Queenkv’s Brainpickings

Mark sent this link to me…

Poke the Penguin
It’s a silly Flash thing…and yes, you do need the Macromedia Flash player installed on your browser.

So go ahead. Try pissing him off….

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I got back from North Carolina on Thursday. I managed to make a good impression on the stations. I tasted the local specialities. I imagined myself living in the “Tarheel State” with Mark.

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Courtney showed me where Oprah lives. She said Oprah bought this mega-property so that she has a place to say when she’s visiting Maya Angelou

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North and South Carolina were one colony until 1729. Carolina was named to honor Charles IX of France and then Charles I and Charles II of England. Carolina is rooted in Latin and comes from the word Caroliinus. This word is derived from the name Carolus, translated as “Charles.”
[from http://www.netstate.com/states/intro/nc_intro.htm]

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Some nice houses in NC

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On Tuesday night, we ate at the Mayflower.

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I had a combo plate of Fried Catfish and Popcorn Shrimp. Tasty stuff….but all that fried breaded goodness filled me up quickly. The Mayflower had a bunch of seafood - all fried. This hearty meal came with fries and hush puppies - corn bread, fried and in the shape of a huge onion ring. You might be able to catch a peek of the hush puppies underneath the fries, catfish and shrimp.

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Just from a glance at a menus from a few other restuarants, it seems people here like to fry everything. It reminds me of this B-Side Radio program about trying all the fried goodies at the State Fair. Did cheesecake need to be fried up? What about twinkies? Or Oreos? Yeah…something like that.

In any event, I managed to make some healthy choices for lunch. I went to lunch with some folks from the station. They picked a cute and classy spot in what some sign called the “Reynolda Historic District.” I wanted to try the catfish sandwich there, but they ran out. So I chose the “cold plate” lunch special - tuna, chicken and pasta salads over a bed of greens. It tasted great, especially when the temps reaching up to 99 degrees or so.

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I bought some North Carolina wine for my family back home. At this store, the staff pix covered French and Napa labels.

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Here’s Lindy on the way to the Raliegh airport.

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She decided to takeher allergy medicine in the morning….and it made her sleepy.

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On my last day in NC - we stopped by Biscuitville for breakfast. I think biscuits are another staple of the local cuisine.

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I had the buiscuits and gravy. The last time I had this dish was back in Gallup, New Mexico - on our road trip from LA to Chicago. The Biscuitville version had these fluffy biscuits and savory gravy…another hearty meal. I could only eat half of it.

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At the airport…a grim reminder….My heart kinda stopped in my throat as I thought about the men and women separated from their families because of this war.

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I missed home. It’s good to be home and back with my honey. Still trying to get over the time change…I was nearly out like a light by 9pm last night…and then I woke up a few times early this morning - simply because my body didn’t know any better.

I have pix from NC - I’ll post them in a little bit…

But first… NY Times printed this column on the state of media coverage. It’s honest, insightful and blunt.

“The real failure has been television’s. According to monitoring by the Tyndall Report, ABC News had a total of 18 minutes of the Darfur genocide in its nightly newscasts all last year - and that turns out to be a credit to Peter Jennings. NBC had only 5 minutes of coverage all last year, and CBS only 3 minutes - about a minute of coverage for every 100,000 deaths. In contrast, Martha Stewart received 130 minutes of coverage by the three networks.” - Nicholas D> Kristof wrote in the column: “All Ears for Tom Cruise, All Eyes on Brad Pitt.”

WINSTON-SALEM — My first visit out here…lot’s of green stuff….hot, humid…the weather reports promise the temperature to reach record highs…the temps remind me of the Philippines….just not as tropical.

Courtney and Lindy have a lovely home. Last night, we went to the Cracker Barrel with Courtney’s mom. Yummy chicken dumplings and green beans…and way too much good food. I gotta reign in this eating business because next week I’m doing a fitting for my wedding dress. No big booty allowed on my body for my wedding day. No sir. No way. Yah.

Had my ‘buckies. Praise the Lord for coffeehouse chains. It’s the same grande skim toffee nut latte - whether I order it off of Robinhood Rd in NC or in the 7th arrondisment in Paris. Yeah baby…

Finally, a few thoughts on “the South.” I had a two hour layover in Nashville. I ate a chicken caesar salad for lunch. I saw signs welcoming me to “Music City.” I suppose that would have given me thrills if I was a country fan. I grabbed some carpet next to other folks working on laptops. We gathered around the electric plugs in the corner of an ex-gate area. I call it ex-gate because all the seats were removed. I saw a father/son duo watching some comedy act on a portable DVD player. I wished my laptop had a DVD player. I remember watching the Family Guy in Sweden, during our morning wait for our Paris flight. Then I saw the title on the empty DVD case - “Jeff Foxworthy.”

Wow - that’s when I knew I have arrived in “the South.”

PS - I think Foxworthy is brilliant. My ex-boyfriend in highschool was addicted to the man and the tapes…and well, he introduced/forced me to watch his act. Eventually, I conceded he was a funny man.

Dude.

Drinking wine. Kinda sloshed. So..I’m on a pillow. Mark is in the armchair. A few ten minutes before - I asked him if he still loved me if I was a Cylon. He asked before or after….I said after..

[picture from http://www.rikksrevues.com/]

Like Sharon…Boomer…yeah, she’s a chick…and she’s a cylon chick. But a human could love her. Mark could love me.

But he said he couldn’t….’cause: “You lied to me.”

Owie.

Dude…I tried to tell Mark we need to postpone the wedding…but he laugh at me.

And he’s still laughing.

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We went to dinner at BJ’s in West Covina, just off the 10 Freeway. Typical BJ food - over-priced American pub grub. But we liked it. Our server was another matter. It took him nearly 15 minutes to take our order. It wasn’t crowded….a week night…and well…we didn’t even have drinks to sip on or water to mull over. I almost insisted on leaving. But, I wanted to give the dude a chance. After reading the waiter rant - I want to give him a chance. I was a little peeved that the waiter didn’t seemed bother about keeping us waiting. On Top of that, I remember trying to order a mint juelp. I saw BJ’s had a huge bar and I thought I’d get lucky. He said they didn’t have it. Fair enough.

After dinner, I wanted some Irish coffee. He looked at me and smoothly replied: “Oh we don’t have that.”

I looked at him. Then I looked at the huge bar….I asked him if they had Jameson and he cut me off, assuring me that BJ’s and it’s huge bar did not serve Irish coffee.

Dear reader…here’s the recipe for Irish Coffee….it’s a no brainer. I don’t even need it served in an Irish mug.
(recipe from recipes.epicurean.com)

Ingredients:
3 cups hot, freshly brewed coffee
3/4 cup Irish whiskey
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup sweetened whipped cream
Ground coffee (optional)

Directions:
In a heated coffee server or metal pitcher, combine coffee, whiskey, and sugar. Pour mixture into warmed Irish-coffee mugs. Top with whipped cream. Sprinkle a little ground coffee on the cream, if desired. Makes 4 servings.

After the waiter left - Mark was kind enough to go up to the bartender and order my drink. The bartender was surpised our waiter wouldn’t serve me my drink. Mark said the bartender would send it over with our waiter.

A few minutes later, our waiter returned.

“This is my first Irish coffee.”

I was still annoyed. The BJ’s waiter in West Covina not only took his sweet sweet time taking our orders - he tried to smooth talk over his lack of alcohol knowledge and make me feel unreasonable for ordering a drink. A drink I knew the bartender could make.

Dude, next time don’t let your ignorance stand between me and my after-dinner drink.

OK…I’ve been worried about uploading pix to this blog after the “incident” with our baby…the cannon elph. Today - I got over that hang-up, attached the camera to my iMac with it’s USB cord and let iPhoto do it’s magic. Yeah! I got all my pictures up to my hard drive for the month of July. Yeah!

So…back to some BonVivant reviews….

First up - sushi in Covina. Yes - it’s totally possible to have decent raw fish . My dad was a bit worried about this place.

“How can you have fresh fish when it’s so far from the ocean?” he asked.

Sushi Time is on Arrow Highway. Inside, the sushi chef’s greet you - like any typical Japanese restaurant. They have specials on a dry erase board and J-Pop gently teased throught the background. They have a list of sushi pieces on their a’la’carte menu. I like going for the most bang for my buck - so I order the sushi and sashmi combo (about $14). Last night, one guy finished his meal and the bar and asked what I ordered. He was looking for the sushi and sashmi combo on the menu and couldn’t find it.

It’s hot in Cali…so, it’s perfect weather for chilled raw fish. Wash it down with some cold sake. Good stuff.

My raw fish pieces in the combo tasted fresh and filling.

Last night, my dad looked for some sushi without rice - he pointed out that the rice get’s filling. We ordered the Japanese Ceviche. Wowa! Raw fish kept chilled and cooked by the acid from the lemon and tomato pieces. I was also spicy. I needed to order a glass of water to cool down. I told our brunette waitress that they should add this special to the regular menu.

During our first visit to Sushi Time - I also ordered the ikura (salmon roe)….It was the only disappointing part of my meal. I like my ikura chilled and crispy. These were a bit cool and juicy. I was expecting that and well…I thought it tasted icky.

In any event, I think my dad was covinced - you can get good sushi a few hours away from the sea.

On my first Valentine’s with Wes (1997) - he took me to this kick-ass Japanese restuarant…in some 5-star snooty hotel. The sushi was yummy. I didn’t thing I’d ever find another place to top these raw fish offerings.

I was wrong.

We celebrated Tom’s B-day at Susan and Tom’s favorite sushi place - Hana Zen. It’s next to First Crush - in the SF theater district. Everyone who worked at the restuarant knew the couple and were thrilled to celebrate Tom’s b-day. We had a lot of sake - two types….chilled….and yummy…and well…yeah. the sake was good stuff.

Hana Zen is at the cross streets of Cyril Magnin & Ellis Street.

We had just a lot of everything. Most of the dinner consisted of a chef’s choice of sushi and Susan and Tom’s favorite dishes.

Everyone snapped up the sashimi - fresh, delicate and well, you can’t have just one. We also made fine work of some “dragon” rolls [with the fish rolled over the seaweed and rice] and other spicy tuna offerings.

I had my first taste of Yakitori - grilled appetizers of sorts. Everytime a sever brought out a Yakitori dish - he or she urged us to eat it right away - lest it get’s cold…or something like that.

For our non-raw dishes…we had:

Lamb Yaki (the lamb meat was tender and easy to pry off the bones)

Yaki Asparagus (Grilled asparagus with Japanese mayo and tobiko - I dug the mayo…so tasty and hearty)

Scallops wrapped with bacon - oh yeah, bacon makes seafood taste good. I could not stop myself from gorging on this stuff.

Ika no Maruyaki (Grilled Whole Squid with special teriyaki sauce - also good….light and smoky)

We had more than these dishes…a lot more…but remember, I had sake. It was a miracle I could hold the camera steady. I suppose some would say it was a miracle I got the pictures off the camera after it’s been through a washing machine.

OK - this was a special dish - compliments of the chef. Everyone here loves Susan and Tom - did I mention that? So, the chef created this special sushi dish - especially for Tom. It’s not available on the menu…a few minutes after it was served - it was not available on the table. We gobbled it up. Again, that fresh - delicate - yummy taste…we gobbled…could not help ourselves.

Thank heavens someone had the presence of mind to order water. Note to self - get more H2O after going through a couple big bottles of sake.

So - next time you’re in San Francisco - check out Hana Zen. You’ll love it.

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[from http://www.hollywood-north.net/]

James Doohan passed away yesterday morning. He was 85. The Canadien-born actor is best known for the role of Scotty, on the Orginal Star Trek Series and movies. He also made a cameo apperance on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The dude was such an inspiration - to a generation of scientists and engineers - even some of the brain dudes at NASA. He, along with the Enterprise crew, made TV viewers believe they could be more than just Earth-bound.

I like this picture of Scotty - ’cause my bro and I once starred as Enterprise engineers at the Star Trek Experience in Universal Studios. That was the best attraction - ever. We have a tape of the show we did…along with my skating buddy, Megan. She was pretty enough to be casted on bridge. My dad was casted as a Klignon. Go dad! Apparently, the little Klignon dog got hungry and ate my dad’s arm.

As engineers, my bro and I wore the super-cool engineer uniforms, like Scotty. The director told us to bang at the boards….like we were keying in stuff to the computer. Then to pull at our hair after 10 seconds. Finally, we had to choke each other. Easy. We’re brother and sister after all. So, I guess whatever happened to the starship…well it was engineerings fault. Since I’m the older sister, I’m sure my little bro screwed something up.

In any event, I miss Scotty.

Well…I have my dj shift today on KSPC - 2-4pm….

I also have a few notes on my last podcast (Queenkv Getting Digital - Ep. 1). I uploaded it to KYOU Radio - and it was added to their line-up earlier this week. Sweetness! Which means - my podcast was scheduled with their regular programming - not just online - but on 1550 KYCY-AM…..neato! Wow…did not know Infinity Broadcasting owned KYOU Radio. Interesting.

Online listeners get to comment/vote on their favorite shows - and that determines which popular shows KYOU Radio keeps in its line-up. So - I’ll let folks know when my show is on….and please please folks - VOTE VOTE for my next podcast - OK?

OK - now here are the times you can listen to Queenkv’s Oral Fixation - Episode 2 - live:
(PST)
1:00 AM
9:00 AM
12:00 PM (Episode 1)
5:00 PM
8:00 PM (Episode 1)

Another CD Review for the station.

The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up – “Picks Us Apart�?

It’s your standard indie rock album. The first few tracks are nearly formulaic compositions of sad and soulful lyrics, moody guitars and a touch of ironic attitude. On their website, the band describes the album as: “A eulogy set to a danceable beat.�? According to a review on the All Music Guide – the band is named in honor of Jim Yoshii, a high school friend. The beginning of the album sounds like Death Cab for Cutie. By the fifth track, JYPU branches out into more complicated sounds ranging from rockin’ noise to tender orchestral harmonies.
(Absolutely Kosher Records)

I liked “A Toast to the Happy Couple” and Silver Sparkler. Mind of God sounded like Slowdive or Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart Again�?