Sidelines
August 15 1998		Alone again... ...in the lap of luxury
The task of the day: Washing...again		Yesterday, Marla brought home a bunch of homework from her meat fab/ID class. This was 3 video tapes on how to take apart the quarters of a cow, plus the infamous Calf Slaughter video. This is, as the name suggests, a video showing the butchering and splitting of a calf. There are several warnings at the beginning of the video about it being "graphic." This is true. The video starts with a live calf, and ends with two halfs of veal. Intense. At the beginning, there is the butcher (with a thick German accent, just to make things more fun) petting the animal, which he then shoots, bleeds, skins, disembowels, and splits into two sides. While watching the video, I pointed out that some number of CIA students must decide to become vegetarian after watching videos like this. Personally, I didn't have much of a problem with it (nor did Marla). It wasn't all that graphic, and the actual killing was very quick. I mean, if you choose to eat meat, you'd better be able to deal with where it comes from. If you can't, you are just in denial, and should really rethink why you eat meat at all. Yesterday during Meat Fab, Marla's team (one of 5, 4 members per team) broke down a quarter of a cow into the 6 "primal and sub primal" cuts. There is gobs of information to know about this stuff. For that day alone, there was over 60 pages of dense reading. Sort of like medical school, I guess. As I type this, Marla is off in NYC. She got up this morning at 4 to get into the city for a catering job. She's working until 6 tonight, and then trailing dinner at Quilty's, a pretty hip place in the city. Her initial interview with the head chef went well, and she may end up getting a job out of all of this. * * * Went out last night with a bunch of students. Millie's "bloke" is in town visiting, and it was cool to meet him. We ended up at a local student/biker hang out called Sidelines. I doubt I'll be returning, but I guess it was interesting while it lasted. Maybe I've just grown beyond that sort of establishment. Shawn was supposed to hook up with us, but must have been with other friends. Or, maybe he was smart enough to avoid Sidelines. Shawn is still asleep, and Milla was pestering me this morning. I finally got sick of it and went out to do my laundry. Shawn's house actually has a washer, but parallel processing says that it's faster to do three loads at the laundr-o-mat than serially in a home machine. I'm such a geek. Haven't seen much of Shawn this week. Both he and Marla are AM students, but Shawn works afternoons. He doesn't make it back to the house until 9 at night or so. Marla typically is home around 3. As a result, the sounds of Meat Fab videos tend to overlap with my reading. The plus to all of this is that when Milla whines or needs to play, it's not always me that deals with it. It's actually pretty cool living with a dog (and a well behaved one, I might add). * * * Why living with Culinary Students is cool Calf Slaughter video Your house mates have much worse stories about their chefs than you do. Marzipan Roses : Shawn taught me how to make roses out of marzipan yesterday. It was homework for his class. I made one that came out pretty good. It's sitting on my windowsill now. He promised to show me piping as well. More cooking books, food books, and magazines than anyone could know what to do with. Your house mates think it's great when you bring home a free beef tenderloin that was leftover from class. Your house mate is off trailing at a big name NYC restaurant. The word "morbier" comes up in casual conversation, and all involved know what it is. A big drawer full of very sharp knives. * * * Stanley Tucci was on campus showing portions of The Big Night and talking about it. The scene was the "risotto" scene at the begining of the movie, and the tasting was risotto. I didn't go, because I knew it was going to be a zoo. They opened it up to the public, and This Way Madness Lies. Marla went and had Mr. Tucci bum a cigarette off of her while a small group of friends was hanging outside. Watched Babette's Feast again yesterday afternoon. What a cool movie. "In the heart of every artist there cries only one cry. Let me do my best." * * * Carol's coming to visit this upcoming weekend. Yay! I'm going to bum around this week trying to find someplace interesting to stay. Hopefully, a Bed and Breakfast that doesn't "feature" lots of roses in the decorating. * * * Currently in the CD player, Marillion's Brave. Decent modern progressive stuff. Still not as good as when Fish was with them.
past home future index		Copyright 1998 Tom Dowdy Comments? dowdy@poubelle.com