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On Liberty Island, there is a row of statues commemorating the major people involved in making the Statue of Liberty become a reality. This is a close-up of the statue depicting the architect that designed the Statue of liberty - Frédéric Bartholdi.
This Saturday I took a class at a cooking school just down the street from our place, Kitchen on Fire. I’ve taken one other class there, an evening dedicated to cooking in the Mexican style; not tacos and burritos or other fast-food staples, but quality and delicious foods like Tamarind Pork Loin Roast with apples and fresh churros. I really enjoyed that class, and the food I learned to make there, and I have been wanting to go back for another class for quite a while. Well, I finally got around to it this weekend, along with another post-doc from my floor and a grad student from another lab, who also both really like to cook or at least want to learn to cook better.
The class we attended though wasn’t really a “cooking” class, as we didn’t cook or bake anything, instead we learned to “Slice and Dice Like a Pro.” This was a beginning knife skills class, where we learned basic knife safety (i.e. don’t hand a knife to someone with the tip pointing at them), as well as some not so obvious tips, like don’t ever put a knife in the sink, where if it’s forgotten, it could easily do a lot of harm. We also learned how to take care of and properly maintain knives, as in using honing steel and having knives sharpened on a regular basis. We also learned how to hold a knife properly. I thought I had been doing it right all along, but I was wrong! We learned how to make even cuts, how to keep the hand holding the food from getting cut up, and how to do a few more complicated cuts.
All in all I would say the class was well worth it. It wasn’t quite as exciting as the other class I took, but in many ways I think it was more useful. I actually have homework to do for this class. I’m supposed to practice the skills we learned. I bought a whole bunch of veggies to practice on, so I think we’ll be having vegetable soup for dinner! I would really love to take the 12 part cooking series offered at The Kitchen on Fire, but it’s a tad too rich for my blood. Maybe someday!
Yesterday April and I went to our favorite theater to watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which turned out to be a fun and creative movie about a 
man who has lost all happiness and is striving to find it again. It is also an rated R comedy, which means that many (but not all) of the jokes are of an adult nature, with references to sex or male/female genitalia. Movies usually employ this maneuver for shock value, to distract you from a bad movie. Not this one. The writing is smart and funny. The characters are strong, and the acting was surprisingly good as was first time director Nicholas Stoller. The story is about a Peter Bretter (Jason Segel, who is also wrote the spec), a music composer for a popular T.V. series starring his celebrity girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars fame). The story begins with Sarah breaking up their relationship and Peter not taking it all too well, falling into severe depression and hiding his pain with a series on one night stands. Of course this doesn’t alleviate his despair, so his stepbrother (SNL’s Bill Hader) convinces him to take a vacation to Hawaii. Hopefully the relaxation and distraction will help him to get over his ex. Of course, that turns out to be difficult because at that same resort, Sarah Marshall and her new London Rocker boyfriend Aldous Snow (Russlle Brand) have also decided to vacation. To add to the story is Rachel Jansen (Mila Kunis from That 70’s Show), the potential new love interest if only Peter can 
move on from his ex. There are also many other unique and fun characters resulting in every scene being fun to watch. The story is predictable, and the ending we all hope for does happen, but as with life, it is about the journey, and our main character experiences a journey not often seen in cinema. This is the type of movie that we get exactly what we expect. If there is anything negative about this movie is that there are too many full frontal naked shots of Jason Segel. The first time, it was for shock value, but after that it became unnecessary.
On a broader note, since the release of The 40 Year Old Virgin, Judd Apatow has created a whole new niche in movies that is the male driven romantic comedy. Before Apatow, most romantic movies have an emotionally calm and controlled male lead with a female lead that wears her emotions on her sleeve (as the saying goes). This creates a story that explores the inner emotional workings of women. Judd Apatow movies are role reversals in which the story explores the inner emotional workings of men. This is good because a story can be created to explore something that has been mostly taboo previously, the emotional male. In another sense, this could be bad because women seem to have few quality roles in movies recently and these kind of movies dwindle that number even more, but these movies are fun and highly successful and we should expect many more of them.
l have been really lucky since moving to Berkeley in finding an awesome book club. A good friend of mine from high school happens to live in San Fransisco, an easy half-hour train ride from me. Having lived in the Bay Area a while, and just generally being a sociable type person, she and a bunch of friends formed a book club, and invited me to join. Originally, it was loosely themed something along the lines of “International Women’s Issues.” After we got tired of reading really depressing (though enlightening) books we decided to go for a bit lighter fare. The numbers of the group have dwindled slightly, but there are four of us who come every month. I can’t express how much I’ve enjoyed this group. Great conversation, great literature, and great food. What’s not to love!?!
This month’s choice Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen chosen by another group member. I have to say I really enjoyed this book. I actually read about three-quarters of the book on our plane ride to NYC. It’s a real page-turner, very compelling. The story is told as flashbacks from an elderly man, Jacob, in a nursing home, remembering his “salad days” when he traveled with the circus. It is a story of tragedy and intrigue; the not so happy side of the circus life is detailed as well. You can’t help but feel for both the animals and humans transported by train from one town to the next, in conditions that by today’s standards would be criminal. In addition, this a story of love and devotion, of fear and greed, of loyalty and loss. Jacob falls for one of the glamorous circus stars, who is unfortunately married to the brilliant but maniacal animal director. In some ways, it is a little too much of the rescuing a princess held captive story, but it is also much more. You also get a feeling for what it is like to be old and put out to pasture in a nursing home from a perspective rarely given. In Jacob there is resilience where the world has decided there can only be frailty, and you can’t help but root for him. So if you’re looking for a pleasant read while traveling, or are interested in the good-old days of the circus, this book will deliver.
When was it? I think it was about 3 years ago that I became aware of podcasted programs, and I immediately love it! My thought was, “now I don’t have to wait and tune into the radio at a specific time on a specific day to listen to my favorite program.” For instance, instead of waiting for 11am on Friday to listen to the “Science Friday” show, now if I miss it or I’m busy I can wait until the next day, down load it in a podcast form, and listen to it whenever I want on my iPod. I soon found that it opened up a whole new realm of choices than the conventional radio. The variety of topics I could listen to was just amazing. Whatever you like, there’s a podcast about it. First, it was recorded radio shows like Science Friday. Magazines got into the gig by having interviews with people that will be featured in the upcoming issue. Universities started podcasting classes for students (or anybody) to download in case they need to hear a lecture again (or if they’re a masochist). In the meantime, thousands of people were creating their own podcast on any topic they felt like, or no topic at all. For those who have not listen to a podcast, you have to be a bit careful on what you choose. There are no censors, no FCC, no employer to appease, so anything can go. All in all, I think podcasting is good, but the problem was that I started to subscribe to more podcast than I could keep up with (subscribing is free be the way). So, I had to start getting rid of the ones I didn’t listen to that often. In addition, I wasn’t listening to as much music as I used to, and I really like music. On a side note, since moving to Berkeley, I’m finding it difficult to discover new music* now that I walk everywhere and iPods lack radio receiving ability. It’s even harder to find new music that I like. I bet there’s a podcast that will help me.
As of right now, here are the choice few that I listen to regularly:
What podcast do you enjoy?
Check out my first recipe post, just click on the link above. If you like chocolate and coffee, make this cake, you won’t be sorry. If you don’t like coffee, make the cake with out the coffee, absolutely delicious.
I’ve been thinking about what I should write in this blog. Two activities that I spend a fair amount of time doing is read (work related science articles mostly) and watch movies. I made a New Year resolution to take more time to write, so those topics will probably be the bulk of what you’re going to get from me in the beginning. Some of you may be thinking, “Why would you make such an odd New Years resolution?” Well, that’s a good question, so thanks for bringing it up. It arose due to a post-doc related experience. Last year, I was involved in writing two scientific reviews, one of which was published in Cell. It was during this time that I realized writing isn’t necessarily my strongest talent, but as with all things it should get better the more I practice. Since I like movies a lot, I played around with the idea of writing a movie script. I got a couple of books and I read up on story and story structure, which I found intriguing. I still might try this, but I’m starting to question my ability to “make up” a story that is at all interesting. Science writing and fiction writing seems to require a different mindset, and I have never wrote anything fiction before (except for parts of my dissertation one could argue). April and I have been talking about starting our own webpage/blog for a very long time, so here it is. Thus, along with keeping family and friends up-to-date on our activities, it gives me a forum to practice my writing. There is still work that needs to be done in getting this site fully active, but right now my biggest challenge is setting aside time dedicated to writing.
