my life, as far as i know.

last night ryan and i made one of my favorite comfort foods, ton katsu curry.

i learned the trick to making s & b golden curry is to put it in one cup of water per little cube of roux. you cook it a bit, then keep stirring over very low heat, otherwise it will form a skin. it turns out thick and yummy. the first time i ever tried using this curry, i used the entire package and not much liquid. i ended up with curry flavored mud. what a mistake that was.

we’ve also learned that deep frying breaded pork at home always turns out super juicy. you just can’t get it that good at a restaurant. so that plus good curry plus fresh rice == yum.

i’ve been organizing my sakamoto collection, pulling together misplaced discs, ordering replacements for the ones i’ve lost. i have ten of the albums moved to my ipod now.

this morning i listened to prayer/salvation, one of my favourites. it always takes me to a calm place. i closed my eyes as i listened. one of the songs has a lyric by david sylvian: the musical artist through which my old roommate ken discovered ryuichi sakamoto, where i learned of him.

i was on the shuttle this morning, the one with the rude driver who drives with only two states of movement– quickly accelerating and quickly decelerating. i was holding on tight trying to not get thrown off the shuttle bench. i defocused my eyes as the lyric is spoken softly, with an english accent, imagining..

when the little one came, a hole was blown open.
a partial surrendering in the midst of knowing,
and for an instance the constant heart shed its own tears,
wave upon wave carried me over,
beyond the peripheries of hope and fear,
deadening the voice of relentless biography.
i stood at the center and danced at the extremities,
mapping the city as subtle as silence
then on, outwards, into the darkness.

when the crazy one came,
she placed her finger on my forehead
and pushed on through.
i woke up, face on fire,
spitting out diamonds,
thoroughly lost to logic,
craving her madness.

– david sylvian, from “salvation” by ryuichi sakamoto

so this weekend i learned something new about one of my favourite muscians, ryuichi sakamoto. he used to be in a band named yelow magic orchestra. YMO was writing electronic music in the seventies and eighties and we heard some of it (that completely blew our socks off) at the 8-bit-weapon/freezepop concert we went to.

wikipedia has a history and discography of YMO if you’re interested.

i also went over my sakamoto albums. i own twelve of his albums now. i don’t own as many albums of any other single artist. i picked up two today from the kinukuniya store in japan town. they also had a few YMO albums.. it was a good find.

now my ipod is fully stocked with YMO and sakamoto. woohoo!

something else i found amusing today, one of the r.s. albums was produced in korea. here’s a scan of a small paper that came with it:

tonight boman and i held a small, intimate decadent dessert night for some of our close friends. boman made two very good and interesting chocolate desserts. i opened and poured a bottle of the porto, the one that got me into port. good food, good company. the best kind of evening.

i’ve gotta take a little time,
a little time to think things over.
i better read between the lines,
in case i need it when i’m older.

i’m so tired.

today i booked a round trip flight to indianapolis. flying is BLEAK. one of the legs’ comment was “80% on time”. no meal for a 5+ hour flight. one of the legs is marked as on airline but “operated by” another airline. one of the flights is like the last airline trip i took — they only carry so many meals and they run out about half way through the plane. if you’re lucky enough to even get the option, you have to pay cash for it on board. and i’m paying more than 90% above the cost of my last flight to indianapolis. air travel is GREAT.

on a lighter note, i’m looking forward to wednesday. i’m having some special friends over for a special night.