An influx of indie-rockin' and electro-poppin' music into my collection this past week calls for Bloc Party's track called Flux. I tend to veer more towards mellow indie-rock but enjoy some fast, synthesized beats from time to time. It gets me going and makes me want to jump on my bed and do flips. Huzzah!
*photo courtesy of amazon.com*
Bloc Party
Album: Intimacy (2008)
Song: Flux
Big poppa's celebratory bash. Take two. What equals success? I think in this case, it might have been the dark red liquid that came pouring out of big poppa's mouth and onto my lawn. Ick! If I wasn't aware of the happenings that took place earlier, I would have thought that this guy was puking blood! What a sick vampire! As the worst gf evar that I am, my tired soul in the freezing night could only shout out words of dis-encouragement. Squat down! You're splattering throw-up all over your shoes! Hurry up! Are you done yet! It's cold out here! Haha. Kinda makes you wanna date me huh? So, I did planned a wine night for big poppa and all his boys. I looked up a bunch of places and finally decided on Max's Wine Dive. My reason was three fold. First. They served wine. That was a must. Duh. Second. I wanted a place that offered food. Check. And thirdly, this place opened late. Those were my criteria but what sealed the deal was that Max's had chicken & dumplings on their menu. Big poppa LOVES chicken & dumplings. He has yet to find a place in Houston that has chicken & dumplings as good as this one place in Dallas. So when I saw it on the menu, I knew we just had to come here. I made reservations early on in the week. I even stopped by early Saturday morning to drop off the cake that I got him and made sure my reservations still existed. I wanted everything to go perfectly! Cos that's how I do it. I'm a perfectionist. Like Madonna. That's why I always sing her songs when I karaoke. Upon arrival, I realized that reservations mean absolutely nothing. The place is small and it gets SUPER packed. This place is happening I tell ya! I had to wait about thirty minutes for them to have my table ready, and even so, I didn't get the small area in the back that the hostess misguided me into thinking that I was going to get when I first made the reservation in person. I was there. She pointed at these group of tables and said this is where you will be. Girls are so sneaky and such big liars sometimes. Haha. I kid. But I get it. The place is constantly packed. They want to make the money. Whatevs. My other complaint is the parking is very unavailable. Your only option is to basically valet. Luckily it's complimentary. But see, I did not know that it was complimentary and drove around and around to find free parking since I hate everything that has to do with valet. I mean. Even though it's complimentary, you still gotta tip. I ordered a medley of appetizers for our whole group. Fried alligator, ribs, fries and mac & cheese. I didn't try the alligator but everything else was REALLY good. I LOVED their mac & cheese. And their ribs. The fries came with this dipping sauce that was super good. I had their fried chicken and I would have to give a thumbs up to that. Big poppa however did not like their chicken & dumplings. Prices pretty much sucked. Way to expensive! I paid for the first three bottles of wine which got the party started. People started getting a good buzz which escalated into obnoxious inebriation. Seriously. Wine is supposed to be slowly sipped and enjoyed. These guys were literally taking swigs from their glasses and then chugging it like it was beer. Crazy boys. So of course, only bad decisions can be made while intoxicated. Our waiter seized the moment and began suggesting these bottles of wine that were like a hundred bucks or more. Several of the guys bought the bottles. By the end of the night, our bill totalled more than a grand. It was insane! But it wasn't that bad since everyone paid for one bottle each. Besides, it was big poppa's birthday. He's got great friends who wouldn't think twice about the money and big poppa would do the same for them in an instant. I can NOT stand cheap people! Man. Aren't I quite the verbose one today. So in the end, big poppa had purple mouth syndrome and was mad drunk. I think most of the guys told us that they couldn't even remember the drive home. Scary! It's fun to do this once in awhile. But it's such a waste of money. Especially when you know you could get those same bottles of wine at like 1/100th of the price. Oh wells. Life goes on and big poppa had a great time. That's the most important thing of all.
5365 Westheimer Rd
Houston, TX 77056
When big poppa's birthday rolls around, I have two tasks on my hands. First. Pick a nice restaurant for just the two of us to enjoy. Second. Plan some fun bash hoopla thing so he can party with his friends. It becomes a good month of intense research on finding the perfect place. The weekend before his actual day of birth, I made reservations at The Capitol Grille. I was certain that I had never been there before. Big poppa, however, could not remember. Either way, that was where we were going. The place is deceivingly small. It feels almost like walking into another world. The lighting was super dim. Waiters had to carry mini flashlights around so that the patrons could see their menu's and bottles of wine. Almost seems a bit silly. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to turn the light on a bit more? I don't think either one of us enjoyed our food. He basically ordered a steak and lobster. The steak was so-so and the lobster was truly disappointing. Even I thought so! It looked like four pieces of SHRIMP scattered over the steak like it was garnish. Poo-poo foreals! I don't eat steak but I've been around people who eat it all the time to know what a good piece of meat looks like. I told our server that I wasn't much of a meat eater and would just be ordering a few appetizers. He mentioned that the kitchen there could whip up a pasta dish with vegetables if I would prefer that. It sounded good so that's what I went for. Bleh. What makes this place think that they can charge me $25 buckaroos for some pasta, my least favorite vegatables (squash and zuchini) and a drizzle of olive oil. Man. I can't even remember the last time I was ripped off so badly. Maybe in Europe? Hah! The restaurant was actually pretty packed. I'm very surprised it has lasted this long. Was it simply that we ordered the wrong stuff? Well, I'm not a believer in that excuse cos with any restaurant, none of the items should ever be 'wrong'. It should all be great, top notch food. With so many better steak places in Houston, I doubt we will ever be back here. Luckily, his second birthday celebration was a hundred times better. Puke and all!
Erin McCarley was another one of the slew of artists that I saw at the Hotel Cafe Tour. I keep thinking, MAN! What an awesome line-up that was! The only song I knew of hers at the time was that Pony song. I have this thing where I like to check out albums at work so I pulled her album up and then just had it playing while I was questionably working. Then Pitter-Pat came on and I was like WOW! It's such a good song! It's weird cos I'm pretty sure I've heard it before and it didn't stand out much to me like it did this second go around. Unfortunately for the bf, I've been playing the song on repeat for the last couple of days. If not the actual song, then it's me tinkering the notes out on my geetar and pretending I'm one of the talented indie songstresses that I highly admire. If I get the music down good enough, expect a torturous vlog of my performance. I remember seeing her walking around the venue talking to people at the concert. I was a bit intimidated to go up and ask for a photo-op cos she seemed to be having actual conversations with people. Some of her family members were also there that night so I didn't want to intrude on that! She's from Garland, TX, which is about four hours away near Dallas. I remember her being crazy gorgeous. Ugh. She's got the looks, the voice, the talent. Must be born that way. I've been saying that a lot lately. It's from the Joy Luck Club.
*photo courtesy of amazon.com*
Erin McCarley
Album: Love, Save The Empty (2009)
Song: Pitter-Pat
Song: Bobble Head
Song: Pony (It's OK)
