moodboom » Consumption

10.0 Jack Johnson “To The Sea” concert, one total pearl jam

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:08:54 +0000

This was such a kickin’ good time in so many ways.

An entire green village was available pre-show for us to explore. We got a nice little booklet explaining all the green steps taken by Jack on the tour. He donates 100% of profits to charities – YES 100%!! and he did the same on the last tour!! Think about that for a minute. Beautiful.

The booklet had a section of stamps to collect for doing green things:

visiting a non-profit booth in the village, groups included:
- reduce plastic usage
- beaver preserve – Found out about an excellent beaver preserve right in downtown Durham. Chatted with the people running the four related preserves. Turns out Jack had found and contacted them personally and asked them to set up an exhibit. They are working on an interconnected set of preserves to make an entire greenway belt, awesome. Got two stamps from them, for visiting and donating, and they gave me a nice refillable water bottle which i used to earn another stamp! wahoo! I wore my “Bummer” shirt (w pic of Hummer), the lady at the booth got mad cause she thought it said Hummer, and we had a good laugh.
- CO2 offset purchasing
donating
buying a CO2 offset right at the concert
getting a picture in the picture booth signifying “i commit to reduce plastic usage”
refillable water stations – They proactively encouraged water refill usage, you got a stamp for filling up! Sponsored by brita filters, this was unbelievable that they got permission for this, as the pavillion charges $4.50 for disposable bottles.

During the pre-show, they played back time-lapse photos of the stage as it filled up. They also showed all the pictures from the photo booth, awesome, the girls right in front of us popped up on the big screen and laughed at themselves.

The show itself was a total pearl jam. They got the party started on a high with “you and your heart” – the BEST. Jack is truly a great guy, and he brought out LOTS of friends he’s made along the way:

Paula Fuga, a Hawaiian woman playing ukelele to a couple of her excellent songs (country road,…)
the awesome slide guitarist from Animal Liberation Orchestra
G Love jamming on harmonica (I heard he helped Jack get started by playing some of Jack’s songs)
the band’s keyboard player (Zack Gill, also from ALO) jammed on an ACCORDIAN for a while oh yeah – this guy was just so much fun, riffed on the piano like it was part of his body.
the bassist kicked out a wicked rap

LOTS of jammmmmming ensued! Jack also worked in some cars lyrics into “sitting waiting wishing”, perfect mashup… once he remembered the lyrics, haha, he made fun of himself… “i dont mind you comin here, and wasting all my time…” They also played a full version of steve miller’s the joker, perfect. And just about every great song he’s written… which is to say, A LOT OF UNBELIEVABLY GOOD MUSIC!!

Thank you Jack!

Vegan options in downtown Raleigh

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:48:35 +0000

I am so happy to be “working in the city”. One of my greatest delights is perusing the various and sundry gastronomical venues. Here’s a rundown…

Everything else on this list just got trumped, I have discovered The Remedy. OK they have non-vegan food… but that just lets you get your unsuspecting friends in the door to find an unbelievable array of vegan delights, including: philly fake-steak, veggie meatball sub, sweet vegan soups made from scratch (every one has kicked it, including an unchicken noodle and a basil-portobella-unchicken soup), vegan chocolate chip cookies, and many many more items I will add to this list as I accumulate knowledge… They also have some funky cocktails, with health boosters like Emergen-C mixed in (you’ll have to assess your inner glass-half-full/empty monologue to decide if that’s bad or good)…
I’m in love with The Pit’s barbeque tofu and grilled veggies – delicious sauce over “tofu” (more like the gluten-based analogues you get at all-vegetarian asian restaurants), asparagus, sweet potatoes, halved grape tomatoes, onions, all grilled to hickory-smoked perfection.
Sitti Lebanese cuisine: start off with fresh-from-the-oven pitas and the amazing lentil soup – the falafel pita was good. They also have a grilled vegetable pita.
My bud Sam leads me to the newest freshest places, and most recently it was to Bu-ku ‘global street food’, for Lebanesh fattoush and Indian curry, yum on both accounts – still more to explore – the waiter was really helpful with vegan suggestions. Went back for a big greek salad the chef made up to order, pretty good.
Right at the end of the Progress Energy street is 101 Lounge Cafe. They have a fab wrap with marinated portabellas. Plus, I started logging in with FourSquare there, I was the first to add it – perhaps I’ll become mayor.
Sosta cafe – I didn’t expect much from this small European style cafe when I popped in for an early mocha, but I was greeted by a delicious tray of local vegan energy bars and cookies, as well as a friendly owner who was excited to tell me about the three delish-sounding vegan lunch entrees -I must return, it is my duty! …and of course I did, the next day. Awesome, three amazing choices on the menu: Angus (burger), Carolina-sytle vegan BBQ, and vegan soy chicken salad sandwich. The friendly guy behind the counter recommended the Angus. Good call! With two awesome side salads – navy bean with onions and parsley, and a yummy large-pasta couscous. This place rocks! – Returned to get all the vegan items. The unchicken sandwich has chunks of walnut in it, yum. The BBQ sandwich is tangy delish.
The Manhattan Cafe: they have a yummy veggie panini (ordered without cheese) but it had a bit of a hotdog flavor from the grill; but their piece de resistance is the mix-your-own-salad – you choose baby spinach, romaine or organic mixed greens, then add portabella mushrooms, pasta, red beans, black beans, pita croutons, and all kinds of other great toppings. The mix-your-own pasta also kicks serious butt, with a whole bunch of great mix-ins – try doubling up on the fresh spinach, along with mushrooms and tomatoes, yum. The 1/2-sandwich-salad-soup combo is only $7, the tomato-basil soup was pretty good.
Shish Kebob: right in the Fayetteville Street Mall, next to Krispy Kreme. The veggie platter was great! Hummus and babaganough with a warm pita cut into slices, falafel and tahini, and a small greek salad (“hold the cheese”). Next time I’ll try the falafel in a pita…
The Raleigh Times: delicious Boca-like veggie burger with awesome toppings: sauteed mushrooms, tomato lettuce ketchup and an entire half of a delightfully ripe avacado. And you won’t escape the siren call of their Belgian beer list – Simba, it’s to DIE for…
Wild Ginger: cheap Hibachi Tofu (a staple for me – ask for it with vegetable oil not butter, they are happy to oblige, and steamed rice), also Thai and Chinese selections; fast and reasonable and hot
Duck and Dumpling: not positive it’s vegan but the edamame and mushroom dumplings are hand-crafted and elegant; the tofu and steamed broccoli is a bit purist for my taste; a pot of green tea will set you back $4.50…
Subway’s 6-inch veggies sandwich for $3.81 is the best deal in town, and fresh and yummy and fast
La Rancharita: they let me switch up the lunch chimichanga, replacing the meat with spinach, mushroom and onions. With the chips and salsa, it’s a perfect-sized meal. And fried… mmm…
Roly Poly: this cafe is attached to the IMAX theater. The grilled rollup’s are actually quite interesting, one stuffed full of items with a Mexican theme, another with cornbread and veggies. Hot and tasty. Not much atmosphere, but lots of space and free wifi, which is awesome.
Tir Na Nog: menu apparently changes a lot; the lentil-based veggie burger I got was OK (and certainly HUGE); second time, had a delicious roasted veggie panini half-sandwich + all-you-care-to-eat vegetable soup + salad
Soma: higher-end sushi bar, where’s the tofu people? Had a well-presented bowl of veggie noodles
The first two weeks of 2010 were spent in all-day meetings with a team from Serbia, which meant free lunches with the team – I explored a lot of places I wouldn’t think to choose. Big Al’s country cooking is tough to navigate but a large salad and double-side of fried okra hit the spot; Woody’s; the Brass Grille had a pretty good tahini veggie wrap; Vic’s Italian restaurant has a great Penne Primavera with broccoli, squash and zuchini.
To be continued…

FIFA’s reward for overworked refs? “Go Home.”

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:04:11 +0000

FIFA refuses to come out of the stone age, instead preferring futbol to be refereed by one human being guaranteed to make mistakes – mistakes that the world can watch in gorgeous hi-def slow motion, over and over, seconds after they occur. Players perpetually dive and shove and take cheap shots behind the ref’s back, unashamed of the camera catching their every move, simply because it pays off – the fans may boo, but the play goes on in their favor, and the only one clueless to the truth is the poor overworked referee.
Poorly distributed cards aside, the number of bad calls at this year’s World Cup has been staggering, with the most well-known errors leading to an incorrect score. Even before the World Cup began, complaints regarding the famous French handball that knocked Ireland out of qualifying were at a din. During, the US were mysteriously stripped of a winning goal against Slovania without explanation, England was denied a critical goal that was a yard inside the net, and Argentina was given a goal against Mexico when it was clear to everyone that their man was offside. These kind of errors not only change the actual score, but provide a mental blow that certainly further affects the outcome. And don’t even get me started on the red cards, apparently distributed randomly as the lone referee grapples with maintaining control.
The most shameful thing that FIFA has done is scapegoat the referees. All three refs that made the goal errors have been sent home, as well as another that sent off Kaka after some ridiculous Ivory Coast acting. Talk about not fixing the problem. Until FIFA adds more referees, implements goal-line technology, and generally decides that truth is better than drama, they will be ON MY LIST.

9.5 Massive Attack – Paradise Circus (Breakage’s Tight Rope remix)

Tue, 11 May 2010 12:34:01 +0000

I didn’t pick up on this song until TapTapRevenge gave it away for free, and I realized I already had it on my iPhone. 10 years ago, my friend Zac didn’t appreciate the subtleties of Massive Attack, instead preferring more-direct bands like slipknot and Powerman 5000 that got right to the point. I could understand this – 15 years before I was Ministry’s single biggest fan. But Massive Attack is to ultraviolent music as thrillers are to action movies – it’s a matter of suspense and minimalism. Minimalism is hard to do right. Anyone can create music in moments (and it seems like everyone has) by cutting and pasting measures repeatedly, resulting in mind-numbing banality. Simple is beautiful, but it’s so easy to slide into simplicity. Bands like Massive Attack and Depeche Mode realized that you can easily lay down 50 tracks of sonic wall but when the user slips on the headphones they only hear one sound. That one sound is essential.

A couple other recent selections that get the minimalist thing pretty well are Bassnectar’s CozzaFrenzy, GetDarker presents “This is Dubstep” and The Crystal Method’s Legion of Boom.

This post brought to you by Dragon Naturally Speaking on the iPhone – sure beats typing on that stupid “auto-correcting” (sic) thing!

Ma and Pa ride into town!

Mon, 10 May 2010 21:07:15 +0000

I was pretty nervous about my mom and dad coming to visit, didn’t want them to have to make the long trip. Sure glad they did, though – we had a blast. The main event was Reiley’s confirmation, a big day for all of us. Along the way we managed to…

go out to Mellow Mushroom, order Thai Thai…
have a cookout with dogs, brats, corn, s’mores
fix up pop’s boxcarkid.com website
watch Sherlock Holmes (aaaawesome!)
explore the garden, walking CAREFULLY down the steeply sloped back yard
invent a great new family game, GRAB BAG!
have a ton of laughs :>

9.0 Rocknrolla OST

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:20:18 +0000

I dropped this movie on my iPhone, and it was definitely worth a revisit. The soundtrack alone is great fun.

9.5 Caprica

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:19:37 +0000

Although I must endure perpetual geek jokes from Andrea and Wren, I have enjoyed my obsession with the “reimagined” Battlestar Galactica. Most of the jokes involve some form of chanting “So Say We All”, the nationalistic and quasi-religious mantra of this brand of homo sapien, and it doesn’t look like the jokes will end soon. The reimagined fun continues with Caprica, a rewind to the beginning of humanity’s romance with robots, and there are robots aplenty – along with mad scientists, religious fanatics, obsessed government agents, and anime-inspired uniformed schoolgirls with big round eyes. Reiley and I watched the pilot (skipping some inappropriate sections) and the first 9 episodes in one fell swoop, and had a blast. Make sure you catch up before the next half-season starts up!

Owl City live at the DAR Convention Hall, Washington, DC

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:18:24 +0000

Wren and I have been looking forward to this for months, and last Thursday it happened. It was absolutely perfect. We were far up and above the left side of the stage for the first half, then moved down to a few rows back from the stage on the right. Sounded great, the stage lights were great, and Adam kept us jumping and singing and shouting all night, playing keyboard solos, flinging a guitar around, and generally dancing about. Woohoo! Wrenny and I had to wait outside for Ma and Rei to get out of the emergency room (!) after, and we spent the time outside the tour bus, waiting to spot Adam, but we were denied a third sighting. :>

9.5 Jimi Hendrix – Valleys of Neptune

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:43:52 +0000

Smokin’ hot blues, so sweet to hear. Wipes all the McMusic you have to slog through these days right off the map (along with practically everything else). True jams.

Larry shares Indian delights

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:12:27 +0000

The Gillespe’s had us over for dinner, Larry worked his many-spiced magic, mmm. We watched “it’s complicated”, which was fun. But the food was the real entertainment…