- Trudy's chicken tortilla
- My homemade French potato leek
- My mom's chili
- Thai Kitchen's tom Gah
- La Madeleine's tomato basil
March 23, 2004
Top 5 Soups
March 22, 2004
Top 5 Film Soundtracks
Another Top 5 List
- 27.3° Le Matin/Betty Blue - Gabriel Yared
- The English Patient - Gabriel Yared
- Cinema Paradiso - Ennio Morricone
- 9 1/2 Weeks - Various Artists
- The Accidental Tourist - John Williams
Honorable Mention:
A Room With A View - Puccini, Various
Taxi Driver - Bernard Hermann
March 11, 2004
Top 5 Opening Guitar Riffs
A group of friends at work started a Top 5 Site, and some of the topics provoked enough consideration to warrant posting here.
- The The - "Uncertain Smile"
- Sting - "Shape of My Heart" (Dominic Miller wrote this song, and plays the guitar solo)
- The Pretenders - "My City Was Gone"
- Tommy Tutone - "867-5309 - Jenny"
- U2 - "Where the Streets Have No Name"
Honorable Mention:
Tom Petty - The Waiting
AC/DC - Back in Black
The Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
The Eagles - Hotel California
The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go
The Scorpions - No One Like You
The Las - There She Goes
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Blind Melon - No Rain
Little River Band - We Two
Diesel - Sausalito Summer Nights
John Mellencamp (Cougar at the time) - This Time
David Bowie - China Girl, Fame
U2 - Pride in the Name of Love, I Will Follow
Stones - Miss You
Elliot Smith - Waltz#2
Cracker - Low
Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut
Garbage - Stupid Girl
John Lee Hooker & Carlos Santana - Things Gonna Change
Ray Parker, Jr. - The Other Woman
XTC - King for a Day
The Police - When the World is Running Down
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way?
February 24, 2004
Oscar Party 2004
A look at my 2004 Invitation:
It's Oscar party time! Please join me for my yearly soirée at 6:30 p.m. this Sunday, February 29. An invitation is attached. This year, the Academy has moved the Oscar ceremony up a month in an attempt to reduce the amount of time and money studios spend on electioneering. At least there are a sizeable number of indie pics nominated this year—we'll see if the new time levels the playing field for the smaller films.
As usual, I encourage the wearing of creative and/or outrageous get-ups, costumes, and other miscellaneous finery by awarding a prize to the best dressed. If you come during the red-carpet coverage, you'll have a chance not only to gawk at what the celebs and other party-goers are wearing, but also to pile some snacks on your plate, have a drink, chat with friends, check out my usual array of Oscar-related quotes, ads, and posters, and most importantly, get yourself a good seat for the big show. I will have printed ballots for you to fill out with your take on the evening's winners. A prize will be also be awarded for the most correct guesses. I'll also include a list of this year's featured drinks.
February 10, 2004
Finding Fish, Finding Justice
I woke up at 2 a.m. with a terrible pinched neck, and couldn't sleep, so I got up and read a book for a while: "Finding Fish," Antwone Fisher's memoir. He also wrote the screenplay for the movie that bears his name. It makes me want to volunteer to be a social worker and visit foster children and make sure they're happy and being treated well. I think a lot of crime would be prevented if child abuse could be eradicated. Convicted D.C. sniper John Muhammed and all his siblings were beaten regularly within an inch of their lives. His uncle actually beat a mentally retarded teen to death at the state school. How can you be a productive member of society when you come from that kind of terror and misery?
When I think about how many people are just aching to have a child, and then how many children are unwanted, and treated that way, it just makes me sick. But obviously, there are no easy answers. Even though I was wanted, and my parents were well educated and reasonably enlightened, somehow, it just wasn't in my mother's nature to intervene on my behalf with my father, even though treating a 7-year-old like an adult, and making her stay inside and study for hours at a time was completely inappropriate. I don't know why educating people about how to, or maybe more importantly how not to raise children isn't more important. Shakespeare is wonderful and inspiring, but child development classes would also really be useful for a lot of people with kids. I guess everyone wants to be free to raise their kids in their own way, but whatever religion you follow, and however else you want to indoctrinate your kids, you shouldn't be beating them or telling them they're no good.
It seems that parents who attend child-rearing programs should get some kind of tax break. Why can't the Health and Human Services administration come up with guidelines on what should be taught—basic coping skills for different situations and for children with different personalities. Not a simple task, I know, but what is more important? School teachers shouldn't be expected to do the parents' job. And you can't do much with a child whose parents refuse to get involved. I feel so impotent; I just wish our priorities in this country would change. How can we be talking about sending people to Mars when we're not getting things right here on this planet? It seems a lot like having dessert before you've finished your vegetables. Why do politicians keep skipping the meal?
When I think about how many people are just aching to have a child, and then how many children are unwanted, and treated that way, it just makes me sick. But obviously, there are no easy answers. Even though I was wanted, and my parents were well educated and reasonably enlightened, somehow, it just wasn't in my mother's nature to intervene on my behalf with my father, even though treating a 7-year-old like an adult, and making her stay inside and study for hours at a time was completely inappropriate. I don't know why educating people about how to, or maybe more importantly how not to raise children isn't more important. Shakespeare is wonderful and inspiring, but child development classes would also really be useful for a lot of people with kids. I guess everyone wants to be free to raise their kids in their own way, but whatever religion you follow, and however else you want to indoctrinate your kids, you shouldn't be beating them or telling them they're no good.
It seems that parents who attend child-rearing programs should get some kind of tax break. Why can't the Health and Human Services administration come up with guidelines on what should be taught—basic coping skills for different situations and for children with different personalities. Not a simple task, I know, but what is more important? School teachers shouldn't be expected to do the parents' job. And you can't do much with a child whose parents refuse to get involved. I feel so impotent; I just wish our priorities in this country would change. How can we be talking about sending people to Mars when we're not getting things right here on this planet? It seems a lot like having dessert before you've finished your vegetables. Why do politicians keep skipping the meal?
October 10, 2003
Trapped in John Cage
D.--
Do you really like John Cage? I mean, the idea is intriguing, but the execution is usually excruciating. Merce Cunningham's troop performed at Wellesley one time, and I went, and somehow managed to endure the whole evening, even though there was a Cage protégé there performing live Cage-like "music" to accompany the dancing. There was absolutely no passion or sense of humanity in the dancers' movements, since they were counting, and the music sounded like rattling chains and stomach noises. For two hours! Out of respect for the performers, I stuck it out, but most of the audience left after 30 minutes. "Aleatory" was the kindest thing that could have been said about the show. And it's funny, but I saw that word (or maybe it was aléatoire) in a CD player manual a couple of years ago, and managed to figure out its meaning all by myself, by remembering the Latin phrase Alea jacta est.
I try to be open minded, but if I get zero pleasure or enlightenment from a performance, I think it wiser to tell the Emperor he's naked, rather than pretend he's wearing Prada. I agree that the movement in which "art" is more about making a statement than creating beauty or providing an outlet for true inspiration has run its course, as far as I'm concerned. I remember a chamber music piece composed by a Wellesley senior that was performed at our baccalaureate service, and it was a mass of discordant flutes and strings. Perhaps there was some kind of mathematical reason for its existence, but in my mind, there was no justification for subjecting us to 15 minutes of pure torture. Right afterwards, my friends Marie and Susie and I got up and performed Gilbert & Sullivan's "Three Little Maids from School" to thunderous applause. I think our audience was even more enthusiastic because they had been delivered from so-called "modern" classical music.
Do you really like John Cage? I mean, the idea is intriguing, but the execution is usually excruciating. Merce Cunningham's troop performed at Wellesley one time, and I went, and somehow managed to endure the whole evening, even though there was a Cage protégé there performing live Cage-like "music" to accompany the dancing. There was absolutely no passion or sense of humanity in the dancers' movements, since they were counting, and the music sounded like rattling chains and stomach noises. For two hours! Out of respect for the performers, I stuck it out, but most of the audience left after 30 minutes. "Aleatory" was the kindest thing that could have been said about the show. And it's funny, but I saw that word (or maybe it was aléatoire) in a CD player manual a couple of years ago, and managed to figure out its meaning all by myself, by remembering the Latin phrase Alea jacta est.
I try to be open minded, but if I get zero pleasure or enlightenment from a performance, I think it wiser to tell the Emperor he's naked, rather than pretend he's wearing Prada. I agree that the movement in which "art" is more about making a statement than creating beauty or providing an outlet for true inspiration has run its course, as far as I'm concerned. I remember a chamber music piece composed by a Wellesley senior that was performed at our baccalaureate service, and it was a mass of discordant flutes and strings. Perhaps there was some kind of mathematical reason for its existence, but in my mind, there was no justification for subjecting us to 15 minutes of pure torture. Right afterwards, my friends Marie and Susie and I got up and performed Gilbert & Sullivan's "Three Little Maids from School" to thunderous applause. I think our audience was even more enthusiastic because they had been delivered from so-called "modern" classical music.
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