The Polyphonic Spree are back. The orchestral pseudo-cult rock collective recently posted a video announcement (above), cut with performance footage, boasting a list of February 2012 tour dates and a brand new song, “What Would You Do.”

For those unfamiliar, The Polyphonic Spree is a 20+ member band that was brought into the limelight with Light and Day, off their 2001 debut release of The Beginning Stages of… The Polyphonic Spree.

I for one am excited. It has been over four years since the Spree graced Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater, and performed, what I feel was the best live act I’ve ever witnessed. So much passion, so much confetti.

Rumor has it that additional tour dates will be added, including Milwaukee, sometime between May 11 – June 1. One can only hope they return to the Pabst or maybe the Riverside this time.

-Erik

A few months ago I stumbled across a heavenly wonder, the Grilled Cheese Academy. Set up by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, the website features 30 aptly named and mind-blowingly tasty grilled cheese sandwiches all using, of course, Wisconsin cheese.

We’ve been trying to tackle the list for a while now, one grilled cheese per week, and yet I keep forgetting to mention this cheese-filled adventure online! Well, tonight is the night, as we conquer The Pilgrim, a sandwich stuffed with Wisconsin Gouda and smoked turkey breast, all while smothered in cranberry mustard and sage-butter.

Serving four, you’ll need the following ingredients:
3 tablespoons cranberry sauce
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
6-8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
4-5 fresh sage leaves, chopped
8 slices honey wheat bread
16 slices Wisconsin Gouda cheese
8 ounces turkey breast, sliced
8 ounces fresh spinach leaves

In small bowl, mix cranberry sauce and Dijon mustard. Set aside. (Or use purchased cranberry-mustard.)
Mix butter with sage until smooth.
Heat large skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Spread one side of each bread slice with sage-butter. Place 4 slices butter-side down in pan and spread each with 1 tablespoon cranberry-mustard. Top with 2 slices Gouda, 2 ounces turkey, and 2 ounces spinach. Top with 2 more slices Gouda and bread slice, butter-side up. Grill, turning sandwiches once until bread is golden and cheese is melted. Serve remaining cranberry-mustard on the side.

This grilled cheese was one of the best we’ve tried to date. Although it may not have been picture perfect… Come on, I was so focused on the food, photography was an afterthought!

I have to say though, my number one pick so far, hands down, was The Appleton. What are you going to try?

-Erik

You may have heard a simple but hopelessly catchy song about heartbreak over the past couple weeks called Somebody That I Used To Know, by Gotye. It’s intense, intimate and achingly relatable to anyone who’s taken part in the death of a relationship.

It’s simple, it’s dark, it’s beautiful – and it’s also a staggering success. Forget about current YouTube champions Jessie J (her Domino video has been seen 21 million times) and Lady Gaga (Marry The Night has 31 million hits). Somebody That I Used To Know has surpassed 51 million views.

Yup. 51 million.

The song has been in rotation since last July, where Australians picked up on it right away, making it the longest-running chart-topper by a local artist in 15 years. It has since exploded worldwide. An impressive cover of the song by Walk Off The Earth, where all five members play off one guitar, has on its own gained nearly 39 million views.

The album the song is on, Making Mirrors, is quite a bit more abstract and challenging than the lone single, but it’s worth an exploration. Let’s just hope this is not a one-hit-wonder.

-Erik

Matthew Butterick, the typographer and writer behind Typography for Lawyers, took issue with the use of the Verdana typeface in Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, so he wrote the director a letter.

Inapt typography is not uncommon in movies. But big-budget studio films employ scores of people specifically to worry about the details that ensure the on-screen experience will be seamless. Therefore, it’s incongruous to put all that care (and money!) into the frame and then overlay it with an inapt font, which in its own small way, breaks the illusion. It’s not Mission: Impossible — IKEA Protocol, is it.

-Matthew Butterick, Typographer

This whole letter is gold.

-Erik

The weather has been perfect for today’s Janboree events, in Downtown Waukesha. Perfect sun, glistening off the ice sculptures. Special event popcorn, available at Poppin’ On Broadway. People everywhere.

If you haven’t traveled down yet, the Waukesha Janboree continues throughout the weekend. A full schedule of events is available here.

I am off to Lowell Park. I’ve never done a Toboggan Run before! Wish me luck.

-Erik

Red Tails is an old-school action drama war movie with a pretty ambitious payload; twenty-three years in the making, big action dogfights, and an all African-American cast, screenwriters, director and film scorer.

A long-cherished project by Star Wars maven George Lucas (co-written by Mequon native John Ridley and “Boondocks” creator Aaron McGruder) Red Tails puts an overdue, big-screen spotlight on the Tuskegee Airmen, an all-African-American unit of the Army Air Corps that was segregated from the white units, subjected to bigotry, discriminated against on pretty much every level you can imagine, all while helping the Allies achieve air supremacy in Europe during World War II.

Before arriving at the screening, my hopes were held high for some amazing dogfight scenes, and a cast passionately performing a story worth telling. Unfortunately, I was only rewarded in part. The film was brought to life with with the spectacular dogfight scenes. This is largely thanks to the production team at Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, which crafted sharp, super-realistic dogfight scenes that felt both lived-in and big-budget cool.

The material surrounding the dogfights, however, never found its true passion. Complicated characters are thrown in with comic book villians, whom spew narratively flat dialogue, accompany scenes of such absolutely rote dramatic content and weight that they could have been strung together in an entirely different order and had exactly the same impact.

I’m not sure whom to blame. The film’s executive producer (Lucas) has said, in interviews, that Hollywood powers that be were so resistant to making a film on this subject that he pretty much financed the entire movie himself, and good for him. But what does it profit a man to put his money where his mouth is on such a project, only to deprive it of any passion in the actual creative process? More often than not, “Red Tails” feels like it’s so cautious, that it becomes lifeless, which is a shame.

I would recommend only seeing this in theaters if you enjoy big-action, as the dogfights were well done. Other than that, perhaps rent it when it comes out on DVD.

-Erik

Red Tails opens today, January 20th, in the US.

I thought it would be fun to post about this hilariously amazing spaghetti measuring tool today. It’s called ‘Ég gæti borðað heilan hest’, Designed by Icelandic artist Stefán Pétur Sólveigarson, the name translates ‘I could eat a horse’.

Every time I cook spaghetti I always remember that I still need to buy a measurer. I think I found a the perfect reason to purchase one. It measures out spaghetti in serving-sizes for kids (12 and under) and adults, as well as it’s horse measurement (enough to feed four adults, or presumably, one very very hungry person).

The ‘I Could Eat A Horse’ spaghetti measuring tool is available online at the Reykjavik Corner Store.

-Erik

via Colossal

A long time champion of the Best Breakfast in Waukesha, is Fuzzy’s Sports Pub & Grill. Filled with hometown pride, fast and friendly service, and a secret weapon, Mexican cheese sauce, this Pub and Grill is the place to be when you are hankering breakfast or brinner.

This was not my first time at Fuzzy’s, hell, my friends and family ask for this place by name whenever they come to visit. Yet, it was a first for one of my friends, and he was skeptical of this place being the best breakfast in town. He was happily proved wrong.

For those visiting for the first time, when you enter, seat yourself (if you can find an empty table). We were greeted quickly with a smile, and were informed of the specials, such as the all you can eat, “Soup Nazi” lunch buffet, and placed our orders. I ordered one egg, with bacon, hash and rye toast (I was not too hungry to begin with), pictured above. My friend ordered the Rocky Mountain (eggs, hash, onions, peppers, smothered in Mexican cheese sauce), not pictured (I forgot!).

Within ten minutes we were served, huge platters at hand, and we devoured it all. I was surprised that it was all gone, as the bacon was served rather brown, and I feared the shattering of bacon, yet, it was still soft, chewy and full of flavor.

Okay, I know this is not much of a review, but, come on, we loved it. Nothing else really needs to be said, except that you need to come down to Fuzzy’s for breakfast.

Erik

Fuzzy’s Sports Pub & Grill is located at 627 E Main St., Waukesha.

A funny and relevant design parody was released two days ago, titled Fotoshop by Adobé. It is simply parody genius.

Based on a tongue-in-cheek faux beauty product, the video is a parody of the unattainable beauty standards in advertisements. Filmmaker Jesse Rosten explained on his blog, “I was watching TV one sleepless night and stumbled upon an infomercial for some beauty product. The commercial showed before and after portraits, that to my eye, looked like the same photo just photoshopped. I laughed to myself. Then I made this video.”

“Why eat healthy and exercise when you can just look like you do?” Indeed.

Erik

The screening of Man on a Ledge last night got me thinking, this is a film that Alfred Hitchcock would really have enjoyed making. After all, the movie features so many Hitchcockian elements, such as an innocent man accused of a crime, dubious characters who operate in the gray area of life, an attractive and calm blonde woman, and plenty of suspense that results from the main character’s life being repeatedly placed at risk. Yet, even with all of those elements present, you must also have an audience that is emotionally invested in the main character and, thankfully so, Man on a Ledge succeeds in drawing them in.

The film details the attempt of an ex-cop/ex-con, Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington), to prove his innocence by resorting to drastic measures. Nick decides to threaten to jump from a twenty story building unless he is able to speak with Detective Lydia Anderson (Elizabeth Banks), who he believes can help clear his name. Even after Anderson arrives, Nick stalls his decision to jump while he is communicating with his brother, Joey (Jaime Bell), who is working alongside his sexy fiance, Angie (Génesis Rodríguez), to try to locate the diamond that Nick was framed for stealing. Meanwhile, rogue members of the police force are working with David Englander (Ed Harris), a duplicitous business man who initially accused Nick of the diamond theft. With time running out, Nick must make life changing decisions, which are made somewhat easier with the unexpected help that he receives in his ongoing effort to prove his innocence.

If I had to nitpick, it would be over one small thing, Nick’s accent, as there are a few instances where he drops his American accent.

Overall, Man on a Ledge is a solid thriller that will hold your attention, while making you repeatedly squirm in your seat.

Erik

Man on a Ledge opens on January 27th, in the US.