We Made a Blog

Better organized than the Bacon Takedown and more relaxed than the Vendy’s, the Beer, Bourbon and BBQ Festival presented by the Trigger Agency was a definitive success.

Taking advantage of the VIP ticket’s perks, I was treated to a complimentary drinking glass and all the bacon, beer and bourbon I could stomach. The layout was puzzle-like but it kept you entertained since you were never quite sure what would be around the corner, no matter how many times you went around that very same corner. Did I mention the bourbon was totally free and ever-flowing?

I say it with pride when Brooklyn’s own The Meat Hook stole the show with their bacon suasage. A very close runner up goes to the Maryland team who’s bacon stood above the rest. They also seemed to genuinely want to feed everyone. When a 20-something-year-old manning the table realized he was almost out of food, he meant it when he said we “were soooo lucky to be able to try some.” And he was right.

The vendor’s ran the full gamut from giving free passes to Larry Flint’s Hustler club to selling portable Beer Pong tables. Maker’s Mark for sure had everyone’s attention with its dipping station. You could take the free glasses given at entry and have them hand-dipped in Maker’s Mark particular shade of red wax. This was the most arresting and successful promotion at the entire show.

I really cannot wait for this to come around again. The ability to do nothing but drink and eat bacon without feeling guilty is well worth the $85 admission.

“Saint John of Las Vegas” begins with John Alighieri (played by Steve Buscemi) midway through the journey of his life, within a gas station dark and his straightforward pathway lost.
 
Director Hue Rhodes has taken on the retelling of the Inferno and, arguably, the entire Divine Comedy in 85 minutes of flat desert. He pairs John with insurance fraud debunker Virgil (Romany Malco) in a quest to find proof to deny a claim to a wheelchair-bound stripper. John is led through his own circles of hell – corporate America and Las Vegas – by Virgil and delivered into the hands of his smiley-face-bedizened Beatrice, Jill (Sarah Silverman) for the rest of his journey.
 
The film falls within the new genre of quirk but Rhodes doesn’t live up to the higher practitioners of the art (Kaufman, Gondry, Anderson, Jonze) in that he hasn’t created a cohesively odd universe for the audience to immerse themselves in. They find pockets of weird, though, a reigniting human torch comprising some of the best of those moments. Heavy-handed allusions (a lighter that says “Abandon All Hope”) are a shame since they outweigh the defter ones (quotidian gates symbolically open and close between the hell, purgatory and heaven segments).

There are some steadily underplayed performances. From Buscemi, particularly, who makes excellent use of his wounded chihuahua persona to bring a forgiving vulerability to the role.

“Saint John of Las Vegas” might not be a divine comedy, but it’s a comedy of a higher order.

» Jay-Z Gets Ripped by Something Called an Author

Who knew that authors had such a way with words? You figure if they can be so descriptive and explanatory they would have been able to do something about print dying. But I digress as I picture my co-blogger launching a hot cup of grande latte at my head.

Jay-Z really does get schooled here. Smith Mag held a contest to see who can better Mr. H to the Izzo in just 6 words. I appreciate that the intention isn’t to gloat, rather to reclaim the description of New York put forth by “Empire State of Mind.” Hova maybe an easy target on this one, but even I noticed that despite how much I love the anthem, the lyrics are hollow.

Jay-Z: “The city of sin is a pity on a whim.”

Smith Mag Author: “Can’t have simultaneously: job, apt, relationship.”

That the author’s re-imagining of the verses are both funnier and more compelling is a tribute to the talent that goes into the art of writing. Oh and every description being 6 words in length is like a big middle finger to Twittter. Awesome.

The dot com.

We like to bring you the hard-hitting journalism you expect and demand of this well-staffed, almost overly ambitious blog. Which is exactly why we are not talking about the iPad’s impact on traditional media or what its price point means for the mobile marketplace. No dear readers, we are reporting on Apple’s new strategy. Market to the stoner.

In a clear move to gain the attention of the trend altering “blazing” demographic (an insider marketing term for a pot head) Apple has placed the “Number of the Forgetful” in its just-released marketing campaign. While it has long been noted that this is an extremely important demographic, after all they must be making money if they can afford to purchase Woody Harrerlson’s bong, it is never-the-less appalling.

Shame on Apple for mixing in an image of a minor into their creative. Is it so important for Jobs to control this key demographic that they are willing to suggest that minors should partake in the use of illicit drugs? Have they gone from landscape-changing, boom-market creators to lowly drug peddlers? From visionary to Visine-needing?

You decide.

This week We Made a Blog is going to travel through a gastronomic Maze by Gordon Ramsay, get industrious at Industria Argentina and look for a patron saint in “Saint John of Las Vegas.”

NYC Restaurant Week is upon and so we’re hitting up two newcomers to the celebration. Maze promises not to be a kitchen nightmare with small plates of Franco-Asian origin. Industria Argentina is serving up their proudly pure Argentinian cuisine that emanates from chef Natalia Machado’s native Patagonia.

Also on the menu is a screening of writer/director Hue Rhodes’ first feature film, “Saint John of Las Vegas” for which he shares writing credit with Dante. This retelling of “The Inferno” has Steve Buscemi playing an ex-gambler traveling through the circles of…Vegas.

The always poetic Mr. Draplin explains why America is fucked. At least from a design perspective.

The dot com.