Weekend Tastes

Trying new food has long been a favorite of mine. When the opportunities arise to try something new, I usually dive upon them. This weekend was no exception. Saturday brought me to a Lord of the Rings gathering at my sister's. Waiting there for me was a one of my favorite dips, spinach artichoke dip. While I was deprived of usual staple for dip, fresh baked bread, snack crackers worked surprising well.

While my carnivorous family feasted upon their flesh of bird and mammal, I searched for something vegetarian and exciting. I turned to the local Indian restaurant, Kasbah Grill, which delivered just what I was looking for, Palak Paneer with a couple of pieces of Naan, Indian flat bread. To top of the day, there was half-frozen Dew and fresh blackberry smoothies.

Sunday was a bit more perilous. My Indian adventure in food from the previous day was wreaking havoc on my stomach. In hopes of turning back the tides of stomach acid eating away at my throat and stomach, I turned to the only thing which has always worked, green tea. Normally, I would brew fresh tea without sugar to cure myself, but as I was at the store I turned to what I hoped would be the next best thing, Tea's Tea Pure Green Tea, a.k.a. this doesn't taste at all like tea but like sesame oil. While it worked, I can safely say I will not be trying any other Tea's Tea products any time in the near future. Fortunately, my day ended in splendid new tastes, Kiwano, Starfruit, and twice baked potatoes.

Arcanum

Once upon time, three guys sick of the corporatization of the video games industry founded a little company called Troika Entertainment. Surviving only seven short years and three glorious games, Troika defined what a PC RPG could be and should be. As the core team of my all-time favorite game, Fallout, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson created one of th best gaming experences I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. What made Fallout, and ultimately Arcanum, so great was not just the ambiance of the setting and music, but the detail placed into converting a table top pen and paper RPG into a computer game that still felt like those live sessions at a friend's.

While Fallout's futuristic wastes scorched by the visions of a 1950's atomic storm appeal so much to the sci-fi lover in me, Arcanum's setting has always felt so much more real to me. Maybe it is the romance of the late Victorian setting with its string quartet and gas light lamps, the almost wild west feeling which lingers in the air. Moreso though, it is the underlying conflict, technology versus magic, Tolkien's world versus our own, which draws me so strongly to Arcanum. Now if I can just finish the damn thing...

It all comes back to Nirvana.

One of the initial reasons I picked up a guitar a decade ago was Kurt Cobain. Kurt Cobain and Nirvana open me up to world of new music and new ideas. Led Zeppelin and Rush were the music of my childhood, Nirvana helped launch me into the world of punk that would define a large of my teenage experience. Listening and playing along with Kurt laid down the fundamentals for my oddly coordinated and out of tune style that would come to power under the label of Scabies, a blur of disoriented chords that sought the greatness of the Pixies, Gregg Ginn, and, of course, Kurt.

In trying to define and recapture what music and what my instrument means today, I found myself going back to the beginning, to Nirvana. Not to the Nevermind or In Utero Nirvana of years past, but the raw Nirvana which was found on bootlegs like Outcestide. Songs like
"Sappy" and live versions of "School" and "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter." Listening to this Nirvana reminds me why I started listening and why I started to strum a six-string and why I'll continue to do both for years to come.