Although a repeat, last night I was treated to the New Orleans episode.  Call me a homer (I lived 40 yards from the mardi gras route baby) but nothing was more eye candy and a gastric touchdown  than seeing my city take center stage again.  Yes there’s about 84,000 shows already done from the Crescent City.  But what MVF spotlighted is simply New Orleans.  Mother’s Restaurant just in the outskirts of the French Quarter is a hallmark.  Crushed inside with a mixture of locals and convention visitors, the restaurant is an often sweaty gathering of smoke spewing from ovens saddled with the responsibility of serving culinary classics, a variety of parish accents, and a cashier who goes non stop.  Strewn through its walls are black and white photos and press clippings of dignitaries, sports figures and legends who braved the chaos of a neighboring French Quarter to feast their teeth on some classics. The Ferdi Special is simply that… special.  It’s nothing but a meaty extravaganza of  sauted ham on a roast beef po’ boy dripping in piercing sauces and spices.  But yet it’s the one dish that’s responsible for some of the longest work lunches in the area.  I’m just as guilty.  I was guilty on several occassions.  And it doesn’t stop at that.

Straight from their website.   In a single year, they serve up…

• No less than 175,000 pounds of ham and roast beef
• More than 40,000 pounds of turkey
• A staggering 30,000 pounds of homemade sausage
• Quarter of a million biscuits (and even more eggs!)
• A whopping 90,000 pounds of jambalaya
• Some 25,000 soft-shell crabs and even more shrimp
• Nearly 250,000 pounds of cabbage
• An incredible 150,000 loaves of French bread
• As many pies as there are ships passing through the
• port of New Orleans (3,500)
• A spicy 1,500 gallons of Creole mustard
• And an honest ton of hot pepper sauce

So worth the very long lines that form outside it’s authentic brick walls every morning.  In fact after Katrina, the city’s anticipation for Mother’s to reopen was unbearable.  It made front page news when it did happen.  Bigger headlines than the mayor.  And I’m serious.

So the next time you are in New Orleans, visit Mother’s.  Tell the host some NOLA refugees send their best.  And get ready to black out 2 hours in your schedule.  It just might take that long from sidewalk to check.  I leave you now with their recipe of their historically and incredibly tasty red beans.  Dial up the Malox, because this dish will leave you on your knees.  But the payoff is unlike anything you’ll experience anywhere else on the planet.

Mother’s Red Beans

2 lbs. Red beans
1 lb. Smoked sausage
1 lb. Ham, grade A
1/4 lb. Ham fat, rendered
1 Ham bone

1/2 lb. Onions, diced
1/4 lb. Green onions, diced
1/3 lb. Bell pepper, diced
3 oz. Garlic, minced
2 Bay leaves
1/2 tsp. Thyme

1/3 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Black pepper
2 qt. Chicken stock
2 qt. Debris Gravy

Render ham fat in skillet. Remove cracklins from the remaining fat. Sauté sausage and grade A ham. Add onions, bell pepper and green until tender. Add garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves. Add red beans and stir into vegetables. Add stock and debris gravy. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until red beans are tender and become creamy.

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The mullet, alternately known as the Mississippi mud flap, the neck blanket, the Kentucky waterfall, Achy Breaky hair, the Camaro cut.

On a woman: Femmullet.

On a child: Child abuse.”  The Des Moines Register 8/24/09

So eloqunetly written, I really was a loss for words.

]]> http://talkpopmusic.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/mullet-pride/feed/ 0 MuzikMan Add to Facebook Add to Digg Add to Del.icio.us Add to Stumbleupon Add to Reddit Add to Blinklist Add to Twitter Add to Technorati Add to Yahoo Buzz Add to Newsvine http://talkpopmusic.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/scottbrandlee/ http://talkpopmusic.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/scottbrandlee/#comments Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:49:36 +0000 MuzikMan http://stateoffunk.wordpress.com/?p=312 ]]> I won’t even take time to post anything of length.  What more can you say about some dude in a sweater vested pianist hammering out tunes like Come on Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Don’t You Want Me Baby by Human League, The Final Countdown by Europe, Axel F from Harold Faltermeyer, Madonna’s Material Girl, Every Breath You Take by The Police and even Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ and Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer?

Any artist that has their own interpretation on Axel F is king.

1) Iron Maiden “The Trooper”   Never gets old.  Never loud enough.  Palladia HD has got two of their specials playing right now.

2) INXS “The One Thing”  One of the firsts on MTV.  All I ever wanted was that Telly.  All I kept thinking was how can I be one of them.

3) Def Leppard “Two Late For Love”   I had two – three cassettes of Pyromania worn to the bone of this same album.  Hidden gem deep down.

4) Joy Division “Love Will Tear Us Apart”    No need to comment.  Untouchable.

5) Run DMC “Tricky”  Cannot be duplicated.    Good friend Dirty Murphy got me hooked way back.  Should have bought him a pair of addidas.

So amidst a certain action sequence where  Optimus Prime was man handling the enemy (again), I recognized a manuever that looked pretty darn familiar.  A move that had me thinking…. “Oh no he didn’t.”  Did I just say “Oh no he didn’t?”  I’m way out of my demo.   There it was in a split second of flurry like ass kicking, The Crane made famous by Daniel Russo (Ralph Macchio) in Karate Kid.  Yes The Crane that earned Daniel Russo a ridiculous trophy after dismantling the Cobra Kai.  The same Crane that I once tried to duplicate in the gym to the result of a strained groin.  The same Crane that served as the signature move for every kid wanting to put one over on the neighborhood bully.

So Is Optimus Prime guilty of such a blatant ripoff?  Maybe my eyes were playing some jedi like mindtrick or I was still numb from the decibel level but I could have sworn I saw The Crane.

So it got me thinking?  Could that move still work today?  If push came to shove and I had to defend myself or my family at a time of crisis, could I raise both arms in the air, lift one leg midwaist, hold my victim in a trance and snap one off to the chin of a disgruntled customer?  Possibly?  Lights out?  Maybe just once?

Oh hell no.

Maybe if  I’m lucky they’ll be in such a trance from my stance, it’ll give me time to lock on a submission hold for tap out.  Of course with my luck, he’ll reverse it on me.   But The Crane as a finishing move?

No way in hell.

Just not going to happen.

But I will congratulate Daniel Russo on the many things he did accomplish.  The Crane got you the chick, a stupid trophy and a slot in the walk of fame as one of the all time best finishes to a martial arts movie (wink, wink). You even earned yourself a sequel or two with the KK franchise and I believe a Burger King promo or two .  BTW what the hell are those hand held instruments with the little string and balls at the end of Karate Kid 2?  A little annoying.

Great! Now I have “wax on, wax off” stuck in my mind.

I remember way back when MTV ran and literally exploded to a new stratosphere with the I Want My MTV campaign.  Not only was I a disciple but I was flat out sold long term on a channel that was just learning how to crawl.  Everybody wanted their MTV.  And then there was yesterday when something caught my eye as I danced with my remote.  16 and Pregnant, the latest installment of sneak peak reality tv for the music network, a corner of its programming lineup that is clearly crown jewel for their programming folks.   Yes I see where they are going with this.  I appreciate the gospel and I totally get it.  No harm done when all they are doing is catering to their devoted audience via an honest dive into teen pregnancy and parenthood.  Afterall nothing is more contagious, effective and positive than bringing critical issues to light.  Yes marketing execs accomplished  their primary goal, get the viewer engaged and steered in the right direction via programming that’s meant to to do exactly that.  But frankly I was frightened, as a father and a husband.  Has it changed that much for MTV?  Has the shift been that tremendous for my childhood network, the one channel that did it for me?  All I’ve ever wanted was my MTV.  All I’ve ever wanted was my music.  All I’ve ever wanted were my videos.  I was there when Don’t Change by INXS first aired and I was certainly there when Video Killed the radio airwaves.  I was also there when 120 Minutes and HeadBangers Ball were unduplicable.  Of course things have changed since  The Buggles and A-ha.  People grow up, priorities evovle.  But that much?   Yes these stories are real.  But as a major part of the MTV lineup?  If I could ask for one wish, just one, it would be to remold the life cycle of reality tv.  I’m not saying all reality tv shows have to go.  Just a certain few and you know who you are.  Come do as you please and exit. Come and go as you please.   I got my wish with boy bands.  Why can’t some reality tv just follow suit.

Move over, Jon & Kate: It’s Octomom Plus 14.