Hey everyone,
Hope you all had a great Xmas holiday (whether you celebrate it or not). Short and sweet this week, here's the hot joints:
Music:
Ke$ha - Tik Tok
Ok so first off, this song isn't really new, you've probably already heard it on the radio. But you probably just never knew what it was. Now you do. Ke$ha (yes I realize she spells her name with a dollar sign instead of an S), sort of sounds like Amanda Blank (another artist I've chosen before as the music pick of the week). Her song Tik Tok even has that "in your face, hip-hoppish Fergie sound" that Amanda Blank has. I still prefer AB over Kesha and Fergie, but if you're looking for a change of pace from typical hip hop/pop, this is worth checking out. 3.5/5 Stars.
Movies:
Avatar
I'm sure I'm the last person to tell you about this movie, but I actually did watch it during the first week it was out, I just hadn't posted a review of it until just now. I saw the movie in 3D, which I was advised to do. On the whole, I thought the movie was really good. It didn't quite blow my mind as I had expected with such a big hype going into it, but it was definitely a good movie. Yes, it's long. Yes, it's predictable. But yet, somehow it still gives you a good sense of fulfillment. A definite must-see during this holiday season, as it's the best film I've seen since Thanksgiving. 4.5/5 Stars.
Restaurant:
Kyoto
90% of the time, my restaurant critique is centered on the DC Metropolitan Area. Occasionally (especially back when I was a student), I rated a restaurant near Virginia Tech. This week, I'm rating a restaurant at JMU. Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of eating at Kyoto. Like other Japanese Steakhouses, the restaurant uses a hibachi grill and skilled chef to prepare traditional dishes such as filet mignon, shrimp, scallops, chicken and lobster with fried rice and veggies. As far as Japanese steakhouses go, this is probably the best one I've ever eaten at in terms of quality. The chef that served us, I believe was their head chef, because he was dressed differently from all the other chefs and because we had the largest group reservation of the night. If that's the case, he definitely showed why he was the top dog with his juggling and cooking utensil skills. While the dinner was pricy, I highly recommend anyone who's a fan of hibachi cooking to try this place out next time you're in the Harrisonburg area. 3.5/5 Stars.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
12/16/09
Hey peoples,
Hopefully as the inclement weather and temperatures of DC winter start to creep in, you aren't too discouraged from going out to eat, watch movies, and buy music. OK, I put that last one in there just for the purpose of being complete...no one actually goes out to stores to buy music anymore unless you really really want a CD. Everything is electronic nowadays...but you get my point. Here's the hot picks of the week:
Music:
Chris Brown feat. Eva Simons --- Pass Out
So, like I said last week, the new trend is to blend or mash-up hip hop/r&b with electronic music. Chris Breezy's new album is a good new blend of lots of music. Most of it is more clubbish than his hip-hop tracks historically. This track is a prime example of that. It samples the song "Call on Me" by Eric Prydz...which in turn sampled the song originally from the song "Valerie" by Steve Winwood. Irregardless of who is responsible, this electronic beat with an 80s groove to it is great, and Brown is able to put his vocal talents and dance-ish attitude to yet another hit single. Despite his problems and scandals within his personal life, it's clear it hasn't affected his music. 4/5 Nicky Long Stars.
Movies:
The Blindside
It's not exactly a new movie, in fact it's been out for a little while. But I just saw this movie this week, and it's great. For those of you who don't know, the movie is about the life of professional football player Michael Oher of the Baltimore Ravens and takes place during his high school years and stars Sandra Bullock as Michael's adopted mom. The story of Michael is he was born to a crack addict mom and taken away from her at a young age by the state child custody services. He bounced around from foster home to foster home and from school to school. Eventually, a man he is staying with, tries to get him into a Christian Private school along with the man's son. It is at this school that Michael meets Sandra Bullock's character, whom along with her husband, takes Michael into her home and gives him food, clothes, bed, etc. Over time, this relationship turns into an adopted family for Michael. And over time, Michael's skills as a football player in high school earn him a chance to go to college to play football and eventually the NFL as well. It's a great movie based on a true story, and might be one of Sandra Bullock's best movies. 4/5 Nicky Long Stars
Restaurants:
Aditi
Recently, a new restaurant opened in the Kingstowne Towne Center shopping center (where the Kingstowne 16 Cinemas is located). Directly across from the movie theatre is Aditi, an Indian restaurant. Now, having eaten my fair share of Indian restaurants, I think I am fairly educated on the difference between good and great Indian food. Aditi is GREAT. In terms of quality, the food is probably the best I've had...ranking on the same level as Jaipur in Fairfax (another Indian restaurant formerly recommended by this blog). The atmosphere in the restaurant was great as well. And the wait staff could not have been friendlier or more attentive. Overall, it was a great dining experience. Those of you familiar with traditional Indian cuisine will enjoy the authentic made from scratch samosas, the creamy large portioned saag paneer, and the large and tasty thali (thal to those of you famiiliar with Jaipur. Basically a large plate with 5 or 6 different samples of Indian entree cuisines with rice and bread---naan to enjoy. Available in either meat or vegetarian). 5/5 Nicky Long Stars.
Hopefully as the inclement weather and temperatures of DC winter start to creep in, you aren't too discouraged from going out to eat, watch movies, and buy music. OK, I put that last one in there just for the purpose of being complete...no one actually goes out to stores to buy music anymore unless you really really want a CD. Everything is electronic nowadays...but you get my point. Here's the hot picks of the week:
Music:
Chris Brown feat. Eva Simons --- Pass Out
So, like I said last week, the new trend is to blend or mash-up hip hop/r&b with electronic music. Chris Breezy's new album is a good new blend of lots of music. Most of it is more clubbish than his hip-hop tracks historically. This track is a prime example of that. It samples the song "Call on Me" by Eric Prydz...which in turn sampled the song originally from the song "Valerie" by Steve Winwood. Irregardless of who is responsible, this electronic beat with an 80s groove to it is great, and Brown is able to put his vocal talents and dance-ish attitude to yet another hit single. Despite his problems and scandals within his personal life, it's clear it hasn't affected his music. 4/5 Nicky Long Stars.
Movies:
The Blindside
It's not exactly a new movie, in fact it's been out for a little while. But I just saw this movie this week, and it's great. For those of you who don't know, the movie is about the life of professional football player Michael Oher of the Baltimore Ravens and takes place during his high school years and stars Sandra Bullock as Michael's adopted mom. The story of Michael is he was born to a crack addict mom and taken away from her at a young age by the state child custody services. He bounced around from foster home to foster home and from school to school. Eventually, a man he is staying with, tries to get him into a Christian Private school along with the man's son. It is at this school that Michael meets Sandra Bullock's character, whom along with her husband, takes Michael into her home and gives him food, clothes, bed, etc. Over time, this relationship turns into an adopted family for Michael. And over time, Michael's skills as a football player in high school earn him a chance to go to college to play football and eventually the NFL as well. It's a great movie based on a true story, and might be one of Sandra Bullock's best movies. 4/5 Nicky Long Stars
Restaurants:
Aditi
Recently, a new restaurant opened in the Kingstowne Towne Center shopping center (where the Kingstowne 16 Cinemas is located). Directly across from the movie theatre is Aditi, an Indian restaurant. Now, having eaten my fair share of Indian restaurants, I think I am fairly educated on the difference between good and great Indian food. Aditi is GREAT. In terms of quality, the food is probably the best I've had...ranking on the same level as Jaipur in Fairfax (another Indian restaurant formerly recommended by this blog). The atmosphere in the restaurant was great as well. And the wait staff could not have been friendlier or more attentive. Overall, it was a great dining experience. Those of you familiar with traditional Indian cuisine will enjoy the authentic made from scratch samosas, the creamy large portioned saag paneer, and the large and tasty thali (thal to those of you famiiliar with Jaipur. Basically a large plate with 5 or 6 different samples of Indian entree cuisines with rice and bread---naan to enjoy. Available in either meat or vegetarian). 5/5 Nicky Long Stars.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
BRAND NEW BLOG.
Wassup Peoples,
So those of you who have known me since my AIM days know that I keep a review in my profile of the weekly Hot Movies, Music, and Food in the DC Area. Since I don't ever log in to AIM anymore, except through GMAIL's gchat system, I've found it easy to forget to update my AIM profile. Thus, I am going to edit my profile info to link to this blog and simply update my reviews here from now on. So for those who have followed me in AIM in the past, continue doing so here. And for those of you who have never followed me on AIM before, please enjoy:
Hot Joints of the Week:
Music:
Three 6 Mafia feat. Tiesto, Sean Kingston, and Flo Rida - Feel It
Lately, the trend has been for electronic artists (such as Tiesto and David Guetta) to continue creating their awesome electronic beats, but to feature hip hop and R&B artists as their vocals. It's like creating a new live mash-up as opposed to club djs who take two existing songs and mash them together. I still haven't made up my mind on whether I prefer this or regular all-electronic songs, but some of Guetta's new songs have been great. And this song, which I'm gonna call a Tiesto song even though it's listed as Three 6 featuring Tiesto, is HOT FIRE. Tiesto's beat has everything to do with it, and there are remixes out that are just the beat without the rappers. All in all though, this song in general is pretty awesome. 5/5 stars.
Movies:
Ninja Assassin
People will likely disagree with me due to Korean pop star "Rain"'s limited acting skill, but let's be honest, a great action movie isn't great because the actors are giving Oscar award winning performances. What DOES make this movie awesome is the special effects and unique cinematography. Action film enthusiasts may claim that this movie doesn't live up to its hype because too much action takes place in the dark....but I think that is exactly what MAKES this movie awesome. The concept of ninjas stealthily stalking their targets in the dark and killing them in vicious gory fashion without hardly being seen is why people go to see this movie in the first place. It reminded me of how I felt the first time I saw Kill Bill or 300. 4/5 Stars.
Restaurant:
Buffalo Wild Wings
OK, so for those of you who have never lived outside the DC metropolitan area, you may not have ever heard of a chicken wing chain called Buffalo Wild Wings (aka BW3's). This chain typically exists in college towns such as my alma mater Virginia Tech. BW3's (sometimes also called BDubs) is a great chicken wing restaurant that features some 15 or so different sauce flavors for their mighty chicken. You can even order the sauce on full size drumsticks as opposed to buffalo wings. And once a week, there's a wing night where wings are like $0.35 a piece. There's also a drumstick day where drumsticks are like $0.55 a piece. Either way, the chicken here is great, the sauces are delicious, and the atmosphere is great for watching sports, hanging out with friends, or just grabbing a bite to eat. For those of you with a gastronomical need for adventure, I recommend trying the "Blazing" wings. This is the hottest wing available at BW3's, and it's sure to bring a tear to your eyes. I also recommend not eating these until the end of your meal, so that you can enjoy the rest of it first. 5/5 Stars
So those of you who have known me since my AIM days know that I keep a review in my profile of the weekly Hot Movies, Music, and Food in the DC Area. Since I don't ever log in to AIM anymore, except through GMAIL's gchat system, I've found it easy to forget to update my AIM profile. Thus, I am going to edit my profile info to link to this blog and simply update my reviews here from now on. So for those who have followed me in AIM in the past, continue doing so here. And for those of you who have never followed me on AIM before, please enjoy:
Hot Joints of the Week:
Music:
Three 6 Mafia feat. Tiesto, Sean Kingston, and Flo Rida - Feel It
Lately, the trend has been for electronic artists (such as Tiesto and David Guetta) to continue creating their awesome electronic beats, but to feature hip hop and R&B artists as their vocals. It's like creating a new live mash-up as opposed to club djs who take two existing songs and mash them together. I still haven't made up my mind on whether I prefer this or regular all-electronic songs, but some of Guetta's new songs have been great. And this song, which I'm gonna call a Tiesto song even though it's listed as Three 6 featuring Tiesto, is HOT FIRE. Tiesto's beat has everything to do with it, and there are remixes out that are just the beat without the rappers. All in all though, this song in general is pretty awesome. 5/5 stars.
Movies:
Ninja Assassin
People will likely disagree with me due to Korean pop star "Rain"'s limited acting skill, but let's be honest, a great action movie isn't great because the actors are giving Oscar award winning performances. What DOES make this movie awesome is the special effects and unique cinematography. Action film enthusiasts may claim that this movie doesn't live up to its hype because too much action takes place in the dark....but I think that is exactly what MAKES this movie awesome. The concept of ninjas stealthily stalking their targets in the dark and killing them in vicious gory fashion without hardly being seen is why people go to see this movie in the first place. It reminded me of how I felt the first time I saw Kill Bill or 300. 4/5 Stars.
Restaurant:
Buffalo Wild Wings
OK, so for those of you who have never lived outside the DC metropolitan area, you may not have ever heard of a chicken wing chain called Buffalo Wild Wings (aka BW3's). This chain typically exists in college towns such as my alma mater Virginia Tech. BW3's (sometimes also called BDubs) is a great chicken wing restaurant that features some 15 or so different sauce flavors for their mighty chicken. You can even order the sauce on full size drumsticks as opposed to buffalo wings. And once a week, there's a wing night where wings are like $0.35 a piece. There's also a drumstick day where drumsticks are like $0.55 a piece. Either way, the chicken here is great, the sauces are delicious, and the atmosphere is great for watching sports, hanging out with friends, or just grabbing a bite to eat. For those of you with a gastronomical need for adventure, I recommend trying the "Blazing" wings. This is the hottest wing available at BW3's, and it's sure to bring a tear to your eyes. I also recommend not eating these until the end of your meal, so that you can enjoy the rest of it first. 5/5 Stars
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