I regret to announce that today, after a long illness, our blog Population Five passed away. The cause of death is listed as Facebook.
Pop5 has left a survivor in Victoria's new blog Goth Panda. I'm sure if we ever had readers, the long blog hiatus has driven them away by now, but head on over there if you are so inclined.
Thanks to all our authors, commenters, and readers over the years!
I don't know, but I like her.
It has been noted that since the Pop5 auteurs have joined the evil menace known as Facebook, the postings here on Pop5 have been few and far between. I say that although we may temporarily be distracted by the siren Facebook, we will always return to our true love.
Lessons Learned...
...from The Dark Knight:
It is too bad that Heath Ledger died.
I liked this movie well enough, but I don't think it was as good as the first one. This one seemed crammed full of action, and everything rushed from one thing to the next with no sense of pacing. Heath Ledger did do an incredible job, but his scenes were oddly edited, making me suspect that either they were using every scrap of footage of him or that they would have done things differently if he had been available for reshoots.
...from The X-Files: I Want to Believe:
There shouldn't be any more X-Files movies. Let the characters drift of in the sun, people.
The only charm of this movie was seeing what happens to Mulder and Scully further on in their lives. The "case" that brings them back to the FBI was not very interesting and the FBI's handling of it was not very believable. Both the case plotline and Scully's doctor-ethics plotline seemed manufactured and contrived. I didn't hate this movie, but I think it was solely due to nostagia for the series.
...from The Wackness"
There was once this crazy, magical time called 1994! And it was totally wack, yo! They had things like Kurt Cobain, Biggie Smalls, blunts, and Beverly Hills 90210!
Seriously, I could have done without the trip down '90s memory lane. This movie reminded me of that Simpsons episode they did recently (that wasn't very good either), where they reset Marge and Homer's courtship in the '90s.
The actual story of the movie was unconnected to the '90s, except for a brief, labored metaphor comparing the characters' repression of their emotions to Rudy Giuliani's repression of the seedy elements of Times Square, which made me wish they had just set in the present. I kept waiting for something to happen, before I realized that this wasn't the kind of movie where things happen. It's the kind of movie where the characters talk about their feelings for two hours. I usually like those kind of movies, except these characters had a limited array of feelings -- an ill-defined sadness and a strong desire to get laid. It struck me as perhaps an art-house Judd Apatow movie. Set in the crazy '90s, yo! Where everything was dope!
Finally, I think everyone will enjoy this video of Rush playing "Tom Sawyer" on Rock Band backstage at the Colbert show. Apparently, they scored 31% on expert mode.
Hey all, if you are pissed off about FISA and have a second, head on over to the ACLU website and sign their petition. They plan to start contesting it immediately after it gets signed.
The three core zones of the Monarch butterfly biosphere reserve protect eight overwintering colonies of the monarch butterfly in the oyamel fir forests of central Mexico. Perhaps a billion monarch butterflies overwinter here in close-packed clusters every year after a 3,500-4,500km journey. Witnessing this unique phenomenon is considered to be an exceptional experience of nature.
I wonder which ones are 21 and 24?
1) Writers are dangerous and untrustworthy.
2) The movie is not as good as the book (although James McAvoy and Keira Knightley are very pretty to look at).
I was interested to see how they would adapt it, because the primary theme in the book is the act of writing and being a writer and what that means. The tragedy that happens comes about because Briony is a writer. She sees things, she notices, and she tries to make sense of it by building a story around it. But the secondary story of the lovers takes over in both the book and the movie, which is again all part of the point. Fiction is more powerful than real life. It seemed almost impossible to me that they would find a satisfactory way to reveal the ending. I can't think of a better solution than the way they chose, other than not adapt the book at all, but I didn't really like it, either.
Do not watch Jumper.
Please note that Pop5 now boasts a favicon image in your toolbar and favorites page, designed by Mike. I think it's supercute.
But first, a dream sequence. Last night, I had a crazy dream where I was driving, and the car engine was making strange noises. In the dream, I started to get concerned...until I woke up and realized that the engine noises were really the sound of my air conditioner, switching between not-cool-enough and too-cold states.
So, on to my dilemma. Everyone here knows how pale I am and how I don't tan. We have all heard the burst-into-flames joke; in fact, I think it's here somewhere on this very website. Before I went to England, I was using self-tanner to approximate the color normal skin gets when it is exposed to sun. Mike (who becomes beautifully tan two minutes after stepping outdoors) made fun of me endlessly for the self-tanner, mostly by calling me "Sunkist."
When I was in England, I stopped using the self-tanner in favor of normal lotion, because even though the weather was nice, absolutely no one there was tan. The English are truly my people.
So now I am back and pale. Mike opposes my resuming the self-tanner, but I do kind of feel like a freak being pale in the summer. What say you, Pop5 - should I self-tan or not?
Hello, Dolly is a catchy musical. I still have that song in my head.
Seriously, spoilers may be after the jump.
How I was addressed in England:
I was kind of hoping for "milady," but it didn't happen. Also, the already-mentioned Scottish waiter called my beverage a "wee half-pint" (since everyone else ordered full pints). I believe there may have been collective swooning at that. Except for Mike, of course.
The last day might be the easiest day to recap, because we weren't allowed to take photos in the morning, at Westminster Abbey. If you want to see what it looks like, just go back a few entries. Or, you know, use Google.
Continue reading "Day Ten: Westminster Abbey and Hampton Court Palace" »
Things I miss about England:
On Thursday morning, I took an informal poll of the group: what of the things on our list to do was the most important to them? The overwhelming consensus was the Tower of London.
Continue reading "Day Nine: Tower of London and British Museum" »
If you had asked Mike a few weeks ago where he would most like to live out the rest of his days, he probably would have said somewhere in New England or Arizona. Now, I am fairly sure the answer would be Edinburgh.
I wasn't sure at first if it made sense to take a day trip up to Scotland, because we had a packed schedule as it was, and the train takes four and a half hours. So in the best case scenario, which is how it ended up working, we caught the 8 a.m. train, arrived at 12:30 p.m., and walked around until the 5 p.m. train back. But everyone who has been to Scotland convinced me that I had to go, and I think in the end, everyone was glad we went. It was also nice that we saw the three parts of the island: England, Scotland, and Wales.
After a week in England, I was very nearly assimilated. Although I didn't have the accent, I had adjusted completely to the time difference. I could distinguish between the many coins with ease. I was comfortable ordering at pubs and deciphering train timetables. But two things continued to mark me as an American: I always asked for ice with my soda and I could not correctly pronounce Stratford-Upon-Avon. I didn't pronounce Avon like the American cosmetics company, but I did tend to give equal weight to both syllables, and it is correctly pronounced by stressing the first.
Thanks to the train and the Underground announcements, I also learned how to pronounce other mysterious things like "Madame Toussards" (strangely, Two-Swords), "Marylebone" (Marry-libin), and "Tottenham Court Road" (Tot-nam).
I also picked up the British habit of saying "Pardon?" when I wanted someone to repeat something to me that I couldn't understand. Sometimes this was due to their accent and sometimes due to cultural differences. A nice Frenchwoman asked Mike and I if she could borrow our Helpy (? some kind of cell phone ?) at the Tower of London. We were flummoxed until we told her we were American, which seemed to let us off the hook.
So, Stratford-Upon-Avon. Apparently some guy named Shakespeare was born there.
I wonder how the release times for U.S. movies and television shows are determined in the U.K. While we were there, they were showing in theaters movies that had just been released in the States (like Sex in the City), and movies that had been out of theaters for months here (like Gone, Baby, Gone). They were also advertising TV shows that I had never heard of as "phenomenal hits" in the States. Not that I am always on top of U.S. pop culture, but I suspect some marketing genius at work.
This is all working up to say that I forgot to add something else we did on Saturday night: we watched Doctor Who on one of the BBC channels. The episode we saw was three weeks away from being shown in the U.S. So we have seen the future, and it was pretty awesome.
On Monday, we went to Bath.
So one of the best things I think we did on this trip was buy BritRail passes for the week. We had planned a bunch of day trips, so it was cheaper to buy the passes than to buy the individual tickets, for one thing. It was also more convenient; once you had the tickets validated at a station the first day, you could just hop on and off the train for the rest of the week. It also came in very handy when your plans change suddenly, as happened on this day.
--
OK, so we are already back in the States. But I am going to post these by days anyway. After we moved on to London, the combination of infrequent internet access and long, long days of sightseeing killed my plans of frequent posting.
--
Day Three
Day Three was the conference day. It seemed to go pretty well, and I have high hopes of coming back next year. There is the chance that this will become an annual event.
Today I actually had to do work. We ordered in room service for breakfast (scrambled eggs, croissants, toast, oj and a pot of Earl Grey), and Mike and I walked down to the professor's office for a meeting. I didn't mention this yesterday, but I got lost trying to get back to the Business School to inspect the conference room. While trying to get to the meeting this morning, I got lost again. Usually I am pretty good at finding my way around, but Oxford is defeating me. The names of the streets change every time there is a cross-street, my map was incorrect, and there are all of these little alleys and backways that defy comprehension. Fortunately, I left early enough that I got to the meeting on time, despite getting lost.
We arrived yesterday completely exhausted. The flight can be summed up in two quick sentences: There was an unnecessarily loud group of twenty-somethings seated all around us, and I did not sleep at all. Mike slept for at most 10 minute intervals before waking up. So by the time we landed, I had been awake (with only six hours of sleep on the previous night) for over twenty-four hours. Barb and Kris, I know you are planning to be ready for anything on Saturday after you arrive, but trust me. You will be ready for one thing only: sleep.
From Sweeney Todd:
Okay, so if you are going to make a movie based on a musical that is almost entirely sung-through, it doesn't make much sense to me to cut out almost half of the score. The score of Sweeney Todd is fairly complex, and even the set-piece "songs" that were extracted sounded strange to me out of context, even though I like the musical and the music taken as a whole.
Also, considering the fact that none of the actors could sing*, why didn't Tim Burton just make a movie of the play that the musical was based on? The atmosphere and the story seemed to be what interested him, and you have gotten that without the music. Either that, or filmed the entire musical, with people who could actually, you know, sing.
* Strangely enough, I wasn't bothered so much by Johnny Depp as I was by Helena Bonham Carter, whose breathy little-girl singing voice was just crazy inappropriate.
From Interiors:
I really, really would like a Long Island beach house. Seriously. I don't even remember anything else about this movie except my lust for the house it was filmed in.
Other stuff:
I put some photos of the Wild Ponies of Corolla from our North Carolina week of vacation up on Flickr (right sidebar). Evan scolded me while we were down there for not taking notes on the witty conversation like I did last year, and I am regretting it now. I feel like there were so many quips that could have been immortalized, but instead have been forgotten.
Also, we leave tomorrow evening for the ten-day England adventure. I am hoping to have internet access so you can play along at home, kind of like Pax did in L.A. However, I am also lazy. We will see which wins out.
1) The probability that this movie would not contain the Black Sabbath song was, for all practical purposes, zero.
2) I hear from others better informed than me that Gwyneth Paltrow's character does not exist in the comic book. There is then no good reason why she should be named "Pepper Potts." Please, people.
The Summer Movie Season is upon us, and for those keeping score at home, here is the list of movies that I have been informed we must see:
May 9: Speed Racer
June 6: Kung Fu Panda
June 13: The Incredible Hulk
June 20: Get Smart
July 11: Hellboy Two: The Golden Army
July 18: The Dark Knight
July 25: The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Did I miss any?
As you may or may not know, Bobby Flay won last night against the Pop Shop. Bobby Flay's award-winning creation? White bread, goat cheese, brie, sliced green tomatoes, and watercress. [The Pop Shop owners, after tasting it, asided to the camera that it was going to be on their menu next week.]
The Calvert - the Pop Shop's sandwich - was rosemary focaccia, monteray jack cheese, smoked turkey, smoked bacon, avocado, and balsamic mayo.
The judges made a big deal that both sandwiches were really good, but I think we all know that this is a case like Delilah's, where the Food Network obviously did some under the table deals to make sure Bobby Flay came out on top. The crowd definitely seemed to prefer the hometown favorite.
Of course the primary function of the show has been fulfilled: now I am really craving the Pop Shop. Anyone in for this weekend?
The Throwdown with Bobby Flay where Flay takes on our beloved Pop Shop with his goat cheese and blue corn chips will air on Sunday, April 13 at 10 pm.
The answer to the excellent question, "Why did you watch Reign of Fire?" is that it came on after Fellowship of the Rings on TNT (usually the Law and Order network), and we were too lazy to change the channel. Since we were watching in real time (not Tivo), it was also a rare opportunity to see commercials. The following exchange happened after a toaster pastry commercial which said their product was better than PopTarts.
Mike: No they aren't. PopTarts are good. Too bad they're bad for you.
Me: Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's no food item worse for you than a PopTart.
Mike: They're dangerous, too.
Me: What?
Mike: Have you ever microwaved a PopTart?
Me: Noooooo. I've put them in the toaster.
Mike: Not the same. I'm telling you, if you put them in the microwave, the gooey stuff inside? It becomes burning hot, and it sticks to you. It's like napalm.
So that's our public service announcement for today: PopTarts. Not only unhealthy and not nutritious, but also a handy household weapon.
Lessons Learned from Reign of Fire:
1) I do not recognize Gerard Butler (This is SPARTAAAHHHHH!) when he has hair. But he is hot either way.
2) Under the right circumstances, Matthew McConaughey could be mistaken for a professional wrestler.
3) What the hell is Christian Bale doing in this piece of crap?
It is easier to negotiate with the mob than with a multinational corporation, and you will be treated more fairly by the mob.
Steve and Morgan and Mike and I went up to the New York City International Auto Show on Saturday. You can see my photos here. The verdict? Not that great. Only slightly better than Philly's annual auto show, and not worth going again next year. There were more hybrid/electric cars, but that is probably just because that's where the trends are going. There were certainly no shortage of monster trucks and SUVs. Also, there was Newman and that guy from Office Space.
Mike got me Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii for my birthday, which pretty much guarantees that I will fail all of my classes this semester.
Which crazy-ass Sicklerville couple caused yours truly to have a two-hour commute last night? Which actually should be considered lucky, since I was right at the last exit before the bridge, so I was able to get on 95N, crawl my way past Ben Franklin bridge traffic, and get across the Betsy Ross?
If you said this crazy-ass Sicklerville couple, then you are correct.
Also, WTF, NJPD? All they had were a baseball bat and a "'a very realistic' airsoft pellet gun"? I have the feeling that however much they fine this pair of idiots, it will be not be enough.
By the way, as of today, I have officially lived longer than Jesus.
Yesterday was the first time in recent memory when I awoke in the morning with nothing to do. Since Mike was in Ohio, I saw it as a kind of test. I could find out what I would naturally revert to doing, without his influence.
The answer (perhaps unsurprising): about 60% reading, 10% cooking, and 30% messing around on the internet. In particular, I signed up at stumbleupon.com (you can see my favorited stumbles here). I think you said you were stumbling, Rob, so let me know and I will friend you.
Although I am usually aware of the up-to-date social networking and other kinds of websites, I usually don't bother using them because I don't know many people in real life who do. But yesterday I signed up for Twitter so that I could follow Barak Obama, who[se communications team] is twittering. I had heard that Obama is the most internet-friendly of the candidates, and this was confirmed for me because after I signed up to follow him, I got a message back saying that Obama was now also following me. Smooth move, communications team! I may have to get an account at Facebook so I can make him my friend. I will so have an in at the White House come November.
UPDATE: Now Obama's made me a contact on Flickr. Seriously, should I ask for a cabinet post?
I was at the grocery store this evening, and there was a woman in the line next to me who had seven cartons of eggs in her cart. Noticing this, I thought, "What the fu...oh. Oh, yeah. Okay."
Also, the universe conspires against me. As I was driving to the grocery store, I thought to myself that it was great that the grocery store was kind of out of the way, and I was unlikely to run into anyone I know there (because I am fundamentally anti-social). And then at the store, I ran into -- and was forced to acknowledge because I couldn't run away fast enough -- someone I would have been quite happy if I never saw again in my life.
I was in North Carolina over this past weekend because my friend Kristen (who makes so-low-budget-that-they-don't-have-a-budget independent movies) had a short film in the Gate City Women's Film Festival in Greensboro. I attended both nights of the competition screenings and I have this to say: the absolute worst films screened were the ones that won the most awards. It reminded me of the Oscars, in a lot of ways.
Also, although I did see all of the films, the program provided didn't engender a lot of enthusiasm. Here's the description Kristen provided for her film in the program:
A short film that explores sibling dynamics through the eyes of the over-achieving older sister and addresses the expectations (both good and bad) we have for each other.
But after reading the other film descriptions, I am convinced that she would have won if only she had described it thusly:
This experimental and personal documentary explores themes of immigration, death, and media. It is a sensual visionary encounter that is bold and evocative and covers themes related to African-American culture. Conceptually, this work examines personal and collective histories through the symbolic language of Jungian archetypes. This film examines how beauty can arise from the ashes of intolerance. in a surrealist world where she has no control, a young girl reveals the harsh realities of life in a West African village, even as she expresses optimism for the future. The filmmaker offers viewers a delicious and disturbing six minute dance with issues of memory construction, patterns, seduction, and sexual identity formation.
[These are actual quotes]
In short, the best things about the South are sweet tea and the Waffle House. That is all.
To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Australians were asked to vote on the Gayest Songs of All Time. The winners are after the jump.
...is pretty damn funny.
I voted this morning, and I checked for Mike - if you are a registered voter, but unaffiliated with a party, you can go to your voting place and declare an affiliation to vote today. They even have a form you can fill our immediately afterwards to unaffiliate, if you want. But this only works if you are unaffiliated. You have to file ahead of time if you want to switch parties.
The following should not be construed as a partisan message, but look! Young, hot celebrities endorse Obama. Clinton only gets the old, lame celebrities.
I know Buddy has a crush on Sarah Silverman, but clearly he has a rival for her affections.
Just a quick note to let you all know that I have updated the sidebar, adding some new things and rearranging the order. I wanted to point out that I have put in a feed from my del.icio.us page, which will update automatically. If you don't know about del.icio.us, it's a site that allows you to bookmark pages and articles that you find interesting.
If anyone else is interested in using del.icio.us and posting their feed to Pop5, sign up for an account here, and let me know.
This might only interest history geeks such as myself, but HBO will be airing (March 16 - April 27) a seven-part miniseries on John Adams, based on the David McCullough biography. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney will star as John and Abigail Adams, and I am pretty sure that casting decision could not be topped.
Clearly someone needs to Tivo this for me. Don't make me wait for the DVDs, people.
[Since I have not yet restored Buddy's login, I will take the opportunity to steal some news he sent us and post it as if it were my own.]
So apparently Bobby Flay, best known as Rob's arch-nemesis, was in Collingswood on Monday night to "throwdown" with the Pop Shop on an issue near and dear to my own heart: grilled cheese.
The Pop Shop offered up the Calvert: "a grilled cheese special featuring Monterey jack cheese, roasted turkey, apple-wood smoked bacon, avocado and balsamic mayonnaise on rosemary focaccia bread." I don't know if anyone from Pop5 has tried this one, since our ranks of meat-eaters have been depleting rapidly.
Bobby Flay's "featured goat cheese, brie, bacon, watercress and green tomatoes piled onto a Pullman loaf." No word on whether he served it with a side of blue corn chips, and covered it with cilantro.
The article doesn't reveal the winner, but all of the quotes favor the Pop Shop. On a personal note, GRILLED CHEESE SHOULD NEVER BE MADE WITH GOAT CHEESE. It had to be said. I love almost all types of cheese. Almost.
Mike, Evan, Buddy, and I went to see the "Final" Cut of Blade Runner this evening. Blade Runner is usually near the top of every critic's Best Sci-Fi Movies Ever list, and we realized that it is indeed a unique movie in that even though we had all seen previous versions of it, no one could really remember what happened in any of them. Even Mike, who can usually quote verbatim movies that he last saw twenty years ago, couldn't remember the plot. We had all heard, though, that this new cut was being offered because Ridley Scott intended to make clearer hints that Deckard himself was a Replicant. But we watched the new "Final Cut" movie tonight, and at the end, we couldn't figure out what was different about it. However badly we remembered it, we didn't spot anything different from what we remembered.
Thanks to the internet, we find that Ridley Scott added a sequence where Deckard dreams of a unicorn, and this was supposed to suggest that the dream was implanted and therefore that he was a Replicant.
Note to Ridley Scott: having a character dream of unicorns does not suggest to the audience that he is a really a remarkably humanistic robot. It usually suggests that he is really an eight-year-old girl.
Please remember this five years from now, when you release the "New Final Cut." Maybe you can add some more red tints or something to Harrison Ford's eyes. Or more shots of buildings in the rain, or of the smiling geisha, or of Rutger Hauer chewing scenery. Because there's definitely not enough of that already.
While looking for updates on the new season of the Venture Brothers - Season Three won't be aired until June 2008, boo hoo - I found this little track available for download.
The Monarch & Dr. Girlfriend :: Fairytale of New York
I think Dr. Girlfriend is singing the boy's part and vice versa.
I haven't really been following the primaries until recently, so I did an internet search and found this handy-dandy chart summary of the candidates' views on issues of import.
A few comments:
Apparently I do. This is easy to forget between work and school. Fortunately, school is over for the semester, and I am about to take a few weeks off from work. Will I post more? I guess we'll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, I will post this little video, which does a neat job of explaining why I never watch television news.
Inland Empire offers more proof towards advancing a thesis proposed by Donnie Darko and Harvey: human adults dressed like bunny rabbits are really fucking creepy.
Also, David Lynch likes Beck? Who knew?
So the new design is not only expressing our collective impatience for Season Three, it is also advertising for Mike's latest t-shirt and sticker design.
I now have one 21 and one 24 sticker on either side of my car's rear windows. I couldn't decide which one I like best.
If you are interested and have not already pre-ordered, drop us an email.
Does anyone know anyplace around here that is breaking street date on HP7? I hear that some places are selling it already in New York, and I am wondering if anyone has seen it around here.
Speaking of which, I may have to avoid the internet for the next few days. I am afraid of running into spoilers accidentally.
The New York Times had an article yesterday about the demand for calorie counts to be given on menus at restaurants. New York City apparently passed a law requiring calorie counts in "some restaurants," that will start to be enforced this coming October.
Do you think this is a good idea? If you knew the calorie counts in food at restaurants, would it affect what you ordered?
Rob, Mike, and I went hiking Saturday morning, in lieu of our semi-regular gym session. We went to one of the Pennsylvania state parks.
00:15
This is great! It's a beautiful day, nice and sunny, but not humid or too hot. The trail is really pretty. There's so much green, it's refreshing. When we pick the trail, Rob jokes that following it was "the first mistake" on our road to being killed by serial killers that horror movies have taught us live in the woods. There is mention of the Blair Witch. We muse that, according to the Scream metric, none of us will make it out alive.
00:30
I should probably have had something more for breakfast than just two slices of rye toast. I feel a little hungry.
00:45
Is this trail all uphill? Is that even possible? Mike says it's the M.C. Escher trail.
1:00
Now it's hot. My back is all sweaty. Rob and Mike - innocently, so they say - start to discuss if we had to resort to cannibalism, that they would eat me first, since I am the youngest and an "herbivore" so I'm bound to be the most tender. Rob starts asking for "mendallions de Vicki." Mike pinches me to check how tender my glutes are.
1:15
We are completely lost. More jokes about being lured to our demise. Mike says that he hears a strange noise in the woods, and maybe we should split up to investigate. When we finally find the trail again, and a map showing us where we are, we are disheartened to find that we are not even halfway through. Who chose this trail anyway?
1:30
Mike and Rob discuss a proposed trip backpacking in the Grand Canyon, where you have to train for weeks in advance to break in your boots and get used to carrying 40 pounds of equipment. I tell them they can drop me off at a spa for the week.
1:45
Hikers approach us from the opposite direction. Rob whispers, "It's the Others."
2:00
We are lost again. We start looking for edible berries or vegetation in case we never make it out of the woods. Cannibalism isn't looking that bad.
2:15
When we find our way again, we decide to take a short cut of the trail to get back to the car. Our moods are dropping along with our blood sugar levels.
2:30
My car is a haven of air conditioning and seating options. The next order of business is to find a restaurant as quickly as possible.
2:45
When the first place we stop - a pretentious "tavern" - refuses us entry because the boys are in tank tops, I briefly consider mass carnage, but decide it would take precious time away from finding food.
3:00
We end up at a place that is slightly nicer than fast food. I can't tell if the food is really delicious, or if I am just so hungry that anything would taste wonderful.
3:15
Mike tries to get us to go again next week.
I am the proud new owner of prescription sunglasses, a move I felt I had to make since I have been refusing to wear my contacts now for about five years.
It is impossible to convey exactly how huge (and impractical) this shiny red case is. It's like the size of a small Japanese car. How am I supposed to fit this in a purse?
Not that I would actually have gotten them, but my optometrist ruled out my getting the huge, fashionable glasses that are in style now, because my prescription is so bad, the lenses would have had to be super thick. Mike jokes that my glasses are so thick, I can use them to kill ants by focusing the sun's rays. When I told him I was concerned because I thought my prescription had gotten worse, he said, "To what? Seeing-eye dog?"
You can kind of see how fat the lens is here.
These seem to working well, but the front part is so heavy, that they tend to slip down my nose a lot.
How come I haven't heard any discussion yet of the most pressing issue of the day: when are we going to see the new Harry Potter movie??
Have you guys seen this Wii Fit thing? It looks kind of crazy - click here for Nintendo's promotional video.
So, last week, a bunch of us had nothing to do, and despite everyone's insistence that they didn't want to see a downer movie, we found ourselves at the Theater Formerly Known as the Ritz, watching "Sicko" (I'm not going to attempt the funky capitalization). Although I was annoyed with the endless, fake-surprised repetitions of, "It's totally free?!?" questions to citizens of other countries, and the Cuba thing came off as totally staged, there was no denying that everyone left the theater plotting to move to Canada as quickly as could possibly be arranged. Yes, the health care system in this country does suck mightily, and there was also that added twist of the knife of six weeks guaranteed vacation time in the European countries. Kick us while we are down.
In that spirit, I have added a link to the Michael Moore "Get Involved" page on the sidebar, and I hope everyone will sign the petition for free universal health care. I'm not too optimistic that this will work, but it's nice to feel like you have done something.
In the news today:
How have I refrained from posting myself as a Simpsons character until now?
I made this last week - you can make one too at the Simpsons Movie website. It seems to be one of the only parts of the site that is actually working.
And yes, I am wearing anti-food chain propaganda.
The answer: Newport, RI.
When my friend suggested we take a short road trip over the July 4th weekend, I thought of going up to Newport, where the rich and famous from the late 19th century spent the summer seasons in their huge mansions. I just finished the biography of Alva and Consuelo Vanderbilt that came out last year.
Marble House, the Vanderbilt's "cottage"
Alva Vanderbilt's Chinese teahouse
The Breakers, the mansion of another family of Vanderbilts
The veranda at The Breakers
In addition to huge mansions, Newport also had really great light. At sunset, it turned everything pastel shades. It looked like it had been painted by that really horrible painter who has those stores in the mall.
Rich people still live in Newport. For example, in this house.
Newport also has some damn fine seafood, according to Kris, who partakes of such things.
I think this is the New York Yacht Club
Newport is well-known for good restaurants, so I had researched ahead of time some places to go. I wanted to visit a famous old diner, but it had been knocked down last year. A Tim Horton's now stands in its place.
We did find the Blue Plate Diner, which I liked for its oddly pointy silverware, and the fact that it had Diner City's Ten Commandments painted on its walls.
P.S. Today is Mike's birthday, so leave him happy birthday comments.
Yesterday we went to Baltimore. Today, Mike gave me another lesson in driving a standard transmission car, in what is popularly known as the Gumpmobile. I am doing exceptionally well, except for the part where I never actually drove on a road yet. But I am doing excellently in a parking lot. There were a few times when I (a) popped the clutch, or (b) rode the clutch, but I never (c) stalled, or (d) hit anything. And by the end, my shifting was much improved, so I call it a success.
In between those two things, we saw Moxie again. She has gotten a little bigger, but is still pretty petite. She also ignores me consistently in favor of her favorite non-Buddy person in the world - Rob. Rob says, "It's a black thing."
Why are you pointing that light at me, silly human?
Do you ever plan to pet me?
Let me investigate your bag full of delicate photographic equipment.
If you must continue, at least let me pose properly.
I am Queen Moxie. Worship me, puny humans.
Insolent girl! You dare to interfere with my Rob time!
The original members of Pop5 (including LA Rama, who took time out from his busy schedule of stalking celebrities) went to the Outer Banks for a week in the middle of May.
Looking for a place to eat on the drive down. Driving in a car with a hungry Rob and Rama kind of made me feel like I was in one of those Bugs Bunny cartoons, where one of the characters is completely unaware that he appears to the other one as a delicious, steaming roasted turkey.
Rama: There's a fried chicken place! Stop there!
Rob: No way. Uh-uh.
Rama: What's wrong with that place?
Rob: It's a shack!
Rama: So? What's wrong with a shack? Some of the best food is found in shacks! Are you saying you're too good to eat in a shack?
Rob: No, but I have a bad feeling about that place.
Rama: I didn't know I was riding with Paris fucking Hilton.
Vicki: I'll just say this right now. I am too good to eat in a shack.
Rob: I don't want to hear any gay jokes this weekend. I know where you (points to Mike) and you (points to Buddy) and you (points to Rama) all are sleeping.
Buddy: What, are you going to sneak in and redecorate?
Rob: We have to find someplace to eat that can accommodate the vegetarian.
Rama: Come on, Vicki, haven't you gotten over that fad yet?
Vicki: Rama, I've been a vegetarian since before your girlfriend was born.
Vicki (walking in on a conversation): Were you guys talking about sex?
Rob: It's me, Rama, and Buddy. We're either talking about food, sex, or how horrible my taste in music is.
Rob, Rama, and Mike went in the ocean twice. The water was 50 degrees. Buddy tried to follow, and then "screamed like a little girl" (to use Rama's phrase).
Rob: I need some barbeque to wash down that barbeque.
Rama: Nancy Pelosi.... You know, I would.
The excellent frittata Rob made us for breakfast.
At the karaoke bar
Vicki: Those people are doing the robot.
Mike: I used to do the robot in the '80s, only I was sober.
Rob and Mike had the beach umbrella, and they were fifteen minutes behind the rest of us
Rob: I expected to walk out on the beach and find Vicki had spontaneously combusted.
Our beach set-up. Note the totally necessary beach umbrella, and Mike headed for the freezing-cold ocean like a crazy person.
Rama: That bed was killing my back, so I moved to the couch.
Buddy: It reminds him of home.
One of the reasons we go to North Carolina, besides the ocean and the barbeque: hush puppies.
Rama: I've come up with the solution for all of LA's traffic problems: jughandles.
Sunrise from our bathroom window.
The next time you see Rama, ask him about the night he converted the Sunset Bar and Grill to the Religion of New Jersey* with his rendition of "Thunder Road."
*The Cult of Bruce Springsteen, of course.
So I've finally finished school, and vacation is a week away. Do I celebrate by sitting down and writing a nice long post? No, but I will offer this YouTube piece for the comic book geeks among us. And that would be...everyone.
Here's another gem from You Tube. There are ten episodes total, but be warned: after watching this first one, Buddy, Mike, and I went around for the next four or five hours screeching "Wise man has the power" in falsetto. Then Buddy had to download the song. So don't say I didn't warn you.
In less smooth news, I am totally a Guitar Hero. On the Playstation Two. And only in Easy or Medium modes.
As April 15 approaches, I thought everyone might enjoy this graphic emailed to me by the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Listen to the Quakers, my friends: War is not the answer.
Because, seriously? It seems like all I ever post about is food, between bread, diners, and assorted weird things. Oh, also movies. And cats.
This post is really for Rob, who has been following this saga.
So, I may have mentioned somewhere before on this site that I have some kind of inherited kitchen skills memory from my mother, even though I really didn't cook much as a kid. Well, the opposite of that holds true as well; if my mother never made it, then I have no idea what to do with it. And one thing my mother never used was avocados.
Avocados were not especially popular in upstate New York when I was growing up - I don't know if my mom didn't like them or didn't know what to do with them. I was not really anxious to try avocados myself, until I learned that I like guacamole. I wasn't sure because the first guacamole I had was full of cilantro, which I don't really like. But a nice, basic guacamole - some garlic, onions, tomatoes, and the all-important avocado - every now and then I get a craving for that.
But some of you may not know that the avocado is a finicky ingredient, and guacamole is a finicky dish. Avocados need to be bought unripe, and ripened at home in order to guarantee good flavor, and it is hard to tell when they are ripe, if you are completely inexperienced, such as myself. And guacamole doesn't keep - you have to make it right before you eat it, and I am pretty sure it will not be good the next day. Well, it is supposed to turn brown, but still not kill you, but I'm not sure how appetizing brown guacamole would be.
So a week or two ago, I bought myself a small avocado to test on. I think I bought it too ripe, since it was soft at the store. Then when I ripened it according to Rob's instructions, and waited too long to use it, by the time I opened it up, it was brown and nasty inside. Attempt Number One: Not a success.
So this weekend, I tried for Number Two. I got an avocado that was still pretty firm. I put it in a paper bag. And tonight, even though I was not in the mood to eat much at all since I had a big lunch, I took it out and cut it open. There were no brown spots - so far, so good. There was a little more green around the skin than in the photo above, and I thought that was the unripe part, but the yellowish part near the pit was actually harder to mash. But I think the ripening this week was a success.
So I mashed it up, and only added three things for this first experiment: lime juice (which Rob says will keep it fresh longer), some roasted garlic cloves (that was last week's experiment, and my new favorite thing in the world), and a little tomato. And it looked like this:
and it tasted pretty good, too, so I think this version can be called a success. Mike didn't have any, because he claims he doesn't like it, but he did helpfully say, "Try the guacamole" in Zapf Brannigan's voice several times.
Her name is Fii, or maybe Moxie. He just got her yesterday, and although she hid for most of the day, when we came back after seeing "300" (about which the Pop5 crew was divided in its opinion), she came out for a little while to be petted and play with her mouse-on-a-fishing-rod toy.
Just please don't make the "Now Buddy's got himself some pussy" joke, because that's already been done to death.
Some people probably think a Wii is for playing video games. They are wrong. What a Wii is really for is to create Miis resembling characters from books, tv, or movies, or real-life celebrities. I think Mike has spent more time creating new Miis than playing actual games. Did you know there is a limit of 100 Miis you can create? Mike knows this, because he has reached it.
Some of the first to go up are from the Big Lebowski, Mike's all-time favoritist movie ever.
The Dude...or His Dudeness, El Duderino....
Walter, screaming, "Shut up, Donnie!"
Then we moved on to doing sets, like these ones from the X-Files:
Mulder
A glam, later-years Scully, as opposed to early, dowdy Scully
The Cigarette Smoking Man
The Lone Gunmen
And what would the X-Files be without an alien?
I've posted some more below for guessing - highlight the text underneath to reveal who they are:
Whoopi Goldberg
Ms. Garrison, from South Park
Bob Ross
Michael Jackson
P.S.: I think I accidentally deleted a legitimate comment today, thinking it was spam. Sorry, unknown person! If you ever find your way back to this site, please leave it again. We get lots of spam here at Pop5 and few actual comments.
This weekend, I went to my first Latin dance class, attended Mike's photo exhibition with most of his family and most of Pop5, played the Wii, and got sick. I also made bread with my newest kitchen toy, a bread machine.
My mom got me one for Christmas, but it was late arriving, so I didn't get it until this weekend. And yesterday, I tried it out for the first time.
I ended up having to make two batches, because I seriously messed up the first batch. After reading all about the delicate ratio of ingredients needed to make the bread perfect, I figured I would increase my chances of success by weighing my ingredients with my little kitchen scale. So I weighed out three cups of flour - since one cup is the equivalent of eight ounces, I measured out 24 ounces. When I went to check the dough, it was much too dry, and I ended up adding a lot of water. I started to suspect I had done something wrong, so I looked on the internet at the King Arthur flour site, where I found that the flour ratios are of course in volume not weight - a cup should only be approximately four ounces. So not only had I put not enough yeast to match my flour and water parts, but I had put in almost double the dough my bread machine could handle. So I stopped the cycle and tossed the dough.
Dough, dead and wrapped in plastic. I threw it into the garbage, where it proceeded to rise and take over my kitchen, until I was able to beat it back with a wooden spoon.
So for the next batch, I didn't try any new innovations, but used the classic spoon and level method of measuring out my flour. And I checked it at the specified point, to make sure.
Now, I have never made bread before, but, as has been the case many times in culinary efforts, I benefited from having seen my mother do it many times. So when I saw this in my bread pan -
- I knew that was not the sticky ball of dough I was supposed to see. The problem this time - too little flour. So I added and adjusted until I saw what I wanted to see. This:
My instincts proved good, and before long, I had this:
That's Mike presenting, by the way.
This is a simple white bread recipe, on the Basic setting, with a medium crust. The crust was really yummy and crunchy on the ends, but not too hard, kind of like the perfect dinner roll texture. The middle of the bread was softer, and it was perfectly baked all the way through. I couldn't wait very long to cut into it, and it was hard to cut because it was so soft. If I waited longer for it to cool, it might be easier. But it smelled wonderful while baking, and it tasted that way, too.
I've already started looking for recipes to try out, and I am looking for a good one for cheese bread. I am stating now for the record that if I find a really good recipe for cheese bread, I may never again leave the house. Except to buy more ingredients for cheese bread.
Some photos from our recent travels north. These were shot with my Canon AE-1 - I am afraid the meter might be going, because they came back a little overexposed. It was a very sunny day. I fixed it a little in Photoshop.
This is downtown Providence. The far building looked like it was shimmering - you can kind of see it in the picture.
A bar/pub? I don't know, it wasn't open.
This was a black and white photo studio that was completely empty on the inside. Apparently black and white photography is not that profitable.
This was near the Rhode Island School of Design.
The drawbridge in Mystic, CT.
A boat in Mystic, CT.
Unofrtunately, I cannot claim to have taken this photo. In fact, I stole it from Gizmodo. I liked their additions, though. It is a commentary on the upcoming Vista as compared to OSX.
So I was having trouble coming up with a good present for Mike for Christmas this year. I asked him if he wanted a Nintendo Wii and he demurred. He wasn't interested in another gaming system. He wanted something practical, books on design and typography.
But he and Buddy one night decided they wanted to rent the Wii from WOW! Video just to see what it was like. And I think you all know where this story is going.
Buddy Wii-Boxing
Well, it took them at least an hour to just create the avatars. And although I have several grounds for not wanting actual photos of me up here on this site, I won't hold my objections against my Wii avatar. I will mention, however, that it is entirely Mike and Buddy's doing, which may account for its permanent scowl.
Wii Victoria
Wiii Mike looks like he is wearing eyeliner. Oh well, he is a fan of The Cure.
Wii Buddy is the only one of us who's natural state is smiling.
They also made a Wii Rob, but when Real Rob stopped by later, he totally redid himself. And there was a Wii Rama, who promptly started talking to all of the girl Wiis in the Wii room. This is not even a lie. Also, I won at bowling. Over the course of the rental period, the guys got better and eventually beat my high score, but I refused to play again, so as far as I am concerned, I am totally undefeated.
Of course, Mike changed his mind and now he wants a Wii. Of course there are still absolutely none to be had. So maybe for Valentine's Day, instead.
UPDATE
Both Buddy and I were able to purchase Wii's the day after I posted this. Which means countdown to the repetitive stress symptoms caused by Wii Bowling.
So I just bought the Toast, and now do I need to buy this too?
So this week has been a busy one, what with the starting of new classes (ugh) and the traveling (but no photos yet). On Saturday, Mike and I met some of his friends in NYC, and we headed out to the Brooklyn Museum, which is hosting special exhibitions by Annie Leibovitz and Ron Mueck. Everyone probably knows who Annie Leibovitz is; Ron Mueck is a sculptor who builds larger (sometimes smaller) than life sculptures of people. Verdict: CREEPY. High points of this NYC visit: figuring out how to get there by train from the Hamilton station (very easy, cheap, and convenient); dinner in Little Italy; and finally going to Brooklyn, which I have never done, even though I lived in NYC for three years. Low points: now, I have a tendency to exaggerate, but it is no lie that there were at least a million people in the museum that night. On the first Saturday of every month, Target hosts extended hours at the museum, until 11pm, and free admission, and it was so crowded in the special exhibition section that we were brought to a standstill for minutes at a time, surrounded. The exhibits were interesting (except CREEPY), but I definitely think I need to go back to see them, and the rest of the museum. There were just too many damn people.
Then, Monday night, Mike and I headed to Providence, Rhode Island, to visit the Rhode Island School of Design, which I know mainly as the alma mater of the Talking Heads. Everything about this short trip was good: Providence is a beautiful little city, we stopped in Mystic, CT on the way back, where we took photos and ate a nice lunch, and we timed it perfectly so the trip back on 95 through Connecticut, past NYC, and down the Jersey Turnpike took just the amount of time it should take, with no standstills and accidents.
And when I got back to work this morning, there was news of the new iPhone (the Apple iPhone, that is), a brand new Toast with Mac-enabled Tivo-to-Go (which I will download when I get home), and the Official Favorite Band of 12-Year-Old Boys will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. I am very afraid that this will prompt Mike to play their music loudly to celebrate.
The New York Times recently published an article listing 15 things that couples should ask each other before they plan to get married. Most of it was the usual stuff you would expect, but sandwiched between #2 (Do we have a clear idea of each other’s financial obligations and goals, and do our ideas about spending and saving mesh?) and #14 (If one of us were to be offered a career opportunity in a location far from the other’s family, are we prepared to move?) was one that jumped out at me:
7) Will there be a television in the bedroom?
Is this really a cause of so much contention? Is television in the bedroom a huge source of tension in relationships? Amidst all of the philosophical questions, that one struck me as funny. Maybe it is the strong opinions that this issue engenders that makes it so controversial.
By the way, my own answer is, HELL TO THE NO!
See the full list after the jump:
Over the past weekend, I enriched my life immeasurably with two technical gadgets. First: I got a Tivo. And second: I started using Bloglines.
I have only had my Tivo for four days, but I already have an unhealthy amount of affection for it. I can watch whatever I want whenever I want, I can schedule it over the internet, and it records me programs it thinks I might like - so far, pretty unsuccessfully. The only thing I am disappointed about is that the Tivo-to-Go feature, by which you can transfer Tivo-recorded programs to your computer to watch and burn, is currently only working with Windows and not Mac - although a quick Google search says that there may be some "extra-curricular" ways of getting around that.
Bloglines is a pretty awesome RSS aggregator, and since I know I am not addressing an entirely tech-savvy audience, I will explain that it lets you subscribe to receive updates from sites that are updated regularly - most notably, news sites and blogs, like our beloved Pop5. I was half-heartedly getting RSS feeds through Yahoo, but I didn't really like the interface or the options. With Bloglines, all of these things are customizable. You can even add a "Subscribe with Bloglines" button to your browser, to click when you are on a site you want to subscribe to. The upside is that I am finding fun, new little corners of the internet. The downside (possibly for you) is that now I feel the urge to share!
Guess who's promoting medical marijuana??
This is not just a good idea - this is an AWESOME idea.
NY Times film critic Manohla Dargis reviews David Lynch's Inland Empire, which, she says "isn't a film to love," but is "one of the few films I’ve seen this year that deserves to be called art." Who's in?
So when you tell people you are going to San Francisco, almost everyone mentions the hills. So you know, in advance, that it's hilly. But if you're like me, this information never passes from your "General Information about San Francisco" category to your "How Does This Affect Me while I Am Actually in the City." Also, I would like to state for the record that the street maps of San Francisco are deceiving, and they should pass out topographical maps instead. Because I would see that something was only ten blocks away, and I would think, "That's not far." Little did I know that the ten blocks each would involve an ascent of 500 feet.
From the Back of a Trolley
Stairs I Actually Climbed
We were not in San Francisco for long, and I already felt like I was getting sick before I got on the plane, but I got a lot worse while I was there. But not before I managed to get some photos. I think we stayed in the most touristy part of San Francisco, and we did a lot of the most touristy things, but it was fun.
So San Francisco was fun and beautiful, and I would like to go back, even though it tried to kill me. I'm looking at you, Coit Tower.
So on this Thursday, November 16, I have a burning question to ask all of my friends and acquaintances:
Team Karen or Team Pam?
In the comments: Give K-Fed some job suggestions now that Britney has dumped his lame ass.
I personally like Wawa clerk and pizza delivery boy.
UPDATE: You can also make suggestions for D. Rumsfeld since he, too, is out of a job.
So Mike and I went and voted this morning. I won't reveal who we voted for, but sufficed to say my candidates will probably win the elections, and his most definitely will not. His candidate undeniably had the better commercials, though.
Homer: America, take a good look at your beloved candidates. They're nothing but hideous space reptiles.
Kodos: It's true, we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It's a two-party system; you have to vote for one of us.
Man1: He's right, this is a two-party system.
Man2: Well, I believe I'll vote for a third-party candidate.
Kang: Go ahead, throw your vote away.
[Kang and Kodos laugh out loud]
[Ross Perot smashes his "Perot 96" hat]
It was a little strange because they had the newfangled computerized voting machines that are probably preprogrammed to register my vote as Republican. It made me a little nostalgic for the levers. Two years ago... those were the days.
More Real Life Translations
My all-time favorite recipe site Epicurious has a little Thanksgiving survey up.
After Thanksgiving dinner is over, you:
a) Scrub the kitchen inside and out
b) Help clear away the table
c) Turn on the TV and watch football
I am not at all advocating gender stereotypes, but this survey screams to me:
Are you:
a) A woman
b) A guest or child
c) A man
So I am addicted to the Food Network, and there is a commercial that I see fairly frequently there for peanut butter. It goes like this:
Two boys, both around 6, run up to their mom with the last slice of bread. They both want it for their favorite treat, a slice of crappy white bread spread with peanut butter.
The mom suggests they split it. "All right," one of them sighs, "but [insert annoyingly trendy boy's name here]'s piece can't be bigger than mine."
Mom: "Well, how about [annoyingly trendy boy's name #1] gets to cut..."
Annoyingly Trendy Boy #1: Yesss!
Mom: "...but [annoyingly trendy boy's name #2] gets to choose."
Annoyingly Trendy Boy #2: Awesome!
Boy #2 picks the bigger slice, and both eat happily.
Boy #2: My slice sure was big, wasn't it?
Boy #1 (laughing): Yeah, it was.
So here is this heartwarming scene, rendered in the misty glow of my childhood. Of course for this to work, it would have to be over something my brother and I would actually argue about, and not a slice of bread with fucking peanut butter. We'll say it's a candy bar.
Vicki: Mom, there's only one candy bar left and [Brother] won't share!
Mom: If you kids can't learn to share, then neither of you will get any of it. Cut it in half.
[Brother]: But her half can't be bigger than mine!
Mom: What did I just say? Do you want this candy or not?
Mom cuts candy bar and distributes pieces.
Vicki: Wow, my half sure is big, isn't it?
[Brother] starts to cry.
Mom: That's it.
Mom takes the pieces back and eats them herself.
Mom: Remember that next time.
Bonus Commercial ~
Voiceover: Why ask your doctor about cosmetic Botox?
Woman: Because I am a vain, vain person.
I have a feeling this might become a regular series.
Some of you may have noticed that the people behind Cranium have recently put out a game, and they are counting on riding the long coattails of our website's success by calling that game Pop 5. This is supposed to be a game about pop culture, which means that unless it has a direct RSS feed from Defamer, it was probably outdated before it even hit the shelves. Even though our Pop 5 has grown beyond the original 5, and is now more like "Pop 8," maybe we should still protect our little corner of the internet with a well-timed, American-as-apple-pie copyright infringement lawsuit.
Also, while I am never able to come up with cool costume ideas for myself, I think Evan and Laura should be the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend for Halloween. Do you think Laura can do the voice??
I also loved The Prestige, and I was counting down until the release date. We also saw this year's other magician movie, The Illusionist, and I for one liked Prestige much better. I have a thing for Ed Norton, and I like Paul Giamatti (without having a thing for him), but I hate that stupid Jessica Biel person, and the story was very thin. I think it was adapted from a short story, and you could definitely tell.
Fortunately, I also have things for Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale (but only when scruffy, like the beginning of Batman Begins. For some reason I don't like him clean-shaven), so my interest in The Prestige was heightened to begin with. I also like Christopher Nolan. I read that David Bowie was in the movie, but I didn't recognize him as Tesla, or remember that when I saw it. Mike and Buddy had to tell me it was him afterwards, so he must have done a hell of a job. Like Evan, I liked pretty much everything about this movie. I did figure out Hugh Jackman's half of the ending in advance, but I was surprised by Christian Bale's. After you find it out, though, so much of the rest of the movie makes sense.
Also, NJ opens the door to gay marriage. Looks like Rob won't have to travel to Canada after all.
The Food Network is looking for its next STAR!
From their website -
"This is what we are looking for:
• Cooking know-how: You can be self-taught or professionally trained or somewhere in between, but you should know the basics.
• Personality that pops: Let yourself shine and show us who you really are. Don't be shy. We are all about personality-show us yours!
• Teaching skills: Bring the world of food and cooking to life in your very own passionate and unique way.
The search for The Next Food Network Star will be documented on a series of specials slated to air this June. From a pool of eight finalists, one winner will receive their own six-episode show."
So, just because I haven't posted about a diner in a while doesn't mean that we haven't been going to them. In fact, now that I live by myself and my rent has therefore increased, I may only be able to eat out at diners from now on. And then only rarely.
We have mostly been going to diners that we've already written about. However, this past weekend we found ourselves near Allentown, PA, and very hungry. So we stopped at the City View Diner.
The City View Diner is kind of on a hill, but what it mostly seems to overlook is a small village of shopping centers and malls that surround it. There wasn't much of a "view." But I like the design of the building, with the bulging out glass sides. It reminded me of some '50s era vision of the future, like an old-school Disney Tomorrowland.
We are supposed to be focusing on Jersey diners here at Pop5, but personally I don't think there is anything wrong with us expanding our focus every once in a while. We have been to an awesome diner in PA that serves double-decker grilled cheese sandwiches and malt sundaes, a diner in upstate New York where we eavesdropped on sorority girls from the nearby college at 2am, and a "diner" (which hardly deserved the name) in North Carolina where we almost died from starvation before finally getting served. How can we neglect these?
The City View Diner is just as pretty on the inside as on the outside, and they have the huge menu you would expect at a diner.
They even had a salad bar, and what's more, it was a good salad bar with romaine lettuce and not crappy iceburg.
Mike was happy with the menu, because you could get a tuna sandwich on a pita with pierogies instead of chips or fries.
I think he was expecting a tuna salad, but the sandwich was hot, with no mayo, and I think some celery mixed in. This he deemed just okay, but the pierogies were excellent.
I ordered egg salad. I am very picky about egg salad, but I started ordering it at the Phily Diner, and I like the way they make it there. So then I started thinking I could order it anywhere. But unfortunately, no.
We had already scoped out the dessert we wanted to try before we ordered our lunch; it was a combination cake/cheesecake, like at Ponzio's.
This one wasn't as good as Ponzio's, in my opinion, because there was much less frosting, and the chocolate cake was very dark and rich, and I prefer the lighter cake at Ponzio's. The cheesecake part was fabulous, however, very light and fluffy. Yum!
So is you ever find yourself hungry near Allentown, stop in at the City View Diner. Not for the view, but for the pierogies and the cheesecake.
Project Censored released its list of the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007 - they must run a year ahead, because as far as I know, 2007 hasn't happened yet. Maybe it took place while I was cleaning bees off of my windowsill.
My personal favorites:
They also ask the following question: If a national movement calling for the impeachment of the President is rapidly emerging and the corporate media are not covering it, is there really a national movement for the impeachment of the President?
So the moving is done and my apartment is set up almost the way I want it. There are only three things standing in the way of my happiness:
1) BEES! On the first day I moved in, I noticed a large quantity of dead bees in the windowsill of my bedroom, between the screen and the window pane. We're talking at least 20 dead bees - a total bee cemetary. Then I noticed that some bees became both enterprising and undead, and actually entered my room. To die on the inside windowsill, or the floor. Where I stepped on them. Twice.
People, I have not been stung by a bee since my youth, but it happens to suck almost as much as moving.
I cleaned all the dead bees and flushed them down the toilet (the new bee cemetary!), but I noticed there were more buzzing around outside my window. I figure there must be a rip in the screen, and one got trapped in there and communicated "help!" to its hivemates (bees can communicate, right? I think I read that somewhere), luring them in and trapping them one by one into the mass bee grave in my windowsill. Then the enterprising ones attempted to escape by crawling through the crack in the window into my room. So I called maintenance, and taped up the window with masking tape in an attempt to prevent them from entering. I don't much care if they live outside, and I don't even really mind cleaning up dead ones from my windowsill from time to time, but I draw the line at another foot-stinging injury.
2) DISHES! Apparently, when you move and buy a whole pile of new kitchen stuff, not only do you have to wash all of the dishes you brought, but all of the dishes you just bought as well. I don't have a dishwasher in the new apartment, and so I have been proceeding with this task, slowly.
3) NO CABLE AND INTERNET! This will be remedied very, very soon.
Lun Lun, the panda at Zoo Atlanta, gave birth to another baby panda today!! I think they should name it Butterstick 2.0.
And I don't care if all you all think I'm a freak!!
People, I am insanely busy: packing up my entire house so that later this week I can move it all; anticipating returning to school next week; and taking photos for my roommate's negative-budget movie project. Maybe someday I will have free time to write for my little pop5 again.
This one's for Evan:
Bedtime Stories by Thom Yorke:
Once there was a little bunny who had a little furry tail and a little shiny nose. But the electrodeath cloud of commerce strangled it and its foxhole was converted to a parking lot, a parking lot, a parking lot.
So I am back at the gym for the first time since my ankle injury, and last week I finally got around to making a workout playlist for my iPod. This is a necessity, because last Thursday I was at the gym during "The Office," and you can plug your headphones into these little consoles and hear the sound as well as watch. I was laughing the whole time while on the treadmill (it was the one where Michael grilled his foot), and the other patrons of the gym were giving me strange looks. This was probably good for my cardiovascular health, if not for my reputation at the gym.
In any case, I am looking for song recommendations for my gym playlist. The only requirement is they have to have a steady beat, ranging from fairly fast to very fast. And they can't suck.
The only way I hear new music nowadays is if someone recommends it to me, or I download it from the internet, which usually results in my knowing nothing about any new band I am listening to. Recently, I have been musically obsessed with Of Montreal, whose latest tour apparently features "banners, masks, numerous costume changes, guitarists in drag, covers of Top 40 songs, and samurai sword faux-masturbation," none of which I would have guessed probably because I am old. In some ways this is a good thing, since I am judging them on the music alone, but then I have also been in the situation where I told someone I like a band, and they were all, "You like them?!?! They drink blood and wear sequined dresses while masturbating to images of the Virgin Mary on stage!" And, well, what can you say to that?
Of Montreal :: Your Magic Is Working
Of Montreal :: Requiem for O.M.M.2.
Of Montreal :: I Was Never Young
Of Montreal :: The Party's Crashing Us
I just finished Sharon Waxman's Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Studio System, which reminded me very much of that other book (Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock-'N'-Roll Generation Saved Hollywood). I preferred Waxman's book because she a) did much less fawning and ass-kissing, although there was plenty of it, which just indicates how truly fawning and ass-kissing the Biskind book was, and b) did not make Biskind's mistake of introducing an enormous number of people and writing about them in a way that made me lose track of who the fuck he was talking about.
Waxman's book could have used a good copyeditor, however. Since this is one of the many things I get paid for, it bleeds over into my non-job-related reading, and it is seriously annoying to be jarred out of your flow by fixing grammar mistakes in your head while reading.
Waxman concentrates on six directors who she identifies as making up part of a new, auteur-director style in the '90s, which she explicitly links back to the '70s directors treated in Biskind's book. She delves into the backgrounds of the directors, trying her hand at pop psychology (many of them apparently hated their mothers, surprise, surprise), and paying particular attention to the making of one or two of their movies: Quentin Tarentino and Pulp Fiction, Steven Soderbergh and Traffic, Paul Thomas Anderson and Boogie Nights and Magnolia, David Fincher and Fight Club, Spike Jonze and Being John Malkovich, and David Russell and Three Kings. Here is the short version of her portraits of these directors:
But Waxman seems to conclude that, far from having "conquered" the studio system, in the '00s these same directors began to get co-opted by it, losing their creative edge. Books like this one are fun to read, for the behind-the-scenes look at how movies really get made - the process, with all its accidents and coincidences, never ceases to amaze me. But everyone in the film industry takes themselves so seriously that, in the end, I come away with the same feeling I get when I have eaten too much sugar or watched too much t.v., kind of like my brain has detached from the inside of my skull. An endorsement? You be the judge.
Mike made this:
This has been a good week for movies, folks.
Scoop: As I said at the time, Scoop is like Match Point, only directed by Woody Allen. I preferred Match Point.
Little Miss Sunshine: I liked this movie and it was cute, but I don't think it is worth the hype that I am hearing it is getting. It is hard to pin down what exactly I didn't like about it, because there was a lot that I did. I think the problem for me was the formulaic road trip, the musical number climax, and the kind of unresolved ending. I also didn't like the little girl's character; I feel like they made her too perfect and lovable.
Jersey Girl: After seeing Clerks II, I started to feel bad that, as a Kevin Smith fan, I hadn't seen this, so I Netflixed it. Now, I wanted to like it, but I didn't, because the plot was very, very bad. The problem here was that there was no story arc; the movie was like a bunch of little movies smushed together into one big one. First, there was the romantic comedy with a tragic ending (and what happened to the classroom-reading setpiece that opens the film - he never brings that back in the end), then the father-son tempestuous relationship, the new father woes, the weird budding-romance, and finally, the family versus work conflict. I thought the movie should never have jumped the seven years forward; either it should have focused on his problems adjusting after his wife's death, or had the wife die when the daughter was seven, and then deal with the adjusting then. It didn't strike me as believable that seven years later, the character would still be the same exact person he was before his wife died (especially since in some of the scenes he seemed totally differerent), and want to go back to the life he had then. I thought that after he got the town to agree to the construction, he would get hired by the town as its publicist, or maybe become a politician or something. But then it swung in an entirely different direction.
Some of the dialogue got on my nerves (and I usually like his dialogue), notably the scene where Ben Affleck is talking to his daughter in the crib. I can tell a scene is badly written when I am editing it in my head while watching.
And speaking of editing, this film was very badly edited. Now, I am no expert on film, and there are very few things that I feel qualified to judge: plot, dialogue, characters, and acting. For something like cinematography, I usually only notice it if I especially like it. Kevin Smith gets a lot of bad press about his crappy cinematography, but I never really noticed his "bad camera angles," or whatever. Most other things, like editing or music (relevant in the next review), I will only notice if they are bad. And this film was badly edited. In some of the shots, it looked like it included the actor's warm-up before they actually started the scene. And the end shot was horrible.
Also there was no excuse for showing an entire scene of Sweeney Todd, people. No one wants to see actors fake-acting a musical for a fake-elementary school talent show. No one.
On a positive note, I think the actors did a good job, especially George Carlin. Except for Ben Affleck's hair.
Inside Man: I liked it, except (as I foreshadowed) for the music, which reminded me of a bad '80s television police drama score.
Brick: This was the best of the bunch, and it is sad that it was only in theaters for a week or two. This is a real noir thriller set in a high school, which may not be realistic, but totally works, and even provides for some humor - Brendon's sneering line to the EVP that he would see him at the Parent-Teacher Conference was hysterically well-delivered. Here is a movie where I noticed the excellent cinematography. The dialogue was a little hard to follow, since they were using lots of slang that seemed made-for-the-movie, but maybe it's just Californian. In any case, highly recommended.
When we were talking about the video below, he mentioned this one that he saw years ago on the internet, and it has since been uploaded to YouTube, too:
So I hear from the Great Internets that Helena Bonham Carter has been cast in the next Harry Potter movie as Bellatrix Lestrange. This will probably not be of interest to those members of the site who haven't read the books (ahem!), but I am interested for two reasons: first, I am kind of happy to see that the HP franchise is continuing its habit of making the movies a British cottage industry by casting almost exclusively British actors (the only one I thought was American - Gary Oldman - it turns out is not). I like that sense of British pride and sticking-it-to-Hollywoodism. Of course, the first two movies were directed by an American, and the third (and best, in my opinion) by a Mexican, but it seems like they are sticking to British directors now, too. (Has anyone heard of anything the new director has done?) This is also reinforced by the casting of Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake, which I didn't see) as Dolores Umbridge, George Harris (Layer Cake) as Kingsley Shacklebolt, and newcomer Evanna Lynch (Irish) as Luna Lovegood.
Second, they have been cutting so much from the books to make the movies, that I am glad to hear they cast anyone at all as Bellatrix Lestrange. I was almost afraid she would be cut. Speaking of HP in general, I read some interesting theories on the internet today about what's going to happen in the 7th book. Despite what I originally thought, it does look like this one will be the last. I just don't know how she will fit everything in.
I was telling Mike about this yesterday. This is Episode One; you can go here to view Episode Two, and Episode Three is on the way.
I read today that Heath Ledger has been cast as the Joker in the Batman sequel, which I find an interesting choice. Certainly about as far away from Jack Nicholson as one could conceivably get. Since I know we have a boatload of Batman fans on this site, I want to hear what everyone else thinks.
Myself, I'm just glad Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan will be returning. Christian Bale looked good in the first one....
I'm glad I was able to leave Pop5 in Evan's capable hands for the duration of my trip. Evan, even if Pop5 temporarily becomes a monologue, at least it is not only my monologue.
I thought that I was going to be able to get internet service high up in the Adirondack Mountains, but I was wrong. I also wasn't able to get cell phone service - at the cabin at least. [BTW - the "cabin" is not at all as rustic as the term implies. Except for the lack of cell service and internet, we had electricity, washer and dryer, microwave, dishwasher, and all of the modern amenities. Except air conditioning, which we didn't need, since it never got above the low 80s, and this was described by the locals as a "heat wave." I may need to move there. It was also right on the lake.] So in any case, I was plannning to provide updates on my vacation (and welcome Laura - Evan's lovely wife - to Pop5 as well. Hi, Laura! Post!). Since that didn't work out, here is what I did on my vacation, in convenient bullet form:
In roughly that order. Then the sequence repeated itself. Everyone at Pop5 probably knows that I don't have the skin for sunbathing, but what you may not know is that I am also extremely picky about swimming. When I was a kid, I would swim in the muddiest, seaweediest, fishiest pond, but now I prefer my swimming water highly chlorinated. I even avoid swimming in the ocean, although that might not be so strange, given the condition of the Jersey shore.
Wildlife Report: Several deer, swarms of butterflies, one drunken bird that repeatedly hit itself on the head flying into the glass windows of the house, a bat, masses of objectionable and unidentifiable insects, and roadkill, mostly on the way up. We did not see a black bear this year - last year, a bear and two baby bears frequently wandered through the yard.
I need to start planning a new vacation to take my mind off of going back to work.
Personally, I think this one was my favorite.... A combination of the mirrored sunglasses, the "guns" hand gesture, and the smirking (with tongue!). I don't think it gets better than this, folks.
Oh, and, sorry girls, this one's taken, too.
So Rob tells us that his party is not meant to be White Trash-themed, and that everyone will be dressed normally. But I don't think this is going to stop Mike and I from showing up wearing costumes, since we had already planned them all out by the time we discovered this. Mike's been preparing his for the past week. But I think I have the hardest part. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to fake a pregnancy AND reveal your thong underwear?
BTW, Rob, we'll be bringing the PBR, Cheetos, and Red Bull, so don't put those on your shopping list. Should we also get pork rinds??
As you can tell from the previous post, Pop5 is welcoming a new author to impress us with his genius and wisdom! We had Deflated Soda Cup Guy for a while, but that dude never posted, so we got a real live human who doesn't wear crazy outfits this time. Everyone please welcome EVAN!!!
When I first did the About page, I didn't think I was going to continue the story. But since everyone seemed to like it, I decided to take it another step. Click here to visit the About Page Two.
So as part of the ongoing fun we are providing for our houseguest, we took a trip down to the National Zoo in Washington, DC. There our group (me, roommates, and their mom) met up with my mom and my brother, sister-in-law, two nephews, and niece for a group zoo day. Amazingly, this is the first time I have visited the Zoo and seen other animals besides the baby panda.
I think we saw pretty much the whole zoo, since the kids are really into it. We did not see the Bat House, which was closed. Apparently, it freaked my niece out the last time she saw it. She tried to tell me that the bats weren't real bats, and I told her I thought she was mistaken.
We also had the following conversation, which just proves what Starbucks fiends my brother and sister-in-law are:
Me: I don't like Starbucks.
Her (incredulous): You don't like Starbucks? Why?
Me: I don't like coffee.
Her: What about macchiata?
Macchiata? You're four!!
She also received a package of animal crackers that she then murmured, "My precious" over. This she picked up from Tolkien, via Peter Jackson and her older brother.
My family has started calling my older nephew "Aunt Vicki" for two reasons that were demonstrated on this trip:
This is indeed not only how I would have acted at 8, but how I continue to act now.
But of course the star of the show was the Stick. Upon seeing him, the whole group agreed with my panda obsession. See, Buddy and Rob, if you visited the panda, you would be converts too!
We met a lady there who had flown all the way from LA to be there for his birthday the next day. She was also planning a trip to the Wolong Panda Reserve in the spring. Mmm, mounds of chubby panda goodness! I want to go too.
I was naming a photo after editing it today, and I couldn't for the life of me think of the word "weathervane," so I ended up calling it "wind arrow."
Also, I got my iMac back, yay!
So my trusty iMac is broken! And I had to bring it to the Apple store for fixing. It needs its logic board replaced, which is apparently quite expensive, except it is under warranty, so I get it done for free. This has been especially unfortunate, since I have been finishing up web design for my roommate's movie web site. This is supposed to be her summer project, but we are joking that it won't be done until 2011.
My roommates' mom is visiting us, which she does every year, and since she and my mom get along, we usually plan lots of outings for the two of them. This explains the run of New York City pictures over at Beside the Point; we were there on Saturday. We went to Atlantic City on Tuesday, a mere hours before the casinos shut down because of Jersey's inability to budget. Yesterday, we went to the Philly production of the Lion King. Saturday, we are planning to go to DC to see the baby panda, among other things.
Today is Mike's birthday, so make sure to leave him good wishes in the comments. We are going out to dinner to celebrate, and plan our outfits for Rob's White Trash-themed party.
So I had to drop my second summer semester class, and now I have my first free summer in three years. I am not sure what to do with myself. Here is a partial list of my projects:
Clearly I don't know how to take a break. Mike is in North Carolina this week with his family, so I was able to get started on most of these projects already, and my class ended just last week!
The Club Diner is perhaps the most successful in the diners-we-tried-just-for-this-website category, because we have been back four or five times since we first went there in November. There are a few reasons for this: it is close, the food is good, and the decline we are starting to feel about the Phily Diner.
I like this picture, even though it is overexposed.
When we went to the Club Diner in November, they were undergoing renovations on the left wing, and I was a little apprehensive about it, because that is where they seated us. They only had these temporary folding tables and chairs, and to tell you the truth, I was not at all sure that this place was going to prove to be any good. Fortunately I was mistaken.
You can see Zac and Mike's reflections in the middle pane of the glass here - I think mine is to the left, holding up the camera.
Since it was November, the Club Diner (and almost every other diner) was offering Pumpkin Pancakes, and that's what Zac (Mike's brother) ordered. I may be mistaken, but I think these are not actually made with pumpkin, but are just spiced like pumpkin pie, with cinnamon and ginger, etc. Let me know if I am mistaken. Zac is a big fan of the pumpkin pie, and he was also a big fan of the pumpkin pancakes. There was lamenting all around that these were only available for a limited time each year.
Club Diner, renovations complete.
Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera inside for this first expedition, so I don't have any pictures of these mythic pancakes, nor of the chicken caesar wrap, french fries, milkshake, and omelet that Mike and I got, but all of these got the thumbs up. I recall (with the help of my notes) that the service was slow, which might have been due to the renovations.
We started going back to the Club a few months ago, and this time I brought my camera inside. The renovated dining area looks beautiful. I ordered the vodka penne, and Mike got the chicken caesar salad in a tortilla shell. My penne was preceded by a house salad, which was the only disappointing part of the meal - way too much iceburg lettuce and not much else. I also didn't really like their Thousand Island dressing. I think it is homemade, but still it's kind of surprising, since I've never had a problem with that kind of dressing before. I had much better luck later with the Honey Mustard.
Notice the also excellent (according to Mike) banana bread in the background. I don't like banana bread.
Here's the tortilla shell salad, again looking kind of bland in the picture. Maybe I should try taking the picture from above next time.
And here's the vodka penne, which I really enjoyed.
The Club Diner is located just down the Black Horse Pike from the Phily Diner, in Bellmawr. It has the feel of a local favorite; whenever I have been there, it seems that the place is full of regulars. I'm glad their renovations are finished, because the diner's architecture is very striking. I don't know any history about the place, but I will try to find out. It also has a cool sign...
..that lights up all fiery at night. Yay, Club Diner!
The sign alternates flames, and I got this picture with film, so I am glad it turned out lit up. I was trying to time it right. Yay me!
The Club Diner gets 
There were rumors that this would be the last X-Men movie, but since it is doing so well in the box office (and they left it open for another sequel), minds might be changed about that. But I am sad to report that I was disappointed in the newest X-Men. I really, really liked X2, and I think that it might be the best movie based on a comic book that has ever been made. It was a good movie, on all levels, which is rare for a movie of the "fanboy" genre. It was also a rare example of a sequel better than the original. But even the first X-Men was better than X3.
X3 was not a good movie, and this was due to the direction and the script. It became an action movie, with the one-liner quips, and the one-dimensional characterization and plot. It doesn't explain characters that are missing - where is Nightcrawler, who played a fairly large role in the last one. And it doesn't take the time to introduce new characters. We get no explanation or characterization for Beast, and suddenly Kitty Pryde is at the forefront of the X-Men with no explanation. The real reason was probably that the writers needed her in the Alcatraz scene.
This time the movie wasn't so bad that I wanted to walk out, although the horrible actress from Hard Candy was Kitty. But the dialogue was awful just the same. From Rogue and Bobby's first scene ("Maybe I'm just upset because I can't touch my boyfriend." "I've never complained to you." "You don't have to, you're a boy. That's all you think about." Way to tell and not show, screenwriters) to Mystique's annoying-little-girl "Told you so," the writers consistently went for the easiest dialogue and the lowest-common-denominator one-liners. And the decision to forefront the lamest character and worst actress (Halle Berry as Storm) didn't help matters much.
I didn't want to X-Men franchise to end, but now that this movie is making so much money, there really won't be any incentive for the studio to match the quality of the second X-Men, or even bring it up to the level of the first. As sad as it would be to have the series end here, maybe it would be better than dragging it down for even more crappy sequels.
Lessons learned from Wild at Heart: Sex = Fire = Death
Hmm, maybe that applies to all of David Lynch's movies....
Here are some more live covers for Pop5. By the way, everyone, I got the new Raconteurs, so um... be sure to let me know if you are interested and [purchase your own perfectly legal copy as soon as possible].
Content removed to protect the innocent
My Morning Jacket :: Suspicious Minds (Elvis Presley Cover)
Franz Ferdinand :: What You Waiting For (Gwen Stefani Cover)
This one turns into a Billy Idol White Wedding Cover at the end.
I'm usually the last to hear about these sorts of things, so hopefully you all have protested this already. Since there is no smaller website than Pop5, this is definitely a personal issue.
From www.savetheinternet.com:
Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet's First Amendment -- a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you -- based on what site pays them the most. If the public doesn't speak up now, our elected officials will cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign.
How does this threat to Internet freedom affect you?
From the NY Times' Editorial Desk May 2,2006:
"One of the Internet's great strengths is that a single blogger or a small political group can inexpensively create a Web page that is just as accessible to the world as Microsoft's home page. But this democratic Internet would be in danger if the companies that deliver Internet service changed the rules so that Web sites that pay them money would be easily accessible, while little-guy sites would be harder to access, and slower to navigate".
I don't watch television news. In fact, if I read any news at all, I get it from the internet, usually respectable sources like the New York Times or the Washington Post. When I want to be filled with righteous indignation, I turn to alternet or cursor.org, but I don't think these are feeding me wrong information, just very liberal-biased information. In contrast, the local news seems to consist of seven components:
The only thing on that list that I am usually interested in is the weather, and it's much easier and less revolting to turn to weather.com. Thankfully, I also miss many of the commercials that way.
So Mike and I watched David Lynch's Eraserhead last night, and I am not sure what to say about it. I don't know if I actually enjoyed the experience of watching it; most of the time I was thinking, "This dude is seriously f---ed up." But in the end, I am glad I saw it. While watching the movie, I just knew that Lynch had become a father right before he did it, and I later found out on the internet that was true. And I still maintain that the scene with the vaporizer is one of the funniest moments in movie history. This movie is definitely for: hardcore Lynch fans (I-loved-Lost-Highway style); anyone who likes surrealist film; and anyone interested in the use of sound and lighting in film. This movie is NOT for: people who like realistic settings, rational plot, and dialogue; new parents and pregnant women; and anyone freaked out by worm-alien babies that Lynch will famously not reveal how he created.
Also, Deflated Soda Cup Guy!!!
So, um, YAY! My whole master's thesis thing worked out, and this morning I dropped off my final bound version, meaning I am set to graduate. This also means that I have a whole two weeks of vacation before I start classes again. Everyone I have told about this has been like, why didn't you take the summer off? And originally I had planned to, but then I got nervous about how long it might take to finish my doctorate, and I wanted to start on it right away. Besides, it's not like I would get a vacation or anything - I still have to work.
On Sunday, Mike and I went driving to take photos again, but then when I got home, my memoy card burnt out on me, and I lost all of the photos. I have had to replace the memory card, and the memory card reader, which now isn't working as well. This is the third one I have gotten since February. They aren't that expensive, but still it's annoying. We found a really cool place to eat, which I will write more about once I steal Mike's photos. I am bummed about losing mine, though. There was one really cool one of a cow - gone forever! Stupid digital - so convenient and yet so annoying sometimes...
So on Saturday night, after Mike and I had been out shooting photos all day, we wind up as usual at a diner and a movie with the rest of our Pop5 crew (only its Pop4 with Rama in LA). Standing in the foyer of the Ritz, we tried to find a movie to see, but the problem was that there is nothing much out that any of us wanted to see. We are in that post-Oscar nominee, pre-summer blockbuster extravaganza lull. We are wavering between "The Devil and Daniel Johnston," and "Hard Candy," since both Buddy and Rob have already seen "Inside Man." After a sidetrack to consider "Betty Page," we end up somehow with "Hard Candy," and I'm warning you right now to never, never make this decision if you end up in the same situation.
Now, I was not really expecting this be a good movie. But it managed to be horribly beyond my low expectations. The very first scene put my teeth on edge, and there wasn't even any acting - it was a conversation via IM transcription. But the dialogue...ugh! And worse, I think, is that it was clearly trying to be an "art film." Mike leaned over and asked me what was wrong, and I said, "I'm just not liking this too much so far." Although the subject matter was kind of icky, it wasn't even that that got to me. Just the horrible dialogue, and the terrible story line. The script sounded like it had been written by a 16 year old boy. A demented, retarded 16 year old boy.
So after 20 minutes more of ludicrous, stomach-turning dialogue, I turned to Mike and said, "Can we leave? I'm gonna go wait in the car." Because the idea of waiting by myself in my car was the more pleasant alternative to sitting in that theater another minute. I got up and left, and was kind of surprised that the guys all followed me. We had a quick reconnaissance outside of the theater. Mike was only disappointed that he was breaking his streak of never having walked out of a movie (although later he remembered doing it on a date years ago). Rob said the movie made him feel dirty and he needed a shower. Buddy wanted to know how it ended, and I said that's what Spoiler.com was for. There was universal diappointment that we had paid $9 for it, and I was determined to get that money back.
I knocked on the manager's door, and this young kid came out. I told him that a wanted a refund, and I think I said it was because the movie was "a fucking piece of shit," but now I feel a little guilty about swearing at him. At the time, I was hugely irritated and angry, but still. The manager kid offered us free passes to replace our tickets, which we accepted, since we go to the Ritz all the time. We went back to Buddy's, where he looked up the ending on Spoiler.com, and I was even more disgusted with the lame and ridiculous plot. The moral of the story: do not under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES see this movie!
When I posted about the Crystal Lake Diner, I mentioned that they had once delivered me the best cheese omelet I have ever had. This was not that omelet, but it was pretty good:
It was a little overcooked (in other words, tough), but there was a good egg to cheese ratio, and it was folded nicely. The Perfect Cheese Omelet was perfectly cooked - not burnt, but not underdone in the center. It was folded like an origami in thin layers, and it seemed like there was cheese in every layer. Perfecto! Apparently almost everyone everywhere overcooks eggs, and the best way to make them is over very low heat for a very long time. I have heard of recipes to make scrambled eggs that use the lowest heat possible and cook for 30 minutes. This is supposed to make them so tender, they melt in your mouth, but I have never had them this way. Have you heard about this, Rob?
This, unsuspecting South Jerseyites, is a Wegmans.
What is a Wegmans, you are asking? It is only the best supermarket in the WHOLE WORLD. I grew up with Wegmans. My mom shopped nowhere else. Wegman's was my first job, and I worked there until I left for college. Since I have moved to South Jersey, only one thing was missing to make my life complete: Wegmans.
You may be laughing at me right now, but that is because you have not felt the magic of Wegmans. I went with my roommate, who also comes from my hometown, and she was just as excited as I was. We have been tracking the progress of the one in Mount Laurel since it was announced. There is another one coming to Cherry Hill, too, where the racetrack used to be. It opens in June.
So I arrived at the Wegmans with my camera, ready to document the whole experience.
Wegmans has always been topping itself with each new store it opened. We remembered when the first one to have a Chinese restaurant inside opened a few blocks from Roommate's house. And then when they refurbished the one a couple miles away with a complete Market Cafe. Well, this one in Mount Laurel outdoes all of them: it has pizza, sandwiches, hot deli, a sushi bar, an olive bar, and Chinese takeout. It has a full-service bakery with yummy baked goods, fresh produce, and an elevated toy train running through the dairy section. It has an upstairs seating area to eat in. But I can't show these to you, because they denied me my Constitutional right to take photos, and I didn't push the issue.
I got this one picture inside the door, of the fruit bar, before a manager-type hurried over to me and told me I was not allowed to take pictures. I guess Wegmans is more concerned about its "corporate secrets" - which are open to anyone who cares to enter - and less about my own personal sense of nostalgia. These no photo bans are absurd, if you ask me.
After that, I started to see the two girls that the manager was with everywhere I turned in the store, and I told my Roommate that I suspected they were following me. "They're tailing me! This is just like the Bourne Identity!" I told her in an undertone. "You wish," she replied. She was already kind of embarrassed to be seen with me while I was taking the pictures.
So, Wegmans, I still love you even though we have squabbled. This isn't the first time your corporate structure has screwed me over - after all, I did used to work for you. I remember that time that you complained when I called out sick with laryngitis.
Although you won't be able to take pictures there, I still recommend that you drop by to do some grocery shopping. The organic foods section! The produce! The bulk foods! Wegmans!
So now that I have upgraded to Flickr pro, I am addicted to Flickr pro. My Butterstick and His Tree picture made the Interesting page, but since it puts up new ones on reload, you probably won't see it when you click. Still! Awesome!
So we went to the Palace Diner on Saturday, where we were greeted with the following on the door:
That's right, people. New Jersey is now a non-smoking state. I had forgotten that this non-smoking thing had passed, back in February, and it went into effect this week. This has proved to be a seachange in the way diners work here. Now there are no smoking sections anywhere. This doesn't really affect me and Mike alone, like we were on Saturday, but I foresee it having a grave effect on our late-night hangouts.
I'm posting some pictures here of our lunch, since I haven't posted any photos from the Palace Diner yet. These were taken with my manual Canon AE1; hence the low light and shallow depth of field. For some reason, I feel more comfortable taking diner pictures with it than my huge 20D. I just ordered another manual lens, a 28mm, so maybe the food pictures will be easier to take. Mike laughs at me now when I take them, because I have to back away from the plates to get any focus.
This is a representative photo - I said the Palace had big drinks, and this is the proof. That's my ice tea glass next to Mike's milkshake glass, and my water glass for a comparison.
I usually get a little salad here, because they are good. This one wasn't so great as usual. Mike took this picture.
This is my usual grilled cheese, with the Perfect Diner Fry almost covering it. Also note the honey mustard, which I was introduced to some years ago by our friend Steve. Good french fries plus honey mustard equals yum!
This is Mike's taco salad, looking a little washed out for true appreciation of its goodness.
I also got back some pictures from Ponzio's...ah, the joys of waiting for film.
UPDATE: Also, something is up at the Phily Diner. The last few desserts we have gotten there have been horrible. Also they recently got a liquor license, and now there is a sign announcing the arrival of a "sports bar"...??? This sounds bad. Mike says we may have to take away one of their cups in the near future, so stay tuned...
These two are for Rob, since he listened to them last night. Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs have put out a new CD called Under the Covers, and here are two tracks:
Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs :: Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young cover)
Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs :: Care of Cell #44 (Zombies cover)
Not everyone may know that recently our beloved Pop5 member Rama headed out to California to pursue his dreams of endless alcohol, sex, and unemployment. We here at Pop5 wish him the best of luck - but don't think that means he isn't going to be posting in the future. He is still our Los Angeles correspondent.
Rock on!
So I submitted some of my old screenshots of baby panda Su Lin and some of the ones on this site of the Stick to PandaFans, which for the record is the best site to go to if you can't spend hours a day watching the Pandacams, like everyone wishes they could. Pandafans collects screenshots and photos of pandas from all over to post. I also really like the captions, particularly for the Stick and his mom. Anyway, some of the ones I sent in were posted, and more might be in the future, so check it out.
Also, people, my Masters thesis is giving me problems. I have it finished (although I will have to do at least one more revision), but my professors are unhappy that I didn't really consult them during the semester while I was working on it. This is true, I didn't, but I also didn't think it was necessary, and I think I did a good job of finishing it without, but.... well, whatever. I'm not sure what's going to happen with it - I mean, if I submit a good enough piece, will they forgive me? I am scheduled to graduate in May, and I think they would let me graduate (or at least participate in the graduation ceremony, even if they hold my diploma) either way. But I also start classes for my doctorate in May, and I really want to have this done before then. Well, in any case, I have to wait until next week to meet with them, so I am just continuing to work on revisions until then, and I guess I will find out....
I watched some more DVDs while continuing to be ill last week: the first season of Arrested Development, which was great. I hardly ever watch television, but watching tv on dvd rocks! No commercials! You can watch it whenever you want! This is probably why I need a Tivo. Also Proof - the Gyllenhaal trifecta completed. There is no reason to watch Proof except for the Gyllenhaal. And The Constant Gardener, which was ok. It was one of those movies where if you have seen a preview for it, then you have seen the entire movie, and actually watching it is absolutely no surprise. Those movies kind of suck. Also The Corpse Bride, which I liked, but not as much as Nightmare Before Christmas.
So I have been sick and out of work all week with tonsilitus, and after the first few days when all I did was sleep, these last few all I have done is lie in bed and watch movies. This illness is a bitch, but at least I caught up a little movie-wise. This year, for the first year in about forever, I hadn't seen any of the Best Picture nominees before the Oscar ceremony. And now I am proud to say that I have seen four of them, excluding the (not-released yet and I have no interest anyway) Munich. So what do I have to say?
This is no new observation, but people, Brokeback Mountain got robbed. I don't understand how, with three nominations, none of the actors won, and it was far and away the best of the four.
After having heard a lot about Crash, I expected to not like it more than I did. I thought it was okay - some of the cast were really superb (I'm thinking Thandie Newton, Don Cheadle, and Terence Howard, particularly), but all of them were decent. The story kind of lost plausibility with me; it kept switching between moments of extreme hypersaccarine-ity, and moments of sheer horror - sometimes in the same scene. And I never found the dialogue plausible. I think I heard more racial slurs and insults in that movie (that is supposed to take place in 24 hours), than I hear in 5 years of normal life. Do people actually talk that way to people? If they did, how in the world would anyone be able to interact with anyone of a different race? And I'm not sure what the ultimate message was supposed to be: everyone is racist, but maybe we can overlook it and show some common humanity in situations involving car explosions? Everyone - even the smallest characters - was so hateful, and the few who tried to be good when the plot was stacked against them end up fucking up. So the movie just kind of left me feeling unmoved and unsympathetic for any of them. (By the way, does anyone else think that Brendon Fraser's character was sleeping with his assistant - the one Sandra Bullock is supposed to be jealous of? They didn't really come out and say it, but I kind of thought in the last scene...) This movie reminded me of the absolute dark opposite of that movie from a few years ago, Love Actually, where the premise was that an ensemble cast with intertwined lives proves that people really have kind thoughts and wishes for others in the world, and the world is full of love. Here, we have an ensemble cast whose intertwined lives prove that everyone out in the world hates everyone else so much they all would commit violent acts if given the chance.
As for Capote, I thought it was good too. Great cast, script, direction - definitely an Oscar nominee, but not a winner. I even think Philip Seymour Hoffmann shouldn't have won for it, although I like him as an actor, and I'm glad he won for something. But this movie is about Capote, and at the end, I didn't feel like I knew him at all. There were glimpses that he had a horrible childhood, and maybe that contributed to it, but he comes off like a first-rate asshole, who doesn't give a shit about anybody but himself. Yes, Hoffmann did a great job impersonating Capote, but neither he nor the script gives you any reason to care about him. That being said, I really liked Catherine Keener as Harper Lee, and the movie could have used more of her. The guy who played Capote's lover was good too - these two were the two human counterfoils to Capote and the killers.
I liked Good Night and Good Luck, but in a good year, it shouldn't even have been nominated. It was only 96 minutes long, and it even felt padded at times. I would have felt cheated seeing this in the theater, when a whole lot of that 96 minutes was historical footage and musical montages. I liked the story, I liked the point, I agree with both the political overtones, and the whole television could be a force for good, but it's becoming a force for complacency argument. I thought the story could have unfolded more, and we could have gotten more into the characters, or something, anything.
In contrast to these four (and I highly doubt Munich will top it), Brokeback had pitch perfect acting, directing, cinematography, and writing. It had heart, it made you care about the characters. After I saw it, I just wanted to watch it again, even with a stack of other movies I hadn't seen yet. It also didn't hurt that it had dreamy Jake Gyllenhaal in it.
Since I took up more than 10 seconds there, I will condense the rest of my reviews:
Memoirs of a Geisha: This was much better than I expected - I didn't like the book that much, but this was an adaptation that was better than the book.
Jarhead: More yummy Gyllenhaal goodness! Also Peter Sarsgaard! There was a lot of testosterone in this movie, like all war movies, but it was surprisingly funny.
Lesson learned from Junebug: Oral sex will solve any relationship problem. I did not understand the husband's character in this movie. For the first half, he is always asleep, leaving his new wife alone with his family, then it seems like he is siding with them against her, and then at the end, he is glad they leave. WTF? I think I might have divorced him before then.
Five Easy Pieces: I did not like this movie at all. Feel free to leave comments questioning my taste in movies, Rama.
Entries have been scarce round about these parts, and I blame myself. I am in the end stages of writing my masters thesis, and other things have fallen by the wayside. Like you, Pop5.
Today I got my hair cut by a boy, for the first time ever. I was kind of intimidated, because a) hair cuts usually intimidate me. I don't have a good relationship with my hair; and b) I figured that this boy was bound to be either straight or gay, and both were scary options. If he was straight, I would be uncomfortable looking so crappy in front of him, at close range. And if he were gay, he would probably be very hip and fashionable, and therefore (I felt) all the more likely to look down on me for NOT being hip and fashionable. As it turned out, he was gay (I'm pretty sure), and hip, and fashionable, but he didn't seem too disdainful. He did end up giving me a haircut that is too hip and fashionable for me, however. Knowing me, it will only take me days until I ruin it.
I also went to my orientation for my doctoral program last Thursday, and I am now wondering why they accepted me. The programs are small - there were only 10 people there from mine, and that is just the ones who were accepted, not the ones that actually choose to attend. But everyone had a lot more background and experience than me. I've never even taken an education, psychology, or sociology class before. I have only worked in education for four years, and not at a very important position. I mean, I know my GRE scores and grades are good, and I definitely think I can do it, but am I wondering what made them think so.
Also, this weekend, Mike and I went back to see the Stick. We left early in the morning, and got there by 8am, but we didn't stay long. The Stick was "being a brat," as Mike put it, staying in his tree the whole time. We took some pictures, but we were too tired to stay.
I also liked these ones of Mei Xiang, the Stick's mom.
Yay! I heard today that I was accepted into the doctorate program! "Doctor" is almost as good a title as "Admin Tyrant."
So I have not been refraining from talking about my Walt Disney World trip because I had a horrible time - I have just been busy. Actually, I had a good time at WDW, surprising even (and maybe mostly) myself.
From everything I had heard about WDW, I was most leery of the much-touted excellent customer service provided throughout the resorts. This made me have visions of harried employees grimly acting appropriately cheerful to avoid getting cattle-prodded by the Mouse. I was pleasantly surprised to find it pretty normal. There were some absurdly cheerful "cast members," but i got the feeling they were that way naturally, and not through employee abuse.
The weather was excellent - the first day was a little cloudy, but the others were bright sunshine and in the low 80s. And I think we went at a good time, because although it was crowded, it wasn't the kind of insane crowded that I have heard is possible. I don't think I would ever visit in the summer, what with the crowds and the heat and humidity.
In fact, my only complaint was that it was not relaxing at all. There was so much to see and do, and I only had four full days there to do it in. By the end, my body ws just exhausted. Luckily my ankle held up, although I did have to start taking painkillers by the end, which I haven't had to do in a while. After I came back (to a midterm), it felt like I needed to take a vacation to recover from my vacation. And then I went to Washington to see the panda.
The cutest t-shirt in Disney
All in all, I think I would go back, but I would want to do a much more relaxed, "adult" visit. The weird thing about WDW is that it is just so big and encompasses so much that you can imagine countless trips where you do everything completely differently and never exhaust the possibilities.
But I also feel like I am glad I have done it at least just once, so it is not a huge deal if I never make it back there. My problem is, once I have a great vacation, I am torn between going back to the same place, or going to one of the many other new and different places that I have never been before. With so many possibilities, do I really want to spend time someplace I have already been?
Another diner that I barely know anything about (other than that I have been there once) is the Red Lion Diner. I think I will have to make Mike go back there, too, since I hardly remember anything about it. Again, feel free to fill in information in the comments section.
My ignorance about the Red Lion Diner is so great that I don't even know for sure where it is or how to get there. It is close to Medford, because the one time I did go was with Mike and his parents when they lived in Medford. Which explains why we don't usually go there now, because it is not exactly in the neighborhood.
I don't remember much about my one dining experience there either. The service was good, I remember. I think I got breakfast. The food was good, too. Basically the only reason we don't go more often is because it is so far away.
As you can see, they decorate with the lion motif in mind.
I do know that Mike's family prefers it to the Medport, which was closer to their house, so I'm going to give it based on that and my one barely-remembered experience. Maybe we will stop there on our way to the shore sometime this summer.
Mike and I got tickets to go back and see the Stick again in early April.
If you have been reading this website for any length of time, then you know that I am a little obsessed with PandaCam, and the baby panda Su Lin in San Diego. Well, there is a baby panda on this coast as well, and his name is Butterstick.
Well, that's not his real name, it is the name that some DC-area bloggers have christened him. His real name is Tai Shan. This weekend, Mike and I went to visit him and his mother Mei Xiang in the National Zoo.
The National Zoo is free, but you have to get tickets for a time slot to enter the panda viewing area. I was taking no chances that I would miss the baby panda (since they can't guarantee that he will be out), so I ordered four different time slots, starting in the early morning, when they are supposed to be most active. We got there a little after the zoo opened at 8am. Then we quickly realized we wouldn't even need our tickets, because the Stick and his mom were already out and about, and you could see them from above as well, at the Panda Pavilion. The baby panda bumbled around while his mom ate bamboo, and then disappeared down a little slump. After watching for forty minutes (and taking hundreds of photos), we went around to the ticketed entrance and used our first ticket.
We were only there for a few minutes before the Stick emerged again, to the "ooohs" and "ahhhs" of the crowd. It was kind of funny, because they had put metal around most of the trees in their area to prevent the Stick from climbing them, which is typical panda cub behavior. There was only one tree that he could get up in, and it looked well-used. When he climbed up it, the crowd immediately began speculating how he would get down again. "He'll fall out," one woman said. "That's what he always does."
By the time we left to go to the gift shop, I had filled both my memory cards with pictures of the Stick. After the gift shop, we started back to the car, and Mike said, "Let's stop by the pavilion once more before we go." It turned out to be a great intuition, because when we returned, the Stick was wrestling with his mom. I immediately started erasing pictures from the day before to make room for even more panda pictures.
We left after that, having spent two and a half hours and several gigs of memory on panda photos. All told, a successful Panda Weekend! Except for the pandas, DC was kind of lame. We went to the Smithsonians (Natural History and Air and Space), and they seemed (to me, who'd never been before) boring and outdated, and (to Mike, who had been as a kid) much smaller than remembered. Is there anything cool about DC besides pandas?? The cherry blossoms weren't out yet.
I also went to Disney World last week and returned in one piece, so I will post about that soon, too.
Here is an entry about the term, "the push." It all started at the Sage. I had ordered coconut custard pie and had asked Vicki to taste it. She obliged and took a forkful. As she ate it, she made a sour face and proceeded to "push" the plate back at me, showing her distaste for it. Ever since then, when we dislike something we give it "the push."
Author's note: this is not the face she made. I will attempt to get one of the face.
I am having a problem, in that I think I am losing intelligence by the second. I am a pretty intelligent person by all the standard quantitative methods of analyzing such things, but the following two incidents have recently caused me concern.
Yesterday, I finally "got" the Altoids poster of the goat standing on the Altoids box that has been around for forever. See, the Altoids are curiously strong...like strong enough to hold a goat. Why this never occurred to me earlier, I don't know. Clearly I am getting stupid.
The even more disturbing example comes from a Snapple cap. It said that Q was the only letter that was not used in the name of a US state. So I started running through the least-frequently used letters in my head (guided by the points awarded for them in Scrabble). There was TeXas and AriZona, and the DaKotas, and then I got to J. What state has J in it, I wondered. I went so far as to look at a list of the state names. People, I live in New Jersey.
Tomorrow, I leave for the Land of the Mouse. I was earlier thinking that it was a good thing that we had five adults to the three children, since that would help with the child-rassling necessary at a huge and exciting place like the big WDW. But after talking to my mom, I think we may have to put her in the "rassled" category as well. This is her first visit to Disney too, and she has all the rides she wants to go on circled in her guidebook.
The Medport Diner is located in Medford, NJ. I'm not quite sure why the "port" had to replace the "ford," messing with the diner name conventions.
As you can see, the Medport looks like it has been around for a while, although I am not quite up on all of its history. I have only been there once. Even though Mike used to live in Medford, the Medport was never one of his favorites. I remember I had a grilled cheese sandwich (my standby), and I forget what Mike had. We didn't get any desserts. I remember it as being ok, and so I really don't know what Mike has against it.
I think Rob is a better judge of the Medport, since I think he has probably been there more than Mike or I, so post in the comments, Rob, since we aren't doing it justice.
Since I feel like I may not have enough information to judge the Medport on, I am going to give it 
. Maybe I can get Mike to go back and do a re-evaluation soon...
Buddy has been asking about the Raveonettes, based on their remake of "My Boyfriend's Back," so I thought I would post these other tracks I have by them:
The Raveonettes :: Love in a Trashcan
We started the Diner Project with the diners we visited most often. Now we are down to the bottom of the barrel - these next few we have only visited once or twice, and it has often been a while since we have last been to them. Next, we will have to start on the diners that we have only visited for the explicit purpose of putting them on this site.
The Cherry Hill Coach Diner is located (tah-dah!) in Cherry Hill, at that circle on Route 38 - does that circle have a name?
I have only been to the Cherry Hill Coach Diner once before, and it was years ago. To give things a proper perspective, it was four-Rama-girlfriends ago. It was before they gave it such a diner-y facelift. It was kind of a dump when we went.
We went late at night, and I forget what I ordered. It came with french fries, so it was probably grilled cheese, a standard favorite of mine. I remember I was disappointed, particularly in the french fries. Everyone else seemed to be okay with it.
Apparently Rama and Mike (at least) have been there since then, and Mike says it was okay. So, I will give the Coach a compromise to make up for the fact that I may not have had all the facts. Pop5'ers, feel free to comment - and maybe I will be able to update on the Coach in the future.
I don't think I have shared this with all of pop5 yet, but at the end of the month I will be visiting what has been described to me over the phone as the "Happiest Place on Earth." That's right: Disney World.
I am a little apprehensive about this visit because (a) places that advertise themselves as the Happiest Place on Earth kind of scare me, and (b) I am going with my nephews and niece (and brother and sister-in-law, and my mother, and my sister-in-law's mother), and that is a lot of people, especially young, excited people, in a very small space. On the other hand, it will be a great occasion to take pictures, since it is the first time visiting for all of us. And I guess Disney World is the sort of place that everyone should visit at least once. So wish me luck in the Land of the Mouse.
Also, this morning, I saw a faux-Jesus fish for the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the car in front of me! It took me a minute to even realize what it was.
There was universal disappointment in the Philadelphia Auto Show. The verdict was: not enough new interesting cars, not enough concept cars, not enough interesting revisions of old cars, and too many gas-guzzling SUVs. The car enthusiasts among us are small car enthusiasts, which meant we spent a lot of time looking at the Scions and the new Honda Fit, and we bypassed the Hummer area completely. Although, we did get a good laugh at a GM hybrid truck that got 18 miles to the gallon. GM probably got a lot of tax credits for that one.
But this entry is not really about the Philadelphia Auto Show. It is about my new camera.
I got my Canon 20D on Friday, and I am in love with it. I also got two lenses, the 28mm-135mm 3.5-5.6 IS USM and the 100mm-300mm 4.5-5.6 USM. I took pictures for the first time at the Auto Show, which turned out not to be the best place to take pictures. Although the place seemed well-lit, the lighting was spotty, and I ended up having to do a lot of color correction. There are more pictures after the jump.
Also, Mike's parents are in San Diego and they saw the baby panda! I am so jealous.
Yesterday, Mike, Buddy, Newlywed Steve and his new wife Morgan and I went to the Philadelphia Auto Show. We will post pictures soon, especially since I got my new camera! It's a Canon EOS 20d, and it rocks!
Anyway, afterwards we were going to meet Rob and Evan and Laura (these last two soon to be newlyweds as well) at a place called Monk's Brewery at Spruce and 16th Streets. We got there, and the place was very small and very crowded. They told us that they couldn't accommodate a party of our size, and they would have to seat us in two separate tables, at different times. And it would be an hour wait. They suggested we try their "sister restaurant," Nodding Head on Sansom, up a few blocks. So we called everyone and rearranged, and then walked up to that place.
[Here is where the hate part comes in.]
So the hostess asked us how many, etc., and then asked us for ID. Now, I (stupidly) had forgotten my ID, since I wasn't driving, and I didn't have my purse - I just put my money in my camera backpack. So the waitress said that since I didn't have my ID, no one at the table could drink. Then she went back and talked to the manager, and told us that they couldn't even seat us. All because I didn't have my ID. People, I am 31 years old (almost 32), and there is no way I look under 21. We had to rearrange everyone AGAIN, and luckily Evan and Laura hadn't parked yet, so we all went back to Jersey and ate at a very nice and non-crowded restaurant in Collingswood, where we had really good fried ravioli.
Pennsylvania has some draconian liquor laws, but even so, no one had heard of anything that bad before. So the moral of the story is: we hate the Nodding Head Restaurant, Collingswood is great, and Philly sucks (sorry, Rob).
DON'T EAT HERE!
Just some quick updates on diners we have already reviewed:
So the Pop5 crew (minus Rama - we told him we were going to hold auditions to replace him with a new member who looks and sounds just like him) made a Kevin Smith pilgrimage this weekend to Red Bank, NJ, home of Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. We all were surprised to see how gentrified the neighborhood was. For some reason, we'd pictured it in a rundown, crummy part of town, and it is actually on an upscale shopping street, with bistros, Starbucks, and Restoration Hardware. Rob said it reminded him of New Hope, only with more straight people. It kind of reminded me of that shopping plaza in Marlton. We got pictures, but I don't have them back yet. Soon, Mike and I will have digital cameras, and I won't have to wait for the film. We also visited the CD store across the street that served as exteriors and interiors in "Chasing Amy."
Since I was not interested in buying comics (although I did pick some issues of "Weird NJ"), I wandered around J&SBSS taking pictures. The light was really low, so I am hoping they come out. Anyway, the guys believe that this "outed" us as tourists. The guy at the counter asked, and we said we were from South Jersey, not so far away. He then slipped us a pre-copied piece of paper with directions to the Quickie Mart, which we had to visit also. True to form, there was a passel of fourteen-year-old boys hanging around outside. This was definitely still in the rundown part of town. So my question is, in the Clerks era, was Red Bank all built up like that, or is it a new phenomenon? And, if it is new, does it reflect the influence of Kevin-Smith-related tourism? Is there really that much Kevin-Smith-related tourism?
At several points during the day, I heard snippets of conversation that I knew I would have to post to the web site. Some of these are below:
[We are talking about the death of Chris Penn.]
Buddy: Yeah, he was forty. [Slowly and portentously pats Rob on the shoulder.]
Rob: You fucking asshole. [Tries to kill Buddy who is sitting behind him.]
[We pull into a gas station and wait ten minutes before anyone comes over to help us - Jersey is a full service gas station state. Rob and I discuss whether it is legal to pump your own gas if no one comes to help you. Finally, Rob gets out of the car to address the topic with the employees. One comes to wait on us, and more cars start to pull into the station.]
Rob: See, now they're getting more customers. I revitalized their business.
Buddy: Yeah, they saw a gay black man here, and realized it had to be the new trendy place to be.
[We are talking about why Hollywood celebrities only date other celebrities.]
Mike: Well, that's what I would do.
Rob (sarcastic): Have you ever dated someone you worked with?
Mike: Yes
Rob: And how'd that work out?
...
Buddy: She's sitting in the back seat.
[The guys are giving me a hard time because I don't have a big enough purse to smuggle contraband into the movie theater.]
Me: Next time I go to Target, I'll get a really huge cheap bag that can be my "movie purse."
Rob: No way, go to a thrift store. I bet you can get one for a dollar.
Me: I don't go to thrift stores.
Rob: Next time I go, I'll get you one.
Me: Make sure it's not an ugly shade of green or a rainbow color or anything.
Rob: Of course not. I'm gay, I have class.
I am leaving out a bunch of Rob-is-old jokes (Buddy promised he would stop once Rob turned 41), and the part where we all made fun of what was on everyone else's iPod.
Mike took some pictures, and we particularly liked these of some of our friends. Below is Buddy, of Pop5 fame, and Steve the Newlywed. Steve the Newlywed had the unfortunate luck of accompanying Mike and Evan on a shooting expedition, and apparently he became a "model."
There are two things that you need to know about my physical therapy. The first is that it is almost over. I only have five more appointments. I am walking much better.
The second is that there is a woman working there who is trying to kill me. She isn't there all of the time; I think she comes and helps out from one of their other offices. The first time I met her, she was assigned to give me "ice and stim," where they prop my foot up, wrap it in an ice pack, and affix these little electrical stimulators to my damaged ligaments as a way to exercise them without movement. She was talking to another patient while she was doing this and somehow turned the stim machine up so high that it was exceedingly painful, and I spent a good few minutes getting her attention to make her turn it down. I was sore from that incident for the next couple of days, and since it is optional, I have never again gotten "ice and stim" - especially when she is there.
This morning, she was assigned to move my foot around. The point of this is that the damage to my ligaments may have caused the bones in my ankle to shift around, and they stretch my foot out to try and align everything properly. The head physical therapist (a very nice person, who has never caused me undue pain) usually does this, and he is very gentle and it doesn't hurt. This woman yanked on my foot so hard that I thought it would fall off. Then despite determining that one part of my ankle was especially sore, she continued to push on it until she "popped" my ankle bone back into its proper place - so she says. I'm not sure I notice any difference. Even worse, she told me the bone might move again, and need to popped in the future. I am hoping she will not be there if this happens.
This was a particularly bad day to go "popping" my ankle bones in any case, because I brought my car to the shop for some strange noises, which means I got to work the old-fashioned train and bus way. At least I got to test out my new iPod headphones...
Once upon a time, we used to go to the Sage almost every Friday night.
The Sage was the preferred after-work hangout, for those who got off of work late on Friday. The rest of us with day jobs would meet up with them there. I have been there so many times, it is impossible to even estimate. We were there so often that the hostesses and waitstaff had a collective nickname for us.
Alas, this story has a sad ending. Rama started dating one of the waitresses there, and a few months ago their relationship ended on less than the best of terms. He seems to think that the rest of us can continue frequenting the place, but considering how well known we were as a crowd, and Rob's experience running in there once, most of us would rather pass. Besides (getting to the actual review part), the Sage is an okay diner in every way, but not a fantastic one. Everything there was ok, but nothing was outstanding. Although I seem to remember having a really good piece of chocolate cake there once.
The moral of this story is now the banner of the site: Keep Rama away from the waitresses. Pop5 has been trying to figure out recently which restaurants and diners have waitresses that are too pretty and that we want to continue to be able to go to in the future, as there is considerable reluctance to bring Rama to those ones when he returns to Jersey. We fear another seduction-->heartbreak-->unofficial ban from the restaurant scenario.
As a side note, I have been refusing to factor the prettiness of the waitresses into our coffee cups rating system, despite Mike and Buddy's arguments that this is relevant information. The Sage Diner, which we will probably never set foot in again, gets 
Does it make me a comic book geek that the first thing I though of when I saw this article was, "Well, that explains Wolverine." If it does, I am officially blaming Mike and Rob.
Although I prefer my Wolverine in yummy Hugh Jackman form...
Hey all:
Since I've gotten no contributions for the about page from you slackers, I was forced to make one up myself. Just don't complain about your portrayal...
Victoria ~ Admin Tyrant
Mike and I spent most of this weekend taking pictures. The pop5 crew (minus Rama of course) also went to see "Match Point" on Saturday, which I for one highly recommend. We went to three diners this weekend, but two of them we've already covered (Ponzio's and Stratford).
My weekend photo haul:
I took these last three while I was waiting for Mike to get his photos framed at the Darkroom. He submitted those two photos for a competition today, so keep your fingers crossed for him.
I am going to be taking down the mp3s when I post new ones, since they take up so much space. So you've missed your chance to download Iron & Wine's cover of "The Same Old Song," gentle reader. The next one is dedicated to Rob, who really liked this track after I played it for him. We are both big fans of My Morning Jacket.
::My Morning Jacket ~ Tyrone::
He also reminded me that it was Erykah Badu who sang the original. I couldn't remember.
Also, the best Wham! cover ever. I think this one has to be dedicated to Rama.
::Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright ~ Careless Whisper (Live at Wolf Trap)::
Remember, it's right click, "save as," and email me to cease and desist, although again I've seen these all over the internet. Happy listening!
When I was younger and worked in a bookstore, I collected poetry. I would go through the books of poetry, and copy ones I liked into blank journal books. I found these books in the basement a few days ago, and I thought I would copy a few of them onto the web site.
Monet Refuses the Operation
~Lisel Mueller~
Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.
I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don't see,
to learn that the line I called the horizon
does not exist and sky and water,
so long apart, are the same state of being.
Fifty-four years before I could see
Rouen cathedral is built
of parallel shafts of sun,
and now you want to restore
my youthful errors: fixed
notions of top and bottom,
the illusion of three-dimensional space,
wisteria separate
from the bridge it covers.
What can I say to convince you
the Houses of Parliament dissolves
night after night to become
the fluid dream of the Thames?
I will not return to a universe
of objects that don't know each other,
as if islands were not the lost children
of one great continent. The world
is flux, and light becomes what it touches,
becomes water, lilies on water,
above and below water,
becomes lilac and mauve and yellow
and white and cerulean lamps,
small fists passing sunlight
so quickly to one another
that it would take long, streaming hair
inside my brush to catch it.
To paint the speed of light!
Our weighted shapes, these verticals,
burn to mix with air
and change our bones, skin, clothes
to gases. Doctor,
if only you could see
how heaven pulls earth into its arms
and how infinitely the heart expands
to claim this world, blue vapor without end.
Happy birthday, Rob, who is now the coolest forty-year-old I know! He also had a great party to show for it. You may also notice on the sidebar that I have added a links section, with our first link! Here is to Pax Romano, who gave us some valuable tips for our web site at the party. He is also a fabulous Netflix buddy, although neither of us are quite sure how the Netflix buddy system works yet. Did I mention I am up to 260 movies in my queue?
Does any of pop5 have New Year's Resolutions they wish to share? Mike and I were making up resolutions for each other, but I can't post those. I also don't think they are enforceable. My resolutions so far are to:
* walk normally sometime this year.
* shave my legs sometime this year. These two are related - the instability of my ankle is proving detrimental to my personal hygiene.
* finish my Master's (it would help if I finished the last paper for the fall semester...)
* after that, move up my career ladder, i.e. get a new job with more money.
* get into the doctorate program, although I have technically done all I can to fulfill this goal. Now it is up to the admissions gods.
* spruce up our web site.
Post yours in the comments!
One of the unexpected side benefits of our Diner Project is that it is a great conversation starter, and these conversations never fail to give us some good diner suggestions. Everyone in South Jersey has a favorite diner to recommend. So it was one of these conversations on Christmas that led Mike and I to Mastori's Diner in Bordentown.
[Mike took those two.]
Mastori's is huge; it is less of a diner and more of a diner complex. There were two non-smoking rooms, a smoking section (with the traditional diner counter and booths), a bar (with the appropriate dim lighting and wood paneling), a banquet room, and an entrance room that serves also as a bakery counter. There was also a fleet of catering delivery trucks out front. There might even be more to it, but that was all I saw. We went on Tuesday, at prime lunchtime, and I have never seen a diner's waiting area so crowded in my life. Even so, they said it would only take 15 minutes to seat us. While we waited, I took pictures with my old-school camera. I am getting much better at this manual focusing thing.
It wasn't that long until they seated us on the patio. The good thing about that is there was lots of light for pictures! Usually it is hard to get interior shots without a flash.
The first thing they do at Mastori's is bring you cheese bread, we were told. When I heard this, I thought it was a savory cheese bread. But I was mistaken; it is a sweet cheese bread.
They also bring cinnamon bread. Mike liked both of these a lot. I am not normally a big fan, but I tasted these and they were pretty good.
In the bottom of that picture, you can see the top of the Best Diner Salad ever. Mike and I both ordered lunch specials: for $9.99, you get a soup or salad, entree, vegetable, beverage, and dessert from the tray. We both got the salad, and it was great. Large (for a house salad), with romaine and greens, no iceberg in sight. It was decorated with purple cabbage, sliced radishes, baby tomatoes, and slices of carrot. Yum.
For entrees and vegetables, Mike got the lemon chicken with string beans, and I got the ultimate nachos with french fries. Readers of this site will understand my unusual pairing since we have to test the french fries. This understanding apparently did not extend to the elderly lady sitting across from us who I heard comment derogatorily on my choice.
[Mike took the nachos picture.]
I am glad I got those fries too, because it overturns an assumption I made right here on this site. Mastori's serves steak fries as their normal french fry! Golden, perfectly cooked steak fries! Click here for my definition of the perfect fry. Mastori's gets top fry props.
Mike and I didn't care for the dessert tray selections, so we ordered from the regular dessert menu. Mike got a piece of cannoli pie - he wanted to try the cream cheese pound cake, but they didn't sell it in slices. I tried the oreo cheesecake, a favorite of mine. This one didn't mix up the cookie and cheesecake, but kept in layers, resembling the cookie.
At first, I was a little disappointed with the waitress, because she was kind of snappy with us. But she was very busy, and after we commiserated with her about not being able to go to the bathroom since 7am, she became much nicer. She even fixed the bill for us, so we only paid the difference for our non-tray desserts, instead of full price.
Before we even finished our meals, we knew that Mastori's was another five cup diner. They are not technically open 24 hours a day (they close between 1am and 4am), but Mike said "that's close enough."
Mastori's gets 
Weber's is one of the first diners I went to on a regular basis after I moved to South Jersey. It is on the White Horse Pike in Audubon.
Weber's is the sad story of a diner on the decline. It used to be a pretty good diner, but I think that has changed since the death of the owner a few years ago. Now whenever I go there, it isn't quite as good as it used to be. Also, it used to be open 24 hours a day, and I don't think that's the case anymore. I remember waiting there after I got off work to get a ride home at 2 in the morning. I used to get the hot chocolate, and it was good. I haven't had it in a while, so I don't know if that went downhill, too.
I like the picture above - I hope you can see how they decorated the windows. I took the picture around Halloween.
So, anyway, Weber's still has a decent menu. They have added some things that I hear are good - notably the panini sandwiches. The fries were always just ok, and the desserts were pretty sucky. The service is always very nice and competent. And the food is usually ok, but is missing that extra push that would make it really good. I brought Mike here a few times (including one of the most notable yucky meals, where everyting we both ordered just wasn't any good). Now, we usually go to the Crystal Lake Diner instead.
Sorry, Weber's Diner. You used to be pretty decent, and I hope to see you that way again someday. For now, you only get
One of the things I've been meaning to figure out is how to post music files to share through this here web site. Tonight, success is mine!
Download audio file here. Right click on the link, then choose "Save file as" to download. This is a cover of the Four Tops' "The Same Old Song," by Iron and Wine. Mike is so going to make fun of me for that - he doesn't like the song. If anyone else wants to upload tracks, let me know.
I have seen this file on the internet before, so hopefully I am not breaking any copyright laws. As always, contact me to cease and desist.
I have been assigned six exercises that I am supposed to do twice a day for my physical therapy. While I do them, I do the exercises with both feet, which also helpfully contrasts the difference between my normal range of motion, and my injured ankle. It is like watching a lumbering Frankenstein next to Anna Pavlova.
There are two exercises that I can actually accomplish: one requires me to pull my foot towards me with a towel, stretching my calf. Since I don't have to move anything, I can do this. I am also fairly good at lifting my heel off the ground while seated, which is strange since I can't actually make this motion while walking. There are two that I am somewhat able to do. I can halfheartedly curl my toes, meaning that I can accomplish some movement, but not anything approaching a grip, which is what I am supposed to be trying to do. I am also supposed to be flexing my foot off the ground from the heel when seated, and I can manage to lift my toes a few centimeters, but not much more. And there are two exercises that I am horribly, horribly unable to do. Lying on my back, I am supposed to flex and point my foot (this results in some wobbling motions), and point my foot from side to side (here I can also manage some wobbling, but I think that I am doing it more from my knee than my ankle).
And this is a month after the injury. My physical therapist said not to get discouraged, that the recovery process will take a while. The execises don't actually cause me much pain while doing them, although a few hours after my first appointment, I had a lot of pain. But I did them last night, and today seems ok. It is more the immobility than the pain that is the problem.
So I went to my first physical therapy appointment this morning, which went less than well. Ironically, it was the part that I had anticipated being the most enjoyable (the whirlpool) that was the worst. The therapist put my leg in the whirlpool as one of the first things. It was already hurting on the one side (he had been moving and pressing it before), and two minutes after I started whirlpooling, I also started getting very, very nauseous. I think the way the water was hitting my ankle just intensified the pain. I pulled my ankle out of the water, and the therapist got me a cup of water to drink. After I felt better, we did the rest of the exercises and I got ones to take home. Not an auspicious beginning. The best part about the physical therapy is that now I actually have an idea what my injury is. My primary care physician sent me right to the orthopedist (he thought I had fractured something), and the orthopedist, while being a very nice person, doesn't really tell me anything. He spends most of our (very brief) appointments talking into a little dictation recorder in untranslatable medicalese. I think after he determined that there no actual bones injured in my injury, he didn't want much more to do with me.
So according to the physical therapist, I have torn both of the ligaments on the outside of my ankle - the huge bruise that appeared on the side of my foot, and the bruises under my toes are from the blood from the ligaments flowing down into my foot. (I think I'm starting to feel nauseous again just from typing this. My apologies to anyone with a weak stomach.) I also injured the ligament on the inside of my ankle (hence the bruising on my foot above the arch), but he doesn't know if I did that at the same time as the injury, or if it got injured by overusing to compensate for the injury. In any case, he very nicely told me not to expect to be healed any time soon.
Three good things that happened recently to make up for it: I surprisingly don't have a copay for the physical therapy sessions! I was expecting $20 an appointment, 2 to 3 appointments a week, 3 or 4 months...you can see how this might add up.
Also, my iPod broke before the Thanksgiving vacation, and I tried everything I could to fix it, to no avail. My iMac wouldn't even recognize it to restore it. I took it to the Genius Bar at the Mac store last night, and a very nice young man took it in the back, resoldered a cable, and poof! It was fixed!! I was almost resigning myself to having to buy a new one, sometime far off in the future when I might have money for it. So I have music again.
And finally, Netflix! People, I am addicted to Netflix. My queue is 260 movies long. I wanted to get Netflix because there are tons of older movies that I want to see that they never have at the local rental stores. Recently I got "Run Lola Run" and "La Belle et la Bete," both of which got 4 stars from me. I wanted Belle because I love the Phillip Glass opera version - this DVD had the option to play the movie with the opera as the soundtrack. I am also busily working out which post office boxes get the movies returned the quickest, so more can take their place.
So I finally did go and see the new "Pride and Prejudice," with my roommate, since none of pop5 could be persuaded (did I mention I had to see "Chronicles of Riddick"? "Doom"? "Blade Two"? "John Carpenter's Vampires"? "Van Helsing"? Oh wait, that last one was my own fault. Yummy Hugh Jackman, how could you let me down so?).
And the verdict is: not as good as the BBC miniseries. As my second favorite novel by my favorite author, I have read it a few thousand times, and seen quite a few versions of P&P. The biggest problem with this version is a problem that all the movie incarnations must face: what do you do when Austen doesn't tell you what happens next? Most infamously, this occurs in the final proposal scene, when Darcy proposes again to Elizabeth, and she accepts, but Austen doesn't tell you what she says. Movie versions are remarkably bad at writing in what Jane Austen didn't say. In this movie, they added some ill-advised and unnecessary scenes, particularly the godawful last scene. They also inexplicably redistributed lines of dialogue that are in the book, giving them to different characters. I thought Keira Knightley did a pretty good job as Elizabeth, but she was much too giddy in the beginning - there was not enough difference between her and her younger sisters. I didn't think the Darcy looked like a Darcy in the beginning, but he kind of won me over throughout the movie. Darcy is a difficult role to act, since we see him through Elizabeth's eyes; the actor has to win over the audience just likes he wins her over. I think he did good, but I think both Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle did better. The movie also portrays the Bennets' marriage as much too happy. The miniseries did better there, too.
The only thing I particularly liked about the movie was the casting of Jane and Elizabeth. Because she is the main character, the tendency is to cast Elizabeth as the more beautiful actress, which directly contradicts the book (this is the case in the miniseries, and especially in "Bride and Prejudice," the recent Bollywood remake). This movie cast a very pretty actress as Jane, and I don't think she suffered in comparison to Keira Knightley.
I think it would be very hard for a movie to surpass the miniseries, in any case, just because of how far you have to condense the story to make it a reasonable length. The miniseries even cuts plot points, and it's six hours. I think the P&P miniseries is still the best Austen adaptation. I also like "Clueless," even though it is an adaptation only in the broadest sense of the word.
Ponzio's (on Route 70 in Cherry Hill) tries to straddle the fine line between restaurant and diner.
The menu is a diner menu, with diner prices. But there is a hostess stand when you come in where you have to put your name on the list. Instead of "smoking" and "non-smoking," they have divided up the place into rooms with names, like the "Terrace Room" and the "Garden Room." They serve liquor, and even have a small bar/club type area, where you can wait to be seated. Wait! To be seated! Clearly we are one step up from diner here.
But I think we still have to consider Ponzio's a diner - maybe a diner with delusions of grandeur. The food is good. The waitstaff has been nice, if maybe a little scatterbrained. I recall a few order mix-ups on more than one occasion. They are also not open 24 hours, and the staff can get a little hover-y when it gets close to quitting time. One of the best reasons to go to Ponzio's is the desserts. They have an in-house bakery, and its menu is extensive and delectable. I think the first thing I ever ate from Ponzio's was before I ever stepped foot in the place. Buddy had some leftover cake from a party that he had gotten there. It was a chocolate layer cake, and between the layers was layers of cheesecake. CHEESECAKE!! If you have ever been to a diner with me, you know that I am something of a cheesecake fanatic. There was also frosting on this cake. FROSTING!! I am also a frosting fanatic.
We have only been to Ponzio's a handful of times. Mike and I started out going to dinner there, but he prefers some of the other diners better. We also hung out there a few times in the late night. But in general, it is not in heavy rotation. I like the place, though, so I will give it 
One of those cups is for the cheesecake cake alone.
My right foot, she is a bitch. I did actually go to the doctor (and then the x-ray place, and then the orthopedist) on Friday, and the final outcome is, no break or fracture, but a severe strain and soft tissue damage. The deep purple bruise on the whole right side of my foot is not getting any better, and it has been almost two weeks since this happened. So I bought myself a pair of men's slippers and borrowed Buddy's crutches (thanks, Buddy!), because I have to go back to work. I think it took me a good half an hour to hobble here. This is the first time I have ever used crutches, and it is not easy to learn. Anyone passing me would have heard me whispering in a three-quarter waltz time, "Crutch, bad foot, good foot" over and over to try to get the rhythm right. My foot is also a bitch because the only sleeping position that doesn't hurt is if the entire foot is dangling over the edge of the bed or a stack of pillows, but only if I am lying on my back. I cannot dangle on my side, which is, of course, my favorite way to sleep. Also, every person I have told about my diagnosis has helpfully responded, "Soft tissue damage! That's worse than a break!" Thanks, everyone.
But enough about my infirmity. Recently Roommate Two ordered an old-school, all manual Canon AE1, and it turned out to be a little too old-school and manual for her. Mike and I took it on loan to test, and I think I am going to buy it. Here are some of the test pictures:
Mike has been shooting manual the entire time, but I am used to my fully automatic, program mode Canon SLR. Strangely enough, while taking these, I remembered to set the shutter speed and the f-stop, but most frequently forgot to focus. You'd think that would be the easiest thing to remember.
The Palace Diner is also located in Berlin, at the Route 73 circle. In the neighborhood is a Walmart, a Saladworks, a Taco Bell, a Subway, a Burger King, and a McDonald's. But you are a fool if you eat at any of these places, when the perfect Diner Fry is within your reach.
I used to live not too far away from the Palace Diner, and my roommate and I used to go there a lot. We called it the "alternate alternate diner," to distinguish it from the diner (Magnolia), and the alternate diner (Starview). The nickname has become so ingrained in my head that most of the time I forget what its real name is.
As I mentioned in another entry, the Palace Diner wins the award for best fries in a diner, according to my criteria. They also have decent house salads, grilled cheese sandwiches, honey mustard chicken croissant sandwiches (according to my roommate), taco salads (according to Mike), and milkshakes. I don't think I've ever had a dessert other than a milkshake there, so I don't have any input there. Their large drinks are HUGE. Along with the Starview, they also have a liquor license, kind of rare for a diner. The service is really friendly, except for one waiter who always used to wait on us, and he was a little too friendly.
Since I moved, we rarely go to the Palace Diner. I took Mike there for the first time a few weeks ago, and he liked it a lot, too.
The Palace Diner gets
So since I have sprained my ankle (or something...I refuse to visit the doctor), I have been practically immobile since we got back from NC. I have wrapped my ankle up in a big roll of ACE bandage. When I fell, I not only hurt my ankle, but I bruised my foot on both sides and the top, and the bruises are a brilliant purple. So not only does it hurt to walk on it and move it, but it hurts to wrap it, and it hurts to lay it on it in almost every direction.
Since I had nothing else to do, I joined Netflix, and omigod I have spent like 30 hours on that site so far, even though I have not yet gotten my first dvd. I spent all that time rating the movies and making my 80 movie long queue. I know some of you have Netflix already, and I friend-requested you.
I am also watching movies I raided from the roommates' dvd collections. So far: Closer, which I didn't really like, although I liked Clive Owen in it. I am not a big fan of Clive Owen, looks-wise. I usually refer to him as the poor man's Dylan McDermott. But I liked him better in this movie than anything else I have seen him in. Love Actually, which was really cute and I liked a lot, despite being heartwarming crap. I want to move to England, where you can make movies that have adults saying swear words genially to children and no one is offended. Also I like movies where Liam Neeson is allowed to keep his real accent. I realized from this one that those movies are rare. And I watched Chasing Amy again, and realized that Ben Affleck was total crap in that movie. The only thing that saves it is the dialogue, and Jason Lee. Oh young, hot Jason Lee, before you grew that horrid mustache and became Earl... how I miss you.
Mike and I went to the Outer Banks, North Carolina with his family for the Thanksgiving holiday. The pop5 crew will be jealous to know that we went to High Cotton and the Sunset Grill - also, another restaurant that I'd never been to before that was very good. Also, I twisted my ankle, which was not so good. We also took pictures on the beach. There were tons of shells. These are my pictures, but Mike will have some up here later. Too bad we are leaving tomorrow. Now it's time to prepare for Christmas...
I have been a vegetarian for 18 years, or, in the words of the rest of the pop5 crew, I "need to join the food chain." I have slowly been getting into eating many of the new soy products made to resemble meat; I have been trying new ones every few weeks. They are all Morningstar Farms products, because my first good experience with veggie burgers was one of theirs:
These are really good, and they totally changed my expectations of what a "fake meat" product could be like. Before this, my experience wth veggie burgers was limited to the kind of Gardenburger/mushroom and breadcrumb type affairs, which in my opinion are nasty and disgusting. Anyway, these are good both with typical burger accoutrements, and in a southwest style, with salsa. To me, they taste a little more of Indian spices than standard southwest, but it works.
The next thing I tried was the Veggie Bacon strips, which I had heard were pretty good from several people. In my opinion, the Veggie strips are more of a bacon-flavored cracker than an actual bacon imitation. They do taste like bacon (like the similarly all-soy Bac'o Bits), but the texture is flat and crispy, with none of the chewiness the fat provides real bacon. This is ok with me; I always liked crispy bacon better than chewy. They are also a little temperamental to cook. I have discovered that the best way to cook them is to microwave them on a paper plate, or a plate with a paper towel beneath the strips, for slightly less time than the package recommends. They tend to stick to the paper, but if you wait for them to cool, you can peel them off. The Bacon strips also get high marks from me. I usually eat them as a quick and tasty snack to get more protein.
I just recently tried the Honey Mustard flavored Chik'n tenders, which I unfortunately cannot recommend. I think the main problem with them was the honey mustard flavoring, which didn't provide any real flavor, but did smell kind of nasty. The actual strips didn't taste like much of anything but breading. The fake "chik'n" was chewy, but almost totally tasteless. Although I didn't like them in this context, I could imagine getting some not-honey-mustard-flavored ones and maybe trying to make a "chik'n" parmegiana. I think using them in a recipe that provided a lot of flavor for them might be the best way to go.
OK, so last week, Mike and I rented "George Romero's Land of the Dead," and while I was thrilled to see yet another zombie movie (particularly one with a social commentary subtext - was anyone else rooting for the zombies when they took down the luxury apartments??), this movie exposed me to some zombie lore that raised more questions than it answered. Specifically...
1) So this is the first zombie movie that I have seen that posits that, post-zombie apocalypse, everyone who dies, even if they are not bitten by a zombie, will become a zombie. So everyone will need to die twice: once as a human, once as a zombie. Now I am a little confused. Remember the guy in the beginning who got bit, but before he turned, he shot himself? So does he become a zombie because he just died once? Or, because he got infected but didn't yet turn, does he only need to die the one time? Does it matter that he shot himself in the head (and thus destroyed the brain) - would he become a zombie if he had killed himself without destroying his brain?
2) There were lots of scenes (that Mike covered his eyes for) where the zombies were graphically depicted as consuming humans and eating up all of their bodies. So if the zombies eat all of the body and not just the brain, then how do the new zombies get created? The eaten-up humans can't become zombies. Are they all the result of bites that the humans are able to escape from? That seems odd.
Mike was sick last weekend, so we stayed in and watched a bunch of movies besides Land of the Dead. We saw the new "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which didn't suck as much as I was afraid it was going to. It was actually pretty good. I like the old Oompa-Loompa songs better though. We also saw "Unleashed," which was ok. We also went to the theater to see "Doom." I have been telling the rest of pop5 that it is not fair that I have to go and see all of their science fiction and video game movies, and none of them will go and see "Pride and Prejudice" with me. When I told that to Buddy, he just said, "Good luck with that," and when I told it to Rob, he said that there were already three Pride and Prejudice movies, and so they already know how it ends. That didn't stop you from seeing the Lord of the Rings, now did it?
In panda news, the baby panda is getting so big! She is more than a hundred days old now, so they named her Su Lin. I liked the other name better.
We go to the Crystal Lake Diner a lot, because it is very conveniently located. It is on Cuthbert Road in Westmont. I think we have probably been there at least a million times.
The Crystal Lake Diner is not a great diner, but it is not a bad diner either. When we are hungry and looking to go someplace not too far away, it is high on the list of possibilities. I think they served me the best cheese omelet I have ever had, but that was only out of the many I've ordered. I've been ordering them ever since trying to recapture it - maybe they have fired the omelet cook. The fries are nondescript, and none of the desserts are any good. They serve good pancakes and waffles, a decent salad, and a pretty good milkshake. The service is very friendly and prompt. They are open 24 hours, although we tend to eat there around lunch or dinner time, and it's not really a hangout spot for us.
In short, the Crystal Lake Diner is a perfectly good enough diner. You might want to visit to see if you can get the perfect cheese omelet. Those are pretty rare.
The Crystal Lake Diner gets
"Cynicism, like gullibility, is a symptom of underdeveloped critical faculties."
~ Jamie Whyte, Crimes Against Logic
"To be always with a woman and not to have sexual relations with her is more difficult than to raise the dead. You cannot do the less difficult; do you think I will believe that you can do what is more difficult?"
~ Bernard of Clairvaux to his monks
On how to hook up in college: "Finally, take immediate action at bars and parties: Worst case, you make a new buddy. Best case, you meet a Barnard student."
~ Johnny Maldoro, The Village Voice, August 27 - September 2, 2003
Hee, as a former Barnard student, I'm glad to see we are high on the list of desirable hook-ups.
Hey, no fair showing my uncensored pictures! But I know how to fight back...
here is the admin tyrant...
[This content has been removed to protect the innocent.]
There are few things that we here at pop5 like to discuss (read: vehemently argue over) more than movies. A few months ago (before we had a website), Premiere Magazine had an article about the 20 most overrated movies of all time. Since nothing improves a website like some bloodthirsty, acrimonious debate, I'm going to post the list here, and let the pop5 crew duke it out in the comments section. I'll show you how it's done. By the way, if we have any readers out there who aren't part of the crew, feel free to join in. The comments are open to all.
Premiere Magazine's Top 20 Most Overrated Movies (in alpha order):
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Beautiful Mind
American Beauty
An American in Paris
Chariots of Fire
Chicago
Clerks
Easy Rider
Fantasia
Field of Dreams
Forrest Gump
Gone with the Wind
Good Will Hunting
Jules and Jim
Monster’s Ball
Moonstruck
Mystic River
Nashville
The Red Shoes
The Wizard of Oz
The question is, are they overrated? Do they deserve to be on the list?
The Phily Diner is the uber-diner, the ur-diner, the quintessential diner. It is the only diner, so far, that we have awarded five stars.
I don't know what is up with the (mis)spelling of their name. I can only speculate that there exists somewhere else (probably actually in Philadelphia) a "Philly Diner," and so they were forced to leave off an "l." This does not detract from its diner goodness.
The Phily Diner is located in Barrington. I think we have only been going there for a year, maybe two tops, but we have been there countless times. They have a full-size convertible in the waiting area - I think they are trying for a nostalgic, 50s diner feel. We have had countless meals here, and there are a few special shout-outs that I have to extend. First, it is open 24 hours, and they have large booths in the smoking section, so it has provided us with late-night comfort seating. Second, the challah bread French toast is particularly good. Third, all of their desserts (and we have tried plenty) are delicious - I can especially recommend the chocolate-coated cheesecake (kind of a Magic Shell effect), the tiramisu, the fudge cake (three layers of thick, thick frosting that I think end up equalling more frosting than cake per slice), and HUGE sundaes. Seriously. Do not order these sundaes unless you are really hungry.
Also, you may think that we just pull these coffee cup ratings out of thin air, but we do have a scientific system in place to compare these diners. One of the criteria that we judge on is the quality of the french fries. Now, I happen to not be a big fan of the Phily Diner fry. They are sometimes oddly crispy, and when we went there recently, they were rocking more of a shoestring cut, which I am fundamentally opposed to. So you can get an idea of what I look for in a fry, I offer this description of the Perfect Fry (TM): chunky cut - the chunkier the better. I love wedges and waffle and steak fries, although none of these are usually served as diner french fries, although they may have them available as a separate item. The Perfect Fry should be golden brown, lightly crispy on the outside, and meltingly warm and tender on the inside. There are many accompaniments to the Perfect Fry: I enjoy ketchup, salt and vinegar, honey mustard sauce, and (when I was in the Netherlands) mayonnaise, which is not at all the same as mayonnaise here, and is an accepted Fry condiment.
I know I may encounter some disagreement from you crispy shoestring lovers out there, so feel free to comment away. In any case, this is why diners are so superior to fast food outlets. In most cases, the fries just can't compare. In my opinion, Wendy's is the best of a feeble, feeble bunch. As to diners, the Palace Diner has the best fries I have ever tasted, but we haven't gotten there yet...
As I mentioned before, the Phily Diner gets
I have added a new category to Pop5: Commonplace. In olden times, long before internets, people would keep written journals called Commonplace Books, where they would record quotations from their reading that were particularly important to them. I am always coming across quotations that I like, so I thought I would record mine here. This is actually from the preface to a history book:
"Those who use the past to criticize the present should be put to death, together with their relatives."
- Li Si, Chinese prime minister, 3rd century B.C.
What a ringing endorsement for my academic discipline!
Lately all I hear talk of in the entertainment industry is executives bemoaning their dwindling market share. Translation: too many leisure time activities are available to the American citizenry, causing our interest in them (in terms of dollars and time spent) to be divided up into ever smaller fragments. Americans only have a limited amount of time and money they can spend on leisure activities, and with so many different ones to choose from, it is getting progressively harder for media executives to ensure that their product will sell. Well, I have an answer that I am sure will please Americans and media executives alike:
MAKE OUR WORKWEEK SHORTER!
Just think about it: if the mandated American workweek was 32 hours/4 days a week, we would have 24 more hours weekly to spend shopping, going to movies, playing video games, watching television, downloading songs legally on the internet, and doing god knows what else to help fuel one of the largest industries in the country - the entertainment industry. Since America is already moved to being a primarily service economy, this will have the added benefit of reducing unemployment, since stores that are open all week will have to hire additional employees. As far as I can see, this is a win-win situation. Who is with me?
Of course, another approach would be to increase wages, which would also make Americans spend more money, but I don't want to push my luck. I think it should be fairly obvious by now that "trickle-down" (or to use George Bush I's term before he got co-opted by Reagan, "voodoo") economics doesn't work.
On an unrelated note, it is a good thing for me that logical inferences are not a punishable offence; as in, the logical inference that if I suddenly and dramatic slow down right before I am about to pass in front of a police car that is obviously "radaring," I must have been speeding to begin with. This has been happening to me all too often recently...
Yesterday, continuing with the Halloween theme, we watched three scary movies. The first was "Wallace and Gromit's Curse of the Were-Rabbit," which was very cute and recommended for all ages. There was almost a horror-film-worthy bloodbath in the theater, because Buddy was getting pissed off at all of the seven-year-olds giving away plot points.
Then we watched "Carrie," which Mike and I had never seen, and which I don't think I ever need to see again. Stupid Brian de Palma. Stupid John Travolta. Stupid seventies hair.
And finally, we watched "Rock and Roll High School," which counts as a horror movie because of freaky-looking Joey Ramone and the attempts to set him up as a rockin' sex symbol. I don't think that would have worked even if they borrowed de Palma's patented X-TREME soft focus effect.
Also, we went to the Stratford Diner, where I am pleased to report that their desserts were excellent. Cheesecake (me), cherry pie a la mode (Rob), and coconut custard pie (Mike) were all happily consumed. Ever the rebel, Buddy got a cheeseburger. Keeping seventh-graders in line is hard work.
Where the hell is the Starview Diner? It's on the White Horse Pike in...Magnolia? Voorhees?
It's too bad that I didn't take a picture at night, because at night the neon lights up all newborn baby blue and pink.
There are two stages to my experience with the Starview Diner. When we used to live out that way, my roommate and I would go there fairly regularly. They have pretty decent food, and the service is nice. Also, not that I've ever taken advantage of it, but the Starview Diner is one of the few diners that has a liquor license. But when we moved out of the neighborhood, we stopped going there.
They are also open 24 hours, which leads into the second phase of my Starview Diner experience. About a year ago, I went there a few times with the pop5 crew late at night, and it was totally different. The food was still good, and the service was still friendly, but the atmosphere was troubling. I think the pop5 guys almost got into a rumble not once but twice - in both cases, some other gentlemen were "looking at them funny." Needless to say, we don't go back there anymore.
Also, what's up with all of the American flags in front of these diners? I seem to remember that these all popped up overnight after 9/11. Does anyone else remember this?
Anyway, the Starview Diner gets
In some parts of the country, Halloween is considered a kid's holiday. Happily that isn't the case here is South Jersey. In preparation for Fright Night, we watched two "scary" movies on Saturday night. The first was the Ring II, which was not scary and mostly just lame. I liked the first Ring, so I was disappointed. Rob had already seen it, and he left after we watched it, so he missed the BEST MOVIE EVER, which came next. I think it was called "Undead," and it was an Australian B-movie with zombies AND aliens. Zombies are my favorite horror movie bad guys, and the addition of aliens just made it that much better. Plus there were decapitations! And attacking zombie fish!! People, my life is complete.
We were talking about this on Saturday: XPN finally finished its top 885 albums. Five of the top ten were the Beatles, and I think the only one in the top twenty that had been released in the past twenty years was Radiohead's OK Computer (I think #14). The DJs were trying to say that there wasn't a "generation gap," but I can't agree.
Mike has decided that his new idol is Iggy Pop. Is there any possible way that could be a good thing?
Pay attention, pop5'ers, here's a pop quiz (answer in the comments, if you please):
1) Top Three Movies You've Seen This Year (must be released this year)
2) Top Three Albums of All Time
Since it has been a week since Rama went to LA, I think it is safe to assume that by this point he has collapsed in an intoxicated stupor and won't be able to find the keyboard until he sets foot in Jersey again. Either that, or he is camped outside Nastassja Kinski's house with a trenchcoat, a boombox, and an old Peter Gabriel tape.
Mike and I watched "Lords of Dogtown" last night, which was kind of disappointing. It seemed like the story was much more interesting than the movie showed - it was disjointed and hard to follow. It could have made better use of the material. I hear the documentary is better, but can it be found at the local rental store? I want Netflix!
I am trying to figure out how to upload mp3s to our lovely pop5, but so far no luck. All I have been listening to lately is Iron & Wine and Green Day. Two observations: 1) I like almost everything I have heard from Iron & Wine, but I prefer my Green Day loud and political. That September song is just eh, and I like Novocaine better when it's called "I Wanna Be Sedated," and sung by the Ramones. 2) How come Kanye West and the Dixie Chicks have to apologize for trashing GWB, but Green Day can pretty explicitly compare him to a Nazi and win a Grammy? Is it the eyeliner?
Lastly, only the most coldhearted Grinch of an individual can withstand the collective cuteness of Panda Day Care:
One of our favorite diners is the Berlin Diner.
It is located in Berlin, NJ (of course). It used to be a very broken-down looking, railroad car diner, but they renovated it about five years ago. Mike and I actually ate there once before the renovations, and I remember I was a little afraid to go there. I also remember it was just after we had seen Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, because I was thinking about Ewan MacGregor. Yum.
I remember the food was ok, but it was much better after the renovations.
The Berlin Diner has a big menu; we are partial to the quesadillas, which come with peppers, onions, and tomatoes, for an appetizer. I think their fries are ok, although I don't often get them. Their desserts are pretty good, too. I don't think they are open 24 hours, though. But the service has always been friendly and quick.
The neon around the clock says "Berlin...Time to Eat." Another interesting fact about the Berlin Diner: apparently part of the Kevin Smith movie "Jersey Girl" was filmed there. The front counter is plastered with pictures of Ben Affleck. There aren't any of Kevin Smith or JLo, though...
The Berlin Diner gets 
We went to the Crossroads Diner when we were up at the Delaware Water Gap.
(Mike took all the pictures for this one. The black and white ones he took on his camera, and the color ones he took on my camera.)
We stopped at this diner on the way home. It was the middle of the afternoon, and I think they had maybe one other table there. I think it was an old railroad-car style diner originally, but they did have an added-on, fancier section in the back. We stayed up in the front, though.
The Crossroads Diner is not open 24-hours a day. The menu seemed more like a luncheonette than a real diner. We liked the food we got, but the desserts didn't look so good.
The service was really nice - this was the first diner we took pictures of, and Mike told the waitress how we were going to put them up on a website. She seemed a little confused that anyone would want to make a website about diners, but she was very nice and let us take pictures, and told us about the history of the place.
We recommend the place, especially for lunch, if you are ever in the area. It gets
Wouldn't it be great if your brain was like a computer, and you could choose what to save and what to delete? Memories are popping into my head that I would like to throw into the Trash Bin.
The Country Club Diner is located in Voorhees. Although it is conveniently located near the Ritz (the best movie theater in South Jersey), we almost never go there.
(What's up with that guy on the sign??)
I have only been to the Country Club Diner twice. The first time was mid-afternoon. My friend and I ordered mozzarella sticks, and they came with some kind of cold, ketchup-like substance as a sauce, instead of the tomato sauce I was expecting. That was gross.
The next time I went must have been after a movie at the Ritz. The Country Club Diner closes (a bad sign I should have mentioned earlier), I think at midnight, and by 10:30pm, the waitress was hovering over our table, trying to get us to leave so they could close up. Now, the whole point of going to a diner is to hang out, talk, and socialize. Eating is almost secondary. So diners that crowd me definitely get a negative vote.
On the other hand, Mike has been there more recently, and says they have a great coconut cream pie. So I guess they get 
The Magnolia Diner is located in (guess!) Magnolia, NJ. It doesn't look much like the other diners, what with the absence of shiny and neon. It looks like it might have been a Moose Lodge or VFW hall at one point, but ever since I have been here, it has been a diner.
For a while when I used to have to work on weekends, I met my mom here for breakfast Saturday mornings before work. They have good food, and it's inexpensive, even by diner standards. I have only been back a few times in recent years, including once with Mike when no one ever came to wait on us after we were seated, and we got up and left. But that was an isolated incident in overall good memories.
The Magnolia Diner is also the only diner so far that asked me what I was doing there taking pictures. A young manager came out after I'd only taken two, and asked me why I was there. I smiled brightly, and answered that I was a student and I was doing a project about diners, two statements that are true separately, but somehow less than true when combined. He seemed a little unsure how to respond. I then added, "Don't worry, I don't plan on selling them," but even when I said it, I wondered if maybe he wasn't more concerned that I might be the harbinger of a law suit.
Rating:
We are starting to go to the Stratford Diner more now, because it is in a convenient location. Also, it is open 24 hours, like all good diners should be. In fact, we were there this weekend, sitting in a corner booth and talking politics, as usual. I think this weekend makes the third time I have been there.
The reason we didn't go to it before is that, until recently, there was no Stratford Diner. I think it has been there less than a year. I'm pretty sure it used to be a Denny's, and there used to be a Ponderosa next to it. Then both went under around the same time - the Ponderosa is now a Burger King.
So far I have liked everything I've had there, but I will say this: if you order salad, get the dressing on the side. Also, Mike says their fries suck. I don't think we've had dessert there yet, so we're not qualified to judge on that. Guess we'll have to go back.
The service has been very prompt and friendly every time we went. They also have some old-school arcade games in the lobby that have received quite a few quarters from the pop5 crew. All in all, I think I can give it
I was driving around today taking pictures for the Diner Project, and I ran across this gentleman:
At first this guy had me a little confused. Now, I think he means "succumb" to be equivalent to "died." But is the guy supposed to be George W. Bush?? (He looks more like Nixon to me.) Who put him there?
Regardless, I support the sentiment...at least I think I do, if I am interpreting the sentiment correctly.
pop5 crew and anyone else in South Jersey: I saw this guy on the White Horse Pike in Audubon. Any clues??
Point (Victoria):
I'd like to preface this by saying that I'm not a fan of Cameron Crowe, and I haven't much liked anything he's done since "Say Anything." But when I first saw the movie, I didn't know who directed it, much less that I should be paying attention to who directed a movie. I was in the ninth grade.
"Say Anything" is a good movie because it has a young John Cusack in it, before he got all old and kind of wrinkly, and looks like now he got plastic surgery. The young John Cusack was cute and the character of Lloyd Dobbler is handcrafted to be the most apppealing boyfriend a girl could want: sweet, attentive, thinks she is wonderful, and in the end, gives up everything just to be with her. He may not know what he wants to do with his life, but he is very sure of who he is, which is a quality almost no real-life 18-year-old boys have (not to mention older ones). Although this is a "romantic comedy," it doesn't follow the normal plot line where contrived accidents and misunderstandings keep the couple apart, blah blah blah. I think the story is pretty believable, although I wouldn't have broken up with Lloyd even if my dad was going to jail and I was going to England. But maybe that's just me. Also, Frasier's dad is in it, and Ione Skye - didn't she marry a Beastie Boy? Whatever.
"Say Anything" is a good movie, and Mike is wrong.
Counter-Point (Mike):
So, I thought I'd just write and say that this movie stinks. Lloyd Dobbler stinks. Peter Gabriel stinks. Iona Skye stinks. The eighties stink.
Over Labor Day weekend, Mike and I went to the Delaware Water Gap.
The park, part of the National Parks System, spans over New Jersey and Pennsylvania (and maybe New York?). It's big, and also confusing; it was hard to figure out where we wanted to go and how to get there. As the designated navigator, I have to admit that I got us lost twice. In the interests of full disclosure, I will further admit that one of those times, Mike figured out the right way to go, and I didn't believe him.
We went to the three "scenic overlooks" in the south of the park, which were supposed to offer the best views of the river and the gap. I was a little disappointed, since I didn't find them very scenic. I took pictures, but they didn't come out well.
Then we got lost trying to go to Bushkill Falls, and ended up on the New Jersey side. We went hiking on a little waterfall trail, since I prefer my hiking with waterfalls.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
In case you don't know, American Express is allowing its cardmembers to cash in those stupid membership rewards points and give the money to Hurricane Katrina relief. They are matching the money donated, as well, and you can choose from a list of charities which one you would like to donate to. I cashed in all of mine, since I never use them; I'm glad there's finally something worthwhile to use them for.
An illustrative fairy tale by Victoria
Once upon a time, I had (well, still have) a G5 iMac that lives in my bedroom, on a small desk opposite my bed. Macs are supposed to be able to stay on and "asleep" for long periods of time; it isn't necessary to shut them down. It is in fact helpful to keep them on overnight, since they perform maintenance tasks then. The problem was that my iMac's sleeping would keep me awake! By FLASH---FLASH---FLASHing its little sleep light onto the wall over my bed. So I had to shut it down at night.
Now that could have been the end of the story. But it's not.
Last week, I sat down to my iMac to do some software updates, when lo and behold, there is a firmware update for my Mac that fixes this problem! It automatically dims the sleep light at night, but keeps it bright during the day! I was overjoyed. I had not complained to Apple about it, but they somehow knew and fixed the problem.
Of course, they probably knew because other people complained about the same problem.
But I prefer to think that my iMac took the initiative and made my wishes known to Apple Inc. all by itself.
And you can bet we will both live happily ever after...
The Marlton Diner is also in Marlton - big surprise, I know. It is open 24 hours, but they serve a limited menu late-nights, I think after 11pm. They are a fairly recent diner, and have only been around a few years. I think before that the space was a chain restaurant - Ponderosa? Ground Round? Something like that. As you can see, they spruced it up with shiny, diner-appropriate architecture.
The good thing about the Marlton Diner is that they have very large booths in the smoking section, which is oh so necessary when three of the "Population Five" are smokers. [Yes, Rob, you count!] This means we can all fit into one booth instead of having to split up when we saunter in for a late-night snack.
Familiarity: I guess I've been there more than twenty times.
Rating: It's a nice place to hang out late at night. The waitstaff doesn't crowd you and try to get you to leave. The food is pretty good - I've never gone out of my way to go there, but I'm never sorry I've gone.
I know that everyone here is going to make fun of me, but my current must-visit-all-the-time website is the PandaCam at the San Diego Zoo. There is a baby panda! Oh the cuteness!
The baby panda is a girl, and she is a little over a month old. She won't be named until her 100th day, in accordance with Chinese tradition.
Who can resist this much cuteness?
Olga's Diner is something of a landmark. It is located in Marlton, NJ, and if you are asking for directions in its vicinity, they will usually start with, "Well, you know where Olga's Diner is?" It has been around for as long as anyone can remember. Rumor has it that it is up for sale now, for $10 million. You wouldn't think it from looking at it, would you? Location, location.
Despite its history, Olga's is a pretty crappy place to eat. I think it is open 24 hours, at least - we used to go there late nights after getting out of work. I can't remember having one thing there that was decent. Apparently it used to be good, but has been declining for years.
Still, I will be sad to see it go.
Familiarity: I guess I've there between 10 and 20 times.
Rating: , just for sentimental value.
Coffee cups ratings are on a scale of 1 to 5: 5 is "excellent," and 1 is "you call this a diner!?!" Mike did the coffee cup illustrations, and I can safely say that any illustrations you see on this site will be his. I don't think the rest of us can draw - I know I can't.
They say New Jersey has more than 7,000 diners. It is known as the Diner Capital of the World. So what is the Diner Project? We visit as many of them as humanly possible, and report back the results.
Now, not every restaurant with the word "diner" on the sign really deserves the title. For our money, a diner must:
* not be part of a chain.
* be open 24 hours a day (and serve breakfast 24 hours a day).
* be reasonably priced, have a wide selection, and have decent food.
Let the culinary tour begin.
This is only a test.
