Just wow….

This is one in a series of cartoons humorously detailing the pitfalls of record collecting. Any MPC beat fiends or true vinyl DJs can relate easily to a few of these.

Click here for the rest of the series on Cratekings.com

You too can be like this guy. Just follow these 7 easy steps to music career failure:

1. Give away your personal power
2. Turn marketing, promotion and sales into a huge personal burden
3. Be fearful of being percieved as a greedy, capitalist pig
4. Use lack of time, money and connections as your biggest excuse
5. Market yourself to faceless masses using traditional big media
6. Promote yourself sporadically and only when it’s urgent
7. Know that everyone owes you something simply because you exist

This semi tongue in cheek list is elaborated on further at Music Think Tank. A good read with valid points for sure.

Brilliant.

That is all

Here we are again for the 2nd installment of the LFO Cheese of the Week!

Imagine a dryer variety of blue cheese minus the blue with a delicate but slightly sweet flavor. Then add blueberries. I had never tried a Stilton of any kind and today, I think I found one of my top 3 favorite cheeses of all time…

To find out why a music culture blog of all places is running a column on cheese, click here or click read more to check out the rest of this article.

Produced exclusively in one of three counties in England by a total of seven different manufacturers, Stilton is typically made as a blue cheese. During its curing process, steel spikes are driven into the cheese, creating openings that allow blue mold to grow. This variety of Stilton however does not get that treatment and is typically aged for less time. White Stiltons, while less common than their blue counterparts are a favorite choice in the realm of dessert cheeses and the pairing of (usually) dried fruits compliments their cheesecake like texture and subtle sweet flavor. At the shop where I purchased this piece, they also carried white Stilton with ginger, cherries, lemon, apricot and mango. The blueberry looked the most appealing and I think I was correct. This particular cheese was priced at $21.95/lb and ranked as one of the most expensive types of cheese in the store along side a Roquefort they carried in a different case.

And now to the rating process…

• Flavor: 8 out of 10 (Very enjoyable to eat, surprisingly subtle but pleasant)
• Texture: 7 out of 10 (Crumbly but creamy at the same time. The blueberries add another dimension as well)
• Versatility: 4 out of 10 (Kind of specific to dessert but ould be eaten alone, on crackers or in baked goods)
• Exotic: 7 out of 10 (Like Champagne, this cheese can only be called by its name if made in a certain region. Baller)
• Wow: 8 out of 10 (I was very surprised by how good this cheese was and I had fairly high expectations)

Check back next week for another cheese review from your friendly neighborhood party people. Possible candidates include Roquefort, Gruyere or Camambert.

A while back Mindelixir left some hard-to-find Reeboks at our mountain fortress one weekend when we were co-presenting a show at Club 828. Being a huge fan of limited edition kicks he always has a nice pair or two with him on the road. This particular pair of his is certainly hard to find and has not been made for quite a while. It is a set of Reebok Hexalites with light and dark purple accents. The dark purple sections are straight gator and he even left them in the original box.

So instead of being a reasonable person and returning the shoes somehow, I have decided to start a column called “Where’s Mindelixir’s Shoes?”. Every now and then we will feature these fly kicks in some exotic setting. In the middle of the woods, on a cliff side in the mountains, in a gnarly urban environment. Who knows?

This week, we find his kicks in their natural habitat – somewhere deep in the woods of Western North Carolina at an undisclosed location. Where will they end up next?

ps. We know this is stupid, no need to tell us.

- much love from the LFO crew!