Ode to Bacon

This afternoon, I treated myself to some pancakes and bacon. I hadn't had any bacon in awhile and I realized how much I really love the stuff. The rest of the pig's good, but there's something about bacon that is so densely flavorful with a perfect balance of fattiness and saltiness. I found an article from The Dallas Morning News about the obsession w/ bacon. It includes some recipes, including one for the bacon chocolate chip cookie pictured. Gary gave me the link to this Taco Bell commercial that is currently being aired, which reflects society's current obsession with bacon. I found this blog called The Bacon Show, which provides a different bacon recipe everyday.

A couple of guys from Seattle have developed a seasoning known as Bacon Salt, it apparently is a meatless, kosher (that's right kosher) seasoning that makes anything you sprinkle on it taste like bacon. Here's a video of what people are saying about Bacon Salt:





Below is a clip from Jim Gaffigan on Conan O' Brien professing his love for bacon:



Ever wonder how bacon is made?



Here's a creative take on bacon!

Excellence in Foley Artistry

In response to Gary's post about Washington native Michael Winslow, here's a couple of vids from him that caught my eye:

This one is a clip from Star Wars where he does all the sound effects, great Chewie and Han impressions. The good stuff doesn't really happen to 2:10 into the video:



I'm posting this video just based on its length, I guess it was posted before youtube put up limits:

Oh Boy! Have Fun!

I'm currently out in Southwestern Washington for work. I started off my week in Albany, OR where Oberto Sausage Company has a plant. The whole area smells like goodness. I checked out their factory outlet store and there were forms of jerky I have never seen before! They waste nothing! There were large bags of shredded jerky that, from a distance, could be mistaken for sod. I got 3 lb's of kippered beef steak for 6 bucks!

Daily Morning Sustenance

So there's been talk of my special breakfast bagel that I make. Some of you have tried it, others have watched. I'll show you what it is that I slap together in the morning to get me off for a morning full of hearing tests. I first take a sliced bagel and toast it to my liking. While the bagel's toasting, I'm microwaving my sausage patty. I've been using the 4 lb Tyson Original Flavored (don't know what other flavors sausage comes in) Sausage Patties that I've been getting from Costco, so yet another Costco Gem. After the bagel's done, I smear cream cheese on both the crown and heel halves. Finally, the sausage patty goes in the middle and I'm done. With having cream cheese on both halves, it can overpower the sausage a little bit but it is more filling. Putting the cream cheese on only one half does not make the sausage any less slippery either. As shown in one of Gary's blog entries, I've modified my sandwich to a v1.5. The added Spam is more of a brunch sandwich and adds a saltier flavor to it. The Spam adds friction to the sausage, but again is still slippery.

Free Movie

Now that I have your attention, it was yesterday and if you weren't at the Regal 16 in downtown Seattle you missed it. Like I had mentioned in a previous post, Fox Searchlight was having free showings of the documentary Young@Heart. Gary and I went to the free showing yesterday and I was surprised that it was so easy to get in: I showed the guy an e-mail confirmation and they let us in. The theater wasn't even packed for this film. I must say it was quite an enjoyable and endearing film. The documentary follows the Young@Heart chorus line that has been entertaining and touring for 25 years. We get to see the regular practices w/ the disciplinarian of a director Bob Cilman, stories of chorus members, and a little bit of singing. It's very encouraging to see those who are 70+ years old who are so lively and are dedicated to memorizing songs weekly despite their health. I can be a bit of a softy and this film definitely 'tugged at the heartstrings.' This film is a limited release, so if you can find it, see it.....or at least add it to your Netflix queue.

Below is a music video of the chorus' rendition of Road to Nowhere by the Talking Heads mixed in w/ a little bit of Shout by the Isley Brothers. The Talking Heads music video it's a pretty imaginative albeit depressing video.

On a lighter note, the director of the film uses BBC-esque monologue voice overs throughout the film. It definitely reminded a little bit of "Living w/ Michael Jackson"

Greetings from Moses Lake

To the whole 3 people that read this blog, you probably know that I've been in central Washington this week for work. I've never posted anything pertaining to my work before, so I guess I should preface it with a statement:

The views expressed in this blog are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Washington Audiology Services, Inc.

That should get any trouble out the way I hope! Anyways, I'm an occupational hearing conservationist for those of you who don't know. I've been testing Genie Industries out here in Moses Lake the past 4 days. Genie makes all sorts of lifts and booms. The plant is an old hanger off of Grant County Int'l Airport. It's been a busy week (564 tested!) and today I get a day off until tomorrow's testing in Yakima. The only surprise this week was my trip out here. On my way through the Snoqualmie Pass, I got hit with snow/rain. Why is it snowing in April?!

Dreaming of Electric Sheep in Hi Def

After a fun afternoon of softball with UW's Team 'A-U-D S-L-P' and too lazy to prepare for my long trip in central Washington, I'll mention a little film called Blade Runner. Although it's not my favorite film in the world it is definitively one of the best, if not the best, sci-fi films around. I'm sure many would contend 2001 over this film, I'll take BR over it because it's more coherent. For those of you who are asking about Star Wars(since you know I'm a huge Star Wars geek) - sorry, but that's about as sci-fi as The Lord of the Rings. Last year was the 25th anniversary of BR's theatrical release. The only version of the film that has been widely available was the director's cut and the only way to see the theatrical version was on Criterion laserdisc - which I never did get off of eBay. The 25th anniversary edition includes both of these versions and a brand new final cut, which director Ridley Scott had remastered and tweaked the director's cut. Since it looks like the Final Cut may never see my mailbox via Netflix ('Very Long Wait' for the last 4 months), I decided to see the theatrical version. The film looks absolutely amazing in HD. The dark dystopia scenery against the bright neon lights looks better than ever. The theatrical version has a couple of things that the director's cut does not: voice over monologue of Ford's Deckard character, and a happy ending. Ford's voice overs are awfully done (I think intentionally), and it reminded me of a sentimental Steve Martin film. The voice overs do make the film more accessible, as it 'holds the viewer's hand' through much of the plot. I think what I like about BR so much is it's perfect blend of film noir and sci-fi and I think had Ford done the monologue in sync with the feel of the film it would have worked perfectly. Also, the happy ending seems a bit tacked on at the end. It reminds me of the feud that director Terry Gilliam had with another one of my favorite films, Brazil, in sticking with a darker ending. I'm not going to go over the whole debate over whether Deckard is a replicant or not, although in my personal opinion I think the story has more depth if he is a human, but the theatrical version definitely has a stronger case for Deckard being human. If you've never seen this movie, check it out. It's not a fast pace action thriller, it actually has a simple plot but it's filled with a lot of heady philosophical questions.