From the CNN.com list of items cut from the Senate version of the stimulus bill:
This, my friends, is what we call "Saturday Story Hour."
This week, Fosco has a real treat for you: a story from one of the NYTimes's ten best books of 2008. The story collection is Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser and it's absolutely amazing. Fosco devoured this book last week and, in his estimation, it is second only to Bolaño's 2666 as the best book of last year.
You may be familiar with Millhauser, who has written several thrilling collections previously. You've probably heard of his story "Eisenheim the Illusionist," which served as the inspiration for the film The Illusionist. You may recall his 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer. And if you've never read Dressler's story "The Knife Thrower," you should find a way to read it ASAP.
The Times recommendation for Dangerous Laughter describes Millhauser as a
a master fabulist in the tradition of Poe and Nabokov [who] invents spookily plausible parallel universes in which the deepest human emotions and yearnings are transformed into their monstrous opposites.Spooky is a good adjective here: I tend to read Millhauser short stories with a strange breathlessness.
It's hard to choose a story from Dangerous Laughter to recommend, because they're all so good. I love "The Disappearance of Elaine Coleman" and "The Tower" and "The Room in the Attic." The title story is also pretty amazing. But we are limited here, to an extent, by which stories are available in full text somewhere online. And so I'm linking you today to the story published in The New Yorker as "History of a Disturbance." It's a remarkable story about a businessman who begins to suspect the inadequacy of language in the face of actual experience. As the narrator notes, in an excellent line:I began to wonder whether anything I had ever said was what I had wanted to say. I began to wonder whether anything I had ever written was what I had wanted to write, or whether what I had wanted to write was underneath, trying to push its way through.Fosco often finds himself talking with his undergrads about the problems with language as a "medium." He is pleased to have this story to illustrate the point quite clearly.
"Foodie Friday" continues...
Welcome to the upside of the recession: good tables at good restaurants at good times at good prices.
According to this piece by Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, NYC's fine restaurants are begging for your business (and yes, that is acclaimed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten wearing a sandwich board printed with "You Won't Believe Our Deals!" How humbling...).
As Bruni notes,
Battered hard already by the recession and petrified of what’s to come, restaurants are talking sweet and reaching out in ways they didn’t six or even three months ago. They’re cutting special deals, adding little perks, relaxing demands and making an extra effort to be accessible.This embrace takes many forms: lower prix fixe prices, a more solicitous staff, cheap wine, prime reservation times. It's like Christmas for foodies (assuming you still have a job that will let you dine out). Well, and except for the part where lots of great restaurants are closing...
They’ve seldom wanted you so bad, so they’ve rarely treated you so good. If you can still afford to dine out, you’re likely finding yourself enfolded in what the restaurateur Stephen Hanson— who recently closed two Manhattan restaurants, including Fiamma — describes as a big, tight embrace.
Welcome to "Foodie Friday" here at Fosco Lives!
Let's kick some things off today with a bit of gastroporn--both professional and amateur. Fosco remains fascinated by the work that Grant Achatz does at his Chicago temple of molecular gastronomy, Alinea. Achatz was born in both the same year and the same state as Fosco, so he feels a natural connection with the star chef. At some point, you should read about Achatz's battle with tongue cancer--it's an amazing story.
Here are some professional pictures of Achatz's creations. One of his guiding principles is to create entirely new ways of tasting familiar flavors. This is "rhubarb."
And this is a "tomato" caterpillar:
And now here are three "amateur" photos of dishes that Fosco had on his visit to Alinea in December 2007. I don't know who took this (found it on image search; my own pic didn't really turn out), but the dish is called "Lamb in Cubism." There are two preparations of lamb plated onto colorful panes of sauce--each pane is a different sauce, focusing primarily on Mediterranean flavors (yogurt, mint, pomegranate, saffron, &c.). The idea is to mix and match. 
The next two photos were taken by Fosco. This is a dish called "venison." Achatz is also very interested in the ways in which scents can impact flavor--so yes, that is an inedible juniper branch. Nestled inside the juniper is a super-heated river rock. On top of the river rock, a small venison roll is being seared. The roll contains marinated Japanese plum and is topped with candy cane shards. You eat it in one bite with chopsticks. (And in case you think this looks like too small a portion, recall that the Alinea tasting menu has something like twelve courses. Fosco was very full.)
This dish was one of the desserts. It's a tempura-battered fried pumpkin pie popsicle (frozen with liquid nitrogen) on a cinnamon stick that is set aflame (look at the tip). 
And you see that Achatz custom-designed wire holder? They've been popping up at other restaurants recently (including Jean-Georges, where Fosco saw them last December). That's called influence.
UC Santa Cruz researchers have named a local elephant seal after Stephen Colbert. You can read all about "Stelephant Colbert" in this UCSC press release--humorously titled "I am elephant seals (and so can you!)" Well, the shameless bid for publicity paid off because last night on "The Colbert Report," Stephen led off the show by acknowledging UCSC (sort of) and his eponymous elephant seal:
Succumbing to the pestering of several people in his life, Fosco finally read YA lit juggernaut Twilight this week. In case you've been living in Wasilla, Alaska for the past year, Twilight was a genuine pop culture phenomenon in 2008--and not just for teens and tweens. Apparently, there is a large group of Americans who want(ed) to date a vampire in high school. Or, as frequent Fosco Lives! commenter The BeeMistress put it: "everyone needs a boyfriend that sparkles." True enough: Fosco regularly sprinkles Oz with glitter while he sleeps.
So what can Fosco say about Twilight? Well, the short answer is that it's not as bad as he thought it would be (although it's not "good" by any means). It's even appealing enough for Fosco to read the next book in the series (he'll keep you updated with that project). And there are some interesting innovations that Mormon authoress Stephenie Meyer makes in the standard vampire lore, like the aforementioned sparkliness of vampires (but only in direct sunlight).
And yet, at the same time, most of the book is a big ol' mess--from the standpoints of originality, consistency, narrative, and politics. Here are some of Fosco's observations:
I recognized Tyler Crowley from my Government class beneath the bloodstained bandages wrapped tightly around his head.Hmmm. It makes you wonder if anyone edited this book at all.
[...]
As we spoke, nurses began unwinding his soiled bandages, exposing a myriad of shallow slices all over his forehead and left cheek.
I concentrated on the news, watching out for stories about Florida, or about [baseball] spring training--strikes or hurricanes or terrorist attacks--anything that might send them home early. (421)Why would anyone think to include "terrorist attacks" on a list of things that might cancel baseball spring training? It just seems like a ludicrous thought. If I'd been editing this novel (and somebody should have been), I would have crossed that out immediately.
"Or, if you don't believe that all this world could have just happened on its own, which is hard for me to accept myself, is it so hard to believe that the same force that created the delicate angelfish with the shark, the baby seal and the killer whale, could create both our kinds together?" (308)I'm not sure what Edward has been doing with his time since he became a vampire in 1918, but apparently college hasn't been part of it.
While he walked me to English, when he met me after Spanish, all through the lunch hour, he questioned me relentlessly about every insignificant detail of my existence. Movies I'd liked and hated, the few places I'd been and the many places I wanted to go, and books--endlessly books.(I'll note here in passing that, despite their shared interest in "books--endlessly books," never do we see Edward reading one and we certainly never see him and Bella discussing one. Books just aren't sexy enough to make it into this narrative.) So what tween girl fantasy is being served here? Clearly, it's the fantasy of a (gorgeous) boy who wants to know everything about them--and who finds it all totally fascinating. Our culture has spent the better part of the last few decades convincing our children that each and every one of them is a precious unique snowflake; naturally, the next logical step is for these snowflake children to want to talk (endlessly) about what makes them so precious and unique.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd talked so much. More often than not, I felt self-conscious, certain I must be boring him. But the absolute absorption of his face, and his never-ending stream of questions, compelled me to continue. (229)
The list of victims in Bernard Madoff's evil Fonzie scheme was released late yesterday. The client list is 162 pages long(!) and (oddly) organized by first name. However, Fosco knows that you, the Fosco Lives! reader, count on him to break news for you. And so, Fosco spent almost a half hour last evening skimming various random pages of this list, looking for famous or notable names.
Here are a couple of semi-notable names that Fosco found (and yes, he has already contacted the proper media outlets):
As bookstores not named Barnes & Noble or Borders go out of business across our post-literate nation, gay bookstores are not immune. As reported in the Times (by homosexual Harvard alum Sewell Chan), the first gay bookstore in this country, the Oscar Wilde Bookshop in Greenwich Village, will close.
I guess it's no surprise that gay literature isn't popular enough to keep a store afloat, even in Manhattan (I mean, have you talked to a gay man lately? Most of them can't read a greeting card, much less an Edmund White novel). But apparently, gay men don't even buy porn on paper anymore (thanks for nothing, internet!). Even so, I thought lesbians read books; but maybe they prefer to buy from the aptly-named Amazon.
Fosco has mentioned before that Oz has caught something of a collection bug right now. And it's only getting worse, as Hasbro expands its Mighty Muggs line to include Transformers and GI Joe (yes, we're pretty much getting them all). No word yet on Battle of the Planets, but it's surely only a matter of time.
But Oz isn't the only one in this relationship who enjoys a nice plastic toy. Fosco has been smitten as of late by the creations of Miami art collaborative Friends With You. They've imported something of the Japanese toy aesthetic to the US, while playing up the sheer absurdity of it all by creating an accompanying bizarre metaphysics and cosmogony (think Hello Kitty crossed with Hinduism). Whatever it is, it's a hit at the international art fairs.
Fosco own a few of their plush creations (which are strangely cuddly; plus they have the added benefit of being completely inexplicable). But even better (and easier on the wallet) are their smaller plastic figures called "Wish Come True." Here's part of the lineup:
Each "Wish" figure is approx. 2-3" high and has a nice heft to it (we are not talking Happy Meal toys here--these are satisfying to touch and to hold). Each one has a bell embedded inside to make a variety of pleasing tinkling sounds. Each one also comes with a sticker!
Remember the part about weird metaphysics and cosmogony? Here are some samples:
POPA: Popa is little and he holds the key to your wishing potential and human ancestry.This may seem annoying, but then again: what if it's charming?
MR. TTT: Mr. TTT is a shape shifting mystery! From wormholes to black holes he keeps making history. This cute little Mister is always a hit, whether shaped like a burger or a galactic peppermint.
COCO: Zozo is the universe and Coco is too. With all that power, what will you do?
Fosco mentioned early last week that he was proud and excited to log his first Fosco Lives! visitors from China. Well, he's had one more Chinese hit since then (so much for his strategy to get blocked by Chinese censors). But, this excitement pales in comparison to Fosco's absolute thrill to see a visit last week from Governor MooseMunch's illustrious hometown, Wasilla, Alaska! It's true! Here's the relevant portion of Fosco's site traffic report:
To tell the truth, Fosco is a bit obsessed with Wasilla. After all, it's the location of so many important sites in recent political history, such as
Oz's flatmate has an eleven-year-old daughter who comes by on weekends. This past weekend, she was working on a project (for junior high) that required her to create her own chess set (Fosco's junior high never assigned creative projects like that; and I'm not sure any of the teachers knew what "chess" is.). She came up with the idea to make an all Super Mario chess set. She and her dad spent much of last week sculpting the characters out of clay. Oz pitched in and sculpted one of the Yoshi figurines. Fosco's contribution was to doubt from afar that the whole thing would work (he's an eternal pessimist).
It turns out Fosco was wrong, because it came out totally cool. Here are the "good guys": 
The "bad guys" are a little trickier: who would you pair up as the King and Queen? Oddly enough, L chose to make a cross-species evil romance between Bowser and Donkey Kong. And no, I'm not sure who's the top and who's the bottom. But it's still cool.
The Bishops there are Mario and Luigi's evil doppelgangers, Wario and Waluigi (for those of you who stopped following all of this sometime around Super Mario World). Here's the detail:
Remember: this is done entirely with clay and poster paints (no molds or models)! Impressive, no?
As Fosco noted in an earlier post, the city of Austin was overrun by zombies last weekend. The news was even reported (oddly enough) in the China Daily, which led with this bizarre sentence:
Computer-controlled road signs in the US warned that zombies were ahead after being hacked by pranksters, it has been revealed.The "it has been revealed" is a very puzzling yet appealing clause, yes? I bet that pretty much sums up news in China: news doesn't happen, it gets revealed.
the book includes the original text of the Regency classic, juiced up with “all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem.”The Times article notes that the famous first line of Austen's classic has been re-written quite well:
We at the Book Review strive to drive a stake through the heart of all reincarnations of Austen’s most famous opening line, but the version in “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is actually pretty good: “It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”Which means that, if you're a literature person, you're already thinking of other famous lines from novels that could be zombified...
Music Monday concludes...
Fosco hopes you watched the rollicking Super Bowl halftime concert featuring the (apparently) ageless Bruce Springsteen (that man has more energy at age 60 than Fosco had at 16). It's a fun set, with smart art direction (the low "video wall" in the background is pure genius--Bruce should use that at all of his live shows). The highlight, however, is when Bruce does one of his trademark knee slides and plants his, er, crotch firmly into the lens of the camera. It happens in this video at 3:19:
Perhaps we have a candidate for a new definition in the Urban Dictionary: "Springsteen Super Bowl Slide: teabagging with a running start." Yes?
Music Monday continues...
Composer John Mackey is making this "Music Monday" afternoon very easy on Fosco. With perfect timing, he just posted on his blog a streaming recording of his excellent "Redline Tango." It's a hell of a showpiece and this recording (by the BBC Orchestra) is exceptional (they make it almost lurid). You can read John's introduction and listen to the streaming audio here. I recommend you do so.
Well, it's been almost a day since the Arizona Cardinals won Super Bowl XLIII. Well, at least they should have won: Warner's final "fumble" was not even close to a fumble. But hey, the fix was in. Anyway, for what it's worth, Fosco refuses to recognize the Steelers' victory.
However, at least we've finally settled which quarterback God loves more (don't cry, Kurt and Brenda--you've still got each other. And seven kids.).
Fosco and Oz watched the game with Oz's close friends and their children (Oz's godchildren, incidentally). Fosco's favorite line of the day was from Amanda, age 9:
AMANDA: "I'm in a play at school."
FOSCO: "What play?"
AMANDA: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
FOSCO: [thinking to himself: Are you an Oompa-Loompa?] "What do you play?"
AMANDA: "I'm an Oompa-Loompa!"
FOSCO: "Yes. Yes you are."
We got to see her dance and everything. Some elementary school music teacher has a very good sense of humor.
Bienvenue à "Music Monday" here at Fosco Lives!
On Friday night, Fosco and Oz saw the Amy Ray show at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz. Amy is the butch-er half of the Indigo Girls, probably the most important band for Fosco in college. During those college years (think early to mid-nineties), the Indigo Girls were especially popular (particularly within Fosco's specific peer group at Harvard). And this popularity led inevitably to the one essential question that Fosco debated numerous times: who is your favorite Indigo Girl (and what does that say about you)?
At the time, Fosco was a solid Emily Saliers partisan. Fosco preferred her prettier songs, her smoother voice, her gentleness. Amy, in contrast, wrote raucous tracks (like "Chickenman"), had a rougher voice, and just seemed too... prickly (of course, in person and in concert, they were both equally gracious). If you think this commitment was trivial at the time, then you've forgotten what college was like. During freshman year, Fosco was actually told by the (female) object of his affection that their relationship couldn't last because she loved Amy and Fosco loved Emily. Of course, the object of Fosco's affection was right about the relationship, although it wasn't Indigo incompatibility that doomed it (rather, it had something to do with Fosco's interest in sex with men). Regardless, Fosco's preference for Emily was an important part of his musical identity for many years after.
But it turns out that one's favorite Indigo Girl is not as stable as one's sexual orientation, because at some point in his late twenties, Fosco came to appreciate and to prefer Amy Ray. Most of this has been due to her three solo albums:
Stag (2001): At first, Fosco didn't quite know what to make of this CD. It was a lot more raw and a lot darker than her Indigo Girls work; it was also much more like rock than folk. And he was turned off by songs like "Johnny Rottentail" and song titles like "Hey Castrator." But when he returned to it several years later, he was surprised to discover some totally excellent songs like "Measure Of Me" and, believe it or not, "Hey Castrator" (a really good song if you can overlook the title). From "Measure Of Me":
The boy he thinks I'm damaged goods.Amy has something of an obsession with high school; however, this is the kind of truth about high school that very few singers tell. This is queer high school, baby!
I know he does and I guess he should.
I dress like him, I take him down.
He gets embarrassed when his friends come around.
I want to take him to the show,
I'm crossing over what you know.
Is it the boy you need in me,
or the girl that you could be?
Prom (2005): Fosco listened to this CD at the behest of Todd, and it immediately became one of Fosco's favorite CDs of that year. It's Amy's most extended meditation on high school. Fosco still listens to several tracks regularly (like the perfect teenage anthem "Put It Out For Good" and the surprisingly moving "Rural Faggot"). "Put It Out For Good" has an infectious rhythm, as well as this impossibly catchy stanza:The stadium lights were breaking through the bleachersThe compression of meaning in those lines is really amazing.
I spent all day pushing tissue roses into chicken wire
Hey S.G.A., I’m an overachiever of the wrong persuasion
A pep rally kid, a new gender nation with a new desire
Amy looked good. She was snazzy in black jeans with a black shirt and gray tie (with a shiny tie clip). She's touring with a rocking band, especially guitarist Kaia Wilson (who is also a member of the lesbian punk band The Butchies). Oz was particularly impressed with Kaia's guitar-work (he may have a little guitar-crush on her, actually). The drummer is also from The Butchies and she has a particularly theatrical style (Fosco notes this because he is now, thanks to Rock Band, and expert)--probably because she sits too low behind the kit. I know you want to know the truth
And I’m the dyke who will give it to you.
By this time next year
you’ll know you’re queer
It’ll all be okay
It’ll all be clear
And you’ll run away from home
But not to be alone
And you’ll go down to the city
Where the boys are pretty
Ever since his visit to Bouchon Bakery, Fosco has been obsessed with brioche. Rich, slightly sweet, with a whiff of lemony goodness... Ah, brioche! What you are looking at below is the loaf of brioche that Fosco baked himself(!) on Friday:
This morning, Fosco and Oz had brioche French toast. And all Fosco can say is... "Good. God." How did I live this long without learning to make brioche French toast? And how much longer could I possibly live if I were to make it every morning from now on? (The answer to the second question is probably somewhere around 5-8 years. Tops.).
You know what else is special about today? It's the Super Bowl (Go Roughriders!) We'll be watching the game, of course, but Fosco recognizes that not all Fosco Lives! readers will be doing so as well. And so, to help you kill some time while the rest of America is ogling Brenda Warner, here are some suggestions:
Hint: check Mount Holyoke.
Don't forget your shotgun. And remember: aim for the head.
This post marks the five hundredth here at Fosco Lives! It feels like just two months ago, Fosco was celebrating his 300th post. Oh wait. Wow, Fosco's been on a hell of a blogging jag recently.
Just as Fosco did for his three hundredth post, he would like to call attention to some notable five hundreds:
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