Black Metal Thursday

Have you ever found yourself with about 50 tabs or windows open because each thing you have come across on the web is worth saving for the moment and not worth bookmarking? That's happening to me right now.

The Most Brilliant Paragraph Ever Written
An abraded, very low fidelity recording style is common in most black metal. Modern evolution of many of the older 'genre leading' bands have had a vast change in sound, and by many - and most of the times, even the band - are no longer considered black metal. Such examples include Mayhem's career that began mostly in the death/black roots, moved to almost pure black, then towards death again in their late career.
Also, Behemoth who started off as black metal, moved to a hybrid of black metal AND death metal, known as Blackened Death Metal, and with their newest release, Demigod, now play pure, brutal Death Metal.

(Ties with) The Most Brilliant Sentence Ever Written
"Unconventional song structures that are devoid of verse and chorus segments."

It's just too good to be true. Read up on your Black Metal here.


The Most Brilliant Cover Band To Have Ever Recorded
On the verge of unveiling their latest slab piled with human remains, Six Feet Under are getting grim this time... grim reaper that is, a recurring theme surrounding the 11 tracks found nestled within this freshly-hewn casket.

Please oh please go to the website and download their version of AC/DC's TNT here. You WILL thank me.


The Most Brilliant Woman To Have Ever Blogged
This particular cold was driving me crazy with its sinus pressure and the increasingly-odd-colored snot that was coming out of my nose, so I caved to the hippies in my life and bought a neti pot. This bothers me because agreeing to "cleanse" one's sinus cavities is only a hemp-fiber's breadth away from thinking one needs to "cleanse" other, more disgusting, cavities and that is just gross and insane.

I read her blog regularly and feel robbed that Diaryland does not let you comment. If I could, I would tell her that I am in love with her. Read Mimi SmartyPants here.

And now I can close all those open tabs.

You Can't Rock Out With Stemware

For Thanksgiving I decided to do something that I had never done before. I decided to celebrate in a not so social way. Holly and I decided to see a few movies and then have a fabulous dinner at the Beach Chalet.

At Noon Holly arrived and after a brief wardrobe crisis, we left to see For Your Consideration at the Metreon. At the risk of sounding like someone who doesn't know what they are talking about...I don't really like these movies. Yes, I can see that they are ironic, sardonic and satyrical however, they elicit merely a chuckle from me. At one point I looked over at Holly and her mouth was open in disbelief to what was happening on screen.

After the flick we swung by the Hardrock Cafe. I have a German friend who needed a shirt replacement. FYI-They do not make the "original" Hardrock shirt in black anymore. There were some tourists milling about on the wharf, but for once traffic was not insane over there. I double parked and ran in.

Shirts in hand, we made our way to the Beach Chalet for our very romantic reservation time of 4:15pm. We were about 45 minutes early so we walked across the street to Ocean Beach and marveled at the fabulous weather while we walked on the beach a ways. It was relatively warm, sunny and beautiful. Back at the restaurant we got seated right away and immediately ordered a Kir Royal. We both settled on the "turkey dinner" which was just amazing. Traditional Thanksgiving fare with some updated flavors. Holly started with the squash soup and I had a yummy salad with cranberries, pumpkin seeds and chevre. We had 3-4 perfect slices of white meat, some yummy kind of smoked darkmeat pieces, garlic mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, stuffing and yummy gravy. We were not rockin' the "chinese BBQ pork red" color of the cranberry sauce but whatevs. We also both got the pumpkin pie. We drank a pretty good bottle of wine. We savored the food and the sunset as long as we could.

After dinner we headed to the Lumiere neighborhood and stopped in at Casablanca Cafe for a coffee before our next movie started. We caught the Jonestown Massacre documentary. Both Holly and I had no idea they spent some of their time in San Francisco. Only in SF will they appoint a certified loon to a public position. See the movie.

I was pretty fidgety in the theatre due to the caffeine and amount of food in my gut and was psyched to head home after a long day. Yay!

I think what disturbs me most...

...about this article is that Linkin Park is a grammy award winning band.

Who's a Good Ben-Ben?

Today Anita, Ben's mom, took Ben in for his annual routine check up at the vet. When I left my office for lunch I saw I had a message on my phone. Anita said, "Call me" and sniffed audibly. I called immediately and asked what was wrong. Poor Ben-Ben has lost 3 lbs, 20% of his body weight in the last year. That is not good. He also has a "tumor" in his belly. He was staying the day at the vet's to get blood work done and an ultrasound.

Kisses for Ben

Ben has been pretty normal lately. Save for losing some noticeable weight and then seemingly gaining some back. He has been eating well. Though has not been spending time outside like in the past. Usually, I would let him out in the morning and and when I got home he would be waiting on the steps, complaining loudly. Lately, he has been a homebody. Which isn't really alarming. He likes to stay inside, and when he does go out he doesn't venture much farther than the deck and only makes his way to the front of the house once the sun has passed that way. He's also been more of a lap cat and has spent a lot of time sleeping next to me in bed. Not really unusual for a 16 year old cat.

Ben on Lap

On the way home, I saw that Anita had called again but didn't leave a message. When I called her she said she was sitting on my couch with Ben and that she would be there when I got home. We needed to discuss the situation.

Ben has an aggressive cancer. Tumors in his belly, liver and lymphnodes. The vet indicated that he probably won't last much longer. Anita and I talked about what to do. We don't want him to be on drugs that might perk him up. It is what it is and seems to be managing fine and not in pain. Believe me, we would know if he was in pain as he is Mr. Complainy Cat of the Century. We're going to ride it out. Anita will come over everyday and check in on him and spend time with him.

Tonight, while I was sitting here at my computer, he hopped up into my lap and wanted some lovin'. He is a sweet boy. Shai Kitty enjoys him immensly. Ben is taking it slow. I am sure that a day at the vet getting poked and prodded isn't the best thing. He seems tired, almost falling asleep while sitting up. We did a little photo shoot. Right now he is laying on the floor near my feet, asleep and I am already missing him.

New York, New York Big City of Dreams

I had to go to NY for a work thing last Friday, which means that my office sent me 3,000 miles for a 3 hour dinner. Saweeet! I tacked on a few days to make a mini vacation and to see my bestfriendthatsaguy, Paulie.

I have known Paulie for almost 12 years. That is pretty amazing to me since he was one of my best friend's boyfriends and that is kinda how we met. All three of us used to work at a nightclub, too. Paulie and I lived together in Boston for a little bit and some of you may remember that I was supposed to move to NYC with him. Then I met He Who Shall Not Be Named and it altered my life course and I ended up in SF instead. I think that both Paulie and I secretly think that one day we will get married, but for right now we have the Will and Grace pact: if neither of us is married/attached by a certain age we're having a baby...or something. I forget the details because it is very easy to be in a constant state of drunkenness when hanging with him. I think I spent that whole year I lived with him buzzed.

Big Lou, Paulie and Hez Winter 2002

Anyways, I packed up my winter coat and every warm sweater I had only to get to NY and it's in the 60's. I had been craving a steak dinner and expressed it to my co-worker. He made reservations at Gallagher's, which would have been an awesome place to have remembered to bring my camera, but that didn't happen. Food eaten: spinach salad, filet mignon, mashed potatos, carmelized onions, creamed spinach. Drinks drunk: 1 vodka tonic, 1 wine.

Friday I spent walking around and pre-shopping. I walked from my hotel in the 50's down to the 30's and then walked back. I hit Macy's and about 50 H&M stores. There is literally one every 5 blocks which is sad since what was special about H&M was that, at one time, it was only in Europe and became my surrogate Contempo when I lived in Germany. And when it was rumored that H&M was coming to the States and that a secret store was in the Holyoke Mall (of all places) about two hours from Boston. 'Ren and I used to make pilgrimages out there about every six months. Then it came to New York and was amazing. Then to Boston and it was no longer special. (Ok, done with the H&M capitalism/over-expansion rant).


That night was my event, which went well. Afterwards, Paulie called me to have me meet him at a bar as a pre-night out before our designated timespending later on in the trip. I had to try and get a taxi in Times Square at 10pm, which was pretty impossible. After walking a few blocks one of those pedi-cab drivers approached me (it's a bike rickshaw, people) and said, "where are you going?" I was like, "there is NO WAY I am getting in your rig." Then he commented how he saw me a few blocks back looking angry and convinced me to take a ride. I was only going down to 37th street from 40-something-th so the humilitaion quotient was low. Off we went and there I was pedi-cabbing through Times Square feeling like an asshole. Food eaten: Oatmeal and scrambled egg-$16!--Tomato basil soup, argula and grilled asparagus salad -- carrot ginger soup with a puff pastry on top, salmon and chicken, more asparagus, fingerling potatoes, vanilla custard with fresh berries in a chocolate cup. Drinks drunk: 2 wine, 5 vodka tonics.

Paulie and Hez: Reunited

Saturday I had no plans to be anywhere so I leisurely slept in then took the subway to Greenwich Village and the Street o' Shoes: 8th Street. I didn't find a damn thing but I think it was mostly because of my mood. I did fall in love with these, but didn't buy them since I thought I could get them cheaper on line. Then I made my way back to my hotel by walking. That's about 60 blocks. I bought some pizza to go and then went to my hotel and ate lunch and watched The Last Kiss and then took a nap. When I woke up I felt pretty crappy and ran out quickly and bought some light things for dinner. And yes, I stayed in on a Saturday night in New York. I don't really care though. Food eaten: $16 oatmeal and egg -- Pizza, bagel chips, Milka Joghurt bar. Drinks drunk: diet coke.

Sunday I checked out and I stored my luggage at the hotel. This place basically charges you for using the revolving door, therefore, it was $7 to store my stuff for a few hours. I met my ex-intern, Lisa for lunch. I hired her, sight unseen, when I worked at the ART in Boston. She was a theatre major at Florida State and had exhausted all her options in her last year. The school said that they would give her credit if she got an internship somewhere. She applied, and for some reason I felt like hiring her and finagled her a stipend. Then we found out that we were essentially the same person, we have the same birthdays. We were inseperable after that. She never complained even when I was making her run to the deli to get stupid sandwiches or making her help me wrap 40 opening night presents. She now works in New York producing plays. Yay Lisa! We had lunch and then I took a cab to Brooklyn to Paulie's. It was pouring rain and my cab driver was irked that I was making him go to Park Slope. What is UP with these drivers? Dude, it's your JOB to drive me where ever I want to go. He didn't even know how to get there. Luckily I had printed out directions from Google Map.

Paulie is my Scrabble partner and since him, I have not had one of the same caliber. We push each other to do better. We talked, we cooked, we watched movies, listened to music and played Scrabble. Five bottles of wine later we passed out at 4am. Woke up at Noon or later and made our way into Manhattan to Otto, Mario Batali's restaurant. We saw him there being filmed for the Food Network or something! We drank our hangovers away and then did some brief shoe shopping. Headed back to Brooklyn where I passed out for 3 hours while Paulie cooked some more. Then we went to dinner. Food eaten: Five cheese cheese plate, bread, amazing cheese condiments, penne sauteed in EVO and basil with pumpkin, hazelnuts and shaved smoked gouda-- meatballs homemade by Paulie--cheese and veggie quesadilla, shrimp and chickpeas, 'Class A' fajitas. Drinks drunk: 6 bottles of wine total, 2 beer, 50 glasses of water.

Tuesday I woke up at 7am to get ready to leave. The day was dreary and I was sad to go but happy to be making my way back home.

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JFK Rant
You know, if you are in the service industry you have no right to be an unprovoked, fucking asshole. When I got to the airport the entire United terminal had no diet coke in the bottle. Against my beliefs, I decided to purchase a fountain diet coke at McDonalds. I usually don't like to give these people my money, but I was in a caffeine crisis here. I get to the counter and the girl behind the counter barely even acknowledges me. She is talking over her shoulder to another worker and they are laughing and joking and ignoring me. It's 8am. Obvisously, she is better than me because she works at a MCDONALDS! Finally, in mid-co-worker-talk, she slightly turns her head in my direction and says, "What do you want." (it's not even a question but more like a statement saying "I don't even like you and I am sick of waiting on these stupid ass tourist but I have to ask you what you want." ) I ask for a diet coke. She is still talking to her friend. She says, "What?!" I ask for a diet coke. She rings it up and then turns to her friend and holds out her hand for money in my direction while still talking. She takes my money and then gives me my change in the same manner. I was surprised that she actually put it in my hand. I was expecting her to drop it on the counter so that the change would roll off and I'd have to pick it up off the floor. The co-worker who she was talking to turns to her and says coke? And walks over to the machine and starts filling a cup with regular coke. They are still talking to each other. The co-worker slaps a lid on it and puts it on the counter, the farthest point away from me, spilling it and then chucks a straw next to it. I say, " Is that diet? Because I asked for diet." The girl then gets that "I am highly annoyed at you" look on her face, sighs audibly and brings the regular coke back to the machine, the lid falls off. She takes another cup, fills it with diet coke and while she again puts it on the counter the farthest point away from me, WITH NO LID, knocking the straw off the counter on her side, she DRINKS out of the first one she poured. Her cashier friend says, "Don't drink that!"

Now.

What I really should've done was said, "Bitch, where my straw at?" Or maybe I shoulda just said, "Fuck you. I don't want your stupid ass diet coke gimme my money back." But instead I just took my drink and walked to another restaurant's station to get a straw. I probably shoulda asked for a lid too. It really bummed me out that I didn't stand up for myself to two teenage, McDonalds counter girls who where working in an airport. On the other hand, when thinking about it later, I halfheartedly decided that it probably wasn't the best thing to do in an airport. Cause a scene over bad customer service and a diet coke when I needed to catch a flight out of there. It just really bummed me out that all I did was approach the counter to buy something from them and I was treated like shit. Like I was taking up their time by asking them to do their jobs. I'm writing a letter!