Gail and Geoffrey’s Excellent Cuban Food Adventure!

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Fried Sweet Plantains. Oh, So Delicious

One time, many years ago, I did a phone interview with Ian Astbury, lead singer for the Cult. Ian is a fascinating but super long-winded guy and he can talk for hours. That can be a blessing and a curse in itself, but that is another story. While I was on the phone with Ian he started telling me a story about his trip to Cuba (Aside: Ian is OBSESSED with the late Cuban Guerilla leader Che Guevara). He said to me at one point that “The food there was so fucking good, I wanted to eat the plate.” I thought that was a pretty funny quote, but of course he’s right. Cuban food rocks.

Last night, I went with my rad friend Geoffrey to this little Cuban restaurant in Chelsea called, appropriately, Havana Chelsea. Bluntly put, this place is the fucking bomb. I don’t even want to print the restaurant’s address because I want to keep it as secret as possible, so I can always get a table when I go there, which from now on will be OFTEN!
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Mike Nesmith’s Mom Invents Liquid Paper

Bette and Mike Nesmith
Bette Nesmith and Young Michael

Today’s Fun Fact: Monkee Mike Nesmith’s mother was the inventor of Liquid Paper correction fluid.

Bette Nesmith Graham (she was divorced from Michael’s father in 1946 and remarried in 1964) came up with the idea of using a small bottle of tempera waterbase paint to correct her typing errors while she was an executive secretary with Texas Bank & Trust in Dallas in 1951.

She supplied bottles of the fluid to other secretaries at her workplace (under the name “Mistake Out”) for several years; then, in 1956, she improved the formula, changed its name to “Liquid Paper,” and set out to trademark the name and patent her product. After IBM passed on her offer to sell Liquid Paper to them, Bette started marketing the product on her own. Liquid Paper, Inc., did not become profitable for several years, and it was not until the mid-1960s that Liquid Paper correction fluid began to generate substantial income for its inventor.

Liquid Paper was sold to the Gillette Corporation in 1979 for $47.5 million (plus a royalty on every bottle sold until the year 2000). Bette Nesmith Graham died in 1980, leaving half her fortune to her son Michael and half to philanthropic organizations.

Retard of the Year: Ann Coulter!

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Yeah, That About Says It

I try to avoid getting political on this blog, because I am all about The Rock, but Ann Coulter really makes me wish that I had an iron fist so I could smash her stupid face in. The only thing scarier and more vile than this conservative nutjob freakshow are the idiots and morons who think this woman even has the ability to talk sense.
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An Interview with Mercedes Lander of Kittie

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For its fourth full-length album, Funeral For Yesterday, Canadian metal quartet Kittie captured an amazing studio warmth to go with their noticeably evolved, more melodic sound, courtesy of producer legend Jack Ponti (Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Alice Cooper). Although Ponti now works mainly in artist management, according to drummer Mercedes Lander, he “came out of fifteen years retirement to work with us. Jack was a big ‘80s Metal guy,” she continues. “He’s very Old School in his recording methods – which I enjoy. I’m not a big fan of ProTools, which just sucks the life out of everything. Except for the vocals, everything on Funeral For Yesterday was recorded on two-inch analog tape.”
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Gail In Print: Modern Drummer, April 2007

MD April 2007
Carmine Appice: The Best Wig in Rock

Check out my awesome updates with drummers Brooks Wackerman of Tenacious D and Billy Brimblecom of Blackpool Lights in the April 2007 issue of Modern Drummer. Read the full issue online at This Link!

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