My reading list of books about walking around New Haven (for Daily Nutmeg), with a photo of Arnott/Rooney family dogs Annie and Tommy, is here.
My profile of the new director of the New Haven Museum is here.
New Haven Theater Jerk, with over a dozen new posts in the past few days, is here.
I’m doing one of my Play in a Day children’s theater shows today (Friday, April 6) at Neverending Books, 810 State St., from 2 to 5:15 p.m. The Play in a Day page of New Haven Theater Jerk is here.
I’m the only one in the household who eats marmalade (British parentage, forsooth), It feels like a personal luxury to buy it when I’m in charge of the food budget.
So I’ve just learned to make my own, and am embarrassed to have spent so much money on it in stores over the years.
Here’s all that’s in it:
• An orange (preferably an organic one, so you don’t have to worry about pesticides in the peel).
• Half a cup of brown sugar
• two or three tablespoons of water.
Seriously, that’s it. It doesn’t need to be brown sugar; that’s my own variation. Any sweetener will do.
One orange makes quite a lot of marmalade, and it’s a great smell to have wafting through your kitchen.
I have a small Teflon-coated slow cooker which is ideal for this; I don’t have to keep stirring and scraping a pot on the stove constantly until it’s cooked down. I just set in on high and check it every 15 minutes or so. But that’s all that’s required, anyhow—boil it down until it’s thick but not burned.
Since I’m now making my own peanut butter as well (recipe forthcoming) and have baked all my own bread for years, I am at the peak of self-sufficiency regarding sandwiches.
Cracked.com ran an Archie-friendly piece by Luke McKinney last month, How Archie’s Gay Friend Proved the Internet Can Do Good.
It says things which the Archie comics can’t really say for themselves about inclusion, challenging assumed social norms and responding to over-the-top agitations and accusations of anti-gay activists.
The piece incited its own debate about gay rights in its comments section, so that’s good.
Not so good are the frequent easy swipes at the Archie style and traditions. It’s too easy to make fun of something for maintaining family-friendly values for so many decades, tougher to respect how difficult it is to roll with so many societal changes over that time and still endure as essentially the same American teen character.
But Cracked.com is a contemporary humor site, and that’s what they do: mock things. Nice of them to mock Archie’s tormentors more strongly than Archie itself.
What I’ve come to respect most about the Kevin Keller phenomenon is how the character’s not just been incorporated so easily into the Archie universe as a progressive modern-day character, but how he’s also figured into the ongoing Archie nostalgia kick, where the company has dredged up dozens of characters from its distant past and framed new books in designs evoking classic Archie titles of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Truly, Everything’s Kevin.
Woke up in the middle of the night, parched and dried out. I’d only had four or five drinks, so it wasn’t that.
Downtown was a beacon for their big sports-event show at D’ollaire’s. a trainload of frat bands rented a spotlight. The big, calling-superheroes kind.
The idea was to shine a team symbol into the heavens, but that didn’t happen. Just diffuse light.
The beam was all the buzz a few blocks over at the Bullfinch, where certain scenesters were hiding out rather than get bullied by those musclebound collegiates.
We jested that the drunken oafs would probably try to climb the light beam as if it were a ‘phone pole. Next day, we discovered somebody actually had. They failed, of course, breaking part of the sensitive lighting equipment and setting higher education back to the dark ages.
The Bullfinch has Long Lasting Results, Pain Free and Facial & Body Hair. LLR and F&BH share a rhythm section, PF & F&BH share a vocalist, and all share the same three gloomy chords… May even set foot into Hamilton’s tonight for Live Ready, a mercenary suypergroup made up of musicians we like in their uncommercial (read: Bullfinch) projects. Two sets, no other bands; they’re really working this in-it-for-the-money thing… Large Emergency Kit and Left in the Dark at D’ollaire’s. Shouldn’t that have been the sports-night bill?…
My Daily Nutmeg preview of the Firehouse 12 spring concert series is here.
My Daily Nutmeg preview of the William Congdon exhibit at the Knights of Columbus Museum is here.
My Daily Nutmeg lists of things happening “This Week in New Haven” are here, here, here, and here, plus a St. Patrick’s Day special here.
My Daily Nutmeg coverage of the Seth Adam Band and friends at the Stella Blues Café is here.
My Daily Nutmeg story on Alternate Universe is here.
My Daily Nutmeg profile of Colleen O’Connor is here.
My Daily Nutmeg coverage of the Long Wharf Theatre renovations is here.
My Daily Nutmeg coverage of the Arts & Ideas 2012 announcement is here.
My Daily Nutmeg profile of local lighting designer Jamie Burnett is here.
My Daily Nutmeg essay on my successful run for ward co-chair in my neighborhood is here.
My Daily Nutmeg piece on the store windows of London Limited and Geraldine A Florist is here.
New Haven Theater Jerk (new postings daily) is here.
(based on what I had in the cupboard that day)
One onion and one clove of garlic, fried in a small amount of olive oil
One can red beans
One can cannellini beans
One can tomatoes
One small potato, grated
One carrot, grated
One dried red pepper, crumbled
One teaspoon chili powder
One-half cup vegetable broth.
Mix and put on low for at least five or six hours.
Serve with hot dogs, chips and guacamole.
From Archie’s Double Digest #162, August 2005—more quaint and intriguing rhyming or punning titles (usually reserved for the one-page joke features).
Pain Strain
Wish Dish
Beach Beseech
Jog Clog
Steer Jeer (Veronica: “Look, Daddy, Archie brought our boat right into the marina! How’s that for navigating?” Mr. Lodge: “Great! Only this isn’t our marina!”
Divine Canine
Flip Quiips
Laugh Gaff (I think they mean “gaffe,” as in faux pas, since a gaff is hook used by fishermen or butchers or telephone linemen. “Gaff” also means “a metal spur for a gamecock.”
Short Retort
Gag Bag
Kite Delight
Rare Pair
Shout Bout
Slip Quip
Beach Daze
Wealth of Ignorance
Talk Balk
The Groove Tube (about riding an inner tube at the beach)
When Rhinos Fly (about a rhino-shaped parade balloon)
Hoop Scoop (about basketball)
Forest Feast
Weighty Problems
Dance Chance
Take My Son!…Please!
Tennis Nut
…and Pain in the Neck (about Archie having a pain in his neck, from watching girls)
You’ve got to admire “Beach Beseech.” That’s one of the best of these things ever.
Fell asleep reading James Patterson. Something is wrong with me.
It used to be cool for bands to turn their backs on the audience and face the wall while playing. Then bands stood BEHIND walls. Occasionally, acts would project images on the stage and play behind the screen, or even in an another room. Some such reclusive musicians sampled and remixed so incessantly that attendance wasn’t even necessary.
On Thursday at the Bullfinch, an nth degree was reached. A certain on-the-way down ensemble of wall-gazers did its signature turn-around thing—so 1989—two songs into the set. When they turned back around, the entire audience had fled. All of us.
Such a feat was accomplished because there were fewer than 20 of us in the “crowd,” and we easily convinced each other.
Eventually we all returned—we’d paid for the tickets, after all, and more importantly we wanted drinks. But we kept up the ruse, turning OUR backs to the band until it slunk away at the end of the night.
A couple people cheated, watching the show on pocket mirrors. They informed us that we hadn’t missed anything. We’d noticed.
At the Bullfinch: Sky Mall, Free Copy and We’ll Replace It, head-in-the-clouds indie… Cover bands at Hamilton’s include More Cool Stuff and Special Offer—why doesn’t THIS club have a band called Free Copy?! It’d be truth in advertising…. D’ollaire’s presents an evening with No! No! Hair!—all five songs of it…