Mental notes

Dear Self,

Please do not lock yourself outside at 12:30 in the morning with no one home to let you in. Especially not if you're decked out in cycling clothes for a midnight ride because, while aerodynamics and moisture wicking are great qualities, you will look like a bit of a weirdo if anyone sees you standing out there like a little lost puppy. In any case, we are not a fan of breaking into our own apartment.

Sincerely yours,

Marcus

Birds... crashing into my window?

Not that I needed yet another way for the the interweb to take up more of my time with new music, but alas, I have found one. It's not my fault! There is but one person who is entirely (in my mind) to blame for pushing this on me. (Er... maybe it was more of a nudge, really.) .: shakes fist :.

Introducing: Marcus @ last.fm

Also, wtf is with birds banging into my window?
Do not like. Is creepy. Life does not need to resemble Alfred Hitchcock, thanks.

Personal Information Waltz

"Whenever something good happens to me, I wait two weeks before I tell anybody, because I like to use the word 'fortnight'"
-Demetri Martin

Jokes are funny and sometimes can be used as an excuse, but if you want the truth I was just too lazy to write this post right away. I wanted to, but time gets away from you... And then it was too late to write about it so many days after the fact (is it weird that I'm embarrassed at the thought of tardy postings?), and I wasn't sure what to do, but then I remembered this joke. "Aha!" I thought to myself, "I don't have to admit to laziness! I can claim that I was just waiting." Demetri Martin saves the day. It's kind of like having a time machine.

Two weeks ago I went to check out a show at the Firebird. Indie rock and ice cream? Yeah, I'll take some of that. There were four bands on the bill, two I'd never heard of, one I knew in name and online listening only, and lastly one I'd seen a while back and remembered enjoying. In no particular order...

~Opening the show we're The Dive Poets. I have a friend who is married to one of these guys and she'd invited me to one of their previous shows, but upon first listen it didn't sound like my cup of tea. It came across as a little more country, and while I will listen to it in small doses it's not exactly something that gets me excited. Boy was I wrong. They were surprisingly upbeat and danceable and far less country than I thought. Wouldn't know how to describe their style as all I have are two week old memories (they don't have an album out for me to buy... jerks), but it was good. Still kicking myself for skipping the last one. Most def gonna have to check them out again.
~The Tight White Pants Band. Oops, I mean Via Dove. Can't say I enjoyed them much. They were fairly decent musicians... I think. I was a little distracted, cause their pants were so tight, and so white. Hard to focus on anything else. I found myself wondering if they knew they were at an indie rock show. Or if they knew what indie rock actually is. I might have liked them say ten or so years ago, but now something this heavy and angry just makes me feel old. And that's all I've got to say about that.
~Elsinore was the band I've seen before, and they did not disappoint. I didn't know if I should be more entertained by their music, or the witty comebacks the lead singer had for every random thing yelled at the stage by someone in the audience.
~Finally, the band of the evening has to be Lost in the Trees. I wish I could put them in my pocket and carry them around with me. Unfortunately that would never, ever work, cause this was the biggest damn indie band I've ever seen. A guy on the drums? No surprise there. A guy with a guitar? Typical. But that's where any resemblance to your usual group stopped, and what started was almost like high school band just kept on going. There were xylophones, and horns, and a string section. There were instruments I didn't even recognize and had to look up when I got home. There were so many of them that they have to travel in a school bus. I didn't know where to look or what to listen to. I'd be watching the lead singer, when suddenly the brass would hit like a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to the stomach. (I'm being overly dramatic, but seriously, you could feel it.) I'd notice the cellos and violins were still there, and then they'd just go nuts, bows were flying over the strings like mad. And just who writes music like that these days, anyway? It's nothing so simple as a melody and a bass line with some lyrics sprinkled on top. With this many things going on the music has to be arranged; as it turns out, the lead singer just so happens to be a composer. Apparently he decided an unusual indie band was the way to go. Needless to say I was impressed. I'd go see them again, if only they weren't from North Carolina... le sigh. Bought their album and have been listening to it the last couple weeks; it's good, and it's growing on me, but it just can't do them justice.

Lost in the Trees @ last.fm
The Dive Poets @ myspace
Elsinore @ last.fm

Zoooom!

I love the feeling you get from being out biking, checking to see how fast you're going, checking to see what the limit is, and realizing that yup, you are speeding.
Life rocks.

Adventures in Cooking

This one time, I had a revelation. I'd known for years that I like to eat. I've long since gotten over that childhood thing where I worried about what I was eating and would be terribly picky about it. Mostly I think of this as a good thing, though it has led to some... interesting situations. Like when I ate some casserole thing that had yet to be baked. And then went back to have another serving. Little embarrassing, that one. Still haven't quite lived it down. Anywho, what occurred to me is the relationship that eating has with cooking: if I learn to cook, that will increase the number of tasty things I get to eat! Don't know why it took me so long to think of that one. There are a couple things I cook fairly often, my specialty being a stir-fry so mean that it will beat you up and call you names. Last night I found myself in the mood to try something new. I think that was helped by recently having had some raspberries forced on me. I dig fruit, but I don't believe I've ever had them before. I only agreed because I promised myself I'd come up with something cool to do with them. Standing in my kitchen I decided that pork chops would be the way to go for this little experiment, so I proceed to look around for some interesting recipes. Now, here's the thing about me - while I feel that I am perfectly capable as an adult at following instructions, I find that I oftentimes don't. I notice I'll do this thing where I'll find two recipes that look promising, and then I will follow neither of them. Instead I'll do a mashup, flipping back and forth between them as I go, and also will just make up some parts based on how I feel. In the past it's turned out surprisingly well considering my lack of cooking experience, which weirds me out a lil bit to be perfectly honest. Don't entirely understand how my luck can continue to be so good. Clearly I don't know what I'm doing, and sometimes I don't even bother to measure the ingredients. Yet it all came together last night turning out to be a success of delicious proportions. Enough yapping, guess I'd better make a note of what I did before I forget.

Ingredients:
about 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
about 1/2 teaspoon dried sage, crushed
about 1/4 teaspoon salt
about 1/4 teaspoon pepper
(I was surprised to actually find all these things in my house, as I don't buy herbs.)
2 boneless pork rib chops
a little bit of butter
about 2 tablespoons of olive oil
about 1/4 cup apple cherry juice
some unsweetened raspberries
somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
about 1 tablespoon flour (the recipe called for cornstarch, I think to get the sauce to thicken, but it's not something I keep on hand)

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine crushed thyme, sage, salt, and pepper. Rub evenly over pork chops. Melt butter and olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Cook pork chops for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, turning once.

Mash raspberries with the back of a spoon. In a second skillet, combine raspberries, juice and butter. Bring to a boil over low heat, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until sauce is reduced to desired consistency. Spoon sauce over pork chops.

I served it with brown rice and steamed broccoli. And then having way more raspberry sauce than I needed, I saved the rest to put on top of the coconut walnut brownies I made for dessert. Nom om om om. Now to figure out what I can do for next time with the raspberries I didn't use. Maybe a marinated chicken stir-fry...

Welcome to the Zombiepocalypse

I woke up this morning, and it was the end of the world. Well, hold on, let me back up...

I woke up this morning, and it was just like any regular day: Wake up. Out of bed. Clothes on. Food in mouth. Go. Out the door on my aluminum steed. And then this is where the end of the world came in. Hardly any traffic on the streets, be it pedestrian, cyclist or automobile. Eerie. Then there were all the looted houses, blood splattered streets, and of course the undead corpses shuffling around. Tends to be a bit of a giveaway, they do. Actually that was in my imagination, cause I'd been up half the night reading zombie comics. That ish gets into your brain and does all kinds of thing to your perceptions. If you haven't read it, I suggest you go get some of The Walking Dead and put it in your eye holes. Anyway, apparently July 3rd is now a holiday. Cause it's the Friday before, I'm assuming? I had no idea.