The Big Oyster

The Big Oyster…and I don’t mean Marc…

The Big Oyster is the title of Mark Kurlansky’s new book which shucks the long and complex story of this bi-valve from between the crusted shells of history. Kurlansky’s last book was Cod, which did the same thing for that significant fish, primarily as a lens for the history of North America, and it appears he focuses primarily on oysters in New York City in this new book, at least according to the New York Times review.

Oysters also happened to be a subject of the Boston Globe’s food section this week, which follows a Wellfleet oyster shucker to the national oyster shucking championships in Miami.
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A Letter From Terril

A Letter From Terril

Dear Mark, I have been looking for your old house to add to my Google Earth collection of places from my present and past. Your Hilltop picture got me right to it. I remember the home as charming with the streets still having cobblestones and a trolley track. Anytime I read or hear about cobblestones, my brain flashes back to your street. One of my favorite memories is when Dad took me to see Peter Pan, and we left the car at Aunt Martha’s and took the electrical trolley to a downtown movie theater where we sat in a miniature balcony. I admired your mom. It was very hard to be a single mom in the 50’s. I remember Dad putting in the closets in your house. I also remember seeing your room and your Playboy collection stacked under your desk.
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Letters and Pix From Cinda

Marc,

Was reading your blogs and I remember Aunt Martha’s dump cake the best, Terri still makes it.
Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad got your letter and were thrilled to hear from you. No, they no longer have a computer. They gave that up when they downsized and moved to our side of town. Sam, Marla and I live close to them. I am about 5 minutes away in case anything happens. Terri lives in Colorado and Ruth lives in Texas.

What I remember about you the most is the naked lady knuckle buster you had in Aunt Martha’s car!!
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Better Butter Biscuits

Cheese BiscuitsOK, so I DID start this process by making butter out of fresh cream, but that’s not absolutely necessary.

[In case you are interested how that would work, I’ll quickly describe what I did. Pick up a bunch of fresh cream, innoculate with a little mesophilic culture (the “Flora Danica” mix seems to deliver the best flavor, in my tests, but you could even use a little organic cultured sour cream or creme fraiche because they use the same cultures), and let sit at around 80 °F for 24 hours, afterwhich it should have thickened slightly, but not solidified, and start to smell like sour cream. Shake/whip the cream *at room temperature* until it peaks, then breaks (this could take 15 to 30 minutes) forming bits of butter that start clumping together. Pour off and save separate liquid — this is your buttermilk. Wash the butter grains in cool water until the water stays clear, then knead into a large mass, set aside in the refrigerator.]
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A letter from Uncle Frank

I wrote a letter to Uncle Frank and Aunt Wilda to send them my eatsforone.com business card and ask for their e-mail address. Yesterday, I got a letter back and it contained some interesting information, so I thought I would transcribe it to share with you.

February 22, 2006
Frank Hodgson & Wilda Rector
523 E Ladonna Dr
Tempe AZ 85283-2886

Dear Marc & Carol,
Just a reminder of our address — you sent your letter to 530! Our postman, Tom Walters, from Ohio changed it to 523! So even after almost 39 years in Arizona we still have an Ohio connection.

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Bombs, away!

AndreAfter several false starts I’m finally venturing to post  on this, the  magnifient hub of the Rector spatio-temporal enterprise.

I will make it brief this time and promise to follow. Since this is the internet and there’s no reason to go blind, I am attempting to attach a photo (especially for those who haven’t seen me since the Reagan years, in short, since yesterday)!

I have my own page, which I make no apologies for ( www.kinoslang.blogspot.com ). As the page will indicate, however obscurely (the mo the betta, in my view), I am attempting to be a cineaste, in both the French and English meanings of the word. I am more allied to the (now considered old) French mode of simultaneously making films and living film as an internationale cause (du peuple).

More to come, bloods!

(Cousins, its been so long….!)

All the best,

andy

Jazz Giant Mesmerizes The ATL

Chick Corea.jpgLast night, Kelly and I went to see Chick Corea and his new band Touchtone at the Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech.   I have been a HUGE fan of Chick for decades (I saw him in a small club in LA over 30 years ago) and have a number of his albums.   My expectations of what I was going to see, however, were not fulfilled — they were exceeded with surprise!  

As the band took the stage, he announced that the audience should be ready to hear all new music, and nothing we had ever heard from him before.   OK,cool.   But what?   He wasted no time in blowing us all out of our seats with a 30 minute improvisation interspersed with Spanish flamenco and Moroccan overtones.   His new collaborators are a global group: Jorge Pardo on flute and sax (ouytstanding!), Carles Benavent on bass (played as I had never heard it before!), Rubem Dantas on all manner of percussion, and a long-time FACOC (friend and collaborator of Corea) Tom Brechtlein on drums.     Astounding,but wait,there’s more. Continue reading “Jazz Giant Mesmerizes The ATL” →

Ghirardelli Square three months later

It’s such a beautiful day today!

I”d been busy writing all morning and hadn”t been out. After lunch I needed to go out and sit on a bench in the sun and read. I”m reading Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, and although I only started it yesterday, I”ve read Truman Capote, two stories by M.F.K. Fisher and six poems by Bertolt Brecht as well as some journal excerpts.

Just now I read the last entry, Beneath Mulholland by David Thompson where he imagined “Marilyn Monroe, fifty miles long, lying on her side, half buried on a ridge of crumbling rock.” It’s so refreshing to read literature after immersing myself in The Recipe Writer’s Handbook, Will Write for Food and Eats, Shoots and Leaves, although the latter is whimsical as well as informative.

Ghirardelli Square is close by, haven”t been there for a good while, they have comfortable benches in the sun.

Look what I found…
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