No more meat

I haven't had meat in three days. For health and taste reasons only. I could care less about cattle and chickens. Meat is tasty and all, but so are chick peas. When I found a recipe for mock tuna salad that tasted better than any tuna salad I've tried, I figured I'd take the plunge.

Next came fake hamburgers. They taste nothing like hamburgers, but it doesn't matter. Again, they're mostly chick peas and tofu, and they're fried instead of grilled. They taste great.

I don't know how long this will last. I have eight promising recipes, but my downfall will probably be restaurant related. In Philly, I would have no problem staying veg. My favorite Chinese place and favorite sandwich place are both vegan and located in Philadelphia. I took my mom and brother to the Chinese place and they liked it.

Locally though, aside from the Chinese places, all we have are chains.

Sub shops aren't too hard. I order the veggie sub 90% of the time at Subway anyway. I just double the cheese and toast it. Quizno's has only one vegetarian option, and it's the same price as most of the food I normally get. I tried it today and it was tasty enough.

The taco places aren't hard either, though we only have a Taco Bell in York. No Qudoba or Chipotle, which actually have great vegetarian options.

I'll probably just stop going to the Wendy's-, Burger King- and Arby's-type places. Fries are about the only thing a vegetarian could get there. That's probably better for my health anyway.

I'm not going to cut out meat all together. I'll still make fish every few weeks, and I'll probably still eat beef at nice restaurants or weddings. But cutting it out of my everyday diet should be pretty healthy.

First song

Well, fourth song ... but the first are far from complete. On MRL'sMySpace.

It's an acoustic cover of Patent Pending's Old and Out of Tune. A great song from one of the bands that will play the Arrogant Sons of Bitches' reunion show in September.

Coming soon are another cover and two real songs... I hope. That should make a decent demo.

New York tomorrow

I'm heading up to New York City tomorrow with Niha to get her a Canadian visa. Apparently she can't just cross the border like the rest of us. It's crazy the amount of stuff she needs for a day/weekend trip to Canada. She needs seven different I-somethings, her current passport, her old passports, her travel parole and a bunch of other things.

I mean... it's Canada. Who'd want to do anything to them?

Bomb the Music Industry and Suburban Legends

It's been a good 24 hours for ska hybrids.

Bomb the Music Industry released Get Warmer, the one man band collective's fourth album of electro-ska-rock-core in two years. It's free off of Quote Unquote records website. I haven't listened to all of it yet, but what I've heard has been good. Warning: The vocals will take some time to get used to.

While on Quote Unquote, you can browse a bunch of other bands offering their music up for the cost of bandwidth. I recommend the Matt Kurtz One for some straight up rock 'n' roll. Live, he plays the bass and snare drum with one foot, a bass guitar with the other, keyboard or guitar with his hands, and sings. For someone who can barely play the guitar and sing at the same time, it's impressive.

The Suburban Legends new album also leaked. It's almost overproduced, but with them the more ridiculous the better. While Rump Shaker was a parody-ish boy band playing ska-punk, this trends more towards disco-ska revival. Ultra poppy, but with the talent to pull it off. There are probably a few of the new songs on their MySpace if, you know, you care.