262!

Last year I read 261 books. I've been keeping track on aNobii for the past few years and I have a nasty tendency to get super competitive with myself. Since I read 261 last year I've been itching to beat my record for this year. I finished reading #262 (and 263 - I was home sick) yesterday.

Book #262 also ended up being one of my favourite books of the year.

Swish: My quest to become the gayest person ever by Joel Derfner



You can read the introduction here

Here's a super cheesy trailer for Swish.



I picked up Swish because I thought it looked hilarious and shallow, which is the mood I was in a few weeks ago. I sat down with the book yesterday and it is indeed hilarious. It's also super bitchy and surprisingly poignant and wise. I highly recommend it.

Derfner is also a composer, and writing a musical about the Terezin concentration camp. Here's a really disturbing song from the musical. It's sung by a Nazi. It's called Good.

Oh, and book #261, the one that tied me with last year, was Impossible, by Nancy Werlin, a teen book that expands on the story from the folksong "Scarborough Fair".

Superfresh vs Whole Foods

Books of the Year (so far)

I've read a lot this year so far. Here are some of my favourites:


Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible by David Plotz

Coming at the bible from the perspective of someone who kinda knows the stories, but never really read it (kinda like me), Plotz goes through all the books of the bible - including ones I've never heard of before. It's a fascinating, often disturbing, look at the un-whitewashed book behind the stories I thought I knew.

The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie by Alan Bradley

The heroine of this mystery set in post-war Britain is Flavia de Luce, an eleven year old girl with a penchant for poison and a love of chemistry. When a dead body appears in the garden Flavia is intrigued, and sets out to uncover an old mystery and solve the murder. Flavia is a great character - clever and slightly sociopathic. I look forward to reading more books about her.


Addition by Toni Jordan

At first I thought this book would be a standard chick-lit romance, but it is really quite a bit more. The basic premise is that Grace, who has obsessive-compulsive disorder, meet a man who throws her out of her carefully ordered routine. The book looks at whether Grace's mental illness is part of her unique identity that should be embraced or if she should try to fix herself.


The boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba

William is a young boy living with his family in Malawi. When drought strikes the country and the crops fail, he can no longer afford to go to school. After finding a book about windmills in the library, he decides to build one for his home so they can have electricity. This is actually a fascinating book not just determination, creativity, luck, and building windmills, but of what life is like in rural Malawi. I really enjoyed it, and I also enjoyed reading William's blog and seeing what he's been doing since the events of the book.


Housekeeping Vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby, who I know better as the author of About a Boy and Slam, wrote a column for the Believer called Stuff I've Been Reading. It's pretty simple - he lists what he bought in a given month, and what he read that month. So each column is like a really interesting conversation with a friend about what they liked reading (and what they didn't), with occasional digressions into football. I ended up making a list of books that I want to read based on what Hornby said about them. There are two other collections of Stuff I've Been Reading essays by Hornby - Shakespeare wrote for money and The Polysyllabic Spree


Santa Olivia by Jaqueline Carey

Jacqueline Carey is better known for her Kushiel series (which I love). When I picked up this book I thought it was her first foray into urban fantasy. It's not. In fact, there's no fantasy in it at all. It's a book set in the near future where the US has sealed it's borders to to some sort of epidemic. Santa Olivia is a town between the border of the US and Mexico under military control. Pretty much the only way out is to win a boxing match with the governor's champion, but no one has ever accomplished that. I didn't think I'd enjoy a book about boxing, but I found myself sucked in.

The Actor And The Housewife by Shannon Hale


Famous actor meets small-town Mormon housewife, friendship ensues. It's basic romance novel premise (except they're both married to other people) but this book is an interesting take on the question of whether a man and a woman can be platonic friends (not to mention if one is hot and rich and famous and the other is not).


A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg


This is pretty much a love letter from Molly to her father, revolving around food. I adored this and it made me want to give my dad a hug. Also, there's a romance in the second half between Molly and a guy who writes her a fan letter that's really sweet. I'm planning to actually buy this book, I liked it so much.


The Housekeeper And The Professor by Yoko Ogawa


A woman is hired to be the housekeeper for a professor who suffered an accident years ago that has left him with the ability to only remember a few hours into the past. Is it possible to come to care for a person when you can never remember them? In turns heart-wrenching and beautiful.

And some series that I'm quite enjoying:
T.A. Pratt's Marla Mason books
Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega books
Joanna Bourne's Spymaster series
Kelly McCullough's WebMage series
Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series
Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series
Tanya Huff's Valor series. Actually, anything by Tanya Huff.

Fancy Dinner

My Seperated at Birth Twin and I have decided that we're going to go to a fancy/interesting/special restaurant once a month so we can expand our dining horizons and see how the richer half eats.

Our bar was set a few years ago when we went to Morimoto and had the $120 chef's choice tasting menu (omakase) for our birthdays. Holy crap, that was good. I still dream about some of the dishes we had.

A few months ago we went to Pearl, which then promptly changed concept and/or closed (it's now called Akoya). It was great. A bit pretentious, but the food was delicious.

Last night we went to James, which is a high-end local ingredients place. I loved the decor, our waiter was great, and the food was... for the most part good. I had herbed sweetbreads and my friend had sashimi, we shared a stinging nettle tortelli, and then I had the lamb and my friend had the veal. Then we shared a salt caramel semifreddo. The sweetbreads were nicely herbed but could have stood to be a bit crispier. The sashimi (which I got a bite of) was delicious and fresh. The tortelli was wonderful, it was my favourite dish of the night. The lamb, which was cooked medium rare, managed to be dry (I'm not quite sure how that's possible). On the other hand, the veal was perfectly done. The semifreddo was very nice, the perfect end to the meal. So, the food was okay leaning towards very good in my opinion. It was also extremely expensive. My portion, for an appetizer, a shared second course, an entree, and a shared dessert (none of them large dishes) came to $75. Which would have been okay, I guess, if it was amazing. But I've had better food for far less at places like Saute. Plus, we were only offered bread once during the meal, and when I got home I ended up eating a bowl of popcorn and some pineapple because I wasn't full. For the price we paid I expected to at least end up with a full belly.

So although the service was good and the place is gorgeous, my food did not measure up. I'm glad we gave it a try, but I won't be going back - if I'm going to spend that much money on that little food, it had better be knock my socks off amazing. This was just good (and the lamb just barely made it into that category).

Any suggestions for further experimentation? We'll eat pretty much anything.

Greek Feast

This weekend I decided that I wanted to cook Greek food, so I invited some friends over for Sunday dinner and started searching for recipes. I had lamb in the freezer so I decided to make souvlaki, but I wanted to try something different than the the slapdash 10-minute recipe I normally use (it's delicious by the way, I just wanted to try something different). While searching online I also ran across an interesting recipe for Dried Fig Souvlaki. It involves feta cheese, figs, sage, and prociutto. What the heck, I decided to give it a try. I was also set on making rice, but found a recipe for Greek oven roasted potatoes, and since I love those in restaurants, I wanted to see if I could make them at home.

Surprisingly, I ended up batting three for three! I decided that I don't really like the taste of fresh sage, so the fig souvlaki wasn't my favourite, but my guests seemed to really love it. The lamb was delicious and the potatoes are addictive.

I also lazy'd out and bought baba ganoush, tzatziki, and dolmades from Kamal's Middle Eastern Specialities in Reading Terminal Market. I also walked over to Cafe Fulya to pick up some of the best baklava I've had since the stuff made by the little old ladies at the Syrian Orthodox church in Sioux City, Iowa.

I'm looking forward to leftovers for dinner tonight.

I forgot to take pictures, but here are the three recipes I used:

Lamb Souvlaki (I misread the recipe while making it and used a tablespoon each of oregano and garlic instead of a teaspoon)

Dried Fig Souvlaki (I used 1/2 a sage leaf per fig because a whole leaf was far to overpowering when I tested it out first)

Oven Roasted Potatoes (I halved the recipe and it worked out just fine, with lots of leftovers(I think we were all getting pretty full))

There was also a great Greek salad courtesy of my guinea pigs...I mean dinner guests, but I don't have that recipe.

All in all, a successful evening. The only casualties were a pair of salad tongs that snapped during washing and a salad plate that I dropped in the sink and shattered.

Plus, my friends just got cable yesterday, including HBO, so I went down to their place afterward and watched the True Blood season premiere.

I think I'll try Afghani food next, or maybe Thai or Vietnamese. Guinea pigs welcome.

Things that made me smile this week

1. Spending the day on Saturday walking from flea market to flea market, going to the Italian Market Festival, and wandering down to South Philly.

2. Seeing (but not buying) an old board game called Ka-Bala.


3. Getting a sweet deal on the TCM Scene It and the Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture DVD games and a couple of the flea markets ($2 and $3 respectively). Now I need to find people willing to play them with me...

4. Gorging myself on kettle corn at the festival

5. Hanging out with the Gay Swim Team at my neighbor's house

6. Finding a great new neighborhood restaurant, Saute, and being treated to a delicious 4 course meal (fried sweetbreads, yum!)

7. Making chicken mango curry sandwiches for dinner with the most delicious mangoes of the year

8. Finding out that many of my favourite TV shows were renewed: Chuck, Dollhouse, Better off Ted, Castle

9 Getting a good deal on my flights this summer. More money for interesting food!

10. Managing to post to my blog even though Facebook and Twitter have pretty much taken over my online social life.

Joe-A-Day Part 5

Coming into the homestretch...

Episode 4 has the Eckville song!

Eckville came to national attention in 1984 when the mayor and high school teacher Jim Keegstra was charged and convicted of hate speech. I remember my dad going to see a part of the trial (either the original one or the appeal in 1990, I'm not sure).

Joe-a-Day, Part 4

Here's Episode 3 of the Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie show, which includes the immortal legend of the little beefalo and the hilarious NHL Does Shakespeare skit.

Joe-A Day, part 3

Here's episode two of the Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie show

For those of you who don't know Joe

I've been posting (and will continue to post) stuff about Joe Bird this week. I figure I should also post the lovely article in the Edmonton Journal. I feel bad because I'm on the other side of the continent and can't be at the memorial tonight, but I know that the theatre will be packed and there will be as much laughter as there are tears.

Here's the article by Liz Nicholls from the the Edmonton Journal:


Remembering Edmonton musician, actor Joe Bird
By Liz Nicholls, edmontonjournal.com April 3, 2009



EDMONTON — With the news that Joe Bird died Wednesday — felled by a heart attack at the absurdly young age of 41 — Edmonton seems a sadder, drabber, tamer, cloudier place today.

For one thing, we’re now a place where a person won’t, any time soon, catch sight of a man in a skirt, rollerblading down Whyte Avenue with two guitars and a mandolin on his back. That indelible image would be Bird — composer, musician, comic, actor, writer and free spirit — on his way to preside over open-mike gigs at O’Byrne’s Pub.

That gig, along with membership in diverse rock bands, was central to his musician’s life for the past couple of years. But Bird, the sunniest of men, spread his warmth, originality, and a certain puckish spirit of why-not? over every aspect of the entertainment scene here. And that, of course, includes theatre.

In 1985, Bird and his high school pal Wes Borg formed a theatre-sports improv team with an enigmatic name, Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie. A year later, with Paul Mather, the Trolls were revealing their signature combination of kooky and literate in sketch comedy at the Sidetrack Cafe. Cathleen Rootsaert joined, then Neil Grahn.

In the eight years that followed, before the Trolls membership again dwindled to Borg and Bird, the Trolls gave Edmonton and the Fringe Festival “the hottest tickets in town,” as Grahn puts it. “Buzz, energy, excitement.” And that gave the Trolls “a taste of what it must feel like to be rock stars, in our small, goofy theatre-troupe way.

“Actors, real theatre types, would ask, ‘What have these guys got?’ They’re idiots!’ ” says Grahn. “We couldn’t argue with them. We knew we were.” He’d first seen Bird and Borg at Yuk Yuks. He recalls being particularly struck by “the duelling banjos” routine. “It was so stupid,” he laughs approvingly. “They’d start that Deliverance thing, and end up smashing each other over the head with their guitars. … Ah, these guys I like!”

He remembers sublime Troll moments at the old Theatre Network, whose home in the ’80s was a defunct Kingdom Hall near the Coliseum. “We were doing some German expressionist dance number, Freedom. Joe had Cathleen on his shoulders, and ran right off the stage. He just drilled her head into the ground. Beautiful and tragic.”

Bird’s musician chops meant that he created many of the Trolls’ comedy songs, including the hit that landed them a six-show CBC contract: The I Hate Toronto Song, which detailed the shortcomings of everywhere in Canada, except Alberta. Bird was responsible for the Hinterland Who’s Who-type theme that included the daffy Legend of the Little Beefalo Calf and the rousing North Pole union song-gone-wrong that brought down the house in the Trolls’ seasonal collaboration with Atomic Improv in Cry Santa!

The sight of Bird as General Brock in The War of 1812, a subject sadly neglected by musical theatre both before and since, isn’t something I’m going to forget. Neither was Bird as sex-craved Joseph, singing to his pregnant virgin girlfriend, in a version of The Messiah in which the Trolls teamed with the rock band Jr. Gone Wild.

Last summer, Bird did the comedy songs for the CBC Radio initiative The Irrelevant Show, including a theme for Grahn’s “favourite bit, Radio Stunt Man. … Joe wrote this great tune, sort of Peter Gunn and Mission: Impossible.” “My God, he was a beautiful songwriter,” says Rootsaert, who left the Trolls in 1994 to pursue playwriting and acting. Both she and Grahn note the cruel irony of Bird’s comedy song We’re All Going To Die. “Joe was supposed to be killed by killer bees,” she says sadly.

“Joe greeted you, always, with a smile and a hug,” says Rootsaert. “He was also so … lively. I’ve laughed harder with him …”

Grahn, who calls Bird “an equal opportunity hugger,” concurs. “He made us laugh. He was so horribly inappropriate at times, you couldn’t help but love him. So vibrant. It’s really so shocking.”

We all agree. The old theatrical axiom about suspending disbelief was never harder.

Joe-A-Day

Here's Day 2 of my tribute to the man in the skirt (and one of my first crushes). I didn't know Joe Bird personally very well but I was a recipient of a few of his famous hugs.

The CBC aired 5 episodes of the "Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie" show back in either 1991 or 1992. I taped it at the time (off rabbit ears, even - we didn't have cable then!). It's been sitting on videotape for the last two decades or so, and I've finally converted it and uploaded it so everyone can have the Dead Troll experience. Joe's the hot one with dark hair :)

The week of Joe

In memory of Joe Bird: founding member of Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, the guy who taught me men can look hot in a skirt, musical genius, great hugger, and all-around hilarious guy.

Here's a video of Joe and Wes performing "The War of 1812" song (in the US, brave bastards). For those that don't know him, Joe's the dark haired guy on the left.

Romance

This short film made me smile.

The Great Tourist Cheesesteak Taste Test

This week my old friend J. from University is in town with the Stars on Ice tour (no, he's not a skater). I took Tuesday off work to spend the day showing him around the city.

As a tourist he could not not go to Pat's and Geno's for cheesesteak, that quintessential Philly food. But which one to choose? Thus began the Great Tourist Chessesteak Taste Test.

We got a cheesesteak with onions from bot Pat's and Geno's (American cheese from Pat's and Provolone from Geno's - it didn't look like provolone was an option at Pat's). Since it was cold out, we brought them home and began the test.















First impressions: Geno's was pretty skimpy on the meat and Pat's had far more meat and onions. The bread at Pat's was softer and the bread at Geno's had a much firmer crust.

We both agreed on the results of the taste test. While Pat's had far more stuff in the sandwich, the flavours were bland and the bread was too soft. In comparison, the steak from Geno's, although skimpy on the fillings, had a much more developed and savoury flavour and the bread had a nice amount of chewiness. It might have been the different cheeses, but the Geno's steak won hands down for flavour and texture.







































This win by Geno's is disappointing to me since Geno's is the restaurant with the disturbing sign in the window that say "This is America, When ordering speak English" I also don't like the sign that says "If you can read, thank your teacher. If you can read English, thank a marine".

But I don't have to go there again, because that's one more tourist experience crossed of my list. Locals know that to find a good cheesesteak all you have to do is head out to your local food cart.















J. went out on Thursday to a cart around 20th and Market and got a cheesesteak for $2.75 less than Tuesday night, with more stuff inside (as well as mayo, which makes it nice and juicy). His verdict was that the cart steak was better than the Tuesday night tasting steaks.

Another delicious sandwich is the Chicken Cheesesteak, which was not part of the test but my personal favourite in terms of really unhealthy Philly food that I probably shouldn't eat.

Grammar, and why it's important

Truth in Advertising

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

A walk to work

Yesterday it snowed in Philly. I think it's the most snow I've seen in years here, and the city closed the schools (of course they do that when it sprinkles, so not a big deal). My first thought when looking out my window was "Cool, I'm totally walking to work today!"



So, I put on my boots and grabbed my camera and headed out. Here's my walk to work today in pictures:

The great Dunkin Donuts/Tim Horton's Taste Test

I was back in Edmonton last week to surprise the folks (totally worked, mom was speechless. If you know my mom you know how unique that feat is). The weather was unseasonably warm for most of the trip - it was about 15 degrees warmer in Edmonton than Philadelphia until Thursday, when I finally got Canadian winter and the mercury dropped to -36 Celsius.

Anyway, some of the highlights of the trip included filling an entire suitcase with chocolates and cookies (Tim Tams, Penguins, McVitties, Viva Puffs, and Pirate cookies), seeing Slumdog Millionaire (totally not a feelgood movie, but fantastic nonetheless), hanging with old friends and colleagues, and wedding dress shopping with my sister.

Of course, I bought many many Tim Horton's Timbits to bring back with me on the plane. I brought a separate box for my roommate, but found out when I got home that she's off the sugar (horrors!) so she can't eat them. So they'll either wait in the freezer for her to get her teeth fixed, or I'll eat them myself.... I swear every time I go through the Edmonton International Airport either Customs or Security tells me that I can't take my Timbits with me and that I'll have to leave them in their care. Funny the first time, rather tedious the 10th time.

Anyways, I always get sour cream glazed Timbits (doughnut holes) because they're my all-time favourite. Today as I was walking home I popped into a Dunkin Donuts and saw that they too have sour cream doughnuts. Well, the stage for a taste test was set! I bought a doughnut and brought it home:















I then pulled my box of Timbits out of the freezer (the glazed ones freeze very well) and pulled out a couple of the sour cream glazed timbits:
















The Dunkin' Donuts doughnut looked more fried, and smelled like deep fried goodness.
The Timbits looked less crunchy and didn't really smell that much of anything.

Onwards to the testing. The DD doughnut was definitely more well-done. It had a sturdier, more rigid texture, crumblier rather than soft inside (bear in mind that I defrosted the Timbits and they were slightly warmer than the doughnut)















The Timbits had a much thinner outer crust and were not crumbly at all, they were very dense and soft inside (again, this might be due to temperature).
















Tastewise, the DD doughnut - I could taste that it was deep fried and it reminded more of a funnel cake than a sour cream doughnut in taste. It was a light taste, with not much depth and a very definite sugary finish. The Timbits had a deeper, richer taste, you could taste the sour cream and they didn't feel deep fried. They also weren't as sweet. If taste was music, I'd say the DD doughnut was a high note and the Timbits were a middle note - I was actually thinking this as I ate: light soprano versus richer contralto. Yes, I'm pretentious about my doughnut tastings.

Anyway I think I could eat a whole box of the Timbits and not feel heavy. On the other hand, after one DD doughnut I felt as if I had stuck my tongue into a vat of sugary oil.

Hands down the Tim Horton's Sour Cream Glazed Timbits reigned supreme. Too bad I can only get them in Canada (or Providence, RI). I suppose not having a steady supply of doughnuts is actually a good thing...