Homemade dinners and farmers markets

This was dinner from Saturday night. Amazingly put together, and I even helped! At the top left of the plate is the fresh cold salad we've named Citrus Tuber Salad: turnips and beets from the South of the James farmers market, backyard garden cucumbers and parsley, some orange, honey, olive oil, lime juice, pepper, salt, olive juice, and pine nuts (a last-minute addition that turned out to be perfect).

Here's a close up:

The beets made everything pink

The main dish was a combination of homemade pasta, grilled and marinated chicken, mixed cooked fresh veggies, fennel (the bottom left there, didn't turn out that great).

The food was all complimented so nicely by an acidic Spanish white and then a bottle of sparkling. I can't believe I ate as much as I did, since I ate so much by nibbling while we were cooking.

This is an edited-color photo of a flower I discovered in North Carolina. The flower is a purple-pink, but my crappy camera didn't do it justice, so I edited the tint. It was so so fragrant and soft. I was afraid it didn't grow here but turns out, it's everywhere! I picked these from the tree in the Ellwoods parking lot!

This was dinner from the other weekend: a salad with all kinds of greens from Victory Farms and other yummy veggies from Ellwoods, and my corn salad (corn, red pepper, feta, lime juice, pepper, olive oil)


It was my first time at the South of the James Farmer's Market this weekend. It is arguably the best/most popular one in town. I was feeling a bit car-sick and ill from the heat, and needed sustenance, so I had my first-ever Nate's Taco Truck Taco. I know, it's sacrilegious I've lived in RVA as long as I have without one of their tacos. Well for $3, my chicken taco got eaten in about 3 seconds. I would have liked a little more lettuce, but I always want more lettuce on everything. I went back for seconds after getting my iced coffee from Blanchard's Coffee, but they had gone on a break because of the heat. I was SO mad. So instead I wandered in search of more food, and felt like I might pass out if I didn't eat something. I found a table of someone selling homemade pastries and fresh cold salads and had the most amazing bow-tie pesto pasta salad with fresh fresh cherry red and yellow tomatoes, carrots, and beans. God it hit the spot.

The produce from Victory Farms was amazing and delicious looking and SO MUCH CHEAPER than Kroger. Why am I not buying all my produce here? I may have to start. I'm being turned into a hippie, I swear. Lots of people were selling really scrumptious looking blackberries, but I am holding out for picking access to a backyard bush I know. Oh, and I also had yellow watermelon for the first time. Weirdly, tastes just like regular watermelon. 

While there, I also ran into several familiar faces. Wouldn't be Richmond without it.

Music tonight with a cup of Illy coffee--The I-Am-An-RVA-Hipster-Mix:
Untitled 4: Sigur Ros
Hang Me Up To Dry: Cold War Kids (fun band name)
Idioteque: Radiohead
1901: Phoenix (my new favorite band)
I Turn My Camera On: Spoon

Touching Strangers

Do something that will make your night. First, read below about Richard Rinaldi's exhibit Touching Strangers. From his site:

Touching Strangers is an ongoing photographic project stemming from my interest in the dynamics of group portraiture. The premise of this work is simple. I meet two or more people on the street who are strangers to each other and to me. I ask them if they will pose for a photograph together with the stipulation that they must touch each other in some manner...

My objective was to introduce an unpredictable variable in a very traditional photographic formula: to create a spontaneous and fleeting relationship between complete strangers in front of my 8 x 10 view camera.

Though these situations involve orchestrated collaborations between subject and photographer, the emotions captured are both genuine and honest. Touching Strangers encourages viewers to think about how we relate physically to one another.

Then, go to this link right now to view his photographs in a slide show, make it full screen.You may have to click to forward the photos.

Then click this link to get to the song, sync it up, press play.

Song: The Crane Wife 3 by The Decemberists.

I just happened to have it playing when I went to view the photos. They go amazingly well together. It will make your night. Trust me.

The Listening Room--bluesy folk

Last night was my first time at The Listening Room, a grassroots local movement for an intimate gathering to hear music, in the basement of a building attached to St. James' Episcopal Church. Blogger friends had written about it before, and a friend told me last week about this one, so I dove out of VLPP a little early last night to attend. I'm so glad I did.

The room had over 100 people in it, with standing room only, which apparently was the biggest crowd TLR has ever had. The first trio, Brown Bird, was amazing. Seriously wow. They were folksy and bluesy and from Rhode Island (never would have thought this kind of music would be from RI). I was lucky to be surrounded by music geek friends and everyone in the room truly appreciated the music. One guy sang lead, played guitar, and played a homemade drum set of sorts. I was flabbergasted that he could keep 4 different things going at once. His voice was scratchy and strong and full of emotion. The woman sang, played guitar, cello, and violin and was great to watch. The third member was playing a dobro, which I'd never seen before but am told is a popular blues instrument. It's like playing a guitar on it's side, with strings higher off the frets, and plugged in. It has a such a honeyed, high sound. Their songs were intricate and enjoyable.

The poor musicians were melting under the hot garage-like lights. Someone needs to work on better lighting for next time--that was just cruel. The second group, Homemade Knives, had 5 members, and the sound was much more mellow.  I didn't know an accordian could sound pretty. The singer admitted he was nervous, but did himself a disservice because, while I totally relate to stage fright, the more you tell us that you aren't any good, the more likely we are to start to believe it. His voice was clear and strong and twangy with no hint of nervousness. RVA Magazine has an in-depth interview with one of the musicians from the band. It's got great insight into their personality.

It was wild to hear these all fairly young musicians sing and play with such emotion. The lyrics were so smart, but old soul.

Brown Bird was definitely my favorite. I even considered buying a CD, had I brought money, but my friend got the vinyl so I"ll be able to hear it again. Clearly a requirement for male membership in a folk band that night was to have a full-on beard, and the room was full of hipsters, but also had quite a few older participants and non hipsters like me.

We finished the night up with a lovely walk to Cous Cous for a nightcap and some conversation. They have a fun cocktail menu and I got a Pimm's Cup, something I've been talking about lately. It was very sweet. I love my city.

Fitness, Free, Food

I am proud of myself for being in a fitness kick right now. I, with horror, discovered I'd let myself get a little too squishy over the winter when I went dress shopping for my birthday. Even my arms were flabby, which is SO not acceptable, so I've been going to the gym more regularly and watching my food better. I hate working out but I love the feeling of being strong, of feeling kick-ass, of being in shape, so usually once I get started, it's easier to continue. I am relishing the idea of being toned and sexy again. Of course I tend to overdo it the first few times, so now my back muscles are screaming at me. I'm going to take it as a sign of progress that my abs no longer are the ones so sore it hurts to laugh. Not that I'm close to having a six-pack, but it's an ideal. I love good abs, on girls or guys. I'm just not willing to give up the bread and cheese and beer required to have them.

Went to see the Youth Sympony Orchestra at the Carpenter Center last night. I love that my city has so many things going on, and I can see orchestral music for free. (Thanks, Style Weekly for the notice). I probably will never get to sit that close to the stage again. I love the crazy colors and decor of that theatre. My coworker asked me this morning how I find out about all these cool things, and I told her about Style (I'm always amazed when people don't know about Style, but then, I guess I'm probably more active than the average person). I should probably be telling her to go to the site I write for instead, (well, only as it relates to food).

The violin looks like such an easy instrument, but of course it isn't, that just means that the musician is good at it. I remember a guy from another school at a leadership conference I went to in high school could play violin, and even then, it was the hottest thing ever (well, 10th grade hot, before we really knew what hot was). Girls are always suckers for musicians, aren't we? Throw in singing too? Sold.

It's slow at work because we are in between semesters, and while I guess I shouldn't complain, I like,nay, need to be busy. I should use the opportunity to pay bills and write, but I'm not wanting to live in the real world at the moment after the great weeks and weekends I've had lately.

Goo Goo Dolls at the National

Last night was the Goo Goo Dolls show at the The National. It was a big crowd, which makes sense because they are probably one of if not the most commercially successful, biggest names that have played there.

I hadn't been to The National as a viewer yet. My chorus performed there a few years ago shortly after they opened, and it was SO COOL to see all the backstage areas and the rooms they hadn't quite completed. The historic theater still had little nooks and crannies, and there was one unfinished room where an old painted tapestry of sorts was peeling off the wall. I don't know if they were planning to restore it or just cover over it but remember thinking it'd be a shame just to destroy it to put up shiny modern walls of some kind. There were all these little backstage lounges, a sauna and a 20 person hot tub. The hot tub was not finished at the time, and I wonder if it's still there. I long to be a groupie just so I can get backstage again. It pained me not to be able to walk around the back areas at the show last night.

The opening act was decent, though I don't remember their name because the name they had in lights (cool, oblong baloon shaped lights) on stage turned out to be the title of their new album and not the band name (which I thought was a little backwards considering no one had ever heard of them). I think they got to open for GGD based on the fact that the lead singer had Johnny Reznik's hair from 20 years ago (which turns out, Johnny kind of still had, and it looked good on him).

The opener's not-band-name-but-album-title was "Of Men and Angels" which honestly would be a cool band name. The lead man liked to put him hands in the air a lot, was pretty emo hipster and was quite showy, but they rocked good, so it was ok.

The Goo Goo Dolls played for 2 hours without a break (including encore) so that was impressive. It took Johnny 3 songs to really get energized though. He came out very subdued and even bored-looking. He did "Slide" third, but you could tell he really hated singing it, because he really diverged from the melody and was half-hearted about it. Luckily, as the show went on, he got more animated. Word is, he's actually kinda stage-frighty, and he even told us during one of his guitar solos that he hated playing them. Johnny also forgot some lyrics to a slow song he was doing with acoustic guitar and cursed and joked about it (much to the audience's delight) and that was really endearing. You know musicians play thousands of shows and it's only normal that they'd forget a lyric or two.

Johnny talked to and interacted with the audience, which I appreciate. When he first mentioned the hot military girl in the front row with a sign, I thought for a second it might be questionable rationale. Turns out it was a marine who was about to get deployed to Afghanistan. He gave her a kiss. Apparently there were quite a few military folks in the audience.

Despite a scuffle between some drunk older women and my friend's sister, and the group of 15-year old couples swaying and dancing and bumping into me, it was a good time. I really hate when people have no respect of other people's space. The 15 year olds were singing along and enjoying themselves but I couldn't help but think that none of them were even BORN YET when this band got popular. And if they bumped me one more time (after asking them nicely 2x to stop) I was going to smack them.

My friend had tweeted the bass player earlier in the day, requesting that he play some older, more obscure tracks, in which the bassist actually sings, and he ended up doing 4 of them, so my friend was elated. This friend is also a multi-talented musician, and we both marvelled at how many guitars were lined up on stage--more than 20 in total. My friend tells me that the GGD play in some unusual keys and tunings and that's why they needed all the guitars. Johnny switched guitars for every song.

My friend swears the drummer was wearing a Flying Squirrels t-shirt (which weirdly, my friend had on that night too) but I couldn't confirm. It looked similar, but he was hidden by the drums.

Contemplative at work

(From: Daily Pep)

Photos to go with the mood I'm in at the moment.

(From Rockstar Diaries)

I love that I can listen to my mp3 library away from home on Last.Fm

Contemplative songs scrobbled on Last.Fm this morning:
Destiny by Zero 7 (god, this song is magical)
Run by Snow Patrol
Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Boston White by Umbrellas
Citadel-Anna Nalick
Somebody To Love-Queen

It's been a few perfect weather days this week and will continue through the weekend, so that helps one's mood. It also helps to geek-out with new friends during the week, and have all kinds of things to look forward to this weekend, like First Fridays with Questionable Rationale, and Easter on Parade with my gay bois, my backyard neighbor and hopefully an old college friend.

I recently found a blogger writing about my hometown beaches: I Love Dewey Beach which makes me both excited and wistful at the same time. She appears to live year round somewhere else, but has a summer cottage in Dewey. I wish my mother's house was not a mess so that I would actually have a place to stay for free when I want to come home to my beach. Luckily my best friend's mom has offered her house for me to stay in the future.

Glare of the computer screen.

This is what I get for sleeping all weekend. Now I can't make myself go to bed. I'm listening to this music, as per @tokyohanna . It's a little too upbeat for bedtime music, though, which was her suggestion.

(Photo from This is Glamorous)

I want to do a pink lip like this. Love the lighting here. 'Course, I'm not blond, so it wouldn't look the same.

I'm in a weird mood tonight. Not bad, just pensive. It feels good to be pensive. I wonder why I'm so resistant to the idea of other people having children, of getting married. I've got to assume it makes them happy, but those are not things I see for myself, so it seems so odd and unpleasant. Not that I don't like the idea of marriage, I've just never really been with someone I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with, and it seems rather sophomoric that soo many people think they have. I believe in love. I've been in love, several times. None of us wants to end up alone, but I think its awfully unrealistic to think that one person can meet all our needs for the rest of our lives. I realize this all makes me sound like a terrible cynic, and I don't want to be a negative person because I'm really not.

Do I just read people better than they read themselves? You know how sometimes you hear someone talking, you see their actions, and you just go, wow, they're really deluded. Sometimes they do it purposefully, but its scarier when they don't see it at all.

I'm having flashbacks to up-late-IM conversations in college. God, those were so dramatic, so life-changing, or at least they felt that way when I was 19, 20 years old. I always said the best art comes out of melancholy, out of unhappiness, out of tragedy, of unrequited love. I wrote some good poetry back then, ha. Shit, some of this music brings back memories. I love how music does that. Smell too. Bionic nose and all. How many of you have saved IM conversations on your computer? Be honest. I still do.

(Photo from Altruism in the Morning)

Is sleep deprivation just another addiction, a punishment of the modern world? So many people I know have insomnia all the time. I never have a problem sleeping. I'm a sleeper, in fact, I'd be more likely to oversleep. But I wonder how much we now compete to sleep less, we each trying to out-busy the other. Trying to show how brave we are by not sleeping. A more postmodern(? I hate this term, no one has been able to accurately define it for me) form of self-punishment, like starving yourself, purging, or cutting?

My cat is curled up in my spot on the couch.

Tonight's blog writing playlist (on random, more or less):
Citadel-Anna Nalick
Goodbye Girl-Hootie & the Blowfish
Kiss From A Rose-Seal
Rain-Madonna
Best I Ever Had-Vertical Horizon
Walking After You-Foo Fighters
Same in Any Language-I Nine

MTV Awards

Remember when they were good?

I don't know why Blogger doesn't allow embedded videos, or perhaps I haven't figured it out yet. Anyway, I found this performance by Michael Jackson from Suicide Blonde. I guess there was lip-synching even back in '95, but he makes up for it with the dancing. And the moonwalk, it is so good. Slash plays with him for a bit, but my favorite is the group dancing at the end. There should be more choreographed group dancing in the world.

1995 MTV Music Awards