Let me take you on a trip around the world and back

Last night I attended my third Depeche Mode concert in twelve years. That's right, they come around every four years, like clockwork, except that one year when they came back several months after I saw them, on the day that I was graduating from college, and I wasn't allowed to go to the concert since my parents thought it was important for me to graduate from college and all. Rats. Side note: Paul Sarbanes, of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for all of you accounting nerds, spoke at my graduation about something Benjamin Franklin something, something. In case you were wondering what I would have missed had I gone to the concert instead.

So last night we packed ourselves into the Accord and drove to bumblefrick Virginia. My brother, sister-in-law, and Papa T. That's right, I was on a date with my dad. HOT.



And also literally, it was a very hot outside.

Papa T brought binoculars and lamented the fact that he did not have his Nikon D90 and a big lens with him because that definitely would not have been at all burdensome. In between losing my voice from all of the WOOOing & SINGING and dancing up a storm in my one square foot of sweaty dance floor, I took some extra blurry photos and videos.

This here is a fairly accurate representation of our view. But probably a little zoomed in. If my memory serves me correctly, I bought these tickets online pretty much the minute they were released to the public.



One of the screens was just to the right. Here I captured Martin, my lover brother from another mother.



I also shot some shitty video snippets. In your room your burning eyes cause flames to arise.



Are you clapping for an encore? I leave you with the more upbeat Enjoy the Silence.

Olive Kitteridge and Kitchen Confidential

Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout

Thirteen stories about residents of a small town in coastal Maine, all linked by Olive Kitteridge, a retired teacher. I will give this book an unenthusiastic

4 out of 5

Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain

I hated Bourdain's pompous, coke-addicted, mean voice throughout the entire narrative. But I also couldn't wait for bedtime reading time every night to learn more behind-the-scenes kitchen stories.

4 out of 5

Saturday morning photo shoot with my produce

Babushkas sing Britney Spears

King Corn

This documentary is about one of my favorite topics, evil corn. Although not as good as Omnivore's Dilemma, it touches on many of the same points for those who prefer a visual presentation -- farmers are no longer able to feed themselves off of their farms as they are producing surplus amounts of corn, which ends up in the feed of the cows raised on feeding lots and in our sodas and cheap packaged foods as sweetener. The grain-fed beef is saturated fatty, the sodas are liquid candy. Yes our food is cheap, but most of it encourages obesity and diabetes. Not to mention the toxic waste of the feeding lots and the chemical fertilizers that have to be used on a corn monoculture. There are just too many things wrong with our food system.

Independence Day photoshoot with my produce POD

Not pictured: Bread, Multi-grain; Muffin, Cranberry Almond; Sausage, Buffalo Bourbon Fennel; Sausage, Buffalo Cranberry Wine; Yogurt, Plain.

Bob Fosse

On tonight's episode of So You Think You Can Dance, one of the choreographers "paid tribute" to (ripped off the moves of, more like) Bob Fosse. From my favorite film dance sequence of all time, The Rich Man's Frug from "Sweet Charity":



My junior year of college, I took a jazz dance class, which for all intents and purposes turned out to be a Bob Fosse dance class. Armed with very little Bob Fosse knowledge, this class took me by surprise and I became obsessed with Bob Fosse that semester. We practiced many of the moves from The Rich Man's Frug. Being the overachiever that we all know and love, I rented all of the Bob Fosse movies from the College Park Potomac Video. I downloaded the "Fosse", "Cabaret" and "Sweet Charity" soundtracks. Even choreographed a Bob Fosse-like jazz routine (for a class assignment). Bob Fosse! It was truly a magical time.