Get yer snakes--we're having a revival

hey everyone.

first of all, Thank you Ryan for actually making a new post.

does anyone read this anymore?

I felt like shutting it down. then I saw ryan's awesome new post, and I changed my mind.

I won't post here until I get my life settled, but I will get back into the spirit in which CF was created: sharing the joys and neuroses about music together.

Type rest of the post here

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Movies About the Music

5. The Blues Brothers
4. High Fidelity
3. School of Rock
2. This is Spinal Tap
1. That Thing You Do!

share yours now!

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W.A.S.P. - Blind In Texas

saw this the other day.....

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Fire Poppers

In our constant quest for the perfect hot wing, I have found another alternative...

Every Friday now, it has become a tradition for me. I walk to Eden Wok on 34th and Madison and order the lunch special: General Tsao's Chicken. Its the best I've had in the city. Its spicy, lots of sauce, and lots and lots of chicken.

Two weeks ago, I went with Stephen, the Managing Editor at Stereophile, to Eden Wok to introduce him to my favorite Kosher Chinese food in the city. He opting for a different chicken choice ordered the "fire poppers." I asked, "what are they?"

He replied, "I dunno. They said they're spicy."

So we waited. I drank my Diet Doctor Pepper.

"#72!" My order was up. "#73!" Stephen's.

I happily ate my meal. Stephen devoured his and stopped before he finished and yelled, "That was delicious." To avoid any sort of social awkwardness, I did not ask to try my boss's food. We're not quite there yet.

I went to Eden Wok 2 weeks later (the previous week was skipped due to out-of-town travel) and excitedly ordered the fire poppers. I also noticed another part of their menu: Chinese Hot Dog. An egg roll with a hot dog inside, similar to rocket wrapps' wrap dogg. I'd save it for another time. I was on a mission.

"#70!" numbers at this place always fell between 60 and 90 somehow.

I brought my food to the table, opened the little plastic container and smelled something very similar to buffalo sauce. Could this be what I think it is?

It was. Essentially, boneless hot wings. Score!

Eden Wok useshigh quality Kosher meat and they fry it to perfection with a crispy but not brittle outside crunch and a juicy center. Also, you never find those sections of suspicious gristle. The Fire Poppers had a hint of sweetness, past the normal buffalo sauce taste, which just kept you eating more. It mixed well with the rice also. And as for the spicy quotient... I'd give it a 7.5. Not too spicy, but enough to tide you over without yelling at someone for telling you it was spicy when it really wasn't.

So do yourself a favor: head uptown to Eden Work and order the Fire Poppers lunch special with a beef eggroll (remember, its Kosher). It'll cost ya $11 if you get a can of soda too, but the food is enough to last you 2 maybe even 3 meals. Except with the Fire Poppers. You'll probably try and eat them all at once.

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I Just Wanted to Share the Experience.

My brother sent me this video last night. Its Paco de Lucia showing true composition skills.

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Shameless Self-Promotion

Hello readers. I know I haven't posted on CF in a while, but thats because you can see my current blogging at www.stereophile.com in the blogs section under the blog "Elements of our Enthusiasm." My current post about my new phono preamp is featured on the homepage.

Also! I've posted part 5 of my series of songs based on the Nintendo Gameboy epic The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. It is titled "Marin (Hylian Love)". I hope you enjoy it. Here's jah link.

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I Think My Kidney is About to Explode

This is the painfully agonizing music video from the French electronic duo Justice. The song, appropriately titled, is called "Stress". I couldn't take my eyes of the screen but my intestines were churning.

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Bon Jovi for Pole Vault, Vivaldi for Archery

In the upcoming Beijing Olympics, there will be many magical moments to be captured. These amazing victories and painful athletic letdowns are only complete with a soundtrack. This article discusses how these milestones will be heard by the world. The answer includes wacky music search engines and Damon Albarn.

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Bright Eyes

So I know you all know the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart," but have you ever seen the music video? Bonnie Tyler's music video has fencers, ninjas, some alien being with glowing eyes, and serious 80s hair. Aaaaaaah! Freaking creepy!

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But Anyway (Updated!!!)

So I've been having random cravings for chocolate. Maybe I'm pregnant.

I've been considering changing the direction of this blog in many ways. I've accumulated top 5s from other writers to make this a Top 5 List only blog, but that might make it a little dull. I've considered random musings about my life, but that seemed a little emo. This post by itself is a little whiny, but anyway (cue John Popper harmonica solo)

I do have one random musing.

I had to buy some serious amounts of Japanese snack food today for my brother who is opening a sushi restaurant in Santiago, Chile called Fukai or deep. I went to the faithful M2M and purchased bags of wasabi peas, japanese nut mixes, and fruit gummies. Then I noticed something beautiful. Something glorious!

These friends, are Kasugai Chocolate Fruit Gummies. My intense love for chocolate covered gummies started with my initial love for gummies: gummy bears, gummy worms, pogo sticks, and pencil erasers. For about 4 months, I had been searching for Muddy Bears in movie theaters, but I never found them. I constantly asked my friend Ryan, like a 5th grader questing for the details of a first kiss, "What are they like? Are they as good as they sound? Chocolate covered gummy bears??"

I tried them at the Union Square Theater and was not let down, like many of us were by our first kiss. It was magical. But you can't find Muddy Bears everywhere. So when I found the Kasugai "Gumi Choco" Pack, I couldn't be happier. I was so excited when I got home that I ripped open the Apple Choco Gummies, and they exploded across my room . I suffered some shrapnel injuries, but Trickstar survived (pictured below).

The pack comes with four flavors: orange, grape, apple, and cherry. The cover characters depressed me. I didn't want to eat them, they were too cute, maybe a little tooooo cute.......AAAAAAAAAAARGGGHHHH!!!!!! GUMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

From the apple that I salvaged after the explosion, I felt like a little bit of chewy chocolate covered Red Delicious expanded like a hot air balloon in my mouth, flavor floating for taste bud to taste bud. The grape were a little 'artificial.' But what do you expect: its fucking candy! The orange kicked any sort of chocolate-covered-orange in the Naval. I have yet to try the strawberry. Its waiting for me back home while I update this article in JFK airport.

But anyway, everyone should head to their favorite Asian grocery store and see if they can find the "Kasugai Gumi Choco 4-Pack." If not, you can order them online here . Happy Eating.

Also, do yourself a favor. Download the song "But Anyway" by Blues Traveler. It'll match your gummy eating perfectly.

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Damn Pretzel Man!

Stew guides you through the whole thing. At first, I thought he would get annoying. Who the hell does he think he is? Narrating the whole story in song, and with an electric guitar!?

Stew ends up becoming your friend, and you learn to love Passing Strange, a new New York musical, the more it continues. You understand the main character's (not Stew) deepset attachment to music. Its a part of him, despite the fact that he's no good. The young man does performance pieces in Berlin, and love-making in Amsterdam. Stew steers you through the young man's life, city by city, and gives witty introductions to the characters, that you would likely think to yourself, but he's there with you! A guiding light. A shining beacon of truth. And then, he'll break the 4th wall and speak to you personally.

Throughout the musical, the youth, as he has no name, is searching for "the real." What the "real" world is like, outside of Crenshaw, the Los Angeles District. His journey makes him realize what is truly most important to him, a ((warning~~Made Up Word) monomythical model. During his enlightenment, Stew dictates a personal anecdote:

Stew: So I'm hanging with this man at the Telephone Bar in the East Village. Y'all know where that is?
Audience: (a low mumble)
Stew: Anyway, this man sells pretzels in Astor Place. You know, a pretzel vendor. So we were hanging out at this bar. And he tells me, "You know what your main character is looking for the whole time. The Real? Well the Real can't be found in the real world."

He continues to elaborate pretzel man's story until Stew responds moved: "Damn Pretzel Man. You're a deep motherfucker." When Stew shares this moment with you, its just you him and his guitar.

The music is stunningly fun and freakishly rocking. The participation, inclusion, and visibility of the live rock band awoke you to the music in the youth's head and made you part of Stew's creative process. Yet, due to this awesome live band is probably the show's biggest drawback: the steep learning curve. There's some adjustment time to not having fields of dancing lunatics clapping and jumping and screaming to your entertainment. The dancing in Passing Strange is much more subdued, personal movements of human beings and not lion kings. But you're not expecting this. You want shimmer and shine, but you get "the real." So, there's an adjustment period.

Anyway, Passing Strange rocks. period. You find yourself slowly falling into the "youth's" life and and stumbling into Stew's witty and insightful narration. Suddenly you're enveloped in a whole new world. The very reason we experience art. Yet the question as to what the experience is remains unanswered throughout the show (till the end, where these questions are kind of answered). Is art an escape from reality? Or the closest thing we can get to it?

Go find out for yourself. Balcony seats are only $66 bucks a pop and the Belasco Theater is pretty small so you'll still be able to see well.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Slept in your overalls...

ahaha
Sometimes I think the new indie thing to do is to dump on indie stereotypes.
And it's still pretty funny.

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Music + Science = Sexy

I just stumbled upon an old interview with Questionable Content's author and artist, Jeph Jacques, found here. For those of you who don't know about my growing love with Questionable Content, it is a slice-of-life webcomic that follow a 20-something living in Massachusetts. Indie music humor can be found peppered throughout the five year archive. It's a good read, throw away a couple hours and check it out.


"What is your take on indie bands "selling out"? Do you think It's just a handy moniker for bands that just get too popular, or is there something else involved?

"Selling out" is the most ridiculous, overused, pointless term ever, pretty much. The only things that should matter when you listen to a band's music is whether you enjoy it or not- not whether they live in mansions or only four other people know they exist or whatever. If a band makes music I like, I'll listen to them. When it comes to somebody like Modest Mouse or the Flaming Lips, where they're on major record labels and making decent money off their music, I say good for them, as long as they're still making the kind of music they want to be making. I know first hand how difficult it is to make a living doing something creative- more power to anybody who can pull it off, regardless of their medium."

Your thoughts?

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My Space

Please be my friend.

Hello all my dear readers. I have opened up a myspace page for my music. I'll be posting songs periodically (that is after I record them). Please be sure to check it regularly, leave your friendly comments, and show any sort of love that you can.

Thanks,

Ariel

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California's okay but I think I might stay here a while...

I've been sitting on this a while, wanting to write something a little more significant about it, but I might as well just share it. The music video for Death Cab For Cutie's new single, "I Will Possess Your Heart".



I am really excited for the new album especially since "Gibbard claims that they have nothing to prove and that the band simply wants to make a record that they like." -- Behind the scenes

I am really digging this single, but don't think about it at all. I use it as great background music. Like if I were touring the world on public transit.

I'll see you all May 13th.

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