I overheard a coworker (I'll christen her "Serpentina") talking to another (in the kitchenette) about how lovely the smell of a clutch of daffodils were -- somebody had brought'em in, put them in a vase. Well and good, but you know what? Daffodils don't smell nice. They have a sharp, acrid scent. They're pretty to look at, but clearly, Serpentina was smelling them with her eyes. It was a weird thing to say, because they're funkifying the kitchenette as I type this.
*snicker* -- "daffodildo" -- I'm pleased with that new word. I'm going to refer to it as somebody who wrongly thinks stinky flowers smell nice just because they're nice to look at. THAT is a daffodildo. You read it here first.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Cackle
Having drunk my share of absinthe over the years, I can honestly say that it really does make me cackle like they do in this little clip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqa62iiUwUI
I don't know of any other spirit that makes me cackle/carry on quite like absinthe, although no visual hallucinations, alas. But the cackling, most definitely. The very first time I tried it, I blogged about it (sorry, a long-extinct blog), and I was sitting there at the keyboard, cackling, trying to type. Oh, what a sight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqa62iiUwUI
I don't know of any other spirit that makes me cackle/carry on quite like absinthe, although no visual hallucinations, alas. But the cackling, most definitely. The very first time I tried it, I blogged about it (sorry, a long-extinct blog), and I was sitting there at the keyboard, cackling, trying to type. Oh, what a sight!
Hipster extinction...
I've thought about this for some time. When one would see "hipsters" in Indianapolis and Cincinnati and Youngstown and Pittsburgh, it was clear that the meme was spread far too widely to really have any weight, anymore. It's like when you see some kid completely decked out in Punk regalia, the whole works -- in 2010, right? You're like "Wow, 1977 called, they want their affectation back."
http://www.salon.com/books/nonfiction/index.html?story=/books/feature/2010/04/01/look_at_this_hipster_book
http://www.salon.com/books/nonfiction/index.html?story=/books/feature/2010/04/01/look_at_this_hipster_book
So what is a hipster, exactly?
It's a broad term, but I consider it to be rich white trash -- or people trying to stretch out adolescence as far as it'll go. It has to do with a person's attitude, and lifestyle choice, but it's also about fashion. They wear skinny jeans and ironic facial hair, and handlebar mustaches and V-neck shirts and dumb hats. They wear big glasses -- that's a key thing usually -- asymmetrical haircuts, wool caps in the summer, Yasser Arafat scarves [kaffiyehs], American spirit cigarettes, and drink Pabst Blue Ribbon or cheap beer. It's all about people trying so hard to look like they're not trying hard.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Dishing
A couple of food places -- well, treat-making places, anyway -- you should support -- I'm shamelessly plugging them because they're very good and are in a very economically-depressed area (Youngstown, Ohio) and any support they get is a good thing...
Handel's Ice Cream.
Their Chocolate Pecan ice cream is great stuff! Truly tops! They've got a ton of flavors. You won't be disappointed. Get a quart (or three); you'll need it!
Butter Maid Bakery.
They make great sweets! Uniquely delicious chocolate chip cookies (seriously, and awesome kolachi, too, and elephant ears, and bear claws, and these walnut cookies they used to make but likely only make on special order, now). Their chocolate chip cookies, however, are a breed apart -- I've never had ones like theirs.
Handel's Ice Cream.
Their Chocolate Pecan ice cream is great stuff! Truly tops! They've got a ton of flavors. You won't be disappointed. Get a quart (or three); you'll need it!
Butter Maid Bakery.
They make great sweets! Uniquely delicious chocolate chip cookies (seriously, and awesome kolachi, too, and elephant ears, and bear claws, and these walnut cookies they used to make but likely only make on special order, now). Their chocolate chip cookies, however, are a breed apart -- I've never had ones like theirs.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Sleepy
I'm very tired. I've been writing my ass off the past few days, working on a screenplay. I'm about 60% done with it. Brain...tired....
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Geek Salad
Wanna see my Greek Salad? It's just a salad, sure, but it was way yummy!
C'mon, you know you want some...
They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but women have hearts, too, and I've yet to know a woman who didn't love a man who could cook. I think love of food is reflective of a love of life, itself -- it's a natural pairing.
C'mon, you know you want some...
They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but women have hearts, too, and I've yet to know a woman who didn't love a man who could cook. I think love of food is reflective of a love of life, itself -- it's a natural pairing.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Soundtrack
I sometimes craft soundtracks for writing pieces I'm working on. Gets my mind geared up for the piece. Here's the master soundtrack I made for a horror screenplay I'm doing (where I compiled my favorite tunes from two discs I already did for it). Now you can sing along!
- Sheena is a Parasite | The Horrors
- Party Time | Legion of Parasites
- Parasites | The Subhumans (UK)
- Andy Warhol | Treepeople
- You Can Have What You Want | Papercuts
- Love Will Tear Us Apart | Nouvelle Vague
- Truth Is | The Sky Drops
- Beyond Yes | Coin Under Tongue
- Pajama Party in a Haunted Hive | Beat Happening
- When I'm Small | Phantogram
- Parasites | The Soft Pack
- 2000 Light Years From Bolan | Go Home Productions
- Harmonix | Surfer Blood
- Mirror's Image | The Horrors
- No Mongo | Wizzard Sleeve
- M4 (Part II -- The Paronomasiac Remix) | Faunts
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Dicin'
I was doing prepwork for Greek Salad at the kitchen table, with B2 watching -- he's fascinated by me cooking, so I try to include him, let him see how it's done. I peeled and chopped some cucumbers (which he sampled), some red onion, some feta cheese (cubed that), some green peppers. And each time, I'd have him put those in saver containers for later, and put'em in the fridge. I love his interest in that.
He's already a natural actor (hahah, like me!), so it's nice to see him interested in cooking -- maybe it'll give him something to fall back on if/when he became an actor someday. I'll teach him what I know, confident that he'll do even better. He loves to smell absolutely everything with cooking -- he'll ask to smell it, already has a wide range of scent palates that way, just loves it. I'd like to think that it'll prepare his broader palate down the road.
I think I'm going to make spaghetti with turkey meatballs and the Greek Salad. Damn, I need to get some wine. Should've done that earlier. Gotta have the wine, right? Mmm hmm!
He's already a natural actor (hahah, like me!), so it's nice to see him interested in cooking -- maybe it'll give him something to fall back on if/when he became an actor someday. I'll teach him what I know, confident that he'll do even better. He loves to smell absolutely everything with cooking -- he'll ask to smell it, already has a wide range of scent palates that way, just loves it. I'd like to think that it'll prepare his broader palate down the road.
I think I'm going to make spaghetti with turkey meatballs and the Greek Salad. Damn, I need to get some wine. Should've done that earlier. Gotta have the wine, right? Mmm hmm!
Windows into the soulless
I already wrote elsewhere about the political violence of the GOP's attack dogs, the Tea Baggers, but they're really annoying. I saw that in Cincinnati (among other places with a lot of reactionary wing-dings) they smashed a Democratic Party headquarters' windows. I'm sure that got downplayed by the Enquirer, which has a very real agenda in their coverage, but people around the country (and the world) noticed the ugliness there and elsewhere.
It's curious how that gets downplayed when contrasted with, say, the breaking of windows at the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999 -- the handful of windows broken there by rioters was shrilly trotted out by the media as the coming of the apocalypse. But the very tightly targeted political violence against Democrats -- spitting on representatives, ethnic and other slurs, death threats (against at least 20 of them), attacks on their homes and Democratic Party headquarters -- that gets downplayed to the detriment of the rest of us.
You can be sure that if left-wing violence of similar character had been carried out, the trumpets would be sounding and there'd be people trotted off to prisons straightaway (and these days, we actually do have official secret prisons, for fuck's sake, thanks to GW Bush and Dick Cheney). And this is borne out if you actually look at the history of political violence -- some forms of political violence are tolerated (when perpetrated by the Right) when contrasted with others (invariably when carried out by the Left).
So, if you want to get away with, say, terrorism, you're far better off lighting up a cross on somebody's lawn or spraying ethnic slurs on their business (and breaking their windows) than if you lob a brick through a window at an anti-globalization protest or if you spraypaint a radical environmentalist message on an SUV. Just remember that, because that is truly how the law operates in practice around these issues.
Remember the gay guy dragged to death in Wyoming? Contrast the reaction of that with, say, Ashley Todd, the girl who faked the mutilation of herself (claiming falsely that it was done by pro-Obama supporters). One was an actual horrible crime of hate and terrorism done against a gay man, the other was a faked incident that was widely broadcast before it was discovered that she'd made the whole fucking thing up.
Double standard much? It just pisses me off -- if we're not equal before the law, then what are we? We're hosed. It's an issue because the Tea Baggers are going to do a whole helluva lot more in the run-up to the fall elections -- be ready for more ugliness, and watch the media downplay it, watch the authorities wring their hands helplessly as it gets uglier and uglier.
The broken windows in Cincinnati and elsewhere are just the beginning.
It's curious how that gets downplayed when contrasted with, say, the breaking of windows at the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999 -- the handful of windows broken there by rioters was shrilly trotted out by the media as the coming of the apocalypse. But the very tightly targeted political violence against Democrats -- spitting on representatives, ethnic and other slurs, death threats (against at least 20 of them), attacks on their homes and Democratic Party headquarters -- that gets downplayed to the detriment of the rest of us.
You can be sure that if left-wing violence of similar character had been carried out, the trumpets would be sounding and there'd be people trotted off to prisons straightaway (and these days, we actually do have official secret prisons, for fuck's sake, thanks to GW Bush and Dick Cheney). And this is borne out if you actually look at the history of political violence -- some forms of political violence are tolerated (when perpetrated by the Right) when contrasted with others (invariably when carried out by the Left).
So, if you want to get away with, say, terrorism, you're far better off lighting up a cross on somebody's lawn or spraying ethnic slurs on their business (and breaking their windows) than if you lob a brick through a window at an anti-globalization protest or if you spraypaint a radical environmentalist message on an SUV. Just remember that, because that is truly how the law operates in practice around these issues.
Remember the gay guy dragged to death in Wyoming? Contrast the reaction of that with, say, Ashley Todd, the girl who faked the mutilation of herself (claiming falsely that it was done by pro-Obama supporters). One was an actual horrible crime of hate and terrorism done against a gay man, the other was a faked incident that was widely broadcast before it was discovered that she'd made the whole fucking thing up.
Double standard much? It just pisses me off -- if we're not equal before the law, then what are we? We're hosed. It's an issue because the Tea Baggers are going to do a whole helluva lot more in the run-up to the fall elections -- be ready for more ugliness, and watch the media downplay it, watch the authorities wring their hands helplessly as it gets uglier and uglier.
The broken windows in Cincinnati and elsewhere are just the beginning.
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