What I Want For Christmas: Mighty Mighty Bosstones Tour in 2010

The good friends at Read Junk posted earlier this month about this, but The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, you know, your favorite band that had a cameo in Clueless (take THAT Save Ferris in 10 Things I Hate About You) have a new album out called Pin Points and Gin Joints. For the cover art, see above.

Anywho, besides being at the crux of third wave ska with their biggest hit being "The Impression That I Get" (which I have told my significant other that their lyrics aren't cookie cutter haha), they were a favorite back in the day (I should change my blog's name to Bands I Really Liked In High School And Are Writing About It In A Timely Fashion Because Well They Are Getting Back Together Or Someone Died Or Joined A New Band Or I Saw Them In Concert) and what I would love to do is go see them live again. Suits? Plaid? Member that only dances and nothing else? Totally.

Anywho, they are currently doing their annual Hometown Throwdown in Boston continuing tonight and tomorrow at the Middle East. But what I really want is for them to do a proper tour next year if they are willing to do so. Seeing them live is like getting the biggest hug and kiss. Especially if that kiss was from a big mustached dude, like Ken from Union Hall. Awesome? I think so.

Here is their recent perf on Jimmy Kimmel, who has proven that more intimate settings are for losers when it comes to late night talk shows.

Unnecessary: Boondock Saints II Trailer

The Boondock Saints is a horrible movie. In fact, personally, it's one of my top 5 least favorite movies of all time, up there with such luminaries as Empire Records and Love Actually. I've actually been punched for voicing such an opinion of The Boondock Saints' first go around, and after I saw Overnight, the documentary about the writer and director Troy Duffy, and realized how much of a ridiculous person he is, it only strengthened my resolve.

The first film not only had a terrible plot, poor character development, crappy action sequences, and an awful "commentary" ending, but there are so many "Boston" movies such as Gone Baby Gone and Monument Ave. that are just so much better. Granted, this is an action movie in the John-Woo-rip-off mode and thus can be held to different standards as those dramas, but I don't find anything in this movie to recommend. It's a sociopathic film that has no reflection on the characters portrayed; Willem Dafoe's tranny FBI agent is such a retardation and Billy Connolly's Il Duce doesn't seem to have much of a purpose. Forget the Irish theme supposedly drawn up by the fact that the two leads are Irish Catholic vigilantes who society is sort of led to believe that they are doing good. Sure, they are getting rid of the baddies. But the action scenes are just awful I think; they are overcomplicated, and the slow motion has no beauty to it; and the staging is abhorrent because there is actually very little grit to it. Duffy is trying to make something shallow and stylish out of something that should be more brutal and less fanciful. Maybe it would come off more interesting if he actually cared about his two lead characters, Irish brothers who think they are on some mission from God. That character motivation alone is just kinda nuts but in Duffy's hands is all the more frustrating for the caricatures he creates. There is something freaky about how they kill for God, but Duffy doesn't do anything with it. He just goes along which makes me think that he's just some religious nutjob making a movie about religious nutjobs.

So quoting the Bible is cool? Yes when Jules does it in Pulp Fiction, because at the end it becomes a key character beat for him.

Two guns and slow motion? Yes when John Woo does it.

Hanging from the ceiling by a wire? Yes when Brian De Palma does it in Mission: Impossible (even though that movie kinda sucked too).

Violence and religion? Yes when it was called Mean Streets or State of Grace. Or The Apostle if you include baseball bats.

Oh and the second one is coming out at the end of the month. Seeing Duffy's face intro the trailer on the Rotten Tomatoes version makes me want to smash my computer screen. He's so smug. The fact that Peter Fonda is in this just screams "I did it for the money." And the fact that Judd Nelson is in it, well that's just a neutral addition.

Bar Spotlight (Football Season Edition): The Hairy Monk - Sox In The City

The Hairy Monk
337 Third Avenue (corner of 25th Street)
Manhattan

In the next few spotlights, since we're in New York and there are certainly plenty of bars that pay respects to the Giants and Jets, there are many bars (including say Cody's or Kettle of Fish, which the Steelers play a prominent factor in their Sunday business in the former, and Packers fans can enjoy a cold Magners at the latter) that cater to the displaced fan. I've been trying to tap bars that don't have a particular fan base but are just good for all the games. However, certainly we can acknowledge a few bars that are particular to a team that doesn't play home games at the Meadowlands. Places like Calico Jacks/McFaddens, Town Tavern, Phebes, all of which I will hopefully profile over the coming weeks.

Again, I understand the UES has a lot of great sports bars; it's the only thing they have really. Going further south is like simply getting better; by the time you hit Gramercy you can enjoy what the east side above 14th street has to offer. The Hairy Monk is situated right on 3rd Ave. and 25th, and there's a lot to enjoy about this place....if you like red sox, are very patriotic, or have a bit of Celtic pride in ya. Since I have to admit I'm a huge Patriots fan, I'm starting off these team-specific places with HM because, well, it hits closer to home.



The worst thing about this bar is not really bad at all; New York fans who come to the bar usually get REALLY obnoxious and to tell you the truth, it pisses a lot of people off at the bar, including the staff, who are all Boston fans. It's one thing to root for your team, but to know that it's THE Boston bar in Manhattan, and yelling crap is just kinda silly. But nevertheless it's entertaining, just this past Thursday this dude was just fuming because of the suit-ish casual Jets fans who were standing on the chairs and being douches.

The Hairy Monk features Pats games, but having access to all the games they will switch a couple of the smaller TVs to other games especially divisional ones (there are some Dolphins and Jets fans who show up).

Anywho, so moving on to the specifics of the bar. It's not too roomy and on Sunday it's a really tough sell to grab any sort of space that has a good vantage point, but the TVs are well placed at the bar and across from it; there are two huge flat screens that fans huddle around. Paths to walk through are very few but most people are obliging. The tables section provides even less room but the projection screen gives those with less than perfect eyesight a huge canvas to watch the games on. It gets somewhat warm unless they throw the air conditioning on, and there is quite a bit of jostling for position. The blue, yellow, and woodsy colors give it a nice afternoon glow.

The bar itself is old timey and done up like a cozy tavern, some memorabilia, some pictures, and a hell of a lot of taps to choose a great pint of Newcastle or Sam Seasonal. They serve everything in the king's pints (imperial pints, or, in homage to Role Models, "venti") which makes for more beer but they also inflate the price to 6 bucks. Most of the staff is really nice (probably because I'm a Pats fan) although a little absent minded at times. Sundays are rough, they usually have two 'tenders working the bar but even that it's about 3 rows deep of pending orders. The digi jukebox isn't on for the games but you might want to throw on a couple of songs to pump up the crowd.

The food is ok for pub grub; the burgers are hit or miss, and the fish and chips are decent, but their appetizers like nachos and chicken fingers and mozz sticks are pretty good. And they serve a full Irish breakfast which can be fun if you're looking to power up the Sunday brunch (the weekend brunches are until 4:30pm and include 2 drinks). The most interesting thing is their fries; they aren't french fries but little potato wafers that are sometimes awesome, sometimes a bit bland (the shape isn't condusive to catching a sprinkling of salt).

For Sundays, they have a wings and Bud/Bud light draft special, basically if I remember correctly it's 3 wings for a dollar but you have to order at least 9. And you can do an all you can drink with the aforementioned pints for 5 or 6 bucks. But don't quote me on that because it's not listed really. Like I said, they have better stuff on tap so you might be swayed to drink something of a stronger caliber.



This has been famous for being a longstanding Boston bar; I think it's pretty ballsy to be so outright about it in a town where Boston is really put through the ringer on a lot of things, but they flaunt it and defend it strongly and I respect that. To me it's not about the food or drink, it's the communal aspect of gathering fans of an unpopular town to one place, and you always get that underdog feeling and at the same time, the warm feeling in the place is more palpable for it.

For more info, go to their official website: Hairy Monk Official Site

Or check out the reviews on Yelp: Hairy Monk On Yelp