We started the week by cutting out of work early and watching two movies at the Seattle International Film Festival: The Fall and Before the Rains, both which took place (at least primarily) in India.  (Correction: the imagination sequences of The Fall mostly took place in India; the movie itself took place in LA.)  The former took place in North India where we didn’t travel, but the latter took place in Kerala, which is where we vacationed.  While The Fall was a much better movie, it was great to see Kerala again in Before the Rains, especially since it was filmed in one of the regions we visited.  We closed out the day with a nice dinner at How to Cook a Wolf in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle.

Saturday morning we woke up to a stunning day and enjoyed a nice espresso and a stroopwafel on the porch before heading off to the farmer’s market to pick up a bone-in pork shoulder from Woolie Pigs.  We had Jim and Jess over to enjoy some roasted pig and some St. Joseph that we brought over from France last time we visited.  It was the first time we saw them since we’d left for India, so it was great to catch up and swap stories.  Add to that a delightful cheese platter, a fresh, light soup, a delicious hunk of pork, fresh lemon gnocci, and a few great bottles of wine and you’ve got yourself one hell of an evening.  Provided that “one hell of an evening” for you doesn’t mean “going out drinking with friends and waking up in prison with a  I LOVE FORMALDEHYDE tattoo on your left shoulder”.  I’ll be honest with you: that just doesnt’t sound very relaxing to me.

Jim also brought over his home-brew which we had started before I left; it was awesome.  In fact, I proposed we start making two batches of it staggered so that we always have some beer of that particular recipe on hand.  It would require that I buy a supply of beer-making equipment.  Jim said it would be cheap if you do it ghetto-style like he does.  I said, “I can do it ghetto-style” to which Jess remarked, “You don’t do anything ghetto-style.”  Besides being spectacularly unfair, her statement is also annoyingly accurate.

Sunday, we woke up to another spectacular morning and spent the day lazily reading the New York Times.  One of life’s greatest indulgences is to spend Sunday on a sunny porch with a great cup of espresso while spending hours pouring over the paper.  We finished the day off by sipping Mojitos and grilling bratwurst, chickenbreast, and corn.  Beat that.

Memorial Day dawned with overcast skies.  At least I’m guessing it dawned that way, because by the time Michelle and I got up, it was overcast.  We started our day with our favorite breakfast: a fried egg on a sourdough muffin with ham, arugula, vinegarette, tomato and Beechers Flagship cheese.  We even managed to squeeze in some Bollywood and a dinner of fresh pasta.

After a month of relentless sunshine, it’s funny how refreshing a nice cloudy day can be.

Watch the whole thing. I promise it’s worth it.

So here it is: Bono is a wanker.

A couple things strike me in the first minute and a half of this video.

1. Bono is a wanker
2. “We’re making a DVD”. Really? Right now? Aren’t you making a video that you will distribute on DVD? Or is Adam Clayton sitting in the corner busily cranking out a single, blank DVD out of raw materials? If so, that sounds cooler than listening to Bono ramble on about Italy and films and stained-glass windows.
3. Why is he talking like William Shatner? “Thank you…for…being a part of…the FILM…we’re making…TONIGHT.”
4. Why does he raise his arms when he says “little film”? Is he trying to hex the audience? Appear taller than he is? What?
5. We’ve established that U2 is playing in Milan. Why does he say “Excuse moi”? Last I heard, this guy was bouncing around the world explaining to everyone how we all need to spread western wealth and medicine to under-developed areas of the world. A noble cause, but I would think a guy who knows so much about what the world needs would know that Italians don’t speak French

Naturally, we bragged about Mack’s newfound skill to our friends. Their dog, Bromley, is a prodigy: she can eat watermelon and ring a bell when she needs to be let outside. With their interest piqued, they investigated to see if Bromley’s repertoire could be expanded to include eating corn off the cob. Not surprisingly, it could.

Mack and Bromley rule at eating corn, Beene is confused. Enjoy.

Note: The quality of this version is lower than the Quicktime version available here. For best results, watch the Quicktime verison.

Do you remember the Yip Yips on Sesame Street? While making dinner last night, Michelle and I began reminiscing about Sesame Street and the Yip Yips (yiiiiiiiip, yip yip yip). In particular the telephone sketch below was memorable, but the concept in general was awesome. The show as a whole was wonderful in its simple genius; teaching us to reason logically as we watched the Yip Yips use their book to determine if, for example, a grandfather clock was a human or not (according to their book, humans are tall and have a face and hands – yiiiiiiiip yip yip yip). And it was just so clever. The way the little guys hid behind their lower lips when they were scared of something was brilliant, and it was fucking awesome the way they would scale objects and huddle together as they were identifying an item from the book.

As we chatted about it, we both became increasingly obsessed with how great the show was, and how badly we wanted to see those little dudes again. Well, I have to admit it. YouTube is a pretty cool site, and it’s amazing how you can find almost anything in almost no time at all.

Anyway, I don’t think this is a French commercial – I’m pretty sure it’s Italian – but this is a great example of European soccer fanaticism.

Dog Rescue

A downloadable version of the movie can be found here.

Note: The quality of this version is lower than the Quicktime version available here. For best results, watch the Quicktime verison. Some of the music in this video contains explicit lyrics which may not be suitable for children or work.

Photo Album: Presitard

After watching the video, all I can think is, “Is Bushie taking courses at the Micheal Scott School of Management?”

If you’re strong of heart, you can also watch the video:

Related: Bush is a git.

Overall, the skiing in Chamonix was absolutely incredible, and the level of difficulty was variable, although even the areas considered to be easier was relatively challenging. The family areas contained plenty of very difficult terrain, although technically only rated as “red”. (Black is the most difficult, Red is intermediate, Blue is moderate, and Green is easy.) We skied a black run at the Grands Montets, which contained pitches with slopes at what we estimated were close to 60 degrees. Allegedly, the off-piste skiing at the Grands Montets is the best and most difficult in the area, although we did not do any of that there. Next time!

We put together a video of the ski trip. You can find a downloadable QuickTime version on the Video page, in two versions: short and long.

Note: The quality of this version is lower than the Quicktime version available here. For best results, watch the Quicktime verison. Some of the music in this video contains explicit lyrics which may not be suitable for children or work.

Photo

Video: Skiing in Chamonix.

Skiing in Taos

Video: Skiing in Taos (Quicktime)