Cocktail Confessions

Eh…I’m in a lazy mood today.  Very lazy.  Don’t want to work lazy.

I’m sure part of it is the heat outside, some of it is that my body is sore and totally out of shape this past week, and some of it is that work can just be plain demoralizing at times.

I stare at the clock today, counting down the hours until I make my 30 minute commute home, just to do a few more chores, eat a particularly boring dinner and go to bed again.  Rince and repeat.  Rinse and repeat.

I have another post brewing in my head now, something I have to devote more energy to than this one, but I’m just putting it off. Out of laziness.

That being said, a couple of things in the works right now for Cocktail Confessions:

• I purchased a portable Zoom H2 mic today from an Amazon reseller at a very discounted price along with an additional $25 off from a reward certificate I had.  I should get in no later than Thursday and I look forward to doing recording sessions in the field with people who can’t make it to my house for whatever reason.
• Spent yesterday morning doing some editing on an upcoming podcast (Episode #4 for those that are keeping track) with Audacity.  I just so wish they had a better online manual/tutorial section, but it’s freeware, so what do you expect?  Episode 4 will be on The Orbit Inn and Living Desert zoo in Palm Springs, CA.
• I’m very excited to announce I have recorded my first guest episode yesterday with my friend Brian Liles from Brians 4X4 Adventures (How do you like that for a plug Brian?).  I think the raw audio session turned out nice using just one microphone, and it clocked in around 52-53 minutes.  I was thinking about breaking it up into two shorter episodes, but the more I think about it, the more I think I may just as well keep it intact as one podcast.  Just needs some editing, addition of some bumper music, and get my links in order for that blog entry prior to posting.  I think it went really well and smooth and should be a treat for those that like to hear about off roading adventures.  Brian talks about his recent escapade to the Grand Canyon in this one and it’s a good one to listen too if you’re planning your own off road trip out there anytime soon.
  

  Smogtown

• Chip Beef, bassist for punk underground band Smogtown has tentatively agreed to sit down in the coming weeks and be interviewed as well.  I’m looking forward to that for the sheer fact I know nothing about the punk movement in So. Cal., and Chip was entrenched it.  We’ll for sure have some good beers and stories with that one.  Expect Chip to be uncensored as he lets the stories fly.
• Expect a Big Brother 11, week 2 recap podcast later this week.  I’m just waiting for Tuesday’s episode to air and probably record and post sometime this Wed., July 22nd.

What is it in the genetic profile of man that our gender with it’s sometimes considered a vowel ‘y’ chromosome enjoys applying various forms of combustible fuels to incapacitated slabs of fat laden proteins?  And why is it that much more fun when liberal amounts of alcohol are involved?

Is it a harkening back to our ancestor’s discovery of fire?  Perhaps it is our adolescent fascination of pyromania despite our parent’s incessant warnings.  Maybe it is the ‘believed’ ability to escape the scourge of estrogen in the traditional kitchen, or is it a modern day metaphor of genitalia comparison between men on who has the ability to be considered back yard chef supreme?

Whatever the case may be, most men like to grill.  One of those men happens to be me.

My family didn’t grill much when I was a child.  Oh, we had a gas grill in our backyard, but my mom was keen on keeping everything clean back then, and of course cooking fatty meats with all those sauces and rubs were a no-no.  Instead it would be a place to overcook teriyaki chicken and baked potatoes both wrapped up tightly in aluminum foil.  No, my father didn’t put up much of a fight back then, and I can’t really blame him.  It was easier to let mom do her ‘cooking’ than listen on endlessly that he may have spilled some sauce on the concrete or didn’t clean the grate properly.

For years, the only exposure I had to real grilling was those pathetic and synthetic hot dogs one would eat at the beach cookouts and the extra sand was considered a side dish.

It wouldn’t be until I was in college that I finally learned what it was like to hold a real spatula while standing over charcoal briquettes that were zealously over doused in Kingsford’s lighter fluid by drunken fraternity brothers.  Oh what a sight that was.

Miraculously young men who had never earned the appropriate merit badge in scouting were now all of a sudden fire starting experts, most likely honing their skills over various water pipes and rolled tobacco and zig zags.  With 15 plus hungry and inebriated souls all standing about like Cal Trans during rush hour in their feeble attempts to get a grill going, it would eventually resort to adding more fuel.  When in doubt, add more fuel right?  Of course our quarter pound burgers would soon resemble carbonized hockey pucks and have a familiar taste of 87 octane from a Shell station.

It would be years later that one afternoon while sitting around with my friend and room mate Sam that we somehow landed on the Food Network where we watched a marathon of various grilling shows.  By the end of that afternoon and the continual self salivating like Pavlov’s dog I had decided to buy my first grill.  

The following Sunday I found myself standing in the seasonal section of Target and dropping $149 on a Thermos propane barbeque that would launch my own expeditions into the wonderful and tasty world of bachelor culinary delights.  

The assembly of the BBQ alone, with its various nuts and bolts and hoses and various doohickeys, was a right of passage unto itself.  Like an adult erector set, I constructed with pride my Thermos grill and we stared back in awe upon its completion at its magnificent matte black complexion as it found its new home taking up a third of our paltry deck.

To be continued….

Creamy Dressing?

 Discuss amongst yourselves please.

Big Brother 11 cast

Until I either: A) get a portable recording device, or B) can convince my neighbors/friends that my upstairs spare office/studio is not that scary of a place (despite copious amount of posed Star Wars action figures and comic books lying about), I have to rely on myself to provide a little audio content to ensure I have regular podcasts.

With that in mind, and the fact that continual practice will hopefully make myself somewhat nasaly voice sound somewhat more comfortable on the mic than Obama does on socialism, I decided to do another impromptu recording session last night on the first week of Big Brother 11.

Why Big Brother?  Well, I happen to like ‘good’ reality television like Survivor, Amazing Race and Big Brother…..not the pseudo train wrecks like ‘I Love Money’, ‘Flavor of Love’ or the myriad of other degenerates that VH1 can coax out of the shallow end of the gene pool.  Basically you have 13 strangers that live in a house together with no contact from the outside world, and each week through a series of challenges and nominations, a house guest is ‘evicted’ for the next 2+ months until 1 is left standing and wins the money.  Obviously there’s a bit more to it than that, but that’s the general gist and concept.  It’s a wildly popular show not only in the U.S., but has spawned Big Brother’s counterparts in many other countries around the world.  The bonus to those shows that are absent here in the U.S. is that many of these countries have much more lenient Standards & Practices and much less in the way of censorship, so viewers can expect a bit more nudity and house guest hook ups.

Anyway, this episode is a bit longer than I anticipated, clocking in around 25 minutes and I give a little background and introduction on the individual house guests and explain a little about how this season is set up into the various ‘cliques’.  This recap covers the first three episodes of the show from it’s July 9th preview through the 1st Veto ceremony on July 14th.  It’s a bit early right now to discuss in much depth how things are settling out between house guests and individual strategies, but clearly a few standouts are already forming in brainiac’s Ronnie and Chima, outcast Lydia, and the whole entire athletic clique (I predict this group will be the subject of it’s own eventual demise based on the arrogant personalities of three of its four current members).

Bear in mind that I’m still getting use to this whole recording thing, and after listening back to it once (and I didn’t edit it one iota…it’s 100% raw) I need to adjust my mic levels down a bit, I get tongue tied a few times, and there’s a bit more “um’s” that I’d like to admit to.  But please enjoy and as always, feel free to leave comments and criticisms by emailing me directly at cocktails1@hotmail.com or sound off in the comment section below.

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Did a few patch upgrades to the site as follows:

• Plugin, ‘Sociable’ upgraded to v3.4.
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  Added page ‘Recipes’ for both drink and food recipes.
  Moved ‘Sponsors’ widget further down right side margin.
• Added new category, ‘Reality Bites’ for entries based on reality television (for shame).

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Zoom H2

It seems the biggest issue I’m having right now in producing podcast content on a regular basis for this site is the availabilty and scheduling of my guests.

Everyone I have approached thus far in wanting to sit down and open up with me to spin a few memorable yarns all seem very open, even somewhat excited to do so (and the promise of free drinks seems to whet their appetite even more), but when it comes to actually getting someone to come over at any given time to my in home studio, its like getting a Mexican to become a documented U.S. citizen…..just can’t get it to happen.

So in looking into alternatives such as phone interviews on Skype, (which if any of you have ever heard Skype calls on Adam Corolla’s podcast, will recognize there are some quality issues that plague the service) I’m now looking into various portable digital recorders.

And I’m not talking about the cheap little deals that executives purchase from Staples or Sky Mall, but some decent professional ones that are intended to aid in the recording of more than one voice or musical instruments.  While there are various digital recorders that will fit this bill, it seems in my research that Zoom recording devices are the default standard.

As of this writing there appear to be two current models, the H2 and superior (and more expensive fancy gadget), the H4n.

For my purposes and that of my podcasts that rely on place ‘ole voice recording, the base H2 looks like the way to go.  But who knew that a simple little device like this could have a list price of $330+?!?   Thank goodness most internet sites are offering this much lower in price, thus making the average cost closer to around $150.  Still a bit pricey in my opinion, but for my purposes and intent what are you gonna do?

Some of the features include a USB 2.0 interface, the ability to record in WAV (96kHz/48kHz/44.1kHz at 16 or 24 bit), MP3 (upwards of 320kbps), and VBR data formats, comes with a 512MB SD memory card (upgradable to 16GB), wind filter, led display, one touch recording, uses 2 AA batteries, and weighs in at only 4 oz.  There are plenty of other features as well, but the ones listed are the main ones for podcasters.

This would give me the ability to take a recorder with me and conduct sessions anywhere, anytime, and totally more dynamic which would make people feel more natural and at ease instead of sitting up in my quasi-studio.  I’ll have to keep my eye on this and may just purchase one soon anyway to get this gig rolling.

Anyone out there have any other suggestions, ideas, or their own experiences with the Zoom H2?

I’m very excited to be going on a three day out of towner with my wife, Monica, and my friend Albert and his wife, Lisa to Palm Springs tomorrow.  I seriously need a few days aways from work, the neighbors, my house, etc.  This past week I’ve been working like a Hebrew slave due to being short handed on our regular staff and the usual non communicative chaos which is the status quo at my place of employment.

The idea of hanging out at the pool with a few cold beers, eating at new restaurants, and doing some sight seeing has me all fired up.  I went out yesterday and bought myself some new swim trunks, flip flops, and hat.  I had my SUV tuned up last week and cleaned and am borrowing a neighbors Garmin GPS unit.

A few highlights we’re going to ‘try’ and do is visit the Living Desert Zoo and see their ‘G’ scale LGB minitature train exhibit.    Supposedly there is over 3000 feet of laid track here at the zoo and I get a chance to test out my new Canon digital camera in the field.

We may even use the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to go to the top of San Jacinto for a little hike and maybe a drink or two or three at their lounge high in the sky.  I was there a few years ago and it was pretty cool, if not a little scary in places as the tram dipped here and there after passing the major pylons.

But the real thing I’m looking forward to is hanging out at The Orbit Inn.  This refurbished swanky motel has a total of 9 themed rooms that surround a small little pool and really neat wine and sake bar outside.  Each room is themed slightly differently in tribute to the Rat Pack era (50′s – 60′s).  The furnishings, while somewhat modern, are a clear throwback to all things of the nuclear age.  Monica and I stayed there about 5 years ago and stayed in the Frank Sinatra room and it was awesome.  They have gourmet coffee and bagels every morning and a killer sake/wine happy hour at their outdoor bar/lounge with plenty of misters.  I plan on taking plenty of pictures.

We also plan on hitting up this great little BBQ joint on the way out there tomorrow as well.  Looking forward to that.  Be back next Monday!

What the hell is wrong with Corey?  Seriously, he showed up to the recent Staples Center taxpayer supported memorial event (to the estimated tune of $4M the city doesn’t have) of one recently deceased King of Pop dressed as….well…the King of Pop.  Eh….Bad taste anyone?  News reports that have been flittering about the web all have most people in attendance totally guffawing at Feldman, as he showed up to the event dressed in costume that strangely mimicked the deceased Jackson’s wardrobe during an earlier era in his life.

Yup. Slicked back hair, large sunglasses, black fedora, and one Chinese military jacket.  Totally innappropriate, but I will say one thing…..Feldman has balls.  If you ever watched the Surreal Life or The Two Coreys, you’ll discover soon enough that Corey is just a very young and alternate version of Gary Busey, bouncing from insanity to saneness at the drop of a sequined glove.  Either he has a huge ego that needs to be stroked occasionally, or he really is much more complex than even VH1 can make him look.  Well, he did land a hot wife in Susie Sprauge, so at least he’s doing something right.

At one time, both Corey and Michael were friends and somewhere along the way the friendship disolved (?) and then when Michael was in court a few years back defending himself against child molestation charges, Feldman was in court giving testimony (not sure whose side he was on).  However, it really isn’t known why the two went their own ways, but one would think if the friendship took a turn, why Feldman showed up in this garb is beyond me.  Trying to inject something into his current direct to video career?  Yes, there is indeed such a thing now as bad publicity.

And Corey, if you ever do a Google search on your name, and you end up here for one reason or another, please feel free to drop me a line.  I’m begging you.  I’ll even buy the first round.  I find you utterly fascinating…in a way one can’t look away from a train wreck (but hey, maybe that’s your schtick and keeps you in the eye of the camera….you’re doing a better job than me and you have more money, so what I can say about that?).

Speaking of the Jackson memorial, WTF is up with Al Sharpton?  The Don King hair lite?  He wants a national day of mouring for the pop star, and also wants a stamp issued by the USPS.  Okay, I can maybe understand issuing a stamp, but a national day of mouring?  For real?  Why are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson only out when there are camera’s about?

And finally, WTF is up with Louis Farrakhan?  The so called leader of Islam, hater of ole whitey, the blue eyed devil, and denouncer of

Got Whitey?

I’m proud to announce that purely on a self indulgent whim, I believe I have created a new libation in which I hope you’ll find just as tasty and satisfying as I did.  Anyway, I’d like to think I created it, but I suppose somewhere else on this big blue marble some other prat may have come up with the same concoction to help sway his lady friends into thinking he’s got it going on like Donkey Kong.

The ingrediants are two-fold and simple: pomegranate soda and rangpur gin. 

Rangpur gin is a sweeter gin with the flavoring of lemons and mandarin oranges and is often confused with limes.   Actually, the word Rangpur originated from the Bengali language which is a common name for this hybrid fruit and shares the namesake with the city Rangpur in Bangladesh, India.  Rangpur fruit is highly acidic and can be substituted for commercial limes.

I haven’t decided on a name yet, but I like the kit-bashing name of ‘Pom-Pur’.  A hybrid of the words ’pom’egranate and rang’pur’.  Its fun and easy to say, and rolls of the tongue nicely with a hint of exotic origins.

Pomegranate soda is already bottled by the Safeway/Vons/Pavillons ‘Organic’ line of foods, and is basically pomegranate juice, simple syrup (read: cane sugar) and soda water for fizz.  I suppose if you cannot find this already bottled, then simple ‘POM’ juice and regular soda water will do just fine.  There are also plenty of other pomegranate soda’s on the market, but make sure you look for the ones with only the basic ingredients: soda water, syrup (most likely high fructose), and pom juice.  Anything else gets a bit scary.  Now on to the recipe:

Pom-Pur

• Ice filled tumbler cocktail glass
• 1.5 to 2 oz of Rangpur gin.
• Add remaining pomegranate soda.
• Garnish with (your choice): mint sprig, orange slice or orange rind twist, cherry.

I’ve made quite a few of these treats and passed them around the neighborhood and they seem to be getting a pretty darn good reception if I may say so myself.  Be careful though….the sugar content is deceptively high and masked by the mellow and fruity taste.  A few of these may contribute to that hangover feeling because of the hidden sugar.