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Saturday, February 28, 2009

An unexpected Gentleman Reg sighting

The day 1 highlights from the Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast of Oz use a Gentleman Reg song. I don't really associate his music with surfing, normally.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

more Neko

The NYT has a great article about her life. The pic is from that article, story is she got 8 pianos in various states of disrepair off of craigslist and put them in her barn in Vermont, for recording the song "Don't Forget Me." Sweet.

Update: the 'middle cyclone EPK' video on her myspace is great.

Update #2: NPR ran a nice, long story sunday moning.

Californians moving to Oregon

I don't think this article was supposed to be funny, but it is, yuppies going back to the land... I predict divorce in 6 months. Also, dude was making 100k a year and didn't save anything? 

There's a 150' tall doug fir on the 101 a little north of Newport, OR that has a hand lettered sign hanging very high up: "California Go Home." Oregonians keeping it real.


Update: the woman has a blog, it's interesting to read how her thoughts have evolved in the 2 months they have been in Oregon; the CNN bit is from the earlier, rosy period. They were woefully unprepared, and it looks like they have realized the folly of their ways, and have expanded their job search nation-wide. They aren't hardcore farmers like the Lerner. 

Update2: The newer text is more interesting, seems like they are trying to live simpler, now. 


Beirut

Eliza, and maybe Clare, really likes Beirut, so this one is for you. It's a good interview, regardless if you have heard (of) them or not; amongst other things he talks about eating crickets in Oaxaca.

Robert Altman

Finally saw The Player, I've seen probably 15 of his movies already. It is, of course, great. There were a couple of subtle things in it that I liked alot. The love interest is icelandic, and has 'dottir' in her last name. I think icelandic names are awesome -- you are either someone's son or somebody's daughter. That year in Bjorn and Inga's house with Ryan and Sharon, we learned a bit about icelandic life... A less profound thing was that Cylon number one from BSG is in it. Granted there are about 200 recognizable actors in The Player, but fun none-the-less.

Onion AV did a nice overview of Altman's movies when he died. 

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Piña Colada Sorbet / Umbrella Sorbet post

I like sorbets alot, aside from the lime sorbet quasi-failure... Made a lemon sorbet a couple of days ago 1c sugar/1c water, 1c lemon juice, zest, 1t tequila, pretty good. Banana sorbets, especially with Amarula Liqueur are the bomb. Rhubarb sorbet is tasty too. This piña colada one is pretty good. Look for updates below as I add to the list, I'm kind of addicted to sorbets right now.

Piña Colada sorbet recipe:
1c sugar
14 oz can coconut milk
lime zest
14 oz can crushed pineapple in juice
3 frozen bananas
vanilla
1t Grand Marnier
Boil up the sugar and coconut milk with the lime zest.
Cool, and add everything else, except booze.
Freeze, stir, freeze, stir, 4 hours.
Add booze at end to soften ice crystals (this is a Joy of Cooking trick).

Updates:
Banana/lime/rum, yum.
Durian, Chocolate and Chili, Blood Orange
Apricot
Lime Buttermilk Sherbet
Basil/Coconut milk/Lime
Lime Banana Buttermilk Sherbet
Hachiya Persimmon Vanilla Sorbet
Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Sherbet
Hachiya Persimmon Buttermilk Sherbet
Lemongrass Creme Fraiche Sherbet #1
Orange Creme Fraiche Sherbet #1
Orange Frozen Yogurt
Orange Buttermilk Sherbet
Chocolate Sorbet
Lemon/lime Creme Fraiche Sherbet

Just now (5-14-2010) I read an old David Lebovitz blog post about how to make ice creams without a dedicated machine, and he specifically notes that a stickblender does an admirable job. I figured that trick out pretty early in the process (the banana/lime/rum post) so I didn't make too much lousy sorbet, but now that that recommendation comes from an amateur and a professional you know it's good.

Cherimoya Colada Sorbet
Loquat Sorbet
Lemongrass crème fraîche sherbet #2
Cranberry Sorbet
Sleepytime-Cherry Frozen Yogurt
Licorice Tea Crème Fraîche Sherbet
Two Citrus Crème Fraîche Sherbets
Frozen whipped cream
Orange Crème Fraîche Sherbet
Rice Pudding Sorbet 1
Pumpkin Sorbet
Rice Pudding Sorbet 2
Kefir Sherbet
Frozen Rice Pudding
Pumpkin Crème Fraîche Sherbet 
Piña Colada Ice Cream
Tapioca Pudding Ice Cream
Kumquat Ice Cream  

Veronica Mars movie

I'm a bit late in learning this, but this may be new to some of you, too. Sounds like there will be a Veronica Mars movie.  Nice.

"Sheriff, what's got you so mad?"

The Bobby Jindal speech is pretty funny. He's awfully folksy. The hand gestures are distracting, too. "My fellow citizens, never forget, we are americans" pretty much sums it up.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

New Neko streaming on NPR

Update: album is out, but the stream is still up, not sure why. Buy it. 

Earth as Art

In honor of that satellite dying today, here is some cool satellite imagery of the earth.

Satellite of Love

This is unfortunate, especially given yesterday's story. Oh well, climate change is a fallacy anyway, right? 

Sunday, February 22, 2009

MLK

There was a great cover of the U2 song 'MLK' on Prarie Home Companion this week. 

May your dreams be realized...

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Tortillas de Harina de Baja California

My brother brought back some flour tortillas from Villa Jesus Maria, about half way down Baja. They are the best. They are made with lard. We use them for quesadillas, cooked on a cast iron comal. Epic.

Sharon, Louis, Ryan's mom came over. Quesadillas and beans, a nice salad. Louis ate 6 jujube fruit, courtesy of Amy. He's an experienced/adventurous eater, especially for a 2 year old. I ate my first jujube at 35 (i.e. yesterday).

Abnormally Attracted to Sin Ravioli

So I got an email from Tori Amos yesterday saying that her new album will be titled AAtS. Nice work Tori. In a similar vein, Roger and Amy's conversation last night was particulary designed to make me blush...

We/Eliza made sweet potato ravioli w/ sage butter last night. I had roasted a butternut squash and a massive 3lb garnet yam the other night. The squash wasn't that interesting, but the sweet potato was nice. So the filling was sweet potato, crushed red pepper, nutmeg, marjoram, microplaned parmesan, salt/pepper. In retrospect it was a little too sweet, maybe a little goat cheese would have been nice. Made pasta w/ 4 eggs. I picked the sage from the Coastal Sage Scrub restoration over by Depressions, got some Hummingbird Sage (to Amy's chagrin) and Purple Sage. Eliza became a champion dough roller and ravioli maker in one night. Nice work. Amy's nice salad, and ice cream + peach syrup rounded out a solid evening. Though the carrots in the salad were a might bit sketchy.

Kevin & Vana are really killing it. Their entry on Vietnamese food has great writing and photos.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Kids these days

Keely was sent a really interesting NYT article about grading in universities. The money quote:

“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?”

The Lucky Ones

I'm on a bit of a roll with netflix. I liked this movie alot (trailer). Loosely it's about 3 Iraq war vets on leave in the states for a little while, and they take a roadtrip across america from NYC to vegas. I really like road movies, and this was a pretty decent entry in the genre. It's a subtle, small movie, funny at times, sad at times. It's not political at all, despite Tim Robbins being one of the soldiers. Rachel McAdams does a nice job, she looks and acts like a soldier might. I liked her in Wedding Crashers, too. She's Canadian, that must be why I think she's cool.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Hot to Trot

My brother is in town, on his way back from 3.5 months in Baja. Kinda funny him showing up a day after I posted 4 photos of us back in the day. Anyway, one of our favorite movies, in fact it came up in conversation last night, is Hot to Trot (trailer) which sadly isn't available on DVD, only VHS. This movie is flat out hilarious. Bobcat Goldthwait plays an idiot, and John Candy voices the talking horse. Dabney Coleman and Virgina Madsen are in it, too. Highly recommended (in a very different kind of way from The White Dawn).

It adds a certain je ne sais quoi, don't you think?

The White Dawn

This is one amazing movie. It's about a couple of whalers from the 1800s who become lost from their ship and live with some Inuit people for a year or so. Warren Oates, Louis Gossett Jr., Timothy Bottoms are all great. The landscape is breathtaking. The Inuit are cool. The husky sled dogs are interesting to look at. Henry Mancini did the score. Highly, highly recommended.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Snarky Lasagne

A couple of things this morning precipitated this post, aside from the precipitation. Woke up a little earlier than normal, and the Blazers haven't played in a while (all-star break), so had lots of free time on the interweb. Heard an NPR story on snarkiness. And then I read this blog post about lasagne on 101Cookbooks. Now I love 101Cookbooks, it's got great photography, lots of good recipes, good writing, she usually namedrops cookbooks, etc. Heck, there's a link to it off of my page. But her lasagne post is lame. Her technique is basically straight up italian, there's nothing new here, and she doesn't mention that at all. You've got to respect your roots! Also, rolling out your pasta to '8' is not thin, '9' is thin, and is the setting to use for lasagne. Finally, she used the american spelling of lasagne... This is a much better post about lasagne -- namedroping Marcella Hazan is always good!

You'd think a 3 day weekend would leave me in greater cheer. C'est la vie. Perhaps the 4 day week will help....

That said, this photo makes me happy. It's a cookbook store in Westmount, Quebec. Note the door handle. Photo by Clare, used without permission, as of yet.

Monday, February 16, 2009

SA

We lived in South Africa, '87-'89. It's an amazing country. Just now I came across a pretty cool blog post about a trip across SA, Durban to Capetown, by Andre Botha, a pro bodyboarder from SA and some hipster, tight jeans-wearing NYC friends of his. It's pretty entertaining. 

Surfwise

This is a pretty interesting documentary, about a family that lived off of the grid, living and surfing out of an RV. Parents and 9 kids in an RV!!! Surfing is incidental to the story, it's mostly an interesting character story about 11 related people. It's available instant viewing style off of netflix, so you could watch it tonight.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Jungle Curry III

Quite a bit of experimentation went on with this one. For the meat I used beef short ribs, which I'd never dealt with before. Roasted them in the oven for 30 min, then added curry paste and stock and braised for 2 hours. That was a few days ago. When cooled, the amount of fat on the surface was somewhat horrifying. The fat also seemed to have absorbed alot of the heat as the defatted sauce isn't spicy at all. Sadness. Anyway, pulled the bones out of the meat, reheated it with okra, a whole lot of chard, mizuna, thai basil. Good, not great -- the first was still the best. It's probably the chard's fault, thanks Ryan...

Fresh Chanterelle

At the co-op this morning they had chanterelle mushrooms that somebody had picked locally, so I nabbed one. I went generally french when cooking it -- sauteed in butter, added cream and vermouth, some arugula and basil. Not bad at all.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Polenta. Greens. Red Sauce

I love warm, wet polenta. Please try it that way if you've only done the cooled, sliced, warmed back up version. Just had it with butter and brie in the polenta and a sauce of greens (mizuna, beet greens, parsley) cooked with cream, some red sauce, a little fish sauce. My tummy is the happiest it's been since the last time I had quesadillas made with real tortillas from Baja. A year ago. Happy. Love.
I use the Rogue Dead Guy Ale growler to store dried polenta. Rogue is brewed in Newport, OR, eh? A whole lot of Rogue 22s were consumed while building my folks' house in Newport.... 
Polenta is super easy, but you do have to do some work. The recipe I use is from Marcella Hazan, the Julia Child of Italian cooking. It calls for alot more water than you usually see. That means you have to cook it longer (40 minutes or so), stir more, etc. Because of that, the texture is gloriously smooth. Also, you should use a copper pot. Having the heat go up the side means that the sides get this really cool film of corn starch that peels off every once in a while. It's the little things. It should be an el cheapo copper pot from a thrift store, it's fine if the tin is wearing off, showing the copper through, cause corn doesn't react poisonously with raw copper like acidic foods do. Butter at the end is essential, cheese is good if you can eat it. 

Polenta:
recipe from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
7 c water
1 2/3 c polenta
salt
butter
parmesan cheese
Boil water, pour in polenta in a thin stream, add salt. 
Stir for 40 min or so, until it's really thick.
Stir in butter and cheese. 
Serve/eat ASAP, the texture gets less interesting quickly.

Je T'aime

Sure dissing a hallmark holiday is like shooting fish in a barrel, but it's fairly well written.

Somewhat similarly, an NPR story about Charles Darwin includes this nugget about love and marriage, "a wife would be better than a dog."

Bah humbug, eh?

But Paris Je T'aime is a great movie. The letter carrier kills me....Emily Mortimer kissing Oscar Wilde's tomb....the mime story.... 

Update: I think this NPR story contains the worst proposal story I've ever heard. But maybe my bleak black heart is too far gone... Eliza? 

Firefly

Frost on the roofs in IV this morning...brrrrrr...was frozen in the ocean, too.

I'd read that Firefly was right up there with Freaks and Geeks on the amazing t.v. shows that got canceled their first season list. I'm watching it now, and it really is amazing. It is mostly sci-fi but has western themes/sets, too. It's also very funny and witty and sexy. And they have a beautiful dining room table with unmatched chairs in their spaceship....
One of the episodes concerned the captain getting accidentally married, so considering it's Valentine's Day today, here's some of that dialogue, demonstrating the genius/humor of the show:

WASH
Speaking as one married man to a
another...

MAL
I am not married!
(to Saffron)
I'm sorry. You don't shame me, you
have very nice qualities but I didn't
ever marry you.

BOOK
(holding encyclopedia)
I believe you did. Last night.

Mal hesitates. As does everyone

MAL
(to Jayne, quiet)
How drunk was I last night?

JAYNE
I don't know. I passed out.

A couple of years after the show ended they made a movie, Serenity, which is also very very watchable. 

Friday, February 13, 2009

Snow

This is an old pic from 19 Feb 2005, but there is snow up there right now, too. It's beautiful. Not sure if I'll get a pic today before it melts....

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Why Organic?

Because it's people like this who run factory food corporations. Pleading the fifth??? Pathetic.

the Limey

I saw that this was going to be this weeks' cult canon, and it looked interesting, so bought it before hand. This is a cool movie, from 1999. A little bit non-linear, a lot of quick, odd edits that make it disjointed in an interesting way. The story itself is a fairly straightforward revenge plot. Luis Guzman is great. Then there's the parade of 60s/70s people. Barry Newman from Vanishing Point. Joe Dallesandro from Andy Warhol movies such as Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. Peter Fonda co-stars with Terence Stamp, and they use old footage from a 1967 film of Stamp's to provide flashbacks. The commentary tracks are both interesting, a nice dvd. Especially for $2, used.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Purple nurple

Watched the waves for a while this morning. Kinda meh. But the sunrise gave the incoming cloud front a really cool purple color. And the contrast with clear skies everywhere else was interesting. It's cloudy everywhere as I write this. Our rainfall total this year is a pretty unimpressive 7.5", with 2.5" of that coming in the last storm (as of 11 Feb). We almost always manage to hit double figures, though sometimes it takes a March Miracle (1991).

In somewhat related news, Kevin and Vana's 8 Feb blog entry is about rainy Bali. They are doing a nice job of documenting their trip.

Update: the link to Goleta rainfall isn't archived, it provides the most recent rainfall totals. Oh well. We are up to 9.5" as of 17 Feb.

Update: we are over a whopping 10" as of March 7.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Morninglory

Had a funny morning. Ryan is going to interview at James Madison tomorrow, flew out today. At 5 am. Sharon drove him to the airport, and I biked over so there would be someone there in case sweet Lou woke up. He didn't. Turns out me waking up at 4:30 wasn't so much fun. But I was wide awake, and checking the buoys got me happy. Surf was really fun, and no one out but me, some pelicans, and a cormorant that almost hit me when it surfaced from a dive. Stayed out till the wind swung onshore. Had a little post-surf nas-o-drain, so you know the waves were good.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Michael Pollan

I caught the tail end of a Michael Pollan interview on NPR this morning. Alas, the show (City Arts and Lectures) isn't archived. But there is alot of his stuff out there on the interweb. Letter to the prez, a long sitdown at Berkeley, a bunch of links off of wikipedia.

The part I heard was about the crappy food most people eat/health/obesity, and the effect of diet on climate change (he said that food production accounts for 20% of global warming). 

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Lime Sorbet

Sorbet is easy from scratch. Basically every recipe is combine simple syrup (1:1 sugar:water) and fruit, then freeze, stirring often to break up the ice crystals so the texture is nice. A little booze at the end softens/reduces the ice crystals, too, as alcohol lowers the freezing temperature. Also, it's better if you fold in some stiffly beaten egg whites towards the end -- not surprisingly this helps the texture be more light and airy. 

Lime sorbet is a little different cause you're dealing with juice, not fruit. The limes are organic, from Tammy's folks' trees. Zesting with a microplane is a dream.
Lime Sorbet:
mostly from a Jamie Oliver recipe
1 c water
1 c lime juice
2 c sugar
lime zest, I had zest from 5 about 3" long limes.
1 T tequilla
an egg white

Zest the limes before you juice them. 
Boil up the first 4 ingredients for 5 minutes
Let cool
Put in freezer in low, wide vessel
Stir every 30 min, it takes a while, at least 2 hours
Stiffly beat an egg white with a little sugar, fold in at the end
Add booze at the end.

update I: I wrote up the recipe before I actually finished it. I put in too much booze, it didn't freeze at all! -- Lime sauce is really tasty with yogurt. Not sure if this is a legitimate recipe for sorbet.... 

BSG

Just finished catching up with BSG on scifi.com. Seriously, is this show now ahead of Seinfeld on the best ever list? The only drag is I'm so used to shotgunning episodes/seasons via netflix, waiting week-to-week is going to be tough. It'll be fun to be part of the communal anticipatory energy, though.

As an aside, how much does Donnie Darko's mom a.k.a. Mary McDonnell a.k.a. President Laura Roslin look like Tori Amos?

the Waiting Game

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me has been killing it, no letdown in the Obama era. Last week was good, although Princess Leia was a surprisingly uninteresting guest. This week was great, they had the french guy who walked a high wire between the World Trade Center back in the 70s. Plus tax problems are surprisingly funny...

Friday, February 6, 2009

Proof

So the continuing problem with my food photography is starting to embarass me. Tangentially, today my friend James asked me to send him pics of our Costa Rica trip a few years back. So I thought I'd put up some photos from that trip as proof that I know what I'm doing.

We were there at the beginning of the rainy season.
This is the road after 15" of rain overnight.
The city didn't deal with the rain well, either.

The background on my laptop. I love this image. Watched a troop of Howler Monkeys go by above me....

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Refried Beans

I like beans. Traditionally in Mexico the beans are pretty plain, and the rice has tomatoes, onions, garlic, spanish rice,  you know the deal. I like my rice plain, and my beans interesting. I also like to eat my beans with ketchup, sometimes. If this horrifies you, voiding your interest in this recipe/my cooking in general, tough luck! Using ingredients cross-culturally, without being fusion-y/trendy is my deal. It's tasty, I promise. 

Some of the things I do are unusual: I like to cook the beans in tea made out of epazote, the Mayas did this, epazote aids digestion. Sometimes I'll throw in some kaffir lime leaves (a thai thing), limes are used alot in mexican cooking so this works for me. Asafoetida, is a cool ingredient. It's an indian spice, really strong smelling, James Beard has said it smells like truffles, dunno about that. The stuff does wonders for the digestion. Alas, it is usually cut with wheat flour, so be aware if you are a GF person. Something orange, either booze or juice is really nice in beans, it's a cuban thing, I think. 

The ingredient list is basically everything that I have used over the years, choose your own adventure. Pictured are oregano, orangecello in its frosty bottle, and chipotles in adobo.

Refried Beans:
inspired by the Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy and the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen
2 c dry beans (mix of pinto, black, anasazi, adzuki)
water, stock, epazote tea, thyme tea
a couple whole dried chiles, to taste
1-2 bay leaves
4 kaffir lime leaves
1-2 chipotle chiles in adobo
1/2 T whole cumin seeds
1/2 T whole corriander seeds
1 T ancho chile powder
pepper
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 t asafoetida
4 cloves garlic
onion
serrano chilies and/or poblano peppers
oregano
salt
cointreau, grand marnier, tripple sec, controyorangecello, oj
fresh epazote

Cover sorted, rinsed beans, with about an inch of water, bring to a boil. You don't have to pre-soak the beans. Also dry chiles and leaves go in now. 
Turn down to a simmer, cover, cook 2 hours or so, boil away excess liquid at end.
When soft, mash them with a potato masher or a stick blender. Add salt and chipotle.
Grind cumin/corriander (in a coffe grinder solely for spices, or mortar/pestle).
Toast cumin/corriander, low heat, till it lightly smokes.
Add chile powder, pepper, let that smoke a little, too.
Add oil, asafoetida, medium heat.  
Let that go for 30 sec, then add chopped garlic.
Let that go for 2-3 min, then add onion and salt, high heat.
Add fresh chiles.
Stir, but let it stick some, too.
Deglaze with orange stuff.
Repeat sticking/deglazing for 10 min.
Add beans. Cook till it's dry-ish.
Add some fresh epazote if you grow it.

Epazote tea I make with dried epazote, thyme tea with fresh thyme. In both cases use leaves and stems. For epazote, simmer it in the water for awhile. For thyme, pour boiling water over and let steep for awhile.
 
This is from Jungle Curry II, last night, with Tammy y Luis. 

Velvet Goldmine

Clare's favorite movie gets the full AV club Cult Canon treatment! The soundtrack is most excellent, too, and raised it's head most notably at the pink shirt party. I think that party featured Thai Curry, Baja-style. I'll run the recipe the next time we do it.

Rain

It's raining a little bit here today. Doesn't seem like it's raining hard enough for this email to be necessary, though:

Due to water leaks in the ceiling, the Star Lab will be closed today
between 12:00 and 4:30 p.m.


Update: the water leak wasn't due to the rain, but due to a hose not draining into a drain from Hugo's lab. Strange things are a foot...

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Orecchiette

The picture is intentionally uninteresting as the dinner was, too. Had some organic orecchiette laying about. Really unimpressed with the 'Montebello' brand. In general I've had bad luck with organic pasta. Barilla just seems to flat out work better. 

But anyway, garlic, oregano, olive oil, some homemade roasted pimento chiles that had been preserved in olive oil, red sauce, some sharp cheddar cheese. Nothing special.

Taylor knows her Blazers

Still pulling ephemera out of the vault. I don't like kids, except for sweet Lou, and this kid.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Pluto the Planette

A most excellent story.

Sera Cahoone

This was to be a quasi-guest post by Eliza. But she has a potty mouth, so I relegated her text to the comments section. 

She saw Sera Cahoone last night, instead of watching the superbowl. Sera played drums on the first Band of Horses album. Now she is a singer/guitarist for her own band. KEXP likes her. I think I like her. Eliza likes monkeys, and muffins.

Happy Candlemas Day!

What the heck is Candlemas, you ask? 

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Steve Buscemi

I'm on a major Buscemi kick right now. Have all of the Coen Bros. movies, and alot more that he is in, but the 4 recent Buscemi movies I've gotten have all been particularly great. 

Trees Lounge. Sundance Channel staple of 2000. Still a great movie, set on Long Island, my old home. Loser's in a bar. The first movie he directed.

Interview. This is an amazing movie. Basic plot is a news journalist is assigned to do a pop-culture interview with the starlet-of-the-month. It goes well beyond that. He directed this, too.

Double Whammy. Made by the guy who made Lost in Oblivion, Tom Dicillo. This one is slapstick humor, not quite on the level of Hot to Trot, but it's pretty ridiculous. Basically all of the characters are idiots, especially the red suit wearing wannabe screenwriters and the stereotypical puerto rican gangsters. Liz Hurley, Denis Leary, and Luis Guzman are great, Buscemi is good in a small role as Leary's cop partner.

Delirious. Same director as Double Whammy. A drama, about a homeless kid taken in by a paparazzi. A nice character piece. Buscemi is a real weasel in this one. Mel from Flight of the Conchords has a small part. 

The fix was in

I think I hate the Steelers as much as the L*kers, now. The last time they 'won' the Superbowl against Seattle was blatant. This one wasn't as bad, but still.

The fix is also the name of a decent TAL episode, btw.

I haven't been inspired to cook for a while now. Lots of leftover post-apartheid South Africa rice in the nukerwave with monterey jack on top. Epic, but not really blog-worthy. Defrosted some red sauce, though, so we'll see. 

Post-apartheid South Africa Rice

The brown and the white are together, eh? The short grain brown/long grain white bit is important. Short grain white makes the result too dense. Note that rice is one of the most important things to buy organically!

recipe:
1 1/2 c organic short grain brown rice
1/2 c organic long grain white rice
4 c water
salt
Boil water, add salt.
Add brown rice, simmer 30 min (or so), covered
Add white rice, cook for a total of 1 hour, covered

Old Time

Pulled a few Time magazines from late 2005/early 2006 from the free bin. Two things caught my eye:

An article with music recommendations included: Cat Power - the Greatest, Jenny Lewis and the Watson twins - Rabbit Fur Coat, and Sarah Harmer - I'm a Mountain. Solid.

And this: "I'm so overexposed, I'm making Paris Hilton look like a recluse" -- Barack Obama 2005