Thyme Traveling Orange Maple Chicken

Back when I started this blog the goal was to make a new dish every other week.  With a few exceptions I was able to meet this goal.  If you look though the back catalog of post you will find it's almost all about food.  You will also find that in almost every of one them Laura is mentioned.  Then had my accident and cooking, along with most everything else became very difficult.  After nearly a year of physical therapy, things are, while not back to normal (I'm still in a bit of constant but manageable pain), cooking is still a little difficult for me.

I'm having a little trouble getting used to cooking for just me.  I have only really cooked a few times since the breakup and when I have I have done little more than followed the recipe I have been given.  Mostly I have been just getting take out or eating quick dirty things like cereal or hot dogs cooked on the Forman.  It's not that I miss her, which I do from time to time (truth be told I have moments of missing all of my ex, all of could have beens and never wases, that just how I am) but I miss having someone to cook for.  I like having someone waiting with excitement about what I was about to create.  I like the validation of seeing one enjoy what I have made.

Yesterday was a truly shitty day at work.  Without going into too many details, everything took longer than it should and I had three separate projects that all need to be done yesterday.  Oh and did I mention that we are moving to a new building on Friday and I've barely started packing.  It was a very draining day.

The silver lining was that I did manage to find that energy to write nearly 500 words after I finished up my work for the day.  I find it easier to write in my office than at home.  Mainly because my desk at work is ergonomic, while my desk at home is designed for a Commodore 64.  That is not actually a joke; my parents bought the desk specifically for our Commodore 64.  The down side is that it was nearly 6:30 by the time I got home.

The day before was Labor Day and I had decided to try my hand at cooking, or at least making the marinade to cook later.  I had a bit of trouble sleeping the night before and end up dragging my feet for most of the day.  By the time I got around to making the marinade, there wasn't really enough time for the chicken to marinate.  I left it in the fridge overnight and had a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats with a side of Deep Space Nine on Netflix.  But I did feel a little spark of fun and creativity while created the marinade.  I took a Tangerine-Maple glaze as my staring off point.  From there I ripped out over half the ingredients and added in or change the amounts of twice that many.  Making a creation all my own.

Thyme Orange Maple Marinate

What you will need:

6 skinless boneless chicken thighs

4 cups of orange juice, not from concentrate

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 orange

1/3 cup of maple syrup

2 tablespoons of brags soy amino

½ teaspoon of poultry seasoning

¼ teaspoon of curry powder

¼ teaspoon of Hungarian hot paprika

3 bay leaves

½ tablespoon of ground black pepper

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

A medium saucepan

A zester

A juicer/orange squiser

A large liquid measuring cup

Directions

• Zest the whole Orange and put the zest aside
• Squeeze the juice from the Orange into the measuring cup
• Add enough orange juice to the measuring cup to equal 4 cups
• Add the orange juice and oil to the saucepan
• Bring mixture to a boil
• Pull all the leaves off the Thyme and add to the mixture
• Add the Maple Syrup, Soy Amino, Bay leaves and spices to the pan
• Stir periodically and let the mixture boil down to around two cups
• Turn off heat
• Remove bay leaves and add zest
• Stir and then let mixture cool
• Add chicken and mixture to a freezer bag (or storage bag, but I find freezer bags less likely to leak) and place in the refrigerator overnight.

I come home to the chicken marinated and waiting for me in the fridge.  After the long day I had I was in no mood to do anything.  After siting for five minutes, I get up and start to make the breading for the chicken.  I get the panko crumb mixture prepared and I just run out of juice.  I say screw it and end up heating up some Wegman’s frozen chicken strips.  I pair this with a big glass of water an episode of Deep Space Nine.  By the end of the episode I'm feeling much better.  I realize I hadn't eaten anything since 11:30 that morning.   Not wanting the chicken to go to waste I proceed to gut it out and create my newest dish.  For the first time in nearly a year I have blast cooking.  I'm putting in spice by gut feeling and making notations so I can write it up for the blog.  I have rediscovered my love of cooking.  Tasting the finished product I can tell I enjoyed making it.  Like all creations, the joy in making it shows through.  You can be the most talented person in the world but if you don't like what you're creating, it will always be flawed.

In writing this up I'm happy that the food has turned out so well and that I had fun, but I still have lingering melancholically.  I still wish that I had someone to cook for, someone to share this with.  Telling my co-workers and reader about the awesome dish isn't enough.

Here is the rest of the recipe

What you will need

Olive oil

2 cups of Panko crumbs

3 table spoons of Italian seasoning

1tablespoon of thyme

3 eggs

½ teaspoon of poultry seasoning

Flour

A pie dish

A large baking pan

A large frying pan

2 mixing bows

Paper plates

Directions

• Put the eggs into a mixing bowl and beat them thoroughly
• Mix in 2 tablespoons of Italian seasoning
• Fill the pie dish with flour
• Add the Panko, Thyme, Poultry Seasoning and rest of the Italian Seasoning into the other bowl and mix together
• Spread Panko mixture out on to the baking pan
• Take each piece of marinated chicken and dredge it thought the flour then set aside on a paper plate
• Take each floured piece of chicken and dredge it though the eggs then coat with Panko crumbs, then place it on the paper plate
• Heat oil in frying pan
• Fry each piece of chicken till golden brown on each side, about 1 and half to 2 minutes per side. 

I paired the chicken with Jasmine Rice. my famous Old Man Mitchell’s Tarragon Carrots and some raw Sugar Snap Peas.

Hope you find it as tasty as I did

Summer Mix 2013

It's that time again and I've just made it under the wire.  Here is old man Mitchell's Summer Mix for 2013.   I know summer is almost over but I've been busy writing that it has taken me a little bit to pare down the mix from 134 minutes to under 120 minutes.

For those of you who are new reader let me explain what's we have here.  I don't know exactly where I stole the idea from but back in the late summer of 2001 I decided that I should make periodically make a mix of the music was really into at the time.  I had just been laid off from my co-op with Merck about three weeks before the job was meant to start (along with about 70 other co-ops, the whole Vioxx thing just happened and they were looking to cut any money they could.)  So I had a lot of time on my hand till my new co-op with Comcast was scheduled to start in November.  I spent a lot of time crafting the perfect mix.  After September it became a really great way to escape a increasing trouble world.  The mix was a great success and all my roommates wanted copies.

Once I started working again I realized while I love making mixes, I don't have time to make one every month like that, but I could work on it a little at a time over the course of three months.  Plus it would be nice to have a record of what I was into at different periods of times.  Thus the seasonal mixes were born.

I have faithful made one for nearly every season since the winter of 2002.  The process for the mix is simple for about a month I start putting songs I like and really speak to me at the time into a play list.  They also are songs that have never been on a mix before (a rule I have never knowingly broken).  Then once I have about 30 to 35 songs I start pairing them down and seeing where they fit to make smooth transitions and an enjoyable listening experience.  Another rule I use to help weed down the list is that I can only have one song from a particular artist.  I keep going removing songs and adding any new ones that are release while I'm making the mix, till I get to a list that runs around 120 minutes, the length of a CD.

Without further ado here is the 2013 summer mix.

Artist	Song
1. Cream	Tales Of Brave Ulysses
2. Tori Amos	Little Amsterdam
3. Sara Watkins	You and Me
4. Mitch & Mickey	When You're Next To Me
5. The Doubleclicks	Clever Girl
6. The National	Demons
7. Keane	With Or Without You (U2 cover)
8. R.E.M.	You're In The Air
9. Death Cab for Cutie	You Can Do Better Than Me
10. Toad The Wet Sprocket	Walk on The Ocean
11. Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra	Trout Heart Replica
12. Tom Waits	Bottom of the World
13. Claudia Brucken	Torched Song (feat. The Real Tuesday Weld)
14. Dar Williams	As Cool As I Am (Live)
15. Club Bootie	Get it on my mind
16. Bree Sharp	Everything Feels Wrong
17. The Raconteurs	Carolina Drama
18. Johnny Cash	Folsom Prison Blues
19. 8in8	The Problem With Saints
20. Diana Krall	Fly Me to the Moon

I hope you enjoy the mix.  If you need any help recreating it, let me know and I'll point you in the right direction as to where you might be able to fine a copy just laying around.  I of course do not support music piracy in any way shape of form ;-)

Till next , get out of my kitchen.

Shout down the voices

HI,

I'm sorry that it has been nearly a month since I last posted and I've been giving some thought as to why it has taken me so long to post again.  I have thought of and written several post in my head over the last month.  I also have been writing almost every day and working with my artist on the mini-comic.  I could say that I have been just too busy to write a blog.  But the more I thought about it the less true that statement became.  The truth of the matter is that I have had a bad case of "I'm not good enough."  The more I delve into the line of think the more I see how that has been a theme for my life.

I have always loved stories.  I love reading them, I love hearing them, I love watching them and I love making them up.  When I was a kid I played with action figures for way longer than most kids do because I didn't just have them have a fight, I weaved long, drawn out melodramas of love and betrayal with my toys.  I mimicked the kind of stories I was reading in Chris Clermont's run on Uncanny X-Men and Roger Zelazny Amber Chronicles.

But with action figures it was all safe, because it was all for me alone.  Writing and creating is different.  It's meant to be shared.  Other people will see what I have done and judge it.  There is elation and validation if they like it and crushing sense of defeat and worthlessness if they don't.

For me unfortunately, too often and for too long, defeat and worthlessness are my starting points.  It's been that way since I was in the first grade.  I was born with several learning disability including Dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder without Hyper Activity (I even got screwed out of the extra energy benefit.)  This makes writing well changing for me.  I can craft in my mind what I want to say but the execution is flawed.  Thanks to the way my mind works many times I will make the corrections mentally without even realizing it wrong on the page.

I was diagnosed with these learning disability in the first grade after a particularly scar incident where we were given the rather straight forward task of writing our names.  I took my red colored pencil and putting it the large lined sheet of paper, the kind with all the dotted lines to help kids tell how high the different parts of letter should be.  I took my time and with my shaky not yet developed handwriting I scrawled 'MOT' on the paper.

I was proud of myself.  I got all three letter of my name open the page and they were all inside the lines.  I even spaced it out perfect so it took up the whole page, nice and big so everyone see.  And everyone saw, when the teacher, whose name is lost to my poor memory, held it up to show the class how bad I did.  She gave it as an example of what not to do.  Then she called me stupid in front of whole class.  Even not twenty-eight years later I can still feel the sting of not just the words, but the laughter that came afterwards.  It's probably why I've never been wholly comfortable with good nature teasing.

My mom heard about it when I came home.  She and my Father did what any good parents would do and raise holy hell about what had happened.  The teacher was asked to retire.  My parents then spend a good deal of time and money (of which they had very little) and had me tested.  Once the nature of my disabilities were discover, the school district send me to an adjacent ^[1] school district which had a class for kid with problems.  Unfortunately that mostly meant kid's with behavioral and emotional problems.  I was often sent out of the class room, because I was the one who was behaving and need to get my work done.  Most of the time is a blur of emotions and fragmented memories.  Mainly I know I felt sick and like I was not good enough and embarrassed.

I still feel embarrassed anytime I make a mistake in what I have written.  This morning before I went to the gym, I saw a friend had posted a picture of themself with the sonic screwdriver the 10^th Doctor used and the caption A Sonic Screwdriver…Somebody help me.  She had been watching a ton of Doctor Who lately.  In response I took a picture (or several to get it just right) of myself with 11^th Doctor's screwdriver and wrote "I'm the Doctor and I'm here to help."  Or that what I intended to write.  What I actually wrote was "I'm the Doctor and I'm her to help."  Later that morning at work, while I waited for a system to reimage, I checked the Facebook app on my phone and saw someone had like my comment.  That's when I saw my typo.  I have felt mortified about it ever since.  I'd give my big toe, right big toe, the one with the non-mangled toenail, to have the ability to edit Facebook posts and comments.  I wish I could add the extra 'e' back into 'here.'  All day I have felt worthless for a stupid typo I made at 6 in morning before I went to the gym.

It's those kinds of feelings that have been a little louder in my head lately.  I think that is the real reason I have trouble posting often.  That and I haven’t been cooking that much lately.  Food posts are always easy because they are mostly a list of Ingredients and pictures.

I just finished Wil Wheaton's book 'Just a Geek.'  It's an excellent read and well written.  In it he talk about his blog and how he because happier with it the more he allowed himself to be personal in his writing.  Reading the book made me wonder if that is a direction I should explore with my blog, or should I just keep it as solely a record of what I make?  Please leave a comment here or on the facebook post where I linked to this blog entry.  Are these kinds of personal stories interesting?  I have a couple more rolling around my head.  What I'm thinking of doing is dedicating one day a week to write a blog post.  Hopefully now that I'm writing more I'll post more.  I'm trying my best to beat down the feeling of not being good enough.  To shout down the voice of insecurity in my head and produce more stories and writing.  Every day it's struggle.

Before I leave, now that I set the mood, I want to give a plug for my friend Johnny Destructo and his new etsy store.  He makes awesome art and posters.  There is an old movie theater near me and he designs new poster for the old horror movies they show on the first Friday night of the month.  Click here or his name to check out his store.

Thanks for visit my kitchen

T.

^{[1]  I wanted to use a different word here, but I can't spell it well enough for the spell check and it not on the list of spelling words I keep on the a sheet posted next to my computer.  I wish it was the only time I had to limit my word choice in writing this blog post.}

It Pie Time

Two weeks ago I received an email from my friend Paige that read simple "You jealous of my amazing pie making skillz?  I just made Batman and Robin Pies."  She include pictures of two Raspberry pies, One had the bat symbol cut in the top, the other had the stylized R Robin logo from the 90's Tim Drake Robin comics.  The true is I'm very jealous.  It's no secret that I love pie.  And I make a mean pumpkin pie.  In fact I get several requests for me to make one for our yearly office Christmas party.

My secret shame is that I have never made a fruit filled pie, nor have I ever made my own crust.  After talking pie with Paige (Talking Pi with Paige is my Math-Rock, Led Zeppelin cover band), I resolve to rectify this culinary oversight.

The next weekend I'm in downtown Phoenixville for the Blobfest street fair.  After checking out the amazing costumes, the cool rockabilly band and fun booths, I head down to the farmers market that sets up under the gay street bridge every Saturday.  There I'm able to pick up some tasty honey sticks, a bag of maple-glazed walnuts and most importantly some fresh blueberries.

Armed with some truly outstanding blueberries I set out to make pie for the first time.  I found some good recipes for pie and pie crust, both by Alton Brown.  As is my way, I play with the recipes a bit and blend the two together.  Here are the links to the originals.

Pie Crust

Pie Filling

Here what you need:

• Food processor
• Masher
• A few mixing bowls
• Zesting grater
• Rolling pin
• Spritz or misting squirt bottle
• Pie Pan
• Plastic Wrap
• Plastic freezer bags
• Whisk
• Aluminum foil

Here how to make the pie crust:

Ingredients:

• 12 tablespoons of butter
• 4 tablespoons of lard
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ½ cup of ice water in the Spritz bottle

• Freeze the Lard and Butter
• Add the Flour and Salt in food processor and pulse 4 or 5 times
• Chop the Butter into small chunks
• Add to the food processor and pulse 6 to 8 times till mixture is mealy
• Chop the Lard into small chunks
• Add to the food processor and pulse 6 to 8 times
• Spritz down the mixture and pulse 5 times
• Repeat the spritz and pulse step till the mixture holds together
• Pour mixture in a Freezer bag and mush together into a ball.
• Place in Fridge for 30 min or so

Here how to make the filling:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of blueberries
• ½ cup of sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 5 tablespoons of tapioca flour (or granulated tapioca as that is what I found in the store)
• 1 orange:
•             1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed OJ
•             1 teaspoon of orange zest

• Wash the berries
• Put half the berries into a small mixing bowl and mash the heck out of them
• In a medium bowl whisk together the sugar, salt and flour
• Stir in the OJ, Zest and mash
• Let it sit in the fridge for 15 min
• Fold in the rest of the berries
• Line a pie pan with the foil and then pout in the mixture then cover with foil
• Freeze the pan for 6 to 8 hours
• Once it frozen you can wrap it up in plastic and it should keep for 3 months or you can use it right way.

How to bake the pie:

Preheat the oven to 325

• Take the pie dough out of the fridge
• Coat a surface with flour to keep the dough from sticking
• I like to cover the dough with some plastic wrap to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin, but coating it with flour works for other people
• Roll the dough till it’s thin and can cover the bottom of the pan 1 and half times
• Cover the pie pan with the dough; make sure it covers the lip and cut or pull of excess
• Add the frozen filling and curl the dough in and around the top of the filling
• Roll out the remaining dough into a sheet and use a knife to cut thin strips
• Lay the strips onto the pie to form a checkerboard pattern
• Pop the pie into the oven for 1 hour and 15 min
• If you are brave you can place the pie under the broiler for a minute to give it a golden brown look, but be careful, its easy to burn your pie.

The nice thing about the filling is that you freeze it and can use it up to 3 months after you make it.  I made mine right after buying the blueberries, but didn't bake the pie for another week.

The biggest challenges I found were that I don't own a food processor and I had never bought lard.  The first time I went to store I couldn't even find it.  It was late and I wasn't feeling particularly social so I just left.  I did some research to see what I could use as a lard substitute and found that actually lard is not that bad for you.  From what I've gather it's better for you than vegetable shorting and most than likely better than butter.  My research was a little on the cursory side.  Eventually, I found lard in the butter section and baked the pie this past Sunday morning.

I did have a little bit of a goof and I attempted to brown the top of the pie with the broiler.  I left it in about 45 sec too long and brought the top to the edge of burning.

That afternoon I had some friends over to play some Arkham Horror.  To celebrate our defeating the attempts to awaken a great old one we indulged in some pie for lunch.  The pie was a big hit.  The burnt sections didn't even taste burnt and the filling did justice to the quality of blueberries I used.  I was especially proud of how the crust came out.  It was flaky and delicious.  Between the four of us we made short work of the pie.

I want to thank Paige for inspiring my pie-making endeavor. 

It was damn good pie.

T.

Making Thoughts and Unfinished Projects

I know I have been a bit quite on the Blog front.  It mainly has been due to the fact that all the things I'm making have been a little more long term in scope and there really isn't anything to talk about.  Also there are things in the works that I collaborating on and that I'm waiting on other so I can start my bit.

So today I want to share some videos and thoughts with all three of you who read this silly little blog of mine.  A friend of mine posted the video for Nothing to Prove by The Double Clicks on the book of faces.  It's a wonderful song that I like more and more each time I listened to it.  The Double Clicks are a band that I had heard of but hadn't listened to until today, but I have quickly become a fan.  Here is the video, please watch and listen, then meet me back here to discuss.

Hi, welcome back.  Wasn't that great, now, let's talk about this whole ridiculous notion of the Fake Nerd Girl.  

NOTE: I'm going tor try to be articulate and thoughtful, but because most of my friends are girls and most of those girls are nerds, this topic brings up a lot of emotions and I worry i will not be able to covey what I mean as well as I would like.  Plus I edited this post late at night, please be kind when I fail.

The idea that you like something just because you have an innie or an outie or variation there of between your legs is ridiculous.  We have seen time and time again that just because you fall into one group or another doesn't mean you have to like or behave one way or another.  Think about all the people you know and the things they like, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that each of them likes at least one thing that does not fit the stereo type of a group they could be classified in.  I have ton of examples in my own life; I have a black friend who is big Steely Dan fan.  I have a gay friend who is really into Baseball.  I know straight guys who love musical theater.  I have a Christian friend you can't get enough D&D.  and if I'm the example take your pick, I'm a straight nerdy white guy, who love sports, knitting, gay themed cinema, cooking, Sci-fi, D&D, westerns, cooking, crafts, books, theater, gardening, blow'em up action films, small indie movies and documentary to name a few.  Life is so full of wonderful and amazing things why should anyone let their interests be limited by anything as arbitrary as gender.

This leads me to ask where the idea and the hate for the "Fake Nerd Girl." comes from.  Thinking about it and using my vast knowledge of anecdotal evidence, I see two reasons.  One is the idea of nerd as cool.  The second and more disturbing cause is the trend of systematic marginalization of women in western culture since, well the start of western culture.

The Idea of Nerd as Cool:

I'm not sure when this started or how long it will last but a few years back, "Nerd Culture" started to gain a foot hold into mainstream culture.  Suddenly those things that were stereotypically liked by nerds and geeks, was being to be marketed to everyone.  San Diego Comic Con was the hip place to take you film.  Non-Genre actors and "Reality TV Stars" started showing up a Wizard world.  Everyone and their mother (and my mother) loved the Avengers.  Now, that thing that made you special, that thing you loved, well the kid who bullied you in middle school they are now all about it too.  And there even a TV shows about your culture (where secretly nerds are butt of every bad joke, but whatever at least we're not being ignored, right) and your Grandmother loves it.  I could see how that would make someone who has felt an outcast because they love the things they love, feel betrayed.  I can also see how at the same time they could see this as their ticket to be part of the In crowd.  However for there to be an In crowd, someone needs to be on the outside, someone needs to be marginalized.

The systematic marginalization of women in western culture:

OK, so for this I have a bit of evidence.  Go take a look at the role of women in western society (primarily american society because that it is what I can speak to) over say the last 200 to 500 years.  Go on, I'll be right here waiting for you.  

You're back, great.  Yeah it messed up.  Seriously, the way we have treated women is horrific and I for one, as a member of western society, am ashamed.  And speaking, well just for me, I'm sorry women been given a raw deal.

With the history in mind, one can see why when it came time for guys, for whom it was marginally more acceptable to be into geeky things, to exclude someone, they picked women.  It is a sad and shameful part of our culture.  It is a big part of why I try to create comics and write story feature strong realistic women, because I interested and I think makes for completing stories.  Also I want the intend side effect of pushing us towards a culture that is more inclusive and less limiting to everyone. When I was in college I live with five of the most extraordinary women.  They are smart and funny and wonderful and just as capable as I have ever been, in a lot of ways more capable.  They became Doctors and Business Woman, computer scientist and can do anything they put their minds to.  They are full of the limitless human potential that we all posses and should never be hindered by the expectation that society can place on gender roles.  its the best and most important thing I learned in college. It kills me inside anytime I see someone try to limit my female friends or on the rare occasions that I see them limit themselves based on gender. 

And by labeling them a fake geek  these jerks totally missed the point of being a geek.  A point that Wil Wheaton made so well, that I'm just going to post it here:

" being a nerd is not about what you love; it’s about how you love it."

See we are all Geeks, and if we are all Geeks then there can't be Fake Geeks, be they girls or boys.

If someone like the thing you like, that is awesome, because it mean that someone else to talk to about the thing you like.  And if you think someone is faking liking something because they think that it is the cool thing to like, then they must be very insecure and lonely, to try so hard to fit in.  As Geeks and Nerds and Humans, I think we all know what it's like to be insecure and lonely.  How scary it is to feel like we don't fit in, like we don't belong.  The last thing that person needs is to be put down, you should lift them up.  You think they don't really care about that thing you love, then talk about how awesome it is and why you love it.  If they were faking before, they won't be afterwards and they will find a place where they can say "hey I fit in now," because we all love this thing.

Finally let's get the idea of a booth babe out of the way.  A booth babe is someone, a model, actor or actress, who has been hire to drive traffic to a booth at a con.  Traditionally they are women, but not exclusively so.  They are sales people and what they are selling is the booth.  Whether or not they like or know about the things in the booth isn't really important, they are there to drive you to the booth and that's their job.  I've worked sales, and I've not always known or like they stuff I was selling.  When I was selling mops at the mall, no one would think to call me a fake house keeper because I wasn't into mops.  It should be the same at a con.  Besides, if the person is not into whatever the con is about at the start of the show, they just might be into it by the end of the con, because the stuff at the con is awesome or is at least is awesome to you because you're at the con and why would you go if you didn't think it was awesome.  But you shouldn't judge everyone by the standard of someone working at a con.  (This part of my argument is a little ramblely and I don't think I have really gotten across my point, but whatever.)

Now that we have gotten the idea of booth babe out of the way, I just want to say girls are great and capable and awesome.  Look they can, with just one extra ingredient, make a brand new person in just nine months.  That is totally bad ass.  Besides that they can do anything a guy can do and like anything a guy can like.  Just like I can like anything a girl can like and do anything a girl can do (beside, you know, incubating a new human inside me.)

I want to leave you with this quote form a Penny Arcade article written by Ben Kuchera "Listen, we get about 80 years on this planet, at best. Much of that time is painful. The night is dark, and full of terrors. If you find something that makes you happy, and it doesn't hurt you or others,that is a great thing."

Till next time, everyone is welcome in my kitchen.

T.

Time Has Never Been On My Side

I keep meaning to post this but work and my upcoming duties as a best man have been keeping me pretty busy.  After this weekend I should start to have a little more free time.  Maybe I'll even be home long enough to cook something new in the kitchen.

On the comic book project front, things are moving along.  I posted a second ad on digital webbing and this one has been much more successful.  The first ad produced half a dozen or so responses; this one has produced four times as many.  After wading through all of art samples I have narrowed the field down to six artists I think will work.  Now it's just a matter of trying to pick the right one for the project.  I hope to have made my selection by this coming Monday.  I also have to write up some sort of contract, not my favorite part.

My spring mix has been all but finish for a month now and I just keep forgetting to post the track list.  So here a few days before the equinox I give you my 2013 spring mix.

1. Sheryl Crow -- A Change Would Do You Good
2. Prince -- Kiss
3. Little Richard -- The Girl Can't Help It
4. The Flaming Lips -- Fight Test
5. Hole -- Doll Parts (live SNL)
6. Better Than Ezra -- Live Again(live at the house of blues)
7. Rachael Yamagata -- 1963
8. R.E.M. -- Monty Got A Raw Deal
9. The National -- Start A War
10. Alex Woodard -- For The Sender
11. Aimee Mann -- Stupid Thing
12. Bruce Springsteen -- Tomorrow Never Knows
13. Liz Phair -- Good Love Never Dies
14. Save Ferris -- Little Differences
15. She & Him -- Sunday Girl
16. Natalie Merchant -- Jealousy
17. Leonard Cohen -- Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
18. Girlyman -- Shape I Found You In
19. Andrew Bird -- Heretics
20. The Smiths -- Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
21. Mai Yamane -- THE REAL FOLK BLUES (Cowboy Bebop STK)

Now it's time for me to start working on the summer mix and I'll try to post that mix before Halloween.

Till next time, get the hell out of my kitchen!

The Other Side of the Table

Note:  This was meant to be posted last week but a busy work week and a lazy weekend cause a little bit of a delay, sorry.

For the first time in years I attended Wizard World Philly as strictly a customer and not behind the table at an artist's booth.  It was both odd and liberating.  I enjoyed the freedom of being able to go wherever I wanted whenever wanted.  Leaving as soon as I got tiered was really nice too.  I did, however, miss talking up an artist work and helping someone pick out the perfect illustration.  I hope to be back behind the table selling my own comics someday soon.

All that being said, I had a wonderful time at this year's show.  Thursday I spent reconnecting with people I have not seen in a long time and for the most part only ever see at shows.  It's wonderful that they have Thursday as a preview night, because it less crowed and I don't have to worry that I'm keeping someone from making a sale.  The smaller crowds make it a great day to get sketches done before an artist gets booked up or overly tiered.  I have images of the sketches I picked up at the bottom of this post.

This year I sat in on more panels then every before and I found them all to be very interesting.  All the panels I went to were either about creating comics or breaking into comics.  The Marvel panel on breaking into the business was especially interesting because it shed some light on what one of the biggest comic book companies are looking for when it comes to new talent.  Plus I even made a new friend at one of them.  

photo by J.D. Lombardi 

Saturday was all about the Cosplay.  I for the second year in a row I dressed up as Doctor Strange.  This is the close I will ever feel like a Rock Star.  Every ten feet or so someone would either comment positively about my costume or want to take a picture with me.  My favorite is when little kids recognize who I'm meant to be and want to get their picture taken with me.  It really does wonder for your self-esteem I and I highly recommend everyone try it once.

Sunday was John Barrowman day.  For those not in the know John Barrowman played Captain Jack Harkness on Doctor Who and Torchwood.  If you have not seen the new Doctor Who series, stop reading and go watch it.  I'm serious, it's all on Netflix, go watch it now, we'll wait.  You back, awesome, no?

This was the first time I had ever done the pro photo op, but I figured if I split it with a friend (limit two people per photo) it wouldn't cost too much and with someone who is as fun as John Barrowman, why not.  The line took forever to start moving, but once it did we were though pretty quick.  While were waiting to get started he came out and made an announcement.  We were pretty far back so we could not hear what he said, but volunteer came by and said "If you didn't hear what Mr. Barrowman said, there is no kissing John Barrowman, he does not want to get sick.  Everything else is fair game."  I would find out latter that this was not a hyperbolic statement.

Once the line started moving, it was moving fast.  They really get you in and out of there fast, but everyone was nice and friendly.  I was wearing my Time Lords of Gallifrey shirt, which the guy running the line really liked.  Then it was our turn.  John called us over and said for one of us to go on either side of him.  Then he told us to squeeze in close.  Once the picture was taken and we were leaving I told him that it was nice to meet him.  He looked right over at me and said "It was nice to meet you too."  Now I'm not really into guys, but he is an exceptionally good looking man and I may have swooned just a little.

Afterwards I braved the throngs of people and looked for the print out of our picture.  In order here are the highlights of what I saw:

John Barrowman holding a young boy upside down by the boy's ankles

John Barrowman and James Marsters pretending to fight over a fan by each grabbing an arm

John Barrowman cupping a woman's breast

John Barrowman cupping a man's ass

John Barrowman biting a woman's breast

But not a single person was kissing him.

As usual I picked up a few additions to my sketchbook.  The book that I have been bringing around for years I call Arkham Asylum.  I ask each person to draw their favorite Batman Villain.  I also started a new book this year.  It doesn't have name yet and only has one sketch in it so far.  The plan is to basically have people draw the character they like the best or are most known for, or maybe even the thing that they have always wanted to draw but have never been asked.  To start this new book out I had my friend Scott Derby (who designed the Time Lords of Gallifrey shirt) to draw the Green Lantern.  Here it is along with the rest of the sketches.

Green Lantern by Scott Derby

Mad Hatter by Alphonso Cornelius

Talis Al Gaul by Brian Woodward

Catwoman by Andrew Griffith

We also saw an amazing Kaylee Cosplayer:

 

A fun time was had by all at this year’s Wizard World Philly.  I hope to see you there next year

Till next time, By The Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, get the hell of my kitchen!