babs through a glass darkly

I stole this flyer from Amanda's blog. The TBA has turned out to be MOM, fresh from her Sammy win. Starts at nine.

So much happening this holiday weekend! Here are some kitten pictures to calm your frazzled mind.

This picture doesn't really capture the full intensity of the "playing" that goes on around the house, but it does capture the general vibe, which is Steve running away from the kitten. Barbara rules the roost!
Here a couple of artsy, kitten through the window pictures.

culture schmulture

Heckasac doesn't feel so good. Heckasac hopes that if she talks about herself in the third person she can distance herself from the bad vibes that are occurring in her bod. Heckasac is gonna post about some cultural-ish activities upcoming in Sac.

The Maxfield Parrish show at the Crocker is ongoing and closes July 19th, so don't forget to go. It's a drag the Crocker closes at five. And it's closed Mondays.

Capital Stage is premiering a new play called "Erratica: An Academic Farce" on July 11th. OK, so the title doesn't sound so promising! But it's cool that they developed it through their workshop program. And Stephanie Gularte stars, and she's good.

The thing I'm most excited about it the Doug Biggert show at the Verge. Opening reception July 9th, 6-10. Do not miss!

Ganglians!

Let's hear it for local boys The Ganglians! They are getting a lot of attention all over, including a really good review on Pitchfork that must be selling a ton of albums for them. They're playing a benefit for themselves tonight at Luigi's, and Zach Hill jumped on it recently. They're going on an East Coast tour soon and they need money to get there.

salsa

Last month's Gourmet had a salsa recipe that got me inspired to start learning more about cooking Mexican food, and I also went to the library and checked out a Dianna Kennedy book. One thing I learned is that the translation of "frijoles refritos" is closer to "well-fried beans" than "refried beans". They are only fried once, but the "re" on the fritos is for emphasis. The Diana Kennedy recipe is the bomb. This is the only time I've ever cooked with epazote, and I can't believe how good it is in beans! The recipes I've read all emphasize that epazote goes better with black beans, so I'll try it that way, but it was dynamite with pintos, too. I didn't get a picture of the mashed and fried beans, but the whole ones were also good.

It was really fun going to La Superior and picking out fresh and dried chilies that I had never cooked with before. The prices at La Superior make me trip out on the fact that people think Safeway is cheap. Everything is like half as much!

The salsa recipe is not linked online, but I think I can sum it up. Count out about 40 dried chilies de arbol and de-stem them. Peel a clove of garlic. Roast the chilies and the garlic close in a medium-hot cast iron skillet for about 2 minutes-until they start to get black spots. Take those out and put them in a blender and throw about a pound of tomatillos in the iron skillet.

Keep turning the tomatillos with tongs until they soften and get charred in spots. Take out the small ones as they get soft. The big ones can be in there as long as 20 minutes.
Blend it up and...
Delicious and pretty orange salsa.
Over the weekend, I also created this kitten out of angel tears and fluffy clouds.

Goodbye to Mrs. Lee

The most important item on the agenda is to let everyone know that the Lees have sold Lee's hardware at S and 10th and their last day there is on June 30th. Anyone who has lived on the Southside should go by and say goodbye to Mrs. Lee, I think she would really appreciate it. A "what's up" to Mr. Lee will probably go unnoticed. I interviewed her yesterday, and hope it will go in the SNR, but if not I'll post it here.

I interviewed Mr. Maalouf and I like the way it came out. Love the picture.

The Mayyors absolutely killed it last night. I was in the room with them when they started and it was ear-bleedingly loud and people started to pour beer on each other and crowd surf, so I fled into the kitchen. I was set to cut out early and started to make my way through the living room when I realized that they sounded fucking great. Really ominous and heavy. The Pizzas were really good and funny, too. I liked when Charles sardonically dedicated the song "Too Popular" t0 the Mayyors.

Brew Awareness?

Tonight is the Show That Cannot Be Named, otherwise know as: If This Show Does Not Get Shut Down By Cops Then Funcastle Will Live Forever.

I'm gonna post from the heart, guys. I can see that it rubs people the wrong way when I make stabs at non craft brew in the interest of amusing myself or trying to make you laugh. If you know me, you know that you have seen me drink countless bladderloads of non-craft beer. I love Sacramento Treats, I love ice cold Tecate and High Life. I drink mass-produced beer like Alaskan Pale Ale and Anchor Steam, and it can be delicious. I am trying to share my love of beer with you, and I am really getting a lot of flack. I see you don't like my attitude about it, but I think it really is similar to DB making fun of crap like Medea's In Jail or whatever. Does anyone accuse him of being a snob for that?

I know you're kind of joking, but it's just not the kind of comments I get if I post about wine or food or movies or bands or lots of other topics. I think it's cool for anyone to get into anything and have some standards about it whether it's records or wine or collecting 1860s silverware. Right? So are you going to keep busting my chops?

Brew Awareness

Did you know that the Original Pete's chain, which has only 8 locations total (this surprised me), has changed the name of two of its locations (midtown and El Dorado Hills) to "Pete's Restaurant and Brewhouse" because they have entered into a partnership with the well-respected Firestone Walker brewery to serve four proprietary beers? Every Monday these four beers are $2 a pint. They also serve the Firestone Pale Ale and the Double Barrel Ale, but those are not included in the discount. Here's what smiller had to say. He did not know I would be posting this. Surprise!:

All their “Pete’s” beers are $2 a pint. The Firestone taps don’t have the discount. I haven’t been in a while but their rotating seasonal tap (the one that had the awesome Velvet Merkin last winter) a month or so ago was their hefeweizen which I thought was pretty great for the style. Hefeweizens don’t exactly thrill me but when one is balanced instead of overly spiced like a lot of US hefeweizens, it’s a pleasant surprise. The other beers are OK but nothing quite as good as the proper Firestone beers. They have a pale, an IPA, an amber and a red. They’re all well made without being anything too fancy. I’d definitely stick to the Firestone beers on any other day besides Monday. I think they have the Firestone porter right now which is awesome. My biggest problem with Pete’s is that they serve their brews ice cold in super chilled glasses.