It's Friday - who doesn't love completely arbitrary lists about things that are vaguely related to each other (but not really)? Oh, I do. It's getting summery in Halifax, beer is everywhere, the fat child across the street is on his bike again, the cats are out fighting and making love in the north end and I'm just tickled pink. Here's five great things, in no particular order:
1) Barbecued Corn
Virgil Muir (the cook behind the Good Food Emporium's great, brief Korean late-night menu, gone far too soon) is selling Taiwanese barbecued corn tonight at 2633 Agricola St (near Gus' Pub) from 7pm-11pm. $2. I'm a victim....of deliciousness!!!
2) The Black Keys, "Tighten Up"
The new Black Keys album Brothers is currently streaming at NPR.org and oh my, it is really really fucking good. I've always liked them but Brothers is an entirely new beast. It makes you want to dance and fight and have sex - soulful and raw and just amazingly fun.
Anyway, the video below is their first single, sung by a lizard. Yeah!
3) Hermitofthewoods
Hermit is my favorite Halifax rapper and you can see him tonight with the human drum machine EMC at the Elephant and Castle, opening for the Lucy Grays. I always feel funny using words like "spit" and "flow" when trying to describe rappers, because I'm a white girl who wears striped t-shirts and giggles at fart jokes. Not really very street gang tough. But I feel okay saying that Hermit's flow is seamlessly cerebral, and I love it. Listen to the diss track on his Myspace and you'll see what I mean.
4) Booze
Yes, teetotallers, there are other things to do in the summer like biking and fishing, and drinking is bad for you and yadda yadda, egh. In the meantime, you can't tell me you're not licking the screen in a fit of panicked, sense-deprived lust at the sight of those mojitos. You can almost touch the minty droplets on the glass. MMMMMmmmm.
5) Funny Dogs
This guy is the dog version of the Winter brothers and I saw him on the STREET yesterday. Oh man, funny dog owners, where do you hide them the rest of the year? In the fun dungeon? Give them to me. All of them.