FlaSoxxJim

Went and saw Ponyo yesterday. Absolutely terrific, beautiful film. I need to search out all of Hayao Miyazaki's stuff, I think Princess Mononoke is the only other film of his I've seen.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 11:27 AM) I believe for every drop of rain that falls A flower grows, I believe that somewhere in the darkest night A candle glows, I believe for everyone who goes astray, Someone will come to show the way, I believe, I believe. I believe above the storm a smallest prayer Will still be heard, I believe that someone in the great somewhere Hears every word, Every time I hear a newborn baby cry, Or touch a leaf, or see the sky, Then I know why, I believe. Every time I hear a newborn baby cry, Or touch a leaf, or see the sky, Then I know why, I believe BigEd, that sound you hear is the Authorities knocking at your door coming to permanently revoke your Man Card.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 07:51 PM) Yeah, it's sooooo funny to see people showing off their genetalia and contaminating people's food. Why did everyone flip out when that Domino's video was released? (just got done watching a segment on Inside Edition.) Wow, who peed in your Cheerios?. . . or, do you even really want to know??

QUOTE (Kid Gleason @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 10:59 AM) Plus, I stand strongly by it that what most people mean when they say "the Gabriel days" is actually the "Hackett days", as the Gabriel departure was damn near seemless as the band still turned out two strong albums after Gabriel left and Collins did an incredible Gabriel impersonation. It was really Steve Hackett that held the band to being anything but a Pop-machine. I agree, Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering are fine post-Gabriel outings (I'd certainly include the Spot the Pigeon EP as well, particularly with Hacket's Inside and Out on it). And absolutely, Phil Collins pulled off a great Gabriel vocal impersonation.

QUOTE (Kid Gleason @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 10:56 AM) It's commonly believed that the drumming on songs such as "Rain" was actually Paul, not Ringo. I can't remember where I first heard that, but I have heard it many times and it makes all sorts of sense. Ringo was a rock solid time keeper, nothing more. Yeah, even Paul himself believes it's his drum track on The End, although Ringo refutes it.

Roaring to the middle of the pack.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Sep 10, 2009 -> 06:30 AM) Is Phil Spector gonna get some of those royalties from behind bars I wonder... Dig a Pony, Get Back, I Me Mine, and I've Got a Feeling are the Let it Be songs in teh game tracks, so depending on the contract structure Spector has, possible yes. Dig a Pony was a rooftop recording, so that was George Martin and not Spector. I Me Mine credits both as producer, and Get Back (album version) and I've Got a Feeling are Spector.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 11:26 PM) The limited edition mono remasters are the ones worth buying, IMO - because those are the mixes the band generally preferred. And its a lot of money for not many new dusty gems. The mono mixes on the first handful of albums are absolutely stellar. I have them on scratchy old vinyl and buying the remastered CDs has been on my to do list since they came out.

QUOTE (NIUSox @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 06:26 PM) As a bio major, I find this to be a very cool. So I guess that makes me weird too? Of course you are weird — that's what leads us into biology. Biologists: "You can dress us up, you can take us out to dinner, but we're still going to talk about snot."

Midler Madness!

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 06:06 PM) OK, I say that half in jest to start something But seriously, what band can't you toss out the drummer and still have it work well? Genesis? Peter Gabriel was much better. The Who, Zep, they all survived drummer changes. You have lost your marbles. Led Zeppelin did not survive John Bonham's death. They never recorded another studio album, they released the unbearable Coda album for $, and all of the later-day reunion gigs with Chester Thompson, Jason Bonham, etc., were fluff but there was no Led Zeppelin after Bonham. Kenny Jones is a great drummer, but he was basically a hired studio gun on Face Dances and It's Hard, and without Moon's unorthodox, manic drumming most of the songs on those albums are lacking. I don't even get the Peter Gabriel point. His solo stuff is wonderful, but Gabriel-era Genesis with Phil Collins behind the drum kit where he belongs is as good as prog rock gets. Oh, and if you're hard-pressed to come up with a band that would be fatally wounded b a drummer's departure, I'd offer Rush and Neil Peart as Exhibit A to counter your assertion.

Zed. That's what the wacky Limeys call the letter zee.

Ta'

Kansas led to Oz after all. Dare to dream I say.

We regularly see fish down here with a closely related isopod mouth parasite. I just had a fisherman bring one in for identification about two weeks ago. Wicked cool animals.

Hero? Legend? Tex!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 12:14 PM) Now that's a billboard (not sure, it's in the LA Times, but if anyone's looking over your shoulder at work...) Ten-Story Vagina is a pretty good band name.

Did it for the sake of being B, din' he?

Apparently Tex is off his meds again.

Favorite Beatles album is like picking a favorite child. I can maybe pick a favorite from each era. Early era it would be Beatles For Sale. Middle era it would be Revolver (Parlaphone track order). late ara would be Abbey Road. My favorites also probably change on a daily basis.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 9, 2009 -> 09:20 AM) The digitally remastered catelogue and Rock Band both come out today... Is anyone buying them? I wish I had the scratch for the remastered catalog, but it's only been a few years since I shelled out for the EMI catalog on CD. I'll be getting the Rock Band title some time this week for sure. I also need to figure out how to "accidentally" break our guitar controllers because those Beatle replica controllers are awesome.

Still enjoying the Wray and Nephew cocktail exploration this evening, I tried a Hawaiian-style mai tai made with JWray and submitted online at the always informative Ministry of Rum site by the owner of the Rum Bar in Philly. I had a chance to visit the Rum Bar this past April, and they were among a very few bars I'd ever been to that completely blows my home rum selection out of the water (Check out their lineup). Being a work-related trip, and being that I had to split my evening leisure time between Rum Bar, old friends, and the unbelievable Monk's Cafe that I've mentioned here before, I didn't nearly do this place justice. In fact, I almost exclusively stuck to their cocktail menu instead of soaking up all the fine sipping rums the Rum Bar had on offer. Have to find an excuse to get back to Philly ASAP. As for the JWray-laced Hawaiian mai tai . . . It's actually about as good a Hawaiian (read: juice-saturated) mai tai as I've ever had. I sub'd house favorite Coruba for the Whaler's dark rum, and I mixed it in rather than floating, and danged if it doesn't yield a very nice, well-balance mahalo mai tai. The usually dominant overproof presence of the JWray is almost non-existent — you really have to swirl this one around in your mouth to pick it up to any degree. To tell the truth, I'm not even sure I'd pick this one out as having a full ounce of JWray in it if I was tasting it blind. So. . . where am I on this one. I'm liking it quite a bit, but I'm not tasting the in-your-face Wray like I am used to doing in most Jamaican-slanted cocktails that use it. And for that matter, I was fairly certain that tasting those very dominant Wray notes in a drink as sublime at a mai tai would be a detractor. Instead, I find this is a drink were the overproof plays a quite capable second-fiddle to the dominant fruit juice, orgeat, and dark rum flavors, though it asserts itself incrementally as the drink progresses. Going to be mixing this one up again in the near future for sure.

Sucks to be a ChiSox fan in 2009, pure and simple.

Que?

G&T, I'm glad you were able to try the Humidor Ale, and I'm excited you dug it. I've been craving it ever since finishing that first bottle. But for me, it's been more rum and less beer for the past week. Though not nearly enough of that either. I spent the Labor Day weekend over in St. Petersberg and then Kissimmee hanging with the wife and kids. These jaunts usually provide me with an opportunity to stock up on a couple of rums that don't come my way — in particular of late the Pusser's 95.5 proof that I often gush about here, and a must-have rum for me. Sadly, I couldn't track it down this trip. (I also learned that it can only be got in the US these days by dealing with a UK reseller, as it is a product that isn't officially available stateside for the time-being. Big-time bummer, but fortunately the Rum Gods did not completely abandon me, because this weekend I actually did manage to find the two biggest rum bargains of my life. In the same liquor store in St. Pete I found sitting n a closeout table, a $23 bottle of Oronoco from Brazil — absolutely the best white rum you've never had, as well as a $19 bottle of Depaz Blue Cane Martinique rhum agricole — a terrific, mellow agricole that could single-handedly turn the world on to funky, earthy traditional Martinique rhum. The Oronoco is usually a $40 bottle, and the Depaz is a bargain wen it turns up for less than $30. Yea me! So. . . what am I drinking tonight? Actually, it's neither of these fine products. No, listening to the first two innings of tonight's meltdown ballgame I realized early on ot was an overproof night. Seriously, I already had an evening of extract liqueur and cocktail syrup preparation planned, which means I had a fresh bottle of J Wray and Nephew Overproof Jamaican white rum on hand. I know I've already yammered on about JWray so I won't be redundant, other to say that if this rum is off-putting or even revolting on the first sampling, please give it some time and then come back to it. It is a unique product from an historic distillery, and it absolutely grows on you with time. Not a sipper by any measure, JWray is a punch rum with a character unmatched by any other product. There is hardly a household in Jamaica that doesn't have a bottle of the stuff on hand. New houses and babies both are reportedly christened with the stuff, and one reported tradition is to pour the first shot from a newly opened bottle on the ground to give an offering back to the earth. Anyway, tonight I have yet to go to my own "Three of Strong" Jamaican punch that is my wheelhouse JWray cocktail. Instead, I went totally Island Style with JWray and Ting and Jasper's Punch. The first of these drinks is supposedly the Jamaican equivalent of a traditional Bermuda Dark and Stormy. I cut the JWray to 1 1/2 ounces and include a full 1/2 oz fresh lime juice for the version that best suits my fancy. For the Jasper's I dutifully recreated the Jasper's Mix recipe that Steve Remsberg provided in the linked KP blog thread, but otherwise remained true to the Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh recipe. And the verdict on the evening's cocktail selections. . . ? Sox are down 10-3 in the top of the 9th and I finally don't even give a cr@p. That's got to be some good $hit I'm drinking to take me to my Happy Place, despite this 2009 slow-motion train wreck of a team we have.