Category: Reviews

Having a blog means having an opinion. This category groups reviews of technology, concerts, books, food – essentially all things consumable.

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Concert Review: Bright Eyes @ The MANN (Philadelphia, Pa)

Opening Act(s): Dawes, M. Ward
Date: Friday, June 10th, 2011
Location: MANN Music Center, Philadelphia, Pa
Website: Bright Eyes

[Venue]

I am always happy to see a concert at the MANN. The acoustics are excellent, the setting is clean and interesting, and it isn’t a hassle to get there. I purchased balcony seats for the concert—I didn’t even know the MANN had a balcony (even as we walked in), the architecture hides it really well, which is pretty cool. Once we got up there, I was in love. The sections were small with only two seat rows—so I did not have to sit next to annoying people. The people in my section were quiet and respectful all night, very good crowd. My only complaint was the heat and there wasn’t much that could be done for that.

[Opening Acts]

Act #1: Dawes

I never heard of Dawes before this show, so as they started their set with a slower song, I was quick to dismiss them and pull out my smart phone. But I started hearing the guitar player (and singer) start to toss in these interesting transitions and that got my attention. As their set continued, they built up the pace and I started to get impressed. The guitarist has a lot of talent and the entire band has a good sound dynamic (and sensibilities). I really liked their set and I want to hear more from them.

Act #2: M. Ward

M. Ward came out a few minutes after Dawes. Ward is a frequent collaborator of Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk) and is probably known for his band “She and Him” with Zooey Deschanel. He immediately started into an instrumental piece which was upbeat and established his talent on the guitar. The next 30 minutes were very slow, sad songs that all built off a similar minor chord base and strum pattern. In a small, air-conditioned club this would be something that I could absorb, but in the heat, it just put me to sleep. At the end of the set, he invited Dawes out to back him and it sounded really good. I wish he brought a band with him for the whole set.

[Bright Eyes]

I did not expect a rock concert from Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes. Perhaps a few rocked out tunes mixed into a largely acoustic set, but the opposite happened. Oberst came out with firsts swinging leaning heavily on material from his new album and it was… awesome. Instead of putting the crowd to sleep like Ward before him, the band was LOUD. There were two drummers, two keyboard players, a guitarist (not Oberst), and a bass player – this group commanded attention.

All of the songs sounded fleshed out. After the first four, the band settled back into a mini-acoustic set where Conor played familiar tunes like “Four Winds” and “Lua” and then brought the band back out to fire up the crowd again. The tempo felt very intentional which alludes a control over the crowd reactions that is impressive.

I really enjoyed the concert: great crowd, great venue, great seats. I am continually impressed by Oberst’s versatility (acoustic, rock, electronica, and country). Oberst has been called the new Dylan too many times to count, but I think might have a new title to content with: Rock Star.

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DME: King Family Vineyards

( #KingVineyard, @drinkingmadeeasy )

Drinking Made Easy was kind enough to publish my story about a visit to a Virginia Vineyard, check it out:

Drinking Made Easy: A Visit to King Family Vineyards

Update: It looks like DME’s new website broke the links to the articles, here is the whole story:

The term wine country might invoke visions of the French country side or the sunny hills of Napa Vally… now allow your mind to think about Virginia. Not following? I recently took a trip to Charlottesville, VA to visit family. Knowing that I write for this blog, they suggested a trip to King Family Vineyards to sample the local wines and have a nice day in the sun, how could I resist?

Like most of you, Virginia is not my first thought when it comes to vino. But why not? My home state of New Jersey is making excellent progress in wine production and quality (another article for another day – I promise), why should Virginia be ignored? When I pulled into the vineyard, it looked like a massive outdoor picnic was taking place: families had blankets laid down with baskets of cheese, crackers, and (of course) bottles of wine. Children were playing ring toss and throwing around bean bags. Several dogs were lazily dozing under a large tree enjoying the sun.

A lovely picture, but what about the wine? It was very good. I introduced myself to a young lady presenting a sampling and she gladly allowed me to join the group. She handed me a glass of their Roseland 2010 and I was on my way. I don’t typically drink white wine (preferring red), but the Roseland had a pleasant sweetness that was not overbearing. Making my way through their entire series of whites, I was impressed with the variation and flavor. Another stand out was the 2010 Crose which was light and tangy.

I feel like I need to state that I am not a wine expert by any stretch of the imagination. I enjoy wine and I even make it yearly with my family, but I do not have the most refined palate: if I like it, I like it. I was ready for the red wine by the time the hostess opened the first bottle. The standout of the red sampling was King’s 2009 Meritage. It featured hints of sweetness with an undercurrent of spice. Around this time my father-in-law walked over with cheese and crackers and informed us that he had found a table. I attempted to make contact with a vineyard representative for an interview, but they were really busy that day (I called ahead, but they warned me it would be tough). Instead of stressing about it, I walked over to my father-in-law’s table and he greeted me with an open bottle ready to be poured. He filled my glass and I sat down thinking I couldn’t find a nicer way to spend an afternoon.

King Family Vineyard is located in Crozet, Virginia and is about a 20 minute drive from downtown Charottesville. If you happen to find yourself in the area, I recommend you take a drive to the vineyard and enjoy a nice glass of Virginia wine.

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Father’s Day Gift Suggestions

( #JoeKnit, #FathersDay )

Image Credit: Somebody in my family

A few weeks ago I came across this post about great father’s day gifts and I read through to see if there were any good suggestions for my old man. If you are a frequent reader you know my father is a popular topic due to his unique personality. If you are not into Mean Joe stories—move on to another post. If you enjoy them or have a father that is a total pain in the ass to buy gifts for—keep reading.

I am not going to overly complicate things, I am just going to list Mike’s (the author) suggestions and state why they won’t work for my dad:
1. Omaha Steaks: My dad is butcher, thats not happening.
2. Golf Accessories: My dad doesn’t like to play golf, although for a short period he did like to sneak onto courses to take walks and nap.
3. Sports Tickets: He could care less about any form of sports or team cooperation.
4. Remote Control: This is not a bad idea on paper, but any of the new remotes that have LCD screens will piss him off and be relegated to a drawer before he even tries it.
5. Fishing Equipment: I have never seen the man take an interest in fish in my entire life (besides eating them).
6. Camcorder: Technology = No.
7. Pocket Watch: He doesn’t care what time it is. He is where he needs to be until he doesn’t want to be there.
8. Restaurant Gift Cards: He’d rather cook for himself.
9. Magazine Subscription: No interest in reading anything outside of a very few select topics (mostly health related, but not the Men’s Health kind of articles).
10. Movie Gift Cards (Netflix, Blockbuster, AMC Theaters): Has lost the attention and desire to sit through an entire movie.
11. Camping Trip: Depends on what you mean by camping. If you suggest a hotel room, jacuzzi, and quality steaks – he might go assuming the right company is involved (not his family).
12. Custom T-Shirt/Polo Shirt: It would have to be the right material and proper color blue or it will sit in his closet for all of eternity.
13. Swim Trunks: This is a man who mows the lawn in meat-stained white t-shirts, old jeans that are held up by string. STRING. He would look at the netting inside the trunks and punch them so hard the little Chinese kid that made them would feel it.
14. Anything from Sharper Image or Brookstone: See #6.
15. Accessories for the Barbecue Grill: Besides his bare hands on the open flame? No.
16. Massage: This actually could be feasible if there was no spa music. Actually, he has an acute hatred for perfumes and sweet smells so he probably would not step foot inside a massage parlor.
17. Shaving Accessories: See #13 – this is a man that does not care about appearances (unless he wants to prove how pretty he is).
18. Wine/Beer of the Month: Does not drink fermented alcohol anymore.
19. A Tie: No

20. A Home Cooked Meal: See #8.

As you can see, he is a pretty difficult person to shop for. Do you have a father or relative like this? Or do you have a suggestion for my old man? Share your stories here. Good luck finding your dad a good gift!

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Book Review: Deadline

( #MiraGrant, #Deadline )


Image Credit: Jayme Rose

Last year I reviewed the book “Feed” by Mira Grant. The story is set 30 years in the future and zombies are an every day part of life (although still deadly), the main protagonists are a brother and sister duo who are bloggers that get involved in a conspiracy way over their heads (think adult-ish Scooby-Doo without the dog and with real monsters instead of dudes in masks). I liked the book although it had flaws and was glad to see the newest chapter of the trilogy, “Deadline” was released this week… until I actually read it.

Before I start, take note of two things:
1. There are going to massive spoilers in this review, so DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW if you don’t want to know what happens.
2. Generally, I have lost my taste for writing negative reviews. People who go through the effort to produce creative work and build a fan base should be admired. With that said, I feel like this book was a money grab and ties into my rants about every freaking book being a trilogy when there is not enough meat to the story, I am going to touch on that in this review.

Again – massive spoilers to follow.

Grant impressed me in the last book: her take on the zombie virus was interesting because she took an extremely scientific view of how the zombies propagated and that shaped the overall tone and setting of the book. She also impressed the hell out of me by having the guts to kill of her main character (Georgia Mason). Grant lost my respect in the first chapter of Deadline by having the other lead (Shaun Mason) immediately talking to his dead sister. This persists the entire book. Grant spends the entire book explaining how odd it is for Shaun to talk to his dead sister in his head, after two chapters I was yelling at the book saying “we get it, he talks to his dead sister, people think it is odd but accept it – ENOUGH!”

The plot of the second book involves Shaun trying to identify people in the government who were involved in his sister’s murder and the plot holes start appearing quickly. Instead of being proactive, Grant has a minor character from the first book (an junior scientist named Kelly from the Center for Disease Control) appear at their doorstep bringing all kinds of trouble. Kelly’s appearance in the 2nd chapter established that cloning technology exists in Grant’s world. I immediately put the book down and said “they are going to clone George, this is a total cop out”. Shortly after Kelly appears, the characters are attacked and it is also established that Shaun had a “black box” full of writings, videos, and personal notes from George – essentially all of her memories. MacGuffin!!!

For the entire book, the characters run around to different CDC offices saying the same exact thing over and over again: there could be potential cures to the zombie virus but the CDC is suppressing research. Grant establishes the CDC as the bad guys early and the rest of the book forces a series of ridiculous plot twists (why would the Government kill millions of people when the last outbreak almost wiped humans off the Earth – no logic!) By the end of the story, the CDC manages to introduce the virus to insects that essentially causes all hell to break loose (because it can spread so easily). The last few pages reveal the George clone and the book ends.

Deadline could have been a fifth of the size and integrated into the other two books, but instead (I am guessing) the publishers pushed Grant to add a lot of filling and pump out an extra book. It was a bad decision because the quality of the second book was not near the first and it felt like a massive holding pattern. I don’t know if I will pick up the third book, but I am honestly hoping Grant redeems herself on the third and final outing for these characters.

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Reviewing Music Cloud and Backup Services

( #Amazon, #GoogleMusic, #Cloud )

Over the last few months, mobile music lovers have been treated to a few new innovations in accessing their personal music collections. I am going to spend a few minutes reviewing those new services.

Amazon Cloud Service

The first music cloud service that I could access (officially) on my phone was Amazon’s Music Cloud service. Amazon starts off by giving you 5 GB of free online space, but with the purchase of a cheap album, your cloud drive will be increased to 20 GB. Another good feature is any music you purchase from the service does not count against your space restriction (translation: if you buy music from Amazon they host it for free).

When I first got the service, it was snappy and worked well in my dead zone house with just the phone signal. Over the last few weeks I have experienced the service getting stuck even in good reception areas. That said, the streaming service, doesn’t seem to drain the battery too bad which is a plus. Overall Amazon’s service works well. Although I have one more minor gripe: the “download files to your computer” feature asks me to download the download app every time I want files, even though I have it installed already. Annoying. Glitches aside, I have been buying most of my music through them (screw apple!).

Google Music Service

A few weeks ago Google announced it would be offering a cloud music storage system. The difference between Amazon and Google is that you can’t buy music from Google, but you can upload up to 20,000 songs. It took about a week, but I uploaded 50 GB of music to the system which was just under 8000 songs.

The service is slick and works well on my phone. Since I have both Amazon and Google stream apps on my phone, I have found Google’s service more responsive and less buggy – which makes sense since it is their operating system. The web interface is very similar to Amazon’s but has album pictures which is nice.

The upload app that runs on your computer is a little buggy and gets stuck after a while, but I guess processing 8000 files can be excessive.

Learn more about Google’s music service here. One bad thing about the service is you have to request and invite and is not open to all Google users to start with, but it is honestly worth the wait.

Apple iCloud

Reports are coming in this morning that Appple is about to announce a cloud service as well. I could care less. I hate their draconian DRM policy and never purchase music from iTunes.

Personal Cloud: Western Digital My Book Live

The last option I am going to discuss is a personal NAS drive that you can open up on your firewall for a personal cloud. I purchased a 2 TB Western Digital My Drive for $140 bucks. I plugged it into my router and it immediately worked.

The nice thing about this little device is that is has a built in DLNA server which can feed your music and files to all of your computers, gaming systems, and phones. It would VERY well with my android phone (something I could not figure out using Windows Media Player media sharing services).

Adventurous people can cut open firewall rules so they can access their music from their phones anywhere they are. Personally, I don’t have much desire to do that since I have the other services, but the My Book drive is a really cool device to have in the house, especially if you have streaming media devices – it just works well.

Conclusion

Right now the Google service is impressing me the most since it can host all of my music and isn’t giving me much trouble. That said, I really like this NAS system I have set up and the combination of the two allowing me to finally sell my insane CD collection to the used stores to free up space.

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DME: Upscale Beer Pong

( #BeerPong, @drinkingmadeeasy )


Image Credit: Joseph Mollo

Drinking Made Easy posted my article about a $750 beer pong table.
Check it out: Upscale Beer Poing

Update: The DME link is down, so here is the full story…

Beer-pong gets a bad wrap. Often associated culturally-devoid fraternity “bros”, many of my peers scoff when I suggest playing a round. Playing beer pong doesn’t have to be relegated to shamed exile in a dank basement, especially if you have one of these. A talented young man named Joseph Mollo created an extraordinary beer pong table that is not only classy, but offers new innovations to the game.

Drinking Made Easy had a chance to speak with the Mollo about his creation. The 21-year-old has a family background in woodworking that gave him access to tools and materials. He put those skills to good use with this recent creation: “I was inspired to build a table that would not only be an exceptional playing surface, but hold its own as a furniture piece when not in use. Its a conversation piece that draws attention for anyone whether or not they have had any beer pong experience.“

The table is comprised of quality wood and incorporates attractive lights into the design. Joe says it takes him 7-10 days to create a table from start to finish. This quality work comes with a hefty price tag – $750.00 (USD) plus shipping. Joe says “the cost is based on quality materials, time, and craft.”

Thanks to Mollo’s unique design, the table creates new game-play elements. Joe says “the table’s design introduces a new shot to beer pong called the skeet shot shown in the video I provided. The ball is thrown into the curve and launches off the opposing side into the cup for 2 cups. Swatting is encouraged (for all the traditionalists looking for a new).”

While the table may be expensive, the craft and creativity of the creator cannot be denied. It is a beautiful piece of furniture that any social drinker would be proud to feature in their home. Creators like Joe are will beer pong out of the frat houses and basements and into the parlors and game rooms of the masses. If anyone else has a customized table, let us know in the comments section, we would love to hear about your designs.