Poptarticus

I have to thank Pauline for changing my blog over to this new and improved software.  There aren’t too many people in the world who will do all that work with little return.  So, thanks, Pauline.

I think she is trying to guilt me into writing more - so maybe there is a return after all.  That’s her picture of the Parthenon, too.  I love the Parthenon, and the piazza and city it is in is one of my favorite places, but I don’t think I have ever taken a picture of it.  I think I tried but it wouldn’t all fit into the frame.  I am about as good a photographer as I am a good regular blogger.  No that’s not true!  I am a really good photographer, when I take the time to do stuff like that.

I’ve changed a lot since I first started blogging.   I’d like to say I’ve become more private (which is kind of true) but the bottom line is that several things have happened - I suffered major burnout, I got some weird emails, and I sort of forgot how to do it.  Mostly, it was the major burnout that killed the old blogger in me.  Now, all I have to do is try to find the new blogger.

In June, I made a pact with myself that I would write every day for the whole month!  But then all of a sudden June was gone and I was like “Wa the Fa?”  It went THAT FAST.

Got some cool stuff  coming up though, like, for instance, RADIOHEAD WEEK where I will be going to four shows in five days!  Plus I have KICK ASS SEATS, people.  We are talking THE BEST SEATS EVER.  So, I guess I will be doing some writing about Radiohead though I guess a lot of my readers don’t really give a fig about that.

What else?  My brother Tom just left for three months in Germany where for the first few weeks he’ll be tour manager for Hot Rod Lincoln (opening for the Stray Cats in massive venues all over Europe) and for the last few he’ll be on tour with his own band, the Mississippi Mudsharks.  My other brother, Jay and his wife Carrie just gave us the second Baby Essa who I haven’t seen yet but I can’t wait to.  He looks awesome. 

Wow, this is really scintillating stuff, but let me ease back into it if I may.

It’s been a tough week, but it’s time to say Happy Birthday to the cutest boy in the world.

First off - last night was the third episode of Top Chef Season 3. So far, this is shaping up to be a great season - way, way, WAY better than Season 2.

Last night, the challenge was taking traditional home-style recipes and reworking them to make them low-cholesterol and healthier. The reworked dishes were then sprung on some senior-citizenly Miami Beach Elks club members.

Well. You should have seen the look on the contestants faces when they viewed these dishes. Tuna casserole? UGH. Meatloaf? YICK. Fish & Chips? HOW CAN I POSSIBLY LOWER MYSELF TO THIS. While I am thinking, I absolutely love to cook, and eat, all that white trash stuff.

OK, this is the one bad thing about having all these uber-experienced contestants. (Well, more experienced than in the past, anyway.) Sorry, but franks and beans ROCK, especially when you have a hangover - just ask any British punk rocker. Wait - maybe they only eat the beans. Whatever, you get the drift. Chicken and dumplings, mac and cheese, these are the foods I would pay extra for if they were done well. What were the contestants thinking?

As it was, they couldn’t cope with it. I guess it could be the absence of fat that turned them all into a bunch of lame-asses. This challenge turned them all into Season 2 type chefs when up till now they were looking very Season 1.

Amuse-Biatch has an absolutely brilliant piece about last night’s quickfire challenge, which involved sea creatures and quotes like “I don’t dick around with conch.” I wish I could write that well.

In other news, Wilco are coming to San Diego! August 29 at the San Diego State Open Air Theatre and I have KILLER seats, thanks to Mark. And Arcade Fire is coming to the Hollywood Bowl on September 20, so I’ll be heading up for that. Tickets go on sale this Saturday… I scored a decent seat on the presale somehow. This is making up for me missing not one but TWO Spoon shows when I am in France in September.

So, it’s good that I am finally feeling better, because there is a lot of stuff about to happen.

I’ve been sick. Laid out, hot and cold, sweating. Unable to breathe or lift anything.

I love living alone but I’ll say this: being sick alone? Beyond horrible. It’s the only time I wish I had someone around to take care of me. I’m getting better now, thanks god.

Anyway. The “big news” is not so crazy; I guess it might have sounded that way because my sister-in-law Carrie called me to admonish me that she should be told of big news before my blog readers! Sorry Carrie. I’m not pregnant, getting married or divorced, I did not get fired or get a promotion, and I am pretty sure my cholesterol is the same as it’s always been.

The big news then.

I’ve been a part of the slowtrav community for over five years as an active member. This is a group of people that have become like a family to me. Like, it is a HUGE part of my life.

Last week, Pauline, founder and “Queen,” as we call her, asked me if I wanted to become a moderator and head up my own forum on Spain! After about five seconds of deliberation I said yes.

My job as a moderator will be to get people in there, so if have been to Spain, want to go to Spain, or, well, just like Rioja, please stop by. Just be nice, ’cause I have the power to whup your butt if you aren’t. Just kidding, I won’t whup anybody’s butt. I don’t think.

This is a cool new chapter in my life and I am really excited about it. So, onward! HERE is a link to the Spain and Portugal forum. As moderator, I command you to check it out! Just kidding. Maybe.

I’m not going to write too much about Sunday’s Independence Jam. It wasn’t a very good day - Miller Lite and White Trash Assholes equals Recipe for Disaster.

Spoon was OK. They were great, actually, but it’s nothing I’ve not seen before. They only played one new song, Britt appeared to be wearing the same outfit I saw him in at their show here almost a year ago… not that this matters, really. But I was, between the assholes and the repetition, not only unmoved but unhappy. Could it be I am falling out of love?

Whatever. The rest of the show was fine, Interpol was good, but it was all pretty bland.

Thankfully, last night made up for a hundred shitty shows. Wife Hannah and daughter Emma being in Wisconsin for a few days, Brian asked me to join him for an early meal at The Vine. We met there and proceeded - with the help of the staff - to drink many fantastic bottles of wine. It was just a perfect Monday evening at The Vine, with a lot of comraderie and a killer dish of pasta with pancetta, broccoli rabe, and Boschetta al Tartufo - a cheese with bits of white truffle. That pasta, with the Nebbiolo and then the Barolo we drank, was really incredible.

It’s always fun to hang out with Brian but to hang out with him on my side of the bar, instead of him waiting on me and everyone else at The Vine, was awesome. There was another dude in there too, John, who looks like the last real OBcian with a beard down to his navel, who instructed me about Permaculture. So not only did I eat some killer food and drink some unbelievable wine but I also learned something completely new.

Eventually Brian and I went to John’s house and this is where the evening got trippy. John lives in a house that I have walked by a million times and I always loved the way it looked. It looks, well, like a house in OB should look - hippiesque, unkempt, welcoming, funky. So we go in and then to the backyard where there are a series of lean-to type structures and dudes are back there, living in them! It’s like a jungle, like the treehouse at Disneyland but real, like some kind of crazy dream. Maybe it was the wine, I dunno, but it was intriguing.

Anyhow. For every bad day, a great night. Right?

Yes, that’s right, it is 6:30 in the morning on a Saturday in May. “What is she doing up that early?” you ask. “Ah, she must be taking off in an airplane for somewhere really cool again.” Because that is the ONLY good reason to get up this early on a Saturday.

Unfortunately though I am not taking off in an airplane for somewhere really cool. I woke up to the sound of screaming at 5:30. Seriously, it sounded like someone was being murdered. After some time I went outside and it was one of my normally quiet neighbors (most of my neighbors are really loud, so this was a surprise.) She was SCREAMING into the phone, crying hysterically, for a long time. Pretty freaky. Anyway I have to drive my grandma to Phoenix today for my cousin’s wedding so may as well get an earl(ier)y start.

The sun has not come out here in days. It is May Gray and there is a cool wind off the ocean that I am going to really miss when I get to insanely hot and dry Phoenix. It’s frikken 100 degrees there already. Yick.

Other than that, not much except for my very first magazine article was recently published and I am really happy with it. The article is about Venice, it’s in Packed Magazine, and you can download it, very slowly I might add, here. I’m on page 42, which is weird because I AM 42. Or maybe that’s not so weird. Whatever. It’s the May/June issue.

One can only hope it leads to many great things. In the meantime, off to Phoenix.

It was only a matter of time; I’ve always known that Britt Daniel will eventually be a very famous rock star.

Now he’s on the cover of Spin. It’s started. Actually, he is not really On The Cover; unless you fold it out. The company he is keeping there is pretty impressive.

Well, (heavy sigh), life changes. I knew it would happen and I guess in the future I won’t get to see Britt at smallish clubs like Canes anymore. I’ll be forced to go to SOMA and wait on the friggen’ pavement of a strip mall for four hours and then I won’t even be able to pee all the wine I consume without fear of not getting back on the floor. Or I’ll be sitting in row H at the Greek Theatre in Hollywood. I’m not so sure I like this chain of events. It really sucks, for me!

But it is good for Britt Daniel so I suppose I should be happy for him. Sniff.

Speaking of change, yesterday I took a long walk around my own neighborhood. I don’t usually get much past the Vine, but yesterday I had a special hankering for fried seafood or some other kind of pub grub. I had heard about a new Irish pub on Newport called Gallagher’s, but they don’t seem to be open for business yet - though they look to be almost there. So I kept walking around the corner to Tower Two - a sort of fish taco/breakfast/cheap wine and good beer sort of place. Unfortunately for me, the three server chicks completely ignored me for about twenty minutes despite my meaningful glances. Guess it was a mistake to sit inside by the door (huh?) So finally I got up and left. Yesterday I did not have the energy to scream out “YO CAN I GET A PINOT GRIGIO AND A FISH TACO IN THIS PLACE OR WHAT?” Oh well. On my way out, I looked up and noticed that the OB location of Nick’s at the Beach, after what seems like two years of getting it together, is about to open. Those chicks at Tower Two had better get their shit together.

Finally in a sort of I’ve Got to Eat Now or I Will Pass Out state of being, I wandered over to what used to be Ortegas but is now the Blue Parrot Cafe. I hadn’t been back there since I got an extremely violent case of food poisoning there about a year ago, and it was with major trepidation that I ate my cheese enchilada. But I seem to be OK today (though the food wasn’t so good.)

People were out in force, though it was not exactly warm, and everything was packed. I don’t like Newport Street on the weekend so much. I definitely prefer it on my morning walks when there is hardly anyone out and when I sometimes see three or four people I know, because we actually live here.

Anyway. The Vine might be opening for lunch soon and then I won’t have to bother with these other places at all. Now that is one change for the good!

You might be wondering where I have been. Well, I was traveling, and then I got home and I have been haunted these past few days by dreams and imaginations of bad, bad things. It hasn’t been a good week what with the worries and the cold sweats. I will not bore you with details… after all I have a reputation to protect.

BUT…. big news and that news is, a new season of Top Chef is starting June 6. I think the REAL season actually starts June 13, but there is some stand-off episode between the winners of seasons one and two on the 6th. (I think.)

At any rate the contestants of next season are up on bravotv.com and in the very near future I will give you my run-down on all of them. I didn’t do so good on my last season’s preshow predictions; I did, however, do quite excellently on my predictions after the first episode.

Of course, I did not predict how I would end up rooting for Marcel in the end. By the time that came around, the show was so boring I didn’t even write about it anymore. Let’s hope they handle it all a little better this time.

What with all the concerts coming up - Arcade Fire, Raveonettes and THEN Spoon (whoo hoo!) AND Interpol in the first ten days of June alone, it’s already looking like a crazy summer. So, it would be in my best interest to not think about identity theft or pole shift for a while. There are better things to obsess about.

I am back and promise to post more soon. In the meantime ya’all have a look at my beautiful nephew.