Jan 30, 2007 1:52:28 AM
Great article in the New York Times about "unhappy meals." In short: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He has a lot of other advice, too (at the end of the article), basically buy organic and cook your own food, look at food as a part of a bunch of inter-related things to eat, not as "get this vitamin here and this vitamin there."
It's an interesting contrast with an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer called "Poor Priced out of healthful eating." It's true, really. I've found it arrogant to think that people should spend so much more money when they have so little disposable income so they could eat organically. I mean, the Irish ate potatoes because it was what they could afford.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jan 30, 2007 1:52:28 AM [Link]
Jan 23, 2007 2:58:32 AM
Now that I'm in England it's expensive to get a lot of the things I liked from America. Aside from a new camera, I have a pile of things I'd like to have brought back to me that I can't afford or can't find in London ...
Tea (all from the Perennial Tea Room)
Red Peach Keemun - 1 pound
Old Lady Tea - two ounces
Milima Kenya - 1/2 pound
Min Estate - 1/4 pound (or some other second flush Darjeeling)
Things for The Pretty
Covergirl Outlast Lipstick, three tubes of red
Moisture Maniac shampoo and conditioner (extremely large bottles)
Special Effects hair dye in blood red
2 Maia bras
Eucerin hand cream (big pot)
Really cute bandaids (Barbie, whatever's adorable)
Unusual American Food Items
Four graham cracker pie crusts
Bag o' graham cracker crumbs
Minute tapioca (2 boxes)
tortillas (2 36 packs or something)
Chocolate chips - 4 bags, semi sweet (no fake chocolate please)
Peanut butter Hershey's kisses (as requested by Libby)
Trader Joes (if possible)
Cranberry/cashew trail mix
Ultra dark Scharffenberger bars
Stuff you may find
My back copies of Bust magazine
Stuff at my brother's house
My tequila (bring back three bottles of booze, must go in your luggage ...)
My camera (the Nikkormat)
The makeup from the medicine cabinet (especially the B eyeliners and shadows)
Games
The horse racing game
Lunch Money
Pirate's Cove
Other items
Blinky lights for my bike (and do I need a lock?)
Underbed storage
Small cat carrier
A few power converters
The latest copy of Lenswork
Glucosamine (gel tabs?)
More of those PCC iron pills
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jan 23, 2007 2:58:32 AM [Link]
Jan 23, 2007 2:52:13 AM
Last year I read 34 books, an improvement over the 27 of 2005. However, I think I should be reading even more than that - but I'm being held up by reading Remembrance of Things Past and on the 23rd of January and I hadn't finished a single book yet despite the fact I'm in the middle of seven!
January
1. A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down - Nicey and Wifey
February
2. Woken Furies - Richard Morgan
3. Skeen's Search - Jo Clayton
4. Lonely Planet - Canary Islands
5. Some other travel guide - Canary Islands
6. What do you call a sociopath in a cubicle? - Scott Adams
March
7. Blood Lines - Tonya Huff
8. The Lady of the Sorrows - Cecilia Dart-Thornton
9. Singularity Sky - Charlie Stoss
April
10. Wildfire - Jo Clayton
11. Lincoln's Dreams - Connie Willis
May
12. Remembrance of Things Past (volumes one and two) - Swann's Way and In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (the Kilmartin translation) - Marcel Proust
13. London in the Twenties and Thirties (from old photographs) - James Howgego
14. The Magic Wars - Jo Clayton
15. The Very Bloody History of England: The First Bit - John Farman
June
16. Incompetence - Rob Grant
17. The Battle of Evernight - Cecilia Dart-Thornton
18. Death Masks - Jim Butcher (tremendous improvement over books 2, 3 and 4. My hope for the series is renewed!)
July
19. The Art of Darkness: Staging the Phillip Pullman trilogy - Robert Butler (bought it in 2004 - boy, I'm slow!)
20. Blood Rites - Jim Butcher
21. Remake - Connie Willis
August
22. London: A Life in Maps - Peter Whitfield
23. Dead Beat - Jim Butcher (Dresden Files book 7)
September
24. A Bait of Dreams - Jo Clayton
25. The Guermantes Way - Marcel Proust
October
26. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
27. The Devil in Amber - Mark Gatiss
28. Light Raid - Connie Willis
29. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Pforde
30. Mozart's Journey to Prague - Eduard Morike (as part of "Blog a Penguin Classic." I'd much rather blog the Proust, thanks!)
31. The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales - Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
32. The Machine's Child - Kage Baker
November
33. Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
34. The Sons of Heaven - Kage Baker
December
35. Shakespeare's Landlord - Charlaine Harris
36. Fairy Tales: Traditional Stories Retold for Gay Men - Peter Cashorali
37. How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel - Alain De Botton
38. Queueing for Beginners: The story of daily life from breakfast to bedtime (from an English perspective) - Joe Moran
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jan 23, 2007 2:52:13 AM [Link]
Jan 11, 2007 9:53:04 AM
Books bought 2006 here - I am hoping to keep myself way, way down this year!
January
1. Baedecker's Tenerife
2. Reigning Cats and Dogs - Katharin Macdonogh
3. 1602 - Neil Gaiman
4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon (£1, such a deal!)
February
5. El Calado: Tradicion, usos y costumbres - Jose Miguel de Salamanca (a book on the embroidery styles of the Canary Islands, bought in La Orotava)
6. The Six Wives of Henry Viii - Alison Weir
7. Cowgirls - Candace Savage
April
8. Doctor Whom - A R R R Robert's
9. The Story of the Royal Ballet - Hugh Fisher
10. The Battle of Evernight* - Cecilia Dart-Thornton
11. The Lonely Planet Guide to Tunisia
May
12. The Guermantes Way* - Marcel Proust
13. Movie Heaven - An Anthology (from Empire)
14. A Beginner's Guide to Ireland's Seashore - Sherkin Island Marine Station
15. Berlitz Pocket Guide to Amsterdam
16. The London Theatre Guide - Richard Andrews
17. Rick Steves' London 2006
18. Attention All Shipping - Charlie Connelly
19. Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in London's West End - Geoffrey Howse
20. How to Be Tremendously Tuned in to Opera - E. O. Parrott
21. Lights Out for the Territory - Iain Sinclair
22. The Ladies' Loos - Natasha Morabito and Kate Harrad
23. London, City of Words - David Caddy and Westrow Cooper
24. Lines on the Underground - Dorothy Meade and Tatiana Wolff
25. Letters from London - Julian Barnes
26. The Bullwhip Book - Andrew Conway
27. Waterside Walks in Middlesex and West London - David and Rosemary Hall
28. The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady - Edith Holden
29. The Rarest of the Rare - Diane Ackerman
June
30. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time* - Mark Haddon
31. Bolognese Flavor: Family recipes since 1880 - Beatrice Spagnoli (of Paolo Atti & Figli, Bologna)
32. the Blood Books, Vol. 3 (Blood Debt / Blood Bank) [Paperback] by Huff, Tanya
33. Saratoga Trifecta (Charlie Bradshaw Mystery) by Dobyns, Stephen
34. Solstice Wood [Hardcover] by McKillip, Patricia A.
35. The Secret Paris of the '30s [Paperback] by Brassai
36. Sex Collectors: The Secret World of Consumers, Connoisseurs, Curators, Creators
37. Southern Cooking from Mary Mac's Tea Room by Lupo, Margaret
38. Blood Pact: Victory Nelson Private Investigator: Otherworldly Crimes a Specialty (Victory Nelson) (Paperback) - Tanya Huff
39. the Stone Fey by McKinley, Robin
40. Saratoga Fleshpot: A Charlie Bradshaw Mystery by Dobyns, Stephen
41. Remake* by Willis, Connie
42. Light Raid* by Willis, Connie
43. Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz - John Kander
44. Proust's Way: A Field Guide to In Search of Lost Time - Roger Shattuck
45. Sodom and Gomorrah: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 4 - Marcel Proust
46. How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel* - Alain De Botton
47. The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry - Joh Silkin, editor
July
48. The Book of Small - Emily Carr
49. Ghosthunt - Jo Clayton
50. Blue Champagne - John Varley
51. The Snares of Ibex - Jo Clayton
52. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
August
53. City Secrets: London - Robert Kahn
54. The Devil in Amber: A Lucifer Box Novel* (Lucifer Box 2) - Mark Gatiss
55. The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke
56. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
57. The Collector's Edition of Victorian Erotica - Major LaCaritilie
September
58. CultureShock Britain: A survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette - Terry Tan
59. The Gateway of Literature: Five Centuries of Great Tales of Youth - Hugh Walpole and Wilfred Partington, eds.
60. Stravaganza: City of Masks - Mary Hoffman
61. Stravaganza: City of Stars - Mary Hoffman
62. Fairy Tales: Traditional Stories Retold for Gay Men* - Peter Cashorali
63. The Machine's Child* - Kage Baker
64. The Sons of Heaven* - Kage Baker
November
65, 66, 67. Grave Sight, Club Dead , Shakespeare's Landlord* (Lily Bard Mysteries) - Harris, Charlaine
68. The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos
69. Dragonhaven* - Robin McKinley
70. Vegi-Mex: Vegetarian Mexican Recipes (Cookbooks and Restaurant Guides)
71. Green Chile Bible: Award-Winning New Mexico Recipes by Tribune, Albuquerque
72. The San Antonio TEX-MEX Cookbook [Spiral-bound] by Blakeley, Elizabeth
73. La Posta Cook Book: The Authentic Old Mesilla Mexican Cook Book - Katy Camunez
74. Shadow of No Towers - Spiegelman, Art
75. Water Witch* - Connie Willis; Cynthia Felice
76. New Mexico Cook Book - Nusom, Lynn
77. Chicago: With the Chicago Tribune Articles that Inspired It - Maurine Watkins
78. Los Barrios Family Cookbook: Tex-Mex Recipes from the Heart of San Antonio - Diana Barrios Trevino
79. The Best From New Mexico Kitchens - Cameron, Sheila MacNiven
[more]
Posted by webcowgirl @ Jan 11, 2007 9:53:04 AM [Link]
Jan 5, 2007 7:06:15 AM
I'm a big collector of cookbooks. I love old little specialty cookbooks made my ladies' societies and with funny overly-colorful pictures. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels like this - there's websites devoted to finding these cookbooks for people, and this great article from the NYT talks about some of the more popular titles.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jan 5, 2007 7:06:15 AM [Link]
Jan 5, 2007 6:59:19 AM
Does the World Need Another Joy'? Do You?
By KIM SEVERSON
MY heart is breaking for the "Joy of Cooking." And it's not just because of the blender borscht recipe that forced me to open my first can of cream of chicken soup in years.
The poor dear has endured so many family battles, bad reviews and makeovers that it has become something akin to a child star trying to survive warring parents.
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jan 5, 2007 6:59:19 AM [Link]
Jan 4, 2007 3:40:41 PM
I'm afraid I may have topped out at 56 movies two years ago now that I'm living in a city where a typical movie costs $20.
January
1. The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (3, very thought provoking)
2. Through a Scanner Darkly (3, great to watch and interesting story)
3. The Confederate States of America (3, likewise)
February
4. Uproar in Heaven (2 1/2, China, 1964 - fun animated tale of Monkey, the Chinese trickster figure)
5. Team America, World Police (3, too wrong to not score this high)
March
5. Hot Fuzz (2 1/2, silly action movie)
6. Nashville (1975 - 3)
7. Science of Sleep (3 - gorgeous to watch but the lead character didn't seem very three dimensional)
April
8. Blades of Glory - 3 (I laughed myself silly)
9. Man with a Movie Camera (with Michael Nyman score) - 3 (it's an art film, all montages, so difficult to judge)
June
(In June I saw Xanadu again but it doesn't count as I'd already seen it in a theater, albeit 25 years ago ...)
July
10. Ratatouille - 3 (Great fun)
11. Harry Potter and the somewhat better sequel - 3
12. Naruse's Late Chrysanthemums (1954) - 3
13. The Simpson's Movie - 3 (also great fun, especially because I saw it on work time and on work's dime)
14. Tales of Earthsea (Ged No Genki - Ged's Saga) - 3 1/2 (beautiful animation, cool story, and I saw it as a preview at the NFT, neenur neenur)
15. Yearning - 3 (Naruse Mikio, Japan - 1964) (Nice cinematography and another fascinating tale focused on a female heroine that surprised me by turning tragic.)
August
16. Stray Dog - 2 1/2 (Kurosawa, Japan - 1950-something)
September
17. A Throw of Dice - 2 1/2 (India - 1929)
October
18. Stardust - 2 1/2 (2007, just not magical enough, and horrible costuming)
19. Asphalt - 2 1/2 (1928, Berlin - the restoration with the original cut and intertitles. Suffered occasionally from hysterical silent-movie style acting, but very good cinematography and fun costumes)
20. Across the Universe - 3 1/2
21. Persepolis - 3 (the animation style was delicious and the story it told was very moving - to think of what was going on in Iran all of those years when all we heard about was their external conflicts! Higly recommended.)
November
22. Yobi, the Five Tailed Fox - 2 1/2 (really cute and an interesting story but the sloppy translations and occasional problems with perspective knocked this down a notch for me)
23. Pied Piper - 1 1/2 (Jacques Demy, France - 1972)
24. Rebels of the Neon God - 2 1/2 (Tsai Ming Liang, Taiwan - 1992)
December
25. The Golden Compass - 3 (2007)
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jan 4, 2007 3:40:41 PM [Link]
Jan 4, 2007 3:39:48 PM
Now that I've moved to London seeing a show once a week is about like eating twice a day - it seems like it's just not enough! I think last year's shows will be exceeded easily ...
January
1. Spamalot (with Tim Curry at the Palace)
2. Napoli Divertissements and Les Sylphides, Royal National Ballet
3. History Boys, Wyndham Theater
February
4. The Ramayana - Lyric Theater, Hammersmith
5. La Bayadere Act II (Natalia Makarova after Marius Petipa, with Dvorovenko and Beloserkovsky performing), Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes (Mark Morris), and Fancy Free (Jerome Robbins, with Salstein, Radedsky, Gomes, Herrera, and Kent performing) - American Ballet Theater at Sadler's Wells
6. Coram Boy - National Theater
7. Eva Yerbabuena - Sadler's Wells
8. Estrella Morente, Sadler's Wells
9. Came a Gypsy Riding - Almeida Theater
March
10. Handel's Agrippina - English National Opera
11. Under the Lintel
12. The Dumbwaiter - Trafalgar Studios
13. Le Jardin des Voix / William Christie - The Barbican
14. Attempts on Her Life - The National Theatre
April
15. The Indian Midsummer Night's Dream - The Roundhouse
16. Pinter's The Caretaker - Tricycle Theater
17. John Gabriel Borkman - The Donmar (fantastic!)
18. Venus and Adonis - The Little Angel Theater (a puppet version of a Shakespeare poem, great!)
19. Man of Mode - National Theater (London)
20. Mahabharatha - Sadler's Wells (1 1/2 stars, A for effort, B for dance, F for singing)
21. Mixed Rep, Royal Ballet - The world premiere of Seven Deadly Sins (Will Tuckett) / Pierrot Lunaire (Glen Tetley) / La Fin du jour (Kenneth MacMillan)
May
22. Absolute Beginners - Lyric Hammersmith (too rough, both dialogue and acting)
23. Hound of the Baskervilles - The Duchess
24. Emma Kirkby, Lufthansa Baroque Festival - St. Johns, Smith Square
25. Glass Menagerie (with Jessica Lange) - The Apollo
26. Jordi Savall, Lufthansa Baroque Festival - St. Johns, Smith Square
27. Darcy Bussell's "Farewell" - Sadler's Wells
28. Ensemble La Fenice, Lufthansa Baroque Festival - St. Johns, Smith Square
29. The Entertainer - Old Vic
30. Swan Lake - Royal Ballet
31. Avenue Q (again!) - Noël Coward (Albery)
32. Cabaret - Lyric (London)
June
33. Royal Ballet's Mixed Bill: Checkmate (Ninette de Valois), Symphonic Variations (Frederick Ashton), Song of the Earth (Kenneth MacMillan)
34. The Woman in Black - Fortune Theater London (really fun, well acted and a good story, I recommend it)
July
35. Looking Busy - The Bedford Park Pub, Streatham (staged reading of an original play by Katy Harrad)
36. Hothouse - The National Theater (Crazy mixed up script but both fun and creepy. I recommend it.)
37. Drowsy Chaperone - Novello Theater (great time, really fun, I'm just sorry I didn't see it earlier in the run, but it was still full of energy, going again August 1!)
38. Carmen Jones - Royal Festival Hall (too long, dialogue painfully dated, female lead could sing but couldn't act)
39. The Bolshoi's Le Corsaire (1899 choreography, recreated - 3 1/2 hours long but a blast) - ENO
August
40. Matthew Bourne's CarMan (Sadler Wells)
41. The Bolshoi's La Bayadere - ENO
42. Paco Pena - Sadlers Wells
43. Bolshoi Mixed Rep - Asaf Messerer's "Class Concert," Chris Wheeldon's "Elsinore," and Twyla Tharp's "Upper Room" - ENO
September
44. Venus as a Boy - Soho Studios
45. Bacchae (with Alan Cumming) - Lyric Hammersmith
46. Alvin Ailey "Jazz" rep - Sadler's Wells (Camille Brown's "The Groove to Nobody's Business" (2007), "Pas De Duke" (1976), Talley Beatty's "The Road of The Phoebe Snow" (1959), and Billy Wilson's "The Winter in Lisbon" (1992))
47. Boeing Boeing - Comedy Theater.
48. 39 Steps (again) - Criterion Theater
49. All About My Mother - Old Vic
50. Chris Wheeldon's Morphoses - Sadler's Wells (Morphoses - Wheeldon, Vicissitude - Liang, Slingerland Pas de Deux - Forsythe, Prokofiev Pas de Deux - Wheeldon, After the Rain - Wheeldon)
51. Awake And Sing - Almeida Theater
52. Moonwalking in Chinatown - Soho Studios (ambulatory)
53. Hofesh Schecter ("Uprising," which we saw earlier at ROH2, and "In Your Rooms")
October
54. "Fragments" (five plays by Samuel Becket - Rockaby, Rough for Theatre I, Act Without Words II, Come and Go, Neither - directed by Peter Brook) - Young Vic
55. Songs of Enchantment - Emma Kirkby with the English Viol Consort (at All Saints Church, part of the East Finchley Music Festival)
56. Magic Lantern "Ring Cycle" - ROH2
57. Giselle - Pretty Ugly Tanz Cologne
58. Ko Murobushi - The Place
59. Macbeth (with Patrick Stewart) - The Gieldgud Theatre
60. Carlos Acosta program, Sadler's Wells (Muñecos / El río y el bosque / Paso a tres - Méndez ; Le Corsaire - Alonso after Petipa)
November
61. Glengarry Glen Ross
62. Aida - English National Opera
63. The Human Computer - Will Adamsdale at Battersea Arts Centre
64. Country Wife - Royal Theater Haymarket
65. Billy Elliot - Victoria Palace
66. Parade - Donmar Warehouse
67. King Lear (with Sir Ian McKellen) - New London Playhosue
68. Impempe Yomlingo (the South African Magic Flute) - The Young Vic
December
69. Gekidan Kaitaisha's "Bye Bye Reflection" - Riverside Studios
70. Absurd Person Singular - The Garrick
71. Bitchslapped by God - The Drill Hall
72. Dick Whittington and His Cat - The Hackney Empire
73. Herge's Adventures of Tin Tin - The Playhouse
74. Ikrismas Kherol (the South African Christmas Carol) - The Young Vic
75. English National Ballet's "The Snow Queen" - London Coliseum
76. Will Tuckett's Pinocchio - Royal Opera House
77. Stephen Frye's Cinderella - Old Vic
78. Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake - Sadlers' Wells
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Posted by webcowgirl @ Jan 4, 2007 3:39:48 PM [Link]