man, in my day 64 colors was extravagant. kids are way too spoiled these days. this timeline is one of those specific areas of non-fiction that indirectly say so much about how american culture has changed in the past 100 years. very entertaining. i esp. love how the name for the "flesh" color was changed, and how "magic mint" got replaced by "jazzberry jam" (insert off-colour joke here) and "mango tango".

worth archiving i think: winnie's guide on how to cook dumplings: heat nonstick skillet on med-heat until drop of water sizzles immediately on contact (about 2 min). drizzle 2 tbsp (about 1 glug) of oil on pan and place layer of dumplings bottom-side down on pan so none overlap. allow to brown (do not move around! do not fiddle with dumplings!) for about 2-3 min. pour about 1/4 cup water so that there is about 1/8" water covering bottom of pan. cover with tight-fitting lid and allow dumplings to steam about 5 min. uncover and let water evaporate and dumpling bottoms recrisp. eat with your favorite combination of soy sauce, black vinegar, rice vinegar, hot sauce, etc etc.

andy and i got a harvard museum pass ($10 for one visit to each of the 6 museums), and we've been working our way through them. the fogg and busch-reisinger are in the same building, but when we went to the fogg we didn't have time to go to the B-R so we went this past weekend. the busch-reisinger is "the only museum in America devoted to promoting the informed enjoyment and critical understanding of the arts of Central and Northern Europe, with a special emphasis on the German-speaking countries." the museum is small, really only maybe six rooms, and for me of little attention span it was a nice size. the current exhibit (through june) is pretty good, although i actually found it a bit lacking in background info (unless i just happened to miss it). the globe's review gives a good overview. i didn't know a whole lot about klimt or schiele, and the exhibit had several works by both. they had a reproduction of a now-destroyed klimt work "jurisprudence" that was quite fascinating, which has a scene of an old man being "embraced" by an octopus. i also quite enjoyed the works by koloman moser, which included some book illustrations (this cover is representative of the kind of work he did) and an entire wall of wallpaper samples. ever since the christopher dresser exhibit at the cooper-hewitt i've discovered that i get quite a rise out of wallpaper designs; maybe it's my queer eye tendencies. also really enjoyed schiele's "sleeping figure with blanket".

some more old posts: this week andy and i saw donnie darko (director's cut). -so good-. def. one of the best movies i've seen in a while. for some unknown reason i had it in my head that this movie was made in the 80's, so the whole time i was watching it i was thinking it was really unusual and amazing especially b/c it was an 80's movie, although if i had stopped to think about it i would've realized that drew barrymore couldn't have been that old. duh. but anyway it's a beautifully atmospheric and haunting flick and very memorable, as well as a bit of a mind-bender. and jake is a hottie, in a kind of creepy, straight sort of way. i did some mucking about, so after you see the movie you can check out some of this stuff. i worked my way through the 3 levels of the official website, which is good if you're looking to waste some time or to revisit the feel of the movie. it has some really nice uses of flash but doesn't really have any payoff when you get to the end. there's also quite a number of sites w/ theories about what the movie's "really about". this fansite has images from the official site from the book that's at the center of the movie, which clarifies a lot. for a more explicit explanation, i found that comments #25 and #40 on this site explains everything the most clearly, although of course you can be like andy and choose your own interpretation. update: foo pointed me to this salon article which is even more comprehensive. two words: see it.

[Oh I think I accidentally hit "draft" instead of "publish". this was from monday.] koo sunset district, on irving near 6th I checked out this new sushi restaurant in my neighborhood last night. I'd noticed it when I walked by a couple months ago, and we actually tried going once in hopes of getting some ramen (we read the menu and learned that it was a sushi place, and moved on). I had forgotten about it again until last week, when I stumbled upon a review in the Chronicle about it -- it looked like a good review, I just didn't read it carefully. So we went on Sunday. The waitstaff was super nice, almost too nice, and extremely prompt in taking our order and bringing our food. Is nigori inappropriate with dinner? The waitress seemed confused when I ordered it. I probably should have picked something else, as I felt like it didn't really go with food -- but it's the only kind of sake that I really like. Also, can someone explain the box thing? The sake came in a glass in the box. Am I supposed to drink it out of the glass or out of the box? The food came quickly once we ordered. We started with the standard wakami (seaweed salad), and the nigiri came soon after. We ordered kani (crab), toro (tuna belly), and inari (stuffed tofu). I wasn't too impressed -- for some reason I was having real difficulty tasting them. It might have been just me and my lagging cold, because A. seemed to like them. The first two rolls we had were the "Best roll" (Asparagus tempura inside, salmon on the outside with a thin sliver of lemon wedge), and a Philly roll (lox and cream cheese). They were both excellent -- I'm always a big fan of the hint of lemon. And the Philly roll was creamy and delicious. A. commented that they use "really good cream cheese," whatever that means. We had one of the "shared plates" -- stuffed jalapeno with hamachi and an aioli dipping sauce. I liked this one a lot, A. thought it tasted a little tunafishy and not nearly as good as he was hoping. The last two rolls were the Rock n' Roll (eel) and an Azteca. I can't even remember what was in this roll. It was an almost-California roll, with some sort of fish on the outside and a slice of jalapeno on top, with some sort of dab of sauce on top, baked and sprinkled with tobiko (flying fish roe) and scallions. It was really busy, but by far my favorite. The hit of jalapeno really made it for me. (When I said "hit of jalapeno" A. started agape at me across the table. He thought I said "tit of jalapeno.") Koo has a small dessert menu that I really appreciated -- everything is $3. We had a couple scoops of ginger gelato, which came with mini cookies -- shortbread and almond. I think we overordered by one roll -- or we should have left off the nigiri. Although the Chron seemed to like the nigiri, maybe we'll just be more adventurous next time. The bill came to more than I was expecting, but was certainly worth it -- I'm excited to have such a nice restaurant nearby. My neighborhood is filled with really great food, but mostly of the cheaper ethnic variety. I tend to foray into other neighborhoods for fancy dinners, so I'm glad this is just blocks from my house.

yes, it's another month and another mix from yours truly. but first, take this FUN quiz!!!1!! of the tracklist below, how many names do you recognize? 0-5: don't feel bad. that's the score this mix was designed to give to the average listener. 5-10: you are not a casual music listener, but an aficionado, and read and listen to music from many genres as voraciously as i do. 10-15: you probably know me fairly well or you are among my inner circle of "music friends" (you know who you are) and i've probably already alerted you to many of these. 15-21: you're lying. i can almost guarantee that there are at least 6 people on this mix that you've never heard of. i've waxed poetic previously about the many joys of finding great obscure songs, discoveries that i then treasure and even hoard. most of my motive for digging up and celebrating the obscure and semi-obscure is simply the joy of the archeologist, the talent scout, and the collector: to acknowledge the worth of the perhaps previously overlooked, to be the harbinger of the next great thing, and to just find some great new (and sometimes unique) music. i've always consciously tried to include some obscure but worthy musical acts on my mixes, but have long been wanting to do a mix focusing solely on them. i recognize that it's not really all that hard to make mixes w/ acts most people have never heard of since people's journeys through life throw random music their way by chance all the time. (carl, winnie, and andy, who have been my greatest fellow music scouts in recent years, do so all the time w/ more ease than i, especially since i get to be obsessive about listening to all of an artist's back catalog rather than finding new people.) but part of my effort was to have only a small percentage of the tracks below signed to any "recognizable" record label; some aren't signed at all. as an added restraint i focused on songs from the past 5 years or so. there are a few tracks here that recall the message i posted about appreciating music that's not that unique per se but are quite satisfying. i'm sorry to say that some of the people on this mix are mostly one-offs, but i haven't completely given up on them. the really obscure ones are people i've stumbled across online. the paradox of the internet is that through it anyone can get heard, but the chance of finding someone is so minuscule, so this is a step in spreading the word. some miscellanous comments: - f*** the corporate radio monopoly! listen to music of your own choosing instead of what's force-fed to you! yeah! - this mix started off being way too indie and as a result too dour. i was glad to see that i could find a wide range of non-indie but still relatively obscure music (and more than a couple of tracks that are actually quite funny). - the vhs or beta track is thanks to carl. this band totally sounds like the cure to me, but they're still good. and they're from louisville! gotta support my peeps. - i've been wanting to do a mix in alphabetical order for a while, but this is the first time it really worked. - the track by me is the first track that i've felt is really worth me releasing, even though it's still more of a demo. - of the ones w/ links listed, i strongly suggest you check out stateshirt, esp. if you like people like radiohead. this guy's stuff has i think really gotten stronger lately and there are some other good tracks on his site. okay i'll shut up now. --- all hail ye celebrating the obscure and the semi-obscure 3/19/05 1 bitch and animal . eternally hard . sparkly queen areola 2 caravan ray (orig. marcus kellis) . moscow, idaho 3 cat power . you are free . he war 4 fred choi . dark all day 5 the dan emery mystery band . natural selection . the only one who loves you 6 fannypack . so stylistic . the theme from fannypack 7 kaki king . everybody loves you . carmine st. 8 lovedrug . pretend you're alive . blackout 9 matt pond PA . nature of maps . athabasca 10 des mckinney . www.deshead.com . nights and songs 11 joanna newsom . milk-eyed mender . inflammatory writ 12 the oracle boy . www.theoracleboy.co.uk . levitate 13 pinback . summer in abaddon . non photo blue 14 michael sanders . salsa.ioioio.net . teen girl squad 15 rego sen . songs from the institute vol. 1 . kelly 16 the so and so's . give me drama . please you 17 state shirt . www.stateshirt.net . fell out of the sky 18 the twilight singers . blackberry belle . decatur st. 19 vhs or beta . night on fire . you got me 20 what's her face . strong bad sings and other type hits . i think i have a chance with this guy [edited] 21 the wonder stuff . camp (soundtrack) . the size of a cow

some old things i've been meaning to mirror post. here's one: a couple of weeks ago andy and i watched rivers and tides a semi-documentary about andy goldsworthy, a scottish "environmental" artist currently in his late 40's. his art is fairly interesting and aesthetically satisfying, if not particularly novel. rather too much of the film is spent with goldsworthy spouting cliches about his art and his role as artist, etc., but the works are really what's worth seeing (despite some fairly trite, mostly pseudo-chinese music). one particularly memorable piece was a chain of leaves snaking their way down a river. another was a stone cairn on a beach and an elaborate reed sculpture hung from a tree. found a site with some nice pieces not included in the film (see above). seeing his work on film is i suppose the next best thing to seeing it live, so even though the film itself isn't "must see", it certainly fills a niche.

kind of funny story in that "not really funny at the time but kind of funny in retrospect" sort of a way. so a couple of weekends ago andy and i dropped in on delux (chandler st., south end (near clarendon)). i'd been before but it had been a while, and it looked about how i remembered it. we sat down and ordered. maybe five minutes after we ordered the couple next to us ordered, and i happened to notice they ordered the exact same entrees. both of us get our appetizers within a decent amount of time. (which, btw, was soft tortilla "chips" with fruit salsa. someone please explain to me the logic behind soft tortilla chips w/ runny salsa?) anyway, now guess what happens? [pause inserted here.] if you guessed that the waitress comes up and gives our entrees to the couple sitting next to us, then ding ding ding you guessed correctly. now, i can kind of understand this. mistakes happen. but this is the funny-but-not-really-funny bit: the couple ordered maybe 5 minutes after us. did our food come out 5 minutes after theirs? no, of course not. in fact, after at least 25 minutes (inc. a minute of tracking down our waitress and being assured that our food was on our way and an offer of a free drink) we just threw some money on the table (unfortunately giving the girl a way bigger tip than she deserved) and got up and left. some points to keep in mind: 1) the waitress said that the delay was b/c there was only one person working in the kitchen. what are they thinking? it's a saturday night for cryin' out loud. 2) the waitress probably never even realized her mistake. 3) how long does it take to warm up some soup? 4) another big strike against the place is that when we came in we noticed that a couple had been allowed to comandeer two more tables and were holding fort. such a bad idea, b/c of course their friends didn't show up right away and so for the next twenty minutes we had to watch people being turned away from obviously empty seats. needless to say delux has vaulted to the head of my "never again" list. on a more positive note, i was glad to see that audubon circle (838 beacon st, across the bridge from kenmore sq) is extremely laid-back on saturday nights. (prob. b/c all the BU kids are at drunken frat parties.) the food isn't my fav (miracle is much preferred), but i was reading a review from the phoenix about it. as far as i can tell the review was written in 1996 and as far as i can tell their menu is exactly the same almost 10 years later. how's that for steadiness?