Filed under: holiday, music, photography by ramune

Well, it’s Halloween and as usual I carved a pumpkin. I am not one for happy smiling pumpkins, I am all about the scary ones. I think this year’s is the best yet and I am quite happy with how the mouth came out. Last year I did a similar mouth, but it was all one piece and got kind of saggy. The new model comes fully equipped with structural support teeth. I also made sure to get a sickly swine flu infected child to sneeze all over it. He’s a killer swine.

Since it’s Halloween and I couldn’t pick one song, I decided to post a few. My friend has a nice playlist on her blog, District of Chic, that has a few other songs I would add.

The Gothic Archies – Crows

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David Fair & Jad Fair – Nosferatu (Thanks to the RA Fever Ray Podcast for introducing me to this one)

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Tom Waits – Everything Goes to Hell

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Ministry – Halloween

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Danny Elfman – This is Halloween (Nightmare Before Christmas)

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Filed under: photography by ramune

Xela – A Floating Procession

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This is a photo. I took it. This song is probably not for everyone, but I like it and I think it goes well with the Halloween weekend. It builds up nicely and gets quite pleasant at around 2:30 in.

Filed under: design, doodle by ramune

Fujiya & Miyagi – Dishwasher

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I like subtlety, paper-cuts (not the kind you get on your fingers) and the computer. More on this later . . . for now here are some new changes to my earlier posted original. I am pretty sure I have a long way to go before I get this where I want it, but this will have to do for today.

Filed under: photography, travel by ramune

Pilote – Can You Keep A Secret?

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Hooray for housewares. For unique dishes and glasses, Fishs Eddy is the place to go. I sometimes wonder how it is that I haven’t walked in there and completely knocked over a 3 foot tall stack of plates. Next time I should ask someone who works there how often people break things.

Today’s song is brought to you by Pilote, who was one of my favorite musicians almost ten years ago. He was a guest DJ once on some radio show in England where you could chat with the DJ on AOL Instant Messenger while he was playing. He has a song called “Turtle,” which is rather sweet, and at the time I had two turtles, so I wrote him on AIM and told him about them (yeah . . . I am a nerd). He played the song and dedicated it to my turtles . . . that pretty much made my day.

Filed under: collaboration, silliness, words by ramune

I know it’s all trendy to like bacon these days, but when the majority of your nationality’s dishes consist of some kind of pork product, it’s hard not to have had a passion for bacon all your life (note the photo for “Appetizers” in the wikipedia article. Is there any actual meat in that bacon or is it just a slab of fat?). Having said that, I don’t actually eat bacon that often, and usually opt for sausage as a side if I go out for breakfast (picky about bacon). Last week however, my friend Maya invited me along with a few of her friends to a three-course bacon meal. The day of the big meal Maya and I wrote a few bacon haikus. Here they are:

Pre-Bacon Haikus

Bacon, thick and crisp
Artery-clogging goodness
My reason to live
-Maya

Oh happy piglet
Sorry you are so tasty
Get in my belly
-Ramune

Post-Bacon Haikus

Oh bacon coma
Delectable salty dreams
Please pass the water
-Maya

Lifespan cut in half
No need to find a job now
Thanks tasty piglet
-Ramune

Filed under: photography, travel by ramune

Mulatu Astatqé – Yèkèrmo Sèw

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In case you are just joining in, normally I post once a week but since my two year anniversary is this coming Sunday and I am a bit behind, I am posting daily so that I can make it to 105 on time. I have also started posting a song with each post so you have something new to listen to while reading/looking at the post. Enjoy!

Last year my sister and I went to Storm King and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, running around the fields interacting with the sculptures. This year we planned to go back with our mother, however the weather called for rain and thunderstorms all day. Luckily that didn’t stop us and although we couldn’t see much of the beautiful view while driving to Storm King, the rain did let up a few times while we were there. Most of my photos are from the tram that drives you around the park. Usually we would have gotten off and walked around, but because of the rain we mostly stayed on the tram (if you get off, you have to wait around 20 minutes for the next one). The foliage was stunning and I am glad we didn’t chicken out and stay indoors that day.

Filed under: baking, photography by ramune

Lykke Li – I’m Good, I’m Gone

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Although I cannot claim to have made these apple cider doughnuts, I can claim to have taken these photos and consumed these tasty treats.

A week or so ago Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for Apple Cider Doughnuts, and I think everyone I talked to about the recipe either wanted to make them or they just wanted to eat the resulting product. While in NYC this Friday night, my mother made these doughnuts. They were pretty good, although a little dense . . . the recipe might need some perfecting.

Filed under: photography, research by ramune

The Horrors – Scarlet Fields

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My mother and I drove up to NYC today to see my sister for the weekend. I am so used to being the one that drives, so it was a pleasant change to be the passenger and enjoy the view out the window (even if there isn’t much to see between DC and NYC other than smelly chemical plants). While sitting there, listening to David Sedaris’ Dress Your Family in Cuorduroy and Denim, I decided to make myself “useful” and do a little survey of how many drivers were using their cellphones. I was aiming for 100 cars observed per state, but because Delaware is so small, I was only able to get 36 cars there and then more than made up for it with New Jersey. The following is the percent of people who were on their cellphones in each state.

Maryland: 16% (16/100)

Delaware: 8% (3/36)

New Jersey: 20% (48/231)

A total of 18.2% of people observed on my trip today were on their cellphones, which actually isn’t as many as I thought.

Filed under: words by ramune

Strangely I seem to be able to keep up with this blog daily better than I can weekly. Strange. Here are a few haikus about what’s on my mind.

Nutella is great
They claim it is healthy . . . . . . . ish
Hazelnut heaven

Driving to New York
Reservations have been made
No plans but meal plans

My eyes are laden
Climb into my race car bed
Hello soft pillow

Here is some Slavic Soul Party! For some weirdness, check out this video.
Slavic Soul Party! – Teknochek Collision

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Filed under: design, doodle by ramune

Helios – Coast Off

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This image is not done. I was fiddling with it a bunch and not getting the results I wanted, so I figured I could post what I had and will save the rest for tomorrow . . . It might look familiar.