Boys' Night Out

Last night was Boys' Night Out for me and Champ, my dog. Chrissa had to work the overnight at the girls' home, so that meant Champ and I had to fend for ourselves.

I went shopping, which is always dangerous because when Chrissa's not there I'll always manage to slip a few things like chocolate milk or pop tarts into the cart. Then I came home, threw on my chef's hat (not really) and cooked up some chicken with mustard sauce and some of the best rice I've ever made. I sat down, put on a "guy's movie," and drank chocolate milk from stemware. If only it had been snowing outside and I had a fire going it would have been ideal. But, as Shasta would say, alas!

Don't get me wrong--I never have more fun than when I'm with Chrissa...but, boy howdy, I like my chocolate milk and pop tarts.

The movie, by the way, was The Rundown with The Rock and Seann William Scott. I'm not a big fan of either of them; but I actually loved it. They played well against each other and the fight scenes were so different than most fight scenes you see in movies. Plus they tried to portray The Rock as the nice-guy-tough-guy and he did a pretty good job at that. Two nights ago I watched The Ladykillers, which was pretty disappointing when you figure that it was made by the Coen brothers (Raising Arizona, O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and had Tom Hanks as lead. The only thing I really liked about it was the music, which was all done by the Abbot Kinney Lighthouse Choir.

Since I'm talking about pop culture, I think I'll bring up one more thing. I don't much like the direction music is going these days. It seems that labels are only concerned with one-hit wonders, so you'll end up hearing the same songs for four months at a time--all the while with the deejays introducing it as "the new song by Maroon 5" or whatever. In fact, every station around here has the same playlist consisting of Usher, Maroon 5, Los Lonely Boys, and Gwen Stefani. I know that most people would say to listen to CDs or an iPod, but there's something about radio that continues to draw me to it. If I could afford satellite radio this wouldn't be an issue. In fact, I absolutely love net radio stations like Spinner (now extinct) and Launch Radio. Launch Radio has the bonus feature of tailoring itself to my tastes, so it actually plays a nice mix of everything from The Smiths to Ani Difranco to Pink Floyd.

I don't have a favorite group, by the way. If I were to define my tastes, I would have to say that I like Classic-Folk-80's-Grunge-Foreign-Indy Rock. Here's a sampling of my favorite groups:

Classic: Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Los Lobos
Folk: Dar Williams, Ani Difranco
Indy: The Dandy Warhols, Radiohead, The Smiths, Pulp
Grunge: Alanis Morrisette, Pearl Jam
Foreign: Carla Brunei, Shakira
Undefineables: Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Leonard Cohen

As for the 80's, I pretty much liked it all. Also I like a couple of punk groups (Bad Religion), some ska, and some techno music (Moby, Fat Boy Slim).

But, really, I don't have a favorite group. There's no one group that I have to keep track of or buy all of their albums. But there's a new group I heard yesterday that just might change that... Their name is DeVotchKa and they're about the most random band you'll ever hear. They sounded to me like a bunch of white kids on Spring Break in Mexico, trying their hand at mariachi music. They're also listed on NPR's Best Albums of 2004, where they are described as somewhere between a "mariachi sunrise and a gypsy sunset." Another noteable group I've heard recently was Oliver Future, who I thought sounded like Frank Zappa fronting for Radiohead, playing George Gershwin.

Check 'em out and let me know what you think.