Dude! Another movie drinking game!

In case you’re wondering what I’m listening to while I write this and I know you’re all on the edge of your seat!  It’s Phoenix.  The indie-rock group Phoenix from France.  All day long.  What a great band, they are so cool.  With their rolling guitar and pronounced keyboard melodies coupled with great vocals and lyrics, the band fr- ahh, what am I doing?  I’m supposed to be talking about a drinking game and a movie.  Sidebar alert!  Screw it.

Somebody got DRunk last night.  Somebody got cute and decided that it’d be a good idea to do a drinking game on a Monday night being unaware of what the possible outcome could be.  Well, two people because I played this one with a good friend, I’ll just refer to her as Helen of Troy.  (SHOUTOUT!: Thanks for doing this with me.)  I knew going into this it would be an ambitious one and having seen the movie I was certainly aware of the excessiveness of this event.  However, I never really thought of it in terms of drinking and exact numbers.  Truthfully, the only research I did was to see if this had been done before.  And while I’m sure thousands of people have attempted this around the world on a whim or on the regular not a soul has written about it.  They have drinking games for this movie online but none of them pertain to what I’m going to enlighten you on.  So, I thought what the hell?  Enjoy!  But wait, the rules.  I promise I won’t do this too much more.

Rules: We pick a recurring instance of some event, saying, object in a movie and watch for it every time it happens. (Tip: It’s easier to do this with movies you’ve already seen so you’re not distracted at key plot points.) We then take a “sip” every time this occurrence happens. A sip can be a coffee-like sip or, at most, 1/4^th of your drink, I’d say try to keep it in between. We’ll then take our experiences and rate the drinking game on a scale of 1 to 5 drunkedness.  On to it!

This Movie Drinking Game will leave you Dazed and Confused, for a Short Time.

Hello everyone.  This is the first installment of a new segment at “Don’t Know, Don’t Care.”  In this weekly segment we will watch movies and drink during them so as to experiment and share with our readers the best and not so best movie drinking games that people have thought of and recommended.  Future recommendations are always welcome.  A good movie drinking game involves a certain funny/dramatic/ironic instance that is repeated several times over the course of the film.  For example, how many times did Paul Walker, R.I.P., say “bro” in the first Fast and the Furious, or any of the Fast and the Furious movies for that matter?  I can estimate that it would be enough to get me to 5:00 Eastern Hammertime.  Seriously, he said “bro” way too much. Perhaps I’ll do this one later; the least it could do is make that movie more enjoyable.  But I digress, and hope this isn’t “too soon.”

I know that I’m the guy who wrote an article entitled “the 7 reasons you shouldn’t drink while watching movies.”  I stick to what I wrote that enlightening day in all your lives but I also claimed in there that I may or may not be an alcoholic and that drinking and watching movies was nothing new to me.  I was also trying really hard to be funny, something I struggle with daily.  But hey this is an entirely different animal people!  If you think you can hold your shit and enjoy a good movie all the while being coherent enough to be able to mark your tallies for drinks then it’s all you.  Another angle you could take with our recommendations is to get to the point of inebriation in which you can’t enjoy the movie.  No matter how hard you try the alcohol won’t let you.  Another context would be to drink a whole lot to make the movie go from bad to great.  Whatever your heart desires, there’s something here for everyone.  Enjoy yourself and hopefully our recommendations can turn a boring Saturday night-in into something a little more exciting.  Allow me to explain the rules!

Rules:  We pick a recurring instance of some event, saying, object in a movie and watch for it every time it happens.  (Tip: It’s easier to do this with movies you’ve already seen so you’re not distracted at key plot points.)  We then take a “sip” every time this occurrence happens.  A sip can be a hot coffee-like sip or, at most, 1/4^th of your drink, I’d say try to keep it in between.  We’ll then take our experiences and rate the drinking game on a scale of 1 to 5.  And that’s it!  That’s the last time I’ll explain the rules and ramble. Aren’t you so glad? To your drinking game!

Simply Baked Salmon with Farmers Market Inspired Sides

This article was written by my girlfriend Katie.  I ate this food so I can attest to how great it was, so I highly suggest that you keep reading to see her gangsta ass take on salmon and salad.

This past weekend I checked out the farmers market in Falls Church (300 Park Ave., Falls Church, VA 22046). This is a fantastic year-round farmers market held every Saturday from 8 am – 12pm (9am – 12pm, January – March).  I didn’t take full advantage of the bountiful selection of summer fruits and veggies, which I was kicking myself for afterwards, but I did get very inspired to make some light, healthy side dishes to go along with my favorite dinner of all; “Simply Baked Salmon”.  I cook Salmon at least once a week and have tried many different recipes.  My recipe for Simply Baked Salmon is by far the easiest, and my favorite. I have included this recipe below as well as easy summer side dishes that go well with any main – Roasted Heirloom Tomato & Cucumber Salad and Sautéed Summer Squash.

Left: Sauteed Summer Squash, Center: Roasted Heirloom Tomato & Cucumber Salad, Right: Simply Baked Salmon

The Top Seven Reasons You Shouldn’t Drink While Watching Movies

Sorry for not rolling out the content lately.  Here’s a repost of an article I wrote for another blog like 4 years ago.  Enjoy!

Oh yeah, let’s talk about these seven reasons.  First of all, I love drinking while watching movies.  The difference between me and the people/groups of people I’m going to call out is that I don’t have a problem with most of these because I think I may be an alcoholic.  (Joking?) Regardless, I actually have a piece in the works entitled the top 10 movie drinking games in which I have hand-picked several very original movie drinking games and am method writing the article to them.  (Not joking)  For instance, how many times does Jack say “Rose” in Titanic, and in turn, how many drinks does this cause me to drink?  Wouldn’t you like to know?  Yeah that’s what I thought.  And the answer is……… well refer to #1 below as to why I don’t have an answer as of yet please.  Before you do, please do this list full justice and go in order.

Sometimes, movies and drinking don’t go together well and this causes wild shit to happen.  Unfortunately, I’m sure a lot of you will just blow off this article, but when one of these situations plays out just like I wrote it, I’ll laugh when I say I told you so.  If you’re going to drink I suggest white wine or light beer and a movie of less than 2 and a half hours.  Otherwise this is what could happen to you.

Governors Ball Music Series + Recommended Listening: Earl Sweatshirt

Just last weekend I attended the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City.  I’m not usually much into the festival scene, except for the one-day joints, however when the lineup was released it seemed like it was decided upon specifically with my taste in mind.  I couldn’t believe the ridiculous lineup they were able to set up for this particular festival.

So, I bought a ticket.  I bought a concert ticket and a transportation ticket to get there, since it’s on a random island off Manhattan (Randall’s? or some shit), and I lived like a poor man even when we got to Manhattan, the most expensive place on Earth, since I had just paid rent in Arlington, Virginia (which the rent is too damn high too).  Fuck me, right?  Sike!  It was dope and well worth it.

Anyways, I wanted to write about some of my experiences there and with this segment I plan to write about every artist I saw and let you all know how they were in concert.  Plus, recommend to you some music from the particular artist.  If the artist was seen live but also reviewed for “365 Days of Music” then I will recommend to you something different from them. 

So here it is, today’s feature of our “Governors Ball Music Series” is 20-year old Los Angeles rapper, reppin’ the Odd Future (OFWGKTA) crew, Earl Sweatshirt.

Photo Courtesy: DJ Semtex

 Artist: Earl Sweatshirt

Date/Time: Sunday, June 8th 3:00 PM

Setlist:
1) Kill
2) Blade
3) 20 Wave Caps
4) Molasses
5) Sunday
6) Unknown (new song)
7) Centurion
8) Whoa
9) Orange Juice
10) Guild
11) Chum
12) Hive
13) Burgundy
14) Pre
15) Earl
16) Drop    

Concert Grade: A-

Recommended Listening: “Earl” (Mixtape)

Ranking the 106 albums reviewed for “365 Days of Music.”

So, I gave up on “365 Days of Music.”  Call me what you want (shithead, asshole, QUITTER!) and I’ll laugh I’m sure.  I could’ve predicted this, if you go back and read my first few posts you’ll notice I inserted strange motivation points in each one of my introductions.  Thinking about it now, that was just to get through the first week.  I doubt I ever really expected to fulfill the task required here.

I managed to continue on this course of unenviable labor for 106 days straight, minus a vacation to Florida.  Of course I don’t get paid for this shit, nor do I expect or even want to.  Getting paid for something like this would make the appeal obsolete, at least for me, and when finding out that even professional music critics only review an album per week on average to earn their salary I was like, “nah man, good on laboring over this every day.”  It also, sadly, took the fun out of music for a little while.  In one ear and out the other, so to speak.  It was just too much at once, and I’m not afraid to admit that.

The blog is not dead by any means, it just went into a coma.  We will still have music, food, and other random topics we find interesting.  Hopefully with this new free time we can come up with creative ideas centered around entertainment and culinary topics in the near future.

Today, I just wanted to book-end the whole “365 Days of Music” endeavor.  Through it, I listened to a lot of old favorites and discovered numerous recent albums.  It was a good run comprised mostly of indie, hip-hop, punk, psychedelic, alternative, and classic rock genres.  Following are the 106 albums listened to (with links to articles) for the segment ranked from worst to first!

365 Days of Music, Day 106: Schoolboy Q – Oxymoron (2014)

Day 106 here, and today we’ll be doing some hip hop for you.  Today’s album review is for recently released Oxymoron by Schoolboy Q.

Release Date: February 25, 2014

Rating: B

Key Track(s): Gangsta, Collard Greens, Hoover Street, Prescription/Oxymoron, The Purge, Blind Threats

Schoolboy Q is some kind of an interesting individual.  In an interview released around the time of the “Oxymoron” drop he stated that even lamenting about his violent past as a L.A. Crip gang member was “embarassing.”  It’s contradictory, because that’s what he does throughout the album; lament instead of criticize himself.  When you consider where he’s been, and where he’s from, it makes the stories he tells and the crunk level of this record that much more appealing.  His calm real-life demeanor is also a contradiction because he is a vortex of enthusiasm, though sometimes overzealous, here.  Still, the most conventional, least heady, member of the TDE crew just released the team’s best effort since 2011’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City from Kendrick Lamar.

365 Days of Music, Day 105: Wye Oak – Shriek (2014)

Day 105, ladies and gents.  Just 260 more to go.  Today’s review is for a brand-new album from Wye Oak entitled Shriek.

Release Date: April 29, 2014

Rating: C-

Key Track(s): The Tower, Glory, Schools of Eyes

I can see how this two-piece from Baltimore, Maryland are competent at their craft but it just didn’t sit right with me.  Good elevator music is still elevator music folks, and this one could put a guy who did four lines right after slurping a red bull and crushing the can on his head to sleep.  It is unfortunate that they do not have more energy because the electronic beats from Andy Stack are excellent, while negatively hypnotic, and Jenn Wasner‘s voice glistens with unique beauty.  But seriously, guys, yawn.  It’s yawn-tastic.  That’s what we’ll go with.

365 Days of Music, Day 104: Arcade Fire – Reflektor (2013)

Day 103, 264 to go.  Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.  Today’s review is for Arcade Fire‘s latest release Reflektor.

Release Date: October 29, 2013

Rating: B

Key Track(s): Reflektor, We Exist, Here Comes the Night Time, Normal Person, You Already Know, Porno

Leading up to the release of their fourth studio LP, Arcade Fire had one of the most impressive resumes in contemporary music.  Three records doesn’t seem like much in the grand scheme of things but, then again, this isn’t your Grandma’s three-album run.  Considered a trio of classics, the emotional and personal debut Funeral, effervescent follow-up Neon Bible, and decade-defining The Suburbs made Arcade Fire stand out as a band never afraid to test the waters, push the limits, or back down from creating meaningful, epic and sweeping anthemic rock.  Even if you were a pundit of one of their previous releases, like me on “Funeral”, you couldn’t help but appreciate, or try to understand, their artistic value.  With the release of “Reflektor”, overwrought with pretentiousness but packed full with grandiose talent, the ever-looming idea that they’re overdue for a misstep was dispelled, at least for a little while.

365 Days of Music, Day 103: Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People (2002)

Day 103 homeboys and girls.  There’s not really a lot going on besides this right now so let’s not waste any time.  Today’s album review is for Broken Social Scene‘s cult classic You Forgot It In People.

Release Date: October 15, 2002

Rating: A-

Key Track(s): KC Accidental, Stars and Sons, Almost Crimes, Looks Just Like the Sun, Cause = Time, Lover’s Spit

There are some albums that, when reviewing, are drowned in a type of notoriety which leads people to believe that writing about it is so important, and such a risky undertaking.  I’ve fallen victim to this before sadly, if you read my review of Dark Side of the Moon from yesterday you’ll see that I wrote less than 50 words about one of the most important albums in rock history.  This was simply because I felt like I couldn’t write about it, I would never do it any justice.  But, I’m also here to say that writing about albums is not that big of a deal, and I’d hate to see myself, or anybody, become too consumed with the idea that what we’re saying is too self-important, or not important enough.  At this point, “You Forgot It In People”, heralded as one of the most important underground rock records of the 21st century, might just be one of these albums I refer to.  I will not back down from the challenge however, and hope to do something a little different by telling about some personal experiences with the effort rather than flat-out describing or explaining it to you.