i don't think winnie's been here, but there's this place called haley house on dartmouth near tremont. it's a tiny, non-profit bakery whose mission statetment reads: "Working collaboratively, we use our business to foster economic independence for under-employed individuals." basically what they do is use the bakery as a way for people to not only learn the skills of baking, but also to cultivate a work ethic and learn responsibility. a good idea, no? (apparently they also run a soup kitchen and a sustainable farm as well.) noble purpose aside, the food itself is worthwhile as well; andy and i go regularly. for me it's for the lemon-ginger muffins, spinach pies (only available around lunchtime), and cinnamon rolls (only on weekends, unfortunately); for him the carrot-raisin muffins and the equal exchange coffee. if you're in the area on a weekday morning i definitely recommend skipping over the boring francesca's, the always disappointing garden of eden, and the way too heavy (and crowded) flour in favor of a quick fix at haley house.

funny thing my older sister posted (she just married into a chinese family):

I was pretty offended when Dave's grandmother said, "It's nice to see you again. You look like you gained weight!" What is it with Asian old ladies and this saying? I've been told that twice, and in both cases, I don't think I had gained any weight (objectively speaking I promise). My Chinese friend at work told me this is completely normal and is the English equivalent of, "Good morning. How are you?

i've set up a mailing list so you can subscribe to the that's what you think blog. so what are you waiting for??

death cab for cutie is opening for pearl jam at the fleet center in boston?? what the f---?

i've been rereading the doctor dolittle books lately (unfortunately most of them are out of print now). gub-gub, the pig, is an easy favorite, and his attitude towards food is surprisingly similar to winnie's (haha). i thought she might appreciate some wisdom from the illustrious pig himself. on his proposed food opera: "Certainly there are dances. ... There is a napkin ballet in the first act, and a very grand 'Waiters' March' in the second -- besides the 'Caper Sauce Caper' at the finale. Oh, there are lots of good turns in the Food Opera. One of the arias is called 'Songs My Kettle Used to Sing.' Another is entitled 'Poor Little Broken Pie Crust' -- very light -- sung by a comic character called Popper Popover." gub-gub's book is a funny little collection of anecdotes about food and gub-gub's proposed "encyclopaedia of food". here are some excerpts: on britain's eating habits: "Now, this university had a secret eating society, or fraternity, called Sigma Eta Apple Pie -- after the Greek letters, you know. ... Sigma Eta Apple Pie was formed, I understand, because many people felt that the British, usually so brave and adventurous, were very undaventurous in eating. And it's true, we are, you know -- no doubt about that -- always eating the same things, very few dishes, when you think of France and other countries -- no eating courage at all." on the importance of food: "... can't you see ... the story of food discovery is the history of the human race ... How do you suppose the different races of people came to settle down where they are on the map today? Because they could get what they wanted to eat there. Or because they got pushed there by other people who wanted the same things to eat." on his proposed "Food Map": "... the food map is an important part of that chapter. ... The map should be not only a great help in learning the geography of food but also for the history of food. I would like it to show all the towns where the great events in food history happened. ... also the map should mark all the towns and countries that are famous for different kinds of eatables. ... it will be most valuable ... It tells you where to go to find different things to eat. Supposing you got up in the morning and felt like spending a nice, quiet banana weekend. All right. You just look at the map and take a boat for Central America. Perfectly simple." "I see what he's getting at ..." said Jip. "He's going to have a sort of bill of fare take the place of timetables. All you've got to do is go to a booking office and say, 'I want a ticket to the best pudding you have. First class, please.'" gub-gub's food mystery: there's also a great story about "Sherbert Scones, the icebox detective", who tracks "Chillibillibeano, the Texas Pantry Bandit, 'a thief with a taste for strawberry jam'". eventually scones captures chilli, but only after chilli abducts scones' lady love, "Vanilla Verbena", famous for her rhubarb pie.

you prob. don't remember, but as promised here's the third of three mixes that i've been wrestling with for the past few months. (for those of you just joining us, the first one was the guilty pleasures mix, and the second was a (mostly) upbeat mix.) this one i call my "kind of dark, kind of indie-ish mix", although it's not really that indie, but that was the feel i was going for. the three started off being one random melange of stuff i liked at the time and wanted to put on a mix, but it was way too schizo. hence the three thematic mixes. this one's the most predictable of the three (i can just hear people groaning already: what? another pinback track? i purposely left off the cure and my chick triumvirate of tori/bjork/ani). but i figure i can slip into banality for this mix b/c my next mix (which is almost finished) is almost entirely new people; and i did manage to fit a few surprises into this one, like the xiu xiu track and the kate bush cover (which is fantastic by the way). i'm not crazy about some of the tracks (like radiohead, whose music seems to wane by the hour for me, and arab strap and phillip glass, although both of those have really grown on me), but they seemed to fit. and i was psyched to fit in three instrumentals (the first and last track and the glass track in the middle). i really really wanted to include a much better version of "microtonic wave" from when pinback was in boston, but the quality was just too poor. one last thing: i've gotta give a shout out to luke myers for what is undoubtedly one of the best covers i've heard recently, tori or no, and on a harpsichord no less. well, there it is. out of love 1 saint etienne . interlude . roseneck 2 lovedrug . pretend you're alive . in red 3 luke myers (orig. tori amos) . www.luke-myers.com . tombigbee 4 iggy pop . lust for life . neighborhood threat 5 xiu xiu . fabulous muscles . clowne towne 6 lauryn hill . mtv unplugged no. 2.0 . i get out [edited] 7 the shins . chutes too narrow . kissing the lipless 8 the smiths . strangeways, here we come . a rush and a push and the land 9 joy division . substance . transmission 10 pj harvey . uh huh her . the letter 11 glass, kronos quartet . string quartet #3 . mishima closing 12 arab strap . monday at the hug & pint . flirt 13 gorky's zygotic mynci . spanish dance troupe . desolation blues 14 pinback . offcell (EP) . microtonic wave 15 kate bush . women talking dirty (sndtrk) . rocket man 16 radiohead . the bends . my iron lung 17 joe jackson . steppin' out: the very best of joe jackson . it's different for girls 18 my bloody valentine . loveless . when you sleep 19 cul de sac . immortality lessons . flying music from faust

andy and i just joined ye olde netflix. expect to see more movie commentary in the near future. a quick annotated run-down of what i've been listening to lately: john adams: i was looking at the ceiling and then i saw the sky: classical "post-minimalist" american composer tries his hand at musical theater w/ a typical "individual lives affected by natural disaster" scenario, in this case the 1994 LA earthquake. overall an odd mix of styles that never quite flies. bjork: medulla: by now people prob. know about the gimmick to this one: the CD's (almost) all voices. rahzel pulls some unreal beatboxing, and it's great to see bjork collaborating. although her vocal lines are oftentimes overly familiar here, she does pull out some good tunes like "where is the line" and "oceania", and the arrangements are interesting. overall this one's not destined to be among her top albums, but it's a good addition to her oeuvre. lauryn hill: MTV unplugged no. 2.0: an old CD i put back in rotation. liked it before, liked it a bit better this time around, although the individual tracks have more of an impact out of context than on the CD. not the best arrangements, but still has some good hooks and some really good tracks. put the DVD in the netflix queue. porcupine tree: stupid dream, tortoise: standards: echh. both of these were pretty humdrum. the tortoise CD was particularly dull. also, it's sad when people like porcupine tree have one really good track, but then all their other stuff is lousy. not even mediocre, lousy. mary j. blige: no more drama: i still can't get into R&B, but there were some tracks on this that weren't bad. i just wish she wouldn't do the exact same melisma and angst-filled coda on every single track. also, the song "PMS" was pretty funny. especially since lenny kravitz plays guitar on it. dawn upshaw: the girl with orange lips: dawn upshaw's first major label solo CD. the concept, namely exotic, lush orchestral songs, is good, and the CD features such rarities as stravinsky's three japanese lyrics (translated into russian). expertly done, but the recital isn't particularly tuneful. still, props to dawn for not rehashing the same old bellini arias that every other diva does. gamelan gong gede of batur temple: of my latest listens, this one's one of the better ones. surprisingly hypnotic and addictive. i feel like i haven't listened to anything really good in a while. what was the last CD that made me glad i had ears? i can't even remember. i'm glad i coerced carl into sending me a mix though. still waiting for some mixes from winnie ... ;)

my DSL has finally been set up ... hallelujah. here are some pics from my sister debbie's wedding ... and since you probably haven't seen it yet, here's a pic of me and my new do ... w/ my aunt and uncle from korea. (i look tall in this picture. heh.)

i swear i'll post more interesting stuff, including pictures, once i get my DSL connected. i'm counting down the hours. I AM IN DSL WITHDRAWAL!!!! it's so painful. i'd rather go hungry than not have DSL! ... well, not quite, but you know what i mean. had to write about this really horrible horrible place i went to recently. i was sick this past weekend and staying at andy's so he could wait on me hand and foot i mean take care of me (haha), and i was really wanting some asian food. so i went to this last resort place on tremont (b/c the south end doesn't have that many asian places), called thai village (592 tremont st). boston has a lot of thai restaurants, and i can say that honestly i've been to most of them. this has got to be the worst place for thai food i've ever been. that includes any mall food court thai food i've ever had. now there are certainly a lot of thai restaurants in boston that offer mediocre food, like the two average places on newbury and the two places on boylston near the prudential (not pad thai by berklee, the other two. pad thai is one of the better places in boston). but i think thai village is one of the few eateries in boston, thai or no, that has food that i can hardly finish. i've been there twice, both as a last resort, and both times the food i got was really terrible. the curry i got most recently was absolutely devoid of flavor, and it was watery. as in watered down watery. as in, am i eating colored water or is this supposed to be a curry? avoid at all costs. the weirdest thing is that i checked online out of curiosity to see what other places thought of it, including citysearch, the phoenix, and boston.com, and they all gave this place average reviews. are they crazy?? maybe the reviews are all outdated. anyway ... andy and i also went to island hopper (on mass ave near newbury) recently just b/c we never go there. i was reminded of why. the service was wicked slow, but the food was okay. actually, by coincidence we had the exact same thing i'd gotten from penang in chinatown a couple of weeks ago w/ my sister and cousin: mango chicken and a tofu curry. of course the island hopper version wasn't as good, but the main drawback to this place is that it's overpriced. in boston there's either cheap fast food places or higher end places with nothing in between. grrr. tonight i'm going to pad thai to wash out the taste of that bad thai place. why is it that their lunch food always tastes bad, but their dinner food is usually okay? oh, and for the record dok bua is still the best thai food in town. and one of my favorites ever (even though our favorite waitress left). be sure to get the tofu gra prow. okay, now i'm rambling.

andy and i really need to try more new places. last week we went to metropolis after a fairly long hiatus. either they were having a really off night, or they've gone really downhill; i'm inclined to think the latter. i can say w/ out reserve that our meal at metropolis was one of the weirdest meals i've ever had. weird as in not in a good way. andy started with an arugula salad that for no particular reason came shredded and molded in a circular shape reminescent of dog food just out of a can and had what appeared to be a canned piece of mandarin orange and a half-frozen hunk of goat cheese on the top. meanwhile, i was puzzling over the asparagus "tartare" which didn't taste much of anything let alone asparagus and which also inexplicably came molded. andy's rabbit was prepared like chicken and was dry and overcooked. it came with the weirdest gnocchi i've ever encountered. engorged, mushy, and unappetizing. i hate to say it, but it strongly called to mind fat, old maggots found under a damp log. also devoid of taste. my "napolean" was described as being "like a lasagna but with bread instead of pasta". it came w/ a squash puree, but like pretty much everything else we'd gotten it was similarly tasteless, although every once in a while i would come across a bit of olive. it's kind of sad when the only good thing you can say about the food is, "well, the bread and the olive oil were pretty good." regarding bar food vs dining room food: i can understand the distinctions between the two, but in a place like number nine park where it's not a bar menu but a cafe menu i don't see why you can't have both menus wherever you sit. even if the rationale is that the cafe food is faster, thus giving a faster turnover rate, that still doesn't explain why you can't have both if you sit in the dining room. one of life's many mysteries i suppose.

busy week at work, but thought i'd write a quick post about one of my latest obsessions, bbc's radio 1. i'm not really into internet radio in general for the same reason i'm not into real radio; namely, that i hate when a song goes by that i like and i never get to hear it again b/c i don't know what it's called. (well, this is obviously not the case for commercial radio, which plays the same 20 songs over and over again, but you know what i mean.) the great thing about the online bbc radio, besides the music, is that they let you stream the most recent episode of each show for a week until the next episode -- and they include the tracklistings for every show! yeah ... long live the beeb!