. Sherlock

Sherlock started last night on PBS. Did you watch it? I thought it was great. Can't wait for the American version with Huge Jackman and that guy from "Two and a Half Men".

. Book(s) of the Month - comic book edition

This month we were reading seven comic books. I only managed to read six. Did you read all seven? I bet you did. What did you think?

"Stitches" by David Small is an autobiography about one kid's crappy childhood. It's a thick book, but there aren't many words, so you can read it fast and not get too depressed by all the crappiness.

I like the way Small draws himself all angry and gangly.


"Wormwood" by Ben Templesmith is about a talking worm who inhabits the bodies of the dead, and has run-ins with nasty beings from other dimensions. Book 1 is okay, but it's a bit slow, and a bit derivative. Book 2 - It Only Hurts When I pee - is better paced, and more original and funny and gross and weird. Book 3 starts to get repetitive.




"2 Sisters" by Matt Kindt is a spy story about a woman who joins the British secret service during World War 2. It's also about a woman in ancient Rome. And also about a woman who becomes a pirate. I presume all the stories are supposed to add up to more than the sum of their parts, but I don't think they add up to much. And the drawings get so loose that it becomes kind of confusing. Did you like it? I was disappointed.




"Wilson" by Daniel Clowes is about a self-obsessed blow-hard called Wilson who goes through life being generally obnoxious to everyone he knows or doesn't know. He's a jerk, but he's also vulnerable, and funny, so you like him. It is drawn in a variety of styles ranging from very cartoony to a bit more realistic. It's the same thing Clowes did in his previous book "Ice Haven", which I preferred. But this one is very good too.




"King of the Flies" by Mezzo and Pirus is a book of interconnected short stories about suburban depravity, written in a matter-of-fact Charles Bukowski kind of style, and drawn in a dark and creepy Charles Burns kind of style. Its fun, like a nightmare.




"Daybreak" by Brian Ralph is about two people trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. And one of the people is you.




The story is simple and not particularly new, but making the reader one of the characters is a great gag. The page and panel layouts are wonderfully clear. The writing is funny, understated but still dramatic. And the timing and pacing are superb. Jolly good indeed.


Next month we will be reading "Beatrice and Virgil" by Yann Martel

. Who knew?

If you don't eat the green chillies, they turn red!




I wonder what happens if you don't eat the red ones.

. Remember remember

On November 5th 1605, a man named Guy Fawkes (who was from York like me) was caught trying to blow up the English Houses of Parliament in order to kill the king and get a Catholic back on the throne.

So they tortured him in the Tower of London, and as they we trying to hang him (before castrating and disemboweling him) he threw himself from the scaffold and broke his neck.

So now each year in Britain , children make effigies of Guy Fawkes, and on November 5th they have big bonfires and throw the effigies on the bonfires and burn them.

And they have fireworks and baked potatoes and roasted chestnuts. And the British who live around here go to Muir Beach and do it there.

It's sponsored by the ye olde Pelican Inn. And there's a bagpiper to pipe you down to the beach.

Who's with me?

. Noise Maker

For my 40th birthday, Nif commissioned several of our arty friends to make arty things. One of the things was a Sesame Street funny noise toy that our friend Cory re-engineered to make even funnier noises.






Here it is in action, performed by Cory himself.

. Favourite Beer of the Week part 1

It was Sunday, so I was in church.

Just kidding, I was in the kitchen making a pie.

It was a zucchini, pine nut and basil fillo pastry pie.

Everything was layered and ready to cook. I hit "bake" on the oven, and the oven said "door."




The oven was clearly insane, but the range seemed okay, so I went back to the fridge for something to cook on it. There were potatoes, onions, chillies, and a Speakeasy Double Daddy.




I drank the beer and fried the veg with Pakistani style spices and some home grown curry leaves (if you think you can find curry leaves in the grocery stores of America you're as mad as our oven)




and I made Spicy Balti Potatoes.




Do you remember those balti potatoes? I made them that time in 1997 when you all came over to Belsize Park for dinner, just before I left for San Francisco, where Speakeasy Ales and Lagers was founded, also in 1997, maybe on the same day we ate our potatoes. You never know.




Speakeasy's Double Daddy is an Imperial IPA, which means it's all hoppy like an IPA, but twice as big and strong. Like a daddy.




I finished the beer and the cooking and did the dishes, and the oven was still out of it's mind, so I stuck the pie in the freezer and went to church.

Just kidding, I went to play "Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light" with Nif. She plays Lara Croft and I play a guy with a stick.


to be continued...

. Easter

For Easter this year our friends Tina and Colin gave us Egglings.




Mine grew up to be a chili pepper plant.












And then a burrito.

. Mantis

Yesterday on our walk we saw a mantis.




It prayed to Bryce's finger.

. Book of the Month

"Fabulous Small Jews" by Joseph Epstein is a book of short stories, most of them about sad old Jewish men living in Chicago. There's a lot about regret, illness, and death, but none of it is really depressing, and some of it is funny. They are quiet stories about ordinary people. Maybe a bit predictable. But nice enough.

Next month we will be reading comic books:

Wilson by Daniel Clowes
King of the Flies by Mezzo and Pirus
Kafka by Robert Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz
Wormwood by Ben Templesmith
2 Sisters by Matt Kindt
Daybreak by Brian Ralph
Stitches by David Small

. September

Every September for the last twenty Septembers I have listened to David Sylvian's album "Secrets of the Beehive," because it is great, and because the first track is called "September."


Why not join me? Wait for a gray day this month and stick it on the stereo.

Or better yet, wait for the sun to go down and stick it on your ipod. Then go for a walk through the damp streets, get some fallen leaves stuck to your shoes (don't tread in any dog poo) and sing along with David:

We say that we're in love
While secretly wishing for rain
Sipping coke and playing games
September's here again.

. Favourite Beer of the Week

We were playing Settlers of Catan, which is like Monopoly but set in the olden days when there was no money and you had to pay for things with sheep and logs.



I didn't have any sheep, only cold hard rocks, and bit of wheat, so my thoughts turned inevitably to beer - specifically to the excellent beers that our lovely friends Ellen and Andrius had brought over the day before.

One of those beers was by the "Lucky Hand Brewing Company."

I thought this might be serendipity. So I drank it.


It was the frothiest beer I have ever poured badly into a glass. But it tasted great, and had the desired effect.




In no time at all I had acquired an impressive quantity of sheep, logs, bricks, knights, a university, and sealed the deal with a Year of Plenty.



Winner.




The word "serendipity" means: the propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated.



It was coined by Horace Wolpole (4th Earl of Orford) in 1794 after he read a book called "The Three Princes of Serendip", about three princes who go around accidentally figuring things out about crippled camels and pregnant women.



In 2004 "serendipity" was voted the third most difficult English word to translate into other languages.

Settlers of Catan has been translated into 30 different languages. In 2006 it was translated into Cupcake.

. Bothe-Napa Valley Sate Park

Come with us now on an early Autumn stroll through Bothe-Napa Valley Sate Park. Don't forget to pee before we set off. The park restrooms are surprisingly clean. And there's a swimming pool if you need one.




Do you have your hat?




Better wear it or your skin will peel off.




Someone's getting too far ahead.




You should slow down and look at the small things.




And the tall pointy things.




It's not a long trail. We're already half way there.




800 feet up.




And it's even faster on the way down.




This plant smells like maple syrup.




Or pancakes.




What's that low growling noise?




Is that what a bear sounds like? Or a mountain lion?



Run away!



Is it gone?



Careful you don't fall in here.




Although it would be funny.




We're still alive!



Let's go home and eat some Indian food.