27.3.03

The Wind Done Gone...

I enjoyed reading Gone with the Wind. Though I love the movie, I never read the novel until after I moved to Atlanta. "Tara" is fictionally located only fifteen miles away from Atlanta, and much of the novel is based on how Atlanta went from a tiny little train depot town to the booming industrial center of the south; so beyond the mere entertainment factor (and it was just entertainment, no real insight into humanity here) it was quite informational as well.

However, as anyone who has read the novel can attest, the novel is very racially skewed, caricaturing all African Americans into neat little boxes. It troubled me when I read the novel because I felt like, um, should I like this? It's quite racist. When I heard about The Wind Done Gone, which has this big sticket on it saying Unauthorized Parody on it, I though oh, this person is trying to capitalize on Gone with the Wind and make even MORE fun of the characterizations of African Americans in the slave and Reconstruction Era. I found quite the opposite as I read it this week.

It's a very insightful little novel (only a hundred or so pages compared to 400+ of the original), and rather than being a "parody," I thought it more to be a voice for many children of the time who had inherited a very confusing heritage (mother a slave/father a plantation owner). Though the author uses clever little nicknames (Other for Scarlett, R. for Rhett, Beauty for Belle Watling the prostitute), the texture of the story interweaves and builds upon themes that were present but never addressed in GWTW. Anyway I enjoyed it and anyone who's a fan of feminist/African American lit will definitely find it worth reading.

Whenever I think of Gone With the Wind I think of Stephanie, the crazy red haired woman who was a supervisor at the library when I worked there my freshman summer. She was literally obsessed with the novel having read it, she claimed, hundreds of times and also collected miniature porcelain dolls of Scarlett in different dresses (yes, like the ones you see featured in Parade Magazine).

22.3.03

excellent dining

Two great evenings of dining out...

Friday: Iris is a restaurant that has been missing in Atlanta for a long time. The emphasis was on fresh ingredients, simply prepared, artistically served and moderately priced. I loved this place, and it's only ten minutes away ! I started with the delicous lobster bisque; Chris had the lamb shank with roasted root vegetables (he literally left his plate clean--only the bone remained!) and I had a delicious pork tenderloin with mustard sauce. We even managed dessert, but it was disappointing: my creme brulee was room temperature. But all in all, a wonderful experience!

Saturday: Mu Lan, upscale Chinese restaurant. I had no idea how upscale until I saw the menu, where the entrees were around 15-20 dollars each. Obviously not your regular Buford Highway restaurant. It was in Midtown, a posher section of town, and it really presented itself well. Unlike Iris, this place was extremely done up. But like Iris every detail was attended to, from the lighting, seating, linens, and silverware to the excellent service. And the food was out of this world! We started with pork dumpling in a delicious and just right soy sesame sauce. Then Chris had the jumbo shrimp in black peppercorn sauce and I had the seafood combination in red curry. Both were out of this world fantastic. I also had the smoothest vodka martini i've ever had.

Currently I'm playing Word Mojo and Cubis on Yahoo games.

19.3.03

A triumphant return!

Things I learned on this trip:

1. Chris really hates the Counting Crows
2. There is only one good ride at Universal Studios
3. Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville has great coconut shrimp
4. Florida is the trashy capitol of the world
5. Universal Studios has the cleanest public bathrooms hands DOWN

Universal Vacation was an astounding success despite bumpiness at the start--getting lost on the Florida turnpike and an inability to get the park tickets because the ATM machine had eaten my debit card which I had used to purchase the tickets. Everything worked out and we had a realllly good time. And I even felt happy going to teach again so that's what I call a pleasant vacation. We did not eat at Emeril's, but the highlight for me was definitely Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant. I had to drag Chris there (he hates Jimmy Buffet with a vengeance), but I thought the coconut shrimp was delicious.

Warning--Nerd Alert In terms of rides we went on the Dueling Dragons roller coaster (which is two seperate roller coasters that intertwine) a million times, and Men in Black, which is the best ride ever, because you get to shoot at things and even I did well, so of course I enjoyed it :). My favorite ride is ET because it feels like you're flying on the bikes.

We heard about Iraq when we got in the car and the hip-hop station we were listening to was broadcasting Bush's speech, so of course we knew something sketchy was going on, which it was. I don't feel nervous, more a gut reaction of this is not going to end up well for anybody. Hopefully it will be over soon, but we all know that the war is just the beginning; the US's relation with the rest of world is jeopardized, but who cares? At least Bush is happy. Again, I would like to say that Howard Dean is the only presidential candidate who not only admits to being against the war, but actively states he believes it is wrong.

In less serious stuff, ahem, people who are "playing" the Battle of the Sexes game should note that having 2/6 people voted off will result in not getting many points! And why don't I have enough faith in Antoine who is the coolest player and gets the most points. It must be because he's Belgian.

Dinner at Hae Woon Dae, the best Korean restaurant in Atlanta, and the best I've ever eaten at in general and finally I get to see The Hours!

14.3.03

florida here i come

Today was a teacher planning day so no little kiddies were running around. Which is good because I had to get my sub folder ready, as I will not be in school for two whole days, woe is them. They have no clue that I won't be there. I was going to tell them, but then I was like, nah.

Nothing exciting to post except listen to my launchcast station. it's ever so much fun.

12.3.03

futurama

Currently we are addicted to futurama, which is in syndication on cartoon network sun-thurs at 11. It's such a fun way to end the evening before falling asleep. yesterday i fell asleep at 7:30 ... i was pretty tired i guess!

School is almost over, only two more months! It passed by so soon. Little children go crazy when the weather turns warm, and mine are no exception. They have all become hell beasts, difficult to handle and with a wild look in their eyes.

In other news, I have been damn good about cooking at home recently: Sunday: steak, oven fries and asparagus, Monday: Soy-ginger chicken, spicy broccoli and rice, Tuesday: curry, Wednesday: Meatballs, roasted corn and risotto. Good right??

This is good news because we have been eating out non-stop it seems for the past few months. Stopping only for left overs and the random porkchop. But I read somewhere that you only have to be able to do something for 11 days and then it becomes a habit. I like that idea.

9.3.03

Oh what a beautiful day!

Gorgeous weather resulted in jane actually heading outdoors not in a car! Took a walk to the nearby park, where we had a picnic lunch and read for a bit. The weather is mid 70's today, so obviously we had to take advantage of it. In other news, Universal Studios trip is shaping up, but the big question is whether we should spend a wad of cash to eat at Emeril's restaurant? We're going to try anyway, reservations there are impossible to get apparently.

And in regards to yesterday's post, I forgot to mention my first romantic comedy was The Cutting Edge, does anyone remember this movie? I loved Moira Kelly and DB Sweeny in a take on Kiss Me Kate, on ice.

8.3.03

Watching Kate Hudson still makes me a little queasy

Why does she have to be so cute and blonde? And her boobs look really small, but she's so tall she can carry it off. I still really enjoyed this movie. My top five romantic comedies of all time have to be:

1. Pretty Woman
2. Sixteen Candles
3. Amelie
4. 10 Things I Hate About You
5. Grosse Point Blank

Some say these movies lack a certain romance, movies about prostitutes and hit men, teenage angst yes, they can be depressing topics. But isn't love grand?? We're all saved by love! I like movies that make me cry, and these do, but they also give you the warm fuzzies. I also have a special place for An Officer and A Gentleman, but it hardly counts as a comedy.

OTP blues

So we tried to go see How to Lose a Guy in 10 Day again, at the same theater, same weekday, etc. If you remember, dear readers, last time I was unable to go because of the nightmarish traffic caused by the NBA all star game. This time the damned movie was sold out even though it's been in theaters for weeks. ARGH. We were super hungry too because this is a theater where you can watch and eat a full meal at the same time, so we had been expecting dinner. So we decided to go OTP to Mandarin Gardens, a buffet chinese restaurant that also offers snow crab legs for an extra five dollars. It's a tasty deal. But when we were driving back, there was a HUGE accident only three miles before our exit. It took us an hour to go that three miles.

The accident was really scary--two people were exchanging insurance information on the emergency lane when another car came up and hit them, killing them. Of course we didn't know that until this morning. What annoyed me last night was that there were a million emergency vehicles but people were starting to drive in the emergency lanes just to go a leeetle bit faster. So disturbing!

In other news we're going to be at Universal Studios Florida next week for Chris' spring break. We'll be there for three days and seeing Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure of course. We had hoped to go to Key West this spring break but the drive is just far too long for such a short period of time. Did you know USF was named Frommers #1 Best Bargain Vacation?

7.3.03

test again

If my template ever worked I could only be too happy.

Unfortunate mishap with meatloaf last night. I wrote down 2 1/2 TBLS salt as opposed to 2 1/2 TSP salt. 3 tsp= 1 tbls. I got to 1 1/2 tbl before i started thinking...this is a lot of salt. so I basically added 5 tsp, not 2.5 Realizing my mistake, I made a test meatball. It was super salty, of course. So we went to McDonald's. the end.

I woke up super late today. I think all I want to do this weekend is sleeeep. I had a perfectly good post written last night when my computer froze so you're all getting drivel today.

5.3.03

this is not working!

I'm referring to my attempts to modify my template.

I just attended the Dean meetup which was very exciting. I hope more people start to get behind Dean, who I see as a great no-bullshit, grounded, yet hopeful candidate.

2.3.03

Dean in 2004

Ok party people, I've finally chosen a candidate; after the loss of Gore and no clear road to take, and then just puttering about pondering the state of the democratic party and any good chance we have of winning this election, considering Kerry and then rejecting him, I'm agreeing with Dean. Supported by Rick, and then later Alex, Martin Sheen too, I see now that he is the only logical choice the true lefty, or at least the Democratic lefty has! And a damn good one too. So the only way of getting this guy elected is letting people hear who he is. On that, I've signed up to volunteer and to meet up with other Dean supporters. It helps that the meet up place is two seconds from my house.

If you are interested in Howard Dean, and would like to find a meet up in your area, just go to meetup.com.

In other news, I was awake at 7:30 today for no particular reason. I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding and did not like it. I saw half of Igby Goes Down and while I did like it, I only watched half of it, woe is me. I finished the Shipping News and while I enjoyed it greatly, I would have liked to have read it before watching the movie.

Dinner at New Indigo, which used to be Indigo Coastal Grill. The french seafood restaurant was very whimsical but there seemed be a strange smell lurking in the air, even when we asked to have our seats changed. And NO the smell was not me, I smelled like perfume. I should have had the salad rather than the french onion soup which was as Chris said, "only OK." Edible but not delicious. The entrees were great though, ribeye for chris (though it came underdone) with garlic potato rounds, and Grilled mahi-mahi with red pepper sauce on yukon gold puree (or mashed potatoes). The other choice was agnes and muriels and I might have preferred it, but change is good. I was feeling under the weather so we didn't make it across the street to What's the Scoop, supposedly the best ice cream next to Jake's in Atlanta. I don't crave ice cream, but I enjoy it. I'm not a very dessert person. What is YOUR favorite dessert dear reader? Inspire me.