Music Diaries: Amped Up

I finally broke down and bought a small practice amplifier for my old electric guitar. I bought the guitar back in 1988 or so. It's an Ibanez EX series. I got it for about $200 which back then was like a gajillion bucks. It still sounds pretty okay though, and it holds its tuning alright. That's pretty good considering that guitar didn't see the light of day very much between 1990 and 2011. I did take care to store it properly, so good on me.

Anyway, now I can hear the licks I'm trying to play and I can tell better if I'm getting it down. Cat Scratch Fever doesn't sound the same on an acoustic, and it's not much better on an unplugged electric. I got a nice little amp at Schmidt's Music after I tried to go to Marguerite's only to find out that they close at 6:00 pm on weekdays because, well, shut up, that's why. Anyway, it's a nice little Fender Mustang I which is rated pretty highly as a practice amp. It can crank at 20 watts even though it's the size of a paper shredder (no, seriously -- it's sitting on the floor right next to my paper shredder and they're the same size). My guitar couldn't be happier.

Now I can start learning some of the dulcet riffs of my childhood. Stuff like Judas Priest, Heart, and Krokus. Yeah, Krokus kinda sucks but I always liked that one song. Sue me.

Dinner and Drinks: Special Sauce Edition

This was a bad week for cooking. I made dinner Monday night, though I can't for the life of me remember what it was. Tuesday was soccer practice, so I took MJ to McDonalds, which is something I really hate doing, but time was against us. (A quick aside -- it's not that I don't like fast food. That's the problem; I love it. Because of that I try to avoid it like the plague. Sometimes it doesn't work out though.) Wednesday Donna had a hair appointment and I had an errand to run, so we grabbed some dinner out. Thursday we were taking the wedding band out to scope the venue, so we made some sandwiches and had a picnic after work. Friday MJ had a soccer game and after that we had tickets to the Redhawks game. Hello foot long chili dog and beer, goodbye nutrition.

So along comes Saturday and it's time to make something at home before I forget how. I'm in the mood for chicken, so I thaw some. MJ's been talking lately about how much she loves spinach dip, so it occurs to me that I could make a nice little sauce that, while no where near as thick as a dip, would still have the flavor. So I whip one up and she loved it.

Asiago Spinach Sauce

1/2 cup asiago cheese (grated)
1/2 cup of fresh spinach (chopped)
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt

Okay, before we get into the sauce (which is super easy -- I don't know why I'm wasting your time with posting this, actually), a quick word about the chicken. I just cooked this in a little olive oil over high heat to sear it. I seasoned it with sea salt, fresh black pepper, chili powder and tarragon. I know that that combination might make you scratch your head. I have no doubt that if Gordon Ramsey were reading this, he would be sitting at his computer laughing and calling me clever things like "bloody tosser". That's okay. Believe me if you will: that combination worked.

As for the sauce, it starts with a classic cream base: melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in the flour and whisk until blended. Add the cream and chicken stock and up the heat to medium-high. Be sure to keep whisking so that it doesn't clump. Once it start to boil, add the spinach, salt and garlic. Reduce the heat to medium low. If the sauce gets too thick you might need to add some more chicken stock. Basically, you want it to be thick enough so that it doesn't run all over the place, but not so thick that it won't run a bit when you put it on a plate. Think more gravy than syrup. Add the cheese just before you start plating.

Speaking of plating: I put a few tablespoons on the plate first, then place the chicken breast ever-so-lovingly on top. This sauce is very rich and flavorful; a little goes a long way. You definitely don't need to drown the chicken with it.

I cooked some fresh green beans in garlic, olive oil and a little white wine and whipped up some garlic mashed potatoes to round out the dish (I'll post that recipe some day). I also quartered some mushrooms and sauteèd them in a little butter and garlic (seasoning with a little salt and pepper) because, hey why not.

As for the drink part of this meal, I stayed true to my current obsession with malbecs. Tonight it was a 2008 Alamos. It was a pretty heavy wine, though it apparently isn't a pure malbec. According to this review it's got some cabernet in it. Whatever. It was actually pretty good. Very spicy and heavy. I got it for $10, so, hey, you can't go wrong. I'm still drinking it as I type this so make of that what you will.

A Quick Though Exercise: Applying Government Logic on a Micro Level

Listening to Tim Geithner try to explain how raising taxes is necessary in order to preserve the current size of government was enough to give me a headache. It's like watching someone try to explain to you that the Earth is flat. This fictional person isn't lying; he really believes the Earth is flat. No amount of explanation on your part about mercator maps and telescopes and space shuttles taking pictures and nobody having ever fallen off the edge of the Earth into deep space will convince him otherwise. He just answers in a sanguine fashion, "Yes, I understand all that. But back to my point. The Earth, being flat..."

Geithner (and most of the current administration) appear to take the following as givens:

1. The deficit is unsustainable.
2. Government must not be made to shrink.
3. QED, taxes must be raised.

That may seem an oversimplification, but watch the video at the link above. Geithner says,

"If you don't touch revenues and you leave in place the tax cuts for the top 2% that were put in place by President Bush, if you leave those in place, and you're trying to bring our deficits down over time, then you have to do exceptionally deep cuts in benefits for middle class Americans and you have to shrink the overall size of government programs, things like education, to levels we could not accept as a country."

The problem is, there is no level of cuts that don't get attacked with words like "draconian" any time they are proposed.

The list above could be more broadly deployed thusly:

1. There is no problem that government can't fix.
2. There is no problem that can be fixed by shrinking government.
3. QED, taxes must be raised.

Look at Geithner's argument: we can't shrink government enough (in his opinion) to deal with the deficit. So rather than spend less money, we need to keep more of the money that workers earn. How that is supposed to stimulate the economy I will never understand. But let's do a quick thought exercise:

Frank is unemployed. He hasn't held a steady job in over four years. He gets one just long enough to requalify for unemployment benefits then leaves. He has a cell phone with a nice data plan, a computer, a nice car, cable TV, and all sorts of other amenities.

One day he realizes that his unemployment benefits aren't going to cover his rent, cable, cell phone, car payment, and his active lifestyle (he likes to go to bars). Frank has two choices: he can stop going out to bars, get rid of his cable, maybe sell his car for something cheaper, get a cheaper cell phone plan. Or, he can go to the unemployment office and say, "I can't get my spending in line without exceptionally deep cuts in my lifestyle to levels I could not accept as a layabout. You need to give me more money to cover my bills."

Tim Geithner and the current administration are Frank.

(Crossposted at Say Anything)

President Announces Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan

President Obama has announced his plan for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. In short, the plan is to recall 5,000 troops this summer, another 5,000 by the end of the year, and an additional 20,000 by September of 2012. Leaders on both sides of the elephant/donkey divide are criticizing the plan.

"It has been the hope of many in Congress and across the country that the full drawdown of U.S. forces would happen sooner than the president laid out and we will continue to press for a better outcome," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., leading a chorus of disgruntled Democrats who took the president to task, albeit politely.

Okay, so the Democrats are unhappy that it's taking so long. What's the Republicans' problem with the plan?

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, warned Obama not to sacrifice the gains the U.S. has made in Afghanistan, while Arizona Sen. John McCain said the drawdown was too rash.

"This is not the 'modest' withdrawal that I and others had hoped for and advocated," McCain said in a statement following Obama's prime-time address to the nation Wednesday night.

So the drawdown is too much, too fast. No surprise there.

I think it's far more likely that the reasoning behind the plan has much to do with the timing; the bulk of the troops will be coming home just before the 2012 election. I think the administration is just hoping that it will give them something positive (from its point of view) to use as a talking point in the late stages of the campaign next fall.

(Crossposted at Say Anything)

Some Other Warning Labels the FDA Might Want to Consider

Hey, look! The government is launching its next offensive in the war on tobacco! Now, at least 50% of a cigarette package's surface area will have to include disgusting images portraying the possible consequences of smoking:

No kidding.

It seems only fair that other dangerous products get treated the same way. To help the FDA along, I've mocked up some helpful warning labels to add to some existing products that are known to cause illness, death, and other negative words that get lawyers all a-twitter. (Click to enlarge)

Seriously. There's even some pseudo-scientific
mumbo jumbo to back it up.

Breaking the Fourth Wall

So our first round of trying to sell the house didn't go so well. It was on the market for six months. It got looked at three times and there were no offers. Our first realtor had us put it on the market without addressing the leaky basement. We weren't being underhanded; we didn't throw carpet down there and try to make it look liveable and thus foist the problem off on the next owners. We were just up front about it being leaky and explained that this is why the house was inexpensive. No go.

Yeah, just as I thought. bowler hats, a
garter belt, some jacks... and a little mold

So now we are on to our second realtor, who advised us that, no, we really need to do something about the basement. So last night we had a contractor come out and appraise the situation. Basically, he told us that the drywall needs to be cut out along the west side of the house so that he can try and find what he believes is a crack in the wall. The outside seemed to be in good shape, so he believes we won't have to go the (more expensive) route of digging up the outside of the house. Whew.

Anyway, Donna and I are a bit apprehensive about what we're going to find on the other side. Hopefully it will be benign, like Al Capone's vault or Sarah Palin's emails. Otherwise, this could get very expensive. We'll find out tonight when the contractor comes back. With tools.

Music Diaries: Today I am a Man

The guitar playing has been going well. Even though I took a week off to go fishing the callouses on my fingers were still pretty much intact when I got back and one of the first things I did when I got back home was get a little practice in (Donna was not yet back from a trip to her parents' home).

Banging away on chords is fun, and I'm getting better at the transitions. But I have to admit that after a few weeks I started getting the itch to, you know, play something. Something other people would recognize (not that anyone is going to hear it anytime soon). So I began looking on YouTube for some famous riffs so I could at least practice these chords on songs I like. That software is great, but I don't share the same level of affection for Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead and Tom Waits that the author does. Yeah, yeah, they're all important to the canon, I get it. But still...

So I found a few videos and wrote down the chords. I can pretty much play the entirety of Hotel Yorba without screwing up too badly. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being "the beginning of Chopsticks on the piano" and 10 being "Any Yngwie Malmsteen solo", Hotel Yorba is about a 2. But it's something, and it's a fun song.

But last night I go to a point where I could play something meaningful, something that all creatures of the Earth respect and love. Something that every guitarist must be able to play before ever dreaming of entering the pantheon of musical greats.

I can play the intro to Cat Scratch Fever.

Today I am a man.