Sunday, April 29, 2007

Birthday Goodness plus pizza pies

Let’s continue with a theme and get back to run-of-the-mill posts once I put down this blasted centrifuge and write some.  Meantime I’ve had a nice “rolling” birthday and wanted to make special notice of the following birthday goodies:
* Gifties and remembrances from many very thoughtful people - those of you who visit here, thanks!  It’s never a party without you!
* Tani Sushi: Yes, they managed to get another exceptional place to eat - not just in my neighborhood, but actually closer than any other option to date, just directly across Geary.  The sushi is so over-loaded that it’s effectively a big slab of sushi followed by a big slab of sashami - double your fun.  The fish was flawless (though I did have some problems with my nigiri falling apart); standouts include the smoked salmon, succulent and tongue-pungent, and the delightfully hamish Richmond Roll - crab, eel and avocado with four colors (!) of tomiko.  Tani sushi: Not cheap, but a bargain. A fitting sentiment for my birthday, I think. 
* Schubert’s Mango Mousse cake: with the requisite chocolate flowers, white chocolate “happy birthday” plaque, white and milk chocolate zebra sticks, leopared-skin milk chocolate ribbon, and of course two lucky raspberries, atop a layer of mango jelly that floats above a thick bed of creamy, almost fluffy mango mousse that rests on a think layer of delicate white cake.  I held myself to about one-third of it that night, but only because I’d actually overeaten to the point of physical discomfort.  And it gave me certain ideas about breakfast.

Plus, of course, we were partying with bananamonkey.  It’s always good to party with bananamonkey.

And that’s a solid birthday celebration right there for ya.  Maybe a little too solid, but not really.  Moral: Sometimes too much of a good thing is a-okay.  Which is probably why I decided not to memorialize my actual dining-out-with-babysitter whoo-hoo birthday feast, up at the Buckeye.  I will admit that it included maker’s mark and a Marin Manhattan with vanilla-infused bourbon and kirschcherries, and of course we had some of those killer roasted artichokes, and some excellent brussel sprouts and bacon gratin that paired well with mac-n-ham-n-cheese, and an astonishing seared scallop rissotto, and a nice big slab of ribeye, saison farmhouse on tap, madiera (m’dear), something like an ice cream sundae, and something else very much like pineapple upside-down cake with house-made vanillabean ice cream and caramel sauce.  Or something like that.  No, I left the camera behind for all of that so you’re spared the indignity of my crapulence. 

However, I did also recently very very much enjoy some pizza that was sent to me by a pair of evil geniuses who will remain nameless lest they be pestered with requests to do for others what they recently did for me: sent me pizza.  And not any pizza - special super-good pizza from Danny Boy’s in Cleveland.  I did, however, promise them photographic evidence of the enjoyment of said pizza, so here it is.  The box, for starters, was freaking huge - I had to put it in the fridge at work and carry it home with me on the bus, so everybody got to wonder what dangers lurked in my plain cardboard wrapper.  Well soon enough the mysteries were revealed: boxes! No, that doesn’t seem intense enough.  Let’s try again: boxes! Yeah, that’s more what it was like.  And here’s a whirlwind tour of my pizza odyssey: here is what they looked like out of the box (foil’s alien-repelling powers are accentuated in this photograph; antique bottleopener added for scale).  Here, on the other hand, is what the pizzas looked like out of the foil.  Now, for the first one, I must admit, we ate it rather quickly.  I only remembered to take a photo of it when this was all that was left of it.  But believe me, it was tasty.  The second one, it was a bit more to handle.  After we baked it at 325 for about 25 minutes, it came out of the oven looking like this, and a couple of slices on my plate looked like this.  You might ask me if I shared it with zach, but honestly, no, we didn’t.  That first chicken parm pizza didn’t last long enough, and the bridgeport buffalo with the yellow peppers and ranch dressing and taco chips and breaded chicken fingers… friends, that’s no pizza for a child.  I could barely handle it myself.  My friends - you know who you are - thank you, from the bottom of my cholesterol-clogged heart.  That was a really momentous couple of pizzas.

And I think that’s about all we need to say about this for now.  Enjoy monday.  I’ll see if I can come up with something diverting for midweek.  We’ve just finished allocations, which means the world to me, but to you it’s mostly about how I might get a bit of writing done again - instead of just slorping down the calories and taking photos of it, god knows we’ve had enough of that for a while now.... 

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

this one really snuck up on me

39
40
41
42

and yesterday I realized I had barely 24 hours to write a new one.  hell, Jack Bauer can save the free world in less time than that, if you deduct for the commercial breaks.  which brings us to today:

numbered primal, one per POTUS
kick my heinie through my scrotus
wondering if this is really what it means to be alive
optimistic within reason
for all things there is a season
but unclear which one i’m facing now - to sleep or stoup or strive
with potential i’m exploding
is that kierkegaard i’m quoting
i’ll be finished in a minute - can i have some “me” time please
locked and loaded, laser-guided
i will find it if you hide it
and incite a minor riot when i throw away the keys
no one asks me if i’m legal
emperor’s both nude and regal
streaking past the crenellations till they stick me in an urn
give me light and i’ll reflect it
from the dark side i’ve defected
look away or you’ll be blinded by a genius that can burn
deep fried, half baked, hard boiled
in these fields i have toiled
till exhausted fingers falter and i drop my pedigree
let it lie where it has landed
it’s more perfect than i planned it
but for now that must suffice us for today i’m 43!

have a good one, people.  somebody should. 

Monday, April 23, 2007

The Listening Party, and Other Caramelized Nibs

Saturday night was the long-awaited Listening Party.  I drove out to darkest Berkeley where a colleague had set up his dining room with a big mixing board, four huge speakers (two huge in size, two huge in sound), and all the input you could desire: digital, cassette deck, and turntable.  The five of us each had about 45 minutes of music from which to select, and we listened for about four hours.  It was a lot of fun.  We didn’t try to max out the speakers, either – we listened with volume, but not excessive volume.  I was surprised at how much better vinyl sounds than I expected it to, and it was interesting to see where everybody’s musical tastes took them.  I had a handful of oldies and boldies, but I wasn’t able to play several of them for technical reasons (i.e. I am an idiot) and we ran out of time for several others.  I guess that means that I heard more of other people’s music than they heard of mine, which made it a successful educational experience for me.  Add in the excellent bourbon-soaked steaks, five wines and four bars of chocolate, and it was a damn fine evening all around. 

This evening I go to Oakland to retrieve my lost notebook, which was recovered somewhere on BART and is being held for me at 12th Street.  I am delighted and very excited to be back in position to do a little scrivening.  Meantime I can tell you, I rented Zardoz and watched as much of it as I could last night (I dropped off a few times but I don’t think it really made a difference).  Zardoz is a movie that takes itself seriously - so you don’t have to.  Other than giving me a few ideas for “casual Fridays” at work, I don’t know what this movie is telling me.  I do know that it’s about as weird as it could possibly be.  Plus, they kept saying the word “penis.” Logan’s Run vs Land of the Lost.  Makes Dr Who seem high-budget.  The dvd should come with its own peyote.  If you want to know more about it, I’m really not sure what I could tell you. 

Finally, I got my 11x14 reprint of this photo from shutterfly today.  It’ll fit a nice frame we’ve got stashed away.  It’s fun to see my little pix all blowed up big like this.  I mean, not in a “Blow Up” way.  No existentialism or murders or live segments of the Yardbirds or any of that sort of thing.  That I noticed. 

The listening party playlist and other details are in the extended entry.  More - from the recovered notebook - soon!