Went down the street to Pizzaiolo to see The Shining -- their first "Bad Dad" summer movie in their outdoor courtyard (future films in the series: National Lampoon's Vacation, Lolita, and of course, The Empire Strikes Back).

What a great time! And after a disappointing cloudy sky on Tuesday, it was so lovely to sit under a clear nighttime sky with a slice of margherita and a cold Sierra Nevada Pale and watch Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall flip out while a dozen meteors zipped across the sky above the screen. Bliss!

And this morning I bought tickets for the Pixies upcoming tour of arguably their best album, 1989's Doolittle, at the Fox Theater in Oaktown. Couple this with the Echo and the Bunnymen Ocean Rain tickets I bought, and you can see that I am loving the advent of the nostalgic past album tour.

Can things get any better?

Temescal Street Cinema starts tonight!







This happens 2 blocks from my apartment, on 49th and Telegraph in Oakland:


View Larger Map

49th is closed down at Telegraph so people can sit in the street, movies are projected onto the Bank of the West building, and Temescal merchants sponsor free popcorn. Bring a chair or a blanket to sit on and something warm to wear when the sun goes down. Come out to support local film, and the best neighborhood in Oakland!

Get the schedule here.

Oh yeah!

Foraging Fruit Gains Popularity












Supporters of this movement hold two basic principles. One, it’s a shame to let fruit go to waste. And two, neighborhood fruit tastes best when it’s free.

“There have always been people harvesting fallen fruit,” Ms. [Asiya] Wadud [pictured] said, “but there’s a whole new counterculture about gathering and eating public fruit. This tremendous resource is growing everywhere if people just start looking around.”

Also great about this article: more Oaktown, and more of my favorite thrifty ways.

I've got free fuyus, figs, lemons, plums, and squirrel-nibbled avocados on seasonal rotation in my neighborhood -- what about you?

And from free fruit directly to the compost bin:

S.F. OKs Toughest Recycling Law In U.S.

Throwing orange peels, coffee grounds and grease-stained pizza boxes in the trash will be against the law in San Francisco, and could even lead to a fine.

The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal for the most comprehensive mandatory composting and recycling law in the country. It's an aggressive push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and have the city sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by 2020.

People very often will not take it upon themselves to change for the better -- especially if it puts them out a bit -- unless they are forced. The haters and libertarians are crying foul about this recycling program, but c'mon, what else is there to do? Where do we think our Earth is going?

So I say good for San Francisco, and I think it's about time, but there has to be real enforcement. Hard to imagine in a city that cannot seem to do a thing about it's shameful homeless population, no matter what programs are put into place. We'll see.

Yay for strawberry season!


















Strawberry shortcake from one of the best things about our neighborhood, Bakesale Betty's.

Oh man, I have to watch myself around that place or I'll become 500 pounds. Today I treated myself to HALF a fried chicken sandwich -- the sex of food.













^^ Betty (Alison) and her legendary sandwich

Bakesale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwich
Serves 4

You'll have some breading left over, even after dipping twice. This makes a hefty sandwich in all regards - you'll need two hands to eat it.

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 6 ounces each
Kosher salt to taste
1 quart buttermilk

The vinaigrette

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

The coleslaw

1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
1 cup red wine vinegar
2 jalapenos, seeded, cut in half and sliced crosswise
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 green cabbage, core and outer leaves removed, and very thinly sliced
Kosher salt

The breading

1 pound all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon kosher salt + more to taste
1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

2 quarts vegetable oil, for frying
4 Acme Bakery torpedo rolls, sliced lengthwise

Instructions: Season chicken breasts with kosher salt. Let sit at least 5 minutes. Fill a wide, shallow nonreactive bowl or casserole dish with buttermilk. Add the chicken and soak in the refrigerator for 1 hour up to overnight.

For the vinaigrette: Combine mustard, vinegar and salt in a bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil until well blended.

For the coleslaw: Macerate onions in red wine vinegar, and let sit at least 20 minutes. Remove onions and discard vinegar. Toss onions with jalapeno, parsley, cabbage and salt. Toss with vinaigrette until evenly coated.

To fry chicken: Pour vegetable oil into a large stockpot. Do not fill up more than halfway, or the oil could splatter. Bring oil up to 365°, using a digital thermometer/candy thermometer to monitor the heat. Prepare the the breading while waiting for oil to heat up.

In a wide shallow bowl, mix flour, cayenne, salt and pepper. Pull a chicken breast out of the buttermilk one by one, letting excess drip off, and dredge completely in flour. To create a thick crust, place in buttermilk and dredge in flour a second time. Do not drain or shake off excess buttermilk or flour during the breading process.

When the oil is at 365°, carefully place chicken pieces into oil one by one. Let it cook for a minute before disturbing chicken, then help it "swim" in the oil with tongs, until it is evenly cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Remove chicken from oil and drain on paper towels. Season immediately with salt.

For the sandwich: Place fried chicken breast on bottom of torpedo roll and top generously with coleslaw.

I've deliberately omitted the calories and fat content, but if interested, you can find them here. Trust me though: you'll be much happier NOT clicking that link. Just enjoy the truth in the chicken sandwich of the gods.

Fab essay in The New Yorker (that I just picked up off the free table downstairs in my building, so yes, it is from last month) about Paper founder, Kim Hastreiter.

I like this:

I think the fashion world is so twisted, and that's why I'm not in that world. They're so concerned with what's trendy that they don't care if it's great.

I often read fashion mags and think this same sentiment; what also crosses my mind is that you could never pay me enough to play those games. Some people probably really do dig it, but somehow I can't imagine deep happiness or satisfaction coming from constant fickle scrutiny, even when it's processed by the most grounded of souls. But while Hastreiter isn't in fashion per se, she publishes a mag about urban culture, and well, hell, that is certainly a fair piece of the fawning, air-kissing pie. Rare to hear of someone who not only sounds like a true maverick, but who seems respected and happy.

Anyway, also love the shout out to Creative Growth in Oakland. I can definitely vouch for Hastreiter that she knows what's up.

A couple of very cool things...

Dexter -- on Showtime, of all places. The soft-core porno-riffic forbidden fruit of my 1980s childhood has finally done something right with this series (based on the book) about a charming blood spatter analyst who just happens to be a serial killer of other big bads. Just rented the first season on DVD. Disturbing, funny, thought-provoking, well-paced, and well-acted. Superb!

Check the opening credits. Brilliant.



--

Trevor found an old Japanese-made microscope from 1952 on the street. It is housed in a hinged box, with compartments for various lenses and slides. Perfect condition. We have it up on our bookshelf next to the Inu Art sculpted Hellboy set. Looks super cool, especially next to the Kriegsaffe.

This may trump my find of a first edition of In Cold Blood in a cardboard box on the sidewalk, the 1920s working typewriter Trevor found alongside 4 others, and our Sony CD player found under a pile of clothes, old throw rugs, and coathangers spilling into the street by the fuyu tree on Shafter.

BTW, checked today -- almost ripe and ready for the picking!

And I'm currently eating a vegan donut! Way.

Why, you ask, when presented with the option of eating a donut, am I eating a vegan donut? Because it's gooood.

Gift of Gab from Blackalicious, at the opening of the Oakland campaign headquarters for Barack Obama. Short but fantastic show.














(pic by my go-to guy for free concerts no one wants to go to, the incomparable Mr. Stich)

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. :)

I forgot to mention some of my best spoils procured whilst in Nihon.

At an antiques fair in Saitama, I found this gorgeous little piece of black resin goodness:















I've loved vintage jewelry since I was in high school and began prowling the antique shops and thrift stores for rhinestones, bakelite, and ivory, but lately I've been really getting into black resin jewelry, and it is in no small way the fault of Favor in Oakland. They make their own beads from vintage molds, and the results are marvelous. The hubby sealed my fate with a black resin bead necklace from Favor last year, so, you understand, I had to have this pretty little thing for my collection as well.

In my last post I numbered some of my most fun experiences while in Nihon, and of course it goes without saying that I went record shopping and that is always at the top of my list. While I didn’t pick up much Japanese vinyl this time around, I did come away with some very cool stuff.

My fave vinyl, all nothing super special to anyone but me (spread out alongside my stack o’ other records bought this time around):















That ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ 12-inch is my prize. It is a French copy, released through Cherry Red in the UK. I’ve never even seen one over here. The Smiths ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ single is Rough Trade Japan, and the Meat is Murder vinyl is Rough Trade UK, Rough81. I also picked up my favorite New Order album, Power, Corruption, and Lies, on Factory, Fact75. Sadly, the New Order single ‘Thieves Like Us’ isn’t Factory, but Columbia Records Japan. Still cool though.

The stack to the right includes the Beastie Boys EP on top (for 100 yen!) and a bunch of other stuff -- mostly UK but also Japanese –- ranging from Juana Molina and Sean Lennon to KMFDM, My Bloody Valentine, Gary Numan, and Wu-Tang. Only found one Bauhaus 12-inch I was in need of this time around, but I did pick up 2 NIN vinyl (at the urging of the NIN fans about) because they are supposedly very hard to find.

And of course, all of the records are as mint as the day they were brought into this world. I LOVE buying vinyl in Japan!

Speaking of Bauhaus – a very frank little birdie flying within the Peter Murphy galaxy shared a bit of information with me about the new Bauhaus album that has been rumored since last summer, but of which there has been not one public peep despite the introduction of two new songs last year.

My source told me the album is finished and has been for some time, but that Peter isn’t getting along with “the other three” and “the other three” aren’t getting along with Peter (actually, “hate” was the word that was used, but I doubt it is that strong and was just a figure of speech) so the album is not likely to be released until things get patched up. Source also said the album is held up because, “Daniel Ash is an asshole.”

Now, that part may be mere opinion, but it is an opinion that nonetheless made me chuckle when I heard it, if just from the memory of a few friends' first-hand impressions (though certainly many opinions and observations of Peter are not much better).

So, Bauhaus fans got a tour supporting NIN in 2006, where they rolled out two new songs -- as well as heavily chronicled fights between superdivas Peter and Daniel onstage in the UK -- and then nothing. Then David J starts doing his own projects like a madman, all of the “other three” start DJing up a storm, and Peter starts getting his groove on with Sarah Fimm and there's talk of him working on new material. Still no word about Bauhaus. Then I got a little tidbit in a convo with another source close to Bauhaus at the San Francisco Cabaret Oscuro show in February, where I was told the album is done, it is in one band member’s opinion “the best work they’ve ever done,” and that they are just waiting on releasing it because they are to put it out themselves. Then, nothing. Again. Now, finally, some concrete reasons for the awkward silence. And you know, it all does make sense. I think most suspected it too, so the confirmation that it is truly squabble-squabble at the root is not surprising, but still really disappointing.

I guess all the fans can do now is wait -- until Bauhaus can stand each other enough to be all up in each other’s faces again, and/or the take from 2005 and 2006 dries up. Sigh. But, perpetual cynic-optimist that I am, I also hold out hope that the impetus may instead truly be the music, the performance, the audience, and the realization that when they check the egos at the door, together they can be brilliant.

We'll see.