The sunrise was very pretty this morning.
It is really nice to have several trees outside my office windows. There was a squirrel outside my window for a long time this afternoon. Perhaps it was enjoying the slightly warmer weather or at least the sun which has been in short supply this month.
At some point it appeared to have gotten sleepy and was taking a nap - with one eye open.
The call went out to find a good home for the C.J. Chenier ticket that I couldn't use and someone bit. Now I just had to get the ticket to him. A rendezvous point was chosen: Rogue's Gallery. They were having a little soiree last Friday called "The Heart Show".
It wasn't long after I arrived and that I found the gentleman who was going to get to see C.J. Chenier and handed over the ticket. He was standing near a woman who is (was?) a friend of my wife's whom I knew a little. We exchanged hello's and she promptly walked over to another group of people. I hoped that she hadn't been taken in by my wife's recent malicious tales which were either confabulations or slander. Hopefully the former. Later, as I was walking by her, she made a friendly comment.
I didn't and still don't know what to make of our encounters. While I do not know this woman well, I have always liked her and feel like we have gotten along over the years. Hopefully this was just a bout of social awkwardness compelled by my divorce and that there is no malice involved. Certainly not from me. This woman is a very interesting lady.
It's possible that she is no longer friends with my wife, which would be very sad. I spoke with another woman over the winter who told me that she is now an ex-friend of my Frau's and that she, my noch-Frau, has cut off ties with many of her now former friends.
Ach!
Divorce sucks. I am looking forward to these awkward first encounters since the divorce to be over.
One encounter which was not awkward that night was with Erika Koivunen, metal artist extraordinaire. She does some fine work with scrap metal and an arc welder or whatever device she uses. It was lovely to make eye contact with her and to be greeted by name with a smile.
Erika showed me her area in the workshop. Piles of rusty bicycle gears and sad looking flatware sat next to finished pieces such as this one which is part of a series.
Baba Yaga is one of her latest themes. Erika showed me some metallic mushrooms to go with these pieces. I think I am going to buy one once I have space for it in my living room.
Ere long Erika had to go mingle some more and I bid her adieu. It was wonderful to see her and trash talk her brother behind his back as we hadn't done so in a while.
I didn't linger at the soiree too long. But, wanting to support the local arts, I did buy a couple prints by Leah MacLeod.
This one is called Cantica of Deep Time.
I love the shades of blue used here. Plus pretty ladies are always nice. And it's a neat surreal scene of handless clocks floating like buoys in the open water. I am unsure what the whales up top above the arch are meant to represent or make the viewer contemplate.
You know I had to get the one with the cat.
It's called Indigo Sky and I again love the shades of blue. And there's a cat. Did I mention that yet? I envision this feline as being the familiar of a witchy lady who perhaps directs her orisons to the moon. Or bathes in the power of the moon to devise cantrips that would make the cat less naughty.
It was a fairly brief night out but fun nonetheless. I was happy that I kept the prints from getting bent on the bus ride home and they now look mighty nice on my refrigerator door.
The run up to Lent is for many a time of drinking, overeating, partying, and some low-level mayhem. For me, it had until recently consisted of eating pączki and lamenting that none of them had prune filling. But last week I went to The Bur Oak to see Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas. I didn't recall ever hearing them before the concert but it's Zydeco - what more do you need?
It turned out to be the loudest show I've ever heard at The Bur Oak and it was great! As expected, there was lots of accordion-led booty-shakin' goodness with an occasional slower bluesy number.
I sat in front of the guitarist and he was a hoot, hoppin' around, making faces, and simply putting on a good show as he played some mean rhythms and soloed his heart out.
Nathan, who reminded us that he was from the land where the crawfish have soul and the gators have the blues, came down into the audience a couple times.
Not only did he play a mean squeeze box but the guy put on a show.
His band seemed to be having fun with smiles all around and they played their hearts out. The guy on washboard was rockin'!
While I snagged a ticket for C.J. Chenier's show at the Atwood Music Hall earlier this week, I was unable to keep the Zydeco ball rolling as I had another engagement that I had to attend. At least I was able to find someone to take my ticket. It was depressing because Chenier was here a couple years back to play at La Fete de Marquette but he got rained out so I was excited to finally see him play.
Here's some video I shot that night at The Bur Oak:
Last fall I had a close encounter with a woodpecker. I posted a photo then but have finally gotten around to putting a short video clip up at Youtube.
I was recently given this fine, capacious D&D themed mug by a friend of mine. I have yet to use it but suspect it will be overflowing with tasty beer ere long.
Why yes there is a 20-sided die embedded in it.
Piper had to have her eyes examined last week and she was, as usual when she is ripped from the safety of her home, scared.
Thankfully her peepers were in good working order. Her eye exams are now going to be annual instead of bi-annual.
Seen before a screening of Dracula.
I thought Dracula was fun. Not a classic but not terrible. A divergence from the novel, I am told since I've never read it. Dracula was sympathetic and driven by his love for his lady. Christoph Waltz is a priest in the X-Files division of the Vatican. Some of his dialogue felt stilted at times but I liked his character because he was driven to do what needed to be done.
Like I said, good fun but not a great movie.
Marcus showed about 33% fewer trailers than AMC generally does.
I was appalled to find out that there is a He-Man movie on the horizon. Is this a lure for nostalgic GenXers?
I think that trailers filled with laudatory quotes portend a lousy movie. I feel ambivalent about this one as I suspect I'd appreciate the creepiness but there were too many jump scares (and quotes).
Red band!
Back in December I was in Chicago where I went to the Christkindlmarkt downtown. While there I ate at Goddess and the Baker where I bought some coffee - Dibs. "Dibs" is the practice of putting chairs, orange cones, or whatever it takes to reserve a parking spot out on the street and it is also Goddess and the Baker's special winter blend.
My cup here had an oily sheen. Dirty cup? Or the from the lighter roasted beans? My understanding is that the more you roast coffee, the more the oils are leeched out.
It was tasty stuff. Roasty, a bit earthy, and with a nice level of bitterness.
As a fan of The Young Ones I've always assumed that the flashes of found footage was a send up of the notion of subliminal messaging or just goofy gag.
That's from "Bambi", a.k.a. - the University Challenge episode.
Now I learn that these images were part of a running gag that was meant to have a payoff at the end of the show but that it was nixed by bureaucrats.
So the flash frames were never intended to be just a random piece of nonsense. They were meant as a running gag throughout the six episodes, which cumulated in a punchline...All of which meant that when “Summer Holiday” was broadcast on the 19th June 1984, it was shorn of its intended flash frame, and the punchline to the whole joke.
I think JoAnne Pow!ers has been at every screening I've been at this year. It is not clear if this says anything about me or her.
These were the trailers at a screening of The Testament of Ann Lee which was excellent. I loved both kinds of musical numbers - the ones that gave exposition and the ones that were liturgical. The latter were quite effective in creating an ecstatic atmosphere and giving a sense of the characters' religious fervor. There were a couple scenes where I felt it would have been neat if the movie had let worshiping continue longer and more had been done with Mother Ann's visions. It would have been nice to have had a bit more that takes place outside the normal, workaday world.
While watching the credits I was pleasantly surprised to see that Amanda Seyfried did her own singing or most of it, anyway. The music was wonderful and I am curious to know how much of it was authentic Shaker music or at least based upon such songs.
An excellent flick.
The evening began with a commercial for the Metropolitan Opera. The show is Cinderella and it noted that it had a running time of 90 minutes and was in English so you don't have to be a sophisto to watch it.
Next was another commercial for Winter Olympics coverage at the cinema.
We then got a trailer for Dreams but it was not banded presumably because it had not been reviewed by the MPAA. Jessica Chastain has is a cougar here - a long way from Mrs. O'Brien.
Jessica Chastain & Neve Campbell flicks? Are middle-aged women having a moment at the cinema?
I am hoping to see The Odyssey on film in Indianapolis while I'm at Gencon.
More older Fraus.
Seen before a screening of No Other Choice.
This was a commercial and not a proper trailer.
This was a red band trailer.
Seen at a screening of Hamnet.
A commercial for the Olympic games followed.
Jay Farrar continues channeling Woody Guthrie in a new song called "These Days Have No Shame". Also, Son Volt will be on tour later this year.
When I went to the liquor store last weekend I noticed that Lakefront is not messing around when it comes to helles bocks. They had a couple on offer.
Have they brewed the honey bock before? I cannot recall. It was just nice to see a brace of bocks to push back against the 8 gillion IPAs.
I see that they have also resurrected Snake Chaser.
I recently received a couple handmade cards. Aren't they lovely?
They're from my eldest stepson and his fiancée. Last summer they moved to Albuquerque but have been having a hard go of things. And so I worry about them.
Soon, well, soonish, I'll be heading to New Mexico to visit them. It will be wonderful to see them again and to check out the Southwest, taste Albuquerquean beer, sample hot sauces, and just see what there is to see.
Look at my new hat!
My youngest stepson knitted it for me. He is a very talented fellow.
But he too is having problems that make me worry about him.
I will do what it is in my powers to do.
Listen and dance to polkas (and waltzes, & schottisches) at The Bur Oak on 22 February! Oh, and drink some beer too.
A pen leaked in my pen holder thingy so I spent some time this morning cleaning up the mess. The result was...
...and they also will have black fingers and black tongues!
Seen at a tavern.
It's Grabby!
Isn't she lovely? It's a metal print and so it has this glossy finish and it looks wonderful in my living room.
My bread machine keeps churning out the staff of life unabated.
A loaf of herb bread turned out well.
The recipe called for tarragon but I had none so I threw in rosemary instead.
I don't dislike tarragon, but I prefer rosemary. Tarragon has an anise/licorice thing to it which is not my favorite whereas rosemary is more like mint. The brot made for some tasty sandwiches at a friend's place.
Most recently I tried my hand at challah.
It turned out well except I misread the recipe and attempted to decorate the top of the loaf with poppy seed at the wrong time. Oops.
I was pleased with how it turned out beyond a paucity of poppy. Light, fluffy. Eggy. This stuff makes some fine toast.
Earlier this month I got the craving for Italian food. I suspect I just didn't get enough at my Italian uncle's home over Christmas. A stop at the Willy Street Coop yielded some smoked mozzerella tortelloni from RP's Pasta. Next I made a trek to Fraboni's as I had a hankering for their XX hot sausage.
It had been a while since I'd had their sausage as my wife doesn't care for it. The grind is too coarse for her taste. Fair enough. Now that I am no longer cooking for her, I indulged myself. Also, I bought a quart of their marinara and voila! It was a fairly quick and easy dinner.
While at Fraboni's it was brought to my attention that they now offer Mystery Sausage Coils.
Who knows what lurks in the heart of mystery sausages? The Fraboni knows...
When dining out, it's been Mexican lately.
It had been a while since I'd been to El Pastor. The fajitas were fine. Grilled jalapenos are da bomb.
Is there a 12-step program for choco-flan addiction?
I love this stuff!
More recently I ate at Enrique's Market for the first time. It features a small selection of groceries, including a brand of salt & vinegar potato chips that I'd never encountered, as well as a kitchen offering a smattering of Mexican staples.
My asada torta was simple yet very delicious.
I really like Enrique's. The food was good, the staff friendly, and it had a wholly unpretentious, hole-in-the-wall vibe that I adore. It's a neighborhood joint, not a Michelin starred destination for the well-heeled. As Douglas MacArthur once said, I shall return.
My new book arrived.
It's a neat tome and has an entry per day so I can get a microdose of nature every morning to start my day.
Here's Piper this afternoon catching some rays on my clean comforter.
Finally, here's a shot of the rain from a morning earlier this week. I eschewed the auto settings which brighten everything into unreality.
My Yasmin Williams CD has arrived. Since I bought it from her directly, she autographed it.
I am looking forward to seeing her this spring at the Stoughton Opera House.
