We’re in the admitting ward of St. Joe’s, waiting for my Dad’s surgeon to pass the word so that they can wheel his tired hungry ass down to the OR and get this show on the road. My father hasn’t eaten since dinner last night, and I can hear his stomach groaning and gnashing and constricting from across the room. He’s being very calm about the whole thing, but I know the section of his brain that controls his appetite has swollen to four times its normal size, and it’s releasing chemicals into his bloodstream which are making the voices tell him to EAT THE CHAIR, EAT THE CHAIR, I DON’T FUCKING CARE, JUST EAT THE CHAIR. My father going without food for 12 hours is as common as a bear using a bidet; unfortunately this misfortune has been compounded by the omittance of a remote control in our waiting room. The benefit to this, however, is that we don’t need to sit through this episode of “Charmed” at a volume setting of 96.
Update: He’s out of the surgery and recovering without a breathing tube.
A nice little article on how to solder. Wish I’d seen this before I fried the guts of my first Base Station.
Here’s a handy way to check your internet connection speed. You’l need Flash to do so.
In order to pay for this nice shiny MacBook, I put my iBook on Craigslist for sale a few weeks ago. Since then, I’ve had a lot of responses ranging from “I’ll come over tonight” to “Can you give me a better offer”. This, after the ad clearly stated that my price was firm and fair. I had the usual “Can you ship it to me overseas” bullshit, the “I’ll pay for it with a postal money order” bullshit, and the “I’ll give you $350 for it,” none of which got a response back from me. I got a bunch of nice folks who claimed they were serious, and then they never showed to look at it. I figured it was the holidays intruding on plans, and I guessed that some people may have come up short on cash towards the end of the month.
I hadn’t gotten anyone serious enough to actually stop by until New Year’s Eve, when a kid with a high-pitched voice set up an appointment to look at it. I asked how he was going to pay, and he cheerfully replied, “cash,” which was fine by me. So he shows up at the right time, looks over the machine, and happily says, “OK, I’ll take it,” and then tries to give me $250 in cash and a checking balance receipt, claiming he couldn’t get the money out of an ATM on the holiday, and can he take it and come back and give me the rest?
Get back in your Dad’s new Honda and get out of my driveway until you come back with the full amount, hippy. Do people really think that shit works? That because one claims to be a student, I’m going to believe that line of crap? I’m sure your dealer doesn’t front you a dime when you’re trying to score dope before the Widespread Panic show, does he? Oh, and no, I’m not installing Microsoft Office on it for you for free, Jerry Garcia.
Via Metafilter, a list of electronica links and PA recordings from a variety of artists. Also, an entire site featuring downtempo recordings, streams, and discussion. Plus, another site with preview streams and new artists.
Taken on the roof of R&K’s house, Canton, Baltimore. Happy New Year!
2 lbs. of live mussels are $3 at our local Korean grocery, and that’s just too cheap not to take advantage of. Most of the recipes we’ve found have been very bland and tasteless, so I went looking for something with some flavor to make for our holiday party. After some experimentation and testing, here’s a home-brewed recipe for steamed mussels which has great flavor and tasty broth:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 cups of white wine
- 1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup chopped basil
- 3 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley
- 6-8 chopped vine tomatoes
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 shallots, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 4 lbs. mussels, scrubbed and cleaned (use a vegetable scrubber; clean off any of the “beard”-the stringy stuff that may be still attached to the shell. Cut or pull that off.) Dump any with broken shells or that don’t close when they’re run under water or tapped with a fingernail.
In a big lobster pot, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, peppers and shallots and stir until the onion is cooked, about 4-5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, parsley, basil and pepper flakes. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the wine and put a steamer into the pot, and add the mussels, discarding any that don’t clamp shut when tapped. Cover and bring to a boil. Cook them for 3-5 minutes, making sure you toss the mussels so that they all get steamed, and remove once they’ve all opened (throw out the ones that aren’t open.)
Here’s the tricky part: Move the mussels into a holding bowl, and scoop out as much of the tomato mixture as you can into a serving bowl, until there’s just broth left in the bottom of the pot. Put the mussels in the serving bowl over the tomato mixture, then pour the broth over the mussels so they get a nice warm bath. Serve immediately, with some good Italian bread for dipping. (Alternatively, I just put the mussels into one bowl and dumped the tomato broth over them, and had to toss them to get the tomato to mix evenly—it’s really your call.) Have a few empty bowls on hand for discarded shells.
Make sure your guests who are unfamiliar with shellfish know not to eat any mussels that haven’t opened or that aren’t cooked completely! You’ll probably miss one or two of these.
I’d guess you could add a little more butter and white wine for a looser broth—better for dipping with bread. Serve with some good red wine and plenty of napkins. This recipe was enough for 6-8 people, in our experience.
Enjoy!