http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:38:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/food/el-cortijo-mexican-restaurant http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/food/el-cortijo-mexican-restaurant#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:35:07 +0000 admin http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/?p=2297

HEY BURLINGTON. THERE IS FINALLY A GOOD MEXICAN RESTAURANT IN TOWN. It’s called “El Cortijo” and it occupies the downtown space at 189 Bank street where Katz’s Deli used to be. Started by the owners of “The Farmhouse Tap & Grill” which is just a few blocks away, El Cortijo does something that’s not very difficult, but has eluded all previous attempts at Mexican eateries in town (and up until very recently, in the state) – it serves delicious Mexican-style food you will gladly eat on a weekly basis. Hell, I’m going back in a few days for lunch. Up until the opening of El Cortijo, if Burlingtonians wanted to eat half way decent Mexican food they had to make the 45-minute drive to Frida’s Taqueria & Grill in Stowe. Before that, they ate something called Mexican food that barely qualified as food. *Shudder.* I don’t even want to think about those times. My good friend Richard Witting, chef extraordinaire, mans the brunch shift at El Cortijo on the weekends, creating specials that are sublime and exotic. This morning I had his 3 cheese quesadilla, containing goat, sheep and cow cheese, accented with pickled jalapenos and toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) nestled between 2 soft, organic corn tortillas. Really amazing. I also had a chorizo and a fish taco. Both were delicious and so far above the other tacos in town, it almost seems unfair. But not quite. I was sort of surprised to find that the guacamole at El Cortijo is actually better than Frida’s, where they make it fresh at your table with a pestle. One of the main differences is huge soft (but not mushy) chunks of avocado. It’s made every morning instead of on the spot. Despite this, I like it better. I’ve been waiting for simple, delicious, low-cost, city-quality Mexican food in Vermont for 20+ years. It’s finally here. Thanks El Cortijo. Burlington owes you one.

]]> http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/food/el-cortijo-mexican-restaurant/feed 0 http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/uncategorized/man-vs-milk http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/uncategorized/man-vs-milk#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:18:46 +0000 admin http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/?p=2284

Thank god we live in a world where we don’t have to choose. (I love all things dairy).

]]> http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/uncategorized/man-vs-milk/feed 0 http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/self/blanket http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/self/blanket#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:28:09 +0000 admin http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/?p=2227

I like to listen to NPR when I drive. This afternoon on my way back home, I caught the tail end of “All Things Considered”. Robert Siegel was interviewing author Chris Raschka about his most recent work, “A Ball for Daisy”. “A Ball For Daisy” is a picture book about coping with loss that was inspired by Raschka’s son, who at the age of 4, lost his favorite ball. The author explained it was the first time his son had lost something he was very attached to, and he, as a father, was impacted by the experience and wanted to create a book that might help other children. This made me think about my own childhood and first loss experience. As I recall, the first loss that greatly affected me was when my mother took away my favorite blanket when I was around two or three years old. (I have a very good memory and remember several events from when I was as young as 2 years old). It was an old, tattered polyester quilt. The outside was silky white with blue flowers and the filling was something akin to cotton but more scratchy. I really shouldn’t have known what the stuffing was made of, but there were so many holes in the blanket it would have been impossible not to. I loved that blanket. It was so soft and comforting. I wasn’t like Linus from Charlie Brown. I didn’t drag it everywhere I went. But I definitely slept with it every night. One night, as I was going to bed, my blanket was missing. My mom told me she had given it to my great grandmother. When I cried, she soothed me by saying my great grandmother needed it to make a pillow for herself. It worked. My great grandmother was my favorite person in the world, and I remember being ok with the loss of my blanket if it helped her. The next time I visited my great grandmother she showed me the pillow case that contained my blanket. Truth is, I doubt it did. But at the time it gave me comfort. Ironically, the second major loss in my life was when my great grandmother died when I was 7. She was the person I loved most and her passing marked a pretty damn dreadful year for me. In case you’re wondering, the image to the left is a drawing of Michael Jackson’s son, Blanket, submitted to a website by a fan whose name I don’t know because it appears to be written in an Asian language. Seriously, what kind of person names their child Blanket?? Still, it seemed fitting since I was on the topic of blankets and loss.

]]> http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/self/blanket/feed 0 http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/sci-fi-fantasy/a-game-of-thrones http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/sci-fi-fantasy/a-game-of-thrones#comments Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:31:16 +0000 admin http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/?p=2178

It’s actually going to happen. HBO is finally bringing George R. R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones” to television on April 17. And it looks as if it might actually be good. Yipee! “A Game of Thrones,” the first book in George R. R. Martin’s fantasy series, “A Song of Ice and Fire,” rocked my world when I first read it in 1997, proving you really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Thrones is an awesome, unexpectedly rich story that twists and turns all over the place, constantly surprising and challenging readers to keep up. It’s truly one-of-a-kind and deserves to be made into an amazing television series. HBO seems to agree. It certainly has devoted a lot of time and energy to the series. The network acquired the rights to Martin’s books way back in 2006 and has been working on the series ever since, hiring such notable actors as Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey and shooting on location in Malta and Northern Ireland. According to Martin, HBO has remained very faithful to his books and previews look very promising. I’m very excited to watch the series unfold on April 17.

]]> http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/sci-fi-fantasy/a-game-of-thrones/feed 2 http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/self/diego-gravinese-wei-koh-and-coincidences http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/self/diego-gravinese-wei-koh-and-coincidences#comments Thu, 16 Dec 2010 04:21:11 +0000 admin http://www.whyilovevermont.com/?p=2109

I was in New York a few weeks ago and went to the Greenwich Hotel to meet up with my friend, Wei, who was in town for a few days. Wei and I met in college and have remained friends ever since despite dating for three years, a breakup and distance (he now lives in Singapore). Anyway, while we were catching up, Wei mentioned how he’d just been to Argentina on business and had a meeting with an artist there he really likes, Diego Gravinese. At which point I got really excited, because I really like Diego Gravinese’s art a lot, too. So much so that I wrote about him in this blog in the spring. Cllick here to read my pithy blog post. Coincidences are a little magical. So are Diego Gravinese’s paintings. Gravinese was born in La Plata Argentina in 1971. He is a wonderfully talented photo-realistic painter, combining consummate skill, a unique perspective and a quirky sense of humor, to create paintings you wish you could visit. I especially like his work from the 2009-2010 and 2000-2001 time periods, some of which are featured to the left. I hope you like them, too.

]]> http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/self/diego-gravinese-wei-koh-and-coincidences/feed 0 http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/style/my-imusic-is-trying-to-kill-me http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/style/my-imusic-is-trying-to-kill-me#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:38:09 +0000 admin http://www.whyilovevermont.com/?p=2060

I am packing up my apartment. I just started the process. It will probably take me more than a month. Not because I have so many things, but because I’ll do a little bit at a time. Better than putting it off until the last minute. I have way too much going on. Another trip to New York, a ski trip to Whistler, some parties, etc. I don’t want to deal with the stress of last minuteness. Going through the contents of drawers and cabinets is making me a little sad. Stirring up memories. Reminding me of people, events and feelings I’d forgotten. When I moved to Vermont I came with nothing. I left everything but my dog and some of my clothes behind in New York. At that point I didn’t care a hoot about possessions. I cared about freedom. Possessions have very little to do with happiness (I hope you realize). But, as luck would have it, in the pursuit of building up my life again I found a really fabulous apartment and decided to buy myself some stuff to put in it. And now I am going through much of what’s accumulated and throwing bits and pieces of it away… While sorting through matchboxes, Star Wars bobbleheads, business cards and random keys, I started missing music (I’ve found tons of great new music over the last few months). So I opened my computer’s iTunes and somehow a random song started playing. A sad song. A song I’d never heard before. Turns out it’s from a group of songs I was gifted a few months ago but had never listened to. I’d named the playlist “Irony”. Intrigued, I’ve kept listening. The music has a strange, leaden-soap-bubble weight attached to it (not good) with hints of starry nights and dark purple ponies (good good)… And irony. Can’t forget that. This is a photo I took of the only jewelry I wear (sometimes). Two rings. Thin gold chains. Normally I can’t stand jewelry because it feels constricting. But these are delicate and weightless. You can find them at www.catbirdnyc.com.

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His name is Wilbur. Practical, but a dreamer and restless by nature, he wanted more out of life than rural Vermont could offer. “LA or bust!” he chortled one morning and set out with just the bristles on his back. Along the way he had many adventures and encountered some very strange folk. The closer to California he drew, the odder the personages. Free lovers. Mystics. Sketchy mavens. On the border of Nevada and California he began to have doubts. “Whatever am I doing?!?!” My friend Marisa took this photo the morning of the Great Charlotte Tractor Festival while we were on a walk to visit the magic tree with the handprint in the bark.

]]> http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/photos/move-on-wilbur/feed 0 http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/photos/dead-pigeon http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/photos/dead-pigeon#comments Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:35:12 +0000 admin http://www.whyilovevermont.com/?p=1960

I bought an iPhone. Last Tuesday evening. It has a calendar. Which I needed. Yup, I bought a $400 iPhone for the calendar feature mainly. And the morning after I bought it, I dropped it in the sink with running water. Bad bad me. So I brought it back yesterday saying it had never worked… And they BELIEVED me and gave me a new one. Suckers : ) But seriously, all the salespeople I met at AT&T were really nice. I’m going to buy a really cool Japanese case for it with some neat design or something. This may be the most pointless thing I’ve ever posted… Fact is I’m procrastinating. Got too much work to do and am putting off unpleasant things… *sigh*. I wish I were a superhero. Was in Naples this summer with 2 friends and we decided we were and gave each other some great powers. I had many, including the ability to travel through space and time. But I’m not a superhero really. So, that’s why you get to see this lovely dead pigeon photo and read all about my iPhone.

]]> http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/photos/dead-pigeon/feed 0 http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/music/school-of-seven-bells http://www.thingsithinkarecool.com/music/school-of-seven-bells#comments Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:33:03 +0000 admin http://www.whyilovevermont.com/?p=2011

Another work day… I’m looking for another vocation, but in the meantime practical me is keeping my day job. At this point I don’t need to hold down a meaningless 9-5 job, but, at the same time, I’m not sure what else I want to do. For me, work has always been about paying the bills and meeting some goals I set when I was younger and the interesting options never paid near enough to do this. Anyway… Not a bad position to be in, but I’m eager to move on to the next thing… Restless. Last night I went to Club Metronome to see School of Seven Bells, a Brooklyn band headed by two sisters. I’ve listened to them before, have some of their songs and like them, though they’re not exactly my style. They sound a bit like Enya. But they put on a good show and there was hardly anyone there, which, always makes a concert more intimate. Plus, I needed to see/hear some live music. It’s been way too long. It’s a little silly, I know, but during their first song (and probably biggest hit) “Half Asleep”, I felt like there was an invisible thread tied to my sternum slowly lifting me toward the sky. Ie. a little bit of elation and euphoria – surprising but nice. The rest of the concert my feet stayed on the floor, but it felt great to be there. More to say and a few songs to post, but need to head to the office, so will do it later…

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Just in case you couldn’t tell, the photograph to the left is an x-ray of flowers… The artist, Hugh Turvey, first used this technique as a favor to a musician friend who needed an image for an album cover. Since then he has shot x-rays of everyday objects. To great effect, I think. Turvey claims to be fascinated with getting underneath the surface of things. He’s curious and likes to explore. So do I… To check out more of his work, click here.

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