All posts by xispo

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James Brown is dead



James Brown is dead
Originally uploaded by xispo.

During the holiday visit to sis and niece, I made a trek up to NYC and happened to arrive the same day James Brown's body was on display at the Apollo. So I hopped on the A train from Penn Station, trekked up to Harlem and stood "on line" for longer than I care to admit. The crowd was pretty fun though, which made the wait in the cold less painful. The godfather looked very peaceful and funky, decked out in a blue suit with rhinestone trim. No pics were allowed inside, unfortunately.

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Knowing is half the battle….of RAWK!!

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I was recently reminded of a dorky thing my friend and I used to do after school. Before the days of multi-channel surround sound (in our home, anyway), our local friendly Media General Cable offered audio over an FM signal, which allowed you to tune in a station over the hi-fi. It didn't take us too long to figure out that by tuning to MTV (which played music then) on the radio and cartoons on the TV, you could get some neat custom music videos. I remember one particularly awesome session in which the G.I. Joe crew performed a very stirring rendition of Judas Priest's "Parental Guidance" – sweet!

Thanks in no small part to the MTV-style editing that currently dominates the airways, last night I found it pretty enjoyable to kick back and surf the cable waves with some tunes flowing through the earbuds. I'm sure the delirium tremens didn't hurt either.

Cobra Commander
Cobra Commander
You say I waste
my life away
But I live it to the full
How would you know anyway
You're just mister dull
Why don't you get into the things we do today
You could lose twenty years right away
So we say

We don't need no
No no no
Parental guidance here
We don't need no
No no no
Parental guidance here

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Wine tasting amateur hour

Had some friends over last week for a movie night and thought it'd be fun to do a wine tasting as well. Here are our notes. Clearly, we should keep our day jobs. Also, I should probably try a little harder to find at least a few worthy bottles of wine. Funny to see the priciest bottle get such a unenthusiastic response.

After getting our vino on, we sat down for a screening of A Clockwork Orange. Happy to say it still holds up after all of these years.

Wine number one
Spinner Merlot Sonoma/Napa — $9.99 from TJs

Notes:
"I'm gonna say Rhone – $10 – bitter, I'm gonna make it a #5"
"Boo!"
"Skanky"
"Cote du Rhone, $9, dry"
Mellow

Our negative notes for this wine seem to be somewhat corroborated here.

Wine number 2
B.R. Cohn Silver Label Cab — $12.99 from TJs

Br_cohn_cab
Br_cohn_cab

Notes:
"Kinna fun. Light lunch wine."
"Non-offensive. Lunchy."
"Thin, but I'm not mad at it."
"Syrah, slightly tannic, $8"
"Not bad."
"Slighty bold. Not bold enough."
"Cabernet. Little tannin-y, but good."


Wine number 3
Bogle Petite Syrah — $9.99 from TJs

Bogle_petite_syrah
Bogle_petite_syrah

Notes:
"Even-steven."
"Right down the middle, but nice peachy fun at the end."
"Kind of boring, would be good slightly chilled – $9"
"Mild, even tempered."
"Shrug"
"Thin, weak."

Wine number 4
Sequoia Grove Sryah — $19.99 from TJs

SequoiaGroveLogo
SequoiaGroveLogo

Notes:
"Airplane wine."
"Cabernet, tasteless with rubbery aftertaste – $8."
"Doesn't taste like anything."
"No taste up front but I like the after taste."
"Nice spice and finish."
"9-volt battery."


Wine number 5
Sterling Napa Cabernet — $11.99 from TJs

Sterling_cab
Sterling_cab

Notes:
"Sweet smooth. Pinot noir?"
"Pinot/noir/zin. $11 – fruity."
"Water and grape juice thin zin."
"Yucky!"
"Nope"
"Okay"

Wine number 6
Foppiano Cabernet — $5.99 from TJs

Foppiano_cab
Foppiano_cab

Notes:
"Soft beginning. Slightly harsh finish."
"Peppery (not very complex). $10."
"Zinfandel., jam. $12."
"Zin. Watery with a bit on the tail."
"Zin. Thin on the front with pepper bite."
"It has my attention."
"My fave."