FOOD = GOOD

As part of Kelly's pre-birthday celebration, we decided to cook a lovely dinner together (compliments of Tyler Florence's brilliant cookbook, Tyler's Ultimate). Below is a sampling of our menu:

Fig's with Goat Cheese, Candied Walnuts, and Arugula

Avacado with lumped Spicy Crabmeat aka "The Ultimate Crab Salad"

Roasted Striped Bass with Green Olive Cous Cous and Grapefruit Butter

This was the perfect way to cap off a wonderful afternoon where we had the opportunity to see the *incredible* film, Once. Check out the trailer below if you have not already. . .

Bonus!!

(mp3) The Roots - The Ultimate

(mp3) Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova "When Your Mind's Made up" from Once : The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Top 5 songs of The Week (Tequilla Edition!)

This was a good week for us -- we finally got to see The National live, caught up on all those episodes we missed of Entourage (because we didn't have HBO until last weekend), saw Knocked Up and as a result we can't wait for Superbad. . .Check out the trailer if you have not already:




And, of course enjoy the following Top Five Songs of The Week:

5. (mp3) Polyphonic Spree - Running Away Kelly has been a fan for quite some time and I've never been but after listening to this record I think I am going to have to convert.

4. (mp3) Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip - Thou Shalt Always Kill I know a lot of you are hip to this track already but we missed the bus on this one, thanks to the bangin' new dj never forget mix "Down and Out On The Roof Top Hang" check it out if you have not already.

3. (mp3) Tegan and Sara - Back In Your Head From their very impressive new album "The Con" due out late July -- from what we have heard so far, we love their new direction. (link fixed, thanks for the help in spain :) )

2. (mp3) The Clash - Police On My Back As mentioned, this week we saw Knocked Up and really enjoyed it. Randomly in the film, they played this song and it took Jose back to his days of dishwashing and hearing this song on The Buzzard.

1. (mp3) Cold War Kids - Fast As You Can (Fiona Apple Cover) Check out their unique take on this great song from their "Benefit At The Distric Ep"

Tonight: The National @ The Beachland Ballroom

This show is probably one of our most highly anticipated of the year :) And finally, this day is upon us. . .

Who: The National w/ opening acts Shapes and Sizes and Talkdemonic

When: TONIGHT, doors open at 8pm

Where: The Beachland Ballroom (see more tour dates here)

Why: Simply listen to the below tracks!

[Mp3] The National - Fake Empire From their recent release, Boxer
[Mp3] The National - Mr. November From their '05 release, Alligator

ps - Special thanks to Music Saves (who is putting on this show in conjunction with The Beachland) for introducing us to this incredible band*

Top 5 Songs of The Week + Ohio City 5K Run and Crawl

This beautiful evening will be spent running a 5K in Ohio City's Second Annual Run & Crawl (aka: Night Run/Walk & Post Race Pub Crawl!). It will mark the first time for both us running in any kind of race actually -- although, we hope there will be many more to come. Coming up, in late July we are going to participate in A Shot in the Dark hosted by Winking Lizard's, where there are teams of two and each person runs 2 miles.

For now, wish us luck and enjoy these Top Five Songs of the Week!

5. [Mp3] Summer Hymns - Start Swimming

4. [Mp3] Yo La Tengo - Mr. Tough

3. [Mp3] Cloud Cult - Chemicals Collide

2. [Mp3] Palomar - One Haunt

1. [Mp3] Emily Haines - Rowboat

R.I.P. Mr. Wizard :(

Today we were crestfallen when learning of the death of Don Herbert. It's always sad when someone who was a part of your childhood passes away. We both remember enjoying Mr. Wizard on Nickelodeon back in the day -- we were both big fans. Kelly believes that Mr. Wizard was obviously the precursor to Bill Nye The Science Guy. I would have to agree with her but I did not like the rat on that show. Anyway, enjoy this clip of Mr. Wizard making an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman back in 1982:




Bonus:

[Mp3] The Flaming Lips - The Wizard Turns On. . .

Osheaga Music & Art Festival !!

Oh my God, I sooo want to go to the Osheaga Festival Musique et Arts :)

For the last few years I have been trying to come up with *any* kind of excuse to make my way to Montreal and this is just way too perfect: Feist, Amy Winehouse, Stars, Explosions in the Sky, Au Revoir Simone. . .AND, it's over Labor Day weekend*


Now all I have to do is convince José. . .

Great Lake Swimmers plus Top 5 Songs of the Weekend!

Yesterday we went to Pittsburgh to see Great Lake Swimmers perform @ Garfield Artworks where the lovely Eleni Mendell opened along with local act, Pairdown. Prior to the show we were not familiar with Ms. Mendell's work, although it did not take long for her to win us over with her beautiful voice, bringing to mind the likes of Cat Power, Sam Phillips and Jenny Lewis. As far as Great Lake Swimmers -- they were even better than advertised, if one could imagine. As a result, we left Pittsburgh even bigger fans than we already were of this amazing quartet from Toronto.

Eleni Mandell

Great Lake Swimmers

Also, enjoy our Top 5 Songs of the Weekend:

5. [Mp3] Airborne Toxic Event - Does This Mean You're Moving On? We already posted this song before, but it is just *so* good, also definitely check out their cool video which they recently shared with us

4. [Mp3] Los Campesinos! - We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives Welsh band coming to our shores this summer that you should check out at Lollapolooza amongst all the other crap

3. [Mp3] Maps - To The Sky Beautifully peaceful music to listen to while driving on a sunny afternoon like this one

2. [Mp3] Eleni Mendell - Girls A standout song from her fantastic performance

1. [Mp3] Great Lake Swimmers - Put There By The Land Our favorite from their latest album, Ongiara

Killing time till game one...

Some people (who shall remain nameless) have brought to our attention that we have been only doing posts that seem to always include a mention of The Cavs incredible playoff run but we here believe that those people are infact jealous because their team (insert city) have already been eliminated from the playoffs. We here in C-town are used to the haters so that does not phase us at all. We are pre-gaming right now as we enjoy some Blue Moon Honey Moon Summer Ale is goes down very easily on a hate day like today. We are trying to remain calm before the storm begins @9pm. We don't like any of the songs that are The Cavs songs so here are some other songs with the words Rise Up in the title

(mp3) Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - Rise up with fists! (new rilo kiley album in august :)

(mp3) Cursive - Rise Up! Rise Up! (remember when Cursive didn't suck?

(mp3) Votrox - Rise up In The Dird (can't wait to see them next week @ The Beachland)

Top 5 Songs of The Week!! (We are in uncharted waters)

So , on Saturday The Cavs made history and eliminated the Pistons from the playoffs and thus advancing to NBA Finals for the first time ever. Everyone here in C-town is super excited and we can't wait for the game Thursday @ 9pm down in San Antonio.

Although a little late, enjoy this delicious batch of songs:

5. [Mp3] Hello Stranger - Her In These Lights This L.A. band sounds like Nina Gordon if she were being backed by keytars, synths and a catchy rhythm section.

4. [Mp3] Kanye West - Young Folks & Interviews (Interlude) From his most recent Mix Tape "Can't Tell Me Nothing." Check him out rappin' & ranting to the tune of Pete Bjorn & John's "Young Folks"

3. [Mp3] Holy Fuck - They're Going To Take My Thumbs This Canadian Collective recently came to town opening for !!! where we missed their set of Lo-Fi improvisational electronica but we heard they were awesome.

2. [Mp3] Bloc Party - Say It Right ( Nelly Furtado Cover) Bloc Party takes this song and puts their own stamp on it.

1. [Mp3] Ra Ra Riot - Hounds of Love (Kate Bush Cover) Live on WOXY. Sadly their drummer, John Pike, died over the weekend. Our condolences go out to his family and to the band. We are fans and hope they still come to C-town in July.

C-town is ready to take it to the D-town

In the last week Detroit teams are presently 0-8 Against the Tribe and Cavs and after tonight we have a strong feeling it is going to be 0-10. Right now we are just killing time as we await the start of 6 game of the Eastern Conference Finals. On Thursday we watched that thrilling double O.T. victory from Panini's in Coventry and tonight we will be heading to dinner @ Fahrenheit in Tremont and then watching another thrilling victory from Bier Markt in Ohio City. If Cleveland teams are not your thing here are two suggestions how to spend your evening.

1. This weekend is the first Murray Hill Art Hop of the year and it runs thru Sunday down in Little Italy.

2. Tonight @ 9pm @ Bela Dubby, Coltrane Motion (these guys are from Chit-town and they make indie dance rock that is a combination of shoe gazey rock + 60's soul jams with a laptop) they are playing along with openers Hot Tapes & Clear Away Days.

(mp3) Coltrane Motion - Ex Girlfriend in A Coma