I just want to get this out of the way. I’m open for debate on this point, but I’m willing to go out on a limb here and now and say that “Blades Of Glory” has usurped “Anchorman” as the best of the Will Farrell canon. I know there are a few “Old School” believers out there as well, but I think that after this one, the argument is settled. “Blades” takes the prize.

I’m not going to ruin the movie by rehashing it here, but I will defend my choice. Firstly, there are a ton of quotable lines here, the true hallmark of any great Ferrell movie. Maybe not quite as many as “Anchorman,” but it makes up for that with the visual comedy. You haven’t really lived until you’ve seen Heder and Ferrell ice dancing together. The skating scenes alone are worth the price of admission.

But the real reason I think this is better than “Anchorman” is simple: This movie actually has a semi-believable (albeit thin and slightly contrived) plot. Not that men skating in pairs skating is all that believable, but it at least develops the story well enough that you can get involved with it. I’ve always felt like “Anchorman” contained a ton of funny scenes but very little actual story. Not that you need a story to make a hilarious movie, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Anyway, I say go see it, form your own opinion, and then tell me what an idiot I am. But I’m standing by my choice. “Blades Of Glory” is Will’s best to date. Be sure to check out Chazz Michael Michaels’ myspace, which contains such gems as his favorite movie: “Universal Soldier (Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren in the same movie? It happened!).”

First, I’d like to say that I really liked this episode. I would still like to see more Jack, but overall, this was a great episode. Time for lists!

The good:

1. Martha Logan is back! And she stabbed Charles in the neck! She is my favorite new character from last season, so I hope stabbing Charles isn’t her last act on the show. Not sure if Logan is going to die or not, but we can always hope.
2. Silver Spoons kicked some serious ass. I’m wondering if he and Jack will like each other or if they’ll try to kill each other. They both hate Morris, so that’s a start.
3. Powers Boothe flushed all of my goodwill from last week down the toilet, as I knew he would. I’m ready for Gary Payton to wake up and go back to be a big wuss. But I do like the drama that President Powers is creating, so that’s why he goes up here.
4. Aaron is back!! I think he’s officially the longest running character other than Jack now, right? Makes me worry about him, to be honest.

Okay, now the bad:

1. Need more Jack. His only great moment last night was when that guy said he didn’t believe Jack, and Jack got to point a gun at his girlfriend and say, “I don’t have to convince you!”
2. The believability of Silver Spoons as a badass is thin at best. Maybe with couple more episodes he’ll convince me, but it seemed a little forced last night. I really wanted him to make his grand CTU entrance on that little train.
3. Silver Spoons also had the cheesiest line of the night, something to the effect of, “Get me a medic down here, I’m Mike Doyle!” I think I will end all of my sentences like that from now on.

Other than that, I don’t have any complaints really. I thought this was one of the better episodes of the season. What did you guys think?

I’m selling cupcakes at Improv Nashville’s Mainstage show tonight. The show starts at 8 PM, and you can now buy your tickets online! You can also pay 10 dollars at the door, but shows fill up pretty fast. They’ll be performing short-form and long-form improv.

CUPCAKE.

These are dark chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting. And green sprinkles!! Green like trees. Sorry, pretty pink plate is not for sale.

Bring a dollar to buy a delicious homebaked treat.

love, celine

So, one of the things that I like about this whole “relaunch” of the blog is that Matt is posting more often! Sure, yes, he’s posting about people getting punched in the face and fingers being sliced off and more BOY ACTION than you can shake a stick at, but at least the blog is getting a good workout. One of the things I actually want to share on here that I never felt quite belonged before is my semi-obnoxious obsession with cooking and baking. So, here’s a bit of domesticity to balance out the ass kicking and unsportsmanlike behavior.

We have special weekly hang-out nights with our friends to watch LOST. We’ve all been attending LOST nights pretty consistently for almost two years now, and each LOST night typically has a “theme,” around which we all bring a related food. We have pancake night or mexican night or italian night or luau night, etc. But I think that we can all agree (right, friends?) that the most popular LOST night is fondue night!! Mm, fondue night. Fondue night happens only about once or twice a year, because it is a most decadent occasion, but man, we are serious fondue lovers around here. And last night was: FONDUE NIGHT! The most wonderful night of the year. I am the unofficially appointed fondue chef, and our friends bring the dippers, so yesterday was pretty much spent in a flurry of fondue preparation. The results were obviously magical! We filled our bellies and drank lots of wine and even enjoyed a pretty good episode of Lost! For once! And today I wanted to share my recipes (and whatever little fondue “tricks” I’ve learned along the way) and a picture of Matt, eating fondue. Because I know that’s what y’all all want to see.

We do two fondues, a beer-cheddar fondue, and a chocolate coconut fondue. Very healthy. So, first is the recipe for the cheddar fondue. I adapted this recipe from a recipe that I found online.

BEER-CHEDDAR FONDUE
(We will double this recipe whenever we use it. Doubled, it serves 8 or 9, comfortably, with just a tiny bit left over.)

* 1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
* 1/2 pound melty cheese, shredded. I use a yellow American cheese.
* 1 T flour
* 1 1/2 t dry mustard
* Dash of hot sauce
* 1 c beer
* 2 t Worcestershire sauce

In a bowl, combine cheeses with the flour and dry mustard. Toss cheese to coat. In the fondue pot (or, I do this in a saucepan over medium-low heat.. You have more control over the temperature when you start on the stovetop), combine the beer and the Worcestershire sauce, stirring to mix. Heat the beer/Worcestershire sauce until bubbly. Gradually add the cheese mixture and stir constantly until smooth. Add hot sauce to taste. Transfer to a fondue pot, if you chose to do this in your saucepan, and set to low heat (about 200 degrees). Serve with crusty bread, chicken pieces, little sausages, apples, broccoli, etc.

Here are a few helpful hints in making the fondue:

- I add the juice of one-half a lemon when I put the beer and Worcestershire sauce into the pot. This helps to keep the fondue from separating later. It doesn’t change the taste of the fondue at all.
- Make sure you coat the cheese with flour very thoroughly, because that also helps to reduce clumpiness.
- USE GOOD CHEESE. For the love of pete! Quality cheese makes a quality fondue. I use Boar’s Head sharp cheddar and yellow american. Quality ingredients really do make a difference.
- I rub the fondue pot with a smashed clove of garlic before transferring the fondue from the stove.
- We always use a good ale for the beer, and haven’t really tried experimenting with that to see how the taste of the fondue would change. We went with Blue Moon this time and were quite pleased with the outcome.
- I’ve also done this recipe and added a bit of cracked pepper and garlic powder, with good results, but we left them out last night and it was still delicious!

(cheese fondue! hungry husbands! strangely-colored afghans!)

And here, the END ALL, BE ALL of chocolate fondue recipes:

CHOCOLATE AND COCONUT CREAM FONDUE

(adapted slightly from a recipe posted over at epicurious. We use this recipe as written - not doubled - to serve 8 comfortably with some left over.)

1 15-oz can of sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lopez).
8 oz of bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 oz of semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 - 1/2 c heavy whipping cream
1 t coconut extract

Combine sweetened cream of coconut and all of the chocolate in a heavy saucepan. Stir constantly over VERY LOW HEAT until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Stir in whipping cream (the original recipe calls for 1/4 cup, but I typically go up to 1/2 cup depending on how creamy I want it to be) and coconut extract. Transfer to fondue pot (on low or low-medium heat) and serve. We serve with assorted fruits (pinneapples, bananas and strawberries are especially good!), graham crackers, marshmellows, rice krispie treats, brownies, pound cake, etc. One of our friends brought peanut butter dessert wafers to try with it yesterday and those were also deeeeeelicious.

Tips:
- I can sometimes find sweetend cream of coconut in the drink mixers aisle of my grocery store (usually with the soft drinks), or at the liquor store. If it’s nowhere to be found, you can substitute a can of sweetened evaporated milk with extra coconut extract to taste. Add the extract altogether at the end, so you can control the amount of coconuttiness.

- USE QUALITY INGREDIENTS! This is generally a good rule of thumb, especially when dealing with chocolate. And don’t use chocolate chips, as they contain emulsifiers and are not very good at melting smoothly. We use Ghiradelli or Green and Black Organics.

- You can adjust the ratio of bittersweet to semisweet as your tastebuds prefer!

- This is even good for breakfast in the morning. The end.

love, celine

From this article on ESPN.com, where Tyler insists there is no bad blood between him and Gerald Henderson:

Hansbrough said Tuesday he hasn’t heard from Henderson, who flagrantly fouled him with 14.5 seconds left in North Carolina’s 86-72 victory Sunday.

Okay. Let’s say you’re playing a sport and you accidentally, I don’t know, break a guy’s nose or something. And let’s say he’s rushed off the court because he’s bleeding profusely and he also looks like he might eat your head if he gets close to you. And let’s say because of that, you didn’t get a chance to apologize for breaking his nose.

Wouldn’t you call him the next day? I mean, if it was truly accidental, wouldn’t you feel so badly about it that you’d be moved to pick up the phone? Or would you say things like, “I didn’t mean to hurt the kid” to the media and then never have the manners to apologize to him in person?

I admire Hansbrough for taking the high road here, but I’d really feel better about this if it turned into a WWE type feud, with both players talking smack to the press until their fateful rematch in the finals of the ACC tournament. Coach K could be Henderson’s weasel manager that runs in to throw the match, but Lawson would stop him with a chair shot, and then Roy Williams would present Hansbrough with a championship belt while all the Carolina players laughed and pointed.

Maybe that’s just me.

And I would be silly not to include one of my favorite songs from the now-defunct Austin group, 8.5 Souvenirs.

Eight and a Half Souvenirs: No Lo Visto

Happy spring! Happy blog! Happy Tuesday!

I’m on spring break, suckers, so I’ve spent some good lounge time listening to music and putting together an mp3 post. I have been completely enamored of vintage French pop music lately, ever since the purchase of this album, and it’s inspired me to dig out some older stuff that I haven’t listened to in a while. To me, French pop music screams SPRINGTIME! It helps that the sun is shining, the day is beautiful, and I don’t have to teach for another few days.

Yann Tiersen: Soir de Fete, from the Amelie OST
Lionel Hampton: Lullaby of Birdland, from Jazz in Paris: May 1956
Charles Trenet: Boum!, from La Vie Parisienne
Edith Piaf: La Foule, from The Best of Edith Piaf
Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot: Bubble Gum, from Bonnie and Clyde
Keren Ann: Jardin d’Hiver, from La Biographie de Luka Philipsen (okay, not springy, but still a great song!)
Serge Gainsbourg: Cha Cha Cha Du Loup, from Couleur Cafe
Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France: Minor Swing, from Djangology 49 (remastered)

love, celine

I’m a big 24 fan, and even though I’ve been a little disappointed by this season, I still think it’s the best show on television. Last night, I felt like it got a little of the magic back.

I could write a huge post here, but let’s just do lists. If you haven’t seen this episode, you should stop reading here. First, the good things:

1. Tom Lennox stepping up to the plate. Honestly, this was probably the biggest surprise of the season so far. I was sure that Lennox was going to go along with the plan once they released him, and for him to blow the whistle immediately was pretty amazing. Good for you, Tom!
2. The VP becoming President. I know he’s going to be an asshole, but last night when the Russian President called him, I thought, “If that was Wayne, he’d crumple like a wet Kleenex.” I honestly feel safer with Powers Boothe as President, even though I know we’re going to hate him within 2 episodes.
3. JACK BAUER CUTTING A DUDE’S FINGER OFF WITH A CIGAR SNIPPER. See, this is why I love Jack Bauer. I guess he’s over the whole “tortured for years in China” thing.

Now for the bad:

1. The embassy plot rehash. Seriously. Jack just got out of a crazy Chinese prison for breaking in an embassy, and within 12 hours he’s breaking into another one? Perhaps he needs some therapy or something. “So Jack, why are you obsessed with storming embassies??”
2. Logan’s complete and utter uselessness so far. I mean, Jack could have stormed the embassy without Logan’s input. What has Logan brought to the table exactly?
3. Speaking of Logan, Holy gaping plotholes, Batman! Here’s my question: now that Jack is storming the castle, who’s looking after Logan?!? Did Jack just leave him sitting in an limo outside of the gate? Really? One of the more ridiculous oversights in a while.
4. Dumb Russians. Why did that guy even leave the room that Jack was in to make that call to CTU? To find a more private place? THAN THE EMPTY ROOM THAT HE’S CURRENTLY STANDING IN?? Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Overall, a pretty good episode though. It was exciting, the plot moved in some interesting directions, and for the first time in a while, I’m not really sure where it’s heading. Your thoughts?

Carolina blue, that is.

I may live in Nashville, but I grew up in North Carolina, and as a result, I chose sides early. I’ve been a Heels fan for as long as I can remember, going as far back as Joe Wolf and J.R. Reid. I even vaguely remember watching Matt Doherty play when I was very young. And being a true blue Carolina fan, there’s always the matching corollary: I hate Duke.

As you can imagine, I always look forward to the two UNC/Duke games every year. I remember many epic battles, and it may be sad to say this, but they are often the highlight of my year. Seriously.

Be that as it may, yesterday’s game was a pretty mundane outing. The Heels had the game under control for most of the 40 minutes, Duke never really made a run at us, and by the time we got to the last minute it was all over but the crying.

And that’s when a Duke player punched a Carolina player in the face.

Now, I’ve watched the replays. I don’t think Gerald Henderson intended to bloody Hansbrough’s nose. But I do think he had every intention of delivering a hard foul, and I believe he was doing that at the request of his ratfaced coach. Suspending him for a game was absolutely the right thing to do, and it always rubs me the wrong way when Coach K and his cronies protest this stuff. But some of the quotes from yesterday were just infuriating.

First, from Gerald Henderson:

“I was not intentionally trying to hurt anybody. Obviously, it was a foul. I was not trying to hurt or hit the kid.”

Kid?!? Just for the record, Henderson is a freshman. Tyler is a sophomore. Not that there’s ever any excuse for a player calling an opponent “kid,” but if Henderson was a senior, I might be able to let this slide. This is obviously just a backhanded way of insulting Hansbrough, who basically owned Duke for the entire game.

Then, from Coach K (aka Ratface):

“The game was over before that. I mean the outcome of the game, let’s put it that way. That’s unfortunate, too, that those people were in the game in that play. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

Ah, I see! It’s Roy Williams’ fault! Again, just for the record, let’s see who was in for Duke with 18.7 seconds left on the clock. Josh McRoberts, DeMarcus Nelson, Jon Scheyer, and Gerald Henderson. Paulus had just fouled out. So it’s okay for Ratface to have his “A” players in the game, but it’s not okay for Hansbrough to be in there, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS SHOOTING THE FOUL SHOTS RIGHT BEFORE THE PLAY.

This is the kind of crap that makes me hate Duke. They make it so easy. Even their coach does his best to sound like a jerk after the games.

But in the long run, I’m glad this happened. This should be exactly what UNC needs to get some of their fire back. And from now on, no matter how good or bad Tyler Hansbrough is at the next level, no matter how much success or failure he has in his basketball career, he has been immortalized. That picture at the top of this entry will be shown every year from now on when Duke and Carolina meet. Move over Eric Montross! There’s a new bloodstained face in town, and he wins the gore war by a long shot.

Pat Forde wrote a great article about this over at ESPN. Give it a read.

For additional reading (admittedly from a UNC perspective), check out this great article by Adam Lucas.

Matt

Well, it’s been awhile, but after a long winter hiatus, we’re ready to open up shop and rejoin the land o’ blogs! That’s right, Muse: Nashville is ready for a relaunch, and honestly, we’re ready for a bit of an overhaul.

After losing our passion for this site, Celine and I started questioning why we weren’t really interested in posting anymore. The answer was very simple. First, we were extremely busy. And second, Muse: Nashville had become a “local events blog,” and we never wanted to be an events blog. Don’t get me wrong, we certainly wanted to talk about local events that interested us, but we had initially envisioned a more random blog, a mix of .mp3 posts, reviews and commentary, and events. In that order, if at all possible.

So with this return to blogging, there are going to be some changes around here. Our scope is going to widen a bit. We are basically going to write about whatever we want. That might include music, movies, TV, books, sports, local shows, theater, comedy, our cats…you get the idea. We’ll still be focused on culture, but not so much on listing the week’s happenings. After all, there are many other outlets that already do that for us.

Our promise to you: Less facts, more opinions! Fewer lists, more substance! More music, less talk! We will still be doing our mp3 posts (that was Celine’s vision for our blog all along, so that will always be part of what we do), and if we’re excited about something going on in town, we’ll be sure to let you know. But we intend to have more fun with this, and we hope you’ll keep reading as we figure ourselves out a bit.

If you’re still out there reading us, thanks for hanging in there! We’re excited to be back!!

Matt