Secret?

 I watched First Cow last night, the new-ish movie from Kelly Reichardt (Meek's Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy). Really enjoyed it. I was apprehensive when I saw Alia Shawkat in the first scene because I'm not a big fan, but without spoiling I will say it's a cameo. Orion Lee, who plays King Lu is an enormously appealing and charismatic actor. I looked him up and looks like he's done a lot of theater.

I had a thought while watching it and thinking about all the movies I've watched recently that were made by female directors: what if male directors aren't very good? I think this might secretly be the case and I'm putting this forth without any kind of developed argument. 

New phase of quar: same phase of quar

These days I mostly just watch The Vow and as of last night I started hate-watching We Are Who We Are but I don't think I can get through it. Also, Smiller and I finished the Sopranos. He had never seen the ending! I had only seen it once, close to when it was first on (I  think, my memory could be wrong). Brilliant! Best ending.

As far as the list of brilliant female directors, the one movie I've watched lately is Red Road. Intense! Has one of the craziest sex scenes ever. Then I found out the director, Andrea Arnold (pictured), directed American Honey and also the second season of Big Little Lies. I also saw her movie Fish Tank, I think I went to see it, so that was 11 years ago.

As far as quar. phases go, maybe the new phase is just settling in and not going through any truly new phases? I have the ingredients to start fermenting miso but keep forgetting to start it. I have a camping trip planned, but I'm fully expecting either fires or rain to interrupt it since everything I try to do with friends gets canceled.

I am getting even less social, my 2 bookclubs are the only things I do consistently (well it's really 3 bookclubs but one is for work so I don't count that as social). 

Wow, boring post!!

Brilliant underappreciated female directors

Hi to you if you are reading this, but these days I'm posting just for myself since it's not much of an interactive space. I was watching La Cienaga last night, as part of the Criterion "Bad Vacation" collection (I've watched almost all of them - may rewatch Haneke's "Funny Games" although it's one of his weaker movies), anyway, La Cienaga is brilliant and is directed by an Argentinian woman and I was thinking since I often forget director's names that I should start a list of brilliant female directors so that when I'm looking for a movie to watch I can browse theirs.

So: Lucrecia Martel. She has quite a few and La Cienaga is her first full-length. She seems to be quite acclaimed so not sure why I haven't heard of her.

The other day Mike C. texted me to ask if I had ever seen movies by Lynne Ramsay and I said no and then looked up her movies and I've seen most of them! I think I was a bit confused by Morvern Callar, but I liked We Need to Talk About Kevin and liked but didn't love You Were Never Really Here. I need to watch Ratcatcher! That seems like one maybe Smiller would watch.

Then there's Eliza Hittman, Here most recent (this year) is Never Rarely Sometimes Always is super gripping and important. Beach Rats I remember liking. I need to watch It Felt Like Love now.

Then there's one of my FAVES: Maren Ade. Towering talent there, but OF COURSE does not get the props she should of would if she was male. She's only made 3 movies in 17 years so I hope she makes more soon. She probably can't get funding cuz she's a woman.

Then there's Atlantics, which is on Netflix and I hope everyone has watched it!! It's very arresting, for the setting in Dakar as much as anything else. And I love the soundtrack and horror elements. Directed by Mati Diop, who also starred in a Claire Denis movie, so she's multitalented.

I need to watch Portrait of a Lady on Fire although I don't tend to like those type of period pieces, but that's directed by Celina Sciamma and I know people loved it.

I'll think of more and add!

Quar Phase Report

 It's now about two months since my last post. Dull, repetitive time flies! 

I deactivated my FB today. I hesitated on total delete due to photos, memories, etc. The final straw was looking at the Sac Antifa page about a protest I was planning to go to. I went home before dark, which was when the Antifa-organized one started. It was peaceful and inspiring.

Anyway, this Folsom bro (using his real name) was like "this is a great time to try out my Dodge whatever protester ramming truck". I flagged it as a violent threat. FB reviewed it and left it up. This along with articles coming out that FB refused to remove threats in advance of that kid killing the Kenosha protesters. 

It was a pretty easy choice given that I've wanted to do it for years, but I used to be afraid I would miss events. But without events.....

I will definitely miss Natalie's Mark Trail content.

Other quar stuff:

I make sourdough bread every week. It's tasty but ugly. I just bought a bread proofing basked and a lame (which is a knife you use to score the bread). I'm hoping the lame will help with the ugliness aspect. I have discovered that an overnight proof gives the best flavor. I'm not sure I'm using the term "proof" properly. I make bread, but I'm not a bread nerd. I don't read about it or anything, I just use the same recipe over and over, with slightly different mixes of flour.

My Elena Ferrante book club is going strong, one of the better quar. things I've done. We have finished book two. These books are mightily entertaining but don't linger in the mind. Not great for a book club because there's not a lot to discuss, but I enjoy the people in the group.

Still been doing a lot of writing, mostly for the Bee. Have another thing lined up for Sacramento Mag. 

I am stalled on my secret political activism project because work has been intense. It's too boring to go into, but it leaves me no time during the day for little projects, and then when I'm done I don't want to stay on my computer.

But politically, I've been donating more, I have a diversity book club at work, I just did my first protest in a while as I mentioned. 

PS Trump is going to win prepare yourself.

Criterion "bad vacation" collection is giving me life right now! Love it.

state of the Heckasac

What the world really doesn't need right now is....a new Heckasac post! But yet here it is.

"Quar" as I mostly call lockdown, shelter-in-place, what have you has so many different phases, right? It's always changing, yet always flat and dull. I won't say boring, because I have Criterion channel, a sourdough starter (thanks EL), a fun husband, and a lifetime of books, so I'm not "bored' but life is just flat and kinda drab.

I won't go through all the phases (a few: joking about gaining quar. weight, flour shortage/baking, backlash against joking about gaining weight) ok of course it's me so I would list the food ones.

Here's the phase I'm in now:

1 book club started (reading My Brilliant Friend), waiting for my books about racism to come in so I can start 2 more. Of the two I am looking to start, one is with friends (The New Jim Crow) and one is at work (re-reading White Fragility), since my work needs it!

Making sourdough on the regular. Ok, twice, but the second time the flavor was on point.

Starting a secret political activism project, not ready to share yet, hope I can keep up momentum on it

Bought a Dyson (one of the cheaper ones)

Running 4 times a week (3 miles each) and doing yoga or barre in my bedroom the other days

Still can't get a handle on my chaotic movie watching, which is upsetting to me. I want to find a way to stick to a theme, it's just to all over the place. Watching I Will Destroy You and tripping on it, on Season 6 of The Sopranos with Smiller and loving it more than ever. It will be a trip when we finally finish the show, it's going to feel like really turning a quar corner

Thinking about food writing a lot. I have made many mistakes and I'm learning. The latest thing is Peter Meehan stepping down at LA Times yesterday. I truly never got him. I always think about being so annoyed at how macho the first Lucky Peach was that I threw it away, and then people I knew later were able to sell their copy for a hundred bucks.

This year I've been doing more writing than ever, thanks mostly to a good editor hookup at The Bee. Writing about The Last Supper Society is one of the most rewarding things I've written in my career as far as feedback, so that's going well. With no social life, writing deadlines don't bring on dread like they used to, so I enjoy writing more. Plus, now I do The Cook In every Friday and that's been really fun and delicious.

With no 'rona, I would have been heading to Tampa for work soon, and then from there I was going to fly to Havana. If Cuba didn't work out I was going to go to Miama and the Keys. Those were my last travel plans for the year, besides a vague plan to go to Malaysia by myself in the fall. The lack of travel plans is the major contributor to the flatness of life for me.

So that's the state of Heckasac on July 2nd.

comedy article

I wrote a thing for the Bee on local comedy doin's

I think I've already written more this year than I did all of last year. It's so different taking on deadlines now because there's no social life for them to conflict with. It makes the writing more enjoyable.

cry of the day

This article on directors' memories of the Cannes film festival made me cry. Just this morning I was thinking I miss movies so bad! I think going to a movie will be an early post shelter in place activity for me, as long as the theaters put precautions in place. I'll do that before I'll eat sit down in a restaurant I'm pretty sure.

The lone exception in that article is the Wes Anderson part, which is lame and should have been cut out.

There are so many directors and movies mentioned that I haven't watched! My favorite is the quote from Hirokazu Kore-eda:

Because I experienced firsthand the vast reach of cinema and the abundance of its history. And then, once I accepted my own minuscule presence and my immaturity as a director, I experienced joy. The awareness that although I was but a single drop of water, I was flowing with the bountiful river of cinema. 

He directed Shoplifters, which I have wanted to watch. Why the fuck does pasting change the font sometimes, does anyone EVER want that to happen?@? Too lazy to fix.

Everyone is talking about this Robert Pattinson profile, I have to read it!

Sopranos and trips not taken

Smiller and I watched the season finale in season 4 (Whitecaps) of the Sopranos last night. WOW. The acting was so visceral and upsetting. I just checked, and Gandolfini and Falco both won Emmys for it, which was their right! Falco won the Golden Globe that season 2. Their marriage-ending fights in that episode made a Marriage Story look like the weak sauce it was. There's so many little touches like how Carmela shakes from nerves or even how she squints at the light when she's sick in the first part. One of my favorite episodes.

So my memory (no plot spoilers) is that season 5 and 6 are not that great? I think there's even a chance there are some episodes I never saw. Can't remember. I am glad I have more episodes to watch though.

We were supposed to be heading for London from SMF around midnight tonight. We had a decent red-eye with a one hour layover in Newark, and then would arrive in London on Friday night. We were hoping to be early enough and not too tired to get to our hotel in Islington and then grab a pint and fish and chips. It was going to be perfect to overcome jetlag because we left at night and arrived at night. I had a reservation at Ottolenghi Islington I think Saturday? And I was casting around for places for us to get a Sunday roast. And I had made a map in Google maps of other places to eat and go. Last time we were in London I was loving hanging out near the canals and checking out the barges people live and recreate on and also going to open air markets and sampling the food. And I saw so much cool art last time - the Christo in Hyde park and Toma Abts at the Serpentine.

Oh yeah, and because I was loving the London parks last time, and because of this New Yorker article about cold water swimming, I was planning on swimming in the Hampstead Heath pond, which has a men's and women's area.

dream job

I've never really had a "dream job". When I was a kid I told people I wanted to be a dentist because I knew I wasn't a hard enough worker to be a doctor and dentist sounded impressive. But I never took the slightest action to pursue that.

When I started college at Sac State I wanted to be a therapist and was a Psychology major. I still kind of wish I had stuck with that, as I probably would have been in practice for over ten years now and would be pretty established and settled probably.

But I veered off into being interested in the brain, and for a brief time (couple years) I guess my "dream job" became neuroscience researcher. I def. daydreamed about being all celebrated and garnering awards, etc. That led me into the lab and eventually into a job at UCD where I still am. But again, my realizing how hard I would have to work made me drop that. At least I know myself!

Writing about food has never really been a dream job, because I know doing it full time would ruin it. I mean maybe if I could take a time machine back to the 80s, which in retrospect was the heyday of food writing (on into the 90s), sure. But the field was small back then and I probably couldn't have cut it anyway.

Which leads me to my true dream job, which would also necessitate a time machine: working for Springbok puzzles in the 70s and 80s. If you have ever read the back of one of their puzzle boxes you know that there was some crazy creativity and wackiness going on there. And probably some recreational drugs as well. I picture pitch meetings for new puzzles, and I want to be in those meetings. So maybe my title would be creative director? Or just writer. Middle class jobs were a thing then so imagine this work allowing me to be financially secure enough to buy a ranch house, maybe with a conversation pit.

Although, looking at the Springbok history page, I see that it was founded in 63, but then sold to Hallmark by 67. Hallmark would probably suck to work for. So is my dream job even more specific than I thought? Is my dream job, being Katie Lewin and founding Springbok? What did she do after she sold it?

Wow, there is a jigsaw wiki!

butches!!

Slept on this when it came out, great article on butch lesbians (in the Times, it's SFW). Very entertaining 15 minute film along with it and I almost teared up a little to see Jenny Shimizu. I think it was the nostalgia of the CK One ad. I can't believe I wore that stuff!

My no-knead bread is looking really good today. Fingers crossed. I did add just a teeny bit of extra yeast. It still has to do the second rise for about an hour, and then cooking in the cast iron. It's the Jim Lahey recipe.

I really do see a pattern for myself with the beginning of the week being very rough with SUPER high anxiety and then mellowing out towards the end and then a long, boring but relaxing weekend.

new article up!

I wrote a thing for the Bee on what William Rolle is up to, and it has recipes, including for his famous salad dressing, which is super simple. I was so relieved to find out he is stoked.

I also wrote letters to the Cafe Marika peeps and June. June didn't answer, but Eva from Cafe Marika answered, but too late.

LOLing

Working on a thing that the Bee *might* publish (some parts of it fell through) and I'm LOLing remembering how BAR only gave Cafe Rolle 2 out of 4 stars.

Novel, delayed. Everything, delayed.

The Times has a short profile of writer Otessa Moshfegh today. I'm bummed they are delaying the release of her new book. This is part of a larger topic, but people need to accept that something magical is not going to happen this summer that is going to make things like book tours possible. So her new novel was supposed to come out but now is delayed until summer. But anyway, I love her and if anyone wants to borrow her book "Eileen", which is my favorite, I could loan it to you. If you want to do a deeper dive, the New Yorker did a longer profile.

Who runs Bartertown?

Wow two comments on my last post! Exciting! Being sincere!

I am about to go barter something so I thought I would start a list of things I have bartered during the pandemic. There's a lot and I will forget, and I like Heckasac to serve as my external brain. Although I am stretching bartered to include "venmoed money for"

1) Thermometer
2) traded dental picks for yeast and olive oil
3) traded herbs for homemade kimchee (that's the one I'm getting in a few minutes!)
4) Garth Greenwell book for Ocean Vuong book with bonus Lidia Yuknavitch book
5) wheat berries for duck fat
6) bout to buy wine from Chloe Henry (find her on the Gram to buy some wine, tell her what you like) and trade it for an N95 mask
I think that's it, but still, kind of a lot

What have you bartered?

It's all bullshit, sheeple!

Anyone else finding that Mondays are really bad? Garfield? Anyone?

I think it has to do with the news cycle ramping up for the week, going back to work when work is so weird (for those of us working from home) and then also the weekend being over but not really feeling like a weekend. I had a terrible day yesterday, my anxiety was off the freaking charts. Also our expensive baby ear thermometer is so all over the place that every few days I'm not sure if I have a low fever, and that happened yesterday. I feel fine though, hope you all do too.

But today is a Tuesday, Whole different beast, amiright?

I thought I would throw out a couple controversial food opinions, since people are talking a lot about food and cooking. One controversial opinion going around Twitter is that "sourdough is gross". This is happening because there's a yeast shortage so people are making their own sourdough starter. I mean, that opinion is just silly but it got me thinking.

I made meatballs yesterday, and I put a parm rind in the sauce, as the recipe called for. Controversial food opinion alert: I doubt this has an effect on the flavor whatsoever.

Controversial food opinion number two: bay leaves don't do shit. I feel like I've blogged about this before. I have them, I use them, but I doubt that they do anything.

While we are on this topic - epsom salts, what's the deal? Not for cooking, for soaking in. Do they do anything? By what physical mechanism? Do they soak into your skin? And do what? I recently finished the last of mine and someday I will buy more, but I don't think they do anything.

New Bee article!

My writing gigs were starting to pick up right when this thing hit. That will likely dry up but I feel blessed that I have my second article for the Bee this year up online, and in the paper edition on Sunday. Staci O'Toole has gotten a lot of press for her truffle farm in Placerville, and her cute truffle-hunting Italian dog. She even got a big piece in The Guardian. So I took a new angle and talked to the UCD scientist she is working with to figure out how to cultivate truffles in our climate. I had planned to do both interviews in person, but they worked out fine via Zoom. Now that everything is canceled, my weekends are pretty free to write, but of course all the publications no longer have any ad revenue coming in and are in survival mode.

I have one more small thing lined up, for a publication I've never written before, and that will be out in July. That may be it for a while.

old school Heckasac content

Thank you the Four Eyes for reminding me of this video, and also I looked on Heckasac and in 2011 the Four Eyes played it at the Xmas show. How did I forget that??????

Media pairing

Hi Kids,
Just felt like calling you that. So I am.

I'm adjusting to working from home and the wrist rash is better. I did a barre class at home yesterday and now a weird part of my back is sore.

Are you also wondering if Andrew Cuomo's nipples are pierced? Dan Savage weighs in. Spoiler: yes.

Since now all we can do is bake (if we have the ingreidents) and consume media or (sort of) go outside (but not to the beach or state parks!) I am going to suggest a media pairing to you. Is that a thing? Well, why not! It is now.

I suggest that you pair this New Yorker article about avalanches with this funny Swedish movie in which an avalanche is a pivotal plot point. I had to pay 4 bucks on Prime to rent it, but you can get it free from Kanopy which needs a library card which is too complicated so I didn't do it. There is one scene in Force Majeure that had me cracking up so hard, and also it's at a beautiful ski resort in the Alps so it's kind of like a little getaway.

Quarantinotainment for the reblogaissance

I posted on IG about this, but I watched the documentary Marjoe a couple nights ago and it blew my dome. Very entertaining, loved the 70s fashion, and the speaking in tongues church services and the giant Texas hair,etc. It won the Oscar for best documentary in 1972 but I think was a bit forgotten, or maybe I'm the only one who didn't get the memo. It's on Tubi, which is a free Roku channel that has all kinds of interesting stuff, including a lot of obscure documentaries and last night I was watching the Dolemite movie "Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son in Law".

Fun trivia: Marjoe, the documentary subject had somewhat of an acting career after the doc. came out and was briefly married to Candy Clark, of American Graffiti fame. How cute is she?

More quarantotainment: the IG account Comedy Quarantine is doing stand-up sets every day at 7pm and you can tip the comedians on Venmo. Yesterday had Kyle Kinane. Check it out!

Cooking tip: when we were in Oaxaca this year, we were blown away by their use of black beans in the cuisine. One of the dishes was enfrijoladas, which were kinda like enchiladas, but pureed black beans are the sauce. This is a very simple dish and easy to make from non-perishables. Since we are all obsessed with beans now, I would recommend making the beans from scratch so they will taste better. I just cooked black beans with some toasted dried chilies, put em in the blender with the bean liquor and chilies, then fried up some corn tortillas in oil, used some cotija I had left over (but any kind of cheese will do) and then topped with cilantro from our community garden. Here's a recipe.

Maren Ade is the best

Man, I really messed up on that Basha post below. I ass-umed that because a restaurant billed itself as "Jerusalem" cuisine that it was Israeli instead of Palestinian and then even thought their wall hanging was in Hebrew when it is obviously Arabic. Duh. I hope this new (opened in Jan) restaurant can hold on so I can write something about it and educate my dumb ass.

I am currently waiting on a Ticketmaster bot to help me get a refund from that Kings game that they promised me would be here soon over a week ago! I was supposed to go the night the entire season got canceled and I've got money for four tickets coming back. I understand they are scrambling and their business is super effed, but they already said it would be coming and now they are like "I don't see that, let me check our records". Then they said "it will be in as soon as 30 days" which I screengrabbed for next time I have to chat with the bot.

This absolute BABE (which is immaterial, but a fact) is the German director Maren Ade, who is a somewhat unsung genius. She def. got acclaim for her movie Toni Erdmann, which was wonderful, but I feel like she should be up there in the Serious Dude Director canon and it doesn't feel like she is. Criterion has both of her other movies up. They are both insane in their own way. The Forest for the Trees is the story of a socially awkward bumpkin who moves to the city to be a teacher and can't make friends and is desperately lonely. It is so REAL it will kill you. And Everyone Else, which was from 2009 and was the last before Toni Erdmann, has more weird mind-fuck pranks like TE. It's about a TERRIBLE relationship and also feels very real, and the plot involves a German couple on vacay in Sardinia so it kind of feels like a mini (but bad) vacation. I'd like to point out that Ade is only 43, which means that she was like 26 when she was directing Forest, wunderkind anyone? Her new movie is released in April, so if movie theaters still exist then I will even drive to the Bay Area to see it.

post

My wrists are scaly and I've also been getting wrist rashes. I'm very spacey and can't concentrate very well and keep doing weird stuff like today I put dressing on a salad that had dressing on it already and my head feels like it is going to float off my body and I keep worrying that that somehow means I have the virus and also I read that lack of taste and smell can mean you are infected and that made me freak out because my Ezekial bread tasted like cardboard this morning so I smelled my own armpit to prove I could still smell and then remembered that bread always tastes like cardboard.

I am losing weight and looking somewhat stringy and I feel like I have aged rapidly in the last two weeks and my skin is so dry from so much washing because showers and baths and washing dishes are the only things that feel clean. For once my nails are growing and aren't breaking off but then I know that nails trap germs so should I cut them and also I will never be able to get a manicure again so who cares if my nails are finally longer? It's funny to me this is the one thing that has made me lose my appetite, including when I thought I was dying of a tumor (benign) I think I was still eating but things are fuzzy from that time so maybe not.

My sister is out of work, my brother is out of work, my mom reports from coastal Mexico that people are taking it seriously, except their president AMLO who is apparently joking about it. She said she is used to being isolated so this is not that different, but she also went to a flamenco class Thursday I think and is going to the market to get her cat smoked marlin today because she claims that is all she will eat and also she went to the fabric store I think maybe yesterday to get fabric to make my sister a quilt which she does not want so now that I add these things up she is not really staying in at all is she? She said there are no hospitals there which is an absurd thing to say and no tests and I said there are no tests here, or none that I know of so we laughed about how the countries are not so different.

I feel feverish but I'm sure I'm fine.

Talk freekah to me

Guess what you are not going to read about here? Not today!

Good things:

Lean In paid tribute to a trans activist on their Instagram for women's history (herstory) month. That made me smile.

My girl Agnes Pelton getting the respect she deserves in the New York Times, and I did get the new Art Forum with her on the cover at News Beat, and even got to go with Mr. Charles Albright, which was an unexpected treat. Makes me think about the Gorilla Girls work "the advantages of being a woman artist" that says "your career will pick up after you're 80". Well, for Agnes it took until after she was long dead, but hey, better late than never, right!?

And, there's an Israeli restaurant on Fulton I'm SUPER EXCITED about. Learn more after the jump

donut as medicine

I 100% ate a donut today hoping it would cheer me up. I think that's why there were donuts here in the first place. Grim times. This time change is brutal. Cat decided to meow loudly at 545 am. That means it was "actually" 445. WTF was the thinking in that tiny walnut brain? And then factor in the guy screaming bloody murder at 1 am where I almost called the police. Not feeling great. Coping with insomnia by reading tweets about COVID-19 is not recommended by any sleep experts it's pretty safe to say.

I finished The Nickel Boys novel yesterday, by Colson Whitehead. It's short and compulsively readable. I though it was great but insanely grim. I liked it better than Underground Railroad because no magical realism. His author's note after is a must-read and he recommended watching Brubaker so I did. It was also very grim and depressing and also based on a brutal true story. Maybe this is contributing to feeling so down today, ya think? Anyway, two thumbs up but it is hilarious how even though Robert Redford plays a down-to-earth guy in the thick of prison life that he has this golden boy haircut and always has his shirt unbuttoned a bit to show chest hair. It must have been in his contract at this time.

My girl Agnes

Nosferatu at the Crocker was cool. It was just slightly boring, but the Count is super eerie. The Crocker is tying in their silent film series into their big exhibit from Granville Redmond, who was  a deaf painter who was buds with Charlie Chaplin and acted in silent films. He did a lot of California landscapes. They are pretty (dude sure loved California poppies!) but the overall effect is not stirring. One of the most interesting things is that one of the best paintings was from the collection of David Mamet and Rebecca Pidgeon.

Going led to me re-upping my membership because half of the ticket cost could be applied, so that's good. I went to go visit my girl Agnes Pelton' "Winter" painting because it's my fave in the collection and it's currently not up.

I know if Scott is reading this he is thinking I missed it because that has happened before, where I thought it was gone but it was there, but I swear they had a different painting in its place (but thematically similar) and I know it's where the Pelton was because the Georgia O'Keefe was next to it and they get lumped in from studying with same guy. Anyway, hope it is back soon and also Agnes is on the cover of the March Art Forum, which I tried to buy at NewsBeat the other day but which they don't have in stock yet.

And speaking of female painters, and women being underrated in everything, women reading this are probably feeling that bummer feeling from Warren dropping out, where you realize that we will never be seen as equally competent and valid compared to men. Hard to shake that bummer. So many times at work (again yesterday) I am told by people that they have heard other people questioning my competence and qualifications for the work I do, and I just wonder if I was a dude if that would be happening. There is no way to know, so that's why it is crazy-making

anxiety and weekend plans

Had some late night anxiety and insomnia about COVID-19. Worried about an upcoming vacation, that is still a bit away. It could very well be canceled and I have no idea if we'd get any money back at all.  Stocking up on food and cat food. Worried about people I know. I figure I'll just slowly amass some supplies rather than trying to do a run if things explode. I'm sure many are feeling anxiety. And it's worth considering that when we deal with our fear by putting ourselves in the safe group that would probably survive to consider the audience and those within earshot may be in one of  those high risk categories or care about someone who is.

I guess 33rd street bistro abruptly closed down. It's super successful, or it looks like it when I drive by, but the landlord kicked them out. The employees (50 of them) are bummed. They are vowing to reopen in East Sac.

Nosferatu is playing at the Crocker tonight. Think I am going to go. It's such a cultural reference and I've never seen it. There are lots of good shows this weekend. Christine Shields is playing at an art gallery, with Aaron Zeff accompanying. If you've never seen Christine perform you should check it out, and if you have seen it you know you will want to go again.

And then Saturday there's a good show at MC Ham's. Vasas, Comedians and Hod and the Helpers. Yay early shows!!!

donations

Even though I voted for Elizabeth Warren in the primary (not Bernie), I am as bummed as any Bernie Bro about the reality that's settling it that is really going to be Biden. But I do think he can win. Sigh. Anyway, I donated to Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham's likely opponents to make myself feel better.

Thumbs up to Invisible Man!

Bon Air is coming back! (?)

Well hopefully. They posted this on Facebook. Dang tho, that is like starting over. Oh now is the sign gone???????

Long as I can grow it my hair

How are everyone's Halloween bands going? Hair is good. I really need to get on finding an outfit. You would think I would have lots of hippie clothes and I do have a fair amount but they are not the right kinds for the movie. I do have very long hair right now, which reminded me to book a cut after the show is over. Food stuff after the jump

Mulvaney's

I ate at Mulvaney's B&L last night. It might seem like I'm doing a lot of fine dining, but Tuesday at Magpie was for a birthday, and then this other dinner had been planned for a while. This dinner was funny because I forgot to make a reservation (I thought I had already done it) so we sat in the "dish room". Mulvaney's has a couple of little nook rooms back through the kitchen. I've been in the conference-room style one because that's where the Baconfest judging goes down. But he also has one in a wine storage room, and then one in the room where they store all their platters and cake stands and stuff. But it has nice lighting and they have candles and it's actually private and fun. On to the food after the jump

Back in the Sac(Bee)

My piece about the Dante Club just published online in the Bee. Some version show a more clickbait version of the headline that says "It's fighting to stay alive", which is an overstatement, but the actual headline says "changing to stay alive". I did not write the headline.

D'oh though I just found out that they last minute canceled their March dinner. Oh well, hopefully some folks will read and will go to the April one.

Went to Magpie last night. Had a wonderful meal. This was the scallop crudo with tomatoes, basil and citrus. Dude, the thinly-sliced scallops themselves were unbelievably sweet and delicious.

Then we got the chicken for two. Truly an iconic and affordable Sacramento dish. $40 and we had enough leftovers that I'm having it for lunch today. That black rice! And they had a good Altamont brew on draft.

Davis gab

Y'all know I won't go to Davis on a weekend, but for those brain fans, or parents of lil brian fans, the Center for Neuroscience (where I worked for yea verily a decade) is having a Neurofest on Saturday, March 14th. One of the talks is "From Dead heads to depression meds, how psychedelics are impacting modern medicine"'=

Speaking of Davis, as I always am, I need to go see the Stephen Kaltenbach exhibit at the Manetti Shrem. I liked the Doug Aitken video installation, mostly because it's trippy and I was in there by myself so it had an infinity room vibe for free, with no line! That's there until June, Kaltenbach just opened so will be there for a while.

I guess my Dante Club article is going to publish in the Bee today! It's in the paper on Sunday. I probably won't be able to read it until Sunday due to paywall.

Shouts and Murmurs or Real Life?

Dang, this article on this Bay Area hairdresser reads like a parody, like a New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs column. Why do people brag about taking baths? It's relaxing but kind of an inefficient way to clean yourself and also, I will drop some country kid cred here and let you know I did not have a shower growing up and that will really take the romanticism out of baths!

And checking out her haircuts, I see she is bringing the mullet back in a big way. I mean, it's been what, since like the early 2000s so it's due. I think many of the after shots have incredibly awkward shapes. I mean, imagine, all these shots are from styled hair, if you have this kind of wavy hair, like I do, on any given day it could probably make some very funky shapes.

Freelance writers I love

Molly Young is fascinating. I won't say I am obsessed because that is creepy. She is extremely funny,  her writing is brilliant, she is beautiful and she has an amazing cat and apartment. That's her cat (and cool chair) above, I will let you snoop the rests on her Gram. She writes a newsletter called "read like the wind" that I subscribe to and you should too if you like to read (fiction, mostly). She just wrote this piece for NYMag on corporate speak and I love it! Here's just one funny quote:

In August, WeWork — recently rebranded as the We Company — submitted its prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The document is just under 200,000 words long, or nearly the length of Moby-Dick, and it reads like something a person wrote in the middle of an Adderall overdose with a gun to his head.

I have heard a lot of these terms in my job, and used a fair number of them and the thing I think she leaves out in analyzing why people use them is that it passes for fun in the sad and un-fun atmosphere that is the modern office workplace. It makes you feel smart in and in-the-know and helps keep impostor syndrome at bay.

I also love Sarah Miller (she lives in Nevada City! and has an Instagram obsessed with her cattle dogs)

And Taffy Akner, who is pretty big time now and wrote an acclaimed novel but also will kind of always be known for her Gwyneth profile.

Jim's good food and Murakami hurts my feelings

Is it just me, or has anyone else experienced getting a little more feminist woke than they used to be and now getting a bad feeling from some Murakami stories? Let me explain, after the jump, also there will be some pictures and discussion of eating at Jim's Good Food last night

Dreams do come true

 It struck me as funny that Babs chose to flop down in the doorway between the dining room and the hall. Totally in the way. Food stuff after the jump

Bottarga is a yes

Bout to go catch the train, which will be late and fill me with rage. But yesterday it took me like 70 minutes to get home in traffic so....omg commute complaining, so exciting!

Here's a great article from Eater about why we can't have nice things - specifically Euro style wine bars. No really, it's more interesting than that may sound to you. It's about why things that are cheap and unpretentious in Europe are often so expensive and fussy here.

Three day weekend but I'm on deadline for the failing Sacramento Bee (so sad about the bankruptcy and hedge fund thing) so I have a bit of deadline dread. Even with only writing a couple of times a year I stretch that dread out as if I wrote all the time!

The Bananas are playing the Knockout tomorrow so I'm going to that. We are going early so hopefully I can grab dinner somewhere good. I might be alone for that part so might be able to just grab a seat at the bar somewhere. Huh, La Ciccia is "rustic Sardinian" fare nearby? I'm super stuck on Italian food right now. I def want "spaghetti dusted with bottarga" tongue wagging emoji

defend blood oranges to me please

Smiller and I did our Valentine's dinner last night. I love a reservation, so the Valentine's crowds are not my problem - it's the fixed menu I don't like. Although, actually now that I look at the Biba Valentine's menu, it looks pretty freaking good, but would be way too much food. Usually I don't like a fixed menu because I don't want dessert, but last night I actually got dessert. Anyway, this is our first course - paper thin slices of raw veal with capers, drizzled with olive oil, thin raw red onion on top, and a few dollops of basil mayo. We got a bread basket too so it was great piled on bread. More after the jump

spin thoughts

I was in the 7 am class today. My fave teacher, and she has the all-rap playlist. I was stoked that she played Kamiyah (do yourself a favor and watch this), then E-40 Choices (I will never not laugh at "Star Wars? Nope. Yoda? Yep") and I felt as close to joyful as my Grinch-ish heart gets, especially that early in the morning, and then she totally bummed me by calling out that she was playing a Chris Brown song and didn't care if that was freaking anyone out. Now, number 1, I wouldn't even have noticed it was a Chris Brown song so did you have to make that a thing. And number 2, now I'm just fixating on picturing Rihanna's poor battered face. And thinking about how the class more than likely has at least one or more domestic violence survivors (it was pretty full, and it's always majority female) and maybe that just about ruined their day.

This reminds me of right when Finding Neverland came out, they instituted an ill-fated "motown ride" which is turns out Motown is not good for spin, but it meant mostly Jackson 5 songs, like multiple in a class.

Obviously art vs. artist is a debate that will never be "solved" but I just think it's different if I may listen to some R. Kelly from an old scratchy CD alone in my car (not saying I DO), but I would not subject anyone else to it!

Now to be even more salty, y'all are serious about this Bernie stuff, huh? This is making me so anxious. I was up at 3 am reading Bernie Twiter and worrying. Someone in NH canvassing said she was talking to a bartender and asked about Bernie and he said he voted for Obama, then Romney, then Trump and now is into Bernie. I can't wrap my head around this. I might vote for him in the primary, though. This is not anti-Bernie, this is a little dash of he is absolutely unelectable and another soupcon of how can this country be so insane to go from Trump to Sanders.

Parasite on top

Yay Parasite, right? It's STILL playing at Tower and now it will probably be there another month so go see it if you haven't.

Here's a story on Eater about business at Chinese restaurants dropping precipitously due to Coronavirus. Some of it might be due to lack of travel during Lunar New Year but some of it might be xenophobia. Get out and support your favorite Chinese restaurant these week!

Kodaiko (stoked)

First, let's get some business out of the way. Can we all agree that a cliche that should be eliminated from restaurant reviews is that something "did not disappoint"? I will vow to try as well.

Second, how Sac is it that a lot of good restaurants are closing but meanwhile Easy on I was packed last night? Pretty damned Sac. Not to mention that the Taco Bell Cantina was seemingly the busiest "restaurant" on K street last night. Let's hope that's novelty alone.

Thirdly, a sandwich spot called "Lo/Fi" has now opened in the former spot of June's. A small part of me was still hoping June's would reopen. You'll have to check it out for me. If it has June's hours then I can't get there since I work in Davis.

Ok, now, Kodaiko, after the jump

Jim's Good Food

I was happily invited to the soft opening of Jim's Good Food last night. They served their butter burger and fries, and a couple other bites. It's where that Coconut Fish Grill place was, near University of Beer. Basic decor inside, the most  notable accent is a swirly wallpaper. There's a mix of booths and tables. Good beer selection on draft, I didn't check out the wine selection. More about Jim's after the jump

#worktweets

I just responded to a Doodle poll with 60 timeslots. This person is clearly insane.

Ready for Halloween for which I will probably not actually dress up?

Man, I have really bad insomnia the last few days. Last night I barely slept and I was having feverish thoughts about what I should post on Heckasac and also Sacramento-related Halloween costumes. I mean, mostly worrying about spreadsheets but the former are the fun topics. I almost just got up and went to work at 4 am but then I decided that was insane and slept from 4-630.

Sac-related Halloween costumes:
Jizz Tree (hopefully everyone gets this)
1987 Sacramento Jazz Jubilee (I'm hoping smiller will do this as a team costume)
Pancake Circus (a clown with pancakes pinned to her)

Then I took notes on my phone on what to remember to post. Grab bag of half-baked ideas. After the jump!

Solomon's

I have been craving bagels lately, and it's been a really long time since I've been to Beauty Bagels. I don't know how I used to get there so often and now it's been too long. Smiller and I went to Solomon's on Saturday. I went to the Davis one twice, and this is now the second time I've been to the K street one. The first time at the K street one I got a lox bagel, which was too piled with stuff for me to enjoy. You can't pile capers on a towering (get it, TOWER-ing) mound of salmon, they will just roll off which is upsetting. Scott got that this time, and it had terrible tomatoes. They were so orange he thought they were more salmon. The salmon was again very good. The bagel not so much, so he bought one to take  home and toast and make sure. I have no idea why it is so hard to make a good bagel but if it was easy everyone would do it, instead of literally like maybe 20 places in America.

I got the pastrami sandwich. The pastrami is very tasty, it's kind of thin-sliced and grilled, which is interesting. The rye bread was dry and almost crumbly, and it needed more mustard. This for $15.99 is a hard sell.

It seems like they are doing a steady business, I sensed tourist in a lot of the customers, which is not bad at all. There needs to be places for tourists to go that aren't lame like PF Changs. The potato salad on the side was great. Unbeknownst to me until I paid, that Topo Chico was four bucks??? They have Zeal kombucha there too and if I had known I was venturing into that beverage price point I probably would have gone for Zeal.

Looks like Golden Bear won the Baconfest again? So that's two years right, although they won it with a different chef last year. I don't think she work for Golden Bear any more. I took a break from judging this year. Maybe I'll be back next year.

Has anyone been to The Good Bottle? Scott and I keep trying to find it when we are riding around and can't. We haven't tried that hard obviously. I'm interested.

Crabz

I would like to retract my comment below about Polanco. No, not about it being meh, which is is, but about the pint size. Scott proved to me using one of our glasses at home that that was likely a pint. I struggle with a concept that toddlers master about container sizes. It's not object permanence, I think that's something else, and I have been over the game peek-a-boo for a long time, but I will often grab the way wrong container to store leftover food. I can't eyeball it.

Cooked these bad boys yesterday, learn more after the jump

Podcast Tawk

This article on The Daily podcast in NYMag has got me shook. Michael Barbaro left his husband for producer Lisa Tobin, who was also engaged??!!?! Who knew podcasts were so sexy!! Dang those long hours in small studios I guess.

I am hooked on a couple true crime podcasts right now, even though for my overall mental wellbeing I want to listen to more music and less murder on my commute. I listened to the Kristin Smart podcast, because I read that supposedly there is going to be a break in the case. I didn't realize that they know who did it but due to police bungling they couldn't arrest the creep.

And now I'm listening to Chasing Cosby too, which is new. So terrible. Thank god for Hannibal Burress (who was so freaking funny at Harlow's last year! I think about his bit about Two Chainz' obsession with a Bentley truck a lot) but it's infuriating that a man had to say something to get momentum going on accusations that were well documented a decade prior. Also infuriating to hear a 2006 grilling that Matt Lauer gave to one of the victims, knowing what we know now about that predator (Lauer I mean).

Speaking of podcasts (which I do, a lot, but hey, 90 minute daily commute), This American Life turned me on to the writing of Robert Walser. That's him in the pic, obvs. This story of his lost (later recovered) writing that he did in a mental hospital is nuts. I'm reading The Assistant and it's really good! Almost done. Nothing happens really but it's very funny and sharply observed. The clerk's petulant rants that keep getting him in trouble are hilarious. I guess he was a favorite writer of Kafka in his day, and keeps getting forgotten and rediscovered. Very relaxing descriptions of parties and meals in a luxurious, but precariously funded, mansion in a Swiss canton (what the heck is a canton anyway and are they only in Switzerland?) The protagonist also shares the author's real love for long walks and there are multiple passages dedicated to walking into and through the larger nearby town.

I ate at Polanco last night. Meh to the nth degree. Meh cubed. It has that taken-from-a-kit type of modern decor. Geometric accents, colorful molded plastic chairs, graffiti-ish mural of beautiful woman. My shrimp tacos governador (Sinaloa-style, with melted cheese, that's their spelling on the menu, rather than gobernador) were not as good as any taco of that style I've had in Mazatlan. The tortilla was thick and borderline stiff, and they were not warm enough and had a runny thin sauce when they should have been small, greasy, cheesy crispy delicious morsels.

They serve Knee Deep Breaking Bud, which is tasty but for 7 bucks it was served in a short glass that I guess is a 12 ounce pour. So they went one better (worse) than the cheater pint that is not really 16 ounces and just thought they'd serve a small glass. It's fine, just another passionless spot in Sac.

Bye bye Luke Walton?

I went to see the King's lose to the Mavericks on Wednesday night. The nosebleed seats were 20 bucks. As a verrrrryy casual basketball fan I was aware that the big deal was that Luka is on their team and we passed on him as our draft pick, but if he had come here we would probably have made him terrible.

The most notable thing about the game was Luke Walton getting booed when he was introduced. Let's get rid of this guy. For multiple reasons.

We ate at the new Jimboy's at DoCo. Pretty standard JB, both my beef and bean tacos were good. No beer and no El Gordo on their menu. It was not crowded despite the game.  Will someone start a Change.org petition to get a Jimboy's in the arena?

The Agnes Varda autobiographical doc. was really good, although I could have taken less on her foray into visual art and installations that she got into later in life. It seemed great for her financially, since the Cartier foundation was financing it and she kept referencing them buying her pieces, but I found her art to be clumsy and not compelling. Her movies, however, I have to get to know better! I have mostly seen a few shorts through the Verge when they showed them. I want to watch Vagabond for sure, and the hippie musical one.

Turnout was huge last night at Verge. Felt almost at the capacity as far as seats being filled.

food for thought on food writing

A friend sent me this LARB (who knew there was an LA review of books? There's some joke about LA "culture" that could go here. I guess those jokes are outdated now that LA is such a cultural and food hub, but I'm thinking of the movie LA story) long think piece on "The midlife crisis of the American restaurant review"

Maybe only KW and I will take the time to read it, you could also just skip to the writer's recommendations at the end if you don't want to read. I would add to the author's points that the length of restaurant reviews has been cut at many publications due to what I call the blurbification of writing that the internet has led to. So now even print pubs mimic the blurby feel of online pubs. At SNR I argued against word count cuts that kept getting tighter and tighter for the weekly reviews.

I agree that 2018 was a watershed year in food writing, and honestly I do feel pretty irrelevant to the conversation right now and that's ok. The world moves on.

Gioia is spot on about how the reviews that are pans bring out creativity that the raves rarely do. Food writers would do well to try to tap those same creative juices and humor for a positive review.

That said, some of the suggestions are kind of silly. Writing about an area (a few restaurants with some kind of overarching theme) with context and having more roundtable-type reviews are good suggestions. I think everyone likes reading roundtable discussions. I would often write what I called "roundups" for MidMo, but they centered around a certain cuisine or dish, so it might be deeper to write about a geographic area with context. I mean, a lot of food writers do roundups, I didn't invent it, but that was how I wrote the majority of the food coverage in MidMo so that's why I'm mentioning it.

Varda by Agnes on Thursday

Hey, how great that Jeffrey Day is keeping up his blogging and has a couple new posts linked on his blog at right. On Saturday I also checked out the Thiebaud-curated show at Elliot Fouts (cool to see original Krazy Kat artwork!) and the Axis show. When I arrived at Axis a young woman (maybe one of the artists?) was singing a song and accompanying herself on what I think is either a lyre or that instrument that Spock played once on Star Trek. The Axis show is cool and also don't forget the Verge movie night is this Thursday (that reminds me, I need to get a ticket online - members are free). It's the doc "Varda by Agnes" and is her final film, about her career. Right, did she make it? Or did someone make it about her?

I went to Waterboy last night. If you want to hear about it, it's after the jump

Rolle too!

I don't want this reblogaissance to solely consist of being sad about restaurants that are closing, so hopefully this trend will end.

Rolle announced he is closing Cafe Rolle. I'm not sure if it's already closed or if maybe we can all go grab one more salmon sandwich. Read more after the jump

#spintweets

I'm doing this fitness challenge thing this month at my spin studio. I'm supposed to go to spin 20 times this month, and then do something else on my own every other day. Anyhoo, I always have ideas for tweets about spin when I'm in spin, because it's hot and traumatic in there so my mind is active aka freaking out.

Couple/three problems with this:
1) I stay off twitter because it turns your brain into garbage
2) I am bad at tweeting so no one likes my tweets and also I often feel like I don't really "get" twitter and am doing stuff wrong
3)What if something I write goes viral for the wrong reason?

I had a great idea to generate some of the content that you readers are all demanding: write my spin tweets here! Part of the reblogaissance can be destroying twitter by bringing tweets to blogs. If we had all never stopped blogging we might not have Trump for president so I am just trying to do my part.

Oh boy. This is going to be....something.

Here's an idea I had for an old one, that is no longer topical at all:

Avicii dying was like 9/11 for spin instructors.

Here's one I texted to Matt R. previously, but that I would like a wider audience for:

Most of the inspirational stories that the instructors tell either involve moving to LA or moving back from LA

That's all I can remember now. A lot of them are just fantasies about tweeting about this one instructor (who I avoid) that makes the room so disgusting and hot that when you go to pick up the weights they are dripping with someone else's sweat. And she keeps the class late too! Can you feel my petty outrage? Feel it.

Can't wait to post more #spintweets

WHY

Maybe 2 or 3 times a year I get restaurant food so bad that I go through at least a couple of the 5 stages of grief. Today I went through anger and now that I ate this monstrosity and I'm not hungry: sadness. Read more about this tragic food-like item after the jump

Reblogaissance: Day 1

Halloween band calling is going on over on the website. The theme is Soundtracks 2. Should be good. I really want to be a part of Reality Bites in that I want to sing backup for Lisa Loeb and also do my Janine Garafalo (no idea how to spell) imitation but I am not going to call it.

New year, Day 1 of the Reblogaissance. And in the spirit I have changed up the blog links at right. I eliminated all the ones without recent posts and added a new one. Jeffrey Day works in communications at UCD, for the College of Letters and Science. Before that he was a longtime arts journo. He always has great recommendations for art and especially classical and new composers, which is an area of art I know nothing about. I hope you keeps blogging!

Yolkie has kept up Best Summer Ever, and also DB consistently is still writing about movies. I kept up the Halloween show ones, cuz, nostalgia.

too stupid to be true

The new Boulevard Park newsletter has a somewhat innocuous listing about an upcoming forum regarding the train station. It has this rather casual statement " Ironically, Union Pacific’s decision to move the train tracks quite a distance away from the old station means that a new one must be built closer to the new tracks. Hence there is a need to find new uses for this terrific building and for the area immediately around it, which will gain even greater importance as an intermodal transportation hub."

WAIT HOLD UP, NEEDLE SCRATCHING ON RECORD SOUND. Are you telling me that since they moved the goddamned tracks ridiculously far that now they have eventually rendered this beautiful, functional building obsolete and freed it up to be a series of failing business!?! This is worse when they took our (not beautiful), functional bus station out of downtown and moved it out to Richards boulevard and now the building is STILL EMPTY.

You can just look at The Bank to see why Sacramento does not need more of this type of cavernous, echoey business space.

This is just awful and I feel like it can't possibly be true. It's too stupid. Or is it?

Restaurant closings and mind openings

(stole this pic from liveformusic.com)

I saw a somewhat unexpected Instagram post yesterday that Mother has closed and now today news that Cafe Marika has closed as well. Jeez, brutal year for change in Sacramento. I'm sad about Mother, that was a real Sacramento classic, and we only get like one of those a year that feel like permanent fixtures. I would say Canon was probably that for 2018 and Pizza Supreme Being for 2019.

I am very glad I went to Marika a couple times in 2019. I'm happy they are retiring, and not shutting it because it went out of business. The loss of June's continues to reverberate in our community as well, especially since we didn't get to say goodbye.

On a happy note, Dead & Co. put on a great show for NYE and I'm so glad we went. It was at Chase Center, but serendipitously (how to spell?) Matt R. lives in the neighborhood and wanted to go. They played from 8 until almost 1 am, with long breaks. I was grousing about a particularly long break, which went from like 11:20 to almost midnight, but then it turned out that was because they were setting up a FULL SIZED BIPLANE to fly on a track over the audience, with Trixie Garcia sitting in it waving. It has a stealie painted on the side and an iridescent lighting bolt on the front. Then Wavy Gravy and Bob Walton came out dressed as baby new year and father time and Walton gave the trippiest, slowest countdown ever that probably had little to do with the actual time it was. Oh, also, like 20 flappers came out and danced the Charleston. And then they did a killer 3rd set and encore. So yes, it was worth it and also, yes I do love John Mayer now so deal with it.

The 3rd set was:
Sugar Magnolia
Uncle John's Band
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Sunshine Daydream

Encore:
Touch of Grey