Bye Bye Bayou

New LCD Soundsystem. New album in March 2010?

the most approachable, down to earth, girl next door candidate

Those Sarah Palin fans! Can't nobody hold them down!

Tracy Morgan On Being 'The New Black'

If you can find 39 minutes and 15 seconds to listen to a podcast, make it this one.

You will laugh, cry, and stare at the radio, slack-jawed and wide-eyed, in total amazement of the mystery that is Tracy Jordan's thought process (though some people do not agree with me).

Levi Johnston: Patriot in the Buff

I will buy this.

Happy Women

There has been quite a bit in the news lately about why women are unhappy (see here and here, or a more critical look here), and now we learn why some women are not unhappy: they live in Sweden.

See you there!

Green Fish

A blurb in the LAT about sustainable fishing practices brings out the crazy commenters!

If you're concerned about eating the right fish, this is a decent guide.

No Awkward Call to your friend

Great idea!

Though I am concerned that the girl they feature in the first picture is too young for this service.

I will say that many of the places I go to to get drunk do not have decent parking availability, so I don't know how applicable this is to my drunk like.

Retaliation Tragedy

Do you want to cry today? Then please read this two-part story.

Junior Boys at the El Rey Wed. Oct. 14

I thought the show was a lot of fun, though some complained that their music doesn't have quite enough energy to merit real dancing (that didn't stop a couple in front of me from truly breaking it down for the duration of the show). Also, why do so many serious dancers at concerts wear bad hats?

A guy walking to his car said he gave the show a 7, and wished it were more hardcore like MSTRKRFT. His friend brought him to the show because he likes electronic music. Junior Boys are never going to be a 10 if MSTRKRFT is your yardstick, and I don't even think they qualify as electronic anymore. They're more like industrial college rave trance rap (I say that as someone who really liked The Looks.

The sound was very good for the El Rey, though I missed opening act Circlesquare so I don't know how things went for them (him?). The venue was certainly not at capacity, and I was surprised to learn that Junior Boys fanbase is not entirely comprised of gay Canadian men. I don't know why I assumed this in the first place.

Junior Boys went on a little after 10 and played for over an hour. I would be able to report on the setlist if some blond guy didn't swipe it (read: ask for it) before I had a chance! I recall (in no particular order):
In the Morning
Hazel
Work (I know that was the second song they played)
Parallel Lines
Equalizer
Double Shadow
Birthday

GurglePot

Dilemma: how to pick just one?

Thanks to Sarah for the tip.

Easy Lover

I like this song.

Miley Cyrus

This is what happens when you spend a weekend being a college student in Nashville.

RIP Gracie Catberger

Katt Williams Pimpadelic

Diamond in the Rough

Last night I ate at Agra Indian Kitchen on Lincoln just north of Washington. It was very good, probably the best moderately-priced Indian west of Culver City/Palms. They are exceedingly proud of their description as "a diamond in the rough," and I chuckled at the implication that Lincoln (or, most of Venice?) is rough.

Zeitoun

I finished this over the weekend. Was a very quick read, and also an immediate journey to teartown!

Recommended for: planes.
Not recommended for: bedtime. Too anxiety-provoking to sleep.

Immersion Blender

How much is too much to spend on kitchen supplies that are not made by Le Creuset?

Omnivore's Dilemma

Who's afriad of Michael Pollan? These guys! Other people too, I presume.

Are you afraid of vaccines?

Read this, or this, or this.

The first and most important step to prevent the flu is to get vaccinated.

Or, you could follow the medical advice of Rush Limbaugh.

Gordon Ramsay at the London reopens as VaginaErectpenis

I went to Gordon Ramsay at the London hotel last night with some girlfriends as part of the dineLA promotion. It was easily one of the worst (if not the worst) dining experiences I have had in calendar year 2009. Service was poor, food was mediocre, and management was minimally apologetic and accommodating.

Most upsetting to me was the discovery that though we had made our reservation at Gordon Ramsay (and had to put down a card because we would be charged if we cancelled less than 48 hours in advance), we were seated at Boxwood, the “hotel restaurant” at the London. We couldn’t look at the Gordon Ramsay menu because we were not actually at Gordon Ramsay. We could order off of the Boxwood menu, which was effectively the room service menu for the London.

This is the equivalent of marketing your new novel as Great Expectations, selling copies of Everybody Poops, and assuming your readers won’t know the difference.

Conveniently, all of the items on the dineLA menu were found on the Boxwood menu, at a lower price point (i.e. the dineLA menu was set at $44, but any of the dineLA combinations ordered off the Boxwood menu were less than $44). When I asked the manager about this, he chuckled and said, “Well, everyone orders the dineLA menu.” I pressed further, and he explained that the higher price was due to larger portion size.

I still had a good time because it was nice to be out with my friends on a Tuesday night, and we got a chuckle from Lisa’s observation that Boxwood is another way of saying VanginaPenis, or more specifically, VaginaErectpenis. It is also a boring shrub. Way to go, corporate branding team!

UPDATE:

Two days after eating at the Gordon Ramsay (and writing the people at dineLA to let them know about my experience), I receieved this email:

Dear Ms. Crapser,

I am most concerned to read your comments regarding your experience at Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood.

I sincerely apologize that you were mislead regarding the Dine LA program. The menu that our Executive Chef Andy Cook decided for the DineLA weeks is a combination of dishes that have been created solely for this event and some dishes that are in our current menus. We are currently offering this menu in the front and the back dining room.

We have addressed this with our staff to ensure that they are all clear as we certainly do not want to mislead out guests in anyway.

On your next visit to Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood I would be delighted to offer you complimentary Champagne on arrival.

Please contact any of the team mentioned in this email to make the necessary arrangements.

If I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Chiara

Chiara Tirapelle
Private Dining and Reservation Manager

Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood

That's your idea of customer service? Unbelievable!

The Supreme Court should def. spend time on Jeff Skilling

Hey, maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, maybe he really didn't seek to benefit personally from his actions at Enron.

Sausages: A Party in the Mouth of a Genius

"The other day he said to me, 'Mummy, sausages are like a party in my mouth'."

Start the party at home!

Is the big one coming?

We may know in a few months.

Less money, more problems

Sometimes I feel poor, but then I read about the state of California, and I don't feel so bad.

Animal

I ate here last night.

We had the barbeque pork sandwiches, lettuce, beets, avocado salad, pig ear, and flat iron steak.

And the bacon chocolate crunch bar. And the special donuts.

Everything was tasty but so rich, heavy, and salty. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick.

Best part of the night: Mike bought the latest Cannibis Culture from the newsstand on Oakwood at Fairfax.

Manicure Mayhem!

Who spends $95 on a mani/pedi (before tip)?

Medical Marijuana: now more illegal than ever

I understand that as marijuana moves (back?) into the culutural mainstream, and the number of dispensaries in Los Angeles explodes, a backlash is to be expected.

But declaring that 100% of the shops are operating illegally seems severe, not to mention impractical. Are there clear rules for how to operate one of these stores legally? Is there a transition period during shich shops can get up to code without fearing prosecution?

I'm calling Bob.

Nobel Peace Prize Surprise

Well I certainly didn't see this one coming.

I respectfully agree with Russia.

Possible explanation: diplomats didn't want to deal with the issues that would result from awarding to a Chinese dissident?

But why not Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai?

Sad slice of life

In a sad post about a woman whose son drowned while she was too drunk to babysit properly, we learn that the boy

Eric was the youngest of four children born to Looney by two men who are brothers. Steve Looney is the father of her two sons and another boy who died in 2005 at age 2.

What a tangled web of life and death.

Frozen Peanut Butter Pie with Candied Bacon

Intriguing

Don't touch me I'm a real live wire

One of my biggest regrets of the year is not going to this event last week, but I guess I can make up for it by purchasing the book.

Or the reissue of "Stop Making Sense"on Blu-Ray?????

Related question: who owns a Blu-Ray player?

Cookbook Showdown

Which should be my next purchase?

Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference



How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food

The Gourmet Cookbook

Pearl Jam at Gibson Ampitheatre, Oct. 6 2009

Highlights: The entire second encore was my favorite part; it included Alive, Once, and Chris Cornell coming out for Hunger Strike.

Other songs I remember: Rearview Mirror, Elderly Lady ..., Evenflow, Evolution, The Fixer.

Other things I remember: wine is $7-8 by the glass, well cocktails are $8, and all PJ posters were $30 (woof to that).

The crowd: 80% white guys in their 30s under 5'9"

Security: Reasonable enough to let people smoke weed. Thank you, security.

Biggest surprise of the evening: Other than Temple of the Dog, I was underwhelmed by the quantity and quality of plaid/flannel shirts.

My hangover: 6/10. I feel tired and my stomach has been better, but I am not incapacitated or delirious.

Drop the Leash, We are Young

Warming up for tonight

Bros Like This Site

My sister introduced me to this site. Large swaths of it are offensive, some are juvenile, some are still embarassingly relevent to my present-day existance.

Either I am getting old or they still have some work to do, but a query for the term "frat mattress" yields nothing.

LA Triathlon

Information that would have been useful to me YESTERDAY.

It took an hour to travel less than 3 miles because traffic was terrible, and it was nearly impossible to cross Venice Blvd.

Running Without Shoes

This is what my spirit animal looks like.

Squash Party

Get at me.

When does the drum circle start?

Sweet.

My life as a bear

Take a swim, eat some trash, call it a night.

ANXIETY

I haven't read this yet, but when I do I have a few questions:

• Are women more anxious than men?
• Is anxiety passed on to us directly by our mothers?
• Why do I get panic attacks on the freeway?

That is all for now.

I am embarassed to be a woman

When I first read this line from this article, I thought the guy sounded like an indiot.

“Now that the technology is more mainstream, women are quickly embracing the benefits as ‘connected consumers,’ tapping the convenience of Web access on mobile phones to network, browse the latest shopping deals and get ideas for dinner, all while on the go.”

Who uses their phone's internet browser to search for the latest shopping deals? Is that even possible? Whoever said that is a sexist asshole!

Then I looked at the data about sites where women strongly over-index:

RANK Site
1 People
2 AT&T Search
3 Horoscope.com
4 Target
5 MySpace.com
6 Kraft Foods
7 T-Mobile
8 AOL Search
9 Facebook
10 Sprint News
source: Nielsen

and now I feel like the idiot asshole. HOROSCOPE.COM? Who goes there?