February 2008 Archives

Check out my Valentine's Day Compilation. The theme is sort of like, reciprocal love. I'm totally into that. It's so hot.

1. I Will Follow Him - Little Peggy March
2. Obsession (Special Dub Mix) - Animotion
3. Every Breath You Take - The Police
4. Give Me Your Love - Junior Murvin
5. You'll Be Needing Me - Nino Tempo
6. Following - The Bangles
7. Climbing Up the Walls - Radiohead
8. The Stalker - Green Velvet
9. Dust (Rocque Wun Remix) - Recloose Feat. Joe Dukie
10. I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Diana Ross & The Supremes
11. Run For Your Life - Nancy Sinatra
12. Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley
13. Infatuation - Rod Stewart
14. One Way or Another - Blondie
15. You Belong to Me - Carly Simon
16. Need Your Love (Live) - Cheap Trick
17. Private Eyes - Darly Hall & John Oates
18. I'm Your Puppet - Jimmy London
19. You Belong to Me - The Duprees
20. All Strung Out - Nino Tempo & April Stevens
21. The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get - Morrissey
22. Fate (Tynneterje Edit) - Chaka Khan

I love Dublin

I guess it's finally hit me, but I'm pretty sure I'm having a love affair with Dublin. I've been saying that I love Dublin for a long time. Every time I get in a cab, which is often (I'm still a lazy American, after all), the driver asks me where I'm from after hearing my accent, and then asks me what I think of Dublin. This is not the time you want to complain about how you have to go sit in the immigration office for 4 hours every six months or point out that in America you can call other mobile phones for free rather than paying 20 cents a minute to call someone a mile km away. So I always say "Other than the weather, I love it here!"

And now I'm not lying anymore--other than the weather, I love Dublin. I love the people here. They're hilarious without seeming snotty in that particularly British way. I love how nice everyone is, it constantly surprises me. I love the way people talk and their accents and the language they use. I love the buildings and the brightly painted doors and the way things here are so old and beautiful. I love the countryside; it looks like a poster of what Ireland is supposed to look like, except it's completely real. I love how everyone here has been forced to take Irish dance--Riverdance, to you and me--lessons. I love the knackers. I love the taxi drivers. I love that people from all of the world are moving here in droves because they love it too. I love my friends. I love the Asian grocery stores. I love the way people are so old-fashioned about really silly things and don't even realize it. I love the way boys drink tea. I love that I live in a cottage next to a canal with swans and ducks. I love the history. I love the perpetual feeling of oppression. I love the way all of the good stereotypes are true. I love the scene most of all--there's more going in the disco/italo/electro scene than in places like New York or San Francisco. I love going out here. Parties here aren't over by 3am, they last at least two days, minimum. I love the fun, there's loads of it.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 egg
1 cup all purpose four
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Put first three ingredients in mixing bowl and beat lightly. Sift together remaining ingredients. Add to the milk mixture all at once. Stir just enough to dampen the flour. Add more milk, if necessary, to make the batter as thick as heavy cream. Makes 6-8.

To cook: Test the griddle or frying pan for correct heat by sprinkling a few drops of water over it. They will "dance" when it is right. Heat the griddle or frying pan over moderate heat. Grease lightly with butter. Use a 1/4 cup measure to dip the batter onto the griddle or pan. Cook until the cakes are full of bubbles and the undersurface is nicely browned. Lift with a pancake turner or spatula and brown the other side. Serve immediately with plenty of butter and warm maple syrup.

No Tuesday Left Behind: A Holiday for Pancakes

Does this mean that the Pancake Race that my American public school used to hold every year was actually some sort of religious thing? I haven't managed to make it to work yet today, but I wonder if everyone is going to be covered in ashes today.

Then today I get to work, and they have pancakes in the canteen being made fresh right there on the spot for us. And there was fresh fruit. I haven't had decent fruit in nearly a year, but today I had at least a full cup of blueberries. (The other day I almost bought some raspberries, but at $9 for under a cup, I just couldn't do it.) It was amazing. Apparently this is somehow related to Lent and Jesus and suffering, but the only suffering I could see is the result of these crazy people only eating pancakes one day a year.

Living in a Catholic country is a strange thing. One day I saw a man ride his bike past a the church near my house and do the sign of the cross while still on the bicycle. Look Ma, no hands! He's probably got a stack of pancakes today.

I really have a bone for that sort of thing, though. (Faux-anything writing, not scat videos.) David Sedaris does it a lot, and it's some of my favorite work of his.

I tried my hand at writing a few wiki entries for YTMND, but control freak that I am, was unable to bear the whole "community-edited" feature. If you know the YTMND community, you'd understand.

Here's part of one of the site histories I wrote. (It's about the site Ridin' Spinnaz, but be warned, it's very not safe for work).

The clip is allegedly from a transsexual pornography movie, more commonly known as a 'Chicks with Dicks' film. In the full length version of the film, it appears to be to be a man and woman engaging in anal penetration, until, in what can only be considered an interesting plot twist, the transsexual's penis comes into the shot, and the scene shown in the 'Ridin Spinnas' YTMND begins.

The musical accompaniment was the song 'Ridin' Spinnaz' by Three Six Mafia, a song that pays tribute to the phenomenon of 'spinning rims' on cars often found in predominantly poor neighborhoods.

The site was seen as an ironic commentary on the 'down low' or the act of African American men engaging in homosexual acts in secret.

Nearly 300 Spinnas spin-off YTMNDs have been created, many of which include the term 'also ___.' Additionally, many 'straight' spin-offs were created to battle the potentially homosexual influence of the site.

I wish I could find a job where all I did was talk/write bs all day long. You'd that working in advertising would sate that desire, but no. I want a career in pseudo-history, or faux-law. I'd like to be able to say, " I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet."