Archive for December, 2005

December 29, 2005 | Filed under: art, oddball

What is Carp Caviar? Well, I’d like to say “Click the Quick Time image above (or here) for further details” but in reality, it wouldn’t help you out all that much. That shouldn’t stop you from watching, however. Surely you have 45 seconds to spare? For some more in-depth information on Carp Caviar and its impending 2006 arrival, go visit the strange goings on at Bottom Union. There are several carpy promos for your viewing pleasure, ranging from the sublime to the disturbing. I have to say that my personal favorites are this one by Maximillian Video, this one by The Unholy Knight, of course this one by Dave Huth (I don’t know how he makes such magic), and this one from pouringdown (even though it scares me a little) and this one by a real, not-exactly-live- virtual person…which is just plain bizzarre. Head’s up: that one’s sort of naked. Virtually. And I love the all-over-your-screen antics of this one by Nathan Miller over at Bicycle Sidewalk. Oh, and this clever one by mrmultiple2 uses an old late-night radio favorite from the Dr. Demento Days. For goodness’ sake: I like them all–each one is weirder and more creative than the last. Grab yourself a cold beverage and watch them back-to-back! I guarantee you that it’s better than whatever is on tv right now.

“Carp Caviar Lullaby (The Love Theme from Carp Caviar)”
by MC MissB
Appears Courtesy of BadAnger G.A./Anagram Recordings

December 27, 2005 | Filed under: Uncategorized

Happy Holidays! Click on the photo to the left or here for a 3-minute tour of how I spent Christmas this year, if you’re not too Christmased-out yet.

Christmas eve was spent in Ivyland with my best friend and her delightful family. Ivyland is the kind of town I always dreamt of living in: quaint, friendly and charming. Even the name is adorable. On Christmas eve all the houses in town light paper lanterns along the curb. There are twinkly lights as far as the eye can see up every street; the effect is absolutely magical.

I enjoyed a traditional Christmas dinner at my Mom’s house. A roast, “menage-a-trois” potatoes and yorkshire puddings, which are sort of like a popover that you get to pour gravy all over. They are my favorite Christmas treat. My Mom (”Mambo”) and her husband (”Papa Ian”) are both terrific cooks. To top it all off, we had plum pudding for desert with hard sauce. Delicious. The abundance of puddings led to some pudding confusion as you will see. After champage with appetizers, wine with dinner, port with desert and all that hard sauce, it should surprise no one that the night ended with us all bursting into song. First the wrong song, then a song to which none of us really knew the lyrics. A good time was had my all.

Not one but TWO fun-filled evenings with family & friends? Best Christmas present I ever got.

“Christmastime is Here”
Vince Guaraldi Trio
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Fantasy Records 1965/1992
Buy It!

December 20, 2005 | Filed under: Uncategorized

Thirsty? Don’t care for eggnogg in your coffee? Then click on the photo or right here for yet another missbhavens tribute to liquids. I wonder just how many posts about beverages I have in me? I wonder how many posts about beverages you are willing to sit through! For pertinent and brief background information regarding this post , please refer to this, this and most importantly : this.

This is a two parter…to be continued…

“Tiger Rag”
Sounds of the Circus –Circus Marches Vol. 19
South Shore Concert Band
2001
Buy it!

December 17, 2005 | Filed under: Uncategorized

Sick at home and whacked out on painkillers I left a rambling message on a dear friend’s answering machine regarding

1. how much I missed her and was so excited that she would soon be visiting my fair city over Christmas and
2. that I was watching TV and “The Mummy” was on (it’s Saturday afternoon…the pickings are slim) and how it reminded me of her.

Why should a big-budget, second-rate special effects onslaught remind me of one of my very closest friends? Because I saw it with her at the United Artists Mondo-Plex at Union Square in our usual state–and by state I don’t mean New York. I mean the state we were usually in while spending quality time together, which is known by most as “loaded”.

It was the fourth of July and we weren’t much for fireworks that year, I guess. I don’t remember why we went to the movies in the first place. I recall it was quite late, and I think we went out for sushi and a bottle (or two) of plum wine at our favorite raw-fish joint, and I’m sure we chose “The Mummy” because there were no other movies showing at that exact moment…at least that’s what I’d like to think. I’m no movie snob, but I have to draw the line someplace and that place is wherever there are bad camel jokes and demonic armies composed of computer-generated sand.

What I remember best about that evening was that after buying our tickets and finding seats my friend and I realized that we no longer had any booze, and that sitting through a movie like this would most certainly require some. In truth, our appetite for cocktails wasn’t restricted to movie houses. We could have been anyplace– going for a swim in Columbus Circle, for example**– and we still would have rather had some hootch handy. My pal actually left the theater and ran to a deli to get some and amazingly was allowed back in (no small feat in New York) to resume her rightful place in the dark by my side, bearing not one but two paper bags containing big bottles of Corona; and since the deli had no lemons or limes, smartypants had also procured an orange. I guess she figured ‘citrus is citrus’. I was thankful it wasn’t a grapefruit. Every try to shove orange sections down the neck of a beer bottle? I thought not.

Later in the day, she returned my call and it went something like this:

MKC: I remember that night! What were we thinking?
Me: I have no idea. We were crazy kids!
MKC: We were pretty wild, weren’t we! How’d I get back into the theater? 4th of July? Man, we knew how to drink.
Me: I know! We were all over the place! We were so young and nutty and carefree! What were we, like, 23, 24?
MKC: Yeah! Wow!

(…long pause…)

MKC: Actually, I think we were 30.
Me: Not so much kids, then.
MKC: Nope. Not so much.

A fine example of what a late-bloomer I was.

I’ve searched my photo library and in every picture at least one of us looks like a nincompoop, so I’ll take the fall on this one. When we paint the town red on her upcoming visit, though, it’ll be her turn.

**true story.

December 15, 2005 | Filed under: Uncategorized

Click either here or on the photo of one of my favorite coffee mugs at the left there for a 1-minute Quick Time hot holiday tip. Every year the day after thanksgiving I kick off the holiday season with …(insert Christmas Secret here)… and allow myself this super-rich treat daily ’till New Year’s Day. Any longer than that would be too indulgent. Grab yourself a mug and taste the spirit!

“Mele Kalikimaka”
by R. Alex Anderson
Bing Crosby featuring The Andrews Sisters
White Christmas, MCA Records Buy It!