ADROQ

So, work wise it’s been a crazy week. On Sunday I’d set a goal to have at least two more blog posts up by Thursday.

And so it goes…

Haven’t had a chance to delve into any more recipes yet, (though I am teaching a friend how to do a brisket tonight) although I have been inundated in music this week.

One thing I’ve been thinking about and struggling with is the overall redundancy of the blog when I post so much stuff to Facebook, but will see how it goes.

I also want to spruce up my page a bit, need to look into that. I got a follower this week, props to http://patricksmusicblog.tumblr.com/ I hope I don’t disappoint you. It’s a cool blog. I love his background, and want to do something similar. (Patrick, if you’re reading this and wouldn’t mind telling me either where you got, or how you made your background, I’d be really grateful… I want to make a similar type background with album covers from my collection.)

It’s also been a stressful week because my St. Louis Cardinals are in the NLCS, and while they are up 2 games to 1, don’t be fooled. I think it will go at least 6 games. As much as I want Milwaukee to lose the next two straight I think they will take one at Busch. Not having TV during the playoff’s has been an adjustment, but the nights I haven’t stayed late at the office just to watch the game there, I’ve listened online via ESPN and watched the virtual pitches via mlb.com for a mishmash of what’s going on. They never sync up, usually one is several seconds ahead of the other. And I’ve been accused of becoming one of “those people” on Facebook, updating statuses every few minutes about a game only the minority of my “friends” are watching. 

I don’t care.

Really I don’t. It’s true my entrance into the sports fan world has come waaaaay later than most people, but it’s been a blast watching the playoffs and being able to watch them. It’s also my goal to be able to keep up with the Blues during the whole season not just at the beginning. Thankfully Kristen, with the background she has, doesn’t care and encourages it. She really is the perfect wife, awesome personality, extremely good looking, great cook, amazing mom to my daughter, and probably knows more about sports than any other three guys.

So let’s get to the music shall we?

First off, new releases this week:

I picked up Peter Gabriel’s “New Blood.” A reworking of a lot of his classics, with a 47 piece orchestra. Still digesting this, but not displeased. I snagged the Deluxe at Best Buy to get the bonus disk of instrumentals. Peter has ALWAYS done his own thing and would have released this album even if only 1 person bought it. I’m a little behind because I still need to grab his covers album “Scratch My Back.”

“New Blood” is almost like an album of Peter Gabriel doing covers of his own songs. Not a slight, just an observation. As I said, I’m still digesting.

I also picked up the Radiohead “TKOL RMX 1234567” but all I’ve done is load it into iTunes. (Sad aside, I just realized while typing this that it is in fact a 2 disc set… so I’m loading disc 2 now.) 

I’ll be honest, I grabbed TKOL, (through a fluke, I only paid $1.06 for it after tax at Best Buy) but haven’t listened to it yet either… It was the first new Radiohead I got since Hail to The Thief. Truth be told, I need to go back and spend more time with them because honestly loved everything up to and including “OK Computer” but everything after that, I just don’t get. I don’t dislike them, I just don’t worship the ground they walk on like everyone else. If you’re a Radiohead fan, now you understand what I feel like every time someone says they can’t stand U2. Nyah…

And now here’s where I sound grumpy for a few paragraphs…

I also grabbed Evanescence’s eponymous third album. Only because I had a Reward Zone certificate and I got it for free. I also grabbed the deluxe (my general rule of thumb).

Not impressed.

Yes from a production standpoint there are some cool things to give them props for; some songs have nearly 100 tracks on them (nearly impossible before the digital age) but for the average listener “woo-hoo…”

Considering I was playing Amy and Ben when Amy was still a Junior in High School, the demos I have from 1998 from a writing standpoint are far SUPERIOR to anything on this album. That’s why Fallen worked. Ben and Amy clicked. I realize his split divided the Evanescence camp in two, and I’ve tried to stay neutral, but really, I’m to a point that I’d really rather not put another dime in her pocket.

It’s a shame that We Are The Fallen (translate, everyone from Evanescence that Amy pushed away) and their first album “Tear The World Down” get so much flack for sounding “Just like Evanescence…” Well. Duh. It gives insight to what they’d sound like if they were all still together. If it had been a legit Ev album, people would be praising it, and what people forget is that Ben was just as much IF NOT MORE SO responsible for the Evanescence sound as Amy, which is why from the second album they couldn’t recreate the sound that made Fallen sell 17 million. An album selling 5 million worldwide, is an accomplishment. When it’s a followup to an album that sold 17 million? It’s a flop. Now it’s the waiting game to see what this album will do. (My guess, is sell less than 5 million worldwide, but if I’m wrong I’ll admit it publicly.)

And before I get called names for stating my opinion, all you people that are going to hate on me, before you grab your torches and pitchforks go grab your copy of Fallen, see in the “Ben thanks:” section see that part where it says: “ADROQ, Peter Gunn and the rest of the Lick 106.3 crew?” While it doesn’t make me an expert, nor does it make me say “I’m right, you’re wrong, no matter what” it does allow me to voice my opinion and have a little weight behind it. 

Ok, Evanescence rant over…

In other news, Jane’s Addiction is streaming their new album for free via iTunes, and it sounds great. Also Noel Gallagher has been streaming his album (one side at a time) on his website and it sounds fantastic. 10 times better than the Beady Eye record (and I liked Beady Eye.)

Also, trying to track down a copy of Q magazine to grab the issue with this:

http://www.u2.com/news/title/achtung-baby-covered but more on that later… this post has been too rambling…

Boxes.

That is what my life seems to be lately; boxes, and it’s all R.E.M.’s fault. You see they broke up, and in surfing the web after they broke up, I found a link on a blog (www.slicingupeyeballs.com a great blog about 80’s alternative bands) and emailed that to Alan Cross in case he’d want it for a news item on his website (www.alancross.ca) and when Alan posted it, it pointed to yet another blog (www.thepowerofindependenttrucking.blogspot.com another great music blog) which had links to several other cool music blogs.

I’m getting to what this has to do with boxes…

So after staying up very late one night downloading Joy Division and New Order Demos, unreleased Smith’s material and other cool items, I came across a blog titled www.cassettefrommyex.com all about mix tapes made for and from those who were now exes.

Intrigued, I thought it rather pretentious and didactic to write about a mix tape I had made and sent to an ex, furthermore, I don’t actually have any of the mix tapes I’d made for my now exes. I do however have two from an ex, and they are worth writing about (one in particular especially). So the hunt begins. I have literally hundreds and hundreds  of cassettes in various boxes and they have all been dumped on the living room floor.

Kristen is surprisingly cool about it all…

After digging, through them all, the tape in particular not being located yet, I decided to go through them to dump the unnecessary and organize somewhat what had just been tapes (mostly unmarked) in boxes.

So now there are piles. Piles of mix tapes, piles of on air tapes. WTAO over here, WDBX over there. WCIL against the wall. KLAL in front of the DVD shelf and KLEC in the corner, and the pile for garbage which is much bigger than I anticipated. Makes me wonder why I didn’t do this before.

I’m still looking for the mix tape in question. Once I find it, I shall write about it and possibly submit it to www.cassettefrommyex.com

Now however, we have started another project.

When my mother died nearly two years ago I cleaned out her house and salvaged a few things, including her recipe boxes. You have to understand the nature of her house when my friend Mike and I cleaned it. His comment was to the effect that her house was worse than any episode of Hoarders he’d ever seen. We filled a dumpster 8 feet high, 10 feet wide and 20 feet long from the bottom to overflowing.

I salvaged four recipe boxes. Two good sized ones for meals and two smaller ones for desserts.

You have to understand, she typically cooked the same 8 meals over and over, rotating in and out a few depending on the time of year. Spaghetti, Pork Chops with Spanish Rice and Spinach, Goulash, Macaroni and Cheese (either Kraft, or some sort of macaroni casserole), La Choy chow mien (if it was Sunday) in the summertime Fried Chicken about once a week, and in the winter she’d make Cornbeef and Cabbage (which I will not eat to this day) Red Beans and Rice, Chili, and baked Macaroni and Cheese.

As for desserts, it was typically Jell-O, (unless it was Thanksgiving - through the end of the year) and then it was Pumpkin Pie. At Christmas she would make fudge and once in a while a type of cookie or two.

The recipes are jammed into the boxes. The boxes are almost a microcosm of her house and her life. 

We decided to start with the dessert boxes. 

So now the living room is covered in cassette tapes and recipes.

There are piles for cookies/brownies, cakes, pies, breads, candies, Jell-O (had it’s own category believe it or not) cobblers and crisps, popcorn/carmel corn, beverages, pie crusts and coffee cakes.

We found 18 different chocolate cake recipes, including one that calls for mashed potatoes, and one that uses sour milk. There were 5 of the same recipe cut off of the same packages.

So, we added a trash pile, but I will go through each of those recipes before throwing them away.

I found some treasures, like some hand written recipes from my Grandmother’s Aunt, who I always knew as Aunt Ollie, who died about 20 years ago.

I also thought it would be fun to go through all the recipes, make them and report on their success as well as share the recipes on here…

So, this will be a mashup of music, recipes, thoughts, ideas and general nonsense.

I’ve also just been informed we’ve already made our first recipe.

“Easiest fudge recipe I’ve ever done.” Kristen said.

This was cut from a Sunshine Sweetened Condensed Milk label.

1 package (12 oz) milk chocolate chips

1 package (6 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Place chips in top of double boiler over hot water (Kristen used a modern invention called a microwave); stir frequently and melt. Remove from heat stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into 8 x 8 pan lined with wax paper. Refrigerate until firm. Remove from pan, peel off waxed paper, cut as desired. Yield: app 2 lbs.

Enjoy, let me know if you use it how it turns out!