"Crowberry Tales" has migrated to Ireland

For you "Crowberry Tales" fans (the blog with all the great bird and scenery photos from Alaska), Bob and Jen have now migrated from one cold place to another. And they've migrated to a new blog as well.

They will be in Ireland for the next few months and the wonderful photos have started up again on their new blog, "Sceil Lus na Feannaig." There are birds and scenery and all kinds of good stuff.



Bob and Jen have also posted updates on the original CT blog about their respective activities in Alaska for the past few months since they left False Pass. (And yes, Bob's post has bird pics. But Jen's is not to be missed either--she's got musk ox!)

Bob Keller, the photographer, is Benito's cousin's son. So that would make him....what? Second cousin? Anyway, we're happy to claim him, and I hope you continue to enjoy his photos.

Bacchus, Sanctus, and Ferragamo(?)

I always remember hearing . . . No, not hearing, knowing that Silvia Pinal was a very famous Mexican actor and was also very cute.

I don't quite remember, however, seeing her as young as she is in Viridiana (1961). Directed by Luis Buñuel, Pinal plays the novice Viridiana who is about to take her vows and become a cloistered nun. Her uncle (Fernando Rey) and financial supporter requests that she visit him before taking the habit. Viridiana, pushed by her Mother Superior, reluctantly agrees to go.

She spends a few days at his home, during which the sexual and religious tension between them is furthered by the camera's almost obsessive focus on feet, shoes, and religious icons.

Oh, did I mention that this is avant-garde cinema, by the way?

But don't get weirded out. This is no Un chien andalou eyeball-slashing, ant-crawling cinema. Buñuel manages to compose Viridiana's sanctity and sensuality and her uncle's desire for her (she resembles his late wife) in provocative ways without the obscurity typical of other avant-garde pieces.

At the same time, the simplicity of the framing and the dialogue belie the depth of the religious themes and criticism. Buñuel managed to get this past Franco era Spanish censors while he was making it, but after its debut at Cannes (where it won the Palme d'Or) it was banned all the way to the seventies.

The extras on the Criterion Collection Series DVD we got from Netflix are definitely worth watching. The interview with Silvia Pinal is quite informative about the history of the film (Is it a Spanish or a Mexican film?), a long special in French helps to understand Buñuel as a person (Did he or did he not punch Salvador Dali?), and a modern, if a bit nerdy, critic who manages to miss-pronounce Viridiana several different ways also helps to fill in some of the gaps (Did Buñuel have a fetish for shoes?).

Good film. Put it in your queue. Watch it. (If you dare....mwah ah ah ah..)

Movie review: Iron Giant

I somehow missed hearing anything about Iron Giant, an animated film directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille), when it first came out in 1999. (Oh wait, I was in grad school in '99, so that explains how I missed it.) But in the years since, I had heard references to it in Bird interviews and also from film critics (as in, "well, this is no Iron Giant, but it's a reasonably entertaining animated film"). So into the queue it went.

The basic story is that a 100-foot, metal-eating robot lands on earth from outer space (specific origin unknown) that lands off the coast of Maine during a storm and is found and befriended by a nine-year-old boy.It's unclear what the robot's purpose for being here is -- and the robot himself doesn't seem to know, his apparent amnesia perhaps a result of the dent on his head. Forgive me for not telling you more, but I don't want to introduce any plot spoilers here because I definitely think that this is worth discovering for yourself. It's an interesting observation of a period of American history (post-Sputnik paranoia), but it's also a funny, sweet story with a pretty typical Disney-esque message ("you are what you want to be") delivered with charm and nuance.

The movie is loosely based on a book, The Iron Man, by British writer Ted Hughes (1930-1998). Hughes is listed as a consultant on the film, but he did pass away before it was finished.

If you want a complete review, you might check out the New York Times review, "The Attack of the Human Paranoids."

Is (screen) real estate that tight?

The addition of a one-letter word (gets a shot) would make this so much less disturbing when you read the first line of this headline from MSNBC.com this afternoon.

Politics aside, this was unpleasant news.

I rarely critique headlines, it being outside my area of expertise, but it seems like one character more might have been worth the space.

The importance of clarity in written communication...

eagle eye

Someone at work suggested we ask another coworker to use her 'eagle eye' and look for errors in a flier. This brought to my mind the image of someone looking down from really high up, spotting things from very far away.

Figuring that it was quite likely that I, not for the first time, was going a little too literal with an idiom, I looked it up:

eagle eye
Unusually keen sight; also, keen intellectual vision. For example, Antiques dealers have an eagle eye for valuable objects, or A good manager has an eagle eye for employee errors. [Late 1500s]
Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Houghton Mifflin Company. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/eagle eye (accessed: September 18, 2008).

Of course, it's too late for me now. I just keep picturing my coworker floating in the air while she proofreads something on the ground...

* Photo by M Kuhn. Used under Creative Commons license.

Oh that's what Wii is...

My 'Mii' (my Wii avatar), waiting to bowl.


Sister's Mii hula hooping. (And that's my Mii on the left holding a hoop.)

At Sister and Tomster's house last week, I was introduced to the Wii (and Wii Fit). I could, I believe, have played this thing all day, every day. (Although a serious butt strain did eventually curtail my bowling.) I rocked the ski jump, didn't do too badly at golf, laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants trying to do the slalom, hit one out of every fifty serves in tennis, and generally found this all highly entertaining. And so, I must add, did my mom. I've never seen her so excited about a toy. That, alone, may have been worth the price of my plane ticket.

Bonsai and andagi

This past weekend B and I went to the Okinawan Festival at Kapiolani Park. We'd gone last year and watched some of the performances and shared some Okinawan soba. In the blazing heat of a late August midday. We couldn't believe how many people were there -- and truly of all ages.

This year, we poked around more and did a little shopping and checked out some of the cultural/historical stuff. I can see why they say that Okinawa is much like Hawaii -- very much a product of many influences (including Portuguese).

Half of the culture tent was dedicated to a bonsai show by the Hawaii Bonsai Association. Outside, there was a demo -- it was really fascinating. (Incidentally, the fellow doing the demo and answering questions is one of the regulars B sees when he goes boogie boarding in the morning.) It was interesting to see the special tools and wires they use (they mostly have to come from Japan, but we got a tip that you can now get cheaper wire from Vietnam). I was surprised at how very un-delicate some of the work was. Our demonstrator was really twisting and torquing his little tree, binding it with heavy, malleable wire that requires some real wrestling. (Hence the helper holding the pot.) His plan is to make the tree look like it grows where there is snow in the winter, so he is training the branches to all turn down. He has been working on this tree -- the one on the photo's right -- since 2002.

We would have stayed with the bonsai demo longer, but all that learning was making us hungry. It was, again, a blazing hot day (it's starting to look like this is typical for this time of year), but we managed to rise to the occasion and eat andagi (in the photo), which is basically the Okinawan doughnut. It's hard to go wrong with fried dough and andagi is no exception! Then we picked up some plates of food (and took it to join some friends in Manoa for a potluck lunch). We got champuru, which I'd never had (although I'd heard the word because a local Twitterer's handle is @champuru.)

Honolulu Advertiser photos from the festival here.

More of our (very amateurish) bonsai photos after the jump. These aren't great quality photos -- I think B got one just as good using his phone! -- but they do show a variety of plantings.


All of these plants are done by members of the Hawaii Bonsai Association.

Not drinking coffee can be bad for you...

I was viewing a video of Kermit and Harry the Hipster talking about 'visual thinking' (part of a post on Presentation Zen). On the 'you might also enjoy' line that pops up after you view a video, there was something called 'Wilkins Coffee.' These are ads done by Jim Henson in the 1950s for Wilkins Coffee. The characters are 'Wilkins' and 'Wontkins.' I bet you can guess which is which.

I had to share these. They're hilarious and disturbing all at once.

Not to mention brilliantly short and to the point.

Visiting the Garden Island

We were recently "off island," as they say. We spent a lovely week on Kauai with Tips & Burp. We ate at a couple of great restaurants -- Lighthouse Bistro and Bar Acuda (I didn't get that until I said it out loud...and saw the fish on their sign...). And we went on a lovely boat ride around the Na Pali Coast (viewing many famous movie backdrops including the entrance to Jurassic Park) on Holo Holo Charters on their teeny, tiny sailing catamaran.

This may be my favorite picture of the trip. (Ok, my second favorite. See below the jump.) This is at the taro fields overlook near Princeville, Kauai.
We're looking forward to seeing T and B's photos as well. (Hey guys, I am so going to burn ours and mail them. Really, really soon.)



And this is my favorite photo from our trip.
Doesn't B look...I don't know...salty?

Separated at birth?

...or secret love child?



It might just be us, but we can't shake this feeling that there must be some genetic link between Frank Schleck and Michael Palin...

The fuzz ball

This is Coco.
She has a pool.

We've been house and dog sitting for the last week or so. Of course, it's been raining almost every day since we've been here, so we haven't gotten much use out of the pool.

We have, however, enjoyed the granite and stainless steel counter tops and the Wolf stove.

Cutest. Robot. Ever.

We finally made it to see Wall-E (2008). I'd heard reviews raving about it, but frankly this was even more enjoyable than I had anticipated.

Wall-E is a sweet and totally unexpected love story between Wall-E, a Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class who is the last robot functioning on Earth, and EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Examiner), a probe sent to see if the Earth is recovering from its complete and total environmental collapse. (The movie is set a few hundred years after humans have had to abandon Earth to live on a big star cruiser.)

Despite the quietly persistent environmental doomsday message, this isn't a completely dystopian take on the future. Rather, it is chock full of love, hope, and dreams. Sure, some of these dreams are totally unrealistic -- Wall-E's notion of romantic love comes from a Hello, Dolly video tape and the starship captain's idea of Earth that he has gleaned from the ship's computer includes the notion that you can grow such things as pizza plants -- but they are heart-warming, nonetheless. There is an undercurrent and backstory that is horrifying, yet in the foreground there is so much fun and optimism, its quite digestable without being diluted.

Pixar fans, we are, and Wall-E did not disappoint. And I say without reservation that this is a notch up from Ratatouille.

While of course there are all kinds of great gadgets in this, I was particularly charmed by little M-O (Microbe Obliterator), who rolls around following foreign contaminant Wall-E, cleaning his tracks up with his "mono-rotational scrubbing roller." I've got to find me one of those...

And then the teeny, tiny camels went across the desert...

Last week we watched the Academy award winning epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962). And yes, it took us a few days. This bugger is like, 3 1/2 hours long!

We thought we'd try a different format for our review this time, and we sent each other questions about the movie. We'll give you our Q&A here (with minimal rebuttals).

LK's questions to B:

LK: Did you know anything about this movie or the historical events referred to before you watched it? How did that affect your viewing experience?
B: I did not have the foggiest idea about anything.
LK: Me either.

LK: Did you used to think your tv was plenty large?
B: Yup. Boy, those epic desert scenes make the camels look puny.

LK: What did you enjoy the most? What was the most moving?
B: The movie as a whole was good, but I don't think I have any particular scene that was most enjoyable or moving. More like a flat feeling throughout.

LK: What were the Oscar-earning qualities of the movie, at least from your first impression?
B: It won an Oscar? [apparently it did].

LK: There were no individual female characters in the movie.Did it seem like an omission?
B: Nope. This is a movie about a guy in a war lead by other men, almost all takes place in the desert in a culture that shelters women from the eyes of other males (with whatever implications you might want to read into it with your Western XXI century sensitivities) so women are sheltered thus.
LK: In fact, women appear three times: the Harith women -- no faces -- watching a dinner behind a curtain, and also seeing their men off to war (with uluations), and some women in a ransacked village (dead), but there are dead men too. In context, significant female characters would have been way too Hollywood. Plus, there's much discussion that women weren't terribly important in Lawrence's life... (See Hidalgo)

LK: What did this make you want to know more about?
B: What was really going on in WWI in Arabia. How instrumental was he really in the war? As an aside, it is a great perspective on how Europe and the U.S. have had such political and economic interest in controlling the region to this day and how disgusting it is that the politics of the hegemonic countries have been unable to leave other cultures alone (and made me want to re-read E. Said's Orientalism).

LK: If your wife hadn't cheated and looked at IMDB, do you think you would have ever placed Alec Guinness?
B: Nope.

LK: This disk had no extras, but if there were any extras, what would you want to watch?
B: Was it shot on location? How hot was it really? Things of that nature.

LK: And most important: Sharif or O'Toole?
B: Sharif, for sure. O'Toole is just a bit bland and over-dramatic about his own personal importance in the world (which might reflect the real Lawrence, hmm...)

B's questions to LK:

B: Who was your favorite character in the film?
LK: Sharif Ali. He seemed the most...rational. (And he was the biggest babe.)

B: Is there a particular scene that you found particularly appealing (or unnecessary)?
LK: In general -- any scene with camels running across desert landscapes was really, really cool. Maybe if I saw it more than once, I would notice things that seemed unnecessary, but despite the fact that it was 3 1/2 hours long, nothing struck me as unnecessary (of course I hated the attack on the Turk troops and I covered my eyes, but the point seems to be the ugliness of war, etc., so I get that.)

B: After watching this film, would you like to know about the real T. E. Lawrence?
LK: Hell, yes. And more than just the Wikipedia entry. There is a 2008 book out on him, but I haven't found a review of it. You can get most of his own writings online, but I think I'd prefer more of a biography and historical context. I don't know a lot about the Arab Revolt. I think it would be really, really interesting and I'm sure it has a lot to do with contemporary issues in the region.

B: What did you think of the music? Will you buy the sound track?
LK: Maybe I already have...
B: What!?
LK: Kidding. But yes, I was into it. It was so interesting that on the DVD there is this explanation at the beginning that you aren't supposed to be seeing anything while the overture plays. It's a blank screen so that you are just listening to the music. It gives it a much higher level of importance as a result -- and when the same themes occur later in the movie, they have more power.

B: What prompted you to see this film in the first place anyway?
LK: Because it's famous. And epic. (I thought you put it in the queue.)
B: No. No. YOU put it in the queue.
LK: I'm pretty sure it was you...

'Going viral' and spreading joie de vivre

If you haven't already seen this, I recommend it. And read the NYT article if you want to know more about the video and Matt.



TIP: If you double click on the video here, you'll go straight to YouTube where you can chose "watch in high quality" OR go to Matt's page with a vimeo version for higher quality.

SFO eatin' & drinkin'

Had a great time in SFO on my trip a couple of months ago (it took me a while to finish up this post, obviously). Learned a lot of relevant professional stuff at the conference I was attending (the International Studies Association annual meeting), but also had a lovely time eating and drinking with friends (some old, some new) at all kinds of establishments.

Alembic Bar - Went with a bunch of folks to this funky bar on Haight St. The food we had was fabulous -- I had bavette steak with chimichurri sauce (photo left). I had a couple of Belgian beers. Mmm. 1725 Haight St.

Cafe Prague - I had Hungarian Szeged Goulash with dumplings (great), the beers were great, and we thought our Czech waiter was adorable. Not a great vegetarian selection so my friend got fried cheese. Yelpers give it mixed reviews, but I'd probably go again. (We had intended to go back for the accordion party on Friday, but ended up doing something else.) 584 Pacific Ave.

Colibrí - a lovely Mexican restaurant. I had green mole and duck. And the guacamole we had with our margarita course was amazing. 438 Geary St.

Cafe Mason - Chosen for its proximity to my hotel because I needed to check out right after breakfast. As I picked it over other more popular options, I was relieved that it ended up being a pretty great little breakfast spot. I got some sort of crepe and fruit thing and it was fabulous. Coffee was good too. I think all of the waitresses were from the same Eastern European or former Soviet country. It was great.

Cafe Trieste (North Beach) - Very cool coffee shop with very good coffee and excellent pastries. 609 Vellejo Ave.

Hana Zen - We were very hungry and cold and the udon noodle soup with vegetable tempura hit the spot. So did the sake.

Hidden Vine - A real hole in the wall kind of place, but great. My friend and I learned not to assume we won't like a wine if it's from California (although I'll still say it'd be an exception if I really like it). If I'm remembering correctly, our eye-opening red wine was from Bighorn Cellars, but I no longer remember the varietal...

John's Grill - a meat-and-potatoes kind of place, touristy, but it seemed like it would be fun to go. It is a setting in The Maltese Falcon and is -- or, rather, was -- the home of one of signed publicity copies of the movie's falcon statue.

King of Thai - looking for a quick-ish lunch on a break and stumbled into this place. It was packed when we arrived, so we'd ordered 'to go,' but by the time our food was ready, there were plenty of seats so we ate in. (Which was good, as we really didn't have any place to go to eat our take-away!) We were quite happy with our meals and it was very reasonable. And I loved the green plates.

5 minutes on craigslist

Sometimes a classified ad tells you much more than what is for sale. (Which reminds me, I should check where 24 Hours on Craigslist is in our queue. I'd heard good things about it.)

Anyway, I hesitate to imagine the story behind this recent entry that appeared on Honolulu Craiglist:

Great Deal For Anyone Getting Married - $1000

Brand new wedding dress. I only ever tried it on at the store and then again at home for these pictures. It needs a new home where it can make it down the aisle. My loss is your gain! $1200 dress. ...

I have a full wedding ring set for sale. The full set is worth $1875 and in excellent condition. The mens ring is 14kt yellow gold with a comfort fit band. Size 9. Purchased for $175. The womans wedding ring is very unique and one of a kind. It is a mix of yellow and white gold to form a "lovers knot". Diamonds are set all across the knot to total 5/8 of a karat. It is a size 7. Purchased for $1000

The engagement ring is also yellow gold with a 1/4 karat diamond set in the middle. This ring is also a size 7. Purchased for $700.

Food and the people who write about it

The 2008 James Beard Foundation award winners were announced this past weekend, and as always, JBF has the results updated on the website super fast. (A side note: They've done a complete redesign of their site since I had last visited. My recollection is that the navigation has improved, but even more striking is that the appearance has dramatically changed. A bold look without too much Flash.)

Greg Patent's latest book, A Baker's Odyssey (which I wrote about here), was a finalist in the 'Baking and Dessert' category, although the winner in that category went to Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor (which I know nothing about, but it sounds like good idea).

Heidi Swanson, the author of one of the food blogs I follow, '101 Cookbooks', was a finalist in the 'Healthy Focus' category for her cookbook Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways To Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking. It's not just the site's recipes that entice -- her food photos are gorgeous.

No Hawaiians were nominated for Best Chef in the Pacific region (all finalists were in California), but the Best Chef for the Southwest region (I'd be interested in hearing how they decided on their regions) is Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson at Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder. This note-worthy chef is not in Aspen, or even Denver, but in little ol' Boulder. I love it. I haven't dined there, myself, but we've heard good things about it. Maybe I'll get there on one of my future visits. (Question to The Folks: Have you eaten there?)

And the ever-reliable Epicurious.com -- a site I couldn't cook without -- won for 'Website Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition.' (Nice concise description for that category, eh?)

And a personal recommendation:
Another of my own favorite recipe blogs is 'Simply Recipes.' I diligently forward any ice cream recipes to Sister (who has a machine) and have promised to send all of this summer's zucchini recipes to The Folks in anticipation of their annual squashy bounty. (Sister reports that the Strawberry Frozen Yogurt -- made with fresh berries from their local farmers' market -- was a big success at a recent gathering.)

P.S. Upon further exploration, I see that the JBF site is still under construction, so not all functions are up yet. A work in progress.

P.P.S. Sorry about the double post (those of you who get this via feed). Stupid Ctrl key so close to the Shift key....!

Pro bono work

I'm doing ad and program layout for our upcoming choral festival. We lost our manager mid-season so we're all scrambling. Here's the online version of the ad.

Luckily, I got the director to agree to black and white -- it's hard enough to fit this in this week without complicating things with picking colors!

An upside to me doing the program is that I will also be able to copyedit it so it doesn't drive me nuts when I see the published product.

Notes from the shop

Last night, my resident bike mechanic worked on my single speed.

My single speed was this, but is evolving all the time. The first modification was to chop the handle bars. B had to take it to the shop for that. They are straight bars and they are now no wider than my shoulders (the better to fit through small spaces, my dear.)

Next, I wanted better pedals. Bigger, flatter, pedals mean you can wear more different kinds of shoes without sacrificing efficiency or comfort (Yay, we can wear flip-flops and ride our bikes! 'Safety first!').

And this is when things got tricky.

B found these pancake-sized pedals that will be awesome. (You feel like Alice in Wonderland when you pick them up, they are so large.) Unfortunately, when he went to put them on, it quickly became clear that I also needed new crank arms (the things the pedals attach to) and a bottom bracket (where the crank arms attach) because the style that came with the bike was incompatible with any upgrade. My no-frills bike was too frill-less as it came with one-piece, or "Ashtabula-style," crank arms. And it would seem that the conversion is no simple thing. B has been trying new combinations of parts (including swapping some with his current fixed-gear bike). Some of this requires special ordering from local shops of odd-sized parts. And much calculating, a bit of guessing, and a little bit of luck.

Last night he removed the stock crank arm set-up. Intermittently, as he worked, he'd pop up and go to the white board and write down numbers. He was recording the weight of the various parts. Once all the numbers had been crunched, he gleefully announced that the new bottom bracket/crank arms/pedals weighed half of what the previous set-up weighed. In other words, nearly a pound and a half less than what came on the bike.

Even I might notice that. (Although once I get the fenders and rack, on down the road, I'll be adding more than that back on!)

So the bike is not quite ready to go. Needs further tweaking -- including a smaller chain ring on the front so my knees won't explode when I go uphill -- but we are very close now. Soon, I'll be tooling around the neighborhood on my new pancake pedals.

The bike does not yet have a name. I probably need to go on a vision quest or something to learn its name. You can't force these things.

And where was I while B labored to perfect my ride? I was nearby, keeping him company, working on my own household project: making new throw pillow covers. (The rosa mexicano pair are finished.)

May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii.

And this past Lei Day, the City of Honolulu made the world's longest lei.

Arriving after the mile-long-lei activities were pretty much over, my companions and I were there at the tail end of the lei's 15 minutes of fame. We were able to pick up sections of it to take with us. Not a mile long anymore, no, but certainly longer than any leis we'd ever had. I picked up segments of plumeria, dendrobium, and tuberose. Mmm...

This was the first year I'd made it down to Kapiolani Park to check it out. They display the winning leis that were entered in competition, there are many local craftspeople demonstrating their skills (coconut palm frond woven hats, yarn leis, quilts), and of course there was music and hula and vendors of all kinds. It was quite charming, all around, with some of the same elements of other festivals here, but also reminding me of the county fair from when I was growing up. (Hey, remember that dried flower arrangement stuck to a chunk of wood 4H project I entered one year?)

It was a hot day, and leis lose their freshness quickly. The winners -- and these were really amazing and creative -- were all on display in the shade and were being spritzed regularly by volunteers.

I could have used a spritzin' myself. Even with my broad-brimmed hat, I got a little too much sun.

So I thought I'd better get a bigger hat. (Buy bigger hat. Check.)

First screw tops, now this?

Dear readers and wine aficionados:

I've heard murmurings about allegedly drinkable box wines coming out in recent years. Jeffrey Lindenmuth has an article on epicurious.com, "Top 5 Box Wines."

They all sound like 'quaffing' wines, but seriously, if they are even moderately drinkable, they'd be perfect for picnics at the beach. (In the evening. We of course drink BEER during the heat of the day.)

Are the rumors true? Have any of you tried any of these?

Let us know!

LK & B

Sigh...

Sometimes, I wish the world of 'style' were the real world...

The cliché perfect storm, as in “Behind the trend is a perfect storm of economic forces,” has appeared in the Journal 13 times in the past three months, usually in quotes. So page-one editor Mike Williams is declaring a moratorium on the expression.

From Wall Street Journal style editor Paul R. Martin's blog, Style & Substance , March 27, 2008 (Vol. 21, No. 3)

Twitter saves someone's day

An interesting example of how being able to quickly reach many like-minded people can be extremely handy...

U.C. Berkeley student's Twitter messages alerted world to his arrest in Egypt

(Thanks, Twitter Blog)

One gin, two gin, clear gin, blue gin

Some of you might remember an older post in this blog about some fancy-pants blue gin that I was introduced to a while back by my father-in-law. Good stuff!

Then there are those "celerytinis" that LK has twittered and facedbooked about just recently. She learned about these at the Alembic in San Francisco and then found the recipe online. (The drink is actually called a "Southern Exposure.")

As I was unable to get the gin that the original recipe called for (Junípero, made by Anchor Steam in San Francisco), I decided to experiment with another gin that was also infused with spices since I could not get Magellan (the blue gin from the older post) where I was shopping. And a celerytini, which would end up being green anyway, would not benefit from blue accents.

I chose a new gin, Citadelle, and our celerytinis were quite successful. And tasty. Perhaps a little too tasty...

Anyhow, I decided that a gin martini taste was in order with such exotic gins at hand (I had a bit of Magellen left).

Since I was out of Martini & Rossi vermouth, I also restocked on a new (to me) vermouth: Noilly Prat, some fancy-pants French stuff.

After mixing two exactly proportioned martinis (following the recipe that was in the back of the Noilly Prat bottle), evaluation time was at hand. It was a tough one. (No seriously, it was.)

Both were quite smooth. Both had very good nuances of flavor. One was blue, the other not. Both had two olives. Was there a winner?

Well, at least in this first tasting round I have to say that the Citadelle was just a bit nicer. I'm not sure if it was smoother, or it had more nuances, perhaps it was drier (I thought I favored dry martinis), but it was just...nicer.

Perhaps I should make a blind test. Yeah. That's it. Well, but not tonight though...

fixie clarification

B has a fixed-gear bicycle, but he does have brakes.
LK has a single-speed bike (one gear, but I can coast), not a fixed gear. And of course I have brakes.

I just didn't want people to think we were tougher/crazier/more stylish than we really are.

For a little more on the phenom, there's this NY Times piece from last year. SFO was great fixie watching, too (if you're into that kind of thing).

Photo by veganstraightedge.

Want to learn more about Creative Commons?

Beyond charming

Surprisingly enough, we again are posting a review of a movie we watched on an airplane. Both LK and B saw Enchanted (2007) during our separate trips last week (me to San Francisco and B to NC).

And you know what? I'd watch it again.

I never would have picked this up on my own, and if I hadn't heard such good reviews of it ("It's enchanting!") I wouldn't have made it through the first 5 minutes, assuming it was something inane and saccharine. Well, it had elements of inanity and saccharinity (that could totally be a word!), but it was all part of the gag.

The basic premise is that Giselle -- a soon-to-be princess and resident of a Disney animated princessy universe (yes, 'princessy' is also totally a word) gets pushed (by the prince's wicked stepmother) out into the 3D world of New York City. It's terribly -- and surprisingly -- charming.

And it wasn't just me. The early-twenties young man next to me on the plane also laughed all the way through.

So it's great for adults, but I wonder what kids would think. And I'll warn you that the whole thing goes about 15 minutes beyond where it should with a ridiculous CG episode with a giant dragon climbing up a building that is wholly unnecessary, but just get up and start doing something else once Giselle has been saved by true love's kiss. (What? I'm not giving anything away. It's a Disney princess story!) But that last bit isn't enough to ruin the charm of the rest of it. Go forth and enjoy.

I always knew YouTube must be good for something...

In my ipod

some new favorites...

WYNC's Radio Lab - this one is new to me, recommended by different people just days apart
On the Media (NPR)
Agatha Christie Radio Mysteries
Slate Political Gabfest - I discovered I could subscribe just to the Gabfest not the whole Slate Daily podcast (woohoo!), which I could never keep up on and I'm just plain not too fond of the guy doing the podcast now.

And just today I listened to a couple of NYT OpCasts on my way home, which are interviews with folks who have appeared on the NYT Op-ed pages recently. That may be added to my favorites, but I'll give it a few more 'casts before I decide.

Fixie parking

I've explained to a couple of people recently about how fixed gear bikes can actually be propelled backwards. Here's a cute illustration of a well-handled fixie.



P.S. Why did he do that? Just to show he can. Obviously, he wasn't really going to park there.

And who doesn't love the color red?!

I really had no idea what this was about, but had heard great things about it and it has some of Pedro Almodovar's regulars (including Penélope Cruz).

It is gorgeous, of course, being Almodovar. (The NYTimes review by A.O. Scott was, in fact, titled "The Darkest of Troubles in the Brightest of Colors"!) But more than that, it is complicated, unresolved, and in many ways totally incredible (as in, not credible). But it was totally charming and sympathetic at the same time.

As always, Almodovar's film is all about women and their relationships with each other -- and men seem sort of peripheral. A catalyst for events, frequently, but somehow still not all that significant. B the Observant noticed that the identity of these women as self-contained has been carried through in the names of the characters we hear spoken in the opening scene: Raimunda, Augustina, and Paula are all feminized versions of men's names. (How better to convey these women's independent natures than nominally granting them elements of both sexes.)

The basic plot is....is...well,...it's not very basic. There are a few women, some of them are relatives (mothers, sisters, aunts), but some are neighbors (which is like family), and there are a couple of, to put it bluntly, murders, some significant deceptions, and quite a bit of confusion, but it's all good!

But as is always true when he is at his best, Almodovar's film can be enjoyed at many levels. It's visually stunning, very smart, very funny, very dramatic, very sentimental, very irreverent, and many other "very"s all wrapped up in one entertaining package. A fabulous movie and well worth two hours.

About the 'twittering'...

Some of you may have been wondering about Twitter. You see "LK's Twitter Update" to the side here perhaps and think to yourself, Gosh, what is this Twitter thing?

Or maybe you don't, but here's a nice little illustration, in case you are curious.

It's more interactive and less time-consuming than email or blogging. And -- like all social media -- it is especially fun now that more of my friends are joining in.



From Common Craft

The other March madness

A couple of weeks ago, B and I got on the subject of hatters and why they had the reputation of going mad. That naturally led us to the topic of March hares and so on. B got the idea that we should have a "March madness" party. And I am always up for a themed party. So on a vaguely Alice's-Adventures-in-Wonderland theme, we threw together a "tea party." We didn't actually have any tea, but we did have white rabbit salad. Oh, and of course there was a little note on the wine bottle: "Drink me."

The main event of the evening was urban croquet. We had no flamingos or card-people to use, so we used more traditional mallets and wickets. We turned it into an "indoor" set by sticking the wickets into wine corks (golly, who knew B's wine cork collection would come in handy some day!). We passed around the safety goggles and knee pads, protected the legs of the only piece of furniture we care about, and, with a little improvisation as we went along, we had a lovely game.

We certainly enjoyed it and I think our guests enjoyed it as well. After the game, we finished the evening out in the parking with most everyone taking a turn on B's fixed-gear bike (the "fixie"). I'm pleased to report that there were not only no injuries, but B has some potential converts.

The Flying Scotsman

The Flying Scotsman (2006) is based on the autobiography of Graeme Obree, a Scottish cyclist who is famous for designing his own bike and introducing a new riding position. Most memorable for the press and non-cyclists, he is known for having incorporated part of his washing machine in the bike that he built.

I had heard an interview with Billy Boyd (you may know him as Pippin from The Lord of the Rings triology), who plays Obree's friend/manager, and I put the movie in the queue. I'd previously never heard of this person, but when I told B I'd heard about this new movie about a guy who built a bike with a part from his washing machine, he knew exactly who it was (of course).

We really enjoyed the film. You don't have to be a bike lover, but it doesn't hurt.
I give it 4 1/2 chainrings.

Best. Movie. Ever.

Okay, well at least it's the best movie we've seen in a very long time.

Last night, we watched Brick. The movie came out around or shortly after the time I'd been reading all those Raymond Chandler mysteries. So of course I put this one in the queue, as I was all primed for a little film noir detective schtuff.

(Besides, who doesn't love Joseph Gordon-Levitt?)

The basic premise is that high school student Brendan gets a call from his ex-girlfriend who is clearly in distress. The disjointed conversation drops a few clues that he eventually follows to their source (although she, meanwhile, has been killed). It's very hard-boiled detective-esque. There's the authority he must work around (the assistant vice principal), femme fatales (in drama club, among other places), and there is even a reference to an "old guy" -- around 26 years old. And yet despite the inherent comedy of much of this set-up, the plot is deadly earnest, and you don't doubt it or the characters for a moment.

Regular readers may remember that I've frequently said something along the lines of, well this movie is quite good or this is quite enjoyable, but it is "not without flaws." In Brick, we noticed no flaws. And while I will grant that it's quite possible not everyone will like this movie, we certainly thought it was exceptionally well executed and we enjoyed it immensely.

A funny thing happened on my way to the printer...

I'd just read the latest entry on "The Penguin Blog" --the blog for Penguin Books UK, and there was a small segment of it I wanted to print out as an idea relating to a new blog we are starting up at work. So I highlighted the paragraph I want and print the selection.

I walk out to the printer and pick up the pages that are waiting there.

Imagine my surprise when, instead of my Penguin blog excerpt, I'm looking down at THIS.

Apparently, through a remarkable coincidence, another user of the same printer had just printed out this image from The Nature Conservancy's 2007 Photo Contest Finalists.

My printout was the second page.


Frankly, I'm still feeling a little shaken up.

A cultural exchange

We got a kick out of some recent special packaging for some locally made corn tortillas (much better than the other brand available at the grocery store, by the way). We were surprised to see a local brand named after a Mexican state, Sinaloa, but we were even more surprised to see these corn-headed characters depicted on surfboards...

The back of the package tells us:
The mythical Mayan twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, surf the waves of Hawaii in a cultural exchange. They are symbolized by their corn heads [...]. Hunahpu and Xbalanque, according to Mayan legend, were responsible for tricking the ant into bringing corn seed from the underworld to this world, thus bringing stability and civilization to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Amazingly, our tortilla choice is in perfect sync with B's course content this semester.

New Patent book

Family friend, cookbook author, and NPR favorite Greg Patent has a new food history/recipe book coming out, A Baker's Odyssey. I just caught this piece on the NPR: Books podcast. The article online has some recipes, but the audio piece is a discussion with Greg about his own background and the work for the book as he makes the Cheese Sambouseks in his home kitchen.

Greg has an interesting bio -- among other things, he lived his first 10 years in China, his pre-culinary career was as a zoology professor, and he used to tour as a spokesman for Cuisinart. His wife Dorothy Hinshaw Patent is also a writer. She mostly writes non-fiction books for children, and one of her books was a finalist in the 2003 Spur Awards (Western Writers of America) when I was doing work for them (and serving as a judge in another category). She politely sent her regrets about attending the WWA convention, as they would instead be attending the awards banquet for the James Beard Foundation the same week. Greg was nominated for and received the prestigious award for the best baking book of 2003 with Baking in America.

Our favorite pancake recipe is, incidentally, from Greg's 1996 book, New Cooking from the Old West.

Puppets rule

This weekend, B and I went to the theatah. We saw A (Balinese) Tempest. It was a really a great experience. One of those rare experiences that you just keep thinking about it and talking about it for days.

I knew there were puppets involved, but frankly, I didn't really have any idea what it would be. (Had I read this write-up in the Advertiser, I would have been much better informed.)

The play is the text of Shakespeare's The Tempest, with some abbreviation and editing, done in a style derived from Balinese shadow puppet theater combined with human actors and masks. (As the director Larry Reed points out in the program notes, it's A Tempest, not The Tempest.)

The entire performance was shadows and reflections cast onto a screen. The ultimate effect was absolutely magical. It took a little bit to get into it -- I think one of the problems was actually just that the first scene is all explication with mostly one speaker (Prospero) -- but once we grew accustomed to the style, we were completely drawn in.

One of the reasons it was so easy to become completely involved was the live gamelan orchestra -- a university group -- and the original music. This music was essential to the performance. (Here's a video of a Balinese gamelan group.)

This show was a level of professionalism and refinement above anything else I've seen on campus. Reed is currently an artist-in-residence here and brought his unique application of these Balinese theatrical arts with him. He is the founder and artistic director of ShadowLight Productions based in San Francisco.

We stayed for a Q&A afterward and it was really interesting. We got to see how their masks worked and how they'd created the scenes and other details.

And then after the performance, B's moped wouldn't start -- a dead battery -- and the actor who had played Ferdinand gave him and the dead moped a ride home in his truck. All in all, a perfect evening.

Photo by Seema K K

Hawaiian Modern exhibit

We finally got ourselves over to the Honolulu Art Academy to see the "Hawaiian Modern" exhibit -- a show of the works of Vladimir Ossipoff. (The exhibit has been running since Nov. 29 and closes tomorrow.)

We enjoyed learning that so many of the prominent buildings of Hawaii -- and Honolulu, in particular -- were designed by him. I was also pleased to see that so many of the featured buildings -- both residential and commercial -- are still in use and for the most part intact. I know I especially enjoyed the photos of the houses and their period interiors.

And it was such a pleasure to see design that was done with the climate in mind. Although, as it was pointed out in the exhibit, it was actually essential to design like that until air conditioning became the norm.

This idea that you can put up the same building in Hawaii as anywhere else in the world is based on an assumption that there will be air conditioning. I fear that the possibility of ever owning a residence here that doesn't require air conditioning is slim to none. It makes our current set-up seem better and better. Yes, we have to live with carpet, but we have a lovely breeze and 80% of the time it is very comfortable. And most of the other 20% it's still pretty good. We have windows on three sides and the trade winds blow right through our unit.

So of course the exhibit has sparked housing-related fantasies, but hey, that was a known risk. If nothing else, the photos of the houses' interiors reminded us of the beauty and utility of benches...hmm...

Here's lookin' at you, kid.

We were in the mood for a classic, and so we pulled out one of our 'recycled' dvds - Casablanca. I'd seen it once, ages ago. B had never seen it.

The "good" guys are all charismatic and smart. All the men are good looking (ok, maybe not Peter Lorre...). The ending is the perfect balance of tying up loose ends but leaving things a bit unsettled...

Sigh...

Oh yeah, me too.

I was amused to see this message from Flickr recently when they were off line for a bit:

That is totally what I'm doing every time I'm off line too...

They lay eggs?

The other night, I was looking through recipes for an appetizer to bring to a dinner party. I passed a potential selection over to B to see what he thought.

I was thinking it was pretty reasonable, so was surprised when he suddenly laughed.

As a result of one of those funny eye-brain mis-coordinations, he'd read "1 egg yolk" as "1 yak egg."

Those would probably be really big, huh?

Photo: Oliver Whiteside

Queso relleno

I have been in Yucatán several times, but I recently had queso relleno and learned that it is a favorite of Yucatecans and considered very much to be a traditional specialty.

This is one of those meals that has a long lead-in, and the anticipation that builds on the way to the final product makes it even better.

It starts as a ball of Edam cheese (Dutch) to which you perform 'open brain surgery.' You then scoop small amounts every day or so and eat it with whatever (bread, tortillas, crackers, a spoon. The last was LK's favorite).

Over time, you end up with a hollow and a very sturdy, thick cheese ball. The next few steps are up for debate, but the essential idea is that you stuff the hollow cheese ball with ground beef, capers, raisins, and a few spices (sorry, ancient Mayan secret). You stick the whole thing in the oven, then cut open and serve.

My Yucatecan relative fondly remembers his mother scooping the cheese pieces, and his anticipation for the final product that fed the entire family (and then some) a very hearty and delicious meal (served with a white sauce).

We had this at the Restaurante El Príncipe Tutul-Xiu in Maní, Yucatán. This is one of their specialties in addition to Poc Chuc.

(Note: the Edam cheese sample photo is at the Dr.'s house. Eventually this will become a queso relleno. Too bad we had to leave before it was finish. We did try!).

Movie review gem

NYT reviewer Manohla Dargis describes the main characters of newly released monster movie Cloverfield as:

"Smart as Tater Tots and just as differentiated."

Love it.

I couldn't of said it better myself.

The publications manager asked me if I'd seen William Safire's column this weekend on of. I immediately said, "You mean like when people use it as a verb?" Well, it's that and more.

Safire mentions a few common mistakes, and I confess that I'm guilty of at least one myself: dropping the of in a phrase such as a couple of typos. (Although I will claim I do this only in my informal writing, emails, tweets, etc., I fear that may not be the case...)

But as I've mentioned previously, the frightfully prevalent mistake that troubles me deeply is the use of of as a replacement for have. As in: I could of/should of/would of had this checked for errors.

It's disappointing to me that native speakers of English seemingly have no understanding of contractions. Surely they know that the little apostrophe means that some part of a word is being omitted, and that there is, therefore, a real and meaningful word involved here and not just some arbitrary utterance. While yes, the contracted 've in could've may sound similar to the word of, it simply makes no sense when it's written down. (Yes, this is also a root cause of apostrophe misuse, but that's another topic altogether.)

To quote Mr. Safire:

Here’s my point and proposition: I won’t complain about those confusing contractions in speaking if you refrain from these infractions in writing. Blur and slur to your tongue’s content, but when your fingers hit the keys, keep faith with clarity.

Hear, hear!

P.S. Since I already got one email about this: the word "column" in the first sentence of this post is the link to Safire's original piece.

Sapo verde to me

I had a pretty amazing birthday this year. First, I got an early birthday party from my family when we were in Portland. Then, the organization I work for had their annual party scheduled for my birthday so I pretended it was a party for me (I did get a birthday lei from my colleagues), and at the party I won a round-trip airfare to the Mainland. Pretty nice. I've gotten many thoughtful, lovely, and tasty gifts. This image is of my most special gift that B and I picked up this afternoon. It is one of my favorite birds we see around the apartment, the japanese white eye, painted by Gary Kato. We have a gallery here in the valley that features many local artists (Sister and her husband bought gyotaku prints there on their visit) and I've admired this artist's little paintings of neighborhood birds since we first saw them.

P.S. Sorry if you got this one twice. Operator error.