omg mechoui
we got to experience mechoui at marrakesh tonight! from their website: Mechoui is a whole sheep cooked in a spit over a charcoal fire. Choose half or a quarter of a side. This is a highly Esteemed national dish which is generally prepared by a "Chouaye" (a professional cook), who delivers it piping hot. One then only has to season the pieces with a little cumin and salt, and enjoy the result. 8 persons or more, three days notice. i've been there many times for their royale feast, but never for mechoui as we never had enough people. finally i've now introduced enough folks to marrakesh that they were willing to go in for it.
four of the five courses were the same as the feast (fine by me, really, since i was craving them all day), but the main course was... omg. they brought this one enormous platter, & heaped upon it was a huge pile of roasted chunks of spice-rubbed lamb, on the bones, with no fat. the meat fell apart so easily, & melted in your mouth like dark chocolate. there were a couple plates of couscous & some other items on the table too, but no one could stop eating the lamb. & between bites i had to keep exclaiming how good it was - as much as i dearly love meals where i get to have lots of different bites of lots of different foods, this lamb was extraordinary & i wanted for nothing.
it's not a meal to have often, & we were all struck stupid by the indulgence, but holy hell that was exceptional. $400 well spent.
afterwords, "the human centipede 2" was playing at the local indie theatre. joe & i were the only ones brave enough to continue on to it, but we went & it was AWESOME. much better than the first one, especially when watched in the proper raucous, irreverent environment. someone actually fainted in our theatre during one of the gorier parts! best heckle of the show (worry not, no spoilers coming) was when the head of the centipede was disrespectful to the, er, surgeon, & someone shouted in a threatening tone, "i will put a butt on your face so fast!" :D
on that note, the food logging continues:
i got a great deal on some filet mignon at the grocery store, so i seared one rare tonight & it came out beautifully soft & buttery. i also made some basil & garlic lacinato kale & a fresh spiced roma - all ingredients from our organic bin delivery (spices too). 339cal, 7g carb, 45g protein, & lotsa green leafy vitamin A.
& sliced after it rested:
i wanted a massive salad yesterday, but a hair client running long took that away. so tonight it was organic romaine, cucumber, red pepper, mushrooms, carrot, heirloom tomato, celery, radish, bean sprouts, & a delicious heap of sweet prawns. 335 cal, 33g carb, 46g protein, 11g fiber, all my A, all my C, half my iron & 2200mg potassium. mmmm so satisfied.
finally back to stocking up on meals! this week's is apple chicken sausage, organic eggplant, carrots, white onion, sweet potato, zucchini & yellow squash, black beans, garlic, basil, & olive oil. i used breakfast sausages this time - same quantity, faster to cook & easier to slice - & saved nearly an hour by roasting the eggplant in the oven & cooking the carrots & onions in my steamer instead of in the pan. 245 calories in 426 grams, 32g carb, 22g protein, over 8g fiber, almost triple my vitamin A, half my C, & 1000mg potassium.
& so does the, uh, jewelry logging? sure!
what is THIS? a SURPRISE?! - http://stretched.livejournal.com/5601888.html:
i didn't think about this stone as plugs until atrophie talked to me about a pair she commissioned from relic in april of 2009. i contacted leo around then, but he said that 1/2" is the largest he could possibly make, as the stone just crumbles at bigger sizes. i went the next-best route & bought some 20mm cabs on ebay, & glued them to acrylic bases. in doing the work, i found that leo was right - it disintegrated pretty readily into flashy rock salt.
middlewoodland had known about this particular daydream for about a year. last month, i received an email out of nowhere: You have NO IDEA what you are about to see. after some back & forth to the tune of "show me!@" "OMGZ" "#@!$!", i was sent a video of epic proportions...
...but i'm getting ahead of myself.
so my DIY job was decent, but i rarely wore them - the cabs were too large out the front, & felt awkward in my ears. i eventually sold them, purchased more labradorite & tried to forget about rainbow moonstone.
then brian's spectacular black moonstone came into my collection, & it got me thinking about rainbow again. i gave him the challenge in october of 2010 & expected nothing of it. a couple of times over the past year he mentioned it, but offhandedly: I'll be real interested to work with it and see how it goes.. I really can't wait to explore it and see what the deal is.
in january of this year, brian wrote of two large raw rainbow moonstone chunks he acquired:
The surfaces are very rough (like broken rock) and there are rainbows there but I can't necessarily grind down to a flat surface and still have that rainbow. So I pretty much have to start cutting slabs totally blind and hoping to find a nice patch of rainbow.. I still have a lot of exploring and figuring-out to do with it as I have been in black moonstone land instead for quite awhile. But overall, it seems promising at this point of the exploration.
he wasn't kidding, either. check out the rough. can you imagine rooting through this for flash?
& yet brian was still able to make me a wonderful full set! brian's pics of his accomplishment follow:
the stone's beauty even when it's NOT flashing is what's really making my head spin. they're everything i always wanted white jade to be. & look at this ridiculous thing - somehow both right-ear plugs ended up with a matching crescent of white in the rainbow schiller. omg, i love it.
& the backs have a touch of flash, too:
brian continued to detail:
I only have 3 chunks of rough, well 2 now actually and the color is only spotty here and there in patches. I have no idea what might lay inside the rock and cutting into it is a blind adventure. It's highly possible to come into the color at the wrong angle like 90-degrees- wrong for example because you just cant see where it is in the rock if at all. Furthermore, one can never tell how deep the flash runs. I cut a spool out from the surface of the rough where some great color was showing. Once I leveled out the plug, the color was -gone-. That was many hours of work for nothin. But as you will see from these the color runs to the back of the plug. So ya just can't tell when working with the rough.
here's a set i took under my lamp:
& the seattle sun even came out long enough for a pic:
brian's right plug macro shot:
& my best left plug shot:
oh btw, note there's like a dozen colors in that left plug haha
Finding large pieces such as this was a rarity and I have not seen any since. It seems that most of the great rough is kept in India and commercially cabbed out. I plan to contact the supplier I dealt with to see if he might happen to have any more laying around, but he's my only chance at this point. Otherwise, I may be able to get a few more pairs out of the two chunks I have left and that might be it for awhile.
tl;dr: if you want a pair, you'd better ask quick! :)
& my in-ears - flashing:
not flashing:
& proof of best angle:
more info for anyone who's interested in this sort of thing - i asked brian about the black areas in the plugs, which i couldn't find any specifics about online. his response:
Everywhere I look, its black schorl tourmaline. But I have my doubts about that because tourmaline is supposed to be a hardness of 7 and this definitely was not. The grinder went real quiet when I hit the black which makes me think it was 'soft' like a 3. It was quiet to file as well. Also, on the rough, the black flakes off like mica. Therefore, I really really think it is black mica or 'biotite'. When I check the hardness on that, I see it is 2.5 to 3. Yes, that sounds right to me. 3 in this case because it was not overly soft either. You cannot scratch it with your fingernail or anything like that.
ok, for reading through all that text (or paging through it, i suppose!@) you are hereby rewarded with a video:
brian concluded with I'M INCREDIBLY STOKED TO HAVE ACHIEVED THIS FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, & i must say i'm equally stoked to have this achieved for me. :D :D :D the card in the package even notes "first 3/4 pair in existence!" thanks again, you crazy magician!
lindsay said i'm totally power hungry - http://stretched.livejournal.com/5603008.html:
once again holesandcuts & i crossed paths. he requested pics of a new pair of orange/brown GG power plugs, & they're wonderful. i basically hate orange, so i wasn't that interested... except that i kept thinking of them as the day went on & they remained unpurchased. fortunately, blake decided to pass in the same minute that i decided i wanted them, so everyone's happy. :)
BAF's pic:
& my pics with a painted match:
i had to make the match a little differently - sometimes i'm able to lay down a solid color & paint over it, but this one had swirly depth in the brown. i did my best to match that. :)
it's very important, even more so than usual, how these are positioned in-ear. here's why:
cthulhu, surya mudra, an anglerfish, & a saber tooth tiger all make an appearance in here somehow! :D
in-ears:
i like them as much as i hoped i would, & they have a nice "autumn" feeling. they're only the second pair of true orange in my collection (with orange opal dichro, which shows half blue).
oh, & a couple of updated in-ears. apparently i only ever photographed one ear for each of these. :) first up, elektroplugs, with a DIY circuit board match:
i haven't seen anyone else comment on or show the reflector qualities in the boards, so i shot that too:
in-ears:
& my maelstrom labs purple paua in ebony, DIY on abalone match:
in-ears:
enjoy!
& a couple of other things i posted this month. you'rrrre welcome.
four of the five courses were the same as the feast (fine by me, really, since i was craving them all day), but the main course was... omg. they brought this one enormous platter, & heaped upon it was a huge pile of roasted chunks of spice-rubbed lamb, on the bones, with no fat. the meat fell apart so easily, & melted in your mouth like dark chocolate. there were a couple plates of couscous & some other items on the table too, but no one could stop eating the lamb. & between bites i had to keep exclaiming how good it was - as much as i dearly love meals where i get to have lots of different bites of lots of different foods, this lamb was extraordinary & i wanted for nothing.
it's not a meal to have often, & we were all struck stupid by the indulgence, but holy hell that was exceptional. $400 well spent.
afterwords, "the human centipede 2" was playing at the local indie theatre. joe & i were the only ones brave enough to continue on to it, but we went & it was AWESOME. much better than the first one, especially when watched in the proper raucous, irreverent environment. someone actually fainted in our theatre during one of the gorier parts! best heckle of the show (worry not, no spoilers coming) was when the head of the centipede was disrespectful to the, er, surgeon, & someone shouted in a threatening tone, "i will put a butt on your face so fast!" :D
on that note, the food logging continues:
i got a great deal on some filet mignon at the grocery store, so i seared one rare tonight & it came out beautifully soft & buttery. i also made some basil & garlic lacinato kale & a fresh spiced roma - all ingredients from our organic bin delivery (spices too). 339cal, 7g carb, 45g protein, & lotsa green leafy vitamin A.
& sliced after it rested:
i wanted a massive salad yesterday, but a hair client running long took that away. so tonight it was organic romaine, cucumber, red pepper, mushrooms, carrot, heirloom tomato, celery, radish, bean sprouts, & a delicious heap of sweet prawns. 335 cal, 33g carb, 46g protein, 11g fiber, all my A, all my C, half my iron & 2200mg potassium. mmmm so satisfied.
finally back to stocking up on meals! this week's is apple chicken sausage, organic eggplant, carrots, white onion, sweet potato, zucchini & yellow squash, black beans, garlic, basil, & olive oil. i used breakfast sausages this time - same quantity, faster to cook & easier to slice - & saved nearly an hour by roasting the eggplant in the oven & cooking the carrots & onions in my steamer instead of in the pan. 245 calories in 426 grams, 32g carb, 22g protein, over 8g fiber, almost triple my vitamin A, half my C, & 1000mg potassium.
& so does the, uh, jewelry logging? sure!
what is THIS? a SURPRISE?! - http://stretched.livejournal.com/5601888.html:
i didn't think about this stone as plugs until atrophie talked to me about a pair she commissioned from relic in april of 2009. i contacted leo around then, but he said that 1/2" is the largest he could possibly make, as the stone just crumbles at bigger sizes. i went the next-best route & bought some 20mm cabs on ebay, & glued them to acrylic bases. in doing the work, i found that leo was right - it disintegrated pretty readily into flashy rock salt.
middlewoodland had known about this particular daydream for about a year. last month, i received an email out of nowhere: You have NO IDEA what you are about to see. after some back & forth to the tune of "show me!@" "OMGZ" "#@!$!", i was sent a video of epic proportions...
Click to view...but i'm getting ahead of myself.
so my DIY job was decent, but i rarely wore them - the cabs were too large out the front, & felt awkward in my ears. i eventually sold them, purchased more labradorite & tried to forget about rainbow moonstone.
then brian's spectacular black moonstone came into my collection, & it got me thinking about rainbow again. i gave him the challenge in october of 2010 & expected nothing of it. a couple of times over the past year he mentioned it, but offhandedly: I'll be real interested to work with it and see how it goes.. I really can't wait to explore it and see what the deal is.
in january of this year, brian wrote of two large raw rainbow moonstone chunks he acquired:
The surfaces are very rough (like broken rock) and there are rainbows there but I can't necessarily grind down to a flat surface and still have that rainbow. So I pretty much have to start cutting slabs totally blind and hoping to find a nice patch of rainbow.. I still have a lot of exploring and figuring-out to do with it as I have been in black moonstone land instead for quite awhile. But overall, it seems promising at this point of the exploration.
he wasn't kidding, either. check out the rough. can you imagine rooting through this for flash?
& yet brian was still able to make me a wonderful full set! brian's pics of his accomplishment follow:
the stone's beauty even when it's NOT flashing is what's really making my head spin. they're everything i always wanted white jade to be. & look at this ridiculous thing - somehow both right-ear plugs ended up with a matching crescent of white in the rainbow schiller. omg, i love it.
& the backs have a touch of flash, too:
brian continued to detail:
I only have 3 chunks of rough, well 2 now actually and the color is only spotty here and there in patches. I have no idea what might lay inside the rock and cutting into it is a blind adventure. It's highly possible to come into the color at the wrong angle like 90-degrees- wrong for example because you just cant see where it is in the rock if at all. Furthermore, one can never tell how deep the flash runs. I cut a spool out from the surface of the rough where some great color was showing. Once I leveled out the plug, the color was -gone-. That was many hours of work for nothin. But as you will see from these the color runs to the back of the plug. So ya just can't tell when working with the rough.
here's a set i took under my lamp:
& the seattle sun even came out long enough for a pic:
brian's right plug macro shot:
& my best left plug shot:
oh btw, note there's like a dozen colors in that left plug haha
Finding large pieces such as this was a rarity and I have not seen any since. It seems that most of the great rough is kept in India and commercially cabbed out. I plan to contact the supplier I dealt with to see if he might happen to have any more laying around, but he's my only chance at this point. Otherwise, I may be able to get a few more pairs out of the two chunks I have left and that might be it for awhile.
tl;dr: if you want a pair, you'd better ask quick! :)
& my in-ears - flashing:
not flashing:
& proof of best angle:
more info for anyone who's interested in this sort of thing - i asked brian about the black areas in the plugs, which i couldn't find any specifics about online. his response:
Everywhere I look, its black schorl tourmaline. But I have my doubts about that because tourmaline is supposed to be a hardness of 7 and this definitely was not. The grinder went real quiet when I hit the black which makes me think it was 'soft' like a 3. It was quiet to file as well. Also, on the rough, the black flakes off like mica. Therefore, I really really think it is black mica or 'biotite'. When I check the hardness on that, I see it is 2.5 to 3. Yes, that sounds right to me. 3 in this case because it was not overly soft either. You cannot scratch it with your fingernail or anything like that.
ok, for reading through all that text (or paging through it, i suppose!@) you are hereby rewarded with a video:
brian concluded with I'M INCREDIBLY STOKED TO HAVE ACHIEVED THIS FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, & i must say i'm equally stoked to have this achieved for me. :D :D :D the card in the package even notes "first 3/4 pair in existence!" thanks again, you crazy magician!
lindsay said i'm totally power hungry - http://stretched.livejournal.com/5603008.html:
once again holesandcuts & i crossed paths. he requested pics of a new pair of orange/brown GG power plugs, & they're wonderful. i basically hate orange, so i wasn't that interested... except that i kept thinking of them as the day went on & they remained unpurchased. fortunately, blake decided to pass in the same minute that i decided i wanted them, so everyone's happy. :)
BAF's pic:
& my pics with a painted match:
i had to make the match a little differently - sometimes i'm able to lay down a solid color & paint over it, but this one had swirly depth in the brown. i did my best to match that. :)
it's very important, even more so than usual, how these are positioned in-ear. here's why:
cthulhu, surya mudra, an anglerfish, & a saber tooth tiger all make an appearance in here somehow! :D
in-ears:
i like them as much as i hoped i would, & they have a nice "autumn" feeling. they're only the second pair of true orange in my collection (with orange opal dichro, which shows half blue).
oh, & a couple of updated in-ears. apparently i only ever photographed one ear for each of these. :) first up, elektroplugs, with a DIY circuit board match:
i haven't seen anyone else comment on or show the reflector qualities in the boards, so i shot that too:
in-ears:
& my maelstrom labs purple paua in ebony, DIY on abalone match:
in-ears:
enjoy!
& a couple of other things i posted this month. you'rrrre welcome.
