apples stapples

Friday night I went to a little party where we ended up playing a fantastic group game (impossible for only two) called apples to apples because you try to argue that different items are most similar, as opposed to incomparable--such as apples and oranges. Many ironic comparisons ensued, as well as some simply absurd and indefensible winners: I submitted and won the round with ear wax : demanding (beating out the submission of the kkk). I reported this to Michael as an extreme example of how the game reaches (or degrades into) heights/lows of silliness and the phrase, "you're quite the little ear wax" is now becoming part of our increasingly idiosyncratic language.

One of the things that makes me a little earwax is my incapacity to make my needs known to service-industry employees. My orders at restaurants get routinely garbled, and a few times now, I've had my order placement for shows get messed up. Classic example Saturday, I was so proud of myself for having made resas early enough for Kristina [Sheryl] Wong's show, and when we get there, a) the show was sold out and b) I had been marked down for having tickets for July 14th. After some blustering, and trading on KSW's name--that I was a former roommate (although that got translated as I'm her roommate)--we were assured a seat. But I felt really irked and disappointed. I think there's some combination of my voice and my phone that makes it impossible for people to understand me. It's bad.

But the show was great. I'm glad I didn't just walk out in anger (in fact, waiting it out seems to have very positive outcomes--witness, a good show and previously, at the obnoxious dessert shop, sweet lady jane, free breads!!!). KSW is playing the racial empowerment irony well--it's uncomfortable, it's funny. But it is hard to transition between pure personal irony and sincere political attack. So the show is divided along those lines. I assume the transitions will get refined and the tone will even out when there's greater familiarity with the material.

Oh, and Guillermo Gómez-Peña was also great and polished, despite some angsting over age and relevance.

But, I will say this, when they did a joint piece at the end, KSW's physical comedy kept the audience over GGP's lingual play.

Sunday, we saw a matinee of Ratatouille. Word to the wise: see G-rateds at the last showing of the night. It was fun to see it with all the babies though, they didn't make a distracting fuss at all and I did have a laugh during one of the only silently emotional moments of the movie, I heard a little plaintive voice ask: popcorn? I loved the movie, although I thought the ending, whipped through with a story-within-a-story device, was too rushed, left too many unanswered questions. It's beautifully done and hilarious--although when all the mice are cooking, it's pretty repulsive to gaze upon: swarms of little beasties never fail to send little chills up my spine.

I also have gotten mildly obsessed with Jonathan Gold's essential 99 la resaurant list: I typed up the logistics of each restaurant and categorized them by a) places we've been to [14] b) special occasion places (3 money bars, although I think 2 should probably be there as well) [11] c) places I've no intention of going to (steakhouses, primarily) [18], and the rest by geography (14 near me, 8 on babe's side of town). We have about 30 to go to, given that san gabriel is a little unreasonable for us, location-wise, and I am on a mission to take them on! So, there will be a new addition to the blog to dos and netflixed lists: I now add the Restau 99. We went to our first off the list last night. The excellent meat we had made me think that I need to start learning how to cook meat, but then I figure, I can leave it to the restaurants.


THE LISTS

to do work: Write the two last sections, 1) masks 2) circularity. organize files.
done! Typed up some notes on articles I've already read and got them ready to file. Outlined and prepped the last section.

to do life: Pay down debt (currently $1,328.09). Procure dog. Redo taxes. Do fafsa. Send siff letter. Repot ginko tree and cactus. Call kombucha makers re bottle recyclying. Read Theri's paper. Fix beddinge with new screw. Prep fac club fellowship app. Purchase external hard drive to back up my computer files.
done: absolutely nothing.

to do blitz: sarah, marilyn, giulia, irmary, mariana, dar, nv, ek, sf, marzena, thérèse, hen, shan.
blitzed! shan, z, signed up for wayn with hen which counts for something if she ever checks that ridiculous site--I doubt I ever will.

Restau 99: Canele. French. 3219 Glendale. Atwater Village. 323.666.7133. dinner tues-sat. $
The space is lovely: part of the kitchen is right along one edge of the restau, where the cooks in bandanas zip around and the big ovens spit out the pissaladière (of course there are Central Americans doing the dishwashing and prepping in the back--not quite as picturesque, I suppose). There's a communal table that we refused, and good thing because there was a party of 14 or so who plunked themselves down immediately after we got there...seemingly friends of the chef who were visiting from Marin. I kid, I kid, but it is pretty: the ceiling is a poofy black silky material that absorbs much of the noise generated with the concrete floors. As the disappointments to waiters that we are, we had no appetizers, no drinks, no extras: just the mains. The meats (beef tenderloin for him, pork chop for me) were excellent, but the sides were less so: both our potatoes were great (he had pommes anna, which I loved (it's like a tart of thin potato slices) and I had mashed potatoes, which were quite yummy indeed) but the creamed spinach and the cabbage-turnip-apple-slaw (with mustard seeds), not exciting. Looking over the menu, that's how every single main look: excellent meat, good potatoes, and questionable other. However, there was quite a majestic dessert: toffee-crumble flourless chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. All in all, a fine meal, but definitely imperfect.