June 23rd, 2014

June 23rd, 2014

The day I look forward to all June has finally come and gone... Summer Solstice.  I do not celebrate it or anything, I just want the days to start getting shorter again.  Less Sun means less heat, and screw summer weather.  I am not one of these people that bitch and moan about Summer weather and then complain about the winter, and cry about no rain until its raining all the time.  Give me rain 24/7, I love it.  Give me Winter, I'm fine with it.  I hate the Summer, I hate the beach, and you can keep your nasty sunshine in California.

Most people I know have only had the green bell peppers for their exposure to the food.  The yellow and red ones have a sweetness to them that lend them to more than just veggie duty in dishes.  Lately at the store they have had various sizes of the colorful varieties, and this week we got a pack of the 1/4 sized ones.  We took tuna, southwest mustard, and chipoltle cream cheese, mixed it all together in bowls and then stuffed the bell peppers with it.  The 1/4 size ones are small enough that they are "bite sized".  It was really really good.  While the red ones worked, I think the yellow ones did best as they are only mid-sweet.  The red ones are good if you like that sweet thai chili kind of thing.

Ok, I'm with my last ACDC album.  Black Ice is sort of a "retrospecitive" and worthy of being "the last Malcolm album" if it is, because the sounds span their entire history, in an amazingly GOOD way.  The big single from this album was "Rock and Roll Train" and it is one of the best ACDC tracks of all time, right up there with Thunderstruck and Hell's Bells.  It gets stuck in my head and I've enjoyed listening to it for the past couple of years actually.  "Skies on Fire", "Stormy May Day" and "She Likes Rock and Roll" slows things down and gets back to the "marching" rhythms of "Back in Black".  "Decibel" "Black Ice" and "Money Made" gives us some of the "Ballbreaker" era stuff, and is welcome. This album was produced by Brendon O'brien, who was one of the biggest producers in the 90's, doing the big albums for Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine.  ACDC has always been easily influenced by producers, and the track "Anything Goes" and "Rock and Roll Dream" really shows them trying something different suggested by O'Brien.  Its ok, but both feels like something best left to less "rocking" bands in the early 80's.  The middle gets a little repetitive but is damn listenable, nothing is obviously horrible like some of the tracks from Stiff Upper Lip. ACDC's "Black Ice" is multi-platinum and the tour was one of the highest earning in all of rock history, and its not a fluke, or people feeling nostalgia for the ACDC that was absent for over a decade.  The album is really great.  Its right up there with % of good as "Back in Black" and "Razor's Edge".  Unlike some recent rock albums, you do not waste your money with "Black Ice", if you like ACDC, you'll get a full album of rock, not just one or two tracks.