Alabama Shakes

The answer is no. I'm not planning on making this a music/video blog permanently. It's just where my head is at right now, and that ain't a bad thing.

Next up is a band called Alabama Shakes that a family member introduced us to this past weekend. A real roots rock kinda band. I hear a bunch of stuff that I grew up with in the 1970's in this group of kids who are barely old enough to buy liquor. The key performer, for me at least, is lead singer Brittany Howard. She has some fucking pipes, yo! Fierce!  One might initially dismiss her as trying to hard to be Adele-like, but if you keep listening you realize that isn't true at all. Unique in her own right.

Love the first comment on the embedded clip below. "If you don't like this, then you don't like music." Couldn't have said it better myself.  It's a long clip with an extended performance recorded at a radio station, but it's worth listening to the whole thing. Or find some of their shorter clips from the Conan Show on Youtube. Either way, you are in for a treat.

Dead Sound

I'm loving this song by The Raveonettes lately. A little Blondie meets surf guitar or something not at all like that. But whatever it is...I dig.

Favorite Song of the 1980's

This is mine. What is yours?

PS - I pretty much hate everyone in the band now, especially Ian Astbury. He look like a fool. So almost all of them. Except Billy Duffy on lead guitar. He's fucking harsh!

This close

A crazy person approached me on the sidewalk. I could tell he was crazy because he was gesticulating wildly and yelling/barking at people both real and imaginary.

Made a quick assessment of the situation, and I realized there was no avoiding him. He was coming right at me, fast, and there was no easy way out.

So I decided to keep on moving toward him and make eye contact. He saw this, locked in on me and shouted "YOU...I'M TALKING AT YOU!!!"

Not good. But I remained calm, and I kept eye contact. "Hey. What's going on, man?" I asked.

This seemed to momentarily quell the crazy as confusion took over. "Um, nothing. What's going on with you?" he asked back.

By now our momentums (can I pluralize that?) were taking us past each other.  He with a wake of hardcore crazy streaming behind him. Me with more of a sputtering, bubbly wake of a slight beer buzz.

I looked back over my shoulder at him, smiled and said "Not much. Have a good one, buddy. Okay?"

He, still confused, nodded his head and replied "You too!" And we each made our ways away from each other in opposite directions.

That could have gone a different way. I wonder if he thought at all about the guy on the sidewalk who gave him the barest minimum of the time of day after our brief encounter. I know I'm still thinking about him.

Suggestion

Do yourself a favor.

Sign up for a 2-week free trial of EPIX online and then watch Warrior either on your computer or one of your streaming devices.

I just saw it and I think I need some time to process how much I loved it. I'll be back Monday with my review after I watch it again.

Until then...take my advice above. I don't believe you will regret it.

Pandora Redux

I keep talking about Pandora. That's because it's pretty much my favorite thing ever in the streaming music world. I listen to it all day streaming to my Roku box while I work. I listen to it using an the app on my phone when I'm out and about. I'd listen to it in the car, but we have XM/Sirius there.  I just dig it.

Because it's the only thing out there that introduces me to new artists/music or reunites me with some artists that I haven't heard in a very long time for one reason or another.

Like Gill Landry, an artist who I had never really heard of before. But I was listening to a Tom Waits station that I had set up, and "Mexico" by Mr. Landry has popped up several times over the past few month.  I dig.

Then there is Alice Donut, a band who I LOVED back in the early 1990's. I don't think I've heard anything by them since, well, the last time I mentioned them here on the Dude. But man...I still love some of their stuff. "Magdalene" is such a great song. If you were a fan of Jane's Addiction or Sonic Youth back in the day, then you may enjoy it as well.  Dig times two.

Don't You Just Know It

Watched Snatch again last night. It never gets fucking old. Maybe one of the best soundtracks ever. "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers, "Ghost Town" by The Specials, "Dreadlock Holiday" by 10CC, "Fuckin' in the Bushes" by Oasis...and, of course, "Don't You Just Know It" by Huey "Piano" Smith.

Dig.

Jumpin' Jack Flash*

Every once in a while, scientists figure something out that is not only a break-through, but hilarious at the same time.

Case in point: It's a gas: dinosaur flatulence may have warmed Earth.

Now, I have no idea if dinosaur farts really warmed the Earth in the Mesozoic era, but that headline sure warmed my sick, little heart. There's lots of real science in that article. They calculated the effect of methane production from current numbers of cows, sheeps and pigs. Then they calculated the numbers and average size of dinosaurs living in the Mesozoic. From there they were able to calculate the amount of methane produced and the effect on the environment.

But I don't care about any of that. Because dinosaur farts are funny. And probably really awful. Imagine hanging with your dicky dinosaur friends. Just taking a drive to the movies of something.  Suddenly the dino-driver rolls up all the windows and locks them. You all wait for a second, and then it hits you! Deadly dino-gas! The driver, of course, thinks it the funniest thing in the world. Because not only did they produce prodigious amounts of gas (probably), they also had tiny, tiny brains.

And we all know that creatures with tiny brains find a lot of humor in flatulence.

Wait...what?

*It's a gas, gas, gas. Get it? Derp...

3D Sucks

Here's a tip for movie studios:

If you are aren't planning on 3D effects for the entire film, or if you are thinking about adding 3D post-production, just say no.

It becomes distracting to the viewers if the film switches back and forth from 3D to normal projection because some scenes are just too difficult or expensive to transfer to 3D.

Case in point: I loved The Avengers. There is literally nothing I could say about the film that hasn't already been said thousands of times already by people a helluva lot smarter than me (they wish). My one quibble with it was the post-production 3D*. It made no sense. For example, there was a car chase near the beginning of the film. The chase itself was not in 3D, but every time the perspective switched to inside one of the vehicles the 3D kicked in.

What the fucking fuck is that all about? It was inconsistent at best and distracting at worst.

Just say no.  Seriously.

By the way, Dave2 had a great point (spoiler alert) about another minor quibble with the film. I found it even more minor than he did, and I actually had a different issue with the same point. But, like I said, it was minor. The Avengers was a nearly flawless movie-going experience. Notice I didn't say that it was a nearly flawless film. Hard to judge that yet, but as a movie-going experience it ranks up there with Terminator 2: Judgement Day, LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring and Avatar.  Three movies that made me shake my head and mouth "holy crap!" over and over and over again while watching them in the theater. Doesn't mean they were all incredible films, although I think the first two are. Avatar, besides the incredible effects, was largely forgettable for me. But that didn't distract from how awesome it was to see it in the theater.  

The Avengers was like that. Probably the best super-hero movie I've ever seen. We'll reserve judgement on that until it has had some time to sink in. Just go see it!

*I was warned the night before by several folks to skip the 3D version of the film, but I had already purchased my tix for the next day through Fandango. You live, you learn.

Levon

I'm a few weeks late with this. Sometimes it takes some time to process the events of the day or of the world.

Levon Helm passing away was an event of the world.

I didn't grow up with the music of Levon Helm or The Band. I was late to the the game. I think I started listening to them in my late 20's. Close to 20 years after they, um, disbanded. But once I did, I was done with trying to find the voice of America. It was Levon Helm. Singing about characters like Crazy Chester, Miss Anny and ole Virgil Caine.

There have been more fitting tributes to Mr. Helm in the past week or so than I could ever imagine writing myself. I'm not going to even try.

So do yourself a favor. Go and read Rob Delaney's words here. Then listen to the man himself here.

As Elton John sang, he shall be Levon.

House of Lies

I just finished watching the first season of Showtime's House of Lies starring Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell. Well, amongst others. Great supporting work from Ben Schwartz (Jean-Ralphio!!!), Josh Lawson, Greg Germann, Griffin Dunne and Richard Schiff as well. And Donis Leanord Jr. as Cheadle's cross-dressing son is amazing.

I'm not sure I've ever despised and loved a show this much before.

I love the acting and the storylines and the sheer fucking hotness that is Kristen Bell. I despise the characters and everything they stand for. There is a special place in hell reserved for corporate management consultants. And that's what this show is all about.  Having had some, ahem, experience with these mother-fuckers, I can guarantee that is true.

Which makes loving the show that much more difficult. I initially tried watching the show with Gia, but she got turned off after the very first episode. Because these people and their jobs are awful. I get that. Yet somehow I had to keep watching.  I try to tell myself that it's because of the acting chops of Cheadle and Bell, but I wonder if there is some latent jealousy going on here. The travel, the money, the blatant disregard for the average man/woman on the street.

You see, I dropped out of the corporate life almost 10 years ago. I wasn't a fast-track guy. I put my time and my work in, but I became something of riser in my field because of it. Director, Associate Vice President, Vice President, etc... 80 hours work weeks weren't the exception. They were the norm. And there were perks to go along with it. I almost never went out during the week unless the tab was picked up by the company. And excellent tickets to all the ballgames I wanted to attend. The money was pretty good too, and getting better all the time.

Then 9/11 happened. I know, I know...everyone has their 9/11 story. Mine isn't all that special. I knew some people in the Towers, including my best friend. All of whom survived the attack, by the way. That's not really the point. And, to be honest, my feelings about corporate life had changed before September of 2001. But I just kept on keeping on, like a good zombie. And where my life would lead didn't happen right afterward either. I stuck around, sucking on the corporate teat for another couple of years. But when I looked myself in the soul after 9/11, I knew something had to change.

So here I am now. Wondering where my life would have taken me had I decided to stick with it. I'm certainly happier now than I ever was back then. That's entirely to do with Gia. But the money or the job security in the private sector aren't really something to write home about. So there's that.

Anyway...it's one of those shows that make you think. Or, at least, it's one of those shows that made me think. About what was, about what is, about what could have been.

And I'm not sure how I feel about any of it.

Testing, testing...

Hey kids, I got a favor.

If you haven't visited my site in the past day or so, please pop in and let me know if you are having any issues with the page loading. There one person, who shall remain Slyde, who can't access my blog either at home or at work. But I haven't heard any problems from anyone else. Could be that he is just stupid.

Yeah, that's probably it.

If not, please let me know.

PS - Obviously you won't be able to leave a comment if you can't access the site. So email me at babyburke at aol dot com if you can't get in. Thanks!

Meh, whatever...

OK, I didn't really try to change the layout of this thing all that hard. Spent maybe 5 minutes on it. It's better than it was, but it's still not inspiring me to pretty up the joint with clever words and the like.  Maybe I'm just going through one of those phases. Oy vell.

Let's fuck some shit up with some bullets, shall we?

• The baseball season is closing in on being a month-old now, and it's been a whole heap of fun. My Yankees have only been a mild disappointment. Mild in that they aren't unbeaten at this point, but I'll take it. The cross-town Mets have been a pleasant surprise in that they don't suck as much as I thought they would. They just swept the Miami Marlins, and that was a real nice series for them. But I think I'm most surprised by the dominant starting pitching of the Washington Nationals. They might be my new favorite team to watch who don't wear pinstripes.  Very cool.
• This season of Survivor is easily the worst that they have produced thus far. I'm still enjoying it, but it's almost as if they select people specifically with the criteria that they either must have a low IQ or that they must have no concept of how the show works.  Because that's what we were given this year. The stupidest players in the stupidest season so far. I'm still a fan, but I can't wait until this one is over.
• Tried Jim Beam/Red Stag Honey Tea bourbon last night for the first time. It was delicious! Very similar to the Honey Jack from Jack Daniels. A little too sweet for me to drink straight, but it goes very well with mixers. Actually, mixing it with sweet tea would be a good idea. A big kick at 80 proof, it doesn't taste nearly that strong. I definitely recommend it. The Red Stag flag is an interesting concept. So far I like the Honey Tea and hate the Black Cherry.  But I'm willing to give the Spiced Cinnamon whiskey a try.
• I don't care that some people thing Jim Beam is white trash liqour. Fuck those people! I like Jim Beam and I'm gonna drink Jim Beam until it fucking kills me. Not literally. That would be sad.
• I've been ignoring this blog recently, but I've REALLY been ignoring my/our food blog. From the looks of it, so are the rest of the contributors. I plan on remedying that soon. Watch for it.
• Speaking of food and recipes, I joined Pinterest recently. I don't really get it. I wanted to use it as an online repository for recipes that I like or wanna try, but it's just not organized very well from what I've experienced. Maybe I'm just using it wrong. Probably I'm just using it wrong. We'll see if it sticks.
• I've also been using Instagram since it became available for Android and I'm really enjoying it. A really easy way to post pictures from my phone online and onto Twitter, if I so choose.  Do you Instagram? I have no idea how it's worth a billion dollars to Facebook, but that's another story.
• By the way, how is Facebook worth so much? I recently watched The Social Network (good movie, by the way), and I don't get it. I mean, I'm not ON Facebook, but I know a bunch of people who are. Just how are they making all that money? I don't get the Internet sometimes.
• Speaking of Facebook, I always that Sean Parker and Shaun Fanning were the same person. I'm stupid. Both were involved with Napster, but only one was involved with Facebook, right? I'm stupid.
• We have this one mis-matched fork in our cutlery drawer. It doesn't match any of our other cutlery, but it's the only one that I like to use. It's sturdy, and the tines aren't too long. I have no idea where it came from. I'd like to find a matching set, but there is no insignia. If we ever lose that fork, I'm going to be very sad.

That's all I got. I think I finished on a high note. Talking about a fork.Well done, Earl.

See you next time!

Hate it

Was messing around with my blog layout last week, and this is the result.

I hate it.

So I plan on a total re-do of the old Verdant Dude this week at some point. New masthead, new background, new layout. Something that will make me want to visit the old gentleman a bit more often.

Suggestions and/or criticisms welcome.

Except from Slyde.

Food Cart Heaven

Had a great experience with some food cart, um, food last week.  A place called Garbo's Grill in Key West.  I had done a little web reconnaissance before heading there, and I was surprised to see that this little food cart was the highest rated "restaurant" in town on Trip Advisor.

I wasn't surprised for long.

I got down there a few hours ahead of some friends on Tuesday, so I decided to check it out on my own. Figured if it was good, I could be a hero to my buddies by introducing it to them. If it sucked, well...only I would be worse for the wear.

Turned out to be a huge mother-fucking win! Of epic proportions. I was there for 5 days and ate lunch at this food cart 4 of those days. Wish I had eaten lunch there the other day too. Plus some snacks here and there. All of the rest of the crew ate there at least once as well, most of them multiple times. Everyone loved it. Check out this menu:

click for mouth-watering goodness

Very simple, but with the freshest ingredients possible. Everything was stored in coolers that served double-duty as seating for the crowd waiting for the delicious goodies.  I had the Cayo fish tacos twice, the Yum Yum shrimp tacos (Cayo-style again) once and the Mango Brie quesadilla with Jerk Chicken the last time there. All were awesome.  I also tried some of the Kogi Korean BBQ tacos that another friend ordered. Incredible!  And the couple that own the cart are some of the nicest folks you will ever meet. On my second day there, I already felt like a regular with them yelling out my name when they saw me every time afterward. Good stuff.

I think I love a good food cart. Especially when it's run by a couple of foodies like this one here. And there are a TON of supposedly great food carts in NYC, but I really don't frequent them. I really think I should, based on this experience. At the very least, I'm going to do some research into the ones that are getting some good press.

But Long Island is a barren wasteland for delicious food cart, um, food. I've just never seen nor heard of any really good food carts out here.

I think I'm going to make it my new obsession. Find a great food cart here on the island, or find someone willing to open one. Because this kind of food? It's my kind of food. And I don't think I can ever go back to a world that doesn't have this kind of food in it anymore.

How about you? Any good food carts near you that you love?

Been busy

Life hits ya like that sometimes. Nothing gruesome, just busy.

Back to regular posting shortly, but in the meantime...here's some music.

NCIB - Week 1 Recap

Note: Every Monday, I'll be posting some notes about the new fantasy baseball league called No Crying in Baseball that I'm hosting. Feel free to read and comment, but it's mostly for the members of that league. And this goes against the Golden Rule of fantasy sports which states "No One Cares About Your Fantasy Team", but I don't give a crap. So read on, or don't...I'm jake either way.

__________________________________________________________________ 

A long time ago in a fantasy league far, far away, I used to do a weekly write-up of the league happenings. A list of goats (not Sea Goats), heroes and the Hester Award for the manager who left the biggest fantasy stud on his bench the prior week. Named after a member of that league who was known for that. He would struggle with his decisions so much each week, but would be guaranteed to pick the wrong guy. Besides the award, the process itself is referred to as "hestering" in a very small circle. Now you get to join in on that fun.  So here we go.  Let's have some fun with this.

Standings

Let's face it. After just 3 games, the standings don't mean a hell of a lot right now. So I'm going to ignore them this week, except for a hearty congratulations to The Gotlanders for being in 1st place. There was much rejoicing....yay! Obviously, no one is out of it yet. Keep on grinding, kids.


Heroes

1. Chad Billingsley (Otis Day & the Knights) - 8.1 IP, 1 BB, 11 K for a total of 53.17 points.
2. Jered Weaver (The Miracles) - 8 IP, 10 K for a total of 52.80 points.
3. Nick Markakis (Kill Moose&Squirrel) - 5/9, 1 3B, 2 HR, 3BB for a total of 49.00 points.


Goats
Would have sworn that Josh Beckett and his 5 HR train-wreck of a start would have taken the top spot here, but Yovani Gallardo managed to out-doo him. Wow. Those are two very good pitchers with two very bad games there. Oh yeah, nice way to start the season Alex Gordon. Dude is anchoring my outfield in BOTH of my leagues. Thanks a lot!

1. Yovani Gallardo (The Miracles) - 3.2 IP, 4 HR, 5 BB, 3 K for a whopping -45.97 points.

2. Josh Beckett (Shagging Flies) - 4.2 IP, 5 HR, 1 BB, 3K totaling -42.87 points.
3. Alex Gordon (Chisolm Moonbeams) - 0-13, 1 BB for -10.00 points. Yup.


Hester Award
The first Hester goes to Shagging Flies for having Ryan Dempster and his 10-strikeout game on his bench. Dempster had a total line of 7.2 IP, 3BB and the aforementioned 10 K for a total of 42.43 points, the 5th best total for a pitcher in this truncated week. Except that they didn't count because he was on the bench. Bravo, Shagging Flies! You win the first Hester of the year!

New Coat of Paint

A little Tom Waits. Just because it's Friday. Just because...

New Coat of Paint 

Tom Waits

Let's put a new coat of paint on this lonesome old town
Set 'em up, we'll be knockin' em down.
You wear a dress, baby, and I'll wear a tie.
We'll laugh at that old bloodshot moon in that burgundy sky

All your scribbled lovedreams, are lost or thrown away,
Here amidst the shuffle of an overflowing day
Our love needs a transfusion so let's shoot it full of wine
Fishin' for a good time starts with throwin' in your line.

Hobo Beach

So what's the plural form of hobo? Hobos or hoboes?  Eh, for the purposes of this story I'm gonna go with hobos.

So we are out visiting my family yesterday. Some paperwork for my mother, a little Sunday dinner...you know the drill. I'm in the dining room doing her taxes while the rest of the family is in the living room chatting about whatever. I'm doing my best to block it all out and finish up so we can have dinner.

That's when I hear my mother say that the public beach down the street from her house has become dangerous because of "hobos living there at night." Hobos. She used the word hobos. Probably to refer to the maybe one homeless person who has actually spent a night or two down there.  The cops are by all the time, so I doubt they can take up permanent residence there.

I was just jazzed at the thought of hobos living on the beach, though. Railroad-riding, eating beans out of a can, red bandana tied to the end of a stick to carry their valuables, grilling hot dogs over a fire, real-live hobos!

I'm sure I'll refer to that little beach as Hobo Beach in the foreseeable future.

image credit

No Crying in Baseball: Draft Re-cap

Note: Every Monday, I'll be posting some notes about the new fantasy baseball league called No Crying in Baseball that I'm hosting. Feel free to read and comment, but it's mostly for the members of that league. And this goes against the Golden Rule of fantasy sports which states "No One Cares About Your Fantasy Team", but I don't give a crap. So read on, or don't...I'm jake either way.

________________________________________________________________

The NCIB fantasy league had our first draft this past weekend, and it was hella fun.  25 rounds of action in just a little over an hour. It almost went too fast for my liking. I barely had time to think about my next picks.  In my other league, a head-to-head fantasy point auction league, our auction took over 4 hours.  And a bunch of players on each team were protected from previous years.  Something comfortably in between would be ideal. 

All I know is that the plan I had going into the draft went out the window by the 3rd round.  I blame that squarely on the manager of The Gotlanders, who was loading up on starting pitching at an alarming rate. I had planned to wait until the 10th round or so before picking up any starting pitching.  This is a FIP-based league, after all.  And a lot of value can be found in the later rounds for pitchers who might be elite with some better luck or defense behind them. But I panicked and grabbed Zack Greinke in the 3rd round.  Then went with more pitching in the 7th-11th rounds. So yeah...that plan didn't pan out.  The Gotlanders, by the way, have the sickest starting pitching in the league.  And an offense that could be among the the best in the league if several of his picks work out the way he thinks they will.

The manager of Otis Day & The Knights did stick to that plan though. To the extreme. Drafted all offense and relief pitchers until the 22nd round. Not knowing that you need 6 starting pitchers on your squad probably had a lot to do with that, however.  He still wound up with some really good starting pitching and picked up a few more after the draft via free agency.  That's the idea with this plan.  Load up on offense and scavenge for pitching. It can really work if you stay diligent. And a team built around an offense with Troy Tulowitzki and Justin Upton is pretty daunting.

Two managers, Sea Goats and Shagging Flys, didn't even make it to the draft. And, frankly, they wound up with really good teams each.  Maybe that was the way to go. Kinda disconcerting, seeing two teams that are probably better than my own that were picked by a computer.  That's the way it goes sometimes. The Sea Goats wound up with the incredible Albert Pujols and an outfield of Curtis Granderson, Carlos Gonzalez and Nelson Cruz.  All players I coveted. Same with Shagging Flys and Miggy Cabrera, although his outfield is littered with the often-injured Josh Hamilton, Carl Crawford and BJ Upton. A starting rotation of Dan Haren and Cole Hamels helps offet that extremely well.

There were two fantasy newbies who participated in the draft as well. The managers of Phoo Phighters and The Blue Labels. Both did very well, in my opinion.  Barring a couple of admitted mistakes from the manager of the Phoo. Hehehehe.  She had some fun drafting a bunch of palyers from her hometown Cincinnati Reds, and it worked out well for her. Having the likes of Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Brandon Phillips on your team is never a bad thing. The Blue Labels went strong with offense and some terrific FIP-inspired picks in pitching.  And maybe the best bench, therefore the most flexible team, in the league.  Well done to the two noobs.

The two teams at each turn in the draft, Mudville 9 at the #1 spot and Kill Moose&Squirrel at #11, put together some fearsomely awesome teams with their draft strategies.  The Mudville 9 made the suprising choice, to some, of selecting Dustin Pedroia with the 1st overall pick. Wasn't surprising to me. I was planning on taking him in the first round as well. Second base, after the first couple of guys, was the shallowest position in the draft. Had he waited, he would have missed out on the big 3 of Pedroia, Cano and Kinsler. Kill Moose&Squirrel really did his homework. Constantly screwing myself and others out of some excellent choices that I thought would have lasted longer. Damn you, Boris Badenov!!!

The Miracles and Je Je Je Jeetah rounded out the 11-team league, both doing very, very well. The Miracles went with wOBA All-Stars like Ryan Braun and Mike Napoli on offense, a strong relief corp and underrated and strong starting pitchers like Jered Weaver and Yovani Gallardo. Je Je Je Jeetah picked just enough Yankees for the huge Yankees fan that he is. While building a formidable team around Jose Bautista on offense and Justin Verlander and Tim Lincecum for pitching.