Disarm

When I started at UCSB in '92 my roommate Kevbo introduced me to all sorts of bands, the Smashing Pumpkins included. They even came in '93, although memories of that concert aren't great: lousy seats, being from Chicago they didn't seem to like being in SB, and not having gone to college he seemed to resent playing at one. C'est la vie. But damn if this video doesn't get the juices going. Some serious audience signing along at the beginning of Disarm, and the band & audience are amazing throughout. In the Civil Wars post I had a link to them doing Disarm on their North American tour, here it is again (stage banter ends/music starts 3:39) so you can compare the versions. Great song.

Kevin & Vana in Bolivia

The salt flats in SW Bolivia have intrigued me for a long time. I think I saw them first in a Michael Palin travel show, mid 90s. Anyway Kevbo and Vana were just there. Their travelblog is awesome. More photos.

Kevin & Vana in Peru

Another interesting post from Kevbo and Vana, this one from Lake Titicaca on the Peru/Bolivia border. Also, they mention me....

Kevin&Vana in Ecuador

They are back on the road, give their blog a look.

Tuna

I stole the pic from Kevin and Vana's most recent blog post, from Tokyo. Beautiful.

Kevin & Vana's Blog

Their entry today is awesome.

Are you down with OPB?

No, not Oregon Public Broadcasting, though they are alright, too. Other peoples' blogs. I'm reading Kevin and Vana's regularly. Jen's is a sweet adventure blog, she was just recently kicking it on the beach in Costa Rica. Stefan and Bernie did a great job of documenting their round-the-world trip in 2007; their blog is dead, but it's a good read. Our feerless leader Dar has written some pretty funny stuff while on sabbatical in the land of Oz. 

Update: Laurel has one, documenting her research in Guatemala. Amy in Mexico. Anyone else? 

The food co-op has a blog, where you can see member specials and whatnot.

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.

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.