2002-11-16 - 6:39 p.m. delicious demon Last weekend, I spent most of my Saturday at the Castro movie theater w/a movie-loving coworker, taking in the dark, disturbing madhouse imagery of letter writing by an insane woman in the latest Brothers Quay short film "In Absentia." They had requested the film festival play the Karlhein Stockhausen score very loudly, which made it more disturbing. Full of wonderful window shots, close up interior landscapes that come across as menacing alien terrain, and ample amounts of pencil lead gone astray...and a very scary evil alien creature. I led the very loud, lengthy applause at the end. I�d needed an infusion of creativity and this film delivered it with style to spare. "In Absentia" was the perfect companion for the feature film: "Dancer in the Dark." I�d never seen this before � if you haven�t either, I highly recommend seeing it in a theater full of people if you can. I�m certain it would not have been as engaging on my little tv screen. I really haven�t been much of a bjork fan as of late, despite having been a big Sugarcubes fan back in the day (and yes, I started listening to them back when good old Robert Smith note in �Smash Hits� magazine that they were his favorite band�) The power of her singing in this film has won me over though. She is simply amazing. This powerful voice comes streaming out of her and she simply lights up in the musical numbers that are peppered throughout. Very inspiring. The rest of the film -- which could as easily be read as anti-media-obsessed fantasyland culture as an anti-death penalty statement -- was wrenching. My movie companion and I sat and cried silently throughout, got in her car, and went home. There was certainly no desire for dinner afterwards. I highly recommend it, but not alone -- or when one is PMSing, depressed, etc. Spending Sunday writing and simmering roasted vegetable soup (RECIPE: get lots of tasty vegetables, chop �em up, throw into a roasting pan, drizzle olive oil over them, sprinkle on some pepper, roast at 375 for 30-45 minutes (�till brown) then toss in a stock pot with 64 oz or so of veggie stock and heat for 20 minutes) prepared me for the busy craptastic week ahead. We had silly meetings galore with all sorts of senior managers. The only good thing that came out of all of it is they flew my NYC coworker out here to take part in the fun and frivolity. This is the part of the entry where I should be linking back to the entry on the fabulous cheese-laden dinner she and I had at Artisanal, but I realize I STILL have only written the sketchiest, most measly two entries about that trip, so no dice. In early celebration of her birthday, we cut out of work early and headed to the XYZ bar at the W hotel. For some reason, I always forget this bar�s proximity to the hulking convention center full of the ubiquitous conventioneers who frequent such places. Turns out a big BtoB software company was having some sort of shebang/users conference. Uh-oh. But, we didn�t want to cab it into the Mission, and it was pretty damn early which means not much was going to be happening anywhere we went, so we decided to pull up some bar stools in the downstairs "living room" area, rather than heading up the stairs� I suppose I should mention that I had my hair swept back into a knot at the nape of my neck, topped off with a very French, retro-inspired hat that has been a favorite item of my wardrobe since college. I will blame the hat for what followed. But this will not stop me from wearing it again. I started with a margarita because some days it seems that only tequila will cure what ails you� as the conversation turned to our boy troubles, I started in on the Ridge zinfandel, somewhat expensive and tasty red wine that�s always a good choice, and rarely offered by the glass. While sharing my heart with my friend, and sipping my wine, I suddenly became aware that my barstool was supporting more than just my own weight. An already quite drunken man was leaning against me and my barstool, waiting for an entry into our conversation. Perhaps he additionally wanted some of our crispy french fries with the aioli. No matter. We were not interested, yet he was not easily deterred. While taking up so much of my personal space that his cell phone�s rings were vibrating against my thigh (ew!), he plied us with questions to which we replied with questions, obvious lies, or eye rolling. He rewarded us for our insolence with more wine. This would have just been the typical clueless guy at the bar type scenario except that his girlfriend/fianc�e was there with him. IN THE BAR. I believe he introduced us to her, then went back to hitting on me. We started ignoring him, only to have his Irish friend, also quite drunk, and also spoken for (though she was not at the bar) start hitting on both of us. SO charming. After we�d finally had enough, we fled to a quiet Irish bar and grill for some burgers� The silly boy antics, though moderately irritating, did provide some needed levity since we were both fed up with work, and our boy situations. It is always pleasant to be reminded of the good things about being single�like never having to pry your drunk boyfriend�s hands off another woman�s ass in front of your coworkers. Ahem. All this talk of food and wine (plus the scent of garlic wafting into my apartment) makes me want to try to finagle my way into a nice bistro like Chapeau! or Absinthe for dinner. Alas, though my heart says "oui", my budget says "non." I will sit and ponder my notes from Wednesday�s Family Winemaker�s tasting instead�and my answers to my culinary survey. P.S. Why doesn't SF have a public radio station that's as cool as KCRW? They even have a COOKING show in addition to the fabulous indie music and NPR content. Whenever their newsletter hits my email inbox, I wax nostalgic for living in SoCal. any comments? (0 so far) previous - next recently on almostgoldsf... in defense of an email box I came to do battle with SPAM - 2008-05-17 hello 2006 - 2005-12-31 Happy Thanksgiving - 2005-11-14 bon voyage - 2005-11-05 October already? - 2005-10-09