The Architects of Blah

I can't afford to buy a condo in my neighborhood (or anywhere), but that doesn't stop me from idly, and regularly, checking the Redfin listings in my area zip codes.  I have a few pet buildings where I'd like to live, but since the Seattle market is still in the doldrums, there's not a lot of stuff coming onto the market.  Expanding my circuit a little more, I found this uninspiring place today.

It's dull but serviceable on the outside, but the thing that really kills it for me is this half-hearted attempt to put in a jazzy window.  It's a dumb, pointless octagon, and then it has a dull, dull square mini-blind to cover it.  They should have at least just made it some ersatz stained-glass thing, since it's so pointless as a window.  Or better yet, this window should have been allowed to be its real self--a rectangle.

Last minnit tree and cat

Holy infant, so tender and wild

"Thank you for this new toy"

Foulard got a late craving for an Xmas tree last weekend, so we got a fake one (discounted) at the drug store a block away from our apartment.  Now our place is very jolly!

***
And here's a little Christmas song:

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The lost season -- finally on DVD

For some reason, audiences never took to the new "Jeff"...

Easy Poutine

Not a photo of what I made.

I finally made some full-on Poutine for a snack last Sunday.  Here's what I used:

• Frozen french fries, baked in the oven (obviously, fresh are better, but this was a quick and easy snack)
• Bisto gravy granules (really does make tasty gravy, and you can keep it forever in your cupboard)
• Beecher's fresh cheese curds (made locally--the most gourmet part of the snack)

1. Preheat oven, put your fries in.
2. Start boiling water for your Bisto.
3. Chip curds into slightly smaller bits.
4. Sprinkle curds over finished fries on a nice big platter.
5. Mix your gravy and then pour all over fries.
6. Open a beer and enjoy poutine while watching TV.  Offer some to the person who went to the store and bought the curds and fries for you.

Computers and Martinis

One thing you can say about evil 1970s supercomputers: They know their martini preparation.

In the good-bad 1970 film, Colossus: the Forbin Project, Dr. Forbin (Eric Braeden) is being held prisoner by his creation (Colossus), and has to trick it into letting his secretary visit him, by lying to the computer and saying she's his girlfriend. She's allowed to visit him, conjugally, as long as she takes all her clothes off to make sure she's not sneaking anything in (or that's your story anyway, right, Colossus?). In the guise as Forbin's lady, she makes him a martini. But the computer is watching her carefully! Earlier, Dr. Forbin had explained his vermouth method (pour a large quantity of it over the cubes to 'rinse' them, and then drain it out before adding the gin). Fortunately, the secretary is hip to this, and passes the test.

The best part is in the earlier scene, when Colossus texts THAT IS TOO MUCH VERMOUTH to Forbin.

In the bad-bad 1977 film Demon Seed, super-computer whiz Dr. Anderson (Fritz Weaver) has programmed his house to do everything by spoken instructions, which is not a good idea if it stops listening to you (as it does). In an early scene, however, he gets home from work and requests 'the usual', which turns out to be a martini that he compliments as 'perfect'. I had to wonder how much time he spent creating a robot arm that can spear an olive with a toothpick, though!

Yours for just $900!

A ceramic toothpick holder in the shape of a cute little mouse, as seen in Rob and Laura Petrie's kitchen on The Dick Van Dyke Show!

Today's FOULARD BEST BUY™.

Keep your eyes peeled!

I've owned a sofa-sized, framed mid-century print called 'Metropolis by Night' for about 14 years. It's by an artist named 'Rico'. For a brief period around 2002-2004, I didn't own it, but a friend of mine, coincidentally also named Rico, had possession of it. Once Beebo and I took it back, we remembered how much we liked it.

I got it for $2.00 at a church rummage sale on a coffee break while I was at work--it's one of the best purchases I've ever made. It looks like the kind of painting you see in the background of an apartment or office in a Technicolor™ CinemaScope™ movie of the 50s or 60s.

The other one!

Just today, I've made a shocking discovery--there is a companion painting called 'Metropolis by Day'! I feel like I must have it! Unfortunately, the place where I saw it online is asking $399, which is absurd, no matter how much I like it. If you see it somewhere for under $20, will you grab it for me?

A somewhat forlorn picture from a craigslist apartment ad

Structurally, this looks like a really nice apartment--it's clean, has the much-fetishized hardwood floors, and some built-in shelves. But they've chosen to show it on the context of a lonely xmas scene.

Look at that little tree-not one present under it! Those cold floors without a nice rug to cheer them up. The small TV shunted off into a corner, far from the couch--a prescription for eye strain. A peek into a similarly spartan bedroom. It's like George Clooney's apartment from Up in the Air.

(Or the cover to the Bummed Out Christmas! album from Rhino Records)

Our Street

...65 years ago. One thing that's surprising is the billboards. You'd never see anything like that there now. However, it'll soon be our old street, since we're a-moving. Our new place is several blocks away, on the top floor of a building on a quieter street, and it's (most importantly) larger. Our new apartment was built in 1905, allegedly as a single-family mansion, and reminds me (pleasantly) a little bit of the Bramford (aka the Dakota) from Rosemary's Baby.

Our Long National Nightmare has Ended

Update: I found Angostura Bitters at QFC yesterday! Huzzah!
Mood: Enjoying a Manhattan

HSN Soviet Style

Der Tiger von Eschnapur

Take a peek at this nifty poster I just got from Ebay! It's for an American release of two of the great director Fritz Lang's last films. They were released in Europe as two movies called The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb, or Der Tiger von Eschnapur und Das Indische Grabmal. Both of them star Debra Paget and a bunch of German or European actors. They're basically juvenile adventure stories, with things like cobras and maharajahs. The only thing that makes them 'adult' is Debra's hotsie-totsie dance, which you can see below. Other than that, they're basically like a Tintin comic. The films are a remake of a silent epic written by Lang and his then-wife Thea von Harbou, but not directed by him. Lang would direct one more film The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, and then retire to tell the same anecdotes over and over to interviewers and film students.

Tasteful Home Decor

We have several framed original movie posters in our apartment, and one of my hobbies is looking for new inexpensive posters to swap out and frame. This is one that's always appealed to me, though I think Beebo wouldn't let me put it up:I think it would look great with our The Evil Eye and Shadow of the Cat posters.

"Etienne"

Beebo and I have been cooking at home more and more, because it doesn't seem that hard anymore, and most of time, it's more fun and cheaper than going out. Our division of labor usually goes this way: Foulard cooks meat and does the dishes; Beebo grocery-shops and does most of the other cooking.


Lately, my favorite instrument for cooking meat has been a non-stick two-burner griddle. It's very handy because it has a large surface area--you can cook meat on one side and potatoes or vegetables on the other side. You can also toast hamburger buns on it, make scrambled eggs, pancakes, or grilled cheese sandwiches. I enjoy the efficiency of cooking everything on one area--it makes me feel like a short order cook (somehow, I find this appealing).

We bought the griddle around the same time we bought an extra-larger frying pan. For some reason, we gave them names in an effort to differentiate them from each other--the griddle became 'Etienne' and the frying pan became...I forget what we called it--the name didn't stick (no pun intended).

For such a cheap item, it's been extremely useful.

Here's to you, Etienne! Or should I say, à votre santé!

Le Poster

When I was a kid, my folks got all their gasoline from Gulf gas stations--they had a charge card there. Does anybody do this anymore?

In 1971, Gulf had a tie-in with the new Steve McQueen movie, Le Mans, and were giving out a poster of him, much like the one shown above. It ended up on my bedroom wall, and in anticipation of the movie, I became a five year-old Steve McQueen fan. This was also at a time when racing was a big glamor sport, and people like Paul Newman and James Garner were playing race car drivers in movies (and sometimes racing in real life). There wasn't some over-inflated culture clash thing going on like there is now, when some people are supposed to love Nascar and some aren't. It was also before the big oil crisis, so driving like hell and using tons of gas seemed like a fine idea.

Anyhow, I was down with the program, too. I had a red nylon windbreaker that had an STP patch on one arm and a crossed racing flags patch on the other. And I think we ended up going to see the movie, though I'm not sure about that.

In the 90s, I watched it on VHS, and found it somewhat mystifying. As Wikipedia says:

"The film is today still popular among race fans as it is a relatively accurate depiction of the era, with a lot of racing but very little dialogue. Due to this, and partly to the American market's general low awareness of the Le Mans 24 Hour race, it was only a moderate success at the box office there."

The lack of plot and dialogue makes it a bit thick for someone who doesn't get really excited by racing cars.

But I thought the poster was cool!

MALM again

I managed to finish assembling MALM last night without too much tsuris. It's sitting off to one side of our living room right now, looming like the monolith from 2001. Tomorrow (Saturday) we'll extract the old brokedy-ass dresser, vacuum the spot where it's sat for the past seven years, and wobble the new one over there. Huzzah!

MALM

I'm currently locked in battle with the Ikea MALM 6-drawer chest, which comes in two boxes with approximately 9000 separate pieces. We managed to get it out of of the store yesterday (after getting one wrong box, and then correcting our mistake), into a 4-door compact car (with three passengers), and up to our apartment on the 4th floor (not so hard, with ramps and a hand truck).

I was going great guns with the assembly until I made one boo-boo putting together the first drawer, which proved very difficult to undo, since the part I screwed in incorrectly was not made to be unscrewable. Not cool! I'll still be able to get the whole thing together adequately, but my efforts will not be 100% perfect, as I'd hoped.

Ideas for the Home

Triffid Reading Lamp(drawing done very quickly)

Shadow of the Deebo

I Ebayed and framed a new poster for the living room. I got the frame a little late to get it on the wall in time for Halloween, but I like to have an air of menace in the living room year-round. Now we've got the 'sinister' cat looking at us from the left and the Evil Eye looking at us from the right.

I love seeing cats in horror movies, though they're never, ever scary to me. Especially when they look like my cat.