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Many years ago, I lived in the south of England. Each Friday night my husband and I walked down a cobbled street to our neighborhood pub, which was a dark room with wooden tables, a sticky bar and a silent but attentive bartender. We’d order a couple pints ...of Guinness stout and munch on crisps with strange flavors, like prawn and marmite. In England, potato chips are “crisps” and French fries are “chips”—go figure. The bartender would engrave a shamrock in the Guinness’ foam with his thumb, and then we’d sit in the smoky room, eating our crisps and listening to the low hum of conversation. There was no television and smoking was still allowed inside. After the pub, we walked across another cobbled street to our favorite restaurant, the Arundel Tandoori. A friendly maitre’ de seated us at a table covered with a starched white linen cloth. Heavy, gleaming silverware sat on top of oversized, white napkins. It was here that I fell in love with the deeply spiced food of India and Pakistan. We started our meal with a platter of tandoori chicken; boneless chicken thighs marinated in yogurt and ginger, served with a slice of lemon and chopped onions; and little samosas, deep-fried pastries stuffed with potatoes and peas and flavored with ground roasted cumin seeds, and a spicy mixture called garam masala. After these appetizers, it was surprising we had room enough for dinner. My husband would choose the lamb jalfrezi and I had the chicken biryani, a garlicky chicken dish served with basmati rice seasoned with saffron, cardamom and cloves. We couldn’t get enough of these intensely flavorful and colorful dishes. We’d spend hours talking and picking food off each other’s plates. Often, it would be close to midnight when we got home. When we moved back to the United States, I became homesick for those delicious meals in the Arundel Tandoori, so I ventured to make my own Indian food. We stocked our pantry with a plethora of spices and bought a good cookbook (anything by Madhur Jaffrey). I learned to make green lentils with garlic and onion; chana dal, yellow split peas with turmeric and ginger; and aloo gobi, cauliflower and potatoes made with ground roasted cumin seeds. It can be quite intimidating to cook Indian food because the recipes are usually a mile long and require several spices, but a little effort goes a long way. I typically find all my recipes in Madhur Jaffrey’s book, Indian Cookery, but I found this jalfrezi recipe online. It’s easy to prepare, and you probably already have some of the spices in your pantry.
About a month ago, hundreds of people packed Seattle’s Showbox to watch a trio of Northwest bands. On the all-local roster of what would become a much-talked-about night of music were Anacortes’ Lonely Forest, as well as Telekinesis and the Globes, both from... Seattl Of course, it was understood that the show’s real draw was the Lonely Forest, a band that has of late experienced a well-deserved explosion in popularity. And, indeed, what with some healthy boosterism from Seattle DJs, music writers and the blogosphere, people began to line up outside the bar as early as 5pm to make certain they didn’t miss this musical menage a trois. And, when Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla was spotted in the audience (he would later sit in with Telekinesis), it became clear this wasn’t your average night of music. Prior to the show, the Globes were expected to be a pleasant footnote to a night that should, by all rights, belong to the Lonely Forest. Then Chris Walla and Twitter inadvertently teamed up to steal some of the Lonely Forest’s spotlight and train it directly on the Globes. “Watching the Globes at the Showbox. Holy crow and OMG,” so said the Tweet heard round the cyberworld. As far as gaining legitimacy as a band goes, there are few ways to get it more instantaneously than an in-the-moment endorsement from someone of Walla’s ilk. But the Globes have been getting it right for a long time. Although the band’s sole tangible output has been one five-song EP released in 2008 that even they admit was haphazardly recorded, critics have still found enough in it (and the band’s prodigious live shows) to fawn over, often prefacing their compliments with the phrase “not yet signed” before the band’s name, as though a record deal for the four-piece indie popsters is a foregone conclusion. And, indeed, it might be, as the Globes have reportedly been in talks to release their mostly done full-length (recorded with John Goodmanson, who has worked with Blonde Redhead, the Blood Brothers, Death Cab, among many others) on Barsuk, the label that launched that one band that features the aforementioned Walla. It’s nice when things all work out so neatly like that. While the Globes, with their tough-to-classify, darkly infectious and undeniably brainy indie pop may seem like yet another of Seattle’s many musical upstarts, in truth, they’ve been a band longer than most—just not in our neck of the woods. Hailing from Spokane, the quartet first began to play music together in high school, realizing sometime around when they were due to graduate, that the end of high school did not actually have to mean the inevitable end of the band. From this came the decision to forgo enrollment in traditional four-year colleges (which would spell the band’s demise) in favor of a move to Seattle to see what they could make of themselves musically. Since then, they’ve gone about the task of making a go of it with the kind of enviable work ethic that sees them playing 100-plus shows a year and earns them accolades from just about everyone who catches them live, up to and including Chris Walla. While it’s still too soon to tell what 2010 has in store for this band, one thing seems certain: should you choose to ring in the New Year with them at their show at the Brown Lantern in Anacortes, it might be one of a dwindling number of chances to see them in such an intimate setting before the Globes, as they say, take over the world.
My sister turned 43 this December. She celebrated by flying to Hawaii—along with her husband and four tow-headed kids—and running the Honolulu Marathon. I am proud of my sibling for reaching the finish line ahead of approximately 600 other people in her age... range, but I’m also a little confused, as I’m not quite sure how she manages to work as a full-time nurse, raise and regulate her ever-growing progeny, do the bookkeeping for her husband’s business and, in the meantime, get in fighting shape to run 26 miles in tropical heat. The only way I think I’d be able to manage that feat on my own two feet would be if I were being chased—downhill—by a deranged killer wielding a machete. “I’m just trying to be healthier the older I get,” my sister modestly says. Still, there’s got to be something that sets those who can make resolutions and keep them apart from those of us who, year after year, start January 1 with a list of things they want to achieve and, year after year, don’t quite live up to their own expectations. According to a recent survey by Health Net, one of the nation’s largest health care companies, as many as 100 million Americans make resolutions at the beginning of every January. Predictably, only about four out of five of them keep the goals they’ve set. If you don’t want to set yourself up for failure, they say, it’s important to set more realistic goals. (If your objective is to eventually run a marathon, for example, but you get winded going up a flight of stairs, start off by walking around your block every day for 30 minutes. Incrementally increase your speed and see where it leads you.) Because they understand that people sometimes need a push to get them revved up to full speed, the kindly folks at Village Books are offering up a full day of free events simply dubbed “Resolutions.” Mini-workshops throughout the day will feature a variety of experts who offer timely tips on how to get started and where to go from there. Whether your 2010 goals are focused on getting fit, saving money or tapping into your creative side, there will be a little something for everybody. If there’s a lot you want to change about your life, you’re welcome to stay for the entire day, but mixing and matching will also be allowed. To prepare for “Resolutions,” you’ll probably want to make a list of what you’d like to see improve in the new year. Another hint: keep it short, and don’t set yourself up for failure by taking on more than you can masticate. While my own New Year’s resolution list probably won’t include training for a full marathon, my sister has inspired me to want to get healthier and in better shape. After all, I want to be prepared to make it uphill when that guy starts chasing me with sharp objects.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Werner Herzog’s luridly entertaining police noir, is a one-of-a-kind experience that boasts a twice-in-a-lifetime performance from Nicolas Cage. The actor has not gone this deep into the abyss since Vampire’s Kiss (...1989). You watch, hypnotized. Will he crawl his way out? Will you? In Herzog’s film, which shares a title and little else with Abel Ferrara’s 1992 Bad Lieutenant, Cage plays a crackpot (not to mention crackhead) law-enforcement officer emerging from the primal ooze of post-Katrina New Orleans. Then again, Terence McDonagh (Cage) may be more of a snake skimming the murk, like the water moccasin navigating the rising tide in the film’s unsettlingly beautiful opening shot. Not so much inspired as ignited by an eccentric script from television writer William J. Finkelstein, Herzog creates an atmosphere sticky with amorality. For the filmmakers, New Orleans is a delirium state where all bad deeds go unpunished and vice versa. The film spins with McDonagh’s whirling moral compass. As the waters rise in the Katrina prologue, McDonagh dives into a lockdown to set free a drowning prisoner. His reward for this act of kindness? A promotion and a back injury that gets him addicted to Vicodin. In a pinch, he’ll use any prescription or street drug that can stanch the pain. And there are a lot of pinches. McDonagh routinely shakes down suspects for drugs. And if the suspects don’t have them, there’s always the property room at the precinct or the stash of his prostitute girlfriend, Frankie (Eva Mendes), whose johns McDonagh loves to mess with. And did I mention that he is a sports gambler who owes thousands to his bookie? Physically and morally compromised, McDonagh lurches through town, getting himself deeper and deeper into drugs, gambling, debt, and danger. Herzog (Grizzly Man), a courageous explorer of the thin evolutionary line between man and beast, sees McDonagh as a cold-blooded guy who thinks only with his reptilian, i.e., primitive brain. In keeping with that metaphor, when McDonagh is coked-up, he hallucinates Gila monsters on the coffee table, one of the many surreally funny images in this seriocomedic nocturne. With his scaly skin and darting movements, Cage is demonic, clinging to professional responsibilities while behaving most unprofessionally. As the Bad Lieutenant spirals down into hell, his spirit dances to police-procedural rhythms only he can hear. It’s ridiculously entertaining. When Cage is good, he is very, very good, but when he is bad, he is better.
PETE’S PICK: In a move certain to please conservatives, Whatcom County Executive Pete Kremen decided in tandem last week to veto a portion of the county budget and to appoint retiring council member Ward Nelson to complete the term of Bob Kelly, who announced his ...early departure from council in November, on the same day that budget amendment was approved. Kremen’s appointment of Nelson drew criticism from outgoing council members who’d sought to honor Kelly’s request that they replace him with a “likeminded” representative, but—as we’ve pointed out before—there was a pretty logic to Pete appointing Ward to finish out Bob’s term. Nelson is a known factor, a person the council and administration know they can work with, and someone who will leave the District 1 seat open when the term expires in 2011. Equally significant—for good or ill, as council slides sharply to the right in supermajority—it shifts the mercurial Barbara Brenner from a position of central leadership on County Council to her more familiar and suited role as champion of the underrepresented view. This creates a council of veterans—in both policy and history—in majorities sufficient to get things done in 2010 and, hopefully, war-weary enough that they’re not eager to resurrect old biases (and grievances) to amend them again. Kremen stressed his belief that not only is Nelson capable of a moderate, reasoned approach to government, he holds broad bipartisan support within the community. “Ward ran unopposed four years ago,” Kremen explains. “Before that, he received more than 70 percent of the vote when he ran in 2001. That says to me he has balanced community support.” The appointment is a confident move by the executive, particularly in light of his (seldom used) veto powers… which this council is now in sufficient majority to override. One hand can count the number of matters Pete Kremen has vetoed in his four terms in office; and a five-vote council override of his current veto is unlikely, with Nelson and Brenner having already voted in the minority in November against an amendment that would have added $250,000 to the budget of Whatcom County Superior Court while easing back the budgets of other county departments by 1 percent. Complaining that the universal 1 percent cut comes on top of departmental budgets already reduced by millions of dollars as the county seeks to close a $4 million shortfall in its biennial budget, Kremen noted, “Decisions such as this penalize and demoralize the rest of the departments and offices in our organization.” He continued, “The message conveyed by this allocation is essentially to reward a department (Superior Court) that traditionally overspends its annual budget and needs to be supplemented at the end of every year. In 2008,” the executive noted, “the supplemented amount was $165,000.” “I believe,” he concluded, “my office and the public needs to be more involved in a decision that effectively carves out only one branch of our government for targeted budget cuts.” Kremen’s complaint about rising costs in Superior Court is an enduring one, the only county department that has failed consistently in recent years to offer a reduced budget for council’s consideration. That creates immediate downstream pressure on the budgets of prosecutors, public defenders, sheriff’s department personnel and others, Kremen explains. The lack of cost controls in Superior Court is exacerbated by the court’s failure in 2008 to apply for funds available from the Washington State Office of Public Defense. In fatter times, the Legislature had offered the court funds to assist low-income parents in hiring attorneys in juvenile dependency cases. While the governor later eliminated this OPD grant program, Whatcom County might have had the opportunity to receive nearly half a million dollars each year for the past three years. “Our understanding from other counties that have received these funds is ‘all you had to do is ask’” for them, Kremen explains. “At this point that would have amounted to about a million and a half bucks of state money to help fund the court, so—yes—it does hurt. You add that to the $2.3 million in other expenditures the council has approved over the recommendations of the administration and there’s your $4 million deficit right there,” Kremen concludes. “Council has for years been habitually authorizing expenditures for more than the levels recommended by the administration,” he explains. “The funding of Superior Court, while I understand their reasoning, is just another example of them spending money we don’t have.” The crisis, he says, arrives when on­going county expenses are offset by a patchwork of one-time or limited revenue sources. Kremen believes county policies will stand with the new council. “You’ll recall in my first years in office, I was able to work with a council much more extreme than this one,” he says. “I believe them to be much more moderate than perhaps the general public believes they are. “Above all else, I really do want to bring the community together. We just went through a pretty divisive, polarized election and I want—not just with this appointment—to bring the community back to a place where we can have meaningful dialogue and make decisions that, while not unanimously accepted, are more widely accepted.” On the other hand, Kremen notes, “I have made it clear to those currently on the council that I don’t want to see the good, important advances the council has made over the past decade unraveled. I am going to resist any significant effort to change the land use, the critical areas, the shoreline rules that have been put in place. “I think,” he says, “we can get there with this new council.” Let’s hope so, because Pete just threw away his brake.
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Music: Dress up and get down
As with every single other holiday that gives people in this area an excuse to dress up and get down, New Year’s Eve tends to be a big deal around these parts. Whether you want one last wallow in 2009 or are looking to cast aside this decade ...like last year’s played-out party dress, a ...
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See MoreAs with every single other holiday that gives people in this area an excuse to dress up and get down, New Year’s Eve tends to be a big deal around these parts. Whether you want one last wallow in 2009 or are looking to cast aside this decade ...like last year’s played-out party dress, a ...
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As with every single other holiday that gives people in this area an excuse to dress up and get down, New Year’s Eve tends to be a big deal around these parts. Whether you want one last wallow in 2009 or are looking to cast aside this decade like last year’s... played-out party dress, a variety of musical means exist for you to ring in the New Year. From hip-hop to sex rock, you should have no problem sussing out the perfect soundtrack for your midnight makeout. Boundary Bay Brewery: I once shared a midnight kiss with the sexy stranger standing directly to my left many New Year’s Eves ago at Boundary Bay. I don’t know if it was the glow of the lights from the bedazzled and descending keg, the potent beer or if we were both just taking advantage of that brief second in time between that year and the next (probably all of the above, but especially the beer), but it made for a memorable end to an otherwise forgettable year. This year, you can enjoy some homegrown hip-hop in the form of Guinness and the Reparations and be afflicted with dance fever courtesy of No-Fi Soul Rebellion. As for that sexy stranger, well, just look to your left. Where: 1107 Railroad Ave. Info: http://www.bbaybrewery.com Casa Que Pasa: For a couple of months now I’ve been admiring the various bits of assorted artwork associated with Make.Shift’s Mystical Menagerie of Miraculous Oddities show that’s been hanging on the walls of this burrito barn. But, come New Year’s Eve, the show’s over, the art comes down and Make.Shift is throwing a big ol’ party to celebrate the whole shebang, complete with the musical talents of Baltic Cousins, Queen Amina, Holy Tailfeathers, and you. Burritos + margaritas + music + art = a New Year’s Eve whose time has come. Where: 1416 Railroad Ave. Info: http://www.makeshiftproject.com Fairhaven Pub: If you guessed the group that would be appearing on the Fairhaven Pub’s stage come New Year’s Eve would be Spaceband, you’d possess either an uncanny ability for correct conjecture or the knowledge that Bellingham’s most charismatic cover band has pretty well taken up residence at the Fairhaven Pub on every music-making holiday in recent memory for some time now. This holiday is no exception. But, then again, you already knew that, didn’t you? Where: 1114 Harris Ave. Info: http://www.fairhavenpub.com Graham’s Restaurant: Maybe what you really need to start the New Year off right is a trip up the 542 to Graham’s in Glacier. Usually Glacier is a pretty sleepy ski town, but never let it be said that its population of permanent residents and part-time shreds doesn’t know how to party. This New Year’s Eve, they’ve invited the fierce ladies of Hell’s Belles to rock it out, AC/DC style. It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ’n’ roll, indeed. Where: 9989 Mt. Baker Hwy. Info: http://www.grahamsrestaurant.com Green Frog Cafe Acoustic Tavern: It doesn’t take much to get the tiny space that is the Green Frog rocking, and the rollicking good time that is Big Sur should be more than enough to get that particular job done. Should you be feeling pensive after a few pints of the many tasty beers the tavern sources and pours for your thirst-quenching pleasure, go ahead and belly up to the bar until all is well with your world again. 2010 demands no less of you. Where: 902 N. State St. Info: http://www.acoustictavern.com Nightlight Lounge: New Year’s Eve extravaganzas at the Nightlight have been memorable for many reasons, any number of which are best left forgotten. This year, however, the only thing people will be talking about into 2010 is the great time that was shown to them by the one-two punch of the Yogoman Burning Band and the Dt’s. DJ Aaroneous (that’s Aaron Roeder to you and me) will spin between sets, and everyone’s making out at midnight (OK, that last part may not be the exact gospel truth). Where: 211 E. Chestnut St. Info: http://www.nightlightlounge.com Plan B Saloon: Well, the said they’d be open by New Year’s Eve, and, sure enough, they’ve gone and done it. After hammering and painting and installing and all other manner of top secretiveness has taken place at this sonically sacred spot, Plan B is ready to blow the doors open with a little help from Sugar Sugar Sugar, Boss Rhino, and the All-Nighters. Feel free to ring in 2010 with the Bellingham music scene’s very own New Year’s baby. Where: 1212 N. State St. Info: http://www.myspace.com/planbsaloon Wild Buffalo: Sure, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and whatever other holidays you and yours hold near and dear come complete with their own set of traditions, but here in Bellingham, the one that follows them all, putting an emphatic exclamation point on the year in question, is Flowmotion’s annual year-end bash at the Wild Buffalo. This show is the surest sellout in town, and the addition of Acorn Project to the bill will only add to your need to score tickets early if you expect to spend New Year’s Eve deep in the vortex of the jamhole. The free champagne toast at midnight is just the alcoholic icing on this holiday fruitcake. Where: 208 W. Holly St. Info: http://www.wildbuffalo.net
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Cascadia Weekly An excellent summation of a problem that's been on my mind a long time. As Greenwald suggests, "Whether you call it 'a government takeover of the private sector' or a 'private sector takeover of government,' it's the same thing: a merger of government power and corporate interests which benefits both of the merged ent...ities (the party in power and the corporations) at everyone else's expense."
www.salon.com
Ed Kilgore has a very perceptive analysis in The New Republic about the underlying (and largely unexamined) ideological and strategic differences among progressives that are at least partially driving ...
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Film: (Almost) Out of This World
When a film brashly asserts that it will change moviemaking forever, one feels the urge to either take its “king of the world” arrogance down a notch or hail it as the masterpiece it claims to be. But—and forgive us if this sounds too mu...ch like the dialogue in President Obama&#...
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See MoreWhen a film brashly asserts that it will change moviemaking forever, one feels the urge to either take its “king of the world” arrogance down a notch or hail it as the masterpiece it claims to be. But—and forgive us if this sounds too mu...ch like the dialogue in President Obama&#...
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Cascadia Weekly The Audacity that substitutes for Hope: Obama's regulatory "reform." Required, and highly entertaining, reading.
www.rollingstone.com
Watch Matt Taibbi discuss The Big Sellout in a video on his blog, Taibblog.
Cascadia Weekly Obama's secret deal with pharma gets exposed, threatens to shut down HCR. Republicans may sign aboard to achieve just that result. Okay-- THEN can we get back to talking about single-payer? If reducing Medicare enrollment to 55 is a good idea, why not reduce it to 25?
www.huffingtonpost.com
The White House, aided by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is working hard to crush an amendment being pushed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to allow for the reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, Senate sources tell the Huffington Post.
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Food: And now, a word from the experts
A couple years back, I spent a rainy fall afternoon seated at the bar in cookbook author Mary Ellen Carter’s roomy home kitchen. I was on the precipice of a nasty cold, and the sights and smells emanating from the stove as she conf...idently transformed Marion berries into jam both warmed and...
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See MoreA couple years back, I spent a rainy fall afternoon seated at the bar in cookbook author Mary Ellen Carter’s roomy home kitchen. I was on the precipice of a nasty cold, and the sights and smells emanating from the stove as she conf...idently transformed Marion berries into jam both warmed and...
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Outdoors: Embracing the typhoon
It was a dark and stormy morning. The wind was howling, the rain was spitting and hiking possibilities for the day were draining away into the dankness. Increasingly lethargic and seasonally afflicted to degrees, I promptly enscon...ced myself upon the cozy, nap-inducing confines of th...
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See MoreIt was a dark and stormy morning. The wind was howling, the rain was spitting and hiking possibilities for the day were draining away into the dankness. Increasingly lethargic and seasonally afflicted to degrees, I promptly enscon...ced myself upon the cozy, nap-inducing confines of th...
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