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Saturday, November 8th, 2008
Chapter 7 of The Golden Compass is a trip. When Sylvia and I were reading it this afternoon there was a lot of talk back and forth -- "Oh, so that's what was happening!" "Oh, so that's why Lyra was at Jordan!" etc. This is a really nice trick -- there was a lot in the first part of the novel that we were just accepting on faith without really understanding, the exposition is placed so that you've just about gotten used to not being sure what's going on in the plot -- you're just reading and enjoying the characters and the action, and suddenly you turn a corner and much of the mystery is laid bare. (Not all -- there's still the central mystery of what the G.O.B. is using the kidnapped children for, and what's the city in the sky, and why is Asriel being held prisoner.)
posted evening of November 8th, 2008: Respond
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Haven't posted any recipes in a while; here are two -- no real connection between them except that I've made both in the last couple days and both have some tangiential relationship to my parents being in town. Fruit and NutsSylvia and I were playing backgammon this afternoon and needed a snack. Well my parents brought along with them the fruits of the Central Valley, in the form of a big bag of almonds and a big bag of dried fruit from their friend Indira's farm. It's been a while since I had fresh almonds; they are the bomb. Here's one way to prepare them: - Roast nuts in a skillet over a high flame. Shake the pan every minute or two so they don't burn. You can sprinkle on top a bit of salt, pepper, cinnamon and sugar. The nuts are ready after about 7 minutes, when you start to smell the toasty flavor.
- The pan will be quite hot; turn the flame off, remove the nuts and put some pieces of dried fruit (peaches, apricots, plums) in. Press them down so some bits of the flesh burn onto the pan. Then pour in about ¼ cup or less of water -- little enough that the remaining heat in the pan is enough to boil it. Put the fruit in a bowl and pour the liquid over it.
Tasty with beer.Chicken Lo MeinThursday morning, my parents took Sylvia to Kam Man Foods, the Asian supermarket in East Hanover, to buy ingredients for making dumplings -- they also got a chicken, a bag of lo mein noodles, and some vegetables. - One chicken
- ginger
- garlic
- scallions
- soy sauce
- rice vinegar
- bok choy and/or other green vegetables
- mushrooms (those little white ones with the long stem and round cap are best; I don't remember what they're called.)
Directions:- Remove skin and bones from chicken. This is a pain and takes me a while; basically you just pull the skin off and trim away any gristle, and then cut the meat off of the bones. Save the carcass and skin for making stock. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces.
- Peel and chop ginger and garlic and scallions.
- In a wok, heat some oil over a high flame. Add the ginger, garlic and scallions and sauté briefly. Then add the chicken and stir-fry until it's just about done. Put some water up to boil while you are doing this and chop the vegetables.
- Pour some soy sauce and vinegar over the chicken and add the vegetables. Stir well and cover the wok. While this is steaming cook the noodles -- they take about a minute in boiling water.
- Drain the noodles and stir them into the wok. Serve.
posted evening of November 8th, 2008: Respond
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So I've been practicing this folk tune called "Devil's Dream" -- I happened on it in my book of tunes, and recognized it pretty well so I thought I'd try learning it. It's starting to sound alright -- not 100% yet, and not up to speed, but it's getting to where it sounds like a song. And then today, I was sort of noodling around with the idea of it and started playing a different song, in triple time, which I'm calling "Devil's Drunk" for now -- it is recognizably based on a similar tune idea, but it sounds drunk. Here is a rough recording of the two pieces:
Here is sheet music for Devil's Dream and for Devil's Drunk in PDF format, or both songs in ABC format.(Thanks for the inspiration, Martha!)
 (Sylvia wants to know if there is any relationship between these songs and "Friend of the Devil".)
posted afternoon of November 8th, 2008: Respond
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Friday, November 7th, 2008
Took today off work for an excursion to the city -- Sylvia and I took my parents to the Bronx Zoo for a fun tiring afternoon. Afterwards we met Ellen at the China Institute in Manhattan, where we watched Weijun Chen's stunning new documentary, Please Vote for Me -- a chronicle of the campaign for 3rd-grade class monitor at Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China. Every year up until now*, class monitor has been appointed by the teacher; her innovation this year is to select  three candidates and have them campaign for the office. You get to watch the class (through the eye of the the documentarian, who manages to insinuate himself completely into the fabric of the kids' days) independently create a primitive democracy, complete with patronage, bribery, voter intimidation... The kids are just marvelous, completely unself-conscious on camera, totally engaged in being themselves. I had to sort of guard against over-interpreting what they were doing and saying -- at the beginning of the movie I was trying to read each thing said by one of the children as having special deep significance -- but when I got myself to quit that and just engage with them as children, I was really able to get into it and identify with the three candidates and watch them figure out how to campaign. I'd recommend the movie strongly to anybody interested in democracy and elections, which a lot of people seem to be interested in that nowadays. It was of course especially great timing for us to see what with Sylvia being that age -- I could recognize mannerisms and behaviors of Sylvia and her friends, from the kids in the movie -- but I think I would have loved it even without that element. It's available on Netflix. (Not only that, it's available for download on Netflix -- you can watch it right now!)
* I'm not completely sure what year this was filmed -- maybe 2005 or 6?
posted evening of November 7th, 2008: 1 response
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Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
 The latest Robyn Hitchcock tribute record is being released! You can see the track list with links to the performers at glasshotel.net, and pre-order a copy if you need the disc. Otherwise wait a bit and the files will be made available for download. -- Also see that page for links to the previous two tribute discs.
posted afternoon of November 5th, 2008: Respond
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So: I gave a little bit of time and a little bit of money to Barack Obama's presidential campaign -- not as much of either as I feel like I ought to have, and certainly not as much as I saw people around me doing. But the point is, a lot of people contributed to this victory. I think (based on my reaction to Obama's speech last night, and generalizing from myself to Americans who are longing for change) that these people would be willing and even anxious to contribute and to work towards realizing Obama's promise of a new day for America. I put myself forward as one such -- I want to volunteer to work for change. Hoping it does not involve phone banks.
posted morning of November 5th, 2008: Respond
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Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
And it is a great day in America.
posted evening of November 4th, 2008: Respond
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The excitement was palpable at the polling place this morning. And not just excitement, but positive energy: people were looking at each other, smiling, talking about today as a historic day.
posted morning of November 4th, 2008: Respond
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Monday, November third, 2008
- 8 more hours until I will vote (at the Baird Center, in South Orange).
- 19 ½ hours until Talking Points Memo promises it will start carrying live coverage.
- (Approximately) 1,850 hours until Inauguration Day.
 Roy Edroso has the best "putting the election in perspective" post I've seen this year: If He Loses...How to Cope. And life will go on, whatever happens tomorrow. Man oh man do I hope I will be drinking tomorrow night in celebration, not in sorrow.
posted evening of November third, 2008: Respond
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Chapter 5 of The Golden Compass -- now things are starting to get really interesting. Sylvia and I are both on the edge of our seat. I really like the way Pullman drops hints about what's going on -- very graceful, they are not so cryptic you can't easily pick up on them, but they are not hammered into your ears either. A bit like reading a good whodunit. And at the end of the cocktail party scene, the transition to Lyra fleeing from Mrs. Coulter's house was handled very well. This book just feels elegant.
 (Note from an adult reading a kids' book -- it was such an eerie feeling I had, to be identifying with Mrs. Coulter as I read her cruel disciplinarian lines to Lyra before the party. I can't recall ever feeling this way though I've read many children's books with authoritarian adult figures in them.)
posted evening of November third, 2008: Respond
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