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VOCABULARY WORD OF THE DAY:

May 2, 2010 by ms. xandra

Megavertebrate.

I learned this word at the Wild Animal Park, which is where our adventuring took us this fine Sunday mid-morning. Megavetebrates include rhinos, elephants, and similar. I learned this word from our safari tour guide, who was loose and fast with the slightly inexplicable metaphors (ie: ”the Cheetah’s fur is butterscotch and cream”) but who has provided me with a vocabulary word that will surely make an excellent name for either my heavy metal band or my pan flute quintet.

ALSO, how cute is a baby elephant??? You have no idea how cute a baby elephant is. It is so cute. And there where, what, five of them? And they were so wobbly and smiley! Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the cuteness because at this point in the afternoon I was too lazy to get my camera out of my bag and was content to let my Gentleman Caller do the phototaking, but here is a picture of a sassy lion chilling in the back of a truck which is also pretty awesome.

BUT MOST AWESOME OF ALL: on the outskirts of Escondido, California, we came upon a produce stand. And at said produce stand, what did we find? OSTRICH EGGS. For the reasonable price of $25, which, compared to the $40 they were charging at Ostrich Land, is a bargain!

Here it is, our very own Ostrich Egg! Shown aside some less giant but no less noble chicken eggs for comparison:

OSTRICH EGG NUTRITIONAL FACTS: Contains 500% Daily Intake of AWESOME.

I am very excited for next weekend’s Giant Brunch, featuring Giant Egg, Giant Toast, Giant Pancake, Giant Sausage, and, most importantly GIANT MIMOSA! Who’s in?

INSPIRATIONAL RECIPES FROM BRAVE CHEFS WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE:

Deviled Ostrich Egg

Scotch Ostrich Egg

Ostrich Egg Omelette

Ostrich Egg Frittata

Ostrich Egg with Tarragon and Pine Nut Tarator

Category Adventure, Food | Tags: | 3 Comments
Adventurtimes!

April 22, 2010 by ms. xandra

So I went to Seattle for the Pop Conference! It was pretty successful, I’d say: I met lots of cool folks, and managed to not make out with Chuck Klosterman or similar (this was facilitated by the fact that Chuck Klosterman was not there; and I was accompanied by my gentleman caller, who may have frowned upon such behaviour). And I gave a paper about Lady Gaga, so that was pretty neat. I have come so far as a scholar! It was but a year ago that my students in the LGBT Pop class were all turning in terrible papers about Poker Face and I was like “who is the Lady Gaga that the young folk are so excited about?” Ah, yes. Don’t say we’re not busy doing important things over here in Musicologyland.

And also I think you’ll be able to download and listen to my talk on iTunes University! I’ll let you know if this actually happens. This is pretty cool, but also slightly mortifying, because it means that my technological snafus are forever immortalized, as is the moment in my presentation when I meant to say Jay-Z but accidentally said Kanye instead. But oh well. Nobody’s perfect.

I accidentally managed to book us into the Shepard Fairey room at the hipster hotel. I mean, I intentionally booked us into the hipster hotel (it was cheap and has free waffles at breakfastime!) but I did not bargain for the Shepard Fairey room, which meant having to cope with this wallpaper for four days:

Also, this icon, which clearly indicates “milk bottle, present, Hershey Kiss,” was on the little cabinet in the room, and the cabinet did not contain any of these things, so I must assume it is hipster code for “towels, condoms, coffee,” which is what the cabinet did contain. MYSTERIOUS! I am still disappointed that I didn’t get any Hershey’s Kisses, but I probably shouldn’t complain because there were, indeed, those waffles.

As is my wont, I dragged my gentleman caller stumbling through Seattle on a steady diet of neon and donuts:

And we went to the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company, where I bought a map of the known universe.

I am ten years behind in emails right now – Canadian friends, I will write you tomorrow, I swear it on the ghost of Annette Funicello’s girlish figure.

Category Academe, Adventure, Awesome, Food | Tags: | 1 Comment
Monsters and burgers and pie, oh my.

March 16, 2010 by ms. xandra

You know that scene in Ghost World (aka Still My Favourite Film After All These Years Because I Remain an Angsty 17 Year Old At Heart) where Enid and Rebecca are in the diner and Melorra, that really irritatingly earnest girl who is exactly like every perky human that I hate (because actually I am a Cynical Old 76 Year Old At Heart) comes in and is like “this place is so funky”? HERE LOOK, I found you that scene in case you forgot – the part I’m talking about starts at 2:30:

This basically actually happened in real life the other day. We were at Pie ‘n’ Burger and this girl came in and she WAS Melorra and she said to the dude she was with “I love this place! It’s so…retro!” in exactly that perky, uncynical tone of voice that I so often fail to understand.

So anyhow, that was hilarious. And Pie ‘n’ Burger was basically a dream come true. Look at how photogenic this cheeseburger is! I honestly cannot stop looking at this picture.

And then I had a slice of butterscotch meringue pie (I KNOW, right?) that was so delicious that I forgot to take a picture. You will just have to go to Pie ‘n’ Burger and see for yourself!

And then we went to the monster park in San Gabriel! (See this post I wrote for Metblogs for further details.) Here I am conquering a giant cement octopus in the name of all womankind:

And here is Nikki, taming having just tamed the wild pink whale:

I love giant things made of cement. They’re the one thing I can actually be earnest about in this day and age.

Category Adventure, Awesome, Food | Tags: | No Comments
Breakfasttime Adventure!

January 31, 2010 by ms. xandra

A couple weeks ago, the Estimable Miss VV and I arose with the sun (or, well, clouds, actually – it was SoCal’s semi-annual Rain Week – not as exciting as Shark Week, but just as wet) and ventured forth for a double-whammy of giant, round breakfast foods with holes in the middle. This was an exciting event, because it means that finally we have eaten at all of the former Big Donut locations that remain in SoCal.

First stop – Bellflower Bagels, a former Big Donut, repurposed in the only possible way in which one can repurpose a giant donut:

And then we got lost! But not very lost. Only a little bit lost. But it was lucky that we did get lost, otherwise we would never have discovered that Norwalk, California, is a secret mecca of totally great mid-century architecture.

We discovered, for instance, this total gem of an old grocery store, now a swap meet:

And the truly, truly glorious Cerritos College gymnasium:

More photos of the gymnasium, one of the bestest examples of 50s architechture that I ever did see.

We quickly found ourselves back on track, and donuts loomed large on the horizon!

A well deserved second breakfast, if ever there was one.

Category Adventure, Food, Los Angeles | Tags: | No Comments
Unsurprising, really.

November 19, 2009 by ms. xandra

So, uh, the Vignette Pinot Noir Wine Country Soda?

Yeah. Pretty much just . . . grape soda.

In other exciting news: last night I said “I have a stomachache. I’m worried that it’s the flu, but hopefully it’s nothing.” Today I get to school and am informed that everyone has been told that I was diagnosed with H1N1 by a medical professional. So that’s pretty funny.

In other, actual exciting news: I have a dissertation advisor! Which is very exciting. We had a meeting today where I popped the question and then we just kept saying “I’m so excited!” and “This is so great!” over and over to each other.

Category Adventure, Food | Tags: | 2 Comments
Dear Cheerwine,

November 18, 2009 by ms. xandra

Oh, but you are tasty. Apparently, you are a bit of a thing in North Carolina, but I had never heard of you, even though I went to North Carolina for three entire days that one time. But anyhow, no worries, I still like you. Your particular cherry bouquet went so well with my spaghetti and meatballs tonight, which were particularly tasty spaghetti and meatballs because I made the sauce from scratch (although in a sudden fit of madness and hunger induced by spending too much time on campus today and forgetting to eat lunch, I decided it would be a smart idea to cook an entire pound of spaghetti, which means that there is now a week’s worth of leftover spaghetti sitting in the fridge, which is not altogether a bad thing). And the combination of Cheerwine and spaghetti went so well with an episode of X-Files (it was the one where they learn that smoking is bad for you – which, by sheer coincidence, happens to be set in North Carolina, home of Cheerwine), cause, damn, sometimes a girl just needs some Mulder and Scully time, you dig?

So, thank you, Cheerwine, for being an integral part of my pretty decent evening. Thank you also for coming in a neato glass bottle that I am going to put on my shelf of other neato glass bottles. Thank you to whoever invented this recipe for Cheerwine Cake, which sounds ridiculous, and which I will probably have to make this weekend, because now that I have found it, how can I not? And thanks especially for the weird optical illusion in the above photo that makes it look like the wine glass is hovering about two inches above the table.

Yours most effusively,

Alexandra A.

Category Adventure, Food | Tags: | 2 Comments
Vanilla Cream for what ails you

November 16, 2009 by ms. xandra

Friends, Romans, Countryfolk, this is what I am drinking right now:

It is pretty delicious. It might be a little bit too sweet for my tastes, but what is super exciting is the way that it smells like vanilla. This has got to be the most fragrant, aromatic pop (yes, POP, you crazy non-Canadians) I have ever had.

IN UNRELATED NEWS: I am on the lookout for a really good pattern for a slightly high-waisted, a-line skirt, so if any of my ladyfriends who know their way around a sewing machine have a line on one, let me know. I’m a fan of the A-Plus A-Line on burdastyle, but it doesn’t come in fat girl size and I don’t have the wherewithal to grade patterns up.

Category Adventure, Food, SCIENCE! | Tags: | 1 Comment
Soda-pop-a-go-go

November 16, 2009 by ms. xandra

Well, friends, my brain is about to fall out. I have spent all afternoon smashing my head against my exam list, and then all evening doing the reading for seminar this week, and I have some reading on British cultural history to do before bedtime, but I think it’s time for a soda pop break!

So, as you are no doubt aware, the fab VV and I hit up Galco’s Soda Pop Stop earlier this week. And, because, really, any instance of food and/or beverage consumption is really just an invitation to write a blog post, I am totally going to review some exotic soda pops! We bought nine different pops each, and I’ve been really good and have only been drinking one a day. So far, I’ve had the following:

Ok, well, VV and I tried these together and split them. She got the Cel Ray (celery soda!), I got the Mr. Q. Cumber (um, cucumber soda! Obviously). Dear skeptics: shut up right now because these vegetable flavoured sodas were amazing. Both were not too sweet and not too vegetable-ish but really nice and refreshing. The Cel Ray had a sort of V8-ish kind of aftertaste, and the Q. Cumber was really clean and light. And yes, of course, we did mix them together in the interests of Soda Pop Science, and I’d actually say that the Cel Ray Q. Cumber Cocktail was probably the best of the three. ALSO, IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH: People in the know have informed me that you can get Cel Ray at Canter’s. Why didn’t anybody tell me you could get Cel Ray at Canter’s? I am so totally having celery soda with my next matzo ball.

The A.J. Stephens Raspberry Lime Rickey was potentially one of the most delicious things I have ever consumed. I can’t even tell you. It was just so good. It was good because the raspberry flavor wasn’t that horrible fake-tasting raspberry, you know? And also the color is clearly amazing.

Of course I drink my Manhattan Special out of a martini glass. Was there ever any question, really? Anyhow, this was wonderful. As a pretentious coffee snob I feel qualified to make that assessment. I would seriously consider replacing my usual afternoon coffee with this, if it wasn’t full of sugar.

Fentiman’s Mandarin and Seville Orange Jigger! I have no idea what a jigger is. Shockingly, wikipedia is being completely unhelpful in this regard and has provided a useless list of definitions of “jigger” that includes nothing that resembles soda pop, and one or two things that are kind of offensive. But whatever. This was good shit. It was slightly medicinal tasting at first, but that kind of went away. I really liked the bubbles in this, weirdly enough – they were really tiny and soft. And apparently Fentiman’s is not soda pop – apparently it is a Botanically Brewed Beverage, which makes it fancier. I also got a Curiosity Cola, which I think I’m going to try tomorrow.

Oh, yum. Yum yum yum yum. The Nesbitt’s Peach tasted like fake peach, like a peach Jolly Rancher, but not bad fake peach, you know? Like really, really good fake peach. And also, it is hot pink. No complaints here.

Stay tuned for reviews of: Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola! Vignette Pinot Noir Soda! Manhattan Special Vanilla Cream! Cheerwine! I will try to post them daily instead of in a big batch, but, you know, best laid plans and stuff.

Category Adventure, Coffee, Food, SCIENCE! | Tags: | 2 Comments
CHASED BY DANGER!

April 25, 2009 by ms. xandra

Unrelated: The next comment on this blog will by my 2000th comment! THAT IS A LOT. Maybe I will give Commenter #2000 a prize! (Probably the prize will be: I will make you a badge out of construction paper and paste with a crayon portrait of Fox Mulder on it. It will say “YEAR 2000″ only “YEAR” will be crossed out and “COMMENTER” will be written over top.)

Related: VV and I had another adventure, this time to Cole’s, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Los Angeles for SANDWICHES SANDWICHES SANDWICHES (and also garlic fries and mac and cheese) and then to DONUT KING II! (I believe that is pronounced “Donut King the Second.” I tried to find out where Donut King the First would be, but it turns out that Donut King is a popular name for donut shops, for some reason.)

Anyhow, Cole’s is fun and neat. Like Phillipe’s, it claims to be the inventor of the French Dip. Unlike, Phillipe’s it seems to be very invested in its image. Actually, as I read that I want to take it back – Phillipe’s is also invested in its image, but it’s image is of not being invested in its image. Cole’s, on the other hand, is very “WELCOME TO A DARK RESTAURANT IN 1908.” Having tasted both French Dips, I’m still on the fence – but Cole’s gives you jus for dipping, and Phillipe’s doesn’t, and Cole’s has better side dishes, but Phillipe’s is cheaper, and Phillipe’s has a neat counter where you order directly from the carvers, and I think Phillipe’s sandwich was kind of tastier. I guess it really all comes down to ambiance. Apparently, Cole’s used to be the Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet (because it is in the basement of the Pacific Electric building) until, like, a year ago, when it was taken over by some fancy restauranteur who gave it a bit of a makeover to be more 1908-y, so, arguably, Phillipe’s is more “authentic,” if you go in for that kind of argument (I don’t), but both made pretty good sandwiches, which ultimately is the point.

Anyhow anyhow, on the menu at Cole’s was a list of things that were filmed there. And on that list was X-FILES! So, naturally, when we got home, we tried to figure out which episode was shot at Cole’s and the internet turned up NOTHING. Absolutely nothing whatsoever. It is like I have finally found the aporia in the internet’s knowledge. And it’s really distressing, too, because I obviously was going to immediately watch the episode in question. Instead, it appears that I will have to watch every episode from Season 6 (which was when filming moved to LA) on, in order to find the Cole’s episode. Alas, what a hardship. (Actually, given the dark years of Seasons 8-9, it might be a bit of a hardship.)

In the absence of the Cole’s episode, however, we watched 3, the Mulder-has-sex-with-a-vampire-and-it’s-awkward episode from Season 2. I knew it was set in LA, but I couldn’t remember if it was filmed in LA. I obviously hadn’t watched it since before I moved here, because, dude, you only have to spend one day in this city to realize that 3 is set in Vancouver pretending to be LA, and it is SO FUNNY. And also, we made up a new game, called Look Up The Addresses That Mulder and Scully are Supposed To Be At in Google Maps and See What’s Actually There. So, what we found out is that “Club Tepes,” the bar that’s like Club Abstract but is worse, where Mulder totally hits on Gross Vampire Lady, is approximately located where the Alexander McQueen store is on Melrose, and the mansion in Malibu where they eventually end up is actually located in a tunnel, which really is kind of remarkable given how few tunnels there are here in Los Land of Earthquakes.

Anyhow, sorry. I will stop X-Filesing for now.

DONUTS! Donut King II donuts were, you know, donuts. The real revolution came the next morning, when I decided to heat up a plain ol’ glazed donut that had gotten slightly stale in a frying pan – the glaze carmelized and it got all crispy and amazing. BETTER BREAKFAST THROUGH SCIENCE! I am telling you.

Anyhow, at some point in the course of Wednesday Night Adventuring, it was decided that I would start a new blog feature, called Word of the Week, in which I define a word. This week’s word is MIRACLE. Here is the definition of miracle: A miracle is when you think you’re all out of gin, but then you realize you have an entire other bottle in the cupboard. MIRACLE.

Here is a picture of me, chillaxing at Donut King II with a Vanilla Dip:

And here is a picture of the giant donut, in which I tried to capture it’s awe-inspringness:

And also, we returned to Mr. T’s Meat Market, and here it is in non-blurry glory:

And here is a drive in liquor store, which seems, you know, very sensible:

And here is the sign welcoming you with a pip, pip, cheerio to Canterbury Knolls, Los Angeles’ least likely named neighbourhood (ie: there are no knolls, and also, it is in the shitty part of Los Angeles, not England):

And Sunday we might go to La Puente. Which is somewhere. I don’t actually know where. But what I do know, is that it is home to this majestic work of architechtural genius:

Category Adventure, Awesome, Food, Los Angeles, Rhetoric, X-Files | Tags: | 6 Comments
Ollalieberry:

March 21, 2009 by ms. xandra

Actually a thing.

(A mutant thing, but still, a thing.)

(I do, however, remain dubious about a berry that needs to be explained using a flowchart.)

Other important news: I have just managed to work the phrase “Outer Space is for Lovers” into an academic paper; I have therefore reached the pinnacle of my academic career and they should just give me the damn Ph.D. so we can all go home.

Category Academe, Food, Space, Theremins | Tags: | No Comments

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