It Goes Ding When There's Stuff

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Udon: A QUEST! - Part 2

Biwa
215 SE 9th ave

I've been to Biwa before. They serve really excellent Japanese food in general, but don't serve sushi or tempura (they do sell sashimi). On their late night menu they have shockingly good burgers made with ground beef tartar.

Noodles: Not slimy, and well-formed. Somehow unsatisfying, though. They didn't have enough heft and chewiness to them, which probably means that they weren't kneaded enough.

Chicken: No chicken.

Broth: Pretty good. Not too salty, decent flavor.

Extras: The frothy kind of tofu, sliced thin, kale (or something like it), soft boiled egg cut in half, kamaboko.

Conclusion: Unoffensive, but boring. I really wish the noodles were better, and that there were chicken. The quest continues.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Udon: A QUEST! - Part 1

I periodically get a craving for udon noodles. The problem is, having grown up on extremely excellent udon, I have very high standards for them. Part of the problem is that what I grew up with was not standard Japanese, so I'm not sure what the goal is for actual Japanese udon. I only know what I like. I have been poking around Portland looking for a place that has good udon, with limited success. Today I decided to start recording my results here so that I can remember where I've been. These are the two places with udon that I have sampled so far:

Koji Osakaya
10100 Southwest Barbur Blvd.

I've been to this place several times, since it's just around the corner from where I live, but it's not that great. I like the people there, but the udon is... meh. I'll probably keep going there for a while, at least until I find a better place and/or I move, but that's just because it's so close.

Noodles: Decently chewy and well-formed when you get them fresh, but I've been there a couple of times when it was not so fresh, and it had started to turn into the slimy worms that you sometimes get.

Chicken: Not good. poor quality and kinda greasy.

Broth: Unremarkable.

Exras: Kamaboko, not much else. It's served with ground red pepper.

Conclusion: I'll probably keep going there for a while, at least until I find a better place and/or I move, but that's just because it's so close.

MoMoYama
4310 Southeast Woodstock Blvd.

Unlike the fairly slick restaurant/bar that is Koji Osakaya, this is a pretty basic operation and appears to be one of those places run by a family of recent immigrants. It is also conveniently located close to Reed. Too bad the udon isn't very good.

Noodles: They weren't the worst noodles I've had (the worst ones I've had were from a restaurant in the resort area of Honolulu), but they were a little overcooked.

Chicken: Pretty much the same as at Koji Osakaya, which is to say, overcooked and greasy.

Broth: Too salty for me, but that might just be the type of broth it was.

Extras: A raw egg was poached lightly in the broth, a couple of pieces of kamaboko, spinach, green onions, and two tempura shrimp on top of everything. They get points for weirdness for the tempura, but the shrimp and green onions were pretty boring.

Conclusion: I don't plan on going back.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

15 Permissions

Gonsea (Eureka, California)

The Chinese restaurant whose exterior was the inspiration for the story that is at the center of my work.

The White Cat (1990) by Robert D. San Souci

One of my favorite picture books as a child, it showed me a world full of mysterious transformations and drew me in with its illustrations that helped my imagination run wild.

My first grade teacher's porcelain cups

Their image may exist only in my memory now, but they were my first regular experience with porcelain and its marvelous subtlety.

Ishtar Gate (605-562 BCE) in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin

The museum in general and the gate in particular showed me that the way fragments are displayed can make all the difference in making the distant past seem real.

The Snow Queen (1845) by Hans Christian Anderson

The book from which I learned the potency of ice and eye-horror as themes in storytelling.

Bill Waterson, particularly T-Rex Jet (1995)

Which showed me that silly things can be art and art can be silly.

Convex and Concave by M.C. Escher (1955 lithograph)

Which taught me that confusion can be orderly and that an image doesn't need words to tell a story.

Islamic carved window screens

I don't remember where I first saw them, but they suggested some possibilities of pierced surfaces that I had not considered before.

Jurassic Park (1990) by Micheal Crichton

The extensive discussion of chaos theory in the book taught me that chaos is beautiful.

Western Juniper trees, Sierra Nevada Mountains

Which inspired me to make some of my earliest drawings of nature for its own sake, rather than just decoration in the background.

DIA Bag (1984) ceramic, by Marilyn Levine

Which made me realize that my love of things that looked like one thing but were actually another could apply to my art.

The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490-1510) Hieronymus Bosch

The painting that taught me the delights of the grotesque and that discomfiture is a good thing in art.

"Silence in the Library," Doctor Who (2008)

This episode taught me the use of disembodied faces and their power to be both amusing and disquieting.

Two Choson dynasty carved porcelain brush pots (1700-1800), Victoria and Albert Museum

Which were the original inspiration for the porcelain lace that I am making today.

Sabriel (1995) by Garth Nix

A book that reminded me that the combination of beauty, creepiness, and silliness is a recipe for awesome.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

WonderCon 2011 - pictures

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Creeeepy.
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The Floor holds a lot of people. Not as big as Comic-Con, but still the population of a small city. The overall attendance was something like twice that for the whole weekend.
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Sam Huntington and Brandon Routh introduce the Masquerade.
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And again.
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Stephen Lang and Jason O'Mara, part of the Terra Nova panel.
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The Thundercats panel. I was in the front row!
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The line for the ATM. There was only ONE ATM for the WHOLE BUILDING.
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WonderCon 2011 - Sunday

I got up at 7:00 on a Sunday so I could get to WonderCon at 9:00, 2 1/2 hours before the Doctor Who panel.
- There are a lot of Chinese people in San Francisco. Weird, and unexpected, I know. Particularly in Chinatown.
- Some of the more memorable costumes I've seen outside of the Masquerade: [I wrote this list on the bus]
- The alien from Alien, including a several-feet-long tail.
- The Predator from Predator.
- Slave girl Leia - and she pulled it off.
- A few Zatanna. They looked kinda uncomfortable.
- Various Death Star officers.
- Strangely, I think I only saw one Doctor. [I saw at least half a dozen Doctors on Sunday, and several more people just wearing fezzes. Fezzes are cool.]
- A few Dr. Horrible.
- Many steampunk people, of varying degrees of quality.

In line for and waiting for the Doctor Who panel:
- There was guy in line behind me wearing a t-shirt with: Blue Lantern Corps symbol + The Flash's symbol = The Flash in the Blue Lantern Corps's symbol (whose power comes from and creates Hope).
1. I am pleased that there is a t-shirt for this.
2. I am pleased with myself for recognizing this.
- THIRD ROW! Getting here 2.5 hours before the panel was so worth it. That wasn't even that early.
- Not only am I in the third row, I'm directly in front of the moderator's podium.
- So many Doctor Who fans in one place. [That was probably the best part of WonderCon, actually. Being in a huge crowd of nerds. We are, in general, a nice crowd.]

The panel had Neil Gaiman and Mark Sheppard! Weee! And Toby Haynes, who directed the last two episodes of the last series and the first three of this coming series. Neil Gaiman wrote the fourth episode of this series, and Mark Sheppard is appearing in the first two-parter.
- "Nixon is scary." - Mark Sheppard. He compared Nixon to other Steven Moffat monsters.
- Neil Gaiman taunts the audience with a flashdrive that contains his episode.
- Mark Sheppard fanboy moment - seeing 9/10's TARDIS (which is appearing in this series, for some reason)
- "Vancouver is a double for everywhere." - MS.
- TH says that his next job is directing Sherlock, and MS begs for a part in the show.
- NG is appearing as himself in an episode of The Simpsons this fall.
I'm sorry. I could have written more, but I was watching and taking pictures instead. They played a clip from NG's episode, which includes Time Lord sign, and a scene with MS, in which he acts disrespectful towards Nixon while talking to him on the phone. I am very much looking forward to seeing how he interacts with the rest of the cast.

Terra Nova panel:
A new show in which people from a dystopic future (the year 2149), go on a one-way trip to 85 million ybp (via a supercollider-caused time crack. Whatever) . It's described as a "postmodern scifi western." I didn't think much of the show before the panel, but I might watch some of it now. Which, of course, is the point of having a panel for it.
- It stars Jason O'Mara (who was in the US version of Life on Mars) and Stephen Lang (who played the bad guy in Avatar).
- "I only do shows that include time travel as part of the premise." - JO
- Oh whoa! JO is Irish? [I immediately liked him more. Am I shallow or what? At least I'm pretty sure he's Irish. I don't know what else that accent could be]
- The show will include a twist on time paradoxes.
- JO takes pictures of the audience at various points in the panel.
- This is another very expensive show.
- It took 12 weeks to build the Terra Nova set in Australia.
- The show will include feathered dinosaurs, which were made using motion capture suits on human actors.
- Sonic weapons.

Thundercats panel:
Some of the people with whom I chatted before the Doctor Who panel helped me acquire a seat in the front row! Thundercats, if you don't know, was a cartoon from the 80s. It now has a cult status, particularly among people who grew up watching it (which doesn't include me, but hey, io9.com recommended going to it, and I was in the front row). A re-imagining of the show is currently in development. The animation is beautiful - lots of detail and generally good-quality animation.

On the Floor:
- Wow, I did not know that the Firefly soundtrack is out of print.
- I noted to Zach Weiner (author of SMBC comics) that lefties rule. He concurred.
- An explanation as to why DC won WonderCon so resoundingly: Marvel is lame. I talked to a vendor, and he said that this is the first time in a while that Marvel has even had a booth here, so obviously they didn't have a panel for any of their three movies coming out this year. DC wins. They gave me free stuff and had lots of panels.

I didn't stay long enough for the people to kick us out of the building, but vendors had started to break down their booths. Thankfully the hostel let me keep my car in the parking lot even though I had checked out, so I didn't have to find parking downtown. Yay. And I only got lost about three times trying to get out of San Francisco. Yay for cellphones and the internet, and Mothers who use cellphones and the internet.

WonderCon 2011 - Saturday, Part II

On Saturday I wore my costume, because the Masquerade was in the evening so I figured more people would be dressed up (if you didn't know, I wore clothing from the game Oblivion). Unusually for me, several people recognized what I was wearing! Not a whole lot, but they were generally enthusiastic (one person gave me a high five). A few other people liked the costume, but didn't know what it was from. I think it was a very good idea for me to include the Amulet of Kings. I know that you can never wear it yourself in the game, but it was still the most identifiable part of the costume.

So here are my notes for the day:

On the Floor:
- Virginia Hey has her own line of perfume. Which is weird. She talked to me and didn't demand payment for taking her picture, which is nice.
- I'm in one of the smaller rooms, and again sufficiently (but not terribly) early so that I again have a fabulous seat. In the second row. In the middle. I'm less than 15 feet from he closest seat on the panel. And I didn't have to wait in line at all. I just walked in.

DC Universe Panel:
- Yay, the Green Lantern Footage again! (abridged, but still awesome)
- Hey, I've actually heard of one of these people - Paul Levitz. Why have I heard of him? [oh. I think it was because he was one of the people who had a Spotlight panel on him this year, and I remembered his name from the program.]
- I need to get Brightest Day [the current DC main narrative]. I may have to wait 6 months or whatever for the trade volume, though.
- Part of the amusement of this panel is how much difficulty the panelists are having in talking about upcoming issues of the book without giving away too many spoilers.
- Some of the best questions have come from a couple of preteen kids.

Super Panel:
Super is a small superhero movie staring Rainn Wilson (and various other people like Nathan Fillion and Liv Tyler). Like Kick-Ass, it centers around a normal guy who decides to become a superhero. It's very different, though.
- There is no moderator, so Rainn Wilson and James Gunn (the writer/director/etc) are interviewing each other.
- The movie cost a couple of million to make - the actors did it for scale.
- "Our movie was made on the craft services budget of Iron Man." - James Gunn
- The Crimson Bolt's catchphrase is "Shut up, crime!" (his weapon of choice is a large wrench)
- The film is much darker and more dramatic than Kick-Ass. The violence is more realistic, so much so that the film is unrated.
- RW says that he didn't improve much for the movie, and notes that most of the time when actors are asked to improve on set it's because the script sucks - e.g., My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
- Q: Who would win in a fight between Dwight (on the Office) vs. Frank (The Crimson Bolt) vs. a bear (not a Rainn Wilson character)?
A: The Bear, no question.

On the Floor:
- I just passed the guy who plays Josh the werewolf on the US version of Being Human. He was walking down the hallway between the small panel rooms.
- Aww... the Anthropology of Firefly panel was canceled, but too late to be removed from the schedule.

LGBT in Comics Panel (instead)
The panel consisted of various writers who have included LGBT characters in their comics (in case you didn't know, LGBT stands for Lesbian Gay Bisexual or Transgender). These included a few mainstream people and a few independent people.
- Consensus among the panelists - DC is more open to LGBT than Marvel.
- "Gay men are only interested in Wonder Woman." - Direct quote from a retailer that one of the panelists spoke to.

On the Floor:
- I just saw a guy dressed as Dresden. He was wearing a hat, but I guess that makes him more recognizable. [Harry Dresden never wears a hat. Despite this fact, on every cover of every book he has been depicted wearing one. Dresden even specifically refuses to wear a hat on more than one occasion. Snark from the author.]

Before the Masquerade:
- I am going to be spoiled for Comic-Con. I'm in the fourth row again. Not quite so close to the middle this time, but I think that's a good thing in this case, since it means I can more easily see the screen, and detail might be an issue with the costumes.
To entertain the masses while they were setting up backstage, they played the trailers for several movies on the screens:
- Huh. Super 8 could be cool. Or it could just be another JJ Abrams monster movie with Spielberg familyness.
- My God, Thor is so pretty. [It's probably going to be terrible. Sigh. Oh well. And yes, that is me trying to not get my hopes up while still grinning in anticipation at all the shiny gold and silver and explosions]

Dylan Dog intro:
The Masquerade was sponsored by the movie Dyland Dog: Dead of Night, so naturally the main actors, Brandon Routh and Sam Huntington were there to introduce their movie and the main event. This confirmed that it was indeed Sam Huntington that I passed in the hallway, and not some random guy who looked like him. (You know, it only occurred to me later that those actors have a similar role to those they had in Superman Returns, in which they played Superman and Jimmy Olson, lead and sidekick. Anyhoo...)
- They played a couple of clips from the movie. It looks kindof silly, but it's hard to tell how good it is from just the trailer and the clips. The actors claimed that it is "fun and cool and awesome."
- Brandon Routh is pretty off camera, too.

Masquerade:
The Masquerade is a costume competition that they do every year at WonderCon and Comic-Con. There are group costumes and individual costumes, and they are awarded prizes in various categories. The costumes can be worn by the designers/makers or not, but they all have to be done by non-professionals (whatever that means. Some of the costumes were pretty damn professional). There is no way in hell I would ever compete in this. I could describe all 32 costume sets, but I'm not going to. I will describe the top winners, though:

Best Novice: A group of Jedi fighting a Sith. I think part of the reason why they got this prize was their presentation, which was pretty good. They did a whole fight scene.
Most Humorous: A group of characters from Tangled. (queue girls screaming when Flynn walks on stage).
Best Workmanship: Jack the Ripper vs. Steampunk Batman. Just what it sounds like. And it was good steampunk, not lame steampunk, unlike one of the other entries. Hers was called "Lady Metalica" (one of the presenters rolled her eyes visibly at that name). Her presentation involved pistolwhipping. Steampunk Batman had a Victorian lamp post and everything.
Best Original Design: Another Medusa (there were a few), but this wan was silver and sparkly. Very sparkly.
Best Recreation: An alien in full body armor and weaponry with moving parts. His face even had an articulated jaw. I didn't recognize what he was recreating, though.
Judge's Choice: A group of children dressed as Batman characters. Cat Girl was particularly weird.
Best In Show: Vampires vs. Vampire Hunters. Characters included Blade, Edward Cullen, and Count von Count. There were also several other characters from video games, but sadly I didn't recognize them. I even saw one of the vampires the next day and asked who they all were, and still didn't recognize any of the names. Even so, the presentation was pretty damn funny and the costumes were very impressive.

While the judges were making their decisions they played the winners of a Star Wars fan film competition from the night before. They were all really really good, ranging from stop motion to animation to CGI to live action. The CGI one gave a back story to why Han Solo had a price on his head. One of the animated ones turned the bounty hunters waiting around in the Star Destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back into them waiting around to get into a night club. Dancing Robots were involved. The Best In Show went to a live action film staring four kids and a teenager (as the badguy), and included relatively good visual effects. Luke was played by an unbelievably adorable little kid who looked about five.

The Masquerade ended shortly before 11, and I took the bus home again. I only had one one dollar bill, so but a guy waiting at the bus stop gave me one of his. The bus driver was the same as the night before, a very chatty woman who had helped me find the best place to get off and gave me a piece of candy. She recognized me.

When I got to bed there was only one person snoring, and I was sufficiently tired that I didn't have to break out the seran wrap to smother them. Yay.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

WonderCon 2011 - Saturday

I'm only going to write as much as I can get in within the time it takes to burn my CDs for tomorrow's drive back to Eureka, so I didn't even bother to bring my notebook with me to the common room while I'm writing this. I'm really tired. For the obvious reasons - getting up at 7:15, wandering around WonderCon all day, and getting back here at ~11:30 pm - but also because I only got about five hours of sleep last night. Why? Because there were not one, not two, but three people in the room snoring so loudly that even wearing earplugs and covering my ears with my hands, I could still hear them. I considered crying, or smothering the people. I even decided that plastic wrap would be an effective means of making them stop.

I debated between going to the panel for Super or the one for Cowboys & Aliens, but decided on Super, because it had Rainn Wilson, while Cowboys & Aliens only had the director/producer Jon Favreau. Before that was a panel on upcoming things in DC comics. After that I spent most of the day wandering around the floor, taking breaks to read Sandman. It's been a Neil Gaiman weekend for me. By the way, despite what io9.com says, I will be surprised if he actually comes to the Doctor Who panel tomorrow. I can still hope, though.

In the afternoon I tried to go to a panel about the anthropology of Firefly, but it had been canceled, too late to change it on the program. So instead I went to panel on LGBT characters in comics. Which, incidentally, had one or two people in common with the DC panel I went to this morning.

I wandered a little more, then got in line for the Masquerade. Many of the costumes were pretty damn impressive. I can't imagine how much work must have gone into them. I know how much time and effort went into my costume, and mine is relatively simple.

I'll write a more complete account of the day tomorrow or more likely Monday. What else...? I have concluded that, in the ongoing war between DC and Marvel, DC has come out as the decided victor of the Battle of WonderCon 2011. This is in spite of the fact that Marvel has 3 movies coming out this year (Thor, Captain America and X-Men), DC only has one (Green Lantern). Thor is even coming out before Green Lantern. I guess they're just better at hype. It helps that DC has had some really cool stuff come out in the comic books for the last couple of years.

Ok, I'm not done burning my CDs, but too bad. I'm about to fall asleep in this chair, and it's not even very comfy.

I'll end with this:

In Brightest Day, in Blackest Night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power... Green Lantern's might!
Wonder Twins Power activate!

Wait. That's not right....

Friday, April 1, 2011

WonderCon 2011 - Friday

Here follows notes I made today. If I had a twitter account they would have been tweets. But I do not, so here they are here instead.

- The weather apparently doesn't know that it's San Francisco, because it's warm and sunny, bordering on hot.
- I'm in line next to a couple dressed as a Star Wars bounty hunter and what appears to be a zombie storm trooper. The storm trooper has a screen playing Dawn of the Dead on his backpack. The bounty hunter has an electronic thing making the sound of breathing through a Darth Vader respirator. It's kindof annoying, actually.
- I just saw a 1st edition copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for over $700.

I got in line for the main hall about two hours before the first panel, so I got a seat in the middle of the fourth row, which was about 20 feet from the stage. Freaking awesome.

- I like this place. The music playing in the hall while we wait for the first panel to start is "re: Your Brains." (if you're unfamiliar with the song, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjMiDZIY1bM )

First Panel: Falling Skies
Falling Skies is a new scifi show set 6 months after an alien invasion. The attack included EMP, so most technology doesn't work, and most of the military and government has been whipped out.
- As someone behind me said after the clip - "Intense."
- Pilot written by the guy who wrote Saving Private Ryan.
- This show must be expensive. The aliens and their mechs are mostly cgi, not to mention all the explosions and other special effects.
- Filmed in Toronto. What a surprise. Actually, I'm kindof surprised that it's filmed in Toronto and not Vancouver.
- When asked, the producer says that the budget was "enough."
- They set it six months after the invasion so it wouldn't be about being shocked at the invasion. That's a pretty good idea, actually.
- Apparently there's a mandate from the executive producers (including Stephen Spielberg) that there be no flashbacks.
- The producer on the reason for the aliens' appearance - "Sometimes cool is the reason."
- Ha. I recognized Moon Bloodgood's voice in the clip without remembering that she was in the show. I don't know what that says about me or Moon Bloodgood's voice.

Second Panel - Nikita
A show about a tough chick who does violent things for or against a shadowy government organization or several. I don't really know much about the show, even after watching a whole episode here.
- I don't know who these people are or what's happening.
- For some reason the names of the main actors (Maggie Q and Shane West) sound familiar to me, but I don't recognize their faces at all. [even after looking them up on IMDb I still don't know why their names are familiar]

Third Panel - Green Lantern
I realize that probably none of you who read this will know anything about Green Lantern. Actually, given how much of WonderCon seems to be focusing on it this year, here's a brief overview of the premise: Hal Jordan is a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an organization that spans the known universe. Each member is assigned as guardian of their home galaxy cluster. They get their powers from their special rings which allow them to do virtually anything, so long as they have sufficient willpower and imagination, such as flight, force fields, weapons, telekinesis, reconstruction of solid objects, etc, etc (it doesn't work against things that are yellow. no really. this has been retconned by Geoff Johns so that it mostly makes sense, but for a long time, from what I gather, it was just "because."). When a Lantern dies, their ring leaves them and finds someone who can "overcome great fear." Hal Jordan is the first human to be chosen. One of the amusing things about having a universe-wide organization is that, while many of the members are humanoid (to varying degrees), many of them are not (one of my readers may want to avert their eyes from the last one).
This is the panel that I was waiting for. Same with most of the rest of the audience, apparently.
- Before the panel - for the setup - they put an image of the Lantern Corps symbol on the screens. Woman behind me: "My god, it's so beautiful!" I agreed. [the version they put up was all sparkley and shiny]
The panel included Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively (who's playing Carol Ferris, who later becomes Star Sapphire), the producer, and Geoff Johns, who co-produced the film and is considered to be the current king of the Green Lantern comics, including the version of the origin story that the movie is based on.
- Ryan Reynolds, asked if it was more fun to play Hal Jordan or a villain like Deadpool: "Well look, Deadpool is not a villain, he's an asshole." [that stupid Wolverine movie]
- R.R. Deadpool vs. Green Lantern? - Green Lantern. Most people seem to agree with him. [agreed. Deadpool may be able to break the fourth wall, and may be unstoppably psychotic and what have you, but he doesn't have a magic ring limited only by willpower and imagination.]
- R.R.'s real first name is Rodney [snick], after his "creepy" uncle.
- R.R. describes Hal Jordan as a "Chuck Yeager/Han Solo hybrid."
- The producer says that there is a Justice League film in development.
- R.R. suggests Bradley Cooper as The Flash.

Fourth Panel - Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
For this panel they played the entirety of the new Green Lantern cartoon movie. It is basically five short stories tied together with a central plot involving a moon-sized antimatter dude who wants to come eat the universe or something, starting with the Green Lantern Corps's home planet Oa. Highlights include the fact that one member of the Corps is a sentient planet. Which is awesome. It even has the standard Corps uniform. Yes, a planet in uniform. I wonder how it "wears" its ring? Sinestro (who is good at this point) is played by Jason Isaacs (suave as always), and, more importantly, Hal Jordan is played by Nathan Fillion.
- The panel consisted of three writers (including Geoff Johns again), the voice director, the executive producer, and the actor Wade Williams, who is best known from Prison Break. He has also done a number of voice acting jobs. Nathan Fillion was busy filming Castle, but he called the moderator and spoke over cell phone during the panel.
- The voice director/caster apparently had some difficulty getting in touch with Nathan Fillion to see if he could play the part given his busy schedule working on Castle. Eventually she asked one of the producers if he would text Nathan. A minute later he got the response "hell yeah!"
- During Nathan Fillion's recording sessions for the role, he asked the same producer to pause the screen for a minute, while he took a picture with his phone and texted someone. He had gotten a text from Ryan Reynolds (they're friends, apparently) saying that they had stolen one of the hair/makeup people from Castle, and that he wanted to keep her. N.F. responded with a picture of the the screen and microphone, and said "I've stolen the Green Lantern; I think I'm going to keep him."

Edit: I found the booth for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, but it was empty. I asked the people in the booth next to it, and they joked that SMBC wouldn't get there until Saturday Morning. Maybe it's true.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Eleventh Hour

Yeah, so maybe I haven't kept up on my blag. At all. Well... meh. I've been busy. Doing stuff. Anyway, here's a list of things of interest, sortof. I'm not sure what it's a list of, to be honest.

1. I didn't notice it until Poppy asked about it, but the sunsets here are really short. In the North we have long, red sunsets and long twilights as the sky slowly turns purple, then blue-black. Here, though, close to the equator, it's as though the sky just switches off. There is some dusk, yes, but I'm not sure how much of that is just because of the light from the city. It's still quite beautiful, nevertheless. Walking home just after sunset is the best time to hear the music of the city. A part of that is literal music, from the minaret of the mosque that I pass; The street always seems more busy then, with motos and taxis taking people home after work, and shouting children playing on the sidewalk. Indifferent to the noise, bats swoop around in circles, hunting insects.

Sunrise is even more beautiful, at least it was the few times that I was up to see it. The moon is somehow brighter against the dimly lit sky, and the air is full of the sounds of birds, and little else. Hardly anyone is out at that time, except the occasional taxi, of course. Hawks glide lazily around, hunting. If you are lucky, you can buy bread directly from the man who brings it to the corner boutiques, still slightly warm. It almost makes up for the lack of sleep;

2. The power goes out about once a week here. They've more frequent as it has gotten hotter and more people keep their fans running. Apparently at the height of summer there are daily power outages; Up to now they have mostly lasted about an hour, and mostly happen just after sunset, when everyone turns on their lights. Everyone is so used to them that it's not much of a big deal unless you're trying to use a computer. Many of the problems with the computers at Baobab come from the power surges. Last week the power went out for about three hours in the middle of the afternoon, so no one got much work done; There is a power generator at Baobab, but for some reason it wasn't working. Many boutiques have small generators that sit outside the front door. Even if you're not using electricity yourself, it's easy to know when the power is out by the sound of the generators.

3. Given:
d = the average number of times per week that I left my room during the evening last semester in Portland,
t = how little time there is before I have to be home,
c = how little phone credit I have,
P = how lost I am,
L = how long I have already walked,
and the constant T = Taranga (hospitality),
find D = my recklessness on a Thursday night in Dakar, using the following equation.

D = d[(P + L)/(t + c)] + T

4. I'm probably the worst person to be staying longest in Dakar. Kelly left on Wednesday night, Jess H and Alexis left on Saturday, Jess L and Sean left on Sunday (though they only went on a week long trip and will be back), Katie and Katherine are leaving tonight, Leia and Rebeka are leaving on Thursday, and I'm leaving... Saturday. Bleh. As I said, I'm probably the worst person in this group to leave last, because I am really ready to leave. I am really, really glad that I came, for many reasons, but I'm not in love with Senegal like many of the others. I don't really like the food, I don't like the conformity (everyone likes the same music), and I really don't like the men here. I'm also tired of the way that Gnagna seems to have unrealistic expectations for me, then treats me like an idiot child when I fail to meet them. I also just act more stupid in front of her. To b e fair, I could just be being paranoid, but it sortof comes to the same thing.

In fact, one of the reasons that I'm so glad that I came here is the way that it has helped me realize how much I like my own culture. As a communal society, conformity is encouraged here. In contrast, everyone is expected to have their own style, their own tastes, their own hobbies. Granted, there is a certain amount of conformity within social circles, but at least there are many different social circles to choose from. I have also learned a greater appreciation for the English language. We have so many different ways of saying the same thing, with so many different nuances. In French there don't seem to be enough synonyms to ever need a thesaurus. And don't get me started on Wolof. True, it is much simpler than any other language I've encountered, possibly including made up ones like Elvish, but that has its downsides. For instance, I was incredibly depressed to learn that there are names for only four different colors in Wolof.

And oh God, do I miss cheese. And vegetables that aren't overcooked. And noodles that aren't overcooked.

5. There are also many things that I know I will miss: First, being a part of this group of L&C students. I'll also miss being able to go up to any number of tables (there are four within a minute of ACI) to buy cheap, fresh fruit. I will miss buying bags of semi-frozen bouillessap, juice made out of a mixture of baobab fruit (bouille) and hibiscus flowers (bissap). I will miss beignes, deep fried sweet or savory balls of dough made by women on the street. I will miss being outraged when a taxi driver asks 3000F (around $6) to go downtown. I will miss the triumph of successfully bargaining the price down. I will miss the piebald crow with their white tuxedo waistcoats and the brightly colored weaverbirds straight out of a picture book that I had when I was little. I will miss the yagen yaays, the white minibuses that go everywhere, if you can understand the apprenti who always hangs off the back ladder, shouting the destination with an accent thick enough to use as beigne batter. I will miss the teenage boys who set up their platters on spindly metal frames and sell pieces of juicy fresh coconut for 25F a shard. I will really miss yogoglace, frozen yogurt sold in plastic bags. OK, so most of the things that I will miss are types of food, just not the food that they serve at meals.

Sorry, that was really short, too. Maybe I'll write more on Friday when I'll be the only one left. Or not. Maybe I'll just upload pictures and watch "The Time of the Angels" again. Inshallah.

Monday, March 15, 2010

"So Much Things In My Head"

Typically, the only day off we have is when someone has died. The other class's Wolof professor died unexpectedly this weekend, so all classes are canceled today to allow people to go to the funeral. I'm not going, because I barely knew him, but all of his students are going. I could have gone for purely intellectual reasons, that is, to see a Senegalese funeral, but that seemed rather callous.

This weekend was our last group trip, to St. Louis. Next weekend are our individual/pair trips. We are all going to different villages to do "research," whatever that means. Leia and I are planning to go back to the village where we went weekend before last so we can learn how they do pottery. I was one of the few people who was allowed to do most of the hand building myself when we were paired off with local women to make bowls. I've done lots of hand building before, but I'm not stunningly good at it, and I was amazed by the celerity with which they added each snake of clay. I was reminded of watching Lola knit. My Wolof is still barely rudimentary, so it should be... interesting to stay in a village where most people don't speak French. Of course, in other villages where people stay they don't even speak Wolof at all.

I'm still frequently astonished by how aggressive men are here in their pursuit of women. There is no really socially acceptable reason for men and women to hang out together, and women are supposed to act proud and aloof towards, well, everyone, so men have to be persistent. Knowing that, it's understandable if slightly alarming that random men frequently come up to me, insisting that they escort me home and that they want to get to know me. Still, it's quite amusing to observe how quickly men leave when I claim to be married. One of the more ridiculous overtures came from a man sitting on the ground in a squalid market that we stopped at in St. Louis on the way to Mboumba, who looked up from the cloud of flies swarming around his wares and said to the group at large, "je veux marriage toi" ("I want marriage you").

An even more ridiculous incident took place when we were in the Sine Delta region. After a mediocre performance of drumming, dancing, fire dancing, etc, the men descended on us like locusts to grain. I can't even describe the dept of ridiculousness that ensued. The least ridiculous incident of the evening was when a man tried to get me to talk to him in private, mentioning that he had fallen in love with me during the performance. I managed to shake him off, and as I started walking away he immediately used the exact same lines on Alexis, who had been standing feet away from us during the exchange, and started using the exact same lines.

To our horror, the same men showed up the next evening, when we weren't even on the same island. I'm still not sure how they found out where we were going. Thankfully we had a gate to close against their intrusion at that hotel.

And it was an actual hotel. There was a swimming pool, and we got to take hot showers for the first time since we arrived in Senegal. That was slightly disturbing, actually, because of how unnatural it felt to bathe in hot water. I still wince before stepping under my cold shower, but it felt strange to use hot water, though enjoyable. My bed didn't have a mosquito net set up for it. I wasn't bothered by this at first, but then almost as soon as we went to bed I started hearing mosquitoes buzzing around. I dug mine out of my own net from my bag, and and Katherine and I hung it up in a ridiculous arrangement that involved the back of a chair, the cables of my iPod and camera chargers, Katherine's hat, and a number of hangers. Thankfully we only partially woke Katie up by giggling and congratulating each others' genius. I took pictures of it, which I'll post eventually.

Yesterday when we were in the usual Sunday evening traffic jam on the Rufisque-Dakar freeway (there's only one road in and out of Dakar) we waved at another Toubab who was in a taxi next to us. When we stopped, she randomly handed a CD to JessL through the open window, to general applause and laughter. I took the title of this post from one of the tracks of the CD. Ah, Franglish.

I posted my Mboumba pictures on Facebook this time instead of Picasa. If you want to see them and don't have Facebook email me, and I'll set the album to give you permission to see it without fb.