Category Archives: Endorsements

May 07 2012
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Culture, Endorsements, Music, Nostalgia

Unsolicited Endorsements XXIV

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Technology: The NPR App

I’m still new to the IPhone. I’m still learning about all the cool secrets, like how to operate the camera in a non-moronic way, and I don’t even use Siri all that much.* I know my apps, though.

*In fact, I only use Siri when I’m messing around and ask her something like, “Where can I score some drugs?” Pretty funny!!

I have Flixster, AroundMe, TVFoodMaps, ATP/WTA Live and, among others, the NPR app. This is probably not groundbreaking, but the best app, to me, is the NPR app. You can listen to a livestream of any NPR station in the country. You can listen to snippets of their latest stories on demand, or some of their older ones. You can listen to podcasts.

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Apr 27 2012
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Endorsements, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements XXIII

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

PSA: Increasing Concert Awareness

Sleigh Bells performed at the Granada, here in Dallas, last week. I imagine this band plays a spectacular live show, particularly because they gave one of the best performances I’ve seen on Saturday Night Live. I don’t know this for sure because I didn’t go. I wanted to. I just didn’t realize they were playing until about two weeks after tickets went on sale. Continue reading →

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Apr 20 2012
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Endorsements, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XXII

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Band: Japandroids

 Japandroids have 26 officially released songs and one volume setting: loud. The Canadian twosome plays hard, plays fast, and makes a hell of a lot more noise than you would expect from a guitar-drums duo. With their second full-length due out June 5 and riding a sizeable wave of SXSW hype, the band seems to finally be creeping into the consciousness of the music-listening public, despite their rough edges. This is great news if you’re a fan of earnest music that doesn’t carry an ounce of irony (I am). They aren’t incredibly cool, they aren’t at all polished, but they are real.

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Apr 13 2012
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Art, Endorsements, Humor, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XXI

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Painting: “The Twist” — Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton’s roots are in Missouri. He was born in Neosho; once worked as a cartoonist at the Joplin American newspaper in Joplin, Mo., and finally settled in Kansas City, teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute (where he’d cross paths with a rebellious young student named Dennis Hopper).* Along the way, he would become famous for his depiction of life in the U.S. — often in the form of conflict (old traditions vs. industrialization, the settling of the old west, etc.)

Here’s “The Wreck of the Ole ’97”

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Mar 16 2012
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Endorsements, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XIX

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Endorsement: Joe Posnanski’s commenters

A few months ago, Joe Posnanski disallowed comments on his blog, one of the few blogs I consistently frequent. Normally, I don’t read too many comments, aside from perhaps the first five or six after a story on most website, and I rarely comment on any piece of work. Posnanski’s website is different. I always read the comments, and I’ve commented a few times as well.

But, yes, a few months ago, Posnanski removed the comments section from his blog. He was justified for doing so.  In a post, he wrote about a particularly malicious comment he had to delete, which the commenter then just rewrote no more than a few minutes later. He decided to suspend the comments section because he wouldn’t have time to moderate.  A blog without comments is like an SNL episode without “Weekend Update.” It just doesn’t happen.

His readers realized this. A few apparently VOLUNTEERED to monitor the comments for him so the section could return.

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Mar 09 2012
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Endorsements, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements XVIII

Comedy Crush: Aubrey Plaza

Tom Haverford is my favorite character on Parks and Recreation. This has to be the case because Aziz Ansari is currently the funniest person on the planet. But lately, I haven’t been able to get enough of April, of Aubrey Plaza, especially after I found her user name on YouTube.* Continue reading →

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Mar 02 2012
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Endorsements, Movies, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XVII

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Album: Katy B – “On A Mission”

Mark’s post about the beauty of dancing got me thinking about which albums are the most danceable, start to finish. Daft Punk, Hot Chip, and LCD Soundsystem have each crafted outrageously dance-y records in the past few years, but I think Robyn’s “Body Talk” wins, followed by Katy B’s debut full-length, “On A Mission.”

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Feb 24 2012
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Endorsements, Food, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XVI

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Drink: MexiCoke

Here in Texas, and I suppose anywhere that might have a large Hispanic population, or even at one of those hardcore grocery stores along the lines of Whole Foods or Wild Oats, we are fortunate to have MexiCoke, the Mexican version of Coke. I thank the Lord for this creation.

Let me say this first: I love pop/soda or whatever you want to call it. Ever since I more or less gave it up in high school because I was brainwashed into thinking it would make be a better runner,* pop has been a luxury. I drink it maybe two or three times a week and look forward to it the same way I do a great meal, perhaps more so on really sunny, hot days.

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Feb 17 2012
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Endorsements, Movies, Music

Unsolicited Endorsements: XV

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Grammy Performance: Taylor Swift

Am I endorsing Taylor Swift? Well, sort of. Is this a tepid recommendation of someone who already gets way too much pub? Probably. Did I still enjoy Taylor’s live rendition of her hit song “Mean” at the Grammys? Well, yes. I couldn’t help it. And my Twitter feed seemed to agree.

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Feb 10 2012
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Endorsements, Food, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements: XIV

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Live music performances: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

I must admit: I rarely watch late-night television. I can’t remember the last time I watched Leno or Letterman, and my samplings of Jimmy Fallon have mostly been limited to some viral highlights — like the time he went full Neil Young and performed “Whip My Hair” with Bruce Springsteen. Thing is, I don’t think this is changing, either. And, yet, I’m still an all-time sucker for a solid live-music performance. And on Thursday, someone pointed out that Fallon’s NBC website archives all the performances into an easy playlist.*

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