Category: Thinking

How to Improve OBX

We just got back from a love­ly week in the Out­er Banks. It was our fourth week-long stay. It’s like heav­en on Earth. Mostly.

I’ll offer three quick ways to improve the experience:

  • Cable TV. I don’t know what it is, but every­one seems to skimp on their cable pack­age. I know it’s pricey, but it’s impor­tant to peo­ple who are spend­ing any amount of time in a house. Maybe you don’t spring for HBO, but if you have an HDTV in the house, have an HD plan.
  • Shop­ping. Is there any zon­ing in the Out­er Banks? How many beach-relat­ed out­lets does one munic­i­pal­i­ty need? Would­n’t it be bet­ter to have a bet­ter mix of shops? Helen point­ed out how all the shop­ping seems to be in a race to the bot­tom right now. She’s not wrong.
  • Food. It’s abysmal. There’s a rea­son every­one cooks at home. I’ve had the most over­cooked fish in my life in OBX. Want to know what’s worse? BBQ. You’d think some­one would have a well-regard­ed, fam­i­ly-run spot that peo­ple line up to eat. No such thing. Sooey’s and Pig­man’s are decent, but I don’t spend the rest of the year look­ing for­ward to eat­ing at those places. Could some­one step up and fill the void?

Like I said, I always have a great time, but that’s most­ly because I unplug from every­thing and just spend time with friends and fam­i­ly. It does­n’t mean that I have to treat the beach house like a her­mitage. Give me a rea­son to go out and spend mon­ey, OBX!

Posted on by J T. Ramsay 1

In Praise of September Baseball

I know many of you enjoy the start of foot­ball sea­son. It con­jures thoughts of fall: crisp air, sweaters, chili and Sun­days with friends, hud­dled around the TV.

I love those things, too, but I feel like Sep­tem­ber base­ball gets lost in the fray. It’s the per­fect time of year for casu­al fans to get excit­ed. You have a clear­er sense of who’s good and who’s not, plus you jump into the mix just as the pen­nant races real­ly heat up. Every game counts! And you can eat chili while you watch! And wear a sweater!

So if your team is, say, the Eagles and you’ve already giv­en up on the sea­son, give base­ball a try. A friend can tell you about the play­ers. It’ll be a lot of fun, even for diehard foot­ball fans. Trust me. Give it a chance. You just might like it.

Posted on by J T. Ramsay 0

Pitchfork’s Top Track of the 1990s

What? You were expect­ing “Sum­mer Babe?”

I spent the bet­ter part of the day talk­ing about how fun­ny it’d be if the top 20 of their list were just crammed with tracks like this. The mem­o­ries came flood­ing back. Remem­ber Dish­wal­la? Could “Tubthump­ing” make the top 20?

For my mon­ey, it’s a shame that they won’t. If noth­ing else, the ’90s were a won­der­ful­ly eclec­tic decade musi­cal­ly. Sure, every­one remem­bers the boy band tyran­ny that book­end­ed the decade and the post-grunge void in between, but some real­ly nut­ty music cracked the main­stream. Would Crash Test Dum­mies even be pos­si­ble today?

Part of me wish­es this would top the list. The song was freakin’ inescapable! (I’m aware that that’s not a tes­ta­ment to its cul­tur­al val­ue, but it’s unde­ni­ably more a part of Amer­i­ca’s cul­tur­al mem­o­ry than most of the songs on that list.)

Posted on by J T. Ramsay 0

In Case You Forgot How Bad the ’90s Were

Antho­ny Mic­cio and I have rhap­sodized this song at great length. Heck, I even wrote about Secret Samad­hi once for Sty­lus.

If you grew up any­where in Penn­syl­va­nia in the ’90s, Live were inescapable. Think of it as a post-grunge Dave Matthews Band. You know, the sort of band that believes they are sav­ing the word with each awk­ward rhyme. It was awful.

Worse? I’m guess­ing this post has just made me num­ber one for “Lakini’s Juice” SEO. I guess that feel­ing I’m mis­tak­ing for pride is real­ly just schaden­freude.

Posted on by J T. Ramsay 4