|
Monday, March 15, 1999
One year ago: Number Nine
I forgot to mention that my friend Blunt and his wife met me by chance on Saturday, when we were all eating lunch at the Kidd Valley burger place in our neighborhood. That was fun! He's still working like a dog on some big secret project, but was taking a few hours off to go have a guitar lesson in the University District. I hadn't seen his wife since we ate dinner together last fall.
Sunday I found another web-based discussion for me to be obsessed with for a few days: The Swingin' Speakeasy, out of Boston. I got caught up on what they've been talking about so far, and added in a few bits of Seattle information. One topic that interested me: one guy was proposing a non-profit organization or club, to sponsor dances and classes and stuff. He didn't know that there had been such a group for several years, that had broken up or dissolved in the not-too-distant past. The former organizers were telling him about all the problems of infighting and apathy that they had encountered. What he had in mind didn't sound too different from the Savoy Swing Club here in town. I don't know why they've been successful for quite a while here, when the Boston group imploded. The people involved? Differences in the swing dance scene?
* * * * * * * *
Jack had invited me (or did I invite myself?) to come over to his place tonight. He mentioned that he wanted to make fried rice, which sounded good to me.
When I got there after work, he was sitting in front of his computer with a case of bed head! He'd been laid low by a headache most of the day, and was still feeling pretty bad. But he still wanted to cook, so he asked me to go back out to the grocery store and get some of the things he needed -- veggies, salad greens, fresh mushrooms. It turned out that what he was really going to cook was paella, the way they make it on Guam! He learned the dish when he was in the military. I told him that being in the service seemed to have broadened his horizons in a lot of ways, and he agreed.
I went and did the shopping, adding in my favorite chocolate peanut-butter ice cream. When I got back, Jack was still in some pain, so I asked if he really wanted to cook? He insisted that he was going to do it, not because he had promised me, but because he'd made that decision and was going to stick to it. So I just watched for the most part (I think I opened a can of stewed tomatoes) as he made a rather elaborate and very tasty dish, with chicken, vegetables, a fried egg or two, rice, and a lot of good flavors.
* * * * * * * *
We ate sitting in front of the television, then decided to watch the video of Dark City that Jack had purchased last week. This is a movie that I'd wanted to see in the theater, but hadn't gotten around to. I really liked it! I think it was marketed as a thriller or horror movie, but it's really science fiction. The problem is, if they'd marketed it as SF, people would have expected to see space ships! Jack said that when he saw it in the theater, half the audience was all puzzled at the end -- those folks not familiar with science fictional concepts. It's very clear, if you have the background.
There was a good cast (I especially liked Keifer Sutherland) and the decor and special effects were great! Very moody and mysterious. It begins as a mystery -- the protaganist wakes up in a compromising situation, with total amnesia -- and builds from there. Cool!
|
