And here we go: took a bunch of pictures, made some great food, went to some great restaurants, ate some great food, spent time with some wonderful friends, quit wow, started playing wow again, watched a bunch of tv shows and movies, took more pictures, learned how to develop black and white film at home, got offered a show at a hodge-podge gallery that ended up closing a month after the offer, drank a bit too much, wrote some music, recorded some music, vowed to write and record more music, and that about covers it.
So, here we are, the weekend of 24March2012.
Friday I got to cook. I love cooking. Victoria and I are working on putting together yet another blog that will tentatively be called "Dinner for Two" and just be discussions of what was made at home (probably a recipe or something that will get the meal made) or a review of one of the places we go to. Friday, I made shrimp adobo with a saute of spinach, onions, and portabella mushrooms, and steamed rice.
First, let me say that this picture does not do the meal justice at all. Victoria has a better picture and when we start that new blog I'll let you know. But, adobo is basically something cooked in a mixture of garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, and black pepper. Lots of black pepper. (When I was a kid my mother used to make pork and chicken adobo that would cook in a big pot for about three or four hours and if you weren't careful you'd get a bite with un-cracked pepper corn which was decidedly unpleasant. I used my pepper grinder to avoid that nonsense.) Needless to say, the meal was delicious. As I am apt to do, I ate too much.
Saturday we went to the Loop and ate at Pi. I'd eaten pizza from Pi before with Benson and Mat when we were extras for that online sci-fi show. The catering style precooked and rewarmed Pi pizza was pretty good. Fresh from the oven in the restaurant was phenomenal. We went for the Western Addition (veggie pizza with... well it's the veggie one with no olives, if you ever make your way out there) in a deep dish (kind of Chicago style). I didn't realize it would take about 20 minutes when I ordered the beer I thought I'd be drinking with my meal, so it was a two Schlafly Kolsch night. But, it was so damn good. Their outdoor patio seating was full up, so we opted to sit in. Next time we'll sit outside and enjoy the Spring. After that, we killed some time on Delmar by wandering about and taking pictures. I should say that I took pictures and Victoria followed. She did let me take a picture of her near some hanging wisteria. (Victoria recently cut off all her hair... that is to say, cut it wicked short. Ok, not that short, more like there. It looks awesome.) After pictures we got in line at The Pageant and waited to see Henry Rollins do some spoken word.
Rollins hit the stage at full speed. He sprinted to the mic and in one fluent motion from charge he leaned into the audience with his fist wrapped in the mic chord (much like I'd imagine he did in the 80's when he sang for Black Flag) and began to speak. And he spoke fast. It was a veritable tirade of any and every topic he could think of concerning his previous year bounding around the world having adventures, current events, and anecdotes from his younger days. It was exhausting. He spoke non-stop for almost 3 hours and then it was done. It felt like I'd been put through a wringer and my ass fell asleep. I mean really, sitting for 3 hours on those hard chairs was rough. But his stories were like the ebb and flow of the tide. Uplifting stories about distributing soap and soccer balls to tent cities in Haiti to a story about a woman who wrote him after her son was killed in Iraq because they found some of Rollins' dvds amongst his belongings and she remembered how her son had said how his unit shared the recordings and laughed and she wanted to thank him for that. Now, it's not that I didn't expect this. I've listened to a number of his recordings and this is all par for the course. But, to experience it live was something else all together.
Sunday, botanical gardens taking pictures. Made pineapple fried rice for supper. And wrote this. Will probably develop some film. Maybe shave the beard.
We started watching Running Wilde (from one Mitch Hurwitz of Arrested Development fame). It tanked 13 episodes in... but I'm not sure what people didn't see in it. Sure, it's Arrested Development with Will Arnett, David Cross, and none of the rest of the cast. Sure, it has a narrator. Sure, it utilizes a lot of the inside jokes from Arrested Development ("Come on." "Don't say that." "I'm freezing my Blue Man Group off." etc.) as well as nods to shows some of the actors were in. Some reviewers think that it's too much Will Arnett. It's not all bad. Maybe I'm just pretending that Michael and George Michael and Lucille and all the rest are just patiently waiting off screen for their parts.
Meh, either way, new episodes of Arrested in 2013. I'll drink to that.
BTW. Thanks for the kick in the ass, Benson.
