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wTuesday, October 14, 2003 It's still hard to believe that I met the Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver, himself! I got so excited in the car ride home that my friend almost drove off the road. He was friendly and sweet as usual but unfortunately he didn't get to interact with the crowd much. The people at Bookends announced that there would be no personalization during the book-signing and there was someone there to pull you away if you spent more than 15 seconds with him. Of course I had to be the exception to the rule so when it was my turn to get my books signed, I turned on the motor-mouth and explained to him that my sister was a nutritionist and scared of fat so would he please write in the book that fats are okay. He seemed amused by my frantic behaviour and made me repeat everything again. The woman in charge of keeping the line moving almost got her hands on me, but not before Jamie wrote "Fats OK!" in one of my books and took a picture with me! I was soooo happy! :) Then the next day he was at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square so I got off work just in time to attend his Q&A session. I was undecided about lining up for the book signing since I really wanted to talk to him again but didn't know if by doing so, I would be an official stalker. Since the line was surprisingly reasonable, I took my chances and got Happy Days for him to sign. He wanted to stop taking pictures about 1/2 and hour into it, but that didn't stop certain persistent people from shoving a camera in his face. He was a good sport about it but I decided that I wouldn't push my luck. When it was my turn to get my book signed, he saw my England jersey and said, "Hey, football fan. Arsenal is it?" I had to break it to him that it was the national team's shirt and mentioned that I had seen him the night before. An assistant standing next to him said that she recognized me. Then I said, "I was going to ask you something last night but the people there wouldn't let me. I was just going to ask that, for your next book, could you please include more recipes that didn't have cheese in them?" Again he found me amusing and humored me saying, "What? you don't like cheese?" "Well, I never learned to love it the way you do." "You know what you can do..." he lowered his voice as he said this as if he was about to impart some guarded secret so I leaned in and he continued, "leave it out." "But you can't do that for all the recipes!" "I know, but you know what? I'm just a cheesy guy." "I know. I love your show and thanks for signing my book." Then outside, I saw Genaro and got him to sign my book too! He was super sweet and polite. When I told him how I've been inspired to make my own pasta he instructed me on how to cook it with olive oil, some herbs, and a sprinkling of cheese. I thought it best to spare him my anti-cheese rant. Another happy day. posted by Angie at 11:50 PM wSaturday, October 11, 2003 So it's AES in New York again. The last time the convention was held here I was only just starting on my journey as an engineer. Two years later, I feel like I've made some progress but I'm still so far from where I want to be. In some ways, it can be argued that I've actually gotten sidetracked. I've gotten very good at ordering food for clients, vacuuming crushed tortilla chips from the carpet, and transferring phone calls but I can't say the same about setting up for a big orchestral session. Things have got to change or I'm going to go batty. Anyway, the seminars that I went to pretty much rehashed the same issues as the ones I attended the last time. Surround sound isn't taking off because people don't know how to set it up and use it properly. Illegal downloading is killing the entire business. Good music isn't about the technology, it's about talent. A potentially fascinating discussion about making music amongst different successful producers was reduced to the same 'ol bickering about illegal MP3's and other issues on selling music because the moderator thought that it was the best way to spend time with some of the most influential people in the industry. If I had 10 minutes with Jack Joseph Puig (producer of John Mayer's Heavier Things among other notable records) you can bet that MP3's are going to be one of the last things on my mind. The talk on mixing for surround sound was more productive. It was exciting to listen to what today's top engineers have been doing with the two speakers in back. Made me wish that my apartment wasn't so friggin' small so I could actually have a decent 5.1 listening area. The event as a whole left me on a high note looking forward to all the great things that are to come. If I'm lucky, I'd have my hands on it soon and not just be watching from the sidelines. posted by Angie at 11:38 PM wSaturday, October 04, 2003 For all the Naked Chef, Pukka Tukka, and Oliver's Twist fans: Jamie Oliver's coming to town! He'll be in Ridgewood, NJ on October 14th and in NYC (Barnes & Noble at Union Square) on the 15th. The NY Times had an insightful article about him and his restaurant Fifteen earlier this year that's worth a read. His new show, Jamie's Kitchen, premieres on FoodTV on Oct. 13th and the series' marathon is on the 19th and 25th. posted by Angie at 12:51 PM wFriday, October 03, 2003 I don't encourage downloading illegal MP3's at any time, but every now and then I stumble across certain things that aren't available anywhere else--not on CD, not on video--but buried in some odd corner of the internet. Being that there's no other available alternative, only then do I resort to the much poo-poohed practice. Anyway, one such nugget that I just found is a duet between Kylie Minogue and Kermit the Frog singing the 80's hit "Especially for You". Kylie originally sang it with Jason Donovan but this version is much more adorable. I dare you to not crack up when he starts harmonizing with her! posted by Angie at 11:24 AM wThursday, October 02, 2003 My roommate had sang the praises of Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris over a year ago and I finally read it this past summer. It's been a while since I last laughed so hard while reading. Unsurprisingly, I wasted no time in getting tickets when I found out that he was going to speak at NJPAC this fall. Strapping on her sneakers and twitching with excitement (literally!), Syryna gamely agreed to come along for the ride. Tonight was the performance and to be honest, I didn't really know what to expect. His voice was somewhat delicate yet it managed to pack the punch that was needed for his side-splitting expositions on his experiences. He read about 4 or 5 selections, some already published and others were going to be in his next book. Being that I had only read one of his books, they were all new stories to me, each one not failing to find its way to my funny bone. There was an interesting Q&A section at the end where he fondly describes Paris as a big ashtray and then he had a book signing in the lobby. I had bought a copy of Naked the night before for him to sign and it was only 2 hours after the fact that I realized he had drawn what could only be breasts in my book! I thought breasts were to gay men what garlic was to vampires?! Anyway, it was a thoroughly entertaining night, pornography in my book or not. posted by Angie at 11:48 PM