Ὅσον ζῇς, φαίνου,
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ·
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν,
τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.”

“While you live, shine
Don't suffer anything at all;
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll”

Song of Seikilos, oldest surviving complete musical composition, somewhere between 200BC-100BC.

I've spent a surprising amount of time researching music for NaNoWriMo this year - hours one day looking into wax cylinders and variants, how they worked and how they sounded and the sort of music that was put on them. Hours another day looking into music from ancient Greece, the instruments and lyrics and actual sound of the songs. The Song of Seikilos is short enough, and sweet enough, that I decided to teach it to myself - I occasionally forget a word or two here and there, but after repeating it 4783902 times, I finally got it down. (It's a tough melody, to our current music system... plus, obviously, I knew no Greek prior to this.)

The words to Seikilos really struck me on first reading - while there are older tunes, and more eerie melodies, this one seemed... oddly accessible, actually. The words could have as easily been written today. The song isn't a long list of the attributes of deities, or hero's praise... just a short, sweet little thing. Brief enough that I could have a character sing it in my story, and then I realized how struck by it another character would be, and with as light and happy as the song could be, it would make a really nice scene.

I'm happily surprised by how much joy has worked its way into the novel this year. I hadn't planned for Mephisto to be happy much at all, really, and here he is absolutely rapturous. (Definitely going to have to re-build the scene where it all falls apart - it's nowhere near epic enough anymore!)

...anyway, point of all this being. I've been listening to a set of U2 outtakes (mainly "Mercy", obsessively), and singing Song of Seikilos. "Love puts the blue back in my eye, love will come again...", "while you live, shine", and it's had me all warm and fuzzy and safe and happy, despite the occasional bouts of drama around.

Next post (which I'm not allowed to write until AFTER I get my wordcount in for the day! I shouldn't have done this post either, but, it got longer as I wrote), will be the story of our Thanksgiving trip to NC - and the fact that I am now engaged.

^________________________^

(...honestly? I just felt there HAD to be a buffer here. My last post, I was so angry at Tom! So frustrated and $^#*@(*! and upset, leading up to the trip. Trip itself went fine, and became really lovely, and then I got proposed to and could barely speak for an hour. Bit of an extreme.)

Labels: life in general, music, nanowrimo, reference, writing

 
Music nerd folks! Check out In C Remixed. If you're familiar with the Official Classic Piece "In C" (aka, the song where each instrument is given a bar or two to play over and over, at whatever tempo and durations you feel like), you, like me, will find this a much pleasanter sounding way to ingest the random beauty of the thing. If you're not familiar with it, the remixes are still pretty gorgeous. Make sure to snag the free download of "Zinc" by Zoe Keating. I like it so much that I nosed around to find her album, and put it on my wishlist.

In other news, Tom left for his trip to North Carolina to visit his dad and grandma this morning. We ran through a checklist before he left: phone, phone charger, laptop, laptop charger, shower stuff, deodorant, clothes. I gave him a stack of change for tolls, an ice-cold bottle of water, and some... well, they're rice cakes, only not-rice cakes. Kamut, stuck together with agave nectar. (Yes, I habitually buy even-healthier versions of health food. But these are freaking delicious.)

Fifteen minutes later, there's a frantic pounding on my front door.

"Give me keys to my car! - I locked my keys in the car when I went to get gas - someone was nice enough to give me a ride back - but I didn't have your phone number because my phone was in the car too - I need keys."

Laughing, I disentangled my set of car keys from my ring, and gave to him. He sped back out again. I posted this on twitter, and continued my morning internetting.

Ten minutes later, I hear the back screen door swing open, and speedwalking clunking footsteps. "NOW what'd you forget???" "Shut up! Headphones! ... ... ...stop laughing at me!"

I'm still giggling, an hour later - though I do really hope he's actually on his way now. ;) He's always such an insane control freak about traveling (as noted in a previous post about hotel reservations), and I'm always the spazz who suddenly remembers things as soon as we pull out. This is such a lovely little bit of "HA! YOU DO IT TOO!" bwahaha.

Labels: music, product whoring, silliness, storytime, travel

 
Jonsi, from Sigur Rós, did a thing on NPR a few months back, I'm just listening to it now. He recently released a solo album, and he sings in English, and it caught me really off-guard but I'm in love all over again. Also, I could listen to him talk forever, there's such a soft, sweet quality in the Icelandic accent. Lovelove. (Also - he putzes around listening to the oldest vinyl he can find. The 1905 recording of the last castrati singer that they played was not, in fact, new to me.)

AND.

At the end of the interview, they were going to play a song. And he said the artist's name (which I can't recall)... and then: "This is a song... I don't know how to say this. D-I-N---"
"Dinah."

A) It was at least a month after I discovered them that I learned how to pronounce Sigur Rós. B) I have spent countless quarter-hour bouts since trying to get comfortable pronouncing (and spelling!) song titles like Svefn-g-englar and Viðrar vel til Lofstarasa. C) We're not even going to go into how long it just took me to get the silly ð character typed.

And Jonsi couldn't figure out how to pronounce "Dinah".

<3

Labels: music, sigur ros, spazz

 
Uploaded this for Katie, but also for anyone else who would like:

U2 - Angel Too Tied to the Ground

oh Bono. <3 title. Though really, it's Adam and Edge who are standouts on this track. Gorgeous bassline (a la New Year's Day), and the prettiest little icy piano runs.

It's an outtake from the War sessions, and I have to say it's about time they started putting these things out. ;p I knew it would happen eventually, and I know there is a MASSIVE, massive stash of perfectly beautiful songs in U2's studio stash. On top of all the half-finished things they have laying around.

And I want to hear it all. XD But really! I do. I absolutely love the rough cuts of things, hearing songs come up out of nothing. I forget what it was on (probably Making of JT video), but I remember listening to part of the session where they found a song, must've been Running to Stand Still, or maybe Exit. And it was just amazing to listen to, the evolution of these songs, from the first glimmer to the final product, and the thousand variations in between...

Uuuunfortunately for me and all the other people out there who are psycho-fans enough to want to listen to this stuff... it's been released in the money-grubbing way. Remaster an album, add a bonus disc of b-sides and unreleased goodies, and throw in a booklet with "never before seen" photos and someone's essay.

...I will admit, U2 did it right, for going that route. Edge babysat on the remastering process (which I am still so freaking happy about). The essay in the War booklet is from Niall Stokes, who's followed and written about them ever since forever. They included "Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop)", which was one of the most obscure tracks ever (and in fact used to be my benchmark for how serious a U2 fan someone was, lmao), and a song even *I* had never heard.

What surprised me though, looking at War and Unfire at Best Buy yesterday... was just how many of the songs I already had. Yes there are four mixes of NYD and three of Two Hearts...but I totally had them already. From NAPSTER, mind-bogglingly enough. Everything else, I have on VINYL. (Well, Mom did. And she bequeathed. Hooray for parents!)

I HATE that I had to buy War again. I already had it on cd. I have it on cassette. I have it on vinyl. And now I have it on cd *again*. I'm almost enough an audiophile to care that it's remastered. (Okay maybe I am. sigh.)

I WANT. A collection of cds. Hell, I'll take mp3s at a high bitrate, or flac or ogg or whatever floats your boat. I want a big massive stack of JUST UNRELEASED THINGS. You can throw in some b-sides for fun, though after two Best Of's that had bside discs, and all these re-releases, I think that's a major copout.

I will pay! Significantly! For all those outtakes collecting dust around Larry's house. I would love them! I would love them SO much more if I didn't have to sift through all the re-re-re-re-re-released packaging that's currently around them! If all I'm getting from each re-released album is ONE track that I never had... you really couldn't offer a single disc of all those ten or eleven tracks? Really?

I understand full well that your average consumer, your casual fan, wouldn't buy an album of outtakes that are - holy crap - almost thirty years old. But they might just buy a collector-y looking item with a pretty case and extras. So you get the average joe to plunk down $30 instead of $15 or so. Congrats. I would have paid the $30 for a SINGLE disc, if you'd put a good 20, 25 tracks on it. And honestly, I think U2 has a big enough fanbase for that to be a viable thing. I stood with an AWFUL lot of people on the streets of NYC at 6am for an 8pm concert, and we talked to them about a mutual online buddy who can tell you just how many times a U2 concert has EVER opened with "Gloria".


...I did not mean for this to be a giant mega-rant. It honestly didn't pain me to plunk down the money for this thing, and I'm sure I'll eventually get around to the rest of them. I have a hell of a boxed thing for the Joshua Tree re-release. I have... let's see. "Boy": cassette (Mom's original US release), cassette (I bought in Italy, with the original cover art), CD, LP (original US release, I think, a friend bought me at a garage sale), LP (super-pretty re-release with original cover art that Mom bought me). And I will get a re-release CD because I am *absolutely* obsessed with babyU2. (I cannot wait for the day when I can buy an official, pretty, cleaned-up-audio, version of "Street Missions" and "The Fool".)

I am, in fact, the target audience for this shit, and I will, in fact, gobble it right up. damnit.


Which is why I uploaded the song online for all of you - if the $30 is spread among a little gift for a handful of people, it's not so bad. ;)

Labels: griping, music, U2 spazz

 
So... if you buy a digital music album.

Where do you go to find the liner notes?



I just bought the Hope for Haiti Now album on iTunes, and I was listening to the track with Bono and Edge, and I was curious as to who was drumming. Because in places it sounded like Larry. I pulled up the file info...and there's nothing more than the main four artists. I poked around online to the places selling it - nada. There's no listing of production credits or any of the other usual goodies.

That is going to really, really bother me, if music is (as is likely) going totally digital. I love reading through the liner notes, being all happy when a favorite band has the same producer as another favorite band (Coldplay and U2 share Eno, Guster and U2 shared Steve Lillywhite...I'm such a nerd), or when I spot names I recognize in the U2 thank you blurbs (yay Gavin!). Bad enough that album art has become the size of an lj icon, and with less importance. ick ick ick. There goes my dream job...

p.s. If you're a U2-spazz like me and were willing to buy an entire album just for some new Bono listening.. he sings back-up to Rihanna and you can hardly hear him. Doesn't even get a little verse of his own in the live version, which is by far the better. booo. Fortunately, there is a plethora of pretty sparkley Edgeguitar...and the song itself isn't bad in general. ;)

Labels: griping, music, U2 spazz

 
Superbowl food menu:
- Pepperoni pizza from Blasdell, because Tom was starving.
- Chicken Wings by Tom - started out with a recipe, but he decided to wing the ingredient amounts. Largely bbq sauce and honey, everything in the slow cooker. meat LITERALLY fell off the bones. absolutely delicious.
- Chicken and Peach Wontons - because I'm a sucker for wontons, and wanted something a little different. These were pretty delicious, a little heavier filling than I'm used to, but very good. Tom wasn't keen on, but that was okay. Frying in a giant pot instead of a giant pan = win.
- Sausage Jalapeno Poppers - Halved this one, and glad I did, since it ended up being just Tom and I for Superbowl-watching. These would have been better if I'd broiled or something for a few minutes, and gotten more of the grease off the bacon. Filling wasn't quite as awesome as anticipated, but these were still good. Wearing plastic gloves while hacking up pappers = win.
- Smoky Cheese Ball - It was an *insanely* close call for Tom, which food was best, the cheese or the wings. The wings won only because it was football food. This silly thing is DELICIOUS. And huge. Made it with smoked gouda, coated with pecans, and it's all so sweet and creamy, and was ridiculously simple to make. I don't know why I thought it would be difficult, but, holy cow, it's awesome. And despite the fact that Tom keeps eating chunks of it at a time, totally bypassing crackers, we'll still be eating it for a week.
- Drinks were some Smirnoff ice and Coke + vanilla rum and Coke + lemon vodka.

Unfortunately, I wound up with a migraine not far into the evening (I blame the bad light in the basement at work, where I'd spent six and a half hours that day), so I didn't get to enjoy everything a whole lot. It didn't get bad until a little ways into the game, so I still got to munch and things, and keeping a hot cornbag on my head and neck meant I got to stay around and enjoy somewhat at least.

~ ~

What else is new...

I made a giant batch of chili (based on the classic BHG cookbook's recipe, but with spices according to my own tastes - smoked paprika for the win!) a week or two ago, and Tom had to admit that good food CAN come out of a slow-cooker. (He was a little traumatized when his mom got obsessive with hers for awhile during his childhood.)

~ ~

We have been SUPER-cleaning. I had one of my totally arbitrary breakdowns a few weeks ago, and couldn't deal with the mess in the apartment. So Tom proposed the reasonable plan of tackling a different little section every day that we could. That worked wonders. We had a day off together, and went to freaking town around the couch. The result? I'll have a picture later because I'm obsessively happy - WE HAVE A BOOKSHELF!!!!! I had books sitting in crates and boxes alllll down the living room wall, and it was madness. WalMart is awesome for cheap furniture, so $45 got us a bookshelf that is taller than I am, *and* a littler one to hold movies. It's so exciting. Only trouble is...our books don't all fit lmao. Tom has ONE shelf. His mega-box of Star Wars books is a project for another time. There are like two shelves of all my antique books. One shelf has my giant U2 books and old textbooks and things. One has other random stuff. There's a smaller bookshelf (like three, four feet high.. the kind of thing that's all most people need) that holds a lot of my other random books, and a little freestanding thing that I discovered I can put things back-to-back, and hold both my manga and often-reread things like Madeline L'Engle, The Dark is Rising, etc. There is also a crate upstairs of Choose Your Own Adventure books and other things that I'm not sure count as real books.

We have a buttload of books. I cannot wait to own a house, so I can have a library. If we have this many when we're still semi-poor recently-college-kids...

Side note: Our movies didn't all fit either. One shelf for me, one shelf for Tom, one shelf for vhs. The vhs (almost all mine) are arranged two-deep. The other shelves have a bit of space, since I put the four seasons of Futurama and assorted amounts of seasons of Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, Monkees, Jem, etc., on top of the bookshelf. We actually physically own a lot more movies than I think either of us realized.. we honestly don't buy all that many right now. (And yet, we own Road Warrior on Bluray. sigh.)

On another media-note: Tom was unaware that my whole little rubbermaid cabinet is filled with cassette tapes. It's probably best that he's also unaware of just how many records I have stashed back home somewhere. The three-and-a-half towers of cds terrify him enough.

~ ~

Books! I finally got around to reading Mel's story, since she sent me a .txt which I could put on the Kindle. While that may have contributed to it feeling like a real book to me...it's also pretty amazing. You will say I am biased, and I might well be, but it honestly sucked me right in. Couldn't put the silly thing down whenever I picked it up. I'm going to help her super-edit and fix some random wording issues, but, I'm so freaking proud that my little sister wrote the thing. If I'd bought the thing at a bookstore (once an editor fixed the "its" issue!), and paid money for it, I would have been happy to have it on my bookshelf. :)

~ ~

Katie and Jane came down to visit.. a week ago? ish? It was really great to see them, it had been way longer than I'd realized. They both seem to be doing really well, which makes me happy. :)

In other social news, Tom and I went to a party at DJ's, and got to feel all special... because DJ wound up spending most of his time talking to the two of us. Like Tom's ego needs any more inflation lol. But it was interesting... since Tom only knew one or two other people, and I didn't know anyone, we people-watched, and it was amazing how well Tom could analyze peoples' relationships. For as much as he claims to dislike people in general, he's insanely good at understanding them. His and DJ's readings can be a liiiittle bit off when they're looking at the other gender, but, well, that's where I came in. It all reminded me so much of those days back in junior high, high school, where we'd sit around Elizabeth's basement and "psychoanalyze" every boy we even remotely had crushes on. <3

~ ~

Still crocheting. Made my first money from it!!! woo!!! My coworker Luke requested a giant rainbow scarf, which I was more than happy to make. :) Finally nearly done with the hat I'm making for Sue Mac - she saw mine and loved it, so we picked out some colors to match her coat, and it's looking awesome. I love having the knowledge to make things work for people - like, Luke just wanted bright colors. So I picked out some yarn that was cheap but also wool, and made sure he didn't mind not being able to throw it in the washing machine. Mac, meanwhile, knew she wanted machine-washable, and when I showed her some color swatches in my trusty Knit Picks catalog, she totally picked out the exact colors I'd been thinking for her. :)

I am also semi-working-on slippers for Tom, at long last. I have a much-worn copy of "The Happy Hooker", which was my very first crochet book, a gift from Shannon. In it, there is a pattern that she actually wrote, for adult-size fuzzy bunny slippers. They're adorable. More importantly, I actually totally understand their construction, and could figure out how to make them man-sized. I pestered Shannon about the yarn (the book calls for expensive yarn, which I was not going to waste on boy-feet; turns out, Shannon originally used cheap yarn, yay!). A trip to WalMart turned up Lion Brand's Hometown USA, which is actually a super-bulky yarn. It is HUGE. And very cushy. And acrylic, so I can wash them without having to handle things that have been on boy-feet. This yarn is SO much bigger than what the pattern uses, that I ended up not having to increase the size at all - I'm just working with a way bigger yarn, way bigger hook, and actually leaving off a row or two here and there, and voila! Big enough for Tom!

Also, super-bulky yarn? Works up SO. FREAKING. FAST. In like half an hour, an hour, I had the sole of a slipper done, and that's including time spent waiting for Tom to reach a stopping-point in his game so I could compare my giant oval of yarn to his foot.

~ ~

I need to shower. And probably do laundry. I'm so not motivated to go out into the cold. I got through most of my taxes today, and finished Mel's story, that's some accomplishment for the day... If I'm really ambitious, you may start seeing all the photos I have taken since I last plugged the camera into my computer. That appears to have been April or May.

Labels: apartment, being social, books, cooking, crochet, family, friends, life in general, movies, music, writing

 
Oh, Sigur Rós, I forgot how easily you make me cry...

Flipping through a few songs on shuffle on the iPod, I landed on a live version of "Viðrar vel til loftárása" (which, hey! I still spelled right on the first try! but I don't know the codes for special characters on linux...), a concert I downloaded ages ago but had never listened to.

It starts out so light and sweet, there's a long silence before the piano gently comes in... a verse or two is played, a sweet purity in the song, and then the band goes silent. For a long, long time. The crowd stays silent, then applauds, then is silent...

And the band suddenly flies into the second portion of the song, the part where everything opens up and expands, the strings rush in like waves on the shore, and everything just soars up into the stars...

And then it closes with just a few strings, gently playing, as a lullaby.


...I sat there for a few minutes afterward, tears in my eyes, asking myself how people had found themselves able to applaud, to yell approval, when all I could do was sit here stunned and breathless, crying at the sheer ecstatic beauty of the song.


I haven't watched the video in a few years, and it's stunning, so heartbreaking and haunting... and I need to go watch it again now.

(And then I'll churn out today's 1,667 words. promise.)

Labels: art, music, sigur ros

 
*The military junta running Myanmar (despite a democratic party being elected, oh, a decade or two ago) is trying to put Aung San Suu Kyi into prison. Again. Send an email via Amnesty.


- In other news, Tom and I made a day-trip up to Buffalo, and saw the Star Trek movie. It is AWESOME. Whether you're a Star Trek person or no, it is quite enjoyable. The character continuity is phenomenal, the characters shown in the movie are so perfectly younger (and thus more volatile) versions of everybody. Tom wants to watch it again just so he can memorize more of the "Scotty-isms". It's a wonderfully fresh take on the whole Star Trek universe, and it's been a long time since we've seen that, and god is it great to see. At the same time though, there are still elements to tie it to the previous things - the style of the music, the way certain shots are set up, the vaguely-plausible science, the same cross-screen linear lens flares... Also, the whole intro-bit where Kirk is born, made me cry. Star Trek doesn't usually do that. It was pretty awesome.

- I was going to post a picture of the dress I bought, but I can't find one. Least-painful dress shopping I have ever managed - once I, uh, actually *found* the dress-section in Macy's, the first dress I spotted was the one I ended up with. It's really simple and un-fussy, but very cute and very me. Olive green with dark brown trim, and this intricate geometric pattern in dark brown on the green. And I found shoes to match nearly as quickly! This was all still too long a process for Tom ("Wait... you're not going to try that on, are you?"), but he is a boy and doesn't understand these things. (Though he did luck out, I only went into the dressing room once, since there was a freaking line. The one I tried on was just a *bit* too small, and I could tell going a size up would be perfect, so I just snagged and bought.)

- We also bought more tea! And it is DELICIOUS. Samurai Chai Maté - *awesome*. We love the Maté Vana they sell, and this is similar, but with a slight citrus twist, instead of the more chocolate-nut flavor of Vana. We're finding that herbal teas are too weak, we're tea-wimps and need something with some... depth? to it, something with the substance that coffee and hot chocolate and things have. The two maté teas we've had totally fit the bill. I also got a rooibos chai, which I think is delicious, though Tom's not so keen on. But the boy is freaking adorable - mostly, the tea is my thing, inasmuch as I'm the one who knows how to make it right, and am more interested in reading through all the descriptions and picking things out and whatnot. But Tom wanted to be in on it too, so he made me spreadsheets with allll the different teas they offer (with hyperlinks to the corresponding webpage), and columns for us to rate and put in comments. We are actually kind of considering their Tea of the Month thing - though it seems a little pricey, it actually averages out pretty nicely, given how expensive some of the teas are. Plus, it would be shipped to us. And a good way to sample different things. I'm also considering getting one of their travel tea mugs, so I can have tea at work on days when I'm feeling icky. (Heating a paper cup of water in the microwave and dropping a teabag in feels pretty sacrilegious even to me - and doesn't taste a tenth as nice.)

- It would appear - so far - to be a calmer week at work, which is good. I have a big pile of paperwork still, but I'm waiting for people to send photos on most, and none of them need done before June. (I have most of the layouts done already anyway.) The princess banner, I've been poking at on and off for like a week or two. I made a freaking awesome tiara, but, it doesn't fit into the space I need it to very well, so I'm kind of butchering it now. I may have gotten a layout that works today, but, we'll see what I think of it tomorrow. I am also feeling better after talking with the other girl who does banners the other day. Chad showed her how to use the giant laminator and the cutting machine, both of which I am not at ALL comfortable handling on my own. She, on the other hand, said she'd rather do that kind of thing than the designing. "YES! We are going to ROCK IT this summer!" I'm really enjoying the designing lately, I've got a good handle on our fonts, and every now and again I get a new and interesting idea about how to set things up. Plus I somehow manage to come up with decent graphics under the gun, which is a great feeling. :)

- I am, however, going to lose my temper with a couple of employees in the near future. I got pretty exasperated with one girl today (she was the THIRD interruption while I was on my dinner break - BREAK, people, that means I AM NOT WORKING), and while it's not entirely her fault she doesn't know how to use the fax machine...it still kind of *is* her fault, because the main reason she hasn't been shown is because everyone knows it's pointless because we'll have to show her AGAIN every freaking time she goes to do one. x_____X

- This Tamir Trilogy I'm listening to? Is freaking awesome. This is the kind of fantasy I like - there are no elves dwarves ditzy knights and corseted princesses with swords and really, REALLY cliché storylines. It's a fully-realized world, with believable magic, and believable people who get trapped by circumstances and political machinations and unsought destiny. In some ways, it's like the Earthsea stuff, only more accessible - the oooonly time I felt overwhelmed by weird names and references to things not explained was in the first ten minutes of the first book. That didn't last long. The characters are believable and people you care about. There are some seriously strong emotions all through it. Very vivid ghosts and spirits. And playing with gender roles! Fantastic stuff. I'm halfway through the second book, and it is damned hard to press pause. The writing style is seamless, I haven't even thought about it in awhile, which is a very good sign.

- I just realized what the little silver round thing on the floor is. It's my computer's power button. I have no idea how that fell off, and if I try to put it back on I'm going to turn my computer off. damnit.

- Food! I have made some awesome food again. I fiiiinally made it to the organic food store in town. Dad came down to visit...a week ago? and we actually made a fantastic afternoon of it, going to the organic store, and down by the pier in Dunkirk, checked out the gift shop on the Boardwalk strip that went in last year (allll locally produced goodies! yay!), and had a really nice time. It made me happy. :) Anyway, I FOUND AMARANTH FLOUR!!! So I finally got to make the ginger-amaranth shortbread I've had on my list since Christmas, and it is delicious. (WAY ginger-intensive, which's fine by me.) The flour has a really rich nutty flavor, I'm looking forward to making more with it. I also found several types of seaweed and other odd goodies, and! Tom and I made a trip back a few days later to pick up REAL WASABI. (Well, 45% real wasabi anyway. Which's a vast improvement on the 0% real wasabi in eeeevery other jar of wasabi we've ever found.)

- So, yesterday, I made up a big delicious casserole for the week (Ground Turkey Noodle Bake, which is far more like lasagna than it looks - just throw in more spices and more mozzarella than called for), and then I made us a dinner. I don't usually do more than one dish, since there's just the two of us, but this time I had a gut instinct that a few things on my list would go nicely together.
- Middle Eastern Turkey Dogs: These required me handling raw meat again, but I managed 3/4 of the mixing with a fork, so that helped. These were freaking *delicious*. I popped them onto bamboo skewers, and we didn't actually need any condiments, though I suspect flavored mustards would be good with them.
- Satsumaimo Amani: I spotted "Japanese Sweet Potato" at the organic store, and snagged one on a whim. I got home, and Google gave me its actual name of satsumaimo. From there, I found recipes, and this one looked both simple and *awesome*. Which it was. I did finally make my own dashi, though I kept it simple (i.e., cheap) by just making it with some kombu (seaweed). I have yet to tackle the giant mound of scalded sugar I accidentally ended up with in my littlest saucepan, but oh it was so worth it. Quite like the candied sweet potatoes with marshmellows, only a little less intensely sweet. I nibbled at a bit of the satsumaimo before I cooked it, and it has a *really* great flavor, it has a bit of a sweet spiciness to it.
- And to round things out, I whipped up a batch of rice (holy cow has a rice cooker been an awesome investment for us), throwing in some leftover coconut milk and just a touch of garam masala. It came out a little less flavored than I'd wanted, so I drizzled it with some of the Samurai Chai Maté tea I'd just made, and *oh* was it perfect.
- And it all tasted so good together! I was bouncing off the walls, I was so excited at how well everything complimented each other. I so rarely make full meals, and that one worked out so, so well. YAY.

- Quinoa! That was one of my other new foods. Heidi always uses all sorts of grains and things that I've never tried, so I snagged one to give a shot. I kept it simple for my first try of the stuff, to see how it tastes on its own, so I went with her Delicious Big Bowl of Quinoa recipe. Veggies and olive oil and quinoa. It *is* delicious - the quinoa has a great nutty flavor to it, about the same consistency as rice and couscous, but a little more stable, a little more solid flavor. (Plus, it is super-fun to cook: You start out with these perfect little spheres, which you need to rinse, and it is super-addicting to run your fingers through the stuff under running water. Then, as the perfect little beads cook, they uncurl! And there are little spiral-y bits that show up as they expand! ...I was seriously entertained by all this.) Tom is not a big fan, but I'm pretty sure if I flavored it up like I do with rice, he'd eat it. Put a sauce over pretty much anything and he'll eat it.

- Picked up the latest R.E.M. album, Accelerate, which came out not too long ago. It is GREAT. All of their albums for the past decade or so have been pretty wimpy, each has had like two really great songs, and then the rest very dreary and thin-sounding. This album really does sound more like their older stuff (offhand, I'd say a halfway between Monster and Automatic for the People), it's nice and dense and has their trademark harmonies and there is guitar and volume and it is GOOD. I'm so glad to hear them back again. I've only listened through to it once (and that via my craptastic laptop speakers), so I haven't analyzed anything in depth, but I've heard enough to be happy about it. :)


- And it is time for me to stop putting off washing dishes. booooo.

Labels: activism, books, cooking, life in general, movies, music, printshop, product whoring, silliness, spazz, storytime, work