burnunit: (Default)
okay so now those fuckers are offering eyeglasses—not just sunglasses, but actual frames filled with non-prescription glass so you can go to your optometrist and put your prescription in it. Surprising absolutely no one, the excesses of the eighties are now, of course, considered vintage. AA, your one-stop shop for marketing fakery and your own complete hipster douchebag home kit! Augh! Augh! auuuuughhhhh!
burnunit: (Default)
sit in my brown room imagine windows where there are none, windows where just now there's just a wall and slices of green lozenges of green discs of green in the corners of the windows rolling hills and orange light aobve a green beyond this sweater beyond the munane textiles a green of afternoon a green of tropics and summer thick grass laying down clustered tufts upon clustered tufts green in the corners but I open my eyes and it's brown again and windowless. Grab me out of the car in the cold air help drag me to your mailbox help me fmble for keys first no not the keys godddammit shes not letting you in it's not eventhe right house not anymore because they've changed the windows I hear a baby crying no I dream a baby crying because I'm asleep now momentarily asleep at the edge of the wide world revealed in my hidden secret windows the great wide wrld and the waking watchful eyes of loud men at play loud shouts and much grabbing o f each other's arms, strength grave and terrible strength i grasp at it grab it I need to be among them, I need to follow the shouts and gestures because it's warm out there goddammit, warm! fingers on the sill now this slippery sandhill is getting substance, gathering my wits about it now and cementing in my grip
burnunit: (Default)
  • 10:26 If I mute the phone can I play mariokart on this conference call? #
  • 12:35 No. #
  • 17:18 You know who I love? Saul Bass. I'm going to rip off Saul Bass. As much as I can #
  • 17:30 @RichardBlais just NOW you're thinking vegas joints might be pulling a fast one? The rabbit hole's deeper than salmon for char, I assure you #
  • 17:35 Memo to self: seagrams makes a 100proof vodka. This is good news #
  • 20:07 @LeXi321x yes well. I shall be god.damned. before I'm rooked in by top shelf *vodka* online.wsj.com/article/SB118859310163314946.html #
  • 20:11 tinyurl.com/cd5ngv #
  • 06:42 Good morning back pain, how I have not missed you! #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (Default)

  • 12:36 Taking lunch—gotta remember to eat, man, eat! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (Default)

Eleanor: Daddy! Do you know what I want to be when I grow up?

Me: What?

E: A scientist!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

burnunit: (Default)
The Martinlez

2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. dry vermouth
1 1/2 tsp. Cynar
half an orange, sliced
leaves from two branches off a sprig of fresh thyme—about 1/8 tsp leaves

Muddle orange, thyme leaves, and Cynar in shaker or mixing glass. Add plenty of ice, gin, and vermouth. Shake or stir, strain through a fine strainer into a cocktail glass. (uh, simple conversion tells me 1.5 tsp = 1/4 oz. so... yeah... not sure what I was thinking)

I made three variations, one with sweet vermouth and one with dry, each with 4 drops of Peychaud's, then one with dry vermouth and no peychauds. They were all pretty good. I found I liked the dry vermouth-no-peychaud's version best—and in this case actually preferred the shaken version over the stirred, since clarity was not a requirement. But use a fine strainer, not a bar strainer or the shaker top. Otherwise you'll have a bunch of pulp and shit floating in your glass and it looks gross and feels dreadful in the mouth.

The others were very rich but I liked the tight tartness of the dry vermouth version. It felt more focused and also I think the two bitters didn't compete. We had all these oranges around the house and I was staring at the Cynar (I don't spend a lot of time staring at my bottles, normally) thinking about ways to play off its funkiness. Then I realized sweet oranges might actually balance it really nicely. The thyme—well, I've been wanting to get more herbal with cocktails. I thought about the original Martinez, which in one variant I've tasted (not all, as google reminds me), used healthy quantities of orange bitters, liqueur, or both. This reminded me of a Martinez in that sense, only much more funky. So I thought the L in the name would communicate a little more funk. Try one today!
burnunit: (Default)

  • 17:48 Created a new cocktail incorporating Cynar AND thyme. Funky good! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (Default)
Galactus by Mark EngblomI'm generally ... neutral-to-supportive of skeptics. Not because I agree with them. This should be a surprise to no one by now but in case you forgot, I do worship Jesus (who they call The Christ), if quietly. Anyway it's because I believe in their right to exist, their right to hold their opinions and their right to be free of harassment. I may have a little bit of a skeptical attitude of my own as to what actually counts as harassment and discrimination*, but I do support skeptics more often than not.

I've noticed some writers and commentators from the skeptical world using a turn of phrase that greatly amuses me. It boils down to "how can you expect me to believe that when you send messages in your brain to a mythological space giant he can tell you what to do?" That is a good question. Now, you may have gotten some of the exact details of prayer a tad bit off but we can debate that at a later time. I just think the words "space giant" or "mythological space giant" are hilarious. Now, I do get it, they're being somewhat hyperbolic to make a point: from the skeptic's pov, you might as easily refer to God as an old man on a huge throne, or a flying spaghetti monster, or any one of a number of impossible things. But you gotta admit, "space giant" is just damn funny. Well done, skeptics, well done.

It matters only a smidge for this conversation that I (I hesitate to say "we" but I can speak for several others) WE do not actually believe in a hypothetical "space giant" nor any one of a number of fantastical abstractions. Rather I believe in a somewhat more specific revelation of God, in the person of Jesus, a Nazarene born in Bethlehem around the time of Augustus (and yes, there's actually an in-bible dispute about whether it was when Quirinius was governor of Syria or when Herod was still alive) and cetera and cetera and cetera. There are some further trinitarian considerations, which I can go into at length.

The point is, we do not worship a space giant who tells us what to do. But for clarification's sake, I've included a picture and a link to an actual space giant, shown above, at right.

* for those of you scoring at home: subjecting them to proselytizing at the Air Force Academy? harassment. construing yourself as the first Christian mayor of... let's say Wasilla, in order to paint your political opponent falsely and as negatively as possible? discriminatory. asking what church you go to at a job interview? tasteless and illegal. Praying over the inauguration? not so much. Sorry. Sack up, unbelievers.
burnunit: (Default)
  • 09:45 @Salon_WarRoom well citizens arrest him already! We'd love it if you put a knee in his back and press that fucker's teeth to the ground. #
  • 09:46 @Salon_WarRoom I mean Feith of course. Not Denzel. #
  • 09:50 With the Power departing him, Cheney is too weak to stand #
  • 10:26 Shot of the day: msnbc showed moving van with boxes outside white house. Srsly. #
  • 10:29 Laura Bush: "heyy, ever'body." good ol gal to the last #
  • 10:32 Mindless chants! Mindless chants! Mind! less!chants! #
  • 10:34 The incoming first&second ladies really are somethin! #
  • 10:37 From this shot i see No ramp down to dais. Cheneys chair ...being redirected to left ...an undisclosed path, no doubt. #
  • 10:58 It's over. He's not the president anymore. I don't know what's next but Bush is over. #
  • 10:59 Good prayin warren. Amen, let it be so, amen. #
  • 11:02 Playing like this (yo yo ma et al) reaches deep into time, draws forth great light, propels. #
  • 11:10 Amid all the pagentry we have the pres and the chief justice on hand to preserve a little humanity...by fucking up the oath! #
  • 11:29 This moment Elizabeth Alexander is too beautiful to look at directly! #
  • 11:38 Let all who love justice say amen. Amen. Amen. And amen. Cue waterworks! #
  • 11:48 @inktea yeah, I was doing a lot of praying along. It's all very grown up of us suddenly. #
  • 11:55 Just didn't notice much but our presidents are starting to *trend* to the slender. Bush is kinda scrawny #
  • 11:58 @inktea not always for me. It's out of my ideal range, for starters #
  • 12:05 The sinister beginning: first official acts are done with his LEFT HAND!!! #
  • 12:06 @theGonzalez amen again! #
  • 12:23 Rahm at table with Cindy McCain. It must be a titanic fight of their respective mind beams. #
  • 12:24 John thune sighting! How I hate him. #
  • 19:39 @LeXi321x agreed but...srsly? as if DJIA numbers have actual meaning? for majority of people, anyway. Not our colonized minds! #
  • 22:07 Jon Stewart! I made that undisclosed location joke ten hours ago! Badly. But first. #
  • 22:59 @sfour hunger? or something _Bad_ happen at this thing? #
  • 23:20 @Salon_WarRoom dudes! multiple duplicate posts hours later! Turn it off turn it off!! #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

walk on

Jan. 20th, 2009 09:48 pm
burnunit: (Default)
Leann's doing the Three Day again this year, in honor of Amy Taylor again. You might get hit up for donations a couple times between now and August. When you're ready, please visit Leann's page and give even the tiniest amount(s). You can write checks to The 3 Day, also.

Cancer killed Amy in December. So this really matters to us.

Thanks.
burnunit: (Default)

  • 06:52 Don't eat peanut butter. Doesn't anyone at the FDA have kids?!? #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (Default)

  • 18:52 Actually there are THREE Hiltons in Bloomington. And All of them are the wrong hotel! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (Default)
  • 19:26 Really would like iPhone OS to support background processes, among other things. Thanks, z3rr0; party's over! #
  • 19:30 @RichardBlais the answer is C. but you should ask for 10% #
  • 19:37 @inktea it's always bad; but we can mine it, or farm it: a word here and there, a moment properly remembered et cetera et cetera #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (Default)

  • 08:34 Must eat breakfast, for it is the most important meal of the day. Also, heartburn. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (Default)

  • 06:36 Late to bed early to rise makes a man... something ...something... #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (Default)

  • 14:09 Banana ketchup. Cub Foods. Easy peasy, m'boys. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (determined)
Yes, 2008 has, in ever so many ways, been a shit year. Most of that is personal stuff, however, I mean, it's not hidden or anything, I just mean so much of our family stuff has sucked—and I say that without feeling like ... it's not shameful sucking, it's just a rain of crap. "Public" things have been quite good actually:
  • Academic things like graduating, presenting at the Media Ecology conference, finishing my thesis, getting an A on a paper I'd sort of given up on over a year ago
  • Simply surviving at work was nice, but also feeling like I'm excelling in actual performance is pretty awesome.
  • Eleanor starting school
  • Leann getting more acting work. And having her best year yet working at Valley Screen Printing
  • Two of my nieces having beautiful new babies.
  • Joining the board of the Minnesota Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy and starting that whole adventure. This is really something.
  • The arrival of our whole generation (and the next one) as a political force. And the rise of what I think might rightly be called Obamism.
  • I gave up on both of my favorite football teams in week six. They both won their divisions.
  • But really my friends and family have been tremendous this year and I am so blessed to have you helping me, and part of my life.
These are just some of the things to actually celebrate tonight, which I'm going to go do.
Right.
Now.
burnunit: (Default)

Yule log! Channel 45! Yuuuuuuule!

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

stuff

Dec. 23rd, 2008 10:36 pm
burnunit: (grim)
Aunt Liz died this morning. She was at peace and ready.

I hurt my back really bad this morning. Tonight, the drugs I'm on are making me kind of ooky.
burnunit: (Default)
The Twin Cities finally have Creme de Violette liqueur and it's wonderful. Just wonderful: sweet but not cloying, perfumey without being chemical. I have finally had a taste of the Aviation cocktail. Oh my gosh. You know that guy (or gal) who tells you you gotta try a negroni? That guy is pretty cool and isn't going to steer you wrong, not exactly. The negroni is a very cool cocktail (gin, sweet vermouth, campari), don't get me wrong. But the guy who tells you you gotta try the aviation? That guy (or gal) is someone you should be prepared to follow into battle. That person is a complete badass. I'm not saying I'm that person per se (I am recommending the aviation cocktail) because someone else recommended it to me first. Wow does that drink pack in the sophistication. So tight and bracing, so ghostly sky-high blue. Just lovely.

Aviation
2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. lemon juice
2 tsp. maraschino liqueur
1 tsp. creme de violette

shake with ice and strain

garnish with a single cherry
preferably one that's been soaked in brandy (I didn't have one, so I used a lemon peel or nothing at all) but don't garnish with one of those candied maraschino cherry things.

I strongly recommend you don't substitute anything for the recommended liqueurs. don't use cherry something or other. don't use parfait d'amour. If you want the elevating experience of the Aviation, make it as shown above. Between the color and the airy I think the Aviation is one of the most aptly named drinks ever because of the high flying balancing act and of "working without a net" since it has only the lemon juice

Now, fully enjoying my creme de violette one teaspoon at a time, I got to try some other delightful drinks.

Blue Moon
2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce Crème de Violette
1/4 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice, strained

Shake or stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass;
garnish with a twist of lemon.

The Blue Moon allows you to more aggressively feature the violet flavor and deep color. Very good, not as complex as the Aviation and sweeter by dint of the larger amount of creme de violette.

The Attention
2 oz. gin
1/4 oz. dry vermouth
1/4 oz. pastis (or absinthe)
1/4 oz. creme de violette
2 dashes orange bitters

Stir with ice and serve in cocktail glass. This is a really really fine cocktail. Since I served it stirred, it comes out clearer than the Aviation--I think the clouds are pretty important to that one though. The Attention comes out a beautiful clean cold gray that leans blue. It's gray in a way that is not unappetizing. It has a more refined structure, probably owing to the vermouth which has more bottom than naked lemon juice does.

After drinking an Attention, I came up with a variant that the bold ones among you might like (man it took me three tries to type that sentence, after drinking all these cocktails) in which I sub lellet and akvavit for the vermouth and pastis

2 oz. gin
1/4 oz. Lillet blanc
1/4 oz. akvavit
1/4 oz. creme de violette
2 dashes orange bitters
stir with ice

This has a little more aggressive flavor from the akvavit, which works at a more oblique angle than the Herbsaint (my pastis of choice- I should say I'm using bombay gin, rothman and winters creme de violette, the aforementioned herbsaint, and luxardo maraschino*). I think using Lillet is really fun and I recommend it instead of vermouth sometime when you're loking for for a change-up in any cocktail. I don't know what I would call it. It's a little blunter than the Attention so... Maybe I'll kcall it the Interruption cocktail? The INterjection!

Here's other interesting variations —instead of the Attention some people call it The Atty, so here's a link to a version of the Atty from adob


*btw, did you know it'spornounced "mare-ah-Skee-no" ? or "mar-a-skee-no" anyway the interesting thing for me was the K sound.
burnunit: (Default)

So my aunt liz has really bad cancer. I believe I can make a one day trip to Aberdeen, SD and back in order to see her. I think I'm gonna go tomorrow shortly after 9am. I might take the boy with me too. My goal is to get back same day, but if I can't quite, I will definitely come back Saturday as I have a gig Sunday morning (it involves a red suit, yes).

Anyone want to go with me?

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

burnunit: (awe)
Streaming footage of the canvassing board

This is awesome. Truly amazing to listen to.

UPDATE: Observe how they handle the votes on these. It's really quite a remarkable example of how "motion-second-discussion-vote" can work as the mechanism of considering the actions of a board or voting organization. It moves the whole process into a realm of strictly business and dispassionate professionalism, rather than every position ("aye in favor" or "aye opposed") being reached at some great personal cost by the person taking it or a person feeling like they put something at grave risk by taking a position. It's very illuminating.

It's something that some of you out there know I'm very hyper about (yes, you) and this is a great example of how moving something for consideration and then deliberating on it can be done quickly and without fear of harm to the person placing it nor the persons taking a stance in favor or opposed. Ritchie moves these things, and then if they are rejected, he puts out a different motion. No harm no foul. You can conduct your business just like this, perhaps at a smaller scale during your business session (i.e. not considering 1600 pieces of business at your average meeting!)

My only tickytack concern is I can't hear the seconds all the time. I assume they must have either a house rule/suspension of the rules in place; that or whoever seconds those motions is doing so away from a mic.
burnunit: (Default)

  • 11:21 I just bought beef bacon. We're thru the looking glass here people. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
burnunit: (wooderson)
One of my prized cookbook possessions is by the old Minneapolis Star food and culture writer Will Jones. As far as I can ascertain, Jones is the one who really brought the concept of urban (and urbane) food and entertainment writing to Minneapolis, way back in the 50s and 60s (starting as early as the late 40s maybe? the internet has a paucity of information about Will). He broke a lot of ground for someone like our dear Dara Moskowitz. Well, his cookbook Wild in the Kitchen is a treasure. It's filled with great recipes and amusing anecdotes from a bygone era. Also, the artwork is outrageous. So when the mood strikes me, I dig out (and significantly scale down the size of) the recipe for

Golden International Spaghetti Sauce
1 medium chicken
3 large onions, coarsely chopped
6 large carrots, coarsely chopped
1 head celery, chopped
2# beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
2# pork, cut into 1-inch cubes
2# lamb,cut into 1-inch cubes
3 large cans tomato purée
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp dill seed
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp sweet basil
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tbsp dry mustard
1 tbsp Madras curry powder
2 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup Japanese soy sace
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2# dried Chinese or Italian black mushrooms, soaked and sliced
1 c mushroom water (the water with which the soaked mushrooms have been covered)
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp chocolate sauce
1 tbsp peanut butter
4 or 5 dashes Tabasco
1/2 c strong tea
1 tbsp beef or onion soup powder
1 tbsp honey
1/2# cheddar cheese, grated
1 c parmesan cheese
2 tbsp grated green cheese (Sap Sago)
1 c dry table wine, red or white
1 pint sour cream
salt and pepper

Simmer the chicken, onions, carrots and celery in water to cover, with salt and pepper to taste, until the chicken is tender. Remove chicken from the broth and remove the meat from the bones, cutting it into one-inch chunks. Brown the beef, pork and lamb together in a slow oven, about 300 until fairly tender. Salt and pepper the meat as it cooks.

To the large chicken pot (be sure to leave all the fat and vegetables in the broth) add the chicken meat, with all the other meats and meat juices including any water that may be necessary to remove the brown crust from the bottom of the pan in which the meats are browned, and all the other ingredients except hte cheese, wine and sour cream. Rinse the tomato puree cans with water and put that in, too. Simmer at least two hours. Add the cheeses and continue to stir and cook until the cheeses are thoroughly melted and blended. Then stir in the wine and sour cream and serve the sauce with cooked spaghetti, green noodles or other pasta.

serves 30

Will includes a variant that's slightly faster and less expensive, but I'm not going to type it up here.

I assure you, it's delicious. I think some of the ingredients are half joking, and/or you can afford to leave some of them out, but I bet the strong tea adds a tannic punch, and the peanut butter and honey add a subtle roundness, and the curry powder probably adds color, etc. etc. So I usually make it close if not exactly letter perfect.

I reckon the real flavor comes in the upper third of the recipe, with the chicken broth, mirepoix and three kinds of browned meat. That and the care and time taken to reduce it slowly over a low fire.

He wrote "An especially rich and festive spaghetti sauce. I give the recipe for thirty people because it's a good way to feed large numbers of people exceedingly well, and I've never made it in batches any smaller."

A pot of this is on my stove right now.

Profile

burnunit: (Default)
burnunit

May 2009

S M T W T F S
      12
3 456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags