Premier Guitar article author Rich Osweiler puts it nicely when describing the new release:
….dynamic power-trio rock that drips with hooks, blends beauty with aggression and crunch, and adds more tunes to the band’s catalog that have an uncanny way of turning on the emotion faucet.
Two-thirds of Buffalo Tom also sat in with DJ Jonathan Clarke on New York’s Q104.3 for a nice interview, and did a cover that also appears on their new album. Simon & Garfunkel, meet Janovitz and Colbourn:
And one-third of Buffalo Tom (lead singer/guitarist Bill Janovitz) also did an interview and acoustic in-studio set with Nic Harcourt on 88.5 FM, a station in Southern California. That set is here.
Yes, I’m obsessed. I don’t care. Their music makes me happy. Pre-order the new album and get on board the Buffalo Tom bandwagon.
My named is dubbatrubba, and I’m addicted to the Instant Pot.
It’s a combination slow cooker/pressure cooker/rice maker/steamer/yogurt maker… I think it might even play karaoke tunes – I’ll have to check the manual.
I couldn’t help myself – all the cool kids were doing it, and I succumbed to the peer pressure. Oh, and there’s also the fact that a lot of recipes that used to take hours now take mere minutes. Hence the “Instant” part of the name.
A co-worker was the one who introduced me to it. She kept bringing in her lunches and raving about how good they tasted, and how easy they were to make. Her recipe for lentil chili is killer, dude! Of course, she’s a darn good cook even without the Instant Pot.
Now I can’t go a day without using it. As a veg-head, it comes in very handy. I make a big ol’ batch of black beans every week. I used to have to make them on weekends, because they take 10 hours in the crock pot. Now it takes less than an hour. I’ve also whipped up red beans with veggie sausage, the aforementioned lentil chili, curried lentils, mashed potatoes and a batch of veggie chili. It comes in handy when cooking for my 16-year-old son (the fitness freak) too. He eats chicken for lunch and salmon for dinner every doggone day, and it used to be a laborious process of thawing and baking. Now we can go from frozen to finished in less than an hour. We also use it for brown rice and hard-boiled eggs. And I’ve merely scratched the (cooking) surface of what it can do. Seriously!
I think you might even be able to make brownies, but searching for Instant Pot Brownies might get me busted in Ohio.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m jonesing. I need to go make another meal. Be back in an Instant!
In this case, P.B.S. doesn’t stand for Public Broadcasting System. Sorry Elmo.
Elmo sad. Elmo need hug.
P.B.S. = Pearls Before Swine, a great comic strip. This past Sunday, PBS creator Stephan Pastis went a bit deeper than he usually does, and I loved it.
That’s a pretty profound pig!
Don’t worry, the very next day Stephan — and his character Pig — did a 180:
Now that’s just plain funny. Check out a week’s worth of strips at this link — Pig is just one of the many animal characters in the strip. I think you’ll find yourself laughing more… and maybe you’ll get some food for thought too.
If you’re like me (and heaven help you if you are… seek professional help immediately), you probably spend a fair amount of your workday staring at a computer screen.
This posture is recommended by optometrists and chiropractors… the ones that need business.
And if you’re like most people, you probably still have some sort of default background on your screen all day.
Bill Gates isn’t known for his artistry.
Why not add a smile or three to all that screen-staring, by personalizing your desktop background. I have double monitors (it looks like “multi-tasking” but really it’s just ADHD) and this morning when I logged on, here’s what I saw:
Screen #1: Replacements, circa 1986
Screen #2: Inspiration from Hugh MacLeod
I have an entire album of desktop background photos, ranging from the profound:
… to the ridiculous:
There are 66 photos in the folder now, and the photos rotate every 30 minutes, so every day is a new grab bag of visuals. Bands and artists I love:
A picture of my childhood home:
Deep thoughts (most courtesy of the brilliant Hugh MacLeod):
Nostalgia:
Sports shots:
Goofy photos of my co-workers:
Goofy shots of me with co-workers too:
Screen shot from a buddy cop spoof video we did for a company meeting. I’m “Cheese” but you probably could’ve guessed that.
Our 18-year-old leaves his friend’s house to come home. Light snow had melted but then froze into a thin sheet of ice on the main road to our house. It caught folks off guard… and the salt truck drivers must’ve been watching the game instead of hitting the roads.
Our son sees cars slipping, sliding, spinning, careening, crashing into each other like a demolition derby.
At least six cars got dinged. He’s less than two blocks from our house, but it’s enough of a downhill slide to make continuing risky business, especially with a couple of crashed cars up ahead in his lane. He pulls over, hits the hazards and calls home.
“Patience is a virtue, Possess it if you can, Seldom found in woman, Never found in man.”
When you’re 18, the waiting is the hardest part.
But it can also be the smartest part. Wait it out. Call for backup. This too shall pass.
I still go to a fair amount of music concerts, though not nearly as many as when I worked at a radio station and could get free tickets… and not nearly as many as before kids came along (their “school night” is my “school night” too… 5:45 a.m. alarms don’t mesh well with a rock and roll lifestyle).
My wife and I both like Lyle Lovett and Shawn Colvin. When I saw they were playing an acoustic concert together at the Taft Theater, a downtown Cincinnati venue, getting tickets was a no-brainer.
Except for the Ticketmaster fees. Oh, the horrible, hideous, insidious fees! Tickets in the “cheap” seats were $32. But ordering just two tickets online would cost me another $32 in fees – basically you get two tickets for the price of three… what a bargain!
There’s the service fee – per ticket, mind you – then an order processing fee tacked on for your payment pleasure.
I love how those Ticketbastards put an exclamation point behind the “Free” in the Delivery method. I’m surprised they haven’t figured out a way to charge folks for using their own printer and ink to print tickets, or their own mobile phone for e-Tickets. If I’d chosen the snail mail option, I’m sure they would’ve charged me $4.90 for a 49-cent postage stamp.
It’s ridiculous. It’s outrageous. It’s usurious. And there’s not a darn thing I can do about it. Especially since Ticketmaster merged with LiveNation, a company that owns and/or operates hundreds of concert venues across the country. They own the theater (or at least have exclusivity rights on performances therein). They own the ticket seller. So they have a monopoly on the music (80%+ market share). Wanna see Lyle and Shawn? It’s gonna cost you. Dearly.
Thankfully, I was able to walk over to the concert venue’s box office, which is five blocks away from my work. That 10-minute jaunt saved me $27. I should’ve charged Ticketmaster a “pedestrian fee.”
If you’re keeping score at home, this is my 328th post about the band Buffalo Tom. Sorry, but I fell in love with them in ’92 and just can’t quit them.
Buffalo Tom’s new album Quiet and Peace comes out on March 2nd. They released it early to their Pledge Music backers, so I’ve been listening to it non-stop for a couple of weeks. Granted, I’m biased, but I think it’s fantastic. As my friend Joe said, “it’s timeless in the best possible way.” Or as the press release from their website says:
Quiet and Peace is a compelling 11-song set that finds the trio—singer-guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist-vocalist Chris Colbourn and drummer Tom Maginnis—simultaneously mining their best-known sonic elements while breaking new ground on emotionally resonant new tunes such as “All Be Gone,” “Overtime,” “Freckles” and “CatVMouse.” Full of nostalgic and dusky imagery, much of Quiet And Peace emerges from New England’s less visited darker corners, offering a sort-of poetic travelogue of faded colors and woods illuminated in the light of the seaside.
KEXP is premiering the video for a song from the album called “Roman Cars.” It features lead vocals from bassist Chris Colbourn, who wrote and sings lead on more songs on this new album than on any other Buffalo Tom release. And he has a fantastic voice. Many of the songs on the new release are about getting older, and this one references age as well.
About the video, Colbourn tells KEXP:
“In this song Buffalo Tom take a rollercoaster ride from grumpy middle age back to the halcyon days of youth. For the video, we decided to utilize the great cover art we have for the album and think it came out great.”
I do too, Chris. I do too. Put your ears and eyes on it right now:
My wife and I spent the weekend at Red River Gorge in Kentucky.
The Red River Gorge is a uniquely scenic area in the Daniel Boone National Forest. The area is known for its abundant natural stone arches, unusual rock formations, and spectacular sandstone cliffs. The Red River Gorge is designated as a national geological area by the U.S. Forest Service.
Natural Bridge. It rocks!
We went with our neighbor/friends (nends? friebors?) Whit and Barb, who have gone to Red River Gorge in January with a group of their friends for the past several years. This year, there were 10 couples (and one dog). We stayed in cabins in Natural Bridge State Park on Friday and Saturday night, and hiked the trails on Saturday and Sunday. I’m ashamed to say that this was my first trip to “The Gorge” as it’s known around here. As a self-proclaimed Nature Boy (move over, Ric Flair) who loves the great outdoors, I really have no legit excuse for not visiting sooner, as it’s only two hours away and the scenery is drop-dead gorgeous.
Mrs. Dubbatrubba is gorgeous too!
There’s a lot to be said for exploring new places. And there’s no virtual reality that can compare with the actual reality of the great outdoors. When you’re hiking up ridge (and then back down), the physical benefits are obvious. But check out this article that extols the mental benefits of exploring someplace new. Here’s my favorite quote:
But I believe that it’s possible to achieve similar growth by traveling closer to home — to new states, cities, and even households, from urban to rural, north to south, east to west. As long as you’re spending time in an unfamiliar environment, with people whose backgrounds and belief systems don’t entirely match yours, you’re succeeding at stretching yourself.
Sunday morning at Lookout Point.
Get outside. Get outside your comfort zone. And get a big boost in energy, empathy and creativity.
Last night I saw Los Lobos at Memorial Hall, a gorgeous, recently refurbished, century-old, 550-seat performance theater in Cincinnati.
My view from the nosebleeds. Not too shabby.
Technically I saw 3/5th of Los Lobos. Bassist Conrad Lozano and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin didn’t make the trip, which was a letdown. But Cesar Rosas, Louie Perez and David Hidalgo were present and accounted for, along with a rhythm section.
L to R up front: Cesar Rosas, Louie Perez and David Hidalgo
I’ve seen Los Lobos many times, and always love the show they put on. Was last night’s the best ever? No. They weren’t at full strength and they are starting to show their age (aren’t we all?). But it was better by far than most bands half their age could do. They’ve been doing their thing – their unique, like-nobody-else-can-do-it thing – for more than 40 years now. And they still bring it strong every time. It’s Tex-Mex, it’s traditional Spanish, it’s bluesy, it’s soulful, it’s country, it’s rock and roll, it’s… everything but the kitchen sink. And it all sounds great.
David Hidalgo is easily one of the most underappreciated lead guitarists of this or any generation. I’d stack him up against Page, Clapton, Van Halen, Slash, you name it. Dude can shred. Yet when you look at some listicle of “the top 20 guitarists of all time” he’s never on there. And he has a gorgeous voice to boot.
Actually it isn’t just David who is underappreciated, it’s the entire band. Note to our friendly rival city at the northern end of my state: you can go ahead and shut the doors to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, because if Los Lobos isn’t in it, it isn’t worth a tinker’s damn. In 2015, the L.A. Times wrote a nice article that makes a strong case for Los Lobos, please check it out. Below are three of the videos from the article, I think they showcase the depth and breadth of their brilliance. They really aren’t “Just Another Band From East L.A.” as they self-deprecatingly called a 1993 compilation album. They are an American institution.
Kevin Sullivan on Life advice from a man who lived it: “A good one Damian. Bring our lens into focus after the long weekend or our long life journey.” Jul 7, 09:38
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