Labels

architecture Asheville atheism bard bbq books buddhism buffy burgers cars comics fashion film food japan kung fu Las Vegas manga memory music New Zealand other people's blogs photography podcast updates politics San Francisco Santa Cruz sex shoes shopping snow skiing taoism toys travel TV video web 2.0 women writing

Sunday, October 28, 2007

The Fried Chicken of Whose Dreams?

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of chicken. I'm more than mildly disturbed by the chicken industry, and the only way I can manage not to think about it is to generally avoid eating chicken altogether. However, a few weeks ago, I stepped out of my office to the sudden and intoxicating smell of fried chicken. I knew it was KFC, which never was my favorite. Nevertheless, off I marched to the Taco Bell/KFC down the street from where I work where I ordered fried chicken with macaroni and cheese instead of my usual 7-layer burrito. Needless to say, it didn't take more than a couple bites to make me not hungry anymore.

So it was up to Chris to judge The Fried Chicken of Your Dreams at Firefly last night for our anniversary dinner. The verdict? "The fried chicken of my dreams doesn't burn the top of my mouth" and "the fried chicken of my dreams doesn't have any dark meat" and so forth. These statements were mostly facetious, but you do have to be very careful when you claim that an item is as good as anything Chris or I could imagine. You open yourself to the most obvious backlash. The real review? "The chicken was perfectly serviceable." Well then. Keep in mind that Chris is from the south and has on more than many occasions sampled the finest home fried chicken his childhood friends' mothers' ever had to offer.

I, on the other hand, had the best pork chop of my life. I can't even remember when I even had a steak that excited me as much as that maple-glazed grilled chop with grain mustard sauce. Oh wait, yes I can. That steakhouse in Boston. I think it was Grill 23. (I'm not convinced that's it. The pictures don't ring a bell, but the menu's right on. I did have a lot to drink that night. Sales people can drink a frightening amount of alcohol.) Back to the pork chop. It was thick, juicy, perfectly grilled and flavor-full. I picked the meat off the bone. I don't usually do that...anymore. The Rioja treated me very well, and the Pumpkin Brioche Bread Pudding fulfilled an autumn seasonal craving - freshly toasted pumpkin seeds are just way too much trouble to make at home.

I'll also let you know, dear readers, that I won an argument with Chris. He figured Firefly for a destination restaurant. I was certain the place would be full of locals - and when I said locals, I meant Noe Valley locals,, not Bay Area locals. When we arrived, the place was full of families and groups who were very obviously Noe Valley residents. Even so, I did run into a guy in the line to the restroom who claimed to be local but had driven over from Oakland. Hmm. If I feel like a tourist when I leave my own neighborhood in San Francisco, this guy definitely supported Chris's argument. There were several couples there, too. It's hard to say where they might've come from, but I feel confident that none of them had to get on a plane somewhere between their houses and the restaurant.

Labels: food, San Francisco

0 comments | link to this post

Sunday, October 21, 2007

What's My Excuse This Time?

You may be thinking I'm losing momentum on this writing thing. Yeah, maybe a little. Don't worry. I'll have more to share when my head is not so filled with work.

In the meantime, let me share with you one of the things that I use to escape from work thoughts. No words are needed when taking pictures of buildings.

Labels: architecture, photography, San Francisco

0 comments | link to this post

Sunday, October 14, 2007

I Don't Miss Film School - Part Three

A sports movie? Really? I didn't believe it when Chris told me he caught Stick It! on Encore one night and loved it. Yes, I'm talking about the gymnastics movie written and directed by the same woman who brought us Bring It On. I happened to stumble upon it my own self late on Friday night after too much caffeine and no desire to sleep. It surprised me.

It's a simple story. A teenage girl gets busted for various delinquencies - one of which occurs after an impressive series of tricks involving a roof, a ladder, a slide, an empty swimming pool and a BMX bike. Awesome. Apparently, she's a retired gymnast - a good girl turned bad. The judge decides that sending her back to training would be a good last chance before resorting to juvenile detention. Formulaic, yes. Still satisfying. Haley's a convincing rebel, and she clearly has some issues to work out.

If the bad girl/girl power thing isn't compelling enough, check out the effects. Gymnastics is pretty fun to watch, normally (did I mention that this movie's full of cute half naked girls?), but the simple effects applied during some of the montages just made me feel warm and fuzzy:

You think you figure a movie like this out, clever effects aside, and then things get even weirder:

If you follow the formula for a movie like this, you expect the suspenseful competition at the end in which our heroines win the gold by the skin of their teeth. Well, that's partly right. It turns out to be even more satisfying than that. If you are like me, you probably have mixed feelings about a sport like this - a sport that requires an incredible amount of talent and discipline but also subjects athletes to severe and often archaic rules of judgement. When one girl lands a perfect vault but gets deducted .5 points because her bra strap was showing, the competitors rebel. Every girl intentionally scratches the event so that the girl who was robbed of a perfect score automatically wins the event. The girls decide to do this for all events, giving them the power to choose which one of them would win the gold. Of course, this resulted in some of the best performances from the competitors.

I also watched Gladiator again this weekend. Good double feature.

Labels: film, women

0 comments | link to this post

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Another Beautiful Weekend In San Francisco

Instead of writing in my blog this weekend...

I went to Limon on Friday night for the very first time. The Rioja, Ceviche, Tartara, and the Bandido (especially the Bandido) were fantastic.

Chris took to me to a toy show at Super7 on Saturday to check out the custom painted vinyls. Pretty cool stuff.