another one gone at his own time with his own hands...

i just found out last night from a good buddy of mine named 'l-train' that singer/songwriter vic chesnutt killed himself on christmas this year. its super sad to realize that the tortured brilliance that brewed inside of this dude finally caught up to him and not being able to see through despair he took his own life like david foster wallace, hunter s thompson, and kurt cobain .

i got turned on to chesnutt through widespread panic and their covers of some of his tunes. here is on entitled 'aunt avis' and him playing one of his own tunes entitled 'independence day' ... you can feel the passion marred with the pain.

'aunt avis' covered by widespread panic featuring vic chesnutt


'independence day'

music and hollywood ...boy and girl ... folkster and starlet

last year i was very impressed with a seemingly unlikely collaboration that occurred between folk singer songwriter m. ward and the independent film starlet, zooey deschanel called 'she and him'. zooey and m. released their album entitled 'volume 1', a 12 track album filled with the twangy sounds of m. wards guitar and covering zooeys singing talents with the spotlight.

well like with all good things (software, signature dinner dishes, and movies) a successful idea has been replicated, built upon, and released as a slightly different version. this september has brought us another indie folk star teaming up with another leading lady. our 2009 starlet-folkster collaboration is between pete yorn and scarlett johansson with their september release 'break up'.

i was skeptical of this album when i first heard about the album and collaboration on the radio and then upon its release saw it in starbucks as the 'album of the week' or something like that. after seeing the album while drinking my milky late i can recall thinking to myself 'robert plant and alison krauss win one grammy and now the guy with the guitar and the girl with the voice = instant success, and throw in a movie star and this bitch is going platinum ... geez get an original idea people', but i got my hands on the album anyway.

i like it. i dont want to, but i actually enjoy it. where 'she and him are' stripped back 'pete and scarlett' are over produced, but it adds to the sound and lends to his songwriting and her voice. she can sing. where on the screen she brings an over the top beauty and an amazing bust ... on this album she is understated and a tad bit vulnerable which makes her warm, accessible, and someone you can understand. the breaking up theme is very cliched, and i applaud 'she and him' for approaching and exploring those themes (along with others) without hitting the listener over the head with it. with that being said yorn's song writing is all just throw away cliched turns of phrase - there is some substance underneath all the heart ache (check out the tracks 'wear and tear' and 'shampoo' for an example of this).

all in all its worth a try. go to last.fm and listen to the single 'relator' (miserable name), check out there stuff on youtube (See below), and decide for yourself if you should give it a try. while i dont like it more than the other duets listed above, my low expectations have been exceeded and has left me wondering if i am a sucker for a scruff guitarist and pretty voice starlet combo ...

pete yorn and scarlett johansson - 'shampoo'


she and him - 'you really got a hold on me'

and you think you take sports seriously ...

the irish government is now getting involved in the world cup qualifying debacle

in no particular order ...

i am love music and i love sharing it with other people. these 2 aspects of my musical life come together in an art form know as the mix (tapes evolved into cds). i am am not quite the ocd mixologist that rob gordon or barry from high fidelity are, but i love to dabble in the art of putting songs together in a clever order that makes people go hmmmmm 'this guy knows what hes doing'.

with my love of the mix being established, i want to start throwing out clips of tunes that would make it on my 'steves mix tape of life'. this is obviously totally subjective and you can play barry and comment on the lameness, but its mine so deal with it.

like the title says ... this is in no particular order

band of horses - 'our swords'

happy early birthday to me ... love david chang

i turn 27 in a week and a half and i just received my 1st present in the mail today, and i have a sneaking suspicion that the amazon.com box came via 2nd ave in new york city (the abode of my older brother). il just let you all know that he has set the bar and i really dont think anything will top this - that being said please i still will entertain all presents offered and fain excitement if it doesnt surpass what i have in my hands right now.

so whats in the box? well only the latest and greatest thing to come from david chang, my (and the rest of new york citys) favorite chef ... momofuku the cook book. i am giddy with anticipation to dive into this textbook sized and strength nonfictional glimpse into the world of the coolest chef around and his mini downtown new york city food empire.

the book is co-authored by peter meehan who is like the david chang of newspapers. he is understated but knows his shit just as well as anyone else. oh and hes really young and is all over the new york times. from just thumbing through these pages and watching this video (embedded below as well) i am know that i am going to be thrust into the world of the lucky peach and i am going to love every last picture, word, and bite that this book has to offer!

album of the year ...?

its getting close to the end of the year, and like the past couple of years there has been some wonderful albums that have surfaced this year. there is one album in particular that has the college radio, indie alternative, and musically criticals talking like its a lock for pitchforks top album, and thats grizzly bears 'veckatimest'. i like it a fair bit, but im not obsessed with it like i was with say the fleet foxes 2008 self titled album that swept the alternative music scene last year. with that said grizzly bears 2009 album is beautifully simple with nodes of complexity that allow you to get lost in the musical landscape of carved out by this indie folk avant garde album ... here is a live cut and the official clip for my favorite track off the album 'ready, able' ...

holy jet lag batman ...

so i am back on the east coast of the us after a quick 8 days on the east coast of my home away from home, australia. the reason for my brief jaunt was the wedding of 2 wonderful aussie friends steve and airlie. it was a beautiful service and a perfect portrait of a romantic wedding set in green hill of south east new south wales right outside of nowra.

with all the reconnections, sunshine, and wonderful time spent in sydney, i now get to go through the vicious jet lag caused from two stepping the planet.

have a full more day off of work where i wll be catching up on this blog, my dvr, and the laudry i didnt do before i left.

pablos is coming up in the world of sydney coffee culture ...

so if you have been to australia or are australian then you know that coffee means serious business. beans are imported from all over the world, roasted with care by aussie bohemians with caffeine addictions, and filtered through espresso machines by the 'rockstar' baristas who measure there status in terms of coffee art. the coffee world in sydney is serious.

the long standing palace of this coffee world has been and is campos coffee. campos was right next to university for me, so it became a 2nd home of sorts when i was at school. but if campos was my 2nd home, then pablo and rusts was my 1st home. 'pablos' as it is affectionately called was only 1 train stop away from my house and was my place of part time employment. i have wrote about pablos before, and i wanted to let you all now that the 'little store that could' (fair trade coffee, dedication to service, community, and personal connection with customers) has finally got some props from the sydney morning herald.

So please take 60 seconds and give the review a read ... and remember the next time you have a mass brewed coffee or a latte without any coffee art that there are folks out there who are dying to give you a better cup of coffee - just look for them.

i'm in love ...

hbo's redemption begins next week...

with the 1st season of the appealing overtly sexually charged series 'hung' over and with the 5th season (about 2 seasons too long) of 'entourage' dragging itself across a cheezy finishline in the next couple of weeks means that hbo sunday night is ready to roll out some fall-tastic shows.

sunday night hbo in the fall, ahh its synonymous with the changing on the leaves, the crispness of the september air, and football. it brings me back to the days of college when on a typical sunday in fall you could find me on the couch of 915 hanover street from roughly 12pm until 12am glued to the television. 3 football games and then the icing on the sunday cake ... the westcoast broadcast of hbo's pro-bowl sunday line up. and starting on sunday spetember 20th (week 2 in the nfl) they are back with what looks to be 2 stellar additions to the team which should help the much deflated hbo sunday night entourage.

now is the time we have all been waiting for. the much anticipated 7th season of 'curb your enthusiasm'. to say that im not excited for this show would be like saying that seinfeld can get to a punchline of joke and keep a straight face. larry, jeff, and jerry's kidney will definitely brighten up ones sunday evening. with the awesomeness of 'curb' understood and aside, what i am really looking forward to is hbo's newest 30 minute comedy noir called 'bored to death'. i am eagerly anticipating the jason schwartzman, zach galifianakis, and ted danson new york city stoner/private eye detective flick. this looks to be a thoughful, ironic, playful and very funny show.

hilarity will ensue with hbo's new line up and i for one wont have an issue moseying up to the television on sundays for the old 1-2 combo of 'curb' and 'bored'

hbo's 'bored to deat' trailer

an homage to drinking, aging, and a 30th birthday ...

got this from my older brother, jmc, who turns 30 today. its a sweet read by cartoonist tim kreider in the times. here is a little clip from the article that made me smile at my desk, scratch my head, and wonder if I could miss work and head to a super early happy hour.


There is really no drinking half as enjoyable as daytime drinking, when the sun is out, the bars are empty of dilettantes, and the afternoon stretches ahead of you like summer vacation. The gleeful complicity you and your drinking buddies share in the excellent decision to have one more ill-advised round, knowing full well you’re forfeiting the day — you can almost physically feel something lifted from you at this moment, even if you know it will fall back more heavily later on. We used to raise a toast: “Gentlemen — our lives are unbelievably great.”


happy 30th jm.

restaurant week installment #2, happy birthday gran ...

so with the weekend upon us and with restaurant week in full swing it was out to another local destination for 3 more courses. (i want to step out right now and let you all know that i have been playing a fair amount of quash these past couple of weeks in preparation for my week and a half gluttonous bacchanal, so i am not 600lbs right now). my 2nd destination for restaurant week was crush restaurant in the belvedere market area off of york rd.

this was an atypical saturday excursion to crush. we were booked in a private room for 14 people to celebrate my maternal grandmothers 85th birthday. for her present the 3 boys (my brothers - jmc & jhb, and myself) were going to show up as a surprise. in order to complete the surprise i had to pick jmc up from a bus and that meant we had time to kill, and when you have time to kill in that area on a hot day then i highly recommend ducking into the grand cru to gulp, slurp, schwill, and sip some tasty white wine to assist in combatting the humid august evening. that is exactly what jmc and i did. Gewurztraminer for me and an NZ sauv blanc for the older bro. (there is a serious lack of whit wine in my life, and this pit stop to grad cru reminded me that i need to remedy that situation). feeling refreshed and ready to surprise we wandered across the square and entered crush with to things on our mind; give gran a hug and eat.

the highlight was definitely the birthday celebration, but the food at crush was the perfect fit for all who attended from my 85 year old grandmother to my 'adopted' sister from malawi who is 14. there was nothing on the menu that was too extravagant, intimidating, or polarizing. everything was playful new american cooking. starters around the table ranged from shrimp and grits, to truffled risotto with a poached egg, and the seasonal heirloom tomato salad. these were all simple flavors with a light variety in terms of technique and the mains that followed were more simple. seared salmon, rib-eye steaks, penne pasta, and crab cakes. dessert was the simplest and wasnt really anything super special, but by that time we had had 4 bottles of wine at the table and the funny family stories were flying around the table, and we werent really concerned with the dessert at that point.

my recommendation save crush for the family functions. good food, good environment, but not a place i would say you need to go or a place that i would say take a date. on the flip side though if you are looking for a place to take some on a low key causal but palate pleasing date and you are in the area than i would highly recommend the grand cru.

restaurant week installment #1 ...

so its the beginning (actually the middle of) the month of august which means the blistering heat, trips to ocean city, preseason football, and of course its restaurant week.

restaurant week is a beautiful thing. its a win win situation all participating parties. as a diner you get a cornucopia of restaurt choices where you can lounge, sp[end time with friends, and get down on a 3 course tasting menu for $30. and for restaurants they get booked up and generate an unusually large amount of revenue during the slowest part of the year.

so i plan on hitting up at least 3 places for 2009s restaurant week and on wednesday i took a bite out of restuarant #1; minato sushi bar in mt. vernon. minato has been a place that i have been looking for an excuse to go to. ive heard only good things and i have often day dreamed of the fresh sushi, tender udon noodles, and warm sake that i could enjoy with the marble step background of mt. vernon. well restaurant week was the perfect excuse.

upon entering minato i was taken aback by the interior of this ground level space in a the stereotypically converted high ceiling row house on charles street. stained hard wood floors, minimal wall coverings, light colors (yellow, soft greens, and pastels), and lack of tables. a lot of thought had gone into this decoration, and i thought to myself 'this is pretty east asian'.

the resaurant week menu offered a selection of 4 courses. there were four of us at the table so we decided to do some mixing and matching in order to cover most of the menu. for starters we had a delicate seaweed salad with cucumber that was the perfect palate teaser, flavorful, fresh, and crunchy. there was also flash fried calamari with a wasabi mayonnaise dipping sauce that was tender, crunchy, salty, and spicy. the final starter was the house made shrimp dumplings that were tightly packed and and very tasty. our 2nd course was the special sushi rolls. wow. there were combinations there that left me with chopsticks open grabbing for more. the sushi was all spectacular, but the real winner was the spicy tuna matched with fresh avocado and mango. 3rd courses came with great delight and amazement at the portion sizes. there was pan seared snapper with a delicious crust in a soy reduction which probably won the battle for best of table in the third course. there was flash fried shrimp ebi and salmon teriyaki that was very delicious, but the loser of the night by a land slide was the sesame chicken. before our red bean, coffee, and green tea ice cream came we were already discussing when we would return. the ice cream was great, and we will 100% be back.

if you want to go then go on wednesday because its $3 martinis (we found this out be surprise ... score!) and i highly recommend the sake-tinis (martinis made with the sake).

parisian indie pop at its best ...

i am going to make a conscientious effort to write more about books, music, and film. the whole transition from globe trotter and masters student to pseudo-permanent resident in a basement who commutes 2 hours a day in a tie to convince others that they need more nfl in their life and that they need to pay for it has reeked havoc on my creative input. please do not fear though as i am making serious strides (mostly for my own personal well being) at combating normalcy and ingesting heavy doses on the afore mentioned 3 creative inputs.

tonight, as my topic title alludes to, i want to talk about an awesome album that i have been listening to non stop sense burning a copy off of my favorite music tree, and that disc is phoenix's latest entitled 'wolfgang amedeus phoenix'. i had my 1st brush with this band in early 2007 while in sydney. they played the factory theater and blew the roof off the place. for me these guys were the epitome of what really good indie pop should be. fast, catchy as can be, makes you want to shake, and just for over the top hip factor these guys are from paris! after seeing them in 2007 i was in love with their album 'its never been like that' and it got significant air time during my 1st year in oz. i can totally see this album being the same way.

'wolfgang' is only 9 tracks long, but much like the band it grabs you right away and sends you into an almost carefree mindset. at various times in the album you sit there wondering where you have heard this tune from before, or you'll remember that you have heard this band before. this album will work perfectly for an early evening with friends and drinks, driving home from work, or preparing a meal for friends. hopefully most of you wont make the mistake that i did and wait a couple of months to download this album! you can get it for $5 right now off amazon ... do it.

listen and have fun with this one.

a little soul rest for my head ...

off to maine for a much needed looooong weekend. going to good old great pond in the belgrade lakes region outside of waterville. simple, relaxing, unwinding, slow, and exactly what i need right now

how about an original idea ...

tinsel town is about to ruin a couple of classics for all little boys and girls. this fall we are going to see the release of the films for 2 of my all time favorite childrens books, 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs' and 'where the wild things are'.

im not really all that excited about the prospect of having some of my favorite books that focus on the different aspects of make believe and imagination are going to be realized on the big screen. sentimentality surely plays a big part in my disgust at the un-originality of the current film making biz because i am much more upset at the thought of an animated version of my favorite childhood story directed by the actor/star of 'clone high' than i am at the thought of a cgi saturated 'wild things' from spike jonze. im just really not excited about a high school clone tackling the 'land of chew and swallow'. where/how can justice be served to this amazing piece of childrens literatur??

please please please do me (and more importantly yourself) a favor and buy or borrow these books in the coming weeks and read them to yourself, a child, nephew, niece, grandchild, cat, or dog so you can experience incredible imagination, creativity, and originality before someone else's interpretation is thrusted onto you this fall at the movies.

confession and concession of the consummate carnivore ...

with all the buzz surrounding the recent (relatively) release of the film 'food, inc.' ive begun to dig a bit into the whole anti-factory farm, pro-sustainability, anti-processed food movements. for anyone who knows me you would know that i have spent serious time with all things meat; both in a professional sense and in a consumer sense. cheeks, loins, tails, toungues, ribs, stomachs, and of corse livers have all been on my plate at one point or another, so immediately i went into this investigative process with a healthy dose of skepticism.

what i found was interesting. the 'slow food' movement has gone mainstream. the basic principles of 'slow food' is fresh, healthy, and natural production of all foods. this toally includes meat. fish, beef, pork, and poultry are key elements in 'slow food' and are staple diests for all americans. the problem that 'food, inc.' is trying to pinpoint and tackle isnt cant be found in the 'slow food' movement, the problem is found in the consumption driven commercial food industry.

ive never been a big advocate of fast food or chain restaurants, but even the most basic research reveals that these are the main industries that have the greatest amount of influence over the way farms are run. with this in hand i spent the last weekend in the nations capitol with a good friend of mine who turned me onto the eco-concious, uber liberal, but rather pratical movement called 'meatless mondays'. its simple: obstain from meat on mondays and you help cut down on the use of water, gas, emissions, antibiotics, etc ...

i figured id take my friends advice and try out what it woul be like to be a veggie for a day. it wasnt so bad. very do-ible, but something that i would only want to keep doing for a day. the other six weeks ill be eating beef, assorted poultry products, and anything else i can get my hands on. ill let you know how it goes ... 1 meatless monday is already in the record books.

1st meatless monday ingedients included: peanutbutter, squash, eggplant, fettuccine, arugala, mozzarella, and pinenuts.

here is a video from earth day that had something to do with the meatless monday movement

band of more brothers ....?

holy crap ... i mean anyone who hasnt lived under a rock and was born after like 1995 should have seen the result of these filmmakers/producers foray into the historical miniseries genere: 'band of brothers'. this is one of the best miniseries of all times and i am a little excited to see what they have in store for us with 'the pacific'. marines instead of airbourne? blistering beaches instead of snow covered fields? guadalcanal instead of bastogne? the only miserable thing about this is that we have to wait until 2010. i think it will be worth it though.

NPR-ockstars ...

since ive made it back to the states, and now find myslef in my car for nearly 10 hours a week fighting traffic between the baltimore and dc beltways, ive been treating my ears and mind to some wonderful new tunes, catchy mixes, and a plethera of podcasts from good ole 'ivan the ipod'. i find myself dabbling in ira glass's weekly radio powerhouse 'this american life' evey monday on my way to and from work, and its because of mr glass an co. that i stumbled upon the subject of this post and the 1st in my 'npr-ockstars' series; 'npr's planet money'

i 1st heard the 'planet money' folks on 'this american life' when they were brought on during the wall street panic that struck in the fall and sunk lehman brothers, put american insurance group (aig) on the ropes, and almost took down the global finacial system as we know it. if you can recall that time back in spetember the finace folks were talking about the sky falling and the end of the world while you and i were strolling around completely unphased, and its was this exact dichotomy that alex blumberg tackled in his shockingly easy to understand and follow account of the credit crisis and how close to disaster we were.

ever since then i have become a loyal listener to the 3 times a week podcast put out by mr blumberg, the darling ms chana joffe-walt, et al. th podcast is quirky, funny , and informative all at the same time. their 'indicators' moment for instance is almost always a laugh, but always strikingly relevent. the podcast has become a easily accesible way to understand what is happening around the global economy and why it is happening. 'planet money' is a hip alternative to cnbc/bloomberg/wallstreet journal which all of a sudden is making the likes of erin burnett, paul krugman, and jim kramer look like a bunch of squares.

the 4th: an american tradition and its institutions

all of you out there are either a.) at work counting down the minutes until you can click your phones off, set up your 'out of office' email, and scurry away for a long weekend or b.) you are near some water, beer in hand, sunglasses on, and without a care in the world. i mean after all its the 4th of july, america's 223rd birthday.

the 4th is a very large birthday party (i cant remeber when 300 million people took off of work to celebrate me ... although my 25th birthday did have a boat full of sushi) that has become more than a holiday, but rather its turned into an institution. this institution consists of sunburn, bodies of water, charcoal, bathingsuits, beer out of a can, fireworks, and always corn on the cob.

i love it. you love it. we all love it. thats why we all pack cars, coolers, and boats and set out to high five, cheers, and sometime punch each other in celebration of a revolt. i want to offer you a glimpse into my mind when i think of the 4th of july ... see if you can follow along ...

when i think of the 4th i think of sunshine, and sunshine makes me think of summer, summer makes me think of vacation, vacation makes me think of widespread panic, widespread makes me think of high school (1st time experience), and high school makes me think about the last day of school right before summer vacation ... which leads me yet another american institution ... dazed and confused. im serious, when i think of the 4th i always think of richard linklaters kick ass bicentennial teenage drug enduced celebration.

so if you find yourself with out epic plans this weekend all you need is $5 and a blockbuster (i prefer netflix, but good luck getting that ontop of your queue and sent to you over a public holiday weekend - geesh) in order to enjoy this movie for your 1st or 1776th time.

Like the Jam Band Sensation Phish ...

the hiatus is over! ive been all over the place as of late. up, down, back, and forth - but ive realized that the one thing im missing the most of late (besides the land down under) is hopping on this electronic soap box and clicking a couple keys while providing some dribble about music, movies, food, and the occasional social issue.

I'm back and here is whats on the docket for the upcoming weeks:

• wilco's new album
• 'shock doctrine' - by naiomi klein
• mad men, 1960s male fashion in today's world, and unfiltered cigarettes
• the baltimore famer's market
• dangerman, the miami vice summer mix tape, and other baltimore awesomes
• my new found friends over at npr
• and what ever else makes it from the brain to the fingertips ...

looking forward to kicking things off leading up to 4th of july weekend! thanks for stopping by and stay tuned

via chicago

its been a while, but like the lyric jeff sings in this song i want to let you all know that, 'im coming home. im coming home'

im back