the world is your acorn

I mean, come on. How can you NOT buy it?

I’m freaking exhausted, but The Little Red Haired Girl and I had the best time last night. We had tickets to go see Indigo Girls and Brandi Carlile on Jan 27 in Birmingham, AL with our New Little Buddies, but someone was sick and the show was postponed. So the rescheduled show was last night, and even though it was a school night and Bham is wicked far away The Little Red Haired Girl and I went anyway. Man, was it worth it. The theater was TINY, so even though we were in row O we could practically spit on the stage. Not that we did. Or wanted to. But when Brandi played her little no-mic game we could actually hear her and the twins. She played a great set, and I’m pretty sure everyone in the audience who hadn’t heard of her (surprisingly many) bought all of her CDs.

Anyway, Indigo Girls. They were fantastic. They played for about 2 hours, bringing Brandi up for a bunch of songs, which was really fun. They played the perfect mix of new and old stuff, including Romeo and Juliet, Tried to be True, Prince of Darkness, and World Falls. There were lots of good sing-alongs, although sometimes we felt like we had to make up for the slightly dead audience. Maybe it was just from our perspective, but the crowd was not as excited as we were. No standing up and dancing until the last song of the set and the encore, which is the weirdest thing ever. But IG and Brandi seemed to be having fun anyway, and toward the end Amy apologized for playing so long. As if.

I’m glad we went. I wish I’d gotten a better picture, but I’ll remember it in my little head. Our New Little Buddies will be sad to have missed it, I think, but we’ll be sure to rub it in next time we see them. Well, maybe we’ll just thank them for convincing us to buy the tickets in the first place.

This coming Friday and Saturday, Dr. James Kakalios is coming to The Parthenon to give his talk, “The Physics of Super Heroes.” He talks about some of the things that we associate with particular superheroes and the physics behind those feats. I guess the talk comes out of research he did for his book of the same title. Sounds neat, right? You get two chances to go hear his talk, and it’s free!

Details:

Friday, February 8, 2008 at 7pm
or
Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 10am
FREE and open to the public, but seating is limited.
Call The Parthenon at 862-8431 for reservations.

From the press release:

The Parthenon enlightens comic book fans and students of all ages, answering the question “Could the Super Heroes such as Super Man, Spider-Man and Wonder Woman really do that?” University of Minnesota professor and author Dr. James Kakalios presents his popular lecture, The Physics of Super Heroes based on his book by the same title on Friday, February 8 at 7:00pm and repeated for teachers and physics students at 10:00am on Saturday, February 9th. A limited number of books (The Physics of Super Heroes) will be available for sale and autographs.

Fraggle Rock. On iTunes. Now.

“Fraggles and Farscape come to iTunes!” [Via tuaw.com]

I found this out on Wednesday, but have not been able to bring myself to talk about it. It’s just so sad. The Yankee Doodle in New Haven closed this week. It’s understandable, they just can’t make enough money. A bunch of folks are trying to “save the doodle,” and it looks like the owners are accepting donations, so maybe there is still hope.

If you don’t know, the Doodle was this tiny diner-type restaurant over by the Broadway strip. Basically you walked in the door and there was a counter running to the back, and enough room to either sit at the counter or stand behind someone sitting at the counter.

The first time I went was as a high school student; my advisor then was a Yale alum, and thought it a travesty for his students never to have experienced the Doodle. So one day he arranged for us all to meet over there for lunch. The place was packed, so that people were standing and eating or waiting outside the door for their food to be ready to take away.

It’s hard to describe why the place was so great. Clearly, part of it was that it was family-owned and operated, so the same folks were always behind the counter and they got to know you. But for me, it was the food. They had a small menu, but everything they made was delicious. Mostly I think of the hamburgers. There’s nothing like it. They scoop some chopped onions onto the burger before pressing it into the grill. Then they butter up the bun and toast that in the hamburger grease. When those things are done they top it with mystery barbecue sauce that is strange and chunky and delicious. There were other things too, that are part of Doodle legend. Like the doughnuts that they slice in half, grill in the hamburger grease, then serve with cold vanilla ice cream. Or the muffins that they slather with butter, then, of course, grill in the hamburger grease. Egg sandwiches. Omelets. Freaking delicious. And, they’d open early enough on Saturday mornings that we’d be able to get hamburgers for breakfast on our way to rugby games.

Then there were the burger eating contests. Who doesn’t have a friend who took “The Doodle Challenge,” trying to beat the most recent record of number of burgers eaten in an hour, only to end up puking in the bucket placed outside the door for these occasions?

I’m just sad it’s gone. Lady E and I went to their website as soon as I found out to see if we could get some Doodle paraphernalia, and we ordered some. It’s hard to believe that next time we go back to The Haves there will be no burgers or doughnuts or muffins. Sad.