Hate New York City, Let's leave Chicago to the Eskimos.
Let’s start off with food stuff. It’s easy.
One of the reasons I love LA is because it’s the sushi capitol of the world. And while that’s an easily debatable point coming from me on this blog, these aren’t my words. Most cuisine mags have conceded this. Between the harbor and the marketplace which accepts all kinds of sushi lovers with insatiable palettes that are tied into the very nature of eating sushi, LA has become the forum and this is the time. There may be Sushi joints in the world better than those in LA, but there isn’t a better city on a whole.
My two cents on this comes as such. The best Sushi I have ever had was at the old Sushi Sasbune on Sawtelle in the Western Little Tokyo district (it has since moved to a huge room on Wilshire, in Brentwood, yeck). The restaurant is Omaske style, meaning it’s a fixed menu and only at the end of the course do you order. The motto of the place is “trust me.” Except it’s more of an edict than a suggestion. People have been kicked out for ordering California Rolls. No tempura. No Anglofication of the menu for delicate tastes. This is gourmet from moment one. The AmberJack I had there was so fresh and so delicate I barely had to chew. It’s also one of the few restaurants that isn’t open on the weekends. Why? Because the harbor isn’t open on weekends. They only serve fish on the day they get it.
I have eaten at most of the top Sushi places in LA. Sasabune is the best. And by far. It’s the minimal care about everything except for the food, which is just perfect.
But the cost is usually around $90 with tip. Per person. So it’s cost prohibitive.
Which is why my favorite haunt is Sushi Ya in Culver City (on Sepulveda between Washington and Venice).
It’s got one of the more complete menus in the city for a decent price. Their seared Tuna and Albacore are everything they should be. Their chefs are warm, friendly, and best of all, know their regulars.
But my favorite part? They play Miles Davis. It’s a restaurant that could hold maybe 30 people, it consists of two bars, four tables, and a register. So aside from the quaint setting, when the lead chef Katsu gets into his Omaske menu, and he hit’s with the Uni with the Quail Egg, the rhapsody takes over and the psychotropic buzz of Urchin and Sake mixes (I swear it’s real) and I look around, realize this is a place of regulars who have been coming here for years, and hear Miles and Birth of the Cool. I feel like everything in the world…
++++
And on to the Youtube goodness.
First off:
We here at the Honeycomb Hideout love the Mastodon . Any band that can make a concept album out of Moby Dick and open it with the words “I feel like some one is trying to kill me” gets automatic status. To make the Metal album of the decade in the process makes it all the sweeter.
This video is off the new album Blood Mountain, which I am currently listening to instead of my other purchase of the day, the long awaited “Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor” which after one listen, is everything and more than I hoped. I can’t say enough… until I have listened to it more, then maybe I’ll canonize it or throw chinks in the armor of a dream hip hop album.
But the Wolf is Loose is the first track off the album. And it, like all metal that is very good - great can be classified as “Kick Ass.”
With about the same decent but hesitant confidence I have that the Democrats are going to win the midterm elections this year, I feel the same way that by the end of 2007, Metal will be back in full force. The emo kids are going to get laid, the wiggers are going to go to college, and eventually, the shift is going to go to metal. It’s raw, it’s ass kicking, and it’s immediate.
I say this not out of hope, because Mastodon and The Haunted are the only two metal bands I like these days, while more core bands like Burnt by the Sun are a little too much for me. I tie the midterms into the music scene for only one reason, it’s not even a question of beliefs or taste, but I think the mass are sick of the overload. And sometimes the check decision is to go in a completely different direction. From Pop and hip hop or W Politics, both have their moments, but were a product of the time, there was a comfort level, but we have a reached a level of over saturation and it’s time for something new.
Why am I guessing metal?
Metal Skool has a lot to do with this. I don’t know of anyone in this city that hasn’t heard of the Monday show.
Of all of the tracks on the radio, the one I got the most “Hey have you heard this track, it’s different I kind of like it” conversation openings about was about Avenged Sevenfold and their single “Bat Country.” My opinion on this is tainted. The video creeped the shit out of me, and I first heard the song on Madden 06. With those two factors, I have to remove myself from the conversation. They suck. Maybe. They don’t suck. Equally likely. But this was something different, and it was a song that tapped a vein in people.
If this generation has one common trait about anything, it’s anger. Yeah, I’m stereotyping here, but while the boomers acted defiant, when people my age talk about most things, there is some level of anger about how things go. Maybe it’s the polarized culture due to the Partisan Politics, or argument shows like PTI or Crossfire which reduce news items to arguments.
And I’m not going to lie, PTI is one of my favorite shows, simply because when it comes to sports, arguments work because there are numbers to back it up… and then it’s opinion. This could only work in politics if it was a history show. Which, I am not going to lie, I would watch:
Hannity: Chamberlain was the worst leader ever. He gave everything to the Nazi’s.
Jerry Seinfeld: Chamberlain was the high school dork of WWII. You put his head in the toilet and he’d give you half of Europe.
Stewart: As bad as he was, Chamberlain still wasn’t as bad as Stalin. 50 million of his own people killed! Even if you include the Holocaust Hitler didn’t even cause that many deaths. And at least Chamberlain’s failure led to Churchill’s second election. That was what won the war in the European Theater on the Eastern Front. Forget D-Day and the Yanks, the Brit resolve was what turned the Italians, and then help for the end of the North African control and the shrinking of the Reich’s borders.
Hannity: That’s a Liberal for you, always taking the cautious side. If I was in Neville’s place I would have nuked them.
George Costanza: I once ran from a fire at a kids party, but even I know that the bomb wasn’t an option until the Manhattan Project worked White Sands in 1943. Or was it 44.
Ann Coulter: If W was president, he would have killed them. If Reagan was there, he would have simply marched to the Eagles Nest and told Mr. Hitler to tear the camps down. God Bless Ron Reagan.
Apu: I don’t know which part of that sentence to correct first.
Dick Cavett: Well, we’re going to have to take a break, and maybe, agree to disagree. Any thoughts Dave.
David Letterman (played by Norm MacDonald): ehhh, you got any gum? WOOOOOO. Arliss!
Paul Schaffer: ha. Arliss.
Karnak The Magnificent: *holds envelope to head* The Holy Grail, Enron, and Al Gore’s Favorite shade.
*blows into envelope*
A dream, a scheme, and the color green.
Sorry to digress. But I’d bet somewhere around 4-1 the music scene shifts to metal.
Other music notes:
Loving the Guillemots album Through the Window Pane. Gotta thank Jimmy @ www.greenpeaness.org for that.
But for all that albums brilliance, I am loving Razorlight and their self titled second album all the more. It’s really the best album Squeeze never made. For all of the talk about groups emulating certain periods, I am going to put this out there: why care about time and place? If an album by the Strokes is good, why take it down by comparing it to a Television rip off. If you like the Artic Monkeys, don’t include artists like the Replacements as comparisons to where they got it from, just say it sounds like it. More can be made if every music guy, like myself, but I’m not, wasn’t trying to degrade their enjoyment by unfair classification.
I love the Strokes. Who cares about anything they were influenced by.
I love the Drive By Truckers. So what if they did an entire album about Lynyrd Skynyrd. They know what they like, and they arethe best band in the world
So what if Razorlight makes an album that sounds like it could be released alongside the Mats. It’s a good to great album. Leave history to judge. The era of irony may have passed, but the era of unsure sniping is in full swing.
++++
Yet I’ll close on a good note.
Monday night produced one of the greatest games baseball has ever seen.
The scene:
Bottom of the 9th. Dodgers down 9-5.
And then this.
Four homers. Back to back to back to back. That’s the… ahh forget it. As much as I love hyperbole, this doesn’t need anything else.
Which is why I am posting this as well.
Let it load and go to the 6:10 mark. When Vince Scully resumes his broadcast with an instantly legendary “I forgot to tell you… The Dodgers are in first place.”
I flirted with switching from the Cubs to the Dodgers when I spent my first full year out here in 2002. They were in a pennant race, they had a hated and hatable rival in the Giants and the awful Barry Bonds. But I didn’t like any of the players. I didn’t’ grow up with any of them. But the Dodgers had Vin Scully.
That was almost enough. And had I heard a postseason, I may have switched. Only because of Vin.
No one will ever be as good as Vin Scully. No one. If anyone represents the greatness and the heart of America, it’s Vin Scully, and he does it the most basic of American sense, by quality. No flashiness, no gimmicks, just greatness day in and day out. The man who helped sell more radios than music itself, the golden voice… just being the best because he never tried to do anything but do his part.
Just watch. And then listen. Scully knows that he can’t add anything to the moment. And while I realized that I am doing what he didn’t, build the spectacle, that’s why it’s so special. That little bit of humility, the “I forgot to tell you..” Jesus, by doing nothing he makes it all the better.
He’s not a hero, but he’s equally important in the scheme of things, he gives us heroes when we need them most. And with not for the slightest of thoughts, he makes it all the more special.
One of the reasons I love LA is because it’s the sushi capitol of the world. And while that’s an easily debatable point coming from me on this blog, these aren’t my words. Most cuisine mags have conceded this. Between the harbor and the marketplace which accepts all kinds of sushi lovers with insatiable palettes that are tied into the very nature of eating sushi, LA has become the forum and this is the time. There may be Sushi joints in the world better than those in LA, but there isn’t a better city on a whole.
My two cents on this comes as such. The best Sushi I have ever had was at the old Sushi Sasbune on Sawtelle in the Western Little Tokyo district (it has since moved to a huge room on Wilshire, in Brentwood, yeck). The restaurant is Omaske style, meaning it’s a fixed menu and only at the end of the course do you order. The motto of the place is “trust me.” Except it’s more of an edict than a suggestion. People have been kicked out for ordering California Rolls. No tempura. No Anglofication of the menu for delicate tastes. This is gourmet from moment one. The AmberJack I had there was so fresh and so delicate I barely had to chew. It’s also one of the few restaurants that isn’t open on the weekends. Why? Because the harbor isn’t open on weekends. They only serve fish on the day they get it.
I have eaten at most of the top Sushi places in LA. Sasabune is the best. And by far. It’s the minimal care about everything except for the food, which is just perfect.
But the cost is usually around $90 with tip. Per person. So it’s cost prohibitive.
Which is why my favorite haunt is Sushi Ya in Culver City (on Sepulveda between Washington and Venice).
It’s got one of the more complete menus in the city for a decent price. Their seared Tuna and Albacore are everything they should be. Their chefs are warm, friendly, and best of all, know their regulars.
But my favorite part? They play Miles Davis. It’s a restaurant that could hold maybe 30 people, it consists of two bars, four tables, and a register. So aside from the quaint setting, when the lead chef Katsu gets into his Omaske menu, and he hit’s with the Uni with the Quail Egg, the rhapsody takes over and the psychotropic buzz of Urchin and Sake mixes (I swear it’s real) and I look around, realize this is a place of regulars who have been coming here for years, and hear Miles and Birth of the Cool. I feel like everything in the world…
++++
And on to the Youtube goodness.
First off:
We here at the Honeycomb Hideout love the Mastodon . Any band that can make a concept album out of Moby Dick and open it with the words “I feel like some one is trying to kill me” gets automatic status. To make the Metal album of the decade in the process makes it all the sweeter.
This video is off the new album Blood Mountain, which I am currently listening to instead of my other purchase of the day, the long awaited “Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor” which after one listen, is everything and more than I hoped. I can’t say enough… until I have listened to it more, then maybe I’ll canonize it or throw chinks in the armor of a dream hip hop album.
But the Wolf is Loose is the first track off the album. And it, like all metal that is very good - great can be classified as “Kick Ass.”
With about the same decent but hesitant confidence I have that the Democrats are going to win the midterm elections this year, I feel the same way that by the end of 2007, Metal will be back in full force. The emo kids are going to get laid, the wiggers are going to go to college, and eventually, the shift is going to go to metal. It’s raw, it’s ass kicking, and it’s immediate.
I say this not out of hope, because Mastodon and The Haunted are the only two metal bands I like these days, while more core bands like Burnt by the Sun are a little too much for me. I tie the midterms into the music scene for only one reason, it’s not even a question of beliefs or taste, but I think the mass are sick of the overload. And sometimes the check decision is to go in a completely different direction. From Pop and hip hop or W Politics, both have their moments, but were a product of the time, there was a comfort level, but we have a reached a level of over saturation and it’s time for something new.
Why am I guessing metal?
Metal Skool has a lot to do with this. I don’t know of anyone in this city that hasn’t heard of the Monday show.
Of all of the tracks on the radio, the one I got the most “Hey have you heard this track, it’s different I kind of like it” conversation openings about was about Avenged Sevenfold and their single “Bat Country.” My opinion on this is tainted. The video creeped the shit out of me, and I first heard the song on Madden 06. With those two factors, I have to remove myself from the conversation. They suck. Maybe. They don’t suck. Equally likely. But this was something different, and it was a song that tapped a vein in people.
If this generation has one common trait about anything, it’s anger. Yeah, I’m stereotyping here, but while the boomers acted defiant, when people my age talk about most things, there is some level of anger about how things go. Maybe it’s the polarized culture due to the Partisan Politics, or argument shows like PTI or Crossfire which reduce news items to arguments.
And I’m not going to lie, PTI is one of my favorite shows, simply because when it comes to sports, arguments work because there are numbers to back it up… and then it’s opinion. This could only work in politics if it was a history show. Which, I am not going to lie, I would watch:
Hannity: Chamberlain was the worst leader ever. He gave everything to the Nazi’s.
Jerry Seinfeld: Chamberlain was the high school dork of WWII. You put his head in the toilet and he’d give you half of Europe.
Stewart: As bad as he was, Chamberlain still wasn’t as bad as Stalin. 50 million of his own people killed! Even if you include the Holocaust Hitler didn’t even cause that many deaths. And at least Chamberlain’s failure led to Churchill’s second election. That was what won the war in the European Theater on the Eastern Front. Forget D-Day and the Yanks, the Brit resolve was what turned the Italians, and then help for the end of the North African control and the shrinking of the Reich’s borders.
Hannity: That’s a Liberal for you, always taking the cautious side. If I was in Neville’s place I would have nuked them.
George Costanza: I once ran from a fire at a kids party, but even I know that the bomb wasn’t an option until the Manhattan Project worked White Sands in 1943. Or was it 44.
Ann Coulter: If W was president, he would have killed them. If Reagan was there, he would have simply marched to the Eagles Nest and told Mr. Hitler to tear the camps down. God Bless Ron Reagan.
Apu: I don’t know which part of that sentence to correct first.
Dick Cavett: Well, we’re going to have to take a break, and maybe, agree to disagree. Any thoughts Dave.
David Letterman (played by Norm MacDonald): ehhh, you got any gum? WOOOOOO. Arliss!
Paul Schaffer: ha. Arliss.
Karnak The Magnificent: *holds envelope to head* The Holy Grail, Enron, and Al Gore’s Favorite shade.
*blows into envelope*
A dream, a scheme, and the color green.
Sorry to digress. But I’d bet somewhere around 4-1 the music scene shifts to metal.
Other music notes:
Loving the Guillemots album Through the Window Pane. Gotta thank Jimmy @ www.greenpeaness.org for that.
But for all that albums brilliance, I am loving Razorlight and their self titled second album all the more. It’s really the best album Squeeze never made. For all of the talk about groups emulating certain periods, I am going to put this out there: why care about time and place? If an album by the Strokes is good, why take it down by comparing it to a Television rip off. If you like the Artic Monkeys, don’t include artists like the Replacements as comparisons to where they got it from, just say it sounds like it. More can be made if every music guy, like myself, but I’m not, wasn’t trying to degrade their enjoyment by unfair classification.
I love the Strokes. Who cares about anything they were influenced by.
I love the Drive By Truckers. So what if they did an entire album about Lynyrd Skynyrd. They know what they like, and they arethe best band in the world
So what if Razorlight makes an album that sounds like it could be released alongside the Mats. It’s a good to great album. Leave history to judge. The era of irony may have passed, but the era of unsure sniping is in full swing.
++++
Yet I’ll close on a good note.
Monday night produced one of the greatest games baseball has ever seen.
The scene:
Bottom of the 9th. Dodgers down 9-5.
And then this.
Four homers. Back to back to back to back. That’s the… ahh forget it. As much as I love hyperbole, this doesn’t need anything else.
Which is why I am posting this as well.
Let it load and go to the 6:10 mark. When Vince Scully resumes his broadcast with an instantly legendary “I forgot to tell you… The Dodgers are in first place.”
I flirted with switching from the Cubs to the Dodgers when I spent my first full year out here in 2002. They were in a pennant race, they had a hated and hatable rival in the Giants and the awful Barry Bonds. But I didn’t like any of the players. I didn’t’ grow up with any of them. But the Dodgers had Vin Scully.
That was almost enough. And had I heard a postseason, I may have switched. Only because of Vin.
No one will ever be as good as Vin Scully. No one. If anyone represents the greatness and the heart of America, it’s Vin Scully, and he does it the most basic of American sense, by quality. No flashiness, no gimmicks, just greatness day in and day out. The man who helped sell more radios than music itself, the golden voice… just being the best because he never tried to do anything but do his part.
Just watch. And then listen. Scully knows that he can’t add anything to the moment. And while I realized that I am doing what he didn’t, build the spectacle, that’s why it’s so special. That little bit of humility, the “I forgot to tell you..” Jesus, by doing nothing he makes it all the better.
He’s not a hero, but he’s equally important in the scheme of things, he gives us heroes when we need them most. And with not for the slightest of thoughts, he makes it all the more special.
posted by Indiana at
11:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home