Rotate the foodstuffs!

SSIA, really.  I had a lovely weekend :)

Friday was a pointless day at work, so I was feeling a little blah.  But then I came home, and it all got better!

First, we went to the Burgundy Room, WHICH I LOVE.  There were French fries with truffled basil aioli.  There were holy-shit-amazing pork carnitas.  There was pork tenderloin with pumpkin hash.  And there was shrimp and grits.  And wine.  And a couple of martinis.  Love the Burgundy Room.

And thence to Axis, to see my friend Cate (and other people) in Center Stage Players' production of She Loves Me.  It was also lovely!  Ok, well, their sound guy might have been asleep at the switch, and there were some set painting... difficulty.  But Cate can sing the shit out of some musical theatre :)

Oh, and did I mention that in between we went to Jeni's?  There were many deliciousnesses.  Most exciting was the Norwegian Winter Spices ice cream.

And then there was snow!  Which was minor here in C'bus -- sorry, east coasters.  OK, I'll admit, I disliked driving in it, because I'm a pansy that way, but it's very pretty :)

Next, Saturday.  A couple of the chorus members came over for potluck and games.  I was not that gungho at first, but it turned out to be quite enjoyable.  Hit of the evening: mahjongg.  And the strange amalgam of Texas brisket, Midwest scalloped potatoes, Japanese-American cabbage salad, and stolen-from-an-Italian cookbook apple cake really worked together.

(Yes, this post is mostly about food.  What's your point?)

Today I read William Gibson's Neuromancer, bought new socks, made an amazing shrimp stew, and candied some orange peel preparatory to making orangettes.  Mmm.  Candied orange peel.

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Mainly for my own reference, but you can work with it if you want:

Tasty Shrimp Stew that tastes oddly like Tom Yum Ga, only not

Make a golden roux from a quarter-cup of flour and of olive oil

Throw in a red onion, chopped.

Throw in ~1# of raw 31/40 shrimp; cook till they're pink.

Add in, oh, 2 cups(?) of corn kernels and a couple chilis, sliced (keep seeds).  And celery?  Or not.

Add in 1 c tomato sauce with basil (from orange tomatoes if you're fancy) and ~3 c water (to cover/right consistency)

Simmer for 20-30 minutes

Add in a BIG pile of cilantro and the juice of one lime or so.

Delicious.  Cornmeal crunch to accompany?  Or not.

A year ago rosepurr and thndrstd went to the Southern Festival of Books, and they told me it was awesome.  And then I bailed on going down on New Year's, because the roads sucked and I was tired whaa :)  So a few months ago I said "Sure, I think I might go down next time the Festival rolls around."  And then, despite the fact that I was dead tired from my first, crazy week of work, I made good on this commitment ('cause it's rude to bail on two travel plans in a row).

Totally good choice.

Good despite the fact that we ended up stopping on Friday night in Elizabethtown, KY so that I wouldn't drive off the road.  Or that there was a sort of 2001-like dipstick thing thanks to a broken dipstick tube (it's not worth explaining, really, it was just a little bit of a masculine blow).

The Festival was, as any such event is, a mixed bag, but it was TOTALLY worth it, just for the panel where Kevin Wilson and John Pritchard read from their work.  There were other good things, too, like the discovery of poet Karen Head, or YA author Justine Larbalestier (in spite of a completely incomprehensible talk she gave that we walked out on).

And NY-style pizza in Nashville of all places.  And boiling hot fried catfish.  And an espresso macchiato that took well in excess of 10 minutes because apparently some coffee shops spend all their time on developing superb coffee drinks, and none of developing a good workflow.

After the festival we went to see a free concert by the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra, which included (among other things), Sibelius' Op. 26, "Finlandia," which I know I am not alone in loving.  As a bonus, we caught the tail end of Nashville in Harmony's performance in the lobby.  [Amusing side note: their conductor's concert rhetoric is quite circumspect -- I didn't realize until I looked up their website just now that they're a GLBT chorus.]  We skipped out on the Nashville Symphony's performance in order to celebrate the birthday of a friend of our hosts, at a bar called Past Perfect.  They specialize in classic cocktails -- I don't think I've ever even had the opportunity elsewhere to have both a Pegu Club Cocktail and a Sazerac in one sitting (and a Key Largo, but that doesn't have quite the cachet, thought it's surprisingly pleasant, especially for a tropically flavored drink :)

After a pancake breakfast and my traditional swing by Bojangles' for a country ham biscuit (be still my heart), we headed on back to Columbus, only an hour late to rehearsal thanks to an hour in which we moved about 15 miles on I-71.  No wreck.  Just... slowdown.

All in all a very satisfying weekend.  Next stop on Mike's Regional Visiting Tour?  I believe that'd be St. Louis.  Or talyr will eat my soul :)  Stay tuned.

It is 1:50 AM.  It is 62 degrees outside, forecasted to dip down to 57 before dawn.  Apparently there *is* a temperature range where I will sleep with the windows open, but my neighbors' infernal central air unit won't kick on.  I get weirdly bent out of shape about this, as former roommates can attest, so the current situation is pleasing.

On a sidenote, I just realized that Ohio sounds very different from Texas.  If this were Texas, all I would hear would be cicadas.  This being Ohio, it's crickets.  (Yes, if there were a Magicicada brood around, it'd be different, but as I recall Columbus doesn't get much in the way of periodical cicadas, only annuals.)  And I knew this, of course, but I don't normally think about it consciously.

Been a while since I posted any foodporn, eh?  Here goes. 

A while back, I made some salsa de chile morita -- well, actually I made it with chipotles per the described substitution, but who's counting?  Problem was, I used some heirloom tomatillos that were bred for sweetness.  That's great and all, but it meant that instead of being a nice, bright, acid salsa, I ended up with a salsa that was WAY too sweet to eat on chips (at least for my taste). 

Rather than throw it out, I made some braised pork with it.

( recipe, and then a recipe for what to do with it )

Sorry, LJ: I'm running late for pre-rehearsal stuff, but I wanted to get this out, so you get a copy of a broadcast email:

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Hi Englishy/Creative types--

This is a little late notice, I realize, but better late than never, I suppose.  If you happened to be at Pride this past Saturday, you may have noticed the Columbus Gay Men's Chorus's float, which was covered in crazy folk singing Boy George, the Buggles, etc.  Or maybe you weren't there, and you're wondering what in the WORLD that has to do with anything.

Here 'tis: This Friday and Saturday, CGMC presents We Love the 80s, a showcase of some of our favorite songs from the Decade that Brought Us Legwarmers (which is my personal pet term for it).  You name it, we've got it: Boy George, Michael Jackson, Toto, Bon Jovi, and more.  (Yes, of course, 'more' includes Madonna.)  Now, I know what you're thinking: "Mike wants me to go hear choral versions of pop songs?  That sounds... dull."

It ain't.

Trust me, I was worried when I learned the theme, back in January.  No more worries: the last thing we'd dream of doing is standing dully on the risers singing these songs in tuxes.

So.

CGMC presents We Love the 80s
Dates: Fri/Say, June 26 & 27
Time: 8pm
Place: Capital Theatre at the Vern Riffe Center, downtown
Tickets: 29/27 (main floor/mezzanine) UNLESS you get them through me (see below)
Tix avail: http://www.cgmc.com ; OR through me, in which case there's a discount -- 2$ if I recall correctly.  Email me directly by midday Thursday with ticket count and level.

So come on, rat your hair and cut out the neckhole in your sweatshirt.  Don't you want to hear me pull out the solo on Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car"?  I would.

Shillfully yours,
Mike

1.  I was thinking earlier today, when I was working at the DMP: I like military guys, as an instructor and as an office worker.  They're generally pretty fit, which is pleasing to the eye, and they're almost always polite -- I never, but never get called "Sir" in my job, and yet there they are saying "Yes, sir" and being all respectful.  Good times.

2.  We had a new campus preacher out today, in the plaza at 15th & High.  As I was walking by, I caught "...but we [presumably the members of his group] no longer see through a mirror darkly; we see crystal clear!"  Pretty fucking presumptuous, buddy.

i just handed my advisor a pretty much full, ordered draft of my thesis. Madness. Feels good. Now just have to write that paper left over from last qtr. :)

Slightly too much alcohol for conversation = WAY too much alcohol for making coherent statements on student papers.

I made roast beef poboys with debris gravy on homemade Louisiana-style French bread for dinner.  The meat was perfect; the bread was actually quite good for a classic french bread, but a little too stiff for NOLA.  Still, delicious.  Pity my camera has gone AWOL.

I'm in a musical.  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, March 20 and 21, Tix 25-30 for adults depending on section.  http://www.cgmc.com

Lávash Café had a special on okra and tomato stew today.  It was fantabulous.

I'm completely fucking swamped with work.  My current mild inebriation is less than conducive to work.  This is definitely an error in judgment.

Did I mention the vast win of the roast beef?  Seriously.

Also, Thurn's souse is so many kinds of amazing I can't describe, even if the Facebookers seem to think the mere concept is gross.  They are, obviously, wrong.

Also also, the CGMC people are WAY more active on FB than most of my other friends.  A little bit of an adjustment.

Also cubed, if you're waiting for your roast beast to finish, a snack-sandwich of buttered toast, whole-grain mustard, sweet relish, and smoked turkey is divine.

Well, here I am in Chicago at the AWP conference.  We've been having a good time -- rode the Megabus on Wednesday, getting dropped off near Union Station just a scant mile from our hotel.  Brogdon, Maria and I are staying at the Palmer House, and.. god, y'all, that's some swanky swank there.  One of our fellow conference-goers (who is wisely staying at the Travelodge; we booked our room before we found that the department was cutting our funding) calls it the four-dollar-banana hotel, for lo, that is the price of a banana on the room service menu.  But it's also absolutely gorgeous, and really with the conference rate it's affordable, even if not super-cheap.  No use crying over spilt milk, so I might as well just enjoy the luxury :)

Yesterday, the first day of the conference, I was a bad conference-goer.  I didn't even bother to show up to registration, much less attend any panels or talks.  Instead, Brogdon, J-Love, Annie and I went to the Shedd Aquarium.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  The exhibits are very well laid out, they have a great variety of different ecosystems represented (everything from the Amazon to the Mekong to the Caribbean to Lake Michigan wetlands), and at 17.95 for all that and a 15 min Planet Earth short on a big screen, it was totally worth it.  When I die, I want to come back as a Leafy Sea Dragon, is all I'm saying.

( we continue exploring... )

( ...and then I talk a long time about queer poetics. )

And now back to rough drafts.

I have a new favorite topping combination at Hound Dog's.  Green olives, sauerkraut, and Cajun hot links on thin crust with spicy sauce (basically sliced andouille sausage).  Unfortunately, I do not foresee a good deal of this heartburn-deluxe pizza, because I may be the only person I know who would not only tolerate but adore this combination.

In other news, the quarter started.  I'm only taking the one class, a seminar in the 20C long poem with Brian McHale that is super-awesome while also being slightly frightful.  Currently reading for Thursday: Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, a novel in verse.  I'm only about a third of the way in, but I can already recommend it.  It's a fast and completely engaging read.  I'm so in love.

Tried out for the Columbus Gay Men's Chorus after years of hemming and hawing over whether I should.  Helped in this by the fact that my boyfriend's in it; it's a bit of an incentive.  Had an amusing moment when Jarod reported that the director said to him "He's actually really good!"  Not really as insulting as it sounds; since it's an open chorus (auditions are for placement, not admission), the fact that I was tagging along with a significant other didn't really speak volumes about my abilities.  We're doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in conjunction with the Columbus Children's Chorus, which is pretty awesome.  Show goes up the 20th and 21st of March; more on that later (and more on whether I got any sort of non-chorus role).

As you could surmise, things are going well with Jarod.  I'm very happy right now, even in the midst of this demon quarter that, for all I'm probably doing less work on a daily basis that last quarter, is still kicking my ass.  Although I did nearly die of sexual exhaustion over New Year's weekend, which would have been... awkward at best.

Currently teaching 110.02, which is the Literature-based section of First-Year Writing.  I like this group of students, I like my teaching slot (MW 3:30-5:18), and I'm glad to be working with literary texts -- it's fun.  Just recently got offered (and accepted) a section of 266, the undergrad poetry workshop, for spring quarter.  I'm over the moon about that, since I was in no way expecting to get to teach workshop a second time during my tenure here.  I have so many ideas for how to do better!

Turned in ~45 poems to Kathy at the end of Autumn Quarter.  She seems to be of the opinion that I've got length covered for my thesis, though I'm shooting for more like 60 poems.  We haven't actually talked about it yet, since she's swamped with other stuff, but I'm feeling more optimistic about my thesis and my writing in general than I have in a while.

Minstrelry's got a private gig coming up the first weekend in February, which is pretty exciting.  It sounds like it's going to be a really fun event.  My only regret is that a couple of fabliaux I discovered in my research -- "The Three Women Who Found A Penis" and "The Knight Who Could Make Cunts Talk" -- will not be appropriate to the occasion.

And... that's the round up, I guess.  Hopefully the next gap in communication will be shorter.