Not in the Tiles

I'm sure you can imagine how much I must miss Sushi Island (there's nothing like it), but here we have Sushi on the Rock for a weekly sushi fix. I especially enjoy the happy hour menu, the best is the baja roll (much like a fish taco, only wrapped in seaweed, yum!). When we were leaving the restaurant, I had to stop and take a couple photos of the amazing sunset. And then we were off to mah jong. It was really fun to play (as always), and the lemon loaf seemed to be a hit (thanks D!), but I just couldn't seem to get a hand all night.

Teenage Fanclub

I took some pictures at school yesterday, so you could see where I go on tuesday nights. There are no windows in the classroom, I guess because it's the photography building. And the comfort of the desks leaves something to be desired. I guess I should have taken some photos of my school friends too. Oh well, maybe next week!

Meat on Adams Avenue

Today we went to the Adams Avenue Street Festival, in Normal Heights. It is always huge and always fun. The weather was perfect (about 76 degrees and sunny). There were lots of stages set up with tons of bands, vendors selling more things than you could imagine (things you couldn't even recognize), and SO much food. I got a bag of kettle corn (how could I resist? you know it's my favorite) and a delicious lemonade. But more than anything, there was a lot of meat. Wish you were there (you would have loved it!).

Smile Like You Mean It

Isn't it amazing that you can walk in to a dentist's office with a small gum infection and walk out an hour later with them telling you that you need $1000 of dental work. Can it be true? Is it a scam? What do you think?

Internet Killed the Video Star

I Love You Tube. For two reasons, mainly: Music and the Daily Show.

Exhibit A - Prior to coming and sitting in front of this monitor and typing my little heart out for you folks, I watched the 8 pm, next-day rebroadcast of the Daily Show on Comedy Central. I tuned in for Bill Clinton's appearance (which was entertaining, but not riotous), but was treated with the added bonus of Stewart's scathing reply to political pundit and neo-con operative Robert Novak's criticism. And lo and behold, I can now share the amazing clip with all of you via the glorious You Tube. Please stick it out to the end as Stewart gets on a roll during the last 1-2 minutes.

Exhibit B - Last week, I picked up the new album by the Brooklyn quartet Grizzly Bear. I hadn't heard it, but it received raving reviews from all of the usual suspects (including Robert Novak, ironically). It is quite dense and not at all immediate. The singing is often in the background rather than the foreground, with melodies feeling more atmpospheric than rib-sticking. I need to spend more time with it to render a complete judgement. But from the initial listen, I hooked into the third track, Knife. Somehow, earlier today, I stumbled on a clip of Grizzly Bear, walking down a street in Paris, performing an a cappella version of said song. It was mesmerising. It turns out that there are about 30 clips on You Tube by these filmmakers who record images of indie popsters performing on the streets of Paris, in fields in Brooklyn, in bars, in flats, anywhere. I'm not sure if you can fully enjoy the version of the Grizzly Bear song without already loving the original... but I also stumbled on this incredible clip of the Kooks. I hadn't heard the song before, but the clip was still brilliant. It is very cute at the end when the young singer says something like that was the craziest thing he had ever done.

And yes, I nicked the title of the post from the version of the Buggles song that the Raconteurs played at the VMAs. And speaking of Jack White, how about that homage to Michel Gondry's video in that amazing segment on the Simpsons this week.

I love You Tube.

Deal or No Deal

I just wanted to let you know that I am having a sale in my shop. So, if you know anyone who might be interested, please pass along the link. Thanks!
-Mel

Lazy Sunday

We went to the Farmers Market in Solana Beach this afternoon. Len especially loved all the samples, he couldn't stop eating white peaches, heirloom tomatoes, odd plum type fruit with an unusual name (pluot? a cross between plum and apricot, very delicious). Have you ever seen mini vegetables before? They are so tiny, it doesn't really come across in the photo. I bought some flowers from the flower guy and took a photo of him, but he really wanted to take a photo of me "with all the flowers, it would be very beautiful". I think we might go back next weekend!
-Mel

It's Always Summer in SoCal

Here's one more I just made that I kinda like. Now I'm thinking I should start doing asymmetrical hems, hhmmm...Thanks for the great idea and the feedback, it's always appreciated.
-Mel

Cute, Too Cute, Cute Enough?

I'm making girls' dresses for the Thread show in December (hope I get in!). I've put this one in my shop to see what the response is. But I thought it would be good to ask you. Do you like it? What do you think? Let me know. Thanks!
-Mel

Beijing Building

It's been a busy couple of days, but I'm hoping Len will be able to do a post tonight (while I'm at school!). For now, here's another photo that was in the show at the SD Fair. Hope you like it!
-Mel

Baja Style or Charbroiled.

As Len said earlier this evening, we've had a "jam packed great day". And I just wanted to share some photos of the delicious fish tacos that we had for dinner (and the view from Las Olas!). We like to share these with everyone who comes to visit us (Len says "fish tacos are to San Diego, what cheese steaks are to Philly", hope I got that right!).But I'm not sure if anyone loves them as much as we do. Hope so!
-Mel

Beijing Dog

Tomorrow is the opening reception of the 'Selections' show at Calumet. This is a show where they chose 30 photos from over 700 from the show at the SD Fair. I am excited to have been chosen and to go see my photo in the show, yeahh!!! In case anyone is interested in seeing the image, here it is. I think maybe I should have chosen a better title for it, but I guess it doesn't really matter.
-Mel

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Tried the new mixer today, it is awesome. So easy to use and so beautiful to look at. Earlier today I wondered if I played mah jong as an excuse to bake or if I bake to have something to bring to mah jong. (of course, I love the game) But maybe people can't eat cupcakes every week. Can you have too much of a good thing? What do you think?
-Mel

I Got Those Gettin' Up Early Now That Summer is Over, Post-Labor Day Blues

A couple of interesting articles to share with you all:

Salon has a review of of a new book called This is Your Brain On Music. Written by Daniel Levitin, a former record producer turned academic neuroscientist (I smell sitcom...), if this book is half as interesting as the article in Salon, it is worth checking out. My favorite quote from the Salon article: The cerebellum attempts to predict where beats will occur. Music sounds exciting when our brains guess the right beat, but a song becomes really interesting when it violates the expectation in some surprising way -- what Levitin calls, " a sort of musical joke that we're all in on." FINALLY!! A biological explanation for the huge success of Arcade Fire!

Yesterday's New York Times featured an article called The New Tastemakers, primarily about Pandora, that great service that creates personalized "radio stations" based on information provided by the listener: favorite songs, favorite groups, songs you hate, etc. For some reason, though, I end up listening to KEXP, Jonesy, and Nic Harcourt way more than I use Pandora. I think it is because a lot of the stuff that comes up on Pandora is so obscure that even if I like it, I'm suspicious... How could Pandora know about something good that Stereogum hasn't mentioned? My brain must be playing tricks on me...

And as an ode to the waning days of Summer 2006, I'd like to share a couple of tunes that have kept me and my cerebellum laughing our asses off, figuratively speaking of course, for the past several months. While I still haven't figured out how to upload songs, I'm including links to sites where you can listen or download these songs for free, quasi-legally. (In most cases, it may require a bit of scrolling, but well worth it.)

Little Miss Sunshine was my favorite movie of the summer. This is Your Land by Sufjan Stevens and How it Will End by Devotchka, both featured in the film and on the soundtrack, are available at Silly Pipe Dreams. The Funeral, a great track by the Band of Horses, is available from the Sub Pop website. Mothers Sisters Daughters Wives by Voxtrot has been one of those songs that has me repeatedly flipping CD cases (while simultaneously eating lunch, talking on the phone, and navigating via Mapquest directions on I-5) to determine who it is whenever it comes on in the car... Great song. And if you liked the song by the Mountain Goats from the video I posted last week, here it is courtesy of Chromewaves. And finally, the song that Mel and I dance naked around the apartment to, Young Folks, by Peter, Bjorn, and John (featuring the gal from the Concretes) courtesy of the awesome mp3 blog, Fluxblog. Enjoy.

Mix Master Mel

I love labor day weekend. Len decided that this weekend was the perfect time for me to get a kitchen aid mixer, yeah!!!!!! It is green apple (the color in the photos isn't exactly right, but it is SO beautiful). I hope this will bring joy to many people (yes, I will finally make that cake again T!). And a new nickname to top it all off! Hope everyone's having a good long weekend.
- Mel

Person, Place or Animal

We had a great night last night, that began with dinner at our new favorite restaurant, Hash House
The food was incredible and came on REALLY big plates (see photos).
After dinner we played a couple games of Pictionary, we just got this game yesterday and it was my first time ever playing it, it is very, very fun. I am including some samples of the artwork from our games. Somehow, Len knew my drawing was of Pam Anderson, and correctly guessed, Baywatch. He was very proud of his work for the word 'teenager'. And I was impressed with J's drawing of a swiss army knife and really liked the way 'caffeine' came across in the other J's drawing. My favorite drawing that I did, a kangaroo. Now I can't wait for another chance to eat at the Hash House and play Pictionary again. For anyone who's interested, here is a link to the cupcake recipe, yum!
-Mel

Should it stay or should it go?

The blind in the 2nd bedroom broke, so I had to buy this curtain. Is it too much? Or just the right amount?
-Mel