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Best St Patty’s Day Drink Ever

Posted in Good Times on March 17, 2010 by Verge

okay, I know what you’re supposed to drink on Saint Patrick’s Day…Guinness, Jameson, car-bombs.  But, honestly, we drink all those things year round.  This St Patty’s, in celebration of Monika landing a full-rime job, and for something green to drink, I got us something special.

Perhaps in the future, I’ll blog exclusively about Absinthe, but for now, for tonight, I suggest we spare the history and simply imbibe.

The classic Hemingway Cocktail is two ingredients, Absinthe and Champagne.  It was apparently one of his favorites, but, there’s very few cocktails you can’t find that weren’t either Hemingway’s or Faulkner’s favorite libation.

Absinthe is some pretty bitter stuff, and damn strong, so you’ll need some advice making this cocktail.  First, a cube of sugar, caramelized, will sweeten the bitterness.  The way to do this is with an absinthe spoon, or some sort of very small colander.  Pour a shot of absinthe over a sugar cube place on the slotted spoon and into the glass.

Next, you light the sugar cube on fire.  This melts the sugar, caramelizing it, and making it easier to dissolve in the absinthe.  Be careful, though.  Absinthe is high proof.  The Pernod we were using is a lofty 136 proof, and therefore, extremely flammable.  If the sugar starts to drip, while still on fire, it will ignite you glass of absinthe.  It’s not dangerous, but it will not only heat up your glass (actually, we used crystal, but all the same), but will also burn off the precious alcohol in your cocktail.  While inhaling the vaporized alcohol can be fun, I suggest you quickly life the spoon and gently blow out the ignited cocktail should this unfortunate incident occur.

Once the flame goes out, use the spoon to stir in the sugar.  The rest is easy.  Top off your martini glass with some decent Champagne.  We used a dry Korbel, not too expensive and not too candy sweet.  It’s green, delicious, filled with a ton of demon spirit, and delicious.

Enjoy

Ryan Michael & Monica “Erin” O’Walsh

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Making Caribou

Posted in Good Times, Recipes with tags , , on February 26, 2010 by Verge

We’ve been really enjoying the Olympics the past two weeks.  I try to watch as many events as I can.  That’s pretty difficult considering we don’t have cable and so we only get NBC10 from Philadelphia and not all the fancy offshoots that everyone else probably gets.

That’s made watching hockey, for one, extremely…expensive.  Since it airs on CNBC, every hockey game I want to see (which is men’s only) I have to go to a bar to watch.  I want to see EVERY game, hence the expense.

In any case, I’ve always loved the Olympics and my family has always watched them.  It’s great to rally for your own country, and the stories are unbeatable.  It really is the most amazing reality TV show ever.  That skater who’s mother died in Vancouver…wow, what a story.  Her breaking down crying after her perfect skate was so emotional and unbeatable.  The Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso story is not only fascinating but downright hot.   The bitter-sweet rivalry of head-to-head competition between countrymen is amazing.

In celebration of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic spirit, and since we both didn’t work today, we’ve honored Canada by making a drink called Caribou!  If you ever get a chance, you should visit Quebec during the Winter Festival.  It is a hell of a time when the entire town parties to the thought of being cold and snowed in.  And, if you ever go for a visit, you’ll be sure to come across copious amounts of Caribou.

The legend of it’s origins are that old-school Canadians who were out in the cold and hunting for food would kill wild Caribou.  In the interest of wasting nothing, and keeping warm, they would add whiskey to fresh Caribou blood and drink it as a celebration of a fresh kill.  There are no Caribou in Atco, trust me, I looked.  We had to make a Substitute.

For the red wine substitute-for-blood we used one of my all-time favorite local South Jersey red wines from Valenzano Winery.  It’s a perfect ingredient for this recipe because it’s a very smoky red due to it’s aging in used charred oak barrels.  It’s one of their more expensive wines at around 17 bucks a bottle, but it’s worth it in my mind and in my mouth.  It’s called Old Indian Mill Road Red.

We were planning on going to visit Kreg at his shop and help him out with the bar he’s building so I decided to make it in our industrial sized thermos.  This recipe is pretty damn simple.  Here goes!

Here’s the Official recipe

1 Bottle of dry red wine

1 -2 Cups of cheap Whiskey (to taste)  more if you like whiskey, less if you’re a lightweight

1/4 – 1/2 cup of Maple Syrup (to taste) more if you have a sweet tooth, less if you’re a real man

Shake well and get drunk outside in the snow.  Do it with some friends so if you pass out in a snow bank, they can drag your drunk ass home.  Feel free to be rowdy, yell at the tv, and say “eh” and “hoser” a lot.  Enjoy!

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Buying my new website

Posted in Good Times on February 19, 2010 by Verge

info: Thank you for contacting support.   Please be prepared to answer your Security Question when we begin chatting. To enhance our security protocols, we’ll need you to provide the answer to your Security Question at the beginning of our conversation. If you have not yet set your Security Question and Answer, please log into your account now to set it up. Thank you. Please hold for the next available operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with ‘John Sanders’
John Sanders: How can I help you today?
ryan: Yesterday I purchased a domain name. Today I would like to purchase web hosting that comes with a free domain name. Can I get a refund on the purchase I made yesterday and use that domain as my free one?
John Sanders: what is the username or domain
ryan: http://www.onthevergeoftears.com
John Sanders: What is your favorite food?
ryan: huh, that’s the security question I answered? Have I got a different one?
John Sanders: yes that is your question
ryan: tofu?
John Sanders: Let me get the last four digits of your Credit Card on file
John Sanders: no tofu is not correct
ryan: on file for that domain should be ****
John Sanders: thats correct
John Sanders: Question: What is your favorite food?
John Sanders: Answer: gin
ryan: well, actually, it is, thanks…that’s pretty funny
John Sanders: what i can do is give you a free year
John Sanders: to make up for the lost domain
John Sanders: will that work out for you?
ryan: yes, that will work out fine. thanks
John Sanders: we are running a 66 dollar special
John Sanders: It’s for 24month of hosting
ryan: that’s the one I want
ryan: should I order through you, or just go to the main site? And, should I just ignore the free domain I get?
John Sanders: I’m handling it now
ryan: cool
John Sanders: and i’ll see about the best price i can give you
ryan: excellent. the price of gin has gone up recently!
John Sanders: I found a great deal for you… Three years of hosting I’ll add the free domain, you get a daily back up tool and some Google tools to help build Page Rank for only
John Sanders: Total Balance: $165.94
John Sanders: thats 55.31/year
John Sanders: VS the 66
ryan: not interested in all that. the $66 deal is fine for me right now
ryan: I don’t even have the site built yet
ryan: thanks for the offer though
John Sanders: the 66 dollar hosting is for 24 months
John Sanders: 132.00
ryan: yeah, that’s fine
ryan: I’m down with that deal
John Sanders: dont want the better price??
John Sanders: 132 for 2 yr … or 165.94 for 3 yrs
ryan: okay, I’ll take the better, 3 year package, but I’ll need to bill to a different card today. Also, is three years of domain name hosting included, or will I have to renew for the third year?
John Sanders: I’ll make sure you get 3 years of the domain
John Sanders: you said you want to use different billing
ryan: isn’t the free domain name for the duration of the hosting plan, then? I still have paid yesterday for a domain name only. can I get 3 years of hosting, but four years of domain name registration to make up for that?
ryan: yes, I have a different credit card
ryan: any chance I can pay you in empty bottles of gin?
John Sanders: no the domain name is not free
John Sanders: you get one free domain and thats for a year
ryan: oh, okay.
ryan: sounds like a good deal then
John Sanders: so what i was doing s adding on another for you
John Sanders: To match up the domain to the hosting
John Sanders: and I will not charge you for the domain
ryan: your certainly hooking me up then, and I appreciate that
John Sanders: what is the billing info?
ryan: one sec
John Sanders: i need the billing address
ryan: Ryan M Walsh, ***********************
John Sanders: cool
John Sanders: I’m ready for the number
ryan: *************** *** **/12
ryan: no luck on the gin deal, huh
John Sanders: what it the CVV
ryan: ***
John Sanders: thx
John Sanders: all done
John Sanders: you will get the reciept to contactryanwalsh@hotmail.com
John Sanders: any other questions for me??
John Sanders: you will also get emailed confirmation for the domain registration too
ryan: okay. thanks. I’ll just recycle the empty bottles of gin, then. thanks for all the help. we’re good
John Sanders: no problem
John Sanders: Gave a great day!
John Sanders: and weekend!
ryan: you too. seeya…
info: Your chat transcript will be sent to contactryanwalsh@hotmail.com at the end of your chat.

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Road Trip to Ohio

Posted in Good Times, Reflections with tags , , on February 9, 2010 by Verge

Two weekends ago Monika and I traveled to Ohio to help Sam move to a new life.  But, before I get to that, I’ll rewind to last Thursday.

Thursday nights are my regularly scheduled gig at Manny Brown’s in Philly.  This is ideal because I don’t have to work on Fridays.  It was a decent show with Tom on drums and three long sets.  Even though most of the material was recycled, we had mixed the sets up that night, and threw in a few songs that we had just learned.

The next morning, I couldn’t sleep in for too long because Monika and I had to pick up Sam and head to the airport to pick up Tuk who had flown in from Pittsburgh.  His flight was on time and he was waiting to be picked up when we arrived, which is fantastic because I didn’t have to deal with the pick-up area Nazis that yell at you if your car is stopped for more than 20 seconds.

And so, at that moment, when Tuk threw his small suitcase and garment bag into the back of the Element, our brief vacation began.  At 11 am, we headed to Champps in Marlton.  The girls needed to go to Joyce Leslie for some last minute accouterments for that evening’s party.  Tuk and I sat down for a few beers.  Tuk ordered a Yuengling, a beer that’s not available in Ohio, for some strange reason.  I had Hop Devil and a shot of well bourbon.

Eventually we all had a drink together and toasted the weekend ahead.  Sam’s going away party was that night, and we had themed it Steampunk.  Steampunk is a strange mix of Victorianism, Turn-of-the-Century Industrialism and Futurism.  It’s hard to describe, but once you have a grasp, you can spot it when you see it.

We drove to downtown Medford to Scherzer’s Antiques in search of some accessories.  There, surprisingly, we found just what we were looking for.  I tracked down a great clip-on monocles with a gold chain that I later attached to some old keys I had laying around.  We all got ourselves an antique cap gun, and I managed to score a really old Masonic tux button.

The party that night was incredible.  I didn’t expect it to be our biggest ever, but it came close.  I think we had at least 50 people come out to see Sam off to her new life in Ohio.  There’s a ton of photos on all of our Facebooks, so you can track everything that happened that night online.  Monika and I made it all the way to 5 am because we were acting the hosts, and did so accordingly.  Tuk, among others, passed out by midnight, and missed a ton of fun.

The next morning we picked up the best we could before the next party began.  Some who had slept at our house had left, and others hung around for the second round.  I was supposed to play a show on Saturday night in Philly, but because the roads were in poor condition because of the snow, and because Tom no longer had his own transportation, we bailed, and instead, partied.  Monika and Sam made it out at some point to take care of Sam’s dog in Lindenwold, but returned shortly to the festivities.

The next morning, we woke up late, of course, and had to load the truck.  Craig and Kat helped along with Lorie, and we did a damn fine job.  Three pizzas and three hours later, we were ready to head to Ohio.  Intent on getting there by 11, we headed out.

I wasn’t sure if my car was going to make it because I had had a nail in my tire and was worried about a flat.  I was further concerned that the cat that we were toting would not make it all the way to Ohio without going to the bathroom or throwing up.  Amazingly, neither happened.

We stopped several times along the way to let Rocky, who was riding in the cab of the U-haul with Sam and Tuk, run around and go to the bathroom.  We stopped for gas and all met up at a rest stop just outside the Ohio border for dinner.

We did get to Sam’s new home just before 11 at night.  We made it safe though Tuk did score himself a nice little $160 speeding ticket.  It was obviously dark so we couldn’t unpack anything from the truck.  Instead, we improvised a kitty litter box with some torn up paper.  We needed to run out to the store at midnight to grab a padlock for the truck.

Needless to say, there wasn’t a whole lot to do except party.  This is a picture of the first shot I’ve ever drank in Ohio.  It wasn’t the last of the night.

The next morning we sent the girls out to get breakfast while me and Tuk unpacked.  They discovered a thrift store and so by the time they got back the truck was almost empty.  We put a good deal of Sam’s things in the basement where they could be sorted later, and spend the rest of the afternoon unboxing the kitchen.

Later that night we had to go to Sam’s new job for a minute so she could check in with her new boss.  I had to tell Lorie and Monika to settle down.  You can see why…

On the way home, Tuk treated us all to dinner at a Thai restaurant.  The service was poor, but the food was fantastic.  We were the last ones in the place when they closed.  They had a ton of vegetarian options and the seaweed salad was surprisingly tasty.

We spend the remainder of the night hanging out in Sam’s new living room, watching a movie, then talking over a movie, then all passing out.

The next morning, we had to leave Sam and Tuk and Rocky big-head and Akasha in Ohio.  Lorie, Monika and I made good time coming home, and no one cried when we left that morning.  Perhaps we all wanted to a little, but we think  Sam is going to do just fine in Ohio.

On the way home, we encountered the snow storm that was rolling into New Jersey last Tuesday.  We could see the back wall of the storm in the distance, and then we were inside it.  It snowed pretty heavily for an hour or two, slowing us down for a bit.  But, like Sam, with some persistence and determination, we got through it all, and drove out of the storm unscathed, and made it all the way home.

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Rail Road Hiking

Posted in Good Times with tags , , , , , on January 19, 2010 by Verge

Over the weekend, Monika and I went on two afternoon hikes.  In our haste, we forgot to charge our camera the first day, and the second day it was raining, so we have no photos of our excursions, which suits me just fine because the hikes were more about collecting the experience rather than a few photos.

It’s hard to explain why I am so enamored by old railroad tracks and trains because I’m not really sure myself.  I can be reasonably assured that trains have always been a fascination of little boys.  My nephew loves them and has a sizable collection, some of which I contributed.  Of course he watches Tommy.  I remember setting up train tracks in our basement every Christmas when I was a kid.  They were my fathers, and I still have them in my attic, although they haven’t been set up in years.  I don’t have a basement, but someday…

There were a lot of “right-of-ways” that ran close or through Atco.  Most of these were, in the beginning, for cutting down trees  in the Pine Barrens and bringing them to Philadelphia for the expanding city.  They also transported the glass that was made in several glass furnace factories located in the woods to the city for windows in the newly built buildings.

In later years, the destinations reversed, and trains instead hurried passengers from Philadelphia to Atlantic City in a trip that formerly took over a day to make.  In fact, nearby Berlin, formerly Long-a-Coming, was originally an overnight stop on that trip.  When the name of the local train station there began to confuse travelers, they changed the name from Stratford Station to Berlin, along with the name of the town itself.

There are two active lines that still run latitudinally through Atco.  One is right through the Center of town and has been there for as long as Atco has existed.  These days, it’s run by NJ Transit and can technically bring you from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia all the way to Atlantic city.  It connects with PATCO at Lindenwold and Amtrak at 30th Street.  There, you can catch the Northeast Corridor Line that will bring you from D.C. to Boston.

The other one is to the south of Atco and was part of the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Line, originally called the Pennsylvania Atlantic City Rail Road Line.  I’m no expert yet, and I’m always reading more and more, but I think at one point it may have been absorbed into the Central Rail Road of New Jersey, and perhaps again reabsorbed into Conrail in the 1970’s.

This line still operates as well, but it is not a passenger line and I believe only transports freight.  It runs from Camden in the West to Atlantic City in the East and you’ll rarely catch a glimpse of a train running on the tracks.  We’ve hiked on this line a bunch of times and I’ve never seen a train running on it.  This is the railway that runs through the center of Clementon right next to Harper’s Pub, and through downtown Haddon Heights, where the original station still stands and is maintained by the local Historical Society.

We parked on the corner of North grove Street and Norcross road, and hiked east on the rails.  We’ve never been on this particular stretch of tracks.  We always bring a backpack and plastic bag to hold anything of interest that we find.  Although it’s against a lot of hikers creeds, we sometimes bring back items that we may find.  We’ll never destroy parts of history, but some old trash, rocks, or rusty rail road spikes aren’t exactly a piece of history in general, and are just cool little collectibles that I like to decorate with.

We came across a horse farm that we never knew existed, and a woman in her forties was out back feeding the horses.  We said hello and asked if the half dozen horses that were there were all hers.  She said that she only owned one of them so I guess she was boarding the rest.  The horses came over to the fence to inspect the visitors (us) and we really wanted to pet them, but resisted.  Although the woman seemed nice enough, we were in the Pineys, and you just never know what kind of people you’re going to encounter.  There were a few men on the other side of the field that glanced our way, so I wasn’t about to invade anyone’s space.

There are old telegraph poles that run down this line, and I’m always looking for an intact insulator cap, which I have yet to find.  These lines have been hiked so many times over the years that a really good insulator cap is impossible to find.  I did find one that was in pretty good condition, but in two pieces.  There are always little shards and chunks that you can pick up, and I pondered whether or not my friend Eva, who is a glass blower, would be able to melt down this type of glass and make something with it.

Further down we ran into some people riding quads and they were nice enough.  A brief hello was all that was exchanged and that was fine with me.  Off the tracks a little bit, we found the remains of an old house of some kind.  There was a well that had been filled in, and a pretty good sized foundation.  around back was a few steps and a porch, and I wondered if this had been a station at some point.  It was made of concrete blocks that kids had clearly moved around and stacked up in various ways, and there was a pole nearby that must have provided telegraph, phone or electricity at some point.  Abandoned buildings are always a treasure to find.

I also found one really unique find.  It was a ceramic insulator cap that was still attached to the pole that had been downed.  I had to unscrew it and although it had a few chips on the rim I was amazed that no one else had come along and taken it before me.  Clearly the pole had been downed for some time and all the other caps had been taken.  I’m going to use it either as an ashtray or a candle holder.  We hiked probably a mile down and a mile back, and called it a day.

On Sunday, we wanted to look for signs of the old Williamstown Brach of the Pennsylvania Reading Line which, as far as I can find, had been torn up in the mid 60s.  It’s not hard to find where it ran and there are still signs of it on satellite images that I have looked up.   Plus, there’s still a section of town called Williamstown Junction with a little store called Junction Liquors, so that really narrows it down.

We’ve been back here before when geocaching. There’s an old weigh station of some sort that is along the path of the old rail line.  A little exploring turns up a ton of really cool, interesting remnants.  For some reason, when they tore up the rails of this line, they also tore up the ties, so there are huge piles of rotting rail lroad ties all along the right of way which you can recognize by the obviously artifically raised ground.  We found the concrete and wood remains of an old mile marker, the actual sign long gone.  There was another building back here as well that must have been some kind of station.  Huge sections of brick had been toppled, but it was at some point a sizable building.  At some point there was a lot of garbage being dumped back there, and that yielded some pretty interesting old bottles.

That day was raining, but it didn’t stop us from exploring.  We looked all around this patch of wood before stumbling into the back of a rock and sand supply yard nearby.  We hiked our way through the yard without incident and out onto New Brooklyn Road, which is loaded with curiosities.  All the houses on this street are from a different time, and one of them has a little farmer’s market out front.  We had to stop and take a look inside the barn that was there because it was just too damn interesting.  There was a barn cat inside that we did not disturb.  After poking around for a few minutes, a older gentleman, probably in his 70s, came out of the house to talk to us.  We bought a small bag of tomatoes from him for 2 dollars because they looked good and we needed them.  I forgot to ask the old man what the deal was with the sign on the barn that said “New Jersey Devil Scull.”  That alone warrants a return trip.

We hiked up the tracks back to our car parked at Williamstown Junction and headed home.  For our troubles we acquired:  1 cermaic insulator cap, 3 glass insulator caps, 5 interesting bottles, 9 iron screws, 2 iron bolts, 3 iron nuts, 1 piece of talc, 2 pieces of limestone, 1 flintstone, 15 glass marbles, 2 very heavy can-shaped weights, 6 assorted couplers, a pile or iron spikes, a pile of coal, and one bag of tomatoes.

Exploring places that are abandoned or are the remnants of a long ago reminds me how fleeting life is.  And just being there is proof to me that I’m not squandering what little time we all have.  It should be spent with people we love, doing the things that make us happy.  The rain and threat of crazy Piney’s wouldn’t stop us from going hiking this weekend, and it never will.  Tell us if you’d like to join us sometime for a hike and some exploring…and remember your camera.

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33

Posted in Good Times on January 13, 2010 by Verge

I spent last Friday with my wife and friends to celebrate my 33rd birthday.  It was truly a relaxing day that began with sleeping in until 10:30, a luxury I enjoy because I don’t have to go to work on Fridays.

Monika woke me with a bed full of presents that I unwrapped while still shaking off sleep.  Her choices were both practical and desirable, and her knowledge of my stylistic taste is spot on.  She gave me a jacket and vest, an antique, monogram tie clip, an awesome Fedora  (my first), and a pair of the most excellent ties I’ve ever seen.  (Check out the tie shop for yourself, listed on the right under “Wares and Wears.”)

First, Monika and I had to head to deep South Jersey to pick up Poe, our second cat, who had gotten fixed the night before and was waiting at the animal hospital.  She was not happy about being in a kennel overnight, and though I’d like to believe she missed sleeping in bed with us the night before, in reality, she probably missed her cat companion more.

The hospital is near our good friends’ house, and luckily they were both at home too.  The kids were off at school and so we enjoyed lunchtime fried tofu and Bloody Marys.  We hadn’t gotten to see one another in the past few months.  In fact, it’s quite possible that the last time we saw them both was at our wedding in May where she served as photographer and he was a groomsmen.

We got our wedding pictures and once I choose a few, and Monika doctors them a bit, I’ll post my favorites.  We talked about the Holidays and life while watching the drama of a freshly cut kitty explore the domain of a dog and two other cats.  They were relatively cordial to one another, to our relief.

For the evening, we opted to dine alone.  We hardly go out to restaurants, and almost all the time, it’s with other people.  There are only a few times a year that we decide to dine alone:  our birthdays, and our anniversaries.  We went to Swanky Bubbles, my favorite local restaurant, where we decided to order two dishes we’ve never had before.  Both were pasta dishes (one not vegan), and both were delicious.  I also ordered sushi, since it was my birthday, and we had cocktails.

There was a mix up with the bill, briefly, and the general manager spoke with me, resulting in a comped Sapphire Martini.  We had invited Monika’s parents and sisters to meet us for a brief cocktail hour before we headed to the club upstairs.  The gave me a new Salman Rushdie book, among other things, including a hip pair of 3-D glasses.

Facebook is amazing sometimes.  I had wanted to relax in the lounge upstairs with my wife, and casually suggested to her that we could invite some people to join us if they were up for a night out.  She made a quick invite on Facebook, resulting in at least 20 people showing up at my birthday party which was not ever really planned to be my official “Birthday Party.”

We danced, and chatted, and drank and had a great time. There were only a few other people in the club and so it made the atmosphere feel exclusively for us.  People trickled in and out over the course of the next few hours until it was only a handful of us.  The general manager wished me a Happy Birthday personally by buying us our last round of drinks.

We wandered home and relaxed until I don’t remember met with sleep.  It was quite a wonderful day and I’m glad I was able to share it with so many friends.  I’m glad everyone gets an annual birthday, so that we can repeat the good times over and over,  throughout the year.

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Beginnings and Endings

Posted in Good Times, Reflections with tags on December 23, 2009 by Verge

The snow this past weekend was surreal.  Okay, maybe it was the alcohol, too, but nothing changes the character of moments quite like a blizzard.  Everything is so quiet, and peaceful, even though there is impending doom.  It reminds me of the clips online just before the Christmas 2004 tsunami, when tourists ran out into the sudden low tide on the beaches of Indonesia, not realizing it was the lion’s den.

Monika and I spent the weekend, shut in, with very close friends.  We went to karaoke in Philly on Friday night, and when we left, the snow had just begun to fall.  By Saturday morning, we were practically snowed in at our friends’ apartment, and fled with them to our place.  We had been taking care of my best friend’s house while he was away in Florida visiting his family, and his pets needed our attention.

I had tried to stem the surge of snow with my snowblower, and took care of everyone I was able to on my block.  This repeated until Sunday morning.  I’m still sore from all the shoveling I did, mostly because a lot of my neighbors are single parents.  I’ve lived here for four years and I can’t tell you much more that a handful of my neighbor’s names, but in the face of emergency, names and formalities don’t really matter.  Without asking for anything, my good deeds were rewarded with a case of my favorite beer, Hop Devil, and five loaves of whole wheat bread.

It was an emergency here for several reasons.  In Atco, we got 25″ of snow.  My gazebo collapsed under the weight.  I pushed multiple cars out of their stranded abandon.  When I tried to reach the local supermarket, I was blocked by a fire truck that had run off the road and blocked the entire street.  But, we didn’t lose power, or gas, and though I saw a few wrecks, I didn’t see anyone hurt, or slip on ice, or worse.  I will say that there are more than a few gutters in my neighborhood that need to be replaced, but that ain’t bad for what we were up against.

What is really amazing about something like this is that people come together.  I met people that I’ve never seen before on my block, and we had brotherly bonds for one brief moment, because, in the end, we were equally screwed by Mother Nature.  That just feels right to me.  And, we spent a great deal of time with two friends that really needed a weekend like we had.

One is wrestling with the end of something great in her life, and it’s not going to be easy.  It’s hard to accept that all things come to pass, or change, or evolve for better or worse.  Life is fluid, and closure only comes when we embark upon new horizons.

The other can barely contain herself and is looking to begin a new life, in a new place, with someone she never expected to be with.  That is amazing, and it forces us, ourselves, to swallow the sometimes bitter pill that all things come to an end of sorts.  We hope that it truly means the start of a new relationship that stretches not only far distances, but even further and deeper love.

And in the end, beginnings and endings are not so different after all.  Sometimes the only difference if a change of perspective.  Maybe it comes from someone you know, with encouraging words, or helpful insight.  Sometimes it comes from a simple epiphany when a stranger talks to you on the street one random day.  And sometimes it takes a blizzard of situations, that make us realize we’re all in this together, and we’re better off if we all stick together, in whatever ways we can.

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My Top 15 Concerts of the Past Decade

Posted in Good Times, Reflections with tags , on December 22, 2009 by Verge

A top (fill in here) of the (fill in here).  What a great stop-gap solution for a blog that hasn’t a topic tonight.

Well, in agreement with a conversation I had earlier this week, while it is terribly difficult to rank your favorite moments of an entire decade, simply listing an un-ranked version is a cop-out.  So, I will try, as impossible as it is to rank memories. I want to also stress that I choose, and rank, these concerts not on the quality of the show alone, but have taken into account, heavily, their sentimental value to me personally.  That doesn’t mean that “at this show was the first time I kissed so-and-so” will rank highly, but it certainly does account for the fact that there are exactly 3 Radiohead shows on my list.  I like ’em, I won’t deny they have an unfair advantage, and my list doesn’t pretend to be unbiased–on the contrary, my list is heavily biased.

Before we get started, here’s some brief stats:

77 Total concerts attended in the last decade

13 Radiohead shows attended

7 Shows containing at least one member of the Grateful Dead

4 Smashing Pumpkins, Roger Waters and Mojave 3/Neil Halstead Shows attended

3 Spiritualized, Beth Orton, Bob Dylan, Ozric tentacles, and Ravi Shankar shows attended

13 Shows at E-Center/Tweeter Center/Susquehanna Bank Arts Center

9 Shows at The Electric Factory and The Theatre of Living Arts

5 Shows at The Tower Theater

4 Number of different girlfriends I’ve had over the same time period.  I married the last one.

# 15  Saturday, June 21, 2003     Peter Gabriel     Tweeter Center     Camden, New Jersey (Not the first time I ever saw Peter Gabriel, but he always puts on a damn fine show, and seeing him perform some of the Ovo songs live was pretty amazing)

# 14  Saturday, April 08, 2006     Death Cab For Cutie     Tweeter Center     Camden, New Jersey (Great seats for this one.  Franz Ferdinand opened up.)

# 13  Friday, June 02, 2006     Radiohead     Tower Theater     Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (Tons of new material in such a small venue.  Tickets were damn near impossible to get)

# 12  Thursday, March 19, 2009     The Ting Tings     The Starlight Ballroom     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Small venue to see a band I still believe is going to blow up.  We sat maybe 20 feet from them as they performed.  This show was originally supposed to be at the First Unitarian Church, which would have been great, but the Starlight has 2 dollar Pabst shooters, and you can’t go wrong with that.  Was amazing to see how the two of them alone can pull their music  live.)

# 11  Friday, September 25, 2009     MuteMath     Theater of Living Arts     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (First and only time I’ve seen these guys.  They pulled off some pretty neat tricks themselves, and the sound was spot on.  I love seeing shows at the TLA and always have, but the new and improved TLA is an absolute pleasure.)

# 10  Thursday, April 15, 2004     Damien Rice     Tower Theater     Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (Didn’t think this was going to be one of the besgt shows I’d even seen.  Perhaps it was my low expectations or the 2nd row seats–Damien Rice absolutely rocked, which took me by complete surprise.)

# 9  Friday, August 10, 2007     Muse     Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing     Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Outdoor shows are a bitch for sound.  The week before this show it was dreadfully hot, but all of the sudden, the heat broke and it was cool down by the water.  Cold War Kids opened up, but Muse blew them away.  These guys are amazing.)

# 8  Sunday, August 13, 2000     Summersault 2000     Rideau Carleton Raceway     Ottawa, Canada (I saw two of these shows up in Canada.  The lineup was amazing:  Smashing Pumpkins, Catherine Wheel, who I met, A Perfect Circle, Foo Fighters.  Beautiful Canadian summer festival weather.)

# 7  Sunday, August 05, 2001     Radiohead     Parc Jean Drapeau     Montreal, Canada (Technically not the most amazing Radiohead show ever, but that damn little island, with Montreal as the background, and the hill to relax on..this venue is hard to beat.   If you ever have a chance to see a show here, do it.)

# 6  Monday, June 07, 2004     Les Paul and his Trio     Iridium Night Club     Manhattan, New York City (Seeing Les Paul at all was amazing, but this was his 89th birthday and he definitely was having a celebration.  Afterward, I helped him to his seat to sign autographs, and I now have a Les Paul pick guard that says “To Ryan, keep rockin.”  Perhaps someday I’ll have the guitar to put it on.)

# 5  March 25th, 2009     Neil Halstead     Talking Heads Club     Baltimore, Maryland (This is perhaps the smallest venue I’ve ever seen a concert in.  It wasn’t at the club so much as it was in the basement of the club.  I love Neil Halstead and I really don’t understand why he would fly from England to play a show to 30 people if not for the love of music.  We got him to sign a bunch of Slowdive stuff for us, which he thought was pretty funny.)

# 4  Monday, October 30, 2006     Massive Attack     Tower Theater     Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (These guys, like Portishead, were a band I just figured I was never going to get to see live.)

# 3  Tuesday, June 20, 2000      Ravi Shankar with Anoushka Shankar     Barbican Theater     London, England (I had been in London for three weeks and I really wanted to catch the Ravi Shankar show.  I had checked for tickets and the ones that I could afford were the second balcony at hall which is an opera hall.  Didn’t want to be that far away.  That morning I called and got a pair in the second row!!  Second row to this show was hundreds of dollars, but they let them go for the balcony price as last minute tickets.  It was amazing.  My clothes made it so obvious that I didn’t belong that close to the stage!)

# 2  Saturday, October 08, 2005     Dead Can Dance     Radio City Music Hall     Manhattan, New York City (I saw these guys once before, and then they split up.  Ten years later, they reformed only for this series of concerts and I was thrilled to get to see them again.  And I finally got to see a show at Radio City.)

# 1  Friday, October 10, 2003     Radiohead     Madison Square Garden    Manhattan, New York City (This is a fairly odd choice as it’s the only show I saw alone.  No one wanted to go to NYC with me to see them, again.  I’ve seen them 14 times now, and this is they only time I’ve ever seen them play Creep.  The crowd was so into it, you could barely hear Thom.)

There were a ton of other, very memorable shows in there.  But, then again, the original name of this post was supposed to be Top 10 Concerts…it’s just too damned hard to choose.

If you went to any of these with me, leave me a comment and tell me how the show ranks on your lists.

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Lady Gaga

Posted in Good Times with tags , , on December 7, 2009 by Verge

There was a time when I never, ever missed a single show that I wanted to see.  I would see at least a handful of shows each month, and sometimes, several each week.  That was well before I had a mortgage, two cars, and…well, you know, things other than concerts that need to be paid for.

These days, even though I still browse Pollstar and Ticketmaster, among others,  and make extensive lists of the shows I would like to see, it’s a rarity that Monika and I actually get to attend any of them.  We get to see a good deal of them because of the graciousness of our good friend Jim, who has the occasion to score free tickets and kick them down to us because he is awesome (and has two young children, and is a good husband).

On Thursday we attended the Lady Gaga concert together with 6 of our friends who were lucky enough to have a pre-sale password and score not great, but not horrible seats at the Susquehanna Bank Center, nee the E-Center, in Camden.  Thursday’s show had the back walls on the venue, so it was a relatively smallish to medium sized show for my standards.

So, perhaps one day I’ll also devise a rating system for concerts, since it seems that in my mad compulsions, it is inevitable.  But for now, we are going to get right to the point.  These are my impressions of the concert, which overall I would rate an entertaining show with some great highlights, but much to be desired.

THE PROS:

  1. Lady Gaga unequivocally sings all her songs live  (no lip synching), while dancing, in costume, and performing stage stunts.  This takes a lot of professionalism as far as being a true “entertainer” goes, not to mention she occasionally plays the piano at the same time.
  2. As a true showman (PC advocates, deal with it), she made many costume changes.  This was nice for several reasons.  First, it created an additional level of entertainment.  Next, it gave a minute or two to sit down between small sets of songs to rest while she got changed, which was actually pretty nice.
  3. She had pretty creative stage projections during her costume changes.  They were filmed like short movies, and were projected on a huge, stage wide scrim that they lowered when she exited for a break.  They kept us entertained in a multimedia kind of way, giving us something of substance to watch instead of smoke machines and circular drum machine loops.
  4. Lady Gaga’s show was concise.  To a long time concert goer, this is actually pretty important to me.  Concision is based on several things.  She didn’t waste very much time between songs, and when she had to for a costume change, there was other entertainment.  Furthermore, she did like to tell a short anecdote occasionally, but when she chose to, she kept it pretty short and to the point.  There was no endless rambling, which I can’ stand, nor was there zero crowd interaction whatsoever, which can be equally detached and, frankly, rude.  There was one long, nearly two hour set without an intermission.  Then, for the encore, we only had to wait 5 minutes or so for her to return to play her final two songs, and that was that.
  5. I had no problem with the crowd.  Sure, there was the one really tall girl (must have been 5’10”) that occasionally blocked all of our views, but overall, it was a perfect crowd.  To start, my crowd of 8 people alone was made up of all individuals that I’ve known and liked for some time, thereby avoiding any uncomfortableness.  Plus, really, how upset can a man be in a crowd of 90% women, cheering, singing along, swooning at the male dancers, and generally being perfectly elated?  There was no vying for seat space, fending off drunken douche bags, or having to tell someone to stop yelling because you would actually like to hear the artist you paid to see perform.
  6. The sound was fantastic.  There was a bit too much reverb on her vocals, but that is the only thing I can point out.  The bass bins were powerful enough to shake our insides, the mixes were clear and uncluttered, her vocals, whether on hand-held or headset, sat in the correct place in the mix for a pop diva, and I was happy with the overall dynamics of the show.

Okay, the CONS:

  1. My biggest disappointment of the night, quite frankly, was the shocking lack of musicians!  Okay, so you may not like Lady Gaga’s music, but these are facts:  She began playing piano at age 4;  she was playing open mic nights by 13, playing original compositions a year later; by age 17, she was accepted into the Tisch School of Arts at NYU; at 19, she was signed to Def Jam Records; she performed as a musician for the next few years in NYC clubs; at 21, she was writing original songs for major label acts;  shortly thereafter, her vocal talents convinced major label reps that she should be a performer, rather than a mere composer, for her compositions. Unfortunately, even with those obvious credentials, her show included very little actual musicianship.  It was mostly her background tracks being played over the PA with her singing the lead vocals.  Absent was any actual performance of the songs.  There was no guitar, bass or drum players, no backup singers, and no synth players or programmers.  She sung leads over her own, album-recorded backup vocals.  The lone exceptions were live drums, with a little guitar, on the two lonely songs that she played on a real piano.  Those few songs sounded great, and I truly wished that that setup would have been the majority of the performance, rather than the gimmick it was portrayed as.
  2. She kept bringing this whole “I despise money” thing.  Now, I know that she thinks about money a lot as she has more than one song dedicated to it, but to bring it up over and over during your show is tiresome.  And, let me point out, she was saying how she HATED money, that she absolutely despises it, that it’s what she “hates in the world most.”  C’mon Gaga, I know there were a lot of young teenagers at the show, but they’re not stupid.  She absolutely loves money, and fame, and crazy ass costumes, and record royalties, and Hollywood glamor, and all that shit.  To say that you don’t positively have a love affair with money is hypocritical at best and at worst, shows you have a truly distorted self-image.
  3. Okay, this isn’t really a con so much as an observation.  When I told my boss that I was going to see Lady Gaga, he mentioned that his daughter had really wanted to go to the show.   She’s 8.  This was not a show for an 8 year old.  Of course I expected there to be plenty of “sexual” dances going on, but she was downright vulgar at times.  Like I said, it doesn’t bother me and it didn’t detract from the show.  It’s just odd for a performer to ask the entire crown to “fuck me.”

One more wierd thing that I noticed.  On her website, and online, and at the concert, the name Philadelphia was never mentioned.  Now, we all know that technically the venue IS in Camden, but the show was a Philadelphia show.  It was clear that the promoter, Live Nation, made it absolutely clear to Lady Gaga that she was not to mention the name Philly at all and that she had to, instead, call it Camden every time.  This girl is from NY.  She definitely know that it was her Philadelphia stop on her tour and to have to refer to it over and over as Camden was off-puting.  Not her fault, of course, but strange.

Overall, I enjoyed myself and we all had a good time.  It was a solid 2 hour show that was basically all hits.  She kind of ruined Poker Face by letting that hack Kid Cudi rap over part of it, so that sorta sucked, but I would definitely go again.  That is, if her aversion to money sticks around and tickets don’t double in price as she gains more and more fame.

–~r

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Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the Holidays

Posted in Good Times, Reflections on December 2, 2009 by Verge

On Black Friday, a day that I used to utterly despise when I worked as a manager of a retail store, my best friend, wife and I went out shopping.  No, we didn’t wake up early, at three in the morning, to battle anyone for door-buster deals or the chance at a 200 dollar netbook.  We simply woke up, decided we didn’t care about shopping this year, and went to enter the lions’ cage of retail shopping.

Of course, we did have a few things to look for.  I had my eyes on an 80 dollar blu-ray player at Best Buy, but I had plenty of questions to ask if I could manage to track down an associate.  I was also looking to replace my recently broken display in my studio computer with the 20″, 80 dollar Acer display that they were also advertising.  Kreg was looking for a nice new dummy desktop for his new HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer).  No monitor needed, just a good internet connections, and a good video card.

So, we headed out on Black Friday at 1 PM, and hit up Best buy.  Not crazy crowded, but sold out of monitors and got some info Blu-Ray players;   Kreg checked out some comps, Monika checked some games, and we all left without spending a dime!  First success, as far as I’m concerned.

We hit up BJ’s and Target for some regular shopping, and then moved to the Deptford Mall, an adventurous endeavor.  Honestly, as much as this sounds shallow for us, Monika and I were looking to hit up the fragrance counters for some new perfumes.  I ran out of mine several months ago and haven’t found a new one to replace my old.  Monika, on the other hand, has plenty of her Flowerbomb, but that’s not exactly an everyday, going to teach at a High School kind of fragrance.  We were both in search of something new.

Well, we did find some nice new possibilities, but by the time we ended up in the car, we had pocketfuls of samples, and literally, I was wearing 6, and Monika 8 different fragrances!  This made our car smell like the bathroom at an upscale strip club at best, and at worst, you could only imagine.

Monika and I decided that our cash that day was best spent at Produce Junction on some nice, fresh veggies…34 dollars worth, which is a hell of a lot at that place.  The three of us stopped by the liquor store on the way home.  Kreg and I decided to build our own HTPCs, complete with full internet access, hard drives, HDMI outs, Blu-Ray players and all the bells and whistles.  It’s not only a good deal for the the money, but a fun little hobby that our friends are helping us build.

That night, we hung out with those friends, discussed the specs of our custom comps and played Rock Band for the first time of our lives.  They were well versed, of course, but Kreg and I, lifelong musicians, had never really played.  It was good fun…not as good as the real thing, for sure, but a new experience to share with friends.  And maybe that’s what Black Friday should be all about.  Not about shopping, but remembering that this is the first day of the final days of the year, when spending time with close friends is the warmest, and most memorable time of the year.

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