i have reservations about the slow food “movement,” some ignorant and unfounded and some because i’m usually not down with trendy “movements,” especially when they are founded on concepts that should be intrinsic to our lifestyles anyway. i’m a nasty naysayer.

regardless, i am a food fanatic (note that i refuse to use the tired term, “foodie”). my obsession with making every meal as pleasurable as possible is borderline unhealthy and problematic to my body image. so, despite my “hmm, i’m not sure about this slow food nation business” mentality, i can honestly say that i’m about to pee my pants with excitement about the slow food nation “market place” across the way from work.

they’ve done a nice job on the garden, but i stupidly didn’t know they were going to have vendors there as part of the food bazaar starting today. excellent. the vendor line up is thrilling: TWO ice cream purveyors (bi-rite and ici), fatted calf (fell in love with them during the cal farmers market days), VIK’s (yes, VIK’S), and a bunch of other heavy hitters. it’s not that big of a deal, but knowing it’s happening right outside our doors makes the convenience very nice.

is it lunch time yet?

also, the taste pavilions for the entire wknd are sold out. don’t matter, cuz tonight we embark on our own gastric adventure: the nugget rib-off in sparks, nevada. it is going to be a rib orgy of unimaginable, sick awesomeness. will report on that for sure, if we make it out alive and don’t succumb to heatstroke and/or heart failure.
fried zucchini, here i come!

oh god my mouth is actually watering.

courtesy of peggy

**addendum**: over the weekend my mom probably asked me five times with genuine care and concern, “are you eating organic food?!” to which i’d reply only half-facetiously something like, “pfft, of course. i live in san francisco, that’s all we do.”

happy birthday to a very, very special girl.

i remember the first moment i ever met my sister. i was four. there was a sense of anticipation and a vague understanding that a huge shift in the household (and my life) would ensue whether i liked it or not. there was commotion, my parents were gone for a while, i was alone in the house with maybe a few grandparental units. then: mom and dad finally came home but with this new…thing….in tow.

i remember peering at the little creature. i must have been confused but filled with wonderment. my entire life, children have never had the oooh-ahhh affect on me the way other animals did. show me a dog or cat and i will squeal and coo like a scary nut. a kid, on the other hand, better be pretty damn special to elicit the same excitement. however, ever since i was very small, i always KNEW my sister was friggin adorable, and no, not just because of my obvious biased stance. even then, i remember thinking, “wow…she’s precious!” ting ting goes down in my books as the cutest little human being ever. not just for those huge saucer eyes or cheeks, but for everything inside and out. a strange, curious, and unique being all the way.

like all siblings, we’ve been through a lot together, so it’s a good thing we’ve always had each other’s backs (though i was a shamefully absent elder sibling for a part of our lives).

she makes me laugh really, really hard, and she’s a wicked dancer.

dang, i’m just too busy for words but there’s so much to say. internet is down at home, which means if i’m nowhere to be found, just look on the floor by my bed. you’ll find my corpse – self-cannibalized out of sheer panic and anxiety due to the web withdrawal. addiction ain’t pretty.

more blasts from the past. i always felt meh about them, but gosh darnit if these this trifecta isn’t lethally good.

SeeqPod – Playable Search

why digital technology rules, reason #5,032:

this happens from time to time:
for whatever inexplicable reason, out of the blue, you’re reminded of a song precious and dear to you, one buried very, very deep in the vaults of your adolescent subconsciousness. suddenly, you’re seized with an urgency to hear that song NOW. it must happen or you’ll go crazy. the solution: seeqpod or youtube that $hit. the immediate gratification is aurally and emotionally orgasmic. it could almost make you cry.

it’s a stark contrast with little me 12 years ago, who would get so frustrated with futile attempts to capture any beloved but rare song on tape when it would come on the radio. picture it: a teen lazily laying (lying?) by her stereo, with her finger positioned on the record button, ready to attack and immortalize awesome discovery tunes (this is when live 105 was actually cool). when they did come on, i was tragically nowhere near my stereo. i think this is really a familiar, magical coming of age past time for all of us.

back to the song in question. those opening twinkling melodies that i haven’t heard in a decade, the stirring strings…the effect they have on me now is priceless. the other two are gillian gilbert and stephen morris of new order. they didn’t play “selfish” nearly enough on the airwaves for me. this was a sleeper / lightning seeds / red kross / juliana hatfield / all the classics kind of phase in my life.

thanks everyone for continuing to leave comments on my lame rigormortis blog entries. they make me feel better.

things have been wildly busy. a million things have happened, all good, some so so. just living life, mang.

i’m HELLA overwhelmed with juggling kettlebells at work. reliable mantras to keep me sane: “stay calm and carry on. also: “try your best, leave the rest.” there’s also the “rock in the river” guiding principle.

this website is infected with invisible, insidious spam. just google thebittermelon.org and you’ll see what i’m talking about. that’s something that’ll have to be addressed.

my sister’s birthday is coming up. she’s a san jose family shelter worker now, which is awesome.

i saw tropic thunder with my dad. can’t say it’s the most comfortable thing having to sit together through at least 50 loud and clear usages of the word “pu$$y.” not to mention explicit descriptions of what pleasurable acts one can perform on another’s genitalia, as well as a rap song whose chorus and refrain is “i love the pu$$y.”

my dad just called me and said, “i saw a really funny movie. way better than that ‘tropical storm’ one. pineapple express. very good.” yeah.

he also told me over the weekend that women cannot be complete without children. after my protests of this being a clearly sexist statement, he calmly warned me: “dan dan, listen to me carefully. everything daddy say will be right one day.”

i’m off to channel a lot of anger and anxiety through kickboxing now.

yes, that is colossus seconds away from crashing through the sf moma. you know why?

the uncanny x-men move to SF in the newest issue, #500. AWESOME!

wow, i didn’t get think marvel could get me excited anymore but i gotta hand it to them, this was a wise move. NY is overrated, people! err, i mean, mutants, i mean, editors. thanks for finally coming around. feeling neutral that the art is penciled by terry dodson (good, but inappropriate) and greg land (meh but skilled). penned by ed brubaker, who used to work at comic relief. a bit of history in the making here, folks.

wonder if the asian art museum will ever make a cameo? now’s a good time to confess i used to have a crush on (arch)angel. gosh, i think it’s great that the crew bunker down in the marin headlands, one of my favorite places.

i think i might just have to buy a copy now.

make that two. one for keeping in mint condition and another for reckless reading (bathroom condensation is bad for paper yo). i kid i kid!

ps – i wonder if there are any comic geeks at the moma who are feeling proud right now (there it is again in the background). note the psylocke wannabe, and is the banshee wannabe taking a pic with his iphone?

pps – wolverine wandering noe valley. niiiiiice

snippets from a phone conversation tonight with the ol’ man.
context: he finally saw the father’s day blog entry i wrote.

me: “so dad did you like the “article” i wrote about you?”

him: “yes, i like a lot. that’s my story! i’m a star!”

me: “no dad, it’s not really a story about you or anything. it’s just a bunch of funny things you said.”

him: “that’s MY STORY. everybody in this house read it. they all like it. one person said that i look better as i get older.”

me: “okay. did you remember all those things you said?”

him: “i remember everything i say…do you like the iphone?”

me: “…um, yeah, i do actually. why?”

him: “i saw it yesterday…i fall in love with it.”

me: “dad you don’t even know how to use a computer.”

him: “yes but if i’m outside and bored i can just type in ‘chinese’ and watch tv and movie on it!”

all while i was cooking a specifically chinese childhood dish of yellow chives sauteed with egg tofu and a real egg thrown in for good measure. was that like, a total joy luck club meets Y generation / 20-something bachelorette moment or what?