Girl Power

I'm pretty picky when it comes to what female artists I listen to. I had the pleasure of catching Sara Bareilles at the House of Blues this past Tuesday, November 9. I wasn't sure what to expect, but man boy I blown away by what a talented musician she is and what a great show we got to be a part of. She shared a lot about some of what went behind the songs of her new album "Kaleidoscope Heart" and provided some great insight with the joys and difficulties of the songwriting process. I'm definitely feeling inspired to be a better musician and to even take a crack at writing some songs of my own.


Sara Bareilles - King of Anything
I paraphrase Ms. Bareilles, but she shared that this song was about people who should "mind their own f*cking business." Hilarious how upbeat and catchy it is too!


Brooke Fraser - Shadowfeet
This song comes off of her second album "Albertine", I saw Brooke Fraser perform live a few years back at Berklee College of Music. You may know her as a worship leader at Hillsong and the song "Hosanna", but she has some excellent solo albums I would highly recommend checking out. She falls roughly into the Pop/Folk genre.


Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
OK, I'll admit that I just can't resist a good pop song. This song will get stuck in my head for days and was covered by an all-male a cappella group in last week's episode of "Glee". Yea, a little weird for guys to sing it, but a nice arrangement nonetheless.

Listening update

Been picking some music since September, primarily through Amazon.com's MP3 store. Every month they have a great cross section of popular albums on sale for $5.00 each! Needless to say, I took advantage of these sales.

Here are some albums I'm currently making my way through. Feel free to share any recommendations in the comment section:

Age of Adz, by Sufjan Stevens - Caught this guy in concert last Thursday, very different from the majority of music I listen to, and very unique concert experience. I just love the cover for the new album, whether or not that's supposed to look like a vintage robot from 60's era science fiction.

Kaleidoscope Heart, by Sara Bareilles - Post on her concert at the House of Blues last week coming tomorrow! If you liked the first album, I definitely recommend checking this one out.

Flags, by Brooke Fraser - Had no idea she had a new album that was released in October. Excited to check out what our girl Brooke has to offer this time around in her third solo album.

Ellipse, by Imogen Heap - Same deal, I enjoyed her previous album and only found out about this 2009 release from a random blog I read.

Invented, by Jimmy Eat World - I was honestly a bit underwhelmed in my first listening of this one, but I'm coming around to it. No standout track just yet, but you'll be I'll share it once I find it.

Conan's Return

I am thankful for the return of Conan on TBS. His time off-air made me truly appreciate his unique brand of awkward, slightly inappropriate humor.

Rock on Team CoCo.

Chef Wylie Dufresne & Meat Glue

This past Monday I had the pleasure of attending one of the Science and Cooking Lecture series at Harvard. The featured speaker was Chef Wylie Dufresne of wd~50 in NYC and his lecture was entitled "Meat Glue Mania".

Transglutaminase, a.k.a. meat glue, was the star of the lecture, an enzyme that opens up a world of possibilities to individuals who are one part chef and one part mad scientist.

Though you wouldn't know it, meat glue has been applied to the delicious looking dish above: Wagyu flap steak, barley, malt, turnip.

Flap steak is typically reserved for fajitas and other applications for flat cuts of meat. With the meat glue, he's able to stick together multiple flap steaks, and after its been bound together in plastic wrap in a cylindrical shape and set over night, you can recut the meat and get a nice sear on the outside of the meat yet retain a medium rare center.

What's more amazing is that they're finding non-meat applications, as is with the barley cake accompaniment above, and wd~50 is currently experimenting with gluing together vegetables. All in all, a truly fun and inspiring lecture.

Click here for more wd~50 food porn.

Good Eats TV & Drunk History

Fellow "Good Eats" friends, they've made a large chunk of current and past episodes available on a YouTube channel called Good Eats TV. The episodes are split up into two parts, so it makes for easy watching and easy tracking if you have your computer close by while cooking. Here's one of my favorite episodes from this season covering the Porterhouse steak:



And because its Monday and who doesn't need a good laugh, I bring you Drunk History Vol. 5.
*Warning: Contains strong language, vomiting, and pure awesome.

TV update

I don't really hit the movie theaters anymore, but still a big fan of TV. Figured I'd share a little update about what I've been watching.

• Modern Family is a hilarious show. Glad so many friends recommended it to me.
• Decided to power through and finish the 6 remaining episodes of Battlestar Galactica I have left. Figured I made it halfway through the final season, might as well finish the journey despite the negative reviews I heard of the Finale. At least the first two seasons were awesome.
• Dropped How I Met Your Mother. Episodes were less and less interesting and I'm just not a fan of Ted, who's got to be one of the least likable starring characters in a tv show.
• My wife and I have been slowly making our way through the series Bones, thanks to Netflix and their extensive library of streaming content. It has a great blend of darker comedy and mystery, but ultimately, a very interesting and endearing cast.
• Still bummed that Lost is done and gone. Next on deck for my drama/sci-fi fix is Fringe.