Okay, You Asked For It

Only because you are so good to me am I actually putting a photo of me here so you can see the new me with my Inner Gamine. Normally I would give you a teaser of my right eye and a bit of hair but I know that won't cut it.

This photo was very kindly taken by an accommodating cable car driver on Powell Street this morning, who unfortunately did not capture my best angle, but it's a start. Ugh... I almost can't take this. My face looks like it weighs 500 pounds all by itself. (How does that happen? I might have to take this photo down. Ugh.)

So now you know what my new haircut looks like and you also have proof that I really do live in San Francisco because the cable car is a dead giveaway.

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Just got back from the Piraro show, where laughter abounded, and then I had a drink with The Boy and a friend at Tosca's called a White Nun (but for some reason I thought it was called a Fuzzy Nun--no matter, it was good) and on that note, I'll bid you a fond adieu.

Nitey-nite.

Short Comedy Public Announcement

For those of you (like me) who can use a serious dose of laughter AND you live near the city... (I mean this city.):

I wanted to let those of you in or near SF know that cartoonist/comedian/crazy guy Dan Piraro is back in town for "The Bizarro Baloney Show" at the Purple Onion in North Beach again. (I am sorry I have not had time to write a proper post and I'm still coasting on the last one and hoping you'll just look at the photos and old posts until I get my act together.)

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From the show write-up: Bizarro cartoonist Dan Piraro returns to the Bay Area with "The Bizarro Baloney Show," a one-man show featuring comedy, music, puppets and slides of his award-winning cartoon strip, which is seen daily in the San Francisco Chronicle. If you missed his sold-out show this past winter, you can see him now.

Piraro is the winner of three consecutive Reuben Awards from the National Cartoonists Society and his acclaimed cartoon "BIZARRO" runs internationally every day each week.

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For those of you who appreciate some smart and crazy humor and/or already read his cartoons, his show is a hilarious treat.

For those of you who don't know him, or can't get to the show, you can read more about him from this post I wrote a while back and then you can pretend like you were there, too.

ps. Is recycling posts good for the environment? At least I feel like I've accomplished something today.

pss. I even reused the cartoon, but it's so perfect for the state of affairs lately (former small-town mayors turned governor trying to ban books and fire librarians and all of that, my goodness!) that I had to reuse it.

Laughing Hard at The Purple Onion

I was going to call this post "Laughing My Ass Off at The Purple Onion," but then I thought that didn't sound very ladylike. But "Laughing Hard at The Purple Onion" isn't a very good title either because it just sounds like I was laughing at an onion that happened to be purple. Like I'm losing my mind in the produce section.

So I may re-title this post at some point in the future when I can say what I really mean.

What I really did mean to say is that:

1. I went to a comedy club in North Beach on Friday night (yes, back so soon) called The Purple Onion.
2. While I was at the comedy club, I laughed so hard that had I still been sick with the most recent cold, I probably would have coughed up a lung. (That is meant as a total compliment to the performers. I laughed really hard.)

The Purple Onion is one of those classic places where some really great comedy talent has taken the stage (Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, Mort Sahl) and when you walk down those crazy, narrow stairs to enter the club (I worry a little about the 2-drink minimum and going up the even crazier staircase to the ladies' room--someone is going to break an ankle there), you feel like maybe this is what it would be like to go to The Cavern Club, where the Beatles first played.

This club has some serious historic atmosphere. You can feel it coming out of the brick walls and low ceiling overhead (how charming to be in an old unreinforced brick basement in Earthquake City.)

***

Anyhoo, we went to see Dan Piraro, the creator of the comic Bizarro (and a subject of one of my favorite posts, The Food Baby). He's a syndicated cartoonist and I'm sure you've seen his work unless you have no sense of humor or you live in a place where the local newspaper has banned his work. He's incredibly warped, sarcastic and funny as hell, and he even finds the time to be a vegan and an animal-rights activist (although as a devoted carnivore, I will keep that information to myself).

The comic who opened for him, a local guy named Johnny Steele, was hilarious-- especially if you have grown up or lived in the Bay Area for a while.

The clip below is a mini-documentary about Dan and his art and his comedy. You can see parts of his previous show, some of the material he also used in this one. The best part of the night was when he read his hate mail to us, but unfortunately we don't get to see that on the clip. But you should watch it anyway--it's a cool little video. And if you think you'd like to see him, get on his mailing list.





Picture of The Purple Onion was something I should have taken myself if I had a proper camera, but instead I got it off of flickr from someone named Sophiesunset.

The Food Baby

The Boy has a friend named Dan who publishes a funny cartoon called Bizarro.

Last week he was telling me about one cartoon in particular that made him crack up. I don't have it here so you'll have to imagine it from the description.

Two women are sitting and talking. One woman has a pregnant belly. The other woman says to her friend: "Congratulations! When is the baby due?"

And the other woman says, patting her tummy, "Oh, I'm not pregnant. I just had lunch. This is my food baby."

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Let's just say we had some nice Food Babies at our house yesterday on Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to give mine up for adoption today.

For those of you who don't spend enough time on the internet already, here is another fun place to hang out (if you like to cook): The epicurious video website!

PS. I'm never organized enough to brine my turkey ahead of time, but this is the first year I injected it with butter, broth and spices...and let's just say this turkey was my best so far. Plus, you get to use this gigantic stainless steel syringe and you look like a crazy veterinarian. It's fun!