Spring

Laura’s Blog Entry

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Laura’s Blog Entry

Fame is fleeting and fickle, but for today we are #1.

TGI Depeche Mode Friday

Laura’s Blog Entry

Here’s a couple more studio clips of Depeche working away on their forthcoming album. Hope this holds you over until our new podcast comes out next week.

For any new blog visitors, we do a free monthly podcast. We play indie and electronic music and chat about pop cuture. Fun and silliness abound. Hope you’ll stop by and check out the new episode that will be out on April 1.

As promised, here’s the Mode. (We kinda like the Mode around here.) The guys take a little breather and break out an impromptu version of “Stand by Me.”

Here Dave works on vocals for the song “Light.” Is it just me, or does Martin’s hair even look cute when he wears headphones? No need to reply. I know the answer!

PS – I heard the album opener, “In Chains” last night. It is seriously fantastic. Crazy analog electronics combined with heartbreaking lyrics and harmonies that reach down into your very soul. Oh Depeche Mode, I never doubted you could do it again.

This Is My Friend Will… and He’s a Rockstar!

Laura’s Blog Entry

Will Crewdson, who contributed some extra-special guitars to the The Sleep, is also part of a band called Rachel Stamp. They are glam, folks. Here’s a video for their song “Monsters of New Wave.” It is pure, unbridled fun and makes me happy.

Will is wearing the gold pants. Few can work the gold pants. Will is one of the few. He does this stuff for a living folks. Take a lesson.

For those in London, Rachel Stamp is doing a one-off gig Friday, April 10 at Islington Academy for the release of their Best of CD and DVD. Rock on.

In Search Of… The Queen City’s Best New York Style Pizza – Part 3

Neil’s Blog Entry

A week ago, while at the gym, my friend Chuck and I were talking about this here little blog of ours and I mentioned my quest for the best New York style pizza in Cincinnati. Chuck is originally from Philadelphia and grew up with New York style pizza like me, and so was very interested in my discoveries. And when I mentioned that one of the pizza places I was planning to visit also claimed to have authentic Philly cheese steaks, a lunch during the work week was planned.

Stop #3: Balboa’s

Balboa’s Philly Steaks and Pizzas is located on Vine Street in downtown Cincinnati. Once we found parking a few blocks away – which we didn’t mind at all because the weather was warm and sunny – we walked into Balboa’s. Instead of the prerequisite photos of New York on the walls, Balboa’s was decked out in images of Philadelphia. It was very clean and somewhat busy as it was St. Patrick’s Day and there were many of folk dressed in green grabbing some lunch after the morning’s parade downtown.

We asked the guy at the counter about Balboa’s and he said that it was a place in Philly that was pretty much transplanted from there to Cincinnati. They ship in the Amoroso rolls and meats every day from Philadelphia. Also imported directly from their Philadelphia bakery are TastyKakes. We were very excited about this and thus were a bit saddened to find out that they were out of Butterscotch Krimpets. So we grabbed some Cream-filled KoffeeKakes instead and ordered our lunch. I ordered two slices of cheese pizza, a half size cheese steak (Cheese Whiz only, please!) and a drink. My total bill with TastyKakes was $13.28.

The pizza arrived first and was absolutely perfect. The crust was just right – very flavorful, crispy and chewy. I’m no food scientist or anything, but there’s something about New York style crust that’s not like other kinds of pizza. Laura says it’s the yeast. She’s pretty smart about things like that, so let’s all just say it’s the yeast. Anyway, the cheese and sauce were perfectly balanced in terms of flavor and amount and spices.

There’s also a specific look to New York style pizza. The sparseness of the sauce and cheese… the dusting of oregano over the whole slice… the residual flour left on the crust… and Balboa’s pizza had all of that.

The cheese steaks arrived shortly after and it took me back to a vacation Laura and I spent in Philadelphia many moons ago. It was delicious – just like what you’d get on Market Street.

And so as Chuck and I finished our lunch, I wished Laura could have been with there with me to taste this great New York style pizza. I also thought that a second trip to The Flying Pizza would be needed in order to compare these two great pizzas. Maybe once we’ve visited all the places on our list, we’ll make a mad takeout dash across the greater Cincinnati area and taste-test them one by one at home or something like that.

So, hat’s off to you, Balboa’s, for not only bringing the deliciousness of New York to the Queen City, but quite a bit of Philadelphia as well.

Still with no pithy catchphrase,
Neil

The Dog Ate My Blog Post and Other Excuses

Laura’s Blog Entry

We’ve been a little light on the postings this week. Choose from the following menu of customized excuses:

• It’s spring break and the child actually requires attention. Who knew?
• So much about Martin Gore to Google; so little time.
• Neil was supposed to write a blog about his latest venture to find NY style pizza in Cincinnati, but just hasn’t written it up yet.
• Laura has been bitten by the knitting bug and has been busy making sets and sets of colorful coasters. And hats. Lots of hats.
• It’s spring. We’ve been outside.
• We were tired. We needed a nap.
• Battlestar Galactica ends. Tonight. We are inconsolable.
• Laura’s been busy writing the new April podcast. Except that is not entirely true because she only put the music together, gathered a few topics and anecdotes and then gave it to Neil last night and he wrote it. (Which is why his pizza entry hasn’t been written.)
• We couldn’t find the internet.
• Laura’s been feverishly alphabetizing her craft supplies.

OK, that last one may happen very soon.

Stay tuned: Neil really is working on a pizza entry. After his nap.

New for Spring

Laura’s Blog Entry

After making the cute little baby hat last month, I decided to use some left-over yarn to make a grownup version for myself. Just in time for some cool-ish spring weather.

And here are some incredibly unflattering photos I took using my webcam. It’s too hard to photograph myself with the regular camera.

I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease yarn, in Cactus (darker green), Lime (lighter green) and Stone (gray). I like the subtle shades put together. The photo at the top of the post gives the more accurate depiction of the colors.

I adapted their pattern for the Cheerful Baby Hat by casting on 80 stitches. I also did four rows of each color for the striping instead of two. I knit until the hat was 8 1/2” and then did the decreases. Easy and quick.

Also for spring, the shoe bug has bit. I don’t spend that much time clothes shopping, but I do love a well-planned blitz when I need something. I always go in with a very specific idea of what I am looking for. This time the target was casual shoes.

So it was off to the shoe warehouse store. I was sad to see the upper discount floor had been closed and now a smaller sale area was located on the first floor. I didn’t have any success with the discount section, and was forced to shop in the main store area – not usually a good idea. Too many cute shoes to choose from that are not on sale. But I located two pairs marked down, combined that with my $20 coupon, and I was out of there for a quite reasonable sum. (In Laura’s world, reasonable sum = $60 for two pair.)

So here’s what I’ll be rockin’ this spring:

Slip-ons. Super comfy.

Lace-ups. Almost as comfy.

Black for spring. What a surprise? I tried on many, many cute but painful shoes. What’s the deal with no cushion in the soles? I can’t live like that.

I did have to pass up some super-cute-girly-strappy-high-heeled sandals. No events on the horizon to warrant buying those.

Darn. They were hot.

Behind the Scenes in Gothy Musicland

Laura’s Blog Entry

Looking for a nice podcast to enjoy over the weekend? Try our new podcast for The Sleep.

Neil and Dave and I sat down and recorded a track-by-track commentary for Never In a Million Years. We talk about how each song came into being and our experience making the album.

We were even fortunate enough to have some comments from guest musicians Will Crewdson and Tony Miracle.

So if you enjoy the whole commentary thing, you can download the podcast for free on iTunes.

Or click here to download directly or listen online.

And on that note, goodnight sleepy peeps!

In Search Of… The Queen City’s Best New York Style Pizza – Part 2

Neil’s Blog Entry

Okay, if I start with a caveat, you’ll assume I didn’t like it. Right? Well, let’s see.

Stop #2: Roc-A-Fellas

This past weekend we tried another pizza place in search of the best New York style pizza in Cincinnati. Roc-A-Fellas is located in Sharonville on Reading Road and promises “a taste of New York.”

Entering Roc-A-Fellas, the first thing I noticed was the warmer full of pizza “by the slice.” That was promising. The second thing I noticed, once we were seated, was the unmistakable vintage Wendy’s table tops. Anyone over 30 surely remembers the old newspaper ads that decorated the table tops at Wendy’s back in the day. There were a few handful of photos of New York on the wall, but other than that, it looked like any other neighborhood pizza joint. We ordered a large cheese, some chips and three bottled waters. The total bill was $22.

So, here’s the caveat. I’m no food critic and I don’t pretend to be. And I’m not trying to say, “This pizza place is good and that pizza place is bad.” There’s a very specific taste that I am trying to find. One I grew up with. And it is very possible I may not be able to find that specific taste. And if I think a certain pizza doesn’t have that particular New York style taste – MY New York style taste – that doesn’t mean it’s bad pizza. It means it’s just not what I’m looking for. And that being said…

…it wasn’t what I was looking for.

First of all the sauce was all wrong. It was too thick and rich – very much like a tomato paste actually. The crust was thin enough, but the texture was wrong. There was no crispy or chewy quality to it. And there was not much in the way of the flavor of the crust. New York style pizza has a certain taste to the crust, and this was not it.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I did get a comment on my last post about this from ShawnS, who said, “If possible try for Roc-A-Fella’s on a weekday afternoon. I think that’s when the owners are there. Sometimes the less integral employees don’t put as much effort into the pizza.” Needless to say, I forgot all about that and went on a Saturday because we were in the neighborhood. So I think there may be another stop at Roc-A-Fellas in the cards for me in the near future.

On a side note: a really cool thing about Roc-A-Fellas is that they donate all their profits to the relief of domestic and international poverty. So even if it wasn’t the taste I was looking for, it’s worth it to stop by, eat some pizza, and help out those in need at the same time.

So, I’m one for two in our search for the best New York style pizza in the Queen City. Stay tuned for number three in the next several weeks or so. And if you know of any other places for me to try, just leave a comment and I’ll add them to the list.

Still with no pithy catchphrase,
Neil

Spring Cleaning

Laura’s Blog Entry

Where did the weekend go? What a whirlwind. Mari had a speech competition on Saturday and on Sunday we recorded a commentary podcast for The Sleep album Never In a Million Years. So here we are again, surprised to find ourselves dealing with a Monday.

The weather here has been glorious – 60’s and ‘70’s. There has even been some sunshine. Amen, Hallelujah! My attitude always seems to turn around when there is more sunlight and I am not freezing to death.

So of course a little spring cleaning is in order. Around March, things get a little tired around the house and need changing up. One easy way to get started is to rework our art wall. I dug out some of Neil’s college art work, added one of Mari’s creations, and finished it off with a piece we bought at a local art show. I love that this hanging system means none of this stuff needs expensive framing.

Oh and it was time for “Strangelove” to make a comeback. A nice shot of orange for spring. I had hoped to buy a new sectional sofa, possibly even in orange, for the living room this spring, but I am getting nervous about the Depeche Mode budget of it all. I just got tickets this morning for the New York City show; it all feels a bit more real and more expensive. Who knows how much we can pull together by August for travel expenses.

So the sofa’s on hold for now. Yes, Martin Gore, I chose you over a sofa. A more than fair trade, if you ask me.