chicago fire pizza

I ate there last night. It is cavernous inside and too loud. They were blaring christmas carols which you could barely make out over the talking. It was pretty packed. Our server was good, he handled the whole waiting 40 minutes for the deep dish to be done perfectly be spacing out our order well. I like how they have cheap family style salads and if you order one they just bring however many plates your party requires. The Caesar was all right, I'm not really into Caesar salad. I didn't detect any anchovy. I know most people don't like it, but I think if you're going to offer a Caesar you should at least give people the anchovy option or it's not really a Caesar. After that we went to a thin-crust vegetarian pizza, which was terrible. ADK said it was like a roller rink pizza and she hit the nail on the head. The deep dish Chicago fire combo was delicious, however. The tomato sauce is really fresh tasting and the sausage tasted like high quality Italian sausage. OK, now for the inevitable Zeldas comparison: the crust at Chicago fire is lighter, and I prefer the heft and pie-ness of Zeldas. I would say the pizzas are slightly different and both equally delicious, however the ambiance of Zeldas (yes, even with the "rude" servers) puts Zeldas over the top for me. I am a Zelda lover, but I don't eat pizza that much and I only go to Zeldas maybe twice a year, so I don't have some big Zeldas agenda in saying that. Oh yeah, the super cheap brew is an extra point in Zeldas favor, too, because Chicago fire only has crappy brew but it's like 4.25 for a pint.

the saturday to end all saturdays

Just yesterday I was all "ho hum, nothing going on this weekend, no big whoop

and then bambambam I found out about way too many things going on on saturday. I got invited to some book release thing at old soul, and one of the books coming out is a childrens book about delta and dawn!

And then Bows and Arrows is having their grand opening and I'm thinking I might buy that deadstock space savers brand purse that I foolishly passed up twice on the grounds that it would immediately get really dirty. Hmmm.....I guess there's also a "flashlight party" at the townhouse on friday where they're going to cut all the lights at midnight? Sounds dangerous.

And then the really big deal is the R5/Midtown Monthly event and fund raiser thingy at which a buttload of great local bands are playing!

morning links

An article from the times about Trinidadian immigrants fitting their bikes with crazy sound systems

A blog about signs with "unnecessary" quotation marks it's really "funny"

this one has passive aggressive notes. it's not quite as funny as the quotation one but it's pretty good.

people are so mean

I was reading this blog, because I like it, and the writer of it knew the poor girl who fell and died downtown a couple of days ago. His hurt at reading those stupid fucking comments on the sacbee website is reason number 1,008,674 that they should not include comments on their news stories!! And it sucks that Mike Rafter is being jumped on because the reporter called him and asked who knows what and then framed his comments to make him look insensitive.

However, I must say I approve of Breton using the phrase "lots of homeless dudes" in this article. I think that as the law stands, unfortunately eminent domain CAN be used for crap like putting in a mall, but that wasn't the original intention for it's use. I hope that someday the supreme court will set that straight. I guess it will have to be after Clarence Thomas dies.

what's a juggalo?

I'm sitting here listening to bone thugs on my pandora.com radio station (have you guys made a station, it's amazing! they play songs that surprise and delight me constantly) and I was reminded of the astonishing vice magazing article about the juggalo convention at which the bone thugs played. you have to read it! hope the dirty ads don't get you in trouble at work. This is my ICP favorite lyric quoted:

What is a Juggalo? Well he ain’t a phony / He’ll walk up and bust a nut in your macaroni / And watch you sit there and finish up the last bit / Cause you’re a stupid-ass dumb fucking idiot.

There was just a new yelp of Akebono, so I thought I'd put in my two cents. I was prompted to go there by Mike Dunne's mention that they have ramen. The more ramen I eat, the more respect I have for Edokko II's ramen, because it must be damn hard to get it right. I got the shoyu ramen at Akebono. The broth was bland and thin. The dish was uninspiring, and not that filling. I was still hungry after I finished the bowl. At edokko II I can rarely finish my bowl, and I usually eat the leftovers for lunch the next day, for the same price. And not because it's giant, it's just really rich and complex tasting and filling. OK, and fatty and salty, I'll admit it. That's how I want my ramen to be.

Now pandora is playing tupac. thumbs up! It's cool that they play the unedited versions and not the radio edits.

breaking the tripe barrier

does anyone out there like menudo? i want to get into it, but i'm afraid. I've never ordered it. if you like it, where's your favorite place to get it?

also, are g and j balls back from ireland? what was the food like. gballs wrote something on the indiechicks about a lymph-containing blood pudding she had?

happy hmong new year (yesterday)

I'm bummed I missed out on the Hmong New Year celebration at Cal Expo, but this year it fell right on thanksgiving and there was just too much other stuff going on. I already marked it on my 2008 calendar so I'll go if I'm even alive by then.

Have any of you ever been to or even noticed Kobasic's candies waaayyy out on Riverside Blvd? They have a lot of handmade candies there, truffles, bars, bark, etc. I was riding my bike to the Pocket yesterday (which was really fun!) and I saw it and went in. I get peanut brittle and English toffee and it was fucking good. They have cute boxes and stuff for those who like to give candy as a gift. Blow off Sees and get your gifts here!
Here was the sunset over the river on the way home. Too bad the stupid bike trail keeps getting blocked off at points due to the city not owning all the stretches of levee.
I was craving spicy soup so we went to Korea house. I got the pork and kimchi soup. It was pretty good, but smiller's sea bass soup had the exact same broth and vegetables and I think that's a little lazy of them. The panchan was great and as usual there was one I'd never had before, that one with the black beans there. The beans were really chewy and dense and had a salty, licorice-y flavor. It's really hard for me to get a handle on Korean food. I love the bbq, I know that. But the food is kinda pricey so I shy away from trying new things that I might not like. The menu at Korean house had a ton of short descriptions of dishes that sound intriguing, but I know they are leaving something out. Like "cold noodles with spicy sauce" for 10.99. There's got to be more to that! I want to branch out from the standard short ribs and bibimbap but I don't know where to start.


,

heartbeeps

Not to be a grumbly curmudge, but the bike ride wasn't quite as fun this year. It was a beautiful day, as usual. There was a good turnout. I don't know what it was, but part of it was definitely the route we took. It didn't go through very many city streets and it didn't feel as anarchic as usual. I guess that's necessary to keep people from getting arrested, but riding on the bike trail is just not as fun.
This guy was serving up raw oysters, they were really good. Beer and oyster breath at ten am? Not a great combo.

To each his own, but there were too many dudes dressed like pimps or wearing afro wigs or something. Pimps=thanksgiving=bike ride? I don't get it.
That guy in the purple was a Kings themed pimp. As the head said, after we discussed how many furry tophats were in the crowd-"this is the most 90's crowd I've seen since the mid-nineties". Sac is hella nineties, which is cool

Here's the ride. There was a lot of bellringing and fun, somehow it just felt a bit lackluster. It was funny when some big guy whose car was made to wait because we rode past acted like he wanted to fight the bike ride. At the end of the ride I feel asleep in the grass for awhile. I had a hangover by three, which was not helped by watching Heartbeeps

t-day b ride?

I'm sure no one is checking this late, but for those who care, Calvin Johnson is playing a house show tonight at 20th and N. Before you sneer, just think back to how great Beat Happening was and turn that sneer into a light smirk.

It almost time for the bike ride that cannot be named. I'm quite excited. Are you going?

An unforseeable catastrophe involving the Bananas and the recording of background vocals kinda caused me to miss the Heather Klinger benefit show, so I STILL have not seen the Pizzas. Weak. However, I just discovered that you can donate through paypal, and also order Heather's zines and comics and stuff. Jed, follow the link.

show of shows

I'm really excited for that house show tonight. It supposedly starts at eight. It's at J and 23rd, on J. I really hope there are not actually 5 bands playing, that doesn't seem possible. And don't forget the benefit with the excellent ohsees and Pizzas at 918 Douglas ave in Davis at seven on saturday. Don't forget!!

let's conduct a test

In an article on the murder of Satender Singh at Lake Natoma, the Bee allowed someone to make this comment:

Send both groups home.
Fiji Islanders? Russians? The US doesn't need any more ethnic groups moving here. This nation has become a garbage dump for the rest of the world and the days of needing or wanting more immigrants is long gone.

5 out of 15 people rated this comment helpful. the bee comments board is serving as a haven for racists to air their views in a legitimizing (if that's a word) forum. This isn't about free speech, this asshole is free to write these things but as I've said a bunch of times before, the Bee DOES MODERATE these comments, and does not allow obscenity or off-topic comments (no matter how innocuous). Someone approved this comment, and also this one from this same guy:

Dozens flee scene of major cockfighting raid
DNWyatt at 4:11 PM PST Thursday, July 5, 2007 wrote:
DNWyatt
Legal or illegal, this is part of the Hispanic culture they are so proud of. Isn't diversity great? This country is now like a jammed sewer line that needs to be flushed out and emptied right back to Mexico. Let the organizers and fans of cockfights take knives and fight each other and show that famous machismo bravery. The survivors could then graduate to become gang leaders

I decided to conduct an experiment. I have posted a few comments on this article. to try to see what the bee's criteria are (is?). i of course shudder to write anything racist, but i got as close as i could get. i think probably none will get in because i submitted them all under the same name, but i encourage you to submit some and tell me what they were. here are mine:

What a great article.
Thanks for this useful story! The Bee is the best fucking paper around!

nice picture
man, that guy in the picture is sexy. i'd really like to show him a thing or two about a thing or two, if you get my drift.

This article is great except for the fact that it was written by someone with a foreign sounding name. That makes me feel angry and fearful.

first things first

First things first, the tapping of the beaujolais cask and the ten percent discount at 58 is tonight. I tried to go by yesterday but no dice.

Second things second-I checked out Bows and Arrows last night, intending to just be there 5 minutes to get a gift certificate and I ended up being there for over and hour and buying a kitchen table and a handmade dress, and smiller got two pairs of shoes. The place is insanely rad! I didn't expect it to have so much good shit. Now I just have to try to sell some stuff to get some credit there.

Third things third-the English Singles have been added to that friday house show!!!

Fourth things fourth-I went to Oz Korean BBQ for the first time in over a year yesterday. That place has gotten really weird. In addition to the flatscreens and signed Kings stuff, etc., they have made a real effort to make their menus accessible and not scary by making up English names for the dishes, like calling a seafood soup Korean cioppino. And they have like chicken finger appetizers and shit. It gives it a weird vibe. Our server was really awesome but I really had very little idea what she was saying or what we had ordered until it came to the table. The confusion centered around us trying to order one of the expensive soups that said that it was for two. Turns out it's in a giant cauldron and is really for like 4 or 5. And then we somehow ended up ordering two plates of bbqed meat (pre-bbqed, we didn't sit at the table). One was a kind of plain, thinly sliced beef that I liked a lot on the lettuce with the salty bean paste. I think the other was bulgogi, but it was too sweet for me and not spicy enough. Too much like beef with KC masterpiece on it. It annoyed me that the server warned us about the spiciness of everything and then it wasn't spicy at all, and I'm not some kind of macho "bring on the spice" person. The seafood in the soup was not very high quality and the broth was bland. The one really interesting thing was that there were tons of these gray pods floating in the soup that looked like eyeballs. I felt brave for biting into one before I knew what it was. It had liquid inside and something hard. I asked the server and she said there's no western name for it, but that it was in fact some kind of kelp that you don't eat but that the prize is the soup squirting out in your mouth when you bite down. Crazy! I found the pods to have a light soapy or perfumey taste, in addition to the fishiness of the soup.

mantles in sac

That show last night at Delta was a good time, and it was also probably the first show that I've ever been to that started on time (nine o clock) thanks to the excellent Warm Streams. Joshua Ploeg is a sassy frontman extraordinaire. Mayyors tore it up, but they took a jagillion years setting up which was trying my nerves a little bit. That was partially because Jay Reatard was late. I really liked the singer, but I thought the live sound was a little too metall-y for my tastes. I'm listening to them right now and I see that recorded they don't sound metallic at all. In fact they sound great. I was home by midnight, which I really appreciated on a weeknight. Thanks again, DJ Rick. You're the best.

And speaking of the best, there is a benefit show for Heather Klinger and her bf this saturday. They were victims of that recent Q street fire, and as the flyer says, they only got two pairs of pants! So dig deep into your pocket for this one. And you don't even have to think of it as charity because there is an insanely great line-up. Here it is from what's up sacto, but I don't think this is right. I know the Pizzas are playing, so I don't know if one of the other bands dropped out. I can't wait to see the Pizzas! And the oh sees!!!!!

Sat, 11/17 - THEE OH SEES / NURSES (SF) / STANDARD TRIBESMEN918 Douglas Ave in Davis - 7:00, $$$$DONATE$$$, all ages Benefit party for Klinger & crew (housefire)

And then let's talk about friday. There is too much going on, way way too much. In fact, I'm rather distressed to see that Knock Knock is playing at the Java Lounge, because my heart belongs the Mantles and Ganglians house party show. I can't fucking wait to see the mantles with their new line-up, now with Drew and Lambie Roberts. This one's so much on the d.l. that I don't even know where they house is but I'll get back to you.

Also, if you can believe it, Six Organs of Admittance is playing at Time Tested earlier that night!

Sat, 11/17 - SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE (solo acoustic style)Time Tested Books, Sacramento - 7:00, $Free!, all ages Part of a small West Coast record store tour, 7PM is the REAL start time!

OK, then let's talk about tonight. 58 degrees is having a cool event. They're tapping a cask of beaujolais nouveau tonight and selling it for six bucks a glass until close, and all French wines are ten percent off! I hope to have time to hit it up.

heckamaz

All right, you'll have to indulge me in a few vacation photos. Apologies to the friends who've already seen them. We arrived on the night before the day of the dead, the "parade" we went to the town square to see was really a procession involving four donkey-drawn carts, twelve kegs of pacifico, and everyone in town. We all walked through the streets, crowding around the carts trying to get glasses of beer, while ear-splitting banda music (which is rad) played. Unfortunately, they iced the kegs at the last minute so really we sucked down glass after glass of foam. It was our first night there, my body reacted to the extreme humidity by quickly swelling until my fingers were the size of sausages. I was foolish enough to try to wear boots and pants, a mistake I didn't make again. The rest of the week was cutoffs and flip-flops.

Here are the guys doling out the beer.
This was one of the guys leading a donkey cart. His tshirt says "I survived a root canal"
Here's smiller in a hammock on la isla piedra. You can take a little ferry boat out there. The beach is the best, and there are all these little places to chill and drink beer and eat super good food.

This was a whole smoked dorado fish, fresh smoked for us. Insane.
Here's the beach, sometimes it's deserted, sometimes there are tons of cruise passengers out there.
A sign in the town on a gym. Look like anyone?

Another sign from the same gym.
Here's some tasty pozole from cenaduria conchita. We ate there three of four times. Was this the lettuce that gave me montezuma's revenge? We'll never know.
This was ceviche we had on stone island. In a week of delicious ceviche, this stood out as the best.

Picturesque shit.

Playa Bruja was kind of a bust as a beach but this sign of a surfer is funny.

Here, smiller makes camp in the danger zone. right into the danger zone.
Playa Bruja was pretty but the lifegaurd wouldn't let us swim. eff that.
This courtyard was INSIDE the house we stayed in. no big deal.

This was the view from across the street from where we stayed.

This dog, Chuy was also at the house where we stayed. I think you'll realize that he's the best when you see that he would actually bust downward dog all the time. A dog that does yoga?!
Congratulations. You made it to the end. There is ANOTHER good show tonight in Davis. Two local bands so support your bros!

Tue, 11/13 - JAY REATARD + MAYYORS & WARM STREAMSDelta of Venus, 122 B Street in Davis - 9:00, $6, all ages See THIS! Will be TREMENDOUS FUN!

hey dudes

I'm still in Mexico, but I wanted to post that there is a hot show on saturday: the losin' streaks and the english singles (and some other bands) at the townhouse, at nine ish. I don't know why there is a show at the town house but even that fact makes it interesting enough to check out. I'm bummed that I'm missing Jack Rose at Time Tested tonight.