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The Social Threat - Protest Songs Cover Art

The Social Threat - Protest Songs Cover Art

The Social Threat is a 3-piece local punk band… er… possible the ONLY local punk band (now that One Shot Left is in hiatus mode). I admit that it is hard for me to get excited about punk music nowadays as my musical preference swings quite the opposite way, as of late. But I can still take the time to enjoy the memories and appreciate the musical aesthetic that The Social Threat is striving for. That’s kind of what listening to “Protest Songs” reminds me of; memories of my youth, going to some cool punk shows in Regina, back when punk was just getting huge again.

Musically, they are quite similar to bands like MXPX, Good Riddance, Dogwood and other punk rock bands from the 90’s and 00’s with fast drumming and harmonization. Lyrically, it’s heavy on politics and social change – like many of the bands of the time as well. It’s quite anachronistic when listening to it with this notion, yet nostalgic at the same time. That leads me to believe most of the appeal of The Social Threat is knowing punk rock from a decade ago. That’s not to say people new to the genre can’t enjoy their music, but I definitely think it would be harder for the layperson.

The Social Threat

The Social Threat

There is some good production value on this sophomore album; however, it still feels of DYI in many ways, which I think lends itself to the music quite well. In interview with the band, it was discussed how if they had the choice (budget wise) that they there would be more production value on the recording, so the intention of a DYI aesthetic wasn’t focused on necessarily, but merely due to financials. I was lucky enough to get a physical copy of the album and was glad I did. The whole package was designed by Kyle Hodgman (Drums/BGV), which features a very nice composition focusing on symbolism, poetry-esque messages (on inside cover/insert/poster). It all feels cohesive and put together well (both design and packaging wise).

I feel thematically that the lyrics are good and range nicely from song to song; however, they are very straightforward, rather than relying on metaphor. It’s clear that they want you to hear the message and understand their music on that level. This also becomes transparent as each song has a different theme and clear-cut message of focus. Is that a bad/good thing? The songwriting and instruments are all top notch.

Normally this is where people give a rating out of 5 stars or 10 dinosaurs or something else that doesn’t mean anything. I’ll skip that, and let you decide if this is something you would be interested in. If you listened to punk music during the 90’s and 00’s I would definitely recommend this album (and I don’t mean that in an elitist, hipster kind of way). It’s also a local band, so you should support them! Duh!

Links:

Their full album is $9.99 and can be purchased digitally on CD Baby or iTunes. Alternatively, you can snag a cool physical copy by emailing them, or grabbing one at a show. THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »


Saw the Sign

I’ve been itching to get into this place ever since I saw the signage a week ago. Friday, July 15th was the day I kept hearing they would be opened so I’ve been counting down the days.

Twitter seemed to be the best place for me to find information about this coming restaurant. Local tweets got me a sneak peak of the menu and pointed me towards their website. Both the pictures and prices looked great which added to my already mounting excitement. I’ve been looking forward to a good sushi place in the Hat and this new business held a lot of potential.
Sushi for Lunch!

Well today is the 15th and I’m going for lunch! I had invited a couple people and talked with a few others, even mentioned the possibility of twitter users meeting (#tweepsandgeeks for the initiated), but all my options for company went south. No worries, I’m a big boy so I went alone.

Arrived at the restaurant at noon, was seated and had my first order taken right away. Ten minutes later I had a plate with some nice looking California Rolls and BBQ Eel Rolls.

Wait! Where was my Halibut, Salmon and Snapper Sushi? Apparently it was coming. I took my time, enjoyed the two rolls and was working on the last two pieces when the server returned to ask me if I wanted anything else. I reminded him that I had some coming, which he remembered and said that I would receive it very soon. A few minutes later he returned looking apologetic and informed me that the sushi counter had lost the second half of my order. I reiterated my order and added a spicy tuna and spicy salmon roll to the list. My server promised it all very soon and went to deliver my order to the counter. THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »


Edo Japan

“Delight in this flavourful combination of fresh cut carrots, broccoli flowerets, chopped mushrooms and cabbage – grilled to perfection!”

Fresh Grilled Vegetables

4/5

While looking for fast food options I tried out Edo, where they have fresh grilled veggies on their menu, which I have with yakisoba. It’s a combination of “freshly sliced carrots, broccoli florets, chopped mushrooms, and shredded cabbage steamed and grilled”, on your choice of rice or noodles with teriyaki sauce (if you’d like). I liked it before, not having meat hardly made a difference to me now. They also serve avocado and cucumber sushi, which was one of my saving graces for sushi cravings since I avoid seafood in my diet.


Thai Orchid Room

$14.95
“Coconut milk curry made with cilantro and spinach, sauteed with fresh mixed vegetables and tofu.”

Green Curry Vegetable (Gaeng Kiaw Wan Pak)

5/5

Okay seriously, this is all-in-all the best food I have ever eaten, I cannot put into words how perfectly creamy, perfectly spicy, and perfectly delicious it is. I’ve never gotten past the thai green curry dish to try anything else there because I simply love it so much. If there’s sauce leftover I will drink it straight. This veggie dish can come with tofu – needless to say, the best tofu I’ve ever had. It’s deep fried tofu, I think a combination of chewy and bready is the best way I can describe it but it certainly doesn’t have the awful texture most tofu has. It comes with jasmine rice, which is probably as good as jasmine rice will ever get. I know Thai Orchid can be pricey, it’s a fancy place, I’ve never had anything bad to say about the staff and service. I don’t know what else to say, it’s simply all kinds of amazing.

I would also like to mention that Thai Orchid Room has been on Medicine Hat Media’s Top Restaurant Picks for the last three years since it started.


Mother Nature’s Cafe

$10.95
“Grilled vegetables, caramelized onions, balsamic goat cheese & freshly picked basil.”

Roasted Red Pepper Panini

4/5

My first time here, quite a nice cafe jointed to a beautiful garden center. It has a gorgeous display of loose leaf teas, I found the orange pekoe quite nice. The full panini comes with a side of greens, soup and beverage, I tried one of the greens and unfortunately it wasn’t for me. The panini was amazing, every ingredient with its distinct flavor creating an experience of awesome for each of my taste buds. What caught my eye mostly about this place, as I’ve been following them on Facebook, is that they have quite a fair share of non-meat options, though I think they specialize in daily soups and teas which means a limited menu. The staff was super nice, and it was almost full on the Monday noon time I attended. Due to the location, which honestly is still closer to most than Crescent Heights, I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to go there, although it is tasty and I do hope to try again, perhaps if I were shopping for gardening supplies with a friend it would be a good place to stop.


abc Country Restaurant

$10.99
“A garden burger patty made of soy protein, onions, cooked brown rice, mushrooms, spinach, rolled oats, mozzarella cheese, feta cheese, olive oil, parmesan cheese and garlic on a toasted multigrain bun with burger sauce.”

Gardenburger

3 / 5

Gardenburgers are my favorite kind of veggie burgers because they don’t try to imitate meat, but rather make something different and delicious. This certain patty looks and tastes like the actual Gardenburger brand patties you can buy from the store, which Superstore apparently doesn’t stock any more so if you know where some are please comment and tell me where, I miss them! Anyway, it has the traditional toppings (lettuce, tomatoes, onions), and some special burger and mayo sauce. It wasn’t exactly bad in anyway, but it wasn’t trying to be anything special. I would like to mention that burger combos at ABC come with endless wedges/fries (which were good but not special either). Given the chance, I wouldn’t order this again, I have many other preferences which I will cover in the future. The restaurant was empty between lunch and supper on a Saturday when we went, so the service was good.


Twist

$10.99
“Pasta with chicken, mushrooms and veggies in a creamy sundried tomato sauce with a sprinkling of fresh parmesan.”

Amalfi Pasta

3.5 / 5

This would be my first time at the Twist Wine Bistro and Restaurant, a cozy small place downtown. When I first saw the menu I was skeptical of my options; deep fried cheese, deep fried artichoke, or deep fried yams. Twist serves authentic Italian cuisine so I was unsure of what I would like, knowing I like cheese I figured I would go with that but at the time they didn’t have manchego cheese so feeling somewhat frustrated I got the pasta of the day minus the chicken. I prefer to order meals where the meat isn’t the focus, but they were very accommodating and put in extra veggies without me requesting it. I had a good share of red wine, and some bread with oil dip as an appetizer. The bread and oil were straight forward, I had some difficulty scooping up the stuff at the bottom so that was a waste of calories. I think the pasta would have been better with a different type of noodle, I guess that’s more of a personal preference, same with not liking olives. It had a nice subtle rose sauce and a variety of vegetables, it was good but not incredibly delicious, I wouldn’t order it again. The place was basically empty on that Thursday night, the service was great.


This is a review of the Walmart-based salon Regal Nails that I stumbled upon during one of my frequent Facebook explorations written by Darcey Swennumson:

On Saturday, March 5, at approximately 5:00pm, I went to Regal Nails to have my eyebrows waxed.  It was my first time using any type of service in this salon.

The technician who waxed my brows completely disregarded my instructions on how I wanted my brows waxed.  Partway through the waxing, I confirmed my instructions, and at that point she still disregarded them.

During the waxing, she also dropped a glob of hot wax on the inner corner of my eye.  She tried for a moment to remove the wax, then simply advised me, “It will come off in the shower.”  For the record, it didn’t.  I still have wax on my eyelashes, and both the lid and undereye area are raw and slightly swollen.

When the waxing was complete, and I went to the counter to pay, their debit machine was not working.  They advised me to use the ATM machine located within Walmart.  I pointed out that that machine charges a fee on top of my bank’s fee to withdraw money, but they did not care.

I then went to use the ATM to withdraw money, and noticed an “Out of Order” sign on it.  When I returned to the salon and advised them of this, they asked me to make a purchase in Walmart and take out extra money at the till to pay for my waxing.

I found all of this to be extremely disappointing, not to mention a big inconvenience and very unprofessional.  However, I did as requested and then returned with cash in hand.

At that point I asked to speak with the manager of the salon.  I explained that it was my first visit, and would be my last.  He asked why, so I started to explain my reasons, based on the above.

He interrupted me partway through, and demanded payment for the eyebrow waxing, going so far as to reach for the money in my hand.

At that point I advised him that I would be telling everyone I know about my experience that day, and his response was, “There are 65000 people in Medicine Hat.  Go ahead.”  He then collected payment for the brow waxing, and I left.  During this encounter, the technician who waxed my brows was standing beside the manager, smirking and trying not to laugh.

I can honestly say that this is the worst treatment I have ever received at any place, at any time.  I would hate for anyone else to go through anything like this, so I’m trying to let everyone know not to use this place for any type of service!

I’m not gonna lie, either — his invitation for me to “go ahead” and tell everyone about what happened makes me determined to get the word out to as many people as I can, so go ahead and pass this on to everyone you know.


Definitely, my favourite part about Rossco’s Pub is the daily lunch specials. More on that later, but for now, what’s different about Rossco’s Pub? Well, for the sake of this review, I will mostly be talking about the food itself. Even though I’ve drank there several times – it’s more or less the same as any random pub/bar in town with a couple unique specials thrown in for good measure. A pub is normally defined by it’s atmosphere and food. The atmosphere leaves a lot of be desired, but the food is good. For some reason, I’m drawn to pub food even if I am not drinking and that applies to Rossco’s as well. Take what you want from that, but as some of you know, I’ve already already admitted to liking “unhealthy” food, “the more grease the better” half-jokingly of course, in my Buffet Medicine Hat review.

I’ve eaten quite a bit off the menu, from burgers, platters of special fries, joe joe’s, dry ribs, wings, sandwiches – and every time it’s been pretty good. Lately, well less lately in the present, I used to stop in at least once a week for their lunch special. It’s an ever changing soup and sandwhich combo. My favourite was a tomato vegetable style soup with a pulled beef sandwich, or maybe the chicken noodle soup with the mini-pizza sandwhich. It’s pretty varied too. There was even borscht once! My new favourite has to be the new “Chicken Bites” which is a boneless-alternative to wings with any wing sauce you want!

They have recently (as of a couple months ago) changed their menu and some of the menu items as well. There’s lots new to check-out and try.


I didn’t know what to think when I went to Mucho Burrito for the first time. You mean there’s rice in a burrito traditionally? What? Wait? Where’s the ground beef? It’s pulled steak meat instead? Hmm…

The overall feeling of the restaurant is more of a “authentic” Mexican meal. The things you would normally expect from a fast food taco/burrito joint you will not find here, including Mexi fries – those are replaced with nachos. Right now, Mucho Burrito and El Taco Loco are the only two places like this in Medicine Hat (that I know of). The ordering counter works on a Subway-esque like system where you get to choose all the toppings you desire. There’s a variety of sizes of burritos including Pequeño (10″), Medio (12″) or Mucho XL. I have got the Medio each time and left pretty full every time – I don’t think I could ever finish a Mucho XL. There’s tons of other choices though including quesadillas, tacos, salad/taco bowls, and more. Most choices are grill-pressed which adds that nice little touch of compactness while in your hands and fingers.

The last time I went, I tried the new “Smother” option on my burrito. The burrito is dressed with Mucho southwest tomato sauce, topped with cheese and sour cream or Burrito sauce. You need to eat this thing with a fork… it’s pretty messy but definitely a good choice. Each time I’ve went the taste and flavor has been getting better and better because I have refined my options and choices each time to make the perfect burrito that I like. For example, I first went with cilantro (minty) and some beans (pasty) but found I don’t like those flavors combined. Overall, it’s a good, different, experience and look forward to going there many times to come.

View Mucho Burrito’s current menu


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