Black, large, and made of rubber – The Glove.
Keola Beamer & R. Carlos Nakai
This evening, we went to the Mesa Arts Center and the Ikeda Theatre, where we had third-row tickets to watch a performance of R. Carlos Nakai with Keola Beamer. Bridging indigenous cultures using the dream world of the ocean, the two artists crafted a delicate and beautiful landscape of heartfelt music. Keola’s wife, Moananlani, rounded out the ensemble, bringing humor, song, and sound to the ethereal flute of Carlos and Keola’s masterful delivery of Hawaiian spirit through song and slack-key guitar. Some of the evening’s songs are from the new CD titled Our Beloved Land from Canyon Records. Great show.
Phoenician Water
The water supply for Phoenix, Arizona, comes into the valley via a series of canals that crisscross the metropolitan area. On rare occasions, a car finds its way into the drink, but more often, it seems to be a popular parking lot for shopping carts. Strangely, you never see anyone swimming in the canals.
Ruined Breakfast
Stopped for gas and got indigestion. These two “ladies” did their grocery shopping this morning at the local convenience store. Do my eyes deceive me, or are those holes cut into her jeans, exposing nekkid skin? And are those chains acting as a continuation of the seam? The knee-high black boots, along with the white-trash facelift (ponytail pulled tight), finish off the look of “I’m ready to kick ass.” The other woman is still wearing her pink slippers. Armed with fresh coffee and cigarettes, the girls are going back to the phones for those special conversations that begin with dialing 1-800-Skankybabe.
Dripping Cheese
Made me a grilled cheese sandwich. Sorry, no image of Jesus appeared, but the cheese did ooze. My recipe for making grilled cheese was inspired by a local cafe that makes an awesome sandwich, so I tried duplicating it at home.
This got me thinking about the economics of eating grilled cheese at home compared to eating out; consider this.
A loaf of 9-grain bread costs $3.99, eight slices cheddar $2.99, eight slices Swiss, an eight oz. wheel of Brie $6.50 or less, two tomatoes $0.90, a handful of arugula $0.90, butter to grill sandwich $0.40. The ingredients to make eight gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches cost $18.67 or $2.33 per sandwich.
Driving 5 miles each way to said cafe at the federal government compensation level per mile of $0.48 adds a total of $4.80 in automobile and gas costs to the $0.96 tax, $1.80 for the tip, and $11.98 for our sandwiches (they cost $5.99 each). But when I’m finished having someone else prepare my food, the cost totals $19.56 or $9.78 per sandwich.
In other words, for the price of two cheese sandwiches at the cafe, I can make eight sandwiches at home. Am I turning into a stingy old man, or what?
New Shoes
I bought new shoes today and took a rather uninspired photo of them. So today is the day I try a Photoshop filter on an image in an attempt to make something more of it. This is the plastic wrap filter, and I still find that the photo is not very worthy of posting – but then I have nothing else to post, so it will have to fill the spot of the 321st photo of the year.