Pirate Chic Never Quite Goes Out of Style

On a hot, lazy Sunday with not much else to do, I'm back again flipping through YouTube. Looking at Duran Duran videos this time around. And my observations:

1) Why is Simon Le Bon dressed like a pirate? Looks like the same outfit. Were they filmed on the same day or something? Where's the Jolly Roger flag?

2) Nick Rhodes looks so ghey. And I had such a crush on him when I was like, 11. I guess he was the first of my many ghey boyfriends, even though he never knew it.

3) What the hell did Andy Taylor do to his hair?

4) Roger Taylor bears a striking resemblance to a certain annoying "DJ" in Denver that I just want to punch in the face everytime I see him.

5) John Taylor is hot. He still *is* hot, acutally.

6) Are all of the bandmates sharing some lines of coke at the dining room table in the "Careless Memories" video?

7) Also for the "Careless Memories" video -- I have that same coffee table. You can get it at Ikea for like $80. The dining room table, Patrick Bateman-esq decor, and the assorted illicit activities that were probably going on outside of the scenes -- probably not easily available in a box these days.

8) God, John Taylor was hot. Damn.

R.I.P. Don Becker

:(

Probably one of the most loyal friends I've ever had.

link here.

more fun with my new cell phone

my new cell phone that is not an iphone. oh well.

Kristin dancing at the Space Gallery, May 10 2008

Signs of the upcoming recession?

Westminster, Colorado, May 14 2008.

Shuttered-up Countrywide Mortgage office in a strip mall.



Only a few doors down is a shuttered-up "Asian Massage" parlor.



Related? Perhaps so, perhaps not.

why are all these people waiting on line in NYC for a cheeseburger?

Shake Shack Madison Square Park cam.

Good lord, it's 12:04 pm ETZ as I post this and already the line is stretched around the block. What is it with this line mentality, especially at lunch? Is it more about the line scene than the food? I'd rather spend most of my lunch hour savoring my food than waiting for it, but maybe that's just me.

on the intellectualizing of twee pop...huh?

An article mentioning all that is 30-something and hipster-ish...huh? Gwyneth Paltrow as twee? Okay, I guess.

Reading down further in the article, I'm really scaring the crap out of myself because according to a quote from the British fashion magazine i-D (which I never read...):

“Childlike innocence and assumed naivety permeate the Cutie scene,” the report read. “Their clothes are asexual, their haircuts are fringes, their colours are pastel. Cuties like Penguin modern classics, sweets, ginger beer, vegetables, and anoraks.”

Well, with the exception of the pastel "colours," that pretty much was me, mid-90's. I never thought I was the follower of any scene, but hey.

it all should be different now...but is it?

There comes a time when certain behavior just gets...old.

Now, I've tried to make myself the level-headed observer throughout most of my post-adolescent life. I'm the first to admit that I've done my fair share of crazy behavior. Everyone has. There are certain things you just have to get out of your system when you're young.

So yes, I partied a fair bit when I was in my late teens and twenties. I recall Williamsburg loft parties where rats chased each other across the floor. I've escaped random gunfire in Alphabet City. I spent many an evening huddled around a fire pit in the courtyard of an East Village squat, when still there were such things. And yes, hanging around such places, I saw firsthand how insane chemically-crazed people could be. But there was something about that whole behavior when you're young that makes it not really that...annoying. Out-of-place. Whatever.

It must've been around my mid-twenties when I grew tired of all the craziness and decided to grow up bit. So I did. Now, ten plus years on, I still find myself with some friends who just are stuck in that same old early twenties mindset. Like, just drinking and drinking and drinking, and acting progressively more obnoxious along the way.

What else can I say besides...haven't you gotten tired of it by now? I sure have. A long, long time ago.

My phone broke this morning

It was overdue for me to get a new one anyway.

What's everyone's opinions on this:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2282504,00.asp

Should I buy or is that a PoS?

What I am looking for in a phone: clear talk quality, ability to have a headset, should be easy to me to keep up on my SMS and email, a camera phone would be nice but not needed...

I still can't shell out $399 for one of the lower-end iphones. Still can't do it.

In the meanwhile, I can still check voice mail if anyone needs to get in touch with me.

pictures, ears, pot roasts, and geese

I had my passover brunch today. After everyone finished eating some of us walked to City Park and took pictures of geese. In doing so I finally figured out how to use my camera. I can now take pictures close up, woo. Pics are here. None actually of me up there yet, but maybe in a couple of days.

It was a lovely day, really too nice to be inside. Maybe better for a picnic, maybe next year if it's this nice I'll have a passover picnic. I always like to do something this time of year for passover, if nothing else because it gives me an excuse to cook for people. by myself I'll live off of boca burgers, english muffins, frozen pizza, and fruit that you don't have to cut up and/or peel. But today I made chicken/ matzo ball soup and a buffalo pot roast. And dandelion green salad. mm mm. Of course all of this stuff isn't the easiest to bring out to a picnic, but hey next year will definitely require some re-thinking on my part to make that possible.

Other than that, my life has been incredibly blah lately, a combination of waking up, going to work, going home, going to bed, waking up etc. Maybe it's this viral ear infection I seem to have picked up (and that stubbornly seems to stick around). Maybe it's because it's spring and I feel like I should be accomplishing something, with it being so lovely and sunny and warm and everything . But there's always something impeding whatever fresh and new I try to do. I think about going for a bike ride, but my tire is flat. I re-arrange the bedroom to just the way I like, and then I break my mirror. I go across the street for a mojito cupcake, and I find that the icing is unpleasantly sticky and warm. The bookstore is out of my favorite xtra-large ruled moleskine notebooks. I walk into the record store and realize, distressfully, that I gave away my turntable months ago, and would have no place to store a CD if I ever bothered to buy one. Then I think that wow, I am nearly a textbook case for there having to be a "National Record Store Day" in the first place, how depressing. I wear what looked to be comfortable shiny gold shoes to my friend's art opening, and develop nasty blisters on both of my pinky toes -- and I walked maybe a total of 3 blocks.

I need to get out of this boring slump. Maybe I'll consider dressing like Blythe. Not like I can find those clothes in a 14/16 X-X-tall, or can even sew them (oy). But I can at least consider it, okay?

Real World Audition Tape Fame Whore Alert

From jezebel.com.

If this is real (and I suspect that it is), no wonder why the terrorists hate us.

Seriously. Just click on it. CLICK ON IT. And behold...

Vitamin supplements may increase risk of death

From the Guardian UK:

The review, by the Cochrane Collaboration which regularly pools data from trials to evaluate drugs and treatments, found supplements vitamin A, vitamin E and beta-carotene are detrimental to health. In 47 trials with 180,938 people and a low risk of bias, the "antioxidant supplements significantly increased mortality", the authors wrote. When the antioxidants were assessed separately and low risk of bias trials were included and selenium excluded, vitamin A was linked to a 16% increased risk of dying, beta-carotene to a 7% increased risk and vitamin E to a 4% increased risk.

Evidence for vitamin C and selenium was more equivocal, suggesting there was no benefit to taking these pills compared with a placebo.

rest of the article here.

Well, that just settles it then. Combined with the nasty food poisoning I got when trying to eat something "healthy" at a certain restaurant that used to be a leather bar near the Bluebird Theatre...why bother watching what you eat? If it's going to kill you anyway...

I think I'll get a veggie burger and fries from Watercourse for lunch. Ok, ok, I've been on a combination Weight Watchers / no eating stupid digestive diet plan the past few days. It's hard to get the healthy out of your system once it's already there.

David Bowie, "Life on Mars"

One of my favorite songs. I just found the video courtesy of YouTube, posting it here for your viewing (and listening) pleasure.

J-Street

Caught a bit of this on NPR this morning:



or, jstreet.org.

Sounds potentially promising. At least, I'm glad that there are many out there who are similarly creeped-out at the right wing hijacking the American viewpoint on Israel.

I think I'm going to have a Passover brunch on Sunday, speaking of...it's a lot easier than a seder.

mmmm...I can eat again

So the procedure today seemed to go well. Even the whole "conscious sedation" thing went fine. About 2 hours out, I am just a teeny bit sleepy -- and also, extremely hungry. I really hadn't eaten anything since that caramel sundae I had last night (yum).

The doctor advised me to start out on the light and easy to digest. So I made my dad's version of macaroni and cheese. He made this all the time for me when I was sick:

You will need:

1 small package vermicelli noodles, elbows, or other small pasta
about 2 or 3 tablespoons butter
about a cup of deglazing liquid of your choice. I used white wine tonight, but chicken broth also works very well
1 package of frozen peas
1/2 - 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
black pepper

Cook the pasta in a sufficient amount of salted boiling water until the pasta is a little tougher than al dente. Drain the pasta, and add the wine or chicken broth, the butter, and the peas. Cook over high heat, until almost all the liquid is evaporated, the butter is melted, and the peas are fully cooked. Shut off the heat and add the cheese. Top with black pepper and serve.

I'm eating this along with some toasted Pepperidge Farm white sandwich bread, also with butter. And maybe I'll have some pudding for dessert.

Funny how the most bland food tastes the most wonderful when your stomach's been out of commission for a while.

Now I see why people go bankrupt

With medical costs.

I called my insurance company to verify coverage of a test procedure I have to have done next week. It's considered surgery, even though it's really not. (maybe because they have to whack me out during it? good times...)

So many different categories! No, it's not "preventative," because that's usually done when you're older. It's a test the doctor ordered, for whatever. Ok, so it's covered 90 percent if the doctor and the surgery center are in-network, 70 percent if they are out-of-network... And a $100 co-pay for the surgery center.

Curious to see how much the test would cost overall, I called the medical center where I'll have the procedure performed. I asked how much the costs would be overall. It's something like $1000 for just the doctor's work, plus an additional $1500 - $2500 for the test itself.

Ouch.

Oh and the medication that I need to take to prep myself for the test could run me a couple hundred dollars without the insurance.

So we're talking over $3500 possibly for a diagnostic procedure. Let's add on the 2 days you have to be out of work (good thing I get paid for that, not everyone does) and the costs really start to add up.

Something really needs to be done to reform health care coverage in this country. If someone in relatively good health (such as me) has to go through this on occasion, how's it like for the chronically ill? Who are too young/make too much money to qualify for Medicare/Medicaid/whatever it's called?

Yelle, "Je Veux Te Voir"

Posting this per a conversation I had tonight with my work friend Cat. The shiny mid-80's are back! (sorta)

Mmmm...cheese...grilled

I've been having this ongoing craving all day for a Friendly's grilled cheese sandwich and fries.

Of course, there isn't a Friendly's in Colorado. I'd be surprised if there are even 2 of them left in New England, where they originated. Friendly's really was the food of my childhood, all served up on red-edged stoneware plates, with a promise of ice cream after. I can get a grilled cheese on white bread and fries at a generic diner anywhere, but it won't be like Friendly's. The bread won't be quite as perfectly square, the cheese will melt all funny, and there won't be that ridged dill pickle slice at the side. The fries won't be as perfectly crinkly. The ketchup will taste different. And I won't be able to have a butterscotch ice cream sundae at that same place for dessert.

Oh...let's admit it. My tastebuds have probably grown too sophisticated for a Friendly's grilled cheese. So I think I'll go for a Chedd's grilled cheese in the upcoming future. I don't like that I'm paying upwards of $8 for a cheese sandwich (usually the cheapest thing on any menu, no?). Also, I'm not the biggest fan of the calories. Heck though, I have to have a modified diet on Sunday to prepare for a medical test on Monday. Modified diet = no fiber, seeds, or anything remotely chewy or granola-crunchy healthy. So, Chedd's grilled cheese on Sunday am, here I come. And maybe I'll go by Good Times later in the day to have a butterscotch or caramel sundae. Without nuts.

Remembering Giant bagels...

I am over at St Mark's now, and I just ate a giant bagel. I recorded this dutifully in my (sigh) Weight Watchers journal: 5 points. I justify eating a bagel (plain, toasted, cut in 4's) today because my stomach is back to feeling a bit "off" from Thursday night's digestive episode.

And now the free association begins: Giant Bagel was a name of a bagel shop around the corner from the Strand. We'd do breakfast runs there all the time. I once asked the counter guy for a phone number. He was a bit taken aback: "My phone number?" Um, no, sorry, the phone number of the shop. I figured it would be easier to call in for orders ahead of time.

Although the major supermarket chain where I grew up was called Giant Food, I don't recall we ever got bagels there. My parents were major bagel snobs and would never buy a bagel from a supermarket, not even Lender's bagels. That's what you get for having one parent from Brooklyn and the other from southern Connecticut, I guess. No, instead they drove all the way down to this place called Bagel City to pick up their bagels. This place is still as good as it ever was. I'm partial to their black and white bagels, which are made of pumpernickel and plain bagel doughs twisted together.

Back to today's recovery: I brought some crystallized ginger with me to help with the stomach weirdness. It does seem to work, and is a lot less disruptive (and sugary) to my stomach than ginger ale.

Privacy? Hah, right!

Unlike approximately 95 percent of the people I know, I have a land-line as well as a cell phone. I like to have the land-line around as a safety factor, and it also makes it easier to take a work call from home.

I also like my privacy, so I keep my land-line number unpublished. I pay the phone company a set amount each month to make sure it stays unpublished. So why is it that my unpublished, land-line number is showing up on a website called http://www.hellodenver.com ?

I'm not going to link to that site from this blog, but those of you who know my full name and last name can look that up, and sure enough, you'll see my land-line listed. Which I thought was a private listing.

Thankfully my address isn't on that site. Still, creepy.

Whatever happened to these records I used to have? (part 1)

album purchased for 99 cents at some thrift shop in my hometown of Frederick, Maryland.



originally passed down from grandma and grandpa.



I had this on a 45 (remember those?). Gawd, look at what they're wearing! It's like you can buy those shirts and crap at H&M now.

back from the dead...

well, sorta, as it's already Sunday afternoon, and must go to work tomorrow.

I spent most of the weekend recovering from a nasty bout of food poisoning. For those of you who have never experienced this, let me just say that you'll know when it happens. Food poisoning is not a minor little bout of nausea. No, it's more like your body knows that something's contaminated it. And it'll next want to spew out those toxins in whichever way it feels to be the most convenient. For hours. And hours. And hours. You know it's finally over when you can manage to eat a spoonful of boiled white rice and go like, "Man, that tastes so good..." And keep that down.

Happily, that's over. An added benefit of me being ill is that I was able to catch up on all of those "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law" episodes saved up in the DVR since like January (who, me, have time to watch TV?). I loved those Hanna-Barbera cartoons when I was a little girl, so to (the now-adult?) me, "Harvey Birdman" is a show of pure genius.

I went shopping today for a new wallet over at Belmar. I am pretty appalled at how expensive wallets are these days, at least cool, stylish ones that aren't going to fall apart on you in about a month. I finally settled on a beige vinyl one with a cartoon character glamour girl on front (from Gimme Gimme Pillow Toast). It was $26 and will probably fall apart in a few months, but it's a nice little store and they did give me a box of free cookies. The wallets over at Composition were somewhat nicer, but I just could not bring myself to drop $68 on the one wallet I liked. That just seemed too excessive. Maybe I'll be lucky and that wallet will go on sale one day.

That $68 wallet, by the way, was one of the cheaper wallets in the store. I blame the current Euro to Dollar exchange rate. It sucks. A euro is now $1.50. I thought it was bad last year when I was over there and it was $1.35.

Other reasons why the exchange rate is painful: I like these shoes. They are $325. They are in my size. Nothing ever comes in my size. Sadly (or happily?) I cannot bring myself to spend what amounts to a decent portion of my monthly rent on footwear. No matter how pretty and yellow and how much of a lifespan I'd get out of them...ok, I guess I should get back to whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing this afternoon (namely, finishing up a short story for class on Thursday).

one last video

before I call it a night....Dengue Fever, Sni Bong:



missed them in Denver, I guess they played about a week or so ago. Pity, I would have love to have seen them. I bet they put on a hell of a show.

Those crazy French...

No, wait, crazy European variety shows. They still have those in Germany, I swear. Maybe still in France, but I've never seen any contemporary French tv.

Anyways I have no idea who the hell this Claude Francois guy is, but he makes for some quite amazing videos on YouTube. To wit:


Aw! He and Jodie are so cute! Love how he makes her giggle (and wow, she does the perfect French accent thing too).



Those are some incredible costumes. I don't know how the dancers dance in them without some fleshy body part sliding out. And they're sparkly, too! The dancers, as well as the costumes!

Upon further reading of the YouTube comments, apparently the dancers are called "Les Clodettes." Awesome.

Now, if TV here in the states had anything nearly as remotely kitchsy as this, I'd probably watch it more often. It's so much more fun and escapist than American Idol. And I admit, I have never seen an episode of American Idol since it came out, not even once.

edited to add: Looks like Claude Francois has a wikipedia entry:

After working in Switzerland, on Saturday, March 11, 1978, he returned to his Paris apartment in order to appear the next day on "Rendez-vous du Dimanche" with TV host Michel Drucker. While standing in a filled bathtub, he noticed a broken light bulb. His well-documented obsession with cleanliness and order got the better of him, prompting him to try and fix it. He was accidentally electrocuted. At only 39 years of age, his early death brought a wave of public sympathy for a national French star.

Poor guy.

So glad I don't work at Prada...

not that they'd hire me anyway.

Prada Workplace policy.

I do like the idea of being forced to step away from your desk for some "you time." Too many people are chained to their cubes every day.

A restaurant rec...

My friend Peter and I went in search of a late breakfast (not brunch, ok?) this am. At first we thought about The Egg and I, on Market Street, but there seemed to be too long of a line. Then we decided upon Snooze, around the Ballpark neighborhood. The line for that went all the way around the block, and the hostess told us the wait would be at least 45 minutes to an hour. So we said "screw that."

Then we happened upon this place:

Mexico City Restaurant
2115 Larimer St
Denver, CO 80205-2016
Phone: (303) 296-0563

Oh my gosh! So good! No line whatsoever, fast service (a bit too fast, perhaps, we got our food before we got our silverware), and cheap, cheap, cheap. Peter had a breakfast burrito, which was only about $4.50, and I had the huevos rancheros, which came to $6. The green chile was excellent -- not too spicy, a bit meaty, and not greasy at all.

So I recommend if you're in the area.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (and making me mad too)...

Today's Sunday, and that of course means the weekly conversation with Mom.

Mom and I are getting along a little better this week. She didn't even drop the "so when are you going to get married?" line, even once. I guess maybe she's been following up a little on the presidential candidate platforms (or perhaps didn't want to bring up a sore subject), so we didn't really talk about that that much this morning.

Instead, Mom brought up this article from the hometown paper:

If all goes as Rabbi David Finkelstein plans, the Camp Shoresh Jewish day camp in Adamstown will become home to a moving new memorial to the victims of a tragic Jerusalem bus bombing.

Shortly before 9 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2004, a bus referred to as ‘‘Bus 19” was demolished by a 24-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber, killing 11 and wounding more than 50. The mangled wreckage of the bus was eventually shipped to the United States and toured the country with an Evangelical Christian group as a tool for understanding the realities of terrorism and to promote peace.

So let's look at what's going on here...

A 24-year-old kid blew up a bus in Jerusalem. Lots of people died. Bad, awful, very sad stuff. Lives were lost, etc, not the most uplifting stuff to talk about.

So then, rather than just dismantle the bombed out bus, some Evangelical Christian group takes the thing and brings it on tour. For, "education." I put this in quotes because I suspect the "educational" lesson they gave was not exactly the most open. Rather than try to explain why a 24 year old would chose to commit suicide (and take some innocent people down with him), instead they are they are just simplifying it all by saying, "terrorism is bad."

Well, yeah, of course terrorism is bad. But if you're going to go as far as to take a bombed out bus around with you, shouldn't you at least ask the question, "why?" Or is that too scary? It is one of those questions that doesn't have an answer at all.

I'd be curious to see what all you blog readers think of the proposed memorial. Any takers?

Why For All the New Size 14's lately?

Went shopping today. It was frustrating, as usual. I've never been the easiest person to fit. I'm just slightly over six-foot-one, have very broad shoulders, and long skinny legs. But I figured I could usually rely on there being at least one size 14 (or sometimes 16) available on the racks. Well, I was wrong.

It looks like a size 14 is now the most popular size. There is just something extremely disturbing in this for me. If I were in a land of Amazons, like northern Germany, I'd embrace this. You'll see some super-tall women in that part of the world. But American women don't seem to be particularly tall, they're just getting fatter.

Listen, fellow American women, I know how it goes. I know it's a hell of a lot easier to pick up some burgers or some tacos instead of cooking a proper dinner. I know how hard it is to find the time to exercise. Heck, I easily weigh 25 lbs more than I admit to, myself. I got to get rid of that extra gut, and I know it's going to be a long struggle.

But I am also at least seven inches taller than the average American woman. I am always going to be bigger than most of you. Always. And while I know there is a decent percentage of women who will also be short and big, that really isn't that big a number, comparatively. So drop the damned weight already. I sure as hell have to do it myself, and believe me, I'm trying. Just save the larger sizes for those of us who don't have a choice, okay? Most of you size 14s and 16s can drop into an 8 or 10 at least. Me, the only way I'm ever wearing a shirt smaller than a 14 is if it's sleeveless or if I saw off a shoulderblade.

The really cool thing about YouTube...

Is that it's got all those great new wave and post punk videos I can embed here.

Like:



and



oh wow. it's like tuning into the old WHFS (in DC) and Towson (in MD) radio stations when I was a kid...only there's so much less static....and I can see the performers.

Rising condo prices in Denver? AHAHAHAH...!

From today's Denver Post, developers are raising asking prices of downtown condos. And just why?

Koste said downtown is distinct from the rest of the metro market, where prices and sales have been dropping for months.

"It's a good place to consider investing," he said. "They're not making more downtown. They're making more suburbs and minidowntowns that are transit-oriented. But there is really only one downtown."

By this logic, rocks and soil are no longer being made (unless you live near a volcano). Better stock up fast before all that surplus dirt is gone!

For the record, if I had $450+K to spend on a living space, it wouldn't be anywhere near Denver. Bet you could still pick up a decent place in Brooklyn, Queens, or maybe in Boston for that price.

nick name change...

I think I'll start referring to myself as "mol" again.

Mol was my nickname in NYC. It started out as a name on a BBS: molbloo, after Molly Bloom from "Ulysses."

Not that many people call me that anymore. At least not in person. Except maybe my friend Peter. He's the one who decided to call me "mollybaba" (a lengthened version of it, I guess).

So anyway...yeah. Mol. I can handle that again. It's short, its suitable, it's only one syllable.

Of course to my co-workers, I'll always be Alissa. And to my family, I'll either be Alissa, Eshke, or Chatzie. It's kind of fun having this many names.

Dick Cheney doesn't care what you think..

Maybe it's a mutual thing. With the current election going on, does anyone still pay attention to the Bush administration at this point?

le sigh...

I got into a really bitter, nasty fight with my mother during our last usual Sunday morning phone call. What caused the fight? Politics. Mom likes McCain. I like Obama.

Politics and religion, actually. Mom's a neocon, loyal synagogue member, and also a lifelong member of Hadassah. Me, I'm a sworn liberal, and prefer to stay away from most organized religion. Mom is concerned that Obama, because of his Islamic middle name perhaps, will not be a friend to Israel. I get this impression that McCain doesn't know that much about Israel in the first place, anyways. And that's where the argument started, I think.

I've never been to Israel. That place just instills such mixed feelings in me. To list: There's the Israel that welcomed my Polish relatives after the War. There's the Israel that so many Orthodox girls I grew up with moved to when they were 18, to get husbands. There's the badass Israel that still gives me a little kind of triumphant chill, like when I walked pass the fortress-like El Al terminal at Newark a few years ago. And then there's the Israel that shows its darker side.

I don't know how the Neocons have managed to do this, but they've somehow made up this "Israel can do no wrong," agenda. And that's just crap, because of course people (and governments) can mess up sometimes.

The American Left and leftist publications are often the opposite. Their criticisms of the Israeli government are so scathing that it is painful to me to read them. I picked up an issue of Adbusters about a year ago, and every single article, I swear, had some nasty attack against some Israeli policy (and of course, linked all of this back up to the Jews). I used to love that magazine, and haven't read it since.

Time to read up some more on political platforms, I guess. I hate arguing with my close relatives over such silly stuff.

Best use ever for those gold lame leggings at American Apparel...

Crap, can't link on the American Apparel site. Anyways...

Technosexual

Technosexual: One Man's Tale of Robot Love

To quote from the article, "Humans are just so biological and messy...."

Could just be me, but I always thought that the "biological" part made it a lot more interesting...

Thinking of my old friend Ron today...

Who was this really beautiful gay boy, my best friend at the Strand back in NYC. He made me a mix tape, which I still have, and still listen to (like, this AM).

For all of the cruddy stuff going on in the world, there are Britpop mix tapes to make us feel better...

Anyway, Ronald Dwayne Bachman, this is for you (in whichever city or place you are now...)

What were you doing on the night the US invaded Iraq ?

I remember what I was doing.

I was at a place called Charlie Brown's, in Denver. It was the night of a big March snowstorm. The weather report predicted about 2 feet of snow, I think we ultimately got about 2 and a half. Charlie Brown's was one of the few places open that had full kitchen service.

I was eating supper with Brian and Zach, the Zach who was to pass away in a motorcycle accident a few years later. We were seated in front of this big screen TV they had there. And then George Bush's speech came on. All that I can remember of that speech was George Bush saying "Now, Iraqi citizens, don't destroy your oil wells..." And Zach and Brian and I all sort of looked at each other in disbelief. Then we ordered doubles. It was Happy Hour then, buy one drink, get one free, and that seemed to be the only thing we could do at the time.

It's 5 years later now, 4000 US soliders dead, and that line of George Bush's speech -- "Don't destroy your oil wells" -- still stays with me. Why is the US there in the first place? And now, what can we do to get ourselves out of there? It's not like the government can cut everything off and then leave. We've created such a mess....

Home Prices and Consumer Sentiment Slide

From a story in today's New York Times...

The value of single-family homes plummeted 10.7 percent in January compared to a year earlier, as measured by the Case-Shiller index, a closely watched survey of 20 major metropolitan regions.

It was the steepest year-over-year decline since the index began eight years ago, and economists said the slump was probably worse than at the height of the last housing recession in the early 1990s.

Ah hah! I knew it! Yeah, sure, there are plenty of jobs in Denver that will pay you $125k+ a year -- which is just what you need to afford one of those crappy new condos that were built around the corner from me. If you consider traditional financing, that is. Maybe I'm in the wrong industry, or am just a little too financially conservative, or something.

Glad something's finally giving in the home prices. Now drop down to what they were about in 2000, and then I can start looking. I say 2000, because that's about the level that prices should be, if you look at many housing inflation charts.

(if you're asked for a login at that above site, try bugmenot.com.)

Battle of the Random Song Titles, Part I

"Kiss Me Deadly"



From a random YouTube search. Who would've thought that Lita Ford and Billy Idol would have the same taste in song titles?



I'm kind of partial to the Billy Idol / Generation X clip. I guess I like the 70's British punk stuff better than the 80's super glam stuff. Besides, Lita Ford looks like she'd cut me, and that scares me. A little. Ok, a lot.

"How do we know that God made birds to be birds?"

"Because it's in the Bible..."

Yes, ladies and gentleman, behold....our next generation's critical thinking skills at work.

The below is an ABC news special on "biblically-correct" natural history tours. Sadly, this is not a pre-April Fool's joke.

Go Janet, Go!

From TMZ:

What the hell are the Jacksons doing now?

Looks like Janet's the only one making money.

Ah, what fame can do to you...if you're not careful with the paycheck.

Feeling poorer lately? Here are some reasons why...

Looks like lots of new economic data due out this week, including my favorite, personal spending, according to this article in the Denver Post:

The Commerce Department's personal-spending report scheduled for Friday is apt to be weak, too, but not suggestive of a plunge.

Economists have predicted that spending in February rose by 0.1 percent, incomes rose by 0.3 percent and the core personal-consumption-expenditures deflator, a key gauge of inflation, edged up 0.1 percent...

Muah hah hah. Want to see how much money you really are making? Try plugging in some numbers in this inflation calculator.

I've been making what I've considered a "real person's salary" since 2001. I've noticed as my salary has increased, I'm finding it harder to save for stuff. I've no problem placing the money aside, it just seems to take longer for those big-ticket items. Well, I know why now.

Time to finish up my Fruity Cheerios and get ready for the day. Fruity Cheerios, if you have not heard of them already, are awesome. They have more of an actual, generic "fruit" flavor than Froot Loops. And a bit less sugar, too.

So sorry I missed this!

The Daily Show's John Oliver was at Denver's Comedy Works on Friday night. Link's here. My friend Jen organized a Denver Drinking Liberally group outing to the show. In the Squarestate.net picture, she's the one directly to Oliver's right.

My crazy work schedule usually prevents me from going to such events during the week. They sure sound like a lot of fun, though.

Nearly time for me to get my butt off the couch to make lunch. Might make a turkey bolonga and cheese sandwich on rye. With spicy mustard. Yum.

Bring me the head of...oh, nevermind

On Saturday evening, I got roped into going to the local Grateful Dead bar. Okay, it's not officially called the Grateful Dead bar, but those of you who are familiar with Denver will know the place. Yeah, it's on Colfax. It's the place with the jukebox that has like 500 Grateful Dead / Widespread Panic songs on it. And maybe like, 3 token songs by Elton John or the Beatles or something just to spice up things a bit.

I don't know exactly when "Deadhead" meant "Obnoxious ill-mannered badly-dressed cheap-beer-swizzling frat boy," but that's pretty much what you'll find at this particular establishment. And of course this is magnified several times over on a weekend night.

I much prefer the below when thinking of the Grateful Dead / good old Jerry Garcia (skip ahead to 1:58):



Oh yeah, how does this fit in with food? Well, I was chatting with my friend's date, who also appeared to be rather uncomfortable in that environment. The subject of condensed milk came up. Apparently, that was one of his favorite foods (did I mention that this was my friend's blind date?). He also said that he liked coffee. I asked if he liked Vietnamese coffee. His response was ,"That watery stuff that the little Vietnamese guy makes at the donut shop? "

I enclose below my recipe for Vietnamese coffee. Of course many Vietnamese and Thai restaurants also have this, but for those times when you feel like recreating it at home...

You need:

1 stainless steel individual coffee filter. You can buy these at your local Vietnamese/Thai/Chinese market for about $3

A glass

Good ground coffee. Cafe du Monde is traditional

Boiling water

Condensed milk

Measure out about 1/2 cup of condensed milk into the glass. Put the filter on top. Put about a tablespoon or so of coffee in filter. Pour boiling water all the way up to the top of the filter. Wait for the coffee to steep through. Stir, and serve. You can also serve this over a glass of crushed ice.