things have been a little quiet.

it seems that for the past month or so all i’ve really done is watched televsion, read books, and gone to a couple of movies. well, that’s about to change. over the next few weeks i have lots of shows and events planned. starting tomorrow when i go up to seattle for the radiohead show on wednesday. i cannot explain how excited i am for this. plus ginger has flown in from minneapolis for the show, it’s been almost a year since i’ve seen her.

i know radiohead are going to be awesome, i’ve been listening to some of the new bootlegs and they seem to be in top form. the setlists sound pretty good to, i don’t think they’ve played “morning bell” at all, which is a very good thing. “talk show host” has popped up a couple of times, keep you fingers crossed for me. i tried to stay away from youtube clips, but i broke down. this tour’s light show seems amazing.

here’s a shot from the a show in may.

my favorite bootlegs from this tour so far. big thank go to the people over at atease for keeping up with the bootlegs.

chicago 8-1-08 (this is missing “airbag”, but i am ok with that because of the superior audio quality.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/n8ts6j

mansfield ma 8-13-08
http://www.sendspace.com/file/l58njq

it’s that vibrating touch.

they other night i couldn’t sleep so i was watching some late night television. some of the funniest commercials are on then. this one killed me. i’m glad the studio that made it had the sense to put it on youtube.

a diverse saturday.

this past saturday i had a pretty interesting day full of free activities. the first was the red bull flugtag. i had no idea how popular that event was, apparently there was over 80,000 people there. who knew that watching people push things off a pier would draw such a crowd. jamie, her roommate jesse and i got there about half an hour after it started and it was almost hopeless to find a spot that we could see. after a little searching we found a space where we could see bits and peices of the pier and the large screen. we watched about ten or so “human powered crafts” fall into the water. mostly we were amused by the horribly stupid skits that the teams would perform before pushing their crafts into the water. after that got old and the crowd became too frustrating we left.

after leaving the flugtag we said goodbye to jesse, jamie and i hopped on the streetcar and headed down the the sw waterfront for the ten tiny dances walkabout. the ten tiny dances set up ten performances all around the sw waterfront neighborhood with each performance lasting eight minute and starting at fifteen minutes intervals.

the first one we saw was call “wet?” by POV Dance. it was alright, a little to yogaish for me. i was impressed by the strength and grace of the two performers as they dangled and lifted themselves and each other over and around the railings and small fountain that was used as their space.

after meeting up with iris and isaac we watched “finding foundation” by KO&Co. five people using a four foot cube frame to perform around. i thought that the concept was interesting and the arrangements were good, it was just a little sloppy and a bit unfocused. i’d be interested to see a longer performance from them.

we then moved into a loading dock where the hand2mouth theater was doing “project x”. this was an interesting performance that had the audience filling out a questionnaire while the troupe sort of acted like cheerleaders prompting the crowd. i thoroughly enjoyed this one; it was amusing and informative. it reminded of the vis-a-vis society performance (look here under april 9th) i saw in seattle a while back. i’m definitely going to check the full show in a couple of weeks at milepost 5.

sojourn theatre’s “built: prologue 3″ was next.  this was part of a bigger performance that was started in a workshop earlier in the week. two people acting out a courtship in the kitchen, the backyard, the wood, a fountain and several other places. it was by far the most linear performance of the day, and one i’ll remember.

we then made our way over to a large dirt lot for two performances. first was “lack of current” by hot little hands. i really appreciated that they thought about the starkness of the environment and produced a slow and pensive performance with a slow drum beat and a single woman with a unique outfit that involved a set of antlers under the skirt. i would like to see more from them.

the second lot performance was by rhiza A+D. billed as “architect’s draw”, when the performance started we were told that we about to see “telephone sketch #2″. we watched four construction workers walk across the lot where one of them strapped on a wooden frame with pink twine unfurling from the shoulder. one worker guided two other while they hammered posts and twisted the twine around them. when they were done they were left with a landscape off telephone poles with pink wires. it was certainly the most conceptual piece of the day. isaac said that it was “oddly satisfying” and i have to agree. it was the only performance that left something behind and caused the most discussion.

the final performance we saw was another one of the sojurn theatre’s “built: prologues”, i don’t remember which number it was though. this time there were four women, with one of the searching for acceptance. at home we’ve been watching mad men, and this performance reminded me of the divorced neighbor’s struggle to belong in sixties suburbia. that piece could be expanded on for a whole show about the desire to belong. something everyone can understand.

we were all performanced out by this point, and we were starving, so we went to bambuza, a vietnamese place in the sw waterfront. all off us ordered vegetarian dishes and ended up get the pork equivalents. also iris ordered her pho without cilantro, yet it came covered with it. once we all got the right dishes it was all delicious. i would totally go back for the food, i just hope the have the service issues sorted out.

thanks to jamie, jesse, iris and isaac for accompanying me on that interesting and entertaining day of free events.

indoor summer activities.

mad men : set in the sixties with dashing men in sexy suits and women in torpedo bras. also its a damn good show, somewhat reminiscent of the good seasons of six feet under. we are in the middle of the first season, trying to catch up since the second season already started. this show really makes me want to drink scotch.

picture from vanity fair

eureka : the second season of this somewbuhat cheesy sci fi show is just out on dvd. while this show is far from perfect, it has a very quirky buffyness about it. and i have a bit of a crush on jack carter.

americas’s best dance crew : since watching this show i have become an authority on dance crews. i’m rooting for fanny pack. i recommend following the link this youtube video dosen’t do them justice.

project runway : the last season of on bravo. i loves me some project runway. hands down the best reality show that will ever exist.

wall-e : utterly charming, amazingly grand in scope, i almost cried (people were crying all around us).

the dark knight : i liked it more than batman begins, but all i can say is “meh”.

dieting in public.

i would like to draw attention this miss manners column from last week.

Some limits needed on topic of dieting

Judith Martin | Miss Manners

July 2, 2008

Dear Miss Manners: Dieting in public is a serious etiquette problem in a society that has made saints of women who wear a size 2. It is rude and offensive for a person to attend a joyous food-related outing and spoil the trip by ordering “a small salad.”

Public dieting casts a pall of misery over any such occasion. The argument that the outing is about the fellowship is only partially true—the fellowship is enjoying a good meal together. The occasion is about the food.

Holiday dinners and meals out with friends are a time, if not to eat heartily, to at least eat well—even if one chooses grilled instead of fried chicken or replaces the dressing with vegetables at Thanksgiving.

If one must diet in public, it should be done with absolute discretion and must involve a variety of tasty foods chosen from what has been provided. If the dieter wants a diet soda, she should ask for it quietly, as though requesting something with which to take medication and have it poured into a glass to ensure that the nature of the drink is not obvious.

If a person is on a super-restricted diet that requires she eat abnormally, she needs to stay home, instead of making everyone miserable.

Perhaps she can join the group later for a concert or movie if she is not too weak to stay out past 8 p.m.

Gentle Reader: Miss Manners suggests that you try harder not to notice what other people are eating. A lot harder.

Monitoring what other people eat is a good way to ruin a holiday or gathering of friends, whether it is dieters voicing disapproval of hearty eaters or the more rare reaction that you have.

After you stated your desire to ostracize everyone with medical food restrictions, Miss Manners banned you from any discussion about what constitutes fellowship.

i especially like the part where she wants dieters to use “absolute discretion” when asking for a diet soda.

summer pop.

for all the esoteric noise and avant rock i listen to, summer always brings out the pop. so far these are my summer jams.

robyn:
“cobrastyle”

“konichiwa bitches”

santogold:
“l.e.s. artistes”

lykke li:
“i’m good, i’m gone”

and of course madonna:
“give it 2 me”

buy me a present?

i would like either of these two bags.

they can be purchased here.
if you order now you (or i) would get a free toiletry bag.

rachelles growth part two.

part one.

rachelle’s plant went from this

to this in two weeks.

do you know abouts juan’s sugar?

the last week and a half has been pretty active. it all started last wednesday when juan arrived, he was three hours late and had been traveling for thirteen hours. despite his delerium we stayed up way too late playing wii. on thursday juan and i drove up to seattle. the main reason for juan’s visit was because he, rachelle and i were going to see erykah badu twice, once in redmond wa and once in vancouver bc. we had to leave portland pretty early so that we would be able to have lunch with audrey. the drive up to seattle was slightly frustrating with many periods of uncalled for congestion. we made it to seattle, met up with audrey and had lunch at in the bowl, which would turn out to be the first of many meals the would involve meat analogues. juan got to quickly meet erika, although i know the timing of the visit was just their way of getting me to pay for the meal. we dropped audrey back off at work and headed over to rachelle’s. rachelle’s was the meeting place for the group going to the eyrkah badu show at marymoor park in redmond. the review of the show will get it’s own post.

typical audrey picture

friday morning rachelle, juan and i rose fairly early to eat and get ready to go to vancouver bc, for the next erykah show. for breakfast we had waffles and a grapple, a food product that rachelle and i have been wondering about for quite sometime. eating a strange grape flavored apple is just as weird as it sounds, and kind of taste a bit like children’s medicine. i don’t really recommend them. after breakfast we packed up the car and left for canada. a rather cold and gray trip was in store for us. we stopped at the co-op in mount vernon for lunch, a very dry veggie burger from their deli. the pastries we got for dessert made up for the dry veggie burger. rachelle became strangely obsessed with cheddar beer flavored potato chips and bought a large bag, luckily i noticed that it was expired (by almost a month) before we left the store, new bag in hand we headed for the border. i should mention that those chips were gone before we got to the border. we breezed through the border and made it to the listel hotel with plenty of time to walk around. the hotel is on robson street so we walked around that area looking for an h&m. juan has a superpower, and the superpower is to always be able to tell in which direction the nearest h&m is. it needs to be seen to believed, he kind of blindy led us right to it. i generally have luck at h&m, especially in the shirts and jackets department, but not this time. the store had just opened and it was packed. the fitting room and checkout lines were out of control. i felt that i couldn’t even look at the clothes, we fled pretty quickly. we had dinner at the possibly reduntantly named HON’s house of noodles. rachelle and i have eaten there several times, and this would be the second meal involving meat analogues. i love this place, the food is always interesting and generally very good. i get the feeling that it is the most authentic chinese food i will ever have, unless i go to china. plus i love that they have a vegetarian kitchen separate from the meat kitchen. we ordered several stir frys and something called “assorted glutens”. everything was delicious, except for the yellow gluten. the yellow gluten was curry flavored and looked a bit like a batch of burnt scrambled eggs. strangely watery and chewy at the same time, and the flavor was a little sour. the star was the “chicken” dish we ordered off the specials menu, lots of green beans and “chicken” served sizzling with a delicious sauce. after dinner we went back to the hotel and got ready to go to the second erykah show.

rachelle and i getting to the car to leave for vancouver.

rachelle at the listel

search out the h&m juan.

saturday morning after the show we got up and went to have breakfast at a crepe place, i had the best one with nutella, banana and grand marnier. rachelle’s mushroom and egg one was pretty good too. unfortunately they had the worst coffee, and they must of been shorthanded becuase the service was a bit shakey. we did more shopping on the way back to the hotel to check out. our trip back to seattle was not as swift, we waited in line at the border for about and hour. thank god for my ds and the crossword game. we stopped in mount vernon again for lunch, this time we went to a brewery. the veggie burgers were much better. when we get back to rachelle’s, we all collapsed onto chairs and couches, and didn’t move for a couple of hours. when hunger finally motivated us to move we walked up to jalisco’s, lots of beans and margaritas were consumed. afrer dinner we all passed out watching myra breckinridge, a movie i know i’ve seen several time but can’t tell you how it ends.

at the creperie.

on sunday i went and worked at the dish. i enjoy working a day or two at a time, it seems more like hanging out than work. i love catching up with everyone. my next guest spot will be the weekend of the forth of july, if you happen to be in seattle, stop by and say hi.

after work juan and i packed up and left rachelle’s, before leaving seattle i wanted to swing by josh and janet’s. josh and janet both looked great and ben is getting cuter by the visit. i gave josh some cd’s and we chatted for a while, a sadly short while. juan and i had to get going, we still had to eat some dinner before leaving for portland. we ended up eating at my favorite (non arayas) thai restaurant kwanjai, the food was perfect as always. juan and i were on a tight schedule, morgan had left a message earlier in the day that he and his friends were going to see the crystal castles at backspace and he had them get tickets for us too. so now we had to back in portland by 10. we made it in time for the opening band to be ending. i’ve been to this venue before and knew it was not the best place for show. the place was packed with brightly dressed youngsters. i have never heard any crystal castles before, all i knew was that they are well liked by the blogosphere. they were pretty good, techno beats with female hardcore style vocals, not really anything i would buy though. visually we have no idea what they were like. we couldn’t see them at all thanks to the low stage and packed house. the crowd loved them, and hardly stopped dancing.

on monday i had to work and morgan was in the studio all day, so juan was on his own. luckily for him bravo was rerunning the last season of project runway, so he got to catch up. that night we met up with morgan to go to vegetarian house for our third meal of meat analogues. the star dish of that meal was the tofu hushpuppies in tangy sauce. savory tofu balls, lots of steamed broccoli and a sauce made with lots of bits that certainy was a bit tangy. juan and i walked back to our place and finished up the first disc of square pegs. tuesday was similar. i had to work and juan spent time walking around portland by himself. after work we went and had dinner at an italian place near our apt. the food was fine, but the service was bad, they put chicken, yes real chicken, in mine! after dinner we watched the directors cut of knocked up and went to bed.

at 4am i got up to drive juan to the airport, i got back home with enough time to sleep for another hour before going to work.

juan’s visit now seems like a blur, or should i say haze. next time he should come out for two weeks and i need to not work at all.

funk and wagnall.

another overdue post.

i was raised by the television, i even had cable in my bedroom. almost every night i watched nick at night. donna reed, mr ed, dobie gillis and get smart were part of my ritual. but the show i loved the most was rowan and martin’s laugh-in. laugh-in made a huge impression on me. i was saddened by the news of dick martin’s death earlier this week.

thank you dick martin (he’s the one on the right). thank you too dan rowan who passed away in the late eighties.

the best part of laugh in were the cocktail parties, someday i will have one like this. i just need enough friends who are good with one liners.