The Last Brag

OK folks, tonight I had the great pleasure of listening to The Brawner Brothers at my apartment complex. So who are they? Well, the flyer advertised them as B.B. King's backup band, which I think might have been a bit of creative advertising. What I learned when I got there was that the Brawner Bros. are a soul/funk/blues group based here in the city. So, I didn't get quite what I was expecting, but what I got was pretty good. OK, enough talk, on to the pictures.
Here's just a little idea of what the setup was like. Pretty small, out on the river.
Here's the band. I'm kicking myself now for not having sat closer.
If I had to be one guy in the band, I'd be the bass player. He looks like he has a lot of fun. Also note the lady with the bluesy hat. I bet she has stories to tell!

So, if you were to ask me what group the Brawner Brothers reminds me of (not that you were), I would have to say Tower of Power. I saw Tower of Power in Salt Lake a few years ago with old friends Janelle and Cynthia at the SLC Jazz Fest. Ahh... those were the days.

Anyway, I'm getting a feeling that I'm not really helping you figure out what this music is like, so I'll try something that we've never done here at the OP, and that's video. Enjoy!


Sorry about the bald headed guy. If I'd only have sat closer... Wasn't that guitar solo awesome? It was way better than my movie taking skills, at any rate. Now, check out my personal favorite song of the night, "Compared to What":



Pretty good, don't you think?

Movies I know very little about

Wikipedia states that Ingmar Bergman was "one of the great masters of modern cinema." I wouldn't know. Having never seen one of his films, his death, while sad, had little effect in making me think about his work. It did however put me into what I like to call my Criterion Collection mood. When I'm in this mood I generally think of myself as a kind of connoisseur of fine film, when the truth of the matter is that most of the movies I see contain booger jokes (or giant robots peeing on things). So no, I've never seen Wild Strawberries and I've never seen The 400 Blows, but quite frankly, that doesn't worry me. I'm not all that interested in them right now. There are a few movies that I've been told are "good" that I've been dying to see but haven't yet (listed from least to most interest).

• Black Orpheus
• On the Waterfront
• Dr. Zhivago
• Rope
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Strangers on a Train
• Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (because Miles Davis did the soundtrack)
  
• Shadow of a Doubt
• Paper Moon
• Citizen Kane
• Metropolis

I think that the reason why I want to see most of these is because they are total mysteries to me. If anyone is interested in checking one or more of these out, feel free to let me know.

My suggestion: get a Nalgene

I guess they do purify it for you (story).

Cool news and a few changes

Ok folks, before you read this post, I highly encourage you to check this one out. Now that you've done that I'd invite you to take part in my little poll. You can find it placed under the recently added links list (back after an extremely long absence). So it's not much of a poll, really, but more of an attempt at trying out blogger's new polling feature. Give it a shot, it shouldn't take long.

Taco del Mar... where all the Sith Lords eat

So, last when when I was at home, my kid sister and I went for Super Burritos at our local Taco del Mar. Mmmm... if you ever have the chance you should try it. On our way out, my sister noticed that someone standing in line behind us was wearing this shirt:

And guess what? I was wearing that very same shirt. I'm guessing the burritos have a high midi-chlorian count. Good thing he didn't see me, though. That would've been embarrassing.

Did I mention how good these burritos are? Check it out:
They don't give you many chips, but you really don't need them. You see that thing below the chips? That's a quarter. It's there to give you a sense of how massively awesome this burrito is. Both are shiny, but only one is tasty.
I added this photo in case the quarter didn't convince you how awesome the Super Burrito is.

Rocks the 80s - musings

After work, Kim and Genevieve stopped by to help me test out the new edition of Guitar Hero. Here's my first impressions.

• The first two sets of songs a a bit boring, even on hard.
• There aren't as many characters (not a big deal, really).
• The levels pretty much look the same, but now have 80s flair.
• Stonehenge is unfortunately missing.
  
• There aren't any unlockable songs.
• The songs do get much better as they get harder.
• You have to be able to do hammer-ons and pull-offs to do Seventeen by Winger on hard (my opinion, anyway).
• Play With Me by Extreme is pretty damn hard. I haven't beaten it yet.

This is what Kim had to say: "Dave is pretty much awesome."

Thanks, Kim.

And now Genevieve: "Dave is a god among men."

Wow, ladies, I think that's enough. You're embarrassing me.

Also, I guess Guitar Hero III now has a subtitle, Legends of Rock.

A less than inspired post

So, as some of you may know, I recently returned from a trip to Seattle. The excuse for the visit was the wedding of one of my former roommates, but the real reason was to see my family (sorry Casey!). So, after all the festivities were over, my Dad, Nephew and I headed to Washington Park Arboretum for a little bit of kayaking.
Up ahead in the red kayak is my Dad, and my 14-year-old nephew is in the blue kayak. I have to apologize for the pitiful quality of these pictures. I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet, so I used my phone. Oh, I'm in the yellow kayak, by the way. You're going to see a lot of that in the photos.
As you can see here, lily pads help to form little "roads" in the lake close to the shore. Of course, you can also be like my nephew...

... and go "offroading." What a dork.
Actually, from the looks of things, I'm the bigger dork.
Here's a more open view of the lake. Maybe you noticed the bridge in the right of the photo. It's one of the two bridges that crosses the lake into Seattle.
You can actually go under the bridge, which is kind of a weird experience when you realize that very heavy cars are zooming a couple of feet over your head at freeway speed. Yay engineering!
This bridge doesn't feel so strange to go under.
In the distance, Husky Stadium at UW.
When we go out, we usually see a lot of turtles, but not that day. All we saw were flocks and flocks of ducks. They're almost impossible to hit with a kayak.

Buying back my childhood

Whether you liked the movie or not, it's probably safe to say that Transformers has evoked some level of nostalgia in most of us (at least those of us who were little boys at some point). I have become a victim (or benefactor) of that. You see, before I took off for Seattle, I found myself in Toys R Us looking for some presents for my niece, and I found something for myself. Soundwave.

Boy, did I ever want this guy back in the day. I wanted it so bad that when my cousin brought him over, and then left the box, I stared at the box for 45 minutes straight just imagining how awesome it would be to have this toy. Good thing Toys R Us has just reissued this guy.
As you can see, he's a pretty good replication, except for the tape deck door, which used to be flush with the rest of his body. It doesn't look bad in robot mode, though I have no idea why they changed it.
These figure also came with Laserbeak and Ravage. Awesome. And because of the bigger deck, they can both fit inside Soundwave - at the same time.
Here they are all transformed up. Awesome.

I should mention that this isn't the first time I've done this. In 1999 I ran down to the mall when I found out they had reissued the Voltron toy. How sad.

Can't get away

Greetings from Seattle!

When I first moved to NYC, I started hearing things like, "Oh, that place has the best cupcakes in the city," or "if you want a good cupcake..." Apparently, New York's fame as a cupcake capital has spread to the West Coast, because as I was out with my Mom today, I saw this at the local mall:

Typical.

So, if any of you have been through Union Square this weekend, you might have noticed a little goings on on one of the traffic triangles. I've already been past it twice, and I thought it was just some filming for a commercial or something that was taking a really long time. Guess I was wrong. You can check out what is going on here.

LeVar Burton, You're The Man

The editors here at the Scrumpestuous Observer-Picayune want to dedicate today's post the greatness that is LeVar Burton.

I bet it's hard to see through that thing.

I want that hat.

Don't let him hustle you!

I think it can all be summed hp in this. Thanks for the memories LeVar!

When was the last time you heard...?

• Here Comes the Sun¹ by The Beatles
• Do You Wanna Dance? by The Beach Boys²
• Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy
• Under The Bridge by The Red Hot Chili Peppers
• You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones
• People Get Ready by Eva Cassidy³
• Downtown by Petula Clark
• I Heard it Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye
• Bye Bye Blackbird by Joe Cocker
• Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken by Camera Obscura⁴
• Let It Be by The Beatles
• Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
• No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley and The Wailers
• Crepuscolo Sul Mare by Piero Umiliani⁵
• New York State of Mind by Billy Joel
• God Only Knows by The Beach Boys
• At Last by Etta James⁶
• Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond
• Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye) by Steam
• America by Neil Diamond⁷
• American Girl by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
• (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding⁸
  
• Champagne Supernova by Oasis
• Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell⁹

Notes
1 - This song always makes me feel better. I think some of it has to do with how rare the sun is to us Seattleites.
2 - The more and more I listen to this song, the more I realize that it is genius. Just listen to the way the timpani are used.
3 - Eva Cassidy is one of those that died too young. If you don't know her, I'd recommend checking her out.
4 - This is another band to check out. I feel kind of girly listening to them sometimes, but I'm ok with that.
5 - Originally recorded for the 1969 Italian film La Legge dei Gangsters, I first heard it in Ocean's 12. So, in other words, you've probably heard it too.
6 - This is the romantic in me speaking.
7 - Probably the most patriotic song, EVER.
8 - Doesn't this just make you feel 5 levels lower on the stress meter?
9 - Seriously. One of the greatest songs ever. If I were only half as cool as Marvin Gaye...