Archives: May 01, 2006

And the colored girls go, doo doo-doo, doo-doo, doo doo doo

Wednesday, 31 May 2006 11:44 AM

While cleaning out old files a few months back, I came across a pile of ticket stubs for concerts I attended in college and shortly after.

These days I typically stash ticket stubs in the case of the corresponding CD, but back in the day I bought albums on vinyl. So the ticket stubs quietly piled up. And now, I'm foisting them on the Internet.

Starting, for no particular reason, with Lou Reed, 1986. The Orpheum was (and perhaps still is) a terrific place to see a show, particularly if you have seats in the first few rows. At the Orpheum this meant waiting in line outside the theater until the tickets went on sale -- which I could rarely do, being a semi-conscientious college student. So, for this show we were back a ways, but it was still grand.

The opening band, if memory serves, was The Smithereens, excellent as well.

Sometime around the middle of his set, Lou Reed talked about how he'd done lots of interesting things in music and art and so on, but in the end he would probably be known for "writing the Honda Scooter song." He seemed a little frustrated about it. But he played the song anyway.

Video link thanks to Screenhead, who also points to a freaky Dunlop commercial that uses the Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs."

Send Emily to D.C.

Wednesday, 31 May 2006 09:00 AM

The folks at Words For Snow are raising money for a worthy cause: sending a bright kid on a terrific learning experience.

The bright kid is Emily, who's smart and polite and lovely and the niece of Suzie Putnam of Words for Snow. The terrific learning experience is the 50th annual People to People World Leadership Forum in 2007, located in our nation's capital. As Emily lives under difficult circumstances, money is being collected to make sure she can enjoy this wonderful opportunity.

Find out more and make a donation at the Send Emily to D.C. website. Or buy a hand-knitted item and know the money is going toward this worthy cause.

The New Yorker thinks I'm bad at math

Tuesday, 23 May 2006 12:01 PM

(Things are busy here at the offices of My Brilliant Mistakes. As soon as we can we'll post a wrap-up of last Friday's BlogFest, complete with linked sign-in sheet and other visual artifacts. For now, please enjoy this angry note I sent today to the New Yorker.)

Dear New Yorker Subscriptions:

A few months ago I let my subscription lapse. I had received several notices that it was about to expire; but I also received blow-in subscription cards in the magazines, and I couldn't help noticing that the subscription price for new subscribers ($47 for 47 issues) was lower than the "preferred subscriber" rate I was offered to renew ($49.95 for 46 issues).

Yes, the price difference was small, but even so the discrepancy made me angry, so I decided simply not to renew or to start a new subscription. I could do without for a while.

But I continue to receive reinstatement notices. The one I got today promises to be the last, and its tone is quite scolding. "As a courtesy to you, we are extending this one final opportunity to reinstate your subscription at the preferred insider savings reserved for subscribers in good standing." The rate is still $49.95 for 46 issues, and the two year rate also costs more than a new two-year subscription would.

If you can't offer renewing subscribers a better rate than you give to new subscribers, can't you at least give them the same rate?

I'm insulted by this pricing and the attitude presented in your subscriber services. Please go away.

Sincerely,
Cynthia Closkey

UPDATE: Apparently the New Yorker does not necessarily think I'm bad at math. Rather, it appears to think I'm lazy. To wit, here's the reply I received from the Subscription Department today:

Thank you for contacting us concerning a lower subscription price that you have recently seen. We have many different offers to attract new subscribers. These offers can also be available to you. Please respond with your special offer information and we will be happy to enter your subscription.

If you should need further assistance, please be sure to include all previous e-mail correspondence.

Thank you for subscribing to The New Yorker.

Sincerely,
[name redacted]

Even putting aside that I'd already explained the special offers I'd seen, the whole shebang reeks of poor customer relations. It makes me weary.

Friday on my mind

Tuesday, 16 May 2006 08:16 PM

Hey! You're coming to the BlogFest (#6) on Friday, right? Details below.

Send me an email at blogfest (at) closkey . com so we can warn the waitstaff.

I look forward to it with great antici...

pation.

So damn hot

Tuesday, 16 May 2006 07:56 PM

"A Million Ways" by OK Go

I went to see OK Go plan at Mr. Small's Theatre last Friday, on the spur of the moment. Fantastic decision on my part: Mr. Small's is a super spot to see live music, and the crowd was big enough to have critical mass but no so large as to prevent frenetic dancing in the bar area.

Plus the band was on fire. OK, so the sound sucked for the first three songs, but they cured whatever was wrong and rocked the joint. And for me and the few other old folks in the audience, they covered Violent Femmes' "Prove My Love" and ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down." They closed the show with their choreographed masterpiece, exactly as shown above. It's quite impressive to see in person.

If they swing through your part of the world, I encourage you to go and enjoy the show.

BlogFest 6

Tuesday, 09 May 2006 08:53 AM

Tra la, it's May. And we can't wait another minute for the next BlogFest! This one will be held on a Friday night, and it will be at least as much fun as the previous five.

WHAT: Pittsburgh Blogfest 6
WHEN: Friday, May 19, 5:30 to 9:30 PM and beyond
WHERE: Finnegan's Wake (near PNC Park, 20 General Robinson St., North Shore, 412-325-2601)
COST: Free! (cash bar)
WHO: Bloggers, wannabe bloggers, blog readers, friends, Romans, countrymen
AND: Creating Text(iles) (in absentia), Inner Bitch, Grabass, and My Brilliant Mistakes

Please RSVP to blogfest at closkey.com so we know you're coming.

There had been talk of setting the dress for this event at "creative black tie." We're now thinking we'll save such fanciness for our upcoming second anniversary Fest later this year -- but if you've already dusted off your top hat and tails, please feel free to wear them. You'll fit in as well as anyone -- which is very well indeed.

UPDATE: I almost forgot the BlogFest 6 assignment: Contact one local blogger you've read but have not met. Encourage him/her to come to BlogFest, to meet you and the rest of us, share a pint or two, see and be seen.

If you've already met all the local bloggers you read, then this is an excellent opportunity to discover a new local blog.

Saturday evening on East Brady Street

Saturday, 06 May 2006 07:43 PM

My neighbor across the street is mowing his lawn. He's an older man, maybe in his late 60s -- although I'm not good at guessing age. This is the first time I've seen him mow his lawn this year. Last week a man and woman mowed it, early enough in the day that I was annoyed that they woke me up. Last summer a lawn service came every week. But he's mowing it now, shortly before the sun sets.

He has stopped several times to rest. The first few times he turned the mower off. Now he just sits on a retaining wall and leaves the mower running. I am pretty sure he's drunk. He's staggering a little as he walks. During all of my previous encounters with him he's been drinking iced tea pumped up with vodka -- he always offers to make one for me, although I never accept.

He's told me that he's divorced, badly, and that he's a painting contractor. He owns the house, which he has slipt up into several apartments. One of his daughters was living in one of the apartments with her kids for a while. One time he brought over a Zip-Loc bag of sauerkraut, out of the blue. He said he'd made it himself, and when I said I couldn't accept it he was so offended and hurt that I took it after all. It's still in my freezer.

Now he's stopped the mower, left it at the bottom of an incline, with most of the slope mowed. He's sitting on the wall again, watching traffic pass. People walk by.

It could be that's he's simply old and tired, tried to do too much at once. I've never thought before that being old and being intoxicated look similar. I'm watching for him to grab his chest or arm; the hospital is two blocks up the street from here. But he's just sitting.

He has a William Holden look: the aviator shades, the hair receding at the temples, the square jaw. He looks like the old William Holden, with cheek jowls and worn skin. I imagine he was a hottie in his day.

While I was typing he started the mower up again. He started mowing, then his foot slipped and he went down to one knee on the slope. He pulled hiimself up and bullied the mower up the hill, struggling.

I can hear the mower going still, behind the house.

After a while the mower stopped, and I waited for something else. Three minutes, Five. He came around from the back of the house, hands in his painter's pants pockets, and sat for a second on the front step. Like he knew I was watching. Then he went in the front door.

Pop City!

Wednesday, 03 May 2006 02:17 PM

Hello, visitors from Pop City Media. Thanks for stopping by. I'm delighted that My Brilliant Mistakes received such a lovely mention in Jennifer Baron's article surveying the state of blogging in Pittsburgh.

And I'm even more pleased that I look sort of pleasant in the accompanying photo with Mike Woycheck.

(I do wish, though, that we'd been able to organize a photo of all the founders of Pittsburgh Bloggers -- with luck we'll manage such a feat at an upcoming BlogFest.)

Drink of the Week: Pear and Cardamom Sidecar

Wednesday, 03 May 2006 12:36 PM

Bottles of high-end liqueur often come with recipes, to encourage one to consume one's fancy booze quickly. Chambord, the rich and sweet raspberry cordial, is accompanied by a full-color, 64-page booklet of recipes for cocktails and food, including close-up sensuous photos of the cocktails; their website reproduces it online. It claims to be "the definitive guide to the world's finest cocktails" (All odd punctuation and grammar constructions theirs):

Chambord dedicates "La Vie de Chambord Liqueur: Volume 3, Cocktails" to the creative mixologists, the bartenders, who have made Chambord what it is today. Their commitment to finding the ultimate co-mingling of liquids has given Chambord the chance to develop into more than just a cocktail ingredient, but a lifestyle accessory. Chambord liqueur is superb as a accoutrement to gourmet and classic cocktails, tantalizing culinary creations or simply, alone over ice.

Lovely as that sounds, I don't feel this little booklet is definitive to all cocktails. But I agree that it offers intriguing ways to use up that bottle of Chambord that's been languishing in the back of your liquor cabinet.

Trouble is, several recipes require ingredients many of us don't ordinarily keep on hand. Elderflower cordial. Passion fruit puree. Juice from canned pear plus pods of green cardamom?

The pear and cardamom combination was simply too odd to ignore, so I went on a shopping expedition. Obviously canned pear is no trouble, but cardamom pods are hard to come by in small towns in western Pennsylvania. I chose to substitute gound cardamom, and I don't think I lost much in the process.

The recipe suggests serving over ice in a rocks glass, but I chose to use a cocktail glass -- I'll take any excuse to drink from a stemmed glass. (Note too that the photo from the web version, above, went the stemmed route, with the added benefit of a sugared rim.)

Pear and Cardamom Sidecar

7 pods of green cardamom (or a pinch of ground cardamom)
1 1/2 shots of juice from canned pear
1 shot Cointreau
1 1/2 shots Pravda Vodka (or any top shelf vodka)
1/2 shot Chambord
3/4 shot fresh lemon & lime juice

If using cardamom pods, break away outer shell of cardamom and muddle seeds in base of shaker. (Or just sprinkle in the ground spice.) Add other ingredients; shake with ice, and fine strain into ice-filled rocks glass (or chilled cocktail glass). Garnish with pear slice.

You might be tempted to skip the cardamom. Don't. It adds a sassy twist to the drink, which otherwise is barely different from a garden variety Cosmopolitan.

You might also wonder what this drink has in common with a standard sidecar. The only ingredients in common between the two drinks are Cointreau and lime juice -- hardly enough for them to share a name. But few people drink sidecars these days, the Chambord recipe writers must have thought they'd slip this by. Sneaky buggers.

Copyright © 2004 – 2007 Cynthia Closkey