* I am really starting to miss food. Like I'll see a commercial for Tyson frozen chicken nuggets at the gym and get all wistful. I would LOVE to eat some chicken nuggets. Not the ammonia-soaked kind reformulated from chicken paste, but you know, some pretty good chicken nuggets. Soy- or wheat-based nuggets were actually fine, since you're dealing with a hyper-processed food anyway. But I can't even eat those anymore. I always knew if I decided to eat meat again the first thing I'd want would be a fancy hamburger. But now I couldn't eat that if I wanted to. I hate my first-world problems.
* I have some upcoming readings. See you there?
The Madness Much Tour (Artifice Magazine)
with James Adcox, Jeremy Bushnell, Andrew Farkas and others
Saturday, 10/16, 5:30 pm
@ The Enormous Room
Cambridge, MA
Untitled Reading
with Gene Kwak, Mark Leidner, and Mike Young
Thursday, 11/4, 8 pm
@ Lorem Ipsum Books
Cambridge, MA
with Matthew Lippman, Rob MacDonald, and Leigh Stein
Wednesday, 11/17, 7 pm
@ Brookline Booksmith
Brookline, MA
I have a gluten-free question for you: have you found a gluten-free caramel to make caramel apples out of? That seems like a really important fall ritual, but I'm afraid I might have to make my own caramel, which, since I'm not a candy-maker, might be disastrous.
ReplyDeletePS There are bun-free hamburgers you can get, sandwiched between lettuce leaves. I have heard of them but have not tasted them.
I haven't looked for gluten-free caramel, but I think standard issue caramel is just melted sugar plus cream and sometimes butter ... I don't think it would have gluten in it unless they were adding filler to make it cheaper somehow. I've heard you can just buy square caramels and melt them in the microwave to make liquidy caramel for dipping/drizzling. Have you checked to see if what you usually use has gluten?
ReplyDeleteRe: the buns, yeah, but it seems a shame to eat a mess o' beef if I'm not getting the full experience ...
Re: the best part of the song, isn't it called a bridge? That doesn't sound as awesome as what you described, but I think it's the right term.
ReplyDeleteThis is slightly different -- rather than a whole contrasting section (a bridge is usually another verse), this is usually just a line in the chorus, sung with double the feeling. The post-bridge climax?
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes, the caramels at the store don't say "gluten-free" anywhere on them, so I was nervous about using them. I guess I'll try my own at home!
ReplyDeleteWhat are the ingredients? I'd get the caramel with the simplest ingredient list possible, which might be more expensive, but safer. I think caramel coloring is sometimes a problem, but caramel itself should be OK ...
ReplyDeleteCome to Denver and read!
ReplyDeleteAlso, is that part in the song called "vamping"?
Is this an official invitation? I'd love to!
ReplyDeleteAnd wow, I hope it is. I may call it vamping from now on.
"vamp: a short introductory musical passage often repeated several times (as in vaudeville) before a solo or between verses"
ReplyDeleteas the dictionary says, which sounds about right. so, vamping is something an accompanist does. like a jazz piano or guitar player.
Darn. Is "the breakdown" already taken? As in, the emotional breakdown?
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of the expression "take it home" that musicians say sometimes. Though I don't know if that's really an "official" name, and anyway it sounds more like a term for the way the musicians play rather than a term for what the music itself does.
ReplyDeleteProbably the best example of it I've ever heard is Janis Joplin when she sings "Me and Bobby McGee" on her album Pearl. Nobody could build it up and take it home like she could.
*
Word verification is "bramicil."
"If you're bothered by touchy wombat syndrome, ask your doctor if Bramicil can help."
Carrie Stephen King
ReplyDeleteBugger. I put it in the wrong place. In an orchestra (this happens mostly in operas or operettas or Gilbert and Sullivan productions where things go wrong) vamping is where you keep playing the same phrase or measure over and over and over until the character on stage can glue his mustache back on.
ReplyDeleteha! what's the equivalent of that in real life, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteI also thought of IT by Stephen King. It's horror, but that movie really affected me when I was a kid.
I was going to write IT as well but didn't want to reveal my secret SK crush.
ReplyDeleteSecret's out now...
ReplyDeleteBut no one is reading this thread anymore right? RIGHT?
ReplyDeleteThey become invisible after 10 days. But for now, let's just hope no one cares.
ReplyDeleteBecause it would really tank me in the popular poet blogger category you know and with this new book coming out it's really time I was sitting at the table with the cool kids.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHA
Well yeah. Do you want an interview on HTML Giant or not????
ReplyDeleteUnless it was to go there and tell them that I'm working on my 5th book and I have an international publisher already and you're still trying to get published where? elimae? Oh yeah. I was published there in 1998 while I was house sitting the editor's dog.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh you are making me feel good today.
NO! WAIT! I have two books coming out, one a collaboration. And I still blog about menopause whenever I damn well please.
ReplyDeleteMenopause is interesting.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the collaboration????
It's under wraps. I'll e-mail you about it.
ReplyDeletexo