CATHY A. FISHER presents Illustrated Studies on Modern Problems

The Great 1180-Mile Adventure of '10

2010-03-04T17:03:13Z

Yesterday I returned home from the biggest trip I've ever undertaken by my lonesome: a half-week jaunt to DC and thereabouts to visit my buds Max and Keith. Max drove up to Ann Arbor last Friday to hang out with me and some Garg people, and because he had some extra tickets to see A Prairie Home Companion, which Zack and I quickly snatched up. The show was extremely entertaining (did you know about Faygo's antisemitic theme song?) and we had a good raucous time in Ann Arbor, drinking Brazilian Drink and trying to put Sam Shingledecker into the refrigerator.

On Sunday I departed for DC, with Max a couple hours behind me, with only my wits and an iPhone precariously propped up on my dashboard for navigation. I got to shamelessly indulge in my favorite parts of road trips, like Ohio Turnpike rest stops and scenic overlooks in the Appalachians. I made pretty good time and the traffic wasn't too horrendous, and I arrived at Max's swinging bachelor pad in short order.

While he was at work for Monday and Tuesday, I wandered DC, Alexandria, the Pentagon area, and the surrounding parts. I paid a visit to Great Falls National Park, which I was recently informed I have been to before, although I refuse to remember it. Anyway, it was fun to wander the paths alone, appreciate all the natural beauty, and take a lot of photos. It's kind of still off-season, ugly, and chilly there, so all the touristy stuff was pretty empty.

The next day, I accidentally drove into DC and used that as an excuse to go see the Jefferson Memorial, which was a semi-religious experience of democratic fervor, and the lesser-known, awesome George Mason Memorial.

That night Max and I met up with Keith and we had some pretty good Mexican food. They also forced me to drink MORE MARGARITA THAN I HAD PLANNED ON. Only two people were injured in the consequent drunken rampage.

Then I drove home. A good time was had by all.

Winter 2: The Reckoning

2010-02-25T04:04:41Z

Yes, if you had been thinking (as I was) that this winter was too good to be true, you were right. We're getting enough snow now to make up for the rest of the season, which I generally don't mind, but I fell on my driveway this morning and that makes it personal. At least personal enough that I was inspired to shovel the driveway this afternoon.

And then it snowed some more, so it's not shoveled anymore.

We're inching slowly towards the end of this week and the welcome embrace of spring (ha ha) break. For once, I'll actually be doing more with my week off than sitting on the couch and letting Sydney in and out, which is nice. W. Max Eddy's going to be coming up to visit for a couple days and has kindly given me and Zack spare tickets to see A Prairie Home Companion in Detroit with him. Afterwards, I'm driving down to D.C. with him to hang out for a few days, work on my pilot of TV Screenwriting II, and maybe see a burlesque show or something. I'm very excited.

Afterwards, I'll come back to Rochester for a few days of the requisite dog-snuggling. And then it'll be the last half of my last semester and oh God what am I going to do with myself.

It's going to be okay, though. I have a plan. Really.

Easing Back In

2010-02-18T02:34:17Z

A handful of degrees makes all the difference in a Michigan winter. Overall, this one's been warmer and dryer than usual, and I can't really protest. With the temperature hovering around the mid-twenties, it's perfectly feasible to loiter around outside or take your time walking somewhere. I really love that. Of course it's ridiculous to say "AH, THAT GLOBAL WARMING'S NOT ALL BAD AFTER ALL." But I did just say it. So...yeah.

I've been getting a lot of sleep lately. What a novel idea, huh? Get this--it's really great. I highly recommend it. In fact, I highly recommend most things that will make you not feel like shit. This is how I got my reputation for being sensible.

I feel like I'm being a smart-ass (or "smart-acre"). I'm out of practice writing conversational, lighthearted blog entries. My natural impulse nowadays is to start bitching about how I'm not going to find a job. But I'm NOT GOING TO DO THAT HERE. I swear.

Oh, hey, did you hear that Obama's our commencement speaker? President Obama, not some other Obama, either. I hadn't planned on going before, but now I'm all gung-ho, probably along with every other graduating senior. It's going to be a total mess. And I can just see myself getting sniped accidentally. That would be just my luck.

Poetic Realism

2010-02-16T00:57:02Z

It's easy for me to say that Twitter drains all my will to blog, since it allows me to broadcast my life whenever and wherever I want and prevents that urge from filling up to blog entry proportions, but I'm not sure if it's actually true. It's certainly a reasonable argument, but that doesn't make it useful. I certainly haven't changed my behavior much as a result of it. And I really should. For all that blogging is trashed in the popular media as being cheap and narcissistic, for me it might well be the ticket to finding employment. These days, that seems to be the be-all end-all for me.

It's another topic I have a lot of reasonable thoughts, answers, and opinions about. I get asked about my plans on a pretty regular basis, so it makes sense that I am well-versed at talking about them, usually with a self-deprecating, sardonic shrug. I am very good at appearing endearingly helpless at the hands of fate and a tough job market. But what good does that do?

In French National Cinema, we're studying Poetic Realism, a pre-war movement that essentially encapsulates the epitome of a French film for most people. A Poetic Realist film might have this dialogue:

Man: But what is freedom? Just an illusion. The illusion that we could escape from this cage called the world. There is no freedom.
Woman: And what about love?
Man: Sometimes we meet someone who helps us, a stranger. But soon they are gone. We don't have time for love.
Woman: All is lost.
Man: I know.
Woman: Kiss me.

In short, it's French disillusionment and cynicism at its best. The problem with it, though, is that it doesn't allow for redemption, salvation, success, free will, or optimism. It's unrelentingly pessimistically pragmatic.

What use is pragmatism if it doesn't offer any solutions, if it just recognizes life's difficulties as insurmountable and definite? Very little, to my mind.

Veggie Five: Artichoke

2010-01-19T04:39:48Z

This one was an awful long time coming. I bought my first artichoke in November, put off cooking it for a few weeks, and then threw it away when it got mushy. I bought another in December, belatedly remembered it right before winter break, and decided to see what would happen if I froze it while I was gone. It did not end well. Today I went shopping, bought another artichoke, and resolved to make it that very evening.

So I did. The months spent contemplating this mysterious vegetable have involved a good amount of research. Joy of Cooking insists that artichokes are best blanched and then eaten as a finger food, dipped in melted butter. It also claims that you can extract the meat from the outer leaves by pulling them through your teeth. I bought this. It did not end well.

First, in my defense, let me say that I have never prepared or eaten an artichoke before. I looked at diagrams of them, so I had a general idea about what would be inside, but it did not fully prepare me. I blanched it, melted some butter, and then attempted gamely to pull the outer leaves through my teeth and extract their interiors. All that I learned was that artichoke leaves are pointy and sharp and generally unpleasant. Their flavor is "vegetabally" and that's about all I can say for them. I was still not sure I was doing it right, so I hacked my way through to the heart. This dense, white material seemed more promising (after I scraped off the terrible corn silk-like pistols and stamen or whatever). I tried it, but was equally unimpressed with its flavor.

Artichoke, you are a mystery to me. I will leave you to more knowledgeable chefs.

Vegetable Four: Parsnip

2010-01-14T01:51:34Z

Okay, this is a cop-out. I put the parsnip in a beef stew. But it was the best-cooked of all the root veggies I put in there! Very sweet and enjoyable.

Cathy's Beef Stew

Sautee until wilty and caramelized in a dutch oven or large pot:

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 cup onions, chopped

Pat dry and brown on all sides with vegetables:

2 lbs. stew beef

Add enough beef stock and red wine (the ratio is up to you) to cover the meat. Add:

1 bay leaf
4 San Marzano tomatoes
rosemary
onions
celery
salt and pepper

to taste. Bring to a boil, then cover and turn the heat to low. Let simmer for two hours or so. Add:

potatoes
carrots
parsnips

to taste and cook until everything is tender. Thicken it up with some flour mixed with cold water. Serve on a cold day.

Review: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

2010-01-09T15:01:26Z

It's unfortunate that Terry Gilliam's newest Faustian dreamscape of a film is best known as "Heath Ledger's last movie," because there's so much else actually within it for people to know it for.

The premise is this: Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is a former monk who began making wagers with Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), the Devil. By winning these wagers, he managed to extend his life for thousands of years. Flash forward to the present day--Parnassus has a beautiful daughter, Valentina (Lily Cole), and travels through London in a horse-drawn traveling theater with her, his faithful friend Percy (Verne Troyer), and a boy named Anton (Andrew Garfield) whom he'd rescued from the streets as a child. The show they put on is always the same, and one viewer at a time is welcomed to enter their mirror into the imaginarium, in which they are faced with a choice between baser pleasures and higher aspirations (for example, a seedy bar or a twelve-step program). If they choose the former, Mr. Nick wins their soul. If the latter, Parnassus. The show is not very popular.

It turns out that Parnassus has made a wager that gives Valentina's soul to Mr. Nick on her 16th birthday. Knowing Parnassus wants desperately not to have this happen, Mr. Nick offers a bet wherein the first of the two to win five souls will get Valentina. Parnassus agrees. Valentina saves the mysterious, charming Tony (Heath Ledger), who allegedly can't remember his past, and he joins their troupe and agrees to help gather the five souls.

That's pretty much the simplest I can put it, although there's paragraphs and paragraphs more to write. It would be easy to say that the story is as simple as "man makes an ill-advised deal with the devil," but that's really not true. This isn't a film of simple, clean-cut morality. All of its central characters are at times ambiguous or duplicitous, and the eventual outcome is hardly what you'd expect going into the film. I love its story because it's not similar to how people remember Faust, it's similar to how Faust actually is. Mephistopheles is a friend as well as an antagonist, and Dr. Faust is no saint. Plummer's Parnassus is a weak-willed, blubbering drunk as well as a noble, god-like figure. And all of the people Mr. Nick wins seem to end up happy, despite their apparent damnation.

Visually, the film is gorgeous. There's tons of Gilliam's typical stylized decay, as well as the lush, bright fantasy world inside the imaginarium. Its visual effects are obviously artificial, but the characters still seem to physically inhabit them as much as they inhabit the gigantic, dingy wagon that holds the theater.

I bet you're dying to find out what I thought of Heath Ledger and his three all-star stand-ins (Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell). In short, they blend into the narrative beautifully and unobtrusively. There's only one scene where I found myself wishing that Heath Ledger were playing the role when he wasn't. Happily, Ledger has a lot of screen time in the movie, and he does a very good job. It's no Joker performance, but certainly one of the best roles of his short career. The other three do a fantastic job of adopting his mannerisms and voice, and you can clearly imagine that they're just Tony with a different face.

All in all, this movie comes highly recommended. As Adrian commented to me after it ended, "That totally makes up for Avatar."

The Continuing Adventures of Sickly Peter, Part 3

2010-01-07T00:16:40Z

Forwards and Backwards

2010-01-05T03:10:27Z

So my last Christmas Break is drawing to a close--it was really not nearly as frustratingly unproductive as some previous ones were, although I didn't do as much as I could have.

I did the usual Christmas decorating and traditions, played a lot of Wii Resort, got a lot of fantastic cooking-related gifts (including a mouth-wateringly awesome Le Creuset dutch oven), made the questionably wise decision to buy an iPhone, saw two movies with friends, made stew for those friends in the aforementioned dutch oven, ate at a fancy restaurant, blew $23 playing slots at the MGM Grand, worked on a blog I've been commissioned to design, destroyed and rebuilt the Gargoyle site in the process of attempting to update Movable Type, watched entirely too much Food Network programming with my family, had Kobe beef tartare (delicious), got to know my sister's boyfriend a little better, slept in til precisely 9:30 every day, went to Frankenmuth, saw the gorgeous Richard Avedon exhibit at the DIA, and a variety of other things.

When written out in a list like that, it looks very impressive, but largely it was pleasantly dull and restful, a good couple weeks of unwinding before I start on my final semester at Michigan. What I didn't do that I should have done was apply for some jobs. I think part of me wants to put that off as long as possible even though I consciously know it's going to be a long, tough process, and I should get started on it as soon as possible. It's comforting that, talking to many of my friends, a lot of other people seem to be in the same wishy-washy, undecided, apprehensive, and overwhelmed boat as me. I suppose the thing to do with this, as in most things, is to tackle it one step at a time.

Anyway, the hovering monster that is job-hunting aside, I'll be happy to get this last semester (and my last two Gargoyle issues) done with. I'm a little sick of school and all other kinds of unpaid labor and ready to get started on my life. It's scary, but also really exciting. Wish me luck.

TV Studio - Days of Our Lives Scene

2009-11-23T07:41:52Z

Directed live for SAC 302

The Best Thing I've Seen In A While

2009-11-19T03:55:51Z

And I'm completely serious when I say that. This little gem is a video from the music collective N.A.S.A. (North America South America). The song's a strange and wonderful collaboration between Tom Waits and Kool Keith. The video is a visual feast by Fluorescent Hill. Give it a watch and sit back in awe.

Vegetable Three: Rutabaga

2009-11-03T22:30:14Z

I've been absent from this blog for two weeks now. I would apologize except for the fact that I was VERY BUSY and full of important things to do (Gargtober and laying out the Fall issue), and thus I feel justified. But also guilty. Okay?

This week I went for my mystery root vegetable, something I grabbed at the store because it looked interesting.

Later, I realized I had no idea what it was. So that's a dilemma, right? Once I finally got around to using it, I decided that since it was obviously a root of some sort, it could be sliced and made into chips. So I whipped out my mom's old mandoline and a knife and went at it.

First things first: Mystery root vegetable was TOUGH. Once I finally managed to hack it in half and cut off its skin, I discovered that the root was too tough to be cut into thin slices using that less-than-perfect mandoline. So I ended up with some fairly thick chunks. I shrugged and carried out this general recipe:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover baking sheet evenly with:
1/2 mysterious root vegetable, sliced thinly
1 Tblsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Bake for 30 min, turning chips every 10.

The chips turned out...well...alright. Maybe not how I'd hoped. On the plus side, they turned a lovely deep yellow and they tasted fairly sweet and pleasant. Unfortunately, they were pretty tough and not very crispy. I can easily see it as an ingredient in something good, or a nice counterpoint to a main dish. Again, I can't really see this being the star of any meal.

So the end of the story is that I combed through Wikipedia's Root Vegetables entry and realized that it was rutabaga. I guess that's an anticlimactic way to end. Hm.

TV Studio - Cereal Demo

2009-10-21T07:40:18Z

Written and directed for SAC 302.

Vegetable Two: Zucchini

2009-10-15T03:57:48Z

This week I decided to tackle a vegetable that's always been an enemy of mine: the zucchini. And, unfortunately, I will admit that my chosen approach to it was a little bit of a cop-out. After browsing recipes for awhile, I didn't really find anything that appealed to me, so I decided to use some other veggies I had on hand to make zucchini-potato-corn pancakes. A little bit haphazard, a little bit weird, but they turned out decent. Here's a rough version of the recipe I devised:

1 medium zucchini
2 Idaho potatoes
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1 Tblsp oil
salt and pepper to taste
Grate the potatoes and zucchini. Heat up the corn. Combine all ingredients. Heat an oiled skillet to medium-high. Scoop the pancake batter onto the skillet by heaping tablespoonfuls. Flatten it out with a spatula. Cook on both sides until browned.

I put some apple slices on mine, since I didn't have any apple sauce. I have to say, these were not bad. I might not make them quite the same way if I made them again, but they were fairly tasty. The zucchini and the potato were both present, although the corn was a little distracting. They were a bit dense. If I made them again, I'd probably add an egg and some baking powder to fluff them up a little. They'd probably be a good side dish.

As for enhancing my appreciation for the zucchini, I don't know how much this accomplished. The zucchini wasn't quite the focus of the dish, and the pancakes might have just been a way for me to drown it out. I still have one zucchini left, so you might see a sequel to this in the coming few days.

Vegetable One: Endive

2009-10-09T06:00:00Z

This week's vegetable is the broad-leaved endive, or escarole, a leafy, lettuce-like thing in the daisy family. I didn't do much research before picking this, just grabbed it at the store since it was one of the many veggies I'd always been intrigued by from afar, with it's sort of strange bullet-shape and pleasant compactness.

I'd already picked up some avocados, so I browsed Epicurious for an avocado/endive recipe and found a pretty basic salad recipe that I modified to fit the ingredients I had around the house. The resulting recipe was:

1 endive, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 an avocado, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
Whisk together the mustard, lime juice, pepper, and salt. Slowly add olive oil, whisking constantly to form an emulsion. Toss the avocado and endive in the dressing. (I put some paprika on the top to give it some more color.)

I had mixed feelings about the resulting salad. The dressing was pretty good, and the salad as a whole was light and fresh, but the endive really didn't do much for me. It was very bitter, and the dressing wasn't strong enough to counteract or balance it out. The avocado was so mild in comparison that I barely noticed it. Bitterness is for sure my least favorite kind of flavor, which is probably part of the reason why I've never been crazy about vegetables. I probably will need to figure out some kind of reliable way to counteract it. Anyway, the endive has certainly not become my new favorite food. Guess I'll hope for better luck next week.