30 Day Music Challenge - Days 13 & 14

These two are sort of similar to me, but I tried to separate them as much as I could.

Day 13 - A song that is a guilty pleasure: I think of this as a song that no one should really love, but I do anyway.  I've often said that I'll never apologize for or defend my taste in music, and I don't think anyone should, but this is a BAD song.  Rich Girl, by Gwen Stefani is a horrible, horrible satire? parody? take on the Fiddler on the Roof song If I Were a Rich Man, which I completely love.  Fiddler is one of my favorite classic musicals, and Gwen Stefani did a number on that song.  Despite all of this, though - I love it and am incapable of shutting it off whenever it comes on.


Day 14 - A song that no one would expect you to love:  Again, I don't apologize; I like what I like, and my tastes are really broad, so I'm not sure anything I like would really come as a surprise to anyone.  I love that Taylor Swift song You Belong With Me.  I really like Taylor Swift.  Not all of her music, necessarily, but she seems like a pretty down-to-earth kind of girl, and she can sing, and she writes her own stuff.  Sure her songs are sort of teenage bubblegum kind of songs, but she's 17 or something!  It's sort of refreshing to me that she's writing her own songs, and she's writing about what she knows.  Keep it up, kid.

Occasional Adventures in Baking: Part 2

The Baked Brownie

I'm on a bit of a quest to learn to bake a few things really well, but I only want to make things that are impressive.  A few months ago, it was red velvet cupcakes, which went very well.  This time it's homemade, from scratch brownies.

I found this recipe, from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.  I also found a lot of bloggers raving about this recipe, so I figured it must be good.

It was delicious.

I wish I had pictures to share, but somehow, I've made them twice now and failed at taking pictures both times.  A few notes, though - they were super, super fudgy.  Like, I cut them pretty small because eating one is almost like eating a hunk of chocolate fudge, and getting them out of the pan was more like trying to get fudge out than brownies, in my experience.  They were hard to get out of the pan clean, and a gooey mess to cut up.  I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate baking chips, Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder, and International Delights Mocha Latte instant mix instead of the instant espresso mix.  They were better the first time, and were almost undercooked the second time.  I thought they hadn't cooked right the first time because I used a darker baking pan, so the second time, I turned down the temp in the oven a little to try and compensate, and obviously that was a bad decision - they were better the first time, using a dark pan must not have made a difference, they were really just meant to be that fudgy.

The final verdict - I'm going to keep trying a few other recipes, I think.  These were wicked good, and pretty easy but I'm not commited to them yet, and I want to see what else is out there.  I won't move on to a new baked good until I can master the brownies, so stay tuned for more experimentation.

In the meantime, I did learn how to frost a double layer cake a couple of weeks ago.  Here's a picture of that (albeit not a very good picture).

30 Day Music Challenge - Day 12

Day 12 - A song from a band you hate:  I preface this by saying that I don't think I truly hate any bands or solo artists.  I have preferences, and there's a lot out there that I'm not into, but it's tough to say I hate anything.  One band I've always had something against, though, is the Smashing Pumpkins.  I'm not sure why - maybe it's Billy Corgan's cue-ball head or whiny voice, maybe I have a repressed memory involving some of their work, I just don't know, but I've never been a fan.  My song choice for today is that awful rat-in-a-cage song - Bullet With Butterfly Wings (I had to look it up).  Sad, it's such a pretty name for a song, and then the song has to go and suck so hard.  Blech.  Today's challenge was no fun.  I'm going to post something new and fun over this now.

30 Day Music Challenge - Day 11

Day 11 - A song from your favorite band:  I hate favorites!  And really, just any song?  Any song at all?  This one is kind of dumb.  There's no reason behind it, no oomph.  But again, in the spirit of completing the challenge properly, I'll choose one of my favorite bands and answer the question.  Let's say that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are my favorite band today.  If I can pick any song at all, I'm going to go with Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky from the Mother's Milk album.  I heard it on my way into work this morning, and it really is awesome.  It sort of defines classic RHCP, in my opinion.  I love Flea.  Incidentally, the Peppers are recording a new album right now with their new guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer.  Fingers crossed that he can even come close to the magic that was John Frusciante's contribution to the band.  Look for the new album late 2010 - early 2011.

In which I meet Chuck Palahniuk!

Chuck Palahniuk's newest book, Tell-All, came out last week.  In celebration of this monumental occasion, Chuck is currently on a book tour.  J and I went to see him last Wednesday night, Cinco de Mayo, in Boston.  Unfortunately, there are two stops on this tour where Chuck isn't signing/personalizing books, and Boston was one of them.  Nonetheless, I got a pre-signed copy of Tell-All(two actually), and afterwards, Chuck was gracious enough to sign my copy of Rant, which I happened to have with me because I was reading it at the time.  The whole night was amazing.  I had such a good time, and it was so, so cool to meet one of my favorite authors and to get a little more insight into what's going on in his head.  Plus I had never been to Cambridge, and I'm now looking forward to going back to explore Harvard Square a little more - it's such a cool area, I wish we had more time to wander around.  The event was unlike any author event I've ever been to, and likely unlike any that I will ever attend.  It was about two hours long and filled to the brim with awesome.  Thank you, Chuck, for being such a cool author.

Chuck started off with a brief talk about what and why he writes, and then played a game in which he threw giant, inflatable Oscar awards into the crowd, and had a race to blow them up.  Winners were given inflatable turkeys. (!!)  Next he read a new short story, Knock-Knock, which he wrote for this book tour and has already sold to Playboy (look for it in the December 2010 issue) - it was hilarious, in a way.  In typical Chuck form, Knock-Knock is an experiment in format - in it, he tells the story of a young man watching his father suffer and die of cancer, but the story takes the form of stand-up comedy.  The story is laced with more politically incorrect jokes than you've ever heard in such a short time, and in that way, it's laugh-out-loud funny.  Read it, if you get the chance.  It's great.

After another round of blowing stuff up, Chuck was interviewed by the owner of a local Cambridge movie theater.  No offense intended, but the interviewer was bad.  J and I agreed that at times, we felt embarrassed for the guy and for Chuck, because they guy just seemed completely unprepared.  It was interesting to hear Chuck's take on his new book and a little about what went into

writing Tell-All, which was great, but I hated the intervewer.  Finally Chuck took a whole bunch of questions from the crowd, giving everyone who asked a question an inflatable turkey for their trouble (Thank you, Chuck - my turkey is now proudly displayed in my office!), before a final game of blowing stuff up, during which he stuck around and chatted with people who cared to approach him individually.  Maybe it was wrong to ask him to sign Rant for me, when this wasn't supposed to be a signing event, but he was very kind in chatting with me for a few minutes, and completely gracious in signing it for me.  

I love that Chuck appears at first glance like a big nerd, but then you read his books or listen to him read them, and it's so raw and graphic and awesome, you'd never expect it out a guy that appears so quiet and subdued.  He confessed to being a "social retard," claiming that the games and special short story and everything are akin to coping mechanisms to help him be with people - something you would never, ever guess from reading his books.  He re-confirmed for me what I have always said about him - that his stories are all romance stores at their heart - he's just finding a new and better way to say I love you.  Awesome.

Afterwards, on our way out, we ran into Chuck and the guy who had appeared to be in charge all night (publicist, maybe?) as they were leaving out the side door of the church where the event was held.  J asked Chuck if he wouldn't mind taking a picture with me, and the other guy volunteered to take one of all of us.  A perfect end for a great night.  I haven't started Tell-All yet, and I just finished Rant yesterday.  I'm holding off on reading Tell-All for a few weeks, so I still have one more new Chuck book to look forward to.

30 Day Music Challenge - Day 10

Yay for making it through ten days, and still being mostly on top of this little challenge!
In case you're new here and wondering what this is all about, here's the link back to the original post for this little challenge, now that I'm 1/3 of the way through.

Day 10 - A song that makes you fall asleep:  A Beautiful Mess by Jason Mraz is my go-to lullabye at the moment, and has been for months.  I have the YouTube video of his performance of this song at the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony saved as a bookmark on my phone.  Sometimes when I'm having trouble sleeping, I put it on, and I inevitably wake up in the morning with my phone having tumbled out of bed onto the floor, with the YouTube page still open.  It's such a sweet melody to lull me off to sleep.

30 Day Music Challenge - Days 8 & 9

I swear I started to write the day 8 post yesterday, but I got sidetracked and never finished it.  I'm trying.
Happy Mothers' Day!

Day 08 - A song that you know all the words to:  Seriously?  I think I've already covered the fact that I've been known to look up lyrics whenever I decide I love a song, so it probably goes without saying that I know all the words to most every song I listen to.  This morning I woke up with Don't Stand So Close to Me by The Police stuck in my head, though, so that's my answer.  What a great song.  It's definitely one of my favorite Police songs, and I could listen to Sting sing all day long.


Day 09 - A song that you can dance to:  Again, there are SO MANY!  I depends on the kind of dancing, so I'm picking two.  The first is Ain't That a Kick in the Head, by Dean Martin.  J and I danced to this at our wedding - we danced the foxtrot and a little bit of swing, and it was wicked fun.  The second is Missing My Baby by G. Love.  It has just the right mix of funk and blues and a little rappy-dance flavor thrown in.  Definitely one of my favorite songs.