental car. Still odd staying in a fully furnished musty apartment in northern Maine.
SUNDAY
We left the house and dropped the key back at the real motel. Hopped on 95 south and headed for Bar Harbor, Maine. We booked a sailing tour and had a small lunch of seafood tapas at Sips in Southwest Harbor. Southwest Harbor was really nice, a quaint island fishing town, something of a Put-in-Bay but a bit more authentic.
We boarded the Alice E, the oldest Friendship sloop (c. 1899) in operation, around noon. Our skipper, Carl, led us through the harbor, navigating around countless lobster traps and pointing out the different coastal mountains. It was beautiful and we were told we were “in some of the best sailing waters in the world.” The harbor waters felt much calmer than a flat day on Lake Erie. This was easily the best part of the trip. Carl fed us cheese and bread and we shot-the-shit with our fellow riders, two couples from Salem, Massachusetts and somewhere in North Carolina. The boat ride was enjoyable and a great experience. The talk of the harbor was a $50 million dollar super yacht, docked there for the weekend. The Mirabella V (wiki) is the largest sloop (single mast sailboat) in the world. At almost 300 feet high, there is not a bridge in the world that she can sail under. It was pretty impressive. She was anchored and loaded up $300,000 tender before steaming past us.
After the three hour tour, we drank in Acadia National Park at The Atlantic Brewing Company who served us some of the best BBQ I think I’ve had.
We hit the road south, destined for Gloucester, Massachusetts. Planning to not be without a decent room for the night, we began calling hotels outside of Boston early. We came acrossed The Crow’s Nest, a bar/hotel made popular by the movie The Perfect Storm. We considered staying here for the evening but quickly changed our minds after drinking with the locals. It was an interesting place. Gloucester is the oldest seaport in America, settled in 1623! We drank at the pub where the lost crew of the Andrea Gail would tie one on after fishing the Grand Banks. We called it a night and headed west to Lowell, MA.
MONDAY
We woke up and headed to Lowell’s neighborhoods and saw Jack Kerouac’s birthplace, home, and grave site. We then headed to Salem to see all the witch tourist-traps. We did the Witch Museum which was quite a letdown. We ripped through downtown Boston, saw the site of The Boston Massacre and then hit the road out of town.
We arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, another awesome little harbor town. The main strip here went for about 15 blocks are so and offered a lot of cool places and shop to check out. The weather was lovely, warm with a strong breeze off the ocean. We ate lunch at The Red Parrot where we had delicious clam chowder and lobster. We drove around a bit and gawked at some of the town’s popular mansions.
We headed through Connecticut and down the coast gazing into the night at the New York City skyline. We headed to Philadelphia and found a hotel outside the city. Woke up the next day and ate cheesesteaks from Pat’s King of Steaks.
We crossed into Delaware for a hot minute and filled up. It was raining pretty hard, so we decided to point the mighty Dodge west and head home.
Las Vegas: The Saga Continues
I wanted to somehow title this post whatever sound those cards make when the countless strip-street peddelers flick them with their fingers. *flick snap flick*
You didn’t think I forgot to blog about my trip to Vegas, did you?
It was a trip planned, for whatever reason, much in advance with six long-time friends – a late summer visit to the desert to revisit old times and to cause a little bit of trouble.
THURSDAY
I was dropped off at the airport early, well in front of everybody else. I saw the terminal slowly fill up with coughing slotoholics and Juicy pants. We climbed aboard our 757, bright eyed and eager, landing in Vegas before noon. We checked our bags and headed to some burger place in the New York, New York (our hotel for the weekend, against our better judgement.) We hit the floor early, loosing big spread out among craps, roulette and the dreaded three-card poker table.
Spent and thirsty, we decided to midwest it up a bit and buy some tallboys from a Strip CVS. We finally checked into our hotel and drank a bit before heading to the MGM to watch the Tribe game. It was time for an MGM Davidoff cigar and endless drinks from the horse-bet-waitress (Melissa from Kansas City). Back to the hotel to freshen up before heading out for the night. Our plan was to get to the Rio’s Voodoo. We walked most of the way, which is an awful trek, before getting on the shuttle. Voodoo was closed until midnight due to a Star Trek convention (seriously). We hung out at the Rio bar, drank too much for our liking before cabbing it back, late and tired.
FRIDAY
We were up early due to at least one member of at least one of our rooms ruining our plans to sleep in. We walked to In and Out Burger and hung at the pool before heading to Minus5, an ice bar located inside the Monte Carlo. They give you gloves and parkas and you drink in an igloo kept at around 10 degrees or so. We met a fun group of birthday girls from San Diego who we would meet back with throughout the trip. It was a strange sensation, drinking vodka in an igloo for a couple hours and then walking out in 100 degree heat.
We went to a sports bar back at our hotel for dinner, I forget why, though. From here, it was more Modelo cans and a walk back to Monte Carlo. We headed to Marque at the Cosmopolitan to meet up with our new friends, but the line was about a two-hour wait, and to put it nicely, no where near our style. But the scenery was nice.
Our group broke up and three of us drank whiskey with two doctor/babes from San Diego in the City Center- one of the funnest parts of the trip. The rest of the group went to OGs. It was at this point, late in the night, where we lost our friend Adam. He disappeared for a few hours, leaving his cell phone. Kind of odd, but we ended up leaving the bar and hoping our freind would find his way back. Cathy, our friend from Avon, Facebook’d us and spontaneously met up with our group. We all went to Monte Carlo-Ignite to drink until sunup with our friends from San Diego.
SATURDAY
Caught up on a bit of sleep, finally! The seven of us + Cathy + a new addition for the weekend, Bobby from LA (really from Ohio). We all packed into a limo and headed to the Venetian to cheer on the Browns. Some of us thought The Venetian had the best sports book on the strip. It was closed and being remodeled so we quickly crossed to The Mirage. We watched the Tribe and Browns, ate pizza sold by Katy Perry and watched Bobby get shitfaced.
We went back to the hotel to start the festivities. There’s a private YouTube video of this out there and confirms the good time. We walked to Caesars and then to Bill’s and other places, I think. We saw COPS being legit filmed and the most vice I’ve ever seen on The Strip. This was a fun night, we all hit it pretty hard, but not as hard as the guy swimming in the Bellagio fountain. We ended the night at some bar at Harrah’s before stumbling back.
SUNDAY
We had a red eye home, waiting for us at 11:30 pm Vegas time, so we decided to rent a minivan which I traversed the Strip with ease before hitting the high road north out of the city. We had some Wendy’s before driving an hour on I-15 to THE VALLEY OF FIRE. This was breathtakingly beautiful and enjoyed by all manpons packed in the mini. We saw red rocks for miles, took pictures in the 115 degree heat and looked at 200 millon year old logs. A different way to kill a day in Vegas, but we were drank and gambled out. We hit the Hoover Dam, ate ice cream cones and then drove back to LV, stopping at The History Channel’s Pawn Stars Gold & Silver Pawn Store (yup, that one).
We ditched the mini and cabbed it to McCarren. We were all beat. The terminal was packed with Clevelanders and crying babies. I made a bet with Bryan that our plane would land late and won (he still owes me this money).
It was a shitty red-eye home; I couldn’t sleep and it felt like forever. We landed in Clevelandtown to a beautiful sunrise. Courtney picked me up and we went home.
It was more fun than I thought I’d have, a great weekend spent with great friends. Not to get all Stephan King movie on this blog post, but the vibe was to do something like this every year going forward. Hopefully we will.
Weekend Wandering and Wondering
Had dinner at Wonder Bar on Friday with some great people – the food and drinks were good, but somehow my distaste of E 4th increases with each visit. Ended the night at some neighborhood pubs, with northern IPAs and little glasses.
Saturday was Shooters, one of the last few remaining Flats establishments. The place still has it – it was a beautiful night in CLE, riverside eating and drinking watching the freighters blow by.
Happy Sunday.
Weekend Recap (Video)
I hope that this doesn’t become a regular thing, but I strongly feel the need to recap my weekends as of late since they’ve rocked hard and been so action packed.
- Friday
- Checked out Penzey Spices for the first time in the Market District with SE.
- I biked and SE walked to Dragonfly to meet JM for sushi and drinks.
- We were then off to ABC The Tavern for some patio hanging. The night was slowing down so we footed it to Market Avenue Wine Bar. It was at this point I realized my bike’s bag had been gone through and some items stolen. Punks. I was watching my bike from the patio, but I should still know better…
- After Market Ave, we went BACK to ABC for some more good times and took the night home with a big group on the patio and many Black Labels.
- Saturday
- Rode the Progressive Field to buy a replacement Tribe hat.
- THE NERD RIDE!
- Crank-Set Rides does it again – we had an excellent time with some 180 other nerds biking CLE all day.
- Biked with KR and the route was something like the following:
- The Root Cafe
- Lakewood Library
- Happy Dog
- Joy Machines
- Room Service on 25th
- Reddstone (I went home to avoid the rain and to sleep.)
- Sunday
- A relaxing life catch up day.
- Made some killer burgers and this salad.
- Night biked with KO and JM around the following landmarks:
- W 65th
- KO’s House
- Public Square chill spot
- E 80th
- Voinovich Park, Rock Hall, PLANKING
- Detroit-Superior -> HOME
- Monday (Independence Day)
- What I planned to be a quiet day on Monday turned into the most fun I’ve had on the 4th of July in recent memory. JM and I biked to pick up some supplies before heading to the “Big Italy” neighborhood of W 69/W 67. I’ll post a video soon, but basically it’s an unofficial block party with many hundreds of locals setting off illegal explosives in the street. Bands playing, Caprice Classics doing burn outs, people grilling out and relaxing under shade tents – freedom. Not a cop in site the whole day and night.
- On a side note, I’ve heard the folklore my entire life about M-80s and H-1000s – the household name for illegal boom-booms. The extent of my amateur firework experience is the stuff they sell at CVS and the mortars that are sold at legit fireworks stores (Sandusky). I can assure you that whatever these people were lighting off were illegal, awesome, dangerous, loud and amazing.
- We hung on a back patio with some great friends who fed us generously.
- Biked it home to close out the weekend.
Saltibarsciai – Lithuanian Cold Beet Soup/Salad
I concocted the following from the recipe in the Fresh Fork newsletter and was a terrific way to use the beets, yogurt, eggs and cucumbers. The result was a fresh, earthy/sweet salad that tasted great with a burger.
- 1 bunch beets
- 1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
- 3 eggs, hard boiled, chopped
- 1/2 C fresh yogurt
- 1 T dill weed
- 1 t paprika
- Olive oil
- Slice the tops and bottoms off the beets. Toss in sea salt and olive oil. Bake at 350 – roast until tender. Remove and place in ice water for 5 minutes. Peel and chop.
- Mix the beets, cucumber, egg, and spices.
Flavor Overload – Fresh Fork Cooking
It doesn’t look like much, the small plate above took quite a bit of work (and a few different meals).
First, everything seen here is NE Ohio local food – courtesy of the Fresh Fork CSA Large Bag.
I braised greens for the first time courtesy of this guy, basically it’s seasoning some Swiss chard, rainbow chard, beet tops and leaf lettuce then cooking in a pan with apple cider vinegar and water. Oh, I cooked some green onions and garlic before adding the greens.
Also shown is a local tomato, radishes, some left over ground beef from taco night that I needed to get rid of and some pesto that I made earlier in the week with garlic scapes, cilantro, Parmesan, olive oil and red pepper. Lastly, that’s chicken sausage from Baltic, Ohio and a little bit of fresh chevre goat cheese.
The Brew Free or Die! IPA from 21st Amendment is killer and goes nicely with what this creation is/was. It was also a take home beer from you know who you are.
