I've updated many things today in both the music and video tabs. Here's a highlight: a behind-the-scenes look at local band Vinyl Theatre's studio recording of their new EP "Chromatic." You can check out Vinyl Theatre on Facebook at this address and producer Joel Wanasek's recording studio on the Facebook page for JTW Recording Studio.
"The Making of CHROMATIC" (2014)
Vinyl Theatre makes music that's technically flawless and catchy as hell. My colleague J.P. Russell of 4513 Productions filmed the band while they recorded their new EP "Chromatic" at JTW Studios over the holidays. I had the pleasure of watching them slowly lose their minds through hours of footage that I cut down into this short documentary.
"Who Would Win In A Fight?" (2014)
Another video filmed for the local band Vinyl Theatre that poses the question who would win in a fight between producer Joel Wanasek and band keyboardist Chris Senner. Vinyl Theatre posted this video online at their YouTube page as VLOG 9. Feel free to check out their other video logs at this address.
Another year has gone away but the memories are here to stay. This last weekend I had the pleasure of seeing many old friends from school and the debauchery that followed probably made our ancestors proud. A night of drinking followed by a football game, a table of food, and another night of drinking...it has ended far too quickly.
The Tripod assembled: Luke, JP, and Chris
Take a look at some of the funnier seasonal pictures I've found this year and have a few laughs as we bring in the new year. Below is also a duet between Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as they sing about what you might be doing this very evening.
Happy New Year's Eve everyone and we'll see you next year!
Taking as much advantage of the local farmers market and my new kitchen as I can, I've found myself making a different soup almost every weekend. This week I made pumpkin soup again.
If you want to try it out yourself you will need:
Healthier than a bowl of marshmallow fluff.
1 or 2 pie pumpkins, gutted, roasted, skinned and diced
2 honeycrisp apples, skinned and diced
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
32 ounces of chicken stock
2 ounces of whiskey
6 ounces of heavy whipping cream
ground nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and brown sugar
some butter
Unrelated, bacon wrapped deep fried tater-tots on a stick.
Yay Wisconsin.
NOTE FROM THE COOK:
Honestly, normal Halloweenesque-carving-type pumpkins will work just fine, too. For a healthier soup try half & half instead of cream or substitute the chicken stock for vegetable stock and go full vegetarian. Both stocks are around the same in cost, but be warned -- half & half or other low fat milks yield a slightly thinner soup.
Below is a poorly shot and shoddily produced video I nonchalantly threw together while I whipped up this soup on Sunday. I hope it helps; it's not incredibly safe if your workplace is sensitive to mild swearing and Jerry Reed tunes. Enjoy!
Soup is warming on the stove and the aroma is weaving to our noses past cooling rice, slices of cream cheese and avocado, smoked salmon, roasted seaweed, and other fixings for home-made sushi.
Mmmm...pretty much straight vodka...
A cocktail in my hand and Christmas lights in hers, it's a Sunday evening and my girlfriend is decorating the tiny Charlie Brown-esque holiday shrub that has Pinocchio-dreams of being a real tree while I get the Packers/Vikings game to stream correctly from my laptop to the living room television. Somewhere in this moment I realize a dream is becoming reality.
From living with the folks, to dorm rooms, to the man-cave dubbed "Tripod House," and back to the folks, I finally have my own living quarters. It's my kitchen, my bedroom, my spare room for music and crafts, my garage and my driveway and it's wonderful. I share it with my girlfriend and while I sometimes miss the days of manly yore with brotherly brethren - let's face it, she just smells better.
Previous tenants used the inside of this fan as an ash tray
It wasn't always all philly rolls and vodka gimlets, though. Beside the basic moving woes of traveling with my life in five boxes and her life in fifty-six (okay, it was only forty-eight), we had to deal with the excuses from a landlord, the trash from previous tenants who just refused to leave, the non-existent care for customer service from the cable company, a "thoroughly cleaned apartment" that was filthy throughout, and cigarette butts falling from the ceiling fan into my mouth on the bathroom-christening first shower.
Maybe they thought we could use these things?...
Our excitement plummeted and our stress levels sky rocketed. The backyard strewn about with the previous tenants garbage looked like a junk sale and worse the garage was packed to the roof with their belongings and the door padlocked shut. But we took it all in stride and fixed one problem at a time. A couple of wonderful women from a company my girlfriend works for called Daily Details Concierge arrived that very weekend to help us search for our new home beyond the filth.
The toilet stripped apart, window sills wiped, cupboards, shelves, counter tops, the mysterious oven cave where I'm certain a grease dragon once lived - these things and more were rendered nearly spotless. While the cable guy that didn't "have a ladder tall enough to reach the service box" proved to be no help in allowing us to do our jobs requiring speedy internet service, the fine folks at Time Warner Cable's
The GF and I celebrate Halloween the night before the move
customer care center had no problem waiving our installation fees and ensuring internet would be installed within 24 hours after having a little talk with "angry" Luke.
A little more than a month later, I have a place to come home to every night from work that is clean, warm, and very friendly to both of our creative drives. We have paintings in the works, music in various stages of recording, stories to write and books to read. And most importantly, a cabinet filled with vodka and a fridge filled with olives.
Okay that's probably not the most important thing but it certainly helps. After quite a struggle, I'd like to thank the friends who helped us get here. And be sure to visit the lovely ladies' website for Daily Details; you'd be surprised to find exactly what they are capable of doing for you! (The answer is almost anything, within the legal spectrum.)
We're finally in the holiday season, the year 2013 is coming to a close, and I can finally growl in a proud Batman voice these words...
Those close to me know my love for cooking, tv/film production, the food network shows, etc...well it seems my interests have crossed paths again!
Chad, Marc, Luke
A few weeks ago "Dinner Impossible" was filming and needed a caterer for the crew. Who would have figured the next time I end up on a production set I'd be making an omelet for Marc Summers! My cooking partner-in-crime Chad made Chef Robert Irvine's omelet and I'd say I'm jealous...but maybe not. I remember him yelling, "I want to see you flip it!" ;) All jokes aside it was a lot of fun meeting Marc, Chef Robert, and the rest of the DI team. Behind-the-scenes & food: two of my favorite things.
New music! Not for any particular project again; just me fumbling away in my late night free time on the weekend. This one's a bit ridiculous but take a listen and let me know your thoughts :)
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