September 2011
35 posts
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Now Hear This: Real Americans Drink Micro-Brews
Real Americans Drink Micro-Brews
Beer is one of those dividing factors in America today. Some people scoff at it and say “I don’t drink beer,” all the while holding their pinkies up, sipping their cocktail or glass of chard. Others claim to be aficionados who tout obscure Belgians no one else has heard of (often with pinkies up as well). And let’s not forget about the Good Ol’...
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Now Hear This: Enough with the Cheese
Enough With the Cheese
I met a friend for dinner this week. He told me he had a friend in tow, but what he didn’t tell me was that she was from out of town. And by “out of town” I mean “the Middle East.” After frowning at the quality of the hummus on our appetizer plate, I had to ask her what she thought about the food here in the states. After further...
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Now Playing: Bridesmaids - I Just Don't Get It
Bridesmaids – I Just Don’t Get It
It was uniformly touted as the movie of the summer; hailed by critics, loved by viewers. Everything I had heard about this film was strictly positive. “Funnier than The Hangover” one male friend said. “I nearly pissed myself, it was so funny,” commented another. Rottentomatoes has it sitting at a 90%, which is several percent higher than some of the Best...
Anonymous asked: best place in the dc area to get wings? hot&spicy wings?
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Margin Notes: "Eye of the Hurricane" by David...
The Quote: She confessed, “When you lay your dream to rest, you can get what’s second best, but it’s hard to get enough.” —David Wilcox, “Eye of the Hurricane”
Margin Notes: Some songs are focused on expressing a single emotion, some songs tell a story. David Wilcox’s “Eye of the Hurricane” falls into that second category, taking his...
Anonymous asked: If you knew today was your last day on Earth, how would you spend it and why?
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The Reaction: Lincoln vs. Washington
From Anonymous: “If Abe Lincoln and George Washington got into a fight, who’d win?”
(Click Read More to see The Dispatch’s reaction.)
Grant: Everyone knows that George ate opponents’ brains. Our first president was on the battlefields during the revolution, killing British soldiers left and right with his bare hands and his bare feet. Abe? That guy sat in his office...
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Now Playing: Pearl Jam Twenty
Now Playing: Pearl Jam Twenty
There are bands that have come and gone through the years leaving nothing more than tiny ripples in the endless oceans of music as we know it. Some of these bands might even be fortunate enough to cause a wave, maybe even make a minute mark on society. And then there are other bands, like Pearl Jam, that change the very tides themselves, altering the course of...
Anonymous asked: Are eyebrows considered facial hair?
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Margin Notes: Justin Torres
The Quote: “I think writing is the only way we can get back what we’ve lost.” -Justin Torres
Margin Notes:
Some words tattoo themselves right into my bloodstream. Whether spoken, written, or sung, they have this funny tendency to light up my thoughts and never leave. That sensation is, in fact, the entire motivation behind the Margin Notes column. When Jared and I attended...
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The Letterpress: We The Animals By Justin Torres
We The Animals By Justin Torres
Any true reader tears through more books than he can possibly remember, but occasionally, one of those books tears through him. We The Animals, the courageous debut from up-and-comer Justin Torres, is just that kind of book. From the very first words of the slender one-hundred-twenty-five page novella, “We wanted more,” Torres grabs hold of the reader in his...
Anonymous asked: Mr. Goodman; Steven Palmer wants me to do this too so he doesn't look like an idiot. Also, I typed that message for him. Feel free to friend me too. -Sydney Morrison
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On the Menu: The Prime Rib, Baltimore, MD
On The Menu: The Prime Rib, Baltimore MD
As you know, I’m a proponent of the idea that good people eat good steak. As you also know, good steak costs a good chunk of change. So, a handful of times each year, I put on my fancy pants, the nicest shirt I own, the tie I love that I never wear, and my blackest, shiniest, leatheriest shoes and I put a dent in my bank account. This past...
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The Reaction: Best French Fries
The Question: Who serves up the best french fries in the DC/MD area?
(Click Read More for The Dispatch’s reaction)
Grant: I’m going with the poutine from Victoria Gastro Pub. You get a dish crammed full of deep brown duck-fat fries. They’re tossed with duck confit and melty gruyere cheese. The chefs also hit it with a drizzle of duck gravy that gives each bite an extra...
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Now Hear This: Tupac Lives! Along With Elvis And...
Tupac Lives! Along With Elvis And Stupidity
Fifteen years ago, nearly to the day, Tupac Shakur was violently gunned down in Las Vegas. With those fatal four shots we witnessed the death of a hip hop icon, an idol to many an urban youth. And with his death came the birth of a series of spectacular speculation, a wild chain of accusations that he had staged it all, that Thug Life still lived.
...
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The Mix Tape: Owen - (the ep)
Owen - (the ep)
There’s something about Mike Kinsella’s voice. Maybe it’s the fragility that it adds to every word. You can almost picture him falling apart and floating away as he sings. Or maybe it’s the whispered touch that he adds to the heaviest lines, turning what should be burning anger into quiet defeat. I’m half-tempted to compare him to Elliot Smith,...
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Channel Surfing: Entourage Goes Out With A Cop Out...
Entourage Goes Out With A Cop Out (Sort Of)
*Spoiler Alert
Like any true Entourage fan, for eight seasons, I’ve been actively following the career ups and downs of meta-Hollywood superstar Vincent Chase and his wolf-pack of loyal friends. There’s E, the sensitive, yet savvy, de facto-manager, Drama, the shallow, piss soaked side of the Chase gene pool, Ari, the go-to comic relief...
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FRAMED: Luci's Let Down
Luci’s Let Down by Marjee Chmiel and Sandra Lanz
I’ve always been fascinated by religious mythology, particularly when it comes to creation stories. Greek cosmogony is always awesome, with Gaia and Ouranos, the Hundred-Handed Ones and the Kyklopes, and every little story about why our world contains the creatures it does now. The torah (or, the Old Testament, if that’s...
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The Reaction: Best Lunchbox Snack
The Question: What was the best lunchbox snack you could have when you were in school?
(Click “Read More” to see The Dispatch’s reactions.)
Grant: I was more a lunch buyer than a lunch bringer. My high school had this amazing pasta salad that was drenched in a ranch-based dressing. Spiral noodels (fusilli, for you purists), peas, broccoli, carrots, shredded cheese. It was...
Anonymous asked: what do you do for a living?
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The Mix Tape: Where Did Rock Go?
Where Did Rock Go?
They were moments that defined music, defined our culture. Defined us. By the mid-1950’s America was Rock’n’Roll: our worship turned to the shaggy-haired demigods who stroked the chords of our discord and sang the lyrics that spoke the sentiments we all grumbled under our breath. Our parents hated it and that just made us love that shit more. No matter what...
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The Letterpress: Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
With the recent end of the NASA shuttle program, I thought it would be an appropriate time to talk about Homer Hickam’s phenomenal novel/memoir, Rocket Boys (which served as the basis for the phenomenal movie, October Sky). The novel throws you back to a moment in time when the human race was about to undergo a phenomenal change in its ability to understand...
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Now Hear This: Into The Minds of Douche-dom
Into The Minds of Douche-dom
One writer’s journey into the cavernous heads of seven distinctly different men who each adamantly believe that they are not, in fact, what they so clearly are, Douches. All.
Douche
noun /do͞oSH/
douches, plural
A shower of water
A jet of liquid applied to part of the body for cleansing or medicinal purposes
A device for washing out the...
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The Mix Tape: Deafen the Creatures - The Way the...
Deafen the Creatures - The Way the Noise Began EP
My first music review for the month of September comes from the UK . Deafen the Creatures consists of members from Liverpool, Widnes, and Manchester and their debut EP, The Way the Noise Began, is a sonic painting of autumn landscape. The cover art of a dying tree, created by Jennifer Birch, is a great companion piece that symbolizes the mood...
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The Reaction: Worst Song of All Time
What is the worst song you’ve ever heard?
(Click Read More To See The Dispatch’s Reaction.)
Jared: There is a special place in hell for anyone who goes “Tubthumping” in my book. Chumbawumba, the British schlock-rock band unleashed a disease upon our ears in 1997 and despite being an unbelievably awful song, it’s popularity spread like a contagion throughout our...
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Now Hear This: Y I H8 Txt-Spk
Y I H8 Txt-Spk
“OMG!!” My nearly sixty-year-old father texted me. “OMG!!” I tried to deny it before then, but when those three letters, double punctuated for full effect, popped up on my cell phone screen, I knew that the English language was spiraling down the toilet bowl and that we all had our rapidly texting fingers on the flusher. Slowly but surely our words have been overtaken by...
