Saturday, April 3, 2010

My first veggie burger...

Had my first veggie burger last night at Tyler's, and I have to say, as a "burger substitute", it was awful. But, as a "patty comprised of beans and other stuff", it was pretty ok. I was trying to stay away from stuff like this, but I'd already had a salad earlier in the day, and I figured that if I didn't try a veggie burger at least once, then I really wasn't getting the vegan experience. I shall speak of it no more.

Before I went out last night, I made dinner for the girls, and while I was cooking that, I made a snack for myself. When we were cruising the grocery for dinner ideas, I saw that avocados were on sale, 2 for $3. So, I picked up an avocado, some little heirloom tomatoes, some cilantro, a lime, and a serrano pepper, thinking I'd make a kind of guacamole-ish tomato salad.
I ended up chopping the avocado into chunks, and tossed it with the chopped tomatoes, some lime juice, some olive oil, and the cilantro. Some coarse kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, and it was done. I was careful not to mash the avocado, since I really didn't want a pure guacamole, and I had to use lime juice to keep the avocado from going brown. I think it was pretty tasty, and it was a nice snack to tide me over until Tyler's. If I could've brought some to put on my veggie burger, it would've been pretty darn good.

I also saw "Hot Tub Time Machine" last night. It was funny, but it didn't really live up to my expectations. I was thinking it would be laugh out loud funny (and there were some parts where I did laugh loudly), but overall it was "good", not "great". (Although there were a lot of cameos, where I thought "man, whatever happened to _that guy_?" "Bad Guy from The Karate Kid", I'm thinking of you).
The soundtrack was pretty good, though, and any time you can hear one of "the Greatest Bands of All Time" in a movie, it's getting at least a couple points:


(this is just the audio)

An aside:
In the pantheon of "bands that changed my life", the biggest has got to be these guys. There was a time when I spent way too much effort tracking down and buying every single 'Mats album (including "The Shit Hits the Fans" bootleg).
They were the first band that I listened to in high school that really sounded like they were talking right to me. In much the same way that I will always be a Rolling Stones guy over the Beatles, I will always be a 'Mats guy over REM. The Replacements always seemed like a "high school" band, while REM was always more of a college band, with abstract arty lyrics about "feeling gravity's pull" and stuff (although, I do think REM's a great band, those early albums are terrific), while the 'Mats talked about being a misunderstood teen, the difficulties of growing up, drinking too much, and had jokey songs like "Gary's got a boner" and "Lovelines" (with the lyrics straight from the Minneapolis personals, and containing gems like "slightly overweight girls need sex also, similarly noted desires: means of contact po box 891, baby, you've been alone"), along with serious songs like "Sixteen Blue", or "Kiss Me on the Bus".



They never got played on MTV, probably because they made videos like the one here, which were a middle finger to the whole thing.

I was lucky enough to meet Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson when they played in Richmond in 1988/89, and ended up going to a bar with them and a couple of other people. They were very cool, and I remember I got Paul's autograph in the back of my copy of Goldfinger. This also makes my "Axl Rose" number 1, since I've met Tommy, and he plays bass in the "new" Guns and Roses. This signifies absolutely nothing, but I figured I'd mention it. It also gives me a "Bacon" number of 3, since Paul Westerberg did the soundtrack for "Singles", Kyra Sedgwick was in that movie, and she's married to Kevin Bacon.

For me, it's still a quick "cool check" on someone. If they've heard of the 'Mats and like them, then I have a pretty good feeling that I'll like the person. (and the reverse is true, as well. If they're really big into a band that I hate, then it's a giant red flag).
It extends musically, as well. One of the reasons I gave Justin Townes Earle a listen was because of his cover of "Can't Hardly Wait":




Anyway, the point is, if you've never given the Replacements a listen, you should. They're one of the best bands ever, and it always made me mad that they never made it big.

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