If you read this, you know I mostly use Amazon Music, but I do copy stuff to Spotify. I should copy these ones over. I refuse to pay to synch them with Tune My Music though, so I try to wait until I’m close to done to copy it. I may have copied some of these a long time ago.
What are your go-to Halloween songs? What am I missing from these lists?
I was in a cooking mood last weekend, and I tried out some hot German style potato salad. As usual, I googled recipes, solicited advice on Threads, and even bounced stuff off of LLM’s. I came up with the recipe below, and it paired nice with some Reubens. The bread on the Reubens was less than stellar. I need to get some better rye, & make sure it’s still seedless. (Thanks, diverticulitis!) Maybe marbled or Pumpernickel is the way to go? I’m not much of a baker, unless it’s as easy as the Cheesy Beer Bread.
OK. So here’s what I did:
Ingredients
2 lbs. red potatoes
10 strips thick-cut bacon, chopped
1/2 of a Spanish onion, finely diced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground mustard
Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder, & Garlic Powder to taste
Dried parsley to taste
Fresh chopped parsley
Instructions
Put the whole potatoes in a large pot and cover with about 1 to 2 inches of cold, salted water (or chicken broth for extra flavor). Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork, about 15-20 minutes. Drain the potatoes well and set them aside. (Next time I will add the other half of the onion here. I did add a bit of ham bullion to the water.)
While the potatoes are cooking, place the chopped bacon in a large skillet or pan over medium-low heat. Cook until the bacon is crispy, stirring occasionally to ensure even cooking. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon pieces and place them on a paper towel-lined plate to drain, but leave the rendered bacon grease in the skillet. (I may have snuck in a tiny bit of butter here.) This seemingly takes forever but is worth it. I seasoned the bacon with onion powder, garlic powder, & black pepper.
Add the diced onion to the skillet with the bacon grease. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the onion is soft & translucent.
To the skillet with the onions and bacon grease, add the chicken broth, white vinegar, sugar, Dijon mustard, and ground mustard. Whisk the mixture to combine. Bring the dressing to a simmer and let it cook for about 2 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. I put the dried parsley in here, too.
Dice, the still-warm potatoes into large 1-inch-ish chunks, then place in a large bowl. Pour the hot dressing over the potatoes and gently toss to coat. Stir in about half of the cooked bacon pieces.
Let the salad sit for at least 15 minutes to allow the potatoes to fully absorb the flavors. Just before serving, sprinkle the remaining crispy bacon and fresh chopped parsley or chives over the top.
I wondered if honey mustard would be good? Obviously brown mustard or German mustard or even yellow mustard should be fine. I wonder what Herlocher’s would be like? Apple cider vinegar or brown sugar should be fine too. I see proponents for and against just about every variation online.
I say use what you have on hand or what you know you like. I bet I used Mrs. Dash’s table blend at some point, too. Some recipes recommended wine instead of broth. I may try it with beer?
Is this one you make often? Have you ever tried it? What are your tips & tricks? Luckily both kids liked it, so I’m sure I’ll be making it again. Also… I really didn’t measure much…. I just go.
Hit me up with your take on the Reuben, too! I have made them a few different ways, but always with the same basic ingredients.
Also, this is a hilariously appropriate song to rock to while you’re cooking:
This is another punk-rock leaning short one. “Bloodbath at Burger King” is an absolute gem, as are many others here. This is what I have so far:
Screeching Weasel – “I Saw The Devil At McDonalds (Demo)”
Teenage Bottlerocket – “Blood Bath At Burger King”
The Berlin Project – “Taco Bell World”
Gas Station Boner Pills – “Fist Fight at the Waffle House”
Richies – “Le Big Mac”
Indigo Girls – “Dairy Queen”
The Knuckleheadz – “Fuck McDz”
Teenage Bottlerocket – “Too Much La Collina”
Wesley Willis – “Rock ‘N Roll McDonald’s”
The Smithereens – “White Castle Blues”
Boris the Sprinkler – “Don’t Really Want To Walk To Taco Bell Without You”
Silly Stu – “McDonald’s in the Pentagon”
Motorpsychos – “Fries With That”
The Aquabats! – “Burger Rain!”
Parry Gripp – “Raining Tacos”
What am I missing? Are there punk-leaning songs about Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Raising Cane’s, or Chick-fil-A? Panera? Jersey Mike’s, Jimmy John’s, Subway, Quizno’s, Vocelli Pizza, Papa John’s, or Domino’s? What about Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr., Checker’s, Rally’s, Five Guy’s, In & Out, Krystal, Jack-in-the-Box, Rax, Arby’s, or Auntie Anne’s? I’ll even take Eat’n Park or Denny’s.
Holy cow, reddit’s r/punk and Facebook’s Oddly Specific Playlists stepped up with some killer suggestions! The list is currently at 85 tracks. Some fit more loosely than others… but close enough counts in horse shoes, hand grenades, and punk rock.
Also, I need to figure out the right plugin to let me embed Amazon playlists here.
There are way too many ways to cook a hot dog. Not long ago, if you suggested I boil some… I would politely have found the quickest way out of that conversation. This time I simmered the dogs in beer, then popped them in the oven on the air-fryer setting.
Then again, sometimes I get weird ideas that won’t go away until they come to fruition. Hot dogs aren’t my favorite food, but they’re fun to make different every time. If not grilling, I like to cook them in the oven, especially when cooking dinner for the family & wanting a whole pack cooked at once. This time I did something different.
After you read this recipe, tell me what you’d do different, or what you like on your dogs! Oh yeah. sides too. I wanted to use corn starch on the potato wedges, but I was out, so flour it was. It crisped them up just enough to keep it interesting. I was heavy on the black pepper, so they had a bite.
Cut potatoes into wedges, about ½” thick at the skin edge.
Soak in cold water 30 minutes (this pulls starch so they crisp better).
Drain, blot very dry. Moisture = soggy wedges.
Toss in a bowl with:
1–2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp oil (olive, canola, or peanut)
Seasonings: paprika, garlic/onion powder, salt, pepper, maybe cayenne or smoked paprika for punch.
Cook
Oven air fry or convection at 425°F (both will crisp better than standard bake).
Spread on parchment-lined sheet, not touching.
Cook 25–30 min, flipping halfway.
🌭 Hot Dogs
Parboil
In a small pot, add:
1 bottle/can Yuengling
1 beef bouillon cube
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp minced garlic
¼ tsp ground mustard (optional, but yes it’ll add a tangy depth)
Bring to a gentle simmer. Drop in hot dogs, simmer 5–6 min (don’t boil hard).
Finish in Oven
After parboil, move hot dogs to a rack or foil-lined pan.
Toss them in the oven (same rack as potatoes if you can) for 8–10 min at 425°F (air fry/convection), flipping once, so skins blister and caramelize a little.
🥖 Buns + Cheese
At the last 2–3 min of hot dog oven time, open buns, lay on pan.
Add cheese slices. Toast until buns are warm and cheese is gooey.
🔄 Timing Plan
Start soaking potatoes → 30 min.
Preheat oven to 425°F (air fry/convection).
While soaking, prep hot dog beer bath.
Drain & coat potatoes. Get them in oven first (they take longest).
Timer: 25–30 min.
While wedges cook, simmer hot dogs in beer bath (~5–6 min).
About halfway into potato time (15 min mark), move hot dogs to oven on pan/rack.
They’ll need ~8–10 min to finish, which lines up with potatoes finishing.
Last 2–3 min: add buns + cheese.
Everything should hit the plate hot at the same time.
🌭🫘🥔
🫘 Drunken Baked Beans
A simple can of beans made rich with the leftover beer broth from the hot dogs. Deep, savory, slightly malty… it’s like BBQ beans with a secret ingredient.
Ingredients:
1 large can of baked beans
½ cup reserved beer broth from hot dogs (strained)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp mustard (yellow or Dijon)
Optional: dash of hot sauce or crumbled bacon
Method:
Taste and adjust seasoning — more sugar if you like sweet, hot sauce if you like heat.
Combine beans with broth, sugar, and mustard in a saucepan.
Simmer low and slow (20–30 minutes), stirring occasionally, until thickened and glossy.
👉 Extra Tips:
Flip wedges and hot dogs at halfway for even browning.
If wedges look done before hot dogs, crack the oven door and let them hang on residual heat.
You can reduce a little of the beer/bouillon liquid into a quick dipping sauce (mix in mustard/ketchup) if you want to go wild.
I added the beer/bullion liquid to the baked beans with BBQ sauce… not what ChatGPT suggested.
🫘🫘🫘
Needless to say, I didn’t follow that exactly… but I did toast the buns, & made the dogs to order. Mine had relish, my son’s had fresh jalapeño from the garden, my wife didn’t want cheese, and my daughter didn’t want mustard.
Dunk, Drunk, n’ Dried Dogs
I gotta buy some damn corn starch.
Crispy Potato Wedges
I used Yuengling, but I also would use Straub Amber, Penn Pilsner, Lion’s Head, or Smithwick’s. What would you use?
Apparently beer & cheese have been on my mind lately. I saw a post by @swampmuse on threads of some cheesy beer bread and it looked awesome. She was cool enough to share her recipe. That got me thinking about beer cheese dip because of the shared ingredients. I was in a cooking mood last night. I’ll definitely be making the bread again, and the cheese dip would be great for pretzels… so maybe new years or a cold October night?
They were good together. I wonder if beer cheese bread in beer cheese dip is meta, or merely going hard?
I hardly drink any more, and the big bird was out of Yuengling bottle six packs & only had Straub Amber can 15 packs… so, I ended up with 2 big-ass 24 oz. cans of Yuengling Traditional Lager.
Brush additional melted butter on top @ 35 minutes.
Notes: I’m a dumbass, I left all the butter for the end when I should have mixed it in. Next time! I may have went heavy on my pinch of salt, too. I did brush all the butter on at 35 minutes, & it went for another 15 minutes, & was perfect. I think I will also sprinkle some additional shredded cheese on the top at the 35 min. mark… because, I mean… why not?
My 10 year old said he “thought it was going to be gross because it looked all bumpy” but was an immediate fan upon tasting.
Thank you so much to @swampmuse for the original post, the inspiration, and the recipe!
Beer Cheese Dip 🍺🧀
I had this on my mind, looked at a bunch or recipes online, and just winged it.
Ingredients:
1 16 oz. block of Velveeta
1 8 oz. block of cream cheese
1 cup beer
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1 cup shredded Gouda
ground mustard to taste
white pepper to taste
yellow mustard to taste
Instructions:
Cube up the Velveeta & cream cheese, put it in a crock pot on high.
Toss on the mustard powder & white pepper to taste, add a dollop of yellow mustard.
Stir it every 10 min. or so until it’s melty.
Add in the beer, stir.
Add in the shredded cheese, stir.
Stir.
Be incredibly patient.
Stir.
Notes: It takes longer than you think & looks weird until it hits that “just right” point. This is probably a different time estimate for every appliance. You could obviously do this in a sauce pan or double boiler if that’s what you’ve got. The mustard is an emulsifier and helps with smoothness. I picked white pepper over garlic or hot sauce as other recipes noted. I also skipped Worcestershire sauce as some recommended as it can contain anchovies, and weirdly anchovies can trigger shellfish allergies. Dropping some jalapeño or poblano from the garden into this also would have been pretty killer.
Overall, these recipes are just a guide, and you can go all anarchy on them. What kind of beer do you like to cook with? What kind of cheese or spices would you add or swap out for? And, what would you dip in it? Would you did the cheesy beer bread in the beer cheese dip? Got any recommendations on either recipe?
🍻🧀🍺🍞🍻
While you’re making or eating these, consider rocking out to these playlists…
Inspired by the comments on a reddit post, I wanted to dig into some pre-“punk” proto-punk. I set Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, & Copilot to the task as I’m fascinated by their ability to parse & compile information if prompted accurately. (I’m also fascinated my their penchant to provide completely incorrect or even made-up information. Some time I will have to blog about my experiment in having them search restaurant menus in an area to see if they serve shellfish. Copilot recommended some seafood places, so clearly it wants to kill me.)
I added my own stuff that some of them disagreed with, but it is my list after all. 🤣 Going back to little Richard and including Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” were points of contention, as I would expect from a conversation with people.
Music snobs aficionados, audiophiles, and punk rock gatekeepers will argue all day every day about the origin of punk… but for me, to be clear, it’s the moment that the Ramones’ self-titled album dropped. So, with that in mind I gave the language models this prompt:
There is and always will be constant debate, but if we agree for the premise of this exercise that the Ramones self-titled debut album was the first punk album… What are 25 songs that should belong on a proto-punk or punk precursor playlist?
I would assume bands that get mentioned as the progenitors would most likely include The Kinks, the Sonics, Link Wray, The Stooges, the MC5, the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, & more I’m sure to be missing. Maybe even the band Death who hailed from Detroit MI?
All songs on the list should have been released before April 23, 1976… and be listed in order if release date by single or album, whichever dropped first.
This has been corrected for my typically egregious spelling/typing/lack-of-proofreading errors. After tossing the rules to the wind, keeping to the spirit of punk rock, we arrived here:
“Little Demon” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1956)
“Tutti Frutti” – Little Richard (1955)
“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” – Jerry Lee Lewis (1957)
“Rumble” – Link Wray (1958)
“La Bamba” – Ritchie Valens (1958)
“Love Me” – The Phantom (1958)
“Louie Louie” – The Kingsmen (1963)
“Surfin’ Bird” – The Trashmen (1963)
“Baby Let Me Take You Home” – The Animals (1964)
“House of the Rising Sun” – The Animals (1964)
“I’m Crying” – The Animals (1964)
“You Really Got Me” – The Kinks (1964)
“Gloria” – Them (1964)
“I Can’t Explain” – The Who (1964)
“Dirty Water” – The Standells (1966)
“My Generation” – The Who (1965)
“Strychnine” – The Sonics (1965)
“I’m a Man” – The Yardbirds (1965)
“We Gotta Get Out of This Place” – The Animals (1965)
“96 Tears” – ? & The Mysterians (1966)
“Wild Thing” – The Troggs (1966)
“Complication” – The Monks (1966)
“Psychotic Reaction” – Count Five (1966)
“Pushin’ Too Hard” – The Seeds (1966)
“7 and 7 Is” – Love (1966)
“I’m Not Like Everybody Else” – The Kinks (1966)
“You’re Gonna Miss Me” – The 13th Floor Elevators (1966)
“Talk Talk” – The Music Machine (1966)
“I’m Waiting for the Man” – The Velvet Underground (1967)
“Doctor Please” – Blue Cheer (1968)
“Sister Ray” – The Velvet Underground (1968)
“Fire” – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968)
“Jigsaw Puzzle” – The Rolling Stones (1968)
“Kick Out the Jams” – MC5 (1969)
“I Wanna Be Your Dog” – The Stooges (1969)
“Little Doll” – The Stooges (1969)
“TV Eye” – The Stooges (1970)
“Paranoid” – Black Sabbath (1970)
“Get It On” – T. Rex (1971)
“School’s Out” – Alice Cooper (1972)
“Suffragette City” – David Bowie (1972)
“Raw Power” – Iggy & The Stooges (1973)
“Search and Destroy” – The Stooges (1973)
“Personality Crisis” – New York Dolls (1973)
“Jet Boy” – New York Dolls (1973)
“Urban Guerrilla” – Hawkwind (1973)
“Violence” – Mott the Hoople (1973)
“Cum On Feel the Noize” – Slade (1973)
“Editions of You” – Roxy Music (1973)
“Ooh La La” – Faces (1973)
“Subway Train” – New York Dolls (1974)
“Hey Joe” – Patti Smith Group (1975)
“Piss Factory” – Patti Smith (1975)
“Roxette” – Dr. Feelgood (1976)
“The Next Big Thing” – The Dictators (1975)
“Chez Maximes” – The Hollywood Brats (1976)
“After Eight” – Neu! (1975)
“Ghost Rider” – Suicide (1977)
“Little Johnny Jewel” – Television (1975)
“30 Seconds Over Tokyo” – Pere Ubu (1975)
“Burn My Eye” – Radio Birdman (1976)
“Politicians in My Eyes” – Death (1976)
“Cherry Bomb” – The Runaways (1976)
“Roadrunner” – The Modern Lovers (1976)
“She Cracked” – The Modern Lovers (1976)
“Shake Some Action” – Flamin’ Groovies (1976)
“Blank Generation” – Richard Hell & the Voidoids (1977)
“Anarchy in the U.K.” – The Sex Pistols (1976)
“Sonic Reducer” – Dead Boys (1977)
“Neat Neat Neat” – The Damned (1977)
“Chinese Rocks” – Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers (1977)
“Psycho Killer” – Talking Heads (1977)
I used Tune My Music to import it to Spotify from a text file, then copy to Amazon Music from there. I tried to go to Amazon first, but it messed up quite a bit of the songs. I did have to add “7 and 7 Is” by Love manually as it shows as “Seven and Seven Is” on Spotify. It weirdly plopped a Bob Marley song in that spot. Amazon was full of weird covers and the wrong songs when trying to import from text.
So, what do you think of the list? What’s missing? What needs added? Are my parameters skewed? Do you not accept anything past the date of what parameters were set? What obscure band that 14 people heard at the time is missing from this list? Don’t come at me with the Sex Pistols over the Ramones. Should we whittle it back to 25? Only have 1 song per artist? Come at me with healthy discourse.
Die, slugs! Die! Recently I had an issue with what appears to be slugs going to town on the bean & pepper plants in my vegetable garden. It has been rather wet lately. It certainly could be other nefarious garden pests, but I may have a prejudice for these creepy little mollusks thanks to my shellfish & mollusk food allergies.
In with the shellfish thing, I’m weird about diatomaceous earth. It; seems like breathing it in can be sus, and it can be harmful to bees. I have crushed up some egg shells and strewn them about, but I’m not certain how effective that is. I try to always rinse them well & add to my compost anyway.
I decided to make some slug traps out of stuff from the recycling bin & a PBR. It was weird to buy 1 can of beer. I rarely drink any more & didn’t need a case or a 6-pack. I did finish off what was left of the 24 oz. can after I baited the traps though.
🚫🐌
I used two empty sour cream tubs, an empty cottage cheese tub, an iced tea jug, & a coffee container. We are perpetually excepting rain, so that’s why I made the covers. I made the cuts very quicky & very sloppy with my pocketknife because I’m impatient at times and of course decided to do this as the sun was going down.
I probably should anchor the covers somehow… but they have not blown away yet.
This morning, I counted 3 slugs overcome by a compulsion to consume delicious fermented hops.
Pour one out for the dead slugs, and drink to their memory as you listen to my Beer 🍻 playlist. Or, if you wanna get crazy, I have a Pabst Blue Ribbon 🥇 playlist. Why are there so many songs that name drop PBR? All I can think of that mentions Yuengling is Nerf Herder’s “New Jersey Girl.” Do any songs mention Straub?
What has proven to work well for you to repel garden pests? I have a small garden this year. I do like to keep the pollinators happy, and the birds n’ squirrels too.
The latest one is Contradictions / Companions and it’s made up of songs that contradict or compliment each other. I mainly listen to Amazon Music, but this one was fun so I copied it to Spotify too.
I have a bunch more weird ones. Sometimes I reach out to Oddly Specific Playlists on Facebook or r/punk for help. Some have a specific order, some are designed for chaos goblins who always choose random.
Here’s some fun ones if you listen to Amazon, let me know if you want me to copy them to Spotify! (I usually do that with Tune My Music):
• AC🗲DC • PWR🗲UP • Acrisure Stadium • Pittsburgh PA • Thursday May 8th, 2025 •
So, I have been a casual AC/DC fan for as long as I can remember getting into music. They were always there, always a mainstay, always the butt of “same sounding songs” jokes alongside fellow icons the Ramones. I believe I bought Razor’s Edge& Back in Black about the same time in Jr. High. I really dug “Big Gun” from the Last Action Hero soundtrack, and of course, loved the older stuff with Bon Scott as I got into them.
My kids heard me playing “Big Balls” when they were younger, and of course glommed onto it as the most hilarious song ever. I think I created a rock fan with my son, as he has really dug into the AC/DC catalog.
He wanted AC/DC tickets for his birthday, so we got some… then later traded up when a good friend said he wanted to come to town to catch the show with another buddy, as the speculation spread that it may be their last tour and they weren’t playing out his way.
I prepped by making a playlist of suspected tunes on Amazon Music & Spotifythanks to Setlist.fm. I also have one called 100% Certified Angus on Amazon & Spotify that we rock sometimes too! And my son has been spinning Back in Black on vinyl of all things. (I refuse to get into vinyl or guitar pedals, because I already have a guitar problem.)
Off we went for my son’s first stadium show, first time seeing Heinz Field Acrisure Stadium, & first time seeing AC/DC live! We did catch The Aquabats! at the Roxian last year and that was super badass. That was his 1st concert (if we don’t count the incredible & talented Laurie Berkner for a Christmas concert when the kids were super small) and 1st punk rock show!
🤘 For those about to rock, we salute you! 🤘
Just a mashup of clips I got that evening of my dude enjoying his night:
If you follow me on the socials, you probably saw a few signs that we were there. It’s super exciting to me to bond over music as it has been such an important thing to me over the years, as a creative outlet, a place of joy, and comfort.
I can say he said it was “the best night of his life,” so I think he had fun! Ha ha. I am glad I got to see Angus & Brian perform. Man, the band are tight, but with a nice loose groove. I knew they were powerhouse rock icons, but to see it? Absolutely amazing. The show production was crazy with the infamous bell, canons, fireworks, huge LED screens, pyrotechnics, confetti, on-the-fly graphics enhancing live video… but at the same time it all seemed very simple. I’m not sure how to convey it. The frills were not the focus. Obviously Angus and his SG’s are the focus. Even Brian knows this, and he looks like he is having the time of his life up there, knowing he has the coolest job in the world.
I think Angus may be slightly slower now that he was in the 80s or 90s, but at 70 years old… he is undeniably crushing it skipping, shimmying, and duck-walking around the stage while playing rambling angry blues licks, goading the crowd into cheering, stripping off parts of the schoolboy uniform, & taking 17 minute extended guitar solos. At one point, he even defiled the fretboard with his necktie as a slide. That is how you put on a show. Some sources online seemed to think Brian’s vocals were low in the mix. I think that was the case where we were at on the floor… but videos from elsewhere have it perfect. His voice is amazing, and again, at 77… he is running around belting out these immortal songs like it’s nothing for 2 damn hours.
The crowd was sedate, lots of people fist-bumping or throwing horns or thumbs up to my dude as we went through the crowd & got to our seats. There were obviously visible drunks, but nothing I saw got too out of hand, even the tailgating outside seemed to be chill.
It has all kinds of videos from promo stuff, to stage setup, to pyrotechnic stuff, vloggers, and nearly every song individually, from a bunch of different vantage points, and someone grabbed the whole show!
We have had a lot of craziness going on lately, so this was a fun respite and I think we needed it. Hopefully this will be a day long remembered by both of us as a highlight to this year.
So, were you there? Share your stories, pictures, & videos in the comments! I’d love more YouTube stuff to add to the playlist too. I think the only individual song I’m missing is “Rock N’ Roll Train.”
If you weren’t there, or saw them some other time, or in your city, or just want to drop some AC/DC memories or lore, do that too!
There’s also something that calls itself Creature Commandos Sountrack Max DC that touts music “from and inspired by” the show. Well, which is from and which inspired by, Warner Bros.?
Are you watching Creature Commandos? You should be. I thought Peacemaker was perfect & it had a banger of a soundtrack too. This one is Gogol Bordello heavy where that had a sleaze metal vibe. I remember seeing Gogol Bordello at least once live. Maybe opening for Flogging Molly?
