Month: March 2004

Tonight is the weekly Tree House open mic. It runs from 8:00PM – 11:00PM. You can sign up in advance here or just come to hang out and drink coffe.

See you tonight.

I am such a sucker for re-released games and being a big fan of Zelda and Excitebike, I might have to finally look into a GBA. Read on for the press release or check out the whole thing here:

The bodacious new Game Boy Advance SP has the same guts and everything as a regular one, but its casing looks just like the NES. And it’s still at an MSRP of $99.99. Be sure to get to the mall, like, really early, because it’s a “limited edition.”

The Classic NES Series, which you totally have to get, includes all the hottest retro games, each one at an MSRP of $19.99. Check it out:

* Donkey Kong: The best game featuring a plumber rescuing a princess from a big ape pretty much ever.
* Pac-Man: Hel-lo? If you don’t know this game then where have you been?
* The Legend of Zelda: Dude! How classic can you get? The righteous Link whips Ganon and saves Zelda. Link rules!
* Super Mario Bros.: There are pipes and coins and these grody goombas and you just stomp away.
* Excitebike: It’s a rad motocross racing game that lets you rip around a track and kick up dirt and stuff.
* Ice Climber: Like, duh. You climb the ice and whack monsters.
* Xevious: Go to space and shoot stuff with your wicked spaceship.
* Bomberman: Drop bombs on the baddies.

I’ve hung out with Ben Marra a few times and I never knew what a kickass artist he was! His works reminds me of the Graham Roumieu cartoons that I love so much.

The subject matter of Ben’s paintings, sketches, and doodles run from aging superheros to gods to psychiatrists to the plain bizzare. My favorite ones contain monkeys ringing bells and people coming out of each other’s mouths. I’m going to shoot for my interpretation of the mouth people and say that it stands for making a point using someone else’s words, in many cases to make your opinion less vulnerable to scrutiny.

This is usually preferable. If you’re going to use someone else’s words to make your point then use authors who’s words have already been critiqued. If I say, “Plato says a good city is one that is ‘wise, courageous, temperate, and just’, therefore we can’t consider Philadelphia a good city because of the unwise $1,000,000,000 spent on stadiums.” On the other side, if I say “Philadelphia isn’t a good city because it was ranked really low in a poll I saw on TV,” then the quotation is abused if you are really trying to make a point. Ben’s work seems to portray positive “mouth people” in yellow and negatives in red.

Maybe I should just enjoy the monkeys.

If you like beer, you should stop abd pick up a six pack of Czechvar, which hasn’t been available in the US since 1939. It’s called Budvar in the Czech Republic and Anheuser Busch blocked the sale of Budvar in the US until they finally decided to market it under the Czechvar brand. This whole post would be pointless if Czechvar lager wasn’t any good and indeed it is. It’s a lot smoother than you expect it to be, but it still has a lot of flavor. Give it a shot! You can probably buy it anywhere, but if you have trouble check out Kress-Wine on Route 561 in Cherry Hill. That’s where I found out about the story behind Czechvar/Budvar.

Speaking of Kress-Wine, they are a really cool liquor store because they usually have decent stuff on sale and they post sales statistics of each brand of beer. They also have “Ladies Monday” where women get 10% off all non-wine purchases. Jason Wheatley and I discussed the possibility of pulling a elaborate Bosom Buddies scheme to get the 10% discount.

First of all, I want to say that this week was a lot of fun for me. Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly and the night was filled with diverse, interesting performers.

Second, I want to highly recommend you all to buy some food at the Tree House. I’ve always kind of liked their food back in the Living Room days, but now they’re sandwhiches are what I like to call, “super-delicious.” On Saturday I ate a spinach wrap with chicken, swiss cheese, spicy mustard and lettuce, and then Nicole toasted it in their grill. Feel free to add bacon like I did the first time I tried this sandwhich the week before. I don’t think I’ve had a better wrap in my life. Jarrod claims the sausage, egg, and cheese on croissant is the best sandwhich he’s ever had in his life. They’re serving up life-changing sandwhiches folks, and if you don’t try one you are missing out. And no, the Tree House didn’t pay me to say all this and I have no ulterior motives other than I like to see good work recognized.

1. Ben Garvey – I played a bunch of songs, including “99%,” “The Genius of it All,” and “All My Dreams are in Cartoon.”

2. The White Witch aka Joe – Belted out 2 Megadeath covers, which was maybe a little too much for 7:45PM.

3. Johnny Miles – This guy came out once before. He’s got a great rythmic style and hopefully he’ll be back again. Johnny has a CD coming out soon, too.

4. James Cuartero – James did a few acoustic songs that I really enjoyed.

5. Jason Vertucio – I really liked the Beatles cover.

6. The Forest Greens + Sarah Allen – Eric couldn’t make it, but Sarah stepped in on guitar and the Forest Greens played some great Celtic music.

7. Jenn Kutney – She did a decent cover of Spark, by Tori Amos.

8. Sarah Allen – Played some great tunes on the piano.

9. Matt Winn – According to Matt it was a Sterling High School reunion for him at the open mic. He put on a great performance as always.

10. Bob Michel – Another solid set by Bob Michel.

11. Luna Theater Company – The highlight of the night! They did a 10 minute Shel Silverstein play about a park bench, a small box, and the struggle between blind and informed authority.

12. Kilpatrick – I didn’t get a chance to ask Pat who wrote the first song he played. It was freaking awesome. I can’t remember any of the lines or even the tune, but I remember thinking to myself, “wow this sounds really good.”

13. John Shaughnessy – John came out to promote his show and play some songs. Sadly, my mind is drawing a blank on what he played.

14. John Quinlan – The slower song that John usually does is kind of interesting.

15. Chris Ward – He’s a great guitarist and on top of that he can sing, too. You don’t need much more.

16. George Hillman – George busted out a Travis song this week.

17. John and Dan – John Brennan is surprisingly good on the slide guitar. They should be covering “Death Letter”, an old blues song by Son House that the White Stripes do.

18. Jarrod – He’s been hosting an open mic at some restaurant in Woodbury on Tuesday nights. If I had more information I’d give it out.

19. Roz King – He spited Rob by playing Rob’s anti-request.

Tonight is the weekly Tree House open mic. It runs from 8:00PM – 11:00PM. You can sign up in advance here or just come to hang out and drink coffe.

See you tonight.

Why did Magnum PI need a Ferrari? The guy lived in Hawaii and everything is nearby.

Lately I’ve been listening to Fever to Tell by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The band is ok when they rock out, but I really think they shine the more mellowed out they are. The last three songs on this album, “Maps,” “Y-Control,” and “Modern Romance” are what I listen to the most and vocally they’re all pretty low key songs. Karen O’s anti-bitch alter-ego is much more interesting to me than the one who screams “I got a man who makes me want to kill!” I like the album, but if the next CD is more like the last three tracks (and the bonus track), the Yeah Yeah Yeahs might convert me to their side for good.

I just finished Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them and it should be required reading for anyone old enough to vote in the 2004 election.

I don’t get too political on this site, but I’ve always advocated that everyone get registered to vote. Before the election I think everyone needs to ask and evaluate certain questions.

1. Is everything being done to fight terrorism? 2. Is everything we’re doing helping that cause?
3. Are we giving up too much to fight terrorism?
4. Should we have invaded Iraq?
5. We we lied to about weapons of mass destruction?
6. Are we satisfied with the federal budget?
7. Do we agree with the way our government is passing, interpreting, and enforcing the law?

There are dozens more questions that you should ask yourself before voting this November. A local politician I know used to say, “Not voting is a vote for bad politicians.” I don’t know if he came up with that, but it seems logical to me.

After the gig on Friday night I went home and watched Dune. It might be one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. I loved the book and even semi enjoyed the Dune miniseries on the Sci-Fi channel a few years back, but 1984’s Dune directed by David Lynch is so bad I think it should be eradicated from history. The acting is weak and the directing is worse. Must we get an internal narrative from every character? Weirding modules? What the hell are they? The dumbest part is that they make Paul in his late 20s like they did in the mini-series when he’s supposed to be in his early teens. I wouldn’t recommend anyone seeing it unless you’ve got the hots for Sting. Or Patrick Stewart.