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Showing posts from July, 2009

Scream for me, Long Beach!!

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While my love of music now spans many different genres (many more than when I was growing up), I've come to realize that my traditional musical tastes do fall into a predictible pattern: Hard rock/metal, with a nod towards razor-sharp instrumentalism, and a tight forceful rythum & bass line. It's predictible because its fandom is made up overwhelmingly of geeky white guys. Not a lot of females (with any self-respect or dignity, for the most part) have their iPods loaded up with the likes of Megadeth, Anthrax, Rush, DLR-Era Van Halen, or Dream Theater (Anyone? Anyone???? Yeah.....didn't think so). Go ahead and put Iron Maiden in that category, as well. Blame it all on my older brother, but my disdain for terrible, cliched, bubble gum pop, glam rock, and anything written by Def Leppard was formed early on with my access to his 80's rock album collection. Still one of my all-time favorites was the 1985 Maiden classic Live After Death, a compilation of the best recordin

The Smoked SPAM Experiment

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"SPAM? Are you freaking kidding me, Dixon? I'd rather suck quarters out of an old man's ass!" * Yeah, I hear ya. Well, you're wrong, my friends. Consider this your permission slip to not only purchase a can (or four) of the tasty, beautifully pressed loaf of hog parts unknown, but delight in the consumption of it, MSG and God-know's-what else, be damned. I re-discovered this American delicacy on a pilgrimage to the SPAM Museum in Austin, MN back in 2003. My college roommate Mickey & I were returning to Des Moines from attending a wedding in Wisconsin, and saw the signs as we made our way west down Interstate 90 in southeast Minnesota. We determined instantly that this was a must-see. From then on, I vowed that I would never again frown upon the regular (yet in moderation, of course) consumption of this feigned food. It was a typical weeknight, with no real plan in place for a quick dinner. A scan of the cupboards can usually yield some sort of "Iron