Category: reviews

Thai Peacock

General, reviews

Had lunch at Thai Peacock (up on SW 9th and Oak). Hadn’t eaten there in a while. They’re really good, and they used to be very random. What do I mean by random?

  • There’s a dish called (I’m not kidding) “Evil Jungle Noodles”. Once, a friend ordered it and got wide noodles; the next time, it came with thin, angel-hair-pasta-sized noodles, which, when complained about, caused everyone who worked there to come out, one at a time, to apologize.
  • One time when ordering the spring rolls, we got fish sauce to dip them in. The next time, we got peanut sauce.
  • The types of vegetables in some of the stir-fry dishes changed without warning, oftentimes not matching the listing in the menu.

These incidents all occurred over a couple of months of time. Each event was cause for much questioning from the staff, and often times they would deny that it was ever any different. “Oh, no, it’s always been the thin noodles.” “Oh, we never give out fish sauce with spring rolls. Sorry.”

It got to the point where I would wonder, before going there, what would be different this time.

At any rate, the randomness has stopped, which may be because the friend I used to go with doesn’t go there with me any more. I’m not saying it was entirely my friend’s special curse or anything. I’m just sayin’.

At any rate, the menu at the restaurant has changed. I mean, the actual items are all the same, but the new menu has pictures and is much fancier, which I would hope would make it harder for them to switch around ingredients randomly. Maybe that was the point. But the individual item descriptions are the same, including the tag line on the Evil Jungle Noodles: “It so good.”

New Long Winters music

Music

This just in:

Over on the Long Winters’ forum, someone called “unremarkable” has announced that Barsuk Records has announced that:

  • The Long Winters’ new album will be released in early 2006 (OK, we knew that already!)
  • And that there will be a Long Winters EP out in September of this year.

Yay! New music!

PS: Sorry for the cruel (or maybe just “not funny to anyone but me”)Long Winters joke I played a while ago. Couldn’t resist. I stole that joke from the above-mentioned forums.

Little by Little

Music

Harvey Danger’s third album has been mastered.

Per their main page, they’ve set a release date, named the album (“Little by Little”, not as catchy as their previous two) and are playing a show in Seattle to celebrate it… in freakin October.

Still, it will make me happy to hear new Harvey Danger material.

Finding Sean Nelson’s personal site, filled with his coolio writing and sample of some of the non-HD stuff he’s done, is tiding me over until freakin’ October. And I learned that all my heroes, like myself, self-Google. I wonder if they also ex-girlfriend-Google..?

I think I’m gong to refer to the tenth month of the year as “freakin’ October” now and for the rest of my life. It’s fun. G’head, try it yourself, see if it’s not.

Sellwood Public House

reviews

My new favorite place for accessing the wireless internets: The Sellwood Public House, one flight up from SE 13th and Tenino. I walked up the stairs, following the smell of bread and garlic, and the music, which took me a moment to recognize.

Coolio. They’re playing the Pixies. I’m going to fit right in.

A cozy den, where they serve pizza made with dough they actually made themselves that very day right on the premises. I had the Don Giovanni calzone, which is made from the very same dough. Mmmm… Comes with a side of marinara for dipping.

Great beer menu, too, but that’s kind of a given in Portland. Lots of great beers to choose from, so it’s difficult to find a bar that doesn’t have a great selection. I tried the Roots Red and it was hoppy and delicious.

I read about it first in the Willy Week and made a point to try it. It’s in my neighborhood, after all. Walked by several times but hadn’t made it in until tonight.

I might have to make it a point to spend some time exploring the space…

Batman Begins (2005)

Movies, reviews

Quickie review:

“Batman Begins” — slow to start, which is good, since it’s the backstory that makes this movie interesting. Action sequences are murky and hard-to-follow, which is what I imagine real combat to be like. Christian Bale makes a great Bruce Wayne; must admit I had some misgivings at first but I totally bought him. The plot is a bit more complex than usual for superhero movies, which also works, since Batman is a bit more complex than, say, Superman.

Downside? Puffy-faced born-again Scientologist Katie Holmes. What a blah actress and a blah character.

I give it one and 7/8 thumbs up (out of two). Kick-ass summer movie.

Movin’ Out

reviews

A friend invited me out Friday to see Movin’ Out (link requires Flash), which is a vastly entertaining mix of dance and pop music. I enjoyed it for both aspects, although I have to admit that my friend, with more expertise in dance than I, was, by her own words, “blown away” by the dancing.

The idea for the show is that it’s a musical, and the story is told entirely through dance, which was choreagraphed by Ms. Twyla Tharp, and the lyrics and music. The lyrics and music being that of Billy Joel, one of the great pop musicians of the last couple of decades. Well, certainly one of the most popular pop musicians, at least.

At any rate, as we were leaving the theater, some lady behind us remarked that one of the songs they used in the show (“Shameless”) was, *gasp*, a Garth Brooks song. “Not that that made a difference, I mean, it fit in with the show and the story and all that, but why use a Garth Brooks song?”

To that lady, I say: Because when Mr. Brooks did it, it was a cover of a Billy Joel song. Garth recorded it in 1991 on the album “Ropin’ the Wind”; Billy recorded it in 1989 on the album “Storm Front”.

Sheesh. Some people’s kids.

Eleni’s Estiatorio

reviews

Quick ‘n’ dirty review:

Had dinner last night at Eleni’s Estiatorio, a Greek restaurant in my neighborhood I have not previously enjoyed.

And man-oh-man did I and my friend enjoy it last night. Amazing food.

The menu is almost entirely appetizers; only 4 main courses that I could see. And a note at the beginning of the menu says that the best way to dine is with plate after plate of appetizers and lots of wine and conversation. Who were we to dispute that?

The calamari was, without question, the best calamari I have ever had. It’s so easy to overcook squid, and it can be rubbery… but last night it was tender and flavorful and amazing. Did I already say “amazing”? Sorry but it’s the perfect word. We tried the bread, the calamari, the tzatziki (a.k.a. “Suzuki”), chicken kabobs (came with a spinach side), saganaki (“flaming cheese”) and finished up with a wonderful salad…

I highly recommend this place. So good.

Is there something I should know?

Music

Reading the forums over at HarveyDanger.com, I was astonished to discover that there are a bunch of unreleased studio recordings from the boys of HD. Not just bootlegs or demos, but actual professionally-done songs.

The track listing is:

  1. Save it for Later
  2. Beautiful World
  3. Snippet #1 (Warm-up)
  4. Plague of Locusts
  5. My Human Interactions
  6. Defrocked
  7. Snippet #2 (Voicemail)
  8. Ballad of a Tragic Hero (Pity and Fear)
  9. Is There Something I Should Know?
  10. Snippet #3 (Radio oui)
  11. Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)
  12. Carjack Fever (original version)
  13. Save it for Later (alternate version)
  14. Authenticity (alternate version)

Yes, Harvey Danger covered Duran Duran (track #9). Well, I guess there’s no accounting for taste.

And apparently if you ask nicely some kind souls have been emailing some of the recordings to faithful fans… which means that they’re probably available on the internets. But if you dig through the thread I linked to, above, “existential cowgirl” posted links to several of the tracks. Don’t know how long that’s going to remain up, though.