Adventures in Gastronomy

I’m at it again – over extending myself socially. It seems I won’t be having a single evening to myself until the middle of next week. But, to be honset, I don’t think I mind.

I’m getting together with Mike tonight to talk about upcoming travel plans (Paris, Oxford/London, Montreal)…and to watch My Name is Earl, of course. Then, tomorrow night I’m getting together with my long lost Salem friend, Peter, who will be in Boston to go to Hooters with a straight colleague. Fortunately, I wasn’t invited as I’ve already done my time at Hooters…twice, as a matter of fact (once with co-workers and once with my parents…ugh). HMMM- I think there should be a gay equivalent to Hooters…Balls, perhaps?

On Saturday, I’m getting together with my friend, Tony, to take photos of me in his studio. Then that evening Mike and I are going to a housewarming party for a friend of his. Oh, it’s kind of funny: whenever my Mom calls to chat wtih me she asks what I’ve been up to and for the longest time I’d tell her that “Mike and I” are doing this or “Mike and I” did that. She would always ask “Who’e Mike?” and I’d explain he’s the school principal, yadda, yadda, yadda. Now when she calls she just refers to him as “that principal”. So when she leaves voicemails she says “Hay, Kahhhl. What’s been doin’? You must be out with ‘that principal’ because you’re not picking up the phone. Hello? Ahh you theah? Kahhl? Well, call your mothah when ya’s get home.”

On Sunday (or possibly late Saturday night) my old college buddy, Jeff, is flying in from California. Actually, he flew in last night but is spending the next few days in Maine with his family. We’re hoping we can hang out on Sunday before he flies out Monday morning.

Monday night I’m getting together with Jason for some hopefully FIERCE Rummy playing (note to world: I’ve been kicking his ass lately). On Tuesday, I’m getting together with a newish friend, Gus, who I met because of our shared interest in Boston architecture. He wants to see some books I have so we’ll incorporate food into the event because I’m always hungry.

Hopefully I’ll be able to just sleep Wednesday night. By then I think I’ll need it.

March 23rd, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 6 Comments

Does anybody remember that song? Anyway, it’s all of the little things that make my humble life of mediocrity so liveable. So, here’s a list of little things that have gone my way the past few days:

• I got an A on my first paper in my Managaging Organizational Change class.
  
• The Harvard techie group has informed me that they’re testing the new blog software this week and it should be implemented next week! That should make things MUCH faster and more reliable!
  
• My accountant finished my taxes and I’m not going to be suffering as much as I had anticipated as a result of all of the complications last year with selling property and earning money as a trustee for my friend, Regina.
  
• Last night, the professor in my Higher Education Management class assigned us our partners for the group project we have to do. I was afraid I’d get stuck with some key annoying students, but with a little luck he managed to set me up with Mark (Veselka Slut) who works down the hall from me! The other partner is another Harvard employee (from the Business School). This should make logistics much easier. I’ve been stuck in groups in past classes with students who work full time jobs in the suburbs and it’s a pain in the ass to get together. Oh, and not only did I get assigned ideal partners, he assigned us the easy case study to focus on AND scheduled our presentation for the final class (giving us an extra week to prepare).
  
• My friend, Adam, is leaving his job at Harvard (which is sad)…but his former boss has planned a going-away lunch for him and 11 friends for this afternoon. YAY – free food and good company!
  
• Another friend, Tony, is a professional photographer (his work as appeared in the Improper Bostonian magazine and other regional magazines, as well as advertising campaigns for national products) and he has offered to take some studio photos of me. YAY! I’ve never “modeled” before – but I figure I might as well take him up on the opportunity while I’m still young enough (and not too saggy or wrinkled). If any of the photos come out decent, I’ll post them here.
  
• Finally, next week is Spring Break at Harvard so I don’t have classes! WOO HOO! Of course, I’ve got unbelievable amounts of reading and writing to do for the classes anyway….but at least it won’t involve two days worth of 2 hour lectures!

Of course, the pessimist in me realizes that the other shoe will drop any day now and I’ll end up with some painful hangnail that will get infected and drip blood on my new pants. Or I’ll get a huge zit on the tip of my nose the day of my photo shoot. But until then, I’m just going to enjoy the little things.

March 22nd, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 9 Comments

“Extremely well done. Well-grounded in both the theoretical approaches and case facts. Well organized and written. Fine Work!  A”

Those were the comments my professor wrote on top of my first written paper for the Managing Organizational Change class I’m taking. You may recall three weeks ago that I submitted my first paper for this class (it took him that long to grade). We turned the papers in at the beginning of the class and then we discussed the paper’s topic as a class and I started realizing that I’d excluded many important things in my paper. I was determined I had done poorly.

But all of my worry was for nothing because I ended up getting an A. Yay me! Of course, I’ve now transferred my worry to the paper that is due tonight in my other class. And I’ve got another paper due for the first class in 3 weeks…plus two final papers and a group project to contend with.

Oh, and my tax accountant has completed my taxes and is mailing them to me. I decided against asking how much I owe because, as with my course grades (and everything else in my life), I prefer being pessimistic and then pleasantly surprised when I find out it’s not as bad as my active imagination made it out to be.

Actualy, I seem to live my whole life that way – which is odd since I’ve never considered myself a pessimist. I just use pessimism as a tool to ensure overalll optimism.

Yep, my therapist has his hands full.

March 21st, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 6 Comments

It was a big movie weekend for me. Well, not necessarily a movie weekend so much as a DVD weekend. It started off on Friday night when my friend, Kevin, came over. He brought along with him some DVD’s he rented, along with a stack of his own. We decided upon starting the evening with recent Best Film Oscar winner, Crash. We followed that up with Shrek 2.

I have to get this off my chest: What was the academy thinking? I did not like Crash. I won’t exaggerate and say I hated it. But it definitely did NOT deserve to win. Now, now, now – don’t go saying that I didn’t like it because it forced me to confront my own issues with racism. Quite the opposite. I didn’t like it because it was so over-the-top/in-your-face about the existence of racism that it became a cinematic stereotype.

Yes, racism exists. Yes, there’s a piece of it in all of us. But come on, this movie depicted every person of every race as pure evil. Just when you think it can’t any worse, an asian man gets run over by two black men who car-jacked a vehicle (the viewer later discovers that the asian man was importing Cambodian slaves to sell on the streets of Los Angeles). And the middle-eastern man erroneously takes revenge on man by aiming a gun and shooting at a little girl. Did I mention the white cop who accuses the black lady of only being employed because of affirmative action or the the black detective who tells his mom he’s boning a white girl just to piss her off? It felt like the characters were sprouting off racial dialog just for the sake of making that point. Sublety goes a long way, folks. Consider it next time.

I mean, everybody was racist against everybody else in this film. Well, except for one (rather hot, I might had) latino locksmith. Otherwise, everybody from every ethnic background hated every other person from any other background. They didn’t just casually stereotype people – they loathed them – right to their faces.

Meanwhile – Shrek 2, as an aminated “family” comedy did a much better job at tackling racism without ramming it down your throat. In this case, it was all about the Cameron Diaz character’s parents accepting her and Shrek into the family as ogres. Subtle, poignant, well done.

Regarding Crash, I agree with one critic who said that the academy was playing it safe by voting with Crash – it made them look politically-correct. Meanwhile, it just reminded me way too much of when the academy thought Forrest Gump was such a fine film when it was pure shmaltz only worthy of the 99-cent used CD bin.

On Saturday, I ran errands then had lunch with my friend, Fernando, before meeting up with Mike for dinner at the Harp and Bard (how St. Patty’s of me). We then went back to his place to watch DVD’s. That night’s selection consisted of Mermaids (I do love that film) and Hustler White (so bad it’s good).

Continuing on the cinematic trend, Mike introduced me to ifilm…where you can watch little video clips of, well, anything. There’s a hilarious dutch home video of a kid attempting to dive into a pool – but he misses by a good 5 to 10 feet! Yep – he falls flat on his face. Classic feel good stuff. Where’s the academy when stuff like this gets neglected?

March 19th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 4 Comments

OK – so I totally have a crush on this guy:

http://www.vimeo.com/clip=44778

Don’t make fun of me.

March 17th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 3 Comments

Hooray for Jessica Simpson. Now, I’m not fan of hers (though, I did find her variety show fun in a campy sort of way), but I’m very impressed with her not wanting to politicize her charitable work. I’m sure you’ve read about how Bush wants a photo-opportunity with her when she’s in DC for some charity. Despite being a fellow Texan, she declined the offer to meet G.W. and will just do the non-political party affiliated charitable events. I think I have newfound respect for her (still don’t like her music).

Rats are colorful when they’ve been run over by a car on the street. At least, that’s what I noticed this morning on my way to work.

“My Name is Earl” has the best lines in current sitcoms. How can you not love a wrinkly, denture-wearing prostitute saying: “Let’s get this show on the road. I’ve got a 2 o’clock appointment to suck on somebody’s feet.”? Simply brilliant.

Now, I think it’s been well established that I’m not too keen on organized religion. That said, I can readily admit that some of their charitable endeavors are good. For example, Catholics and Baptists have missionaries in African countries who, for years, have been helping with AIDS relief and/or famine. So why is that Mormon missionaries are sent to cities to recruit and not help? At least, that’s all it appears the elders are assigned to do. You turn 18, you get packed off to another city, wear a black suit and then walk around the streets harrassing people while trying to recruit new Mormons. Creepy. In my world we call that a cult.

How stupid can you be to dial 9-1-1 while in the middle of a crime? Well, that’s what an Oklahoma City fellow did while stealing (and torching) a car, apparently. He accidentally dialed 9-1-1 on his cell phone and so the operator was listening on the phone for nearly 3 hours until the criminal finally revealed his location. I love stupid people – they make life fun.

Did anybody notice some local Macy’s advertisements early this week? They showed a trio of tackily-dressed men with instruments and my first thought was “How fun! They’re displaying retro-photos from the 1970’s. What a great concept”. But then I read the ad more closely and it was apparently a photo of a CURRENT Irish music group that will perform at Macy’s on St. Patrick’s Day!! OOPS. They may want to get a new manager.

I still like my retro-ad idea better.

Speaking of fun – it looks like I’ll be keeping busy this weekend. My friend, Kevin, is coming over tonight for DVD’s and dinner. I’ll probably do some studying/reading tomorrow and then get together with Mike in the evening. Sunday I may get together with yet another friend, Jusin (though, that one’s still up in the air). Now if the weather would just warm up a bit.

March 17th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 3 Comments

Let me count the ways.

Actually, I don’t have the energy, nor the time, to list the ways. Hell, I don’t think my server could accommodate the length of my rant. So today I shall focus on their most recent annoyance.

It’s well established that the catholic church believes in following its traditional teachings and  they don’t want to sway from them. Well, good for them for holding on to their convictions.

Same-sex marriage? Of course they’ll fight it because their traditional teachings forbid man laying down with man (despite the fact that civil marriage has nothing to do with their religion and the laws wouldn’t require them to perform same-sex marriage).

Gay and lesbian adoptions? Well, if gays shouldn’t be cohabitating then they most certainly shouldn’t be raising children. So, instead of following their “values” of protecting children, they’d rather abandon ALL adoptions leaving more children in the system. Personally, I’m fine if their religion doesn’t allow them to adopt to gays and lesbians. But they shouldn’t be receiving state money (MY tax money) if they do so. There’s a Jewish* organization that does adoption services without state-funding and the Catholics could do the same thing (instead of stopping all adoptions). But the catholic leadership would rather have their cake and eat it, too. Or, they’d rather be the spoiled brat at the party crying unless he can have all the cake.

Women in the priesthood? How offensive! Heaven forbid women be considered equals.

See? There’s a pattern here of keeping with tradition.

But wait – now I”m perplexed. It seems that catholic church IS willing to break with tradition when it’s convenient for them. You see, St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Friday (during Lent) this year. Traditionally, that means no meat. So, despite centuries of tradition and significance, bishops have decided that Catholics can be exempted from not being allowed to eat meat this year. Why? Presumably, because the corned beef is going to be necessary to absorb all of the alcohol they’ll be consuming.

What a hypocritical organization. If they can’t budge on the other issues, why can they budge on this one? Isn’t the whole Friday meat fasting thing all about paying respect to that god or jesus person their worship? Oh yes, we’ll follow your teachings unless it conflicts with our partying. We have to draw the line somewhere.

*This Jewish adoption agency, despite not being funded by the state in any way, happily allows gays and lesbians to adopt.

March 16th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 4 Comments

A few days I go I arrived at work to find the following email (I’ve removed the sender’s name….I’m courteous like that):

My name is XXXX – 1 L in section XX (went to Yale for undergrad). I am not sure if we ever met, like at BLSA events or not, but I have a question for you (and feel free to ignore etc if it seems invasive). The thing is, I have a really good friend who met you briefly once a while back and has since then retained an interest in you. He is not a student at HLS but lives Boston/Cambridge area, awesome guy (cute, sweetheart/gentleman kind of guy-no sleeze ball or anything like that). Anyhow, he had asked me if I knew you, when I mentioned I did not, he asked if I would mind contacting you on his behalf.

So, hope you don’t mind that I did. He just wanted to know if you were like taken, seeing someone etc and to hint that he would be really interested in possibly meeting you again or perhaps having a phone conversation etc if you were not taken and were interested in meeting him.

Thanks for your time. I hope this email was not too forward or repulsive ( He is just a great guy – I had to take him up on the request to see if you were seeing someone/not interested etc).

How flattered I was to think that I might have a secret admirer! Alas, it was sent to me in error. There is a female student at Harvard with a VERY similar email address as me and this message was intended for her. The fellow in question, despite being “cute, sweetheart/gentleman”, is apparently straight (of course I replied to the sender to find out – I didn’t want to be rude) and I will never know whether he was the one for me or not.

Oh well. Life goes on.

March 15th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 12 Comments

I was able to take a bunch of pictures while out and about last weekend (I’m regretting not bringing my camera to Kowloon). Anyway, I started off Saturday by going to the Boston Public Library to get a book for my class. This has to be one of my favorite buildings in Boston. Here are some shots of the lobby and courtyard (all pictures were taken by me except for the first one):

Across the street is my favorite named church in Boston. Originally, there was the 1700’s Old South Church on Washington Street (which is still standing and was where early Bostonian’s conceived of Boston Tea Party). In the 1800’s the congregation built a new church in the brand new Back Bay neighborhood and called it, oddly enough, the New Old South Church. Wouldn’t it be great if they moved it north and called it the New Old South North Church?

Across the park (Copley Square) is H. H. Richardson’s Trinity Church – considered one of the Top 10 buildings in the country.

Later in the day I took a walking tour of the Greenway (which is where the old highway was before the Big Dig submerged it). There’s a little  known secret that most peopel aren’t away of: there is an observation deck at the top of the old Customs House tower. The Customs House was originally built in 1847 as a three story greek style temple with a dome on top. In 1915, a tower was added over the dome, making it Boston’s first skyscraper. The observation deck is not advertised (to locals our tourists) and there are no signs in the building leading you to it. But you just walk into the lobby (the building is now a Marriott time-share) and take the elevator up to the 19th floor. Then you grab a second elevator to the 25th floor. It’s Boston’s only hi-rise outdoor observation deck and if offers the most amazing views. Of course, I was there when the sun was at an angle that preventing any good photos from being taken facing west. The first pictures are of the rotunda (where the dome once was). The others shows the views and you can see the plots of land were the parks will soon replace the old highway.

Though, I have to say my favorite picture is the following one. I think this is a perfect example of patriotisim gone awry. This is Arlington Street subway station. Years of neglect have left this station with crumbling paint, nasty floors and poor lighting. Ironically, this station is also in one of the most expensive neighborhoods of the city next door to the Public Garden, the Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons Hotels and some luxury condo buildings. You can see the crumbling paint was covered over by a ratty American flag (lord forbid we raise taxes to pay for such infrastructure improvements). I’m particularly fond of the “temporary” foam-core signage that was installed for the Democtratic Convention a year and a half ago (and never removed) And how can you not love the garbage can below the flag? Makes me proud.

That night was the Kowloon kitsch-fest (see yesterday’s posting). On Sunday, I got together for lunch with Heath. We went to Boca Grande in Cambridge and pigged out on yummy Mexican food. Craving coffee, Heath suggested we go to a nearby coffee shop. And as we walked through the door I noticed a dapper fellow waving at me from the back of the cafe. It was Marcus – the well-behaved German fellow from the gay southern decadence camp-fest that was my previous weekend. Heath and I sat down and chatted with him for a while before I returned home to study.

HMMM -I sense this posting won’t get the 20+ comments that yesterday’s posting did. Maybe I should add some bare flesh or scandal to keep people reading? Nah – here’s just a bit of photographic whimsy instead:

March 14th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 5 Comments

Oh.

My.

Gawd.

I’m not sure what it is but I’m having the most unusual weekends lately. Or, at least I’m observing the most interesting people lately. Last weekend, it was the species known as the racist, loud-mouthed, inebriated gay southerner. This weekend it was that special breed of homosapien we call the North Shore suburbanite (Nowath Shoah for you locals).

And what a site they are! It’s amazing what 5 or 10 miles will do, but that’s all it took to view this rare breed in its own habitat. You see, Mike invited me to a birthday party being held in honor of an old high school friend of his.

It took place at Kowloon: a “polynesian” restaurant along Route One in Saugus, Massachusetts. We arrived on Saturday at 8:30PM.  It doesn’t look like much on the outside but the place had a parking lot that went on for acres – which is a good thing because we had to walk the length of 3 or 4 football fields just to get to the front door (OK – slight exaggeration there).

We soon discovered that Kowloon is apparently “the” place to be if you’re north of Boston on a Saturday night. The place was mobbed. We could barely get into the front doors and there were scores of people oustide smoking. We ended up waiting outside for a while for the remaining 12-15 people in our party to show up.

And what a parade of people we saw. Despite the fact that very few menu items at Kowloon cost more than $9.99, the thing to do for this rare breed is to dress to the nines for their big night out. No, I’m not talking Armani. I’m talking sequined tube tops (mostly silver or gold). I’m talking micro-mini skirts. I’m talking high heels that would put Jessica Simpson to shame. I’m talking skin-tight low-cut lycra shirts. I swear, I’ve not seen this many breasts since the last straight porn movie I saw…17 years ago.

And the men were equally decked out in their finest. Somehow, shirts in the northern suburbs of Boston don’t come with buttons anywhere near the neck. And who knew that it was a requirement to wear a gold hoop in both ears? I didn’t. And it goes without saying that hair must be spiked straight up using the most crisp and shiny styling product available.

By the way – these requirements (minus the hair product on men) were not just for the youth. Oh no. I can’t count the number of wrinkly, leathery breasts being exhibited among the 40-70 year-old female crowd.

OK – so that was outside. We got in and were directed to the lounge briefly until the table was ready. Fortunately, before any drinks could be ordered we were filtered into the Volcano Room (I don’t lie – that’s the name). We were seated in a little hut at a long table beneath a palm woven ceiling. All I could think of was the great Coconut Grove nightclub fire that killed nearly 500 people. The walls were mock-volcanic lava and our drinks were served in either ceramic pineapples or ceramic coconuts (with “Kowloon, Route 1 Saugus” tastefully written on them).

The menu was 12 or more pages long but I managed to find an entree in Chapter 7. The company I was with were quite fun (as have been pretty much all of Mike’s friends…though, Mike only knew 4 of the 15+ people in the group).

After dinner, we walked toward the restrooms only to discover additional elements of fabulousness at Kowloon. First, the center of the main restaurant had a fountain with multi-colored lights and, I could swear, multi-colored water. There were also fake palm trees everywhere, murals of volcanos and tropical islands on every wall and, most important, the center of the restaurant was designed like the deck of a sailboat. For some reason, the booth formations formed the sides of the deck and there was a mast in the center of the main dining area with an actual boom going the length of the place. At the bow, was a band performing their own interpretations of 1980’s classics from Bonnie Raitt and Cyndi Lauper (it’s a shame the ship didn’t sink with those performers on it…I’m talking Cheeze with a capital Z).

Anyway, we left there and the majority of the gang went to Model Cafe in Somerville. Mike and I ended up escaping to a Boston gay bar instead. We needed to be with our own people in the safety of the urban jungle for a while after that experience.

I’ll write more about the rest of the weekend (including pictures!) tomorrow. I’m still recuperating from Kowloon.

March 12th, 2006
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 22 Comments