and i'm off!
heading out now for a quick brunch before hitting the airport. then it's to colorado for 10 elk-riddled days. see y'all when i get back — or perhaps before, thanks to the powerbook and the digicam.
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August 30, 2003
August 29, 2003
word play of the day
my new favorite anagram:
(thanks to the mysteriously silent kaley.)
August 28, 2003
already next to the suitcase
- ersatz coffee
- teeny hair dryer
- four discount coupons for the mikasa outlet
- 12 little polarfleece sheep cutouts
in russia they lined up for bread
this is me if a waffle house ever opens nearby:
Anne Lewis and son Gregg Pullano sit near the Hot Light at the new Krispy Kreme Tuesday morning. Lewis and Pullano stood in line for 13 days waiting for the store to open. It was the longest anyone has waited for a store opening in the franchise's history.
August 27, 2003
grace note
emily is being raised right. she sent me a homemade thank-you card for the quilt i made her. (click to see the full view.)
but the really hilarious thing is the inside of the card. terry said, "she did a crappy job on the first one she made, so i made her do it again."
enigma
as mysteriously as it vanished, my letter opener has reappeared. i blame thieves in the night, whose conscience finally plagued them.
give her some funked up music / she treats you nice
enough about fagen's unfortunate jaw problem. now for the music. becker and fagen are known for their insane perfectionism in the studio, which some critics complain results in a certain musical coldness. i, however, am just a musical doofus and not a rock critic, so in my ignorance i can afford to be glad they're so exacting. their live show, featuring 13 musicians onstage, faithfully recreated many of my favorite moments in steely dan history.
some highlights:
- "aja" i was buying paul a beer as the song began, so i hustled in quickly, spilling sam adams all over the guy in the seat in front of me. ah, but he was so hopped up on goodwill and budweiser he practically thanked me for it. anyway, the song is so full of tricky twists and turns that i would never have expected them to play it live, but the band was more than equal to the task.
- "home at last" this is a song that takes full advantage of a robust horn section — luckily, becker and fagen happened to have two saxes, a trumpet, and a trombone on hand for just such emergencies.
- "josie" you know, come to think of it, this isn't one of my favorite songs as recorded; the live version was a great improvement. the drummer touring with them is, oh, about fifteen years old, but managed a really rousing three-minute solo at the end of the song.
- "my old school" this was the first song of their two-tune encore. worth the price of admission to hear the little flourish of glee from the horns after, "california...tumbles into the sea." we were all wishing california ill at that moment, i am sure.
- the goofballs in the audience let's get this out of the way right now: i mean no disrespect. but i have to point out that the crowd was almost homogeneously composed of 45-year-old white guys in golf shirts, whose idea of rocking out involved staying comfortably seated and genially nodding, in a very tight way, to the funky driving beat. at intermission the two guys in front of us engaged in a very amicable battle to the death to determine, once and for all, who was the bigger fan: "i saw them just last week!" "oh. yeah. well, i'm using my frequent flyer miles to go see them in hawaii!" ad infinitum.
- the goofballs in the audience. although they were cute individually, the crowd as a whole was a disappointment. there was no energy in the arena to speak of — polite applause followed every song, but the only time the crowd showed even a spark of life was at the beginning of the encore as "my old school" began.
- walt and don phone it in. maybe it's because the crowd's response to their music was so lackluster, but those two couldn't get off the stage fast enough at the end of the encore (slipping out before "fm" truly ended). paul saw the taillights of a car zooming into the darkness at the side stage exit long before the band wound it up.
- general-purpose melancholy. it was sorta sad to see steely dan, known as masters of wit and irony, playing at this godawful indian casino in the middle of nowhere, connecticut. ("a legendary gaming experience," indeed, boasting tasteful features like "the casino of the lost tribes" for example.) what was even sadder, though, was hearing walter becker vow that they'd be back. guys. guys! i trust you to be smarter than that.
So buy a program
And/or a hat
You don't pass up a deal like that
It's only promo stuff
But hey it's good enough
For THE STEELY DAN SHOW
And/or a hat
You don't pass up a deal like that
It's only promo stuff
But hey it's good enough
For THE STEELY DAN SHOW
yes, i bought a t-shirt. (no, it's not black.)
did you ever know that you're my hero?
August 26, 2003
don fagen, don music. don music, don fagen.
boy, oh, boy, does steely dan's donald fagen look like a muppet.
part of it has to do with the way his jaw hinges when he opens his mouth wide to sing — it's not that his mandible drops; it stays stationary while the rest of his head moves up and back.
another part of it was the giant dark-rimmed elvis costello-style glasses he was wearing. now, no one would ever accuse donald fagen of having a delicate nose, but the giant glasses didn't help.
i couldn't find a photo of fagen from the latest tour, but here's one from the last go-round. note that he now has longer hair, and it's silver. the lenses of his glasses are clear, and the frames are heavy and dark.
in fact, this picture looks a lot more like him now:
(the muppet pictured above is named don music. he was a composer who couldn't remember the words to his own pieces — he'd falter on a rhyme, get frustrated, then violently bang his head on the keys of his piano. don was a popular fixture on sesame street when i was a moppet, but apparently he was fired from the show: parents complained about his self-flagellation when kids started imitating don at home.)
you may be wondering how the group sounded. you may also be wondering how i could be so petty as to carp about one of my favorite singers' looks, rather than raving about his live performance. i will leave the full review for tomorrow. but it was good. very good!
August 24, 2003
long green
when my blog bores you, feel free to check out the hulk's.
Hulk not welcome in The Hamptons, Hulk found out. White people hate everyone, even green people!
seek and ye shall find
hey, quilters: do y'all know about this site, quiltshops.com?
it's a good way to do price comparisons if there's a particular fabric line you're looking for (try searching for exotic garden, for example -- be sure to click "thumbnails" so you can see the pictures).
i like to use it to supplement my local purchases. if i've bought a focus fabric and suspect there might be coordinates that my shop doesn't carry, i can look it up there.
it's also a handy tool if you're looking for fabric with, say, sushi on it. just plug in your term and sift through the results.
what i really like to do, though, is go through the categories at equilter and copy the name of the fabric line — then i use the quiltshops.com search to see if i can get it anywhere for cheaper.
August 22, 2003
lord love a duck
so i was thinking i should get a duck.
last night paul and i saw winged migration, a beautiful movie composed of breathtaking footage of migratory birds in flight. lots of geese, many cranes, even some penguins...but only one duck, a mallard who accidentally wandered into a v of southbound greylags.
and it got me thinking about the ducks i've known and loved. there are many fine ducks at the lakefront in burlington, mostly female mallards; we admired them and their chicks this summer. then there are the ducks we watched at leamington, sheltering themselves snugly under docks and in the recesses of the boat hulls just under the engines. (why leamington encourages kids to blow them out of the water, i'm sure i don't know.) and then there are the ducks at the peabody in memphis — maybe one day, if i work very hard, i, too, could become a duckmasterTM.
by far, the duck i love the most is jim dodge's fup, a hilarious little fable about a twenty-pound flightless mallard. (fup duck...get it?) please read it if you haven't.
so, back to my plan. we're getting a duck (just one, i think). i don't really foresee any major problems caring for our duck, particularly since she will earn her keep eating slugs and snails — after all, "it literally costs only pennies per day to feed a duck or goose"! and they can even be diapered. what's not to like?
if nothing else, it'll give lunch something to herd.
August 21, 2003
short review of i capture the castle
i capture the castle
by dodie smith
if you took francie nolan from a tree grows in brooklyn, aged her a bit, read her the entire works of jane austen, and plunked her down in the middle of a crumbling castle in the english countryside, she'd be cassandra mortmain, the narrator of i capture the castle.
at seventeen, cassandra is an aspiring novelist whose journals tell the story of her family's relationship with the cottons, a wealthy family of americans who've inherited the manor up the road. the mortmains, who've been living in quiet poverty, are delighted and energized by the arrival of the cottons. in their own way, each member of the household is drawn into the cottons' magical circle, and cassandra documents it all with wit and sharpness.
i capture the castle is a fairly conventional love story, but it's also a beautiful sketch of an eccentric family. i loved every word. i even liked the mortmains' dog, and that's really saying something.
update: i just learned from a casual web search that a movie version has just been released. the american cotton brothers are played by the kid from e.t. and riley from buffy the vampire slayer (shown here in double-shooty-finger stance). cringe with me, won't you?
August 20, 2003
queer eye, take two
here are some quotes from an interview by the advocate:
The Advocate: There’s nothing explicit [in the show]. Friends is more sexually explicit and out there. Will & Grace has Grace in a threesome.
Ted: Well, we did braise a jockstrap, you have to admit.
Carson: That’s good times.
Thom: But jockstraps do not qualify as sex. I know that surprises you.
Kyan: Besides, what’s so unnatural about that? You find a dirty jockstrap. What do you do? Of course you boil it.
Carson: Make it clean and puritanical.
Thom: Amish.
Kyan: Our Quakers love us. We’re big with the Quakers. It’s all about cleanliness.
Ted: Yeah, we’re huge amongst the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Carson: Those of them that have cable, yes.
The Advocate: Which is very few.
Kyan: Both of them.
August 18, 2003
make tonight a wonderful thing
next monday paul and i are going to see steely dan at mohegan sun in connecticut.
i think it'll be a good concert. this guy liked the concert okay. this guy loved it. (this guy doesn't seem to agree, but perhaps he can be written off as a dangerous crackpot.)
but then i'm bound to like it. i'm a fan...though these people (and these, and these) seem to like steely dan a lot more than even i do.
August 17, 2003
keeper
here's how i know paul loves me: he paid my library fines for me.
my new personal mantra
August 13, 2003
a short review of the crimson petal and the white
the crimson petal and the white
by michel faber
see, the thing is, i didn't like charles dickens when i had to read him in tenth grade, and i certainly don't like him now.
the crimson petal and the white is a long, long chronicle of the rise of sugar, an ambitious young prostitute in victorian england. pushed by her mother into whoredom at the tender age of 13, sugar nurses a fiery grudge against men. when she meets william rackham, perfume magnate-to-be, she sinks her scaly claws into him as a means to take her out of the london ghetto.
rackham feels such a desire for her that he's spurred to new heights of industry. a heretofore reluctant heir, he finally takes the reins of his father's business and becomes a man of wealth so that he can afford sugar's favors. as sugar resolves not to be cast back into the gutter, she inveigles herself more and more deeply into rackham's life.
oh, and did i mention that rackham has a wife who's going quite insane, la la la? a bedwetting daughter, a religious fanatic brother, a horse-faced reformer, and a raft of annoying friends and servants make up the rest of the cast.
how does it end? well you might ask. i am on page eleven million, yet still several thousand pages from the final scene. will i make it there? let's put it this way: time liked it. the new york times liked it. julie, on the other hand, does not. i meant what i said about dickens; the filth of london during the industrial revolution and the stinking misery of the poor are described with a little too much relish for my delicate sensibilities. i tend to like my reality a little less gritty, thankyouverymuch — i halfway expect my hands to be gummy with soot and semen when i put the book down.
in fact, i'm racing off to wash right now.
the art of losing
here are some things i cannot find. do you know where they are?
- my letter opener. when i paid bills this morning i was reduced to using a steak knife to slice open the envelopes. and my finger. won't you please help?
- a pint of mushroom duxelles. shallots, mushrooms, butter, parsley, salt, and pepper. i made them in early june and tossed the container into the freezer...or so i thought. i have tossed both freezers thoroughly, but my mushrooms appear to have vanished without a trace. did you eat them?
- one tablespoon. i do not keep my measuring spoons on a ring — if you love something, set it free. one of them has abused my trust and made good its escape. if you see it, please call the police. it could be armed and dangerous.
August 10, 2003
for harold
from an intrepid friend of ours comes...
(also visit eggs benedict new york, a culinary endeavor from which my left ventricle has not yet recovered.)
August 09, 2003
fake cake
last night we went to dinner at the home of some friends in burlington. only after i volunteered to make dessert did i learn that the husband is diabetic and has to limit his sugar intake. so i decided to experiment.
i made the buttermilk country cake, the finest cake in my repertoire, replacing half of the sugar with splenda. splenda is a sugar substitute, and, believe it or not, it's not half-bad. unlike sweet 'n' low or equal, it has no artificial taste whatsoever — it's just sweet.
unfortunately, it doesn't have the same properties as sugar when it comes to structure, tenderness, or browning. the cake rose about 3/4 as high, and i don't think it browned as beautifully as it has when i've used the full measure of sugar (just a cup, for the record). additionally, it was slightly drier than the original, as the splenda people recommend you supplement it with a bit of dry milk in cake recipes; my theory is that that sucked up some of the moisture.
that said, the cake tasted good, looked nice, and satisfied even our friend who has to watch his sugar intake. an acceptable compromise, and a successful experiment.
give me that old-time religion
i like to believe there are very few issues on which i am dogmatic. issues on which i am excessively evangelical. issues which, when i discuss them, make people want to yodel, "julie! shut up already!"
but i know i get positively fundie about some things. here are a few.
- tivo. i swear to god it'll change your life. i don't know how anyone who watches tv gets by without one...particularly people with small children. it is absolutely worth the cost, and once you have one you'll wonder how you ever drew a contented breath without one. really. if you feel it's too expensive, go without new lip gloss for a couple of months and figure out a way to afford it. amen.
- the freezer. at the risk of appearing every bit the crackpot that i am, i will tell you that if we had to live off only what's in my freezer right now, we'd eat like kings for two, three months. freezing things is one of my newest hobbies, and one of the most profitable. i double every recipe of anything even remotely freezable, and i haven't bought chicken breasts at regular price in the last year. having a birthday? i have cake. want some pasta? would you prefer lasagna, stuffed shells, or meatballs? soup sound good? i have onion soup, squash soup, chicken stock, and something that looks vaguely barleyish.
- a good bra. in my case, it's the wacoal body suede, but, in a break from my usual fanaticism, i will allow that others might have a different preference. whatever the case, you should buy the best bra you can afford, and you should have it fitted by a professional. i walked into nordstrom in seattle a 36b, and, after an hour with the bra lady, walked out a...well, i won't say because the shock might actually kill you. suffice it to say that i was a couple of hundred bucks poorer, and a million dollars better looking. often the cost of my bra exceeds the cost of the rest of my entire outfit. and that has made all the difference.
the gospel according to julie. thanks be to god.
August 07, 2003
soft goods
i went into the sewing room today to start putting away the fabric that was piled on my cutting table. clearly thermos longed to be folded, stacked, and stored.
today's sign that the end times approach
the george w. bush action figure.
August 06, 2003
a short review of wideacre
wideacre
by philippa gregory
okay, the first thing you should know about this book is that i bought it at the toledo airport when i realized i had nothing to read for the flight back to burlington.
the second thing you should know about this book is that if i ever hear you've read it, i will hunt you down and make you account for your poor judgment. i have suffered through it; there's no reason you should have to, as well.
do not read this book.
i picked it up noticing a) that it was thick; and b) that it said, "new york times bestseller" on the cover. "how bad could a new york times bestseller be?" i thought.
stop laughing.
the story starts off innocuously enough in the gone with the wind mold. beatrice lacey is a young english girl who passionately loves her home but can never inherit it. then several hundred pages of treachery ensue. beatrice causes the death of her father, maims her lover in an iron-jawed bear trap, seduces her brother (by whom she bears two children), rapes the land and starves the villagers, drives her husband to drunken ruin, and murders her mother. among other gay, light-hearted capers.
i've never encountered a less likable heroine than beatrice. by the time she finally gets hers, you want to attack her with a tire iron yourself. and, in my case, the author, who foisted such scurrilous crap on an indiscriminate reader in my time of desperation.
happy wanderer
my travel plans for colorado are set. i couldn't find any flights cheaper than $400 for the dates i wanted, so i asked priceline to get me there a day earlier for $200. (i figured the price difference would make up for the cost of staying in an airport hotel overnight.)
so i'm arriving around 3 pm on saturday, staying at the airport marriott courtyard for $30 (thanks again, priceline), and can meet mom sunday morning when she arrives at 10 am.
so it looks like betty will be the last to arrive. oh, the fun she'll miss.
net savings: $170. well, that's not counting saturday night's in-room pizza-and-movie jamboree, but close enough.
August 05, 2003
a quilt only a five-year-old could love
here's the barbie quilt i made for emily.
i'd had it finished six months ago, but wanted to give it to her in person. because i'm a spacker, i didn't take a picture of it before it was wrapped. because terry is a spacker, she nearly killed herself taking this photo.
truly a labor of love, because i hate the colors and the barbie patches were a bitch to work with — they're made out of really cheesy polyester that shrinks when you iron it and they're not regular in size. the back is this nasty coarse polyester fabric bearing retchworthy images of the disney princesses. but for emily i held my nose and finished it off.
heartfelt
choose your own adventure
i was talking to david out by my parents' pool. he's 8, and full of interesting information. that day he started telling me about the mission he'd go on as a young mormon of 19 or 20.
julie: wait, won't you be in college then?
david: no, you go to college after. i hope when i'm on my mission some dates call my house and ask to go out with me. mom and dad will have to say i can't go because i'm on my mission.
julie: (coughing to squelch hoots of laughter)
david: i hope i get to do my mission in america, because i already understand the language and the currency.
julie: (drily) you certainly do. so what if you decide you'd rather not go?
here's where it gets funny. i told betty later about this conversation. turns out he'd raised the same topic with her, and she asked the same question.
| what he told betty | what he told me |
|---|---|
| you have to! it's the first step on the path to righteousness (or something similar)! | you have to. your mom and dad make you. |