The Long Highway

Friday, July 30, 2004

Backtracking:

Wednesday

Our water was getting shut off again for plumbing wokr in the basement garage, so G and I went off to Universal Studios. Had a pleasant enough time, but disappointg: Jaws broke down when we got to him on the tour, though the tour is always fun, especially the "old Europe" sets where they filmed all those great Universal monster movies, the Psycho set, akll wonderful to see. Jurassic Park also broke down while we were on it. Universal totally lacks the sparkle and charm of Disneyland. I enjoy just walking around in Disneyland because so much care and thought and imagination went into every detail. Universal is much, I don't know, cruder?

Came back home and ordered a pizza.

Thursday

G & I awoke early and hit Runyon Canyon Park and took the high road, which climbs to 1200 feet or something. Needless to see we didn't make it that far but we did go further than our last attempt to reach the summit we see from our balcony. I'll post pictures when I post pics of our apartment -- you asked for it folks -- over the weekend.

Our new furniture arrived! We got two nice leather chairs and a nice bookcase set. Our living room looks like a fancy library now, just as we had envisioned. The leather chairs are sooooo comfortable. We set about unpacking our 19 boxes of books which amazingly took us 3 hours to unpack, then headed off to the market to buy a nice lamp to match. Stopped at a diner for dinner, came home to find that Tivo had corrected my program guide problam, huzzah! Set that up for download and then just rveled in ther comfort of our new recliners for a while. Stayed up too late though.

. . . and thus overslept today, but we went down to the fitness room and I did 10 miles on a steep grade on the exercise bike, while G did her usual circuit. Now a quick shower and we're off to breakfast at the Pantry, a famous and incredible old place downtown, then to the market, then to the movies later on to see the new Night Shyamalan flick.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

So it seems Tivo has the wrong program guide for our area. I had to send in a report to have it addressed. I can't believe I am the only person with this problem. Hope it is remedied soon. I want my Tivo, dammit!

Yesterday, I overslept and woke with a nagging, mild headache and stiffness in my bad shoulder that never really went away. Spent some of the day finishing my rehab of G's old laptop. The rest of the day was just kind of foggy. Updated the blog, which took a while, with all the photos and such, digitized some more CDs.

Watched some of the Democratic National Convention and was tremendously impressed by Barack Obama's speech. He is a magnificent orator and the type of figure the African-American people in this country have so long needed. To find a comparable piece of oratory I would have to go back 20 years or so to Cuomo's speech at the convention -- that is no mean comparison. Obama's brightest moments came in the pacing of his speech -- gathering momentum as he expanded his analogies, using precise and powerful body language; here is a person who gives us hope that the Democratic Party can rise again. One of the PBS commentators said afterwards of Obama's speech (and to be honest, all of them were a little breathless as he left the stage), "that's why you go into this business: to hear a speech like that." Overall I have been impressed with the Democrats' approach, and contrary to some who think assailing Bush on his war on terror is a miscalculation (the Republicans are practically rubbing their hands with glee), I think it is a wise strategic move. Regardless of what the Democrats say, Bush's people are going to attack Kerry's worthiness as a President who can guide us through a war. Why not raise the issue now, throw the Republicans into a defensive posture on it, and hammer home relentlessly the view that our actions as a nation have only increased our enemies' determination, turned up the heat? Dick Cheney, speaking at nearby Camp Pendleton yesterday, perfectly expressed why the Republican/Conservative view is so wrong-headed when he said we need a president who will go after our enemies before they go after us -- in other words, unaplogetically emphasizing the pre-emptive, unilateral foreign policy of the Bush regime and the completely out-of-touch notion that by strength of arms alone we will lead the world. That's what Hitler though, Dck. Goddammit, why does nobody seem to realize that the United States could in all likelihood cure the world of terrorism if we focused something like 1% of the money we are spending on an unjust war in Iraq on stopping diseases, famine, and injustice?

And will the President ever learn to pronounce (among 100 other words) "terror?" Memo to George: it has two syllables -- "terr -- or," not just one ("we will stop terr and the terrists").

Anyway.

For supper G & I went down to the Farmer's Market; I had Singaporean (?) noodles and G had fried clams from Tusquella's. I cannot rhapsodize too much about the Market. It is truly one of the greatest places I have ever visited and to have it not five minutes away is a blessing.

Returned home with a small sack of chocolates and watched Jules and Jim, Truffaut's famous film. Still working my way through the school viewing list. It was very absorbing; I can see on the one hand how its moral ambiguities frustrated and even infuriated many critics of the time, but ultimately its message is that life is ambiguous. It takes some "reading" of the film to arrive at this conclusion, and a lot of folks don't have the time or the inclincation to ponder film, or art, or much else for that matter.

This morning, a little reading for school, and then we are off to Pink's for lunch -- every time we have gone there in the evening it has been a 45-minute wait but lunchtime is usually not too bad -- then to Universal Studios, five minutes from here, where I have an annual pass.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Today: walked the dog, G ran some errands. Refitting her old laptop for my school purposes, which kept me up way too late last night. S[ent a while sorting pictures and posting them to the previous blog entry, and now it is lunchtime.

Big update: to Boston and Back

A little late in getting this update posted. It's taken me a while to get the process of downloading photos from my camera-phone and uploading them to Blogger, but I think I have got it together for this mega-post.

Last weekend was fabulous. We flew to Boston to see my brother Teige and his wife Becca, and go to a Red Sox/Yankees game at Fenway and sit on the Green Monster. Totally great time. Here's how it all went down.

Thursday
G & I are miserable failures in our first attempt to get to LAX in our own car. The remote parking lot shuttle and of course our own lateness combined to make us miss our 12:15 flight. The following flight was overbooked, but we finally got on a 4:00 flight and got into Boston around 12:30. Cabbed it to the Omni Hotel from the airport which took about ten minutes, met Teige and squeezed in a few beers at the Beantown Pub just down the street. Becca picked the hotle and did an awesome job. The location was excellent, just around the corner from Quincy Market. The air conditioner conked out somewhere in the night, leaving the unfortunate Genevieve stuck in a hot 14th floor hotel room with two slumbering Sheehan boys. Becca had been under the weather so we weren't sure if she was even going to make it.

Friday
Got up and went off in search of Irish breakfast. Found it at a nearby pub, Kitty O'Sheas, part of a chain, I gather. They played the most random and bizarre assortment of music in the place -- like, John Sebastian followed by some French pop song followed by the Beastie Boys. Food was good, though, and it was followed by a couple of pints and the welcome news that Becca would, after all, be joining us. The it was off to the Harpoon Brewery for their "tour," which as it turns out consists of sitting at their lovely bar drinking free, freshly-brewed beer. As you can imagine this was very upsetting.


Harpoon Brewery "tour." Mmmmmmm.

Then it was off to the hotel to meet Becca and get on over to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox take on the evil-doers of all time, the Yankees. Let me get this straight -- I HATE the Yankees. HATE them beyond all reason. I've said it before and I'll say it again, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see Derek Jeter's face shoved into a belt-sander. So it was with grim determination that Teige and I suited up for the big game.


Pre-game. Take no prisoners. Shoot the wounded. Please note "Yankees Hater" caps.

Along the way the excellent signage work of the Transit Authority guided us swiftly to the ballpark.


Irony.

Outside the park all was hustle and bustle. Great area around Fenway, better in some ways then Wrigleyville. I don't remember this being the case in bygone days but now they close off Yawkey and fans can hang out on the street to smoke or grab a burger and go right back into the ballpark. Looked in vain for a "Jeter Swallows" sticker for my friend Mark.


Yawkey by day . . .

The Fenway Faithful had some good advice for Nomar:



. . . and plenty of love for my man Jeter:



Then it was into the park. The day had been hot and sticky but up on the Green Monster there was a nice breeze blowing. All the beer and sweating had made me fatigued, so I didn't booze up much during the game. Also, it must be said that the official scorecard at Fenway sucks. It's inside a Sox magazine and just printed on magazine paper, so it is hard to write on and flops around all over the place. Very aggravating. Threw mine in the trash after the fourth inning.


Fenway as seen from atop the Green Monster


Teige and Becca on the Monster

The game looked to be a Sox victory for sure, but Schilling had a rare bad outing and the bullpen didn't do him any favors when the Sox had come back to tie.


The Sox blow their lead and Teige is displeased.

So they lost, but we had a great time anyway. Millar hit three homers, which was a treat and shut up the jackasses who booed him after his first because of a bad play which wasn't his fault. Such a joy to hang with my bro and his wonderful wife. And to be in Fenway on top of it! What a marvelous old gem it is.

Had a few beers after the game at a local pub but I for one was thoroughly dehydrated and wasted; we were all kind of beat so we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Saturday
Got to the lobby of the hotel and oh, yes, it is convention time. From our window in the hotel we could see the media trucks rolling in.


The media amass at Government Center, as seen from our hotel room.

The lobby was a mass of milling, confused delegates. I gathered from eavesdropping that the New Jersey delegation was housed at our hotel.


The Omni lobby filled with confused members of the New Jersey delegation.

Started our day by heading to the Eagle's Deli near Boston College. Great greasy-spoon cafeteria-style eating and plenty of it. It's a must-visit every time we go to Boston. Spent plenty of time there when Sean and Teige were in college and I'd go and visit them. Even ate the Godzilla Burger, which is like a pound of meat with a pound of fries. You used to get your picture on the wall if you finsihed it. They also offer another burger which offers FIVE pounds of meat and fries. If you finish it in one hour it's free. Great deal!


The glorious Eagle's Deli near BC. An absolute mecca for the underfed. Named #2 Best Place in the World to Pig Out, I kid you not, by the Travel Channel.

We were served by Stein the grumpy Eagle's deli guy. We were both wearing Yankees Hater caps, a fact I cheerfully pointed out to him. He regarded me with a baleful, withering look and went back to preparing my sandwich.


Stein.

At the brewery we had heard about an event called the "Hophead Throwdown," a beer tasting benefitting the MS Society, so of course it was a must. Drank some VERY hoppy beers; we only really liked a couple of them. Decided to go back down to Faneuil Hall and visit the Union Oyster House, another must-visit for us. The girls went shopping for a bit and Teige and I searched in vain for a long-sleeved Red Sox shirt, the likes of which I have imagined but never seen. (Finally did find the desired item at Moonlight Graham.)

Around Quincy Market the media were setting up for the big convention coverage. There was a heavy military and police presence. Something mildly unnerving about seeing armed soliders on every corner and Federal Protective Service Police (who ARE those guys?) swarming in the streets.


At Faneuil Hall, MSNBC crew prepare for Chris Matthews's bellowing coverage of the convention

Teige and I were walking around catching glimpses of the Sox game through open bar windows. What a baseball town Boston is. Every bar had little groups of people gathered outside the windows, attentively following the action. Pandemonium broke out when the A-Rod beaning/Varitek smackdown fight occurred. Plenty of "Kick his ass!" and more colorful terms were explosively expressed in broad New England accents. Personally I loved seeing A-Rod, that swaggering, egotistical, pretentious ass who bats like .162 with runners in scoring postion receiving what the MLB coverage delightfully terms "an old-fashioned hockey face wash." And in Boston, I wasn't alone.


An "old-fashioned hockey face wash."


The crowd at Quincy Market watches the Sox/Yanks game raptly, just after the big fight broke out.

As we strolled around we occasionally came across some poor actor dressed as a founding father trying to engage the tourists, generally unsuccessfully.


A child flees in horror from a founding father.

We went over the the Oyster House where we had a little seafood snack and watched the game in privacy for a bit -- there was nobody but us in the small dining room off the bar and a big-screen TV all to ourselves. It soon filled up with families including many screaming children. An umpire blew a call and Teige screamed "Bullshit!" And then realized there were little kids there and almost as loud, said "Sorry!" Everyone laughed their asses off. Eventually the screaming infants drove us next door to Hennessy's where we watched the rest of the game in relative comfort. An amazing end to the game as Bill Mueller hit a two-run shot in the ninth to win it for the Sox. Such rejoicing all over Boston! Strangers hugging each other, absolute celebration. Totally wonderful.

Finished off our day with a trip to Harvard Square and dinner at another must-visit, the Border Cafe for some kickass Tex-Mex. Then back to the hotel and a midnight drink at the Beantown Pub to celebrate Teige's 31st birthday.

Sunday
G and I got up very early -- around 6:00 am -- to catch our flight. After the debacle at LAX we wanted no mistakes. Got to the airport with no problems and thanked our stars we had decided on the early flight as the airport at 7:30 am was really starting to turn into a zoo with all the convention folks arriving and the attendant security concerns. Got on our plane and squeezed my ass into one of those asinine bulkead seats, slept fitfully for much of the flight and desperately tried to get blood flowing to my feet for the rest. The shuttle to our car at LAX was a 40-minute wait. We stopped at the fabulous Canter's deli and loaded up on deli food, came home, ate, and went to see The Bourne Supremacy, which was very effective, simultaneously relying on and defying the conventions of the genre.

Mostly, a day spent in a fog of "where am I?" "what time is it?" jet-lagginess.

Monday
See Mike buy Tivo. See Mike unpack Tivo and install. See Mike curse. Curse, Mike, curse! See Tivo's program guide not work. See Mike curse some more.


Wednesday, July 21, 2004

The Fum of All Sears

Just back from an hour's walk for today's exercise. My butt hurt too much from the exercise bike to use it today. Spent the morning, after breakfast, cleaning off old files and programs from my computer, defragging my hard drives, etc., in preparation for digitizing the bowling alley footage. Then it was out the door for almost an hour's walk. Another perfect, dry-hot summer day her in LA. We have been here almost three weeks and it has not rained even once; it hasn't even looked remotely like it will rain. Glory hallelujah.

Spent the remainder of yesterday logging video and slowly dumping our CD collection into our media PC, which is hooked into the home theatre system. Made a great dinner: seared pork tenderloin with chili-mango pear sauce, pineapple-mango-jalapeno salsa, and pasta rosettes with sundried tomatoes, olive oil and basil. Much more successful than the duck the other night, which was pretty good. The pork overcooked a tad though; it's always tough for me to manage to keep meat warm while I'm using the pan for a sauce. Have to work on that.

Then we watched the appalling Sum of All Fears starring Ben Affleck. Now, Affleck seems to be a likeable fellow. I enjoy him as a wisecracking Kevin Smith surrogate in Smith's pictures. He is not, however, at all cut out for the noble action-hero roles Hollywood keeps dishing out to him. He just does not have the gravitas or the chops. And when a film pauses to show us slo-mo of anyone running through flames it's time to reach for the barf bag. There's a cool nuclear explosion in the flick, and that's about all I can say that's good about it.

Gotta log some more video now. Just spaghetti for dinner tonight!


I don't know if you can read this sign. It shows two men embracing and the copy reads: "We didn't come out to die of lung cancer." The phone number is 1-800 NO BUTTS. You folks make up your own jokes. Posted by Hello

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

New Marigold blog

I just started another blog to chronicle the postproduction of my bowling alley documentary, which you may remember me mentioning a couple of months back. Spent my day working on the doc and getting my Avid chops back into shape. Now it's time to cook that delicious pork tenderloin dinner I've so been looking forward to.

Monday, July 19, 2004

A day of getting things done today: catching up on paperwork and filing, writing a few emails, weekly planning, setting up our new voice mail, studying the first of Kieslowski's The Decalogue with two more to follow tonight, then a dinner of duck, potatoes and sugar snap peas.

I marinated the duck in orange juice, grated ginger, lemon and lime zest after seasoning it with salt and pepper, seared it, then finished it in the oven to medium-rare. Sauteed some thin slices of Yukon Gold potato in the rendered duck fat and a lemon-infused olive oil we bought at a store at the Grove the other day -- a store whose Paris location we visited when we were there a few years ago, carrying home tins of wonderful olive oils in our carryons. Deglazed the pan with the some Zinfandel which I was also serving for dinner; in retrospect I would use something a little crisper with more citrus. Added some glazed orange slices to the wine as it reduced. Blanched some peas and sauteed them in some butter and orange juice. Altogether it was very tasty, although the wine was a little overpowering, the potatoes a little too crispy, and the peas a tad overcooked. Lessons learned for next time.

Watched the Cubs lose to the evil but ludicrously talented Cardinals. G and I went down to the Farmers' Market for ice cream; I got bubble gum flavor. G wanted a couple of scoop but -- horror, no hot caramel sauce. We tried another venue but the sauce they had was like that ice cream shell type stuff, unacceptable. G was disappointed. Another errand on the way home and now it's time for more movies.

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Another perfect day here in LA. Got up around 10 AM, then G & I hit the exercise room, 8.5 miles on the bloody bicycle today. Hit my targets for actually exercising this week. Then off to meet my friend Peter for breakfast/brunch down at the Farmer's Market and do a little shopping. Peter was the worse for wear after a night spent at a rave (!).
 
Shopped around, got some beautiful pork tenderloin at the Huntington Meats, some candied chile-mango slices at a nut stand, some produce; gonna have a kickass chile mango-pear sauce for the tenderloins, pineapple-mango salsa, and pasta with basil and sundried tomatoes for dinner one night this week.

. . . but not tonight. Tonight our friend Mark was in town and suggested Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. That's right, chicken and waffles combined. Images of Homer Simpson wrapping a waffle around a stick of butter that may appear in your mind are not far off the mark. Greasy and bad for you and absolutely delicious.
 
Got a chance to phone Mom and Dad in the afternoon, it was good to hear their voices and that all is well.
 
Random notes:
 
Genevieve reminded me to post this. I don't get too many chuckles out of most of these Flash cartoons but this is pretty amusing in parts: http://www.jibjab.com/thisland.html

OK, so, every time I go out on the street wearing a baseball cap, people compare to to Michael Moore, or outright mistake me for him. I don't really see the resemblance myself. For example, take a look at these two pictures, and you tell me if you see any resemblance:

Michael Moore:



Me:



I just don't get it.

Off to play some Links with a friend in Chicago.

Saturday, July 17, 2004


Thought I would post this marvelous picture of Boris taken by my friend Michael Butz at our last Chicago cookout.
 Posted by Hello

Friday, July 16, 2004

Long time since an update . . . but here goes . . .

We've been having fun. Finally got some filing cabinets and our little workspace is more or less set up. Still waiting for our phone service to get turned on.

So backtracking -- Monday, took a long walk in Runyon Canyon Park, right around the corner from our place, and then had a great day at the Farmer's Market, which is a fantastic place about 1/2 a mile away from our apartment. Tons of fresh meats, veggies, little shops, and attached to it is a beautiful outdoor mall called the Grove, beautifully designed. It even has a little trolley which rides between the Market and the mall. Spent the day there shopping, hanging out and chilling, then came home and made a nice pasta, scallops and veggies dish with the beautiful fresh ingredients. We will be spending a lot of time at the market. Watched the very funny My Man Godfrey with William Powell in the evening.

Tuesday, finally got the cable and broadband turned on. Had to go to the Best Buy for a digital cable for the HDTV, and picked up a favorite movie of Genevieve's, The Bourne Identity. Watched that in the evening.

Wednesday our water was shut off -- they were working on the pipes in the basement -- so we had no bathroom. Where to go for a day where there are things to do and plenty of bathrooms? Why, Disneyland, of course. We had a lovely day at the parks. Already our annual passports have paid for themselves. A great place. Had dinner in the Blue Bayou, which is located inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, my all-time favorite, although Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye is extremely kick-ass, possibly the best thrill ride ever made. Missed a couple of favorites, but the glory of the pass is that we can hop in the car and half an hour later stroll through the gates of Disneyland without having to pay whenever we like!

Yesterday we mostly hung out around the house, nursed our aching Disneyfeet. Grilled a couple of nice NY strips for dinner with some french fries and fresh corn, all from the market. I went to see The Searchers with my friend Peter last night. What a great film; an archetypal Western action picture which also carries enormous subtextual baggage dealing with racial and family issues.

Slept a little late today. Got up, hit the fitness center and did 10 miles on the exercise bike. Now I'm catching up, organizing, and then I'll be watching a big chunk of Kieslowski's The Decalogue for the rest of the afternoon.

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Hanging stuff up

Well, we finally got to the point where we could hang a few of or things on walls and it really makes the place feel more like home. Still a ways to go, we need several pieces of furniture and such. We just got back from taking Boris to a doggy park. He has not been able to run wild and free at al since we moved here as our street is very busy, but fortunately they have some great big opn spaces fenced in for dogs in some of the parks. Boris ran around for 45 minutes and really seemed to enjoy himself. Right now he is otally sacked out at my feet.

Our new phones have cameras so once we get our own internet service not only will I be able to post a much more comprehensive update, but I will be able to post pictures too. Meanhile we're off to Santa Monica for brunch at the Border Grill and then stopping at a furniture place for some file cabinets.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Just about there...

Hey all. Sorry to have been out of touch -- we have no land-line phone, the cell service in the Hollywood Hills is an abomination and the only way to get online reliably is to poach off a neighbor's wireless router as I am doing right now. All should be settled by mid-next week, we hope. Otherwise things are OK. After my 4th July post we stopped at Disneyland for fireworks and a couple of favorite rides.We had a blast for our 10th anniversary together. Since then it has been more or less constant unpacking. We are now at a point where we can hang som stuff on the walls and the only stuff in boxe are our books. We need a few items of furniture rather soon, such as bookcases and a couple of file cabinets, but the home theatre and our desks and computers are set up -- all we need now is the broadband connection. Those on the east -- you are in our thoughts! We just forget the time difference and then around 9:00 say, I'm gona call Mom, and then we're like, but it's midnight there! We'l get used to it -- on top of which our cell phones make every call an aggravation so we have been using them only for quick, necessary calls. So don't tale or lack of calling the wrong way!

Sunday, July 04, 2004

this is an audio post - click to play

Friday, July 02, 2004

this is an audio post - click to play