How Green Is My Sandwich
Posted on | April 9, 2008 at 9:26 pm | 5 Comments
One of the many ways in which my relationship with N has changed me is that because of her, I can now eat spinach. I was never much of a Spinach Man. Growing up, I hated it. Mostly because my mother would try to feed us cooked spinach, and the texture made me throw up. I still can’t eat cooked spinach, unless it’s part of Saag Paneer. But almost since Day One, N has been foisting the raw leafy green vegetable of the beet family upon me. She says it’s “smart food” and praises its nutritional value. It hopefully offsets some of our more unhealthy dietary choices.
At first I would consume it just to mollify her. But I’ve found I’ve actually become somewhat fond of it. Oh, I can’t eat it by itself – it’s too bitter. But I put in salads and sandwiches. I like the kind of almost crunchy texture it adds to sandwiches, and I like the way it bulks the sandwich out. Makes me feel more full and less likely to snack after eating one. I’ve even been having delicatessens and sandwich shops add it to my sandwich or wrap when ordering.
If you had told me two years that I would be eating and enjoying spinach regularly, I would’ve guffawed in your face. I’m surprised that at this age, I can still undergo changes in my tastes. All it takes is a little constant exposure, I guess. Other people can change us in small ways as well as big, if we just give them a chance.
But I still ain’t eating celery.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 37°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging: None. It ran out of juice.
Hergest Ridges
Posted on | April 8, 2008 at 6:21 am | 9 Comments
Awhile ago, I received an e-mail advertising Mike Oldfield’s upcoming album Music of the Spheres as his “first classical album”. When I got that, I sent an e-mail to my bandmate DJ Smallberries saying “Huh? He wasn’t doing classical music before?” Deej is a fellow Oldfield fan, even moreso than I, and also like myself, has most or all of his albums. Here’s what he had to say to that:
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You know, I’ve seen reputable musicologists actually write that they consider Mike Oldfield to be one of the best classical composers of the latter 20th century, mostly based on his first four albums. Not to mention the fact that he practically single handedly invented the genres of both new age and world music. I think the problem Mike has always had is that he is in fact a very talented classical composer, but he’s always wanted to be a rock star (as evidenced by his chosen home on Spain’s party planet). It’s as if Mozart was trying to write songs for the Red Hot Chile Peppers. I suppose he just craved the rock star lifestyle. So he keeps making these albums of “songs”, and in fact he has on occasion written some very popular and catchy ones (as I suppose Mozart would’ve too), but mostly they fall pretty flat. Maybe in Mike’s old age he’s finally coming to grips with the idea that he is not ever going to be a rock star, and he might as well go back to what he does best: classical music. The fact that this new album is completely orchestral (and not just an orchestral adaptation of a non-orchestral album) points to the idea that maybe he’s taking classical music seriously (you know, most classical composers do not try to play all the instruments on their albums). I’ll be very interested to see how this new album turns out; I had pretty much given up on Mike Oldfield.
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And then I just got this followup last week from Smallberries, who actually now has the album:
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Actually, it’s quite a nice piece of orchestral music. I wouldn’t call it “classical” because it doesn’t follow any of the ordinary classical forms (symphony, concerto, etc.) and it isn’t atonal enough to be called a “modern classical” work that legitimate classical composers (who all teach at universities because otherwise they’d starve) get played at your local symphony orchestra. It’s more on the lines of the sort of thing that Mike has always done, a bunch of variations on a few themes, mostly abruptly moving from one to another. It’s pleasant, has some great crescendo’s and other musical drama, and is completely forgettable.
That’s a shame. I’ve listed to it about half a dozen times now, and I can not recall a single tune. Now I can’t bitch too much, because Danny Elfman has been writing this kind of music for years (completely unmemorable tunes) and he’s made a good living at it, but Mike used to be able to write tunes that you couldn’t get out of your head. I guess he’s just played out. I would suggest he get into the soundtrack business (like Elfman), but if I were John Williams I wouldn’t worry too much about him stealing my gigs (actually I don’t know what John Williams has done lately, but at least back in the Jurassic Park days he could write a theme that would knock your socks off).
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Hmmm… sounds like not quite my cupatea. But I may pick it up anyway, seeing as how I’m something of a completest.
Thanks for the guest blogging, Smallberries!
Latre.
Next: Stop Sign Cameras
Posted on | April 7, 2008 at 7:13 am | 4 Comments
Wow, this whole red light camera controversy is a really hot topic. I last talked it about it last week, and on Saturday the Rocky Mountain News devoted a whole ‘nother big followup story to it. The upshot is that it looks like Denver is still going to install the cameras in a couple of months, even though they acknowledge there may be better ways to go about curbing infractions and accidents at the four intersections. Lots of interesting stuff dug up in the article, including the results of lots of studies done in other cities that have the cameras. One point that was most telling to me was this:
Denver plans to mail $75 tickets to hundreds of drivers a week caught by the cameras. The city has $1.1 million in new fines already plugged into its 2008 budget.
Assuming this is true (always an iffy prospect with today’s “journalists”), then I think that pretty much settles the argument about whether it’s being done to reduce accidents or to generate revenue.
To reiterate part of the argument in the articles, it is suggested that increasing the time on the yellow light will do more to deter accidents and red light runners. Denver keeps its yellow light times notoriously short. I like this:
In fact, one Denver camera site may have illegally low timing. Videos taken by the Rocky Mountain News at East Sixth Avenue and Lincoln Street showed yellow lasting only 2.86 seconds, 5 percent less stopping time than required and 11 percent less than recommended for minimum safety.
I love this too:
Denver chose its first four intersections from a list of the top 100 in the city for side-angle crashes over a five-year period. But while two of them are in the top three, the third placed 29th and the fourth – Quebec Street at East 36th Avenue – was way down at 75th on the list. Dave Weaver, Denver traffic engineer, said many choices were eliminated because they are CDOT roads. But there are 32 non-CDOT intersections that ranked higher in accidents than the Quebec intersection.
Why is this such a big deal to me? It’s not really – I don’t intend to run any red lights if I can help it. But I just think it’s kind of dumb and an invasion of privacy, especially if there are better ways to achieve the same objectives. Three of the four proposed cameras are on my normal commute route, so I’m looking forward to dealing with them.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “special k cereal personal story”.
Suns That Were Freezing
Posted on | April 6, 2008 at 11:46 am | Comments Off
The TV show My Name Is Earl can be hit-and-miss humor at times from me, and there’s some speculation that it jumped the shark during the interminable Earl-goes-to-jail story arc. But one thing that it can’t be faulted for is its use of Blue Öyster Cult music. I already mentioned how one episode had the guitar solo from “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”. Well, last Thursday’s “post-strike premiere” prominently featured the song “Burnin’ For You”. There was even a scene where the cast was singing along with it (although the song was edited weirdly and they skipped a line or two). But the most glorious part was when the scene transitioned into the 60s-sitcom world that Earl’s coma-affected brain had escaped to, the song was still playing on an old radio in his dream. But it was a like an old-timey version sung by a crooner or lounge lizard. That was awesome. BÖC should release that as a single.
Yeah, I know that the show features classic rock music in general, because that’s what Earl and his mates are into, but this focus on BÖC really rocks it for me. Now if they would only play “Career of Evil”.
In other classic music trivia, N and I went to dinner last night with Hugh and Lisa to Czechoslovakian bar/restaurant Sobo 151. I’ve been there a few times for lunch (it’s near work), but this was my first time for dinner. I have to say that the music was awesome. The jukebox, or whatever was playing the music, was stuck in my era of the 80s playing some pretty obscure stuff for this area/crowd. I heard Magazine’s “Shot By Both Sides”, The Chameleons’ “Mad Jack”, and Lets Active’s “Every Word Means No” among other classics. Tell me the last time you heard any of those played in a bar! There was a lot of IRS-era R.E.M. as well. I think N was getting disgusted by me constantly interrupting to point out the songs, but I was in shock. Oh, and the food was good too. To top it off, they gave us free strudel, because they accidentally messed up and delayed mine and Hugh’s orders. Now that’s service! Unlike some bagel shops I could name.
Latre.
A Little Italy In Colorado
Posted on | April 5, 2008 at 4:02 pm | 7 Comments
The picture to the right is of an intersection on my usual running route that ends in two directions. Currently there’s some construction going on to extend at least one of the roads towards a new housing development that’s also being constructed. And not just any housing development. It’s “Inspired by the architecture of Europe’s classic hilltowns, each residence is designed to be a piece of functional, ownable art.” I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not sure I’d want to live inside Art, no matter how supposedly functional.
If the developers have their way, this is just the first phase of a huge development that will also include an office park and retail space. Here’s a map. It will pretty much fill up a huge open area, further reducing the “wilderness” around here. And I’m sure the traffic will increase and I’ll have to be dodging more cars on my morning run. Ah well, it’s all for the best I’m sure. Maybe I should look into buying me one of them European-style hillside houses. I bet they’re cheap.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: I got a call from a telemarketer or something, and when I answered, I was actually told by a recorded voice that all associates were busy, to stay on the line, and that someone would be with me shortly. Then hold music started playing. Great. Not only do we now get interrupted by unwanted calls, but we’re expected to wait on hold for them to actually speak to us. It probably wasn’t a telemarketer unless they were from a company I already do business with, since I’m on the No Call list. Didn’t look like a charity either. I’m thinking it was a survey taker, since there is a company by the name that came in the caller ID that does surveys, according to my web search. I’ve been getting a lot of calls from that number, but this was the first time I actually answered. At any rate, I hung up before they could find someone to talk to me.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 43°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “The Game” (Echo & the Bunnymen)
- “I Don’t Wanna Shine” (The Orange Peels)
- “Kenesaw Mountain Landis” (Jonathan Coulton)
- “Red Fox” (Big Country)
- “She’ll Be A Verb” (The Malchicks)
- “Desperate For Dawn” (Shalini)
- “The Killer” (Starlight Mints)
Shrinkage And More Sandwich Talk
Posted on | April 4, 2008 at 7:58 pm | Comments Off
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “my therapist said i’m very attractive”.
Which reminds me…
N and I have been watching the HBO show In Treatment. Well, the show’s actually over for the season but we DVRed all the episodes and are slowly working our way through them. It was a nine-week, five-days-a-week show. There were 43 episodes (the last week had three episodes instead of the usual five; I’m not sure why yet). We just finished week four, so we’re not quite half done. In Treatment is based on an Israeli TV show and is the story of 50-year old psychological therapist Paul, played by Gabriel Bryne. The Monday thru Thursday episodes of the show have him meeting with five different patients (Mondays: Laura, Tuesdays: Alex, Wednesdays: Sophie, Thursdays: Jake & Amy) and on Friday he sees his own therapist Gina. It’s quite an ambitious thing for HBO to do, but I’ll reserve final judgment on it until the end.
The show does have an overall story arc, so it doesn’t feel too isolated and episodic. The arc deals with Paul himself and what’s he going through in his personal life, and how’s he relating to this set of patients, especially one patient in particular. A lot of this umbrella arc comes through in those Friday sessions with his therapist. So there’s some direction and enough of a hook to keep us slogging through it to see what happens.
But the limitation of this kind of format is formidable. There’s not much action and no real location shooting, just mostly people sitting around and talking. It’s like a really long play. We’ve found it’s easily digestible in single episode half hour increments, but when we try to watch two or more in a row, fatigue sets in and we both start to nod off. Most of the talking is pretty subdued. However, it can get pretty dramatic at times, which reminds me not at all of my own therapy sessions. I just can’t imagine yelling at my therapist, for example. It just doesn’t seem polite. And I certainly wouldn’t (spoiler alert!) go into her bathroom and try to commit suicide with sleeping pills. And the way Paul treats his own therapist Gina is really bizarre. He keeps berating her and ends almost every one of those episodes walking out in a huff. She’s just his punching bag, I guess. Or maybe that’s the way therapists treat each other? It was kind of like that on The Sopranos too, I guess. There’s some backstory there about their relationship that’s slowing coming out.
Anyway, we should get through the whole thing in another couple of weeks and I’ll report back then with a final opinion. We’re already thinking that if there’s a second season, we probably won’t watch it. It’s just too much to deal with.
Aside to Miles: Monday patient Laura is played by one of your favorite actresses, Melissa George, in full-out all-sexy mode.
Latre.
Pet Peeve of the Day: I stopped off at my local Subway to pick up a sandwich for dinner tonight, and even though it’s been months since I last patronized it, it was still slow as all get-out. That’s 20 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. I just can’t understand why they never have more than two people behind the counter, and why I always get stuck behind the customers with the huge lists who are buying sandwiches for everyone they know. This is especially galling because I can’t help comparing it to the Subway near work, where I go for lunch occasionally. That one, even though it’s smaller, is a marvel of efficiency. They don’t tolerate dawdling. During lunch, they’ll usually have like 5 or 6 workers there behind the counter, crammed into a tiny space. A couple three people making sandwiches, one at the cash register (not pulling double sandwich duty like at the other one), and also usually someone replenishing supplies and overseeing the operation. It’s really something to watch. You better know exactly what you want on your sandwich and be able to articulate it quickly, or you get nasty looks. Yeah, I know my local Subway is in a much less busy area, but still they always seem to get a lot of customers. I guess the employee turnover is pretty high. I keep looking at the workers and thinking “How long have you been doing this? My six-year old niece could make a sandwich faster than that”.
Fiber-related Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “do bagels have fiber in them”.
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