Archive > September 2008

The biggest, best modern rock bands that I Love to Hate

The criterion here is that these audio artists are well known in the modern rock/alternative scene, the only “commercial” scene still worth listening to on the radio.  Granted, it’s pretty horrid to flick on the switch to any “major” inner-city radio format, but the only genre that is mildly tolerable and occasionally enjoyable is alternative.  [...]

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Tally’s takes on “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” (2008)

It’s only days away from the Autumnal Equinox but “Fall” is already in the air. I awake before 5 a.m. on this quiet Saturday morning and in the drizzly pre-dawn darkness I snuggle into my favorite corner of the sofa with a hot mug of coffee and a cozy throw; remote in hand. The room [...]

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The Devil and Daniel Johnston – a movie review

  Film: The Devil and Daniel Johnston
  Directed by: Jeff Feuerzeig
  Year: 2004
  Language: English
  Country: United States
  Starring: Daniel Johnston, Thurston Moore, Jeff Tartakov, Louis Black, Don Goede and a ton more
  Reviewed by: The Bad Man

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING:As in all my movie reviews, beware of spoilers. If you haven’t invested some [...]

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Chenin Choot-out, mk iii (assaggio minoralus)

BadMan is all about the Chenin Blanc, especially when it hails from the Loire region of France.  As closed minded as I am, I’m also always auditioning the New World sisters of the fair damsel Chenin, always in quest of a reasonable likeness from the Old World.  This evening I’ve assembled three Chenins from various [...]

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Five Minute Reviews: thoughts on some recently viewed films

“The Impressionists”- chronicles the struggles of Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, and Degas to gain recognition for a new, bold style of painting.  The timely viewing of this BBC mini-series aligned with a pretty impassioned blog-battle regarding Pop music’s lack of merit and the unfair struggles of unrecognized musicians who toil unnoticed because the masses can’t, [...]

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Rosenblum Petite Sirah (assaggio minoralus)

The Contender Rosenblum San Francisco Bay Heritage Clones Petite Sirah 2006 14.8% alcohol $17.99
Inky black colour (of course).  Nose smells of spice, heat, plum, tar, leather, and after an hour chocolate.  At first it came across as a thin, grapey overripe style, but later developed into a super nice, albeit not explosive fruit, reasonably tasty [...]

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Cline and Rombauer Zins (assaggio minoralus)

Tonight I sat down to another Tier II Zin tasting contender taste-off.  Up to bat we have:
The Contenders
Cline Ancient Vines California 2007 Zinfandel, 14.5% alcohol $12.99
Rombauer California 2006 Zinfandel 59% Amador County, 24% Napa County, 11% Lake County, 6% El Dorado County, 15.5% alcohol $27.99
The Rombauer was already set to be “in” the Tier II [...]

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Why I hate Pop Music

I offended a co-worker Tuesday. Not surprising. I do that all the time. This time though had to do with Pop Music.
The driver put on some top-40 garbage and asked me if I liked it. I answered honestly. It’s shite, almost as bad as James Blunt. Well, that’s when [...]

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The Not-So Debacle Filled Napa Trip

So I’ve decided to create my own first voyage into the blogging world to describe my own Napa trip that I took with the family.  This trip was planned for months, since I got back from NY in May.  And didn’t come w/o its own set of struggles.  My family, is crazy and full of [...]

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Crush Quest: our first club wine trip. Part 2: Napa

Picking up where we left off, the BadMan and I are tooling along the winding roads, leaving Sonoma in our rear view mirror and heading toward Napa.  It’s about 105° and the car is not happy with the conditions but we prevail. Sometime after 1:00 (if memory serves) we are on the Silverado Trail heading [...]

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