The Nose on the Vacancy Sign

Love of mine, someday you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark

No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark

If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
And illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me
"Son, fear is the heart of love."
So I never went back

If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
And illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now
It's nothing to cry about
Cause we'll hold each other soon
The blackest of rooms

If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
And illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark
Then I'll follow you into the dark

Ben Gibbard - Death Cab for Cutie

I like this song and it has been in my head for a while now, so I thought I would share it. I like thinking of a nose on a vacancy sign too, illuminated or not.

March came in like a lion and went out like a lamb-fed lion.

(The area left after a pass from a mower)

I began my day of birth with The Pretender from Jackson Browne. At work I got a nice happy birthday Kevlar? balloon, a card with quippy comments, and a Dairy Queen ice cream cake with my name on it. I also made my rhubarb cream cake on Monday night and brought that too. After work I got a call from my mother wherein she recounted the day before my birth. WARNING: more frank terms about birth coming up. Apparently her water broke about 36 hours before I finally crowned. After I was born though, they had pizza and ice cream. I was born at home with midwives. This has caused problems with my birth certificate, which is why I don't have a passport.

Anyway, after our chat, I went to DaVinci's for my free pasta and pop. Then I went to Ivanna Cone, because Pauline recommended it, and had cinnamon, Dutch chocolate, and Pauline's favorite, toasted coconut (it isn't my favorite, but I couldn't pass it up for her sake). After ice cream, I went to Underworld: Evolution at Starship 9. I thought it was better than the first one, which is tough for sequels, and achieved its purpose. Sure the romance is a bit undeveloped, and the immortals are dying left and also left. But it has Derek Jacobi, a regular of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare troupe playing both King Claudius in Hamlet and Caesar Claudius in the BBC mini-series. There is also a great sex scene, in that the actors are fairly modest (it doesn't even show the dimples below the nape of the back) but still manages to be erotic and passionate.

When I got back home, I realized my Netflix queue is prophetic, or predeterministic. On Fuse (usta be called Much Music--Canada's answer to MTV), they were showing Pink Floyd's The Wall, which was number one in my queue. Then toward the end of that Taps (the first of two films [the other being The Falcon and the Snowman] with both Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn, whose birthdays are August 16, 1960 and Aug. 17 1960 respectively) which was number two in my queue. So I was able to watch both of those, taking me to about 3 in the morning, but worth it because I could take them off my list and get others instead.

John and my sister each called with birthday wishes while I was gone. John before I got home and Marcy when I was at the film video deal.

"Caught between the longing for love and the struggle for the legal tender."

"Bobby thumbed a diesel down."

I woke before 7 AM. Went to Piedmont after watching Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson on VH1's Storytellers, Johnny even sang some Hank Williams for a bit, very Holy Trinity of Country Music. There was a nice moment when a string on Trigger broke, so Johnny lent his guitar to Willie. As Willie was playing around, growing accustomed to the new instrument while the string was being replaced, Johnny said,"That's the first time it's been played." Then I took a nap before helping Ellen move a chest of nothing, no drawers. Watched George Mason an 11 seed beat the number 1 seed UCONN. Shopped for some clothes. Ran 6 miles at about an 8 minute pace. Ate supper at Bennigan's, and bought time, movies and hangers at Wal-Mart. Now I'm sharing my day with an online community.

On the way back home from Piedmont along Capitol Parkway, I saw a man in a red coat watching a robin. It is now officially Spring. At Bennigan's, I had a martini, perfect, for the first time. I had a Manhattan at Dish before, but this was my first normal martini with some olives. I was thinking a quality description of a woman would be that she is the olive juice in the martini of life.

Now I'll watch some Adult Swim, Minoriteam, Morel Orel and whatnot.

Miercoles

Friday driving back from the Racquet Club, I caught Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re on the radio. I even took out my pen so I could write their name down on a piece of paper so I wouldn't forget them. KRNU was playing "Tea Time Ska." You can go their MySpace page here. I love the blend of death and hello kitty. I hope they make you as happy as they made me.

In less than eight hours, I will be partaking in what is becoming a birthday tradition, Pathfinder Pancake Breakfast at Piedmont. My first one was with Angela. That was really a very wonderful birthday. I'll share more in a couple days about it.

Namaste

That word came into my head inexplicably yesterday morning. I like it though, kind of a spiritual aloha.

Last night I was taking a flyer from one percent productions off my dash and noticed that Rocky Votolato was performing at Knickerbockers. Ellen had mentioned she liked him, so I downloaded him and liked him too. The concert was fun and Damien Jurado was fine too. J. Tillerman was fine, just not too creative or energetic.

Namaste

The Given

Wendy, as the only contestant, wins the Proof Is In The Pudding Contest[Editor's Note: A request was made for bread pudding recipes in the March 13 post titled The Proof?]. Thankfully, it was a worthy entry regardless of the competition. I will give some props to John though, from whom I asked for some "coaching." My recommendations to improve my execution would be to use fresh, not freezer burnt, rhubarb (I wish I would have used my strawberries instead; the cranberries I added were a nice touch though.) and more cinnamon, partly because I increased the recipe a bit because of my bread. I used an entire loaf of French bread, the eight slices was a bit too ambiguous. I suggest staling and cubing enough to fill your dish and then adjust accordingly. Bytheby, I made it last night, not Sunday like I said I was gonna, but I did go running on Sunday; I cut it from 5 or 6 to 3.5 miles because I wasn't feeling it.

Tonight though, I ran 4 miles. It was wonderful because I had a nice high from running. This was good, because normally after a more stressful day of work I drown my anxiety in a pint of Hagen-Daas Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream (or one of ale). I'm glad that I can now use running as a respite instead of a burden.

Happy Birthday Angela! A nice hug to you. (I know that I'm a bit late.)

Giuseppi Garibaldi

He, I suppose, ties together my latest activities. Thursday night was the Sesostris Shriner's Circus at Pershing. Pershing was a general right? The shriners are also known for their red hats, and Garibaldi's i Mille wore red shirts. The circus was attended with Scott, Sergey, Ellen, and Kayla (whose idea it was in the place of first). The best part of the circus was the dog and pony show. The chimps and their compony were fun too. I was disappointed that none of the human circus performers were crushed, mauled, or fell from Such Great Heights.

Friday I watched Saint Ralph. I really liked it, 4 outta 5 stars. It was a good faith movie and a good running movie, and a good coming of age movie (bildungsroman), all things I think I could use.

Saturday, I went to V for Vendetta. I suppose my favorite things about the film were Natalie Portman, the set, and the costumes. I will be rating it on Netflix soon and I don't know whether to give it three stars (liked it) or two stars (didn't like it). I want to give it two anda half stars. I think it is about a 64%. Entertaining enough but never really succeeding in any particular area. It does have some fun British actors, the head guy from Absolute Power and other British TV shows. And those familiar with Extras will recognize both of the gay BBC network guys from the last episode. In a casting director's irony, John Hurt plays the Fascist high chancellor. He was the protagonist in the film 1984. A lot of critics who don't like the film are knocking it for promoting terrorism. It should be so lucky as to actually put forth an argument for anything. Even those critics that liked it agree that it dilutes (and deludes for that matter) itself by trying on too many ideas. The result is that none are fleshed out. V at one point says that you cannot kill him because you cannot kill an idea. He was wrong.

Saturday evening was Office Space, which is an understated if not dry comedy. Today is sleeping in, blogging, maybe running, and definitely bread pudding baking. Thank you Wendy for your submission; you get bonus points for the rhubarb.

Giuseppi ties into V because he was quite the revolutionary (and I believe V had a statue of Garibaldi in his lair), Office Space because Milton has a Garibaldi red Swingline stapler, and bread pudding because of the Garibaldi biscuit, the precursor to our pop tart.

Kiss Me I'm Irish

One leaf for fame, one leaf for wealth, one leaf for a faithful lover, and one leaf to bring glorious health.

Victoria Wegrzyn

Be. Wear.

The Ides of March.

The fifteenth is also the Ides of May, July and October. The 13th is the Ides of the other months. There are also the Nones which are the 7ths of March, May, July, and October, and the 5th of the others. The first of each month is Kalends.

Asdrubal Groschel

"In the Marmalade Forest . . .

between the Make-Believe Trees in a cottage cheese cottage lives Albi (Albi), Albi, Albi, Albi the Racist Dragon.

Part Six:

So all the angry villagers chased Albi into a very cold, very scary cave, and it was so cold and scary in there that Albi began to cry, dragon tears (which as we all know turn into jelly beans). Anyway, at that moment he felt a tiny little hand rest upon his tail, and he turned around, and who should it be but the badly burnt Albanian boy from the day before.

"What are you doing here? I thought I killed you," grumbled Albi, quite racistly.

"No Albi, you did not kill me. However you left me very severely disfigured and scarred," laughed the boy. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm crying because all of the villagers chased me into this horrible cave. I think it's because I'm so racist."

"No Albi, it isn't because of your racism that they chased you here. They chased me here too when I became disfigured. It's because they don't like you and I because we're different to them."

And SUDDENLY Albi wasn't racist anymore.

So they sat in their cave and ate bubble gum pie. Yum!

Albi the Racist (well, not anymore) Dragon."

This is from a musical comedy group from New Zealand called Flight of the Conchords. One member is now doing commercials for Outback Steakhouse.

The Proof?

They say the proof is in the pudding. I am wondering who has the best bread pudding recipe. I will then proof it in my kitchen. I got some French bread tonight specifically to stale and then put in my bread pudding. So this is kinda a casting call for some quality recipes.

Bean Season

Yesterday offically marked the beginning of bean bag season. That is because my apartment (me, Scott, and Sergey) played bean bags. I've still got it, but some humidity would help to keep the bags on the board.

Tonight is a concert at Sokol with Of Montreal.

On the running front: I finished my first 13 miles Tuesday. It took me a week. Hopefully two months from now, it will take considerably less time (it might be tough dodging traffic). Today, I'll try a longer run, 5 or 6 miles.

Bernie Taupin

Movies I've Seen Since Starting This Blog

The Longest Yard (Adam Sandler version), A History of Violence - Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Ed Harris, Me and You and Everyone We Know - Miranda July, John Hawkes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, King Kong, The Chronic (what) les of Narnia, Walk the Line, Jarhead, The Aristocrats, Syriana, Capote, Final Cut - Jude Law, The Final Cut - Robin Williams, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, 40-Year-Old Virgin, Breaking the Waves, Stripes, All the Real Girls, Chopper, Thumbsucker, Chungking Express, The Five Obstructions, Broken Flowers, In the Mood for Love, After Life, The Comedians of Comedy, Songcatcher, Benny and Joon, Wall Street, Belle du Jour, 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, The Exorcist, The Importance of Being Earnest, Apres Vous, Old Boy, Schultze Gets the Blues, Crash, Easter Parade, The Jolson Story, 13 Conversations about One Thing, The Man Who Would Be King, Bottle Rocket, Royal Deceit, Panic, The Cooler, Mephisto, Assisted Living, Legends of the Fall, Sleepers, Owning Mahoney, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Happiness, Scratch, Word Wars, The Hustler, Six Degrees of Separation, Finding Neverland, The Girl from Monday, Kagemusha, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Ed Wood, Serpico, Donnie Brasco, Glory Road, Donnie Darko, Curious George, Match Point, Jesus is Magic, Hostel, Fun with Dick and Jane, Munich, Punch-Drunk Love, Harold and Maude, Sons of Provo, 2046, The Agronomist, Transamerica, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Domino, The Corpse Bride, Kicking and Screaming, Lord of War, Memoirs of a Geisha

This is about 82 movies. I'm sure there are some I forgot, but the point I'm making is that I spent too much time and money on films. I consume merely to consume, and often take nothing from the experience and lose time in the process. Let us say each movie was 90 minutes, those 83 films translates to more than five straight days. Granted this is over a period of seven months. On second thought, I'm using my time perfectly well. On with the shew.

Todd Schissler

Condiment Kitschen

Today during lunch walking back from Dairy Queen with my chocolate Reese's peanut butter cup and Heath blizzard, I stopped at Urban Villa and Gourmet (amazingly enough that link was the only result on a "quoted" Google search of the store name). As the pop-up picture reveals, the store offers only condiments and sauces; sure there are canned tomatoes or olives or onions or asparagus, but only for hors d'ouvres. Even the kitchenware they sell is "condiments," accessories that are more form than function. This boutique brought to mind a scene from Fight Club [Editor's note: After a brief review of the film, the line "How embarassing, a house full of condiments and no food." is uttered when he is looking at his fridge that has been blown out of his apartment with the rest of his belongings.], when the Narrator gets home and looks in his fridge making a witty comment about condiments and their reflection on ones life.

I am malicious because I am miserable. ... If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundred and a hundred fold (words of Frankenstein monster).

-Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author
(1797-1851)

Not Any Other Name Would Smell So Sweet

Stelinger Guillet. Kassimier Haynes. Retelny Larios.

Quiz Show Part Deux

The question is: What condiment is uniquely served at Long John Silver?

"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: This is the ideal life." -- Mark Twain

Quiz Show

A: Malt Vinegar. What is the question?

$5.15 Plus a Penny from a Tip Jar

equals two movies and a tasty dish of ice cream. Don't see Hostel. Watch Fun with Dick and Jane. Try the green tea ice cream at Ivanna Cone. Never pass up the vanilla bean. Post 100. I'm out.

Daniel Murauskas' Day Off

I'm taking the day off from work, because I can and because I won't have the opportunity 'til the end of May.

I got up and had lunch at Thai Garden. I got my hair cut for the first time in a great while. Then I went to Ivanna Cone, talked to the proprietor, and enjoyed a dish of green tea and spiced chocolate. Hopefully by the end of day, I'll have cleaned my room, done my taxes and laundry, and watched a movie or two. I really should work out too.

Nary comes from "ne'er a."

PS I haven't killed anyone that I know.

Maunday, Maunday. Can't Trust that Day.

In order to follow FCC laws about educational content, I'll share what I learned this evening.

Yesterday, which I called Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras, is also Shrove Tuesday and Pancake Tuesday or Pancake Day. It is the last two in Great Britain. This is because people needed to use up their milk and eggs, which were also part of the Lenten fast. This is the reason IHOP offers free short stacks on that day. In Ireland, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain, the traditional pancake is thinner and served with powdered sugar and a fresh squirt of lemon juice. In Sweden they eat a pastry called a semla, paczki in Poland (it is Fat Thursday in Poland), and berliner in Germany.

Maunday Thursday is the Thursday before Good Friday. "Maunday" comes from mandatum from the Latin phrase for "a new commandment I give unto you," which Jesus apparently said the evening that he washed the disciples' feet.

I mentioned foie gras earlier. The pristine pineapple of civilization, Egypt, first fattened geese for consumption with hieroglyphs depicting people holding geese by the neck with a table full of pellets next to them. The first or only surviving Roman cookbook talks about the "fig liver" of the goose (because the goose was fattened with dried figs). This Latin word for fig lives on as the source of the word for liver in French, Spanish and Italian. This is the first mention of the goose liver specifically. Then it fell out of consciousness with the fall of Rome. But thankfully, the Jews continued the tradition and brought it with them north from Israel. This was a convenient grease for the Jews who couldn't use dairy butter with meat, or lard from pigs. Renaissance gormands knew the place to go for the delicacy was the Jewish ghettos. A chef for the German nobles wrote Kuchbuch which mentions two to three pound goose livers.

If it is the first of the month for you: Rabbit Rabbit. If it is the second, which is more likely: Aardvark Aardvark.