October, 13, 2005 archives

i can’t believe i have never shared this one before. and now i have bananas on the brain for some reason.

½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar*
2 extra large eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (over-ripe)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

preheat oven to 350°F and grease (or butter) loaf pan. cream butter and sugar. add eggs, bananas, and vanilla. fold in sifted dry ingredients. add nuts. bake in loaf pan for 1¼ hours or tests done (by inserting a toothpick into the center and having it come out clean). let cool in pan for 10 minutes. turn out and let cool completely.

• i often substitute ¾ cup white sugar and ¼ cup molasses for the brown sugar.

access all areas: a user’s guide to the art of urban exploration by ninjalicious is a book whose content you can guess from the title, by the founder of a zine (and website) called infiltration that covers the same subject. (via boing boing).

underheard.org is a brilliant idea that seems destined to get shut down by the man once he finds out what is going on. but in the meantime, you can grab various public radio shows in mp3 format, including hawaiian eye, hosted by bruddah mike of franklin avenue fame. last week’s show featured a great cover version of “in my life,” originally by the beatles, from kawaipunahele by keali'i reichel. (and another two hours of great music — this just played on my predilection for beatles covers.)

i am a sucker for the zócalo and alôud events at the library and other downtown venues, and coming up on november 1 is dean baquet, newly named editor of the los angeles times, being interviewed by kevin roderick of laobserved.com at the new national center for the preservation of democracy in little tokyo.

who knows why they call it “playing hooky,” but i don’t think it really counts if you give notice a week in advance, and it’s so you can go get your taxes done on the last possible day before bad things happen.

and now that i double-check, the last possible day is actually monday. so i guess i am really getting my taxes done early this year.

next year i won’t be able to be so lax, because i will surely owe money.

“rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. it is not fair that some men should be happier than others.” — oscar wilde

salon’s audiofile has imogen heap’s “hide and seek” as a free download. speak for yourself, her solo album, will finally be released here on november 1.

she’ll also be playing at hotel cafe on october 26.

next friday between noon and 2pm, there will be a “public safety appreciation barbecue” at pershing square. i can’t imagine a safer time to visit pershing square. (not that it is ever particularly unsafe.)

it sounds like a $2 donation may be required, with proceeds going to the los angeles firemen’s relief association.

steven spielberg has signed up to do three games with electronic arts. no word on whether that includes a steven spielberg’s director’s chair sequel. the smart money is on no.

here is one of the in-game movies. here’s another. this audio is from a recording session for preliminary versions of the game.

continuing an annual tradition:

• george w. and laura bush: 9.9%
• richard and lynne cheney: 17.5%
• jim winstead jr.: 15.6% (or 17.7% if you include donated property)

the amount that the cheneys gave comes from the press release, since the filing at the tax history project doesn’t include their schedule a.

i can’t say enough good things about my accountant. it’s fun to sit there as he plays with numbers and my refund grows.

“friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity.” — mortimer adler

bowling alone: the collapse and revival of american community by robert d. putnam is a look at the decline of social capital in american culture over the last few decades. it is information-dense, but thought provoking.

i can’t help but feel to be an example of the sort of disconnectedness and disengagement that putnam writes about, but i think i am getting better at fighting against it. bettertogether is a project headed up by putnam, and this list of 150 ways to build social capital would make a fine todo list. and i’m even already doing some of them, like volunteering at the library (#75).

a small irony is that staying in on a friday night to finish the book isn’t a particularly social thing to do.

madadayo is akira kurosawa’s final film, about a professor who retires once he decides he can live on the income from his writing, and his former students who honor him with a birthday party each year where he proclaims “madadayo! (not yet!)” when they ask “mahda-kai? (are you ready?)”

there are a few particularly brilliant sequences in the film, but one of the things that really grabbed me was one of the first shots, when the professor walks into his classroom and there is a cloud of smoke hanging in the air.

it is a deliberately paced film, and i’m sure not for everyone, but i really enjoyed it.

this story has one of the most brilliant quotes i’ve ever seen in a news article: “It didn’t happen overnight. You don’t take a drug and go ‘Mmm, rabbits’.”