Favorite words

a little short on the updates this time around...


alluvial
floss [but only when used as a noun, such as "fairy floss" (the initial name for cotton candy] or used as another word for embroidery thread)
interrobang
skein

In a darkened movie theater...

In a darkened movie theater, you can't see the little sooty cloud of grumpy that hangs over my head during some trailers. But it's there. Oh, it's there.

One thing that really irks me about movie trailers: the use of scores from other movies to underpin film snippets in said trailers. Given that scores can't be completely finished until the film itself is basically in the can, I understand that the score from the new movie is probably not yet entirely complete at the time when trailers are produced and distributed. But, honestly, I don't care.

Maybe I'm extra irritated by this practice because it seems that trailers most frequently borrow from the Gladiator soundtrack - which means that a) I'm really familiar with the music so my ears pick it out very quickly and b) I smirk that another movie is trying to ride on the emotion-manipulating success of this particular score. Yes, the first time around, this score *was* pretty or rousing, depending on which of the two standard 10-second musical quotes the studio's trailer producers always seem to go for. (The pretty/ethereal/haunting themes would be drawn from either "The Wheat" near the beginning of Gladiator or "Now We Are Free," both sung by Lisa Gerrard. The rousing theme is usually extracted from "The Battle" that supports the opening Roman v. German battle-in-the-snow sequence.) I really liked this score for Gladiator (as did the Academy, not that it matters), but get over it and create some new music already. Curious what spawned this diatribe? I just saw the trailer for The Golden Compass and it includes the (you guessed it) ethereal music from "Now We Are Free" towards the end of the trailer.

Another while-I'm-on-the-subject annoyance is when a film's actual score sounds like a cheap imitation of the Gladiator score (see Kingdom of Heaven and Troy for this infraction). My irritability-meter tends to start rattling when I feel that the "Lisa Gerrard-esque vocals + action sequence = we've got the audience's emotions in a vice grip" equation got run through the take-something-kinda-cool-and-fresh-and-run-it-into-the-ground grist mill, followed swiftly by several-too-many trips around the if-it's-not-broken-don't-fix-it machine*. Blargh.

*Don't ask me what one of these looks like, although I'm curious what other people's visual would be on this.

The whole lovely day

You know those days that are unremittingly wonderful? Days when, even visiting a place you've been to before, your eyes see only beauty, serendipities fall into place, warmth and twinkle lights abound, good food fills your tummy, you don't fall down even once when you skate, kitties with kind mommies appear on public transportation, and cars part like the Red Sea on crowded expressways. Whole days when you feel not only safe, not only safe and comfortable, but safe, comfortable, and joyful. And you have no doubts about what was different about this particular visit to create that aura of magic. You are blessed and you are grateful.

Why Being A Regular is Awesome

I've frequented the same independent record seller for my entire album-purchasing life. I bought my very first cd ever there - it was Oasis, "What's the Story (Morning Glory)?" Yes, I have occasionally strayed and purchased something at a chain store (usually if it was the sort of thing that I wanted right this second and couldn't wait for a trip home), but the vast majority of my cds have been purchased right in my home town. I was feeling an urge for a new cd this weekend and I went to purchase it at this indie retailer. One of the two guys who have worked there since the store's inception (the other guy being the owner) was behind the counter as usual. They didn't have what I wanted (sort of as usual, but they're always great about ordering stuff)... but this time after a brief conversation about my attending the concert of the band in question this past week, the guy gets out from behind the counter, rummages in some boxes squirreled away under the cd tables, and produces the cd I was looking for. He hands it to me and says, "here, you can take my copy until we get in the copy that we'll order for you." I was gobsmacked.

wait, seriously?

Overheard yesterday while walking on campus: "then I'm going to some 'vie-gil' thing or whatever."
(That's "vigil" for all of us who happen to give a fig about pronunciation.)
I shake my head. I could make this into a serious discussion exploring the responsibilities of public education and the responsibilities of the individual to learn, but instead I'll just cringe.

I obsessively confirm definitions

While I usually have a good instinct when it comes to definitions, there are times when I doubt myself when prompted for exact definitions. In cases such as these, I will have a constant, background sensation akin to the "did I leave a candle burning in my apartment when I left this morning" feeling until I have accessed a reliably and suitably authoritative dictionary by which to reacquire my verbal equilibrium. The most recent case of this obsessive delving was for the verb "to gloss" (no, not in the sense of putting a shine on one's lips).

From the OED:
to gloss: to insert glosses or comments on; to comment upon, explain, interpret

Favorite Words update

aceto¹
biscuitry²
cardoon (best when uttered enthusiastically by Mario Batali, in which case the spelling would be something akin to "carDOON!!")
codswallop
cuneiform
mucilaginous
sanguine
Schenectady

I think it's nearing time for me to start a list of favorite words based on meaning and not just on words that are fun to say or hear, to roll over in the mouth like so many worry stones tumbled through one's nervously working fingers.

¹Italian for "vinegar"
²apparently not a word, but bandied about on Good Eats as though it were... and it's just a darn nice combo of sounds...

playing chicken with my fridge

So my fridge quit on me over the weekend. I'd been hearing some funny (odd) clicking last week, but didn't notice any decrease in cooling power (though perhaps the first sign of impending kaput-dom was that the paper wrapping protecting some cheese was a tiny bit soggy rather than crisp). In any case, I left the apartment on Friday and upon my late-Saturday evening return (so late on Saturday it was nearly Sunday, the day I was going to get up early to go canoeing*), I discovered that everything in my fridge was a) damp and b) thawed/soft/lukewarm. Boo. Frantic trashing/cleaning then ensued along with diligent candle-lighting, to prevent my place from smelling like a toxic sludge. I also turned the fridge off (to save power I suppose), but N.B. that's apparently not the thing to do, since it hampers problem-diagnosis once the repair guy arrives.

The fridge has since been repaired, but I was told that there's a chance it will still fritz out again (depending on if the replaced part was the actual problem or just a secondary problem). So while it's kind of nice to have a clean start with the fridge, I'm hesitant to act on my desire to fill it up with yummy foods for fear that it will have another malfunction that precipitates tossing the food out. Or I should just adopt European shopping habits: develop a robust pantry and then buy fresh stuff for each day's evening meal. This tack would, of course, be a bit simpler once the grocery store that is a 5-minute walk from my place opens up. Does kind of wreck my plans for making a big pot of chili though (recipes for vegetarian chili are still welcome!).

*side note: I still went canoeing (Kickapoo, Salt Fork... I think). The weather was grand, no one fell in, I managed not to totally screw up the steering, and we took a fairly leisurely run down the river. It was a lovely way to spend one of the last warm days of the year - and there's been mention made of attempting a canoeing+camping run at some point in the spring. Last time I went camping I was 17, accompanied by four girlfriends, had just completed the last of my high school finals, and used some of my calc notes for kindling to build the fire. Did I mention that once night fell, I was scared out of my mind that we'd be attacked by humans or non-humans or whatever it was rustling in the nearby bushes? Sleep is indeed a difficult thing when one is vulnerable and petrified.

xkcd has me pegged

This works for non-librarian bibliophiles too.

xkcd: Librarians

the universe has a slightly cruel sense of humor

What did I get for my birthday? Oh, you mean aside from a skinned knee?

I feel tempered

I can't help but wonder if this is how tempered chocolate feels: warmth and flow are spread thin and made small (albeit gently and even-handedly), mitigated by cool marble that absorbs heat...all in the name of a stronger and more stable end result, sure, but structures are still changed. And it's something like a growing pain - unsettling, dull and achy, and not quite of myself.

X-wing Kenobi Chewbacca Dantooine

Something for those of us prone to quote Star Wars films to be mindful of:

Excessive Quotation, xkcd

Incidentally, xkcd's occasional references to Star Wars make me happy.

Matt

According to the News Gazette, another piece of legislation relating to Matt's accident was passed today. This one will require that all driver's ed courses include the topic of distracted driving, effective immediately.

silly tests about reading habits

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Literate Good Citizen
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Also, don't forget to see how you perform on the Lit-Geek Purity Test! I was only 39.4% lit-geek corrupted. Sadness!

I still love hats...

In an addendum to the "I love hats" post from earlier, a look at a very nice type of hat: the Panama, which hails from Ecuador, of course.

Click here right now to see the Panama hat at rest. (Thanks to ReeD for taking such great pics...navigate around ReeD's pics and you might find some more images of the Panama hat at play.)

and a slightly younger version of me in my crusher:

Roller Coaster...woo hoo hoo hoo

Is everyone else as surprised as I am to find "The Whizzer" (the Wizz-AH!) categorized as a "Max Thrill" on the Six Flags Great America site?

Anyway, yesterday marked my very first inverted outside-looping coaster experience (on Batman The Ride). Scary great. Judging by how mentally clean I felt after that ride, I think I must really have needed that - to take a deep breath and scream a sustained scream for nearly the entire ride. Physically, I was not so great, as I was a bit wobbly afterwards since there are some funny g-forces going on (including heartline-spin-induced zero-g). That was definitely the most intimidating coaster I've ever been on and I'm frankly surprised that I was a willing participant. I'm really happy that I went with the group I went with - I wasn't made to feel badly for not wanting to do certain rides, but I was encouraged (rather than egged on or threatened) to do some rides that normally I would surely have talked myself out of.

I take the fact that I was able to step up to some biggies and enjoy them (if not relaxedly) is evidence that I apparently am my father's daughter in the aspect of roller-coasterness after all. Oddly enough though, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gone on at least one of the big scary rides yesterday if I'd been with Dad instead of the group of friends I was with. Dad probably would have indulged my pre-ride terror a little more, and the terror would have been a bit greater if I could still have had the parent-child dynamic there.

I had other things, good things, on my mind yesterday and was plenty involved in the goings-on of the day, but in the back of my mind I was so reminded of Dad since he was such a fan of coasters. He would have loved to see me taking on rides like Raging Bull (at night too!) or the craziness that was Batman and the fact that I managed to stitch together a ragged but pleased smile afterwards. A friend mentioned the rather cute hypothesis that the coasters that were running without visible passengers (empty cars used to test the track) were actually full of ghost passengers, and how nice it was that Six Flags was being considerate of its other-worldly clientele. I know the hypothesis was lobbed out there in gentle jest, I have no way of knowing if it was mentioned pointedly or just randomly, and in any case I know it's not real. But it really brought thoughts of my dad to the forefront, and I still felt a little pang, wishing quite childishly that the hypothesis could be true. If it were possible, I knew Dad would have been one of the participant shades, arms raised high, grinning his warm and happy smile down on those of us who remain on the ground. And that image made me sad, mainly because I wish I could see him exactly like that again, but it did make me a little happy too.

piano

As my fingers nimbly scale up and down the computer keyboard, as I listen to piano music over inadequate speakers, I am struck by a pang that I interpret as a wish that I had continued to take piano lessons instead of stopping after 8th grade. I cannot complain too bitterly: issues of time management and attending school out of town legitimately crowded piano out of my schedule since I prioritized ballet and volleyball and I do not regret sticking with those activities. I also wish that my piano instructor would have started to give me weighty pieces instead of crap infantile arrangements, a situation that left me frustrated and insulted, especially later on.
In the end, there's no way I'm going to buy a piano so I'm stuck this way - fantasizing while rapidly clacking on the keyboard and lamely executing whatever would be the piano equivalent of air guitar while waiting at stoplights in the car.

haircut

I'm officially soliciting comments on whether or not I should cut my hair. I'm thinking about something similar to Katie Holmes' new 'do, but not quite as short and probably a little less layered (=less choppy/piecey), much like the haircut I got last October and have since let grow out. Thoughts?
the haircut in question


3 shots of what I asked for back in October:




the resulting cut in October, likely to be similar if I cut again

Update to Favorite Word list

More Favorite Words (focusing on the sound of the word rather than the meaning)

archive
argive
capsaicin
courgette
fricative (thanks Cyril!)
gryphon
kerfuffle
knitting (but only when used in context of muscle fibers or blending meats)
lickety-split
linguistics
Ocracoke
scatological banter
scuttle
sidereal
spatchcock
sibilant
Thunder Gulch


Catch up on all the old favorite word lists

rat-a-too-ee

I saw "Ratatouille" this past weekend at the drive-in, clearly not the best venue for a Pixar film since the sharp detail is mostly if not completely lost. In spite of the less-than-ideal screening conditions, made more ideal by the fun company and the ability to BYOR (Bring Your Own Ratatouille), the warmth, heart, and romance of this film still came through. Francophiles and foodies will be charmed without a doubt, but as the Newsweek review points out, the main character's desire to strike out on his own and to excel is definitely something with which non-foodie/non-francophile Americans can identify.

I really did love this movie, and was deeply touched by it, so I'm so glad that it is being well received in the film criticism and food worlds as well.
- NYTimes review
- Chicago Trib's Metromix review
- Michael Ruhlman's blog entry mentioning Anthony Bourdain's consultancy on the film

Obvious from the trailers, but expanded on in the full-length film, was the serious crush the filmmakers had on Paris. It's easy for me to smile at the romanticized version of Paris since the city is actually able to deliver every bit of that magic, but I hope that others (in this anti-French political climate) who are not so inclined to be kissed by Paris might open up a bit and at least let the Paris of "Ratatouille" affectionately stroke their cheek.

Going into the movie, I knew enough about it to glean that it's about Remy, a rat with abilities and tastes that reach beyond those of his family. Perhaps "beyond" isn't the right word since that implies a value judgment, so let's say the tastes reach in a different direction than those of his family. I am also someone who has acutely felt the distinction between her abilities and tastes and those of her family, in a very similar pattern to Remy in "Ratatouille," to a similar result of isolation. The film's resolution of this (probably common) family dynamic is that the individual should value his or her talents and interests more than conformity with the family. I have some reservations about adopting that policy whole-heartedly, but I do think the balance between the two options should rest closer to the individual pursuits than the family. At least that would let me sleep at night once I finally make stronger moves away from home.

Aside from the encouragement to trust and develop your talents and not to allow them to be mown down like so many tall poppies, even more prominent was the theme of food (and honestly, that should be clear from the title or certainly the trailers). In the film, we are privy to the inner workings of one professional kitchen, and by the various accounts I've read (Kitchen Confidential and The Making Of A Chef come to mind) they seem to get it right (check out Ruhlman's blog to see confirmation from others associated with professional cooking).

The compelling thing, the heart of the film and what moved me the most, is the exact thesis the film presented on food. Not just flashy entertainment (what Emeril's leaned on for years), the preparation of food is so much more:
-Good cooks are talented and see the world in a different way than many of us, much like artists and writers. In the film, cooks stand in for any artist, any human who creates and whose work can be witnessed or experienced by other humans and critics alike, although I'm still wrestling with the idea of cooking as art vs. cooking as craft.
-Food, or food culture, can heal (Remy and his human pal Linguine are both isolated and dealing with loss).
-One's relationship to food can be a metaphor for one's approach to life.
-Food can be one of the strongest markers by which to recall one's past (anyone else thinking of Proust's madeleines by now?). For all the flack that "molecular gastronomy" (Surrealist cuisine, as I say) is taking, when it's done well, it intentionally makes use of that ability of food to act a wormhole in the fabric of a linear life, to remind you strongly of past experiences while ingeniously weaving in the new, current experience of ingesting whatever it is you're consuming. Old and new are thus bound, linear time dissolves, the infinite is approached.

Summer TV

Thank you USA Network for making summer TV bearable. My new favorite show: Burn Notice. The lead character, Michael Westen (played by Jeffrey Donovan) is like a mix of Daniel Craig's James Bond and Guy Pearce's Leonard in Memento. Tasty. And quirky/funny, which USA does best.

Also stepping up to the plate:
- New episodes of Psych start July 13
- New episodes of Feasting On Asphalt start August 4 (instead of edibles from Atlantic-to-Pacific, this year's episodes focus on eating whatever is to be found while tracing the length of the Mississippi)
- Simon Schama's Power of Art series formerly on the BBC, now on PBS Monday nights.
- and don't forget Rescue Me, already in progress.

Ahhhh - Geek Out!

6/19/07 addendum: starwars.com has posted the entire Robot Chicken: Star Wars Special to their video site. Check it out (click on "Humor & Pop Culture to open a list of viewing options for the Robot Chicken special) and be sure to watch for some of my favorites:
- all of the Emperor/Vader telephone conversation ("what the hell is an aluminum falcon!?")
- Admiral Ackbar cereal advertisement ("your taste buds can't repel flavor of that magnitude!")
- a blink-and-you-miss-it explanation on what (or who) Luke was really whining about picking up at Tosche Station
- Lobot dancing to Meco's disco version of the Star Wars theme
- Boba Fett taking advantage of Han's function as carbonite-encased captive audience
- and yeah, the Emperor vs. Luke "yo mama" fight was pretty funny too

[original 6/15/07 post:]
Tune your tube to Cartoon Network for Robot Chicken this Sunday at 9pm central. Why? Star Wars spoofage baby - done right and done with the blessing of George himself. Mr. Lucas even laid down voice track for his character in the show. And Mark Hamill joined in as well.

USA Today article on the episode

trailers/clips for the show on adult swim's web site

Wedding 06/02/07

Pictures from Rob & Katie's big day! click on the image if you want to inspect a larger version.



part of the Uni crew chillin between the ceremony and the reception:






yummy cake!


Uni Class of '99 represent

Don't call it Molecular Gastronomy

This article, written by some of the founding fathers of whatever they're going to call the newest direction that cuisine has taken, gives a nice definition of the movement. But they don't really indicate what they want to be called, they just spell out that they want nothing to do with the term "molecular gastronomy." I'm still waiting for some kind of naming-genesis legend à la the Impressionist movement (you know, guy names a painting Impression, soleil levant and then a critic employs the term snarkily in a review...)

Myself, I kind of like the idea of calling it Surrealist cuisine.


Statement on the "new cookery"

This salmon tastes just like rib-eye

I took a day off this week to accompany my mom to an appointment in Indy. All is well and we had a nice lunch to celebrate. I had grilled salmon at Palomino and the weird thing is it tasted like a rib-eye steak. My first thought was that maybe they had grilled the salmon on top of grill space recently occupied by steak, except that wouldn't explain why all of the salmon meat seemed so moist and infused with that rounded lipid flavor. The waitress claimed its flavor profile was due to a vermouth butter that tops the fish. So, uh, vermouth tastes like rib-eye? That's news to me... Anyway, it got me thinking.

What if I cooked a couple of rib-eyes on a grill, then trimmed off the excess perimeter fat, threw the trimmings in a saucepan and heated it up, rendering out the fat so I had a nice basting liquid of grilled rib-eye essence. I could then repeatedly swab this liquid fat onto a grilling piece of salmon. Hey, I never claimed it was healthy. But it sure would taste good. Oh, if anybody is thinking of attempting this at home - be careful when basting the salmon with liquid fat over an open flame. This could cause some serious flame flare-ups. So maybe it would be more prudent to sear the salmon off in a pan and then roast in the oven, basting while roasting. Less opportunity to lose an eyebrow.

so it goes

Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday.
NYTimes obituary

Vonnegut was one of the few authors who enjoyed a decent amount of real estate on my parents' bookshelf. Don't get me wrong, my parents had a large collection of books, it's just that the collection was comprised of many varied authors, most of whom did not have repeat appearances. I can remember being about 10 years old, sitting in our basement on the brown and orange shag carpeting, looking at all the titles written by the same person. At least two of the paperbacks had color-rimmed pages. "Slaughterhouse-Five" was turquoise-green and I think "Cat's Cradle" was red. I'm not sure if this practice of colored pages was en vogue in the book production world in the 60s and 70s or if it was just a Vonnegut thing. Regardless, it was attention-getting. So were the titles themselves. "Deadeye Dick," "Player Piano," "Welcome To The Monkey House," "Slapstick," "Galapagos." Think about it. Isn't "Galapagos" a really interesting word?

I read "Slaughterhouse-Five" in early high school. For fun, mind you, not as assigned reading. I know that I couldn't possibly have gotten as much out of reading it as I would do now, so it's one of those books that I should go back and re-read. As it stands now, I have two distinct memories from that book - the first is not worth mentioning. The second would be the repeated phrase "so it goes," as in the following passage from "Slaughterhouse-Five":

"Robert Kennedy, whose summer home is eight miles from the home I live in all year round, was shot two nights ago. He died last night. So it goes. Martin Luther King was shot a month ago. He died, too. So it goes. And every day my Government gives me a count of corpses created by military science in Vietnam. So it goes."

I give that example to provide the context of the phrase's function within "Slaughterhouse-Five," which was to take emotionally loaded situations (deaths) and reduce them to the barest of factual utterances, equivalent to "it happened, it is." It's understatement to the point of anaesthesia, very bleak and but somehow humorous at the same time. My dad, who had read so many of Vonnegut's novels, would often say "so it goes" (albeit normally in acknowledgment of events somewhat less monumental than death, though still negative) and so this formed something of my sense of the world and how to cope. Some things happen and you can get lost in the pain, but strip all of the emotional connotations and feelings away and you are left with a simple fact, a simply stated event, like saying something as neutral as "he's eating dinner." Emotional tides are more difficult to handle on a daily basis, whereas you can learn to co-exist with a fact.

The present tense of the phrase "so it goes" also helps because it implies that not only did this one event happen, but other events will happen and continue to happen. There is some forward progress implied, even if the events that will happen may continue to be of a negative nature. I suppose it's a more palatable way of saying "life goes on," which is a phrase that I can't stand. I think "so it goes" somberly acknowledges the negative nature of many of life's events. I suppose it could be taken to be flip or superficial, but knowing the context of the events that Vonnegut applied the phrase to (e.g. Kennedy and King's quick-succession assassinations) allows the reader to know it is not meant superficially. It is merely meant as a grave acknowledgment of perpetual sadness combined with the lightening effect of compressing all that sadness into one small event. Sort of like an emotional clown car.

Vonnegut's death weighs heavily on me, I think most likely because his sense of humor always reminded me of my dad's and he was someone my dad admired. I'll just leave off with a couple of quotes of Vonnegut's.

First, the fact that Vonnegut was a vocal religious skeptic adds some poignancy here:
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: 'The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.'" -- from "A Man Without A Country"

And last, keeping in mind that Vonnegut's mother killed herself and that he was an American POW encamped in Dresden during the firebombing so I believe this is to be taken ironically...wistfully at best:
"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt." (written on a picture of a headstone drawn by Vonnegut that appears in "Slaughterhouse-Five")

Do you have discerning taste?

My friend Sid posted this link earlier and I think the set-up of the social experiment is really fascinating, although the results are not surprising. Joshua Bell plays as a street performer

Rescue Me

My latest obsession:
Rescue Me. The new (fourth) season is scheduled to start up in June 2007 on FX. Until then, I'm in a DVD rental/purchase bonanza to catch up. FX is also showing re-runs in 3-episode chunks on Saturday nights, so uh, mahk ya frickin' calendahs. Denis Leary's character makes some seriously poor choices, but there is a ton of humor in the show to offset the troubled lives. Show's got a good theme song too ("C'mon c'mon" by the Von Bondies).

let it go

For the past four months or so, I have wrestled with some serious angst over the pronunciation of the word "Babel." See the former blog for a chronicle of the dictionary research developments. I've alienated friends over this (ok, well if not alienated, I've at least moderately irritated friends). I've nearly given up on uttering the word at all or even thinking it. I just mentally sort of skip over it, the synaptic equivalent of the old literary device of dashing out the majority of an offending word (B——— in this case), a strategy that used to be reserved for whitewashing blue language or to half-assedly protect the innocent by throwing a thin veil of obfuscation over the proper name in question.

My main beef with this word is that I pronounce it one way ("Bay-buhl," slight emphasis on the Bay) and other friends and certain movie-announcer guys pronounce it other ways. I automatically assumed that my particular pronunciation branded me with an indelible label of "hick" (inferiority complex still alive and well, clearly). So I fled to my dictionary references trying to justify my pronunciation, to mixed results that effectively justified not only my pronunciation but nearly everyone else's as well, much to my irritation. Then, yesterday, I got a wily idea to check if there is a regional preference of pronunciation of Babel - to determine once and for all if my pronunciation was hick-ish, or something else. I wasn't entirely worried about this mind you because I heard Cate Blanchett pronounce it my way at the Golden Globes and you can't go wrong if you're in the same league as Cate. So the first place I checked was the Oxford English Dictionary. They list my pronunciation as the only pronunciation, with the edition note that all pronunciations are British English unless otherwise noted. So. Apparently my instinct and familiar pronunciation of Babel is the British way. I can live with that. Just like I say "toasted cheese" instead of "grilled cheese," "toasted" being the British preference. It's just a family thing. And it's not like the family is fresh from England. I have some Welsh and English in the blood, but that part of the family came over several generations ago. So who knows. The bottom line is that I'm letting go of my little ball of fluster about Babel. And that should be good news for everyone.

Oh, Alinea

Look what I caught in my dragnet of foodie stalkerdom today:

During the development process for Alinea, apparently those affiliated with the restaurant tracked their progress on the forums of eGullet.org, a "society for culinary arts and letters."

Incidentally, eGullet.org is a handy web-site for those interested in food. Lots of varying topics are covered including a whole backlog of Q&A sessions with heavyweights of the food world.

Yet more favorite words

attitudinal
aviatrix
bracken
caipirinha
catachresis
chiasmus
copacetic
Delafield
examined
flibbertigibbet
gullywasher
hydrophilic
hyperphasia
Kenosha
lackadaisical
mellifluous
Okeefenokee (swamp on the Georgia-Florida border)
praeteritio
viscera
Waukesha
Wedgwood

salon.com-published eulogy for Iris Chang

I'm not sure what exactly is making me think of Iris Chang today, but I am thinking of her nevertheless. Here's an article/eulogy written for her on Salon.com that I found today.

Gentleman

I'm a fan of manners. I love and constantly refer to Emily Post's Etiquette although I won't put it on my favorite book lists for fear of looking pretentious or putting a spotlight on any faux pas I may be unwittingly committing. Here's an article that was recently posted on the Details/GQ web-site pertaining to the state of the modern gentleman.

Alinea breathes

Located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Alinea is serving up some of the best food in the nation, according to Gourmet magazine who ranked the restaurant #1 in America this past fall. Chef-Owner Grant Achatz (pronounced ACK-etz) opened Alinea in 2005 after serving as chef at Trio, in Evanston. Alinea is known for Achatz's creative food presentation and preparation (most often classified under the somewhat controversial term "molecular gastronomy") and, if you believe the reviews, the restaurant also appears to be gaining a reputation for its comfortable chairs, which come in handy for those 5-hour-long tasting menus.

Why am I so fascinated with Alinea rather than the handful of other restaurants focusing on molecular gastronomy, such as Avenues and Moto (both of Chicago) and the mother of all molecular gastronomy restaurants, Ferran Andrià's El Bulli in Spain? My curiosity was initially piqued because Alinea is situated in the one neighborhood in Chicago with which I am the most familiar. After further delving into its creation story, I learned that the restaurant is making a laudable effort to be food-centric - Alinea's décor is reported to be sleekly and chic-ly muted in order to better showcase the food, and after all, the food is why you're there. I dig that the chef-owner is bright and young (about 30 now) but does not appear to be aggressively pushing the envelope for the pushing's sake. Achatz has been well-trained by the Culinary Institute of America and by chefs who are mainstays of the restaurant scene (he worked under Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and briefly worked with Charlie Trotter). Achatz is certainly plating up cutting-edge preparations using cutting-edge technology (induction cooking surfaces, PolyScience's Anti-Griddle, and carefully calibrated water-bath machines for sous-vide methods), but he seems to want to keep the taste of the food at the front of his creative endeavor. From my reading, although Chef Achatz's supporting staff is predominantly male, the kitchen seems to be quiet and efficient, distinguished from the noisy male bravado that characterizes many a restaurant kitchen (a fact or suspicion that has given me pause when considering cooking as a career). I particularly like the fact that one of the sous chefs got a BS from the U of I - in an engineering field, no less (a far more employable degree than my own French BA). This too makes the thought of working in a kitchen more accessible to me - if a guy with an engineering degree would freely choose cooking over engineering, why should I be so hesitant? I've always been a little afraid that if I were to really pursue my interest in working in a kitchen I would be disappointed by the lack of opportunities to engage my intellect. Alinea appears to be a place where being smart would be an asset and would be a trait shared by most of the people working the line.

So I want to eat at Alinea, but perhaps more telling is the fact that I want to work at Alinea. I suppose it should trouble me that Alinea receives 50 résumés per month (with a 98% turn-down rate), but I am not discouraged. I'm just happy that a restaurant exists out there that seems to suit me and I'm happy that not all restaurant kitchens are full of attitudes that would make me uncomfortable. For now, its existence is enough. Alinea's name derivation comes from the typographical symbol that signals the beginning of a new paragraph, the beginning of a new idea. And with that understated but graceful rendering of its corner-turning outlook, as well as that very outlook itself, Alinea inspires me in that word's literal sense of "breathing into": Alinea breathes life into a dream.

A few of my favorite links for more information about Alinea:
- Alinea's page of press clippings
- Food-writer Michael Ruhlman's blog summary of his 03/04/07 interview with Grant Achatz at the Steppenwolf theater
- Chicagoist.com 03/01/07 interview with Grant Achatz
- NYTimes 02/28/07 article on the dearth of women in "molecular gastronomy" kitchens, mentioning a female chef in Alinea's kitchen
- Chicagoist.com 01/22/07 pictorial
- Metromix 08/18/05 review
- NPR's 08/14/05 interview with Grant Achatz
- random blog-type entry on one foodie's visits to Alinea, complete with pictures
- FoodTV Canada's profile of Alinea, including a link to a recipe

Success/Foiled Again

Success!: I came up with a recipe for salad dressing last night that tastes an awful lot like the vinaigrette I had in Paris.

Foiled Again!: I can't use iTunes on my computer anymore.

I shoulda been an intelligence officer: Recent events seem to indicate that I can successfully identify some related people by the shape of their hands.

Dan would Rather that you read

On Wednesday, I saw Dan Rather speak on campus. What can I say, I'm a sucker for an older guy who uses expressions like "they beat him like a rented mule" and "we used to say if a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun." Good ol' southerners with colorful vernacular.

Anyway, the first part of his speech was disappointingly standard, trite. Follow your dreams, yadda yadda.

He did say a few things that were of interest to me. When asked to comment on the current state of having (too?) many choices for sources of media content, Dan Rather said that while the internet can offer many good things and be a good tool, he still prefers to read the news. Newspapers, news magazines, etc. And he also said it's a good idea to read a book once in a while. (Amen!) In fact, he considers it part of a citizen's duty to read (about the news or whatever else). Also, he reminded the audience not to get too attached to one source of news - he recommends getting your news from multiple sources so that you're not letting yourself just hear what you want to be told so that you can hear many different viewpoints and evaluate them for yourself.

Also relevant was his encouragement to not act on fear, saying that this generation worried him because he noticed an increased tendency to respond to fear where previous generations had not. 9/11 is one obvious cause for this new response to fear and Mr. Rather offered that the response might be justified, but just be aware of people manipulating you via fear. Being a very fearful person from time to time, I could stand to take that advice.

More favorite words

Update to the favorite words listing:

Andromache
bailiwick
Brennan's (restaurant in New Orleans)
Cassiopeia
claim
Claudia (if your name means lame/crippled, at least it's a pretty name)
concerto
Danaë
Dioscuri
Galatoire's (restaurant in New Orleans)
increase
Julian
Leda
Livia
peregrine
Pléiade
provisionally
reason
umbrella pine
unconscionable
untenable

February - not so boring after all

February is usually a pretty boring month but last week was kind of a big deal on campus.

1). Men's Basketball players were involved in an alcohol-related car accident, followed by some more poor decisions. For all that I understand what a tough, pressure-cooker life that student athletes lead, I find it hard to excuse that kind of behaviour. And let's be realistic - underage students drink and drive often. And I don't give "regular" underage students any more (or less) mental slack than I would the basketball players because their impaired presence on the road is endangering my life just as much as a drunken underage athlete (or drunken middle-aged couch potato). I just suspect that there's a sense of entitlement among some student athletes, a sense that they can behave as they wish and not get reprimanded too severely because they're stars on campus and, hey, they've earned a little R&R. Perhaps they might feel they are *owed* a little R&R. I generally chafe at the thought of entitlement in most forms. The world owes you nothing, but I digress. Back to student athletes. This whole incident reminds me of an article I read in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Morality Play: A U of Idaho professor says college athletes are ethically impaired, but can be taught to think differently.

2). The University was shut down to all but essential personnel on 2/13 and 2/14 because of blizzard conditions. The official word was that plows were not able to clear sidewalks, forcing students to walk in the streets and the powers-that-be decided that was an untenable situation. Needless to say, I was non-essential, so I holed up in my bat cave since I couldn't even get out the front door on Tuesday. I used the time to come up with a recipe for lemon-ginger sorbet.

3) The whole Chief thing. See previous post. I try so hard to not get involved in arguments. That would include arguments about the Chief but I finally felt compelled to explain my reasons for my position to my mom. I think she understood.

Say goodbye to the Chief

According to the U of I's press release announcement today, the Chief's last performance at the University of Illinois will be during halftime at the last Men's Basketball home game of the 2006-07 season (February 21, 2007).

beat/beet

Random updates from the week of 2/4-2/11:

on the beat
On 2/4, I attended a seminar in Evanston, IL on the Northwestern campus that was hosted by both a senior editor and a frequently contributing writer for National Geographic Traveler magazine. One part of the seminar required the participants to put some of the morning's knowledge to immediate use by crafting our own article pitch. There were about 80 people in the seminar (mostly women by a factor of about 8:1) and I'm not sure how many people submitted pitches, but let's say it was about 35. My pitch was one of a handful that got selected by the senior editor to discuss in front of the entire group, so that was gratifying (if a tad nerve-wracking) since I've had no formal journalism training or experience. According to the senior editor, the article I pitched would have been good for a segment that was formerly contained within the magazine but that did not survive the restructuring. The editor did recommend, however, that I round-up a total of six sites that function similarly to the idea proposed and pitch the resulting article to a newspaper. Previously she and the writer had mentioned USA Today as a good newspaper to pitch to for travel-related stories, but she didn't mention a particular paper with my pitch so uh... I'm evaluating my options. At any rate, I'm working on that and I have three sites in mind right now so I guess that leaves me with three more to suss out. On top of that, I have thought of a place I'd like to review for "The Long Weekend" segment of NG Traveler.

The bottom line of the whole seminar was that I came out of it with a huge insight into the world of freelance writing for magazines, contact info for the senior editors who would review pitches for NG Traveler, and a brand spanking new edition of the NG Traveler magazine that is still not on the newsstands (the edition that happens to be the first edition of their newly updated format). I can't look at magazines in quite the same relaxed and recreational way I did before - now I see the "front-of-book" material, the "feature well," service pieces, and round-ups. I see the reverse engineering of the articles, so to speak, and I feel like I've been shown the secret workings of a magic trick but without the let-down.

beat downs
I attended my first hockey game on Friday night. The smell was awful (like a locker room left to rot)... but it was pretty fun, and surprisingly entertaining to see players get smashed up against the wall. I know that sounds terrible, but it's true. Brought back old memories of high school p.e. floor hockey too, which were glory days indeed.

beet chips
Saturday, I got what must have been the last order of beet chips at Crane Alley. Mmmm... their beet chips are tasty anyway, but they had that extra special pinch of exclusivity and because-I-have-it-you-can't-have-it.

she's got the beat
I watched some of the Grammys last night and happened to catch Christina Aguilera's performance honoring James Brown. Now, I'm no Christina Aguilera fan but her performance of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" was powerful and captivating, showy in a James Brown kind of way, but without straying into caricature. Well done.

Goal-tending 2007

Resolutions made on 02/06/07 for the year 2007:

Resolution #1: Talk to 15 people who work in fields I'm interested in, which would be publishing (copy-editing, travel writing, and food writing specifically), working as a chef, or translation (French-English/English-French).

Resolution #2: Land a job in publishing. This could even be a freelance assignment.

Resolution #3: Take at least one trip requiring the use of an airplane.

Resolution #4: Continue on the TIME magazine list of the 100 Best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.

Goal-tending (on-going project)

Resolution made on 01/12/06 for all years subsequent to 2006 until completion of goal: Read the top 100 Best Novels. Now, this resolution has changed somewhat because initially I was working from "The Modern Library" list of the 100 Best Novels published in English, compiled by Random House. I have since decided I like the TIME magazine list better. So. What did I read in 2006 from that list?
I, Claudius
Infinite Jest
Pale Fire
The Sun Also Rises

Prior to 2006, I had also read the following books appearing on that list:
Beloved
The Catcher in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings
Neuromancer
1984
Slaughterhouse-Five
Under the Volcano

Goal-tending (2006 report)

How did I fare on last year's resolutions?

Resolutions made on 01/02/06 for the year 2006:

Resolution #1: Start and maintain an online journal. The results? I did start and maintain a livejournal blog (49 entries over the course of 11 months), and then mosied on over to blogger this past November (with 12 posts in 2 months). Resolution accomplished.

Resolution #2: Submit applications to 15 jobs that interest me. The results? I applied to 2 jobs in 2006. One was a cool one in San Francisco. One was the position I currently cover. Resolution resoundingly not accomplished, but I'm okay with that since I ended up with a promotion/new job anyway. There's always 2007.

Resolution #3: Take three different trips to visit friends - must travel beyond a 50-mile radius from home to qualify as a trip. The results? In July, I managed to visit two friends in Chicago on one single trip. In August, I visited a family friend in Chicago and met up with another friend. I traveled to Crystal Lake for a the bridal shower of an old friend. Resolution accomplished.

2006 Final score: 2 out of 3. And you know what Meatloaf says: "2 out of 3 ain't bad."

Content that will pull your arms right out of their sockets

Now tell me: why is it exactly that I've never heard of this site before today??

wookieepedia

2006 Derby winner euthanized today

Sad news today for fans of horse racing: Barbaro finally had to be euthanized this morning. See this NTRA article for more details.

2006 Year-In-Review

So my 2006 Year-In-Review post is long overdue, but hey, January 2007 has been a busy month.

2006: The Year In Brief
Biggest surprise: being sent to France for work

Biggest personal achievement: 4.5-day solo vacation in Paris
Biggest professional achievement: promotion to Academic Advisor/records supervisor
New interests: David Foster Wallace's writing, UIUC Music Library, tennis
Rediscovered interest: ballet lessons
Biggest regret: not attending one of Tom Waits' concerts. I've examined my main reasons for not going and they're all complete "it's complicated" crap. No more of that in future, I should hope.
Best new media release: Tom Waits' Orphans  album.

2006: Firsts
first...attendance at a tennis match (Illini Men's Tennis vs. Notre Dame) 2/7/06
first...solo plane trip (transatlantic, no less) 6/9/06
first...trip to France 6/9/06-6/25/06
first...appearance on the cover of a newspaper: 6/12/06 (in "La Dépêche du Midi: Albi," a regional paper in France)
first...visits to the following museums: Louvre (6/21/06), Musée d'Orsay (6/23/06), Field Museum (7/29/06)
first...solo apartment

A horse of a different color

Barbaro, 2006's Derby winner who was injured out of the gate at the 2006 Preakness had recently suffered a set-back in his recovery from his injuries, but here's the latest from NTRA.

For those Wlunchers out there, I misspoke. Here, a self-correction. Barbaro is categorized as having a bay coat, not a roan as I originally said. He's not even a chestnut, which I might have been inclined to use as my second guess. Oops. I was really off my A-game today. But anyway, some other coat colors and/or breeds mentioned at lunch:

Appaloosa

Palomino (related topics: Palomino restaurant, Mr. Ed)

IV

Save the date:
June 2007: production begins
May 2008: putative release date
Maybe they're serious this time about starting production on a fourth Indiana Jones film. They've been talking about it for, what, five years now? I'm always up for more Indy - Harrison Ford being yet another one of my favorite men over the age of 55. Although it does rather muck up the symmetry of the Star Wars trilogy/Indiana Jones trilogy what with this being the *fourth* Indiana Jones film and all. In case you're wondering, the preferred term for a four-parter is a "tetralogy." Avoids the awkward Greek/Latinate mash-up of "quadrilogy."

One is silver, the other gold

Hot topic: online media sources (not to mention user-generated news sources à la cell phone footage) relegating print media to the big permanent paper shredder in the sky. This debate sort of flared up on my radar screen a while ago with eBooks. Being an avid reader, I was mortified at people's suggestion that eBooks would eventually make printed books obsolete. Over my dead body, or at least not without a fight on my part. And by fight I mean "I think I'll go on a self-soothing spending spree at bookstores to increase revenue." Anyway, my point is this: I like having printed books around me. I like them because they can be beautiful objects in and of themselves and I like them because they are a tangible record of what I've read, what my interests are, and how I've become who I am. Perhaps in the future, if printed books do become extinct and young folks don't ever have the chance to turn a page while reading a newspaper or know that special hurt-so-good wrist strain of holding up a book in bed way past their bed time, they will not miss the lack. But since I grew up turning pages rather than scrolling with a mouse, I would miss the feeling if it leaves. Pun sort of intended.

All that aside, I've become quite enamored of the online print media lately and enjoy the wider accessibility to news that I might not normally be able to obtain in print here in the rather rural-though-college-town valley between three metropolitan peaks. So. Apply a little of that "make new friends/but keep the old" adage and be on your merry way.

Five articles of interest:
• Not so fast, harbingers of print media doom:
- "'Is Print Dead? Discuss!': Why magazines are in trouble, and the Internet won't be their savior"
- Gallup Finds 44% Still Read Newspapers Daily - As Web Reliance Cools
• "Seven rules for reading the paper" (Garrison Keillor, 01.10.07)
• "Media new and old merge at CBS" (reportage from CES 2007)
• an article about 'The Economist,' that periodical on the recommended reading lists of a US State Dept/Foreign Service recruiter and also of the Monterey Institute of International Studies' Grad School of Translation and Interpretation
• "Media Guy defines the terms you'll need in 2007"

A new word

I learned a new word today, and it's a catchy one.

snickersnee: a long kind of knife

Picked up that word from the 1962 TIME review of Pale Fire.

Smile

The girls at Biaggi's


New Year's Eve




(sorry guys, I had to)

What is that thing?

Saw this bird roaming on a roof while I was traveling down Route 1. Actually first spotted the bird while it was perched in a tree, which was an unexpectedly odd sight.

By the way, it's a turkey vulture (a.k.a turkey buzzard). For a kind of funny turkey vulture story, check out David Letterman's interview of Tom Waits.

Two of my favorite men over the age of 55

I ♥ these guys.

View David Letterman's interview of Tom Waits, 11/27/06
View Tom Waits' performance on the Late Show with David Letterman, 11/27/06

NPR's Song of the Day

Tom Waits is big in Japan... and in public radio apparently.

NPR's Song of the Day, 01.02.07: "Lie To Me," off of the new album, Orphans.

Listen to NPR's piece, "Tom Waits: The Whiskey Voice Returns" on All Things Considered, 11.21.06.
Listen to NPR's piece, "Tom Waits: Rock Classics, with a Gravelly Rasp" on World Cafe, 12.15.06.
Listen to NPR's piece, "Tom Waits Fights to Stay Out of Advertising" on All Things Considered, 05.06.05