Shop Girl I enjoyed Steve Martin's book Shop Girl. I mean, it wasn't super-duper, but it was an enjoyable quick read. I think I liked his last book "The Pleasure of My Company" a bit more (read when stuck at an airport somewhere).
There is a movie version of Shop Girl coming out (I am the last person to know this apparently) and it stars, naturally, Steve Martin and the uber-lovely Claire Danes. I like them both. Watch the trailer!
Scientology Somehow I found myself on the wikipedia Scientology page. Man. I wish my religion was created by a guy who wrote sci-fi books. Can you imagine if George Lucas started a religion (I mean, other than "Jedi").
Tangent Not to get off on a the Star Wars tangent, but really: What did the Jedi plan on doing after they destroyed the empire? Much like Saddam, the empire kept the power running and provided a central force to fear which probably helped to keep interplanetary fighting to a minimum. Really. Did they have an exit strategy? Ka-Boom! Empire is blown up. Now you guys have to start regulating trade and providing security and interplanetary infrastructure. They had no clue.
I never read those Star Wars books, but I suspect that in the future the galaxy was like, "these dork-ass jedis are worse than the empire - bring back the stormtroopers please."
For instance, Hubbard's 1958 book "Have You Lived Before This" documents past lives as described by individual Scientologists during auditing sessions.
These included incidents such as being "deceived into a love affair with a robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl", being run over by a Martian bishop driving a steamroller, being transformed into an intergalactic walrus which perished after falling out of a flying saucer and being "a very happy being who strayed to the planet Nostra 23,064,000,000 years ago".
"deceived into a love affair with a robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl"
Man - I am so joining Scientology I can't be cool. I can't be laid-back. It's something that has happened, and I feel I want to celebrate it. I want to celebrate my robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl! She's a very special robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl!
Please Explain The news/talk guy on our local NPR station does this great series called "Please Explain" where he asks experts to, you guessed it, explain things. Last week was Scientology... we'll take an in-depth look at Scientology. We'll be speaking with Dr. Douglas Cowan, Associate Professor of Religion and Sociology at The University of Missouri, and James Verini, a Los Angeles based journalist who contributed to a recent four-part series on Scientology for the Internet publication Salon.com. You can listen to the segment online
Then I just talk about food.
Omakasse at Taro Sushi Saturday night we went back to Taro Sushi again and did the omakase (where the chef basically feeds you for a few hours). Man. It's love. Everything we had was delicious. The chefs are such fine people - they meticulously prepare these little, beautiful plates that are then presented to you... and they look and then taste so amazing that you are kind of beside yourself in trying to express to the chef how much you enjoyed it.
Actually, no. We expressed it so well that they couple next to us leaned over and asked us what we had just eaten and what the heck was going on. We clued them in on the whole omakase thing and they enthusiastically decided to do the same. It was fun because they were behind us by about two 'courses' so we got to be the old pros who had just eaten the dishes they were now being served. "Yea, I didn't eat the eyes either"
Little Bistro Friday night I met the ladies (aw yea) for dinner at Little Bistro - it's a little, er, bistro that opened up a few blocks away. The NYT says: "The restaurant offers American comfort food like lobster pot pie, and the chef brings Chinese accents to other dishes like sweet and sour baby back ribs with macaroni and cheese"
Dang. It was good. Mrs. Robot had some sort of steak and potatoes that employed some funky and very spicy thai-esque spices. Karen had a fine salmon something or another. I had, well, I think I had the best thing: duck with a massaman/Indian/curry glaze and thin flour pancakes all served on top of these fried hashbrown things that were made from sweet potatoes. Holy wowsers. The staff was friendly and speedy, which was great considering I believe this was their first weekend being open. Very nice, yet small wine list. Cool looking space. Not terribly exspensive. This may be my new super favorite neighborhood place.
The opposite Then there is a new place around the other corner called Taku (on Smith Street). We had dinner there last weekend and it was one of the most non-descript meals I have ever had. It wasn't bad. It was fine. Everything seemed fresh and cooked properly. But, boy. It left no impression. We'll try them again - maybe it was just opening month goofiness.
Two fun items about this place: 1. We went there on a Saturday night a little before 9pm and the place was empty except for two or three tables (I think they may have garden seating out back as well). The hostess/waitress greets us and then asks if we have a reservation. No, we didn't have a reservation. She then turns around and scans the more than half empty restaurant trying to figure out where to put us(!) - she even kind of mumbles something to another waitress and points at tables. They finally seat us near the front. The hour that we are there I think two other couples came in. It was somewhat funny.
2. The space their restaurant is in is cursed. They will be the 3rd or 4th restaurant in that space in the past 3 years.
