Long time, no post... Last work week was pretty rough for assorted reasons, but ended on a definite high note with a trip down to Bank of America Pavilion on Friday night to see Andrew Bird in concert. This was actually a really cool open-air venue. I'll definitely have to check out more shows there in the future...
So, I'd seen Andrew Bird once before (in Melbourne), when it was just him and his 4 instruments on stage. This time he had his drummer/homie Martin Dosh, a bass player, and a guitar player with him, but he still played several instruments for us. Before I get carried away talking about his awesomeness, I should mention that the opening band was Calexico and they were really quite awesome as well. They started pretty mellow, but picked up energy as the crowd trickled in. They have a really cool vibe, and I would probably pay to see them on purpose, so it was a cool treat to get them as an opening act. They also came up on stage for the last 4 tracks of Andrew Bird's set, meaning there were about 10 different musicians up there rocking out together. Good stuff. Calexico pictured below... (All of my Andrew Bird pictures were blurry, but note our proximity to the stage...)
Andrew Bird was absolutely amazing. He's so freaking talented, it blows my mind when see him in action. (I also suspect that he is the reason I seem to find tall, scrawny guys with slightly odd-looking faces ridiculously attractive...) He kills me... Aside from his amazing voice, ridiculous whistling prowess, crazy violin skills, and guitar-playing ability, the guy is a fanatastic songwriter and is absolutely charming and hilarious when he talks to the crowd. I heart him. (And, since he chose to do a second encore, I choose to believe that he hearts me, at least in my member-of-a-crowd-of-obsessed-fans capacity, too...) Here's a music video of one of my favorite songs of his, for the uninitiated:
We've been having pretty nasty weather around here lately. It's been raining/misting on and off, but the temperature is too high for that to be pleasant. Instead the air is super-thick and muggy and driving me crazy. I don't remember June in Boston being this bad, but that may be because August is so horribly hot and humid that it makes June seem pleasant by comparison. For the record, I can handle heat (with a bit of whinging), but I really cannot handle humidity... at all... This is why there are now 4 air conditioners in my 5-room apartment. (I won't be installing one in the bathroom.) On Sunday I broke down and bought an air conditioner for my kitchen. I'd been putting this off because of the stupid casement windows that don't let you install window units, but the nice cool air from the rest of my place doesn't circulate into the kitchen at all, which makes cooking pretty unpleasant and makes the bunnies sad and lethargic (although I may be projecting there)... Because of the stupid casement windows, I had to buy a portable unit and rig a venting system using plexiglass, duct tape, and a couple hours of cutting said plexiglass with the $4 tool they sell for such things (below, left)... I'll probably come up with something prettier to replace the duct tape later, but for now it's functional and behind a curtain (below, right) most of the time anyway, so I'll call it good...
After spending most of the afternoon dealing with that, I decided to grill up a nice summer dinner even though it was dreary, muggy, and sprinkling outside. Corn was $6/dozen at Russo's, and was ridiculously delicious despite the fact that it's often not in season here for a couple more weeks. I made a ginger "BBQ" sauce for pork tenderloins, grilled off the pork and some scallions, and grilled off the corn for use in my "Grilled Creamed Corn" which is actually really healthy (made with milk, not cream) and combines the deliciousness of basil and shallots with the grilled corn to make a perfect summer side dish. I will post the recipe at my other blog one of these days, because it's deifnitely one of my favorites. Anyway, here's how things turned out:This week has been crazy-hectic at work (thus not managing to post anything until Thursday) in preparation for leaving for Portland tomorrow after work. It will be awesome to have a bit of vacation and to get to see Stanley and Alicia (visiting from Dubai), as well as Max, Midge, and all my other Portland homies who don't have clever screen names...
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