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[bk]

Well, you've read the notes, you've put the notes together, the notes have made a tune and you are now humming the notes ad nauseum.  So, now it is time for you to post until the together cows come home.

[Jrand73]

I am enjoying the rehearsal notes very much!    I wish I was there!

Greek or Indian Food?  Hmmmmmmm....chicken & beef gyros are about as far as I go & know in those categories.

Oh MR BK - the publicity wheel is turning, yes it is....an important weekly newspaper took your photograph today and will be running it in a future issue.  Yes, everyone be sure to look for a special issue of the GRIT newspaper with this photo!    

[Jrand73]

First post huzzah!

Oh Oh Oh - hey!

6539 Santa Monica Blvd....isn't that close to where the old ZIV Studios used to be....where they filmed HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER?

[Jed]

TCB asked...

Question for all the Northwest locals (George, Ann, Jed, and Tomovoz):  Is anyone going to see the concert performance of ASSASSINS in Tacoma Saturday night?

Gosh dang it!  If not for a wedding I'm going to up in Mount Vernon on Saturday, I'd be there in a second!

P.S. to my cyber-dad... Looks like I'll be in your neck of the woods later on this week/weekend (Thursday through ??... except for Saturday's wedding)... I'm thinking we need to break bread or something!

[S. Woody White]

I think Bob's Big Boy has changed hands, ownership-wise, sometime over the years.  Nostalgia is one thing, accuracy is another.

That, plus In-N-Out is a more accurate reflection of the current taste of Southern California.

I had a co-worker at my old office, a young twerp from Chicago, who demanded that we (the more long-term Californians) explain to him why In-N-Out was the definitive California burger.  Problem was, he was confrontational about everything else, as well.  He didn't last very long, at the office or in California.  He just never "got" it.

[S. Woody White]

I can't honestly say I understand Greek or Indian food.  Or Indian or Greek food.  Or Indian/Greek Fusion, if there is such a thing.

Ugh.

[Jed]

Not so much an Indian food person, but I do love my Greek food.  My favorite is probably spanikopita (spinach and feta cheese in phyllo crust).  Also a great fan of tiropatakia (phyllo cheese triangles), skordalia (garlic mashed potatoes), and souvlaki (lamb, which I can't seem to remember at the moment how it's cooked).  Just about anything goes well with tsitsiki (cucumber/yogurt/garlic/dill sauce).  And we can't forget some baklavah for dessert!

[Tomovoz]

Much prefer Indian food to anything East of Thailand. Can't provide names though. I even like to have one of the "take away" curries at times - lamb, beef or vegetarian. Love the spices evident in most Indian cooking. Have not have Greek food for quite a while but I do love the way Lamb is cooked - lots of garlic too! I quite like Egg plant which is often used in Greek dishes but Colin is not fond of it.
One of my favourite Greek meals (as Cooked by Colin) is Pieces of chicken cooked in olive oil and with lots of lemon, crushed garlic, black pepper and chicken stock - and brussel sprouts and pitato ares erved witht eh chicken. The chicken pieces are bite sized and coated in flour and lightly browned before being cooked in the oil etc.

[JoseSPiano]

Good Evening! Good Morning! Wherever you are!

RE: Today's Notes - As for bearing the "Brunt of BK"... Nothing to worry about.  After working a few years playing for opera rehearsals, a "BK brunt" is nothing compared to a "leading soprano brunt"... or even a "stage director brunt"... or, worse yet, "a conductor-who-doesn't-really-know-the-score-as-well-as-he-should brunt".  Besides, I know that BK is someone that demands perfection from day one, and there's nothing really wrong with that at all.  And after sitting back and taking a breath, we realized we had an amazingly productive first week of rehearsals.  In fact, technically speaking, tonight/last night was the end of our first week of rehearsals.  WHEW!  -Oh, sorry, that was another day's notes.

(Besides, we all know that BK is a pussy cat at heart.)

Greek food - YUMMY!  Almost anything wrapped or layered in phyllo dough is fine with me!  Tiropita (feta cheese), spanakopita (spinach and feta), kreatopita (lamb and feta), and there's one with zuchinni and feta wrapped in phyllo that I really like too.  Then there are the phyllo based sweets: baklava (I'm particulary fond of the pistachio and almond variations), strifto ("cigarettes" of phyllo, nuts, sugar and cinnamon), galaktoboureko (custard in phyllo), kataifi (the shredded phyllo dough used for a bunch of goodies), etc., etc., etc.  Then there's roast leg of lamb with lots of garlic and rosemary, calamaria (squid - either fried or broiled), avgolemeno (egg-lemon sauce or soup), taramasalata (the fish roe spread), hummus, souvlaki (marinated and grilled pork), gyros, moussaka, sekatanoia (broiled chicken livers), pastitsio (a lasagna type dish), and the very "simply grilled" meats, poultry and fish.  -Yes, I like Greek food a lot.

And I like Indian too.  I started exploring the Southern vegetarian cooking of India a few years ago since there happened to be a couple of very good restaurants popping up in DC.  Iddly (the lentil "donuts), pakora (spinach fritters), samosas, dosas (those big pancake looking things), curries, etc.  And I like the "meated" versions too.  And almost anything that comes out of a tandoor oven.  Especially the breads!  I'll admit that a lot of it can start to taste the same after a while, but I've found some wonderful places to eat where the spicing is anything but generic - truly a party in my mouth.    -And I'm also a sucker for those sugar and honey-drenched and fried(!) Indian sweets.  And that Indian ice cream, kulfi, always satisfies my sweet tooth.  As well as "gulab jaman" - the fried balls of dough soaked in a rose-water syrup.

Well, it's definitely time for me to head to bed now...

Laters...

[Dan-in-Toronto]

Elmore,

Hope you're feeling well. How's the back?

[elmore3003]

Elmore,

Hope you're feeling well. How's the back?

DRD-I-T, thank you for asking.  It hurts like hell, and standing up straight is an ordeal.  So far, I've had no problem moving around, so long as I move slowly and gingerly, but my usual speed has been drastically reduced since yesterday morning.  My damned allergies keep me sneezing and every sneeze is a painful twist.  I'm trying to maintain my mostly positive nature, but it's a bit difficult this morning.

Sorry I missed chat last night.  My meeting, which was to have ended at 9:30 went on till 10:00 and I wasn't home before 10:30.  When I got in, I learned the new tv is arriving this morning between 10:30 and 12:30 so I'm clearing as much space between the door and the old television.   I need to go to the post office and pick up a package as well, so I've got a morning crammed with incident.

I've never liked Greek food much, except for baklavah, but the Indian restaurants on the Lower East Side are excellent, and a great place to take friends from out of town.  I never remember names but I do love curries, so I'd recommend a mild curry for a beginner.  Some of the breads are amazing:  is it puri that is all puffy?  The yogurt-cucumber dish is quite tasty as well.  I feel like James Beard with a mental block.

[Dan-in-Toronto]

We had several visitors this weekend, and one - a friend originally from Trinidad - brought curried goat. (When she arrived she said: "I have the goat in the car." Some thought she was talking about a traveling companion.) The guests thought they would have a taste to be polite, but everyone wound up having seconds.

With both Indian and Greek foods, I'm partial to the appetizers and the vegetarian dishes. Indian: Onion bhaji (they're like onion rings, with heat); and sag paneer (spinach and a mild cheese, in a gingery sauce). Greek: taramasalata (creamy carp-roe spread/dip); and a thick tzatziki (cucumber-and-yogurt spread/dip). With both cuisines, some restaurants get carried away with the oil - and that's what seems to put people off.

[Ben]

Elmore, sorry to hear about your back, but at least w/the new television coming you can curl up (or get into some comfortable position) and watch crisp, clear television until you have to go to Barnes & Noble and be pleasant to people looking for books :-)

Love Indian food. As Elmore said, the 6th Street Little India places are fun, although the street is slowly changing as more and more restaurants close up. I love samosas and shag pannir (every restaurant I go to has things spelled a different way). Spinach w/chick peas and cheese. I love Indian breads but have to be careful because you can fill up on them (so light and fluffy) before your meal comes.

[Robin]

I dunno much about Greek food, but I do like it.  There's a restaurant here in Minneapolis called (and I'm not making this up!) "It's Greek to Me!".  They serve a menu option called "taverna style", which means random samplings of five, ten, fifteen or twenty items off of their menu. Obviously, the more folks at your table, the more samples you'll get.  It's dee-lish!!!

Indian food?  I've never cared for it.  My theory is that Indian restaruants have one gigantic vat, which they dole out to the customers, regardless of what they've ordered.  

Yesterday, I had a friend over for a few games of Scrabble, my all-time favorite board game.  We're both entered in a tournament on the 31st of the month, and both of us could use the practice.  

So, once he's in the door, he asks me if I've seen the new SuperScrabble game.  I'd never heard of it, but we were off to one of the local game stores, and I bought a set.  It's essentially the same game, but with an extended larger board, more squares and tiles (including another "Q", "X" and "Z"!), and "quadruple letter" and "quadruple word" premium spaces.  

These very high-scoring squares really change the dynamics of the game.  A quadruple word score can net someone some SERIOUSLY big points, so that both of us were playing very, VERY defensively as the game lead us out to the margins of the board.  

The game lasted over two hours.  I lost, 705 to 667.  But it was a very entertaining game.  Had I been constructing SuperScrabble, I'd've kept "triple" point premiums as the highest bonus, and spread them out over the board so it would've been harder, not easier, to earn the bonuses.  

But it's still an entertaining variation on the game.  I doubt it'll ever replace the original in my heart, but it's still a fun change-of-pace.  

And that's the end of my Scrabble rant.  

[bk]

I am shortly going to murder a squirrel on my roof.  This idiot squirrel has been noisily scratching my roof directly above where I sleep for the last four days at the crack of dawn.  This has become its "thing" and I'm done with getting up at five or six in the morning.  Tomorrow morning if the little wazoo starts up I have a ladder ready and I will climb up there and have a little conversation with the squirrel and if I don't like its attitude I shall hurl it from here to eternity and hell and back.

[elmore3003]

I am shortly going to murder a squirrel on my roof.  This idiot squirrel has been noisily scratching my roof directly above where I sleep for the last four days at the crack of dawn.  This has become its "thing" and I'm done with getting up at five or six in the morning.  Tomorrow morning if the little wazoo starts up I have a ladder ready and I will climb up there and have a little conversation with the squirrel and if I don't like its attitude I shall hurl it from here to eternity and hell and back.

A squirrel on the roof?  Sounds crazy, no?

[Jennifer]

DR Elmore hope your back feels better soon!

As for today's topic, I am not thrilled with Indian food, but I LOVE Greek food.

Greek food is very popular here, and there are many Greek restaurants to choose from.

I love souvlaki and tzatsiki.  And I started making it myself (the latter).  I just take sour cream, yogurt, dill, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, cucumber and feta and mix it all together. It is so good!

I also love pikilia platters (sp?).

[MBarnum]

My experience with Indian food is limited, but what I have had so far I enjoyed. Some of it was a bit on the spicy side. I look forward to trying more variations of Indian food, however.

I love Greek food...don't know all the names but the lamb is always tasty and anything they do with spinach seems to turn out fantastic! Spanikopita is delicious also, but my favorite is the stuffed grape leaves! MMMmmmMMMM!

[Jennifer]

Greek: taramasalata (creamy carp-roe spread/dip)

Is this the pink stuff?

If so, I love that!  But I never knew the name.

[MBarnum]

By the way Bob's Big Boy in Burbank is my favorite place to eat when I go to the Court's Memorabilia show! My buddy Ron and I usually eat there a couple of times while we are in town. It just reminds me so much of southern California in the 1950s!

I have never eaten at an In and Out Burger joint. I must try it next time I am down there.

[Matt H.]

DR Elmore, I hope you'll tell us a bit about your new TV set. When both Michael Shayne and I got new TVs, we did our duty and gave up some details on it. Hope you will feel free to do the same. Hope you feel better.

[Matt H.]

It's primary election day here, so at some point today I'm going to have to make myself halfway presentable and go vote. Upon returning, I have "The Six Napoleons" in the DVD player to watch, and then will proceed with ONE, TWO, THREE which I'm really looking forward to seeing again.

[Matt H.]

Can't lend much information of the topic of the day. With Indian food being spicy and my insides not being able to handle it, I can't say I've had more than one or two Indian dishes in my life, and I only had bits of them.

As for Greek, I have had gyros and baklavah, of course, and other dishes at our annual Greek Festival here in Charlotte, but I couldn't tell you what the names of the foods were to save my life.

[Emily]

I've always really disliked most Indian dishes.  There's a spice or two or three in there that makes me go "ewwww" (often I go "ewwww" just as other Indian-food-loving people are describing how *wonderful* a dish is).  

As for Greek - is there anything that tzaziki doesn't go with?  It is the universal sauce.  I enjoy spanokopita as an appetizer and souvlaki, gyros and calamars are delish - if very low-brow on the gourmet scale.  

arrghalaghahgargha

[Jrand73]

I forgot Baclavah!  Sure is sweet!

Yes DRELMORE we must have details on your new TeeVee!  

MBARNUM I am posting as the Allison Hayes Picture of the Week, the picture you are bidding for on EBAY.  I hope you get it....I hope you get it (A CHORUS LINE reference).

MR BK I had a pesky woodpecker that was doing a number on my eaves and driving me crazy.  I sprayed some RAID Hornet and Wasp Killer along the eaves....and after a couple of tentative pecks a couple of hours later, he was GONE GONE GONE!!!

TCM had a tribute to Thelma Todd last night.  What a great bunch of early 1930's comedies and musicals.  Funny stuff!

[Jrand73]

Your Allison Hayes Picture of the week:

If someone gets in your way - dispatch them!  

[Matt H.]

I meant to comment on this yesterday, and it kept slipping my mind.

BK mentioned spending all of Sunday on one number with the choreographer, and it reminded me of how many musicals I have done in which we spent the entire first rehearsal on one number:

For COMPANY, it was the opening number that we spent the entire three hours learning (and the music director worked backwards teaching it to us. Don't know why he chose to do this, but it seemed to work with that particular intricate number.)

For AND THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND, we spent the entire first rehearsal learning "Cabaret." I've you seen the show or listened to the cast album, you know it's sung in five part harmony in a Manhattan Tranfer-type of arrangement. Very involved, quite long, with very, very tricky harmonies.

For A CHORUS LINE, we didn't spend the first rehearsal learning the opening number combinations because those were the audition pieces. Instead, we started with "One." First the melodic line, then dividing us into groups for the "round" section. Then, learning the basic dance that gets repeated and repeated throughout that section of the show (and in the finale).

For WEST SIDE STORY, the "Dance at the Gym" Each gang was taken to a different rehearsal hall and taught separately their parts of the number. Then, we came together and did the whole thing. I was shaking with excitement putting that electric number together for the first time. Maybe you have to be a dancer to understand, but it is one of my fondest memories ever in learning a show.

I could go on and on with other memories: FOREVER PLAID, GUYS AND DOLLS, BIG RIVER. The point is, that first music/dance rehearsal is often burned into one's memory.

[Dan-in-Toronto]

Is this the pink stuff?

If so, I love that!  But I never knew the name.

Yes, it is. Local fish stores sell a homemade version, but I've found the Krinos brand (sold in jars in some Canadian supermarkets) is excellent - and quite reasonable. It's really good on matzah.

Speaking of which, I guess some have observed that the Jewish DRs have different levels of keeping kosher. Here's mine. Last Passover I was at a neighborhood fish store, buying shrimp. I looked at the taramasalata, and asked the fishmonger if she knew all the ingredients in it. "There's no chometz [non-Kosher-for-Passover ingredients]," she answered as she packed up the shrimp.

[Charles Pogue]

BK, I desperately want to get my tix for the show, but I have pathological version of leaving a credit card number on a phone answering machine...and pretty much the internet too.  As the theatre is quite close to me, I have no problem going down and purchasing tix at the box-office, if they keep such thing as box-office hours.

I love Indian food.  Curries, tikka chicken, tandori chicken, chicken masala, lamb dishes, naans, and all those wonderful breads.  Onion pakoras I adore.

[Charles Pogue]

Gosh, gee whiz, my computer may be  behaving normally again...all of its own accord.