11/23-11/29 nikibone.com

Thanksgiving is here. Today, millions of people across the red and blue states will be cooking the traditional American recipe as more delicious turkeys succumb to the yearly festivities of the human race. Approximately 68% of Thanksgiving munchers will feel satisfied with the quality of their dinner, while 26% wished they ate at Black Angus, 6% were undecided. Why? Because amateurs screw up the cooking process and ruin all that is good for family and friends on this once a year holiday of eating and shopping! I just made that up. It could be true, I don’t know.

What I do know is cooking in a crock-pot takes 2% skill, leaving you with a 98% success rate on the deliciousness scale. It is very very difficult to eff up a recipe once you turn the dial on one of these beauties, plus it’s the safest cooking method allowing for drinking games, play time with the kids, or surfing for porn on the interwebs. I do not condone all 3 at once.

As to who Nikibone is, I don’t really want to know. Handsomely, she’s got a mean list of crock-pot recipes on this page of her site which why it is my site of the week: http://nikibone.com/recipe/crockpot.html

It’s not the prettiest of sites to look at, but use that command-f or alt-f or whatever on your ‘puter to find the dish you’re craving and you’ll get a simple set of instructions in addition to all you’ll need to make your culinary dreams come true.

Below are 27 turkey crock-pot recipes for Thanksgiving:

01. Cabbage with Turkey Kielbasa

02. Barbecued Turkey and Vegetables

03. Cherry Pineapple Turkey Roast

04. Chili Turkey

05. Five Spice Turkey Thighs

06. Herbed Turkey Breast

07. Savory Turkey Breast

08. Southwest Crock Pot Turkey Loaf

09. Southwest Turkey Tender Loin Stew

10. Tarragon Mustard Turkey with Linguine

11. Three Ingredient Turkey

12. Turkey Breast

13. Turkey Breast2

14. Turkey Breast with Cranberry Sauce

15. Turkey Cassoulet

16. Turkey and Bean Cassoulet

17. Turkey Chop Suey

18. Turkey in Cream Sauce

19. Turkey Dinner

20. Turkey Meatballs in Lemon Sauce

21. Turkey Ragout

22. Turkey and Rice

23. Turkey Soup

24. Turkey Teriyaki Sandwiches

25. Turkey Tetrazzini.htm

26. Turkey Vegetable Chili Mac

27. Wild Rice Stuffed Turkey Breast

Okay, who bought the ‘dude rock’?

Come on, I won’t be mean. I just wanna know who it was.

Mark, was that you? Don’t lie.

My band, Last Falling, is proud to release a new track called Satellites. It is available for free on MySpace, Facebook, and in 4 different formats on the official website. This is the first of 10 songs planned for the new record (whose name will be a secret for the time being). Enjoy.

You can’t find a better medium for music entertainment at the moment. The Rock Band’s and Guitar Hero games that are getting pumped out like Beatles records will only gain momentum for wannabe rock star gamers. Is this the future of inspiring young musicians? Or just another video game distraction with a plastic controller?

I have two theories.

One is: it’s just another game with nothing more than a childlike response to an overrated Simon Says game, like Dance Dance Revolution. Just because you can step on the colored blocks at the right time doesn’t mean you should hit the clubs to try and impress others with your uber color pad stepping skills. Same goes for a plastic guitar with 5 buttons. What might be impressive about strumming a plastic guitar and timing colored notes on a screen won’t land you a record deal or an 8 o’clock slot at the Roxy on a weekend… actually I take that Roxy comment back.

Two is: the songs have potential to inspire others that can play a real guitar to get into songwriting or develop skills better (such as timing and mechanics). Despite the game’s lack of creative ability, it has it’s benefits to those who already play guitar. I think it offers potential to other guitar players who might be able develop a stronger grip, faster movements, and better overall timing and finger coordination around the fret board.

Side tracking: Wow, what an amazing promotional tool for new bands or old bands with new songs. A great discovery tool for older more rooted songs in music history that have been around for decades that have inspired new artists to create songs. I mean shit, even Guns N’ Roses launched an exclusive single with Rock Band 2 before their album was released. With an exorbitant amount of quantity, it will always come down to quality. Nuff said.

Side tracking further: As a teenager I loved to play along with my favorite songs or albums on drums and guitar. I learned Nevermind and Dookie by ear from the first to last song on guitar and play along when I was 14. A couple of years later I set up a borrowed drum set in front of my closet and blasted Purple, Ten, and In Utero from the inside of my closet racks to play along. I feel my experience was a little more non-linear and organic rather than competitive without creative control.

As for what theory I would subscribe to? I don’t know how I would feel if I grew up in the ‘Guitar Hero’ age. I think I might be limited with distractions in competition to score better than my friends and move onto the next game a couple weeks later, rather than become inspired to create music of my own based on what I liked. It makes me feel old to say this, but I have to admit I’m glad I was raised in the ‘Nintendo‘ generation where ‘a’ and ‘b’ were all you had. Up up down down left right left right b a start.

You earned it.

DrPepper.com

Update 2:20pm: Apparently they are receiving so much traffic that they had to administer a text site and their promo page won’t load. Rather disappointing on their part, keep trying this link.