#92 - leery of denis.

it's no secret that this past year, i've been doing my share of tv watching & have declared my undying love for a number of fx series--damages, it's always sunny..., sons of anarchy, the shield--but until recently, i've held out on rescue me. i have a love/hate relationship with denis leary. back in college, i chose to read no cure for cancer as part of my american humor class. it's pretty funny, but the shtick bores me & sometimes annoys me. i decided to give the show a shot regardless. i took in the first season over the last few weeks, but yesterday, i barreled through the second season & um, HOLY CRAP.  the shtick doesn't bother me at all.             

i really like it. the show focuses on a firehouse in manhattan just after 9/11. peeps are having all sorts of issues exacerbated by the 9/11 baggage. leary's character is in a marriage that's fallen apart & he starts getting it on with his cousin's widow (via 9/11). the other members of the crew include a guy who starts writing poetry, a guy who falls for the only female member of the crew, the chief, whose son is a gay firefighter in boston & whose wife is suffering from alzheimers, a guy who falls for a "fat chick" (a girl who i definitely saw in my hood this weekend) & a guy who perpetuallly wanders through hookups. there are a number of other stories going on at all times, told through reality, religion, ghosts, hallucinations & dreams. it has a manly feel, but gets into the feelings of men.  for those interested in men, um, hot firefighters talking about their feelings.

my dad's father was a fire chief in chelsea, mass, just north of boston & logan. he definitely saw people die in the line of duty & his loyalty to the people he worked with is evident in the stories he tells. i've gone down the white collar tract, but there isn't a month that passes where i don't wonder what it'd be like to know a trade--welding, firefighting, anything in construction--instead of spending my weekly 10-6 in an office. to be honest, i didn't really consider my grandfather' profession until i started watching the show, but damn...the shit these characters on a tv show deal with, i'd be a mess.

luckily, i have two and a half more seasons to keep me busy, because i'm hooked. it's funny & smart & stupid and when it tiptoes into sentimentality, it's usually in a good way. my mom's mom died after a bout with alzheimer's, so by the end of the eighth episode of the second season, at the end of a bbq for his son's boyfriend, when the chief is accepting of the circumstances & dancing with his wife and his son & boyfriend are dancing beside them & all the crazy shit that alzheimers thrusts upon families is set aside for the moment, i totally broke down. oh the crumbling human body & oh to grow old with someone.

#92 - leery of denis.
snack: madhouse munchies fire sweet mesquite bbq chips
drink: anchor steam summer beer


how friggin coincidentally perfect that the only snack left in my cupboard saturday night was a bag of madhouse munchies fire sweet mesquite bbq chips. it's got "fire" & "madhouse" in the name, so that's rescue me in a nutshell. i'm usually skeptical of anything mesquite, but these had an appealing sweetness to them & were actually pretty good. they're kettle cooked, which seems to be the way to go these days.  it gives the chips ten times the crunch of a lame lays potato chip.

a bonus: these chips aren't all greasy & smeared with flavor like some other kettle chips.  this is slightly weird to me, given that they're made in colchester, vt & most of the people i know from that area are wicked greasy & smeared with flavor.  jk vermont!  lol!  one thing i do know about colchester...winooski broke away from it back in 1922.  those crazy secessionist winooskians.  go spartans!

as for tonight's beverage, the anchor steam summer beer, it's not as firefighting related as i'd have hoped for, but it's out of san fran, a city which, given the attention that the show pays to male identity & the way it deals with homosexuality, it seems perfect anyhow.  it's a wheat beer that has a light, summery taste & a smidgen of flavor to it.  i could definitely drink a few of these on a hot summer day...perfect for both the gay & non-gay beer drinker.

luckily, it's almost summer & it's going to get so hot out here in the nyc any day now that things will start bursting into flames right on the streets...& firefighters will be there.  down in lower manhattan, at ground zero, there will still be a hole in the ground, but you will be able to get a t-shirt that shows you what used to be there.  you can probably get a bootleg FDNY cap there too.  final destination of proceeds is unknown.

nosh nook #45 - friday, may 15, 2009

vancouver mayor pays up after lost hockey bet to chicago counterpart (link)
05.14.09 - vancouver sun - by gerry bellett

yesterday was a sad day for my hometown boston bruins, as they exited the playoffs after losing to the carolina hurricanes in game 7, in overtime, with the winning goal scored by the same guy who had sucker punched a bruins player just two games earlier, possibly breaking a bone in his face. on monday night, the vancouver canucks suffered a similar fate, as they were bounced from the playoffs by the chicago blackhawks, 7-5.

as gerry bellett reports, yesterday, his hometown mayor--gregor robertson--made good on a bet he had with chicago mayor richard m. daley, where the mayor of the losing city had to send a package of local food & drink to the mayor of the winning city. robertson shipped daley "cases of beer from molson’s, granville island brewery and storm brewing; musqueam first nations smoked salmon; dried morel mushrooms from pacific rim mushrooms; chocolates from bad girl and purdy’s; que pasa hand-cut organic tortilla chips; vegetarian blueberry sauce from thai princess and a couple of cartons of the mayor’s own happy planet fruit juices." HOLY CRAP. you can leave that molson's junk up in canada, but i would eat the hell out of everything else in that gift bag. daley's sending robertson a consolation prize--chicago beer & sausages.  sorry chicago, but i'd much rather have the vancouver stuff.

it makes me chuckle a little bit. to an outsider like myself, robertson & daley seem to be from two completely different planets. robertson presides over the most marijuana friendly city in canada, gets to oversee the city during the 2010 olympic games & is the co-founder of happy planet, an organic food & drink company. daley is chicago irish & the son of the notorious richard daley. he's also a year-and-a-half away from beating his father out of the title of longest-serving mayor in chicago history. he's trying to get the 2016 olympic games, may be the most powerful mayor in the country & is definitely no stranger to controversy...a totally different planet--the daley planet.

#91 - artsy fartsy.

when i was but a wee lad, i used to spend many vacations with my mom's parents in westboro, mass, located on the east edge of worcester county. of my childhood stories, one of the ones that i enjoy telling the most is about how one summer, while staying with them, i decided that i was going to draw a series of pictures of fruits in crayon on 8 1/2" x 11" paper. the lemon, red grapes, the apple, the grapefruit--they were all there. when i completed the series, i cut them out & delivered them to all their neighbors. the result: my art was exhibited on the fridges of a one block radius of westboro for weeks.

since then, other than writing, my artistic output & inspiration comes in sporadic spurts. in college & the few years after, when i was still using my film degree, i churned out five scripts for feature films, all currently in various stages of re-draft. back in 2003-04, spurred by a layoff & a sizable severance package, i took a few months off & crudely home-recorded three albums & a couple of eps/singles under the currently-retired moniker "wunderkind." during that time, i also assembled a series of three twenty page or so pamphlets, all labeled "government issued book," covering topics such as "how to be a good patriot," "how to be a rockstar" and "the pigeon initiative." through the years, there have also been a few times when i dabbled in pastel drawings or fancied myself a painter...totally artsy.

there's this one canvas i've had sitting on my floor for months, painted with one solid color as a background but otherwise bare. i've been staring at it for some time, not knowing what to do with it until friday night, when i was feeling inspired & was staying in after a week that included a few positive events & some actual social activity, some of it with interesting artist types. i'm happy with the results so far & will probably finish it up this weekend.  since it's my habit of eventually giving away all my finished super-awesome paintings (hey, hang this crazy thing on your wall!), i'm assuming it'll end up in someone's abode, on their wall or in their closet sometime soon...unless i get fickle between now & then.

i suppose these artistic spurts come from this part of me, the part that's bored with what's out there artistically & is trying to fill that void by creating something of my own.  it's the same part that enjoys taking photos at weird angles & then running them through fifty photoshop filters to see what happens.  par example, i took this one on friday night on a run to the bodega...



totally artsy.

#91 - artsy fartsy.
snack: deep river snacks asian sweet & spicy potato chips
drink: tanner's jack fine ale


while i was painting, every time i stepped back from the canvas to assess my progress & give myself a pat on the back, i munched from a bag of deep river snacks asian sweet & spicy potato chips. deep river snacks, based out of old lyme (disease), connecticut, uses all natural ingredients in their products and embraces the kettle chip, which i'm all for. coming from a state whose population is approx 3% asian, i'm impressed that they were able to get the flavor right...actually, maybe "right" isn't the right word.

by "right," i mean that they've created a flavor that's pretty much the same thing as the kettle chips' spicy thai flavor, with a blend of spices that doesn't remind me of anything specifically asian, but is damn tasty regardless.  unfortunately, i only bought a 1.5 oz bag, as that's the only size they had at the cafe i found myself purchasing snacks in after leaving a wednesday night roof deck concert performance/gathering in williamsburg...that's right! williamsburg, brooklyn!  i'm so damn hip...and totally artsy.

since painting & drinking go together like jackson pollock & a bottle of whiskey or scotch or gin or vodka or wine, i'm having a tanner's jack fine ale with these feisty asian chips. tanner's is made by greene king brewery, the same u.k. gents who make old speckled hen ale & a ton of other brands, a number of which were acquired through a series of takeovers that has made them the u.k.'s largest british-owned brewery.

the flavor leaves something to be desired.  i purchased it at a reputable establishment with a beer selection that turns over rather quickly, so i'm going to assume that the slightly bitter/slightly skunky taste is what they're going for flavorwise.  it's like a good newcastle gone bad...must be one of those "acquired tastes," like something by lars von trier...bitter & meant to be experienced, not enjoyed, probably just misunderstood.

#88 - (rice dream).

they love me like I was a brother. they protect me, listen to me. they dug me my very own garden, gave me sunshine, made me happy. rice dream. rice dream. rice dream.   - radiohead

growing up in new hampshire, i followed all four major sports religiously (go statistics!) and my favorite teams were the hometown celts (basketball), bruins (hockey) and red sox (baseball) & the san fran 49ers (football)...nobody liked the patriots back then. they were awful...although...mosi tatupu! two of my favorite athletes growing up were hall of fame red sox outfielder jim rice (second only to dewey) & 49er wide receiver jerry rice, quite possibly the greatest receiver in nfl history...and classy. jim rice was sort of an ass to reporters, but compared to nowadays, it reminds me of a quaint time when professional athletes didn't kill people & have tragic breakdowns.

when i moved to nyc back in 01, within a few months, i randomly ran into a high school friend who i had dated for two weeks back in high school before i knew a damn thing about girls. we decided to meet up soon after at rice restaurant for dinner, but in the end, ended up somewhere else. then we hung out a few times after that, randomly ran into each other again at penn station taking the LIRR in from brooklyn during the 2005 MTA strike...

flash forward to 2007...i'd never managed to make it to any of the rice locales in the city, but i started working in d.u.m.b.o. and there's a rice restaurant there, so i finally tried it out. although it's a bit pricey for the portion, the veggie meatballs with black rice are friggin amazing. if i ever go crazy & become a serial killer & end up on death row, that might be my last meal...as long as i can get two orders worth.

present day...the rice name holds faded sway in american society. there's condoleezza "double z" rice, who after becoming the first black secretary of state, presided under the 2nd half of one of the worst periods of foreign relations in american history. there's anne rice, who after becoming a huge favorite with her vampire chronicles, decided to only write for jesus & left the ravaged new orleans that had been her home & inspiration for many years. then there's damien rice. he's always been pretty lame, but has some sway in ireland & some other countries.

#88 - (rice dream).
snack: riceworks wasabi gourmet brown rice crisps
drink: beer lao lager


in honor of rice, i picked up a bag of riceworks wasabi gourmet brown rice crisps.  on the front, they promise "a mouth journey." who doesn't want a mouth journey?  they're all vegan/celiac/gluten-friendly & made with brown rice, which makes them all thick & crunchy. since i'm the type of guy who fills his soy sauce with wasabi & sucks down wasabi peas like they're made up of the meaning of life, i found the flavor to be quite awesome.  it stands out nicely, but there's a prominent brown rice flavor as well, which is solid.

also, if you have some free time, you should check out the totally un-catholic guilt-o-meter on their website.  holy crap it is hilariously good fun.  it's amazing what you can do with the internet.  plus, who doesn't love a little guilt?  fun?  guilty as charged!

since the wasabi chips are spicetastic, i decided to crack open the can of beer lao lager to ease the pain. unfortunately, the can had other plans. when i pulled at the tab, it bent limply without piercing the can. i tried twisting it a bit & eventually, it just snapped off, leaving me with the smiley face pictured below. mr smiley & i had a nice joint chuckle over the scenario in the echo of my empty kitchen. then i grabbed a butter knife, stabbed at that can with authority & drained its foaminess into a glass, pseudo-shotgun style.


it's a beer from laos brewed with jasmine rice & basically, it's a light beer, more like a pilsner than a lager. it reminds me of singha, which is basically a slightly better budweiser, which is basically a slightly better water. it comes from a brewery started by the french & is apparently the national beer of laos.  there's this npr story about their brewmaster, sivilay lasachack, who wants to make it global...just like budweiser. they're now owned by carlsberg (whose website puts the words "probably the best website in the world" in your title bar), so the chances of that happening have significantly increased. good luck, sivilay!  keep reaching for that dollar!

snack away! #5 - deez nutz.

growing up in new hampshire, the options for local professional/semi-professional/ being-paid-in-grade-F-meat sporting events were...well let’s just say they were limited. in fact, as i remember it, the only option was the nashua pirates, the AA affiliate of the pittsburgh pirates. the reason behind this was pretty obvious: new hampshire had a total population of about 36 ^{(citation needed)}.  it may have been slightly higher than that, i’m not sure. look, i’m not a "scientist."  the point is, we at least had the pirates, and my mom would occasionally take me and a bunch of my friends to catch a game.

OK...it was me and two of my friends.

OK...one friend.

OK...i’d go with just my mom. *sigh* let’s just move on.

the pirates only stuck around for three seasons, most likely because someone in the pirates organization finally figured out where the hell nashua was. i imagine it was a quick conversation that went something like, "hey earl, did you realize we had a minor league affiliate in new hampshire?!" "no i didn’t...why did we put a team in canada?"  after that there was a dark period in new hampshire pro sports known as "nothing," which was fine by me since i was past the age where i could be entertained by below average ballplayers, but not old enough to know how awesome sports were with beer.

that brings us to the present day. new hampshire has had a resurgence of marginal and minor league sports teams, led by the manchester monarchs (hockey – l.a. kings minor league team) and the new hampshire fisher cats (baseball – blue jays AA team). the "oates" to these "halls" of the granite state sports landscape are undoubtedly the manchester freedom. who are the manchester freedom, you ask?...seriously? you asked that? dude, i provided a link. do you need me to come over and carry you to your rascal too? dag.

the freedom are part of the solution to the sport everyone has been craving: woman’s tackle football! wow. and this isn’t anything like the lingerie football league, which I could see pulling in a few bucks (i mean just look at that professionally designed website!). this is full pads and they take themselves very seriously. a friend of mine attended their first home game...he said attendance was approximately 100 people. oops.

snack away! #5 - deez nutz.
guest blogger: jay wilkinson, nashua, nh

snack: hampton farms cajun creole hot nuts
drink: woodstock inn pig's ear brown ale

we started this thing off with baseball, so what better snack & drink combo to represent that then peanuts and beer? now, i know what you're thinking: here comes a poorly-executed and predictable joke about genitalia. well you're wrong. i'm not doing it. no way. i will not sully a great snack like hot nuts. i just enjoy the taste of a couple warm and salty nuts in my mouth too much to go down like that.

the hampton farms cajun creole hot nuts were a great little find for me about a month ago at the local supermarket. these things are ridiculous. i don't know what kind of sorcery the good folks at hampton farms are employing to make these little peanut wonders, but somehow the peanuts are coated with cajuny goodness while still in the shell. the first time i bought them, i ate a half a bag in one sitting.

about an hour later, i decided to take my contacts out. there was no hand-washing in the interim. for those of you without contacts, coating your fingers with any sort of hot sauce or powder and then sticking one of the aforementioned fingers in your eye is a good way to come up with new curse words. that night, i came up with "poopsticks" and another one i won't print here, as it's basically a slight to the queen of england, a large breed of dog, and a popular confectionary treat all-in-one. look, i don't know who reads this thing.

where was i? oh yeah...hot nuts are the nuts of the gods and go great with beer. i chose a local brew that i tried for the first time this weekend, woodstock inn pig's ear brown ale. i'm not ashamed to admit i chose it because of the name. i'm a simple man, but it was actually a fine beer and i'll likely go back for more in the future. the hot nuts are not local, though, and i urge you to go out and find some if you enjoy the whole peanut-in-the-shell experience.

jay wilkinson is a 34-yr old new hampshire native who has lived there his whole life. except for that year in the circus where he cultivated his love of peanuts and his legendary hatred of clown culture. seriously, anyone who becomes a clown is just masking underlying and disturbing sociopathic tendencies. get help, freak. did you know that penn of penn & teller went to clown college? i know, right?! i bet you that dude has killed a few drifters in his day.