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Saturday, September 30, 2006


ASTRAL WEAKS


Everybody loves this record. I had never heard it, only about it. I love Moondance, and Van is the man, right? So last night I found out that the whole world is delusional when it comes to this record - it's a mess.

"It's only eight songs, apparently recorded in 48 hours with a band Van Morrison didn't even know.
It has a mood and a feel that is hard to describe. " - AVC

I'll describe it. Loosey goosey. It sounds like the band didn't know a lot more than Van, how about the songs?

AVC goes on to call it one of the greatest records ever made, and I'm here to tell him, and Dave Marsh, and everybody else that Van should have spent more than two days on this one, maybe work out some arrangements and make a record that makes some sense.

Van is an amazing vocalist with loads of talent and emotion, but it's laid over a morass of ambiguous noodling. There's no anchor, no hooks, and way too many tracks of meandering instruments who sound lost.

Maybe that is the point, but if so, it's a stupid point.

Astral Weeks blows.

Friday, September 29, 2006

LAWYERS, GUNS, AND MONEY

Two months ago, Smoke and Mirrors moved to a new facility in Williamsburg. Chris and I were very excited, we spend a lot of money building out our new space, and new horizons were beckoning.

Then the shit hit the fan.

We didn't do our due diligence. We moved in without a lease into a space we hadn't researched. Had we spent a little more time looking into it we would have found that there were eviction proceedings against our 'landlord'.

We should have smelled a rat when the 'landlord' refused to give us a receipt for the cash deposit he demanded.

We should have been convinced of some funny business from the get-go, but we were excited, and yes, naive.

Six weeks into our new arrangement, the federal marshal showed up and sealed the building, delivering it, and all our gear, into the hands of the buildings owner.

Our 'landlord' hadn't been paying his rent.

Our 'landlord' had made a deal with a gentleman who is currently serving an eleven year sentence.

We stepped in some serious shit.

Two weeks later, after retaining a lawyer, a deal seems to have been worked out that will allow us to enter the building and take our gear.

Then it's time for another move.

Yay!

GEORGE ELECTED KING BY HOUSE

"Gonna go back in time...."

Historical evidence shows a monarch with absolute power is much better than democracy - NOT!

WTF?

This is just mind-boggling.

IS IT WORTH IT?

The tension mounts, on with the body count.....

WEEK 4

Atlanta over Arizona
Dallas over Tennessee - even a Percodan loaded TO will have no problem with the Titans
Jets destroy Colts - Manning a broken and bloody mess after the game
Miami over Houston
Buffalo over Minnesota
New Orleans over Carolina
KC over SF
St. Louis over Detroit
Cleveland over Oakland
Jacksonville over Washington
Cincinnati over Pats
Chicago over Seattle
Philly over GB

The Legal Diva will Join AVC, the J-Man, and myself at the Medowlands to see Indy go down.

Hot dogs, beer, and the Jets.....now that's a cocktail!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

TO ATTEMPTS OD

It must really suck having to play for such a crappy team.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006


Aufzeichnung

Dieses ist die Sekunde annehmen Aufzeichnung, kam es heraus 1980, und Milkyum und ich erhielten es. Wir lachten ziemlich viel, aber hielten zu hören. Bis einlief durch 1984, Milkyum annehmen Sie und ich war an auf andere dumme Verrücktheit umgezogen, aber ich hielt das frühe anzunehmen, und ich höre zu ihnen ziemlich häufig.


Dieses ist sehr gut wirklich lustig, und.


THE RODS - WILD DOGS

There are some records I've managed to hold onto these lo so many years of vinyl obsession. I always forget how great this record is.

Ah, 82. We'll never see the likes of you again.

COME WITH ME, I DON'T KNOW WHERE.....

I started with a small pot of ham stock (water, sabor a jamon, y sazon Goya con azafran), in that I put diced new potato on a slow boil.

In a pan I have diced pancetta frying in a bit of olive oil.

I'm now going to chop veggies, I'll be right back..........

Okay, so I discarded most of the cooked pancetta bits, leaving a few for good measure. Into the grease went a small slab of butter, and:

Diced carrotts, onion, garlic, celery and cabbage ( bit of the cabbage also went in w/ the potato in the ham stock).

Now I'm off to dice the chilis and add them to the sautee; four kinds of chilis, one half of a red bell pepper - again for good measure.

Time for meat. I got sausage. Three kinds. Bockwurst, chorizo, and hot Italian.

I am a brave man.

I sliced the bockwurst and the chorizo, but the hot Italian got squozen out of it's casing.

Everything simmer down!

I'm combining in one pot, and I'm thinking a little milk and heavy cream.

Yes, I'm crazy.

....like crazy person who cooks the hell out of soup! I'm so the man, my New England Chorizo and Bockwurst Chowder is awsome.

HOW AM I DOING?

For week three I went 11/2/1 (remember, there are some games that I don't pick a winner for, that's the third slot). Week two had me at 9/5/1, and week one was 7/5/4. Overall I'm at 27/12/6. Not too shabby.

Ha ha on T.A. and his Fal - Can'ts. No running game, and ATL crumbles.

Big ha ha on New England, oh the joy!

If the Giants could keep their opponents from taking the feild until the 4th quarter, they'd do really well.

J.E.T.S. Jets, Jets, Jets!

I love it, love it, love it!

Friday, September 22, 2006


DIE SCORPIONS SCAUKELN SIE MöGEN EINEN HURRIKAN UND DANN EINGEN


Really, they do. I pulled out this record:








It was so good, I had to play both sides.


SAVAGE SOUP

I been makin' soup. Last week I made a soup/stew with pork and beef cubes, standard stuff. A couple days ago I made a chorizo and cabbage soup, that soup was the bomb diggity. Thanks to Jimmy and Ha Jung for the chilis.

Today it's chicken. I bought a whole chicken. In my hood when you buy a whole chicken, you get a whole chicken - head, feet, gutty wutts. I hacked off a chicken head moments ago. The chicken still has half open eyes that looked at me suspiciously. Are all chickens suspicious? I would argue that they are, or should be at least.

I got a ton of produce to cram into this soup, I'll let you know how it comes out, now I'm just boiling the carcass (with feet, no head or guts - guts saved for kitty kat) with dried chilis.

UPDATE

So, I boiled that sucker till it could be pulled apart easy. In the meantime I roasted a plum, a peach, and a small chili.

In a pan I sauteed (in oil and butter) half an onion - diced, half a clove of garlic - chopped, a carrot - shaved and diced, about an eighth of a head of cabbage sliced thin and long, assorted chilis - diced. I waited until the onion and garlic were well cooked before moving along the list, when it was all in, I turned down the flame and let it simmer while I pulled the bird off. I yanked her out of the pot, and placed her in the still hot pan that the fruit and sole chili were roasting. I let that cool before pulling it apart, chucking the bones, skin, fat, and gristle. When I took the fruit out, I placed the plum, pear and chili in a small bowl to cool.

I strained the broth that had developed from the chicken boiling into the simmering veggies, and then put in the good chicken bits, of which there were many succulent morsels of which I did indeed sample.

I peeled the roasted fruit, and along with the roasted pepper (still whole), put in the mix and it's all simmerin' down just now.

I guess it's a sweet and sour chicken soup.

Maybe........

1193

I just got done integrating all the vinyl I've bought over the last year and a half into the collection proper. The collection contains one thousand one hundred ninety-three volumes, that is to say jackets, or titles. Therefore my 5 record live Springtseen counts as much as my maxi- single of Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes'.

I lent a few records to Sheetz for to make beats, I know he's got my 'Focus 3', my Robert Fripp and Andy Summers record, plus one or two more.

About 15 or so records are at the studio.......I don't want to get into that just yet......

Anyway, I've got over 1200 technically, but strictly speaking I'm at 1193.

I have doubles of 'Rumors', 'Fleetwood Mac', 'Tubular Bells', and Skynyrd's Live 'One More From the Road', which I'm giving to Chrispy. I also have a double of the first 'Starz' record, which is reserved for Tony Alva, who probably has it, so it may be up for grabs.

I'm listening to stuff I hadn't had a chance to spin yet: the second Montrose record, 'Paper Money', Ry Cooder's 'Paradise and Lunch', Rory Gallagher 'Irish Tour 74', Humble Pie's 'Performance: Rockin' the Filmore', Frank Marino's debut...oh that sweet mahogany rush! I was simply blown away by the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes LP 'Now is the Time'. 'The Harder They Come' movie soundtrack was another highlight. I gotta say, however, that there's nothing quite like the magic of the Raven live double record set; 'Live at the Inferno'.



WEEK THREE

Carolina at Tampa Bay
1:00 p.m. - Tampa handed third straight loss. Chucky to seek new career in Hollywood.

Chicago at Minnesota
1:00 p.m. - Chicago rolls on, beating a better but not good enough Vikings.

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
1:00 p.m. - Pittsburgh is shown the door by this years model, the Bengals. There will be no repeat by the Steelers.

Green Bay at Detroit
1:00 p.m. - Unable compute. A team has to score to win, right? No score, games ends after a record four hour overtime. Mob, er, cough, Union Bosses break up the game to the relief of football fans everywhere.

Jacksonville at Indianapolis
1:00 p.m. - A tired and deeply disturbed Peyton Manning, waking up after a dreadful nightmare in which he was QB for Green Bay, has a terrible game throwing forty-nine interceptions. Jacksonville wins despite their own offensive problems due to too much laughter on the sidelines watching Peyton toss the ball away.

N.Y. Jets at Buffalo
1:00 p.m. - J. E. T. S. - Jets, Jets, Jets! Cotchery learns to fly.

Tennessee at Miami
1:00 p.m. - Miami proves that even they can beat the 'orrible Tennessee Titans.

Washington at Houston
1:00 p.m. - See above. Insert Washington for Miami and Houston for Tennessee. Scientists prove that Joe Gibbs actually died many years ago. Unfortunately Redskins ownership decides the JoeBot is good enough.

Baltimore at Cleveland
4:05 p.m. - Poor Cleveland. I hate the Ravens, but I don't like the Browns enough to deny the fact that Baltimore will crush them.

N.Y. Giants at Seattle
4:15 p.m. - G-Men win spectacular road win against heavily favored Seahawks. Holmgren eats his offensive line after Strahan walks all over them, like so many silly girls, for a record 172 sacks.

Philadelphia at San Francisco
4:15 p.m. - Philly gain no succor from easily trouncing this bunch of sissy boys from the city by the bay.

St. Louis at Arizona
4:15 p.m. - I suppose some people in Arizona or the midwest care. I don't. St. Louis wins, Kurt Warner gets confused and shows up in his Rams uniform.

Denver at New England
8:15 p.m. - Denver wins. Tom Brady caught in hotel with sheep.

Atlanta at New Orleans
8:30 p.m. - Monday - New Orleans win Home opener in what turns out to be a track meet; Bush vs Vick.

The Cowboys are such pussies that they lose their bye week.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

...AS THE DUST SETTLES

Well, the G-Men got her done. Just shows, never turn your back on New York. The Jets came close to teaching that same lesson to the Pats.

Overall I went 10/6, not bad.

I appologise to the Jags for infering that the Cowboys should have been able to beat them. The Jags are for real, and they are the last real football team Dallas will have faced until week five, sorry Jennifer, but that includes the Skins, who I will route for, but apparently are not good.

In fact Dallas has a pussy schedule this year, and I guess that's the only way a team of pussies can compete in a league with real teams like the Giants and the Jets.

Gee, I used to reserve that kind of venom for the Pats and Miami, now it seems Dallas has replaced Miami as my second most hated team......how did that happen?

Friday, September 15, 2006

WEEK TWO

Buffalo over Miami

Carolina over Minnesota

Cincinnati over Cleveland

Chicago over Detroit

Indy over Houston - Peytie Pie breaks a leg running onto the field before kickoff prompting the Colts to lose ten games this season, but they still manage to beat Houston.

Saints over Packers - Reggie continues to run past, over, and through everyone.

Giants over Eagles - Big Blue gets the defense working this week stopping Donovan, Eli makes fewer mistakes, Tikki has another huge day.

Oakland shocks the world with their defeat of Baltimore - McNair falls for the old "Your shoes untied" bit.

Atlanta handily hands Chucky and the Buc's a spanking.

Seattle shows up in Arizona, Cardinals fly away in fear.

St. Louis beats San Fran at both Tennis and Football.

KC falls to Denver - Jake gets it together.

The Jets stomp the Pats - in the parking lot, and then they beat them in the stadium

San Diego defeats Tennessee, after which Collins loses faith in God, goes back to drinking, and his game improves.

Washington becomes the second in a long line of teams that defeat Dallas this season. Parcells reacts by employing his huge man-tits in the offensive line, right and left guard respectively.

Monday, September 11, 2006

JETS JETS JETS

Ha! That's what I say to all you disbelievers...ha!

Okay so I'm 5/5 with my picks, but who cares, the Jets won.

The Giants looked good as they lost to Peytie Pie. Tikki looked great, but really the story of the day is Chad Pennington's perfformance, 319 yards, two touchdowns, and a rating of 123.2. Of course Laverneus Coles helped out.

Reggie Bush had a great debut for New Orleans.

Oh happy day.

Teams I will give more credit to:

Cincinnati
Atlanta

Jury still out on Arizona, first they have to beat a football team.

Dallas lost. Yay.

Friday, September 08, 2006

NFL - OH HELLS YEAH

So, uh, it snuck up on me.

Last night Pittsburgh defeated the weak ass Dolphins, as I would have predicted, but, alas, I did not.

Thurday game - who knew?

Hey! I'm busy!

Okay so my picks:

Carolina over ATL
Tampa over Baltimore
Buffalo at NE - can't pick, I'm getting sick just thinking about watching these two teams
KC over Cincinnati
Denver over Rams
NO over Cleveland
Jets destroy Tennessee
Philly over Houston
Seattle over Detroit
Chicago over GB
Jacksonville over Dallas
San Fran at Arizona - this is tennis I think, wake me up when these cities get football teams
Giants over Indy - Peyton dies tonight in awful car wreck - the worst I ever seen
Washington over Minnesota

I haven't watched any pre season silliness (except four excellent minutes of the Jets defying Philly in a game ending goal line stance), or paid any attention to any sports news on TV or in the papers, so what do I know?

J - E - T - S, Jets Jets Jets!

BULIDING

IT

SO

THEY

WILL

COME



The gentleman in these photos is John the carpenter. The dog is Buck the yellow brooklyn doodle dog, he's a good boy, as you can see.



These are walls.















This is John on the scaffold......anyone wanna buy a sacaffold?










More photos to come.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

YOU CAN'T GO HOME

Ten years ago I'd have been able to, but in the age of security, alas, it's damn hard.

I grew up at West Point. Today it's not so easy to visit home. This past weekend, Belabor Day Weekend, The Legal Diva and I drove Sally (Mustang) up to my old stompin' grounds. We got a room at The Hudson House in Cold Spring, a quaintish river town on the Hudson across the river from West Point.

We enjoyed Cold Spring and it's many restaurants and shops.

My plan for visiting West Point on Saturday fell apart when I left my I.D. in my other pants back in Cold Spring. The Legal Diva had to settle for a drive around the perimeter and a stop at Vasily's souvenirs.

It was good to see Vasily at least.

We shopped instead. Cold Spring has a record store. We bought (on vinyl, of course):

Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come (it's not just Jimmy - Desmond Dekker, The Slickers, The Maytals......)

Badfinger - Straight Up (brilliant debut record)

New York Dolls - Too Much Too Soon (their underrated second LP)

Graham Parsons - Grievous Angel (on 180 gram vinyl)

Big Star - #1 Record (so good it's confounding)

The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo (I figured I needed to see what the fuss was about)

David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World (I already have it, but this has the original artwork)

Nina Simone - Black Is the Color (a two record set)

Otis Redding and Jimmy Hendrix - At Monterey Pop

Loverboy - Get Lucky (for Fatsacca)

Jon Anderson - Olias of Sunrillow - (solo from 76 - Yes did it before Kiss)

Iron Butterfly - In A Gadda Da Vida (I can't wait to rock that shit)

Rush - Hemispheres (I most likely have this, it was in the dollar bin)

Saxon - Strong Arm of the Law - (I have the white cover, now I have the blue)

Miles - The Complete Birth of Cool ( the title really says it all)

Ella Fitzgerald - The Cole Porter Songbook (okay, I think the Legal Diva will listen to this more often than me, but it's good to have)

Marvin Gaye - I Want You (I don't know this record at all, very curious)

Sting - Nothing Like the Sun (.....uh........)

Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever (first solo LP, Free Fallin and whatnot)

Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly (what's a Fugee?)

Diana Ross - 20 Golden Greats (hey, they are made of gold, right)

Ramones - Leave Home (2nd record)

We had a great weekend. We listened to live Bowie and Bob Marley in the car.

We're home now. Back to work.

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