Pervasive ambivalence followed by afternoon tranquility. Chance of mid-morning, mood-altering device, high.
Ok so we’re stretching the definition of “new” to basically be anything made in the past five years. Here are a bunch of retro-ish songs I like. That’s all. Enjoy.
“Baby” by Phenomenal Handclap Band
Someone listened to a lot of: Donny Hathaway
“Your Magic is Working” by Of Montreal
Someone listened to a lot of: Donovan
“Mark of the Unnamed” by Budos Band
Someone listened to a lot of: Fela Kuti
“Do It” by Daddy’s Favorite
Someone listened to a lot of: Booker T & The MGs
“Attack of the 60 Foot Lesbian Octopus” by Does It Offend You, Yeah
Someone listened to a lot of: The Clash
“Bang Pop” by Free Energy
Someone listened to a lot of: Edgar Winter Group
“The Merkin Jerk” by Javelin
Someone listened to a lot of: Traffic
“I Been Born Again” by Phenomenal Handclap Band
Someone listened to a lot of: Eric Burdon and The Animals
“Who Fingered Rock ‘n Roll” by Cornershop
Someone listened to a lot of: Bachman Turner Overdrive
“Tomato in the Rain” by Kaiser Chiefs
Someone listened to a lot of: Cream
“Mushrooms and Roses” by Janelle Monae
Someone listened to a lot of: White Album-era Beatles
“Fool For You” by Cee-lo Green
Someone listened to a lot of: The Isley Brothers
Walnut City Wineworks 2006 Viognier
Columbia Valley
Retail price: About $15
Some foolish people resolve each January to drink a little less wine. Pure arglebargle. How about resolving to trying some new wines and get out of your wine rut? Break free of your go-to Chards and Cabs and try an uncommon varietal.
Enter Walnut City Wineworks’ Viognier. This 100% Viognier wine is produced in Columbia Valley. The Walnut City guys are best known for their fabulous Pinot Noirs but don’t let that make you shy away from this delicious wine.
The Skinny:
When you take your first sip of this pretty straw colored wine you will be hit gobsmacked with aromas of wildflowers, granny smith apples and peaches. So heady are these aromas, you will swear that you are about to drink a sweet wine, but not so. This is a complex tasting wine and much like When Harry Met
Sally, you will notice more and more details as you revisit it. You will certainly be imitating Meg Ryan’s “Yes! Yes!” after drinking this treat. There are sweet hints of pineapple, apricot and along with ginger and coconut. Absolutely no oak in this baby. I drank this straight from my wine storage unit, so it was about 55-58 degrees. I wouldn’t serve it any colder or you will miss the richness and variety of the flavors.
Viogniers can be a bit oily on the mouth – they are the bluefish of wines — but this baby is full, soft, velvety and has a tiny bit of crispness in the finish. The alcohol level is a comforting 14.63%. Perfect after a rather trying parenting day, but drink it only after you are done carpooling. Walnut City Wineworks makes their wines with sustainable farming methods. So you can feel confident that drinking this wine is actually helping Mother Earth.
Crib Notes:
– Just so you don’t sound like a philistine at the wine shop, Viognier is pronounced vee-ohn-YAY. (To listen to a sexy Frenchman say it click here)
– Viognier is often blended with other white wines, like Chardonnay, to give those wines a softness they lack.
– Columbia Valley is the largest AVA (American Viticultural Area) in Washington state. It has a unique climate which produces wines which are fruit forward, yet they retain the balance known from European wines.
– Viogniers are great with spicy foods like Thai as the fruit forward and highly aromatic characteristics complement the heat of these foods. Perfect take-out food wine.
Morning haze, followed by a brief frappuccino-induced, brain freeze. Increased acuity likely. 85% chance of mid-morning shower.
Hey there folks, I just want to throw out a few possible rules/guidelines/decisions for the upcoming book club. Feel free to disagree, and/or add more of your own.
1. Book Club discussion will be posted every third Sunday of the month at 7pm EST. While it will be nice to have a lot of us at that particular time, feel free to add to the discussion at your leisure.
2. If it’s your turn to host book club please choose a book that is widely available and preferably also available in paperback. I guess Kindle availability would be a plus for those folks, but I don’t that it’s absolutely necessary, right?
3. Try not to pick the same genre or author as the previous Book Club selection, let’s mix things up.
4. Whether or not you are hosting, as you read the book think of some questions to ask your fellow readers so we can keep the discussion going.
5. If you are hosting, pick the next host before your Sunday so they have enough time to chose a book.
6. New book selections should be posted in a separate post the third Monday of each month.
7. If you have any suggestions for future picks, or problems with that book, post your comments in that post ^
8. You don’t have to stick to traditional book club books though you’re welcome to. Add in the classics, graphic novels, sci-fi (if you must), anything that floats your boat. Expand our horizons.
9. If you don’t have an intense debate commenting account get one now!
10. If you are hosting, you’ll need to have a Crasstalk account.
11. Even if you think you are going to hate this book/genre why not give it a try. You can tell us exactly what you dislike in the discussion. And if I’m going to give sci-fi a try, I expect you all to give everything a go.
So if you have any book suggestions, questions, or general comments this is the place to let me know about it. I’ll post my selection a bit early just in case we need to work out any kinks. So the book will be announced next week, and the first discussion will take place on February 20th.
Edit – Now that I think about it, is posting the book on the third Monday okay? Will that give you all enough time to go get the book and read it? Or should we post it earlier? So many decisions!!!
Any updates to give with our Crosstalk blog Christian Soldiers?
Increasing malaze followed by wide-spread indolence. Chance of shower, remote.
Hi Everybody!
Well, let’s see. It’s been a while since we talked. How were your New Years Eve celebrations? Codename:Stabby had a migraine and went to bed early, but I hung out with my nephews and niece and Stabby’s Sister. We stayed up late and I ate lots of junk food, so it was great. And I destroyed my Christmas present chew toy, so that was super fun. Also, it wasn’t raining.
I had two great sunny rompies also. I met a new friend, name of Mr. Crow. He was hanging out on the upper football field and I ran over to say hi. He said hi back and flew around and I chased him for a while. We had fun. Then he flew to the baseball field and sat up high on the fence and I barked at him and he said bye and flew home.
Yesterday it rained again and it’s raining today too. I rompied in the rain and mud on the football field. There are some BIG puddles up there, which are great to slip and slide in. Oh! There was a truck parked on the other side of the fence, so I stood watch over it and while I was there a van pulled up! It was so exciting! People got out and bustled around and I supervised them. They said hi to me and smiled. Then they got in their cars and drove away.
Here I am now. How great is my bed? I love flannel so much. Anyway, I get the feeling that there might not be a rompie today. It’s pouring so hard that when I went out to pee I turned around and came right back in, so…
I love movie trailers – come deconstruct them with me!
(Don’t cloud your judgement! Watch the trailer then read my rant.)
The Mechanic (January 28 2011 | CBS Films)
Years ago, I was bored and happened to flip to a local channel showing some seventies movie with Charles Bronson in it. I thought it was going to be lame, old-timey shit.
I was wrong.
That movie was The Mechanic, and it was fucking badass. The details of the plot are hard for me to remember, but simply reciting the movie’s title summons a soft blanket woven with fond memories of badassery over my heart.
A similar situation happened with El Mariachi; having never heard of it, nor having seen any plot-spoiling trailers for it, I watched El Mariachi one idle night on that same local channel with expectations so low, it was digging quite successfully to China. Needless to say, I was blown away by its majesty (and by the fact, which I only found out later, that it was the precursor to Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico).
Now there’s a remake of The Mechanic, starting Jason Statham.
I guess you can cue the sad violin and sense of foreboding, right? A remake is cruel, surprize buttsecks to the cherished films of yore, right? Well…I dunno. The Mechanic actually seems suited to a modern retelling. The plot is simple enough – sophisticated assassin takes on an apprentice (and hijinks ensue!). You can go interesting places with an outline like that.
The problem is that this new version looks like it goes to the least interesting corner of the Imagination Station. The original version had an almost meditative quality, which had the effect of making the violence even more chilling. The Wikipedia page for the original has a little note on the existentialism of the film, ferchrissake! But the trailer for the new version is hardly Zen-like. Almost instantly after the green rating card disappears you get wacked over the head with the sound of a pulsating electric guitar. You know, ‘cuz rock music makes everything cooler.
Quick cuts in the beginning showcase the lead character’s résumé of death screaming “Hire me! Hire me, bitch!” Bronson’s Mechanic would need no such brazen excessiveness. He’d kill your enemy’s dog and make it look like it accidentally choked on its favourite chew toy if you asked him for an employment reference.
The rest of the trailer is an infodump of gadgets and violence that leads me to believe that this movie will sink into the bowels of mediocrity. Case in point: “Time to take your training to the next level.” What the fuck is this, Training from Hell?! I’ll give the trailer’s tagline (“A good mechanic is hard to find.”) a pass, though. Because it’s true. Jason Statham may be a mechanic, but I doubt he’s a good one. It’s not that I don’t like him as an actor. He just doesn’t seem like the spiritual successor to Bronson. So keep on looking, folks! Nothing to see here!
Taken by itself, this is an exciting trailer that piques your interest in the movie, no doubt about that. Flashy action isn’t bad by itself, but come on…so many modern action movies are like that. The 1972 movie was special because it transcended the tired clichés that films about assassins are wont to slip into. Will the 2011 version do the same? If the trailer’s any indication, probably not. That’s a shame for badass lovers everywhere.
So I had a little to-do with the editor of the local rag here in my small town. I’ve been writing book-related bits for it for a couple of years now, usually author profiles, which are wonderful when I like the book and painful when I don’t. So far it’s been 90-10, guess in which direction.
Anyhow, I was asked to do a piece on our independent bookstore’s 15th anniversary. Nothing makes me happier than seeing an indie bookstore still alive, so I happily interviewed the owner and the manager and wrote up a nice optimistic piece about all their plans for the future. And sent it in to my editor. Who added just a tiny clause that was basically a shot at the owner. Very mean. Totally out of tone with the rest of the piece. I asked Ed to take it out. Ed said no, and made a couple of other nasty remarks about the owner. I thought screw this, and asked to have my name taken off the piece. (I don’t get paid for these, I do it in exchange for a one-line mention of a small business I have here in town.) Back and forth a little more, but I just insisted that Ed remove my name, and it came off.
Highly doubtful I’ll be asked to do any further writing for them but that’s fine. There’re only so many self-published novels, most of them written by retired gents wanting to relive their youth (the tell-tale: the hero is always a, erm, mature man with a toothsome young female sidekick), that one can stomach.
As a thank-you to any who have plowed their way through this tiny tempest in a teacup, here’s a book recommendation. The latest John Le Carre, Our Kind of Traitor. Le Carre knows his way around a keyboard, and uses all kinds of tricksy little techniques that a lesser writer would screw up terribly. Le Carre, of course, doesn’t. He keeps his narrative under complete and effortless control that rewards the close reading you need to give it.
by
Delta Sierra