This Is Just to Say...

Sorry, my roommate left me a note this morning that reminded me of a note that Erin left me last year when she tool some juice. I just realized I get to live with people that reference high literature in their counter top notes, yay!

I baked cookies yesterday because I was bored and didn't feel like drawing, but it turned from a relaxing exercise into a battle of wills between me and inanimate confectionery creations...My roommates don't keep basic items on hand like whisks, cookie sheets, or mixing bowls. (I shudder to imagine what Mrs. Shlinker would think of our lack of pastry brushes, but I digress) the worst part was beating cold butter together with sugar, using a fork, which i don't think i really accomplished in the end anyway, but it all worked out. A few weeks ago I broke down and bought mixing bowls; this was a weak moment as i am trying not to stock up a kitchen with items I will only be using for the next 8 weeks.

That's right kids, I only have 8 weeks left and I have YET to finish a painting. Also, I just learned that school breaks here are 'working breaks' i.e. you are expected to accomplish things during them. Ummm, what if people want to go on holiday and cannot bring the bare essentials of painting?

ANYWAY, the cookies. I got the recipe off of 101cookbooks.com, which has always served me well in the past, except for the thin mints recipe, but one out of many many successes. And they were amazing! They edges are crispy and caramelized, the middles soft, and there are lots of chocolate chips; I had to bring them into my studio so I wouldn't eat them all. Try them, I ended up using almonds instead of pecans, using some wholemeal flour instead of white (I ran out), and adding an extra egg because the dough wouldn't stick together (don't you love it when people say they love a recipe and then list how they completely changed it?) but my studio-mates decided they were the best biscuits they had ever had. That one still throws me, biscuits are fluffy and buttery and go well with gravy and fried chicken--they do not have chocolate chips.

In other news, I went out last evening to celebrate my Scottish friend's 30th birthday. We went to a great restaurant, then a fancy bar (they had these drinks with muddled orange, gin, campari, passionfruit, and cranberry juice--Nun's Nasty. Very girly and very tasty!) then a dive bar where we watched Australian rules football, then an irish pub where we danced to old rock/blues songs most of which i knew the words to. I forgot how much fun dancing to rock music is! Then we went to a club called the Back Alley Disco (I now have a blacklight stamp that says BAD to prove it)

Clubbing in Australia is very interesting because a lot of guys seem to go there just to dance, which is nice. They all do this weird dance resembling something called the Melbourne shuffle: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZPaMdxC6CQI. This video is a bit more intense than what i saw, but I was not in Melbourne, and the video DOES have a strobe light effect about half way through so that you feel like you get the full club experience.

The two Scottish women came over to my place this afternoon for lunch and both of the poor things were very hungover and couldn't do the eggs benedict justice, but I loved it. (probably my top breakfast food, but only if the eggs are poached in tiny teacups) And Elaine and I decided to go see a movie tonight instead of go out again. We saw Grindhouse, which I missed when it was out in the states, but everything is incredibly delayed here so i got to see it on the bog screen. It was a reference to the old drive in movie double features, complete with bad previews and a fake intermission.

I actually enjoyed the experience a lot although I know many of you in my audience hate Quentin Tarantino stuff. The two films shown were "Planet Terror" by Robert Rodriguez and "Death Proof" by Quentin Tarantino. All I can say is, they went for the cheesy action flicks and they went full out. If you go into them with the same mentality that you would Snakes on a Plane or the upcoming film Wanted you will enjoy them a lot because they are so over the top. A girl has a machine gun for a leg. Seriously. Planet Terror was a horror flick, which should not have surprised me, in retrospect, but I hadn't thought about it and you all know my dislike for horror films on account of my dislike of being scared and my extremely jumpy nature. Death Proof was about a stunt driver serial killer (Kurt Russel) and it was awesome! It had such a good car chase scene and reminded me of the old North by Northwest and Psycho movies.

Anyways, they are very graphic, very cheesy, and thoroughly enjoyable. The scripts are ridiculous though, soooo apparent written dialogue. But anyway, as a result of those movies, which were, together about 3 1/2 hours long, I got so keyed up I have had to write a blog post to settle down before sleep and suppress the urge to drive cars really fast and fight off a zombie horde. The only time i have had more adrenaline this week was dancing at the club and when I thought I might have to change my plane ticket at a thousand dollar loss, whew that was close. (Don't worry Courtney, I am still flying out of here on the 10th as planned, for about two hours on friday the art department tried to give me a stress test)

I'm planning on taking photos of my works in progress tomorrow so you guys can tell me what you think! That post should be up in the next day or two. Then I get a much needed possibly edgy haircut that I can only hope is not a mullet on Tuesday. Then I am off for Melbourne on Wednesday for my fall holiday, yay!

P.S. Some of you might have noticed some typos in my blog over the course of its existence--they are there to keep you on your toes.