Best Weekend Wrap-Up

It's Sunday night, the weekend is drawing to a close. But a few things happened this weekend and some photos were taken so, hey, I'm going to share them with you.

First and foremost, Big News: My buddy Bryant and his wife Candice (also a buddy) came and visited New York this weekend. We had dinner at Galanga and reminisced about those three years of Law School we shared. It was really great, seeing Bryant, talking about stuff, I wish the Smiths had never left me.


At dinner I gave Bryant a present. The present was I returned his Elder Maxwell book that I borrowed two years ago.


The Smiths came over for a minute to check out my roof, and then they were gone.


By the way, here's their blog.

Friday night Collin and I went to Jeff's house in Brooklyn and watched Disney nature movies from the 50's or 60's all night. Might not have been in high definition, but these little masterpieces could go head to head with Planet Earth any day. There, I said it!

Saturday I quadruple booked my obligations to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. First off, that night was to be the Union Square 3rd Ward's Fall Social. They needed people to make chili for dinner so I decided it would help me to grow and mature if I cooked one of the pots of chili, so I signed up to provide and then emailed my mom for a chili recipe. Mom sent me am extremely self-assured narrative recipe for a chili that she promised me would do the job...so I spent the morning shopping for my ingredients (I went to a proper butcher to get myself some freshly ground pounds of pork and beef and the experience was so satisfying [I just love working with people that know what they're doing] that I think I'm going to start buying a lot more meat and all of it from a real butcher, nothing wrapped in plastic anymore) and cooking it up. I've never cooked anything for 4 hours before. This is what the chili looked like during the first hour.



But in the afternoon I had to take a break from the chili warming because I had signed up to be a fake-investigator for the Stake's Youth Mini-MTC Day in Harlem. It was a fun experience, seeing all those youngsters dressed up with their missionary tags and such, prodding each other to do all the talking, assembling as best they could their doctrinal knowledge, and, when at a loss for knowledge, making up some pretty good stuff (for example, did you know that now that we have the Golden Plates, we're trying to find the Bronze and Silver plates as well?)

While wandering about the Harlem building I discovered where the stake has been keeping the Joseph Smith statue that used to be downtown by the river. It's just in a corner of the parking garage, minding its own business.


While the young missionaries did a pretty good job, this other Church on Lenox Ave seemed to have a pretty solid foundation itself.


Back at the house and a few more hours of simmering later, the chili was ready for its first tasting. Collin accepted this task with a great sense of duty and responsibility. Observe...



And then it was off to the ward party. Shortly after I got there this pot of chili set off the fire alarm. But we never figured out exactly why. We could see through the pot's glass lid that it was full of smoke, but when Sarah and Mike and I took it to the patio to investigate, everything looked fine in the pot. Sure, it smelled a bit like a campfire, but nothing was burnt or anything. Mysterious.


The party started at 7 and if you got there later than 7:30 you probably did not have any chili because it all got gobbled right up.


I almost forgot to try my own chili. I must admit, Mom's recipe was a good one. I'm not necessarily a cook, but I'm good at doing exactly what a recipe tells me to do.


Dave's Guitar Hero was at the party and we made it look so fun that Bishop Cropper and his wife (Julie) tried it out. This was thrilling to us ward members, you know, to have our authority figure playing trying out our favorite game, but it's not like our bishop is some cranky old man.


Also noteworthy: Jules played her first Guitar Hero songs that night, too. And she took right to it.


But the major activity for the Fall party was the pumpkin carving.


Ace went to work and started carving up pumpkins like it was his job. He completed two rather creative pumpkins. The first was fanciful...


The second, a little gruesome. Just a little. (but points for imagination, no doubt about that)


Others:




Kim's work. She's got her own little pumpkin tool kit, she doesn't kid around with this stuff.



And that was the weekend. Or at least some of it.

Best Things I Did and Things I Ate in Los Angeles, pt.2

I bet you were worried I forgot I had a blog. No, didn't forget. Let me prove it. Let me show you more tacos.

Ok, it pains me to say it, but the Monday of two weeks ago (I suppose I have fallen behind) I was still in California and still furiously hungry for tacos. In California there's this Mom and Pop chain called "King Taco" bent on bringing a proper taco-cart experience to the masses and fortunately for me they're so interested in this mission that they have an outpost in Pasadena.


While I assure you I could have eaten all of this on my own, I was actually there with Grandma. I had heard tell of King Taco's ferocious red salsa, but really didn't expect it to be all that tough. Was I wrong. Definitely the meanest taco salsa I've ever encountered that came standard with a meal. I love King Taco for keeping the taco experience totally street despite it's many outlets throughout Southern California. No sacrifice of authenticity or flavor, quite commendable. Also, and this is so important for a proper taco experience, the food was all dirt cheap. Even the plate of taquitos in the background cost barely any money (and it included guacamole!)


Hey, remember Guitar Hero? (The 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association isn't dead, just sleeping, by the way) The Santa Monica ward had a big FHE Monday night featuring a cultural hall full of Guitar Hero stations. How magnificent. And I finally got to square-off against Tanner and ran into many a fond California acquaintance as well.


There was a discussion on how to best pose for a figure drawing pose and this is the pose Tanner and Keith decided they preferred.


Tuesday was Tortilla Soup day at Houston's, but it was also "Weird Camera Malfunction Day" but I was able to get a picture of my sushi salad. I know, it's weird. I went to Houston's and got sushi. I won't bore you with the decision-making process that got me there, but everything is great at Houston's, so why not try the sushi? No regrets. None at all.


Wednesday evening I went to the Los Angeles temple because I love how enormous it is and like to imagine what it'd be like there on a busy day. While there I discovered (hidden in plain view) the Fire Inspector's Certificate in the Celestial Room restricting that space to a maximum occupancy of 475. I think they manage to stay pretty far away from that cliff's edge.







Also, Wednesday night (after a little Twin Peaks watching) I went back to El Super Taco on Santa Monica and (as I mentioned previously) ate a torta (a torta de tinga de pollo, to be precise) that was the single most delicious torta I've ever eaten outside of Mexico. It was so delicious that I started to panic, started to worry. Why was this meal so delicious? Was something wrong? Was I in trouble? Could you taste what I tasted, you'd know what I was trying to get at here. (No picture b/c too sacred)

Thursday. A visit to Tacos Por Favor on the westside with Broek and Jared (creator of the Hamster Fighting Machine).



Looking at these pictures again, I start to hate California a little for being too tricky to get to for lunch.


Tacos Por Favor: "We make healthy Mexican food that just taste great." Indeed.


And finally, that night I went with Grandma to the Claim Jumper and ordered some asparagus with a side of tri-tip.


And then, the next day, I went back to New York and I have remained here ever since. I do not kid.

Best Video Game Surprise

"Anarchy in the UK" will be on Guitar Hero III. No way. And it's a re-recorded version made by the Sex Pistols just for the game? That's not very punk rock. But I'll take it.

The Article that Taught Me This

Best Custom Track Yet

(it's dueling banjos and it gets nuts)



The Guitar Hero III songlist is getting ridiculous. Speed metal, brit pop, indie rock, etc. etc. Good thing it's almost October. Check it

Best Murder Scene

It's exciting to know Guitar Hero III will also have "One" by Metallica and "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, but I worry that the soundtrack is going to be a little too one-dimensional, all songs that the fans have been dreaming of and short on the unexpected hits.

Best For-The-Win

Rock Band will feature "Enter Sandman."
Sorry, Guitar Hero 3.

Source

Best XIXth Gathering

Hey, ever wonder what the inside of a Guitar Hero guitar looks like?


Anyway, thunderstorms turned last week's Guitar Hero from Kim's roof turned into Guitar Hero from Kim's living room and it was a triumph. But I think it's understood that when Rocks the 80s comes out we'll have ourselves a proper debut from the roof. Stay tuned...

Best Totally Slept on This

While we were all getting excited about the tracks announced for Guitar Hero Rocks the 80s I totally didn't even notice that 11 tracks were announced for Guitar Hero III.

Originals

Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones
Cherub Rock - Smashing Pumpkins
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
The Metal - Tenacious D
My Name is Jonas - Weezer
Knights of Cydonia - Muse
Cult of Personality - Living Colour

Covers

Rock And Roll All Nite - Kiss
School's Out - Alice Cooper
Slow Ride - Fog Hat
Barracuda - Heart

It's nice to see some of the tracks from my short-lived hacked disc are going legit.
And it isn't very hard to get pretty excited at the thought of playing "Sabotage," let alone "Cherub Rock" or "Knights of Cydonia."

I'd trade 100 Rocks the 80s to have these songs right now.

Best Seventeenth Gathering

After a too-long, Australia-induced hiatus, the 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association reconvened Tuesday night to begin our summer gatherings.

But wait...is that...Cindy from Seattle?


And wait...is that...Rebecca from San Francisco?


Yes! Believe it or not, both Cindy of Goose Girl and Rebecca of The New Awesome are both in New York and their first order of business was to get their rock on. The nice thing about having these two here in town is you can expect triple coverage of everything that happens for the next handful of days. The cross-posting you're going to be dealing with (assuming you already check all three of our blogs) is going to be outrageous! More hits for everyone!


Rock n Roll!

Best Additional Information

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's Cover Art Revealed:


And Seven More Songs:

• 18 and Life (as made famous by Skid Row)
• Bathroom Wall (as made famous by Faster Pussycat)
• Lonely is the Night (as made famous by Billy Squier)
• Nothing But a Good Time (as made famous by Poison)
• Play With Me (as made famous by Extreme)
• Shaken (as made famous by Eddie Money)
• Synchronicity II (as made famous by Police)

And a release date:

July 17th.

July 17th is a Tuesday. And Tuesday nights are Guitar Hero nights. So July 17th should be one of the finest Guitar Hero nights the 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association has ever seen?

Speaking of the 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association, members should be alerted that our hiatus will be ending next week (the 29th). In fact, special guests from out of town are making the trip all the way to New York just to learn the ways of the Guitar Hero, so please come and make them feel welcome.

Best Pair of Announcements

First, sometimes I wish comedy was more than taking a sport and crossing it with idiocy. Hot Rod trailer.

Second, "Guitar Hero Rocks the 80s" is coming sometime this summer and the first 7 tracks have been anounced. They are:

I Wanna Rock by Twisted Sister
I Ran by Flock of Seagulls
Round and Round by Ratt
I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow
Metal Health by Quiet Riot
Holy Diver by Dio
Heat Of The Moment by Asia

When this game comes out we'll have one of the greatest 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association gatherings of all time.

Best Not Having to Buy a New System News

It's official. Guitar Hero III will be available for the PS2 when it comes out this fall. (and it will also be available for the Wii, PS3, and X-Box 360).

Good move, Red Octane.

Best XIIIth Gathering: The Post

Tuesday Night. The Thirteenth Gathering of the 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association. How can you even insinuate that something unlucky would happen at a Fanciers' Association gathering? It was nothing but good news and good sportsmanship (musicianship?).

To start things off, look who made it to his first meeting: Paul. Seriously. (and it's worth noting that Collin made the leap from Medium to Hard this week)


Another new member, Kristi, gets a hand from old-hand Gabe.


And the Fanciers' let forth hearty cheers when Brooke showed up with ice cream sandwiches for all.


Also, I played Freebird for the first time in a few weeks tonight. I didn't spend a moment in the Red . . . but didn't necessarily turn out an impressive score, either. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

Not that many pictures, but its better than nothing, right? (sort of makes you wonder what happened to the 12th Gathering, huh?)

Best XIIIth Gathering: The Prequel

When people come over and play Guitar Hero for the first time it's pretty rare that they don't say "It'd be cool if there was a game where you played the guitar, and the drums, and sang" or something like that. Yeah, that would be cool.

And now it's happening. Harmonix has announced their new project, "Rock Band", for the X-Box 360 and PS3. It's going to be a monster.

Read the news.

Best XIth Gathering

The Afterparty. (turn up your sound!)





My fellow Fanciers: Make sure to show your parents these videos in case they were worried that the fun you were having in New York was not both good and clean.

PS If you didn't figure it out, this isn't karaoke, it's a karaoke video game ala Guitar Hero or DDR.

Best 10th Gathering.

The 10th Gathering of the 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association. That's a milestone, isn't it? For this Gathering Report, I wish to spotlight 3 brand new members of the Fanciers' Association.

Tyler

Tyler. Tyler is the young sort of super-talented mega-genius that has essentially never played a video game, never listened to a note of rock music, and attends a super-exclusive college for the super-talented (Cooper Union[he's such a mega-genius that he already teaches classes there]{Let's not be silly, there can't really be a connection between no videogames and no rock n roll and going to genius school}). But unrelenting peer pressure (and the fact that he's on Spring Break and was in the neighborhood) lead Tyler to attending his first Guitar Hero night. How did he fare? You'd expect that his complete lack of experience with video games and rock music would equal difficulty with a video game about rock music, right?

Wrong. Turns out super-talented mega-genius trumps all that other stuff everytime. While it took Tyler a minute to take in the concept of Guitar Hero (he found the requirement of strumming AND pressing down fret keys especially objectionable) once that minute was passed Tyler was a king of the game and playing songs on Medium after a song and a half on Easy. We pretty much had to keep him away from the game before he overtook us all.


And, like any savant would, Tyler also immediately tapped into the need for rock star posturing to truly enjoy the game and demanded the same of his game-buddies.



Jared

Jared Clark* is in town. Jared Clark came to Guitar Hero Night. It could be left at just that, right?

But let's not leave it at that.

As could be expected, Jared brought the moves, especially when teamed up with co-conspirator Jeff.





And when not playing Guitar Hero, Jared was busy observing and unlocking its secrets.


*Please don't tell me you're, like, the one reader of Steady Mobbin' unfamiliar with Jared and his works of art? Come on. Go to like, half the blogs I link to and search them for posts about him. He's everywhere. Or, better yet, go to his own blog and take in his work. He's constantly taking it to another level. Constantly. Just as I was typing this, he took it to another level. Again.
Brooke

Fact: I first met Brooke during the Summer of 2001 when we were both living in Chicago.
Fact: I am from Chicago, Brooke is not. But Brooke definitely spent more of her 20's living in Chicago than I did.
Fact: While Brooke was living in Chicago during her 20s she made friends with my friend Lucas. It is possible that Brooke has spent more of her 20s hanging out with Lucas than I did.
Fact: When Brooke was planning her move to New York she asked me to investigate the most depressing little apartments I've ever seen for her. People can say what they will about Soho being a nice place, it's also home to the mosted crampedest, most overpriced apartments you could imagine. Imagine harder. You aren't thinking nearly small enough.
Fact: Brooke lives in Queens now in an apartment that's probably totally gigantic.
Fact: Brooke has a blog. I've seen it before. But I cannot remember the URL.
Fact: Brooke was Laura from Project Runway for Halloween, do you remember that?
Fact: Despite all these facts, Tuesday Night was Brooke's first Guitar Hero night. Which I'd say is a shame, but the fact that she was pulling off a mean backlean with Michelle before her first song had even begun suggests that she's already made up for lost time.

Best Disclaimer

If you have a hard time getting excited about Guitar Hero posts, bad news: Here come TWO (yes, TWO!) posts on two different 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association Gatherings.

But if you like Guitar Hero posts, Great News! Here's TWO (yes, TWO!) posts on two different 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association Gatherings.

And don't forget to notice the Kentucky Fried Chicken post below those posts. Yes, I'm not kidding. You came to work today and there were Four! new posts up at Steady Mobbin'.

Best IXth Gathering

Last week's Guitar Hero: low attendance, lower energy. (not that there's anything wrong with that). This week's Guitar Hero: high attendance, higher energy. (and that's without a Mulcock in sight) The lesson: NEVER change the meeting time of the 12th Street Guitar Hero Fanciers' Association to 8pm.

The Photographic Highlights:

First of all, for a limited time only, Dave rocked through a few numbers in his rock star outfit.


Second of all, Collin has stepped up to become the Fanciers' Association's official stage manager and new member orienter.

Here he can be seen orienting Jill and Sara.


And here he orients Sarah and Maria.


But just because he'll help a new member understand the playing of the game doesn't mean he won't get up in their grill later on.


When friends rock together, some friends start rockin' real hard (as shown here by Michelle as enabled by Katie)


doesn't it sort of look like Sara is thinking "Oh, if I only rocked like Michelle"?


Let's check in with some longtime members . . .

Courtney and Genevieve (throwing in a little cheekiness there, right?)


Ellie and Sara (are you catching on that "Sara" is a very popular name for Guitar Hero Fanciers'?)


It was Leah's first visit to Guitar Hero night BUT definitely NOT her first time playing. She was a total Guitar Hero ringer, a total hustler.


This is Becky. What is she reading and why is she so . . . shocked? Excited? It's a list of the songs on the hacked Guitar Hero disc Gabe brought. What do I mean by "list of songs on the hacked Guitar Hero disc Gabe brought"? With luck, by next week I can tell you all about it.


This is me, Brigham, as I play "More Than a Feeling" on Expert. That's one of my four Guitar Hero tricks, playing "More Than a Feeling" on Expert.


This is Kim playing "Monkey Wrench" on Expert. That's a much more impressive trick than playing "More Than a Feeling" on Expert.


One of my other Guitar Hero tricks? Now I can finish Freebird on Hard without thinking I might get boo'ed off the stage at any moment. Now I just got to drag that point total and percentage up. Slowly but surely, my friends.