Great Movie Theme Songs

Chicks Dig It

I saw the cutest idea for Easter chicks deviled eggs, but as I wasn't cooking an Easter meal this year (as we traveled and ate with friends and family) I didn't make them...but I sure thought about it. Maybe I'll just make them for fun one of these times. My husband gives me a hard time because he thinks I want to take deviled eggs to any potluck, and I do...but they're so good! While I haven't given this a try yet, Janelle decided to go for it and had a bit of a Pinstrosity.

The Original Pin

Source: Uploaded by user via Maria on Pinterest

I've been looking around trying to find the original source for this picture (as the Pinterest link doesn't go anywhere and I really want to give credit where credit is due) and as far as I can figure out from Google Image search and the comments on the pin, the original pinner saw this picture of deviled eggs that her friend's daughter made on her Facebook page and uploaded it to Pinterest. I don't know where the idea came from, (one commenter claims her daughter made these up) but it's cute and I can see why Janelle gave them a try. Since it was just a photo though, and not a link to a tutorial or ingredient list or anything, Janelle had to wing it and ran into some slight problems.

The Pinstrosity

Not too bad really, in my opinion. I looked at the picture first (confession, I usually do) and I wasn't really sure what the problem was but once I read Janelle's email I understood. Here's the story in her own words:

"I wanted to make the really cute deviled eggs that looked like chicks for Easter. I realized quickly it wasn't as easy as it looked. Trying to get the yoke out of the small opening mostly meant that the white split. Or I would try to slit the top of the egg off only to find the yoke right there or at the other end. There was no consistency where the yoke was as evidenced by the odd shaped egg chicks in the picture."

"Also I had asked my husband to pick up olives for the eyes thinking this would be the best option. It probably would have been but he got me chopped (or minced) olives. I had to try to gather bits of the chopped olive to make eyes. They look horrible! Then I asked my 11yo son to cut the carrot noses because I was short on time and company was coming soon. He had no consistency to his method so all the noses are odd shaped too! (I can't really blame him, thankfully he doesn't have a lot of knifing experience!)"

"Then when I went to display the eggs on a plate, they all slipped, I had no way of displaying them in the up right position. So I put a piece of paper towel on the bottom at least they were face up."

So...how to help fix this for future tries? I've found a few ideas online. 

How to Fix It

I found the same idea on athriftymom.com where she has a tutorial on how to make these chicks deviled eggs and she gives some good tips. 

To help keep the whites from splitting as you get the yolks out, she suggests slicing into the yolk. I would imagine a paring knife would work best...but any little sharp knife should work. Then use a small spoon or fork to gently scoop the yolk out. 

For the eyes she suggests cutting up a pickle into small slices. Just an alternative for those that don't like olives. 

And then to make the eggs stand up and not roll over...cut a small slice off the bottom of the egg to make a flat resting surface. 

Another idea from mrsfieldssecrets.com is to cut the whites in a zig-zag pattern to look like a cartoon broken egg. This will be harder than just slicing the egg open, but it sure does look cute.

Another idea from familyfun.go.com is to put a sprig of parsley at the top, and they added a second carrot slice to the beak, and a carrot slice for feet. 

One final idea I'll link to is this one from allrecipes.com. Instead of using small slices of olives for the eyes, they've used cross sections slices for large owl-like eyes.

lucky fabb west coast

 Blazer: Zara; Tank: Urban Outfitters; Jeans: c/o Hudson; Shoes: Zara; Bag: 3.1 Phillip Lim; Sunglasses: Karen Walker; Jewelry: Michael Kors watch, assorted gifted bangles, H&M necklaces

Greetings from sunny LA! While I'm going to keep this post very brief, feel free to catch up on what I'm doing today at the Lucky FABB conference today via Twitter!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

New Books in the House

We hit a used book sale at a mall in Michigan with 10,000 books for sale. I would have bought more if I hadn't set a limit. Although no interesting crime fiction I hadn't read despite crawling under the table to look in boxes. Someday I will learn how to arrange pictures neatly on my blog.

Sunday Night Poetry

Coming soon!

Impromptu shot taken by Darren, post-breakfast at South Melbourne Market. I've been wearing my berry silk crepe scarf the entire weekend. It was my birthday on Saturday and I felt so special wearing it. I turned 25 and never in my life did I ever think I would be one day wearing a silk scarf filled with my own work. I know it sounds silly, but it all just felt really special. I'm also wearing my favourite Country Road dress, Odette arrow bangle and Dieppa Restrepo shoes.

Saturday Night Music: Skeeter Davis

Stories about a Journey

Or a road trip. Reading the excellent THE EDGE OF DARK WATER (Lansdale) right now and a few months back, I read Bonnie Jo Campbell's equally good, ONCE UPON A RIVER. I guess THE ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN began this sort of journey in America but I am sure earlier or contemporaneous writers--well perhaps Thoreau at least--took their readers on a journey.

What is your favorite story where the character(s) took a trip? Who used this vehicle (no pun intended) best?

National Poetry Month: Dylan Thomas

The Summing Up, Friday April 27, 2012

My review of the excellent Monsieur Lazhar can be found at Crimespree Cinema.


Patti Abbott, Ball Four, Jim Bouton
Sergio Angelini, The Tiger Among Us, Leigh Brackett
Joe Barone, Now and Then, Robert B. Parker
Brian Busby, Leo Orenstein
Bill Crider, The Silent Gondoliers, William Goldman
Scott Cupp, RGK, The Art of Ray Krenkel
Martin Edwards, Nemesis at Raifnham, J.J. Connington
Ed Gorman, American Murders, Jon and Rita Breen
Jerry House, Prime Suspect, ed. Bill Pronzini and Martin Greenberg
Randy Johnson, The Hanging Tree and Other Stories,
George Kelley, Five Novels of the 1940s and 1950s, David Goodis
Margot Kinberg, The Shape of Water, Andrea Camilleri
B.V. Lawson, The Moving Toyshop, Edmund Crispin
Evan Lewis, Jimgrin and Aldah's Peace. Talbot Mundy
Steve Lewis, Relentless Gun, Giles a Lutz
Todd Mason, The Best of the West, ed. Joe R. Lansdale
J.F. Norris, The Room Upstairs, Mildred Davis
David Rachels, Scorpions Reef, Charles Williams
James Reasoner, Marching Sands, Harold A. Lamb
Gerard Saylor, Winning Can Be Murder, Bill Crider
Ron Scheer, The Story of Mary MacLane, Mary MacLane
Bill Selnes, Meltdown, Martin Baker
Kerrie Smith, Rumpole a La Carte, John Mortimer
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang, Instruments of Night, Thomas H. Cook
TomCat, The Emperor's Snuffbox, John Dickson Carr
Prashant C. Trikannad, Beyond the Black Stump, Nevil Shute
Wuthering Willow, The After House, Mary Roberts Rinehart
Zybahn, The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara (and an exploration of years without Pulitzer Prizes)

style challenge: spotted!

Top: H&M (love this peplum top here); Pants: Zara; Shoes: Zara; Bag: Vintage; Sunglasses: Karen Walker; Jewelry: H&M necklace, Michael Kors watch, assorted gifted bangles

Well in case you were wondering after yesterday's post, I have more polka dots for ya! Be sure to check out how the always lovely Rebecca, Meghan and Kellen sported their spots this week for our style challenge!

Happy Friday, everyone!

A Pinstrosity Pinstrosity

Many blog and website owners love Pinterest for all the traffic it brings, but there's always the frustration when you see some of your content on someone's board that doesn't link back to your site. We stumbled upon our first one.

The Original Post:

http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/02/bunch-of-hot-air.html

Em's yarn balloon Level 5 Pinstrosity. This has been one of our most popular posts. I still get a chuckle when I read that post. 

I searched "Pinterest Fails" on Pinterest just a bit ago just for fun to see what people were finding and this one started popping up:

The Pinstrosity

It'd be great if all these pins linked back to our site, but of course none of them do. Instead every pin I clicked on (and I think I clicked on all of them I saw...that took a while) gave me the following message from Pinterest:

So I don't know what kind of site someone is trying to use our Pinstrosity to promote, but apparently it's not any good. Love that. 

So, How to fix this Pinstrosity?...I guess we'll start making a watermark to put on our pictures...not that it will completely prevent this in the future, but maybe it'll help inhibit the action some. We knew we'd start doing a watermark sometime, but I didn't figure we'd have to for a while yet until we had more readers. Oh well. 

What can you do to help fix this? Don't just pin blindly. I try and open every pin before I pin it, that way I know if the link works, if it goes back to the original source, and I can be sure I'm not unknowingly spreading a pin that links to someone's porn site they created (I heard that's happened...sick people). I didn't do this at first when I joined Pinterest because I just didn't know...so I'm getting through all my pins making sure they all are legit. Some haven't been and they've been deleted. Some of my pins didn't hit the origianl source but I was able to track it down and find the real post to link the pin to. Blog and website writers/owners put hard work into their content, help give them credit and pin responsibly (that sounds like a Don't Drink and Drive ad, I know). 

Friday Forgotten Books, April 27, 2012

Friday's Forgotten Books is four years old this week!!! Thanks to all the people who have made it possible. I especially want to thank Bill Crider who has written a review every week for four years. That's 208 reviews. I remember still my surprise the second week we did this when he posted a second review. I never expected anyone to do it more than once. And I didn't expect it to last more than a few months.

Thanks also to Todd Mason who helps me when I am away either physically or mentally. And thanks to all the folks below--some of whom stand right behind Bill in the number of reviews they have done.
I didn't dream what devotion the people listed below have. I estimate we have reviewed in excess of 4000 books in those four years. On a personal note, I have enjoyed the people I have met in the real and virtual worlds though this and other projects. You guys are the best.

Friday, June 1 is Margaret Millar Day. Everyone is invited to write a review of her work.

Ed Gorman is the author of the Sam McCain series and the Dev Conrad series as well as multiple anthologies and westerns. You can find him here.

American Murders ed. by Jon and Rita Breen(no cover found)

Literary time travel

One of my fondest memories of growing up was reading the magazines my folks subscribed to. The Saturday Evening Post was great for western short stories and The American was even better for mysteries. To name just two.

In 1986 Jon and Rita Breen edited a fine anthology called American Murders which reprinted 11 short novels from the American Magazine(1934-1954). By now I've probably read and reread it cover to cover four or five times. For me it's literary time travel.

My favorites are those short novels published during the war years. I suppose this is true because they tally with my first memories of--everything. Dads abroad at war, Moms struggling with jobs and kids and ration books and the fear of a uniformed man knocking on the door with bad news. And popular culture of every sort vibrant and vital with propaganda.

One of the great war-time images in the Breen anthology occurs in "Murder Goes To Market" by Mignon Eberhardt. She writes of going shopping with her ration book to a then-new concept known as a Supermarket. The way she describes this place is almost science-fictional. My God--aisles! Shopping carts "that look like perabulators!" And the choice of "(carrying) your loot away in a paper bag or in a market basket or (letting) a boy carry it for you." Zounds!

This reminds me of the way John D. MacDonald highlighted air-conditioning so often in his pulps stories of the Forties and his early paperbacks of the Fifties. A revolution was at hand!

F. Paul Wilson once noted that detective stories give us "snapshots" of an era better than any other kind of fiction. I certainly agree.

llow authors who knew him and his work. Extraordinary!”

Patti Abbott

Ball Four, Jim Bouton
This was a book that was read and reread at our house thirty years ago. My son adored it and so did I. It was the first book about baseball that gave an accurate depiction of what went on in the clubhouse, what the players' lives were like, the finances of the game, the pressures put on players, the drugs, the womanizing.

Bouton recounted his year as a pitcher on the Seattle Pilots in 1969--the team's only year of play. It was a tumultuous year for the country as well and Bouton doesn't hesitate to give his views on everything.

Bowie Kuhn called the book detrimental to the game because it blew the fairy dust off. He tried to force Bouton to sign a statement saying the book was fictional, a baseball version of M*A*S*H.

Baseball players also came down hard on him. Pete Rose, that noble player, swore at him whenever he took the mound.

It was not a good year for Bouton on the field, and he is honest about that too. This was one of the great books about sports. That dogeared copy is one book I won't give away.

Sergio Angelini
Yvette Banek
Joe Barone
Brian Busby
Bill Crider
Scott Cupp
Martin Edwards
Jerry House
Randy Johnson
George Kelley
Margot Kinberg
B.V. Lawson
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis
Todd Mason
J.F. Norris
David Rachels
James Reasoner
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Bill Selnes
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple/Barry Ergang
TomCat
Prashant C. Trikannad
Wuthering Willow
Zybahn

Succulents

I've been painting a tiny bit these days. I'm planning a new series of planty paintings come July/August. Imagine succulents, native plants, leaves... And of course, I'm planning to do more foodie scarves too. I'm so so so excited to get down and start painting again. Just thinking of it makes my heart skip a beat. Come June, when I'm on Uni semester break, I'll be able to do just that! Spend all day long painting and instagrammin' all my paintings in progress. So much fun! Can't wait!

My Life at the Theater: THE RIDE DOWN MT. MORGAN

This was one of Arthur Miller's last plays and we saw it in Ann Arbor at the Performance Network in 2000. It concerned a bigamist, whose two wives confront each other when he is injured in a skying accident. The Performance Network is a lovely venue for plays-small, intimate and the quality is excellent.

As usual, Miller has meat in his plays although this was lighter than most. This played on Broadway with Patrick Stewart, who I imagine would be excellent. It was nominated for some Tonys too.

Never regret a Miller play and we will be seeing Death in two weeks from tonight with Philip Seymour Hoffman!

Film Noir for sale from Warner Archives

Hat tip to my friend Anthony Ambrogio who loves film noir as much as we do.

The Warner Archive features "made-to-order" DVDs -- not pressed but burned individually. Their prices are not as good as someplace like Deep Discount (but they offer titles that often can't be found anywhere else, and they sometimes have sales).

seeing spots

Blazer: Zara (similar style here); Dress: Unknown brand (love this polka dot and stripe combo dress); Bag: Zara; Shoes: Christian Louboutin; Sunglasses: Karen Walker; Jewelry: J. Crew chain necklace, Michael Kors watch

Phil's April Garden

PRIME SUSPECT

Nigel Bird talks about my poem Articulating Space for the 5-2 poetry tour. He is too kind as always.


We just watched again the first series from PRIME SUSPECT (1992) and were once again blown away by how good it was. Amazing considering you were pretty sure who the perpetrator was from the first minutes of the show. It strengths, of course, was first of all Mirren, creating an iconic character from the start. It was a top-notch script that played it straight-telling the story in a linear fashion. You always knew where you were. The script gave you just enough of her personal life to bring her alive. You could see what she was up against given the times and give her personality.

It was filmed brilliantly, with lots of great shots that seem cutting-edge even now. Montages of police work were especially powerful. I can't think of a better police drama before or since. Do you remember it?

Who else seized a recurring role from the first moment?

Jack Johnson on a Wednesday

currently craving: distressed jeans

Moto Bleached jeans from Topshop, $70

I think with a few more rips and tears, this already broken in pair of jeans from Topshop will be a nice (and much more affordable) alternative to the already infamous Acne pair. What do you guys think? DIY time?

Useless Ice

Scrolling through people's boards to find pins to test for when we are out of submissions (nudge nudge...we could use some Pinstrosity submissions...) I found the following:

The Original Pin

http://9gag.com/gag/2503324

Cool, no? I had to try it.

The Pinstrosity

Ok, this one's not technically a Pinstrosity, because it worked just like the instructions said it would...but once it was formed up...this was the most ridiculous cup. It held such a small amount of liquid...more like a large shot glass, it made my hand really cold, and then the heat from my hand melted the "glass" faster and I had water running down to my elbow and it made the cup super slippery. So I thought, I'll just stick it back in the mug and use it as a cool ice cube...well that worked, but it was kinda lame too since you just can't get much liquid in there anyway. So...you get an ice cup, just like the directions indicate, but it's kinda pointless and it makes such a mess as it melts! Regular ice cubes are way easier and much more practical. But if I were a kid, I probably would have thought this was the coolest thing ever.