#174 - double fantasy.

i'm no beatles expert. that's for sure. i am pretty familiar with their music though. i first really heard the beatles when i was a pre-teen & found abbey road amongst a box of records my dad had in the basement. i fell in love & to this day, it's still my fave beatles album & possibly my fave album of all time. since then, i've heard everything they've ever done multiple times, but my beatles cd collection only consists of sgt peppers, the beatles 1967-1970 & the beatles anthology I. i know. i'm a slacker. maybe all that will change now that the beatles' music is on itunes. [insert chuckle here]. with that in mind, other than "imagine" & the other smash hits, i know next to nothing about john lennon's solo career. with today marking the 30th anniversary of the day when he was murdered here in NYC, i decided to mark the date by familiarizing myself with his first two solo albums--john lennon/plastic ono band & imagine--and his final album, double fantasy.

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#158 - by the time i get to arizona (pt 1).

i'm the oldest of four children & while i'm obviously the funny one, my sister (who's two years younger than me) has solidly cemented herself as the one most qualified to perform surgery & distribute meds. for the last three years, she's been working at a hospital out in phoenix & as of this past weekend, she's officially a doctor. her convocation ceremony was on saturday & i'd yet to visit her, so a week ago this thursday, i hopped on a jumbo jet & paid a visit to her & the state known for passionate anti-immigration, slacking on MLK day & sprawl as far as the eye can see...that and spring training baseball & old people. word is they're also known for a big hole in the ground.

since my life pretty much revolves around food, going into the trip, my sis & i had decided that other than sleep & the convocation (which actually ended up being a hour-and-a-half ceremony sandwiched between a cocktail hour & a dinner), the singular purpose of our four days together was to eat as much tasty, mostly-arizonacentric food as possible.

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snackdown! - 3.5.10

on tuesday, health affairs released a study that tracked children's snacking habits from 1977 to 2006, a study that found that children snack three times a day and take in an average of 600 snack calories per day, a 168-calorie increase over children in the late seventies. since everybody's got their panties in a bunch about snacking these days, as if the dietary habits of children is the biggest thing we have to worry about, every news outlet on the planet decided to report on the study. children are snacking too much! they're turning into tiny michelin men! won't somebody please think of the children! blah blah blah. get over it people.

• reason #1 that constant snacking & eating isn't a bad thing: olympians do it. on tuesday, the national post took a look at the dietary habits of olympic athletes to see if we could learn anything from them. it turns out that we can. the article notes that "if there is one good behaviour that unites many top athletes, it's their habit of eating frequent meals and snacks throughout the day." "eating a balanced snack every few hours can help regulate blood sugar, maintain energy throughout a busy day and reduce cravings and overeating at mealtimes." as long as you're not sitting on your ass all day snacking on doritos & cookie dough, constant snacking is just fine. suck on that, snack haters! (national post)


• it's girl scout cookie season & last sunday in southern cali, six chefs gathered together for the "smart cookie chefs' challenge fundraiser," an event where each chef created a dish using girl scout cookies. while two of the chefs went the obvious route & made tasty desserts, the other four created "savory recipes that included crab, pork, chicken and lamb." we're talking dishes like "carrot, apple and daisy-go-round stuffed pork tenderloin on creamy polenta with a pinot noir reduction" & "chicken breast stuffed with peanut butter patties, prosciutto and coachella valley dates." those both sound amazing, but ultimately, the people's choice award went to geoff bogorad, who used lemonade cookies to create lemon-crusted crab cakes. (the desert sun)


• today was the final day of snaxpo 2010, the annual snacking convention that this year was held down in dallas/fort-worth, home to such snack kings as frito lay. snaxpo, which is now in its 73rd year, was attended by over 2,000 "snack food professionals." with all the attention being given to unhealthy snacks these days, it's a crucial time for the convention, as more & more, snack manufacturers have had to come up with ways to appeal to concerned consumers while still producing tasty snacks. the most important takeaway from the event: snaxpo is "the world's biggest trade show," once again proving that snacks rule. (nbc dallas/fort-worth)


• in new zealand this week, weight watchers announced that they were teaming up with mcdonald's to offer three "weight watchers approved meals." it makes TOTAL sense, because when i think of dieting, the first thing i think of is fast food. the three meals--the filet-o-fish meal (with a side salad & drink), the six pack chicken mcnuggets (with a side salad & drink) and the sweet chilli seared chicken wrap (with a drink but no salad)--are each worth 6.5 points, about a quarter of the 28 daily points allowed as part of a weight watchers' diet. unfortunately, all three meals have enough sodium to choke an elephant. (seattle post-intelligencer)


• popcorn's pretty much our national snack, an air-popped treat that folks often rely on to make the cinematic crap that comes out of hollywood tolerable. not everyone loves popcorn though & on wednesday, just in time for this sunday's oscars, slate's rosecrans baldwin decided to pen "an admittedly irrational screed against popcorn." why? four reasons: he can't stand popcorn. he hates the smell. he thinks it "looks like sheep shit." as studies have pointed out, a tub of movie-theatre popcorn is entirely unhealthy. if americans stopped eating so much of it, we could divert those kernels to ethanol production & reduce our dependence on foreign oil. while he admits that his hatred of popcorn may be irrational, at least he's passionate about it & in his mind, that's all that matters. (slate)

snackdown! - 1.22.10

during a week where the entire country was going apeshit over the special election in massachusetts for the late ted kennedy's former senate seat, there were a number of food-related stories that provided a bit of a distraction from the bombardment of political coverage. whether it was the demise of the deep dish or the death of a taco magnate, anything was a welcome relief from the constant "coakley is totally going to blow it" cycle of news.

• story numero uno...mamma mia! there's a trouble down at the pizzeria! on wednesday, boston-based restaurant chain pizzeria uno announced that, in an attempt to save the company, they were filing for bankruptcy. it's been rough going for them recently, what with the poor economy & rising cost of ingredients & whatnot, but i think we all know what the real reason behind their downfall is though...deep dish pizza is lame. (boston globe)


• on sunday, the world was saddened to learn of the passing of taco bell founder glen bell. at the same time, they were surprised to learn that taco bell was named after its founder. mr bell, who founded the chain back in 1962, saw the need to bring mexican food of sketchy origins to the american public. over the years, he achieved that dream & in the process, made a great impact on american cuisine. without him, we may have never known what the hell a "gordita" is...& that would just be sad. (npr)


• with this weekend's afc championship game between the ny jets & the indianapolis colts only two days away, the ny daily news' matthew lysiak has already headed out to indy for the big game. while out there, he's worked himself into a tizzy because he can't find authentic ny style food such as bagels & pizzas & egg creams. to this i offer a hearty "duh." you're in indianapolis, dude. you don't go to brazil in search of sushi. (ny daily news)


• since i'm a glutton, i shove food into my mouth all day long, pretty much right up until the point where i fall asleep. apparently i shouldn't be doing that though. according to lar rune foleide, some science guy who studies dreams, if you wolf down a couple of slabs of roast beef or a bucket of deviled eggs just before heading to bed, there's a good chance that you're going to have some messed up dreams. i guess that explains my "wall street banker/astronaut dog with the head of cuba gooding jr" dream from a few nights ago. (tahlequah daily press)


• monday may have been MLK day, but it wasn't the only important holiday this week, as tuesday was national popcorn day. the holiday, which celebrates the wonders of the air-popped corn kernel snack, is a rather mysterious one, as the national popcorn board doesn't even know how it got started. they do know that the average american eats a quart of popcorn a week though, so if you haven't had any yet this week, you've got a lot of catching up to do. (phoenix new times)

#142 - tracks & snacks.

will you look at that! if you're reading this, that means that you've made it through 2009. congrats. i knew you could do it! well, not you, phil. frankly, your immortality is SHOCKING...but everyone else...i knew you could do it! since we're done with the living hell that was 2009 & already a week or so into 2010, i figured it was high time that i got on with putting together my year-end best of lists. at the end of 2008, i recapped my top ten albums, snacks & drinks of the year. this year, i'm going to keep in the same realm & offer up my top ten TRACKS & SNACKS OF 2009!

just like last year, since my main music obsession these days is mostly in the field of indie rock, all ten tracks on the list are by indie rockers. there are a ton of tracks that i could have included here, but we only have room for ten, folks. the first songs to get cut were those from other years, from miles benjamin anthony robinson's "buriedfed" to o.d.b.'s "got your money" to final fantasy's "this lamb sells condos."

from this year, there are a few honorable mentions. there's peaches' "serpentine" & morrissey's "something is squeezing my skull." in the hip hop world, there's the cool kids' "broadcasting live," vinnie scullo's "eyehearthiphop" & kid cudi's "pursuit of happiness" (with MGMT & ratatat). the last track to get cut from the list was animal collective's "my girls," which i listened to extensively for the first two months of the year before i just got plain sick of it & it fell out of favor. regardless, it still makes me happy when i hear it. so yeah...lots of good music this year. grab a snack & a drink, pull up a chair & let's get to my top ten tracks!

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