The weekend of parking absurdities

Saturday.
I had a morning appointment with a friend and like usual I was running late, so I drove. I parked on the street in trendy borough swimming with yuppies and upscale stores. For the most part, I don't venture here, and prefer not to drive in this area, particularly on the weekends, because there are too many people and parking is always expensive and a hassle.

Turns out, if you park on the street here, there is a 3 hour limit. I don't know if its just the neighborhood or this could be a city by-law, I don't know, but its a pain having to run back to the meter to feed another $2 a hour into the machine. When I arrived, I paid for the maximum time of 3 hours. When I returned, 3 hours and 5 minutes after I paid, I arrived to find a bright yellow ticket on my car. The ticket was issued exactly five minutes after my parking stub expired. Oh Crap.

Sunday.
I go to dinner in the same neighbourhood. You'd think I would have learned.
This time, I'm even that more deviant. I park 30 minutes past the meter. Daring, I know. Who would think that I would get 2 tickets in 2 days? Clearly, not me.

I am rewarded with another bright yellow ticket. Double Crap.

So here's the kicker....each of these tickets came with a $30 bill. Which when you do the math on each ticket, works out to 15 times what I paid for one hour of parking. Are you kidding me?

Am I the only one who thinks this is absurd?

A random note about lettuce.

Lettuce is one of those vegetables, I struggle to appreciate. I'm sure it has value, its green so that means its got nutrients.... right? didn't we learn about that in grade six science?

The thing with lettuce, is its sort of under the radar in terms of taste. There really is not alot of it. And then theres the texture. Its almost anti-climactic. It can be crunchy, but under the wrong conditions, it goes soggy. I don't like soggy vegetables. I know, its weird. Not to say I don't like cooked vegetables, but I don't like it when a vegetable is meant to remain crisp, becomes soggy and gross.

Let me explain.

Lettuce for example, is one of those vegetables that needs to be crisp. When heat is applied to it, it acquires this rather disgusting, slimy texture. It becomes limp and lazy, you can see through it. When you dare to bite into it, when it is in this undesirable state, its anti-climactic, it has no crunch, it sort of just slides out of whatever you are eating. Gross.

Nachos are the perfect example of a dish to avoid using lettuce. You take chips, cover them with cheese, and assorted other things, heat them up, and voila...crunchy food.... for the most part. Add lettuce to this mixture and you have these globs of green sliding all over the place. Just wrong.....(and as a side note...does anyone know why people use shredded lettuce on nachos? I don't get it, and its one of my biggest pet peeves....again, weird, I know.)

The ironic example, perhaps an exception to my rule, is lettuce and chicken in a salad. If the chicken is not too hot when you add it to the salad, it doesn't have the opportunity to change the crispness of the lettuce. For some reason it doesn't always go soggy. Maybe its the dressing that cools it down, who knows the physics of it, I was an arts major...... I just know it doesn't always go gross.

When I was travelling this fall, I tried a Cobb Salad. I eat a lot of salad but usually not with lettuce. It is a rare occassion when I try a lettuce salad with some sort of hot item in it, namely meat. But I tried this one and I liked it. For the uninitiated, a Cobb salad, has romaine lettuce, hard boiled eggs chopped up, pieces of bacon, pieces of chicken, avocado, tomato, chives, chunks of blue cheese, covered in a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard. (I know this only because I looked it up after I got home, and have spent the last few months experimenting with my own versions of it.) I'm guessing this salad is not very good for you, given the amount of protein and fat, but its yummy just the same. And my discovery of this dish, has made me a hypocrite to my own code on lettuce. Celebrate my food hypocrisy and try this one, its really good.

What's Love Got to do with it?

Recently, I re-watched a movie I enjoy "Whats love got to do with it?", the Tina Turner story based on her autobiography "I, Tina". She has had an interesting journey in life, and shes a woman of resilience, strength and determination. The film is well acted and the way the story is constructed for the screen keeps a good pace for the viewer and incorporates a good number of performance scenes. The thing I find with a lot of bio pics about musical groups is the performance scenes are generally where the story sometimes falls apart. Integrating the performance scenes is a delicate balance I think. Some filmmakers splice partial performance scenes in with some of the dramatic events. It doesn't always come off effectively. In WLGTDWI, theres a balance of full performance scenes, and some scenes which are just a few moments of them performing clipped together to show the passage of time. The style works in the films favour.

Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne compliment each other in their performances. They have great chemistry and their strong acting skills bring you into the world of Tina & Ike. Incidentally both were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, the year the film came out. Their acting partnership has continued over at least 2 other films - Boyz in the Hood (another great film), and Akeelah and the Bee. I love Tina's music, the stuff she did with Ike in the first part of her career, and much of the post-Ike creations. She is adaptable in her music styles, but beyond that she brings a unique sound, and a talent and enjoyment of performance.

In 2008, I went to see Tina perform. What an experience! She sold out three shows. She had no openers. Just her and the audience for three hours. She had an elaborate stage, but her show is a performance, not just her dancing to the music. She sets a scene, and tailors her acts to the music that she is singing. Her vocals are still great, and her voice hits you like this force of nature. Maybe it is the passion she sings with, but I am in awe.

Her more recent material has a new sound, but resonates those distinct vocals. I realize she has moved beyond her music with Ike, but it was an integral part of her early success and her time with him I think must have shaped some of who she is. One of my favourite Ike and Tina songs was Proud Mary. (In my opinion, still hands down a better version than the Creedence version, which is also solid). Maybe this song is hard for her to perform, as it was one of the ones she used to do with Ike, but she still does it. As one of her encores. she played this song. And wow......is she ever an incredible artist. She proved again she still has it. She is almost 70, she has legs of steel and she can still do her trademark dance for that song. Pretty awesome.

At the end of the show, we heard that it was her 50th year in music (she started in 1958). It's no suprise when you consider the way she conducts herself. This woman is a class act. I have been to hundreds of concerts - I have never seen a performer express gratitude like this woman. She literally thanked every person, by name, who contributed to the success of the evening. So many people who reach her level don't spend time acknowledging how others have shaped their success, I see this as one of her greatest strengths. She has lived a life with its fair share of challenges and found the strength, courage and resilience to not only survive, but to thrive and create these awesome pieces of music that she has shared with the world. Thank you Tina, you are still the Queen.