Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Things we like: The Local Taco


























I was just looking on the web for a photo to go with this post (by Emma R., from Yelp) and found some of the usual “mixed reviews”—I’ve chosen however to pay no attention to any voice but my own hungry, happy one on this subject. The Local Taco, on Murphy Road in Nashville has been one of my favorites ever since they first opened back in May of this year. It only seems to be getting better.

Happily ran into my friends Richard and Liz McLaurin and their sweet boys Andy and Sam Henry last time I was in town. It was Halloween and the Andy was Superman and Sam was Max, from Where the Wild Things Are.

Just got back from another foray. Two Korean, two Southern Fried. Lemon-Lime Jarrito. Oh, my goodness. And the smell of freshly squeezed lime on your fingers all the while. Exquisite.

They’ve done a nice job of closing in and heating the patio for the winter. I like sitting out there. Not as loud. Every time I come back to town, Local Taco is a destination. Wish them much success, that location has never worked too well for anybody before, but looks like they’re doing it right.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Did Mo Willems predict the “swine flu”?

Mighty curious.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Dark times in Mayberry

















(When the worst they ever had to deal with were the shenanigans of Ernest T. Bass and the mysteries of dating women, I doubt Ang and Barn could ever have imagined a distraught ex-convict Hispanic feller killing four folks right there in the heart of Mayberry. Bet they also never woulda thought the old NRA would make it so easy for said feller to get him a gun that should have only been used for heavy law-enforcement or all-out warfare...hell, Barney never even got to put his one bullet in the gun, unless things were pretty damned serious)


Excerpt from Yahoo news, full story here.

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. – A soured love affair may have led an ex-convict to gun down four men in the town that inspired the idyllic community of Mayberry on the 1960s TV series “The Andy Griffith Show,” police said Monday.

Marcos Chavez Gonzalez, 29, was charged with four counts of murder in the slayings late Sunday outside a television store in Mount Airy, about 100 miles north of Charlotte.

The four were shot with a high-powered assault rifle outside Wood's TV, in the shadow of a water tower that says “Welcome to Mount Airy” and has a picture of Griffith and Opie, his son on the show.



Sunday, November 1, 2009

Things we like: The Bats















In case you thought New Zealand popular music began and ended with Split Enz and Crowded House, do yourself a favor and discover The Bats (and while you’re at it another enormously prolific NZ band, The Clean)

Been digging The Bats out again after recently getting a German release on eMusic called “At the National Grid.” They owe a great debt to Brian Eno’s pop records. Who doesn’t? Beautiful, jangly folk-ish pop. Also remember mid-80s enjoying the EP “Daddy’s Highway”—which contained “North by North” one of their “hits.”

Robert Scott is a sometimes member of both The Bats AND The Clean (and a few others—the sum of which has probably always made The Bats’ career suffer a bit).