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[chetsteadman]

Review: Goodles Mover & Shaker

At Target the other day I picked up a few boxes of Goodles mac and cheese, including the cacio e pepe-inspired "Mover & Shaker" flavor.

Goodles are allegedly a healthier version of the classic Kraft instant macaroni and cheese. The noodles themselves are the major selling point - they're made with chickpeas, other vegetables, and even several types of mushroom. The box comes with the noodles and a package of flavoring powder, much like Kraft. However, the cooking instructions just call for low-fat milk and no butter, so it's healthier in that way too.

Gal Gadot of Wonder Woman fame started this brand, something I didn't realize until after buying the product.

The process of cooking Goodles was exactly like Kraft - boil some water, then cook the noodles for 8-9 minutes. I went with 8 and ended up with pleasantly al dente pasta. The last step is adding the powder and a quarter cup of milk and mixing it all up.

The noodles themselves were less mushy than Kraft or other regular macaroni noodles, overall quite enjoyable. However, the sauce was jarring. Perhaps I'm not used to cacio e pepe, but the presence of black pepper was extremely noticeable. The pepper basically overpowered the otherwise mild cheesy character of the sauce.

This may just be a matter of personal preference - perhaps others will enjoy the powerfully peppery flavor. I suspect I will enjoy the more traditional "Cheddy Mac" flavor more.

Rating: 🚀🚀

[chetsteadman]

Charleston is a city bursting with history - not all of it pretty. But there’s no question that the buildings and streets of downtown Charleston are old, often older than the country itself.

It takes a lot of money to keep historic buildings intact. For every pristinely restored house, there’s one with peeling paint and rotting floorboards.

Certainly there are exceptions, but it seems like the buildings that take precedent for preservation are those that were home to the rich and powerful. Mansions and plantations houses are designated as historically relevant, while modest homes are often lost to the sands of time.

Charleston is interesting in that it is home to several surviving charitable housing projects, including the William Enston Home and the Colin McK. Grant Home (pictured). The William Enston Home is a campus of Romanesque Revival-style cottages, originally built for use by "the old and sick, from 45 to 75 years old, of 'good honest character,' and not suffering from 'lunacy.'"

The Colin McK Grant Home, based on information drawn from a lawsuit, was likewise built to house the disadvantaged, although Colin McK. Grant specified in his will that the residents of the Home would be white, Presbyterian, and over 40 years of age. The court ruled that the racial limitation on residency was inessential to the purpose of the trust and would be eliminated, but allowed the trustees to sell the property to create a housing fund for older Presbyterians.

Both the William Enston Home and the Colin McK. Grant Home are now managed by the City of Charleston Housing Authority, having been purchased in varying states of disrepair from the prior owners. This is interesting if only because the city has managed to maintain these architecturally significant properties despite their association with the poor. Many other places wouldn't have hesitated to demolish the houses and replace them with cheap apartment buildings.

[chetsteadman]

Book Review: Jennifer Egan - The Candy House

Jennifer Egan's most famous work - the book that put her on the map - is A Visit from the Goon Squad, which was published in 2010 and for which she received the Pulitzer Prize.

Winning the Pulitzer Prize is a tough act to follow. Egan didn't publish another book until 2017's Manhattan Beach. Now, in 2022, The Candy House is a spiritual sequel to Goon Squad, set in the same universe and featuring many of the same characters.

The Candy House follows the same format as Goon Squad. It's a collection of short stories, each from a different character's perspective. However, despite Egan's resistance to characterization of Goon Squad as a novel, there's a clear narrative thread running through both books. Although the chronology is mixed up, the characters' arcs become apparent throughout the book, both through their own chapters and their appearances in other characters' chapters.

Egan takes on some heavy topics in The Candy House, addressing the impact of social media and the invasive future of technology. Some of this feels dated - Egan's predictions have already come to pass. The book consistently revolves around characters' interactions with the "Own Your Unconscious" program, which allows social media users to upload their memories and experiences to the cloud. This isn't far from reality, and certainly a believable future, but Egan leaves a lot on the table. The moral aspects of such technology are largely left untouched.

It isn't clear why most people would have an interest in participating in the program, absent the obvious reference to how people already essentially have consented to Facebook owning their memories (the ones for which they've posted photos and other information, at least). The "Own Your Unconscious" program requires the user to hook themselves up to a box and allow it to scan their subconscious for memories. What motivates a normal person to do this? Once these memories are saved to the cloud, others can access those memories.

Although Egan's comment on social media falls a little flat, she remains a master of crafting a series of intertwining lives, breathing life into multiple characters who all intersect with each other throughout the course of the book. The Candy House picks up where Goon Squad left off, and tells the story almost as well.

Almost every major character from Goon Squad - and some of the minor characters - gets an update in The Candy House. Mindy, the college student dating the much-older record producer Lou in Goon Squad, reappears as Miranda, author of a famed philosophical text. These types of character developments are common across the board. Egan also wraps up a number of loose ends from Goon Squad, even though that book’s willingness to leave conflicts unresolved was a big part of its charm. The resolution of questions nonetheless is cathartic for fans of the earlier book.

The end result is an enjoyable read that's a must for anybody who enjoyed A Visit from the Goon Squad. Anyone who hasn't read Goon Squad yet should check it out before reading The Candy House, both because it's better and because it provides valuable context and backstory.

Rating: 🚀🚀🚀🚀

[chetsteadman]

Review: TRAVELER’S notebook 2022 weekly (passport size)

It’s no secret that I love office supplies and stationery. I have more pens and notebooks than I can ever hope to use. And yet I’m constantly on the hunt for a new notebook that will be better/nicer/more efficient than what I currently have.

I picked up the TRAVELER’S notebook 2022 weekly passport-sized notebook at Paper Pony in Nashville. These little notebooks come in two-packs, each covering six months out of the year, to avoid a single notebook being too thick.

TRAVELER'S COMPANY (formerly Midori) makes a series of journal covers for housing these notebooks, and you can fit several of these within a single cover, which further explains why they're thin - 68 pages.

The notebook is constructed with MD paper, which is the company's own high-quality paper. It's smooth to write on, but has some tooth, so gel/roller pens have no problem staying consistent.

Each two-page spread in the notebook is a week, separated by days. Since this is a passport-sized notebook, there isn't a huge amount of room for each day. However, for people who want to carry this notebook in a front pants pocket, this notebook is practical and convenient.

It also has a full-year monthly planner at the beginning - for marking important dates - and an identification page in the back that mimics a passport.

The paper is a joy to write on and the size of the notebook is convenient for travel and daily carry. A potential criticism is that the layout of the planner pages could utilize space a bit better (the lower quarter of the right-side page isn't associated with a date, but can be used for general notes).

Rating: 🚀🚀🚀🚀

[chetsteadman]

The remnants of abandoned railroad tracks have a quiet power - an air of reminiscence for a time you never even knew. Especially in the case of short segments of rail, they call to mind a sense of wonderment, a mystery of the story behind how these rails came to be, the purpose they served, how they were abandoned and left to rust half-buried in asphalt.

[chetsteadman]

Game Review: Decline by Ben Jelter

Decline (on itch.io) is the new game by Ben Jelter, an indie game developer and artist. The game was developed in GB Studio on a tight deadline for the Game Boy Showdown game jam, but it stands on its own.

Decline is a disturbing, harrowing experience. Jelter's stellar pixel art sets the scene for the game's central theme, which is the aging and mental decline of the protagonist. The game has four endings, each with its own sense of accomplishment (as an example, the "happiest" ending occurs earliest in the game).

As the player progresses through Decline, the protagonist's grip on reality clearly begins to waver. The way the game conveys this deterioration is creepy and effective.

Because Decline was made in GB Studio, it can be played on original hardware (the Nintendo Game Boy).

For a game developed for a game jam, Decline stands on its own due to its strong art and effective psychological horror elements.

Rating: 🚀🚀🚀🚀

[chetsteadman]

Hot Air Balloons and Recurring Nightmares

As a kid I had a recurring nightmare. More than one, but one in particular sticks in my mind. I remember dreaming of hot air balloons drifting through a valley of trees.

The source of my nightmare can be traced back to even earlier in my childhood when a hot air balloon race passed by my house, which sat on a hill overlooking a large forested park. The balloons passed through the valley and I heard them burning propane as they went by, a sound unlike anything I'd heard before. It was a quiet day, punctuated by the occasional whooshing of the balloons moving past.

The experience made a bigger impression on me than my parents could have imagined. For years after, I was plagued with nightmares all focused on hot air balloons.

It's hard to capture what made these dreams so terrifying, but they were. As I watched from the backyard of my house - even after we had moved away, I had these dreams - the balloons floated past, menacing, their jaunty patterns and colors only increasing my terror. The roar of the burning propane compounded my aversion to the scene.

[chetsteadman]

Top 10 TV, Music, Film, Books for 2021

TV - 2021

Succession is the clear winner for 2021 even though it seemed to lose steam mid-season. There's nothing better on TV. The White Lotus follows a similar "rich folks being terrible" format to Succession, but stands on its own. I didn't see Station Eleven yet, which probably would have made the list.

1. Succession season 3

2. The White Lotus

3. I Think You Should Leave season 2

4. Mare of Easttown

5. Squid Game

6. Only Murders in the Building

7. Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 8

8. Made for Love

9. Love Life season 2

10. Clickbait

Music - 2021

1. Royal Blood - Typhoons

2. Cloud Nothings - The Shadow I Remember

3. John Mayer - Sob Rock

4. The Hold Steady - Open Door Policy

5. Chevelle - Niratias

6. St. Vincent - Daddy's Home

7. London Grammar - Californian Soil

8. Lucero - When You Found Me

9. Death From Above 1979 - Is 4 Lovers

10. Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Honorable mentions: The Darkness - Motorheart, Dirty Honey - Dirty Honey, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Georgia Blue

Film - 2021

1. Last Night in Soho

2. Dune

3. Reminiscence

4. Don't Look Up

5. The Harder They Fall

6. No Time to Die

7. Encounter

8. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

9. Bad Trip

10. I Care a Lot

This list is basically incomplete since I didn't see many of the movies I anticipated liking most in 2021, including The Green Knight, The Power of the Dog, The Last Duel, The French Dispatch, C'mon C'mon, Licorice Pizza, Old, Red Rocket, etc.

Books I Read in 2021

I don't go out of my way to read new books, so here's everything I read in 2021 in chronological order:

1. The Duke and I - Julia Quinn (2000)

2. First Comes Scandal - Julia Quinn (2020)

3. The Return - Nicholas Sparks (2020)

4. The Dispossessed - Ursula Leguin (1974)

5. Deep State Vol. 1 - Justin Jordan (2015)

6. A New Death - Josh Vasquez (2013)

7. Deep State Vol. 2 - Justin Jordan (2015)

8. The Water Dancer - Ta Nehisi Coates (2019)

9. Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann (2017)

10. Zero Vol. 1 - Ales Kot (2014)

11. Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaasen (2004)

12. Reckless - Ed Brubaker (2020)

13. The Night Agent - Matthew Quirk (2019)

14. Later - Stephen King (2021)

15. Criminal Vol. 1 - Brubaker + Phillips (2006)

16. Under the Banner of Heaven - Jim Krakauer (2003)

17. That Texas Blood #1 - Condon + Phillips (2020)

18. Dune - Frank Herbert (1965)

19. The Time Machine Did It - John Swartzwelder (2002)

20. A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah Maas (2015)

21. Bringing Up Bebe - Pamela Druckerman (2012)

22. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry (1985)

23. Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer (1978)

24. Boone's Lick - Larry McMurtry (2000)

25. Sabbath's Theater - Phillip Roth (1995)

26. Bad Blood - John Carreyrou (2018)

27. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (2001)

28. Some Can Whistle - Larry McMurtry (1989)

29. How to Stop Losing Your Shit with Your Kids - Carla Naumburg (2019)

30. The Nix - Nathan Hill (2016)

31. Bleeding Edge - Thomas Pynchon (2013)

I read 11,357 pages total in 2021, slightly more than 2020.

[chetsteadman]

Album Review: Foo Fighters - Medicine at Midnight (2021)

The Foo Fighters have aged as gracefully as any rock band ever has. The band never lost its identity even as the decades have passed. Dave Grohl has become the cool dad of rock, which might actually be the role he was born to play.

Medicine at Midnight is another slice of goodness from a Foo Fighters band that refuses to get boring even as it closes in on its third decade of existence. It’s yet another record that was delayed from a planned 2020 release, but it’s one that was worth the wait.

The album opener, “Making a Fire,” simply rips. Picture a peppier “Learning to Fly” with background singers adding “Land of 1,000 Dances”-style “na na nas” and you’re close. After that, Medicine at Midnight settles into more laid back, vintage Foos fare. Some of the tracks fade into the wallpaper, but that’ll happen.

The title track is a mid-tempo rocker that’s followed up with “No Son of Mine,” a burst of Motörhead-esque fury but with the edges sanded off.

“Love Dies Young” finds Grohl in fine form, with an echoing guitar riff that would be at home on a Killers album. It doesn’t make any grand closing statement, but it’s an appropriate ending for a record that shows the Foo Fighters are comfortable continuing to make good music, even if they aren’t as “cool” as they once were.

Rating: 🚀🚀🚀

[chetsteadman]

Album Review: Weezer - OK Human (2021)

The jokes about Weezer are played out at this point. Rivers Cuomo and company famously released two records and then disappeared from the public eye, only resurfacing five years later and never truly returning to form. Nobody hates Weezer more than Weezer fans. Each Weezer record is the worst yet. And so on.

But with OK Human - Weezer’s fourteenth(!) album - it’s high time to admit that this iteration of Weezer is the real one, for better or worse. Weezer fans know there won’t be another Pinkerton (wasn’t the Blue Album better, anyway?) and aren’t even holding their collective breath for another Maladroit. Real Weezer fans, by now, are the ones who like the “Beverly Hills” Weezer, not the “Pink Triangle” Weezer.

Cuomo has spent the 20 years since 2001’s comeback Green Album peddling skin-deep snark-rock almost exclusively. As hooky and radio-ready as some of those latter-day Weezer songs have been, the feeling has always been that Cuomo is being insincere. So vehemently has he rejected the vulnerability of Pinkerton that he has vowed to never let the curtain be pulled back on the real Rivers Cuomo again. Or so it seems. And while Cuomo buries his emotions in jokey, memey wordplay, it never really feels like he’s laughing with his audience. Rather, it seems like Weezer is making jokes at our expense.

OK Human is Weezer’s foray into orchestral pop, a nod to Pet Sounds with symphonic strings and horns. The resulting effect is beautiful and haunting, with some obvious “Eleanor Rigby” vibes. Cuomo’s vision coalesces on this record like perhaps never before. Whereas most Weezer album feel like collections of pop nuggets, each song individually packaged for consumption, OK Human works quite well as a whole. The orchestra arrangements maintain a common motif throughout the full 30 minutes.

However, not a lot of it is memorable. The opening track, “All My Favorite Songs,” shows off Cuomo’s incomparable ability to craft an earworm. Beyond that, the aforementioned cohesion of the album makes things run together. There are touching highlights, like “Bird with a Broken Wing,” but things just get a little samey.

Midway through OK Human, “Screens” is the track that might stick with you. This is not a good thing. “Screens” represents Cuomo’s boomer turn, in which he decides to fully embrace his inner curmudgeon. He gets one step away from complaining about participation trophies as he repeats “Everyone stares at their screens.” It’s the clearest example yet that we’re not allowed to be in on Cuomo’s jokes.

Fans of modern era Weezer will likely come away from OK Human satisfied. Cuomo remains in fine form as a pop songwriter, and the orchestra adds a welcome wrinkle to the Weezer formula. But that’s where the positives mostly end.

Rating: 🚀🚀

[chetsteadman]

Album Review: Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (2020)

This is Phoebe Bridgers’ moment. She looms large in the 2021 zeitgeist, a breakout star who has collected a lot of buzz despite an ongoing worldwide pandemic. Most recently, she appeared on Saturday Night Live, where she smashed a guitar and sent shockwaves of pearl-clutching reverberating across Twitter.

No wonder Bridgers’ star turn occurred while the world was in lockdown. Punisher is a record for the COVID era. It feels like solitude, introspection, and quiet suffering. It’s a soundtrack for a new reality of isolation and quarantine. But it’s also a hopeful, optimistic album. Bridgers sings with real emotion but doesn’t get bogged down in the angst.

She’s a gifted lyricist with a knack for poignant observations on the mundane. She points out things you take for granted in a way that makes you stop and think. “Kyoto” is full of these - “You called me from a payphone/They’ve still got payphones” sparks an epiphany in the listener. Remember payphones? You never see them anymore. It’s a line so simply and yet subtly, deviously evocative.

Instrumentation throughout Punisher is sparse, with a clear spotlight on Bridgers’ breathy vocals. “Chinese Satellite” could nearly be a Florence + the Machine track, but Bridgers doesn’t belt like Florence. It has a cinematic quality, drenched in reverb and backed with swelling strings. The chorus sticks with you, and it closes with Bridgers yearning to be abducted by a UFO so that she can go “home.” Yet another powerful image, this one hitting different for the outsiders and loners.

“Moon Song,” meanwhile, could practically be a country song. Bridgers name-drops Eric Clapton (“We hate ‘Tears in Heaven’”) and John Lennon. And on “ICU,” she cuts right to the heart of how pleasant it can be to deal with the parents of your significant other. Yet again, it’s an observation particularly apropos for the time of COVID:

“I hate your mom/I hate it when she opens her mouth/It’s amazing to me/How much you can say/When you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Punisher’s closing track is its pinnacle. Everything that happened throughout the record comes to a head in “I Know the End” and culminates in a raucous, dystopian outro. It was here that Bridgers smashed her guitar during the SNL performance. One listen to the track and you’ll want to smash a guitar too.

Rating: 🚀🚀🚀🚀

[chetsteadman]

Album Review: Lucero - When You Found Me

An argument could be made that the only true "rock 'n' roll" bands left are the country rockers, the Jason Isbells, the Sturgill Simpsons, the Drive-By Truckerses and the Bottle Rocketses. It's a bit too hot-takey for me, but the argument could be made.

Lucero is a good illustration of this concept. The Memphis-based quintet has been chugging along since the turn of the century, touring relentlessly and producing an album every couple years.

The band's blend of country, rock, blues, and punk has a timeless quality. Lucero's 2021 release, When You Found Me, sounds like it could have been released in 2001. The crunchy guitars are a callback to the heydey of classic rock. Ben Nichols' vocals have a bit of a twang that might be at home on a contemporary country station.

But that isn't to say that Lucero is stuck in the past. The band is carrying the rock 'n' roll torch, but this is a more mature, self-assured Lucero. The opening track of When You Found Me, "Have You Lost Your Way?" kicks off with dark spacey synths, Nichols' firsts verse delivered with a two-note melody. It picks up steam, but the darkness lingers.

As the record rolls on, the downcast vibe continues. "Coffin Nails" combines melancholy lyrics with tremolo-drenched guitar and piano. "Pull Me Close" is a minor-key ballad. "Good as Gone" kicks the album back into gear with an Isbell-like electric guitar line.

The standout track on the album arrives near the end. "Back in Ohio" - despite what its title might convey - is the upbeat callback to earlier-era Lucero, with Nichols' spirited, swashbuckling "Away, away, oh/Your destiny awaits" setting up a joyous saxophone solo.

Even with its more serious tone, When You Found Me keeps up Lucero's momentum. Cut out the horn section and turn up the synths, the band's rock 'n' roll heart remains.

Rating: 🚀🚀🚀🚀

[chetsteadman]

“Bweak Fwee” - On Awiana Gwande

Ariana Grande’s “Break Free” played on the pop music radio station I had on in my car the other day. I’ve heard it many times. It’s bad. But I never really thought about the words before.

The lazy “This is... the part where I say I don’t want ya!” line was what always bugged me about the song in the past. The way Grande delivers those four staccato beats of “I don’t want ya!” - empowering, perhaps, but not musically enjoyable. 

Today, though, it was the second part of the chorus that caught my attention. The part where she breaks free. Except it’s not “break free,” as I realized. It’s “bweak fwee.”

She somehow mispronounces the phrase that is the name of the song.

Now, listening to the song, I can’t help but notice that she doesn’t ever say her r’s correctly. 

The purpose of this post isn’t to ridicule Grande for a speech impediment. There are people who legitimately have trouble pronouncing the “r” sound. BBC personality Jonathan Ross has built a career in television and radio despite having this particular issue. A quick Google search reveals this is called rhotacism (or de-rhotacism, in the case of people who can’t pronounce the hard r sound). 

I don’t believe Grande has a rhotacism disability. Rather, this appears to be an affectation - which raises questions. 

Why would she soften the r’s in the chorus of her song? And hasn’t anybody else noticed?

Further research reveals that Grande sings like this in pretty much all of her big songs. “Problem,” her single with Iggy Azalea, comes out as “pwoblem” when Grande says it. 

The answer to why she does it is unclear - it seems that the issue has only been raised on various message boards and forums but never addressed head-on in an interview. There are no articles about how she overcame her disability to become a pop megastar. The random Internet denizens who have discussed Grande’s disdain for the letter r seem to agree that it’s intentional on the part of the singer. 

There are apparently several other examples of this phenomenon, including that “Rude” song (why you gotta be so wuuude?) and this:

This style of singing came in like a “whecking ball” and I’m not convinced it’s entirely welcome. 

Is anybody else annoyed by this? Or am I one of the few people who even notices?

[chetsteadman]

Porsche 911 in San Francisco by David Bush Photo for Classic Driver

[chetsteadman]

Product Review: Mentos Sugarfree Breath Mints (Peppermint)

Not a huge fan of breath mints. Mints with sugar just make your breath worse. Sugarfree ones, packed with sugar alcohols, give you gas. Maybe try brushing your teeth?

I have been enjoying Icebreakers mints lately, though, so I thought I'd branch out and see what else this niche has to offer. Maybe I'll find the magic mint that automatically makes job interviews go well.

These Mentos mints are definitely not magical, though. I got them expecting them to be like a hardened version of regular Mentos, which are chewy but enjoyable. Nope. These are weird little bluish throat lozenges. They're translucent, like an Advil Liqui-Gel capsule. 

The taste is sweet and minty, not too strong. The outside of the mint is a little sticky, again calling to mind a minty-flavored Ricola cough drop. 

[chetsteadman]

I want this in poster size

http://www.alligator.org/news/photo/image_33b57adc-28a4-11e2-9418-001a4bcf887a.html

[chetsteadman]

Bad craziness: Alachua Edition

There's a new face in Alachua County politics, and he needs your vote. 

He's Syed Mohammed I. Haider, candidate for the seat of Alachua County Property Appraiser.

However, he could use an extra boost from loyal supporters, because his name doesn't appear on the ballot. 

You'll need to write in his name, or simply "Mohammed," according to his crude website, which also features an unnecessarily long domain name. 

It might be a little extra work, but the rewards will be numerous when he takes office.

University of Florida students: Mohammed intends to eliminate tuition or offer interest-free loans to all students.

He promises the complete removal of crime from the City of Gainesville. When he gets elected, we'll also enjoy the pleasures of interest-free banking. There will be no discrimination, and professors at the University will get their research grants approved automatically.

If this all sounds too good to be true, maybe that's because you've grown cynical after all these years of politicians making empty promises. Or perhaps because it's completely insane.

But maybe what America needs is an absolutely batshit idealist who truly believes he can achieve the outlandish campaign claims he makes. 

Regardless of how he thinks he will achieve his goals, his platform appears to be built on a foundation that will unite everybody's diverse viewpoints. No need for bickering between the parties. Just a drive to improve the lives of those around us.

And a touch of crazy.

For some background, Mohammed is the very same who brought filed suit against Terry Jones, maniacal ruler of Gainesville's Dove World Outreach Center, for burning Qu'rans outside his church.