Ploafmaster General

If you can't laugh or at least smile at this, then your heart is an untended garden of dead things:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVblWq3tDwY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=580&h=470]

Goodness gracious, I couldn't have said it better myself...Michael Ruhlman rants about the anti-bacterial obsession of American culture.

Hey, guess what? I eat pork that's pink in the middle. I eat burgers cooked medium...sometimes medium rare (even at - gasp! - restaurants). Ever since I was a kid, I've been eating leftover pizza that spent the night in a cardboard box on the kitchen counter. And you know what? I get sick maybe once every 12 months or so - and it hasn't been a digestive problem in at least 5 years.

Correlation is NOT causation, but I do subscribe to the notion that being less fanatical about food sanitation (while not ignoring common sense precautions) makes for a stronger immune system.

If you had the chance to burp any celebrity from the United Kingdom, who would it be? Oh yeah, and it has to be somebody that's a bit more obscure on the west side of the Atlantic.

Today was so foggy and incredible that I just had to take some photographs. I rushed home at lunch time to grab my Yashica, and headed down to the Carillon near Dogwood Dell. While I my foggy photos didn't quite pass muster, the mini-shoot wasn't a total loss.

I think I'm going to try pushing some Tri-X to ISO 6400. You might think pushing 400-speed film 4 stops would make for completely unsightly grain, but there are plenty of examples to the contrary.

I'm a big fan of Dan Benjamin and his many varieties of content on the web. But today he posted an entry on his blog that he calls "Help for The Potential Vegetarian." I think he wisely disable comments on his post, but I wanted to say something about it, and my own blog is the ideal venue, so here goes. From his (short) post:

"For those of you on the fence about becoming a vegetarian, just watch this video showing how bacon is made..."

The YouTube clip is from the show How It's Made and shows how bacon is produced on an industrial scale.

Okay, I have no problem with Dan Benjamin or anybody else that is a vegetarian. It's a personal decision, and while I don't always agree with everybody's reason, I see no moral problem in one's electing to keep meat out of one's diet. But how is this supposed to help a person on the fence about vegetarianism make a decision?

Is a person considering vegetarianism because of health reasons? Then you don't need to see a bacon facility to make up your mind. What about vegetarianism for the sake of the animals? Well we don't see how the pigs were raised/fed/slaughtered in this video, so no help there. And if you just don't think it's right to kill an animal, you'd avoid bacon (or other meat) before watching this clip anyway. I mean, frankly, if you didn't know bacon wasn't healthy or that it came from an animal before watching this clip, you're probably not intelligent enough to make the call on vegetarianism anyway. Just keep eating your Cheerios, and somebody will take you to nap time shortly...

Dan's post bugs me because it seems to say, "Look at this gross industrial process. Are you sure you want to eat that?" If this video grosses you out and you're not already a vegetarian, I think it makes a stronger case against commercial meat processing than it does against meat in general. In fact, I'd say that commercial food production for some vegetarian or vegan foods might look just as unappetizing.

So again, no disrespect to Mr. Benjamin. I simply wish his post was a bit better...um...fleshed out. Now I'll go on waiting for the next episode of Tack Sharp :-)

I feel like a pretty dry well these days, so forgive me while I resort to the ol' blogging standard of simple links to amusing diversions...

Behold, the camera truck.

Shaun Irving created a seriously large format camera out of a used truck, and some of the photographs are truly amazing. His work is currently on display at Hamden-Sydney College's Atkinson Museum. Since that's only twenty-five minutes from my parents' house, I may just have to check it out some time before February 28th (when the exhibit closes).
(via Chris)

Yarf...I feel like I'm 17 all over again...

I just finished writing a bunch of admissions essays, and tomorrow I get to send out recommendation requests. On Friday I pick up several sealed copies of my undergraduate transcript. Then, after I get my W-2 at the end of this month, I get to fill out the FAFSA for the first time since January, 2003. Hooray, I think :-)

I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't tell everybody about my friend Patrick's new Tumblog, tasty hip hop treats. If you're a fan of clever music regardless of the genre, give this a look. Patrick is beginning to curate a fine selection of beats, songs, and collections, much of which is free at least for the listening (and some for the downloading, too).

Look, it's all worth it at least for Dert's Talk Strange.

Whether or not you like the new administration, I think it's a nice symbolic move that Whitehouse.gov now has a blog. Let's hope the updates are frequent and substantive.

ISO400 film push-processed to 3200.

Okay, it's no secret to my friends and readers that I'm a fan of Can Can in Carytown. But it took until tonight for Valerie and me to have dinner in what is now clearly my favorite Richmond restaurant. We were celebrating my GMAT results with a fancy dinner, and I used that as an excuse to finally see if Can Can's evening offerings equaled the day service.

I think my expectations were exceeded.

Now I've read mixed reviews online about Can Can. I understand that each person's experience is different, but Valerie and I had fine service from start to finish in addition to creative libations and amazing food. Combine that with what I already consider to be one of the classiest atmospheres in town, and it all made for a fun and enjoyable night of dining.

We started off with some cocktails - Valerie's French martini (Grey Goose, Chambord, pineapple, and Champagne) was well-crafted, and my Pimm's Cup was interesting (though the combination of ginger beer and mint makes it unlikely I'll order again). My "individual" hours d'oeuvre of fontina fondue was easily enough for Valerie and I to share, and the freshly-made potato chips were the perfect accompaniment. Our next round of drinks consisted of Valerie's delicious blackberry bellini and my "dark and ginger" - a mixture of dark rum, ginger beer (they really seem to like that for cocktails right now) and lime - was tasty as well. Our entrees arrived shortly thereafter.

Valerie's hanger steak with Bordelaise was grilled just right and came with a potato gratinee served artfully beside. I ordered the tasting portion of the braised lamb and was surprised to receive what was certainly enough for a full meal. Before me was the most flavorful piece of lamb I have yet consumed, and the shoulder cut was so tender as to be almost spreadable. My dinner was served upon a bed of roasted root vegetables, mushrooms, and a puree of of celery root and pear.

How could we skip dessert at a restaurant which makes some of the finest French pastries in Richmond? Valerie had the apple babka which really looked like "apples three ways" - her own personal Iron Chef-style dish. There was the babka, an apple fritter, and fresh butterscotch ice cream with a small dish of apply syrup to tie it all together. I decided 14 minutes was worth waiting for a chocolate soufflé which arrived with fresh chocolate ice cream atop a chocolate cookie with a caramel sauce. Oh yeah, and Val had cappuccino and I had espresso. I can't pass up Can Can's coffee :-)

While I can't justify eating dinner at Can Can on a regular basis, tonight's outing was so great that I hope to repeat it soon. If it wasn't for its proximity to Valentine's Day, I'd have a hard time passing up their next wine dinner on February 19th. But I think I could enjoy grabbing some cocktails and hours d'oeuvres at the bar in the near future...

So I followed Ruhlman's advice and decided to finally make some brown butter. Last night, for dinner, I cooked up some simple cheese tortellini. Rather than use tomato sauce, I decided to drop a stick of butter into a medium frying pan over medium-high heat.

The effect was quick and satisfying: after the butter melted it began to foam, and as the foam was clearing it began to turn dark gold, then amber-brown. The smell was amazing - cooks aren't kidding when they say it smells nutty. I tossed the tortellini in this, and stirred in some freshly grated Parmigiana Reggiano. I added a mixture of freshly ground pepper and coriander (I mixed a few coriander seeds in with the pepper in the mill - it's fantastic).

Brown butter is extremely versatile - either as a simple sauce or the base for myriad other dishes. I can already think of using some when I cook eggs or bake desserts. A graham cracker pie crust that uses brown butter would be incredible.

Just because I'm curious, here's an of-the-moment survey:

Do you still read any print periodicals on a regular basis, whether or not you're a subscriber? If so, what do you read?

The A.V. Club has a tasty new design...

I'm feeling high as a kite right now. Okay, not really...I have a nagging headache, and the calzone from lunch is giving my some internal rumblies, but I trust you get my meaning.

Why am I so happy? Well, you see, I took the GMAT this morning, and I think it's safe to say I did well. How well? I don't want to brag, so I'll refrain from posting my score, but let's just say my score makes me comfortable enough to apply to any school in the country. I was seriously nervous about this going in, so now I can finally calm down and relax before I start filling out applications and writing essays next week.

Tonight is celebration time :-)

For whatever reason this morning I felt compelled to read up a bit on US founding father Benjamin Franklin. Among the description of his inventions was an item called the "glass armonica" - a mechanical arrangement of glass bowls which rotate about a coincident axis. Such an arrangement allows many notes to be played simultaneously compared to simple water-filled goblets, for example. During its heyday, the instrument was the center of works from composers such as C.P.E. Bach, Beethoven, and even Mozart, as in this piece:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXSnI8VTIDM&hl=en&fs=1&w=580&h=470]

It turns out the glass armonica - or glass harmonica - is still manufactured, though it certainly isn't cheap.

Okay, so I've finished working on my first little self-imposed photo project. As you can tell from the post title, I call it "Pretty Maids In a Row." I've posted the set to my Flickr account.

The little photo-shoot consisted of only two rolls of 120 film taken over the course of about an hour in the Scott's Addition district of Richmond. I shot here, as I have in the past, so the austere backdrops would help the beauty of the two women further stand out. I also knew that the neighborhood would be largely vacant on a Saturday after New Year's Day :-)

The color film is Fuji Astia 100F, a stock ideal for portraiture, though I had to color-correct because the bright sun that day washed out the shots a bit. The black and white is Rollei Pan 25. It's only the second roll of this film I've shot, and it's fast charming me. I developed this roll myself, and I had to guess a bit at the developing times for Ilfosol-3. I think it worked out well.

This work is hardly what I'd call "show quality," but it represents, for me, a few new steps in my photography: project work (if only my own projects), and directed photographs. This latter step particularly interest me, and is reflected in several of my other recent uploads. I used to (falsely) assume that candid photographs were superior because of the natural moments captured therein. I've since come to appreciate the small amount of control that comes with posing models and giving direction.

So yeah...at the risk of sounding haughty, I'm really quite happy with how this worked out. I hope you enjoy, too.

I followed along with Engadget's coverage of the Palm Pre announcement, and I have to say that I'm initially impressed by the screen shots and interface descriptions. I'll reserve judgment, however, until I get a chance to actually play with one in a Sprint store.

I'm not at all feeling a desire to abandon my Apple-shaped ship, but I'd like to see strong competition to the iPhone and its operating system. Only stiff competitive pressure can drive Apple to continue improving and innovating (in my mind), so the more the merrier. At the least, it's nice to see another serious phone OS that has the potential to continue burying the abysmal Windows Mobile.

UPDATE: I'm not an interface designer or a patent attorney, but a LOT of the interface idioms from the OS on the Palm Pre seem straight-up copied from the iPhone OS. I don't know how many ways there are to gesture/display/etc, nor what could be considered "obvious" to the patent office, but check out this demo clip to see for yourself, if you're at all familiar with the iPhone interface first hand.

As parodies go, David Friedman's The Breakfast Cereal Club has the taste you can see.

I uploaded two portraits of one of my best friends, Jake, to my Flickr stream. I'm working on piecing together the color pics from a short photo shoot I did with Valerie and my sister-in-law this past Saturday, and then I'll start uploading those and the black and white shots. It's a really simple concept, nothing "high art" here, but it's one of my first intentional shoots with a theme that seemed to work out reasonably well. Of course, you can be the judge of that...

Okay, so it's in German (I believe), and it's apparently a car commercial (we never see the car, and that Saturn logo doesn't look familiar...), but this is pure dope-aliciousness:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzd1OiP27s0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=580&h=470]