Best of January 08 (Part IV)

Grant Lee Buffalo - Truly, Truly (Jubilee [1998])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

I completely missed these guys when they were around. This is a solid song on a solid album.




New Buffalo - Emotional Champ (Somewhere, Anywhere [2007])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

All in all this album is a bit too vague. It plays at being too experimental and cool. I remember being friends with this girl in college. She was pretty artsy and stuff. When another friend of mine met her, her comment was something like, "Why does she dress so ugly? I think she does it on purpose to seem different and cool." She wasn't saying this to be mean, she was saying this because she did really dress ugly. Listening to this album I have a similar reaction. She shows with this song that you can be cool and still write a song that has a bit of pop appeal. You can maintain your integrity and still create something nice to listen to. But most of the album has a bit of an overdone artsy, experimental, folksy edge.

2008 Recipes Week 4

Another week of recipes.

Tuna Melt
Margaret had been wanting a tuna melt for quite some time, so I actually found a recipe. Why not? They were quite good. Not sure you really needed a recipe but still it was different that what I would have made on my own.

Chicken and Asparagus Pasta Toss
The best thing about this dish was how well it reheated out of the fridge. It was a bit too spicy and had too many onions. It was very good with green olives and sun dried tomatoes.

Squash-Rice Casserole
I really liked this dish. It was quite tasty and not too heavy. I had eaten it all by mid week. Not quite Margaret's thing though.

Italian Vegetable Stew
I have to admit I didn't eat any of this. Margaret did eat it all, but wasn't that crazy about it. Not sure why but she thought it was just OK.

Brownie Cheesecake
This was OK, but certainly not as good as it sounds. The brownies make a soggy and not so tasty crust and the cheesecake part was a bit too light in taste.

Best of January 08 (Part III)

Bliss - Without You (Life [2007])

OK I can find nothing about this band. See this is the problem of having a name that a million other bands have, being on a label, Zaga Zow, that doesn't have a website, and releasing an album with such a generic name. That being said this band is similar in many ways to Zox. Both young male bands with a pop rock sound that can be pretty generic. But like the Zox tune I picked this month, this song really stands out as a good solid pop tune.


The Greencards - River of Sand (Viridian [2007])
allmusic, myspace

This is a nice album. It's an interesting mix of Austin and bluegrass. I really like this song. It has a nice sound.





The Beautiful Girls - Generals (Ziggurats [2007])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

Do you like the Police? If so then you'll enjoy this album. I'm not a big Police fan, but they did have the occasional good song. I like this song OK and the albums OK.


Bodies of Water - I Heard It Sound (Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink [2007])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

If you like the Polyphonic Spree you will more than likely enjoy these guys. A bit odd to say the least, but this song has a catchy something about it. The rest of the album is a bit too out there for me in a lot of ways.

Napster to Go

Napster to Go

For $14.95 a month you can get Napster to Go. They have a full list of compatible players, but it works with most players that are Play for Sure compatible.

There are a lot of things I like about Napster. If you simply want to stream music you can run it from a web interface. Unlike Yahoo it's not reliant on IE, so you can use Firefox or another browser if you like. It is very quick and very stable. I've had some problems with Yahoo being a bit unstable, but not Napster. The files download onto the player quite a bit quicker than Yahoo. They have an extensive catalog of music and so you can find almost anything you are looking for.

I think those are a lot of positives and certainly overshadow the negatives. You cannot rate music. This is something about Yahoo and Rhapsody that I really like. The search interface leaves a bit to be desired. It seems you have to make quite a few clicks to get to what you want which can be a bit annoying. Other than that there is really nothing wrong with the service that I can tell. It's a bit expensive, but still $15 a month is equal to a CD a month.

My parents love music, but aren't the most computer savvy people. I picked Napster as the product to give them for Christmas along with a compatible player. Mom loves the player and finds it quite easy to download music. Dad loves to create playlists for when he's working mixing everything from classical to The Lettermen. I don't think it's the best product available, but I find it very easy to use and I find it to be very robust.

2008 Recipes Week 2

Sorry I've been slow in putting up week 2 recipes. A lot was going on last week and we couldn't cook for the week, so we're just back into it in week 4 and so I'm just now sitting down to review week 2's recipes.

Baked Eggplant with Mushroom and Tomato Sauce
Margaret referred to this as her favorite eggplant parm recipe ever. I thought it was OK, but not all that. Of course her saying this is a big deal since eggplant parm is one of her favorite dishes. It's a simple dish and quite easy to make.

Beef Stew
This dish is fantastic. Best stew I've ever had. This one was also quite easy to make. It didn't matter how I ate this dish, served with the mashed potatoes below, or served as a stew with crackers it was excellent. Margaret agreed which is saying something since she's been a vegetarian for the past 10 years and just now getting back to eating meat. To help her I cut the meat up into very small pieces.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes
These were a perfect match with the beef stew. They have a bit of horseradish in them which added a nice tangy sweetness to the mix. I also made potato cakes with these toward the end of the week and they were quite good.

Italian White Bean and Artichoke Salad
This dish was quite tasty, but I have to admit I barely had any of it. Margaret loved this dish especially mixed in with a green salad. It went pretty fast. A lot of flavor for very little oil and vinegar.

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies
These cookies were good though not as good as they sound.

Best of January 08 (Part II)

Carrie Rodriguez - '50s French Movie (Seven Angels on a Bicycle [2006])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

This is a pretty good album and this is a good song. It won't be in my top 20 at the end of the year, but it stands out enough to make my top picks of the month. If you like the Austin, Texas sound and you like Sheryl Crow then you'll love this album.




Tracey Thorn - It's All True (Out of the Woods [2007])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

I greatly anticipated Tracey Thorn's solo album last year and was a bit disappointed when it came out. I really didn't pay it much attention after giving it a listen. But recently listening to Ben Watt's weekly radio program I heard a track off of her album and thought about giving it another shot. The bad part of the album is it's lack of cohesion and Ben Watt's sensibility when arranging and producing for Tracey's voice and lyrics. What is there is Tracey's singing and wonderful lyrics. I really like this song because of what it is about. She writes a lot of songs that seem to be about her and Ben's lives, but they are usually not romantic songs, but reflective songs on their lives or their view of the world. Usually her songs about love and romance are written as an outsider looking in as though she's writing about people she sees in her everyday life. This song seems to be a love song written for Ben and as a long time Everything But the Girl fan I really like that. The album is definitely no Everything But the Girl album, but if you are a big fan like me it's a good pick.




Jesca Hoop - Money (Kismet [2007])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

The most complete song on the album. It has the experimental and funky sound of the album but nicely packaged in a solid pop tune. The album is hit or miss with me. You can check her out on Morning Becomes Eclectic.





Zox - 7th Avenue Prophet (Line In the Sand [2008])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

This album isn't bad. It seems there are so many of these bands out there, but that doesn't mean they can't produce a good song here and there. I think this song fits that. It's a solid pop-rock tune with a nice sound that goes out beyond a lot of the album.

Best of January 08 (I)

ATB - Justify (Trilogy [2007])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

ATB is a DJ out of Germany. Heather Nova is singing on this track and quite a few on this album. The album is pretty good when the tracks include her. The other tracks are nice laid back electronica stuff. This is nothing more than laid back dance beat pop. Good to run to and program to.




Everlast - Broken (White Trash Beautiful [2004])
allmusic, myspace

I like this song. Everlast is known for mixing hip hop, rock, and blues. This song seems to blend them all very well. The album is pretty good, though the sound and feel get a bit heavy after a bit.


Rachael Yamagata - Be Be Your Love (Happenstance [2004])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

This album makes me think of Fiona Apple's first, but with more energy. She also has a much stronger voice and seems to write for her voice very well. The album is fairly solid and this song is I think a good representative of the album as a whole.




The Dunaways - Dust From Your Feet (Wanderin' Mind [2000])
allmusic, band homepage, myspace

Easy going folk pop this is a nice album. I like this song the best of a consistent and nice album.

2008 Recipes Week 1

So Margaret and I are trying to make food for the week on Sundays to make our life a little easier during the week. This means picking out recipes to make and so I thought this would be a good place for me to write some brief comments on the recipes so I'll know if we liked something or not.

Easy Greek Chicken Casserole
This was fairly easy to make and quite tasty though it did need salt. It is very soupy and I probably would precook the potatoes and use canned green beans if I made it again.

Baked Ziti with Vegetables and Mushrooms
This is heavy on bell peppers and so Margaret loved it and I thought it was OK. It was easy to make and was good all week.

Quinoa Tabbouleh
I've made a lot of tabbouleh over the years and this is the best I've ever made. It has a great taste seems to balance the flavors out about right.

Oatmeal Cookies
These cookies are quite tasty though then tend to be a bit dry. The real good part of these cookies are the walnuts. I felt they really made the cookies.

Well that was our food for week 1. It lasted well through the week and was not too expensive or hard to make. All the recipes came from MyRecipes.com.