Stepping Out Of The Dark: A Seattleite’s Comedy Debut

May 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The path to comedy stardom?

Here at Cajun Tomato world headquarters in east Harlem I welcome guest submissions. Today, I have the pleasure of sharing my friend Matt Wastradowski‘s recap of his stand-up comedy debut. Enjoy!

The bitter taste of a warm IPA lingers as I absentmindedly tap my foot under a small table in the darkened club. Tonight’s open-mic host steps to the stage, thanks the previous comic, and calls the final performer of the night: “Matt W.”

I take a deep breath, step onto the carpeted stage, and turn to the audience, ready to make my stand-up comedy debut. But whatever nerves I wrestled with in the previous two hours have been pushed aside for a startling realization: I can’t see the crowd.

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Cajun Tomato’s Most Viewed Posts 2012

January 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Now that 2012 is in the books here’s a look back at my most viewed posts 2012 edition. Thanks to each and every one of you who read my blog!

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Filed Under: Album Reviews, Breaking Bad, Coachella 2012, Movies, Music, NYC, Portland, Television Tagged With: , , ,

Death Grips Preview Apocalyptic Soundtrack During Frenzied Portland Set

December 6, 2012 By 1 Comment

MC Ride via Prefix

Ed. Note: Cajun Tomato correspondent Scott Hesedahl recently attended Death Grips’ Portland show. Though the band’s abrasive sonics are certainly not for everyone he loved their show’s intensity.

As I waited Saturday night in a downpour for the Star Theatre’s doors to open, a stranger approached to inform me he planned on pissing through the fence the line had formed against.

I attempted telling him there were better spots to urinate in the belly of Chinatown.

“Fuck it,” he replied. “It’s the Death Grips, man.”

Yes, Death Grips, the Cali death-hop act that surprisingly signed to a major label only to be dropped by that major label (Epic) after leaking their album for free without notifying the label.

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Filed Under: Concert Reviews, Live Music, Music, Portland Tagged With: , , , ,

ASAP Rocky’s Roseland Theater Set Hints At Bright Future

October 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

ASAP via New York Times

Cajun Tomato hip-hop correspondent Scott Hesedahl makes his debut with this dispatch about Harlem rapper ASAP Rocky’s Roseland Theater tour stop, which also included indie rap faves Danny Brown and Schoolboy Q.

PORTLAND, Ore. – I am now 0-for-2 in my quest to see Detroit MC Danny Brown perform – despite having tickets to both shows – though I assure you it had nothing to do with me “smoking blunt after blunt after blunt after blunt.”

There were, however, many blunts blazed during the sold-out ASAP Rocky/Schoolboy Q/Danny Brown show Monday night at Roseland Theater, during which I realized my assertion the kids these days are getting soft may not always hold water. More on that later.

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Cajun Tomato’s NYC 100: “Portland vs Williamsburg”

October 22, 2012 By 9 Comments

This is the 12th installment of Cajun Tomato’s NYC 100, a daily series chronicling my experiences and observations as a new New Yorker.

A few Saturdays ago I was sitting in a bar in Williamsburg when a skinny man of Dominican descent entered wearing a sleeveless, chicken noodle-colored shirt that failed to reach his belly button. A black camera with a pricey-looking lens hung near his waist. Perhaps he fashioned himself a bohemian photographer. What I do know is he didn’t appear the least bit bothered his shirt was fit for sale in the kids’ section at a neighborhood thrift store.

Ah, hipsters.

They’re everywhere in Williamsburg, like ironic cockroaches convinced granny glasses, scrotum-hugging jeans, and midriff-revealing T-shirts will live on after the apocalypse. Their conversations are like their outfits – ironic, devoid of taste, and loaded with cancerous levels of pretension.

While I lived in Portland there was always noise about Brooklyn, particularly Williamsburg, being its main competition for the mythical title of America’s Hipster Capital.

So where do I stand on Portland vs Williamsburg in the ultimate slap fight of hipsters?

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Filed Under: Cajun Tomato's NYC 100, NYC, Portland Tagged With: , , ,

Live Review: Twin Shadow Impresses With See-Through Sweater, Music At Doug Fir

August 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

An inferno shadow

“Poooooooorrrrrrrrrtttttlaaaaannnddddddd …. ”

George Lewis Jr. whispered his crowd greeting Wednesday night in a belabored way that suggested he had sampled the city’s finest kush before taking the Doug Fir Lounge’s stage. A blazed Lewis, in the flesh, represented progress from the first time I paid to see Twin Shadow at the venue last year.

Lewis and Co. started off with “Golden Light” and “Five Seconds” – two of my favorite songs off their new album, Confess. However, they felt low energy and Lewis’s vocals seemed off-time. That did not stop the guy behind me from exclaiming to a friend in his thick Irish accent, “He’s a young fuckin’ Prince.”

Did a young Prince ever wear a see-through sweater? (Maybe.)

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Live Review: Charli XCX And My Blue Ink Pen Leave Mark On Doug Fir Crowd

August 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

My signed ticket

About 20 minutes after British “dark pop” buzzbaby Charli XCX finished her brief set Wednesday night inside Doug Fir Lounge a twentysomething woman to my right asked aloud if anyone had a pen.

We were waiting in a poorly formed line to congratulate the 20-year-old Brit on her captivating performance. “I do,” I answered, passing the fan a blue, dime a dozen pen that, as a reporter, I always keep on me out of habit. It worked, she exclaimed after writing on her hand.

A few minutes passed before Charli XCX’s attention turned to the woman who had my pen and her friends. At this point, I thought they were going to ask the singer to sign a set list or a ticket stub, as I had planned.

Wrong. Wednesday turned out to be my anonymous pen’s breakout.

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Filed Under: Concert Reviews, Live Music, Music, Portland Tagged With: , , , ,

On Hiding Gingersapiens, Portland Boho Chic, And Cajun Tomato Correspondents

August 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

My hiding face

I am hiding again. My “landlord” is at my house fixing the toilet. She has an idea someone besides my roommate is living in her house but does not know it’s me, a 6-foot-2 gingersapien. I aim to keep it that way for everyone’s better sake.

Anyway, I am sitting at a nearby coffeeshop getting overcaffeinated, observing Portland boho chic fashion, and, um, watching a guy squat on his haunches while reading the Oregonian newspaper’s lead story line by line in its box. BUY THE PAPER, BUDDY!!!!

He walked off. Oh well. Such is the newspaper business. Steal the product, ya bastards!

If you’ve made it this far, high-five. I have an announcement: I am looking for writers. Yes, if you have an interesting idea or topic you would like to write about in this space, let me know via email – raybaybay3@gmail.com. Please, please, please, no Jonah Lehrer or Fareed Zakaria bullshit (i.e., fabricated or plagiarized work).

Cheers!

Filed Under: Musings, Portland Tagged With: , , ,

“Shut Up And Play The Hits” AKA Shut Up, Klosterman! Let LCD Play The Hits!

August 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

Shortly after LCD Soundsystem played its sold-out Madison Square Garden retirement party last April, I wrote a lengthy piece about what they meant to me as recording artists and a live act. In a nutshell, I believe they were my generation’s defining act.

So when I went to Hollywood Theater Thursday night to watch “Shut Up And Play The Hits”, the concert film/documentary about LCD Soundsystem and its frontman James Murphy, I entered with high expectations – especially high because the idea of watching a concert documentary generally would not be high on my list of things to do.

And while I left the theater wishing I had been at LCD Soundsystem’s final show, not to mention begrudging the lucky bastards who saw it live, I felt conflicted about the film I had just seen. Yes, I enjoyed the live footage (no surprise) but the loose documentary surrounding it, particularly the bloated and pretentious interview stylings of journalist Chuck Klosterman, I could have done without.

That’s a roundabout way of saying maybe I should have waited for the release of the nearly four-hour Madison Square Garden concert on DVD.

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Filed Under: Live Music, Movies, Music, Portland Tagged With: , , , , ,

“Breaking Bad” Season 5, Episode 3

July 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

WARNING: SPOILERS spoilers SPOILERS spoilers SPOILERS!!!!

Forget the Olympians shown on tape delay Sunday night. “Breaking Bad” took the gold in the TV Olympics. If you’re wondering, AMC’s other show, reality series Small Town Security, failed to make the TV Olympics. That show is to TV what this 11-year-old girl is to National Anthem singers.

“Hazard Pay”, the third episode of “Breaking Bad”‘s fifth season, did not quite match the suspense of its predecessor, “Madrigal”, but it captivated nonetheless, in the way it moved the plot along. Mike is willing to do what it takes to keep his word. Skyler cracks up. And, well, Walt is Walt, the would-be meth kingpin, who never quite controls the chess pieces the way he would like.

Here are my thoughts on “Hazard Pay.” Check it!

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Filed Under: Breaking Bad, Portland, Television Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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