tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29191702590299888842011-04-21T15:13:08.985-05:00anesthetize is what you doMattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.comBlogger91100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919170259029988884.post-46072035308746987092007-11-15T13:35:00.000-05:002007-11-15T13:39:14.397-05:00

Due to the popular demand of my fans, this blog is in the process of being resurrected. Expect A Real Rival (v2.0) to be even more awesomer than v1.0.Expect surprises like special guest authors, weekly polls, and just all around coolness. Cache. Yeah.

MattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919170259029988884.post-43201806715507831642007-11-14T10:15:00.001-05:002007-11-14T10:15:50.681-05:00

Last night's show at the Beacon was an odd experience all around. For a movie that probably doesn't have an enormous audience (e.g., the movie is opening in NYC at one of the smaller filmhouses), and for a soundtrack with a lot of bands that aren't exactly mainstream, this show sort of flew under the radar. And so it was, when the lights went down, and half the theatre (if not more) was empty.

MattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919170259029988884.post-48536529474907957142007-03-06T11:35:00.000-05:002008-11-15T03:09:08.662-05:00

8.7 out of 10If a band’s new album is to be judged against the album that preceded it, then Arcade Fire faced an almost impossible task when recording Neon Bible (released today). Neon Bible, the follow-up to 2004’s Funeral, was competing with an almost mythically high bar that was set when Win Butler and co. captured lightning in a bottle and electrified the indie world and critics everywhere

MattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919170259029988884.post-726191984081565382007-02-26T13:21:00.000-05:002007-02-26T14:19:48.297-05:00

Yesterday I found a letter you wrote in a random drawer I never open.I was cleaning the apartment.But its not really cleaning, is it?When you move paper piles to other spots to deal with later?Which is probably why I found it when and where I did.It rained yesterday and I must have put it there the last time I cleaned on a rainy day. Assuming I’d deal with it later. And Tuesday was christened

MattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919170259029988884.post-27775146838739836112007-02-16T11:40:00.001-05:002008-11-15T03:09:08.779-05:00

3.2 out of 10.Tasty. Bubbly. I can’t help thinking that it’s not a regular Coke though. And Coke has made some real strides recently with the ground-breaking but underappreciated Coke Zero. Cherry Coke is delicioso too.If I had to rank them, it would be:1. Coke2. Cherry Coke3. Coke Zero4. Diet Coke5. New CokeThis Diet Coke is better than most Diet Cokes of the past because it is icy cold.

MattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919170259029988884.post-43399426010573347492007-02-15T12:09:00.000-05:002008-11-15T03:09:08.958-05:00

… and, if the snow buries my Neighborhood …Arcade Fire, 2:14I have seen many things at the hundreds of concerts I have been to. A band flying to the stage at Madison Square Garden in a giant hot-dog had been the most surreal. Until last night.Last night, I drank a Heineken and watched Arcade Fire turn their amps to 11 in the chapel of the Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square Park South

MattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919170259029988884.post-87241322715718685152007-02-13T14:58:00.001-05:002008-11-15T03:09:09.082-05:00

7.7 out of 10The opening notes to Wincing the Night Away by The Shins tell you right off the bat that this album is going to be different. A departure, if you will, from the glorious shining pop gems that James Mercer and Gang gave us on their first two albums (2001’s Oh! Inverted World and 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow). Excited listeners are greeted with Sleeping Lessons’ spacey synthesizers and

MattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919170259029988884.post-58602333886745924132007-02-11T10:22:00.000-05:002008-11-15T03:09:09.281-05:00

As an avid steak lover, last week's first trek to Strip House on 12th Street and University Place was something I had been looking forward to since the reservation had been made two weeks earlier. In the interests of full disclosure, I am a Luger's and Sparks lover. Friends told me that Strip House had the best steak in the city. So I went in with high, but tempered, expectations. In my world

MattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919170259029988884.post-43169944292241155142007-02-10T20:10:00.000-05:002007-02-10T20:17:25.587-05:00

Cafe Gray10 Columbus CircleNew York, NY 10019Dinner: 2/6/07To quote one of the people I was dining with: it's not a cafe and its not gray inside. The first step to enjoying your evening at Cafe Gray is to get past the fact that you are smack dab in the middle of a mall. The time warner center, to pick up on my sourpuss complaints from yesterday about how the city is being ruined left and right,

MattZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345333114553470027noreply@blogger.com2