No Sense In Us Cavemen Burning Our Hands

Today is Fathers Day.  I've been a dad for 9 years, but for some reason, this year seemed to be the first time when I felt like it was recognized by many friends and the wife.  Not to say she never recognized it, but this one felt different.  I'm sure it's because it's really the first year where I haven't had a full time office job and our 2nd kid is now 2.  Huge difference between 1 and 2.  At one, they are little things..at 2, they are little people.

It was really nice to get this unexpected recognition.  Mostly, because being a stay at home dad just becomes a job and like most jobs, you tend to feel overlooked for your achievements (understandably, because they are expected of you...just like at an office job) and criticized for for under performance (again, just like an office job).  But, being put on a pedestal and being given a day, really is rewarding.

I started out the day getting up early to go surf with my cousin and nephew... no better way to start fathers day.  And on my way called my dad.  We had a great chat and the conversation made me reflect on a lot of things.

I always looked at my father as my own personal Ward Cleaver.  He worked real hard all day.  Was a loving husband and cared about his two boys.  Like Ward, he always wore a dress shirt and slacks and dress shoes.  Would help us with our homework (sometimes got really into it and would actually DO my homework).  But, really set the bar high for me as a Father.

I had the great fortune of being raised by 2 great parents.  Both brought different things to my life, but both were equally important.  My Mom and I were extremely close and until she died. We would speak daily (usually 2 times a day) and she helped me though a lot of things.  It's tough not having her around.  My Father was important because he taught me the importance of working hard and discipline.  He taught me how to be patient, pick you battles and always go through life with understanding for others.

I actually recently found all my report card from High School and after reading them, called my dad to apologize for being an idiot in school.  Sure, I graduated, finished college in 3 years, but man, for being the son of an overachieving genius, I must have been a disappointment on the academic side for sure.

After my mother died, my dad and I went thought a bit of a rough patch, but that was short lived.  People get emotional and confusion at the loss of a family member, but in the end, the example he set for me growing up was much more valuable to me than any issue we had.  You only have one father.

I feel bad for people that don't have that kind of relationship with their families.  Understandably, many are for good reasons that make it so the should never communicate, but I have seen more that usually are from petty or short term arguments that blow out of control to where they can't put the cap on the bottle again.  It's kind of sad to watch, because when its too late to fix it, it becomes a thing that you live with forever.  It haunts your soul and you wish for that one more chance to say "I'm sorry" or "I love you".

I came home to two wonderful card from my wife and my kids.  OK... both from my wife.  And they were the most touching cards a dad could ask for.  I felt important.  Important to my family and recognized for what I have done being at home taking care of things.  Yesterday, I was down on where I am.  A former executive folding laundry and doing household chores.  Today, I feel like I'm making a difference.  I hope to be Ward Cleaver to my boys.

I don't know if this feeling will last.  It's a tough transition for any stay at home dad.  But, If I'm making the same kind of impression on my boys that my folks made on me to shape who I am.  It's a good day.

                                                    Oh...How times have changed...

Chili Con Carne

Ever since I was a little kid growing up in NY... One meal that I always loved was the Chili my dad would make.  I remember him getting up super early and starting it up and letting it cook for a long time.  We would eat it that night and it was great as a left over.  Chili actually tastes better the 2nd day.  No idea why.  Maybe it's just me.  Oh and as I got older, the last thing you wanted to smell first thing int he morning when you had a hangover, was his chili... just a side note from my memories.

As I became a dad, I wanted to share this fine recipe and meal with my boys.  Of course, they won't eat it.  So much for tradition.  My wife loves it and we really can have it a few times during the week and is always easy to reheat.

I wish I could say the recipe was some magical family one, handed down from generation to generation... but it's really just from the New York Times cookbook. 

I actually called my dad a couple years ago to get "the secret recipe".  That's when the balloon was burst.  NY Times.  Anyway... It's awesome.

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons of Butter or Olive Oil
1 Large Onion
2 Garlic cloves, minced

1 pound chopped beef (I use turkey)
1 1/3 cups of canned or diced tomatoes with the juice (that's equal to one 14.5 oz can)
1 green pepper, minced
1 cup water

2 tablespoons of chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin seed, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon celery seed

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon basil
1 small bay leaf

 1 can of kidney beans (drain the liquid before using or else it makes it gross and sweet)


Directions:

So the most important thing I learned was to prep.  Meaning get everything in order before you start.  That way, you aren't cursing looking for stuff while something is cooking, etc.  If you have everything ready, once you start, it's just about adding.  Also makes it easy to clean after.

1. Mince the onion and garlic cloves and place in a dish.  Mince the green pepper (I like to drain some of the juice so it's not too watery) and mix all your spices into a bowl and set aside.

2. Heat the butter or oil in a large pot.  Add the onions and garlic and saute until golden brown.  While this is happening and you are stirring the onions and garlic so they don't burn.  In a separate pan, place your meat and brown it.

 3. Once both are nice and browned, add the meat to the onion and garlic and mix them well.

4.  Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and bring to a boil.  Once it's boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook uncovered for 3 hours or until the sauce is as thick as you desire it to be.

 5. After 3 hours or when you are satisfied with the thickness of the chili, add the can of kidney beans and cook through (about an additional 10-15 minutes on simmer.

 6. That's it.  Serve and eat with chips or plain.  The total time this takes is about 3 hours and 15 minutes to 3 and a half hours.  The prep itself is about 15 minutes, the rest is waiting.  Your house will smell awesome and like I said, the meal is great on day two.  If you have to make more, just double the ingredients.  It never goes wrong.

Stand Up Chicken

This is one of the easiest things to make.  It's healthy, delicious and everyone loves it... other than vegetarians,  Sorry.

I will say, this is the one meal (as easy as it is) makes me squirm a little in the prep process.  I like to pretend that food I eat was never alive once.   So, the seasoning of this chicken, you can't escape the reality of what you are cooking.

As a chicken eater, I can't do bones.  I don't like eating anything with bones.  But, after this meal is cooked, for some reason (maybe it's how long I cook it), I don't mind.

This meal is a two step process and takes about an hour and a half. 

Ingredients:

                                                                    One Full Chicken

                          Any Season All - I use McCormick- (Now Morton) Season All Seasoned Salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Prepare the Cookie Sheet and Stand Up Chicken holder by covering with aluminum foil.  This isn't necessary, but it takes no time and will save you so much time at the end (clean up). 

3. Wash the chicken thoroughly and pat it dry.

4. Cover the chicken generously with the Season All to coat the entire chicken.  This includes under the wing and under the drumsticks

5. Place the chicken on the standard place in oven for 90 minutes.  It should be cooked through by this point.  I personally like it very crispy, so leave it in for an addition 10-15 minutes.  Remove from oven.

6. When cutting the chicken, make sure to leave it on the stand.  Your first cut will release a lot of juice.  That's good.  From there, Slice as desired and serve.

7. For a side, I live to just make some rice and corn.  The kids really dig that.  You can make anything really.  It's chicken.

Whatever you don't use, you can just slice up and use later in a salad or as another meal later.  Enjoy.

How You Like Them Apples?

Ben Affleck is a career and franchise killer.

I'm not a fan at all.  It's not just because he's a Boston guy (I'm sure that might be how he first got on my douche radar), but more from watching how he has killed franchise films, characters and ruined the careers of everyone he has been close too.

I would like to start out my noting that fellow Bostonian and co-academy award winner and former best friend, Matt Damon (I am a huge fan, regardless of the love for the Red Sox) ran for the hills.  I would guess he has some sort of Spider sense that was beyond tingling... Another reason that I love Matt Damon.

Back to Affleck... The first time I saw him was in 1993's (and personal top 10 favorite film of all time) Dazed And Confused.  He played the douche character "O'Bannion".  A bully dickhead who gets his from the kids he gets off torturing.  I didn't think much of him, other than he was a dick.  Interesting, that the 1st impression I got of him stuck with me all these years.  But, he was playing a character, my dislike for Affleck came more from his uncanny ability to ruin a lot of things I really like.

After Dazed and Confused, the next time I saw him was in Kevin Smith's sophomore film Mallrats. As a huge fan of Clerks, I had beyond high hopes for this film.  Kevin Smith was my favorite up and coming guy.  He liked comics and movies... He put good music in his movies (I credit my buddy Benjie for that, since he was the music supervisor on that film when we worked together).  But a good comic guy and film guy shows how smart he is by who he chooses to advise him on music....

Mallrats was pretty bad.  Not horrible, but not great.  The curse of Affleck began.  Kevin Smith, unlike Matt Damon, did not possess the Spider Sense.  You would think a comic freak, who believes in the Force would see or trust his instinct.  My Guess is Affleck was too far in his head.  Then along came Chasing Amy.  Again, not a horrible film, but was not going in the right direction for career building as Clerks had set up Kevin Smith.  This would be where I would have hoped Kevin Smith would cut Affleck from his downward spiral... No.  His work wasn't done yet.

Then along came Good Will Hunting.  A brilliant film that was (allegedly) co-written by Affleck.  But, from watching that film, I have always been suspect that Affleck jumped on the Damon coattails and rode the wave.  An academy award later, he had credibility.  But, I'm positive that Spider Sense was tingling in Damon's head.  Matt went his own way and got involved with films like Saving Private Ryan, Rounders, The Talented Mr. Ripley...later to get involved with franchise films like Oceans Eleven, The Jason Bourne series and Martin Scorsese... Sans Affleck.  He ran for the hills.  Smartest career move ever.

Affleck looked like he was going to make it back.  Get off that bad streak.  He went into Armageddon.  Huge hit (he did kill Bruce Willis though).  It was looking better!

He got to star with Sandra Bullock in Forces of Nature... That force made old Sandy run to never make another film with him again.  Spider Sense.  Bravo Sandy...Just wish it worked for your with Jesse James...we can't win them all.  But you saved your film career.

Then, old Kevin Smith broght him back for 2 more movies that were the precursors to hitting rock bottom, again courtesy of Affleck.  I'm getting ahead of myself.  Affleck and Smith convinced (I think I would call it guilt) Damon to appear in a small roll in two more failures, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

He also was responsible for blowing up Pearl Harbor again with his horrible acting in a horrible film.

Somewhere in this time period, he met and started dating Jennifer Lopez.  Lopez, coming from nothing but hard work to get up in the business was at her highest point at this point.  Starring in her breakthrough role of Selena, acting with George Clooney in the fantastic film Out of Sight and having number one hit songs and tours as a singer.  J-Lo was on fire.  Then came Affleck.

The two of them started dating, he appeared in her videos and the two of them starred in the (before mentioned Rock Bottom) fall of Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl.  As the final nail in coffin of  Jennifer's rising film career came Gigli.  Sure, both Smith and Lopez would recover (kind of), but it wasn't until they got rid of Affleck.

The same year, Affleck took the time to really ruin one of my favorite comic book characters and kill the film franchise before it even had a chance to become one.  In the same film he met his future wife Jennifer Garner, who was fresh of the brilliant JJ Abrams TV series Alias.  She had nothing but success in her future.  She could be an action star, America's sweetheart.  Sky was the limit.  Then came Affleck.  The two of them starred in the horrible Daredevil.  She played Elektra (why, I have no idea).  Not only was the film a flop, but so was any future Daredevil movies.  Frank Miller wrote a series that could have been a film franchise.  Garner went on to do a horrible spin off of Elektra (another bomb) and so was the rest of her film career.  The two had kids, she's pretty much over with A list status and He is still out there getting more chances.

I can go on, but it makes me sound insane.

So below are some other examples of his career/franchise killing: 
 
The Sum of All Fears - He played Jack Ryan. A character Harrison Ford had made a franchise (fucker)
Clerks 2- Really Kevin? I feel like I need to stage an intervention

Things I will give him credit for, because I try and find a positive in everything:

Hollywoodland - Very good performance of George Reeves (Irony.  Reeves killed himself/was killed after killing the Superman franchise)
Gone Baby Gone - Didn't see it.  heard it was good
The Town - Heard it was good, didn't care, because it's Affleck and Boston.

I looked him up on IMDB and it looks like he will be spending more time directing and writing than acting.  I fear for the poor up and coming actor that may get caught in his web of career death.  I also saw Matt Damon may be in an untitled production as well.  I'm guessing the every ten years guilt  film.

I hope you have that Spider Sense, Matt.  I'm a huge fan.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake GF/CF

After discovering the skill of cutting a pineapple, I decided to look into other things I can do with it other than snack and use in the green juice. 

I decided to try the old Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.  It was actually pretty easy.  I haven't tasted it, but it looks good.  I wanted to make if Gluten and Dairy free so everyone in the house could enjoy it. 
Truth is, I hardly ever eat this stuff, I just need new ways to pass the day and try and impress the family. 

Making things GF/CF is really easy.  Betty Crocker made now make boxes for things like Yellow Cake.  So that just makes the experimenting of what GF flour is best, etc...

This took no time at all.  It was maybe 10-15b minutes of mixing etc and the baking was around 40 minutes.  You let it cool off for around 30 minutes and can either serve it immediately or refrigerate for later.

Here's the ingredients:

1/4 cup of Butter (I use Earth Balance that comes in a stick for easy measuring)
2/3 Cup packed Brown Sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
6 slices of fresh cut pineapple
6 maraschino cherries (i hate these, so opted out...your choice)
1 box (15oz) Betty Crocker Gluten Free yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter (softened. I just put it in the mixing bowl and put in the microwave)
2/3 cup of water
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs

The instructions:

1. Pre heat the oven at 350.  In a 9 inch pan (I used a rectangular one).  Place the 1/4 cup of butter, place it in the pan and in the oven to melt.  Once melted, stir in the brown sugar and corn syrup.  Spread this combo evenly in the pan.  Arrange the slices of pineapple on top of the spread.  If you like the cherry thing, put those in the center of the pineapple slices.

2. In the large bowl, beat the cake mix, 1/2 cup of softened butter (this is why I soften it int he microwave), water, vanilla and eggs with an electric mixer on slow for 30 seconds.  Then increase the mixing speed to medium for around 2 minutes while scraping the sides so it mixes well.  Pour the batter over the pineapples evenly.

3. Back the cake on the center of the oven for around 40 minutes.  After 40 minutes, check if it's done by sticking a toothpick int he center and make sure it comes out smooth and clean.  If it's done, remove from the oven, run a knife along the sides to make sure it's not sticking to the pan.  Put a plate or cutting board (easier due to the size of the cake) and flip the cake over onto the board or place.  Remember, this is hot, so make sure to use oven mittens or towels.  Leave the pan on top of the cake to let the sugar topping drizzle over the cake.  After 5 minutes, remove the pan and let it cool for 30 minutes.

And then it just becomes an industry of... cool.

I was doing my normal surfing the web stuff checking out new bands and seeing if anything would blow my mind.  I have been lead down the bad path my entire career.  People that know me, know that there are buzz words that get me excited.  When I read reviews, and I see some of those words, I'm quick to jump and give it a shot.

Back, pre MP3's or even as that whole world was just starting up, a lot of indie bands and unknowns were not easy to find, so that's when I would go to the local record store and find it or even ask them to order it for me.  I can't tell you how many times I threw Cd's out my window so bummed that I got sold a bill of bullshit.  There are some writers that I actually like.  Cameron Crowe, Robert Christgau, Jon Parales, Toure...I was too young to have been around for Lester Bangs, but I'm sure I would have loved him.  I'm also sure he would have annoyed me too.  But writers like these examples always write (or wrote) from a standpoint of merit, not what's cool.  I don't want to listen to music because you are supposed to, I want to listen because it matters and is good.

The one that stands out to me this day (and I still think are bullshit) was The Gossip.  I read some review in maximum rock and roll or some magazine like that, that said they were a modern take on the garage band of whatever.  I wish I remembered who wrote that review, so I could kick him in the ass.  Years later, I would see NME and Perez Hilton, praising Beth Ditto as some rock goddess... I stared to question NME from that day on... Perez Hilton, well, he's the last person I'm going to follow when it comes to music recommendations.

The London Souls

Anyway... I was looking and came across a band from NY, I had never heard of called The London Souls.  The place I got the tip from didn't compare them, but mentioned bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin as similar artists.  This was exciting.  With the wonders of the Internet, I was able to find their album on Spotify. 

It was easy and didn't cost me a dime, but I must say, It took away a lot of the discovery process I used to love. 

Back to the band.  I listened with such high hopes and was once again disappointed.  I didn't dislike it, I think I was just hoping for so much more.  The vibes were all there, I liked where they were going, but it always comes down to the song.  They unfortunately had none. I was actually hoping this post would be a praise of the band, but it became more of a thought about how no matter what the medium (press or blogs), I have to learn once and for all, not to listen to reviews. 

I'm sure a lot of people hate my opinions and recommendations, so perhaps someone has the same rant based on something I suggested. 

Fast forward to the following day.  Again, I have never heard of The London Souls in my life.  All of the sudden, I'm reading another post somewhere and there is a post about the band.  Unfortunately, It wasn't about new songs or a tour, but the singer Tash Neal was in intensive care after a hit and run incident in NYC. 

I have a lot of hopes for the band, I just don't think they are there yet.

I hope everything turns out OK for Tash and he has a speedy recovery to get back to it!  I'm pulling for you my man.

 

Gabba Gabba Hey

I may have said this before, The Ramones are my favorite band of all time.

There isn't a band/artist I listen to more.

When 3 of the 5 original members died, I couldn't have been sadder.  Joe Strummer came a close 2nd to breaking my heart.  I look back at moments when I could have said something to any of them (Dee Dee lived near me in Hollywood and I would see him all the time), Joey, I would walk by or see at shows in NYC and Johnny, who I recall sitting next to me at a restaurant long after they broke up in Los Angeles.  But, one of my issues in life (and my career), is that I'm a fan first and get super scared and intimidated when I'm in the same room as people I admire.

I just spent the evening watching End Of The Century - The Story of The Ramones for the 8th time.  Every time I watch this brilliant documentary, I get sad all over again.  Sad from the story itself, sad that they are gone and never to play again and sad that I never said the things I wanted to say when the opportunity presented itself.

The words that were written in their huge catalogue and the melody and most important, the influence they had just kills me.  This happens so often when pioneers and talented people that are responsible for a sound, for an emotion from the listener, never gets it's due.  The Ramones, Fishbone, Bad Brains,  Schooly D, the list goes on.  It's so frustrating to me.  I can only imagine how it feels for those artists.

I hope one day to have an opportunity to tribute The Ramones and let people see these songs and these performances for the beauty and genius they brought to rock and roll.

Until then, we have the catalogue, the DVDs, T-Shirts, the bootlegs and the books...

Thanks Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny, Tommy and Marky for giving everyday of my life a soundtrack.

I miss you.

Here's the whole film for your viewing pleasure.