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You are viewing the most recent 25 entries November 11th, 2009serenada @ 10:14 pm: Holding Back The Years
 Holding back the years
Thinking of the fear I've had so long
When somebody hears
Listen to the fear that's gone
Strangled by the wishes of pater
Hoping for the arms of mater
Get to me the sooner or later
Holding back the years
Chance for me to escape from all I've known
Holding back the tears
Cause nothing here has grown
I've wasted all my tears
Wasted all those years
And nothing had the chance to be good
Nothing ever could yeah
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
So tight
I've wasted all my tears
Wasted all of those years
And nothing had the chance to be good
Cause nothing ever could oh yeah
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
Holding, holding, holding
That's all I have today
It's all I have to sayI likes me some blue-eyed red-headed soul. I liked these guys, and hearing this song on rotation has reminded me that I don't actually own their version of If You Don't Know Me By Now, which must be remedied forthwith. Tags: music
spectralbovine @ 09:13 pm: American Zombie
 In the last couple weeks, I've been to a lot of unconventional theatre.Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cofax7, I got to see American Idiot at Berkeley Rep for free the night before Halloween ($0), and I loved it so much I saw it again last night ($26). Now, I fully admit that my opinion about this show is heavily biased since I am a huge Green Day fan and think American Idiot is a fantastic album. But after a few minutes of the show, I thought, "I WANT TO SEE THIS A MILLION TIMES." The show follows the general narrative of the album but adds two characters, Will and Tunny, who serve as foils to the tale of Johnny, the Jesus of Suburbia. While Johnny goes off to the city and becomes a druggie, Will stays home with his pregnant girlfriend and Tunny goes off to war. I didn't want to know much about the story going in, but I actually had a greater appreciation for the storytelling, such as it is, the second time around since I found that I'd misinterpreted and missed a lot the first time. There's very little dialogue, and the story is told through the songs and staging. Never having seen any of the classic rock operas, I was amazed at how well this one worked. It translated into a musical as if that's what it was meant to be from the start. I loved hearing the songs as sung by different characters, which imbued the lines with new meaning. I loved hearing Green Day sung by women. I loved hearing various harmonies and counterpoints being brought to the fore by a large ensemble. I loved that members of the ensemble got big solo moments. It brought the music to life in ways I had never imagined. The show includes all of American Idiot as well as songs from 21st Century Breakdown and a couple B-sides. The staging is generally very effective, interesting, and evocative. Standouts include "Give Me Novacaine," which is pretty brilliantly done in the way it highlights how all three leads are escaping from their lives (pot, sex, and war), and "Extraordinary Girl," which is a dream sequence that involves two actors flying around on wires. (It should go without saying that "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming" are especially well done and interesting.) The choreography, on the other hand, is often kind of silly and nonsensical, consisting of convulsions and randomly throwing your hands around, like some sort of punk rock interpretive dance. But it's like a party on stage! There is a live band along with a cute redhead in glasses playing piano and accordion and conducting when her hands are free. She jumps up and down and sings along and it's really cute. The lead actor was actually my least favorite because I thought he went a little too nasal and overdid the "disaffected youth" bit at times, but we got an understudy the second time around, and he wasn't as strong a singer or actor and he didn't have the same energy, which made me appreciate what the regular lead brought to the show. I still preferred Will, who wore a Scott Pilgrim shirt, and Tunny, who looked like Matt Saracen and was very expressive with his gestures. They had better voices, too. St. Jimmy was awesome. The women all had very powerful voices. There was a lot of talent onstage: the three male leads all played guitar for some songs. And the show recently added an encore song in which everyone plays guitar—although some of them just learned—and sings "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," which is kind of cheesy but still awesome. Berkeley Rep held little post-show parties after each performance, so I got to tell the pianist/conductor I thought she was just as much a part of the show as the actors. And last night, I got to tell Tunney and Will they were great. And I followed St. Jimmy down into the BART station. The understudy Johnny also came down and was swarmed by fangirls wanting his autograph. Also, it just so happened my friend Debbie was at the performance last night, so we saw each other for the first time since the last TimeCube gathering we both attended. American Idiot was awesome, and it's headed to Broadway, so if you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. On Halloween, I saw Zombie! A New Musical at the EXIT Theatre ($22). The director's note was really super-serious and freaked me out. It was all, "I was inspired by the death of my youngest brother, and how the disease ate away at him and I still loved him and couldn't let it go, and that is the allegory of zombies, and everyone in this play makes selfish decisions, and I've never seen a zombie musical that could be funny and still tell a story UNTIL MY BRILLIANT PRODUCTION CAME ALONG." So I was expecting something really heavy. Thankfully, it was still funny. Sitting in the front row was the best idea because there were zombies on the floor groaning and grabbing at your feet the whole show. They also doubled as stagehands, handing the actors microphones or crawling up to change the set. Sometimes they just writhed in agony. Also, there was a genderswapped Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. And the reporter character flashed a boob during one song at the line "Like a Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction." I didn't hear the rest of the analogy because I was distracted. There were some entertaining technical malfunctions. The music was recorded, not live, and it started skipping or something during one song. At first the character just started saying, "Cut the music, cut the music," in-character. When that didn't work, the general character marched in and told us there was a technical issue, would we all please just stay in our seats. Then the singer said, "I'll just take this one a cappella." And sang about workin' the motherfuckin' graveyard. It was pretty great, and one guy assumed it was part of the show. Later, during Ozzy's song, she was all, "1, 2, 3!" And the music didn't kick in, so she kept going, "4, 5, all right there we go." It was amusing. It was a heavy metal musical, and the songs were pretty catchy, especially the title track. As far as the story, it's your typical boy-likes-girl, boy-and-girl-have-sex-on-roof-of-creepy-w arehouse-conveniently-located-next-to-a-g raveyard, girl-falls-off-roof-of-creepy-warehouse-c onveniently-located-next-to-a-graveyard-a nd-dies, boy-brings-girl-back-to-life-with-govern ment-experiment-zombie-gas-and-accidenta lly-starts-zombie-apocalypse story. You know, that old tale. My favorite non-zombie-related line belongs to the girl's psychotherapist father, who says, "Violet, it's like you're having a party...and you forgot to invite the truth." Zombie! was awesome, and you will probably never get a chance to see it, so sucks for you. This past weekend, I saw Zombie Town, also at the EXIT Theatre ($16). In fact, throughout October, the two shows were playing right across from each other, which led to some confusion. Zombie Town is a documentary play, the conceit being that a theatre group called the Catharsis Collective traveled to Harwood, Texas, and interviewed the survivors of a zombie outbreak in order to tell the story in their own words. It's sort of like The Laramie Project with zombies. Five actors played all the characters, and all five were fantastic. The most impressive was the one woman, who played several distinct characters throughout the show, sometimes switching characters right there onstage. The show was hilarious because it turns out that talking about a zombie attack without actually being shown any zombies can be really, really funny. One of the characters, in describing what the first zombie looked like, described it something like this: "You know how a turkey after Thanksgiving looks with all the meat picked off and it's just the bone with little bits of meat hanging off? Puke on that. And then bury it. And then dig it up and puke on it again and bury it again." After a while, it strayed from simply being testimonials from townspeople and started walking the line between retelling and reenactment, as we watched three characters take refuge in an abandoned cabin. To my surprise, the show ended up being less a zombie show and more a satire of the healing power of the theatre. One of the members of the Catharsis Collective gave a lot of pretentious monologues about the purpose of the show and what it will do for the community. And then the show broke, like, the fifth wall by having the in-show actor playing a zombie in a reenactment of past events become a real zombie and set off the zombie murders of the entire Catharsis Collective onstage. It was bloody madness. No, really, there was a lot of blood. Zombie Town was even more awesome than Zombie!, and you will probably never get a chance to see it, so sucks for you. Current Mood:  sleepy Current Music: Foo Fighters - Alone + Easy Target , it's a small world, music, personal, pimpings, real life friends, theatre
cupcake_goth @ 07:49 pm: Sometimes, this is the answer to a cranky day.
 My mood did not improve today, not one bit. The Stroppy One has gone to his D&D game, which is probably for the best, as I am not good company at the moment. So I am going to spend the evening trying to write, and indulging in glittery silver nail polish, a cocktail made with elderflower liqueur and fizzy pink vodka, and ridiculously overwrought Gawthick Rawk videos playing in the background. 
Please note, Trinian, Queen of Fuzzwumpia, approves of this plan. Posted via LiveJournal.app. Tags: via ljapp
jonquil @ 06:23 pm: Your mama ought to whap you upside the head with a skillet
 The SF Chronicle kept giving me ads for "Dollie Marie's Fine Southern Dining", so I clicked to the menu. Oy-everloving-vey. Let's run some quick credentials here. My mother is a Texas native; my father was born in Missouri but mostly grew up in Texas. I grew up eating beans and skillet cornbread, fried chicken, stewed tomatoes, and trying hard to avoid collards. My husband's family is Georgian. He grew up eating the same. He likes grits. Need I say more? We lived in Charlotte, North Carolina for seven years. I have informed opinions on why Georgia barbecue is fundamentally better than North or South Carolina (mustard sauce! The heresy!), and on why Texas is trying admirably but has failed utterly to grasp the gospel that is pork. I know from Southern food. I won't claim to know the whole South -- nobody can -- but I know what I learned from my family, from being a disconsolate Yankee in the Bible Belt, and from reading the kind of spiral-bound cookbooks the church ladies print up to make money. These people, whoever they are, got their menu items from a magazine article, not from down home experience. A Southerner could certainly cook any of the dishes on the menu, but that doesn't make them Southern; just because the cat had kittens in the oven don't make 'em biscuits*. Here are the few items I could read before my eyes became veiled with tears. Ruby Mae's Pan Roasted Crab Cake
with vanilla bean aioli and a butternut squash and pecan salad with a spicy tomato mushroom sauceStop right there, missy. Thing about Southern cooking? It is not fussy. The only Southern dish I've ever seen that combined that many unrelated ingredients was a Jell-O salad. Crab cakes are an American classic. Take crab. Mix with breadcrumbs, seasonings (Old Bay should be in the mix), and mayonnaise to bind. Fry. Die happy. I'm good with aioli with crab cakes. I'm good with a salad alongside crabcakes. These are flourishes that don't mess with the essential dish. But vanilla bean aioli? Butternut squash and pecan salad AND A SPICY TOMATO MUSHROOM SAUCE? Somebody hates the taste of food and isn't afraid to admit it. (edit: The tomato sauce doesn't belong to this dish. Faked out by copy-paste.) New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp & Grits Aunt Helen Jean's gulf shrimp simmered in a spicy herbal butter sauce over grits That's like saying "Seville-style bangers and mash." Shrimp and grits is a classic LowCountry South Carolina dish; it has nothing to do with New Orleans, Louisiana. I have no idea what the word "BBQ" is doing in this menu item; proper shrimp and grits is sauteed, as specified in the next line. Aunt Ida Mae's Boudin Blanc Triangle creamy filling of smoked chicken, brown rice, bacon, vegetables and spices, coated with panko bread crumbs, then pan-fried golden and finished with a hot link gravy and grilled garlic croutons.Boudin blanc is a Louisiana specialty. It's a pork-and-rice sausage, served in a crackling natural skin. How you get this mess from that name, I do not know. I can only assume that at this point the chef was well into his sixth bottle of Everkleer and had begun tearing pages out of Paul Prudhomme at random, and that we narrowly escaped a pecan pie made of ahi tuna. What the hell is a "hot link gravy"? I'm guessing somebody once heard of sausage gravy but never ate any. Lester Jenkins' Orange Duck & Black Penne Pappardelle fresh black pepper pappardelle pasta and duck confit, tossed in a spiced orange marmalade sauce with orange segments, walnuts and chives We don't eat pappardelle in Muskogee. Trust me on this. Duck a l'orange and duck confit are French. Pappardelle are Italian. None of them made it into traditional cooking south of the Mason-Dixon line. And, oh, God, does that ensemble sound vile. Big Mama Nancy's Blackened Catfish Filet. on a bed of crawfish risotto, sauteed spinach, and gumbo pot-licker."Gumbo pot-licker"? "Gumbo" is a dish all to itself. "Pot-likker" or "pot-liquor" (your call) is what's left over when you stew greens. "Gumbo pot-licker" is the dog you're using to clean the saucepans. These people deserve to have Edna Lewis rise from her grave and pee in every single one of their stewpots. * (Which proverb is actually from New Hampshire, but so it goes.)
This entry was originally posted at http://jonquil.dreamwidth.org/897798.html.  comment(s) on that entry.Current Music: The battle hymn of the republic (go with me here) haircuttingfun @ 08:57 pm: new photos of me
 All these photos of me where taken early November. Remember, as always, clicking on the photo makes the photo larger. A big Thank You to Paul for sending me such a darling dress. *hugs* Tags: my hair blog, photos
vonnie_k @ 09:15 pm: Spooks 8x01
 I'm late in catching up and haven't watched the second episode yet, so don't you dare spoil me! ( Oh, show! You are EVIL and also my favourite )OK! Off to watch the second episode! Tags: tv: spooks/mi5
cupcake_goth @ 12:19 pm: Bleh. Woogle.
 Probably no Shallow Fashion Details photo today, sorry. I know I should like this outfit (as it is one I have worn in the past and been perfectly happy with), but thanks to the hormonal joys of being a girl, I am filled with free-floating cranky (and cramps). Therefore I have an irrational dislike of what I am wearing, and don't want to take a picture of it. Again, sorry. Yes, I know I'm being ridiculous. Have I mentioned lately that I loathe hormonal mood-swings? Anyway. Last night involved sushi, cupcakes, and getting to see ouranophobe, who I have not seen in FOREVER. (And poetry_lady, who I should try to see more often, what with her living in the same state and everything.) It was a wonderful evening of socializing and catching up with an old friend. In news of ridiculous things I vaguely want to look for: someone explain to me why I have a strong urge to find very cute Alice In Wonderland fabric and make a skirt incorporating it? Other than the fact that I'm a big fan of Alice In Wonderland, and also other than the fact that finding elegantly whimsical gothy fabric prints is nigh-impossible, I mean. (And not that I should be thinking about sewing anything right now, as I OH MY GOD NEED TO BE CONCENTRATING ON WRITING. Not any other projects. Yes, really, I know that. I DO.) Current Music: I Don't Care Very Much - Emilie Autumn , sewing, woogle, writing
vonnie_k @ 02:40 pm: Icon meme
 gacked from musesfool( under the cut )*** A terrifc interview with Matthew Weiner re. the S3 finale of Mad Men. Spoilers through the finale, obviously. ( on the interview )I really need a Mad Men icon. Tags: icons, meme, tv: mad men
holli @ 12:21 pm: costumery
 This jacket: solid basis for a Middleman costume y/n?
casperflea @ 10:01 am: bangs
 
Partly in anticipation of my mother's visit next week, I cut the kids' hair last night. Dillo got an allover trim of about an inch, which still leaves him a lot of hair. It probably needs a little cleanup, but I doubt I'll get the chance, as he had a big freakout at bedtime and said he'd changed his mind about getting a haircut.
Casper looks INCREDIBLY different to me. It will take some getting used to. This was her choice - and we asked her to consider carefully, as bangs take a long time to grow out. I cut them a little too short on the right (her left) and am trying to decide whether to trim up the other side or just let it be. Tags: hair, mother
alterjess @ 10:00 am:
 Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
calligrafiti @ 08:01 am: November 11 (US version)
 Today is Veteran's Day in the US (as well as a remembrance day with various names in other countries). Thank you to all the veterans who served our country, including my father, my uncles, and several cousins. Sometimes we make better or worse choices on where to deploy you, but I'm deeply grateful that you are here for us. I hope we can do a better job of being there for you. [trigger warning]
November 10th, 2009spectralbovine @ 10:48 pm: At the Facility on East 12th Street
 So we just got Microsoft Office Communicator installed on all our systems. My boss was on her way to my cubicle when she turned and stepped back into her office to give the old IM a try. And this is what she said: Boss: I forgot to say thanks for doing a good job during our 1:1. Boss: Thanks. Me: You're welcome? I don't know what I did. Boss: You are very intelligent, capable, and dependable. I am reminded of it at least daily. I thought I should say thanks for that. Boss: If you want me to send this in an e-mail so you can archive it. I will. Me: Oh! Thank you. I really appreciate it. Me: Oh, please do. I will pull it out and hug it. Boss: LOL. I assume you heard that. (She actually thought I was being sarcastic until I told her before I left that I really would like an e-mail. This is what she sent: Thank you for being so intelligent, capable, and reliable.*
*Replicated statement from an IM earlier today. I think I lost some of the details, but the intended message remains.
Now don’t get all arrogant and full of yourself.
Smiley face, ☺, :-} The smiley faces are because we were joking about emoticons afterward.) I keep waiting for someone to figure out I spend half my time messing around online and I am secretly a fuck-up, but I appear to be really bad at being a fuck-up. I must be some kind of fuck-down. Current Mood:  pleased Current Music: Filter - I'm Not the Only One , i am so awesome, personal
minim_calibre @ 08:11 pm: [DA] C'mon, people, go sign up for the Dark Angel Holiday Exchange!
 Sign up! Sign up! Sign up!Sign ups are only for about another day. If you're thinking, gosh, I've always wanted an excuse to write DA, you've got one RIGHT HERE!
vonnie_k @ 11:04 pm: V
 Huh. ABC has *two* new genre shows with a sprawling ensemble cast, a cool concept (even though one of them is recycled), and somewhat dodgy writing, not completely redeemed by the presence of a boatload of actors whose work I like -- well, I guess I shall keep on watching for now. At least ABC is trying on new things. Or trying to plug a hole soon to be left in Lost's wake, whatever. The original was a big enough phenomenon that the show was imported to Korea. That was a freakin' big deal, back in the '80s. Well, the *other* major US telly available in Korea back then was Love Boat, so maybe the whole imported-to-Korea thing is not anything to brag about. (Another show I remember fairly well was this terribly soapy miniseries called Rich Man, Poor Man, with Peter Strauss and oh, God, young Nick Nolte, whom my 12-year-old self thought was the hottest thing under the sun. *facepalm*) Anyway, my teenaged self watched the entirety of the original (badly-dubbed) run of V religiously, and the alien baby-birthing scene scarred me for life. I'd forgotten most other details, except for Marc Singer looking constipated and whats-her-face's crazy 80's hair (I keep thinking it was Kirstie Alley for some reason.) Of course I was going to give the new version a try. Thus far, it's a mixed bag. The pilot had a serious case of pilotitis, the pacing was all over the place, and it totally vomited the plot twists worth the entire season all over itself. There was still clunkiness in the second episode, but it kind of won me over when ( spoiler for the ep tonight )So far, it's entertaining enough. I give it a provisional season pass. Tags: tv: v
jesseh @ 10:02 pm: Domestic icon!
 Because I have that pot.
mskat @ 06:15 pm: Favorite from today
 Noah has a magnet he has taken off the fridge he is carrying around. "This magnet is for mama?" "Yep, Noah, it's for mama." "It says something something something something on it." Tags: noahism
serenada @ 06:00 pm:
 I have to laugh, because it's still true that the black guys welcome me to the new workplace. The non-black, non-male coworkers don't usually talk to me without some sort of a reason, but for the black guys, me being there is enough reason to say hello. They probably think I'm extra-jolly to see them, but really I'm laughing because it never ceases to amuse me.
jesseh @ 07:44 pm: I need a domestic icon
 In the week and a half since I moved, I have spent approximately a zillion dollars at the grocery store. Some of that was stuff like a new filter for the Brita on the kitchen faucet, but a lot of it has been food. Conversely, I have spent very little eating out, so that's good. The current plan: Make a pot roast tomorrow, and quickly turn around some of the meat and make it into a ragu (both recipes out of this Williams-Sonoma cookbook). Also at some point, make quiche muffins. They can go in the freezer with my meat muffins! (And yes, I will keep using that phrase over and over again, because it cracks my shit up.) I am really excited to have new ideas for things to cook that make sense for eating alone, since that's the last barrier to my really cooking -- now that I have a kitchen that is nice and pleasant.
gchick @ 04:51 pm:
 I'm sure it was because I was out of the US at the time (not to mention that the nostalgia industry wasn't yet what it is now), but it kind of amazes me in retrospect that when the wall fell we weren't all like, "OMG the wall came down on the 20th anniversary of Sesame Street!" If only we'd had twitter then. This entry was originally posted at http://gchick.dreamwidth.org/21725.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
cupcake_goth @ 01:27 pm: A story from my workplace, and a clicky-link of coveting.
 Wandering through the cafeteria, I just saw a woman dressed in black "wet-look" leggings (so, high-gloss spandex), a cream/khaki thigh-length sweater (which I think had sequin details), and a pair of those open-toe high-heeled "boots". She looked like she had lost a fight with an American Apparel store. And of course, she stared at me like I'm the crazy person. Clicky-link of coveting! I want this Baby Vamp ring set (You knew that was a clicky-link, right? Okay.) A tiny set of vampire fangs to wear as a ring! How ridiculously cute is that? I may occasionally (well, frequently) roll my eyes and fling my hands about in despair at what is being perpetrated under the cloak of my favorite genre, but I've got to admit, the upswing in popularity for all things vampire-related sometimes means finding pretty things.
Tags: clicky-links, coveting, vampires, workplace hijinks
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