Busy now, try again later

The whirlwind social life continues unabated kids and yours truly hasn't got much time now to tell you all about today's protest in Johnson City. I promise to give you a full account of it later complete with pictures. In the mean time you enjoy the photo of Sparky holding the sign she made. I was rather proud of the slogan she came up with, it's kind of apropos don't you think?Ah well, they say behind every smart mokey is an even smarter woman so there you go.

I've got to run kids, I'm off to have dinner with the winner of the "Cooking For Dr. Monkey Sweepstakes." Oh, I almost forgot to thank all of you who entered the "Cooking For Dr. Monkey Sweepstakes" and if you weren't chosen as a winner then don't despair, there'll be other contests for you to enter and win. For a complete list of winners and the rules of the "Cooking For Dr. Monkey Sweepstakes" click here.

And who will you be spending this evening with?

Me, I'll be spending it with the guy who directed these films:

That's right kids, Dr. Monkey is going to see actor/activist/film director Spike Lee speak at East Tennessee State University. If you never see any other Spike Lee film, you owe to the people of New Orleans to see his documentary on the aftermath of hurricane Katrina called When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. The title of his talk is America Through My Lens. It should be interesting as hell. No worries if you can't make it, I'll write about it later.

You're stuck with me for the foreseeable future

I'm back from my heart cath follow up/regular cardiologist appointment and it looks like I'm gonna be around a bit longer. Dr. Hoadley told me everything looked good and that my heart is actually a bit stronger than it was when he first met me, of course when he first met me I was having a massive heart attack, the arteries around my heart were nearly all shut down, and my heart was grossly enlarged due to the blood not getting out properly. My ejection fraction, that's the rate blood leaves my heart, is lower than it was due to one of the bypasses not being open as much as it first was, but over all the other three bypasses look good and everything else is hunky dory.

Here are some snippets of my conversation with my cardiologist:
Dr. H: Do you remember what I told you before the heart cath?
Me: Yeah, you told me there was a chance I could have a stroke, or a heart attack, or die if you did the heart cath.
Dr. H: That's right, I...
Me: Dude, you need to work on your bedside manner.

A little later on in the visit he asked me:
Dr. H: What do you do to keep busy?
Me: I write. I...
Dr. H: Oh yeah, what do you write?
Me: I write a blog.
Dr. H: A political blog?
Me: Politics, pop culture, stupid jokes, I write about it all. I also play golf a couple days a week weather permitting.
Dr. H: That's good. So, who's going to win the election?
Me: You really want me to go there?

After I told him why I was backing Obama he said:
Dr. H: Well if Hillary gets elected she'll do some things to our medical system that people won't like but by the time they find out they don't like them it will be too late.
Me: Something's gotta be done, the system can't go on the way it is now with the insurance companies and big pharma running things.
Dr. H: You're right. I'm resigned to some form of socialized medicine...
Me: Let's stop using words that scare people. Let's stop calling it 'socialized medicine.' Let's call it instead 'Medicare for everybody.'
Dr. H: You know, that sounds pretty reasonable.
Me: Duh.

After my appointment Sparky and I went to lunch at The Sunspot, for those who aren't going to click on the link it's casual semi vegetarian restaurant near the University of Tennessee campus. Our food was good but there sure was a hell of a lot of it. I think they feel like they need to ramp up your portion size if you're not ordering something with meat in it.

After lunch we went to one of my favorite places in Knoxville, the Disc Exchange. After much perusing of the new and used CDs I narrowed my choices to a Holly Cole CD and a Gaelic Storm CD or a used copy of the double CD Bob Dylan Live at Budokan.In the end my memories of rocking out to the first Dylan album I ever bought won out and I purchased the Dylan CDs. Listening to my new purchase on the way home I remembered how much I loved it back when I first bought it at age 16. I had forgotten how bluesy some of the versions of the songs were and how reggae influenced others were. Despite Sparky begging me not to, I sang along with Bob on the way home.

Being the bibliophiles we are we visited a new to us used bookstore before we left town. It's called Book Eddy. Let me tell you people, I could easily spend a few weeks in there going over every inch of shelf space they have. The store is well laid out and it's full of every kind of book imaginable, they have everything from rare and antique books to pulp paperbacks to fiction to books from around the world to non fiction books of all stripes and subjects, plus they sell cheesy albums too. I spent entirely too much time just looking at a few shelves of the children's picture books. I'm definitely going back there after I get done with my next cardiology appointment.

That's how I spent my day today, tomorrow we'll be getting out of the house early since NASCAR has invaded our area, the Jack Daniels Screw Yer Sister 500 is going on in Bristol this weekend. We're going to head over to North Carolina and check out the little mountain towns of Marshall and Weaverville. If they are not happening enough burgs for us then we'll skate on in to Asheville and check out some of our usual haunts.

Have a good weekend my peeps and all you kids stay safe for the monkeyman. I'll see ya later.

Over the hill and through the woods...

...to the lovely city of Asheville we go to today! Sparky will be heading out soon to make our monthly trip to the progressive oasis across the mountain. We've got a full day planned for over there so there won't be much blogging here today I'm afraid.

What's that? What do we have planned? I'm glad you asked! Here's some of what we'll be doing:
We'll be parking in one of the lovely urine scented downtown parking garages and then we'll walking around and shopping in the downtown area. We'll be hitting all the little funky shops, especially 10,000 Thousand Villages and other stores like it. We'll also be hitting a used bookstore or two so I can search for vintage kid's picture books and or cheesy cheap pulp paperbacks.


One thing we won't be doing however is stopping at the downtown Salvation Army Thrift store.

And that's because those Christian bastards up and moved out and they haven't told me where they moved to. The downtown store was where I bought We Live In East Germany, the scan of which got me on Boing Boing, the bowling pin I have in my home office here at el Casa de Monkey, and numerous vintage album covers that ooze cheesy goodness. One of these days I'll find out where you Jesus lovers ran off to and then I exact my revenge!


On a happier note, we'll also gander at the latest fashions in Asheville.

We'll also mix, but not mingle, with the locals.

And we'll enjoy whatever the street performers are up to today!

********

We'll also squeeze in a late lunch or supper out and we'll fit in a visit to one of the two mainly organic grocery stores in town, Greenlife Grocery. (Sorry Earthfare, you guys can suck it. I'm tired of your cashiers giving me the stink eye because they think I look like a Republican with my short hair and glasses.)

********

We always have fun over in Asheville and yes, I'll be taking my trusty HP digital camera so expect photos later! Have swell day boys and girls and if you promise to be good while I'm gone, I just may pick you up something while I'm out, for all our sakes I hope it's not an STD.

"...I've done my time in the kitchen at parties."

It didn't take too awfully long to rouse me from my cookie induced diabetic coma this morning, Sparky said she only spent 45 minutes poking me with that sharp stick and then I got right up. After my morning bowl of oatmeal we went for our morning weekend walk and now I'm in tip top shape to tell you all about the cookie party yesterday, well, "tip top" as a fat bastard who's had a quadruple bypass can be anyway.


As soon as we arrived at Todd and Donna's place Miss Donna put us to work, like she'd done to all the other unsuspecting party guests.

"Hey, those cookies aren't going to bake themselves you know!"

You can't tell it from this photo but the gal on the right, Callie, is 8 months pregnant and Donna forced her to make cookies. The gal on the left, Ann, was forced into dipping five thousand cappuccino cookies into the melted chocolate. For awhile she was in the running for party MVP but when she bolted for the martini bar downstairs after the chocolate ran out she lost many a crucial vote.

"Help me! I think I'm getting carpal tunnel syndrome! I need a drink!"

Just like death and taxes are constants in this life, there are a few constants of parties at Todd and Donna's house. And those constants are at every party there must be a bunch of great food (If it was possible I'd have the person who brought the cheese grits children. The curried chicken dish was damn good too. Hell, who am I kidding, everything was great.)

and there must be scores of cute women in attendance, some of whose names I forget every year.
This gal who looks kind of like Laura Linney in this shot, I swear I think I've had lengthy conversations with her before but I'll be damned if I can remember her name. Trust me though, she's really nice and she's great to talk with.These two, forget about it. People told me their names over and over but I somehow managed to forget them just as quick. They're super nice too and I suspect the one on the right made the curried chicken and the cheese grits. The one on the left made drinks. Both of them are super chicks.
That's our friend Tasha in the beret doing the hand jive. The needle on the cuteness meter went so far in the red when she walked in wearing that beret that it broke off. Tasha made it even better when she consented to speak French to us. Merci, Ms. Tasha, merci. The gal looking at the camera is Jessica. She used to work with Donna. She was one of the few women whose name I remembered. She wields a mean frosting bag. The cute woman next to her has a name but it escapes me now. She is alleged to be a whiz in the kitchen and she just started up a small pastry/baking business. Also she and her husband have the cutest 8 month old son in the world. The kid is not only cute as a button, he was also a very good baby, he didn't cry a bit during the party. Well, that's not strictly true, he did start to cry after I held him too long. Babies usually have that reaction to me, so I'm used to it by now.
I'm not allowed to tell you this woman's name but I am allowed to tell you that her initials are S.P.A.R.K.Y.
Here's our friend Cindy cutting some chocolate coconut bar type thingies she made and brought. Cindy is a cool chick who must have been concerned there would not be enough sweets at a cookie party and that's why she brought those bars. This cute woman's name is Sarah. She was telling me that if I take one more photo of her she's going to kick my ass. Since I live on the edge and danger is my middle name, I took another one. Nah nah nah, I dare ya to come after me Sarah. I forgot this gal's name but she was also in the running for party MVP for a bit.

Did I mention that there was a shitload of cookies there as well? I believe there may have been a solid metric ton of cookies by the time all the dust settled.

All these cookies had been made before we got there. I did my best to eat one of each kind because that's how fat bastards like me roll yo.

But unlike me, my friend Brad is no longer fat. Brad is the one in the GENIUS T shirt. He had gastric bypass surgery a few months ago and he's lost 250 lbs so far. By losing all that weight he put 40 or 50 years back on his life. That's our host and my friend Todd standing behind Brad. Todd, Brad, and I were all in the same improv comedy group at one time and yes, Todd licked the back of Brad's head back in those days too.

******

In the end a guy named Randall won the coveted MVP of the party award for all his tireless baking. He cheerfully rolled up a billion little chocolate balls that when cooked became huge round cookies. He then selflessly manned the oven for hours after that. And perhaps best of all he left the stupid jokes to me and Todd. Randall, savor your MVP prize, you deserve it!

*****

All in all everyone had a super time, even the UT fans who were watching UT lose to LSU had a good time, at the annual Todd and Donna Cookie Party. The food and the cookies were great, the booze was good, and the company was fun. Now, your burning question is what do they do with all those cookies? Well, as people leave the party you are told to take a tin and fill it with what ever kind of cookies you like and the rest of the cookies get sent to family members and far flung friends of Todd and Donna.

******

Thanks for having us down for the party Donna. We weren't too much trouble were we?

"Holy crap, have Dr. Monkey and Sparky left yet? No? Shit, get me a martini this big then!"

And now for the good news

The couple from down the street decided not to invite you to their Christmas party this year. So guess what? Take the $5 you were going to spend on that bottle of cheap wine for them and stick it in a Salvation Army kettle instead. And go ahead and send five bucks to the Kucinich campaign too.

Film Fest Report (Day 1)

Sparky and I put the "inter" in international on our first day of the Film Festival that's going down here in town last night. Since we're big fans of foreign films and especially the ones with an Asian bent, we went to see two films made by Filipino filmmakers.


The first film was called Rigadon. It was made a a first time filmmaker who studied film at NYU. Rigadon is a dreamy languid piece of film making. It's about the lives of three Filipino immigrants living in NY who lives intersect. There lots of slow artsy shots of people doing pointless things or staring off into the great void of nothingness and there is the mandatory dream sequence which thankfully does not contain a dwarf spouting gibberish or nonsense phrases but it did feature lots of men in lots of garish make up who spoke in funny sounding tones. In short I hated this film due to it's pretentiousness and forced artiness. It's just the type of film that leaves me with the desire to throttle the filmmaker and say, "Will you stop trying to be so god damned obscure and just tell a feckin' story after all?" But to be honest this it just the type of film that one should expect at film festivals and on one level I was glad to have seen it because it would never ever have shown around here if not for the Film Festival.

The next film we were supposed to see was called "Imelda" and it was going to be an unflinching look at the former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. But since the print of said film did not make it to the festival on time they could not show it. The young Filipino woman, who it turns out is also the head of the art gallery on the ETSU campus, who was in charge of the venue apologized profusely for not getting the film in on time but she assured us that it was available on DVD if we really wanted to see it.

So we stayed and saw a film that we had not intended to see and that film was called Edades (pronounced e-DODD-ess). By the time this film ended I was happy that Imelda did not get there in time to be seen because the film we actually saw was better than I ever imagined. Edades is a documentary about Victorio Edades the father of modern art in the Philippines. I must admit that I've done quite a bit of self guided study about art and artists through out my life but I had learned mostly about European and American artists and my knowledge of Asian artists in general and about Filipino artists in particular was spotty if not non existent. Watching this film I was astounded by the beauty and depth of Edades art, and that of the people who he influenced and or taught. He studied in America and was influenced by Cezanne and other modern artists but when it came time for him to create his own art he made truly unique art that is nothing less than striking. The film combines straightforward documentary film making along with re-enactments, but not the usually dull and dry as toast History Channel style re-enactments, instead these are stylish, striking, and something to behold re-enactments. By the time the credits rolled I was ready to jump up and applaud the filmmakers, but discretion forbade me and when I say discretion I mean Sparky.


Sadly there were only three of us in the audience at Rigadon and when it finished the little blond gal who sat near Sparky and I got up and left, I guess she had gotten her fill of pretentious Filipino made art films. So that left only Sparky and I in the audience to see Edades, which was, trust me, everyone elses loss. If you'd like to see Rigadon or Edades you're going to have a tough time because Rigadon is not available commercially yet and Edades is only available on DVD in the Philippines.


We're sticking with our diet of Asian films tonight and we're going to see a full fledged Bollywood epic that is replete with over wrought acting, singing, dancing, and some wild romancing. I'm looking forward to seeing it and of course writing about it afterwards. See you at the movies later tonight kids, bye now!

Hey, where you goin'?

We're gonna crank this machine up, maybe light a bon fire, and enjoy some documentaries and some foreign films this weekend. So don't rush off okay?

Bite me Berlin, Suck it Sundance, and Take a Hike Toronto

Those fancy Dan film festivals got nothing on us here in Johnson City. We got one coming up this weekend and you can all read more about it here. As much as I love movies you can bet your sweet asses I'll be there. And knowing me as well as I do, I'll probably write about the films I see there as well.

Many thanks to my fellow war protestor and Democracy Now! Tri Cities fellow traveller Keith for giving me the heads up on this event. I've got to confess I would have missed it if not for the Keithman.

If any of you are the area this weekend come check out the film fest. You never know, you might run into me or one of the fine folks who been on this blog recently. Ooooooo, all a twitter now aren't you? Yep, I thought so.

See ya at the movies kids!

Cooking with Dr. Monkey (Birthday Party Edition)

We went to a party last night at my friends Sandra and John's house. The party was in honor in Sandra's turning 29 for the 17th time. It was a lovely affair and mucho fun was had by all. It was a pot luck affair so I got to cook for people other than Sparky and I, woo hoo!


I made my soon to be famous savory bacon spinach casserole with hot habanero croutons, it's now of our new favorites here at el Casa de Monkey, and unlike the last time I took this to Sandra and John's, this time I made it correctly!

Here's the recipe:

I sliced and diced two cloves of garlic, one third of a sweet red bell pepper, a medium sized onion, and a quarter if a small zucchini. I sauteed them all in canola oil with cracked black pepper. I also put some ziti on to boil.

Then when my ziti was done, I cooked up about half a regulation sized box of ziti, I mixed the pasta and the sauteed vegetables together in a 13 x 9 Pyrex pan.

Then I cooked up six pieces of bacon and tore them apart and sprinkled them over the pasta. I added about a half a cup of grated Parmesan Reggianno.

Next I mixed together 3 and 3/4 cups fat free milk with 1/3 cup of flour. I added in two big tablespoons of plain low fat yogurt and I heated that mixture up over medium heat. Then before it could boil I added half a bag of fresh organic spinach. When the spinach was sufficiently wilted and the milk/flour/yogurt sauce was thick I poured it over my pasta.
Then I cubed about three big slices of hot habanero bread that I got from Scratch Bakery here in Johnson City. I tossed it into a pan with some melted Brummel and Brown spread, Brummel and Brown Spread is a yogurt based butter substitute, and I coated the bread cubes all over. After the bread cubes were coated then I tossed them on top of the pasta and I baked the whole shebang for about 8 minutes at 425 degrees.

And this is what it looked like when it came out of the oven. Boo ya, spicy hot, savory, and it's got a green leafy vegetable in it too!

When it was time to eat the kids dug in. Notice how they avoid my casserole.

Still not touching it.

See any on her plate? Nope.

June stepped in to make the kids eat some. Thanks June!


What happened after the boys ate some of my casserole? Why the lil' guys immediately tossed back some soda pop and iced tea to get the taste out of their mouths!


The "habanero effect" had just kicked in by the time Donna and Bobby and their cutie pie daughter Susie got to the party. We were all whacked out of our gourds and it took us all a moment or two to focus properly. Thank goodness Donna brought some cupcakes, after we all ate one we came down from our habanero high, climbed out of the trees, put our clothes back on, and we sat down by a fire that John had built in their fire pit.

More cupcakes were enjoyed and someone even may have slipped us a canoli or three. All in all it was a successful party and to my knowledge no one went home sick from my dish. (Actually I have no idea if any of the kids, and seriously, how good looking are all those kids anyway?, ate my any of my dish but I do know that there was just a little bit left by the time Sparky and I left. And at no point did June force any children to eat my cooking, she did however force us later to eat more cupcakes.)


Oh, one more thing, all you fancy pants Chicago and New York City bloggers who were getting together this weekend, you got nothing on us. All the east TN bloggers who mattered were at Sandra's party, there was me, Sandra (who writes two blogs by the way), Joseph (who writes the Democracy Now! Tri-Cities blog), and Rev. John (who writes Shuck and Jive). Tally it up kids, that's four bloggers and five blogs! Suck on that Chicago and NYC! Oh and I got to meet more people who are willing to admit in public that they read my blog, shout out to Bobby, Donna, and cutie pie Susie!

I hope we helped you have a happy birthday Sandra and I hope you have many more!

Cold?

Come on over and sit next to the fire. Now, isn't that better? I thought so.

I'm sorry I was so mean to you in my last post

I'm so sorry in fact that I bought you a new dress and hat. You run upstairs and put it on and we'll go out for a drink.

Yes, you can order the neon screwdriver if you like. I'm driving so I'll just have a few shots of tequila, and maybe a few beers too. And some vodka tonics. Screw it, let's just take a cab.