Loved This Clip

I try not to get into politics on my blog as the last thing I want is a bunch of leftist and right wingers flooding in with comments. That said I found this segment with John Stossel that really summed up today's current political climate and since I hadn't posted in quite some time figured what the heck. For the Record-I will be posting some recent food items later in the week as recently the blog has taken a distinct non-food related turn.

Anyhow here is the clip....Enjoy!

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6062018

The Power of the Internet

Got a cool email the other day from one of the artists I featured on my Guitar Post last month. Here it is.

ciao
i read your thoughts on my music and i want to tell you that i often composed and played music for children...impronte was recorded in '99 and was a demo... i contacted gp only to have a feedback and then they feature me...here in italy if you aren't a virtuoso you don't get anyone checking you... so i'm happy for gp mag and i want thank you for your idea on my music.

i'll load some other songs and any your comment will be welcome.
ciao again
daniele

How cool is that? Fatboy Guitar from Italy wrote me personally. Kind of funny. My review of the clip was...

Makes me want to drink a latte and sleep with a college co-ed not of my own racial group on a rainy winter day. I can swear this is the same guy who plays "froggie went a courtin'" on my sons CD of greatest children songs.

Good stuff....Fatboy if you are reading send me a case of Italian Red Wine and I'll personally see that your work is featured on this blog Monthly!

Anyhow, here is Fatboy's website. He encouraged all of our readers to help themselves to the free downloads and said there would be more up shortly. Now if I could only get Paul McCartney or Dhani Harrison to email me I'd be all set.

Here is his MySpace site with the songs and more info.
http://www.myspace.com/fatboyguitar

Some Assorted Guitar selections

Each month Guitar Player mag has some indie/unknown bands they choose for a myriad of reasons. Lots of cool stuff here and once again reason #17272651 why the internet has changed the world in too many ways to count.

Anyhow, here are the Links and my thoughts.
http://www.myspace.com/wishinflicted On Your Feet

Kind of poppy with some great harmonies. Weird that guitar player chose this song as its the drumming that really stands out for me. Kind of reminds me of a mix between the Byrds and Sebadoh.

http://www.myspace.com/louronedanger Mallet Face
A bit too much studio sounding for my liking with bass and what not but the use of the tremolo and harmonics is outstanding. The song itself harkens "Discipline" era King Crimson.

http://www.myspace.com/fatboyguitar Impronte /Smoke on the Water

Makes me want to drink a latte and sleep with a college co-ed not of my own racial group on a rainy winter day. I can swear this is the same guy who plays "froggie went a courtin'" on my sons CD of greatest children songs.

http://www.myspace.com/jonmulvey Lil Bing vs El Diabloe

One day I hope I can make the guitar scream like this guy can. Sure I can make a guitar scream....but generally theyre screams of agony telling me to stop playing it and never pick it up again.

http://www.myspace.com/themachetespa Riot

I loved this song. Loved the bass and the no nonsense drums. Cant really compare to the other songs but if Green Day and the Offspring can make it big is there any reason these guys cant?


http://www.myspace.com/jazzstan
Reminds me of the intro to the old Tom Hatten hosted Sunday Afternoon Movie that used to be on Channel 5. I can hear him now giving movie trivia tidbits about "The very long, long trailer" and "the Three Stooges in Outer Space."

http://www.loftjazzmusic.com/live/ Good Life Bar

I really dug this track...not quite as polished as some of the other jazzy guitar songs included and the guitar seems to be a little bit edgier and moody. Really cool bass as well.

http://www.harrycoffeyband.moonfruit.com/#/setlistvideo/4512772873

These guys are a cover band but damn I love this song. Arguably my favorite Blues song of All time.

Another good blues cover song from the same band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKEwu-LE8H YouTube - The Harry Coffey band - Matchbox Live

Anyhow, Im home sick today so thought Id share some of the songs with ya. Enjoy!

Rick Wright RIP

Never mentioned but one of my favorite bands is Pink Floyd. Today their keyboard player Rick Wright died of Cancer. In his memory here are some cool clips and some amazon picks for Rick Wright related Items.

PF-Obscured By Clouds

Probably the most Wright heavy record Floyd record with some nice collaborations on the songs Stay and Burning Bridges. This is probably the mellowest Floyd Album there is along with Meddle. Almost falls into the adult contemporary pop category in some areas.

Broken China


Moody and dark...almost sounds like Peter Gabriel on Quaaludes.



Remember That Night


Great Sound Quality with lots of guests and surprises. Gilmour and Wright hit on all cylinders and having a great time. Maybe the best place to start for Rick Wright/Gilmour noobs if there is such a thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpMMsuWXzdU

Some more Japan

Just a couple more pics I didnt get around to posting from Japan....Some from the awesome Yakiniku place we visited, a picture of the cuban cigar I smoked, and a picture of the In-Raws. Can you spot my son?

Lotsa Catchin' Up To Do

Some pics and comments from the Labor Day Bbg.

Here are some ribs I did for the big event. The first pics are the ribs taken from the foil after being steamed with beer on low heat for a couple and being placed into the Texas Smoker.














Here are the ribs after a couple of hours in the smoker....nice color eh?



















Here are some lamb chops that were done in the smoker. Mega-Kudos to my sister in law who really has the gift of lamb. The two pictures is the lamb platter as well as one of the chops cut open to show the texture and color.




























The pic to the left was my cousins mustard tri tip. Basically he cover an entire tri tip with kosher salt and mustard and cooks on the grill for a couple of hours. Sorry I didnt get a picture after it was cooked...we did the tri tip after everything else and it was a bit late in the day with beer, wine, and margaritas liberally flowing. My memory of the event was a bit hazy to say the least.

Coming soon-some more pics from Japan and another Surf and Turf BBQ.

Back from Japan

Back from Japan with some pics.

Here is the ultra-famous Japanese Beer Vending Machine. Believe it or not this was the first time in my 3 times to Japan that Ive seen one.

























This was a beautiful little pond that was off the side of one of the many shrine.
















You will never get a fresher batch of sea snails then those I experienced. We literally picked the snails at the beach, washed and boiled them, did the snail removal and ate them tempura style in about an hour time frame. For the record...they tasted a bit like clams.


























This was some Hayama Beef. Its about 1 rung below Kobe beef on the quality beef scale. This package would cost roughly 20 bucks in the US.


















I just found this funny...the punchline almost writes itself.