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874. Jenerator - 1/10/2009 1:02:01 AM Nu,
I am delighted to hear about this encounter with Julia Childs. I have read so many books about her and have cooked a great portion of her recipes. In fact I have very early memories of watching her on TV with my dad - I feel as though she is an old family friend.
Perhaps you and I, in an effort to cheer up our depressed friend, should attempt to write a short story about vampires, Sicilians, and chefs, one paragraph at a time. 875. NuPlanetOne - 1/10/2009 4:02:29 AM Jen...
Yes indeed. That is an excellent idea! I am a fan of all things vampire, but I've been watching HBO's 'True Blood' and was disappointed that it followed the usual route through vampire lure and law. It started well but the guy cast as the main hero just seemed way too weak in contrast to Anna Paquin, who is excellent, in a kinda slayer role, so we must go unorthodox and maybe even as campy as 'Buffy' but establishing some new mutations on the original theme. Even though that has been done as well, as in 'Blade,' where some vampires could survive by day. I say anything goes, as long as it is blood we are after! Maybe a 24 hr vampire that transports globally and visits night wherever it is present. So, how shall we begin? Also, once Webbie is alert, she must contribute as well, or at the very least, edit and direct. As well as anyone else here that needs to add his or her 2 cents. 876. judithathome - 1/10/2009 7:47:22 AM but I've been watching HBO's 'True Blood' and was disappointed that it followed the usual route through vampire lure and law.
Oh please...that show was the best thing to happen to vampires since Frank Langella's ultra sexy Dracula in the 70s.
I must admit that I am a vampire purist and the Buffy saga left me as cold as a Civil War vampire widow.
True Blood had my attention from the first airing of that intriguing theme song...I loved the connection of vampires being the new gays. And I adored Layfayette, the vamp lover and purveyor of their most precious commodity, V.
Alan Ball created this romp to comment on society's main drugs: meth, sex, and religion. He has done an excellent job of nailing all three with a bonus of hypocrisy thrown in..."a little something special from the kitchen", which all good cooks know to do in Louisana. 877. alistairConnor - 1/10/2009 2:31:43 PM Now that it's 1am, I can finally get near the household's one internet connection. The competition during the daytime is too intense for me. All of the girls here (mine and my sister's) are addicted to the "Twilight" book series, and the fourth volume is out of stock. So they are taking turns reading a pirated copy on the internet.
Frankly, vampire literature leaves me cold, but I am at the mercy of a bevy of vampire-loving adolescent girls. 878. arkymalarky - 1/10/2009 7:52:59 PM Haha! It does me, too, Alistair, as did the little passage I read from one of the Twilight books, but the kids love it, and Mose, who now teaches 7th grade (I both laugh and cry at that) is reading the series, and many of her students are as well. Like the Harry Potter books (which I've never read) the Twilight series literally appeals to all ages. 879. Jenerator - 1/11/2009 12:15:07 AM Thank goodness he finally cut that mop on top! Ick!
 880. judithathome - 1/11/2009 4:50:45 PM Who IS this fictional person? 881. magoseph - 1/11/2009 7:54:02 PM
Robert Pattinson 882. NuPlanetOne - 1/13/2009 9:03:52 PM And so.... Jen, here is a beginning for our Vamp story. Comments first, or just spit out the next installment. We will need some technical fiction perhaps, so you may pass the next part off, then jump in thereafter. Thoughts?
Perpetual Darkness
“It is said that the mutation occurred as the result of a transplant. A young woman dying of leukemia received bone marrow from a Changer just a mutation removed from becoming a 'Perp.' Now, as you may or may not know, a Changer is a vampire that has a limited hereditary ability to stay 'lit,' as it is described, perpetually for several days before the need to go dark and re-enter Death-mode, or 'Coffed.' No one is exactly sure when or why the Coffed mutated into the 'Un-coffed,'(Un-coffined) but one thing is for certain, once a vampire becomes a Changer, it will eventually become a Perp. That is, in a perpetual state of being lit. Instead of following and fearing the sun, it follows and re-enters the darkness. Why we are here today, of course, is to discuss the recent claims that some of these Perps seem to have the ability to transport west to the nearest night zone, somehow during the exact second before dawn where the sun will break the horizon. So far, it appears that they are limited only to jumps back and forth to the point from which they could actually see the horizon, but the physics of it is why I have invited Dr. Kronen here today to try to conjecture precisely as to how this 'transport' ability can be accurately understood and explained. I will then turn the discussion back to how the creatures can rejuvenate without a need to un-plug and go Coffed. Dr. Kronen, sir, if you will?” Brief applause escorts Dr. Kronen to the lectern. 883. judithathome - 1/14/2009 6:12:28 PM (Nice start...one suggestion for more ease of reading...paragraphs, please.) 884. webfeet - 1/15/2009 7:37:08 PM NuPlanet,
I just adored your post. Honestly, you should really be writing the great foodie vampire story, or anything else on the subject of dandelion greens, sicilian widows..(i simply can't tell you how delightfully vivid that image was) or any other offal-related subject. Your natural style is always extremely entertaining.
Frankly, 'True Blood' is porn with barbecue sauce. I just think it sucks. And the sociological commentary dimension that is offered by way of elevating this estranged genre for Anne Rice refugees, has always seemed rather thin to me..as thin as the papery thin neck of an anemic tween, starved of "true literature."
I will check on the vamp camp later. 885. Jenerator - 1/16/2009 3:20:42 AM "Zank you all, ples be seated, " Dr. Kronen said in a thick German accent.
He eyed the audience of young academics who had gathered to hear him speak in the dimly lit underground meeting room.
"Ze Apostles, eh?" he thought to himself.
Cambridge had been the University he had wanted to attend as a young man, but his parents had kept Kronen home and insisted he attend the University of Tübingen.
Tonight's secret meeting thrilled Kronen, and at the same time made him sick to his stomach. He never felt safe talking about Sophie and the Changers, even though he wore the cross underneath his shirt.
886. judithathome - 1/16/2009 2:27:15 PM as thin as the papery thin neck of an anemic tween, starved of "true literature."
So you watched and got nothing of the social commentary linking it to gay culture, corruption in politics, small-town rigidness, or anything like that? Or rather, thinking that was considerably less than "meaty"?
I guess this "tween"...'tween AARP and the grave, steeped in true literature and the schlock we all delve into from time to time, was impressed enough to take it for what it Alan Ball was trying to convey. Silly me.
887. webfeet - 1/17/2009 7:02:45 AM Nuplanet, I didn’t get a chance to respond to your post on Julia. Cherish that photo. I would do anything to hear that distinctive voice in person, to this day I can’t see a rolling pin without thinking of her. Part of my mid-day pause, those solitary moments of happiness in the kitchen, are inspired in part by her. The genius of her kitchen repetroire is its simplicity; with miracle ingredients you can find in the homeliest of pantries, it’s surprising what magic a little store bought bouillon cube and a hunk of leftover pork butt can yield.
That said, Navettes à la champenoise is a lovesong to the turnip: yes, a lovesong. with mandolins and tender weeping pauses over its syrupy consistency. Particularly good if you're a root vegetable cross-dresser, you could totally add a parsnip or two.
Today I made a lemon curd cake to celebrate the bracing bold flavors of January. Lemon curd is brazen: lemon curd is so ‘do you want me? Yeah?” It was a little too ow, lemon curd. You’re going to have to be a little less lemon. I preferred my version with buttermilk; but I only had sour cream.
Guys, thanks for the vampire trib; but it’s getting slightly disjointed and weird, like we’re twelve and playing vampire mind games in my parents dark living room and jenerator is speaking through a styrofoam cup attached with a string à la homemade walkie talkie to nuplanet..and so on…
888. Jenerator - 1/18/2009 1:07:18 AM It's Nu's fault. I wanted it be sexy and funny and he had to make it all cerebral and well written! 889. Jenerator - 1/18/2009 1:09:33 AM PS - Yours truly with her fabulous new best friend Nigella!
 890. alistairConnor - 1/18/2009 2:32:08 PM What nobody at the Cambridge seminar knew at that time, was that this transport ability had been extended by certain Perps, with the involuntary help of second parties. Alistair's case is the first which has been unequivocally documented.
Whatever the active principle of the infection should prove to be -- virus, bacteria, amoeba, or some esoteric life principle from beyond science, as many, inevitably, still claim -- it can be diagnosed by physico-chemical blood analysis. It is still controversial whether the "Changer" and "Perp" phases can be distinguished by this means, but frankly the question is rather academic, as comportmental clues are generally quite sufficient.
The origin of Alistair's infection cannot be traced. The contemporary vogue for vampire fiction and films provide ample cover for individuals of idiosyncratic complexion and dress; quite likely, it was while picking up his daughters and nieces from the vampire flick at the mall in Auckland that the targeted infection occurred. 891. alistairConnor - 1/18/2009 2:50:01 PM The first of the return flights, overnight from Auckland to Hong Kong, went about as well as these things ever go : they all got at least some sleep. Rather than hanging around the airport from 6am to 1pm, they headed into town to visit HK Central and the Peak Tram.
Wandering around in SoHo as the city started to emerge from night, Alistair suddenly sat down hard on the pavement and hunched over. He described it later as being suddenly and entirely emptied of all force and intelligence; his sensory perceptions were unimpaired, but he was, for a couple of minutes, deprived of all his motor and cognitive means.
The girls did not panic, were calm and supportive, and soon he was on his feet again. The younger girl later claimed that she saw a cloaked figure emerge from a nearby darkened doorway, but she has always had a well-developed imagination.
The rest of the return journey, Hong Kong-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Lyon, was apparently uneventful. In fact, unbenownst to both, Alistair and Dr Kronen crossed paths in a busy Frankfurt restroom, Kronen entering a stall thirty seconds after Alistair had left it. It was long thought that respiratory aerosols were the prime path of transmission; later research has shown that they are hardly infectious at all, but that skin contact with other bodily fluids can be exceedingly virulent. So most likely, Kronen caught it off the toilet seat. 892. alistairConnor - 1/18/2009 3:06:19 PM Having got home and to bed at midnight, Alistair was up before dawn, feeling fine, but unsurprisingly not adjusted to the cumulative twelve time zone changed. He was slouched on the couch channel-surfing when it happened again.
A few minutes later he was fine again, and didn't know what to make of the whole thing. Logically he should have seen a doctor, but he was supposed to be working that day, and reluctant to take the route of sick leave after an extended holiday.
And in fact, he was fine all day. The following day it became clear that he had the flu -- pretty much inevitable, as his entourage in Lyon had all had it during his absence -- and, although that certainly did not explain the Hong Kong event, he gave it no more thought. 893. Jenerator - 1/18/2009 5:01:47 PM Dr. Kronen, however, was not fine. After that quick layover in Frankfurt, he noticed a sudden onset of burning on his buttocks - a feeling he was all too familiar with during his quest to find the origin of the infection that caused the change in the Perps and his beloved Sophie.
He had hoped that the London flight would be quick, but the delays forced the plane to sit on the tarmac an extra 2 hours. Dr. kronen's burning intensified, and at one point he was afraid that perhaps he, too, had been infected intentionally by a Changer.
His mind searched through all of the faces he had seen that day, and one stood out in particular. He was an average guy with soft grey hair and a nice red sweater, but there was something definitely sinister in the way he glared at Dr. Kronen when he left the stall in the Frankfurt airport restroom. Perhaps this mystery man was the Perp who had been following him since his stay in Vladivostok. That same, impenetrable stare was certainly familiar in the men's restroom.
Dr. Kronen knew he needed to drink some of his homemade antiserum, but the vial he had smuggled it in exceeded the 2 oz size limit that was currently forbidden on planes.
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