Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Super Volcano celebrates the New Year!

Check out this scary article that's been bouncing around the internet from monday's yahoo.news:
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Yellowstone National Park was jostled by a host of small earthquakes for a third straight day Monday, and scientists watched closely to see whether the more than 250 tremors were a sign of something bigger to come. Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but it's very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.
"They're certainly not normal," Smith said. "We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years."
Smith directs the Yellowstone Seismic Network, which operates seismic stations around the park. He said the quakes have ranged in strength from barely detectable to one of magnitude 3.8 that happened Saturday. A magnitude 4 quake is capable of producing moderate damage.


This news makes anyone who's ever seen The Discovery Channel's SuperVolcano: What's Under Yellowstone? want to reach for an extra helping of whatever is left of the holiday-cheer-spiked Egg nog.  This hyperventilation inducing docudrama speculates on world events during an eruption of one of the world's biggest volcanos that sleeps underneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.  The film's premise is based on scientific evidence that reveals that the park is a massive volcanic caldera that could potentially erupt.  According to an article by Larry O'Hanlon from "Discovery News", the last eruption by Yellowstone sent out 8,000 times more ash than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (but of course we'd all be warned first by "swarms of earthquakes in specific areas").


                              

OMG!OMG!OMG!  With all the talk of the "New Great Depression" I totally thought I was gonna starve from joblessness, now it looks like a we might be in for a chilly Volcanic Winter this spring, summer, and fall.  Boo.  I hate being cold. :(.  Maybe I can find shelter somewhere inside a newly foreclosed housing development.  Are there any companies that provide "volcanic ash-removal" services I can invest in?  Seems like a fairly safe investment...

Sunday, December 28, 2008

flickr and you

I'm currently swimming upstream from an insomnia drenched whirl-pool of strong coffee and long simmering creative projects. My powers of procrastination have yet to fail me and I've uploaded a bunch of new photos to my flicker "photograph" set. Most of them are fun cold war propaganda from the museum of communism in Prague that I took pictures of back in 2005. such as these gems:





The caption for this one "A Young builder of socialism looks different from a decadent swine" This has to be said in a Yakov Smirnoff accent or you will be fined fifty roubles, ha ha, I LOVE this country!





There are a few more up that are pretty ridiculous, The patriotic third grader in me was kind of traumatized when I first saw the posters, but got over it quickly because they were so goofy, oh propaganda!

I also put up some never before released pictures from a mustache series I was shooting this summer, as well as some more travel photos from all over. Pretty exciting if you have absolutely nothing to do.... And I'm pretty sure you don't. Because you're reading this. So there.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

em htiw klaw eriF


I just love that old music...


So in my tradition of getting the hell out of town for my Birthday, I took a road trip up to Twede's diner in North Bend, of Twin Peaks "RR" Fame.

Being halfway through watching the series boxset at the time, I was fully prepared for some sort of weirdness, but wasn't expecting the Tweetie Bird Rockn'Roll decor of the Diner's Remodel. The coffee was okay, but we didn't stay very long... The mountain in the background that I always thought was photoshopped in actually is there, and we did see some logging trucks on the way there. I might have seen "Bob" in the bathroom mirror, but it could have just been some creepy dude looking in the window. I get confused when I don't take my injections.

We finished the last episode tonight. Creepy. Makes me want to redecorate my room, I think I can paint the floor op-art style, but does anyone know where I can get about an acre of red velvet curtain? Maybe Devil's Point will have a rummage sale one of there days...

Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Thermals Get Us Sweaty

So I've been working on this video for about a year... actually today is the one year anniversary of the Thermals playing a free all-ages show in downtown Portland at my former place of employment.  I got kind of arty and edited it with some Prelinger archival footage from a St. Louis Mission in the 40's? or 50's?  Maybe I got too literal, although there are no actual 
swallows in the footage.

Please enjoy:


Also, if you know of any performance events being held that you'd like me to film, please contact me, I'm still trying to build up my demo reel!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Wishing Well is Full

Find out the scoop on PDX chicanery at my friend Sarah's new website:


pictures and stories from all over Portland,  Sure to be amusingly fun for the coming winter dazes ahead.  Chinatown denizens beware, you are being photographed and grouped into "teams".

Potential and Realistic Limitations

This being the premier stain on my blogosphere, I suppose I'll make grand statements about filling up my bit of blogspotting with incisive essays and obscure trivia designed to elevate the intellect while adding that tingling feeling of wonder to it's readers.  But realistically we'll be lucky if I don't use this space for obscenely stooopid youtube videos that make dick and fart jokes seem like an evening at Albert Hall.  The best thing I can actually think of posting is the bean recipe I threw together for thankswivin's day.  I give you:

Honey Dijon Black-Eyed Peas.
(This recipe could be regulated by the vegan nazi police by replacing the honey with some sort of raw sugar, I would NOT recommend molasses because I've overdone one too many dishes with a bit too many blackstrap lashings.)

Soak two cups of black-eye peas in eight cups of water overnight.

Cook beans ( in 8 cups of clean, fresh water) on stovetop, first bringing to a boil for ten minutes or so, then bringing the heat down to medium low for about an hour and 45min.  I added 1/2 a teaspoon of liquid hickory smoke to my beans while they were cooking for some extra flavorflav.  Cooking beans takes forever, so if you think you'll be remotely hungry at any point in your life, get up and soak those beans right now.  Just do it, your future self will thank you.

Anyway, just before the beans are done, say fifteen minutes before the timer goes off, start the sauce.

It's a flour based roux gravy, which just basically means you cook some flour in oil, then add water and it gets thick.  This process goes pretty quickly, so you'll want to try and have all the necessary ingredients measured out before you start cooking it.  Believe me, it makes it 10xs easier.

Measure out:
2 1/2 tablespoons of flour

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp mustard powder

1 tablespoon of brown mustard
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1/3 cup of honey

1 1/2 cups of water


First, chop up two or three cloves up garlic, then saute over medium heat in about three tablespoon of olive oil.  Cook the garlic until browned lightly, constantly stirring.

Add spices listed above and infuse the oil with them for about 30 secs, not too long, keep a'stirrin.

The trick to a good smooth roux is to add a bit of the flour at a time, constantly stirring so as not to burn it, while adding a bit of the water when the mixture gets dry.

  Just hang up the cell phone, turn on some CCR, or better yet maybe the Animals and mix the hell out of the lumps.  You can add more or less water and flour to the recipe if you are monumentally failing in this area.  Just make sure the flour does get a bit of heating up, or the sauce will taste kind of raw and wheaty.  You can use cornstarch in place of flour here as well, but use much less cornstarch, and don't add more cornstarch at the end or you'll get L U M PS.  Bad gravy.  Bad.

Okay, I'll assume you've been a good robot and now have a thickish spicy sauce stirring in front of you.  Now it's time to mix in the honey, soy sauce, brown mustard and vinegar.  Stir it up and let it get good and bubbly hot.  Don't let the bottom burn, so go a head and take it off the stove if your beans are done cooking, they should be soft and tasty by now.  You can take them off and drain them before you start the sauce too, if multi-tasking freaks your brain out.  Make sure you drain them before you add the sauce, then mix it all together and enjoy.

Yeah.