Ploafmaster General

Nobody does Thanksgiving quite like McSweeney's.

Today is the day after Thanksgiving, and in my eyes, the REAL start of the Christmas Season.

I love Thanksgiving so much that I can't really pay attention to Christmas until after the November holiday passes. This means no Christmas music, no Christmas shopping, and no Christmas recipes until the fourth Friday of the month. It helps, I feel, that Advent doesn't begin until after Thanksgiving (is that always the case?).

Of course now that Thanksgiving has indeed passed for this year, I've got my Christmas play list ready on the computer and iPod, and I'm looking forward to the hymns we'll be singing in Church starting next Sunday. Perhaps I'll even work on some traditional Italian desserts for this time of year...

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Posting will be light over the next few days while I'm in Northern VA (and DE on Saturday!), but then I expect reading will be light here as well while everybody does what I'm doing, spending time with family and friends.

Have a blast, watch some NFL Football, eat too much food, and relax all night.

I hope he never stops, because this is at least as amazing as The Show.

http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fzefrank%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss&file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F498373&brandlink=http%3A%2F%2Fzefrank%2Ecom%2F&brandname=zefrank&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf

I don't have much to say other than I thought this was pretty freaking sweet.

Okay, so today seems to have been YouTube day on my site, but I have yet MORE clips before the day is done...

I know that advertising isn't typically the most original creative media, but I've noticed a more obvious pattern lately. First this one from Aflac using some classic characters in an all animated commercial:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJbX0oPWyxQ&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

Then I caught this attempt from Alltel (whose ads I already despise) using ersatz renditions of the 60's stop-motion Santa:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwxJq6jWq9A&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

And just this evening I discovered that even Big Lots has joined the retro Christmas Special party with this (one of two!) mixed-media number:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73w4xysn6Sw&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

Come on, guys. Either the same bird whispered in the ear of all three firms, or they got the same sneaky ad agency. Either way it feels like the perfect storm of ad-theme overload to me.

I'm unabashedly a huge fan of Alton Brown, chef and hero to nerdy would-be cooks the world over. I watch Good Eats almost any time its on, and I feel that as Thanksgiving approaches, it's worth mentioning his episode about deep-fried turkey. He put together detailed instructions and a blueprint that you can download from his website (it's a PDF, just so you know), but I've also included a clip below that shows the Turkey Derrick in action:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9mq29BaLLk&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

My excellent wife pointed me to a series of commercials for some North Carolina car dealerships. The entire collection features a throaty, anthropomorphized badger who sells cars, and some of them are pretty funny. This one, however, is my clear favorite:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMrtokRku20&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

This video for a song by Noah and the Whale makes me think of Wes Anderson making a music video using a Super 8 camera. Maybe it's the use of all that Futura lettering? Anyway, it was actually directed by one James Copeman who seems to have made a few other delightful films.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRX5kH6IrkY&rel=1&w=425&h=355]
(via swissmiss)

My older brother just called to let me know that he and his wife are expecting a girl!

This is significant since she will be the first female born on either side of my family since my late cousin Amy (God rest her soul) twenty years ago.

Otherwise, the concentration of males in my family is quite high - my dad is one of five and has three brothers, one sister. My mom is one of three and has two brothers. Each of my aunts and uncles that have had children have boys except for my Uncle Brian who fathered my cousins Tara (Mugs' age) and Amy.

Now there will be a little girl by late March to be doted on and spoiled by a large family of semi-old-fashioned guys. Heaven help the grandparents :-)

Tonight my Bible study group met for dinner with the hosting couple making the main dish and everybody else contributing another meal component. There were beverages, bread, a cheese plate, and appetizers.

I volunteered to make dessert, and that dessert was a chocolate tart using a recipe from Tyler Florence via the Food Network website.

Let me provide a little back story before I continue. Since Friday was Valerie's birthday, I decided I wanted to surprise her by baking a cake. Her favorite cake is strawberry with strawberry frosting (I believe), and I didn't want to use a boxed mix or canned icing. Everything seemed to be going well until the layers started baking - and failed to rise. I think the baking powder had lost its leavening ability. You see, while I cook all the time I haven't done much baking - particularly with food that rises in the oven.

This made me a bit nervous about making pastry, and understandably - this was no simple recipe.

There are essentially two key components to the tart - the pastry crust and the filling. Each presented challenges of their own. The crust, for example, was easy to mix. It was complex to cook, however. After mixing it was chilled, rolled, pressed into the tart pan, trimmed, chilled again, blind baked (!!!), egg-washed, and baked a little more. The filling seemed to be a cross between a ganache and custard - bittersweet chocolate melting into hot cream and milk with the addition of some salt, sugar, and two eggs. Those eggs were the interesting part as I had to temper them before adding them to the rest of the hot liquid. You see, you don't want to add raw eggs to hot liquid or you get chocolate egg-drop soup. So I first had to add small portions of the chocolate mixture to the eggs while whisking until the eggs warmed up - and THEN I could pour it all into the whole.

Thankfully, the result was AMAZING. I garnished every slice with a fresh blackberry, and the dessert was a hit with everybody. Most importantly (to me), I enjoyed the pastry. The crust was butterific, the filling was seriously rich and delicious, and the last bite with the blackberry was exquisite.

I believe I'll be baking quite a bit more in the future :-)

Mugs is working in ActionScript like a madman. He's constructing a proof of concept app right now which he calls Photo Wallet, and he's just set up an SVN repository on Google Code.

Chickity check it.

Oh yeah, and keep an eye out on on his site, because next he's planning to build a silly little game as another test.

Prepare to have the skin melted off your face as you are assailed by the awesomeness embedded in this post:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbuIZ-5-8o&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

Today is Valerie's 26th birthday (happy birthday again, babe!), so her mom came to town and took us out to dinner. My wife chose to eat at comfort. - a restaurant in Downtown Richmond, right on Broad Street.

And. It. Was. Awesome.

The atmosphere was everything I expect from a typical Richmond eatery from the tin ceiling to the artwork on the walls. The lighting was perfect for the time of day, and while the place filled up nicely during our meal it never felt crowded to me. Service was prompt and friendly, and the drinks came shortly after we ordered them. Bonus points for the Dominion Lager. Double bonus points for including corn bread in the bread basket. Mmmmmm...

My dinner was the pork tenderloin - lightly smoked and deliciously glazed. You pick two sides from an impressive list (or three for a little extra), and I selected scalloped potatoes as well as macaroni and cheese. What struck me was just how good such a classic American meal can taste when everything is made fresh. I typically pay careful attention to my main course (I cook a pretty mean pork tenderloin myself), my sides are often an afterthought - extra filler to complete the meal. I may put some more intentionality into my accompaniments from now on.

While it was by no means the best food I'd eaten in Richmond, tonight's was a dinner to remember. When a dining experience changes the way I think about preparing my own food at home, it's an experience not to be taken lightly.

I look forward to returning in the (hopefully near) future.

I found this excellent live performance of "Prehensile Dream" by The Bad Plus on YouTube, and it totally sounds the way I feel today.

Do yourself a favor, and listen to this on good headphones or cranked up on your speakers. It's starts quite soft, but builds into audio majesty.

Enjoy.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZBer-pSaLI&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

Couldn't have said it better myself:

Sweet Mother of Chocolate Sauce!!!

The Daily Show has a new website, and it contains a full archive of the show (at least the Stewart era so far), searchable, tagable, embeddable, incredible! The episodes are broken into nice, bite-sized nuggets with a short ad either before, after, or both - generally a tolerable 7 seconds.

I believe I agree with Slate's Dana Stevens: this would sure satisfy my Daily Show cravings until the WGA Strike abates.

This is actually kinda heart wrenching in its own way:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JfHB2cruJU&rel=1&border=0&w=425&h=355]

(via swissmiss)

What a discovery (thanks to my boss): Willard Wigan creates some of the tiniest sculpture I've ever seen, and his process is incredible. This clip provides a bit more insight:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYOfoqWUZUw&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

When the First Tier Webnerds (FTW?) grab hold of something, I see it spread around the Interwebs in a hurry. It happened briefly with Field Notes, prime lenses, and gender/ethnic representation in the field of web design.

Today, so far, I've seen two references to Lokesh Dhakar's site. Even though I don't want to be an information also-ran, I figured I'd share my favorite part of the site, particularly for the sake of those two or three readers that don't check out the same 30 websites a day as me and the rest of the tech set.

Back in August, Lokesh created a series of nine coffee infographics that are best view together for comparison. Below is my poison of choice, the cappuccino:



As you can see, the pics indicate the general composition of various espresso-based beverages, and with a heavy dose of style, I say.

Today I got really excited when I discovered that the break room soda machine now carries Mountain Dew.

Is this a sign that I'm so stuck in a work-rut that a change of beverage selection generates excitement? Is the day-to-day so lacking in challenge and verve that I've resorted to seeking out any possible positive event to help me make it through the week? Perhaps I'm facing full-blown adulthood where life-altering events come few and far between the ordinary happenings as I settle into a dull routine.

Nope, it's none of those things :-)

Despite my occasional whining, I'm generally a positive person, and I like to celebrate anything that makes me happy, be it a new gadget or a funny commercial. I hope that's evident from the host of random crap for which I cheer on this blog o' mine. So pardon me while I...ahem...do the Dew.

Duh-duh-duh-dang.

I enjoy a wide variety of electronic music, but dance music doesn't typically strike my fancy (except for my old room mate's video game remixes and originals).

Today, however, I've discovered Muscles - an Aussie chap who's album, Guns Babes Lemonade, has me hooked. You can stream the entire album for free from his Virb page.

Boy, am I happy I stumbled across this today...

The Rentals - band of original Weezer bassist Matt Sharp - released a four track EP called Last Little Life back on August 14th which includes a new version of "Sweetness and Tenderness" from their first album. Even cooler than a new recording, however, are free recordings of reworked versions of the entire thing. My, are they tasty.

You can read about and download the alternate version of the EP as recorded at the Daytrotter Studio on the studio's website.

Holy crap on my face...if this thing works as well as it appears, I FREAKING WANT ONE. Behold:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WetVXbYRfWk&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

The system allows for alternate tunings, self-tensioning of new strings, and even provides for intonation adjustment assistance! Tommy Likey! Tommy want wingey!!!