Music: Bomb the Music Industry! - Vacation

If you were new to Bomb the Music Industry and spun their newest LP Vacation for the first time you would immediately deduce that Jeff Rosenstock (singer/guitarist/creative force behind BTMI!) is in his late 20's, white and generally a miserable bastard. All of these things are probably true. Further listens would reveal him to also be a genius with melodies and an accomplished song writer capable of lyrics that can at times be profoundly moving. Those of us who have followed BTMI! since it rose from the ashes of the Arrogant Sons of Bitches, see Vacation as the logical next step in the evolution of the band. Every release since Album Minus Band has moved a little farther away from the poppy/ska synth sound that characterized early BTMI! releases and Vacation shows Jeff treading more closely to the punk perspective of Elvis Costello.

Despite the cheery/optimistic title, on Vacation Jeff vacillates between dissatisfaction over the present and confusion about the future to a shaky acceptance that things could always be worse. The back to back tracks "Everybody That You Love" and "The Shit That You Hate" are a perfect illustration of the delicate balancing act attained. As Jeff chants:

"We all got sorrows so hold onto your home and your hope.

Sorrow don't answer problems. Nobody cares. We're all in trouble.

The shit that you hate don't make you special."

Vacation is a rare commodity, a punk album for adults. Being a punk doesn't have to be all about skateboarding, avoiding cops and stealing cigarettes. Being a punk at 27 is about going to work every day, staring out the window of your cubicle in a silent rage and then blasting your Clash CDs at an irresponsible volume in your car. The point is at 16 no one ever realizes that life will be a steady stream of compromised principles...but it is...and that's OK, it happens to everyone. All too often I find that BTMI! is dismissed out of hand by people of my age because Jeff's voice isn't that great or their newer releases aren't as fun as their earlier stuff. But unlike some punk bands (Big D I'm looking at you) who refuse to grow up and still write songs about being pissed at their teachers or adults not understanding, BTMI! has grown with me and just like every other album they've released Vacation will serve as a snap shot in time, reminding future me how it felt to be 27 years old and stepping angrily off the precipice, face first into adulthood; job, cubicle, Clash CDs and all.

9.5/10

2011 Rankings:

1) Laura Stevenson and the Cans - Sit Resist

2) BTMI! - Vacation

3) Mischief Brew - The Stone Operation

4) Andrew Jackson Jihad - Knife Man

5) Lisabi - Au Diable Les Bananes

6) W/IFS - The Anarchy and the Ecstasy

Mussels: Petite Jacqueline

Tempted by the prospect of some artery clogging french cuisine and a great view of the porn store in Longfellow Center, the wife and I made the trek out to Petite Jacqueline last month. It was dusk on one of those beautiful Saturday nights we enjoyed in late July/early August and we chose to eat outside. Our palettes were treated to some deliciously rich food and our eyes were delighted by the stream of hipsters and weirdos that seem to constantly occupy the spaces in and around the square.

Appetizer #1 - French Onion Soup $7 - It seemed almost obligatory that one of our app choices be this soup. We found it to be sweet and the onions were stewed to the point that they melted in your mouth. Gruyere cheese melted on top with four pieces of french bread added some savoriness to the dish. The only critique I had is it would have been nice to cut the bread a little thicker for some textural contrast as it quickly turned to mush in the hot soup. Overall it was very delicious and big enough to share.

Appetizer #2 - Escargot $9 - Nothing says "whoo look at me I'm eating at a french restaurant and am interested in appearing as daring and authentic as possible" as ordering snails. Oddly enough this is not my first go-round with these little gastropods and I have to say these were the best I had ever had. The snails were cooked until tender and smothered in a deliciously creamy sauce. Unlike the french bread in the soup, the two pieces of puff pastry stood up and added a nice textural contrast to the decadence of the sauce. I probably liked this better than the wife who seemed to be a little off put by the earthiness(strange for a sea creature) of the snails but like the soup the size was suitable for sharing.

Side - Ratatouille $6 - The wife ordered this a la carte but I ended up finishing it when her eyes proved larger than her stomach. Individually I'm not a fan of any of the vegetables featured in this dish but together they blended beautifully. Each veggie was cooked to the same level of tenderness and melded together with a tomato-y base that broke up the heaviness of both of our mains.

Main Course #1 - Quiche with pancetta and truffle oil $12 - Holy heavy cream Batman! This was the wife's choice and it was rich as fuck (fuck is rich right?) The eggs were creamy and melted away with each bite leaving the saltiness of the pancetta, the crunch of the flaky crust and the aromatics of the truffle oil. It was absolutely delicious and at $12 a great value. She ordered the ratatouille in anticipation that this wouldn't be a real entree but ended up not being able to finish either. A little side salad with a mild olive oil dressing was nice and this was another dish that I was happy to finish for her.

Main Course #2 - Steak Frites $21 - Judging from the other patrons this seemed to be the most popular main course on the menu. The fries were hand cut, thin and crispy but still tender inside. In lieu of ketchup those crazy french bastards prefer mayonnaise which was OK but maybe a little bit of overkill. I ordered the steak medium-rare and found it to be cooked perfectly, no small task for a flank cut. The meat was well seasoned and tender. My only complaint here was no steak knife, so instead of hacking it to death with a butter knife I let my teeth do the work. Not a super classy way to eat and I think I saw a meth head sitting in the park nodding in agreement at my lack of table manners. Just living the dream.

Including tip we weighed in at just over $70, a sum I was more than happy to fork over considering the level of care and expertise that went into every course. Inside the restaurant looked really busy and I would suggest reservations if you plan on visiting them during at a high traffic time.

Mussels: Ariel's Hummus

From the looks of the mob whenever I venture out of the office every aging hippy lady in the greater Portland area already knows about this delicious secret. Sold at a stand in front of Big Sky in Monument Square at the weekly farmers' market on Wednesday, Ariel's hummus is quite simply...the shit. Well that's not exactly true, the hummus is above average but the fresh made pita bread is world changing.

- Chipolte Cilantro Hummus - $3.50 - There are 3 varieties of hummus offered, the chipolte/cilantro, plain and one garnished with whole chick peas. I always gravitate towards the hot and have gone through 2 cartons of this stuff. The texture is nice and creamy with a spicy finish. The cilantro adds more to the nice greenish color than it does the taste but overall this is much better than any store bought hummus I've ever tried.

- Package of 5 Pita Breads - $5.00 - Being the uneducated gringo ( or whatever a person of Middle Eastern descent would call me) that I am, I had always associated pita bread with that scratchy, tasteless, hollow stuff found in most grocery stores. The bread turned out by Ariel and his cronies is far from that unpleasant experience. First the bread is not hollow and second it's as soft and fluffy as a pillow. They bake it so fresh that once I received it still hot in the bag. If $5 seems pricy then well... you're an idiot, please leave. One loaf of bread and a 1/3 of hummus is enough for a suitable lunch, even for a growing boy like myself.

If you're in downtown Portland during the day on Wednesday then a stop at Ariel's booth is required. This stuff is really special.

Mussels: Zapoteca

On Saturday night the wife and I ventured out to Zapoteca, occupying the space once held by Portland Pie and more recently by Siano's Pizzeria. When someone says Mexican food to me I automatically think casual, cheap and fast. Zapoteca is none of these things. Was it good? Umm, there were some good things about it but I wouldn't necessarily say I enjoyed the meal all that much. If the wife makes me wear a shirt with a collar and drop $75 I expect a lot more than we got a Zapoteca.

Appetizer - Salsa and Chips $7.00 - 3 types of salsa, one based on sweet onions and tomato chunks, a tomatillo based green one and finally a conventional pureed red tomato salsa. The last 2 were served hot which I found to be a little odd and I thought muddled the flavors some. All you could really tell was that it was hot and then spicy. The chips were out of a bag and stale. Also why the fuck am I paying $7 for chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant? Oh that's right because I'm an idiot and enjoy letting restaurants mark me up 700%. We actually ended up going through 2 servings of chips because there was such a long wait for the main courses. The 2nd set of chips were fresher and free so that's something.

Main Course - Mole Poblano Chicken Enchiladas $16 - I'm a sucker for a good mole. It satisfies some long ignored taste buds at the back of my tongue and when I see it on a menu it's hard for me to pass. Zapoteca's came on top of 3 flour tortilla chicken enchiladas with a side of refried beans. The mole itself was very nice, hitting some complex chocolate notes and finishing spicy. The refried beans had a great texture and added some much needed saltiness to counteract the sweetness of the mole. The chicken inside the enchilada's was a little dry but still serviceable. I appreciated the complete lack of cheese inside the enchiladas as it allowed the mole to stand out. Overall not the best one I've ever had but still good.

Main Course - Carnitas $21 or $22 - The wife's course came with refried beans, some sort of pickled pink veg, a couple slices of avacado and 3 flour tortillas. At the outset I would like to say, I love salty food. Whenever I crave something it's salt, never sweets. It's hard to out-salt me. That being said the salt on the pork in this dish was so aggressive it actually hurt. As I sit here typing this I am running my tongue over the canker sores that opened up inside my mouth. Every bite felt like I was eating an entire bag of Ruffles potato chips. The wife tried valiantly but could only eat half of it leaving me to choke down the rest. At $20+ there was no way I was leaving any protein on the plate no matter how unappetizing it may have been.

Dessert - Banana Bread Pudding $7.00 - Dessert became necessary after the carnitas, as both of our palettes needed a little relief from the relentless salt beatings they took. Fortunately it turned into the highlight of the meal and probably the only thing we had that was priced appropriately. The bread was soft and just sweet enough with a layer of banana pudding. A shot of tequila poured over the top was aggressive but added some interest and enhanced the aromatic elements of the dish.

Zapoteca was OK but did not offer anything markedly better than a $10 dish you can get at any other number of Mexican restaurants in the greater Portland area. Also it may just have been me and this may be nitpicky but I felt like the tables were 1-2" too low and I had to hunch over my plate to eat. With the competition for the food dollar in Portland so brutal it's hard to imagine that we'll be headed back any time soon.

Musings: Arby's thinks your life is miserable and you are pathetic

I have been fascinated by Arby's new marketing campaign, "Good Mood Food." "It's goood, mooood, fooood." Sometime this winter some PR genius decided that the best way to sell crappy roast beef and curly fries was to have a "Can you hear me now" Verizon-guy-knock-off convince people that their lives are absolute shit and the only way to bring a little sunshine into an otherwise bleak existence is by killing the voices in their heads with empty calories. Every time one of these disasters prances arrogantly across my television screen I have to sit and watch it in absolute stunned silence.

"What can't a tortoise be in a good mood?" No it can't you ass clown, shut the fuck up. If a tortoise ate one of those greasy ass sandwiches it would probably keel over and die. What, oh I'm missing the point? Fuck you there is no point. Never in my life have I seen a company so blatantly pull back the curtain with an advertising slogan and say "listen drugs aren't legal, but you know what is? Sodium and if you eat this sandwich you'll get enough of it to get you high enough to at least get through the rest of your day."

Can't they at least pretend like the people who eat at Arby's on a consistent basis don't already want to kill themselves? Good Mood Food sounds like the last resort of a dying brand. "OK, we've tried telling people about healthy options, they didn't like that. We tried to emphasize the quality of our food, they saw right through it. The only thing left is to emphasize that life is short and hard but eating irresponsibly will dull the pain." My only hope is that the actor paid to star in these abominations is so forever tainted by the Arby's stink that he'll never be allowed to earn a living another way. The whole thing is almost enough to get me to stop watching TV, almost.

Mussels: Deux Cochon

Hungry for a quick bite before some reading and lounging in the East End this Saturday, the wife and I stopped in to the newly established Deux Cochon above Big Sky Bread Company in Monument Square. Lured in by the promise of barbecue and slow southern cooking on a strategically placed sandwich board outside, we climbed the stairs and found Deux Cochon to be a little booth occupying the space formerly inhabited by the apparently defunct and enthusiastically named Peanut Butter, Jelly Time(!). I have only been to the restaurants above Big Sky a handful of times and then only for the delicious individual pizzas at Pie in the Sky. But I remember seeing PBJT and I may be wrong but it looked like the same guy who ran that has rebranded and is now running Deux Cochon. The menu was somewhat limited, 3-4 different sandwiches, a ribs plate and some smaller appetizers, boiled peanuts (umm no thanks) and pickles. Appetizers were $3-$4 and all of the entrees (so to speak) were $6-$7. I opted for the old stand bye, pulled pork while the wife went to the specials board for the "chicken relish sandwich" or some similar combination of words that don't belong together.

Pulled Pork Sandwich - $6.00 - Born and bred in the Northeast I think it would certainly be fair to classify myself as a barbecue novice. To me a barbecue is grilling the shit out of meat over an open flame, barbecue sauce is ketchup based and made cheaply by some guy who refers to himself as Sweet Baby Ray. I had heard rumors about other parts of the country smoking large cuts of meat for hours over indirect heat and using a vinegar based sauce but it was something that I had really only experienced vicariously on TV. In fact as far as food porn goes the thought of a vinegar based barbecue sauce had always left me somewhat flaccid. Much to my surprise a little booth in an old PB&J stand provided my first taste of "real" barbecue. The pork was tender and cautiously basted in a very delicious vinegar sauce that provided a nice counterbalance to the richness of the meat without overpowering it. More BBQ sauce was offered but I felt the sandwich was dressed appropriately. The bread was a regular hamburger bun slathered in butter and toasted on a skillet. That green thing in the skewer is pickled okra which the owner asked me "not to be afraid of." I wasn't and it was OK.

Pulled Chicken Sandwich - $6.50 - The wife's option, chicken relish or something like that, turned out to be a rather ordinary pulled chicken sandwich. The chicken had a little bit of a smokey overture and was adorned with some mild house pickles atop the same buttered hamburger bun. The chicken did not have much of anything in terms of sauce but was tasty nonetheless.The best part of her choice was the generous shards of skin left in among the very moist white meat. I was only allowed one cursory bite of her sandwich but she was satisfied with it and I happily collected the discarded scraps of chicken skin left on the plate.

The owner (I swear it's the same guy who I always saw at PBJT) was very nice and seemed genuinely concerned with whether or not we enjoyed the meal. The return of 2 very clean plates seemed to speak for itself. The only complaint I have is $6 and $6.50 is a pretty steep price for 2 sandwiches. Neither of us found the sandwiches to be overstuffed with meat and at that price it would have been nice to have a little something besides the okra on the side. If we go again I'll have to loosen up the purse strings and get some biscuits and gravy on the side. Boiled peanuts? Umm, fuck no.

Mussels: The District

In the mood for something new last Friday, the wife and I ventured out to the District on Danforth Street just west of the Old Port. Walking in my spider sense immediately started tingling, trying to warn me I had just entered a douchy bar. The signs were everywhere; cold (some would say sleek) color scheme, empty walls, 80% of the staff had unnecessary tattoos and a couple of ridiculously dressed (ahem) ladies bellied up to the bar. We took our place at the high tops next to the (ahem) ladies and hoped for the best while preparing for the worst. The menu seemed to be typical bar fare with a heavier emphasis on seafood. I must say upfront that although I wasn't impressed by my surroundings, once I started shoving food down my throat the mood quickly lightened.

Starter - Maine Crab Meat Fritters $9.00 - There were 5 of these things when the plate was dropped off but 2 were gone before I could get my phone out my pocket. They were a little light on the crab, but they were still fried crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, i.e. fucking delicious. Probably not worth $1.80 a fritter and I wouldn't get them again but a good start none-the-less. That red stuff is ketchup, the white is tartar sauce, neither was notable or necessary.

Wife's Meal - Bacon Cheeseburger with Fries $12.00 - Yeah, sure it's a just a burger and fries. But damnit there is something to be said for ordering meat medium rare and getting it medium fucking rare. This thing was large, bloody, and delicious just the way a burger should be. Most of the fries ended up in my stomach which was ideal as they were hand cut with great texture and just the right amount of salt.

My Meal - Roasted and Fried Chicken with Grits, Greens and Gravy $17.00 - Holy shit. This was amazing. The plate had two cuts of chicken, one fried, one roasted, delicately placed atop a bed of spicy grits, gravy and collard greens. The fried chicken cutlet was by far the worst component. It seemed to shrink a little inside the buttermilk shell and was there mostly as a vehicle for delivering more of the grits and gravy to my mouth. The roasted thigh however was transcendent, oh man, the skin was salty and delightfully crispy, the white meat was thick but still incredibly juicy. Words do not do justice to just how delicious that piece of meat was. If you go to the District it is an absolute must order. The grits and gravy were smooth and surprisingly spicy but not over powering. The collard greens were handled well and added some nice subtle bitterness to the dish. But holy crap the roasted chicken, it's all about the chicken.

Including a drink for the wife our tab came to just over $50 plus tip. All in all I think I would go back to the District, however I would just end up ordering the same damn thing. It would probably be better if they offered take out. But then I fear I would go all the time and end up eating that chicken with my hands while crouching over the to-go container in some dark, wet alley, with a crazed look in my eyes... It's probably for the best that I just never go back there.