This past Saturday we made our annual trek down to San Jose to go to the APE — the Alternative Press Expo. Last year was the first time we had ever gone, as it was around the time when we were first starting to get into comics, and realized that we were buying mostly the alternative ones (as opposed to Superman, X-Men, etc.) like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Milk & Cheese. We had a good time last year, so we decided to go again. Some highlights (and lowlights):
- The Slave Labor Graphics booth: Yay, Slave Labor! They publish some of the best comics in the alternative comic universe, in my opinion. Highlight: Seeing Ariel Schrag (Awkward, Definition, Potential) in person, after reading each and every one of her books. Meeting Roman Dirge, who does Lenore and who also drew me a picture of Lenore right on the spot while sucking on a lollipop. Lots of tattoos, lots of piercings, and younger-looking than I pictured him. He thanked me for buying the Lenore T-shirt. Lenore appeals to a lot of goths, as does Jhonen Vasquez's Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, but Jhonen is definitely the king of That Kind of Art. Lowlight: The fact that Jhonen hadn't gotten there by the time we left on Saturday (much like last year.) Me, to Avery: "Why does Jhonen Vasquez always get here late?" Avery, to Me: "Because he can." He's like the star of Slave Labor. Last year when we saw him speak he had blue hair and was extremely funny.
- The Oni Press booth: Highlight: meeting Judd Winick; you know…of the Real World: San Francisco. And he still lives here, too, except now he's a terrific and successful comic book creator (or whatever they're technically called when they both write and draw) and a seemingly very nice person who, in a recent interview, claimed to hate being around people. I share his pain.
- The Giant Robot booth: Not only do they showcase alternative comics at the APE, they also showcase zines (after all, it is the Alternative Press Expo.) Highlight: I finally got that Giant Robot T-shirt I've wanted for the past year. Now I have my eye on the Giant Robot hoodie sweatshirt.
- The Fantagraphics booth: Highlight: talking to Daniel Clowes (of Eightball) himself, if only to ask if he had any back issues of Eightball for sale, since I've been looking for issues 1 through 12 for the past year and a half. Lowlight: The fact that he didn't bring any back issues at all, not even his most current ones. Not only that, he couldn't even provide us with a Fantagraphics catalogue to order them from, because they forgot to pack them, or something. Tsk.
- The Smith Brown Jones: Alien Accountant table: Highlight: the cat toy in the shape of one of his characters, "P.O.P.S" that we bought. Also, the picture that Jon Hastings drew for Avery (since Avery is a huge fan) on a piece of notebook paper; a picture of P.O.P.S. saying "Hey! I'm on crappy paper!" Cute. He and his wife were very funny.
- The Fairmont Hotel, where we stay whenever we're in San Jose: Unfortunately, all lowlights, starting with somehow being stuck with the handicapped-accessible room, with the silver bars all over the bathroom to hold on to, and the crappy, crappy handheld shower thing, and no little vanity area with the flattering light that makes your skin look good. I woke up with a pounding head- and neckache, which I attributed to the desert-like dryness in the room. After taking two hot showers to try to force my neck to relax, I sat down in front of a big, beautiful, yummy room service breakfast (which is our favorite part of staying at the Fairmont, by the way) and tried to eat: first some dry toast, then some juice, but continued to feel sick. We thought it was just me being overly tense or overtired….until I threw up. Biggest lowlight of them all: The bathroom was occupado at the time. At least I missed the rug.
- The final highlight: In-N-Out Burger on the way home, which is a large part of the reason that we rented a car to get down there instead of taking the train. By then my stomach was pretty much back to normal, so yay! Yum!
Janet and I got a subscription to the Best of Broadway series this year, and the first show of the series was Evita, which we saw Thursday night.
I wasn't really keen on seeing this show. I love musicals, but I just don't like Andrew Lloyd Webber's stuff. Phantom of the Opera makes me gag, and I really don't like Cats… so I wasn't looking forward to watching a two-and-a-half hour Webber snooze fest.
However, the show really impressed me. The staging, choreography was absolutely amazing. The acting was great (aside from the woman playing Evita, who was a little stiff)… and the male lead (playing the role of Che) was outstanding. When the intermission hit, Janet and I were anxiously waiting for the second act.
But as most musicals go… the second act was choppy and rushed (though there were some great moments in the staging of the second act)… and what some people might have called an ending was absolutely atrocious.
My overall opinion is that the new staging of Evita is very good, and has the chance of winning some awards if it makes it to Broadway. Still, I have three reservations with this production:
1) The music was by Andrew Lloyd Webber
2) The lyrics are by Tim Rice
3) The story is about Eva Peron
If they could just take care these three things, I would list this as one of my absolute favorite shows of all time.
Egad! Avery stole my Smirk! Since it was my birthday, we decided that we should go for sushi since we haven't in quite a while, mostly because we can't seem to find a place that has a selection of fish that is varied as well as exceptionally fresh. Well, there is Ebisu, but it always has a two-hour wait, and there are those few scattered hole-in-the-wall places that seat, like, eight people total, and there's Blowfish, which although it has ultra-modern space-age decor, a sake bar and shows cool anime videos on movie screens placed strategically around the restaurant, it has some weird, untraditional vibes; like even though you may choose to sit at the sushi bar, a waiter will still come over to take your order, and they serve their sake in clear glass decanters (which look like small flower vases) and clear shot glass-type glasses which isn't conducive to keeping the hot sake actually hot at all. Not only that, you're literally elbow-to-elbow with the rest of the patrons, their sushi is only so-so, and the place gets packed/over-run/SRO with caucasian yuppies getting drunk on sake by 9:00 PM.
But Kabuto…Kabuto! It is heaven on earth. HUGE selection of fish. FRESH fish. Melt-in-your mouth fish. We ate practically everything on the nigiri menu, and even ventured onto the vegetarian side of the menu board after we had exhausted the seafood options. (an important aside: Kabuto is the only sushi bar I've ever sat at that has been kind enough to provide a real chopstick rest, and it's this and other little attention-to-detail touches — like when the waitress told me to watch out for the little dip in the floor beneath the carpeting under my feet and then apologized: "This restaurant is so old!" – that change a good experience into a great one.) After nearly three hours, we left with the best, happiest, most peaceful sushi buzz ever!
Nothing satisfies us like a good sushi dinner. Actually, I don't know if you'd even call it dinner… it's more like a three-hour sushi experience.
Case in point, Saturday night. Since it's almost Janet's birthday, we decided that it was a perfect opportunity to haul our asses out to Kabuto Sushi in the Richmond District. Kabuto is located in the middle of nowhere… and it requires that we take two buses (which in itself is a trial) and budget 45 minutes for the commute just one way. Plus, it's in an apparent no cabs 'round here zone, which means that getting home takes another 45 minutes.
Still, the sushi at Kabuto is certainly worth the hassle of getting out there. For almost three hours, Janet and I ate almost everything on the fresh-fish menu, including a handful of foods that I hadn't ever had before. Highlights of the meal:
- Mackerel nigiri (Tataki Style / slightly seared on the edges)… perfectly fresh, and absolutely delicious
- Katsuo nigiri – my favorite fish… and as amazing as usual
- Natto – fermented soybeans with a raw chicken egg yolk
- Ume (sour plum) Shiso (burdock leaf) maki roll with fresh mountain potato – crisp with a marvelous texture
- Ume (sour plum) Shiso (burdock leaf) maki roll with halibut – though the ingredients were almost the same as the previous roll, this roll had a very smoky taste… funny, because none of the ingredients have a smoky taste when eaten individually
- Shi-Sha-Mo (grilled smelt with a large roe sac) Te-Maki (hand roll) – I didn't know that they could even make this as a hand roll. Truly amazing.
Add to this a ton of Sapporo beer, a few bottles of Kiku-Masamune sake (hot) and a glass each of cold nigori sake (and the brands completely escape me now), and we left the meal completely sated, and almost two hundred dollars poorer. Still, you have to splurge every once in a while… right?
I'm one of those people who is really skeptical when they try to screw with the classics. Let's take a look at all of the lousy attempts that people have made while trying to improve upon the classics:
- New Coke
- Flubber with Robin Williams
- The New Filet o' Fish, shakes and ice cream at McDonalds
- The New Odwalla formulas that avoid apple juice (remember that whole kids dying due to their parents serving then $4.00 bottles of unpasteruized apple juice)?
- The Reeses Crunchy Peanut Butter Cups, Caramel Peanut Butter Cups and Cookie Peanut Butter Cups
So, when I saw the ads for the new M&M Crispy, I figured oh great… another loser M&M variant. You have to realize, I grew up when there were two kinds of M&Ms: Plain and Peanut. Then they brought in the Mint M&Ms… uh, disgusting. Then they tried the M&M Almond, which was nowhere as nice as a Jordan Almond. Finally, they released the M&M Peanut Butter… nice try, but it isn't nearly as good as a Reeses Pieces.
Anyway, Monday night when we went to do laundry, Janet and I decided to grab a pack of M&M Crispy to eat at the laundromat. We opened the packs up… and tried the first ones. Guess what… they were crispy. The center is filled with rice-crispy style puffed rice, and covered with just enough chocolate to make it taste good, but not overly sweet. I think that the crispy M&Ms are better than even the plain or peanut varieties. Add the fact that they are relatively low in calories and fats, and I have a new favorite domestic candy. Yum.
I wonder if this means that we need to do a M&M Comparison page…
[Avery/Janet] 2/7000000 Yesterday, Avery talked about the difference between Kit Kat candy bars. Now, we present for your reading pleasure… The Kit Kat Comparison Page.
After walking home from dinner at King Foot Subs last night with Janet and Molly (a co-worker), we decided to stop into Sunshine Market. Sunshine is this little convenience store that looks like it's nothing special… but once you walk inside, you're treated to one of the largest selections of British and Irish foods in the city.
Since it was post-dinner, I was having a craving for something sweet… maybe a candy bar or something. However, I am not really a chocolate person… except for my one weakness: Cadbury's Chocolate. Actually, not just any Cadbury's Chocolate… it needs to be the British-made Cadbury's. No preservatives, no fillers… just good old 20% cocoa butter Milk Chocolate. Hell, all British chocolate is great.
Sunshine had all of my favorites: Aero bars and Kit Kat bars, Cadbury Fruit & Nut bars… and in a half-empty box, Cadbury Flake Bars.
Flake bars are quite possibly the best thing that Britain has ever produced. I remember when I took my first (and only) trip to London in Junior High School. I brought back two cases of Flake bars from the Duty Free Shop (as did a few other people who were on the trip with me). They take little slivers of shaved chocolate and press it into a bar, creating this light little chocolate bar that melts as soon as it hits your tongue. By the time we left, I would end up purchasing six candy bars (three Kit Kat bars and three Flake bars) for the weekend.
This afternoon, Janet and I split a Flake Bar and a British Kit Kat. Truly, I was in heaven.