y de mi tierra

it takes a lot to make me tear up. these do just that. it’s amazing how you can miss a country you barely remember. home is home, i guess.

los caminos de la vida

en barranquilla me quedo

chan chan

i’ll add to this. there are plenty and this is an easy way for me to keep them handy.

tengo una buena cancion para cantar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amT_oHQWHng

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouIMi58e-Lk

musica ligera by soda stereo is one of my all time favorite songs.  for whatever reason i’d never been able to find/download the non-live version, so today was the first time i heard the original.  i love it just as much.

i first came across this song in caracas in 1998.  there were apartment buildings overlooking our school’s soccer field and one guy - a fat guy who didn’t often wear a shirt - would play this song and blare it out over the field every day we had soccer practice (or maybe every day and i just wasn’t there on the weekends).  he’d play other songs too, but this one was played daily.

this song has been on every mp3 player i’ve had since then.  it had been on every computer until this one, but i don’t download music onto it (yet, i’ve been thinking about fucking it up totally).

listen, please do.  i’d love for everyone to hear this song.  i don’t even want to describe it, so you can grow into it, kind of like i did the first time i heard it, all the while asking around to see if anyone else knew the name/band.

gracias totales.

nb: i checked out some of their other songs and… typical 80s fare.  nothing spectacular.  this is like their ‘i ran’, it seems.

wtf?

red army choir (yes, from the USSR military)

plus

the leningrad cowboys (with erect hair and elf boots)

plus

sweet home alabama (in english, no less)

equals

wtf?

emosexual healing…

the because cutting oneself simply isn’t enough, emo kids now have rockabillies and punks beat their asses.

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/anti-emo-riots.html?1

the scoop:

although most of us make fun of emo kids, those darn mexicans believe in go big or go home.  so instead of just hatin’ and making fun (i wish my lawn were emo… then it’d cut itself), they organize.  the rockabillies and punks in some mexican city or other have gotten together into anti-emo riots where they apparently beat the crap out of emo kids.  emo kids have retaliated by pro-emo demonstrations.  bring out the eyeliner, i’m going in…

if you watch the vid, you’ll notice that all sorts of music genres try to get in on the story, including the hare krishnas.  yay diversity!

the laugh/cringe.

you know exactly what i’m talking about.  there are some things you find hilarious, but are so terrible that it makes you cringe (either at said thing or at the fact that you’re laughing about it.

this is the thing that was enough of a laugh/cringe to make the blog.  turn up your volume.

be jealous!

or not, kind of depends if you’re a dork (esp a mozilla/google dork) like i am.

i just got firefox 3 (beta 4) and it’s quite pretty.   it meshes very prettily - curves and depth in places where old firefox was flat.

hooray!

porter & frye

as i had to miss out on spring break, i jumped at the opportunity to go to porter & frye, the restaurant in the new hotel ivy downtown.  ok, by ‘jumped’ i mean considered it, nearly didn’t go bc of the price, then decided i deserved a nice splurge dinner.

by splurge dinner, i mean good luck finding something under $20.  our entrees were all $28+.  this was an especially iffy decision, as the reviews i saw of p&f were not very good.  however, the friend who invited me chose the restaurant bc his cousin is a pastry chef there… it was an extra angle to get me to say yes.  i’m quite glad i did!

one complaint that i’d seen in reviews was about the wait.  this is true.  we had reservations and still had to wait about 20 mins to be seated.  the service is excellent, but each course takes its time to arrive.  by excellent service, i don’t even mean snooty.  we had a couple of friends along who weren’t the typical p&f clientele, but there was no disdain or anything from the servers.  everyone was exceptionally nice, which is often hard to find at a nice restaurant.

the food was spectacular.  i can assume that when i pay that much for a meal, i automatically say it’s good (so i don’t feel like i just blew $60), but  this meal was really, really good.

we started off with some tuna sliders and our couple friend ordered the scallops.  the sliders were like an upscale tuna sandwich - cold tuna salady stuff on crusty, toasted bread rolls.   the tuna was delish and understated, allowing all the other flavors to come out.  i’m not the hugest fish fan, but these were great.  the scallops were perfectly cooked - buttery as opposed to rubbery as they too often are.  the sauce that came with the scallops was slightly sweet, which highlighted the sweetness of the seafood.  three of us ordered a bottle of wine to share - we got a 2006 oregon pinot noir, which was a great choice and complemented each of our meals very well (tenderloin, veal, lamb)

the palate cleanser was an interesting combo: a pat of raspberry and red pepper ice cream, coconut milk powder and jalapeno sauce.  sounds terrible, but i finished it and wanted more.  yes, even more raspberry and red pepper ice cream.

each of our party of 5 got a different dish and we passed small bits around so everyone could taste.   among us we had walleye, chicken, lamb porterhouse, veal and i got the beef tenderloin.  i’m pretty sure the beef was my favorite, but they were all great.  one unanimous compliment was how well the meats all were cooked - my medium tenderloin wasn’t bloody, the other meats were tender and cooked perfectly.  each plate has an interesting combination of flavors, blending sweet with salty and surprising you at every first bite.  the tenderloin was covered in mushrooms and a delicious sauce with traces of truffle.  it came with one large onion ring filled with well-seasoned potato cubes and spheres.

after the entree, i was stuffed.  i normally wouldn’t have dessert, but my friend’s cousin was along, so of course we had to try them.  one of our party was allergic to apples, so we tried the other 4 desserts (and asked for a sample of the cheddar ice cream that comes with the apple dessert).  cheddar ice cream… not too spectacular.  everything else was great, though.  there was a goat cheese cheesecake - if you like goat cheese, you’ll love this.  the flavor isn’t overwhelming and it’s just sweet enough to remind you it’s a cheesecake.  there was a chocolate dessert with decadent dark chocolate and some mousse thing that had a caramelized mini-carrot.   yum!  there was also a coconut panna cotte (mousse-y stuff) and my favorite (although i really love chocolate) a moist almond cake with browned butter ice cream and quince jelly.  SO GOOD.

bottom line: this splurge was well worth it.  i was completely full for the rest of the night (no elf food here!) and very satisfied with the service and quality of the food.  the decor is also great - understated and warm, but not boring.  probably not a good first date place, due to potential awkwardness about fancy dining, but it’s a great place to spend an evening (we were there from 8:30 to about 11:30) and really enjoy the company, conversation and food.

how many freezers did they have?

this story just gets better and better.

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/12870

the scoop:

chick unplugs roommate’s freezer. roommate gets home while chick is watching tv, notices dead freezer, starts screaming and throwing frozen food. some food hits dog, who wishes it’d been unplugged longer. chick goes to apologize, pointing out that food is obv still frozen. roommate throws pizza at her face (yup, still frozen). hilarity ensues… or a fight. chick and roommate ‘fall to the floor’ and have an all out brawl.

pretty sweet. (third roommate watches in amazement, wondering if she can move in with her bf yet.)

i bet these are made in china and are full of lead

here’s the latest blow on the morality of our precious children.

http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/16468151.html?146

the scoop:

mom buys crazy straws, because every decent child loves them. her 3 yo uses a heart shaped one. mom checks out straws, realizes two of them are soft rockets… um… penises. mom’s worried that older kids might have a field day with these, calls walmart, is told she’s making shit up. walmart has pulled these from shelves and she can get a refund… for $1.69. (only those as immature as i can be will giggle at the price.) please note the reporter’s attempt at a pun with ‘flap’.

almost better than the pictures is the survey about your take on the straws. Toy, Rocket, or other child-friendly shape… or Penis? i choose ‘other child friendly shape’… or something.

i’m going to start doing this

sometimes i find wonderful web-tidbits and really want to share them for more than 20 mins as my gchat status. i just now thought of this (not the brightest crayon, sometimes) - i’m going to put them here. enjoy.