Fidget

A sizable bag of clay (about 25 pounds?) was included in the price of our ceramics class, and I got 14 items made during the Winter term, with some left over!

I knew the potter’s wheel was going to be challenging, but it’s still a real struggle for me, even after a whole term of practice. It’s difficult to get the lump of clay centered on the wheel, spinning it fast and dripping on water… Then you have to punch-in on center to start your pot, and you want to work it as long as you can to make it thin, without working the clay too much and having it collapse on you. Then, you have 2 more challenges - once it’s mostly dry (but don’t wait too long), to trim away enough of the thick base to make a light, balanced piece. THEN, you try to guess from various sample tiles what glazes to use and how they might possibly turn out! It’s always a surprise, it seems - pleasant or not so pleasant. I found that I was very, very happy with some of my pieces while others came out astonishingly ugly. Well, I guess I had a few mildly successful ones, too, that weren’t spectacular. It’s pretty neat, though, to hold the finished piece in your hands and think, I made this! After firing it’s basically glass on stone, so the feeling of making something that solid, permanent, and functional is very satisfying. My bowls came out mostly a good ice-cream size… That’s another thing. The items shrink slightly at each step, so the size you made it on the wheel is not how it’s going to end up.

I was inspired by BN to try some pressed-in designs on some of my pieces. He’s the kind of guy who collects knobs and shot-bead chains and other things that have interesting shapes. So we had a whole assortment of goodies to impress upon our works of clay… One of my favorite bowls, the yellow one, has blue waves that I created using a cast-iron napkin ring. I also had success with painting on designs with a brush. And, I tried drip-application, too. This quarter I am going to take a 2-week glazing workshop, so I’m excited to learn more about the glazes and how they work.

It’s so hard to choose my favorite type of cuisine. I’ll take the entire continent of Asia plus the Indian subcontinent, please…

Thai: Thai Basil in Sunnyvale, CA.

Indian: Banjara in Sunnyvale is pretty good; they have mango soft-serve ice cream included with the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet… But, I still recall the little cafe we ate at in Siliguri, West Bengal, India… it was very yummy. Very hot. The name started with K but I can’t remember now… Rob Foster, wherever you are, help me out here…

Japanese: OK, yeah - the best Japanese food I’ve had was in Japan. duh. But, there are good places in Sunnyvale - Seto and Midori come to mind. I love all kinds of sushi and sashimi, but I’m also partial to tempura, and udon noodles.

[Gosh, I miss Sunnyvale… or at least the food!!!]

Chinese: Chef Li in San Jose. Best ever, bar none. For a cheap lunch, Lucky Gourmet in Mountain View. Two items with chow mein, please! And of course, P.F. Chang’s is a bit overpriced for what you get but a sure thing for a delicious dinner. Nice atmosphere.

Falafel: Something about falafel is just magic. If I’m sitting down with my falafel pita in hand and I’m really hungry, I’ve been known to gush about how much I looooove falafel… Good falafel in Santa Cruz, Falafel House just off Pacific on Walnut or somewhere close…

Pho Bo: Vietnamese noodle soup. Pass the hoisin sauce! It’s pretty hard to mess this up. Had it lots of good places. Look for a hole-in-the-wall or the chain Pho Hoa. As BN and I like to say, it’s nose-dripping good.

Mexican: Here in Eugene we really miss Una Mas. It’s consistently good, fresh-mex - I guess Mexican with a California twist to it. I crave their fish tacos, grilled, with chipotle cream sauce and shredded cabbage. Gotta love it. I had tacos in Mexico on my high school missions trip - that was the first and best Mexican food I ever had. Just street vendor fare, with a twist of lime. It changed my life.

Home cooking: I love, love, love to cook. I totally feel happy when I’m in progress on making a yummy dinner. There are elements of suspense, like, can I really pull off a multi-dish extravaganza and get everything finished at one time? I’m still working on that. But for the most part it makes me feel relaxed and satisfied that I am creating a delicious, nourishing and even beautiful meal to enjoy with family and/or friends. I get a kick out of cooking FOR people, like for church potlucks or meals-on-wheels for someone who’s recuperating from illness. One such mother told me last week that her son, who usually distains vegetables, liked my salad. Rock on!! I also get a thrill from creating an ethnic specialty at home, like Curry, Sushi, Hot-n-Sour Soup, Pho Bo, even Falafel. If you ever need recipes, I got recipes, happy to share. I favor recipes that deliver great food for not much fuss; my absolute favorite cookbook is Frances Price’s Healthy Cooking for Two or Just You. This woman taught me how to cook - practically every recipe I’ve tried in this book has become a favorite, or at least was quite good and easy to make. I love cooking but I’m not really into baking. I guess I like a hands-on approach with the freedom to improvise. I do follow recipes, but I like to modify them to suit my taste and preferences. Also, baking is mostly about dessert and dessert is extraneous. Dinner is a necessity. I’m very practical deep down, so maybe that has something to do with it. Like I just don’t do Fine Art. I’m truly a designer at heart - I like filling needs and solving problems, in a creative and beautiful way. Cooking is one way for me to do that.

Favorite Recipes (leave a comment and I’ll send you the recipe.)

Chili-Lime Burritos

Tamale Pie (Thanks, Mom!)

Eggplant Lasagna

Rosemary Lemon Chicken & Pasta Primavera

Garlic-baked Mushrooms

Hopping John Risotto

Couscous with Sweet Potatoes and Zucchini

Spinach Pockets with Carrot Fries

Falafel with Yogurt Dip

Pad Thai

Slow-cook Teryaki Honey Chicken

Teriyaki Salmon with Green Tea Rice

Hong Kong Primavera

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Szechuan Chicken in Lettuce Bundles

Curry-in-a-Hurry (my own adaptation of more complex curry recipes)

Thai Beef Curry with Peanut Sauce

Chicken & Onion Pie

Sushi Maki (easier than you think, and raw fish is not required for great results)

Hot & Sour Soup (just like the restaurants, but better)

French Onion Soup

Chili and Cornbread

Moroccan Orange Salad

Wasabi Three-Bean Salad

Chinese Cabbage Salad

(I always make my own salad dressings: Balsamic/Dijon, Honey Mustard, Sesame, Caesar…)

Thai Peach Salsa

Rainbow Hummus

Roasted Garlic

Clafouti (French-style Apple dessert)

Lemon Bars (BN’s favorite)

Tapioca Pudding

Mango Gratin

Crepes with mixed berry fruit sauce

Chai Tea

BN thought this movie was dumb but I really enjoyed it. However, what killed it for me was the way-too-heavy dose of sexual/crude humor. It stars Robin Williams, playing a comedian, so there you go. (But I think Williams is funniest when he’s doing humor about clean subjects.) The basic plot here is that a political comedian (Tom Dobbs), sort of a Jay Leno or Conan OBrien type, runs for president. Meanwhile there is a new computerized voting system being introduced for the election.

The funniest scene, I thought, was the presidential debate. Dobbs is a nervous wreck and his team of writers and his manager have been desperately trying to get him to turn the humor back on, since lately he’s been strictly serious, talking about The Issues. Once Dobbs gets out there with the 2 other candidates, he just goes off. He is truly improvising, and being funny “from the heart” - about The Issues - like oil dependency and his opponents’ inside connections with the oil industry. I thought that part was brilliant and totally believable.

So maybe the other reason I mostly liked this movie was my background working in software development. The “computer geek” character, Eleanor, was totally perfect. All obsessive, introverted, and sort of a spazz. And it was truly chilling how the C-level executives (yep, I know all the jargon!) efficiently shut down the whistleblower. (The nature of “the bug,” though, was totally not convincing. I pictured my software engineer friends rolling their eyes.)

I won’t say I recommend this, on account of the pervasive gutter element, but parts of it were quite amusing.

Somehow we’ve had a theme in our entertainment lately having to do with magicians, hoaxes, and illusions.

The Prestige

This movie was definitely entertaining… the acting was good, there were lots of intriguing concepts, but I have the following complaints:

- Hard to follow. The DVD cover gushed that you’ll want to watch it again and again - and it’s true, except the reason is that I got lost a few times and missed subtleties that were very important. Maybe they did it on purpose - the magician asks, “are you watching closely?!” If you blink, you’ll miss it. The issues were mostly in passage-of-time and sequence-of-events: there’s a plot device with people reading each other’s diaries, with flashbacks etc, so sometimes that gets a bit confusing. And some of the action occurs in near-darkness and so quickly that you really can’t tell what just happened.

- Disturbing! When the magic tricks go wrong and people get injured… or killed. That kind of thing really freaks me out.

- I mentioned earlier that the acting was good, which is true, but one of the main characters was really not well written as a character. Her motives and feelings were not clear or convincing.

- The movie tricks you into suspending your disbelief and then pulls a totally not-believable trick. Almost like there is such a thing as real magic, when we just went through this whole saga about illusionists and their work and tricks? It kind of left me with a “huh?!” impression.

- A parallel “huh?!” comes at the very end when you discover something about one of the characters that is (I’m assuming) supposed to, in retrospect, make the things he did make sense and be right/moral. But it doesn’t quite work… So you find yourself wanting to watch it again, not because you want to see all that confusing, disturbing stuff again, but just figure out what was really going on now that you know what was really going on.

I’d say do watch it, but be prepared to pay attention very carefully and be a bit bewildered even after the credits roll.

The Turk: a wikipedia article

This was the article-of-the-day earlier this week, and what a winner! This is the kind of story that would make a good movie. They could enhance and fictionalize the lives and relationships of the people involved and come up with some romance or mystery tied in with the enigmatic machine that played chess (and won) against some of the world’s most famous men - Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin! Way before Deep Blue there was The Turk…

The Illusionist

This movie was definitely several cuts above The Prestige. It was artistically filmed, all the characters were strong and believable, and the whole thing hung together very well. It scored on several points that were lacking in Prestige: it flowed well and was easy to follow - something about the sense of pacing and the elements of suspense really pulled you in without feeling like you were being manipulated or tricked. There was plenty of mystery, but you weren’t constantly asking yourself, did I miss something? There were eerie and even shocking moments, but it felt right with the story rather than, “aaa! disturbing!” The interesting comparison comes between the “impossible trick” elements in both movies. In the Illusionist, the impossible trick is never explained but you are kind of OK with that. Somehow they pulled it off very tastefully, and didn’t annoy this viewer, at least.

There is a bit of a flaw with a similar thing to the Prestige: at the very end you find out “what was really going on” and this too is handled better; but you still have this nagging thought: if this is true then what about that earlier event…

But, on the whole, a great movie. I’d recommend it as high quality entertainment.