AT 12 to 6 - Mazarin - We're Already There - 2005

So, on my brother's last night in town I made a rather dangerous discovery. Joe had met me after work and we (along with Anand) had gone for a couple beers at a west village bar and then to the Belgian place on West 4th. After a few we started thinking about places to eat.

I had asked Joe, being as it was his last night in town, if there was any particular request he had for his last night in town. Getting an opinion on plans from my brother is one of the trickier tasks in the universe, so of course his answer was "I don't know dude, whatever you want". So I racked my brain for something kind of interesting and fun that would be good to eat on a rainy Monday after a few beers when a good answer hit me: Hill Country.

For those that have never experienced the wonder that is Hill Country, it is a Texas themed BBQ restaurant on 26th St between Broadway and 6th Ave. Rather than being locked into certain entrees or whatever, the service is cafeteria style with meat ordered by the pound (Me personally, I usually get 2 pork ribs and a 1/4 or 1/2 pound of moist brisket...depending on my appetite). The also have extremely good and trashy sides like gooey mac n cheese or green bean casserole and of course tasty beverages.

As we were walking in the guy who usually hands you your meal card stopped me and asked "Do you want pay by the pound or are you here for the All You Can Eat."

Without thinking I said "the pay by the pound...wait, wait, talk to me about this All You Can Eat".

Turns out on Monday nights you can get all you can eat for $25 per person (Which is a great deal, as I usually spend at least $25 there anyway). This is a dangerous thing for me to know. Joe and I ate ribs and moist brisket until we rolled ourselves out into a cab.

Now that I'm at an age where I only have time to fall in love with about 5-6 albums a year as oppossed to 20, it is especially sad that a band that put out an album I really love had to stop making records right afterwards. After putting out two middling albums with a couple of decent songs under the name Mazarin, Philly's Quinten Stoltzfus finally got one right with "We're Already There". And then he got caught in a lengthy dispute about the name rights for the band and has seemed to have retreated to the world of studio work for the time being. Here's hoping he comes back out swinging with another good record of his style of melencholy power pop.

Another One Goes By - Mazarin - We're Already There - 2005

Sorry if updates are even laxer than usual this week. I leave for a little vacation to Mexico Thursday morning, so my mind is most definitely elsewhere. Anyway...

It seems appropriate that I'd be writing about this song today anyway. It's the first really autumnal day we've had this season, and this song just screams fall. Without really sounding in anyway like R.E.M.'s Reckoning it has the same sense of turning leaves and breezes with a hint of frost in them.

I suppose it's fair to say that the fall is the most contemplative of seasons. With the end of the shining summer, and the inevitable approach of cold and gray winter, it's easy to think of the impermenance of everything. Of human life, obviously, but somewhat less morosely of any good thing. From the way that every milkshake has a last sip, to the way that the passion of young love eventually mellows into the warm affection and concern of a relationship, Autumn speaks to both the passing of time, and to sucking the last bit of sweetness from the well.

I've listened to the song over and over to try to determine what it is about the song (which if I haven't made it perfectly clear, I think is damn near perfect) that makes it seem so fall-like. Perhaps it's the general sad yet laid back vibe, or perhaps he combination of the piano and the strummed dulcimer also work well to create the sense of a cold wind through dying leaves, or Quintin Stotzfus' Brian Wilson-esque vocals. All in all, it's a really wonderful construction.