We made Bloody Disgusting’s TWISTED Video of the WEEK!

Sure we encountered character-building obstacles along the way but we’ve found that the simultaneous ignition of gasoline and lighter fluid can bring joy and delight to pretty much any situation. However it must be said that if the going gets really tough it probably means you’re using a Nikon instead of a Canon.

So without further ado, here’s a BIG THANKS to all the lunatics who helped make this happen!

Enjoy…

Do You Say Your Prayers At Night?

Rx,
           SM

A BIG Thank You & a Hell Yeah to everybody that came out to celebrate the Night of the Wolf Moon…
It was weird, wonderful and a Howling success!

Couldn’t have done it without the Swedish metal massage of Magnuson,
the voodoo magic of The Slow Poisoner, the acoustic punk blues of The Bad Bad Things,
the indie-pop groves of The Cocanuts, the untiring support of Santa Monica’s
premier live music venue Club TRiP and all of YOU loyal music fanatics!

Aaaaaaaoooogh!!!

Rx,
SM

The graciously eloquent Erik Carlson of Bibliodiscoteque has spoiled us.
Read his review on Race to the Red HERE and Do You Say Your Prayers At Night? HERE

Rx, SM 

While the holidays are generally a time of festive merriment, the season can also be a huge source of ulcer inducing stress. The pressure and drama with family and friends, the crush and obligation of last minute spending, angry crowds and for many a LONG journey home can leave you reeling with anxiety and unrest.

That’s why SURGEON MARTA recommends the liberal application of the following Holiday Stress Busting Remedies…

	1) Alcohol Sit back with a cold one! We initially called this The Black in Black but after Katie Taylor punched her way to Olympic Gold, we renamed it the Black & Blue. What is it you ask? Why, the simplest drink you ever mixed: Take one bottle of Guinness Draught and one bottle of Guinness Black Lager combine in a frosty mug for the steroidal oomph that the Stout World has been waiting for. (TIP – Great refresher after fisticuffs with annoying sibling)
	2) Holiday Movies Tired of miracles on whatever fecking street or that damned Charlie kid and his lame tree? Neighbor too Grinch-y to share their Netflix account info? Relax, we have the perfect movie for you and it’s FREE! Álex de la Iglesia’s The Day of the Beast (Spanish: ‘El día de la Bestia’) is available in its entirety on YouTube and is hands-down THE BEST Christmas move EVER! (TIP – Gained the reputation as a notorious drinking game for every time you hear the word, “FUERTE!”)
	3) Blow Shit Up It’s been statically proven that loud bangs can improve your standing with younger siblings/cousins and nieces/nephews by 200%. Now assuming you have the adult credentials to conduct such an experiment, take one plastic bottle, mix with water and dry ice and stand WAY back for one hell of a, “Where did the bottle go?!?” explosion. (TIP – We in no way endorse the construction of said items and would remind readers that courtesy of the Patriot Act possession of such items will probably land you in the big house as a societal malcontent. Oh and you’re gonna shoot your eye out.)
	4) Better Than Coal Work for a real shit? Then send them a taste of their own medicine! Horse Shit on a Silver Platter delivered to their door anonymously. Click HERE for more details. (TIP – Don’t even think of sending this to us, we have a dry ice maker.)
	5) Music What better way to unwind and share the Xmas love then to give the gift of great music? Send your family, friends & relatives over to SurgeonMarta.com to sign up for FREE tunes, cool swag and blog advice for all that ails thee. (TIP – Dancing around the house naked covered in red goo absolutely enhances the listening experience… Aaaaoooogh! Rx, SM)

You know, there might be something to all this End-Of-The-World business because, that’s right…

WE’RE BACK!

Now assuming we all survive the night, let us tell you what we have in store for

Saturday, January 26th, 2013:

It’s the first FULL MOON of the new year and as legend has it was dubbed the Wolf Moon by ancient Native American tribes.  So no surprises when we picked this day to premiere our werewolf inspired music video -
Do You Say Your Prayers At Night? our first official music video since Send More Cops!

Joining us on this special night is The Slow Poisoner a one-man surrealistic rock and roll band from San Francisco. He’s also a spiritual advice columnist at Pork Magazine who’s prognostications of the herenow & hereafter – thrill with uncanny accuracy.

But wait – there’s more!

Keeping the party going will be Culver City’s The Bad Bad Things, a drunk rock garage fiesta fronted by powerhouse vocalist Kryss Deetch.  Prepare to walk the plank to margaritaville!

Finally, wrapping up the night is Moonshine Earl wanted for crimes against musicality in at least seven states and banned from every live venue within Boston’s city limits. This liquored lothario will be making his west coast debut at Trip!

See you there!

Rx,
    SM

Rx,
      SM

It started off harmless enough, back in March, I stumbled across a silly post about something called a Cherpumple on the website That’s Nerdalicious. That naturally prompted me to forward it to my expert baker friend where we had a hearty laugh over the whole concept. The photo was both entertaining, “Who would even think to make a thing like that?!” and horrifying, “OMG who would even eat a thing like that?!” and after a few quick emails back in forth it was all but forgotten.

Or was it…?

The Cherpumple topic kept creeping up over the comings weeks and months but the conversations started to be more about the “how’s” and less about the “why’s” someone would even to begin to make such a thing. Obviously more research had to be done. Extensive Google-ing brought us to Charles Phoenix’s website which not only had a very entertaining how-to video but a recipe and fan examples!

(Click on images below for larger versions)

Getting lost in the flour		Carrots, carrots, carrots!		Whirling dervish of frosting		Whipped to perfection!

Encouraged by what we found we decided to attempt our very own Monster-Pie-Cake assent or plunge (depending on how you want to look at it…) and the serious planning kicked in. Hours were spent testing the pie/cake combinations and their recipes, selecting the best ingredients, gathering the proper equipment, considering the theme plus planning the baking and final assembly.

The plan was solid enough; bake the pies on the first day, then bake the pies in the cakes on the second, cool and decorate. The theme was Fall/Thanksgiving so the pie/cake combos we finally decided upon were:

• Apple Pie in a Spice Cake
• Pecan Pie in a Chocolate Cake
• Pumpkin Pie in a Carrot Cake

Pecan Pie		Apple Pie		Pumpkin Pie

Day one went well enough as the pies came out of the oven looking picture perfect and armed with the knowledge that our added touches of hand toasted pecans and dried fruit soaked in an exotically named rum were only going to add to the flavor spectacle – our spirits were high.

Is that a pie in your cake?		Pie-cake-y!		hours later…		finally!

Day two started off with deceptive ease as the apple pie de-tined smoothly in almost eager anticipation of its spice cake batter bath and headed into the oven in record time. Of course that’s when the clouds started to darken overhead. The pie-cake combos took waaaay longer to cook and cool then we had initially calculated and to make matters worse our trustworthy cream cheese frosting was acting up. Very late into the night we decided that decoration would have to wait for the following day.

Held up on the side of our imposing pie-cake precipice, fretting about frosting, powdered sugar supplies running low, we found ourselves wondering if we’d ever reach the end of our pie-cake journey or have to abort the mission and turn back in defeat. And that’s when the secret of the Cherpumple/Pepumple/PieCaken finally revealed itself to us. I could tell you the secret but that would rob you of the thrill and wonderment of the pie-cake nirvana that awaits you in your own attempt(s).

While we have yet to reach the ultimate 3-tiered Shangri-La of the pie-cake world we did make a spectacular 2-tiered PieCaken:

Behold – The PieCaken!

An apple pie in spice cake with a cream cheese & orange liquor crumb coat underneath a pecan pie in chocolate cake covered in chocolate ganache with an outer frosting of whipped cream, the sides sprinkled with edible gold flakes, topped with hand made milk & white chocolates shaped into maple leaves and brushed with edible copper & gold dusts. Our final PieCaken weighed over 20lbs, cut beautifully and was devoured in roughly 10 minutes of being presented.

FYI – We did make that final pumpkin pie in carrot cake combo but we ended up pouring cognac into it over the next 3 days, decorating it with the remaining cream cheese frosting, edible gold flakes, maple leaf chocolates and enjoyed it for desert at Thanksgiving.

A huge thank you to Charles Phoenix and his fellow Cherpumple explorers, your success & disaster stories were a source of endless entertainment & inspiration. Best of luck to all the future monster-pie-cakers out there and remember – Go BIG or Go Home!

Rx,
  Vivian

UPDATE – Our PieCaken has inspired a poem! This is the Key of the Kingdom

UPDATE 2 – Our PieCaken made it onto Charles Phoenix.com!

As we come upon the 3rd and final Friday the 13th for this special year we’d like to take this moment to reflect on the almost forgotten positive side of this fear-filled day.

Apparently in ancient times thirteen was regarded as a truly auspicious number. It’s linked to lunar and goddess worship and represents luckiness, fertility, potency and good fortune. Oddly enough the Moon does have roughly thirteen revolutions around the earth in one year in addition to thirteen annual cycles.

Ultimately, it’s just another day but here at SM, Hq we’re running studies in Aural Quantum Manifestation. So we suggest turning up the music and rocking out on this planetary spaceship called Earth and remember… T.G.I.F

Rx, SM