Man Soup

I made some man soup last night that I'm actually kinda proud of. I planned to make a white turkey chili that is the best, but I didn't want to shop, so I made do with what I had. I think it's kinda healthy, too. Oh, and for good measure, you can throw a baked potato in the bowl and pour the soup over it. Here's what I had:

3 or 4 ribs celery sliced
2 or 3 medium onions chopped
as much garlic as you want smashed or chopped
one can black beans undrained
two cups chicken or beef stock
chopped leftover steak or chicken
two cups cooked quinoa
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried cilantro
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Baked potato

Saute onions and celery in hot olive oil

Add garlic when onions get soft

When onions are translucent, add beans and stock.

Bring to boil lower heat and simmer for 15-20 min

Add steak, quinoa, cumin, cilantro, oregano. simmer for another 10 min or so. 


Add salt and pepper to taste.


Place baked potato in bowl, pour soup over. EAT.

Street Photog - pics and tips

I just fell upon this Yanidel Street Photography blog today. The photos are great. The tips are great. And even the short, concise writing is great. They also are selling a book called "Little Crimes of Paris" which will soon be on my coffee table. 

Sweetwater Wayfarers

The founder of American Apparel, the flaship store for hipsters, has
declared the hipster dead.
Along with that, LCD Soundsystem has called it quits, and the Wayfarer sunglass, it has been decided, is no longer cool.

RUBISH. The hipster is a term that has described the underground 20-something counter culture group of ruffians since the 1940s, Wayfarers are a classic style that I still like (so therefore it's cool), and LCD Soundsystem, well, they're done, but we still have their CDs.

At the SweetWater 420 Fest this weekend at Candler Park in Atlanta, it was hard to walk through the crowd, and even harder not to bump into someone wearing some form of wayfarer. Here is the proof.

What I think is cool this week:

Get Up Kids - Shatter your lungs
Can't you already tell it's Vampire Weekend plus some je ne sais quoi? Except that they've been around since before Vampire Weekend visited their first summer home. Music history fail on my part.



Devlin - Let It Go (Joker Remix)
You could punch Justin Timberlake in the teeth and force feed Timbaland a Four Loko, but I don't have the balls to do that, so I listen to this.



I don't have kids yet, but...
Little girl singing Edward Sharpe's "Home?" Yes Please. Watch now. Reproduce for reproduction's sake (I mean, if you're there yet. keep it in your collective pants, kids).

Kanye and Jay Z
This dynamic duo releases their first single Tues Jan 11 (1.11.11). Is it too early to rain down praise for what should surely be a grab-your-ear-and-never-let-go single and a record of similar quality ? mmmmm.. no. Sorry I party.

Gym @ work
The ol workplace is building a gym INSIDE our office and ONLY employees can go.
Benefits: working out, a measly $20 monthly fee, convenience.
Cons: forced to see coworkers sweat.
Verdict: Sorry eyeballs.

The twitter guessing game
Who the eff is that person on my twitter feed? Right? It's fun.

What's not cool this week:

Internet passwords
I can't log in to my systems at work right now. Let's just get rid of this whole passowrd concept, yeah? Anyone in IT ever watch James Bond? In the 70's they were accessing shit with their eyeballs. Let's go.

Donuts
Cake, no problem. Beer, one more over here, please. Chocalate and butter pie? Sounds like an exotic delicacy I must try. But donuts are what fat cops and Homer Simpson eat. Therefore I'm required to regret that maple glazed mistake I just made.

Thank god for @kesslovesrobots, Pitchfork and Rcrdlbl.com for portions of this post.

Coach killers strike again

Now I know the 10 commandments condemn murder. But how can a Vikings fan contain his or her elation today? The Packers, working in conjunction with their storied former flagship quarterback, Favre, successfully got Vikings coach Brad Childress fired today. That's right. I'm calling for an investigation into the conspiracy between Favre and the Packers to kill off coaches throughout the NFL. Yes, a horrible season and a locker room full of disgruntled coach-hating Vikings have a lot to do with it, but Favre's single year in New York also paved the way for the release of then Jets coach Eric Mangini. And just this season, after a brutal loss to the Packers, the Dallas Cowboys fired head coach Wade Phillips. The trend undeniably links Favre and the Pack in a violent plot to kill coaches one by one until there are none left.

But hey, Vikings fans couldn't be happier. Feel free to join me on the Leslie Frazier band wagon. Or sinking ship. Either way you look at it, it's better than gagging on Childress's stoic circular non-statements every Sunday.

Don’t mess with the Ustins

My bestie, Dustin, and I… well there’s no two ways about it. We rhyme. As a matter of fact, that’s why we became friends. Just goes to show any reason can be reason enough. We lived together for a while back in the mid 2000s. Those were the glory days. Nerf gun battles. Three-player NCAA 05. A U of M beer fridge. There’s no doubt it was good, but there was one major hang up. We had a roommate named Sam. Once in a while we’d call him “Sustin” to keep the rhyming streak alive, but it wasn’t the same. Now you can’t blame us. I don’t think you can find another name that rhymes with ours. We once considered asking an Austin to live with us, but that isn’t even close to rhyming.

This past weekend I visited the city of Austin, Texas. It could quite possibly be my favorite city in the United States. I think I’m going move to Austin and plead Dustin to move in with me. Sustin should probably come along for good measure.

 

Venues visited:
Oliva Restaurant
Jo's Coffee on Congress
Hopdoddy Burger Bar