Eat It: Sonic All-American Dogs

Eat It posts are devoted to strange, unusual, or new food options available to the general public.  This first post is devoted to Sonic's new All-American Dogs.

As I am on spring break, but am stuck in the greater Milwaukee metro area, I needed to get creative in how to spice up my vacation. One sure fire way is to try new things, but again, in an area I am very familiar with this proves difficult. So I, along with my friends John and Hugh, decided to head down to the Sonic on Miller Parkway and try their four new hot dog choices. Now we didn't each eat four hot dogs in one sitting, but we did try all four. Here are our conclusions.

The Chicago Dog: Hugh and I each tried this one. The Chicago Dog comes with a dog, relish, yellow mustard, two peppers, a slice of pickle, and a tomato sliced in half to look like two tomatoes. The main issue with this dog is that it has too much stuff in it. I couldn't even keep the pickle in (which as i write that sounds vaguely dirty). The peppers were also a problem because they were chewy, rather than crunchy, meaning you had to eat the entire pepper in one bite. This meant that all that was left on the dog was relish and mustard, which in turn meant I was left eating an overly sweet hot dog. I should also note that the Chicago Dog was the only one that came on a poppy seed bun, although this didn't add much to the flavor.

The New York Dog: The New York Dog is served on a plain bun, with grilled onions, sauerkraut, and spicy mustard. The main issue with this dog was the mustard, there was simply too much of it. As a recent convert to mustard in general (I've had a strong aversion to it until just this last year) there are still some circumstances where I do not enjoy it, hot dogs being one of them. I'm much more of a ketchup guy. I couldn't really taste anything else.

The All-American Dog: The only one to come with ketchup, as well as mustard and relish. Hugh and i made John eat this one. He claimed it was the best, but it was also the most traditional, so I can't image there are too many ways to screw it up.

The Chili-Cheese Coney: Again we made John eat this one, he said there was a lot of cheese, and that he liked cheese, so it was good. I have never had a chili-cheese dog before, and didn't intend to start at Sonic. So you'll have to take John's word for it.

So there you have it, four hot dogs that are varying degrees of mediocrity. Try at your own risk.

Join me next time when I try the Ego Breakfast Pizza with Strawberries and Granola. it's gonna be a treat.

Getting My Hopes Up: Summerfest

Welcome to getting my hopes, a new series of posts dealing with things that are getting my hopes up, even though, realistically, I shouldn't. I might do a follow series of posts to see if my hopes were justified or not, but we'll see if that happens. Today's topic: Summerfest.

Summerfest is an interesting beast. often hailed, as the world's largest outdoor music festival, the festival never seems to get quite the same coverage as Coachella, Bonaroo, or Lollapalooza, despite hosting a wide variety of acts. however in recent years, Summerfest has come under attack for the acts its signed on. Some people say there's too much country, other argue that the organizers never bring in a band people really want to see, or they bring in an act who had a one hit wonder last summer, hoping people will still come out to see them. This has always been Summerfest's problem. It has a tradition to uphold, and being a integral part of Milwaukee's festival season, it needs to appeal to a wide base. It needs to appeal to goth kids by the lake, as much as it appeals to the 40 year olds who stop by after work.

This year however the lineup is looking incredibly promising, and outrageous ticket prices aside (tickets are expenses we need to get over this as a culture), I'm starting to get my hopes up that this may be one of the best Summerfests in quite some time.

 
Now to be honest I'm really only basing this off the announcement of two concerts at the Marcus Amphitheater. First the big one: Kayne West and Kid Cudi on June 30. Kayne West is a big name to get, especially in Milwaukee, whether he's hot on the radio or not. The man has a depth of great material to perform for an audience. Plus he as a hell of a lot of charisma to keep people entertained.

The second concert is the triple bill of Cage the Elephant, Black Keys, and Florence + The Machine. This is what Summerfest needs to do more of. The alternative music is the hardest sell ,because their certainly is an audience for it here in Milwaukee, but to get those people to shell out big bucks to go ee one band is often difficult. We see here the solution, take three marginally successful bands and have them play one awesome show together. Cage the Elephant is coming off a wildly successful first album, and a mildly successful follow-up. The Black Keys are coming off a great album, and Florence + The Machine had their music featured on Glee last year. These three bands should put together a killer performance.

Now Katy Perry, Def Leppard, and some country singers have also been announced. There's nothing wrong with this Katy Perry is a pop sensation, but from what I've seen and heard, isn't a great live performer. Def Leppard and country people are fine too, for people who like that sort of thing.

I may be jumping the gun here, but hopefully we can look forward to a much improved Summerfest line-up for 2011.

Lent

I'm going to take a short break from my pop-culture musings to discuss Lent. If you are not Catholic, or are simply disinterested, do not feel obligated to read this post.

My enthusiasm for Lent began last year when, after hearing a rather rousing homily, I created a list of things that I would accomplish over Lent. These included both things that I would be giving up, and things I would be striving to do during Lent. I thought I would offer some pointers to anyone who needed them.

If you are giving something up remember a few things:

1. Move past the candy and soda - These were fine when you were in fifth grade, but all good children must grow up. This is not to say you shouldn't give these things up, especially if you feel you over-indulge in them. However Lent should be about better yourself, so instead of just cutting out one of two things, make a broader goal of simply improving your diet, or cutting out sweets in general. bigger goals lead to bigger rewards.
2. Keep it practical - I hear a lot of people say that they are giving up swearing for let, which I think is bullshit. First of all watch this. Second, at this point in your life, swearing is natural. it would be like trying to give up the word "the". Pointless and unrealistic. Because even if you don't swear out loud, you still have to be swearing in your head. So make sure it is something you can control, something that is tempting, but that you have the ability to walk away from for 40 days.
3. Don't give up Facebook - At this point, no one is impressed, in fact their annoyed by anyone who says they are giving up Facebook for Lent. People who still think of Facebook as this great evil are ignorant It's a viable means of communication that is part of our everyday lives, deal with it.

Alright now here are some pointers for those of you looking to do something this Lent:

1. Good choice - I am of the school of thought that it is better to do than to not do. Lent is all about discovering the best person you can be. you have to do something to find out who that person is. 
2. Know your limitations - This is pretty much the same as keep it practical. Know what you can do and how you can do it. Don't say you're going to run ten miles everyday. The time it takes to do that, plus your own physical limitations will make this goal impossible. Rather set a realistic goal, something that can fit into your schedule, but something you don;t do regularly. 
3. Try new things - This can also include trying something you haven't done in a while.

Finally, Lent is supposed to be about sacrifice. I know some of things i have mentioned may seem contradictory to that statement, but believe me anything you can keep up for forty days, that isn't part of your regular routine, is a sacrifice and a challenge.

I wish everyone good luck, and if you have some of your own pointers feel free to leave them in the comments. One of my Lenten goals will be to pick up the postings here, I've been a little slow the last week or two, so I'll try and get a few new things up as I head into spring break.

Pop In Real Life: Sixth Grade Fight Club

Every now and then something pop culture will bleed out of the movies, TV, books, or music and penetrate the real world. When that happens, I like to bring it to people's attention.

Not just for people who think they're Brad Pitt anymore

News of Fight Clubs that base themselves off the rules and principles established in the film or book has been around as long as the book and film have. But rarely have I heard of an instance as hilarious or confusing as the one that happened recently in Tacoma, Washington.

Nine sixth grade boys were turned in by their parents for starting an after school fight club in a school restroom. They were promptly expelled.

This raises a few questions:
First, who broke rule number one?
Second, who broke rule number two?

Seriously though, is expulsion really the answer here? These kids were on school grounds after hours, hiding in a bathroom, beating the crap out of each other.  Nobody heard nine sixth grade boys fighting in a bathroom. From what I remember, middle school bathrooms are super echo-y.

I don't think all the blame can be placed on the kids in this instance, I mean at least there wasn't any soap involved. 

Let's me be honest, I don't really have a point to this post, except that maybe kids shouldn't be allowed to watch Ed Norton films.

Here's the link to the full story, with a nice video piece.