December 2010
4 posts
6 tags
The Best Albums of 2010
1. Odd Blood, Yeasayer - While the album as a whole is inconsistent, the high water mark set by the best of Odd Blood is within reach of few bands making music these days. The standout songs are the most emotionally evocative and resonant songs of the year. Even when gloriously enveloped in shiny barrages of synth, danceable backbeats, and intricately layered percussion, I never felt further...
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Furlong Family Reunion, 2010/12/21
December 21, 2010 - The Rusty Nail - New Orleans, LA
Take Your Mama [Scissor Sisters], Roses Are Free [Ween], Sad And Lonely [Secret Machines], AC/DC Bag [Phish]
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Furlong Family Reunion, 2010/12/07
December 07, 2010 - The Rusty Nail - New Orleans, LA
Tea For The Tillerman [Cat Stevens], You’re Gonna Change (Or I’m Gonna Leave) [Hank Williams], Get Out! [Sublime]
November 2010
1 post
1 tag
October 2010
1 post
2 tags
“That’s so funny, because I don’t think I’ve ever met that gal,...”
– GOP 12: Palin hits Maureen “O’Dowd”
I found the full transcript of the interview. Here is the rest of the quote:
“That’s so funny, because I don’t think I’ve ever met that gal, Maureen Dowd — O’Dowd — whatever the heck her name is. I...
September 2010
3 posts
3 tags
5 tags
d.b.a.: One of the Marigny's True Treasures—... →
On Saturday, I saw Rotary Downs at d.b.a. and as is usual for both a) Rotary Downs performances and b) shows at d.b.a., I got my mind blow. So I wrote about it for GoNOLA.com. Here’s a clip:
A huge, rectangular bar in the middle of d.b.a. divides the interior into two halves: one that allows patrons to belly up and focus all their attention on the establishment’s massive beer, wine and...
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August 2010
7 posts
5 tags
The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 08
“I used to work for the phone company.” - Ryan
While not as dramatically charged as the presence of narcotics in the home of a recovering pillhead, one of this season’s important subplots is the continued and curious absence of Eric. Ashlee isn’t exactly getting a lot of press earlier, but what is going on with Eric is more confusing. Ashlee is trying to get her licks in...
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The Greatest Jukebox on This Side of The Moon —... →
My latest for GoNola.com is basically a treatise on jukeboxes featuring some passing references to Half Moon. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
Regardless of how many crumpled dollar bills you jam in the tip jar at Domilise’s, for example, I doubt they would honor your request for a slice of pizza or a bowl of pho, let alone cede to a demand that your food order get...
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The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 07
“The kitchen is where the food is and I want to eat my food.” - Knight
A few days before Super Bowl XLIV, a rumor started going around that the Real World cast may be watching the big game at the Rusty Nail. The Rusty Nail is my home away from home, so when I caught wind of this potentially disastrous development, I predictably freaked out and marched on over to get some answers.
...
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GPOYTASD: Gratuitous picture of yourself talking about Steely Dan
Last Friday, during New Orleans’ inaugural Nerd Nite gathering, I gave a presentation about why Steely Dan is so awesome. The event was a huge success and I feel honored to have been allowed to present. I am going to try to figure out a way to post the full PowerPoint deck online, but until then, here is an approximation...
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The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 06
“He’s a weird kid, and weird kids freak me out.” - Jemmye
This week’s episode contains footage from the only evening in which I crossed paths with the show’s cast or crew. It was March 13, 2010 and I was down on Frenchman Street covering the inaugural Foburg Music Festival. Just as The Revivalists were about to take the stage for their headlining spot at Blue Nile,...
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July 2010
12 posts
9 tags
The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 05
“If he feels froggy and leaps, we will have an issue.” - Preston
I’ve got to admit, I’m running out of steam. Maybe it is because I used up my weekly quota of self-righteousness at Bridge Lounge’s weekly trivia night, ranting about what I perceived, under a cloak of frustration over my own intellectual shortcomings (not to mention about 15 High Lifes), to be a...
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The Saturn Bar… On the Fringe — GoNOLA.com →
For my most recent GoNola.com post, I tried my best to capture all the magical weirdness of Saturn Bar in the Bywater. Words can’t do the place justice, but I gave it the old college try:
Everything that survived the post-storm cull has surely been left in its place for good reason, and I’d like to believe that whatever ended up in the piles of debris carted out during renovations was...
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The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 04
“Let’s put on some reggae jams and just chill out.” - McKenzie
I’ve got to hand it to MTV. While they are getting worse and worse at capturing the nuances of the human condition, this is the second week in a row that version of New Orleans that appeared on screen was pretty darn close to the way things really are down here. The prelude to and aftermath of the...
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The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 03
“I don’t give a fudge what anybody thinks.” - Knight
Despite what many people think, Mardi Gras isn’t some devil weed that transforms ordinary people into stark-raving-mad lunatics who drunkenly lurch around New Orleans fueled by an insatiable thirst for cheap, plastic beads and their own depraved desperation. While the level and frequency of one’s intoxication may...
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The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 02
“Everything is genetics more than it is environmental.” - Jemmye
This may be the last one of these recaps I write because this week’s episode of The Real World may very well be the last time I watch an episode from this season. Hell, this may be the last time I watch The Real World at all. This episode made me sick, and it wasn’t just because the first 15 minutes...
3 tags
“The internet’s completely over… all these computers and digital...”
– Prince - world exclusive interview: Peter Willis goes inside the star’s secret world - mirror.co.uk
Nerds everywhere wasted no time in taking to the comment sections of every blog that covered this Daily Mirror interview to defend the honor of their precious internet. Don’t get me...
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The name says it all at Le Bon Temps Roule —... →
It is hard to avoid bringing up the BP Oil Disaster is any conversation, even one that is ostensibly highlighting the finer points of one of New Orleans’ hallowed music venues. In my most recent GoNola.com piece, I would have been remiss if I didn’t mention the effect that the geyser of crude in the middle of the Gulf is having on one of the city’s best traditions:
One of the...
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“Republican attempts to depict her as some sort of radical got downright silly....”
– Harvard’s Kagan Glides Past ‘Gotcha’ Republicans: Ann Woolner - Bloomberg
My brother sent me this link, along with some pretty nice commentary:
“Independent of how you feel about the Kagan nomination, is this really how you question a candidate at a hearing? An uninformed criticism of...
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The Real World: Back to New Orleans, Episode 01
“Boom! Let’s pose!” - Preston
In the months before and during the filming of this season, I made a pretty big stink about MTV coming back to the Crescent City. Not since Real World: Seattle has a season of the show made the host city look like anything more than an hedonistic enabler for a group of bilzer-brained chuckleheads’ desire to drink alcohol in a manner that most...
June 2010
6 posts
2 tags
10 tags
The Matt & Jack Podvast, Episode #011
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The Rusty Nail is Worth Finding — GoNOLA.com →
Here is my latest GoNola.com piece, a write-up of The Rusty Nail, one of the hardest-to-find bars in the New Orleans Metro Area. A sample:
Good luck finding The Rusty Nail on your first attempt. Seriously. This place is less than five minutes from my apartment and it took me at least 10 tries over my first six months down here before I successfully made it there when actually looking...
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Watch“Everybody Hurts” - R.E.M.
Back in my day, bands routinely made short films to accompany some of their more popular songs. These short films were called “music videos,” and there were entire television stations devoted to playing nothing but these short films - music videos, that is - all day long. Some music videos were little more than footage of a band performing...
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Circle Bar… The Biggest Little Rock Club in New... →
Here is my first piece for GoNola.com, a site that calls itself “The Official ‘What’s Going On In New Orleans’ blog.” I’ll be periodically writing about some of my favorite places to see live music, and I had to start with the all-time great Circle Bar, ground zero for the independent rock side of New Orleans Music (and contender for smallest bar in the...
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“Unlike other regional promotions of the day that dreamed of greatness but were...”
– Dead Wrestling Company Of The Week: Extreme Championship Wrestling
All of Deadspin’s “Dead Wrestler of The Week” articles bring back some awesome childhood memories, but this particular feature on the now-defunct ECW really hit home. When the outfit formerly known as Eastern...
May 2010
13 posts
2 tags
4 tags
Watch“Santeria” - Sublime
The most interesting thing about the “two-year experiment to increase his creativity” story that MTV After-School Specials use to explain away the heroin habit that cost Brad Nowell his life is not the fact that it is most likely bullshit, but that it is hardly a cautionary tale.
Suggesting that 40oz. to Freedom - a wildly inconsistent collection...
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Oil reaches Louisiana shores - The Big Picture →
I am generally not a violent individual, but on my way to work this morning I caught myself daydreaming about what I would do if I was given 10 minutes alone with Lamar McKay or any of the other top BP (or Halliburton or Transocean) brass to which we have all had the displeasure of becoming acquainted over the last month.
And all this was before I came across boston.com’s photoset...
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7 tags
The Matt & Jack Podvast, Episode #010
A lot...
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Pope decries abortion, same-sex marriage →
I would say that Pope Benedict XVI’s indictment of abortion, divorce, and same-sex marriage as “dangerous threats to the common good” is sort of like a pot calling a kettle black, but that would be in the running for understatement of the year.
It would be more accurate to say something along the lines of “That’s like the leader of an organization embroiled in a...
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“If the guy who runs the pizza place around the corner from me suddenly told...”
– Hey, Joaquin Phoenix, What If We Don’t Care?
The funny thing about this post is that it proves, once again, why bestweekever.tv is the most trusted name in news.
It also reminds me of this old adage my dad used to tell me. I’m not sure exactly how it goes, but I think it has something to do...
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“Not only does the drug help with fine motor skills and alertness, it improves...”
– Smoking is Good For You!* : Discovery News
Yeah, obviously smoking is not good for you, but it is nice to see studies that give some credence to the excuses weak-willed people give when explaining why they are unable (or refuse) to quit (“Dude, it totally helps with my writing.”...
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Watch“Nothing Compares 2 U” - Sinead O’Connor
I once got banned for life from a bar in Philadelphia for playing this on the jukebox. And singing along. And dumping my beer on the bartender when she objected. And flipping over a table when the bouncer asked me to leave. And spitting on the front door on my way out.
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Oil is dangerous? You don't say!
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival just blew through town and, as per usual, it was incredible. The Levon Helm Band easily won the first weekend, Jeff Beck took top honors for the second, and in between musical acts of all shapes and sizes more or less totally rocked it. Far too often, however, I found that the music acted as little more than a faint sonic backdrop for my quest to consume...
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“Oddly, Britanica’s watermelon entry says nothing about its iron content,...”
– The 7 Most Disastrous Typos Of All Time | Cracked.com
April 2010
11 posts
3 tags
3 tags
“You mean, I can actually pick the game I want to watch and just … watch...”
– NCAA Tournament Adds Networks, Expands To “Only” 68 Teams - NCAA Tournament - Deadspin
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The Matt & Jack Podvast, Episode #009
Full...