Walking near Piedmont and Glen Avenues in Oakland today, Trevor and I bumped into a really fantastic new shop. Just one month old, Issues is a newsstand full of magazines and papers from just about everywhere, as well as carefully selected CDs and vinyl, art, books, and objects "with a focus on sound art, noise, outsider music, surrealism, psychedelia, and the darker side of the new age." Talking with the owner today we found out that much of the art and music paraphernalia he is carrying is from his own collection!

Today we picked up Theme magazine, which contains an interview with Natsuo Kirino, author of the excellent Grotesque. Hubby also picked up a really cool Joy Division shirt I had never seen before.

The shop is really fun and full of surprises. Been a long time coming for a proper newsstand near our neighborhood, and to have one open with such unique character is even better. Even though we get a discount on magazines and such at the hubby's workplace, we will definitely be making Issues a regular haunt.

Best of all, the owners are really really nice folks. Be their friend on MySpace.

So...what do you get when you cross two vegetable-obsessives with 5 days away on holiday starting tomorrow and a need for supper? Super-special, refrigerator clean-out casserole! Amazing what one can do with leftover tofu and pasta, 2 eggs, a bag of spinach, two eggplants, an onion, every rind and bit of cheese in the fridge, 4 small squash, a pint of somewhat dodgy-looking cherry tomatoes, and 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Not half bad, says I, and freezable t'boot. Score.

Additionally, I think I must have eaten my weight in choy sum sauteed with olive oil, and cucumbers drizzled with Japanese vinegar, in my lunch of rice and natto (and berries and plums and carrots...) today. What can I say -- with one parent who grew up during the Great Depression and one who grew up in Occupied Japan, I can't bear to throw anything away. :)