Most days I wake up with a song in my head. I have recently found out this is not true for everyone. It makes me wonder at the complexities of the human mind. I mean, what is it, exactly, that makes Bobby Brown's 1989 Ghostbusters II hit "On Our Own" or Madonna's 1984 song "Borderline"? I don't like it, but I have to be honest. Except that I do like the Bobby Brown song.
Throughout the day, there is always a song in my head. I often have no idea what triggered it, but yesterday I was able to reverse engineer the mechanism that got me from Elvis to Paul Simon to Jerry Lee Lewis to Jim Morrison to George Thorogood. All of these things make me wonder if it applies universally by profession, as if a chef wakes up craving a dish or a meal.
I've had some incredible times recently. One is Havana Rumba, a perpetual provider of comfort, cool, and mouthwatering cuban food. (Note to self: improve alliteration skills). Fricase de Pollo is my go to dish there, with the Cherna a la Parrilla (grilled grouper, rice, black beans, plantains) as a worthy backup. If only they'd bring back the Pollo Ropa Vieja....
One of the fantastic hidden gems of Louisville is Cumberland Brews, on bardstown road in the heart of the highlands. I was a bit early for the evening plans, so I stopped in next door neighbor Ray's Monkey House, a great coffee shop, sat outside with a latte and chugged through a portion of my current book, of which I'm on my final allowable renewal from the Library. It was a beautiful evening, the first nip of fall, and bardstown road is a great place to sit outside and have coffee.
Cumberland Brews is small and quaint, but one reason for its greatness lies in the fact that it has a hidden upstairs, a secret stairway that is as close to a speakeasy entrance that you'll find. Upstairs has four tables and a bar. That's it. I was there to watch the last presidential debate with some friends, and if ever there were a room for small informal gatherings that may or may not include the heat and rhetoric of politics, this is it. My recommendations include Octoberfest brew and the Bison Burger, which I must say, far exceeded my expectations and actually made me desire a burger again. I even took a picture of it with my phone. But it didn't do it justice. Ansel Adams couldn't do it justice.
b
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
More Sincerity Than Nobility
I just thought that was a great line from a book, the context of which is that the character is contrasting himself and his aristocratic relative, stating that the relative is more nobility than sincerity, but he is more sincerity than nobility. It's stuck with me for a few weeks so I thought I'd put it here.
To borrow from Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin & Hobbes, the days are just packed. It's been a blur the last two months working out details for the release of the new album and I think it's catching up to me. Hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to get some decent sleep. It'll be a busy week in Louisville for us, and then on to crafting some fuel efficient travel plans. I don't know if we'll make it much further south than Atlanta, I'm sure the Carolinas will be in play, and we will make good on our intent of hitting the northeast, or at least DC, NY, NJ, Boston, Philly & Chicago. More updates as they arrive.
To borrow from Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin & Hobbes, the days are just packed. It's been a blur the last two months working out details for the release of the new album and I think it's catching up to me. Hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to get some decent sleep. It'll be a busy week in Louisville for us, and then on to crafting some fuel efficient travel plans. I don't know if we'll make it much further south than Atlanta, I'm sure the Carolinas will be in play, and we will make good on our intent of hitting the northeast, or at least DC, NY, NJ, Boston, Philly & Chicago. More updates as they arrive.
Tears and Moments of Profundity
*originally posted on muckrakers blog Sept 9, 2007
I sit now in my kitchen and the waterworks are flowing. Eyes and nose wide open like a broken faucet. I decided today to try my hand at the creation of the perfect French Onion Soup. The main guide is Bourdain's Les Halles book, with a bit of extra guidance from Thomas Keller's Bouchon. As one puts it "French Onion Soup is, unsuprisingly, all about the onions", and right now I am halfway through the cutting of eight large onions. Can you smell me? It's ok, go ahead and say no just to make me feel better, but I'm probably going to have to fumigate my house and not be around anyone for a few days after this is all said and done.
I could be mistaken, but I think that the first time I had the dish was in Manhattan last week. It was odd because I sat down and immediately thought, Yes, That's what I want, when without realizing it, I had nothing to base that decision on. Maybe just the preconscious desire to have me some French Onion Soup. It turned out to be incredible and I remembered seeing it in a book I had, so here I am today.
Last night in the studio, Kyle had stopped by later in the evening, and probably somewhere past one he asked if we had heard the new Silverchair. A large group shaking of the head, and he pulls it up on his computer, plays the video for Straight Line and If You Keep Losing Sleep. Maybe it had been a long day, maybe I was tired and unexpecting something of worth, but it literally blew me away. Stood there with my mouth open, not believing what I was hearing. The strange but fantastic chord changes, the driving rhythm, the singer with a greater vocal range than I realized.
I stated at that point that I couldn't remember ever standing somewhere, watching and listening to something that was truly original and innovative.
I downloaded it this morning and if I have to cry, I might as well have something of this quality to make it better.
Check it out, but now the onions are calling out to be cut.
More to follow as it develops,
b
edit 1, 7:17 pm. Man this stuff takes a long time. I haven't even been able to add the stock yet, as the onions have yet to reduce and caramelize. By the way, Fletch was on tv this morning, which was funny because Rob and I were debating the merits or lack thereof between that movie and the sequel. The former is great, fantastic, hilarious. But Rob made the statement that the sequel was on par with Funny Farm. I immediately lost quite a bit of respect for our favorite front man at that point, since in spite of the title was most certainly not funny.
I'm getting hungry. More soon,
b
edit 2, 8:25 Did I mention this takes a long time? Caramelization has begun. I'm beginning to give up on eating tonight.
edit 3, 8:55 I wish I could import the smell of this, I'm so hungry and it smells sooo good. All ingredients in, being brought to a boil, then simmer for an hour. We'll see.
b
edit 4, 10:20 Soup for me. So good. So good. Happy now. I recommend.
Now go listen to Silverchair, or watch the video. Thanks for indulging me,
bsm
I sit now in my kitchen and the waterworks are flowing. Eyes and nose wide open like a broken faucet. I decided today to try my hand at the creation of the perfect French Onion Soup. The main guide is Bourdain's Les Halles book, with a bit of extra guidance from Thomas Keller's Bouchon. As one puts it "French Onion Soup is, unsuprisingly, all about the onions", and right now I am halfway through the cutting of eight large onions. Can you smell me? It's ok, go ahead and say no just to make me feel better, but I'm probably going to have to fumigate my house and not be around anyone for a few days after this is all said and done.
I could be mistaken, but I think that the first time I had the dish was in Manhattan last week. It was odd because I sat down and immediately thought, Yes, That's what I want, when without realizing it, I had nothing to base that decision on. Maybe just the preconscious desire to have me some French Onion Soup. It turned out to be incredible and I remembered seeing it in a book I had, so here I am today.
Last night in the studio, Kyle had stopped by later in the evening, and probably somewhere past one he asked if we had heard the new Silverchair. A large group shaking of the head, and he pulls it up on his computer, plays the video for Straight Line and If You Keep Losing Sleep. Maybe it had been a long day, maybe I was tired and unexpecting something of worth, but it literally blew me away. Stood there with my mouth open, not believing what I was hearing. The strange but fantastic chord changes, the driving rhythm, the singer with a greater vocal range than I realized.
I stated at that point that I couldn't remember ever standing somewhere, watching and listening to something that was truly original and innovative.
I downloaded it this morning and if I have to cry, I might as well have something of this quality to make it better.
Check it out, but now the onions are calling out to be cut.
More to follow as it develops,
b
edit 1, 7:17 pm. Man this stuff takes a long time. I haven't even been able to add the stock yet, as the onions have yet to reduce and caramelize. By the way, Fletch was on tv this morning, which was funny because Rob and I were debating the merits or lack thereof between that movie and the sequel. The former is great, fantastic, hilarious. But Rob made the statement that the sequel was on par with Funny Farm. I immediately lost quite a bit of respect for our favorite front man at that point, since in spite of the title was most certainly not funny.
I'm getting hungry. More soon,
b
edit 2, 8:25 Did I mention this takes a long time? Caramelization has begun. I'm beginning to give up on eating tonight.
edit 3, 8:55 I wish I could import the smell of this, I'm so hungry and it smells sooo good. All ingredients in, being brought to a boil, then simmer for an hour. We'll see.
b
edit 4, 10:20 Soup for me. So good. So good. Happy now. I recommend.
Now go listen to Silverchair, or watch the video. Thanks for indulging me,
bsm
Mojito
Mojito
So, we went to Mojito (a restaurant here in Louisville) last night, and first of all I must offer congratulations to Fernando. It's actually quite a feat he's pulled off, and I drove home shaking my head that something as silly as food could have been so incredible, or created such an exuberant experience. Havana Rumba was without doubt in my top 3, but I think I really went in with no expectations. We arrived around 8pm Saturday night, I thought it might be a little crowded, since it was the weekend and due to Marty's review, but the place was packed, seriously packed, somewhere around a two and a half hour wait. We sidled up to the bar for a nicely assembled mojito and gin and tonic, a bit clueless as to where to stand for a while. It wasn't too long before we snagged two bar chairs. Looking through the menu, it all looked so good, I decided to try a couple of tapas at the bar. First was the guacamole and chicharritas, which were really good. Light, crispy plantain chips to dip in avocado, lime, cilantro and red onions. Next up was Boniato Frito, sweet potato fries with a sidecar of smoked honey. Smoked honey, you say? Yes,yes,yes and how. This is serious goodness right here. I almost wept. Needless to say: incredible. Trio de hummus next, and they even found a way to infuse an ordinary dish like hummus (garbazo, black bean, and roasted pepper) with some fantastic ingredients and additions.
Let me say a word at this point about the beautiful presentations: from the dish, to the plate on which it's served, to the drink glasses, all very contemporary and just flat out cool. It was somewhere around this point that I realized that my entire dinner was going to happen at the bar, so barkeep! More, more more!
Calamares Fritos were next, and nice calamari though they are, what really set them off was the avocado lime aioli. This was the second time tonight that I actually considered the consequences of lifting the sidecar/dipping cup to my lips. In the interest of decorum I declined, with regret.
Empty plate removed, new beautiful dish arrives, it's like magic. Now landing: croquetas de yuca, a beautiful crab cake in all it's glory, with yet more of the aforementioned avocado lime aioli. You may be no Amazing Kreskin yourself, but I'm sure you won't be suprised that I found the crab cake yet another mouth watering, flavor bursting dish.
At this point, we were squarely tucked in at an hour and a half, completely happy with our good fortune to sit at the bar, and ready for espresso and a dessert, which ended up being the churros con chocolate. I regret to inform you that I only had a very little bit of this excellent dish, as we were sharing and I thought I may lose a digit if I attempted another bite.
So, we laughed, we cried, we talked to Fernando for a minute, as he was just a tiny bit busy, and ate our way through the joys of an otherwise stormy night. Congratulations guys, thanks for a fantastic restaurant.
bsm
07.07.07
So, we went to Mojito (a restaurant here in Louisville) last night, and first of all I must offer congratulations to Fernando. It's actually quite a feat he's pulled off, and I drove home shaking my head that something as silly as food could have been so incredible, or created such an exuberant experience. Havana Rumba was without doubt in my top 3, but I think I really went in with no expectations. We arrived around 8pm Saturday night, I thought it might be a little crowded, since it was the weekend and due to Marty's review, but the place was packed, seriously packed, somewhere around a two and a half hour wait. We sidled up to the bar for a nicely assembled mojito and gin and tonic, a bit clueless as to where to stand for a while. It wasn't too long before we snagged two bar chairs. Looking through the menu, it all looked so good, I decided to try a couple of tapas at the bar. First was the guacamole and chicharritas, which were really good. Light, crispy plantain chips to dip in avocado, lime, cilantro and red onions. Next up was Boniato Frito, sweet potato fries with a sidecar of smoked honey. Smoked honey, you say? Yes,yes,yes and how. This is serious goodness right here. I almost wept. Needless to say: incredible. Trio de hummus next, and they even found a way to infuse an ordinary dish like hummus (garbazo, black bean, and roasted pepper) with some fantastic ingredients and additions.
Let me say a word at this point about the beautiful presentations: from the dish, to the plate on which it's served, to the drink glasses, all very contemporary and just flat out cool. It was somewhere around this point that I realized that my entire dinner was going to happen at the bar, so barkeep! More, more more!
Calamares Fritos were next, and nice calamari though they are, what really set them off was the avocado lime aioli. This was the second time tonight that I actually considered the consequences of lifting the sidecar/dipping cup to my lips. In the interest of decorum I declined, with regret.
Empty plate removed, new beautiful dish arrives, it's like magic. Now landing: croquetas de yuca, a beautiful crab cake in all it's glory, with yet more of the aforementioned avocado lime aioli. You may be no Amazing Kreskin yourself, but I'm sure you won't be suprised that I found the crab cake yet another mouth watering, flavor bursting dish.
At this point, we were squarely tucked in at an hour and a half, completely happy with our good fortune to sit at the bar, and ready for espresso and a dessert, which ended up being the churros con chocolate. I regret to inform you that I only had a very little bit of this excellent dish, as we were sharing and I thought I may lose a digit if I attempted another bite.
So, we laughed, we cried, we talked to Fernando for a minute, as he was just a tiny bit busy, and ate our way through the joys of an otherwise stormy night. Congratulations guys, thanks for a fantastic restaurant.
bsm
07.07.07
Codeine and Pneumonia/ The Essence of the Universe
So I was fighting off pneumonia last night, armed only with antibiotics and codeine. Powerful weapons indeed. I woke up shocked that I had written a pretty long blog that cut to the core of living and learning. "I was dreaming when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray..." P
Life is growth. Stagnation is an abomination. If we fail to grow, if we fail to dream, if we lose initiative, we condemn ourselves to mere catatonic existence, slogging through the rest of our days in a non-thinking stupor. Is this extreme? Possibly, but I feel strongly that without the clarity of a rational mind, we are doomed to hold as our highest goal the philosophy that ignorance is bliss. Let me step back. I was fortunate enough to emerge from my seventeen years of schooling without my desire for learning completely squelched. What I mean is that all those facts, dates, formulas, and timelines do not provide wisdom. Only the application of knowledge can give the clarity of wisdom. I read more now, learn more now, and ask more questions because understanding and communication are extremely important to life as growth.
Let me make the following disclaimer: I am not a big fan of musicals and musical theatre. There are a handful I can get behind, but for the most part I just don..t enjoy them. I believe that every band is allowed a maximum of one person who loves musicals, and that person in ours is Rob. However, one of the few I have found extremely compelling is Rent, the rock musical by Jonathan Larson based on Puccini..s opera La Boheme. Rob was kind enough to let me borrow the soundtrack a year ago, and somehow in spite of everything, I liked it. It wasn..t until last week when I saw the dvd that I had any visuals to accompany the soundtrack. The musical stands on its own, but somehow the story of its.. creation elevates it to a level of poignancy that really tears me up. You see, Larson received a tuition paid scholarship to college for acting. After that he moved to New York City, where for the next ten years he worked in a diner, writing the whole time he wasn..t working. He wrote some plays, but it wasn..t until Rent that things started to come together for him. A few more years, finding producers, cast, and fine tuning the script, and he had it in top shape. The final dress rehearsal, friends and family were powerfully moved by the performance and story, and Larson felt the fulfillment of his creation received by the audience. The critic from the NY Times was there and spoke with Larson extensively, assuring him the power of the writing and performance would make his musical a hit. Larson went home that night and died of an aortic aneurysm. Rent went on to the success he knew it would.
All of this to say that life is short, there..s no day but today, and to forget regret, for life is yours to miss. And that we have a dream. A dream that is larger than ourselves, bigger than any of us individually. It has been with us for a long time and we invite you to join us in this dream, share our experiences, dream with us. Life is growth. Stagnation is abomination.
bsm
Life is growth. Stagnation is an abomination. If we fail to grow, if we fail to dream, if we lose initiative, we condemn ourselves to mere catatonic existence, slogging through the rest of our days in a non-thinking stupor. Is this extreme? Possibly, but I feel strongly that without the clarity of a rational mind, we are doomed to hold as our highest goal the philosophy that ignorance is bliss. Let me step back. I was fortunate enough to emerge from my seventeen years of schooling without my desire for learning completely squelched. What I mean is that all those facts, dates, formulas, and timelines do not provide wisdom. Only the application of knowledge can give the clarity of wisdom. I read more now, learn more now, and ask more questions because understanding and communication are extremely important to life as growth.
Let me make the following disclaimer: I am not a big fan of musicals and musical theatre. There are a handful I can get behind, but for the most part I just don..t enjoy them. I believe that every band is allowed a maximum of one person who loves musicals, and that person in ours is Rob. However, one of the few I have found extremely compelling is Rent, the rock musical by Jonathan Larson based on Puccini..s opera La Boheme. Rob was kind enough to let me borrow the soundtrack a year ago, and somehow in spite of everything, I liked it. It wasn..t until last week when I saw the dvd that I had any visuals to accompany the soundtrack. The musical stands on its own, but somehow the story of its.. creation elevates it to a level of poignancy that really tears me up. You see, Larson received a tuition paid scholarship to college for acting. After that he moved to New York City, where for the next ten years he worked in a diner, writing the whole time he wasn..t working. He wrote some plays, but it wasn..t until Rent that things started to come together for him. A few more years, finding producers, cast, and fine tuning the script, and he had it in top shape. The final dress rehearsal, friends and family were powerfully moved by the performance and story, and Larson felt the fulfillment of his creation received by the audience. The critic from the NY Times was there and spoke with Larson extensively, assuring him the power of the writing and performance would make his musical a hit. Larson went home that night and died of an aortic aneurysm. Rent went on to the success he knew it would.
All of this to say that life is short, there..s no day but today, and to forget regret, for life is yours to miss. And that we have a dream. A dream that is larger than ourselves, bigger than any of us individually. It has been with us for a long time and we invite you to join us in this dream, share our experiences, dream with us. Life is growth. Stagnation is abomination.
bsm
Paradigm Shift
Sometimes you have to stretch out of your comfort zone. Life is about challenges and how you rise to meet them. I love to try new restaurants. It is something that has been an interesting shift in me for the past few years. It has been a bit strange traveling so much in the past year or so to find myself in a new city and finding the same stores, the same new clean, well landscaped Main Street Disneyland type areas, full of the stores that each of you know so well, or watching those with money to spend go to them. Growing up, I loved my big box chains, my Olive Gardens, O'Charley's, etc. Now, I can understand the allure, you always know what you are going to get, it's always going to be the same. But you're missing out. Every city has numerous local joints that offer up a flavor of the city, or even push it out and adapt it, or those who have emigrated bring in a taste of their own culture. It's all at our fingertips. My birthday was last week, and my only prerequisite for the dinner was that it had to be a place I'd never been before. In Louisville, I chose a cool little place called Havana Rumba, in the St. Matthews area. It was out of this world, an over the stands walk off homerun. It was my mental projection of a happenin Key West restaurant, or would fit in well in Manhattan. I won't go into the meal itself, but it's an example of what's out there that we're all missing when we settle, when we're comfortable, when then anxiety of ordering in broken English puts us over the edge. In this town, there is a gold mine website louisvillehotbytes.com that is fantastic, and I fully recommend, nay, endorse Robin Garr in his status as foodie extraordinaire. I have also been fascinated with Anthony Bourdain, a 28-year professional chef in NYC and now world sampler for the Travel Channel. This is a man who gets the concept of good food as gathering, as friendship, as celebration, as well as wildly entertaining and near enlightening to watch his travels. It's the closest thing to a vacation I get these days.
Wrapping up, I implore you, stretch out; do things that take you out of that comfort zone. The first few times I ever took a stage to perform I can't begin to describe the nervousness and anxiety of the whole thing. Now, it's one of the most pure and fulfilling times of my life.
b
08.27.06
Wrapping up, I implore you, stretch out; do things that take you out of that comfort zone. The first few times I ever took a stage to perform I can't begin to describe the nervousness and anxiety of the whole thing. Now, it's one of the most pure and fulfilling times of my life.
b
08.27.06
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