TRENDY: a word used to describe your bar/neighborhood that announces it’s not, the way “cultured” craigslist personal ads are more likely to snag yogurt fiends than opera lovers.
VIA: Craigslist ad seeking a paid marketing intern posted by Chicago restaurant/bar group Eat Well, Drink Better. No, I didn’t apply, but probably should’ve.
Wale’s Mixtape about Nothing: for hip-hop’s not-so-fresh feeling. That “premium denim” nonsense is partially redeemed by the monologue swiped for “The Hype”: “that’s kind of the job of clothes—to get compliments for us. Because it’s very hard to get compliments based on your human qualities… it’s much easier to be a bastard and just try and match the colors up.”
Was poking around Hiebing’s portfolio and noticed that a site the Madison marketing and advertising agency designed for Eastpak—a sort of think globally, shop locally tangent—featured the ceiling-scraping inventory of B-Side, the venerable State Street record shop.
Murs adds letter E to name, to become Murse, the first rapper handbag. (That one never got much further than that. We just thought it would be funny to say that Slug would literally be carrying Murs for the next Felt album). [SOG]
Never got around to the resumé post, “Hastings Cameron is applying for an SEO-centric writing gig so he can afford to re-register hastingscameron.com”—which would’ve been inaccurate, since pier-painting lucre will hopefully meet GoDaddy’s demands. Though now that there are new designer accessories to aspire to, I really should find full-time employment. If only this were a less desperately self-involved enterprise, and someone else loved me enough to pimp me to craigslist: *****I AM RENTING OUT MY BOYFRIEND*****
When I went to Medicine Park, I also met Derek, who painted cockeye-cropped Eazy but is not the person above. Derek also sometimes tours with bands and sells ice cream cones to their fans. His merch table is here.
Hastings Cameron interviewed Neeta Saluja re: her book Six Spices: A Simple Concept of Indian Cooking for the Onion’s Madison A.V. Club. The Q&A’s mostly about “gastric discontent” and exploding pressure cookers.
“If it sits too long, they’ll run out of sugar and cannibalize themselves.” Last summer, Hastings Cameron binged on wheat beers and sort of anthropromorphized hefeweizen yeast in the process of writing about it for the A.V. Club.
This past winter, Hastings Cameron may have projected seasonal depression onto porters and stouts in a piece he cowrite with the saintly, and not quite so soused, local A.V. Club editor.
Consider Black Boss Porter, a Baltic import, as a malt liquor dessert substitute. It’s caramel-coffee notes completely cover up its 9.4% ABV—stronger than Olde English and Steel Reserve—and 16 oz. single bottles go for $1.79 at Woodman’s [grocery]. Grab two, and leisurely sip on a toasty stairwell. No need to rush: unlike your average 40 oz., porters don’t take like piss after they warm up.For the dark roundup above, he also interviewed the eponymous brewmaster responible for his favorite Wisconsin porter, who offered food pairing suggestions.
H.C.: You said it goes well with food—what would you pair it with?He also wrote a guide to ignoring the game and turning the neighborhood around the University of Wisconsin football stadium into one’s personal concession stand:
Tom Porter: Oh, red meat—absolutely. Steak with onions and mushrooms kinda thing—a really nice piece of steak, not overcooked. Remembering that it’s basically an Irish derivative beer. You’re looking at people with a fairly hard work ethic, meat and potatoes lifestyle, for food.
H.C.: But could they really afford red meat?
Tom Porter: Well I don’t know—[you] know, rats and squirrels are red meat.
If you have a nut allergy, seek out Stella’s, which recently supplemented its farmer’s market presence with a stand near Camp Randall’s southwest corner. The bakery’s Hot and Spicy Cheese Bread sounds one “y” short of a Little Caesar’s special, but it tastes like a wondrous 24oz spicy challah roll, packing a monterrey jack and provolone paunch, which will absorb incipient hangovers, but could also be used to smuggle a flask into the game.
Arbitrage with your gut: the guy with a Bluetooth headset frantically trying to flip tickets isn’t the only seller subject to dramatic declines in value as the day progresses. After the Indiana game, [this publication] passed a stand operated by an East High “Activities Committee” and couldn’t resist the clarion call of “clearance brats!” If you fast throughout the game, naming your own price will never be sweeter, or greasier.
[turn down your volume]
Just returned from an interview that concluded:
So please excuse, or at least ignore, the subsequent exercise in search engine optimization. It will be mercifully brief, and over by morning. For new readers’ amusement, above is audio of me badgering a Madison WI politician (County Supervisor) about his google alert habit: “it wasn’t narcissism, it was just finger, pulse! Finger in the air, know where the wind’s blowing.”“Do you want me to send you some links to substantiate that?”
“No, I believe you—and google is a powerful thing.”
…and laptop meltdowns that send me to Kinko’s last too long—so after relieving my folks’ fridge of turkey bacon in the past couple days, I’ll soon be eating Scion SPAM for naught.
