boyzplusnoyes2011

Stars are restaurant stars; to receive even one star is an accomplishment. A two star rating denotes excellence, and is the highest one can achieve on pure competence alone. Actual inspiration or moxie are required for three stars, whereas the air of four stars is reserved for immediately recognizable classics. (There is, in some sense, a hidden, five star rating out of recognition that pop is simply not capable of achieving the emotional power or transcendence of the best classical music.)

Albums:
****

***

**Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver. Pretty good - pretty good, pretty good. This is the super-pretty album I have been waiting for. (Not necessarily from him, but abstractly. So yeah, ** for sure.)

*Britney Spears - Femme Fatale. Too much quality to say no. At least four good songs.
*Cults

Songs:
****

***

**Nicki Minaj - Super Bass. Tippy-top of **. This song is amazing and is definitely better than previous *** songs (eg Best I Ever Had, Runaway). Unless SB gets an upgrade, please consider those downgraded. I feel like I am underrating and must justify: not enough rapping, bridge is not quite compelling enough, and while the candy-coated hook is perfect and infectious, a *** song with so much vocals needs a little more charisma. Also, ironically, bass could hit a little harder.

*Martin Solveig and Dragonette - Hello. But I am confused. Don't we think that this is Vanilla Ice-level "Paper Planes" jacking?
*Britney Spears - Till the World Ends. Not even necessary to wait for the remix.
*Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me. SO CLOSE! Lacks elegance in its current form; remixes have potential to reach 3 stars!
*M.I.A. - Bad Girls. Too repetitive to get 2 stars right off the bat.
*Radiohead - Separator
*M.I.A. - Gen - N-E-Y, from Vicki Leex.

Purposeful omissions:

jingle what? jingle who?

Bounce wit me bounce wit me
Can ya can ya
Bounce wit me bounce wit me



yo



Can I get up in the morning
Without you rolling my dough



And even worse if I was broke would you still want me?



If I couldn't get you finer things like sprinkles, frosting
And them red hots -- could we still trot?




If you couldn't eat the fun toppings off the heads of my friends,



Would you smile then? If I wasn't risin'?



If I wasn't a eight fingah ninja of the flava ginja



Would you come around me or would you clown me?



If I didn't taste so delicious would ya
Put your two gifts near my wood on Christmas could ya



See yourself with a ginja workin' hard, try to stay alive,
Don't want your love if I can't survive, or



Are you gonna bite me? Dunk my feet in milk just to spite me?
Brag to your friends 'bout my recipe?



If you couldn't see yourself with a ginger when his dough says no,
Baby girl then you're a ho...ho ho!

Drizzy fo Shizzy

Because the world needs to be confused by yet another Drake pseudo-mixtape.

DRIZZY FO SHIZZY
Do What You Do - RFI
Try Harder - RFI
Kick, Push Remix f/ Lupe Fiasco - RFI
Ignorant Shit - SFG
Say What's Real - SFG
Little Bit - SFG
Best I Ever Had - SFG
Unstoppable - SFG
Uptown - SFG
Karaoke - TML

about me

Activities: climbing rocks, swimming, cooking, falling stylishly on boards over water.

Interests: ;, &, !, ..., and "and,".

Music: 2010 stars

Words: The Sun Also Rises, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Love in the Time of Cholera, The BFG, Sometimes a Great Notion, Pale Fire, A Passage To India; King Lear; Kubla Khan, I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, Sunday Morning, Leda and the Swan, Dover Beach, Attack of the Crab Monsters.

Movies: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Clueless, Lawrence of Arabia, Super Troopers, Pride and Prejudice, Anthony Hopkins Titus.

TV Shows: The Hills (seasons 3&4), Life With Derek(!), The Wire (seasons 1 and 3).

GirlsWithSynths2010

IN ORDER. Stars are restaurant stars. One star signals complete recommendation. Two is very good. A three star rating is excellent, shocking even. Four stars are amazing and should transcend taste and time. Feedback/suggestions welcome.


Albums:

****

***Monobloco - Dez Anos. Derek's favorite band comes out with a new album out of nowhere! I really need to go to Carnaval one of these days. Gets better the more you listen to it.
***Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Permanent downgrade to three stars.

**Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid. Remember when Amerie and Beyonce blew our collective mind a few years ago? This is the album that "One Thing" and "Crazy in Love" promised, although there aren't any individual songs that crush on that level.
**Crystal Castles - II. Upgrade, despite the numerous amount of songs that I skip. BTW, I'm still mad there isn't a new Alice Practice.
**Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. Happy to thank Pitchfork for this one.
**Little Boots - Hands. Remedy is good enough by itself for two stars! I am very happy that La Roux is popular, but I am a little confused as to why Little Boots did not blow up.
**Kode9 - DJ-Kicks. ** because of the scary parts, although the first half is pretty decent as well!
**Mos Def/Max Tannone - Mos Dub Smashes like an Idaho potato.

*Kitune Maison 9. Definitely the best since Volume 6!
*The Walkmen - Lisbon. SO close. It needs just one more high-powered song (along with "Angela Surf City" and "Victory") to anchor the album. The lack of melody becomes an issue in slow songs. Definitely cannot roll with The Meadowlands, but of the same genre and near its caliber.
*The-Dream - Love King. If, like me, you do not listen to anything before FILA, this album is very good throughout. The obvious highlight is the Yamaha-Abyss suite.
*Sleigh Bells - Treats. Large amount of starred songs, but it has horrible sequencing, and some of the rhythms/riffs repeat to make the whole less than the sum. The production is awful; it needs to be either full wall-of-sound or total minimalism.
*Caribou - Swim. Great high points.
*Deerhunter - Halcyon Days. Mostly for the ending. Like Caribou, but not quite as good.
*Clubland 17 - Disc 1. Coveniently, Disc 1 is mostly good, and Disc 2 is pretty much garbage. Much less work.
*Girl Talk - All Day. I should stop whining about it since I keep on listening. If Night Ripper had had better transitions, it would have been two stars.



Songs:


****Sleigh Bells - Ring Ring (demo version, without the extra sounds). Rill Rill is only three stars.

***Kode9/others - Stiff to Mountain Dread March #2 from Kode9's DJ-KICKS mixtape. If MDM2 does not scare you, turn the volume up. I grow less confident in our defenses against the gathering armies of dark.
***Kanye West - All of the Lights Interlude + All of the Lights f/ everybody. Can't stop listening. This song throws down a solid 2 stars, and then, starting at about 2:30, decides to have like 5 awesome bridges in a row. NYMag claims that there is a better version floating around that doesn't have Rihanna. (I have nothing against Rihanna.)
***Little Boots - Remedy
***Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round and Round.
***M.I.A./Vijay Iver Trio - Galang (Wayne and Wax mashup). This is the full potential of Galang. (Dear Bass: Please hit harder. Otherwise, completely in love. xoxo)
***Kanye West - Runaway. Pusha T really needs to come a little harder for four stars, and although I do get it, the chorus could stand to be a lot less inane.

**Joanna Newsom - Good Intentions.
**Deerhunter - Helicopter
**Beach House - Zebra. Apparently, I should watch Gossip Girl.
**Caribou - Odessa. Needs more cowbell. Seriously.
**Janelle Monae - Cold War. Yeah, yeah, I know. Sort of 2009, but whatever.
**The Walkmen - Angela Surf City
**Mos Def - History Town Are mashups cheating? I have a lot of mashups this year.
**12:00 to 14:44 of the Babe Rainbow Shaved Mixtape by Rico Uno. This is the reggae section. The space between 9:31 and 12:00 is just mood-setting with the main Shaved beat and a tiny beat of reggae intro words after 10:50. Use real speakers!
**Sleigh Bells - Tellem
**The-Dream - Yamaha. It's like if Prince was still excellent!
**Mark Ronson f/ Q-Tip, Amanda Warner - Bang Bang Bang LCD-lite. (Although, let's get real, LCD Soundsystem itself has pretty much always been LCD-lite.)

*R. Kelly - Radio Message. So, the last 20 seconds of R&B this good was the end of "Promise". Also, R. Kelly brings the pipes hard.
*Caribou - Hannibal
*Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes - Home. Is "too much like Johnny Cash" actually a complaint? (Actually, yes, it is. I wish that Johnny would have occasionally used even a slightly different beat/strumming pattern so as not to completely play it out for all eternity.)
*Kanye West - Lost in the World. Downgrade.
*Robyn - Fembot
*LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls
*Robyn - Dancing by Myself. My expectations are that most people will rate this around 2-3 stars. I am just a jerk.
*Deerhunter - He Would Have Laughed. Colors, in stereo.
*Sleigh Bells - Crown on the Ground
*Sade - Soldier of Love. SO NINETIES! It even has baby cry samples in the beat.
*8:04 to 9:30 (Snoop section) of the Babe Rainbow Shaved Mixtape by Rico Uno
*Mark Ronson - The Night Last Night.
*Alicia Keys - Unthinkable (I'm Ready). Have you seen the video? Alicia is so pretty!

Downgrades:
Goldfrapp - Rocket,MIA - It Takes a Muscle, Sam Amidon - I See the Sign (album), Taylor Swift - Speak Now (album), B.O.B. f/ Hayley Williams, Kanye West - Monster, Annie - My Love is Better, Diddy-Dirty Money - Coming Home, The Walkmen - Victory, Snoop's rap from Shaved Rainbow, La Roux/Major Lazer - Magic (Falling Soldiers Dub), Alcazar - Burning (Cahill mix), La Roux (***, but 2009, oops), The New Pornographers - Challengers (** but 2007, lol), Janelle Monae - Wondaland (draggy removed from context).

Restaurant recs

****
None so far.

***
Eleven Madison Park, NYC
The only reason it's not four stars is to leave room for unadulterated perfection. EMP was mindblowing only occasionally: service, setting, three or four perfect bites. Even aware of the reputation for lots of extras, the extent of such is enough to make you feel special.

**1/2
Fruition, Denver
1/2 star bump for value. This restaurant is based on the quality of its ingredients and seems to be solidly achieving the two stars for which it aims. I feel that the entrees could use a bit more ambition.

**
Blue Nile, H'burg
Ethiopian - best I have ever had, by quite a bit. Decent beer selection, expect to spend $25-30.

*
Saigon Cafe, H'burg
Vietnamese - also, MUCH better than the nearby Thai restaurant. Closed Sundays :(

*
Hamilton's, C'ville
Fancy American, but also simple. Probably C-ville's nicest place.

*
Bang, C'ville
Barely got a star. Drinks are very good and were key for the star (pear-ginger 4 lyfe), I'd say the dishes are about 50/50. (Mushrooms & chickpea rolls are good, green tea soba is bad.)


*Taste of China, C'ville
This recommendation is post-Peter Chang, although my recommendation is based only on the portion of the menu with his dishes. I doubt that his presence would markedly improve the quality, so you should still go here. However, Chang's dishes seem to be fairly one-note, and intensely so. You should come in a group of at least 3 and share, and groups of 4 or more may even experience 2-star level meals. PS Ma Po is stupid.

*Pies and Pints, F'ville, WV
The decor doesn't really make sense with the food, but the pizza is bomb.

Anti-recommendations:
-The Boat House, C'ville
Inconsistent, can't follow doneness instructions, ugly plating from the 1950s with no garnishes. Trout is okay, roasted vegetables as well.
-South Street Brewery, C'ville
Decent beer, though not great. Food is actually gross, especially nachos, shrimp appetizer.
-Mono Loco, C'ville
White people trying to make Mexican (if not white, they seem white!) and charging $3-5 too much per dish. Price is why it is anti-recommended.
-Jinx's Pit Stop BBQ, C'ville
Although the terrible location (ie very far away) contributes to its poor rating, I am also pretty unimpressed by its food. If you have the misfortune of finding yourself in Pantops, sure, try it. Otherwise, if you are willing to drive a long ways for BBQ, well, you have certainly had much better in your life.
-Benny's Mexican, Denver.
I wouldn't bother, but this was voted best Mexican by the readers of some Denver magazine. It is the same Tex-Mex as anywhere, and not even good (maybe borderline acceptable). Ordering fajitas offers a risk of actually bad food.

Yes, I am aware of; no, I cannot recommend but also don't anti-recommend:
-Diogi's, Fayetteville, WV (salsa is good, portions are hilariously large, but rest of food is sort of bland/over-reliant on chipotle, which is a flavor I don't like much. the carnitas are definitely worth ordering.)
-Timberwood, C'ville (aspires and succeeds in being a good version of a corporate restaurant, REALLY good beer, but menu is held back by its scatter-brainedness and is somewhat hit/miss.)
-Thai restaurants in C'ville. They're pretty much all good. None are quite star-worthy.
-Zocalo. Does not earn price point, but still good.

Tentative:

Molei Mole Molay!

How is the whole keeping mole in the freezer going? Awesomely.

Make this sauce:
http://www.zimbio.com/Recipes/articles/13198/Rick+Bayless+Mexican+Kitchen+Braised+Turkey

Brown some boneless, skinless chicken thigh filets. Simmer with the sauce (and water or stock) until they are very tender, approximately 40 minutes. Meanwhile, take five minutes to make garnishes; I like: parsley, queso fresco, radishes, limes, and excessive punctuation. Also, steam some tortillas real quick at some point, which can be very conveniently done with a strainer on top of the simmering sauce.

When the chicken is tender and the sauce is very clingy, as in the picture, season with salt and sugar to taste. Assemble as shown. Rad.