Scouring the web for music tix

When it comes to purchasing tickets to live music events, sometimes StubHub and TicketMaster are your only options – but just as frequently someone’s trying to dump tickets through Craigslist and using a whole different rate structure. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a one-stop resource (that defaults to a home page showcasing immediately upcoming shows in your geographic area) that automatically returned all the available ticket options?

Enter Tickets & Music (the brainchild of our friend Marcus), an incredibly useful site that does exactly that.

A couple of days after Halloween, I was thrilled to discover that the one and only Blues Traveler was playing locally – but I was (understandably) stunned by the prices TicketMaster was charging. I checked T&M and discovered that some dude was getting rid of tickets through Craigslist for just $12! Armed with that kind of bargain basement price info, I quickly got in touch with Fred, who had worn a Blues-Traveler-themed costume just days earlier.

Of course, he firmly rebuked me for even suggesting that he’d want to attend such and event but, thanks to T&M, I was able to get the conversation going. Just wait until the Spin Doctors come to town!

See more: Web Sites About Music Guest Writer: Jim Reference

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Posted on December 6, 2009

Airing weekly on SYFY

Let me just start off by making it clear that Ghost Hunters is a show that, unless you’ve seen it, you really can’t believe it. If you’ve seen clips on the Soup where a traditionally good looking guy is, in the parlance of McHale’s writers, “taunting the air”, that show is not Ghost Hunters but the free-wheeling, tongue-in-cheek Zak Bagans of Ghost Adventures. Ghost Hunters, which airs on the newly branded SyFy, is a dour, sour, extremely self-serious program that follows the TAPS team (former RotoRooters – I kid you not, watch the animated intro) Jason and Grant as they travel the country proffering their special blend of dickish skepticism.

I’m not sure how to put this without sounding like a dick myself (I’d certainly like to suppose that I’m not without a base-level belief in the supernatural), but a television show about the (pseudo) science of ghost detection is, at its very core, problematic. I suppose what I have the biggest issue with is the way that a bunch of scowly douchebags have thoroughly stripped away the mystery and wonder of the spiritual realm and replaced it with a bunch of hard and fast rules they simply shat out over years and years of know-it-ally conversations. Ghost stories are always fundamentally people stories: once you’re dead, you can’t really do all that much – it’s the human element that makes tales of spookings and hauntings so compelling – and Ghost Hunters occasionally succeeds when it profiles individuals experiencing paranormal activity in their homes and places of business.

The interviews with the afflicted are always the most genuinely interesting parts of the show because, more often than not, the interview subjects cannot help but betray that the haunting is something that they’re kind of proud of, a fact that sparks a series of essential, and rather heavy, human experience questions: why do these people think they have ghosts in their lives, what’s going on psychologically? Why aren’t all of us affected by moving plates and dimming lights, bumps in the attic and visions of people not there? Ultimately: is there really an afterlife or are we doomed to haunt some tourist attraction for the rest of eternity?

After the interview and case history are established, a  bunch of DV cams, EMF detectors and rigid, jerky attitudes take center stage as the team tries to ‘scientifically’ establish whether or not the place is actually haunted. This ‘evidence gathering’ phase of the show is always tedious, once it’s completed the team studies the A/V record they’ve made and looks for pieces of the tape where they can almost detect a voice straining to say something like, ‘Help me”.

But I filed this under Brittany’s Laughs category for a reason: this show is hilarious.

Click here for the rest of Ghost Hunters Academy

See more: Laughs 2000s About TV Guest Writer: Jim

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Posted on December 6, 2009

directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson (2009)

I completely expected to love Up, and I did – but I was not quite as prepared to shed buckets of tears for the entire first and last half hour. It’s a doozy for the emotional, a truly touching film that, don’t get me wrong, is also enchanting, charming and hilarious. The small touches, as well as the big picture inventive story line, are what makes every Pixar film so exceptional. And this may just be their best.

I really don’t want to give too much of the plot away, as it was refreshing for it to unfold as a surprise to me. But I will say that the cast of characters includes a “small mailman” (chubby kid Russell), his bird friend Kevin and a team of talking dogs that could not be more endearing. Visually, as well (especially on Blu Ray), Up is amazing. It makes all the imitation (non Pixar) 3D kids movies look like lazy muck.

Be sure to watch the additional features, and no worries, because “Partly Cloudy” is not a trailer for Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, but in fact is an adorable short about storks that I hope gives way to a feature length film.

Click here for the rest of Up

See more: Movies 2000s Animated Children’s

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Posted on November 29, 2009

Illogically Attractive, Sir

I’ve never been into Star Trek, but I enjoyed the latest movie much more than I expected. Even more unexpectedly, I found myself totally understanding Uhura’s need to love and kiss all over Spock – even if, I assume, it would almost be like dating someone with autism. When I thought about it more, it’s not even necessarily the strangely appealing Quinto that’s the allure, (though I am beginning to think I’m developing a thing for wildly heavy eyebrows) but perhaps it’s the ears, the logic, and the brow – because if you go back and take another peak at Nimoy’s younger days in the blue suit, you may find him just as lovable as I do.

Click here for the rest of Spock

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Posted on November 29, 2009

127 2nd Avenue

If I had to name a least favorite type of food, I’d be quick to come up with diner food followed by vegetarian food, so imagine my surprise when B&H Dairy (which serves both) was so utterly delicious that I can’t wait to go back. Both diner food and vegetarian food get a bad rap because so much of it is terrible – ever tried an omelette at one of those indistinguishable diners on Long Island, or eaten at a veggie place that insists that bland is the only option?.

Of course, there are exceptions and B&H is surely one of them. The food here has heart and guts, the potato pancakes are incredibly crispy with a soft, pillowy center. The borscht is piping hot, flavorful and belly warming. The challah bread is slathered in butter and arrives handed to your table from the counter like a formidable tower of carbs. Definitely arrive hungry.

In a city that seems to be losing its Jewish storefront history, B&H has stood as a kosher mecca serving affordable and filling comfort food for over 60 years. While you may mix up the name with the giant photo/video mega store, you’d never mix up this tiny sliver of a place (about 4 two tops and a counter) and its genuine old world charms with anything so high tech and huge. It would be hard to find a place this quintessentially New York still standing in the neighborhood.

Click here for the rest of B&H Dairy

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Posted on November 29, 2009