You're Doing It Wrong

Last weekend during my day of cooking I broke out the vinyl again and listened to Dramarama Cinéma Vérité which I listened to once last year and still think sounds great.

The album includes a hit called “Anything Anything (I’ll Give You)” which at least three different times in my life was discovered by a radio station I listened to frequently and played to death and then some. I loved the song the first time I heard it and I love it still but I can recall the feeling of “enough enough (already)” if I hear it more than once in one day.

[Huge aside: Bob has got me hooked on The Tube a music TV station that plays actual music videos and a huge mix of fun stuff including Led Zepplin and lots of the 80’s dawn-of-an-era stuff like Duran Duran and INXS. The other night I saw a U2 video where Bono is sporting the mother of all mullets. I’ve found myself glued to the The Tube a couple of times with that old, “just one more to see who’s next” and the only thing to save me from being there still would be Phil Collins or a simliar horror such that I fled the TV. More than once I’ve complained about too much Billy Idol but last night they had a video of his ballady song called Sweet Sixteen, which I had completely forgot about and sounded fabulous.]

Back to Dramarama: when I graduated from college and lived in L.A. I wrote live show reviews for a free music newspaper. I could swear I’ve written about that before but my feverish searching hasn’t come up with a previous post. I’ll have to dig up some of my reviews.

Before I wrote for the newspaper I wrote reviews for myself in a notebook because it was my dream to be a writer for a music magazine or something in the music business and this was how I prepared.

I saw Dramarama headline a show at the Country Club in Reseda. The date says March 6, 1981 which can’t possibly be right since (a) according to Wikipedia the band didn’t form until 1982 (although I always was ahead of the curve … ha!) and (b) I was in high school in 1981 and was probably not even allowed to drive to The Valley to see a show.

The date we’re going with is March 6, 1987. The show featured one of my favorite local bands at the time Love/Hate which is a topic for another post. I remember nothing about third band on the bill: MIA.

Much as I loved the music, I was not impressed with the band as illustrated by my unfinished review.

It seems to be a rule of blogging that you always need about 20 more minutes than you have on any given post. My allotted time is up. But here’s my masterpiece, typed up from the orginal, carefully printed in pencil on white notebook paper:

DRAMARAMA, MIA, LOVE/HATE
MARCH 6, 1987

MIA suffered if only from a lackluster response from the Drama-Audience.

Toga Party
In the most current issue of Sunset magazine there is an insane full page ad with George Hamilton. I thought about scanning it but the scanner was put away and it seemed like a lot of trouble. I was sure I could find it online. So far no luck. However, I can describe it to you.

George is standing there in a bright white toga with giant sleeves trimmed with gold ribbon that looks like it was put together by a costumer in 5 minutes using glue and safety pins. George’s head is crowned with what I guess is an olive wreath? And he’s holding the new product: Pita Thin Toasted Chips and the quote is “Golden toasted with impeccable taste. Just like me.”

I don’t even know where to start.

So I guess the idea is ancient Greece=pita? This seems like a stretch to me. And why George Hamilton? Maybe he fits with the Sunset demographic which is no doubt women my age and older.

While I was searching for the ad so you could enjoy a chuckle with me, I had the fun of finding the Nabisco® website. You can sign up for a logon and password. Why would you possibly want to do that? Special subscriber content? Member only Oreo contests?

The Pita Thin stuff which is in the “no fry zone” shows George either standing in his white terrycloth bathroom eating pita thins OR in snappy golf togs in the middle of a sand trap with his packet of chips. You can ask his magic golf ball a question.

My question was, “George, why the toga?”

The answer: “I can’t tell you now. The paparazzi are listening.”

Erin, Cover Your Eyes
The mango splitter is awesome. It’s a sturdy plastic-titanium circle with rigid eye. (These are my words, not official product propaganda.) You set the mango on its end and center the splitter on the mango. A firm but not forceful press down and: ta da. Two mango halves separate from the pit. I’d like to buy a case of mangos and split them all. Also, I like to nibble the extra mango bits from the pit just like chewing the meat off a bone.

We had mangos, yogurt and muesli for breakfast. Bob had oatmeal.

Excellent weekend. I made a pie and yesterday made spinach pasta by hand. Kenman helped me roll it out. Bob did an arty from-outside-the-dirty-window shot. Too bad we didn’t move the coffee apparatus. I made a walnut-herb béchamel sauce and it had goat cheese and parmesan and turned out spectacular. We all hoovered big plate-loads. I expect to play around with this recipe more very soon.

I worked on some Photoshop lessons today and learned several features that would have saved me tremendous time had I learned them a long time ago. It’s amazing how often I use a particular type of software and then one day maybe I’m looking over someone’s shoulder at a document and they go click-clack and fix something with a keystroke that I was doing as some sort of neanderthal hack in a text editor with cutting and pasting and I’m thinking, “Oh, you can do that?”

I had other items I wanted to talk about but neglected to take notes so my mind is basically two brain cells floating free, hoping and praying to bump into each other.

Mt. Hood At Sunrise
A larger version here.

The other morning the sunrise was heart-stopping. The photo doesn’t do it justice. It was hard to resist the impulse to keep taking pictures and just stand back and enjoy the view.

Last night we stopped by Priscilla’s to drop a few things off and I noticed at least 4 snow patches in the front yard. If I would have had my camera with me I would have taken photos because who doesn’t love photos of lingering patches of snow?

This morning I had an early morning appointment to get my brakes done. The idea behind the early appointment is that I’m up and on my way at the start of the day and then can run errands and so forth ushering in a day of hugely gratifying productivity. I apparently haven’t learned my lesson from last time where I made an early appointment and it just meant I got to sit in the waiting room all morning instead of all afternoon after a leisurely morning of sleeping in and hot cocoa.

I didn’t go to Toyota for the brakes, I went to Les Schwab and let me state again publicly that I love Hazel Dell Les Schwab. They had a problem with a part and had to get it replaced and they were very good about communicating what the problem was so I wasn’t stewing at my long wait amongst the giant tires and shiny custom wheels.

I had another appointment nearby that I didn’t want to miss so they drove me over there and by the time I got back, the car was almost finished. I still didn’t get home until after 12:30 so the morning was shot. But at least I have new brakes and a kick ass haircut.

I think tomorrow is going to be the technology free day since I have a cooking and baking project to keep me occupied. However, Kenman is going to be here and I bought two mangoes to go with my new mango splitter so stay tuned for a mango splitting demonstration on Sunday.

Who’s Tired of the Snow Patch?
It was sunny today but much colder. I ran out to grab a burrito and almost didn’t take my coat and I’m glad I did because I was hopping around at the burrito cart.

When I got home I jumped out of the car to see if any trace of the snow patch remained and found this little teeny blob left. I almost wanted to scrap it in a bowl and put it in the freezer.

No Coat. Can you Believe it?
Click here for larger, prettier photo.

A Tuesday List:

1 – I might have already written about this. Bob and I used to subscribe to zillions of magazines. It was totally out of control. I think at one point we had three weeklies in addition to 8 or 9 monthlies and probably a few that only came 4 or 6 times a year. We cut way back and let things run out. We’ve had MacAddict for years but we actually had a conversation discussing it and agreed that we barely look at it and this was a good one to let go. So you can imagine my surprise when I came home from work one night and my beloved spouse told me that a nice phone solicitor had called and he’d re-upped us for MacAddict for three more years. No, I’m not making this up. Phone solicitor. THREE more years.

Does anyone else remember when Apple was in dire straits and they did this EvangeList stuff for Mac diehards and then iMac happened and then iPod and now it’s a whole new world and apparently the time of the loose and casual MacAddict is over.

A couple weeks ago we got a magazine called MacLife and to be honest, I’ve only started to look at it but already I’m feeling confident that I hate it. This is exactly what happened when Yoga Journal was sold from its association of yoga teachers roots to a professional magazine corporation. The magazine becomes stupider. How much you want to bet there’s an article in MacLife about a celebrity that uses Macs?

MacAddict included a CD filled with applications which MacLife is too cool for so they added even more time to our subscription. We’re subscribed until NOVEMBER 2009 people. I’m going to try harder to like it.

2 – I brought my lunch today and I sat in the lunch room eating my little thermos bowl of soup and my carrots and apple and thought to myself: what was I thinking? This isn’t enough to eat. So I had to go to See’s candy and restock my supplies for snack food. I keep a box in my desk and I’m very disciplined, the box can last me 6 months. I don’t need it every day, but when I need it, I need it.

In the store they had the heart shape Valentine’s boxes. When I was a kid my Dad gave me, my sister and my Mom heart-shaped boxes of See’s candy thus sealing my love of expensive chocolates at a very young age.

Later I was still hungry so I went to the office fridge to finish my breakfast since I didn’t eat all of that and then, hey, there’s the leftover pizza and other vegetables (should I be embarrassed to say that I brought steamed chard to work?) that I brought and totally forgot about. I can’t even remember what I brought for my own lunch.

3 – I polished off my Kitchen Kaboodle gift card today and they wanted my name and phone number. Why?

I asked him, “why?” “Just in case something is wrong with the card.” Really, that’s what they’re calling it? I hate this. Isn’t enough that I’m patronizing your store? Why do you insist on mining my data? I gave away a perfectly good giftcard (for a different store) because the physical store is not convenient and there are websites devoted to how hard it is to get off their catalog list.

I know, I hate shopping. What’s wrong with me?

4 – We’re the only house on our street with snow left. (L) is the “big” patch from where I shoveled the driveway. Just enough for a pitcher of margaritas. Yum. (Just kidding). (R) is the little patch. I should have put a quarter down for reference but it was dark and damp and I didn’t want to get too carried away with documenting the minutiae of my existence.

Technology Break
I think I’m going to make a computer free weekend day part of the regular program. The fact that I feel a little twitchy about not turning on the machine makes me see the addictive qualities of my usage. Well, I don’t like the word addictive. And who’s to say that fiddling with digital photos and art projects is any less valid than gardening or movie watching or whatever? This is my internal tyrant dictating the rules on how one should best be productive in the Universe. Why can’t I be one of those people who can watch 8 hours of TV on a Saturday and not feel guilty about it?

It was nice to be free of the distraction because I freely admit that I waste a lot of time online. I got out the sewing machine again. I’ve been wanting to learn to sew. Remember the pirate pillowcase?

At the time I made that I found a couple of other free patterns online. I want to make a few small things to get the hang of the machine and the whole process. Yesterday I made a headband. You can get a real feel for my dedication and aptitude when it takes me 5 months to make a headband. And I have to confess, I did turn on the computer yesterday but only to check the pattern because from the instructions I couldn’t understand how the elastic was supposed to go.

I’m serious about wanting to learn this and in another five months I should be able to make an apron and by the time I’m 50, some pajama bottoms. Sophie’s 14 now. If she doesn’t get married until she’s 38, and I work really hard, perhaps I can make the garment bag she uses to carry her wedding dress.

I set up the sewing area in the dining room which is the same room where the turntable is. We’re one of the 8,000 families in America that has a turntable. I dusted off Camper Van Beethoven II & III, and Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart. I haven’t heard these in years and years and don’t remember loving them when I bought them (1987-88-ish) but they sounded FANTASTIC yesterday. I wonder what other music from 20 years ago I would love more now than I did then.

Other than sewing I did lots of reading and tidied part of my recipe file and strung some beads. Then I made a killer taco dinner. An excellent day.

On Saturday There Will Be Pizza
Last night I finished The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks.

At Christmas, Mom said she was almost finished with the book I gave her. She described it and I had no idea what she was talking about but I was intrigued. She gave it to me when she was done and first of all, I would not have given her this book since it doesn’t seem like a Mom book. [Aside: however, I saw two movie reviews that look like total Rentz women movies. One has Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter and the other is called The Painted Veil with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. I wish Erin and Mom could visit now.]

Back to The Traveler, what I wrote in my review blurb (#2) is that I think the potential of the story is more interesting than the story that came out.

The story is about these Travelers who can cross over into different realms and these bad guys who want to eliminate them. Later the bad guys want to capture them and use their power for evil. I love stories with different worlds and strange organizational hierarchies and long intricate backstories. Wasn’t the best part of The Witching Hour the middle part with the history of the Mayfair witches? I wanted to know more about the different worlds and how the organizations developed and not so much about the bad guys chasing them.

It was a fun book. I didn’t hate it but now I’m looking forward to finally reading that Jonathan Lethem book. He’s going to be the Arts & Lectures person in April. I think I can finish by then.

This morning the sun was shining and I stood in the doorway and it felt actual warmth. There are still a few patches of snow. The snowman across the street finally crumbled. The one next door lost his head.

Between work and recreation, I’ve been spending way too much time on the computer lately so tomorrow is going to be a computer free day. Not going to even turn it on.

One more note, I just did something I never do. It’s 4pm and I made a frozen pizza. I wanted a snack and none of the usual things sounded good or substantial enough. Now I’m not going to be hungry for dinner.

Downtown
I put a few photos of my public transportation day. If interested, look here.

Today is rainy and most of the snow is gone. I intended to run some errands across the river this morning but at 10am there was still a big back up to get over the bridge and the idea became less attractive. I guess everyone and their uncle has been putting off getting out and about all week so now’s the big rush.