I'm a little pimp with my hair slicked back

"willie the pimp" from Zappa's "Hot Rats" album, which I first bought in DC when I lived there with my dad. I loved the feeling of walking down the streets with the cherry blossoms still gleaming white and the heat coming down hard. Awesome guitar solo and Captain Beefheart singing. HOT BEEF! HOT RATS! WOO-WOO-WOOT!

dream 290ct2007

sex, space travel, running across a cliff next to a forest, then singing "holiday in cambodia". i wake singing dead kennedys.

xkcd

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe: "http://xkcd.com/334/"

call me morbid, call me pale.

what makes me saddest about the whole thing is how pointless it was. i mean, so many ways to end it that wouldn't have caused all that kind of fallout. "oh well" is all there is to say and it doesn't seem enough.

this real estate bullshit is fucking bullshit. every time i get closer to the house it's a change of what was expected. jesus. it's like dating but with the payoff that you're in debt well beyond your eyeballs. a bugfuck crazy girlfriend is tame compared to this kind of frustration.

that bad bad man, stagolee

maybe remaking stagger lee to be about delia day? the grateful dead's version names delia as billy's woman....hmmmm....

capo II:
Em11 -> E shuffle, B7, G

Em11 000000


switch to

E - E7 / E7b5 - Bb13
xx2100 - xx2103 / xx0100 - xx0103

new song, "oh"

G / / / Cm / / / G / / / Cm / / /
oh don't you go oh won't you oh

Dsus4 D Dsus2 G / / / Cm9/x33543
look at me when you say goodbye

I'm gonna be an uncle again!

Just the one time: w00t.

chicken tikka masala with aromatic rice

Inspired by Jimbo's recent recipe, here's my recipe for chicken tikka masala.

you will need:
1lb chicken (2 large or 3 small breasts should be around right)
1Tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion or 1/2 large onion
1 spoonful of garam marsala
1/4 cup curry powder
1/8 cup chili powder
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup cottage cheese
1 cup basmati rice
4 or 5 sprigs of mint (or raisins and almond slivers)

heat the olive oil, crush and slice the garlic and sautee it. Once half-done at very low heat, throw in the sliced and chopped onion, throw in a pinch of salt and the butter. While it melts, cube the chicken breasts and toss them in the garam marsala and then into the pan. Cook all thoroughly.

When the chicken's done, toss in the curry and chili powders and stir until they're incorporated. Pour in the tomatoes and let the mix heat up again, then include the cream and cottage cheese. Leave simmering at medium-low heat while you prepare the rice, which is stupid easy:
rice and water in a covered bowl in the microwave at full power for 5 mins, then half-power for 10 minutes. Let it sit 5 mins while you chop up the mint, which you will incorporate into the rice while fluffing with fork. (substitute golden raisins and almond slivers if you don't like minty rice).

Serve the tikka masala on the rice. Consider buying some naan bread. Serves at least 4.

so, uh, long time no post

Well the long and the short of it is I shut down for a few weeks cos I had bad company visiting daily. Which she had been for a while, at least a year? I only noticed in like Jan? or Feb? I don't remember.¹ But I was ok with her visits, really. I mean, it's touching -- bad company can't show guilt and is too proud, but still wants to know...something, I guess. Or I suppose could be genuinely worried and wants to make sure I'm not a nut? Or uses it as a way of keeping tabs on the girls? This is more likely -- especially Tai-tai (not so much mei-mei though...²), but I dunno. Anyway. I also got a phone call from her dude³. Which makes me unhappy. So I shut the blog down to keep the drama down.

^1. (Which makes comments said about me funny, in retrospect: I'm not the one trying to keep tabs by long-distance, you know? But I'm the one who got talked about as if I were a stalker or something. It's very hard to not be angry about this.)
^2. I have this theory that My Personal Little Slice of Hurt In The World is in love with Tai-tai; hence the sabotaging Tai-tai's relationships etc. Not that some didn't deserve sabotage, but still.
^3. They're married or maybe not? Also she's changed her name. I guess that makes sense.

do you always look so angry when driving?

A slide to x 0 11 x x x

d 2-11-9-11- chord x 0 11 9 9 x
a 0--0-0--0-

x 0 7 7 7 x x cascade on the e and b strings :
e 10 8 7
b --------10 8 7
g -----------------9

then E (VII) then D (V) chords then i don't know

F#m?

state of love and trust

i almost called today. how's that for breaking news, eh?

moving on, people. man, whenever i say that i miss mr jones. but no man's dead while his name is still spoken.

i had the worst day at work today

i seriously haven't felt like this since my boss at fiu spent 45 minutes detailing how he wanted to kill me and the various ways he would do it if he could.

and then i get home and i realize:

oh shit

they hired me because of my political suaveness
i'm fucked

aside: i found a transcription for martin simpson's "betsy the serving maid". it's not bad. (power tab format on ultimate-guitar if you're interested) and no fucking wonder i coudln't figure the goddamn thing out, i was trying dropped-D and DADGAD and it's in some weirdass G tuning (DGDGCF# -- seriously, what the fuck). also capo on V. aside to the aside: no actual clips of martin simpson on youtube, but here's some dude who learned some of his stuff. aside to the aside to the aside: martin simpson is one of my mixtape secret ingredients. no one expects it. my top four songs that you should download (but i will unhelpfully not provide for you, because the man earns his money,) are: "the company you keep", "betsy the serving maid", "lord gregory" and "dreamtime". I actually learned 'the company you keep' and 'dreamtime' but still kinda suck at them (actually dreamtime I got not too bad at...). if you buy an album (and you should, he's seriously omfg great), i highly recommend his 1996 LIVE AT OXFORD album above all others (although "when i was on horseback" is a good 2nd).

that bell's been ringing now for years. it sounds like needles in my ears.

Low. Mormons from Minnesota -- home of Garrison Keillor and other very white folks -- write glacially slow minimalist music. Except lately they haven't. It's strange, but the last few albums have had a decidedly wider sound to them. Which is good, but strange -- more instruments, more complex songs, but they still sound harrowingly bare, austere and distant. Even the painful songs are just...far away. Removed.

So but see their video for "Breaker": QuickTime, from their website (or here if you prefer YouTube). It's homey, but creepy.

I saw them live with Dr Robert, professional guitarist/lawyer person thing, and they are just as chill-inducing in person. (aside: Mimi Parker is achingly pretty in person. Very tall and with a kind face, but with that way that really nice people have about them that you just know if you actually manage to piss 'em off you might as well just kill yourself then and there.)



Here's more Low for you:
Dinosaur Act: http://youtube.com/watch?v=kTGghNXgxnk
Because You Stood Still: http://youtube.com/watch?v=QPFDix37UZw
Whore: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ArPQvYGrM_w (live)
(That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace: http://youtube.com/watch?v=y2Res0JMuI4 (live but such excellent quality. Very spacey.)

The weather's been gorgeous lately. Yesterday as I left work in the afternoon, the breeze was just perfect, the sky was the light blue filled with perfect white clouds and just to the south the moon was visible even though it was still daylight. Windy days used to remind me of being in love in school, climbing the hills and smoking, listening to tori and ministry and singing the cure. Now it just reminds me of itself. "What do fish remind you of?" "Other fish."

you raise me up just to bring me down

The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove, Live in DC. Well over a year later, this song still reminds me of all that misery. On the bright side, that bass line is fucking wicked.