Some short thoughts about Monday’s upcoming election:
(1) FINALLY! I get to use this photo I took last summer in an election-relevant post. I concur, street art!
(2) How excited was I to see today’s project democracy projections for Laurier-Sainte-Marie (otherwise known as Gilles Duceppe’s long-held riding so don’t get excited about voting, all you non-Bloc people)? They are projecting that Duceppe might lose his long-held seat to the NDP based on the April 27th polls. I LOVE pollsters! This made my week.
(3) Advanced polls show that people. actually. care. this election and they are coming out to vote for whichever party they think best represents their interests. I hope you’ll vote too.
For the first time in a long time. It feels great to be listening to new bands again. And again. And again.
The Raveonettes – Last Dance
We just narrowly missed seeing their show at La Tulipe a few weeks ago but I was already hooked so it wasn’t an essential.
Wye Oak – Fish
Opened for the Decemberists here at L’Olympia in January? February? A million years ago? I cannot remember. But they were great. See also: Civilian. I want to ride my bike to the edge of the ocean listening to their music.
Ben Sollee – Prettiest Tree On The Mountain
Everything about this makes me feel like summer is coming. Soon.
Jack White – SXSW Parking Lot Show
Right up there with all the other surprise southby shows we encountered. But not better than Michael Cera’s/Mister Heavenly’s surprise show because it had ice cream sandwiches.
I recently had a revelation that has pretty well been about, oh, 32 years in the making, and that is that I really really love making candy.
I am ok at quite a lot of things in the kitchen. I make my own pasta on occasion, some people invite me to visit just so I will bring them pie (hi jen!), and there is not a cookbook I own that’s not already full of smudgy finger traces and post-it flags. But as it turns out, the one thing I think I am best at when set loose with an apron and a bag of sugar….is candy.
I really hope my dentist is not reading this.
Last weekend I was browsing around the internet, checking to see what was new in the world of cookbooks, when I discovered this gem. Sugar Baby is a bible of confectionary goodness, and more than 200 pages of things made from mostly sugar.
It arrived on Wednesday. And I started making things from it on Thursday. Two recipes down (sea salt caramels – though I mostly followed my own recipe instead, and vanilla fondant), too many to go.
Also: I made my own fondant. I consider this a personal victory, mostly because every time I see the bakers on Charm City Cakes roll out a splendid ball of fondant into a beautiful smooth circle I imagine that there’s no possible way to ever create something so malleable and perfect in my home kitchen. I mean, obviously, it’s just screaming out for an industrial mixer and a stainless steel countertop, right?
In any case, I was wrong, and now I’m totally excited about making more fondant for well, mostly not very useful purposes. But it’s still cool!
