project omniherbivore: romano beans

Picked up some Romano beans at the farmer’s market today. I don’t think I’d ever eaten them before—they’re really big, long, wide, flat string-bean-type beans. Anyway, I steamed them for six minutes or so, tossed them with a little bit of butter and salt and pepper and left it at that, and they were wonderful—even Sterling devoured a bunch of them. They’ve got a little more bite than regular beans, in both texture and flavor (although they’re a little too tough to eat raw); I’d make ‘em again in a second.

I also bought Romanesco broccoli, and it occurred to me after dinner that I should really have cooked them both and served them with Romesco sauce. L’esprit de l’escalier.

pride of engineering

Another piece up at Salon: “A Thousand and One Knights,” about the relationship between the Batman of The Dark Knight and the Batman of the comic books.

I realized a little while ago why I like being at Burning Man as much as I do: because every single person there has gotten it together enough to actually make it to Burning Man.

the stone and bevel scans

It’s been one of those media weeks for me. I appeared on KUOW’s “Weekday” show this morning (hi, KUOW listeners), wrote a piece in Salon about Y: The Last Man, and have been spending innumerable hours prepping for the COMICS EXPLOSION that’s happening next week. (I should have another couple of relevant pieces to announce shortly, too.) And keeping an eye on the continuing adventures of Dame Jetsam and her various followers.

People seem to keep asking me, both in public and in private, if I’m excited about the Watchmen movie. I think I’m slightly more excited about the Black Freighter movie—but not as excited as I am about this “Black Freighter” movie:

Speaking of said explosion, here’s my schedule for Comic-Con International in San Diego, if anybody’s going to be around there:

July 24: 1-2: The Future of the Comics Pamphlet, Room 32AB (with Joe Keatinge, Carr D’Angelo, Eric Shanower, and other luminaries to be announced) 6-7: The Comics Blogosphere, Room 32AB (with David Brothers, Jeff Lester, Laura Hudson and Tim Robins)

July 25: 5-6—Teaching Comics—Room 4 (with Phil Jimenez, Matt Silady, James Sturm and Steve Lieber)

July 26: 11:30-12:30: Image Comics/Tori Amos—Room 6B (with Tori herself and a cast of thousands) 2:00-3:00: Lettering Roundtable—Room 8 (with Todd Klein, John Roshell, Tom Orzechowski and Jared K. Fletcher) 4:30-5:30: The Story of an Image—Room 4 (with Kim Deitch, Jim Woodring, Jim Ottaviani and Kyle Baker)

And, on Friday the 25th at 11:30, I’ll be giving a talk called “Against a Canon of Comics” as part of the Comic Arts Conference in Room 30AB, and probably signing Reading Comics somewhere after it.

genius of staples

I’m back from this year’s Oregon Country Fair, on the way back from which I invented a new drink: the Homeopathic Mojito. Take a large vat of water, two mint leaves and a slice of lime. Swish the mint and lime briefly through the water, then remove them. Serve the water. By homeopathic principles, mint interferes with homeopathy—but by the same set of rules, by diluting the offending substance to the point where there may not actually be any particles left of it in a small sample, you counteract its effect! Therefore, the homeopathic mojito is much more refreshing than an actual mojito, Q.E.D.

In other news: The Oregon Country Fair sure is crowded on Saturdays now, but there is no beating the food there. Tofu Tia at the Tofu Palace—can’t beat it! I must retro-engineer the recipe for their sauce! The people-watching is choice too, especially if you enjoy watching hippies as much as I do.

you can't spell "spell" without "leps"

The miso-glazed tofu wasn’t an experience I’m eager to repeat (the grill went out and Kate had to help us restart it; the tofu itself ended up kind of flavorless), but the Fourth was a lot of fun—Kip wrote about it very entertainingly.

John Holbo’s excellent site The Valve is doing an online symposium about Reading Comics—the first contribution is from Timothy Burke, and I really enjoyed it.

squeak, vocabulary

It is not just hot here, it is excessively hot—the kind of mugginess that saps all the sap out of anything sappable. I’m taking refuge in the basement and listening to old Sun City Girls and Utopia records.

On the cooking front: Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything Vegetarian is acquitting itself pretty well so far—Lisa requested “a cool salad” for dinner the other night, so I made his recipe for quinoa salad with tempeh (using red quinoa, and toasting it before I cooked it), and it turned out so well that the entire huge bowl disappeared very quickly.

As part of Lisa’s ongoing attempts to help me be more, you know, manly, she acquired a charcoal grill for our house a few weeks ago. Tonight was my first attempt to use it. Grills are difficult, it turns out! We got some decent veggie burgers and nicely caramelized bananas and oranges out of it, though. I will be attempting to grill miso-glazed tofu on the Fourth of July. Cross your fingers for me.

ukefest!

I just spent the last four days at Portland Ukefest 2008. I had an absolutely great time, and learned a lot about everything from strumming techniques to diminished chords to George Formby’s career, although now my fingertips all hurt and I never want to hear anything that goes “plink” ever again.

A few observations:

*I went into the week thinking of ukulele as something I played mostly to accompany my singing. I came out of it wanting to play much, much better. And to memorize more songs—I felt like a bit of a dope relying on sheet music as much as I do.

*I was one of the three or four youngest students there. Being one of the youngest people anywhere is pretty unusual for me these days. It was kind of fun, though. I also love being around enthusiastic people, and the older uke players, even the hobbyists, are hardcore about it.

*There is a cultural chasm between people who pronounce “ukulele” yoo-koo-lay-lee and people who pronounce it oo-koo-leh-leh, roughly corresponding to the divide between people who prefer “fun” and people who prefer “authenticity.”

*On Reed’s campus at the same time: a deaconess convention. Sadly, the two groups didn’t mingle much, aside from one lunchtime when the cafeteria was closed thanks to what we were informed was only a tiny little outbreak of Black Plague, nothing to be alarmed about. I don’t think an exchange of ’20s novelty songs for foot-washing would’ve worked out that well anyway.

*I missed, and regret missing, the first of the two faculty concerts, held the last two nights. The second was excellent: many, many excellent musicians and performers, often sitting in with each other. My favorite was probably Del Rey, who plays mostly blues-based stuff, and taught a few classes on playing by ear—here’s a clip of her playing uke. Her set included a calypso that I suspect was originally an answer record to Lord Kitchener’s “Bebop Calypso”—I really need to find out what it was! [Edited to add: it’s Young Tiger’s “Calypso Be.”]

*Although my personal highlight was getting to be one of Jim Beloff’s backup singer/dancers (!) for his ukulele version of the O’Jays’ “Love Train.” One of the other students in his “Have a Nice Uke” class (’70s songs: Seals & Crofts, Orleans, the Carpenters…) had studied choreography with Motown’s choreographer Cholly Atkins, and before we knew it we were the Pips.

*Two performers at the concert made jokes about the Sex Pistols, which I think means I’m going to have to come up with a convincing uke arrangement of one of their songs. I think I could work out a fun version of “No Feelings” loosely modeled on Bananarama’s.

*Which reminds me that, as I also found, I was one of maybe three or four people at Ukefest whose main area of musical interest is post-1970. At open-mic night, I sang the Magnetic Fields’ “The Nun’s Litany,” which got some kind comments but was in some ways a category error to perform in front of that crowd. (Also considered the Velvet Underground’s “Candy Says,” and was happy I hadn’t done that instead when another student did an excellent “I’ll Be Your Mirror.”)

*Reed College dining hall staff: I’m sorry, but somebody needs to teach you how to cook asparagus.

on not changing

I’m happy to note that the paperback edition of Reading Comics is out now! (And that if you’re thinking of buying it online, if you buy it through the Amazon ad in the sidebar I get a little cut of the proceeds.)

I was in NYC this weekend for the MoCCA festival, and saw that Fly Ashtray were playing at Cake Shop. I love them—I’ve put out a few of their records, and will be releasing an EP by them soon—and, as I headed into Cake Shop to see them play, I realized I’ve been seeing them play for 16 years now. (They’ve actually been around in one form or another for more like 25 years.) Anyway, they were terrific as always: a lot of new songs, a few really old ones.

And while I was at the show, I ran into my friend Liz, who I met back iin the early ’90s too and hadn’t seen in many years, and who looked about the happiest I’ve ever seen her. We talked for a few minutes; she said “Man! Who’d have thought that of all people you wouldn’t have changed a bit?” I’m not sure how to take that—I still don’t know if it’s a compliment or a dis. Or value-neutral.

Then, at MoCCA, I saw my friend Anne, who had discovered that her friend Liz—a different Liz—knows the amazing Liza Johnson. “Yeah, I first met Douglas almost 25 years ago,” Anne reported that Liza had said, “and I have to say: that guy totally hasn’t changed at all.”

Hmm.

a quick heads-up

I’ll be speaking on a panel tomorrow afternoon at 3 at NYU’s Cantor Film Center, as part of the MoCCA Festival’s Post-Bang: Comics Ten Minutes After the Big Bang conference. It’s called “Comics and the Literary Establishment,” and also features the excellent Jeet Heer, David Hajdu and Hillary Chute. I suspect it’s going to be mighty fun.

And the paperback edition of Reading Comics is out this week!

actually heard in the airport in Portland

“Attention, Heywood Jablom—Haywood Jablom—please meet your party in the baggage claim area—Haywood Jablom.”

I guess the announcer misread the name.

I am in L.A. for Book Expo America this weekend. I’ve been traveling—was just at the Sasquatch! festival last weekend, and wrote about it here. I also just wrote for Pitchfork about Al Green’s Lay It Down here.