The November Post

Bird Day has come and gone. The Front attended a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner, hosted at Nick's apartment, where we splurged on broccoli casseroles, mashed potatoes, turkey, sheppard's pie, cornbread and several other "mystery" dishes. I personally contributed to the feast by cooking the broccoli casserole.

Here's my recipe (I'm well aware that it's a pretty white trash dish, but I like to represent my Missourian roots come Turkey Day):

1. Boil 4 heads of broccoli for about 5 mins or until crisp-tender
2. Place a column of Ritz crackers into a plastic bowl and using the bottom of a glass, mash the crackers into small pieces (don't overdue it, we aren't looking for cracker dust, just small chunks of Ritz goodness)
3. Melt butter and pour over the cracker chunks. You want to slightly coat all the cracker pieces, soggy is no good.
4. Butter a glass cooking pan and equally spread out the brocolli pieces to cover the bottom of the pan at about a half inch deep.
5. Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese over the broccoli, the more merrier.
6. Sprinkle butter coated cracker pieces over the broccoli and cheese.
7. Sprinkle a little bit more cheese to melt on top of the cracker pieces. Sprinkle a little bit more after analyzing the dish, realizing you really love the taste of cheese and swear to run an extra mile tomorrow on your daily jog.
8. Place the pan in a 350 degree preheated oven for about 5 mins or until the cracker pieces start to brown.
9. Crack open a budweiser. You've earned it bud!
10. Share the dish with friends by placing it at the table, yet place it close to you so you can hoard it when the time comes.
11. You have a stomach full of broccoli. You might experience sharp abdominal pains and if you're considerate by nature, you might want to hang out in a room, alone, for about 4 hours.

Next stop: Christmas. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was walking around the Glendale Galleria, pondering the brainwashed consumerism Americans exhibit this time of year. As I grow older, the years are just flying by. I guess it all has to do with your frame of reference. When you're 5 years old, a year constitutes 20% of your existence, it's 20% of your entire life and thus it seems like a sizeable unit of time. When you're 26, a year represents about 4% of your life thus far. Year after year, that percentage decreases more and more and thus when you consider "a year" as a unit of time, you show an ever decreasing awe toward it's scope. The years tick away.

In Front news, we are writing. November has yielded yet another song to throw into The Front Catalogue and we have set a goal of recording a new EP by late January, early February. More van payments have been made and thus we are getting the itch to tour, so expect that soon as well. Nick is headed to the Northwest this weekend and for much of next week. Kelly's been in Las Vegas for the past weekend; I'm sure she hasn't been drinking at all, probably just nursing a cranberry juice and quietly sharing with her friends her deep desire to bear children in the upcoming year.

Personally, I've been slowly cleaning my apartment. One day I scrub the bathtub, the next day I take out the trash. Today, I cleaned two skillets that were in my sink and placed them on the stove. It's a never ending process I tell ya. Baby steps.

I've been revisiting a few records that meant something to me a few years ago. My Morning Jacket's "Z" and The Walkmen's "Bows and Arrows". Neither album is "OK Computer", but what is?

The Walkmen "Thinking of a Dream I Had" (live)


My Morning Jacket "Gideon" (live on Letterman)