Test Tube Meat?

What is this? PETA has offered $1 million (US) to the first person to successfully develop In Vitro meat. PETA and I don't always agree, but this seems so sci-fi and ridiculous I can't believe it's legit. I have a feeling this is going to stir things up in the animal rights community. I can see it now, Chia pets that grow meat instead of herbs. That would be something.

Bruised Ribs & a Scraped Elbow

Converge played last Sunday and as the Utahns say "Oh my heck". Mayhem, complete mayhem. I've seen Converge play 5 times or so now, and last weekend was by far the best show they've put on. There were bodies flying, people screaming, bleeding, moshin' hard, and mad as hell - it was great. I made it relatively unscathed, just some bruises by my ribs and a scraped elbow from jumping off the PA. It was that kind of night.

I'm the goof in the video taking pictures with the small digital camera at the left of the stage. I'm no photographer, hopefully SLUG likes the pics I took. Anyway, this is how the show opened. Intense.



Did a lot of eating this week too. Limon on 17th was great last night, the vegetarian cebiche was really tasty, and the quinoa "risotto" was also very good. I ate at Stella Trattoria in the Highlands for lunch today. The service was mediocre and the portion sizes were uneven. The vegetarian focaccia sandwich was good as was the pasta salad. I'd say it's the best in Colorado, but nothing is going to touch the pasta salad at the Desert Edge Brewery in Salt Lake. That stuff is Bobby Flay Throwdown worthy.

Tomorrow night I'm going to give veggie meatball stuffed Chicago Pizza a shot. Too much? We'll soon find out...

It Looks Like Sputnik!

We ate at Sputnik a week or 2 ago. I've been there in a bar sense, usually just meeting up with some people and ordering a Coke. We decided to try the grub, it's quite good. After an obscenely long wait (45 minutes for some sandwiches?! Come on!) we got our food. I had the vegetarian Vietnamese sandwich. The fake pork wigged me out because on the menu it says tofu, but it's actually some of that crazy fake meat you can only get at your local Asian store. I also had a couple of bites of the homemade veggie burger which was also good. To top it off the sweet potato fries are delicious. They are fried perfectly crisp and come with a delicious dipping sauce. Barring the wait, everything was flavorful and original.

Recently I also hit Sushi Sasa the Riverfront/Platte/? area of Denver. While the sushi was decent I also had a ridiculously long wait for my food here. 50 minutes for a few sushi rolls? Seriously?! Seriously. There were 5 sushi chefs and only 4 tables at the time. If I wasn't there on a business meeting I probably would have left. Difference between Sasa and Sputnik: Sputnik has a small kitchen. Sasa has no excuse. Oh well, I must have some kind of restaurant curse. We'll see how this week's adventures go.

What is it 1997?!

So last week I caught Crime in Stereo with Comeback Kid. Crime in Stereo kills. Seriously, if you don't have the newest album "Is Dead" you're a chump. I haven't seen Comeback Kid since their old singer left. (What was that, like 2 years ago now?). In any case I wanted to be trendy and not like them because they're on Victory and they play that melodic with tough guy breakdown stuff. I'm usually of the opinion that bands like CK are reserved for high school girls. Apparently Comeback Kid doesn't care, they brought it all. I had a great time. And I kind of like the new guy (y'know the one from Figure Four) better than the old one. Also in their corner, they record at the Blasting Room in Ft. Collins and they're from Canada.

Speaking of 1997... Oh wait, I wasn't, but anyway, Earth Crisis reunion! Despite me being sick - which I still am, apparently going to the gym and staying out til 3 in the morning while sick doesn't make you better faster - didn't stop me from checking out everyone's favorite militant straight edge vegan band. Karl Buechner is kind of big/bloated for being vegan, maybe he eats lots of potato chips and pasta, but that's ok. I had a really good time. There were quite a few kids (like 30 year old kids) who came out to their first show in a while and then had nothing but bad things to say about the EC. Why come out if you're just going to be all bummed about the whole "Earth Crisis scene"? Now, I'm not doubting that there are perfectly valid reasons ot to like them, I know better than anyone that their militant parodoxical lyrics (I'll kill you because you test on animals? what?)are not the firmest ground to stand on, nor is their music always the most interesting, but if you're taking a trip down memory lane just take the trip! Needless to say, those of us into it were into it. Best Buechnerism of the night: "This song goes out to the guy that burned down a meth house in his neighborhood so his brother wouldn't die". It brought me back to the days when hardcore bands were featured on 20/20. The mosh was slow and fairly tame, probably because old vegans are skinny and out of shape. This was a good trip down memory lane, regardless of my views about EC's politics, plus they played that song from that animal rights compilation. It was worth the price of admission for that.

Recipe wise I tried to make new york style pizza the other night, it ended up coming out a little doughy, it would have been better as a sicilian style. When I get that perfected I'll post a recipe. In the meantime I made vegetarian meatballs last night and they were delicious. Recipe is posted below:

1 pkg Smart Grounds (12 oz)
2 eggs
1 (+ a little more) wheat bread slice processed in food processor
4-5 button mushrooms minced
1/4 onion minced
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
3 cloves garlic minced
4 T parmesan cheese
salt (generous)
pepper

Cook the onion, garlic, and mushrooms over low-med heat in some olive oil 3-5 minutes. add it to everything else in a bowl. Mix it with your hands (yeah it's kind of gross, but it works much better than a spoon). Form meatballs to slightly larger than golf ball sized. I got 14 out of this recipe. Put them on a greased baking sheet, I sprayed them with some crisco spray as well. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. That's it, pretty simple, but they turned out really good.

Holy Oscars Batman!

Wow! The Oscars were pretty bare-boned this year. From the "high school project" computer animation at the beginning, to the just over 3 hour broadcast it was a pretty straight and to the point show for the Academy Awards. I think Jon Stewart did fine as host and took some good jabs at Hollywood's love of congratulating itself on job well done. Oh, and to all of the reporters covering the Red Carpet: How do you sleep with yourself at night?

Thoughts of mine in list order:

-Golden Compass winning an Academy Award for anything was pretty awesome. The movie wasn't terribly good, but I'm a big fan of the books. Plus it beat Transformers. Atheism 1, Michael Bay 0.
-Bourne Ultimatum taking home the 2nd largest number of Oscars for the night (if my counting is correct). Who knew?
-None of the schmaltzy and white-bread songs from Enchanted won.
-Javier Bardem winning.
-US armed forces presenting an award to a documentary about the fight for same sex marriages. Take that Department of Defense!
-Jon Stewart calling the Academy out on montages and sarcastically remarking on how interesting the "Award process Montage" was. That particular montage was one step above an educational movie from high school.

Switching gears, we caught Romero's Diary of the Dead on Friday, and it was splatterific. I always enjoy his ambiguous social commentary and intentional b-grade acting. At least I hope so, otherwise he really needs new casting directors. Stylistically it was in between Cloverfield and Dawn of the Dead - which was a good mix. It was bleak and zombie deaths are always a delight. Romero knows what he's doing when it comes to commanding mindless hordes.

I will try to post a recipe later this week.

Planesmistakenforstars Final Show

I just got back from Planes' final show. One word: epic. I remember seeing this band for the first time in the fall of '99 when I was a lowly freshman in college. I've seen them countless times through the years and one thing that's remained consistent is their passion and energy when they play. If they don't move you in some way you must be the walking dead.

Tonight's show killed, the final 3 songs kicked everyone's ass so hard they'll be waking up with bruises. Planesmistakenforstars is the best band to come from Denver in the last 5-10 years. Period. Thanks for all of the great memories and the great music.

Sundance 2008 + The Savages

It's been a while since the last blog post, so here's a recap of the most recent movie and food doings. We cruised out to Sundance during opening weekend a couple of weeks ago to catch the happenings. The New Frontier Film Lounge on Main was really cool. My favorite piece in there was a piece by Daniel Rozin. The wooden pegs as an image screen is one of the single most incredible pieces of technology I have ever seen. The technology coupled with the organic wood was a fantastic juxtaposition.

Movie-wise we caught two films. We saw the Shorts Program V of which Isabella Rossellini had 3 called Green Porno. I believe all of the short films will be available on iTunes. The most dramatic, and overall best, of the program we saw was August 15th by Xuan Jiang. The film follows a fateful bus ride that is robbed by two men who subsequently rape one of the passengers. Her drastic actions at the end of the film bring it to its tragic and difficult moral conclusion. When this one finished, during the silence of the credits, someone in the audience simply said "great", and that was all that needed to be said.

We also caught Anvil: The Story of Anvil. This documentary about the almost forgotten, but nonetheless important and influential heavy metal band Anvil, garnered a standing ovation from the audience. I think this speaks for itself. I hope this gets distributed. Not only does this legendary band need a break (they are still together after 30 years!) but it's a moving and touching film. Imagine if Metallica weren't a bunch of whiney cry babies in Some Kind of Monster and you actually cared. This is that movie.

Tonight we caught the Savages with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. The film was an accurate portrayal of the difficulties and hardships of having a parent in a nursing home that is dying with dementia. I've said it before, Hoffman is one of the great actors of our time, as is Linney. Her Oscar nod is deserved, but I don't think her performance will cut it against the cinema stealing prowess of Ellen Page. But this isn't about Juno, it's about the Savages, and I would recommend it. Perhaps my favorite scene was of Linney's character having an intellectual fight with the man she is having an affair with. The combination of such a sad and pathetic situation with the obvious intelligence of both characters lent a new face to the age old 'sleeping with a married man' scenario.

On to the recipe:

Asian Slaw
1/2 of a napa cabbage chopped
1 carrot matchsticked
1/2 a red bell pepper julienned
1/4 of a red onion diced
small handful of cilantro chopped
dash of red pepper flakes

dressing:
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 T lime juice
2 T sugar
3/4 tsp. salt (I use more salt because I don't use fish sauce)

Blend dressing and pour over the other ingredients. You can use any vegetables you like, but those are what I had on hand.