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