 
Cocktail of the day. Caveat -- I also have yet to try this one, but it looks so yummy that I'll go ahead and link to the recipe. Tomato water is quite the trendy ingredient these days, with chefs from Thomas Keller to Charlie Trotter to Emeril Lagasse touting its flavor and uses. It's easy enough to make -- you need very ripe, very aromatic and flavorful tomatoes. Just whiz them in the food processor with a little salt, place in a strainer or colander with a few layers of cheesecloth, and let drain into a bowl. The pale red liquid that drips out is tomato water, and it's mighty tasty. Chefs have been using it for broths, marinades and sauces ... why not use it for a cocktail too? Of course, someone has. I'm not sure where the originating bar is (New York, perhaps?_, but the recipe was reproduced in Chowhound this week ... the Bloody Martini. Quote of the day. This guy is so full of crap I hardly know where to begin.
Satellite radio is not the answer to good radio, much like cable TV is not the answer to good TV. Both just give you more choices of crap. Radio is categorized, and it ought to be. Only a slim number of people would like to hear Ja Rule, Rusted Root, Barry Manilow and Dwight Yoakum (sic) on the same radio station. If you are actually looking for a station that will play Norah Jones, B-Tribe, Ned Otter, etc., then look for your closest college radio station. Give them a good listen. I guarantee you that after 30 minutes of pure hell, you will switch back to a Clear Channel Radio station, because we play the hits.First of all, college radio != community radio or public radio. "The hits" means the same 40 songs, played over and over again, no requests taken, nothing that pushes the cutting-edge of music. No independent labels, no local bands, no nothing ... other than what the five huge record industry conglomerates want you to hear. Feh. See you in September. I'm gonna be pretty scarce over the next few days. It's a three-day weekend. You should be scarce, too. Stay off the computer. Go outside. Have a barbecue. (Can't wait for Sunday's "Karaoke 2: Electric Barbecue", which will be very, very bacon-wrapped.) Go on a hike. Play with your dog (or cat). Eat out. Climb a tree. Stay off the computer. Have a great Labor Day weekend, y'all! Seeya's next month.
Weblog outta the oven. Somehow I've managed not to have come across the existence of Simmer Stock, an outstanding culinary weblog prepared and served by Richard Chase. It's now on my daily read list. Toques off to ya! Uncorking. Afraid to drop $16,000 on that bottle of 1945 Château Petrus? Worried it might be spoiled? Well, until they specialize the technology a bit more, just take it to the hospital for diagnosis.
West Nile Blues. The Times-Picayune reports that 62 more cases of the virus have been documented in Louisiana. Serious, yes. Still, one can't help finding the amusing "only in Louisiana" angle, as Jef Jaisun pointed out in a recent email:
Despite health officials' continual emphasis on getting rid of these mini-ponds, [Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary David] Hood said an informal Baton Rouge survey found that about three-fourths of the city's residents had standing water in their yards."Y'all are too funny down there!" says El Jefe. Incidentally, Jef also contemplated a move from Seattle to New Orleans by weighing the statistics in the following table:
Okay, you choose ... Hey, Takeuchi! That cocktail o' yours, the Long Shot? Not bad at all! Remember folks, it's 3 parts Bourbon, one part Campari and a teaspoon of simple syrup, stirred (my preference) and garnished with a cherry. Now, I think a Bourbon-Campari drink can be made better, and more complex, by altering the proportions. Next time I make this I'll do it 2:1 rather than 3:1, and just for kicks I'll add a dash or two of orange bitters. Might have to end up changing the name, though ... Oh, and speaking of Bourbon ... A good reason to drink Maker's Mark. I don't usually drink Jim Beam Bourbon, preferring the brand I mentioned above. I do drink various brands of their Small Batch Collection, which consist of Basil Hayden, Booker's, Knob Creek and Baker's. I'll miss them, because I don't think I'm going to drink Jim Beam products anymore until they start treating their employees like human beings. Workers at Jim Beam's distillery are limited to a maximum of four bathroom breaks per 8-1/2 hour shift, only one of which can be unscheduled. Extra trips to the bathroom bring on a reprimand. Six reprimands and you're fired. Too bad if you're on diuretics or have a small or weak bladder, I guess.
The United Food and Commercial Workers local said some of the 100 affected employees have urinated on themselves because they were afraid to leave the line. Some wear protective undergarments and others have feigned illnesses to go home and avoid getting violations, said Jo Anne Kelley, president of the union local.Beam has been cited by the state, but is actually fighting the citation, saying they need to "maintain productivity". One can't help but make the pun ... that's a piss-poor attitude. Beam, your employees will be productive if you treat them with respect and dignity. Yep, it's Maker's Mark for me as usual, and for my top-shelf sippin' Bourbon, I think I'll try the 17-year-old Eagle Rare once my bottle of Booker's runs out. Movin' on uuuup ... In the Periodic Table of the Weblogs (which I think may be my favorite weblog portal). I used to be down at atomic number 118, assigned to the element ununoctium. Fortunately for me, it was discovered that ununoctium doesn't actually exist, so I got bumped up. I now reside at atomic number 8, assigned to the element ... oxygen! One of my very favorites, allowing me to both breathe and drink. And I'm explosive, too! Quite an element. I'm very pleased.
Cocktails of the day. The first is something I probably should have noticed before; the second is a terrific variation. They're both great. In a recent issue of Ardent Spirits, Gary Regan brought up a nearly-forgotten classic that appeared in Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book, from the Savoy Hotel in the early 1930s. Wes tried it a couple of weeks ago and it's his current favorite. I like it a lot myself, and I particularly like the variation. "We need more rye cocktails in the world!" he says, and I agree ... and I'll add that we need more Irish whiskey cocktails too. The original recipe for this one called for proportions and then "the juice of half a lime"; given how the juice content of limes tends to vary, Gary modified the recipe to specific measurements, and it seems to work much better that way. As for the cocktail's name ... well, there's a story. "In August, 1924, an American engineer nearly died of fever in the Philippines, and only the extraordinary devotion of Dr. B_____ saved his life. As an act of gratitude, the engineer gave Dr. B_____ the recipe of this cocktail." I think people should be rewarded with cocktail recipes more often.
The Oriental CocktailOne of Gary's students at "Cocktails in the Country" came up with an ingenious variation. Make the exact same drink, except substitute Irish whiskey for the rye. The difference it makes is amazing, and in my opinion it's an even more complex drink. When making this variation, the drink is called a James Joyce. Iron Chef Cocktail! Well, I'm being complimentary. This morning I stumbled across the homepage of one Takeuchi Tomohiko, from Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. He's a Mac guy (gotta love 'im), and claims to have invented 176 original cocktails. I haven't yet been through them all, and it's possible that there are some dupes of things already out there; he cites his definition of "original" as such: "if it is not mentioned in The Savoy Cocktail Book and The Cocktail Book (Japan Bartender's Association)." Well, that's only two books, but so far I've never come across most of the drinks he's made. Caveat: I haven't tried any of these examples yet.
Long ShotIntriguing! I love Campari -- Wes and I are Negroni fanatics -- but I've never tried it in combination with Bourbon. I'll give this one a try tonight and let you know tomorrow.
AppalachianI imagine he means cranberry juice cocktail, rather than 100% cranberry juice (which you can get at Trader Joe's, and which I find fairly unpalatable. I liked the name of this one, and it looks intriguing.
Baton RougeI was attracted to the name of this cocktail, it being the capital of my home state, but that teaspoon of peppermint threw me for a loop. I'll wait until I'm in a very experimental mood to try this one. Mom ... Dad ... y'all can get rid of your VCR now. Okay, to be honest, they got rid of their sweet little Sony Betamax many, many years ago. Dad, thinking cleverly, asked me, his communication arts major son, what type of VCR was better -- Betamax or VHS. Betamax, Dad! It looks so much better! There was just one thing, though. Silly Sony wouldn't license the format, and even though it was superior to fuzzy VHS ... it tanked. Dad ended up getting pissed at me, because he couldn't borrow tapes from anyone he knew, and the video rental store had almost no Beta format tapes for rent. Oh well. Oddly enough, they were still being made ... although Sony only made 2,800 of them last year, in Japan only. No longer, though. Today Sony pulled the plug, and will finally stop manufacturing Betamax. (Actually, I thought they had stopped years ago.) Department of Pre-Crime ... already? Nope, it's not a Philip K. Dick novel. It's the city of Wilmington, Delaware (which I've heard described as an "armpit" by someone who's been there), where the police have been compiling a photographic database of people whom they believe "are likely to break the law in the future." Civil libertarians are livid, of course. James Baker, the mayor of Wilmington, speaks thusly on the issue:
"I don't care what anyone but a court of law thinks," he said. "Until a court of law says otherwise, if I say it's constitutional, it's constitutional..."Let's get busy, courts of law. Woke up this mornin', got myself a gun ... Season Three of "The Sopranos" is out on DVD today. Season Four premieres two weeks from Sunday. Woohoooo!
Billions with a "B". The Nestle Corporation has made an $11.5 billion bid to acquire Hershey's Foods, makers of what is arguably the worst readily-available brand of chocolate. I hope they change the formula; eating Hershey's chocolate is like eating chocolate-flavored wax. The dangers of foreign hooch? A piece sans byline in this weekend's Observer warns against bringing home souvenirs of local booze from your travels. I think he's trying to be funny, but ... hey, ya great pillock -- I happen to like limoncello, pisco and pastis! Thbpt! D'oh! What happens when an employee in a power plant presses the wrong button. I guess his mind was on other things ("I want a bag of peanuts!"). Doing as he pleases. The White House has declared that George W. Bush does not need Congressional approval to attack Iraq. If he does, I have a feeling he'll lose his presidency, in 2004 if not before.
That's one small step for a man... A team of particle physicists have brought us one step closer to "Star Trek"-style warp drives ... well, on paper, at least. (Via NTK) I thought we were supposed to be feckin' professionals here! Wes and I have been looking forward to the release of the 10th Anniversary Special Edition of "Reservoir Dogs" for quite a while now. Unfortunately, initial word is that the transfer looks terrible. What were they thinking of?! Wes adds:
...Wes and I have been looking forward to the release of the 10th Anniversary Special Edition of "Reservoir Dogs" for quite a while now. In fact, ever since Wes broke down a while back and bought the Plain Edition for $9 at Best Buy and, upon opening the shrink-wrapped package, was greeted by a flier that proclaimed, "Coming Soon! Reservoir Dogs 10th Annivery Special Edition DVD!" Translation: "Suckerrr! We got you to buy this cheapie movie-only DVD and now we'll get you to buy the fancy one, too! Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha!" Grrrrr.And to add insult to injury, the fancy one apparently looks like crap. Thanks, y'all. Weapons of mass distraction. President George W. "Pot" Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld actually had the temerity to complain about "intense speculation" and a media "frenzy" about a potential attack on Iraq.
Almost scoffing at the media attention devoted to Iraq, the president responded to a reporter's question by calling Iraq "the particular country that you seem to be riveted on."On this issue, the media kettle is only as black as Shrub makes it. Sheesh. In other news, the White House invokes Godwin's Law by comparing Saddam to Hitler. Does this mean that the thread is over, and they've lost the argument?
This pasta is soggy. YOU'RE UNDER ARREST! Below-par Italian restaurants, watch out. The Italian taste police are coming to town. I nominate Primo from "Big Night" to be the first Chief of Police. ("Do you know what goes on in that man's restaurant every night? Hmm? RAPE! THE RAPE OF CUISINE!!") Let's make sure they have the pronunciation police with them, too. It's "broos-KET-ta", goddammit, not "brush-SHET-ta"! Of course I'm French! Why else do you theenk I have thees outrageous accent?! Reported in today's Toronto Globe and Mail:
A French stage version of the British TV show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" has opened in Paris to rave reviews, reports The Week magazine. Four men and one woman perform 25 sketches, including the Ministry of Silly Walks. They also sing French versions of beloved Python lyrics, such as: Je suis un bucheron et ça me rejouit, je travaille le jour et je dors la nuit.I'm guessing it'll lose something in the translation...
"Je souhaite me plaindre au sujet de ce perroquet, que j'ai acheté pas il y a une demi-heure de cette boutique même!"Oh hell, why not? "Speed" was fucking funny in French. LAFD on the ball. This morning's drama: I had just gotten out of the shower and was standing naked in my kitchen (the answer to your question is "Why not?") when I heard a woman screaming outside. That doesn't sound good, I thought. I couldn't quite tell where it was coming from, next door or perhaps two doors down. She sounded very distressed, and it was unclear what was happening -- was she being attacked, did she have a mouse in the house, what? Then her shrieks became somewhat more articulate. "FIRE! FIRE!!" Oh dear, I thought. Maybe I shouldn't be naked now. (Okay, so I have weird thoughts.) Actually, I quickly decided that I should get dressed and see what was going on, and make sure that my own house wasn't in any kind of potential fire-spreading danger. I got dressed and went out into the front yard, and by that time I heard the piercing, insistent pulsing of a smoke alarm. I walked down the block a bit and saw a woman out on the balcony of the 4-unit apartment building on the corner, frantically waving and hollering into a cordless phone. By that time I could already hear the sirens in the distance, and in less than a minute two fire engines pulled up to the house. This was one of the instances when our 911 system worked rather well; it couldn't have been more than three minutes since I heard the screaming. Turns out to have been a grease fire in the kitchen -- the intrepid men of the L.A. Fire Department brought up a fire extinguisher, doused the flames with two blasts and were packed up and gone within 10 minutes. All in a day's work. Today's lesson: Always keep a fire extinguisher in your kitchen. I've had some experience in that area, having put out a kitchen fire that could have burned the house down had we not had an extinguisher handy. Back in gradual school my roommate thought it'd be a good idea to heat a Pepperidge Farm® Raspberry Turnover in the toaster oven rather than in the conventional oven, the latter being what the instructions specified. The turnover smelled done well before the allotted 20-minute baking time, and not long after that I smelled burning pastry. I went into the kitchen to investigate. The toaster oven was glowing. My roomie, who probably hadn't had a science class since high school, opened the door with a broom handle before I could stop him. The smoldering fire inside welcomed the rush of oxygen and showed its gratitude for being fed by bursting forth with a fireball that began to lick at the bottom of the cabinets. I grabbed the extinguisher and had it out with two well-aimed squirts. Gotta love it when college students try to cook. (To his credit, he made fabulous huevos con chorizo, though.)
Bad taste is its own reward. The New York Times spends an evening at home with John Waters. Schaaaaaadenfreude! Schadenfreude! Schadenfreude! (To be sung to the tune of the "Hallelujah Chorus".) The odious Georgia Representative Bob Barr has been ousted from the United States Congress. Unfortunately, the other Republican who defeated him in the primary doesn't sound much better. Despite that, though, it's nice to see the Karma Kops catch up with Barr. Email of the day. We should all be thankful for the existence of the plethora of drugs in today's psychopharmacoepia. It's unfortunate, however, that not everyone who needs them gets them.
From: ASHLEY G____Oh dear. Are you all right?
Quote of the day.
"[G]ood bad movies as a breed are almost
gone. 'Showgirls' is the last good bad classic. That is the 'Citizen Kane'
of good bad movies of the last 20 years."
Pentagon busily ruining credit ratings of service personnel. The Village Voice reports on the Government Travel Card (GTC), credit cards which "hapless" military personnel are ordered to use and are then unable to pay back because of classic military Catch-22.
It works like this: Servicepeople are ordered to apply for personal GTCs -- interest-free credit cards issued exclusively by the Bank of America. Instead of requesting vouchers or getting cash to pay for travel expenses, servicepeople pay up front with the their own GTC cards -- essentially floating interest-free loans to the government. As a result, they have to submit expense reports and wait for reimbursements.Why you should always kill your food before you eat it. Well, because it might decide that it doesn't care to be eaten and get rather cross with you.
Trust us. We're the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ABC News reports: "In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba. The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro. Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban emigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities." If anyone suggested that such a thing would be possible today, they would immediately be branded as a kook and a conspiracy theorist, wouldn't they? Secret rituals and handshakes! Double double animals! The New York Times, perhaps a little jealous that they don't have any of these places, reports on the "cult" of In-N-Out Burger, arguably the best fast-food burger out there. (Now I wish they'd just learn how to make French fries; although the "fries well done" trick is a bit better, fries have to be done twice, at two different temperatures, to be really good.) Bug mechanic wanted! Echoing Jason's request, I'm looking for a good, trustworthy independent Los Angeles Volkswagen mechanic who's conversant with the New Beetle. I'm sick to death of Santa Monica Volkswagen and I'm not entirely sure I trust them anymore. Anywhere from the Westside to Hollywood would probably do. Anybody got any suggestions?
Elvis is King. Oh, I just don't know where to begin ... Waxing nostalgic. Twenty-five years ago today, I was fifteen years old. I was on a school bus with several members of my high school band. We were on a trip somewhere out of town -- Baton Rouge, I think -- on a field trip to see a Chicago concert. (Yeah, yeah, I know.) I had been chatting with Mike Orkus, the assistant band director, when he said, 'Oh hey, did you hear that Elvis died today?" I hadn't, and I thought it was sad. I'd thought it even sadder when I heard of the circumstances of his final moments. Musically, though, it didn't have much of an impact on me at the time. Elvis Presley was someone my friends' parents listened to (but not mine). The musical passing that had a much greater and more visceral impact on me was still to come -- just about three years, three months and three weeks away. $55 for a wine glass? I have a glassware obsession. (I almost wrote "fetish", but it's not really quite like that, and I don't want to give any of you's the wrong idea, ya daerty feckers.) From garden variety cocktail glasses of every description to French juice glasses to antique Irish coffee glasses to a set of Serbian cokanjcici ... I've got 'em. I love 'em. I'm running out of room for 'em. And I'm only just getting started. Every time I go into my favorite wine and spirits emporia, I pass the display of Riedel glassware. They're touted as being the ultimate wine glasses, concentrating the flavors and aromas in such a way that the glassware (of countless varieties, including ones specifically designed for wine made from a specific grape) enhances the experience of the wine or spirit. They're also shockingly expensive. Do they really make a difference? Michael Steinberger of Slate tries to find out. Not so fast, Shrub. According to the New York Times, "leading Republicans from Congress, the State Department and past administrations have begun to break ranks with President Bush over his administration's high-profile planning for war with Iraq, saying the administration has neither adequately prepared for military action nor made the case that it is needed. (NY Times registration: userid "annoying", password "annoying".)
These senior Republicans include former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft, the first President Bush's national security adviser. All say they favor the eventual removal of Saddam Hussein, but some say they are concerned that Mr. Bush is proceeding in a way that risks alienating allies, creating greater instability in the Middle East, and harming long-term American interests. They add that the administration has not shown that Iraq poses an urgent threat to the United States.The attitude of the Bush administration hawks who want to invade? "The failure to take on Saddam after what the president said would produce such a collapse of confidence in the president that it would set back the war on terrorism." Oh, we wouldn't want the president to look like he has a small penis or anything, would we? The entire world has indicated that they would not support us if we invaded Iraq. The CIA and FBI say there's no evidence to support a September 11th tie to Iraq. If the White House goes ahead with this, the reason will be patently obvious -- little Georgie wants to play war. Poppy got to have a war with Saddam, and Junior wants one too. If he does do it, I think it'll end up being the biggest mistake since the Bay of Pigs -- worse, even, because it'll cost a lot more young American lives. The mantra for 2002: Vote them out, vote them out, vote them out, out, out. Let's get a head start by removing the Republicans from power in the House this November. Mmmmmm, umami. A few years back, umami was finally recognised as the fifth taste, after salty, sour, sweet and bitter. But, even so, how many of us can say what it really tastes like? They don't make rubber drainplugs this big. Here's a flashback to a little bit of Louisiana history, and learn why you should look before you drill. Recipes of the day. Here's a batch from English TV chef Kevin Gould (author of Loving and Cooking With Reckless Abandon) that range from the sublime (Rococo chocolate sauce poured over fresh cherries) to what Sean calls "about the strangest thing I've ever heard", a blanched fennel salad with pastis mayonnaise. (Sounds intriguing, actually.) No day job required. After his highly visible but supposedly amicable departure, musician Jay Bennett finds that there is indeed life after Wilco, as he tours and releases a new record with singing and songwriting partner Edward Burch. He's also pleased to be able to "eke out a modest living" with his music and consultation on other musicians' projects, without having to get a 9-to-5.
"Wilco has to sell a million copies before they ever see a penny (in profits)," he explains. "I've already seen a penny."Email of the day. I've heard of dessert items being converted into savory dishes -- sabayon, cheesecake, etc. -- but not so much the other way 'round.
From: alice f______So what kind of gumbo dessert are you looking for?
Chicken and sausage gumbo pudding? Y'know, I don't know about you, but I myself don't care to have any of those things in my dessert. Yuck!
Happy birthday, Julia!! American cooking diva Julia Child turns 90 years of age today. She might be slowing, but she hasn't stopped ... and she certainly hasn't stopped eating butter and cream. (More stories here, here and here, plus a MetaFilter thread.) Her contributions to American culinary arts, particularly in the area of home cooking, are nearly immeasurable. When you have a look at the way we were cooking before "The French Chef" came along, you'll be doubly grateful for what she's taught us. She's left her longtime home in Cambridge, Massachusetts for much smaller digs in Santa Barbara, California ... and subsequently donated her legendary kitchen and over 1,200 items from it to the Smithsonian Institution, who disassembled it and painstakingly rebuilt it inside the museum. Julia's Kitchen at the Smithsonian opens to the public on Monday. La. to L.A. In this week's Times of Acadiana, Cliff Schexnayder writes about displaced Cajuns and Creoles who've settled in southern California, and how they cling to their roots and the culture they left behind. (I know just how they feel.) Tonight on "Down Home". More new music from Nickel Creek plus the brand-new release from Linda Thompson; plus Peter Blegvad, Peter Case, Ann Savoy, a burst of blues, a pinch of zydeco, a dash or two of old-time and lots more. Tune in tonight at 7pm PDT at 88.5 FM in Los Angeles, or anywhere via the web at www.kcsn.org. Two more years until we can make these bastards go away... Until then, Molly Ivins talks about class warfare:
Some days, you have to believe that right-wing ideologues have lost touch with reality completely. Their latest proposal to prevent future Enrons is -- ta-da! -- cut the capital gains tax.Life as war. "Naqoyqatsi", the third film in Godfrey Reggio's trilogy that began in 1983 with "Koyaanisqatsi", will be out on October 18. The trailer's up. Wow. I can't wait for this one; in fact, I've been waiting about 14 years for this one. (Thanks, Kevin!) Nearer dark. Yesterday Wes told me that our long-awaited DVD release of "Near Dark" is actually being bumped up! Previously set for a September 24 release, it's now coming out on the 10th. Woohoo! Check out the packaging and specs. (Sorry, I didn't mean to drool all over your screen.) What's the Turkmen word for "straitjacket"? Saparmurat Nizayov, the nutball "President-for-Life" of Turkmenistan, apparently unsatisfied with emptying his country's coffers to build huge palaces, erect golden statues of himself and issue guides for moral living to the entire population, is at it again. He's now issued a decree officially extending adolescence until age 25 and postponing old age until age 85.
Stages of the life of a TurkmenThose lucky enough to live beyond 97 enter a period named "Oguzkhan", after the believed founder of the Turkmen nation. President Niyazov will also be changing the name of the country to "San Marcos" and has declared the official language to be Swedish. I predict, however, that he'll be deposed and replaced by a New Yorker named Fielding Mellish. Getting serious. The September issue of "The Green Lantern" will feature a bit of a milestone in comic book history. Terry Berg, the Green Lantern's sidekick (actually, a teenaged intern working for the Lantern's alter-ego, cartoonist Kyle Rayner), becomes the victim of a gay-bashing. Terry came out back in 2001, and his orientation has been part of the story ever since. Writer Judd Winick says, "Terry represents acceptance. And now, in this hate crime, we're discussing the worst side of the gay issue." Quotes of the day. All but the last are from the wit and wisdom of Julia Child; the last is an anecdote about her. Actually, this first one is more like the paraphrase of the day, as I'm reconstructing it from memory and I might not have gotten it exactly right.
"I'm eighty-seven years old, and finally my doctor put his foot down and told me I'd have to stop eating butter and cream. So ... I got another doctor."[ Link to today's entries ]
Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision. A commentary by law professor Jonathan Turley in today's Los Angeles Times, in which he describes the current Attorney General as "a menace to liberty." Why am I reading about this "proposal" on the op-ed page, one week later and 42 pages into the paper, instead of as a news item on the front page the day after the proposal was disclosed?
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be "enemy combatants" has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional menace.And who will Ashcroft declare to be an "enemy combatant"? Perhaps he'll start with those who publicly criticize him. After all, he's already said that such people are helping the terrorists... Red or white? Calvin Trillin, in discussing his level of wine expertise in The New Yorker ("ignorance, tempered slightly by philistinism"), tells us of blind taste tests in which tasters, including experts, were unable to tell the difference between red and white wines. The horror ... the horror ... No, it's not Conrad's heart of darkness. It's the evolution of Michael Jackson's face. Pretty soon he's going to end up like that lady in "Brazil" -- "My complications have had complications" -- before he just disintegrates. Some suggested slogans for the TIPS program. With the right combination of striking graphics and these slogans, the Justice Department's now-scaled down TIPS program could make some great posters:
Information: The Key to Prosperity.Actually, they really can't use these; it'd be copyright infringement. They were already used in the aforementioned film, "Brazil".
The Church of Soul. Have a look at the fabulous paintings of New Orleans-based artist Leslie Staub. I love her "Church of Soul" series, featuring artists, writers and musicians, and I've just been introduced to some of her newer stuff. The "Right Here" series, currently in exhibition at LeMieux Galleries on Julia Street, features the flora and fauna -- birds, plants, weeds, what have you -- that can be seen within ten blocks of her house in Bayou St. John. Careful, now. It seems that the sweeping investigations and arrests in the New Orleans City Hall corruption scandal has already netted one false alarm. Linky goodness! A plethora of mind-spinning links from the past week or so, some of which I'd been meaning to blog but never quite got around to it. This particular list was lifted shamelessly from Tom Tomorrow ('cause it was easy), in case you don't read his weblog, 'cause you ought to read them.
* In a surreal development, the Bush administration routs TIPS calls to TV show "America's Most Wanted". "This is like retaining Arthur Andersen to do all of the SEC's accounting," said Rachel King, an ACLU Legislative Counsel.This country is going nuts. Better living through chemistry. A new drug is being developed for use in the U.S. and Australia that promises spiffy looking tans without exposure to harmful UV rays by chemically increasing the concentration of melanin in the skin (and thereby helping ward off skin cancer in people who would otherwise lie in the sun to tan), plus has extra added effects of increased sexual drive, with male drug trial volunteers reporting "spontaneous erections." They'll make a fortune. That spontaneous erection thing could get a little embarrassing at times, though. Hey, have you been getting some sun, or are you just happy to see me?
So long, Pops. James "Pops" Farrar, father of Jay Farrar, self-proclaimed "father of Uncle Tupelo" and grandfather of today's alt.country, passed away last week at age 71. I scream, you scream ... The other day Jerwin wrote about what seems to me to be a rather wacked flavor of ice cream -- corn and cheese. While I have enjoyed Filipino-style ice creams before (avocado, mmmmm!), something about corn and cheese in ice cream makes me say, "Uhh, I dunno ..." Then again, if it were something like cream cheese, or Creole cream cheese, or mascarpone ... well, actually, that might not be bad at all. Hell, I'd try it. I'll try anything. Well, almost anything. Apparently the Filipinos have nothing on the Japanese, who seem to be the world leaders in truly wacked ice cream flavors. I'm all over the wasabi, I'd even try the crab, but you can keep the octopus and eel. Bleucchh. Missing feature! We just got the new "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" DVD. It looks great! They did a wonderful job with the mastering and authoring; there are far shorter DVDs out there with much less of a need for compression that don't look nearly as good as this. However, there's a feature missing from the extras disc. I can't believe that this was left out. Such a crushing disappointment! (Actually, the sight of it makes me want to pound my head against the wall.) Beam me up, get me some dinner from the replicator, then adjust the dilithium crystals in the warp core, and watch out for cloaked ships. The linguistic legacy of Star Trek, from my new favorite site, World Wide Words. "Defenestration" gets a run for its money. It's been my favorite word for a while now, both fun and potentially quite useful in its execution. However, the aforementioned World Wide Words site has provided me with some definite contenders in its Weird Words section, such as "absquatulate" ("The posse's comin', boys ... let's absquatulate!") and "sternutation" ("Wes often expresses consternation over my sternutation.")
Tastes like chicken! It seems that when the collapse of a catwalk dumped 10 people in to the shark tank at the Aquarium in New Orleans, the sharks -- stuffed to the gills on a fabulous meal of mahi-mahi -- were actually startled and hauled ass. The love of which is the root of all evil. Andy sent in an delightful little Flash movie -- something to think about in 2004, eh? Lactose intolerant airport security. A Long Island mother is considering a lawsuit after JFK airport security guards "forced her to drink her own breast milk from three bottles of which she had saved for her baby daughter, so that she could prove she wasn't carrying "dangerous fluids". Apparently current airline safety rules require only that any liquid carried on board a plane be in a "resealable container that can be sent through a scanning machine without spilling." It's a good thing this happened, though. I, for one, would be terrified to travel along with a woman who had bottles of breast milk in her carry-on. Why, we all could have been killed! Not-so-bad/truly wretched. You've got to love a story that begins with the line, "There's something seriously wrong with the world when Sammy Hagar outshines David Lee Roth in a Van Halen contest." One friend of mine said, "To think I actually work with people who were looking forward to going ..." Well, to each his own, I guess. Me, I'd rather have needles stuck in my eyes...
New Orleans blues. Jeez ... first there's the killer mosquitoes, now 10 people almost become shark food at the Aquarium. What the hell's goin' on back home? We need to work up some good juju and bust us some more crooked city officials! Cheney administration & Ashcroft Justice Dept. above the law, apparently. The Justice Department defied the orders of a federal judge yesterday, after the judge ordered them to provide documentation to support their claims that a U.S. citizen being held incommunicado is an "enemy combatant".
Stephen Dycus, a national security law expert at the University of Vermont, said he could not think of any other time the government ignored a court's order. "I don't think the Justice Department has the power to simply defy the court," he said. "...I don't remember anything in the 4th Circuit's order that would limit the District Court's ability to look into the national security necessity for keeping this guy."A bona-fide Constitutional confrontation is looming, it seems. Perhaps all these gentlemen would be well-served to take a remedial civics class to re-learn all about how the balance of powers work, and what the constitutionally defined roles of the executive and judiciary branches are. (Am I the only one that's bothered by the fact that these bastards seem to think they can just do whatever they want?) Related NewsFlash: Cheney says he'd like to continue to be president until 2008.
"If the president is willing and if my wife approves, and if the doctors say it's OK, then I'd be happy to serve a second term. But I emphasize again, that's the president's call, not mine."Uh, no ... it's the American people's call, Dick. See, there'll be this pesky election in a coupla years ... (323) 883-1779. I suspect that once word of the existence of this free telephone service gets around, it'll be getting lots of calls from L.A.'s teeming masses of waiter/actors, waiter/screenwriters and waiter/directors. Oh, and if you're in the Big Apple, call their version (the original) at (212) 479-7990. Yummy tasty frosty beverage treat! And no, for once it's not a cocktail. Last night as I stopped at one of the Middle Eastern markets near my house to pick up some lemons (big, fat juicy ones too, and four of them at Alef Market cost less than one lemon costs at the big Ralph's Supermarket), I noticed some new products in the section with the exotic juices and syrups. There's a company in Slovenia called Adriatic that makes fruit syrups, and one of them was blueberry. (Ingredients -- blueberry juice and sugar. No artificial anything, no preservatives, no nothing. Gotta love that.) A liter of the stuff was barely three bucks. Take a tall glass, fill with ice cubes, pour in some Adriatic® brand Blueberry Syrup a little over 1/4 of the way up the glass, fill with fizzy water, stir to blend. Mmmmmmm. Gorgeous. Grateful undead. No, they're not calling themselves The Grateful Dead; they're calling themselves "The Other Ones", although they're playing exclusively Grateful Dead songs. Their last shows were a huge success, apparently, so now they're going to tour. I don't know. I have very, very mixed feelings about this. Sure, I love the rest of those guys, and sure, I've been to countless Dead shows and I'd love to hear some of those songs again. But it just ain't gonna be the same without Jerry, one of the most amazingly distinctive guitarists I've ever heard. There'll be a huge hole in the music, and I'm not sure I want to put up with all the hassles that such a show will undoubtedly have to hear an incomplete Dead concert. Karloff, as The Monster, said, "We belong dead." Maybe the Dead belong dead too. Quote of the day. A bit of explanation: one thing you'd always see at a Dead show was a group of Spinners. These people seemed comprised mostly of young women in long dresses who instead of dancing would spin in place [2.5 MB QuickTime], round and round and round, all during the songs. Someone said that they were in some kind of cult, and I remember reading an article that said the Spinners belonged to this group called The Church of Unlimited Devotion; they'd take vows of celibacy and evidently worshipped Jerry Garcia as a god. (Garcia was reportedly uncomfortable with this but tolerated it, as they were harmless; he did say something like "I'll draw the line if they start coming at me with nails and a cross.") I was at a Dead show with my old friend Matt Brown one time, and he remarked that the Spinners seemed to only spin to certain songs. It hadn't really registered with me, but as I was curious too I decided to go and ask one of them. I chose a beatific looking young woman of maybe 19 or 20 and asked, "Excuse me, but my friend and I noticed that y'all only spin to some songs but not others. Why is that?" Her reply:
"We only spin to Jerry's songs. We don't spin to Bobby's songs, because Bobby sings from The Dark Side."Ohhhhhhkayyy ... thanks. Well. I'll be leaving now. (Great music at those old shows, though. Really.) I'm guessing the Spinners will be skipping the Other Ones' shows, now that God is dead.
Y'know, even though I can hear certain friends of mine howling already ("Dammit, I want my free content!"), not updating for five days means that I actually have a life away from the computer. This is a good thing. Belated birthdays from Sunday and Monday. Happy 30th, Gregory! Happy 67th, Dad! How to make cracklins. You know you always wanted to know. Mmmmm, I can hear the bubbling pork fat already! I can smell the crispness in the air! Put on an acoustic Delta blues record. Gimme a beer. Yeah you rite. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Sam Jones' long-awaited film about Wilco and the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was finally released last Friday, and I finally saw it Monday night. I thought it was excellent, and for Wilco fans it's not to be missed. Unfortunately for many of you, it's in a fairly limited release. Not to worry, though ... there's good news about the forthcoming DVD release, plus some tantalizing comments on new songs and forthcoming album(s):
Jones reveals that the DVD will feature "another hour-and-12-minute movie, hopefully as a separate disc. It's not more story. It's not more enlightenment about what happened. I feel the film tells that story in a concise way. But we have 21 other songs, and between those songs there are some weird little moments we caught."This is good. Very very good. First Church of Wilco. And speaking of Wilco, here's a weird but interesting and highly favorable article about a recent Wilco show that took place in a "refangled church" in Atlanta. This one goes to eleven. Today Steve ranted about "ego-googling", in which people try to make their name come up first when searching only on a first name in Google. "[E]go- and fashion-based wankery, just another way to see who can pee furthest; silly and pointlessly vain," he says. Well sure, he's right. It's silly, but it's never really bothered me because it's never even occurred to me before. Prompted thusly, however, I googled "Chuck" to see what happened. Turns out, to my surprise, that this humble weblog came in eleventh in a Google search on "Chuck". Preceding me in the lineup are a very distinguished group behind whom I'm more or less honored to be Number Eleven (although couldn't at least ONE of those Senators not have been a feckin' Republican?).
1. Amateur astrophotographer Chuck Vaughn.Now, there's some wankery! Quote of the day. Listening to a piece on NPR last night about how members of our current government are arbitrarily and unilaterally usurping the rights of non-citizens in a highly unconstitutional manner, and then stumbling across this quote were a bit coincidental, I thought.
"The rights you have are the rights given you by this Committee. We will determine what rights you have and what rights you have not got."Incidentally, I'm looking forward to any and all forthcoming Bush Administration prison sentences.
What will happen when the snooping begins? In last week's New York Times, Michele Kayal remembers the effects of neighbor-spying from her years living in Prague soon after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and reflects on the societal costs of surveillance. Pistol-packin' papa. Britney Spears fans, take note: if you're considering making a pilgrimage to Kentwood, Louisiana (the spring water capital of the state), better not pass by your idol's childhood home. Her dad still lives there, and he won't like it.
Bouncy bouncy. I had some really weird problems with my email and web servers today. It was serving pages fine, but bouncing some of my email. Turns out that all of a sudden file permissions all over my account went haywire, and it probably had something to do with my failed attempt to install SpamAssassin a few weeks ago. I gotta quit doing things like that when I really don't know what the hell I'm doing. So, if you emailed me today and it bounced, try again. Thanks a million to Sean at pair networks support for sorting out the whole mess for me. Tonight on "Down Home". New music from Nickel Creek and Ken Bloom and his bowed dulcimer (!), plus newly reissued Louvin Brothers, the ReBirth Brass Band, cuts from the Johnny Cash tribute album, classic Bothy Band and more! Tune in at 88.5 FM in Los Angeles, or worldwide via www.kcsn.org. Proud to call it home. New Orleans is now apparently The Sausage-Eating Capital of America. In 2001 New Orleanians ate 20.8 million pounds of sausage. In just one city! With all our fabulous andouille, chaurice, Creole hot sausage, hot smoke, Italian sausage and more ... well, it's no wonder. Bruce vs. Britney. Bruce Springsteen played more songs during a "Today" show broadcast from Asbury Park, NJ on Tuesday than Britney Spears performed during a "concert" in Mexico City Sunday night. And he didn't flip anybody off, either. That's why he's The Boss. You can call me "Commander". So yesterday for the first time, I met someone who said he was "impressed" that I was Chuck Taggart -- not because he appreciated my public radio work for the past 14 years, not because he enjoyed my website, but because I "had the same name" as the Space Shuttle Commander on "Odyssey 5". (Yeah, thanks, but I had the goddamn name first, ya know? It's mine!) Incidentally, I fell out of the habit of watching that show after the first three weeks. Is it any good still? Who has time for more television? Prescient Onion. On January 18, 2001, I posted a link to an article in The Onion. It is so eerily prescient that I'm compelled to link it again:
Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over'Weblog Cymraeg! I don't exactly remember how I got there, but yesterday I stumbled across a weblog written entirely in Welsh. Unfortunately I can't read it, as I never learned more than a few words of Welsh (Diolch, Hwyl!, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllantysiliogogogoch). This is very cool. I love seeing weblogs written in minority languages, particularly Celtic ones. Hey, is anybody out there weblogging as Gaeilge (in Irish)? July Looka! entries have been permanently archived.
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| Several of my friends and loved ones (and a few kind strangers) contribute regularly to this weblog. Thanks to Wesly Moore, Mike Luquet, Andy Senasac, Michael Yasui, Steve Gardner, Michael Pemberton, Steve Kelley, Barry Kelley, Eric Labow, Tom Krueger, Greg Beron, Sean Burke, Shari Minton and Barry Enderwick. |
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