#80b - final four (in two parts).

ncaa final four game #2 features the villanova wildcats (ranked #11 by the ap during the season) vs the unc tar heels (ranked #2 during the season). it's one of those classic matchups where one team (villanova) has a really good defense and the other team has a badass offense, so something's got to give somewhere or the world will collapse in on itself. here's what sort of matchup we're looking at...

the villanova wildcats are a team with a storied ncaa tourney history. back in 1985 (a time when i actually still cared about ncaa basketball), led by coach rollie massimino, they became the lowest seeded team to win the championship when they defeated big east opponent georgetown, who was led by patrick ewing.  this year, they're one of two big east conference teams (along with uconn) in the final four, led by senior forward dante cunningham & guard scottie reynolds.  jay wright (their coach) has only been coaching the team since 2005 & this year, he's the only final four coach who's never been to the final four before, so good for him...he can check that off his list.

the unc tar heels are led by all-everything senior forward tyler hansbrough, who besides holding the ncaa record for free throws made, has won every award ever, done well in the classroom & helped out in the community more than you did.  overall, the team averages 90 pts per game & has five players who average in double digits.  after losing to kansas (the eventual champions) in the tourney last year, they were ranked #1 at the beginning of the season and #2 at the end & as the announcers announced during the game, they're "on a mission."

basically, unc whooped ass from the get-go.  villanova cut it to nine by end of first half, but by the time the game came back for the second half, i had sort of stopped giving the game my undivided attention.  here's what i do recall...villanova never had a chance & the game was never close.  if i was michigan st, i'd be scared right now.

my top player picks: reggie redding, villanova - funny name, didn't die / tyler hansbrough, unc - 18 pts, 11 rebs, upheld humanity

#80b - final four (in two parts).
snack: humbles olive oil, lemon & feta baked hummus chips
drink: weyerbacher old heathen imperial stout

as in part a of my final four coverage, i'm treating myself to a snack & a drink from the home states of this game's two participants--pennsylvania & north carolina. i know, i'm clever. i'm also lucky enough to have been able to find snacks & drinks to fit my theme. for a snack, during this game, i'm munching from a bag of humbles olive oil, lemon & feta baked hummus chips. they're made by good health natural foods, a boringly-named company out of greensboro, nc. you can reach them on the internet at www.goodhealthnaturalproducts.com. i believe you can also find them online at www.wehaveaverylongwebaddress.com.

ain't no potatoes in these badboys! they're baked & made from hummus/chickpeas & bear a slight resemblance texturewise to the popchips i tried just the other day.  if they weren't $3 a bag, i might just eat them all the time.  for the aforementioned reasons, they're healthier than your average chip & the olive oil, lemon feta flavor is both subtle & pleasant.

if you drive just about an hour or so north of the villanova/philly area, just past the non-jesus affiliated bethlehem, you'll reach easton, pa, where my second beer of the night, the weyerbacher old heathen imperial stout, is brewed. weyerbacher has been around since 1995 (& once had a brewpub in downtown easton) & brew a bunch of crazy-named beers--the blithering idiot, the imperial pumpkin ale, the slam dunkel.

in the spirit of the wraith-like figure on its front label, the old heathen is quite the dark beer.  since i'm a heathen myself, i enjoyed it, but since i'm a heathen, i didn't embrace it. it wasn't all that special anyhow...stouty enough, i suppose.

that's it!  til monday night & the championship battle!

#80a - final four (in two parts).

the first of tonight's two final four games pitted the michigan st spartans (ranked #8 by the ap in the regular season) vs the uconn huskies (ranked #5). this year's final four festivities are taking place in front of 72K people (a final four attendance record) at detroit's ford field, so it's all historical & junk. let's take a look at the two teams...

the michigan st spartans are the hometown squad, coming from an hour and a half west up route 96, in east lansing. they're lucky, since home court advantage is HUGE sportswise & they're the first team in the last 15 years to play a final four game in their home state. also, magic johnson went to school at msu, so he was in the audience, which might have been inspirational where it not for him wearing some sort of wack-looking warmup jersey (not very gq, magic). overall, it's a big michigan lovefest, with nine of the spartan players originally from the ol mitt-shaped state or whatever the heck they call it.

the uconn huskies are always good for some good basketball playing. they were the men's NCAA champs in 1999 & 2004 and their women's squad is pretty much the best women's basketball team ever. seriously. this year's team...they're like amazonian cyborgs. the men's team features 7'3" hasheem thabeet, who is from tanzania, which makes me think of this npr story i recently heard about basketball in sudan & another about a movie about baseball & the dominican republic.  so uconn only plays seven guys, which means the same guys are on the floor most of the time & as a result, they have four 1000 point players on same squad for first time in their history.

as for the game, it was one of those neck & neck, back & forth engagements. there was a little scrum & pushing at end of first half which was rather exciting...& then two minutes later came the longest halftime ever, with all sorts of presentations & awards & junk.  the first half back & forth continued for most of the rest of the game, with lots of serious hustle.  at one point, cbs used lcd soundsystem's "daft punk is playing at my house" as a lead-in to commercial, which was totally hip.  anyway, by the end, msu pulled away & uconn tried to come back, but the hometown msu squad prevailed & are now going onto the championship game.  go spartans.

my top player picks: kalin lucas, msu - 21 pts, lots of being fast & stuff / stanley robinson, uconn - 15 pts, 13 rebs, a bunch of loud, awesome dunks

#80a - final four (in two parts).
snack: pepperidge farm chocolate raspberry milano cookies
drink: arcadia ales starboard stout

in honor of our two teams, i'm having a snack & drink pairing from their home states. for the snack, i'm trying to hold myself back from eating, right here & right now, an entire bag of pepperidge farm chocolate raspberry milano cookies. they're crafted by god, via a series of miracles, on the magical pepperidge farm, located in norwalk, ct, which is almost two hours south of uconn, just down 95. the original magical farm was in the next town over from norwalk--fairfield.

the pepperidge farm has been overseen by the campbell soup co. since 1961, when they bought pepperidge & their amazing milano cookies. anyway, pretty much every milano cookie flavor is awesome & if you don't agree with me, you might consider consulting a physician regarding your mental state. they are the only good thing that has ever come out of that god-forsaken, armpit-of-new england state & should be commended as such for overcoming the shortcomings of their environment to create tasty, simple cookies.

the arcadia ales starboard stout is brewed in battle creek, mi, the place most famously known as the home of the kellogg co.  the starboard stout's an oat malt stout with a dark complexion & a tan head & a toasty flavor that mixes quite well with the chocolate flavor in the cookies.  it gets some quantity of thumbs up.  unconfirmed rumor: there's a little bit of tony the tiger in every bottle.

bring on the next game!

snack away! #1 - when in deutschland.

so! hello! how are you? i am very well, thank you for asking...or, as the locals might say here, sehr gut, danke! if you are slightly looney, or just plain stupid, or maybe your school lacked the funding for a foreign language department, that’s german! yes, i am in germany and i have agreed to discuss some of the local eats and drinks for this here bloggy-blog.

as many of you surely know, shawn and i go way back. back to approximately october 31, 1998, when i was a mere three weeks past the age of consent. shawn is six years my senior, and as the good elder he is, he took it upon himself to educate me thoroughly in the vast and glorious ways of the snack.

my memories of our time together are filled to the brim with images of 4-C iced tea, endless varieties of chex mix snack mix, and flipz, the chocolate-covered pretzel snack. it should come as little surprise to you to learn that i gained nearly twenty pounds while we dated. good times. no really, they were quite fun, despite my ever-growing ass and chin.

snack away! #1 - when in deutschland.
guest blogger: megan jones, hamburg, germany

snack: ja! kartoffel-snacks mit paprika-würzung
drink: tuborg pilsener

anyhooters…i am now here, in germany, and i am doing some very efficient german snacking. those germans are wicked efficient, for reals. i’m drinking a tuborg pilsener (TUBORG!!!) and munching on some ja! kartoffel-snacks mit paprika-würzung.

the beer is pretty decent. nothing special actually, but I sure do love the name. tuborg! and the picture of the dude on the front is priceless. he’s all thirsty and shit and doesn’t know where his bier is or something. it’s great.

i can’t find a link for my ja! kartoffel-snacks, which frankly surprises me, since ja! is apparently a huge company here. you can find ja! cheese, chips, milk, yogurt, toilet paper, and so on. it’s like the generic brand, i think. the price is just right for me and the quality is always good. i’m definitely a fan of ja! yes!

anyway, these are potato-snacks, with paprika spices and they are kind of weird. i can’t stop eating them, but that clearly means shit, because they are simultaneously making me slightly sick to my stomach. they are weirdly styrofoamy. pop one in your mouth and it starts to dissolve instantly. i have a theory. i think they, the ja! overlords, make some sort of like, potato puree, and then they squeeze it through some sort of thingamajig, and it squirts out these weird, airy potato nuggets. they bake them? or perhaps they fry them? shit, i have no idea.

either way, they then sprinkle on the paprika goodness. paprika is freakishly popular here and frankly, i’m already tired of it. i’d pay some serious euros for some old-school salt and vinegar chips--the kind that take your breath away because they are so vinegary. yum.

so yeah, that’s what i’m eating. now, back to your regularly scheduled blog.

megan jones lives in hamburg, but her heart is really in indiana boston albuquerque boston. she makes badass cakes. you best recognize, son.
www.flickr.com/photos/jonesgirlcreations

#76 - a long december-ists.

if there's one band i've been completely conflicted about (other than NIN, pearl jam & modest mouse), it's been the decemberists, who just (physically) released their fifth full-length, the hazards of love, this week. it's their 2nd full-length with capitol records, after the debut on hush records, which was re-released by kill rock stars, who then released their next two full-lengths & an EP before the band departed for capitol. a quick rundown of their works...

castaways & cutouts - this was their debut album & it was solid, which led to the much-deserved initial buzz & attention. as someone who at one point had dreamt i'd be an architect, i instantly loved the fact there's a song on the album called "here i dreamt i was an architect." there are other standout songs as well--"july, july," "odalisque"--& the songs are replete with the well-written instrumentation & story-filled lyrics that have become synonymous with the band.

her majesty the decemberists - i've always thought that their sophomore album (which is actually the shortest of their five full-lengths) drags on. unlike the rest of the albums, there are no songs on here that really stuck with me, although other folks really seem to enjoy songs like "billy liar" & "los angeles i'm yours."

the tain - this eighteen-minute five-part EP was recorded over four days & other than a few flourishes on the first two albums, was the first time we really got to hear the band's metal side, starting with the opening track.

picaresque - their third album starts off with "the infanta," a solid opener & features a handful of songs that both contribute to the overall feel of the album & stand alone well as songs--"the sporting life," "the bagman's gambit," "16 military wives." at the time, i felt like this was their most solid album from start to finish.

the crane wife - "the perfect crime no. 2," off of this album, might be my favorite booty-shaking decemberists song of all. it's got a discolike beat to it & i have this one positive memory of a cute girl quietly singing along to the chorus of it as it played on the radio of a van that was bringing a bunch of us back to the city after a daylong film shoot down in jersey. out of all their albums, this is the one i've gone back to the most, as it also includes opportunities to both sing along ("o valencia!") & rock out ("when the war came").

the singles series - near the end of 08, almost two years after the release of the crane wife & at a time when the band was still getting back into the swing of things after cancelling a tour & going on a short hiatus, they released this three-volume set of singles as the "always the bridesmaid" series. for me, the highlight is "valerie plame," a song about the former c.i.a. operative who was exposed by the bush administration after her husband's "what i didn't find in africa" piece in the ny times revealed holes/lies/exaggerations in their reasoning for invading iraq.

the hazards of love - from what i've heard via industry chatter, the path that they took leading up to this album (canceled tour, a colin meloy solo release, time off, the singles series) was the right choice. things weren't going in the right direction mentally. so now we have the new album. it's definitely the hardest-rocking of all their albums, which is more in tune with my current tastes, so currently, i'm digging it. at the same time, the album feels like one hour-long song, as the songs tend to blend into each other, so we'll see how long my love of the album lasts.

...so i continue to be conflicted about the decemberists. at times, i really get into their songs or find myself lost in the journey of one of their albums, with its suites & multi-part songs & ambitious storylines & whatnot, but sometimes, i just can't take it. i can't take it & colin meloy's voice becomes whiny & the songs become too sea-shantyish for my tastes & i end up wanting to find an accordion just so i can smash it against the wall.

#76 - a long december-ists.
snack: pringles onion blossom restaurant cravers
drink: belhaven twisted thistle i.p.a.

as i went back tonight & listened to the decemberists' catalog from beginning to end, hoping to eventually come at some sort of ultimate judgment/epiphany about them (an epiphany that never came), i snacked from a can of pringles onion blossom restaurant cravers. pringles, who in the past few years introduced "pringles select" flavors & "pringles stix" (an item i have yet to see), have recently come out with a number of "restaurant craver" flavors--onion blossom, mexican layered dip, cheesy fries, cheeseburger, slow cooked bbq, mozzarella sticks & marinara. some flavors have died off. some have survived.

the onion blossom flavored chips have a strange taste to them but they've managed to survive regardless.  also, as the can is of the "super stack" variety, it's so tall that it doesn't even fit in any of my plebian kitchen cabinets. i'm assuming that pringles is in cahoots with outback steakhouse & their infamous bloomin onion dish & as such, taste & convenience are secondary concerns.

the first thing you taste when eating these chips is a putrid & overpowering horseradish flavor that, once it eventually dissipates, leaves you with a faint, underwhelming onion taste. it's not in the least bit pleasant...i did use the word "putrid," after all.  still, since i'm a trooper, i kept eating them anyhow & discovered that by the tenth-or-so chip, my taste buds went into some sort of defense mode where, for their own good, they lied down & played dead, succumbing to the taste.

luckily i had beer to wash the taste away. in the spirit of "the hazards of love 1 (the prettiest whistles won't wrestle the thistles undone)," the 2nd single released off the hazards of love, i picked up a bottle of belhaven twisted thistle i.p.a.  given the name & label, i was sort of expecting a flowery taste, but nope. as far as i.p.a.s go, it's not really anything out of the ordinary, so if you're looking for a fun experience with this beer, the only way you're going to get it is to down a bottle quicklike & play a few rounds of "say twisted thistle tens times fast" with your friends. alcohol + words = awesome!

#75 - girlfriend!

you ladies drive me absolutely crazy! and it's not always in an entirely awesome fine young cannibals way! i thought i knew what was going on with you but it turns out i'm still clueless, an amateur at reading you, often tentative about approaching you. don't even get me started, girlfriend!

as far as relationships go, i've barreled my way through a series of long-term relationships, one after the other, pretty much straight through since junior year of high school (barring the post-relationship periods). i've definitely earned the title of "serial monogamist." this, of course, doesn't include my first two+ years of college, the period of my life where i was most successful in getting my swerve on.

my first long-term relationship was in high school, when i was in a dysfunctional relationship with an insane girl that my friends lovingly referred to as "afro bitch." after the early college swerve-on period, late college brought a relationship with a redheaded girl from the midwest with the last name jones. i even moved down to florida & lived with her for a brief period. in sin! sin! then i moved back to boston & dated another redheaded girl from the midwest with the last name jones.

after that, it was off to brooklyn, where i knew absolutely nobody & as such, decided to test the waters of the craigslist dating scene circa 2001. it worked out pretty well for a while, as i ended up in a relationship with a cool girl i met through a craigslist ad that offered "bonus points for modest mouse fans." that was followed by a long relationship with a jersey girl who i met in nyc the exact same week i moved from nyc back to boston. after a few months, i moved back to nyc, but i'm a heathen (among other things), so that didn't work out...& that takes us to my current single state.

oh! guess what i just figured out?! if you take the "r" out of "girlfriend," you get "girlfiend." i'm just saying is all. oh. wait. that also applies to "boyfriend." never mind.

so yeah, i thought all that long-term relationship experience would be helpful in figuring out you ladies, but nope, i still have trouble reading you...plus, it's sort of killed my game. i'm working on that though.

#75 - girlfriend!
snack: zapp's spicy cajun crawtators potato chips
drink: presidente pilsner

last night, while i reminisced about all the girls i've loved before, i fed from a bag of zapp's spicy cajun crawtators potato chips. these chips, made by a company out of louisiana, are their top sellers & are infused with the "taste of a cajun boiled seafood feast." i've never been to such an event myself, but i assume it involves a copious amount of spicy & tasty bottom-feeders, crazy cajun accents & a crowd of people with spicy fish breath.

the crawtators are a well-put together potato chip. they're not very greasy & have a nice, solid, kettle-cooked feel to them. also, they have a slight, fishy taste to them that blends in well with all the cajun spices. oh! and also, according to their website, oprah has recommended them on her show, so i'm hoping that when she is crowned as our new overlord/ruler/demigod, our common enjoyment of these chips will spare me her wrath.

you ladies drive me to drink! well, not really, but it works well with the theme, so i had myself a cold 22 oz presidente pilsner to complement the spiciness of both the crawtators & my wistful memories.

back in college, during the period that will from this point forward be known as the "swerve-on days," i had a roommate from hong kong who drank nothing but presidente & carlsberg until he got a 0.0 GPA & flunked out & was replaced with some french dude. as one born in n.h., i was astounded by his crazy foreign beers. now, i think of presidente as a pretty meh beer. i don't care how many dj tiesto-involved concerts they put on. it's still going to be a bland, uneventful beer...nothing like you ladies though...you ladies are spicy!