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rogan josh

Rogan Josh Seasoning
Just a little spicy. A very popular dish from Northern India and Pakistan. This version of the red lamb stew comes from the state of Rajasthan, known for its hilly deserts and fierce, yet chivalrous warriors. Rogan Josh can be made with beef, but this blend is a great example of how a crafty seasoning can change the somewhat objectionable, "gamey" flavor of lamb into something far more delicious...

today we had a second thanksgiving meal with quite a few extra people. i think by the time we ate we had crowded 12 people around my parents incredible-extending-table. (we've got to get one of those up at our place.) mom made a dish called rogan josh lamb, and it was incredible. a very middle-eastern feel, with slow cooked pieces of lamb. what a fine cook she is. dinner was followed by a somewhat disappointing round of trivial pursuit 20th anniversary edition, which was followed by dancing to 80s classics at the market street pub. and now i'm ready for bed.

road trip

after a long, long, 3 day week at the office i'm finally home in gainesville for thanksgiving. my roommates brent and morris came home with, and kiko and bethany caught a ride with us too to spend thanksgiving with a friend of theirs here. i think it may have been the longest drive home ever, but probably one of the most enjoyable too. we spent a couple hours at dinner in atlanta with at Doc Cheys, before getting on the road around 10pm. joel was up when i got home so we sat up talking til after 5am. needless to say, i'm a little tired, but happy to be home.

fishing is in the works for tomorrow, weather allowing, along with a big meal in the evening with family and friends. perhaps we'll have some fish? mom's upstairs working on the turkey(s). better go help her with the sweet-potato pie. happy thanksgiving to all!

harpsichord

A stringed keyboard instrument much used in the baroque era in music. The keys of a harpsichord move small devices that pluck the strings; the strings are not struck with hammers, as in a piano. Thus, although harpsichords often look much like pianos, their characteristic tinkly sound is unlike that of the piano, and a harpsichordist cannot change the volume of the sound by striking the keys harder, as a pianist can. - New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy

got this shot yesterday out in Chickamauga at jenn green's grandmother's house. i was out shooting jenn's bridal portraits, and stumbled upon this beautiful piece of workmanship in the parlor.

if everything goes as planned, we (morris, brent, mesh, kiko, bethany and i) hit the road around 5pm today for gainesville for the thanksgiving break. hope everyone has a great weekend!

sleepy mokko

this week looks like its going to be pretty hectic, so some of the pictures, like today's, may come from my backlog. i think this photo was taken last thursday after house dinner. the rest of us were sitting on the porch and morris started jamming on one of isaac's guitars. after a few minutes it got quiet, and when we walked in we found him zonked out on the couch, guitar in hand. i couldn't resist photographing him before he was awakened by our laughter.

a few articles i enjoyed over the weekend:
david brooks on marriage and some letters in response, a tribute to C. S. Lewis on the anniversary of his death, the mind that grasped heaven and hell and safire on the history of "bling-bling". also, don't miss the top 100 albums of the 1990s revisited at pitchforkmedia.com.

pool and more

i apologize for the lateness of this "morning's" posting. sometimes mondays are slow mornings for me. okay, let me rephrase that, mondays are always slow mornings for me. every now and then i have a laid-back weekend and when monday rolls around i pop right out of bed at 7am, but its a rare occurrence. and this weekend was anything but laid-back. not that it wasn't fun, just very full.

today's photos are both from friday night at parkway billiards, a pool hall i haven't been to in years. back in college when i worked at greyfriar's, a late night at parkway after closing up the shop was pretty standard. but since then, if i go for pool, its usually to CBC. all that to say that the evening was a very surreal experience as i looked at parkway through somewhat older, more experienced eyes, and for the most part found it depressing. can't really put my finger on exactly why - maybe because i saw the same people that used to be there 5 years ago, i don't know...

but, the pool was fun, and the company good, and yes, let it be known, kiko did roundly kick both my and ben horner's collective asses in a vicious game of cut-throat. also, last night roommate isaac wardell performed at lamar's, to a very large and excited audience. i'd have pictures today, but my digital camera batteries crapped out at the beginning of the show, and the "real" photographs i took won't be ready for another day or two.

and somehow i missed the return of Opus yesterday. apparently the new york times doesn't have comics? (i guess i've never really looked for the comic pages there before.) anyone know where it might be found online?

zachary and the laptop

this is zachary cross, son of jeffrey cross, my boss at coptix. since our offices are located in the two upstairs apartments of jeffrey's house, we often end up crossing paths with his family coming in the back door. lately zachary has taken to unlocking and opening the door for me when i arrive in the morning. yesterday i was carrying my digital camera, which fascinated him, so i snapped a quick picture. i think this is his best attempt at a canned camera-smile.

zachary and teddy (jeff's other son) will occasionally wander up into the office area, which usually makes for comical conversations. this morning i was walking around with the empty box that my old laptop had been mailed in:

Zachary: "That's a big box!"
Andy: "Yes, it sure is."
Z: "What is it?"
A: "It's a laptop box."
Z: "How do you make a laptop?"
A: "Um, I don't really know Zachary."
Z: "Well, you don't need a box!"
A: "Hmm, that's very true..."

other bits:
Opus will be here sunday, although, i've been rereading my old bloom county collections and they're so funny, and timely to the period they were written in, i'm wondering if breathed should just leave well enough alone. and 21 Grams looks really good...

girly slippers

yes, those are my feet in those cute little slippers (though this probably comes as no surprise to those of you who saw me in my cheerleader costume at halloween). bethany left these up at our house a few weeks ago, and little does she know that i've taken to wearing them on a daily basis. you see, in an effort to keep a clean-ish house, we have this rule about not wearing shoes inside. so on a cold day, you come into the mudroom, take off your shoes, and spot this pair of cozy, though somewhat girly, slippers. can you blame me? so last night, i'm reading at the kitchen table before bed and realize that i'm picture-less for today until i glance down at my feet... and giggle.

ladybug transistor 2

i have to admit that i fiddled with this image quite a bit in adobe photoshop to get it presentable. it was so freakin dark at lamar's last night there was almost no point in taking pictures. i finally got this shot by bracing my camera against the balcony railing upstairs. (my preference for naturally-lit photographs is forcing me to get pretty creative with ways to brace the camera for 2, 3, 10 second long exposures. maybe i should get one of these?) photographic frustrations aside, the ladybug show was fantastic -- such classy music, jazzy rock-n-roll. stephen was mentioning this morning that they probably make a better live band than recorded, which i'd have to agree with, but i still recommend checking them out.

started a new 7am prayer meeting at susan kent's house this morning. or restarted i should say, as we used to meet last year at the same time and place. at stephen's suggestion, we're going to be reading from the book of common prayer interspersed with "freestyle" prayers... if we can continue to get up at such an ungodly hour.

ladybug transistor

today's entry is merely a reminder about the ladybug transistor show this evening at lamar's. once again, there is no shortage of ladybugs in our offices, though thankfully the cooler weather has sent more of them into hibernation and off my computer monitor. even this one was moving pretty slow this morning when he posed for his portrait.

the show tonight should be good. i've not heard alot of ladybug's tunes, but these mp3's sound promising. thanks to the people over at disturbingfish.com for their hard work bringing good music to town. american analog set will be here dec 13th, and i'm hoping they'll get a will oldham show, since he's been looking for venues in the south.

harley

my brother tim and his wife ari adopted a greyhound named harley. this dog must weigh 60+ pounds, and looks to me like a small horse. the way he trots around, i keep imagining throwing a miniature saddle on his back and letting the neighborhood kids ride around on him. i expect their children probably will someday. tim and ari also live in a small apartment in midtown atlanta which they share with this horse-of-a-dog. but, according to the greyhound specialists, they make great apartment dogs which is why tim and ari settled on harley. apparently, since they're sprinters, in their free-time they prefer to just loll around on the couch. go figure...

anyhow, harley came to stay with us this weekend while tim and ari were here. he's a friendly enough dog and fun to play with if you can stand up to the occasional "greyhound lean".

media news:
got the new the new p0rn0graphers disc this weekend. it rocks. check out some freebie mp3s at matador records. also saw gangs of new york. it does not rock... though daniel day lewis is still pretty incredible.

family visit

my brother tim and his wife ari arrived in chattanooga last night. my mom has been here since thursday afternoon. we had planned to attend the covenant dramatic presentation of Sabrina Fair last night but it was sold out, so we ended up going for dinner and drinks at big river. tim, as per usual, put away a good bit of pizza. this morning we met for coffee at greyfriar's. they'll be here until sunday afternoon i think.

tidbits...
other photoblogs i've been enjoying thanks to photoblogs.org:
brownglasses.com

repairs

as i was saying, i got my beloved passat back from the body shop yesterday. she'd been accidentally sideswiped in our driveway one night by a van with blindspots the size of texas. (its actually quite a funny story as i was riding shotgun in the van when it happened: "what's that you're running over, man?... oh $*%!, that's my car!"...) a friend at work hooked me up with the body shop owner, who as it turns out really specializes in flashy paintjobs, but does bodywork on the side... for cheep (yes, so cheap i have to spell it with two E's). which, makes one wonder about the work... although, i must admit it looks really good... and everyone else wanted to charge me twice as much. but then, everyone else is in the phonebook, and reports their income to the government, and takes something other than cash...

kiko's birthday

and only a few days later... kiko turned 25. last night we celebrated her birthday at Lamar's. (what's the deal with all these november birthdays. hmm... middle of november minus 9 months - oh yeah... valentines day.) anyhow, ryan dixon and the totten brothers put on a rockin' show as their recently formed band The Quiet Ones and a pretty good crowd turned out to wish kiko a happy 25th.

i also got my car back from the body shop yesterday. but i'll tell you more about that tomorrow when i have a photo to share. the fam is coming to visit this weekend too. more on that when i have some pictures. (mostly i'm just trying to fill space so these photos will display correctly. i'm gonna need a site revamp pretty soon here.)

BS hour

tuesday nights i meet with a few close friends to talk about our weeks, our experiences -- for laughs, but also for serious self-examination. i suppose you could call it a "small group", but phrases like that make most of us squirm a little in our seats for lack of irony. its become affectionately known as "BS hour," if only because it's anything but. originally it met at the safari pub in st.elmo, but seeing as they shut down last tuesday we've had to venture into new venues. last night was pisa pizza, where there's great pizza, red hook on tap, and no shortage of $1 PBRs. but i have to tell you, it ain't no safari pub. will no libacious establishment ever survive in st. elmo? we can only hope these are growing pains, not the death rattle.

other news...
digging through my inbox this morning i found an old email with an interesting article about the new cult status of donnie darko. the email was from heather huston, who is mentioned in the post article. some of you old schoolers will remember her from covenant days. anyone seen her lately? looks like she's making some progress in the world of film.

b franks birthday

bethany franks turned 23 yesterday. her roommate yukiko threw a surprise birthday party last night at sean's house. the theme was cheese and wine - kiko provided the cheese and everyone brought a bottle of their favorite wine. (from the collection of bottles there, it seemed that most people's favorite is zinfandel -- they must have made up half the bottles.) i took a handful of pictures at the party, and couldn't decide which i liked better, so today you get a double shot here at the photo diary. it's funny, i think people are beginning to get more comfortable with me toting my digital camera everywhere and taking pictures of, well, everything, including the cheese. this daily photo log has become something i look forward to each day. if the day is ending and i still don't have a photo, i start getting antsy, looking everywhere for an interesting shot.

in other news...
baus reports that opus may be back, and the berkely breathed website seems to confirm. now we just need bill watterson back on board and we're in business...

...and apparently i still haven't written enough for today's entry to make the two photos sit correctly on the page, so i'm going ramble here for another few lines. kris germaine left town yesterday. he was here for the past week for andy jensen's wedding. i had intended to take a photo of him (and tawni) for the blog, but it completely slipped my mind while we were together. for those of you who know him, he's still living out in LA, trying to make it as an actor. we talked about a few ideas for short films which could be pretty exciting... (okay, that should do it.)

good beer

stone IPA is quickly turning into one of my favorite beers. this shot is from friday night at the taco mac at an hour later than i really want to think about on a monday morning. after a long week, friday night i had planned on a quiet night at home. but not long after i'd settled on the couch, charity, totten, and isaac showed up. we went up to covenant for the annual folk festival held down in the art barn. after a weak start, the show turned out to be pretty great with dancing acts by mesh and john perry (video - 15MB), gillan welch covers by jeff and faith orr, and a bobby hatfield tribute by todd willison. rumor has it that the art barn will be torn down soon, so this this may have been the last folk festival to be held there. we ended the evening, or morning i should say, down at taco mac where i drank the aforementioned beer.

stone brewing company is located in north county san diego, CA, and have been making their powerful concoctions since 1996. the beers are not always easy to come by, but seem to be gaining in popularity. though they are best known for their arrogant bastard ale, i've yet to taste hoppier beers than their IPAs (traditional and Ruination for the real bitter-lover).

more on the matrix: i hate to beat this dead horse more than i already have, but i finally found a review that puts concisely much of what was so disappointing about the matrix revolutions. what exactly is the matrix without, um, the matrix?

house dinner

thursday nights, as i mentioned before, are House Dinner night. this being my week i had to prepare a somewhat fancy meal, fancier than the rest of the week at least, for everyone to eat together. i've had a real yen for Guinness lately, so i scoured the internet for recipes calling for the lovely meal-of-a-beer. i found this Guinness Beef Stew recipe which was actually quite good. however, let me recommend that you add a few potatoes (what's an Irish dish without potatoes?) and use a whole bottle of Guinness instead of just a cup. and be sure to pick up a loaf of john sweet's ciabatta from niedlovs breadworks.

in other news... the matrix appears to have us:
Jesuit below, C.I.A. above. Partners in secrecy (i've always said women get the coolest clothes - maybe the fashion industry's finally trying to help a fella out, which reminds me of halloween...) and now i understand why we flocked in such large groups to see the latest installment: "...But in this release, it's about simultaneity of experience, the way everyone sat down at once to watch the first showing of 'The Matrix Revolutions' and got up two hours later wondering, worldwide, what the fuss was."

late start

i got a late start this morning. i saw the matrix revolutions last night, which was very long, and therefore didn't get to bed until after 1am. the bad news is that it was hard to get up at 7 this morning. the good news is that i got to sleep in until about 9:30, and had the house to myself once i got out of bed. mornings like these are great because i can crank up the record player with something like the beatles blue album. what a beatiful collection of songs...

the other bad news is that the third installment of the matrix was awful; even worse than the second. it was disappointing on so many levels i don't know where to begin. nearly all the philosophy of the first film has vanished, along with most of the redemption themes. the dialog is so bad its painful. the action is impressive, but nothing awe-inspiring as we've come to expect from this series. any sense of coherency, and maintaining the rules and scope of the first film has gone out the window. programs now enter the "real world" and neo's powers extend beyond the matrix? i hate to be a wet blanket when it comes to action films because they typically accomplish what they set out to achieve - entertainment. perhaps the wachowski brothers just set the bar too high with their first film.

in other news... i recently signed up over at photoblogs.org, seeing as my site has essentially become a photoblog. please send traffice their way ->

grocery week

day 8:
this is my "grocery week." at our house, where brent, morris, isaac and i live, we each take turns managing the kitchen for a week. this means dinner should be on the table by 7:30 each night, monday through thursday, though there aren't many rules about what it consists of. we've had anything from hot dogs to filet mignon. it can make for an exhausting week, but not having to cook for 3 weeks straight certainly makes up for it. on thursday nights, we have "house dinner" where we all eat together and try to catch up some, deal with any house issues, and generally have a pretty good time.

when its your week to cook, you also buy the groceries to stock the kitchen with, which is where this shot came from. i wandered around BI-LO last night, surreptitiously shooting colorful food packaging. i don't suppose there are any rules against photographing in a grocery store, but it sure did seem strange.

photo diary

day 7:
yesterday i had lunch with one of my roommates brent jackson at mojo burrito. brent recently completed the arduous three year process of becoming a CFA, chartered financial analyst. now that he's got that accomplisment under his belt, he's jumped right out and is starting his own investment limited partnership, Leaven Partners. he's been a bit stressed lately with all the preparations, as you might see in his face here, but we've all been quite impressed with his progress so far.

photo diary

day 6:
more lookout mountain beauty today. i know that the overwhelming beauty of these experiences is largely lost in the transfer to film, but when you see sunsets like this almost every winter evening, its hard not to snap a shot. reminds me of my college years at covenant. i think one of the (few) great things about dining in the great hall was seeing these incredible sunsets at dinner every night from the highest point on lookout mountain.