Un beau jour

Ah.. today is so insanely beautiful and warm (my dashboard reads 72 degrees baby) i want to nestle my face in the grass on the main green and breathe in the freshness of spring soil. but i can only wish because I have this book review to write. in fact, I have yet to read the book. 222 pages, vomit please. I'm hoping as hell that I'll finish it tonight. Yes. Right.

Today is the last day of the week-long Ivy Film Festival, which is claimed by the organisers to be the world's largest student film festival. As with the previous years, I have attended some of the screenings (3 days so far) in earnest. This year seems like a Sundance parade. Starting with "The Linguists", a film documentary about two linguists who globe-trotted to India, Siberia, and Bolivia (?) in pursuit of dying languages. Very beautifully and genuinely rendered, the film doesn't lose any of the essence of a documentary, yet doesn't bore the viewer with techy details.

On Wednesday, I went to see "Son of Rambo", a retro story of two kids growing up and cinematographically coming of age. The story revolves around the kids' film-making project, but there are a few other stories smoothly running in parallel. It was refreshing, funny, and purely pleasurable. Something that reminds an aspiring film student of why film always gives him joy and why he wants to make film in the first place.


Last night, I saw the pre-release screening of "Adventures of Power", which was followed by Q&A with writer/director/actor Ari Gold. After 15 minutes, I expected Napoleon Dynamite (which many hyped it up to be). 45 minutes later, I was disappointed. It was witty and funny at first and waxed cheesy and, may I, nonsensical after a while. Below is the blurb I took from the Ivy Film website:

ADVENTURES OF POWER is the epic tale of a rock-n-roll loving mine-worker named Power whose love of the beat--and lack of the drums--has made him the ridiculed “air drummer” of his small town. But after his union-leader father calls a strike at the mine, Power discovers an underground subculture of air-drummers who just might hold the key to changing the world.

The post-screening Q&A is however pretty informative and entertaining. What I noticed about Ari Gold the director is that he fulfilled at least to me the stereotype of the directory of an independent film, awkward, weirdly funny, and spontaneous. He talked about how his film was accepted and declined on various occasions. Filmmaking might be hard, but marketing it is way harder man.

Because

word.

Ideal Meal

Look what i had for dinner the other night. Heaven. I was craving greasy fast food so bad. No, I lie. I always crave fast food. plus, it was late (9:30PM) and I was too lazy to cook. so fast good was the best solution/excuse. I went down to Eastside Pockets and ordered buffalo chicken fingers and fries which amounted to a total of 9.50 dollars! pretty insane for fast food (and in fact for what i got) but nonetheless did it for me. fast food always works wonders.

So yeah, the quantity is pretty big but as a fast food hog I finished them all. so yummy lah. While the guy must have thought I was a weirdo or a desperate college student, because people go there to go wraps, kabobs, and other middle eastern take-aways. so after i'd finished ordering this, he had to take out a huuuge bag of frozen fries and chicken fingers which had been stored in the fridge since who knows when. But i don't care. the fries were ultimate killer. the chicken was a little meh...soggy. I guess they dipped them in the hot sauce or something. but that said, quite an indulgence.

Jhumpa Lahiri

The ugliness of the last entry's lay-out is beyond words and I know this but it's just difficult to put together text and images on a clean slate especially when the ambitious soul in you wants to justify each respective image to either side magazine-style. anyways, something needs to be worked on.

So Jhumpa Lahiri was here last week and warmly greeted with a chock-full MacMillan Auditorium. Although not uncommon I was in fact surprised to see so many people from Providence community in attendance. Much to my greater surprise and disappointment, however, is that a few minutes before the talk began the event coordinator announced that "photography is not allowed both during the reading and the book-signing." I was disappointed because I had been intent on taking a few close-up shots of her in particular and the enthusiastic ambiance in general. And I was surprised because why, in such a safe environment that is Brown and in such a non-political event, photography was prohibited with such rigor.

The logistical stiffness was carried over to the air of her speech. As a common practice of a reading, she spent most of the time reading a long excerpt from her latest book Unaccustomed Earth, which tells of a story of an immigrant Indian family and Indian diaspora. Needless to say, it was powerful and convincingly woven together. That is perhaps what I like most about this author of "ethnic literature"; instead of romanticizing and breezing through the all too familiar themes of alienation, acculturation, and emerging identity, Lahiri approaches this array of meta-issues from a specific angle, so her take is new and refreshing, and her observation sharp-eyed and personal.

Then again, that is the nature of her authorial voice and I highly admire her for that. But what surprised me was the 15-minute Q&A and the stiffness she brought to answering each of the Q's. Although I know that a lot of authors are impersonal, nonchalant if not non-social, the lack of facial expressions on her part surprised and in fact slightly bothered me. This might say something about the popular hope and expectation of a public figure; since we are familiar with bubbly TV stars, celebrities, singers and such, we expect, and often judge, all other noted personalities to be along the same lines, which is obviously unfair for them. But a little smile or a perfunctory hi is probably not too much to ask.

That said, I was immensely impressed and inspired (and my book was signed!). She corrected my perception of short story. She loves writing short stories because so much has to be put in in so little space and it is this intensity that exhilarates her. I think she delivers this intensity because it is well felt in her seemingly aloof stories. Similarly, no hierarchy, she thinks, should be established to separate novels and short stories in terms of prestige. This summer, I hope I'll be able to finish all her three books and I'll probably understand and appreciate the art of short story a little bit more.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

It's funny to think of something you took for granted when you were little but all of a sudden this little something became something of interest when you're much older. I honestly don't remember the last time I felt "excited" to eat cupcakes, let alone to want to bake some. My grandma was a huge baker and she would bake us all kinds of goodies, mostly cakes, cookies, curry puffs and other Thai snacks. As with anything, I was too young to care back in the days, only to be upset at all these could haves and should haves my life now lacks. Like, what if I had taken chemistry or physics in high school. hah.

I'm growing all the more fascinated at how so many people seem to find comfort and inspirations - artistic and culinary alike - in cupcakes. I think it's the simple pleasure, the quick fix, or something to fill the void that baking cupcakes provides. You will be stunned to realize how simple it is to bake cupcakes. You will also be even more surprised at the variety of cupcake recipes. The traditional cupcake, at least for me, was this ridiculously simple recipe where you just spread frosting/icing on the top of, well, cupcakes. And if you want to raise your creativity up a notch, you change the color of the frosting to something not to oconventional. Something additional is bordering on the realm of muffins.

And clearly as a sworn food lover I was wrong at best, outdated at worst. Thanks to le chef extraordinaire Alissa, I was introduced to this savory recipe "Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcake." I mean I'm never a fan of chocolate, but marrying pumpkin and chocolate chips is genius. Snacks that have pumpkin in them are just divine already. This reminds me of one Thai pumpkin snack. You beat pumpkin with sugar and...coconut milk (?) and a few other ingredients. And then, instead of baking in an oven it like cupcakes, you put the mix in cups made with banana leaves, and then steam it. I love the chewy doughy texture of the pumpkin; it adds something exra to your chewing experience. HMMMM. Heaven.

I've put up here a few pictures from the baking night for you to see/appreciate how enjoyably easy it is. Well, easy for me to say since I didn't do much haha. But yes compared to cheesecake, custard, and other fancy baked goodies that I've seen and helped other people cook, this is a true piece of cake. Oh I almost forgot to mention that we also made cinnamon frosting to top it off. Man if the pumpkin cupcake I split into two halves could make sound, it would go oooomphh.. For real.

Au Bon Portions

Food, Fashion & Lifestyle

I've been meaning to write an entry on the latest invention of one of my favourite eateries Au Bon Pain for quite some time. And tonight seems like a good opportunity since I don't want to start reading Walking since Daybreak and later write a "serious book review", as my European History professor puts it, quite yet. So what else, if not this form of procrastination which obviously starts to get to me, can make you feel fulfilled, self-righteous, and less guilty at the same time?

"Au Bon Portions" is ABP's latest culinary line that features some fifteen selections packaged individually in a tiny transparent plastic box. "Lunch box is cool again" is the tag-line that conceptualizes the campaign. As with its other preceding promotion lines after its recent face-lift, the "coolness" of the Portions boxes oozes from the great variety of selections ranging from a set of cheddar, grapes, and crackers which mimics a fancy cheese&crackers plate, to Hummus & cucumber. These individually packed boxes clearly respond to the demand of people who enjoy the on-the-go lifestyle and want to have the freedom to mix-and-match food items that a conventional-sized lunch would not allow. Whether what you look for is a side-dish for your salad/sandwich or some late-afternoon bites, the Portions are certainly the way to go.

I was swept away the minute I saw the shelves of Thayer St. ABP fully stocked with these tiny boxed small plates which literally gleam like a chic luxury item, an edible precious stone. I can't help but nod at ABP's unyielding creativity to marry luxury with affordability, and thus make all their bistro-style offerings pleasingly customizable. To delve in further I in fact think that the tomato wedges, crackers, asparagus, etc seem to be casually thrown in yet look effortlessly artistic in all their miniatured beauty. Yet another addition to the food fashion industry. On a closing note, below are the picture of Thayer St. ABP I took a while back. Cheers.