I'm not sure why it took me this long to go to Gleason's. Maybe it's due to the fact that I don't really like pizza even if the ones made at Gleason's are specialty flat bread pizzas and high class. Or maybe it's due to the fact because the pizzas are specialty it makes me think that this place would be plagued by hipsters.
On Tuesday, X and Moodou paid us a visit and we decided to go on a foodie adventure for old time's sake. You know, that's what we do when X comes around. It's what we're supposed to do! Never mind we have yet to take her for Tea at Kathleen's Tea Room. X, don't worry about it. You saw nothing and you remember nothing about that.
I hope lots of prezzies come your way today especially for M and Moodou's sakes or else there'll be a hard hand smack waiting in the wings for you guys later this morning.
I had a very interesting conversation with Beetchie yesterday and it seems that she may have lost her marbles for a minute.
She seems to have forgotten that I can be quite evil.
To help remind her (although I did a fine job of that yesterday when I referenced a certain flower girl and a Masamune), I will present to her some pictures of delicious times H1 cooked and we indulged in some weeks ago.
Why yes, those are pictures of curried crab and dumplings.
No worries though, Beetchie, as we will make some more when you return. Perhaps we might even be able to find a Carib to go with.
But just so you are reminded as to the extent of my evil, by posting these pictures I'm not only being a jerkface to you but possibly to X as well.
It's only unfortunate this does not affect MC, as he is still allergic to shellfish.
...because this is how X and I needed to be spending our Good Friday - by drinking our bacon instead of eating it.
Do not concern yourself with the fact that I ate 2 kinds of meat today in various different forms.
Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, the drink tabs did not work properly. They lacked fizz and more importantly, they lacked the good taste of bacon. I imagine it tasted much like what facon (turkey bacon) might taste like.
If there was one thing we did a lot of during Thanksgiving week, was play Blokus. Budgie and Angelo introduced us to Blokus Jr. when they bought Boohead a copy of the game for his birthday.
We all were hooked on Blokus Jr. and after playing two players for a few days during the Frenemies' visit, Luuuuiiiisssss and everyone decided that a 10 p.m. run to Walmart was in order to get the full, adult version of Blokus.
The keyword here is that it was the 'adult' version.
Toys R' Us' Jeffrey had a birthday party some weeks ago. At his party which BH attended, a crazy bones sample toy was given out as a party favor. What the hell is a Crazy Bone? It's a weird little collectible plastic figurine - actually, there are probably hundreds of them, each with crazy faces and crazy names and colours. They seemed familiar so I just looked them up and they were a big fad in the 1990s per Wikipedia. Anyway, it seems they are making a comeback and play something like marbles.
X was intrigued by the scary little clown one we got for the sample at the party and found a pack of three for $2.00 at Walmart and bought it for me.
We opened it up and got...crazy little crazy bones. I promised to take pictures and that's what this post is for but of course, there was an incident while photographing the little monsters.
X sent me a prezzie. I was informed it was Rotten.
Upon Rotten's arrival to his new home, I found him to be hilarious.
Peeking out from his box, I could tell Rotten had personality.
"Confound it!" he screamed. I assumed he was confounding his plastic prison.
I released him and found that well, he had no confounding face. Or any face for that matter.
So I set out to personalize him...in the face.
Rotten wears his sunglasses at night (so he can see, of course). He's got a bad-assed koi for a devil eye-brow. His nose is pierced with a rather unsafe safety pin.
He cages devil fish in his Hannibal mouth.
A skull with wings has been tattooed to his side. He spent 9 seconds in the chair for that. A lot of work that. "And a lot of pain", he wanted you to know.
He continues, "and even more pain in the ass to have this one done." Why...thank you for the insight, Rotten. I guess?
He's even got a "I love Mom" tattoo under his foot! You can't see that here but all in all, he's one bad mother-chucker.
H1 put in the plug to get this mosh pit started. Rotten reacts to music he hears. You put on a song and his face goes wild for it. Here he is mouth open small.
Here he is, mouth open wide. He's really getting into this...
This...this...thi.. LADY GAGA song?!?!?!
Rotten loves Lady Gaga. Right after that song ended, I discovered he loved the Justin Timberlake song that played.
He doesn't really care for Mindless Self Indulgence.
And Marilyn Manson? He thinks it's okay but he can take it or leave as per his unenthusiastic facial expressions.
....
.......
Meet Rotten Ana.
Ana had his cool name rights revoked due to his less than anarchist ways.
The results were somewhat mixed but I think we then determined the blog is quite the funny entity. Scary...but funny.
In addition to the reasons above, there was a hidden agenda to all this business of the poll.
Our poll of 'word verification' entries was not just to confirm our suspicions about the motives of the Blog Entity (Yeah, the Blog gets its own identity now), but to come up with a nickname for X's baby on the way.
That just came out of nowhere, right?
X, allow this to serve as an explanation:
You brought this on yourself.
You refused our loving name of "Channa", so we felt the need to take matters into our own hands.
Here are the word verification entries you lot have given us:
From Beetchie: Wautkagn, Enchoote, Hoon, Relodo
From H1: Platho, Yedical, Moodou, Inalik, Flogglu
From Or2: Anick From Frass: Dinglods
From X: Froppes, Tuncein, Bewooni, Patili, Amenifu
From Bughie J.: Welise, Reake, Miedsmst, Taterea, Ourmler
From MC: Supboo, Slisetese
Upon careful consideration which involved H1 choosing one of her liking, we went with...
::Drumroll::
Moodou.
This will be the nickname for the baby Formerly Known As Channa.
By the way, since we are in the buisness of choosing names for X's Moodou, now will be a good time to let you know that Beetchie has a suggestion for a real "M" centric name should you and MK still be looking for one.
It has come to my attention that in my attempt to deter spam comments, the blog may have shown its true colours by being racist.
X swears that on two occasions she has received a word verification prompt that singled her out for what she almost is - an Indian.
I would be inclined to say that my blog is not racist because if it were, it would single her out to be the Fake Indian that she is.
Regardless,I would like to take a poll from you guys.
Please take note of when next you feel the need to leave a comment and tell me what word it prompts you to input for the verification.
Let me know if you too get something ending with 'dahl' or 'ali' or whatever inappropriate 'appropriate' phrase happens upon thee.
X is away on business and informs us that she can access all websites except this one. She won't be able to see this until Saturday when she returns, so I suggest we all get our punches in before then.
Yes, now that I can play it on the PSP, why wouldn't I?! Never you mind I've played it about 3.5 times before. This game is my favourite of all games and while I have (checklist: 'No More Heroes', 'Persona 3' to finish, 'Persona 4', 'Okami', 'The Beatles: Rock Band', 'Disgaea DS' and 'Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door' ) to play, I still go back to my Sephiroth. Really, I'm enjoying this immensely. Again. Even after 12 years, it's still the best. The story, the heartache and everyone to meet again - I love it all.
Professor Layton and The Diabolical Box
Maybe I became less intelligent in the less than 2 years since I played the first installment of this series, or maybe it really did get more challenging. Curse you, Luke and Professor Layton! I love them though... although I'm hearing different voice actors. What?! What happened to Hershel?! What happened to Luke?! Where are they! Ha, Luke's still a riot and Hersel's still got them beady eyes I love. Clever game this and my brain is still not ready but I'm already 1.5 hours in. It's going to be a long journey... ::sigh::
The End of the Year Review
It's almost that time of year. I feel like I am way behind in my games, my anime watching and need to definitely catch up with my music! I'm already thinking about the lists for the best of 2009 in all those categories (I think I've played enough games this year to add that too). And most importantly, I'm thinking about the "Airing of Grievances". So exciting... who's going to be number 1 this year? MC? Frass? X? Hmmm...I wonder...
Here's what he had to say, "It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight," he wrote. "People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with [singer, his brother] Liam a day longer." (Source: www.nme.com)
Bwahahahahahahaha.
Oh.
I didn't mean to laugh so much.
I'm sure they'll be back eventually after a solo album by Noel or something.
Then you could laugh at me.
Currently listening to: "Pretty Visitors" by Arctic Monkeys. In other AM news, P.Diddy is single-handedly trying to destroy AM by sending out a tweet telling all his 'fans' to go by AM's Humbug. What? Eff you Diddy! And eff you Matt for being 'friends' with that tool. Ugh. First he shows up at my concert and now this?! This has to stop!
We began the week with a Monday Midtown Mini Adventure and ended the week with a Friday Downtown Excursion.
Along with Alex, we journeyed to Chinatown, which was not as crazed as I predicted and actually quite the nice evening for walking about.
An emergency call to Beetchie to inquire as to where good dumplings could be had, led us not really finding good dumplings but it also led us to not eating bad ones either.
Note to remember from B.: The dumplings at the Excellent Dumpling House are not that Excellent.
After many years of knowing Beetchie, I never truly ventured to her family's Malaysian Restaurant "Saya". That's probably the fault of the Marco Polo Noodle House that's right next door that H1 and I used to frequent, only to discover that that place is now gone. We cried a little when we found out.
So yes, we were starving and even though we had dinner plans at 9 PM, we went and had first dinner.
First dinner was greatness.
The curry puffs are fantastic and just about everything else was too - the satay (beef and chicken...yum!), the nasi lemak..mmmm. It was all goo'd times. Perhaps, too many goo'd times because H1 and I managed to over-eat a tad. Heh Heh.
Well who knew that a 6 PM meal would full us up so much by the time the 10 PM meal came around?!
After finding all manners of sparklies and danglies for X, a super Japanese bath towel for her,
Oh, the Japanese and their sekshi:
and walking forever to get to Thompson St., we parted ways with Alex and met up with X and Mk at Kittichai for X's Birthday celebration.
From Malaysian curry to Thai curry, H1 and I had even more good times at second dinner.
I did not have as many goo'd times as I should have because I was still sadly full from first dinner, but did love myself some tempura sea bass appetizers.
I didn't care much for the chocolate baby back ribs which really didn't taste anything like chocolate and only served to mess up my chopsticks royally (which annoyed me to no end - filthy chopsticks are one of the most horrid things ever. And this was coming off the fact that my server took my chopsticks away and then didn't want to give me a plate. Ass!).
My meal (what I could eat of it) was good save the fact they managed to burn the meat on top but meh, I still enjoyed my pineapple braised short ribs in green curry.
H1 had some sort of steak which she really liked and then we had to go after a champagne toast to X.
Talk about a mess trying to get a train that ran and getting home. It took an hour for us to get to Grand Central and we just barely made the 12:20 train and goodness knows that we did not want to be in Grand Central until 1:50 AM.
Poor transportation left us a bit cranky but at least we weren't cranky because we lacked food.
I ordered the tickets to see The Last Shadow Puppets back in July and I was super excited at the time to be seeing the boys Miles and Alex, after really loving their album The Age of the Understatement.
Yesterday, however, I was so damned cranky that I almost did not go.
Everything just seemed to be going wrong and if not for the price per ticket, I would have bailed, even if it meant giving up a chance to see my cutie Alex and my cool Miles.
Thank goodness I stayed because they were even more incredible than I thought they'd be.
Having a 16 piece orchestra will do that for you and the sound at small venue of the Grand Ballroom just filled it and was absolutely amazing.
The Lowlamps:
1. Those damned privileged children. They were complaining about 'wanting weekends' when they only work 2 days out of the week. They also had the nerve to say, "My friends lost their jobs but I just got a job. They're jobs out there." I am thankful that X kneed and elbowed a few of them for being stupid assholes.
2. The lighting at that damned place. Just like the Hammerstein downstairs, I still have yet to take a great picture of Alex.
3. My camera. I love Little Latin O. for its years of service, but in a setting like that, it tends to fail me and I get annoyed when people managed to smuggle in their D40s or had better slim point & shoots and just take damned good pictures! GRRRR!
4. H1 not being able to be there too, especially during Arctic Monkey/The Rascals like moments.
5. Miles Kane's dressing up like a Gallagher. I know X was happy but I avoided eye contact with her when I saw Miles come out with his aviators, leather jacket and very British looking face. Oh Miles. Did you HAVE to work against me?!
6. My Mistakes Were Made For You. Alex didn't do a very good job singing this song. It's probably the best song on the album and he was effed it. Thanks A., Thanks.
7. Our initially poor attitudes. X and I were so damned cranky, we almost left. It's not our fault though because those bastards started half an hour later than they were supposed to and the Roadies just stood around pretending to do work.
8. The Roadies. There was this neanderthal that scared the crap out of X and myself. He looked like he would kick our asses.
9. The opening act, Stephen Fretwell. The one thing we hated about him was the lyrics he wrote that actually made sense. He sang two songs that were normal and we were damned bored. He needs to stick to what he knows, which is the bizarre and... chickens?
The Highlights:
1. The opening act, Stephen Fretwell. Okay, he was funny but his chicken in the supermarket lyrics, tree roots and by tree roots he means himself, and other nonsensical lyrics were damned confusing making X and I marvel at being able to witness what just waking up can do to a singer. He had a good voice and a sense of humour but the performance made us laugh the whole way through until the last 2 songs mentioned.
The video's sideways but uh, what's he going on about?
Hilarious.
2. The 16 piece orchestra. Those effers took long to setup and fiddle with their violins but they did a good job.
3. Miles Kane. I was hesitant at first when I first heard that Alex and Miles were going to form a band and write songs with influences of Scott Walker and David Bowie. I was skeptical it took them 2 weeks in a bed bug ridden villa in France to write the album and then I was skeptical when the video for The Age of the Understatement premiered. Then I decided to give it more time to simmer because lyrically it was to be expected from Alex that it'd be awesomely mature and well-written. And then I thought... Miles is 'firm friends' with Alex, so he must be a brilliant boy as well.
So after buying this album, I respected Miles and thought he was cool enough to have a crush on another Brit. Then, I bought The Rascals' album, "Rascalize" and I knew it was really okay to have a crush on Miles. It was rock, 60s, 'hard' and fun and Miles carried it brilliantly.
Last night was no different and I'm glad I got to see him perform and would totally see him for The Rascals if they ever came to NYC. He was awesome, he smiled for photographers and looked at crazy Cherries warily. I didn't enjoy that he didn't look at me but he was distracted by those asshole children who were acting a damned mess, even if I was standing right in front of him. I can't blame him.
7. My Moment with Alex Turner. I had another one with him - my third in a year and half. X and I were standing on Miles' side, but from where I stood I got a clear shot of Alex and he of me. During "Calm Like You" (one of my favourite songs), he sang the first half to me. Yep. He stared straight at me and sang. I sang it back to him and smiled. Now, there are probably various reasons why he did this.
a. He was probably thinking, "oh, there's Suga'Face". b. He was probably thinking, "oh, there's Suga'Face but where's her Sister Suga'Face?" c. He was probably thinking, "oh, there's that...girl, who...I think I see everytime I'm in NYC...is she stalking me?" d. He was probably thinking, "oh, that girl reminds me of my gf (BITCH! - okay, that's my own insert and probably not his)..."
It was actually a really sweet moment and I could do nothing but sing and smile at him because he was extra cute last night, which leads me to believe it was choice "D", which makes me cranky but I botched it anyway when I messed up a lyric and he caught it. He turned away after that. Ha. He did look at me again during "Standing Next to Me" but that was brief. He probably remembered I messed up the first time... Curses! And so that was 'fuckin' up the lyrics with TLSP' Part I.
8. Alex Turner. It's good to see he's getting cuter as years go by because I was a little worried for him for a while there. However, he's looking a lot less hooliganish and well, that's just not right.
9. Miles and Alex. Their banter was cute. Alex smiled a lot with his BFF and they were quite happy with each other. It's the kind of happy you'd probably see if you were to hang out with them while they talked about bullshit, which they did a lot of last night. Poor Miles, unlike Alex's fun day in NYC, Miles was feeling under the weather.
10. Separate and Ever Deadly - 'fuckin' up the lyrics' with TLSP Part II. Yeah, when Miles had to sing his verse, I totally heard him stumble and begin late. As I was about to point this out to him and well, to X, really. Miles stopped the orchestra so he could do it over. "Wait! I fucked it up! I started late! Fucked it up!!!! I want to do it again because it's good!" And so he did and it was good.
Ah, funny effs.
The Last Shadow Puppets Set List 10/30/2008 @ the Grand Ballroom NYC:
In My Room The Age of the Understatement Calm Like You Black Plant Gas Dance Only the Truth Separate and Ever Deadly My Little Red Book Standing Next To Me Hang the Cyst I Want You (She's So Heavy) (The Beatles cover) In The Heat of the Morning (David Bowie cover) I Don't Like You Anymore My Mistakes Were Made For You The Chamber The Time Has Come Again Meeting Place
Best performances of the evening: "Calm Like You", "Only the Truth", "Separate and Ever Deadly", "Hang the Cyst", "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
On Friday last, X took me out for some Cambodian Street Eats that were not in the Streets or in Cambodia but rather in the vicinity of the Delancie Station Stop on the F Train.
There was a threat of being whisked away to Crooklyn but instead a Rooster punishment was delivered.
At Kampuchea, roosters were everywhere to torture me - on matchbooks, plates and mason jars used as glasses. At least there was no rooster engraved in the backless seat (priviledged people should stop their complaining - there's nothing wrong with stools!), nor was there rooster on the menu.
If one were to expand the menu, you'd see pork and belly pork at that, which is exactly what X and I got -
Along with a crispy bacon sandwich with all sorts of yummies in it - a chili pepper sauce, carrots, cucumbers and great bread,
a goo'd time cat fish sandwich with the same dressings,
and a pulled oxtail sandwich? Yep -
We followed it by a soup infiltrated by pork:
Alcoholic beverages of mango and a lychee martini were had, and then it was off to Rice to Riches for coconut cream pudding for dessert. Yummy!
Thank you, X, for the goo'd times.
Saturday was fairly uneventful, until H1 grilled some lamb in the evening. It was then she had a bit of an asthmatic attack that she says I shouldn't talk about, thanks to a trigger of oven cleaner on the stove top and heat. It was horrid but she's okay now.
Oh yeah, we also baked cookies and we made a sugar cookie to represent the colour of H1's heart.
You're right Frass, it probably could be blacker.
Sunday, our cousins came over which was nice. Momma Hochie baked cakes that came out heavy thanks to a cold house and cold margarine.
After curry goat, channa & potatoes, beef pelau, roti, squash, cake, and pumpkin pie were eaten with joy, Boobey-Head, Luuuuuiiiisss, H1 and I headed off to the Jack O' Lantern Blaze at van Cortland Manor.
It was fun and frustrating trying to take pictures in the dark and some of the carvings were pretty spectacular. This year there was a Dinosaur exhibit, along with the Aquarium exhibit we saw three years ago, with pirates added. The snakes and spiders were also back, with a garden display (a pumpkin patch display? har har), skulls, bats and butterflies were floating about too.
Also new this year, were some awesomely carved white pumpkins, a scary clown patch, a pumpkin wedding and Thriller, complete with guitar riffs and cheesey music to boot, smoke screens and dancing zombies.
(click pictures to get larger view and the full effect!)
This clown looks awfully like drunk clown hiding in the bush. Runk like a skunk!
It was a pretty good weekend for the most part. It was quiet and sometimes entertaining...
No thanks to the peeps who are cut off!
Yeah, MC you're cut off as well because the wishes didn't come on the day but not really, because I always forget yours nor am I ever close to remembering.
No one's as clever as CLee who wished me Happy Halloween to distract from the fact that he was not the first to wish me well wishes.
Thanks to Alex for goo'd times with Flight of the Conchords. Thanks to Bughie J. for defeating Takuman or at least, them bidders who outsmarted me for the past month. And all the music, too. Thanks to Frass for giving me a charcoal-less monkey and D. Gray-Man figures. Thanks to X for the Cambodian even though no tarantulas were harmed in the making of the meal and for a diamond filled kitty. Thanks to Pumps and Jazz for waking my ass up at 2 and then again at 4. Thanks to Momma HOchie & Papa HOchie for the sweaters. Thanks to Bunji for my Nightmare Before Christmas figures, with the bug-eyed Sally and the very toxic green Oogey Boogey. Thanks to H1 for suffering to make yummy lamb, and for Dragon Quest IV. Thanks to Boobey for the Handisnacks, D. Gray-Man manga and a Blaze ticket.
Currently listening to: "Dancing Choose" by TV on the Radio. I gave them a chance since the album Dear Science got such great reviews (and made sure to research they're nothing like a band such as Panic at the Disco, since their names always remind me of each other) and I have to say, could they sound any more like some other bands I know? See: R.E.M. for "The End of the World" on this song, and a reminder of Bloc Party and others I know are out there. They're not bad though.
