Best Bar In Cincinnati - It's On!

Just a short post to remind everyone that The Cincinnati Man Best Bar In Cincinnati Poll is in full-swing.

Go vote for your local favorites, and please don't forget the smaller taverns and your favorite bartenders while making your decisions!

Cheers!

Technorati Tags: Cincinnati, Bartending, Ohio

Happy 4th of July! Have Some Soup!

A delicious recipe, tested for confidence. If you're feeling patriotic, this will really feed a crowd, and might even remind your guests of their first trip to the Capitol, as a student:

Senate Bean Soup

The Famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup Recipe

2 pounds dried navy beans

four quarts hot water

1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks

1 onion, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

salt and pepper to taste

Wash the navy beans and run hot water through them until they are slightly whitened. Place beans into pot with hot water. Add ham hocks and simmer approximately three hours in a covered pot, stirring occasionally. Remove ham hocks and set aside to cool. Dice meat and return to soup. Lightly brown the onion in butter. Add to soup. Before serving, bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper. Serves 8.

We're sorry
We hate to interrupt
But it's against the law to jump off this bridge
You'll just have to kill yourself somewhere else
A tourist might see you
And we wouldn't want that

- Dead Kennedys, "Soup Is Good Food"

Technorati Tags: Cincinnati, Bartending, Ohio

Twitter Is The New Blog

Added my feed to the right, accessible from the main page. I promise not to tweet about sandwiches, even when I really really want to.

When everything starts to fall
So fast that it terrifies you
When will you hit the wall?
Are you gonna learn to fly?

No one would believe it
Except for all the people
Watching as you fly away

Baby when I get home
I want to believe in Jesus
You can hammer in the final nail
But help me pick up the pieces

- Dave Matthews Band, "Time Bomb"

Technorati Tags: Cincinnati, Bartending, Ohio, Dave Matthews Band,

Twitter

Dave Matthews Band - Riverbend - 6-16-09

More pics I snapped here!

Hearing all the new songs for the first time live was thrilling,

and listening to the crowd sing "Jimi Thing" in the middle of a

monsoon is one highlight that comes to mind! I'll update this

post later with a little review, but suffice it to say, fantastic

energy tonight, Cincinnati! And what a show. I mean, really,

what a show!!

This is one band that is at the top of their game. Anyone who

attended can tell you that, and will also tell you it was one

helluva night for Boyd Tinsley (pictured above) and Tim Reynolds.

Please, go buy "Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King." And go

buy a ticket to Indy/Deer Creek! It just isn't summer until you've

gone to see DMB.

(Edit: It's really strange, how Blogger treats IE vs Google Chrome. The posts look fine in IE, but I use GC and they look awful. Not sure about Firefox. Bloggered!!!)

Technorati Tags: Cincinnati, Bartending, Ohio, Dave Matthews Band

Awful Waffle

The Cincinnati Enquirer has a disturbing article today about a group of African Americans who are alleging discrimation at the Kingsgate Waffle House:

Suit: Waffle House snubbed blacks

Reading the story upset me, and although we certainly don't have all the facts yet, I'm going to follow this story closely. As someone who has worked many a late-night bar shift, hungry at 4:00 AM, I can tell you with some authority that Waffle House pretty much sucks. I always felt horrible for the one or two servers they'd have on the graveyard shift, because I figured the job must be truly awful and low-paying for the servers to have such completely shitty attitudes. I'm not even sure that at that time of night, it's possible to get good service at a Waffle House; I and my coworkers always had slightly better luck at Perkins, and of course, thank goodness IHOP is back in town...

However, there is a big difference between receiving the consistently terrible service I grew accustomed to, and what this group says happened to them.

If you're the kind of person who reads an article like this and immediately thinks that what the group is alleging just isn't possible in this city, in this day, I urge you to wade through the comment section. I think I made to the fourth page before I couldn't take it anymore.

Can't you see that it's just raining
Ain't no need to go outside
But, baby

You hardly even notice
When I try to show you this
Song is meant to keep ya
From doing what your supposed to
Like waking up too early
Maybe we can sleep in
I'll make you banana pancakes
Pretend like it's the weekend now

- Jack Johnson, "Banana Pancakes"

Technorati Tags: Cincinnati, Bartending, Ohio, Waffle House

I Heart Bacardi Ads

I really do.

Now, I still think Mojitos suck, but this ad is so creative, that it almost makes me want one. Almost!

Technorati Tags: Cincinnati, Bartending, Ohio

Department of Housekeeping

Hola, friends!

I apologize for posting absolutely nothing, but I do have a bit, a tiny sliver, of good news to report... I sort of/kind of have a job, a part-time thing where I get to write and get paid for it, so I'm rather excited.

Being a cynical person, we'll see what happens.  But for now, things look up for the first time in six months.  I don't think our media understands, or is terribly interested in, how difficult it is out here right now for the unemployed and under-employed, and how much we'll stretch and reinvent ourselves to preserve our own personal version of the American Dream, but there are always blogs and other news sources (including talking to people in real life; try it some time!) to fill you in.  I doubt anyone in Ohio is ignorant to the fact that times are tough, indeed.

But that is neither here nor there, and I hope to update you all soon with some more "official-like" news.  In the meantime, please keep your hearts open for the unemployed, and for all of us, really.  

There's this song that has been buzzing through my head for months now... She may be a youngish minx-ingenue, but Lily Allen is delightfully sarcastic and I believe she has captured herself a Zeitgeist. To me, "The Fear" is an answer to Madonna's "Material Girl", 25-odd years later.  When I think back on 2008/2009, I believe Lily Allen's song will be a part of our story, and about who we (hopefully) were. Did we view Madonna's 1985 take on this theme as tongue-in cheek?  I think at the time we might have, but now, I'm not so sure.

As much as it pains me to admit finding modern meaning in a simple pop song, "I don't know what's right and what's real anymore."

I want to be rich and I want lots of money

I don't care about clever, I don't care about funny

I want loads of clothes, and fuckloads of diamonds

I heard people die while they are trying to find them

- Lily Allen, "The Fear"

Technorati Tags: Cincinnati, Bartending, Ohio