dj . vegan . craftess . daughter . gardener . word nerd . cinephile . audiophile . life partner . beer lover . lapsed yoger . record collector . art appreciator . aspiring runner . marketing geek . owner of special dog . recent transplant . professional student
Happy Summer guys! It's real summer for me now that my class is over, grades were submitted and I only had one student complain! That is easily the least complaining I have ever had. It was a fun class, I think that Marcom might be my favorite class to teach.
So I have already posted a video for this song here in the past. MUCH different version, but still completely radical.
This was my introduction to Lissie, who sadly does not tend to live up to the bad-ass-ness displayed above. It's just such a great summer song I felt like giving you another version. If you like this one and you don't know the original, definitely check it out. Interestingly - I looked at the old blog and the Kid Cudi version had been viewed 9 million times when I first linked it, now it's up to TWENTY NINE million... Are we here at Golden Pigeon at least partially responsible? I like to think so. Nice work guys!
Stay tuned for more music coming soon...
We have one show a month coming up - Bon Iver in Sept (and maybe Pretty Lights if we can swing free tickets. Or is it worth it to pay, what do you guys think? I don't like to go to shows that make me feel at least a decade older than the normal attender), Head and the Heart and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down in October and We Were Promised Jetpacks and Bear Hands in November.
Be happy your freezer is working 'cause mine's not. I think my man really missed me when I was in FL last week because 1) our freezer broke 2) he forgot his dentist appt and 3) he got a ticket for talking on the cell phone while driving (and guess who he was talking to?). Normally, my man does not cook at all while I am away, but this time I encouraged him to try to eat what was in the freezer quickly so he was eating A LOT of vegan meatballs.
Maybe I will do a cooking post soon, yes? This week I will be making baked chimichangas (which I like to refer to as chimi-CHANGE-as from my days working at a Mexican restaurant in Tennessee. The Southern folks strangely do not have a grasp on Spanish pronunciations. I loved when people ordered Tecate - said Ta-KATE. Anyway that is a whole nother post), "chicken" piccata and "chicken" marsala. Is there any interest in veganized versions of these recipes? My dear parents are doing meatless Mondays and I *think* I convinced them to make it vegan Mondays. I challenge you lovely readers to do the same. The piccata is amazing.
Fdog was happy to see me too. We are taking a anniversary trip to Cannon Beach in a couple weeks. You all know how Floyd loves the beach.
I can't believe it's been a year already since the wedding. I am happy to report that contrary to our fears (due to the fact that we never received a copy of the marriage certificate), we are indeed officially married. I called the city and checked on it this morning. Apparently, they don't send out certificates unless you pay $7 for the "decorative" version. And, as you all know, I am cheap so I did not opt to pay for that when we picked up the license. So it turns out that our friend WAS certified to marry us! And the paperwork did reach the city! It's kind of too bad, because I was thinking about having you all come back out to have another party for us all over again!
Stay tuned and be excellent to each other.
xo Pigeon
The good thing about not writing a blog for a while is that there is a lot of material.
Right?
Hmmm.
Look at those gd'ed hippies!
The big news around here is berrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (that's my drumroll)........ I want to be a drummer.
IT SNOWED! I take this to mean that all my complaining worked!
Unfortunately, this beautiful snow is long gone now and not to return.
But I sure appreciated and enjoyed it while it lasted.
So today is my first day of vacation. I am not doing anything school-related all day. All blog, reading (pleasure reading, NOT journal articles or text books), shopping, groceries, radio show, run. I better get this day going.
Except I did have to email a student who had an 86.1 average why I couldn't give him an A-. Those crazy kids.
So reading - I am reading The Help, partially on the recommendation of my fellow blogger and friend. It's a great book, I am plowing through it, happily, because I have a long plane ride to Florida coming up and I am hoping to bring The Girl Who Played With Fire.... Christmas Break is the time to reduce that stack of "to be reads" and add to it of course, what is a better Christmas gift than a book?
So groceries - I don't think that a lot of vegans are reading this blog, but on the off chance that some other crazy vegan is googling around and finds me - we have been eating GOOD lately.
I just found a recipe for VEGAN FETTUCCINE ALFREDO! I have tried a lot of this lady's inventive recipes, all are delish. Dinner tomorrow. I wanted to make it tonight, but my man is getting together with his band this afternoon and then we have radio show at 8pm. He doesn't want me to get mad at him when he gets in the door at 7:35 and we have to eat in the studio. Again.
You might think friends, that being a vegan is not fun on Thanksgiving. And you may have even teased me... one word - TOFURKEY. It's good. Believe it.
Before our home meal we had a pre-Thanksgiving meal from Cornbread Cafe, which was amazing. I love that place, but I have to admit, after every meal I feel like I need to sit on the couch for two hours and watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. It's all their fault I tell you.
My man and I have to split when we go there.
And, jumping ahead, we ate there again last night and had the Eugenewich. Unreal. Any food that causes spontaneous moaning is, embarrassing, yet wonderful. It is southern-fried tofu, barbecue sauce (what is BBQ sauce? Seriously, I want to know), fried onion rings and carrots, tomato, soy cheese...
But for the "homemade" part.... Look at this dork!
I can't believe how predictable we are. But we had tofurkey for the first time and it was so good. So good.
Look at that Mound on the right! Momma bird loves
to tell me how my man is always hungry. He's fine!
We ate early and headed to good old KWVA. It was a nice way to celebrate. I am thankful for our radio show. Last week we did a 90s show that was FIERCE if I do say so myself. My man heard the "Best DJ in Eugene" (as voted by Weekly readers) say something about how 90s music sucks and the 90s were the worst decade musically. Well, we had been planning a 90s show for a while and that was all it took to challenge him to a music-awesome-off duel. It was really fun. Tonight we are doing "Some Like it Hot." We have been watching some classics lately and getting inspired. Last night it was Citizen Kane. What a fantastic movie, I forgot how great it is. Wow. Rewatch it if you haven't lately! Call to action alert!
Tangent - in order to get really psyched (90s!) for the 90s show, we went to the midnight showing of Pump Up the Volume. My Christian Slater Supercrush returned in full force. Also, we were the ONLY ones in the theater. Afterwards (like around 1:30am) we decided to grab a beer and went to Max's. Didn't realize at the time that
So, for those readers who were worried, the BETTER THAN SLEEP show will go on. Apparently, the dog-in-the-studio incident was forgiven. We had a great show last night with a Ghost theme. We did turn on automation at midnight last night, so again, at risk. Let's hope we are rewarded for our initiative and decision to not wake the programming director rather than punished for the crime of automating without explicit authorization...
Photo by Momma Bird
In other radio news, we are soon getting a secondhand "Powerbook" to record our shows so they soon will be podcasted here on this site. That's exciting for us, because sometimes 10pm-midnight is too late, even for our pacific time zone friends, nevermind those mountainers and eastern folks. Apparently a powerbook is not a macbook? I don't care - it's donated to this 'good cause.'
We went to an Em's game last night. PK Park is quite a step up from Osprey Staduim in Missoula (sorry!). It was fun, but we had to leave early because of aforementioned radio show. It was 1-1 when we left... never even checked who won, but I love a good baseball game. A bit of a pitching duel. Thirsty Thursday is the night to go too, who can imagine two IPAs for $5 (total) AT A BASEBALL GAME?! That would cost you $23.98 at least at Fenway and that's for Coors Light! Unfortunately, the food at the Em's wasn't as kind to us vegans as the beer options, and we had stadium popcorn for dinner. No wonder that aftershow martini was so delicious. My man ate his olives first and said "What? I'm hungry!" Also, not surprising was the only food we located that was open after the midnight close of the show was called MUNCHEESE. Let's just say it does not cater to vegans.
No wonder intervals felt so great this morning at 8am... only popcorn and martinis as running fuel. Not recommended.
So, things are brewing around here. Lots of creative activity. My man and I are working on a fun semi-collaborative project for the Emerson in Bozeman, Montana called the art project which is our postcard representation(s) of what home means to us. I'll post a picture before we mail it off. It seems that the other collaboration we were working on (The Elk Whisperer graphic novel) is on hiatus.
There are less pictures on the blog this week because we had moved to moving pictures. Broke out our video camera to participate in this awesome project:
They even use Vampire Weekend in the promos!
So on the assigned day, July 24th, 2010, we spent the morning finding all the camera accessories and figuring out how to work the damn thing. But then we did go to a going away party, so even though it did not seem out of the ordinary, we did meet some interesting new folks and had a blast. I hope the people who select the bits for inclusion in the movie were looking for people sitting around talking about Salute Your Shorts, Thespian club, getting asked out by carnies, the disappointment that was The Watchmen movie, and salad eating contests, because I really, really want to go to Sundance. You can find all our submissions on youtube under my username soulepigeon. We ended up submitting about 80 minutes. You're welcome, Ridley.
Also, there is a Etsy site in the works for my man's artwork and custom orders. Stay tuned.
Recent commission: Crush 2010
My other part time job is waiting for packages to arrive, mostly wedding related.
I recently discovered this lovely site, and no, I do not get paid for this shout out, but I sure wish I did get paid... in shoes!
I apparently ordered the color MUS(tard) instead of MUSH(room).
I can't imagine how I made that mistake. Up next - Will I become crazy and decide that mustard goes with champagne? Regardless, the shoes are gorgeous. The "back up" teal pair I bought are amazing as well.
Waiting for a cake topper from this talented individual. Which animals do you think we picked? I won't tell here, but I will tell you that I was disappointed that the obvious choice (bird heads) was so ugly not cute.
Meeting with an electrician in a few minutes to check our wiring and remove the mysterious wires that dangle about eye level in our backyard. Maybe if he can't remove them we could just dangle some white lights from them for the wedding? Instant romance!
Garden is ready to enter its second phase... Just about everything besides tomatoes and cucs needs to be pulled out. Am I the only idiot who can't grow zucchini? Hot weather planting sounds like a bad idea? I garden on hope alone, no knowledge or skill, so we'll see what happens.
So, as many all? of you know, I am a marketing teacher, a job I really love. Yesterday in class, one of my students incredulously asked me "Where do you find all this stuff?" He was specifically referring to this hilarious video I found (offensive language disclaimer) which I geniusly related to the "power of the brand." But generally referring to the (I hope) interesting and diverse examples that I like to use to color the lectures. It's 140 minutes, so I think it can get a little dry eventually. My answer? I love pop culture. I read blogs and magazines, business and... otherwise?
I watch tv, I go to movies, I rent movies. I just calculated that I have paid Netflix about $1700 in the last eight years. I think I am going to claim that it was worth it. I've been with Netflix longer than (like more than double) my entire relationship with my man. That I am marrying in a month(!!!)
I listen to the radio, I watch videos on youtube. When people recommend music to me I go to Grooveshark and check it out. I'm a media junkie.
But the one thing I haven't done for about six months is this - read a book for pleasure. I have been binging a bit now that school is out (taking classes that is. Teaching class is much easier than taking class)
I went to my nightstand to take this picture and thought, this is really representative.
1) I am finishing up Bicycle Diaries.... Here is me working on it back in March (in Florida, obviously not Oregon since it would have been raining).
Anyway, it's a pretty cool book written by David Byrne (yes, that David Byrne and, yes, that is why I bought it. If you haven't seen Stop Making Sense, DO IT. It's really fun to make "calls to action" on my blog because I am not allowed to do that on the radio. Keep reading to learn more about what I can't do on the radio...) about biking in cities. He apparently loves to bike and has one of those foldable bikes that he packs up and takes all around the world and talks about the view from the bike in all these different countries. Really interesting, but why have I been reading it since March? And why is it on the bottom of that stack? I think I only have New York left. And the appendix about these special bike racks that he designed. That's right. Not only a musical genius, but also a city planner and small scale architect. And a pretty damn good writer and photographer. I remembering seeing that the racks won some sort of award even.
2) A Good and Happy Child. I was into this book until I found my new love, to be discussed in a bit, and it was subsequently tossed to the wayside. I bought it at Powell's (THE BEST BOOKSTORE EVER) because I liked the cover. It claims to be a "literary thriller of the first order" which I have to disagree. It's about this guy who has a baby and then he is scared that he will hurt the baby. So scared he can't touch it and, all you moms can imagine, this causes some problems in his marriage. It flashes back most of the time to his childhood where we learn he was possessed by a demon that had to be exorcised. I haven't gotten to the exorcism yet. It's a bit tedious.
3) So.... Stori Telling. No comment.
Except that I got it from paperbackswap.com and my Man saw it when it arrived and said "What could you possibly get out of this book?" Oh, I don't know, gossip?
4) GEEK LOVE! This book is a treasure. I am trying to pace myself so I don't get done with it too soon.
When I went to buy this book after reading a rec from some random friend of a friend on Facebook, the lady at the bookstore thought I was looking for Eat, Pray, Love. Oh lady, you don't even know how far off you are. Anyway, the book's about carnies. A family that purposefully breeds its own freakshow. But the writing is incredible. And it's even set in Portland. Katherine Dunn was said to be inspired by the Jonestown Massacre and the test rose garden in Portland. Friends, the very rose garden I just went to in June!
There is so much to love about this book I can't even go into it here, because I am trying to get to the point and explain the title of this post. So i guess you should just take my word for it and buy it. If you like weird stuff. Unless your name is Ally because then you *might* already be getting a copy. My only complaint is that I WISH I could have found the printing with this cover:
Sweet little Oly Binewski....
5) And, just in case you needed more proof, I am a nerd through and through. Priceless by Poundstone has my head buzzing with ideas for research. I just did an experiment from the book on my students and it worked!
So that's it for the book review for now. But in slightly-related news, I saw Inception this week. Believe the hype, it was fantastic. I am a HUGE fan of the movie Momento - I mean I REMEMBER Sammie Jenkis for god sake. I went to see it at the Wilma back when it came out, 2001 maybe? Same director. Inception was beautiful and suspenseful and different. One of the best movies I have seen in ages, and like I told you, I watch a lot of movies. So hence the dream theme. We did a dream radio show this week too, mainly built around this little gem:
In some sad news, we may or may not be getting fired from our radio show. Apparently DJ Floyd is not welcome in the station. Who would've thought?
If he apologizes can we keep our show?
Summertime means more cooking time and again I have a great recipe from digthischick. So what if it's meant for the fall? Don't worry sticklers. We've been eating the appropriate gazpacho too.
I love cooking with beets.
Murder scene:
Apparently, I am not the only person in the world getting married this fall. Surprising... The most important other person getting married this fall, my brother, has the fantastic date 10.10.10. I skyped in to his bride-to-be's shower.
Ok, back to me and my wedding. I found a wonderful hair artist. She is going to make me look like a "glamorous 40's pin-up." Sounds good to me. Is it freaky that I brought a picture of Dita von Teese to show her what I wanted?
Can we all just try to forget that she was married to Marilyn Manson please??
For those of you (mom) who were worried that my passport wouldn't come in time for my GRECIAN honeymoon, don't sweat it! I am now legal to leave the country.
Because my class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Thursday tends to feel a lot like Friday. And, friends, this weekend started off with a bang. The summer is finally here in Oregon and me and my dog and my Paddy hung out in the yard. It feels fantastic (and weird) to not have a million things hanging over my head.
My man gets off work around 8:30pm so normally we eat dinner pretty late which is fine. I have recently heard that all that talk about not eating after 8pm is lies and I am happy to believe it. Anyway, my man and I are vegan, which I haven’t written about on here before and this complicates matters as well. This basically means we don’t eat anything that contains animal products, so this includes:
Here’s the good thing. I can still drink this:
I’m just writing this in the spirit of full disclosure, don’t worry I won’t turn this blog into a platform…. BUT if you happen to be curious, here are some other people who are more vocal about this lifestyle.
I happen to try to keep pretty quiet about it (IMHO, others might say the lady doth protest too much). I do like having friends and part of that means not talking about being vegan unless asked. And then only a little. I have a problem with people who are extreme (religion, health, laziness, whatever). Does this make me Kelly "Contradiction" Bensimon? I sure hope not.
I hate Bethenny, but “Gummy Bears don’t come from the vine” is classic.
Anyway, all this set up is to tell you how we almost forgot our radio show. When my man got home, we decided to walk downtown to have dinner at a place that 1) makes great salads, serves Ninkasi and vegan pizza and 2) will allow my sidekick to dine with us outside. We live about a mile from the place and it seemed like such a good idea at the time. Until Floyd went crazy for a little Australian Shepherd (who would never probably never even give him the time of day) and dumped my entire beer into my salad. Then we realized that we had 20 minutes til the show starts. So basically we had to run home soaked with beer, with a huge and full pizza box and a crazy dog. But, we made it and it was a fun show. We are really happy to officially be in the ‘ok to play’ hours and not have to worry about one or two harmless little Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilos. (On a related note, my man never watched the Bloodhound Gang/ 3 2 1 Contact – what?!)
Also, my man sold a painting yesterday. I’ll miss it… you Missoulians may recognize it as my favorite building in Missoula, the Wilma.
Here's what you have all been waiting for -
So the real Friday rolls around and we have a wedding to attend. It was for a guy in my man’s band, the illustrious Funk n Balls. After the ceremony, we headed to John Henry’s for a post reception performance.
Yeah, it was still daylight, so what?
Do you think that the reentry stamp is in bad taste? Or badass, punk rock?
Knowing this was the plan, I was startled to receive an invite on Facebook to the Church of Skatin’s annual fundraiser pudding wrestling the same night, time and place as this wedding reception. It all worked out.
SPOILER ALERT: Knome Mercy was the eventual winnerWe were so close we could smell the pudding.
