Afro Season

So. My hair fro'd out again. It's been three months since I had my hairs cut. And it's definitely got that bushy bushy thing going on.

I, for one, embrace the bushy bushy. A full head of hair at my age is alright. I work a weird job where hairstyles seem to be accepted in all styles (though no other afros!), so why the ef not?

This time, I decided to name it. So say hello, meet Harris. Previously known as "the Beavis". Also been referred to by a former half-black co-worker as "The Biscuit". It's not a true fro in the sense that it's not curly curly, but shit, it does have some lollipop properties. Everyone can pat it, just not at the same time because my head's not that big. Yet!

This is It

Saw the Michael Jackson movie two weeks ago. Wanted to catch that sucka while it was still in the theaters as I may have missed it otherwise. The question had long loomed in my head, assuming he hadn't died, was MJ physically able to make a comeback, and if so, would it really have been all that? And also, how ridiculous was the set to be?

The flick was entertaining. Hard to call it a complete movie as it really seemed to be the content for an additional disc that would have accompanied live concert footage. Started with the dancers auditioning, the moved on to a lot of rehearsal footage. Here, MJ showed that he was in fact in good shape, moving around like the liquid alien he was. Just trying out ideas it seemed at times, it still looked very complete and would have looked very impressive in the live setting.

For each song, they played one complete musical take and then synced up multiple video takes - sometimes side by side, sometimes part by part (a verse here, a chorus there). Also had some interesting behind the scenes stuff, such as dancers working with trainers, MJ checking out the set, trying out the pyrotechnics, filming the new videos. Perhaps the most interesting was seeing MJ working with the band, working out a very down tempo, dreamlike version of the intro to The Way You Make Me Feel, which may have been the moment that I made me think, shit, this guy's a genius (and an alien!).

The band was huge - two of everything, one on each side of the stage. The hot blond guitarist Orianthi Panagaris completely shredded through the Van Halen solo in Beat It, and there's a scene later on where MJ was all, "This is where you shine. Shine for me".

Set was huge, of course. There were cherry pickers, holes in the floor that could shoot people up, a huge video backdrop that would have featured an all-3D extra for Thriller, explosions, fireworks, a bulldozer, and god knows what else. Hardly transportable, hence keeping the shows in London. They didn't really go into the specifics of the set, but it was easy to get the gist of it all from the movie.

And that's it, this was it. What could have been a comeback of a lifetime turned into an abrupt career end and a huge financial burden for anyone invested - I'm sure any figure there is MJ sized, astronomically (hey, he was an alien after all!)

Freakin' Mario Bros.

Hooked on the brothers? I am. And so is Reiko. We're both dorks! And it's awesome. It's our new evening spectacular: forget crappy television programming, we've got New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

For the first time ever, we've found our game that we can play side by side - the co-op nature works beautifully. The gameplay is straight-up old school Mario: 2D side-scrolling with collecting as much loot as possible along the way before making it to the flag pole.

And it's total fan service this time, bringing back all the best elements of SMB3 and SMW (Yoshi!), and adding that to the formula crafted for New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. The new power-ups are also sweet; the beanie propeller hat may be best form of flying yet as it can really save your ass, and the penguin suit's special sliding and swimming abilities, coupled with the ability to throw ice, also make it a well-balanced suit.

Finished the game last Friday but going back now to unlock everything and get all the coins. Just completed through world 3 yesterday, working on 4 now. I'm an addict: I can't stop until I've got everything this time.

Live Report: Skeleton Key & Jesus Lizard

Forgot to tell you that I saw Jesus Lizard on Monday night. Fucking awesome, down and dirty. I don't know how I missed out on them (and the Melvins) while growing up, but they're right they're in the same vein that spawned out Bleach. Anyway, David Yow is a total nut live and was diving into the stage (with wired mic) every other song, and came back to stage early on with a huge gash in his face, blood running down his face and hands. Hell yeah.

The write up on Brooklyn Vegan summed it up well:

"[It's hard to] understand how frontman David Yow & Co. have managed to bring back this band - essentially dormant since 1999 - with this much ferocity. Yow may be 10 years older and a bit worse for wear, but the man caterwauls with an intensity that most 20 year old pretty boys will never match. The Irving crowd - a good portion of whom, at this 16+ show, were not even born when this band began in 1987 - remained in a frenzy throughout the set, turning the Irving floor into a thrashing sea of bodies, flying beers and more than a few sets of broken eyeglasses. While Yow stage-dove, mic in hand, the band delivered their tightly wound hardcore like the experts they are. Covering a range of the band's catalog and with two encores, the 23-song set gave audience members a lot to scream about."

Indeed.

Skeleton Key was also rather bad ass, had this minor chord stylings that to me sounded a lot like Failure. Didn't realize how long they had been around - some white hair men in their band. Liked their noise percussionist, who was bangin' on some gas tanks, sheets of metal, and other rusty objects that I can only assume requires a good tetanus booster shot on a regular basis. The main drummer could have done a bit more though.

Martha Martha Martha!

Early up today to do something a lil' bit different: attend a live taping of the Martha Stewart show at her theater in Chelsea. Never had been to a live taping before, but it was pretty awesome sitting in the audience. Very large and spacious studio, very well lit with these huge overhead light boxes. The "windows" in the background gave a nice shot of NY that wasn't really there but were lit well. There was also a warm up guy who was probably coked up (with a name like Joey Cola, how could he not be?) and got everyone hootin' and hollerin' at 9am.

Today's theme: Thanksgiving Side Dishes. Awesome.

But the "king" in my opinion was the savory roast pork crown. Hot holy Jesus did that thing look good. Had never seen one before. They even made gold pantaloons for its (awwwww!).

Here's the segments, videos from today should be live soon:

Roast pork crown
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/crown-roast

Green Bean Casserole
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/green-bean-casserole-edf

Creamy Califlower Puree
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/creamy-cauliflower-puree

Root Vegetable Gratin
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/root-vegetable-gratin

Crafts: Hand Bleached Place Mats (this was cool)
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/hand-bleached-place-mats

A couple of lame things though:
1. Martha is pretty much a bitch. During the set, she had a scene where she was talking with another special guest. And cut her off at everything she said. Second time, at the end, a girl was asking how to make a good pie crust ("they come out either too flakey or too runny. what should i do?") and after asking her if she read and followed her (Martha's) recipe, she said "If you're illiterate then there's nothing I can do for you". Crap damn.

2. No free samples! The beans smelled so good while cooking, and that roast looked awesome. None for us.

3. The camera man did not swoop on our section during the commercials! We were the only section left out. Made us all feel ugly.

A couple of cool things:
1. I got out of work to do this. Awesome.

2. Free stuff: a free 8.5-quart stainless steel casserole pot, a special knife for spreading peanut butter and cleaning out the jar, a packet of bouillon, cooking chocolate, a bag of peanuts, and some hand creams. Awwright!

So anyway, it was a very enjoyable alternative to work today, and really, I'd go to just about any tv set just to see the so-called magic that is show business.

The End of Baseball

For the first time in I couldn't tell you how long, I followed the post-season of baseball a bit more closely this year. And with of course, due reason: the yanks were in it for the long haul. Never been a Yankees fan before. I still oppose their greedy get rich scheme by charging out the wazoo for tickets. But they are international superstars, and I guess I can appreciate them for that, so this year, I gave in and became a semi-fan. I'm not a fan, but a well-wisher in that I don't wish them any particular harm. Actually, I enjoyed Cliff Lee driving them up the wall and getting personal back-to-back wins. Game 1 was insane, he was a god on a mountain.

But then, there was the Gorilla. Fucking Matsui, the Designated Hitter. How American League! But game 6, whoa boy. Three consecutive at-bats with 2 RBI's each time? Outta control. The pride ran high: R was shouting with excitement, a sense of nationalism only experienced when you're on the other side of the world and you watch one of your own deliver the goods. Totally deserved it too, with his contract ending at the end of season. Talk about kicking it up a few notches for a performance review.

And so that's it: we're left with football and then it's good bye sports until the weather warms up.

Halloween Forever Part 2

A nice Halloween, this one. Decided to go for the local party this time and ended up at the den of the Northeast Kingdom, a quick 3 blocks away. Love how I can walk down the street and end up in this totally midwest looking downstairs den. A friend's ex was playing drums in the band, which put on a good two sets, the first of which was a sleazy, 70's style porn throwback complete with a wah-wah and some slithery bass played by a drag queen. They have Yuengling out of a can, good portions of spicy beef jerky, and two meat pies, each order cost only $3 each. Deal.

Decided I had enough of that by the end of the first set and was getting itchy from all the facepoint. Thick oil on the face can't be good for my wimp ass skin. So I went home, took some final pics, and got cleaned up - to go back out and get in the middle of a construction zone that had 9 active cement mixers pouring concrete into my train station. Lots of awesome diesel noise, also some good blue collar new yorkers that came up to me: "what's the scoooah?" (yankees vs phillies game 3), "what's that foooah?".

Next day: sunny and awesome. Bottled up the Oktoberfest, so that's in line now. Appearance and smell alone gave me good hopes that this one perhaps came out better than the last batch, but now it's the part where we play the waiting game. The bitch! Afterwards, we headed down to Prospect Park, our first time since leaving the place. Totally gorgeous day for it, got there around 3:30 or so and just walked along trails we had never gone before. Spent some time feeding the ducks, geese, and swans, and got some excellent field recordings of them with my new Zoom H2. Made our way up to the northern part of the park and tossed the frisbee around during sunset, which was like 5:03pm - so dark so early. Good thing my frisbee glows in the dark, so we got some extra mileage there. Completely dark by the time we made it out of the park.

Got some pics from the weekend up on facebook.

And check out the ducks, geese and swans! There's some rippin' radimatudes in there, listen for the Prudence-like urp urp urps.