A year ago I found a internet radio site called Pandora and started finding new music. The first band that I found on the site was Tokyo Police Club an indie rock band with an addictive sound. After hearing just one song I was impressed and the next day I ran out an picked up there CD, A Lesson In Crime. I would describe the CD as a 16 minute long journey thought a world taken over by robots and a oppressive government. All the songs are fresh and a bit random and thats what make it so great. You almost feel that there creating the music for the first time ever, every time you play the CD.
The band is from Newmarket, Canada and consists of Dave Monks (Vocals, Bass), Josh Hook (Guitar, Percussion), Graham Wright (Keyboards, Vocals) and Greg Alsop (Drums, Percussion). They are currently one tour and are releasing their debut full length album entitled Elephant Shell sometime in May (some sites saying late April).
TPC is playing in Pittsburgh April, 10th at Mr. Smalls, and I am going to be interviewing them before the show. If they allow me to use my flip video camera I will post some video up next week. If you have any questions you would like me to ask them let me know ASAP. Sorry for giving you late notice but I just found out yesterday that I will be allowed to do this.
A fellow lover of bacon named Jesse Hambley told me about a really neat website called Ning.com. The website allows you to create your own niche social network for free. After he explained to me what it was, he told me, “You should start a Bacon Ning”. I looked at him for a bit and said, “Your right, I should start a network for bacon lovers”!
If you enjoy bacon then stop by EnjoyBacon.ning.com and join the fastest growing network for bacon lovers. I hope the site turns into a fun place where people can plan bacon events, share recipes, and enjoy all things bacon.
If you would like to help out with the design of the network let me know. The Ning platform is very customizable with CSS. I have some other projects due at the moment or I would have customized it myself. So if you have the time and you would like to share your CSS skills that would be great.
So after I got my Macbook I starting looking for programs to fill it up with. The first one I downloaded was Adium, which I explained in a previous post was better than iChat. The next program I started looking for was a good image editor. I wanted something cheaper than Photoshop but could still handle everything I need.
The first thing I found was Gimp. I found it to be powerful but the complicated user interface made that power too hard to handle. Soon after getting that off my Macbook I found my dream photo editing tool called, Pixelmator.
Pixelmator is sexy, user friendly, and can handle everything I throw at it. I would compare it to Photoshop Elements. The price is just right too, only 59 bucks to unlock all the power of the program. If you go to their site and check out the screenshots you will notice it’s interface is a lot like Photoshop’s. If you’re familiar with Adobe products you should be ok and the learning curve will be low. Thankfully there are some differences with the interface, so I don’t think Adobe will try to shut down or take over (like they did with Macromedia) this competitor.
If you are in the market for an inexpensive photo editing tool and don’t need all the fancy filters and effects Photoshop comes with, then you should give Pixelmator a try. You can download a demo on their website.
This is how they make mass produced bacon. It’s not pretty but it does make pretty cheap food. If you would like to know how people make premium or homemade bacon check out this post at BS Brewing.
Thank god I read Bacon Unwrapped because I would have never known that April is National BLT Month. Heather wrote about this on April 1st so I thought it was an April Fools joke. But then I looked into it and it’s true! A whole month to celebrate BLT’s.
If you’re some kind of freak and don’t know what a BLT is, it’s a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. It’s the second-most popular sandwich in the US, with the ham sandwich being first. It became popular after WWII when supermarkets expanded and offered fresh lettuce and tomatoes all year round.
I only enjoy a BLT at home, I don’t think a restaurant would do it right. Since the bacon must be cooked to crispy perfection, I like to do it myself. I also like to finish off a BLT with a heaping spread of mayonnaise. Yummy!
This post is making me hungry, I think I am going to make a BLT for dinner.
