Kittens & schnitzel

Not together, certainly.

Favorite things, in case you haven’t guessed, is what I’m getting at here. Since I appear to be doing just crap at posting without some kind of reason, and because posting every day for some set reason kind of wears me out, and because after not posting in a while and having nothing pressing to say makes it hard to ever post, this seemed reasonable enough.

Right now, I can’t get enough arugula, fresh basil and pine nuts. Sometimes together, as in the farfalle with a little olive oil, salt & pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, portabella mushrooms, onions, olives, roughly chopped basil, pine nuts, just a dash of cream, and the arugula tossed in at the last minute, throw on a lid, let it steam a little, serve with some more fresh basil and feta cheese. Delicious. Or, the best lunch I had this week, arugula with warm bacon vinaigrette, toss on a little feta and some pine nuts. Apparently I’m in a bit of a rut, but it’s a tasty one.

Sort of along the lines of spring cleaning, I’ve been getting rid of things – cleaning out closets, recycling massive amounts of paper from my desk, sorting out the chaff in my music library. I thought I’d pick out a couple long-time fave albums or artists and mention them here. Right now my choices are largely driven by alphabetical order.

• Fiona Apple. Yes, she’s a kook. I saw her live in college, opening for Counting Crows (yes, it was a great show, and thanks to good old Union Board I had sweet seats too); wearing angel wings, doing the Lloyd Dobler nervous patter thing although it wasn’t quite as charming as he (John Cusack isn’t anymore, either, but that’s another matter – his recent spate of roles is pretty grim)… but what a voice. And the lyrics. I am a lyrics person… dude, I was an English major! I am quite possibly verbally oriented to a fault. Girl can write some good ones, and then deliver them with the torchiest voice and the piano … it’s the Diane Court effect, if I may be permitted to refer to Say Anything twice in one paragraph. I prefer Tidal and When the Pawn ... — Extraordinary Machine didn’t really do it for me. Too much whimsy, perhaps? Two favorite tracks, just to not list the entire albums:
• Pale September. ‘I wore the time like a dress that year’ [nice image] ‘… All my armor falling down in a pile at my feet, and my winter giving way to warm as I’m singing him to sleep’ I blush to admit, but in high school I wrote a poem which also employed a waterlily metaphor (which features prominently in the song, in case you haven’t listened to it). Maybe that’s why I like this song?
• So as not to choose any of the more bitter, angry songs (tho there are some gems) off When the Pawn, how about Paper Bag, or actually The Way Things Are – I love the relentless forward motion of the latter.

• Aimee Mann, Bachelor No 2 (or, The Last Remains of the Dodo) I have Lost in Space, and it’s good, but I like Bachelor better. Last week a colleague/friend and I had a little road trip downstate (the palatial Chateau) to present at a conference and this is one of the albums we were able to rustle up in my car (don’t have so much on the physical media anymore, and no iPod right now… very limiting). Just a delight, from the first to the last song. I particularly enjoy Red Vines, and Deathly.

Well, lookee there, apparently it was Jon Brion night and I didn’t even know it.