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[Matt H.]

I'm curious about the revived "Password" game that's premiering tonight. Love Neil Patrick Harris and expect him to be an excellent player. Doubt I'll watch it "live," but plan to record it and watch later so I can speed through commercials.

[S. Woody White]

What WE had yesterday was a bodacious thunderstorm.  No damage here, but der B's son-in-law wants us to go over to the trailer campground and check on their summer abode.

(As compensation for checking on the trailer, we've been offered some shrimp that has been sitting in their fridge for a week already, probably longer.  Sure, I like shrimp, but....  )

[Matt H.]

Page Two Dorothy, Scarecrow, and Toto Dance!!!

[Matt H.]

And, of course, there is the season finale of THE TUDORS tonight. Really looking forward to that (poor Anne).

[Matt H.]

USA is premiering a new series tonight: IN PLAIN SIGHT which sounds intriguing enough to make me want to record it and see if it's something I might like. It might be this summer's BURN NOTICE.

[S. Woody White]

I'm curious about the revived "Password" game that's premiering tonight. Love Neil Patrick Harris and expect him to be an excellent player. Doubt I'll watch it "live," but plan to record it and watch later so I can speed through commercials.

Now, this certainly has frightening elements to it.

Ten cameras for a television game show?  "All the hottest stars", meaning Steven Webber and Monique Coleman?

And Regis Philbin as host?

I'll have to dash home after work to make sure I'm glued to the set!

 

[S. Woody White]

On the other hand, FoodTV has a new ep of Iron Chef America on at 9, followed by the season opener of Next Foot Network Star.

(Sorry, that's supposed to be Next Food Network Star.  Although Foot Network could be the next hot concept on television.    )

[JMK]

DR JMK, I liked "Tyger" just OK. It was moody and different. I rather tired of "City Paradise" and "Everything Will Be OK," though the latter had a great sound mix. Loved both Plymptons, and "Versus" was a real hoot combination of Pixar and Looney Tunes that I just loved.

But even the ones that didn't quite work for me were still very interesting to watch. Such creativity and such imaginations these animators have!

I just got an email taking me to task for not waxing on and on about "Everything Will Be OK," which this video savant claims was the whole reason the Animation Show was put together for a third year.

[Matt H.]

I just got an email taking me to task for not waxing on and on about "Everything Will Be OK," which this video savant claims was the whole reason the Animation Show was put together for a third year.

Oh, my! It just didn't do it for me. Overlong, didn't hold my interest. To each his own, I guess.

[Ginny]

...
Although Foot Network could be the next hot concept on television...

Considering what I have scheduled for a week from Wednesday, I think I'll pass.

[Matt H.]

Guess I'll head down now to sort some laundry and then start thinking about what's for lunch.

WBBL.

[S. Woody White]

There's an interesting bit on new cookbooks, over at the New York Times.

I've already been enthusiastic here about Ruhlman's Elements of Cooking.  Schwartz's JEWISH HOME COOKING: Yiddish Recipes Revisited sounds good - I  enjoyed his New York City Food not too long ago.  IZAKAYA: The Japanese Pub Cookbook also sounds interesting.

But I'll pass on THE OPRAH MAGAZINE COOKBOOK.  We're selling it at the store (part of the remodel involved an increased space for books, hard and softcover), and it just looks like something trading on her name.  

[S. Woody White]

Considering what I have scheduled for a week from Wednesday, I think I'll pass.

[Ginny]

Speaking of cookbooks, my library just received

Hello, Cupcake!

which just makes you say "Aww, how cute!" every time you turn the page.

[JoseSPiano]

Good Morning!

I'm up, I'm up... And I believe I actually have to do some work today, but, gosh darnit, I just don't feel like doing any of it right now.  We shall see.

[JoseSPiano]

Speaking of cookbooks, my library just received

Hello, Cupcake!

which just makes you say "Aww, how cute!" every time you turn the page.

That is a very cute(!) cookbook.  However, when I see creations like those, I just have to wonder how much more sugar (and fat) you end up adding to the basic cupcake with the additional frosting "glue" and decorative candies.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for more frosting, but I'm not really sure I'd like to "provide" that much frosting/energy to a party of eight-year olds.  

[S. Woody White]

Speaking of cookbooks, my library just received

Hello, Cupcake!

which just makes you say "Aww, how cute!" every time you turn the page.

Ouch!  Just thinking about all the sugar in all that frosting is making my teeth ache?

Although this does raise a question, Ginny:

Where do you get your books from for the library?  Do you use Amazon?  Do you shop around for the best prices?  Or do you have a special "We're librarians and we get special deals through this source" source?

I mean, I can't see any librarian wanting to squander his or her resources.

[JoseSPiano]

DR JoseSPiano - enjoyed your playing on "With Your Hands"!  

Aw, thanks, DR singdaw.  I am about to check myself out momentarily myself.  -Or something like that.

[JoseSPiano]

Ouch!  Just thinking about all the sugar in all that frosting is making my teeth ache?

Although this does raise a question, Ginny:

Where do you get your books from for the library?  Do you use Amazon?  Do you shop around for the best prices?  Or do you have a special "We're librarians and we get special deals through this source" source?

I mean, I can't see any librarian wanting to squander his or her resources.

This doesn't answer your  questions for DR Ginny, but...

I've seen the author of the cookbook on a few TV shows lately.  The publisher is really pushing this book.

-And libraries have to have the good with the not-so-good for balance.

[Ginny]

DR Woody - libraries use jobbers like Baker & Taylor and Ingram and others as our wholesalers.  Sometimes, our acquisitions department has to go directly to the publisher, but tries to minimize that because it's always more expensive.  We use Amazon more in the selection process, looking for "reviews" and such.  We put more stock in reviews in professional journals and the mainstream press, like the New York Times Book Review, but for opinion like you'd overhear in a bookstore, online is a great source.

DR George may want to add to this discussion - he works more in the acquisitions area than I.

[S. Woody White]

“Recipes are not assembly manuals,” Ruhlman writes. “Recipes are guides and suggestions for a process that is infinitely nuanced. Recipes are sheet music.”

Well, that's the way the New York Times quoted Ruhlman.

Going to the actual book, what Ruhlman wrote was:

Recipes are not assembly manuals.  You can't use them the way you use instructions to put together your grill or the rec room Ping-Pong table.  Recipes are guides and suggestions for a process that is infinitely nuanced.  Recipes are sheet music.  A Bach cello suite can be performed at a beginner's level or given extraordinary interpretation by Yo-Yo Ma -- same notes/ingredients, vastly different outcomes.

Clearly, the NYT has space considerations to consider.

(And the full Ruhlman quote should be thrown at the AOL writer who contends that cookbooks are unnecessary, since every recipe anyone could want can be found online.  Fie, I say, and fie again!  Books breathe in ways that computers cannot.  And cookbooks crave splatters from being used, but if you make a spill on your keyboard...)

[S. Woody White]

And now, I really do have to push der B out of the door so that we can lay claim to that shrimp.  

And then to work.

Hasta.

[Ginny]

About the cupcakes - the one that first caught my eye uses very little frosting, but a lot of marzipan vegetables.  It's a cupcake garden in which the cakes themselves are unfrosted chocolate lined up in rows.

Some of them, yes, do use a lot of frosting.

[TCB]

If it makes anyone feel better, the year realy isn't half over until the end of June!

[JoseSPiano]

If it makes anyone feel better, the year realy isn't half over until the end of June!

Aw, DR TCB.  That's what I've always admired about you: You're always half-empty.

[TCB]

Aw, DR TCB.  That's what I've always admired about you: You're always half-empty.

Thanks, I think.

[JoseSPiano]

Aw, thanks, DR singdaw.  I am about to check myself out momentarily myself.  -Or something like that.

And I did just watch the latest webisode of "The Battery's Down".  As Seth Rudetsky would say, "HIGH-larious!".

Here's the link to the show's website: The Battery's Down.  Just click on the "middle plug" (you'll see) to bring up the show clips.  I am part of Episode Five.  I don't "appear" until Part Two, but you really should watch Part One too.  

OH!  And you can download the songs too!  SWEET!

And here's the YouTube link to Part Two

*And I even get a screen credit!

[Charles Pogue]

JRand,  which BBC production of Richard III...who plays Richard.   Like you, I find SCREAMING MIMI a failure on so many levels.  In the book, the reporter is an alcoholic as I remember.  A least a binge drinker.  The whole romance between Anita and Phil Carey comes out of nowhere.  And, yes, the dances.  How can you take someone with the raw material Anita Ekberg has and make her dances dull and uninvolving.  Nor did I need Gypsy Rose Lee singing a snatch of Put The Blame On Mame...another recycled musical moment snatched from Columbia's vaults.

[TCB]

And I did just watch the latest webisode of "The Battery's Down".  As Seth Rudetsky would say, "HIGH-larious!".

Here's the link to the show's website: The Battery's Down.  Just click on the "middle plug" (you'll see) to bring up the show clips.  I am part of Episode Five.  I don't "appear" until Part Two, but you really should watch Part One too.  

OH!  And you can download the songs too!  SWEET!

And here's the YouTube link to Part Two

*And I even get a screen credit!

Very cool, Jose.

[JoseSPiano]

Very cool, Jose.

Thanks, DR TCB.

The whole series is pretty cool.  And it's also pretty cool that they're able to get some "People" - casting directors, directors, composers, lyricists, directors, etc. - to be a part of their series.  There's definitely a wealth of talent represented in those short web-musicals.