Whiskey Pie In 2010

Since Whiskey Pie has been around for a couple years, and it launched at the start of January of '08, I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do with this blog. So, I'm going to take this opportunity to lay out the changes I have in mind.

First of all, those 'Best Albums of 2009' videos are only the beginning of video content for Whiskey Pie. I bought an actual microphone this past weekend, so they'll at least sound good from now on. However, making videos takes at least three times as long as a typical written post, so this also means that I will be doing less posts per week. My initial plan is to do one written post and one video per week, but we'll see how this goes.

Furthermore, I won't be doing any more 'Album Of The Week' or music video posts. They just aren't necessary, especially with my one written/one video posting schedule. I'm not sure how many of the other special category posts I'll be doing--Your Or Your Memory and the like. Probably I'll adapt the old ones or create new ones that work better with videos.

I also want to try to do more posts on movies (and especially) videogames in 2010. I think I've gotten pretty good about consistently well written and interesting music reviews and posts, but I'm always trying to challenge myself with my writing, and trying more reviews, criticism, and features about other forms of entertainment is something I absolutely need to do.

I'm still learning my way through what I want to do with videos, especially as far as what is entertaining enough to watch/listen to with the kind of voice and style I have, so the format of the videos will likely vary a bit until I figure out what seems best. At the same time, I want to keep the quality of the writing and content as high as it's been. I don't want to do super short videos with dumbed down content. Sure, shorter videos are easier to make, but if I'm just showing a picture of the album cover, yelling "it sucks!", and then rolling credits, that's not very good. In fact, you might say it sucks.

OK, enough rambling. Look for written posts on Thursdays and videos on Tuesdays.

The 1UP Yours Drinking Game

Yes, it's time for another drinking game. You may remember the Guided By Voices drinking game I came up with. Maybe you even tried it?? Whatever. Be that way. Today I'm going to list the rules for the 1UP Yours podcast, which along with being a really entertaining videogame podcast also features some of the drinking-est hosts around.
Seriously.
Before I get to the rules, note that the traditional, accepted way to play this drinking game is with the whiskey or scotch of your choice, as well as whatever beer you have lying around. When I say "take a shot" you, well, take a shot of liquor or take a healthy swallow of scotch (assuming you drink it straight or on the rocks, that is...you could do shots if you want to). When I say "take a drink", that means you take a healthy swallow of beer. When I say "finish your drink" that means that you finish off the beer you currently have open. With that out of the way...

--As soon as the music ends and Garnett says his first line, take a drink.
--If at any point someone says "weekend confirmed" or there is talk about a possible confirmation of said weekend, take a shot.
--If there's a British person on the show, take a drink when they're either introduced or you hear their first line, whichever comes first.
--Whenever Shane mentions seeing a game or getting to play a game but he can't talk about it yet, finish your drink.
--If there's an ex-1UP staff member or on-their-way-out 1UP staff member on the show, take a drink at the beginning of the show.
--If Garnett mispronounces a word, uses the wrong word, or slurs his speech, take a shot.
--If the show is over two hours in length, go get a glass of water at the one hour mark. You'll thank me later.
--If they are doing a '4 Minute Warning' segment, finish your drink.
--Whenever Garnett has to explain how people have misrepresented his comments, and that he actually doesn't hate a game or isn't down on it, take a shot.
--At the break between segments, take two drinks.
--If Shane says anything along the lines of the follow phrases, take a shot: "I'm a huuuge fan of..."; if he says anything is the "secret best..." anything ever; any talk of something being over or underrated.
--If Andrew 'Skip' Pfister gets on the mic, you hear him talking in the background, or someone refers to him (particularly with the words "on the wheels of steel"), take a drink.
--If, in the process of fondly remembering something, Garnett refers to it as "the shit", take a drink.
--If a British or other foreign personage is on the show, every time you can't understand a word they said, take a drink.
--If Shane or Garnett aren't on the show, take a shot. If they're BOTH missing, take a shot and finish your drink.
--During the news segment, if they're doing NPD numbers, finish your drink.
--At the end of the show, when someone (usually Garnett) says "we are ghost" take a shot. If they forget to say it, take two shots.

Garnett and Shane and alcohol and microphones

The Guided By Voices Drinking Games

Look, we all know that Guided By Voices are pretty awesome. Were pretty awesome. Anyway, we know that they're pretty awesome, but they sound that much better when you're drunk. Main Voice Robert Pollard, a retired school teacher, seemed to feel the same, because GBV shows were notorious for being 2 to 3 hour spectacles of intoxication and ass kicking rock music. In the spirit of the band, I now present two versions of the Guided By Voices drinking game.

Version 1
Get yourself a copy of The Electrifying Conclusion DVD and try to keep up with Robert Pollard's drinking. Keep in mind that he takes the stage with a beer or two under his belt already. If you're going to do this semi-authentically, you'll have to buy some beer, champagne, and (I'm assuming he's doing shots of whiskey) whiskey to match him as closely as possible.

Version 2
Dig out any GBV album, single, EP, compilation. Listen to it with some beer and a bottle of the hard liquor of your choice for shots.
--Take a drink whenever the song is about a relationship, or at least seems like it could be.
--Do a shot whenever someone other than Robert Pollard sings.
--Take a drink whenever you listen to a song with a patented bizarre GBV title. Note that for certain albums, like Bee Thousand, you will be getting drunk pretty fast.
--Do two shots whenever a song mentions anything to do with alcohol. Note that if you're listening to Isolation Drills you might pass out.
--Take a drink when a song is longer than 3 minutes.
--Do a shot when a song is less than a minute.
--If you find yourself singing--slurring??--along, finish your drink.
--If you realize you're accidentally listening to a Robert Pollard side project or solo album and didn't notice any difference, do a shot.
--Assuming you're listening to Do The Collapse, if you catch yourself thinking "you know, it's not that bad of an album after all" do two shots. Note that this doesn't apply to the song 'Teenage FBI' which is secretly one of the best things they ever recorded.

No Update Today (Tonight??)

Sorry, I got distracted because I had to work from 10 to 7 and then I was watching Mythbusters and installed Steam on my laptop in order to download the BioShock demo. Also I drank some scotch and just chugged a Steel Reserve.

Also, reading up on Super Smash Brothers Brawl leaks. I don't know what everybody's deal is. The characters yet to be revealed aren't that amazing, true, but shit...fucking Solid Snake and Sonic are in the game. How much more batshit crazy fun could this game get?! I want it ever so much, like a mother must want for her baby when she goes home from the hospital before her progeny.

Go listen to Pavement. Stephen Malkmus is my god.

I'll update tomorrow, I promise.

How To Survive a Whiskey Hangover With The Field and Meteos

There is nothing on Earth like a whiskey hangover. It is similar to other hangovers, but somehow worse, more vile and life altering. You wake up in the late morning, and you think you might have gone blind, so you peek one eye open, which somehow hurts. Then you open both eyes and look around the room, a process that hurts even more--sunlight streams in the window, sending a hot light knife into the area behind your eyes which throbs appropriately. The hardest part (well, one of them, anyway) is getting up and out of bed.

Once you do, go to the bathroom and splash some numbingly cold water on your face. Drink a glass or two of water. If it stays down, proceed to try to eat some food. Try to keep the food down. Drink some really strong tea or coffee. Wait a few minutes. Take some aspirin or Tylenol and some nasal decongestant (for some reason when I drink my nose gets really clogged up). Still keeping it all down?? Starting to feel a bit better?? It's time to take your mind off the pain and sickness. No, don't drink more!!

I used to try to medicate hangovers with noise. I thought that it would blow all the bad shit out of my brain through sheer agony. But now I'm more about soothing my brain with repetitive, mellow music. I have discovered that From Here We Go Sublime by The Field is perfect for this. Attach a drool cup to your face and put this on with the iTunes visualizer running. Much better.

For further relief, dig out Meteos for the Nintendo DS. No, not the fucking Disney version. The original. Haven't played it in awhile, have you?? Feels good, doesn't it?? Yes. It might not be as hypnotic as its more popular, readily available brother Lumines, but I find it easier on a hangover.

Assuming you did puke at some point, drink some water, nibble on some dry cereal, and lay on the couch all day watching whatever is on the History Channel or Discovery. Documentaries are the best TV show for getting over a hangover.

Of course, the ultimate hangover cure, as stated in Knocked Up, is to get stoned. But assuming you're like me and don't have access to said substance, I think the above will do you just fine.