Le Geek, C'est Chic

The Boy and I went to Comic-Con in San Diego on Friday, supposedly the largest pop culture convention in the world. It was completely overwhelming and totally hilarious. The Boy is more interested in this stuff than I am, although I definitely do have a deep and wide geekstreak that embraces Battlestar Galactica etc. Basically, the convention includes booths and presentations from most of the movie, tv, and publishing houses plus lots of activities for all the fans. People come in elaborate costumes (pictured above and below) - my favorite was the giant transvestite dressed as Princess Leia. There was a long line of very angry becostumed Harry Potter fans being turned away at the door of the Harry Potter Fan Club presentation - if they could have cast a spell turning the security guard into a toad, they would have. Lots of storm troopers and Japanese anime characters too. We attended the New Line presentation with Clive Owen (ridiculously gorgeous in person. seriously. I mean it) and the director of his new movie. They also showed the initial shots of the "Golden Compass" movie which I am very excited about (if you havent read the Dark Materials books, DO). We were going to stay for the Blade Runner panel with Ridley Scott and the designers, but we decided to skip in favor of more wandering the floor. I'll have to dust off my Boba Fett costume for next year.

Completely random musings

Best new word: "radgical". Rad + Magical. Coined by a 4 year old.

Some people like cop shows and some people like hospital shows. What does your choice say about you?

Best at the Farmer's Market this week: peaches, strawberries, heirloom tomatoes. Is Caprese salad the best salad ever invented? Is it a salad?

Best new music: Feist "The Reminder"

Vote of the Day

Johnson's Baby Shampoo is running a contest to find kids with the best hair. Which picture of Sophie and her crazy hair do you like best? Tell all!

What I did with my weekend

My new friends had a party for me. I'm cursing my footwear choice - I can barely walk today!

The game was FUN. The Galaxy did appear to show up for the game, although Chelsea did predictably wipe the pitch/field with them. Beckham played the last 12 minutes and people screamed like he was the second coming of Christ. Or Justin Timberlake. A great great atmosphere. I'm sure most Brits would be horrified by the lack of commitment - I can guarantee you that 80% of these people wont be here when the Galaxy plays Real Salt Lake - but people were well into it on Saturday. A flash stadium, beer, famous people, and sunshine...who cares if Beckham plays like an old woman.

Pictures of us roasting in the album below. Yes, that's grass we're sitting on.

Beckham debut

A bad case of Goldenballs Fever

We are going to Chelsea vs. (Someone) + Beckham tomorrow. Beckham's tender, tricky, delicate aahhhhhhhh (sorry) ankle will probably prevent him from playing, but seeing Chelsea should be fun anyway. Drogba and Essien played in the first game against the Suwon Blu Butterflies, or something like that, which Chelsea appeared to almost lose. Or sleep through. Or something. Whatever. That's about as much soccer/footie as I can manage. I will at least be able to tell my children when David Beckham declared world peace. I was there with my buzz on.


UPDATE on Da Hood: We did get a bit more backstory on the local crime wave. Apparently the owner of the building died and left it to his junkie son who invites all his screaming junkie friends over for nightly hootenannies (thanks for the invite! must be lost in the mail!). Luis the Landlord of Vengeance paid us a visit to hand deliver our rent increase (thanks! glad that didnt get lost in the mail!) and was treated to his own special performance from the crew. He spoke with the police on the scene, and they assured us that the place has been raided, everyone arrested, but they are all now back. Well that was useful. Luis is now taking it up again. His last wave of vengeance was interrupted by a most ill-timed vacation to Tuscany, but hopefully he will devote more attention now.

Happy Friday!

Bitter and Twisted is Back!

Since you asked, yes I do miss London.

Oh there is SO much to not miss (weather, traffic, expense, shit randomly blowing up) but there is NOTHING like London in the summer. Sonia's dry spell has ended, and she is back in Relationshipland which heralds the return of BITTER AND TWISTED SONIA. BandT is a truly beautiful thing to behold.

Knowing I was slightly adoptedhomesick, she was torturing me with tales of summer frolics in London. She reports a new art exhibit at the Hayward Gallery by Antony Gormley featuring human figures placed in the area around the Gallery on the South Bank. Our intrepid correspondent also reports that the South Bank revitalization project is proceding apace ("Now featuring 25% less homeless!!") and there are some lovely bars and restaurants to populate the newly cleansed space. She and the Source of her Deep Bitterness (pictured above) were having lovely beverages outside the Hayward watching passerby reactions to the Gormley installation. No one, I mean no one, can resist a statue with a penis. Anyway, I do miss London but the only thing that saves me is the fact that Bitter and Twisted Sonia is wearing a coat and The Source is wearing a sweater IN JULY. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Why my diet The Surge is like the real Surge in Iraq

1. Both are difficult
2. Neither are working very well at the moment.
3. Both need some time before we judge them a success or failure.
4. Both were billed as temporary solutions (diet till the wedding! vs troops until September) but are most likely going need to become permanent to have any impact at all.
5. Extension of both Surges will make a lot of people (me!) very angry.
6. Both feature lots of sweating.

A pretty good chicken recipe, actually

First of all, thank you to all my many fans that helped make my Beckham write one of the top viewed stories on the CNN.com website for the day. 360,000 hits before noon - more than 1/4 of a MILLION people. I would like to say it is my extraordinary writing ability that thinking people everywhere are clamoring to read, but I fear I could have written "tooth decay... tooth decay...BECKHAM.... tooth decay... tooth decay.... BECKHAM" over and over and still would have hit the 1/4 million club. Sigh.

Dancing was sort of a non-starter. The DJ blew out the sound system on Michael Jackson "Rock With You" and so we rolled. We did see the employee screening of Harry Potter at 9am on Sat morning - v.v. good, actually. If you cant stand all that blathering about wizards and witches and bibbidy bobbidy boo bullshit, this is still worth seeing. Amazing to look at. We also saw "Transformers" and there was LESS than meets the eye. Shit blows up. You get the picture.

Anyway, as a prize for sitting through that drivel: My new favorite chicken breast recipe. I dont really like chicken, and like grilled chicken breasts even less: that fluffy tasteless flesh leaves me cold. But the Obsessive Compulsives at Cooks Illustrated recently printed a recipe that I think is tasty and easy. Maybe you all have a great go-to chicken recipes, but if not this one's pretty good.

1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 TB lemon juice
6 TB olive oil
1 TB parsley leaves
1 ¼ tsp sugar
Salt & Pepper

3 garlic cloves pressed
2 TB water
4 chicken breasts

Whisk together mustard, 1 TB lemon juice, 3 TB olive oil, parsley, ¼ tsp sugar, ¼ tsp salt, and ¼ tsp pepper. Set aside.

Whisk together remaining TB lemon juice, 3 TB olive oil, tsp sugar, 1 ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper, garlic, water,. Put in ziplock w chicken. Marinates no less than 30 mins and no more than 1 hour.

[hysterically convoluted grilling directions] to summarize: on medium-hot grill, put chicken breasts smooth side down and put top down on grill. Cook until grill marks show (about 6-9 mins). Rotate and flip chicken and cover grill. Flip and cook again 1 min each side. Take off grill and let sit for a bit. Cut into slices and drizzle with sauce.

My what a large democracy you have

Washington DC - Heming's wedding

What could be more romantic than Washington DC in July? Delhi? Mogadishu? Mobile, Alabama? Answer: If you like your Greek iconography plentiful and your sweat thick, then DC is the place for you. Otherwise, feh.

That said, the wedding was lovely. The highlight was clearly the chair dance - you had to feel pity for the 12 guys it took to get a nearly 7-foot Norwegian hoisted overhead. Click onto the album above to see photos. Twas very nice to see Gus and Joanna and the budding southern socialite Georgia Bahn.

We did have a couple inspiring meals in DC. My favorite was at Cashion's Eat Place in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. I started with a papardelle and blue crab dish (nice, simple, buttery) and had filet of wild king salmon with spring pea sauce and creamed corn (also, fresh, simple). The salmon's presentation looked like a preppy's dream - circles of pink, green, and yellow - perfect for DC. I had an amazing Orvieto with the salmon that proved to be the highlight. Unfortunately, so much of a highlight I forgot to jot down the name. Some restaurant reviewer I'd make.

DC's sights are always inspiring as well. We walked from Capitol Hill to the Lincoln Memorial with detours at the Vietnam Memorial and the WWII Memorial. Kind of hokey, but I still get choked up when I read the Gettysburg Address. We also went to the National Archives to see the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence and to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The weather was over 95f, humid, and deeply, deeply unpleasant the entire time.

The Boy and I plan to accompany Pegchismo to the Mountain Bar tonight for female DJ night and some earnest dancing. There may be a day when the Boy and I do not go out on a Friday and throw ourselves around in a most undignified fashion (known in some circles as DANCING) but this Friday, my friends, is not that day.

Catch Goldenball Fever!

Check out my write on David Beckham coming to LA and help boost my hits!

We interrupt this blog...

I’m heading to DC tomorrow morning to plea for clemency, apply to be the new head of the World Bank, and attend my 7foot friend’s wedding. I do not think I will be posting while I am there, but I will have many tall tales when I return.

Sex! Sex! Sex!

According to this very strange monitoring device, my blog is rated PG-13 because I mention "murder" twice and "gun" once which were from my heavily (self-) censored posts on Iraq. Apparently my multimedia post on transsexual porn stars is appropriate for preteens.

Good show, old chaps

Favorite quotes today from Almost-Blitz '07 coverage of the London bombs over the weekend:

From the "he was always such a quiet lad" file: "I am sure Mohammed does not have any links of this nature, because his history in Jordan and since he was a kid does not include any kind of activity of this nature," the father said.

From the "but he thought he'd blow them up anyway" file: "He told us people were nice and considerate and did not discriminate against them on the basis of their religion or colour," the father said.

From the "that's because the mobile phone was being used in a bomb" file: In recent days, the family had been unable to reach their son on his mobile phone and began to worry that something might be wrong.

The boy has the best quote on the latest Blitz '07: "For terrorists, they are rather crap".