2 Things @ Once

So Long Bottled BBQ Sauce

2009-07-10T15:26:31-05:00

Last week while catching up on blog reading I came across a kick-ass recipe for espresso BBQ sauce over on Shutterbean, a consistently excellent source of foodie inspiration. Over the holiday weekend, my butcher had a special on ribs so it seemed like the universe was trying to tell me something.

I cooked up a batch of the sauce which was fairly quick, very easy, and really good. I slathered it on ribs for four and still had two jars of leftovers! (Tip: unless you're roasting a pig, a half-batch should be more than enough.) The sauce tasted great, with garlic, ketchup, lots of honey, and the espresso adding a distinct but not overpowering flavor.

Totally Geeking Out on the Plinth

2009-07-09T22:35:54-05:00

All day today, if I was near a computer, I had one window tuned in to the plinth channel. I was late to work today because I just peeked in for a minute and was sucked in by a woman building a statue out of bread.

I find this whole thing quite fascinating.

As if that wasn't enough, I've now tuned my Twitter account to follow folks commenting on the live feed (#oneandother) which provides another fascinating and thoroughly addictive element to the mix.

What Would You Do On the Top of a Plinth in Trafalgar Square for an Hour?

2009-07-08T23:38:42-05:00

So have you heard about One & Other, the performance art piece (created by Antony Gormley) going on in London where a single person spends one hour on top of a statue base doing whatever they want? Over the course of 100 days, 2400 Britons will have their 60 minutes in the limelight. They wear a mic and are broadcast live on the internet. Some read aloud, others speachify, or chat with folks on the ground, talk on their cell phone, play a musical instrument.

I have yet to see any of the daytime slots, so when I've checked in, "performances" have been fascinatingly dull. One woman read Dr. Suess through a bullhorn, a guy sat and read aloud from a Penquin classic, and another woman wrote messages on a wipe board that were totally unintelligible from the webcam. (Tip to future "plinthers," don't hold stuff up to the camera for us to read unless the font is really really huge.)

The web coverage (streaming live 24/7) is actually quite good; images are clear, the cameras provide multiple angles and seem to respond to what's going on (as opposed to the usual webcam that's static and fuzzy.) The audio (when it's on) is clear. I just watched a woman narrate her experience on the plinth as the sun came up over London while she wrote 12 postcards to send to folks around the globe. Boring and charming at the same time.

I'm kind of surprised by the lack of performance in most of the segments I've tuned in on. Where you'd think people would devise a way to entertain or use their allotted time to make a statement, plead a cause or be discovered, instead they're exposing themselves in one of the most public ways possible while carrying out utterly personal and intimate activities (reading, writing, talking on the phone.) The guy on now is holding up a blown-up photo of his dear departed dad and answering questions about him from people walking by. It's a strange juxtaposition and interesting to see what people come up with, fulfilling the artist's wildest dreams of "the democratization of art."

Which leads me to this question: If you were one of the 2400 plinthers (randomly chosen from over 22,000 applicants), what would you do for your hour?

(photo by ericsnaps' from the One and Other photo pool on Flickr.)

My Two New Favorite Words: Surface Graphics

2009-07-07T22:44:37-05:00

Over the weekend I put up the flock of decals I purchased from Blik. Since I have a pair of bird feeders in the backyard, including a thistle feeder that's very popular with the house finches and occasional goldfinches, I have something in the windows to keep the birds from smacking the glass. I'm real tired of the gel gems so when I saw these simple bird silhouettes on the Blik website, I knew they were what I'd been looking for. Added bonus, they're removable and reusable.

Next up, my bedroom walls:

I Flipped My Camera's Odometer!

2009-07-06T22:28:16-05:00

Or to be more accurate, I rolled over the file numbering in my Nikon D50 yesterday when I pressed the shutter for 10,000th time and the counter returned to 001! For as much as I've been staring at my photos lately, I hadn't been paying attention to the numbers. I didn't realized I'd hit 9999 until I loaded the new batch into Aperture just now and the most recent photos I'd taken (of yesterday's ribs on the grill, slathered in homemade BBQ sauce--more on that later) appeared at the top of the numerically ordered batch. Surprise!

Considering how long I've had the camera, it's more of a surprise that it took this long to get to 10K but there was a time for a while where the G9 was getting all my attention. I've gotten back into the habit of using the D50 more and hope to continue that trend, so the amount of time it takes for me to get to the next milestone shouldn't take as long.

A Shostakovich Opera In My Future!

2009-07-05T23:01:44-05:00

Catching up on my blog reading, I came across some good news from Chicago Opera Theater--the audience choice has been announced and the winner is Shostakovich's 1959 opera Moscow Cheryomuschki! The bad news is we have to wait until 2011 to see it. Sigh.

This past spring, during their most recent season, COT had a very clever fundraising effort going on that allowed audience members to choose the third production in their 2011 season. Choices were Capriccio (Strauss), The Magic Flute (Mozart) and the Shostakovich; one dollar, one vote.

My first reaction was, "God no, not The Magic Flute again!" I was ready to stuff the voting box with dollar bills just to avoid another production of Flute, one of my least favorite operas of all time. When I saw that Shostakovich was one of the alternatives, I happily placed multiple votes over the course of my three visits to COT this year. (I've already seen Capriccio at Lyric, and Strauss, well, I can take it or leave it.)

Had I ever heard of Moscow Cheryomuschki before? Nope, but attending multiple performances of CSO's Shostakovich Festival back in '99 made me a Shostakovich fan and I knew that an opera by the composer would be a must see.

Saturday 3 p.m. ~ It's July? Really? Really?! I Mean Really???!!

2009-07-04T15:32:08-05:00

This is not what you want to see on the local weather radar when you're supposed to be on a boat on Lake Michigan in less than three hours.

It's not looking good for dinner on board and firework viewing from the lake. Even if the thunderstorms never develop and the rain finally blows through, the temp is never going to break out of the sixties, which means it will be even chillier on the lake. Time to pack the summer long underwear--once again. Arrrrgh. Where's our summer weather, dammit?!

Buyer Beware

2009-07-03T21:51:16-05:00

I am now the proud owner of a ninety-day supply of a prescription medication that I don't need and didn't want all because the mail order service I get my drugs through won't take it back. The doctor wrote me the wrong prescription but because the mail order place filled it correctly, they won't refund me and they won't take it back. Some lousy FDA rule. Blah blah blah.

So, I'm stuck with three packages of prescription medication I can't use to the tune of one hundred and twenty-five dollars! 1-2-5. Which is the universe's way of saying those hours I spent earlier in the week battling wills with a 2-year-old taking her first steps into Terrible Tenacious Two territory, yeah, those were for free.

I called the doctor's office but wasn't much satisfied with their response. Further discussions will have to ensue, 'cause I'm not happy about eating his $125 mistake. Apparently, I can petition my health care provider, but I'm not holding my breath on that one either.

One thing is for certain, I will not be using a mail order prescription service ever again. There was a time when using it was not only convenient but economical. You could order a 90-day supply (three orders) for the price of one. Those days are long gone. I'm kicking myself now because if I'd gone into the pharmacy to fill this order, and they'd tried to hand me the wrong prescription (let alone one that cost $125 bucks) I would never have taken it.

Lesson learned.

If You Dare

2009-07-02T10:35:00-05:00

The Sears Tower Skydeck Ledge opens to the public today. (photos and video here)

Budding Photographer

2009-07-01T22:12:44-05:00

Like most small children I've observed, JD has a homing beacon trained on my cell phone at all times. Should I ever leave the shiny red phone unattended and in her sight, she'll zero-in on it, snatch it up with an "aha I got it" look on her face and have at it. Buttons to push! Imaginary conversations to have! Contacts to add! I have a series of "No Names" listed in my contacts with numbers like 50500*##000 and 7*223.

And then, there are the photos. Yesterday I was deleting unwanted pics from my cell phone and came across a couple of JD originals: