For some reason yesterday, I started thinking back on old commutes to jobs I used to have. My first job was at a movie theater in Waterbury. I was only there for 7 or 8 months, but I still remember the worst part of the commute, a harrowing blind left turn. Since you couldn't see anything coming from the right, I'd just have to gun it and hope that no one was coming. I was able to find it on Google Street View:
You're basically parallel to the main road, and have to look over your shoulder, and just go. My other commutes have been pretty easy. My ride to Showcase included a 2-mile stretch where I could coast all the way. In college, I only had to drive up Route 9 for both of my jobs. Trying to get through Albany was a pain, but working in Troy couldn't be simpler, since both my job and home have always been right on 787. I may have been thinking about commuting because today I rode my bicycle to work. It's only 3.5 miles and a 20 minute ride.
The morning ride was fine. Even though I way I go is all main roads, they're wide, and cars give me enough space. Actually, the car that came closest to me was a Toyota Prius. I was all, "Hey! I thought we were in this together!"
What's the worst part of bike commuting? -Getting hot/sweating. Even though it was 50 degrees this morning, I was sweating slightly by the time I got there. It was 80 degrees on the ride home, and it was a lot worse. -Changing clothes in the bathroom. It takes 20 minutes to get here, but I added another 15 minutes for locking up the bike and changing clothes in the bathroom.
What's the best part of bike commuting? Breezing through red lights. Just kidding. Although, I do treat them like stop signs, sort of slow down and go through them cautiously.
Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz last worked together on the excellent BBC series Look Around You. Now they're bringing that same style of dry surreality with a taste for production humor to a podcast called Radio Spirit World, a show that claims to broadcast from "the other side." I honestly thought Popper had uploaded some old weird radio program to his website, until I heard his voice in it. That's how convincing it sounds. With outdated musical and speaking styles, not to mention the ever-present gauzy sound quality. Did I mention its hiliarious? I was a goner by the time they got to the "How Did You Die?" segment.
This video reminds me so much of my childhood vacations to NJ. Not the fighting part. But the people/locations.
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These arrived on my doorstep today. "Fairytale Brownies?" Good god. Not for me. They're addressed to a person who never lived here, and a business which isn't located here. There was a person who used to live here who worked for this company, and sometimes got packages here for the business.
What should I do with them? Yeah, I know. Eat them!
The next home project is putting the door in the bedroom. Yes, the master bedroom has no door. I found the old bedroom door in the basement. One of the hinges had split in half, which is why they removed it, I suppose. I don't know how far back this door goes, but just moving it was a hassle. It's solid wood and weighs 54 pounds. I have respect for all things historic, but I've never mounted a door to a frame before and I don't want to start with this monster. I'll probably get a new solid pine door like the ones the former owners installed downstairs. They look the same, won't require extensive clean-up, and weigh less.
Don't worry, the door will go to Historic Albany eventually, along with a truckload of other stuff.
These lillies started blooming out front recently, which was a nice surprise. The former owners must've planted them.
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I'm happy to see that Vicki Bennett has returned once again to WFMU this week with "Do Or DIY." She kicked it off with a gem of a song which I figured out, after a minute, was a Mexican version of a mid-90s classic.
Saw the movie Anvil! last week. It was good. I don't think I can add much more than what everyone else has said about it.
But that one guy kept reminding me of someone while I was watching it. Not Lips, the fantastically pathetic lead singer, but his drummer friend, Robb Reiner. The one who hasn't completely lost his mind, and who should be able to have a career outside of this sad attempt to resusitate 80s metal. I finally figured out that he kept reminding me of Bob Odenkirk's character on one episode of NewsRadio. You can stop reading now.
In it, Brian Posehn, David Cross, and Bah (Bob) visit station manager Dave because of a pact they made in college to reform their acapella singing group, Chock Full O'Notes, in 10 years. Bob had been practicing every day for the last ten years, so that he was in good shape, and "Chock" could take the Billboard charts by storm with a style of singing that "most people find extremely gay or in some other way distasteful." He had been fired from his job at a law firm because he was singing too much. Anyway, it's that dedication to reviving and making it big with an outdated style of music that kept making Robb Reiner seem so familiar, I think.
Watch the entire NewsRadio episode on Hulu.
Jun. 25th, 2009 @ 04:33 pm
To these people riding around on tiny bicycles: I don't get it. Get an adult-sized bicycle!
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When I lived in Menands, I used to go for a walk almost every day around a neighborhood near my apartment. Totally quaint, idyllic neighborhood with a park on one side, a little library, and, incredibly, hiking trails through the Sage Estate. Lots of old houses, from the late 1800's and early 1900's, some three-story behemoths, and some tiny two-bedrooms. I wish I could've bought a house there, but you would rarely see a house go up for sale. It figures that after we moved out, there is a real beauty up for sale: A 1900 Walter Van Guysling house, three stories, 6 BR, 2.5 baths, on 1.5 acres with a tiered lawn and babbling brook on one side. I used to pass this every day. It's in a group of three very similiar houses, probably built at the same time by the same people, maybe for the same family. These days you would never see people coming or going from them. I don't know why. But they were always impeccably landscaped. I would move there, if someone would just lend me $600,000.
Jun. 23rd, 2009 @ 05:17 pm
One thing I'm finding that's both a blessing and a curse about being a vegan for a month is that your choices become very limited. Making food from scratch, sure, that's fine. You can make all kinds of tasty foods sans animal products. It's when you start buying premade items that it get very limiting, very quick.
When looking at salad dressings, suddenly 80% of my options were eliminated. If it wasn't cream-based, most dressings contain some parmesan or romano cheese. I ended up with an Italian vingearette.
With croutons, it was the same thing. After perusing the ingredients lists, I found one type of croutons I could eat. It came down to that everpresent parmesan cheese again. It was present, even in the croutons that weren't explicitly cheese-flavored. I think the vegan ones were "vegetable medley" something. So, basically, if I go to buy croutons now, I am not allowed to ponder the multitude different flavors. This is a pointless decision anyway. Now there is one flavor of one brand which might as well be labeled "Croutons" while the other boxes in the aisle would be labeled "Not Croutons." No need to ponder.
Eating at an Indian restaurant last night, entire sections of the menu were eliminated. And we were lucky it was an Indian place, because many other places wouldn't have an explicitly vegan menu section. There are Specials, Tandoor, Lamb & Goat, Chicken, Seafood, Vegetarian, and Vegan sections on the menu. The five pages suddenly got reduced to 8 items for me.
In all of these instances, it was kind of a relief to have so many possibilities eliminated. At the restaurant, there was no comparisons, flipping pages back and forth. "The chicken comes with mango and spices, but you can get the shrimp with mango and curry leaves, but do I want something that hot? Does the goat come with something similar? I wonder if the clay oven specialties are any good??" Ultimately, I would probably fall back on getting the thing I had the last time I was at the restaurant. But with 8 choices, the choice became more obvious.
Would I like to have baked macaroni and cheese topped with bacon? I sure would. But right now, this limited options thing is speaking to me.
Jun. 22nd, 2009 @ 04:53 pm
While Grizzly Bear's "Two Weeks" is a good song, the bandmembers themselves are some ugly MFs. That is, if the video for "Two Weeks" is to be believed. I think director Patrick Daughters did some subtle creepy visual effects (ie. big eyes, unsynchronized blinking) to make this video so disturbing. But I'm not sure who I can lay the blame on for the lead singer's clammy face, droopy eyes, and weird tongue placement: Patrick Daughters or Ed Droste's parents.
Jun. 17th, 2009 @ 06:14 pm
I'm resurrecting my old 30 Days icon. About four years ago, we decided to go vegetarian for a month as a food challenge. It was actually pretty easy. All it took was cutting out animal meats. This time around, though, we're going vegan. Yes, starting tomorrow I am going vegan for 30 days. No meats, no milk, no eggs, no butter. Frankly, I'm a little concerned.
We picked June to start the vegan month because the Cohoes Farmers Market has just started up for the year, and it's about a 2 minute walk from my front door, so we will have access to all the farm fresh veggies we can stand every week.
Any vegan fake foods to stay away from? Any must-haves?
Jun. 12th, 2009 @ 05:27 pm
This video brought back such memories for me. I've always had this vague memory of a song that came out during the Gulf War that had all these celebrities singing on it. It was like a Live Aid for my generation. But I couldn't remember the name of it, and no mention of it ever seemed to come up on, you know, I Love The 90's or anything. But back in 1991, I remember it being on the radio ALL THE TIME.
Here it is, "Voices That Care." With Fred Savage, Gary Busey, Kenny G, Sally Field, Henry Winkler, Chevy Chase, Dudley Moore, and Mike Tyson. Thanks, Everything Is Terrible!
Jun. 11th, 2009 @ 05:24 pm
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