R.I. home to 200 same-sex couples?

If Lucero is music that sounds like getting really drunk, Rocky Votolato is music that sounds like the next day. I would have thought more people would be there for this, but alas. With songs this full of hooks, I have to believe more people will be there next time.

So, I get that ad-driven services have a legitimate business need to drive traffic to their site. Every time I don’t click through to www.friendster.com, they’ve lost a chance to put an ad on the screen that I’ll completely ignore except to the extent that it makes the page load more slowly.

But.

I just got a “Friendster Birthday Alert” letting me know that I have a friend with a birthday coming up. It says, “Kate’s birthday is almost here!” And then there’s a button labeled, “See When.”

“See When”? Are you kidding me? Just freaking tell me, Ass-ster.

Apparently Woody Allen wanted to make Scoop so quickly, that after he came up with the story idea, he made the movie without writing any lines for Scarlett Johansson. Maybe all of the dialogue in the movie was improvised, but only Johansson’s lines sounded so. You might like this if you’re an Allen fan, though it won’t be one of your favorites, and if you hate Allen, this movie will be unbearable.

So, this is cool. Our TiVo lets us download the pilots of three of NBC’s new series, even before they air. It’s a pretty clever idea on NBC’s part, assuming the idea is to get some buzz going for their new shows as early as possible. I’ve seen ‘em, and here’s a miniature review of each:

Chuck: I thought it was cute. Highly entertaining, if gut-bustingly implausible: Chuck, a hapless loser, gets sent an email in which is encoded, subliminally, all of the combined secrets of the CIA and NSA. Presumably he’ll have a wacky adventure every week, watched over by his minders, Jayne from Firefly and Yvonne Strzechowski (or possibly “Strahovski”—NBC seems confused). The whole thing is just oh-so McG, with the exciting action, and the quick cuts, and the edgy camera angles, and oy oy oy. It also suffers from pilot-itis, in which we have to get beaten over the head with each character — we get it! Chuck is socially awkward but lovable! But Chuck’s sister is the same actress who played Gift Shop Girl on Scrubs, and her character is a doctor, so, that’s awesome. I’m guessing it was probably also not a mistake to include two entirely gratuitous shots of Ms. Strzechowski in her underwear. No sir. This show made it to a season pass, but we’ll see whether it gets old. [rate 3]

Bionic Woman: Bad. So bad. Jaw-droppingly bad. Can’t-believe-Katie-Sackhoff-is-in-this-crap bad. Terrible acting, ludicrous plotting, and Dawson’s Creek-level anvilicious dialogue. So bad, it’s almost like the network isn’t watching: the bionic woman’s character bio on the NBC website describes her as living in a “cramped apartment” which is bigger than my house. Even the bionic woman versus bionic woman fight scene was lame and confusing, which really aren’t the best adjectives to describe the climax of your pilot. The only possible positive outcome for this show is that it ends up being so bad it’s good. [rate 1]

(Salon is, by the way, so, so wrong.)

Journeyman: Didn’t I see this show when it was called “Quantum Leap”? Yeah, I think I did. [rate 2]

You put Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, and David Koechner into a movie together, and you have to imagine you’ll get less of a piece of crap thanTalladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. That said, I’m sure I’ll enjoy the movie much more in the future than I did after initial watching (hence the 2 stars instead of 1). Karen the Cougar was a highlight for me.

Das Leben der Anderen, or The Lives of Others, is about the end of communist control in East Berlin in the late 80’s. Everyone had gotten so paranoid and cynical, that the system had a hard time functioning. You’ll like this movie, if only for the accurate representation of East German fashion circa 1985.

Yesterday was a big day. For one thing, it was my first day of school. Hooray for school! I’m feeling more educated already.

However, yesterday was also my third wedding anniversary. Yes, three years ago this morning Rachel and I were jumping in a lake. Three years might not seem that long, but since we’d been dating for seven years before we got married, 2007 is in some senses our tenth anniversary, which seems like a biggish deal. Just like last year, we decided to have a nice dinner in rather than a nice dinner out, and so I turned to my fanciest cookbook, The Elements of Taste by Gray Kunz and Peter Kaminsky.

(This is a really cool book, by the way. I picked it up for a song at a used bookstore in Northampton, and every recipe in it is guaranteed to impress the hell out of your guests. Last night was my second time making a recipe from the book: about a year ago I made the Braised Short Ribs of Beef with an Aromatic Barbecue Sauce. I’m kicking myself that there are no pictures of that meal, since the recipe is four damn pages long and people seemed to like it.)

We got another ridiculous haul of incredible tomatoes from Ledge Ends, so it was clear they’d be involved. I happened to flip the book open to:

Two-Tomato Coulis with Three Basils

Except here’s the thing: I couldn’t find purple basil, or basil flowers, but I did have a bag of fresh Ledge Ends green basil, so I just made:

Two-Tomato Coulis with One Rather Delicious Basil

The recipe for this is pretty ludicrously simple. Just chuck a whole bunch of red cherry tomatoes in a blender, and puree the crap out of them. Then do the same with some yellow tomatoes, and put both purees in a bowl with some basil, white pepper, and kosher salt.

The recipe called for 2 pounds each of red and yellow cherry tomatoes, which is ridiculous, so as I was only trying to make two servings I used a pound each, and supplemented the cherry tomatoes with some fabulous heirloom globe tomatoes. I also left out the sugar because, uh, I forgot it, but it didn’t need any. Delicious, sweet, and garden-y.

This was by far the most visually striking thing I’ve ever prepared. So cool. When we started eating, we discovered that the colors stay separate even as you move them around a bit, so if I ever make this again I might go for swirlier patterns instead of just the yin-yang.

When we were in Maine a few weeks ago, Rachel reminded me how much she loves lobster so it seemed clear that would be in the main course. Kunz and Kaminsky provided:

Lobster in Syrah Reduction with Aromatic Grits

I mean, delicious, right? Not even too difficult to make.

The sauce is a piece of cake: sauté onions, garlic, shallots, carrots, and celery until soft, and then pour in a bottle of red wine. Reduce, strain out the vegetables, and reduce again until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Whisk in some butter at the end, and you’re good to go.

The grits were also easy and delicious. I couldn’t find the quick-cooking grits the recipe calls for, but a pretty standard 4:1 milk and water to cornmeal ratio produced what I wanted. A little nutmeg and white pepper and butter go in at the end.

Finally the lobster: the hardest part was buying them, since Whole Foods apparently doesn’t sell live lobsters any more. However, I was pleased to discover Captain’s Catch in North Providence, which does, and has a pretty good looking seafood selection. Once I got the doomed fellows home, they were blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes, shocked in ice water, and relieved of their shells. (I now have a Ziploc back full of lobster parts ready for the stockpot.) Five to ten minutes in a 350 degree oven (with butter, of course) finished the cooking.

‘Twas damn good, and we even had room left over for dessert:

Lemon-Basil Sorbet

I’d bookmarked this recipe for Lemon-basil vodka gimlets as they looked delicious and refreshing, and indeed they were, but the fact is I don’t drink anywhere near enough vodka to use up all that syrup. As soon as I tasted it, though, I said: sorbet. Now, the syrup is way too sweet to make a sorbet on its own (and yes, I went through the trouble of making a batch to find that out) but with the juice of about four lemons added to it, it because perfect. Light, tart, with a subtle herbitude.

So, that’s three years. Believe it or not, Rachel just gets better and better. Don’t think for a second I fail to realize how lucky I am to have a wife willing to support us while I quit my job and sleep in every morning go back to grad school. A plate of lobster and a song are the least I can do.

It’s about to get a little arcane, so if you don’t care the slightest for rules governing playoff rosters, you might want to skip to the next post…

Newspapers have been reporting off and on all year about the progress of Matt Clement as he rehabilitates after shoulder surgery at the end of last season. His comeback has been advancing smoothly and he’s actually ahead of schedule, pitching in a simulated game this afternoon. But the chance of him pitching for the Sox again this year (and possibly ever again) is minuscule because of a technicality in the rule governing a team’s playoff rosters. Any player not on the 25 man active roster as of August 31st is not eligible to be made active for the playoff roster. Teams are granted an exemption for players on the DL on August 31st which allows them to interchange the “injured” player for a healthy one (Think Jacoby Ellsbury this year, and, well, Mike Greenwell in 1986). Matt Clement isn’t the only player on the DL at this point, but it’s very unlikely that Theo would sacrifice any possible roster flexibility for the playoffs in order to get Matt Clement a start unless he was certain Clement would be lights out.

Dear Take Out Breakfast Places,
When a toasted sesame bagel is ordered with cream cheese, please put the cream cheese on the bagel instead of in a container in the bag.
Thanks.

Sincerely,
Your Customer