2008 - Year of the Beard & Year of the Clam

The Beard is still going strong (being kept at a either a 6 or a 7 on the trimmer) and as summer fast approaches phase two of 2008 is coming to realization.

Living in New England is also living in Clamtown. Not sure if you knew that. My specialfellow friend has lived in New England all his life and doesn't like seafood. He is not well. It's like living in Arizona and not liking heat. I don't know how he does it--he gets by I guess. Eating a fried clam, is like eating a piece of New England. At its best it's a crispy yet tender, salty salute. At its worst it's a rubbery, uneatable, bitter mess. It's either the best of foods or the worst of foods. Anyway, viva la clam!


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Now this, for the most part, is an exploration of the fried clam. There are one or two places on the map that may not have fried clams per se, but do offer a clam dish and look interesting enough or have enough insanely positive word of mouth that they make it on the list.

I'm not going to even attempt to make it to all of these places or even most of the places. I don't have the money or the time. I'll be trying to hit three or four a month every other weekend probably. Some trips might be exclusives -- like the Martha's Vineyard one, some might be trying to hit two or three in one swing. By and large this is going to be a playing-it-by-ear endeavor.

If you have any hot tips please pass them along. I will be updating the map constantly. This will also be coinciding with me picking up the remnants of last years botched Summer of Putt Putt -- only hit three courses... Sad. I promise this summer will not fail in such a manner. So if you know of any superior coastal mini-golf courses please pass the word along. I really haven't begun to work on the Putt Putt Map (the lack of a good Google Map was a problem to last years failure to launch) but here it is in it's infancy:


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The excitement should begin this weekend with Mike's Clam Shack in Wells, ME and THE Clam Shack in Kennebunk.

For Further Information

I'm inclined to leave this guy here as a time capsule of my late twenties.

Yep... [stretch...] Some good stuff here in the old TRB...

Anyway, enough looking back -- If you perhaps stumbled upon the page, or wondering what became, might I direct you to Reviews From the Couch...

Who?

What?

Oh, not much. Turning 30 in a few weeks.

Yeah, whatever.

You know that Scorsese movie's pretty great. Yeah, sorry, I know you know that.

Huh? No. Basically I haven't had a good internet connection to steal from in ages.

Yeah, I know. I should just pay for my own. This one isn't very reliable.

Yes, I still think I don't have much to add that isn't out there already.

Well, ok. Go and read The Pride of Baghdad and the Scott Pilgrim books; watch Veronica Mars and Smith and Kidnapped; listen to the new The Hold Steady, Yo La Tengo, The Walkmen, and Bonnie Prince Billy.

Yeah, I'll write more later.

What Poppa Tomato said to Baby Tomato

I'm not even sure if I enjoy this blogging business anymore. What's the point? All this crap you can find out on your own. You don't need me to tell you that a dvd for a Japanese tv show starring manequins as Americans called The Fuccons is arriving on the 20th.










Do you even need to know about the Grabowski Shuffle? Will it make you happy? Click here to find out. Thanks, Scott.

You probably already know Eugene Mirman has his own blog thing going on at the Village Voice website where he sometimes makes funny comments and posts his always funny phone conversations. (He also pointed out Steven Seagal's offical website for it's unabashed awesomeness. Free mp3s!)

Is it my job to tell you about the Law & Order Coloring Book?

I don't know -- when is New Yorkish coming back? Ever? That was a good blog. It didn't pretend to be anything more than what it was -- a collection of funny links, nicely organized and displayed. I recently went clicking through five or six connected blogs that all had the same damn links to the same damn stories -- it seemed to me like these people felt the need, the imperative, to update their blogs just for the sake of updating. Do we need 1 million bored people's opinion of the daily celebrity news?

Ah, fuck it. I'm just being pissy. Maybe I'm just realizing I have nothing to really offer this blogiverse. Three sentence netflix reviews and the same old music recomendations you can find at any annoying hipster music site out there. Hell, I don't even have time to update the sidebar but once every few months. Maybe I'll finish remodeling in here and feel better about it all. Maybe.

Here's something you won't find everywhere -- my grumpy old man email to the guy that runs Roger Ebert's website:

Hi -- First off, I'd like to say that I enjoy the blog and the discussions that have been going on within but felt the need to respond to what I found to be a bit of a continuity error.

I enjoyed the post "Misreading Spielberg (& Hollywood)" dated Nov 28 where you pointed out the numerous errors in a NY Times article about Spielberg and his relationship with the Hollywood studios. I went on to read the previous post "Can movies live up to TV?" and my jaw promptly struck my keyboard.

You mention about halfway through that "Alessandra Stanley, the TV critic for the New York Times and one of the few television reviewers I really enjoy reading..." Wuzza wuzza? Not one week later you'd be devoting a well meaning post on the flaws of The New York Times fact-checkers, or lack thereof, and ill-informed writers and here you are recommending possibly the least correct writer on their staff.

And there's been a lot of research done to back up the fact that she is the one of the more error prone reporters. The website Gawker even has an Alessandra Stanley Watch that pops up rather frequently to inform us of the most recent ones.

This might have been what lead John Cook, a former TV writer for The Chicago Tribune to go ahead and collect her mistakes on his blog. That's a lot of mistakes -- 23 mistakes in 2004 alone. Sure some of those mistakes could be blamed on typos or getting nit-picky -- but her actual reviews offer very little in the way of making it seem she knows what she's writing about. Take this example:

""American Dad" has amusing moments and engaging characters, but it is to "The Simpsons" what Japanese anime is to Disney's "Fantasia": fashionable, but crude and cheaply drawn in comparison."

I think anyone reading this blog knows that Japanese anime has offered some of the best animation ever put on film. One could assume she's talking about the children's cartoons like Sailor Moon or perhaps Speed Racer, but part of being a writer is making your point clear, no?

Or this statement in her review of the show "Over There":

"During World War II, many war movies were made long before its outcome was known: "Mrs. Miniver," "Casablanca" and "In Which We Serve" were released in 1942. Back then, wartime films focused on survivors and civilians struggling on the home front ; neither Hollywood nor the War Department wanted to demoralize audiences with too graphic a depiction of what their servicemen were likely to endure. "

If you look at the films involving the war made in 1942 -- it's clear that the majority of films did not focus on the home front. She seems to be skewing the facts to fit her review. Not something a good reporter/reviewer should do.

The last example (I could go on to find many others) is what bothers me the most about her reviews, this is in regards to the TV show Supernatural:

"The first half-hour of the pilot is quite effective: the camera angles, spooky music and jumpy sequences (whenever a character appears, it is sudden and startling) are as frightening as those found in any horror movie, with an added twist of suspense."

Effective spooky television is having every character appear in a sudden and startling manner? With dutch angles and spooky music, of course. And she never mentions what this added twist of suspense is... She reviews two shows in this column (Bones and Supernatural) and yet manages to properly review neither, I really couldn't tell if she was recommending either show or not. Instead she offers up vague descriptions and numerous comparisons to well known shows and movies.

Argh, I'm sorry, this was a rant that's been building up and your seemingly contradictory posts forced it out of me. I apologize for going on and on but someone had to do it.

Many thanks,
Sean

Brilliant! What can you say to that?

Dear Sean --

Yikes! I admit I like Stanley's writing style, but I guess I don't have the TV background to recognize her factual errors. (Well, I also tend to read her stuff in the morning before I've had my coffee, so unless I go back and look at it again later I must confess I'm a bit fuzzy.)

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll try to keep a more critical eye on her stuff...

Thanks gain for writing,

Jim Emerson
Editor, RogerEbert.com

Hmm... Not very satisfying, but I'll take it as an admission of something or other in the way of guilt.

Yes, let's leave on a lame sort of high note here.

We Now Resume to Comcasticness

I've always been first in line to give Comcast a grievance but always welcome it back in to my heart when reunited. And it feels so good. Gotta give a week or so to break in this dvr and make sure no parts fall off. Initial signs point to some possible gremlins in the gears but I won't rush to judgment.

The new tv stand entertainment center shelving unit thing and the cable and the ps2 back from the dead all make me want to save up for a new tv. And then I realized, why tv? Why not go all the way and save up for the proper visual sensory imput device.



This is what you real need to receive true Comcastafied bliss. Plus, you can take your military aptitude tests that you'll probably be taking one way or another shortly enough anyway. Go ahead and photoshop your head on that picture and tell me you don't feel delighted already.

New England Beer Festival 2005

Okay, so here are my belated notes on the beer fest form a few weeks back. Oct ‘9th to be exact. I’m simply going to write exactly what I jotted down in the book – no editing going on here.



12:10 – Inside the Cyclorama. Get glass & 15 beer tix & food vouchers. Slide into swag line.

12:15 – Get swag bag (t-shirt, bottle opener, stickers, coupons)

12:18 – Newport Porter – nice start, smooth, light not heavy porter, tasty

12:20 – Cambridge Brewing Co. Olde English Porter – too light, too smooth, airy, hollow, not bad tasting, not good

12:30 – Ipswich Winter Ale – Nice smell, coffee, tastes good, like it, toffee & biscuit

12:38 – Watch City Boston Bruin – refreshingly bubbly after the porters, bit of an aftertaste but not too bad [sip of Allagash Interlude had at this time – weird fruity apricot taste to it, will not try again]

12:53 – John Harvard’s Instigator – very nice, equal parts bite and drinkability, 7.8% is felt but not overwhelming… supposedly found after 2.5 years in basement… caramel? intimidating smell…

1:05 – Sam Adams Colonial 375 – smells exactly like beer should, nice foggy unfiltered, "dirty", beer supposedly made as colonials would, earthy, beer tastes exactly as beer should in some instinctual way

1:25 – Cambridge Brewing Co. Colonial Beer – supposedly the same idea going on here as 375 but quite different in look, smell, but taste is somewhat similar, darker heavier taste… not as good

1:35 – Pittsfield Brew Works Smoked Porter – A bit like the CBC’s light porter but much better, nice toasted taste, not bad at all

2:00 – Milly’s Tavern Hopnoxious – Excellent IPA type beer, snaps in flavor, refreshing, powerful [had sip of Millie’s Manchester IPA – like the Hop’s small cousin, more drinkable but not as crisp]

2:30 – After a bit of a line have some actual good food from Sunset, a place I haven’t had much luck from food wise but chalk it up to the fact that they opened a new location, the Cantina. Had chili with a cheese filled pretzel – excellent.



2:45 – Shed Restaurant & Brewery’s Saison de Shed – recommended from 3 dudes asking for our own recommendation, not really in the mood for a Belgian white type but good nonetheless, more enjoyable towards end of glass… recommended the Sam Colonial, Pittsfield smoked, and Newport to the dudes.

2:50 – Offshore Brewing Co. Inkwell – 10% going on here, not very drinkable at all, similar to a stout but chalkier and thicker than it should, bad pour as well so I got it for free, not ticket, so not that bad.

3:00 – Harpoon Munich Dark – an excellent beer, glad to be drinking a good beer again, unexpected from Harpoon.



3:20 – Berkshire Brewing Co. Coffeehouse Porter – even better than the Harpoon, loving the wintery beers going on here, chocolate and coffee…

3:50 – Stone Coast Brewing Co. 420 IPA – good, straightforward and tasty [was pretty drunk here]

4:00 – Smuttynose Winter – Last beer of the fest and one of the best – everything you'd want in a winter brew – halfway between an IPA and an ale, warming, excellent, love Smuttynose...

Last entry – had waffles, so damn good, so damn tasty

There's Calm in Your Eye

Still working on the background thing. Might tweak a couple of other things. In the meantime...

So who knew Wiley Wiggins had a kick ass blog? The News of the Dead has many fine things to be had. Like fun animated film on the dangers of inhalants, cool, if flawed, classic movie desktops, what’s up with Roland Topor?, Abraham Lincoln Land, and so much more – hours can be spent looking through the little treasures in his archive.

McSweeney’s has set up a new store, and in it is a rather exciting new DVD quarterly magazine thing called Wholphin. What you’d call a cross between a whale and a dolphin from what I gather. The material on the debut – Miguel Arteta's and Miranda July's short movie with Mike White and John C. Reilly, Spike Jonze’s covering Al Gore, Patton Oswalt… Yes please.

Scott pointed me to the #1 Colbert Report fansite, and yes, the fan fiction is pretty awesome. I’ve been able to download and watch the first week of the show resulting in much happiness. Comparisons to how much more quality the Daily Show and Colbert deliver than the past couple years of SNL aren’t too crazy to me.

Under Construction

Changes... Patience... No more robots allowed.

Belated Halowe'en Flick Follow-Up

Okay folks, sorry for the massive delay, I know you were all sitting by your computers waiting with baited breath this follow up post on English as a first language Holloween movies. Or rather, those computers sitting by their humans waiting for this post -- whichever the case may be. So without further ado...

Night of the Lepus – Yes that movie with the rabbits is finally available on DVD. Okay, some might not want to see Janet Leigh and DeForest Kelley running from giant fluffy bunny rabbits, but those are people without a campy funny bone in their body. Not the scariest movie by far – possibly horrifyingly bad, but a classic in it’s own right nonetheless. You'll laugh, maybe cry... A perfect double feature with…

Day of the Triffids – These movies came out on DVD a week apart from each other, coincidence? Much much better in the way of filmmaking with this one – not nearly as campy but still, rather than cuddly bunnies we have some nasty looking rubber plant life attacking us. Well, London anyway. And this has one heck of an opening sequence where we start right of the bat with nearly all of our population going blind and a possibly fairly realistic look at what would happen in the aftermath. Funny that this and 28 Days Later are both British movies, definitely some parallels. Many laughs to be had here but also some good fun.

The Changeling – Okay, enough of the campy crap and the gory Italian shit, gimme something I haven’t seen that might actually give me some scares! All right, buddy, check this shit out. We have George C. Scott in prime fashion, Peter Medak directing at the peak of his powers and one hell of a fucked up haunted house. You think The Sixth Sense was a brilliantly original movie? Um, watch this and tell me if you still think so. Think The Sixth Sense was a piece of crap – reinforce your beliefs with this fine movie. Not many horror movies actually stick with you and get under your skin – this one will do just that. No big special effects, no zombies or monsters – just creepy through and through, wonderful performances, eerie as hell music and sound (this is a movie that will excel with the best stereo system you’ve got), and a great story. Should be on your best of list with The Exorcist and An American Werewolf in London as the top of the crop.

My Bloody Valentine - Yeah, so is this a better valentine movie or halloween flick – not sure. But I do know it’s better than most of the 80’s slasher flicks. The set-up is pretty much pure cheese, I know, but the stuff in the middle is pretty meaty as far as this type of shit goes. Canada came out with a good assortment of this fare in the 80’s, you know those played to death Friday the 13th movies and Mr. Cronenberg’s terrific offerings, but this one’s top shelf as well.


Society – So I want to go to bed, trying to think up one more movie to put on this list… Then it hits me. I’ve talked up Re-Animator and it’s sub-par sequels. Those sequels were done by a guy by the name of Brian Yuzna. This guy never really reached the knowing sly touch that the original Re-Animator’s Stuart Gordon brings to his movies (even with his fighting robot movie Robot Jox that just came out on DVD). But Society came pretty damn close. There’s a funny subversive slant to the plot of what goes on behind the doors of the well-to-do that is rather enjoyable. And it has one of those stories that I loved most when I was growing up. The kid who senses something strange is going on in his town and through some sleuthing of his own finds out it’s worse than he thought and gets in over his head [see: Blue Velvet, Fright Night, some others I can’t think of right now].

Others to be noted in this wrap-up: Society beat out Wes Craven's last good scary movie The Serpent and the Rainbow and Stuart Gordon’s Dagon. And speaking of Gordon and his love of H.P. Lovecraft (which is some good shit to read if your thinking of warping you mind with some horror reading this Halloween) there’s this movie you may find interesting… click the pic for more info, thanks boingboing.