The Art Room

Last night I saw The Art Room (Billy Aronson) at the Loeb Ex. The story follows six people over the course of a day in a mental ward.( Read more... )

Also yesterday, in the morning: a turkey sighting. I was lucky to see him; he walked off between two buildings a moment after I passed by.

Tomes of Terror II

Monday I succumbed to all the advertising and went to.... *cue scary music* Tomes of Terror II, put on by the Post Meridian Radio Players.

It was not so spooky as I'd imagined, but still fun. I particularly liked the literary interludes by the librarian, a book tamer in a menagerie of all sorts of volumes, before and after the episode of Our Miss Brooks (beyond silly), then Carmilla (much more eerie, though the end seemed to fade away), and The Stone Ship (nautical terror! made more difficult to understand due to extreme accents). And of course, seeing the sound effects done feels incredibly retro.

Somehow I'd expected more... something. Not sure what, but having seen the radio shows at Arisia, these felt less on Halloween target than those did their cheesy science fiction targets. And having two intermissions felt too much, though I could see how it was necessary to allow changeover between shows.

[Burning Man] "Look, up in the sky!"

Meandering around one night on the playa (Thursday? might've been Thursday; I never could get the hang of Thursdays), looking around at the colorful cacophony, then up into the serene sky, the stars more visible than earlier in the week, since the moon was waning. And the stars were beautiful. And I could see a shooting star! And then another! And more! Except that it wasn't late enough for meteors, and these got brighter and brighter... as the people parachuting into Black Rock City got closer and closer to the playa.

I don't know if they all landed safely, nor whether they were arriving for the first time.

Food for Shabbat

Not all for one meal... and for a change, in cooking order.

• wild salmon** baked with peach chutney* (made earlier this summer): I keep forgetting to compensate for wild salmon having less fat by cooking it slightly less time, so this is not as wonderful as I had wanted.
  
• roasted carrots* and parsnips*, with a little onion*: done on time-bake, these got a little more caramelized (read: burned) than I'd wanted, but still very edible
  
• mashed rutabagas* and potatoes* with caramelized onions*, salt, and olive oil (read: no dairy, no soy): I tasted some of this, and it's unexpectedly happy-making. I hope I made enough.
  
• sauteed onions* and white mushrooms, being a bed for lightly cooking cod fillets
  
• fried string beans: I put them in a smoking hot cast-iron skillet for a while, until they were barely crunchy, then salted them and added some olive oil. Still no idea why I did it this way, but it's definitely closer to the sauteed green beans Taam China does than previous attempts.

I have the regular accompaniments, grape liquids, rolls, hummus and olives, butter and cheese (Red Leicester!), also sorbet or soy ice cream for sweets. What I don't have is a replacement warming tray; mine died and I haven't gotten around to getting a new one. Sometime this week....

It's almost candlelighting, this last Shabbat before the clocks change (and Shabbat becomes absurdly early), so I wish you Shabbat shalom, and happy weekend.

* local
** The politics around fish confuse me. Is it better to have farm-raised fish because it doesn't deplete the already-stressed wild populations? Or should I be concerned more about the health issues that may arise from farmed fish? Is it better for me to buy farmed Atlantic salmon or wild Alaskan salmon? And so on.