This Ain't No Shuffle

This is a mix/playlist/whatever the kids are calling it these days that I made this summer and still enjoy:

I'm Still Waiting- Bob Marley & The Wailers
Amsterdam- Peter Bjorn and John
True Affection- The Blow (what a great song)
Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Personal Jesus- Depeche Mode
This Beard Is For Siobhan- Devendra Banhart
Short Stacks- The Ditty Bops
Tribulations- LCD Soundsystem
Faded Love- Patsy Cline
Fuck The Pain Away- Peaches
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town- Pearl Jam
Telamon Bridge- Spoon
Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)- Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
To Be Alone With You- Sufjan Stevens
Built To Last- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (also a very good song)
Jamie (Live and Acoustic)- Weezer
Track 1?- Wolf Parade
La Dispute- Yann Tiersen
What's The Use- Edith Frost (incredible)
I'd Rather Be Blind- Etta James
A Mistake- Fiona Apple
Hide and Seek- Imogen Heap
What Goes Around- Justin Timberlake
Somewhere Only We Know- Keane
Destroy Everything You Touch- Ladytron
A Baby For Pree- Neutral Milk Hotel

Yup.

Can You Tell It's My Day Off and I Don't Want To Clean or Write My Novel?

After the attic we went, briefly, to Stargaze. I had been once before but only to grab a quick bite before a Neo Futurist show...it was very dead that night. But on Sunday the bar was chock full of lesbian jocks singing karaoke an playing darts. The college chum took photographs. I sat. Neither of us got a drink because we didn't know how long we'd be there. The college chum's friend and date worked the room. By worked the room all I mean is that they said hello to a lot of people. Then we left. College chum took the photograph below...if she had any sense she would have taken it horizontally so I wouldn't have to worry so much. Gawd.
Our last stop of the night was Ravenswood Pub. I've been meaning to check this place out just because. It wasn't very crowded and was homey...which makes sense because it really used to be a house. In the back room was a cabinet full of games. The college chum's high school friend's date and I played boggle while the other two played connect 4. I like games.
This is an action shot...you see because the little coins are still falling out of the bottom of the whozit whatzit. You know?
It is my day off. And I got up around 8:30 am. I have written one Chicagoist post, picked up and put away all the clothing on the floor of my bedroom, replaced books onto a bookshelf, swept my bedroom, the dining room, living room and the hallway, made my bed and straightened out (without actually tackling the big pile of papers on it) my desk. This is a pretty good amount of doing. Except for the Chicagoist post, however, it was all just a way to delay the novel file. I've got a character who just figured something out and, in my mind, plans on doing something about it...problem is I don't know what she should do/would do. So I haven't touched the thing since she figured it out. Two, maybe three, weeks ago? I may write about photographs. Or about relationships. Basically I'm going to blog until there's nothing left to blog about and then maybe I'll get something done. Bo-ring.

Sunday, Part II: Cabaret/Bingo/Karaoke @ Mary's Attic

Oh my. I'm so lazy, I'm totally not going to upload the above photograph to picnik.com to rotate it and then download it back to my computer. Nope, not going to do it. One of the many disadvantages of graduating from graduate school and going out into the world is that the photoshop I've been using for the last year no longer works (it was on loan through SAIC and they seemed to have forgotten about it until October and now it just won't work)...this means I can do very little to make photographs look better than they actually are. And that to resize, rotate or adjust colors or contrast has become increasingly stupid difficult.

Anyway. The above photograph is of the college chum as bingo board taking a drink. After Hopleaf I relinquished all tendencies of being in charge of the night's agenda. This resulted in going to places in the neighborhood that I haven't been to before, or haven't been to on the right night to understand their full appeal. The first stop was Mary's Attic the upstairs space of Hamburger Mary's. Now, when No-Longer Wayward and I went to the restaurant neither of us were overly impressed. I recall being downright offended (not really) by receiving our check in a high heeled shoe. But when we went upstairs there was a funny little cabaret going on...it was funny but they sang real nice.


Every time I hear the above song I think of my freshmen year of high school. The memory is this: it was the time of year where we were to come up with a skit or some other performance in honor of our hardworking prefects (the seniors that watched over us). I did not play an active part in any of the planning, or I don't think I did, but I was in a room with about 14 other girls as they tried to rework the words of the song to make sense for our two prefects (Ronnie and Melicia if my memory serves). It went on for a long time and I had never heard the song before and didn't think it was all that great. In the end the lyric changing meeting ended with them ditching the song entirely. I think.

Anyways. After their set was over karaoke/bingo night started. We didn't actually stay for either activity but it looked like a fun crowd and I would consider it in the future. I'm not much for karaoke but Bingo is right up my alley.

Sunday Dinner c/o Hopleaf

On Sunday, after work, I met up with the college chum and her high school buddy and the buddy's gaggle of friends at Hopleaf. Well, three friends. Is three enough for a gaggle? Would it help to make them a gaggle if it turns out that they were lesbians? No? Shoot. They arrived before me and added our party to the waiting list for a dining room table. While we waited I had a Three Brothers beer of some kind. It was slightly darker than beers I usually like...but I actually liked it.
For living so close to Hopleaf I don't go very often. And usually it's just for one drink and not food. And by usually I mean the last three times (also known as the only three times) I've frequented the establishment. I'd always heard good things about their food and so I'm glad that I was finally able to taste it. With dinner I had a Lucifer, I liked it very, very much.
College chum and I split the sausage appetizer. It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be but it wasn't, by any stretch, bad. I love the mustard.
I had Mussels for one in the wine/cream sauce. The flash made it look very not good. The flash with a little bit of napkin over the flash made it look not much better. But here's the thing: it was very good. The inclusion of bread to sop up all the broth was key. As was the large amount of Belgian style fries with garlic aioli that also accompanied the dish.
Next time I will try their Belgian beef stew. Yeah I will.

I Wouldn't

For the past couple of weeks I've been doing a new weekly feature for Chicagoist. Mainly because my editor asked me to and I don't want to be kicked out of Chicagoist. I haven't been linking it because, well, it's not always pleasant. But since this time it's personal, I thought I would. Go here to feel gross.

Yessiree

On Saturday night the college chum finally made it: Brooklyn to O'hare to my house. Ah. Then we went to Hama Matsu where we ate a lot of sushi. The cupcake roll (I think that's what it was), white tuna, ikura, wasabi (didn't taste like wasabi tasted like cotton candy) tobikko and a few other choice treats. I also had a seaweed salad. It was all, as usual, very good. And the cinnamon tea, ah so, the cinnamon tea! Then we returned home, drank hot toddies and I introduced chummy to the wonderful world of Veronica Mars.

The Sirens Never End

So I'm not one for art most of the time. Well, at least I'm not into searching it out or talking about it at length (thanks, college, for bludgeoning that exact desire outta me early on) but yesterday I felt like checking out some new art. So I went and looked around, online, at Chicago galleries...and I found this picture...it really spoke to me. In part because I think it looks a bit like mousehead.

Pie, You Say?

On Wednesday night No-Longer-Wayward came over and helped me make not one, not two, not three but four pies! Apple pies. Made with the apples I picked last week. This one has a rainbow with apple clouds on either side (it was taken home with No Longer).
I brought one pie to work but the people in the office don't seem to like office pies. Whoops I mean apple pies. They don't like apple pies. One said that she was allergic to cooked apples and yet not uncooked ones. I, in my head, questioned the soundness of this reason not to eat my freshly baked pie...then I got over it.
So two pies down...two to go. These days I make something for Chicagoist and then I live off it for the next week (first with soup, then lasagna and now pie). Pie for breakfast, check. Lunch, yessir. Dinner, oh you betcha.
Right now I'm waiting for a college chum to wing her way (well, she's already winged, technically) on the train to my house. Once she gets here I will insist we go out to eat and then come home for pie. Well, I won't insist if she doesn't want to. Whatevs.

Random Picture For Random Post

Throughout my life, whenever I had trouble sleeping, I would simply turn around. If my feet were facing one way and my head the other but without sleep a'coming, I'd simply rotate so my feet would be where my head once was. Usually this would quickly lead to my REM'ing out...no matter how long I had been waiting for it the other way around. How could a simple shift could result in such a profound thing: sleep. There are a number of kinds of sleeplessness. There's the drinking all night, can't possibly sleep sleeplessness. But that really is more of a delayed sleepfulness. There is the I can't stop thinking about this really exciting thing that's going to happen tomorrow sleeplessness. There is the I can't stop thinking about this really sad thing that's already happened and there's nothing I can do to change it sleeplessness. There's the I heard a noise outside/downstairs/in my closet that I can't explain sleeplessness. There's the (this one is akin to the something really exciting) I have an early flight/drive/event to get up for tomorrow so I've gone to sleep at 10 to make sure I'll be fresh but now it's midnight sleeplessness. Then there is true insomnia. The kind where you lie in bed for too many hours and, finally, you get up. I rarely get this kind. I have had bouts of slightly purposeful sleeplessness...when a friend died I vaguely recall not sleeping properly on purpose...the rationale being that if I didn't go to sleep I wouldn't awake the such a terrible truth.

Lately, or as often as the podcast build up allows, I put myself into a sleeping state by listening to Garrison Keillor do his opening Lake Woebegone monologue. I always start out wanting to listen to the shape of his story, the way he comes up with it as he goes along (I heard this to be true, that it's improv story telling), where he gets a bit lost in the narrative and how he gets back to it...but in the end his voice puts me into a dream state. Or, not a dream state, an almost asleep and so comfy state. Unfortunately he does one monologue a week but I have to sleep each night. So...


You'd think I was having trouble sleeping but I'm not. Just thinking about it. And how last week I changed positions in order to sleep and I still haven't reoriented myself. I'm still sleeping in a direction that brings me sleep. But how long before a night comes, a night of some kind of sleeplessness, and I can find nothing else to do but switch again. And if that new direction, that used to be the old direction, works in the same way that the old new direction did then, well, what is the power of it?

Lamby

So I got myself more lamb...and then I marinaded it with bits of apple, garlic cloves, salt and Balsamic vinegar. Then I pan cooked it. It would have been good if it had been the same quality meat as my last lamb...but it wasn't...way too much fat and gristle not enough actual juicy lamb-ness. With a side of pan fried potatoes...with the apple bits too. I may write this up for Chicagoist.

I Look That Bad On Purpose (The Eyes Closed And Everything)

I went to a Halloween Party earlier in the week. I almost didn't go...then I thought of the perfect costume.
I am your mom, after a long night on the streets.

Lunch Sandwich And Condo versus Old School

On Saturday I had a sandwich from Pane's Bread Cafe. It was turkey, ham and bacon with lettuce, tomato and dijon mustard. I also added spicy mayo and muenster cheese to it...it wasn't as amazing as I thought it might be...it was the quality of the meat, I'm a shaved thin kind of sandwich girl (unless the meat is of a superb quality and its thickness is something to marvel at) and this wasn't that. I don't know. I'd give it another shot, the bread was good and the sandwich was hot. The mayo wasn't spicy though. Then I took a walk around. It was a real sunny not quite cold day...it reminded me a bit of high school, sitting on benches. I wish there were more benches for people to sit on and look around. On my little walk around I saw a number of such benches...unfortunately they were all outside senior citizens' homes and nearby them were signs talking about how if you weren't a member of the building you shouldn't be sitting on their benches. Sigh.
New school architecture, everywhere in Chicago but never any less stupid, next to old school halloweenized kind of architecture. I like the old school...even if it's not the absolute example of old school...I think you can still get the idea.

Morning Side

The next day I had breakfast at Three Brothers Restaurant then made a slapdash, directionless drive back to Chicago. Traffic greeted me past O'Hare and it was the opposite of the feelings of the day before.

Dinner in Woodstock, Illinois

After a time of recharging photo batteries and watching the cable television in my hotel room, I went to Woodstock's historic square. I went, specifically, to La Petite Creperie. I had a very lovely meal. It might just be the best meal I have had in a number of months. I had a hard time deciding what I was going to eat. So many things seemed like they would be good. I finally settled on the escargots for an appetizer and their special of the month: veal in a creamy wine sauce with vegetables over rice. The veal was tender, not quite as tender as I expected but I think the last time I had veal was at Tru...and, well, yeah.

For dessert I had their "French Kiss", caramelized apples and cinnamon, flambeed in Calvados with a dollop of Creme Anglais(e?).
They also had a $31, three course prix fixe. It was nice and there was even a true, live French person! Oooh, la la. And it was clear that a lot of the other diners were repeat customers familiar with the waitstaff and menu. I also had a glass of Vouvray with my escargots and a Chablis (recommended for the veal) with the veal. Mmm. Wee bit of a gluttonous meal but well worth it.

A Day Away: The Middle

After the orchard I meandered on back roads to the Chain O Lakes state park.
It was nice being in a car. It was nice to listen to music loud and in CD form. Thanks to M. Lady and my New York friend Jess for a number of good music compilations, one could call them mixes. Oh and to Neutral Milk Hotel for being so awesome to drive to. It wasn't totally country.
I saw at least five, more than that, barns. Many were pretty and had wholesome looking cows and horses nearby. Unfortunately it wasn't quite far enough away from Chicago not to have its pockets of developments or communities named after the things that they replaced (Apple Valley Estates or some such). It reminded me, in its more rural moments, of upstate New York only flatter and browner or tanner? Nice country roads.
Chain O Lakes State Park. I drove down to a boat launch and looked at a lake. It was big and there wasn't a path along it, or there must have been but I didn't say it. I sat and looked at the water and envied the people in their catamaran boat. Not really a catamaran. I was in a catamaran once. There was a man on the catamaran, I was with my parents, we were going from France to England, I was maybe 11, the man was old and British. He talked about fasting and how to cook a turkey and I thought he was really, really, really weird. That has nothing to do with any thing.


There were paddleboats but no one to rent them from. I could have rented a horse and gone on a trail ride...if I was made of pure gold and rubies.

This is the trusty rental car. It did a very good job.

At one of the picnic areas in the park. I stopped at several of these areas and took small steps down different paths or sat on a bench before deciding to return to my car.
It's nice, space and quiet and pretty and all in one place.

I Am Gearing Up

Just down the hall from me is a room...it has an itsy bitsy drawbridge...when I first saw it I thought it was a room for hotel staff that held heavy things that needed some sort of ramp...no. There is a sign on this room's door. It says:

Sir Lancelot Suite.

Nuff said, I think.

My First Stop

I've been wanting to get out of the city for a while now. It's a little more difficult since I crashed my car but everything is manageable if you don't mind paying for it. After a long, tortured figuring out of funds, timing and desires (and talking to my mother for an hour on the phone) I got my rental car in the morning and drove on up to northern Illinois for the day/night. I went to Royal Oak Farm/Orchard and picked some apples.


The apples were not abundant seeings as how I should have visited a few weeks back...this apple in particular I wanted...but it was too tall. In fact that was true for a large number of apples. I am five feet five inches and a half and I simply cannot make my arms reach seven foot things. But look how red and shiny! I didn't get it.

There were ladybugs.
And giant decaying pumpkins (another post once I get access to verticalizing software).
And stray chickens.
And pretty sad looking goats and sheep.
This was a dirty goose.
I also bought some cider, some windfall apples (unlike my last orchard visit location, this place didn't allow you to pick windfalls yourself at a discount...though you could get 1/2 bushels of their windfalls for 12.95...I did that in addition to picking my peck of Jonafrees) and I would have had lunch in their "country kitchen" but there was a large line of senior citizens, a good number of them in wheelchairs, that made me feel like it just wasn't worth it. No offense, senior citizens.

Straightforward but still Yummy

Mmm, pierogies and brussels sprouts. I ate them for dinner last night. Steamed the sprouts in the microwave. Boiled the pierogies in the water. A little butter, a little salt, a little pepper et woila!

Another Big Bunch

Surf's Up is cute, I like it.
Cynthia Voigt's On Fortune's Wheel is one of those books I read a lot when I was younger and still enjoy picking up about once a year. I read it again last week.
Yesterday I went to the Edgewater library and got some bookies then I read one. Towelhead. It was good though the main character/narrator was a bit more naive than I could completely believe.
I finished watching the latest series of Foyle's War mysteries and they continue to bring mystery to my life and awe at those there Brits with their World War II stamina.
Sarah Polley. I liked her in My Life Without Me...I liked that movie, I should watch it again. Now she's directed this somber, quiet movie about a marriage and alzheimers.
Poor Mary Stuart Masterson, being all tomboy unnoticed. Some Kind of Wonderful is surprising in that you don't exactly know who you're supposed to consider the main character.
OH MY GOD. Watch The Great Happiness Space...or maybe it's just Happiness Space? Okay here's the basic set up: It's a documentary about Japanese gigolo types and their female clients....most of whom are prostitutes...many of whom because prostitutes in order to be able to afford to pay the gigolos to hang out with them. It is crazy time.
Small town movie.


The end. So I am in northern Illinois right now, waiting for the batteries for the camera to recharge so's I can drive around in the country a bit more before going to the restaurant I saw on the internet that is nearby the hotel I'm staying in. I rented a car, you see, and went to an apple orchard...and then went to Chain O Lakes State Park...then meandered back to the hotel...where I have just learned a whole lot about Rachael Ray's rise to fame. Woo.