I really must stop getting involved in deals and bets that result in me, baking. Tonight, with the Scissor Sisters, and Otis Redding, and The Cure, I have been baking spiral tarts and cooking up a very large batch of pineapple jam for Cheryl’s Chinese New Year party tomorrow. If Colin Goh doesn’t show, I am packing up my tarts and heading home. I will pick up a copy of Us magazine on the way back to Brooklyn, and then I will sit down and read it four times from beginning to end while eating every single last buttery tart-cookie, each topped with a dollop of golden pineapple jam. And it will feel goo-oo-ood.
(The Us magazine story isn’t an Us magazine story so much as it is a Hollywood story, and the Hollywood story is this: Last night Kat and I were talking about something, which led to our talking about something, which led to our talking about Angelina Jolie, whereupon I said I didn’t think Angelina Jolie was so incredibly beautiful, and Kat said that (a) in fact Angelina Jolie is so incredibly beautiful and (2) if she were a Hollywood person, she would want to be Angelina Jolie. Of course this led to Top Ten lists of which Hollywood women we might want to be, but my Top Ten list only numbers six, of which two are Scarlett Johansson. Said Top Ten list goes like this, in order of nothing: Gwyneth Paltrow, Selma Blair, Claire Danes, Scarlett Johansson, Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett.)
I’m beat. This week’s work included reading and reading and reading, and then staying up till three one morning working on my thesis proposal before handing it in to my advisors the next day. Still, it’s not like it’s been all work and no play; Jill is not a dull girl. Thursday afternoon Tom and I sat on the Low Library steps in the sun. In the middle of a sentence, Tom interrupted himself to say, “That guy just got attacked by a piece of trash.” In front of us, a hapless Chinese dude was trying to shake off some crumpled newsprint clinging to his khakis. A white pigeon came and looked at us, then a rainbow-sheened pigeon came and looked at us. It was kind of perfect, actually.
posted by stellou at 4:57 AM
9 Comments:
What about Julia Stiles?
I hope the party goes well. I expect a full report!!
i thought you would also be maggie gyllenhaal. but you know, if you were kirsten dunst, you would have jake!!!
tym: no, no, no julia stiles. we don't care so much about julia stiles. she is only okay, even if you take into account that movie when she learns how to dance like a black person. how many times have i said i would happily trade julia stiles for natalie portman as a fellow student? ...well, at least once. oh, which reminds me, i want to add natalie portman to my top ten list.
cc: ok, yah! i am also adding maggie gyllenhaal. where is my top ten now? like, seven? oh, fine, i suppose i will also add uma thurman, but she seems so...inaccessible. i mean, if there is someone who is really, really not uma thurman, it is me. i don't know if we are doing fantasy fantasy life or fantasy real life. like, y'know, it is within the realm of possibility that i might be selma blair, but really not so much uma thurman, i mean, come on, let's be a little realistic about this.
also, p.s., i remember now that i think i also added liv tyler yesterday when jason and i were on the 1 train downtown.
hey, we added liv tyler to our lists collectively on thursday night. :)
went to the ballet last night and was so intrigued by these antiquated notions of feminity -- these gaunt women, ribs and cheekbones on full display, who you know in your head are strong and athletic women, but on stage remind you so much of does (is that the correct plural? baby deer?) and i just was again thinking about our conversation and how i think current women are strong and sexy and beautiful and comfortable in their skin and, in the extreme, almost like predators... whereas the ballerinas were all so graceful and doe-like that they just seemed more like prey. and, like, 100 years ago they were the "it" girls in society, the embodiment of everything a woman would want to be... and they were prey. yah.
so my list includes (in no particular order): angelina jolie, sharon stone, nigella lawson, cate blanchett, liv tyler, catherine zeta jones, michelle pfeiffer, maybe julianne moore... i'll think on it more for ye.
ok, also adding natalie portman. and the original list also included nicole kidman in gowns. but i wouldn't want to be nicole kidman otherwise, just when she's in the pretty gowns at oscar time. just to clarify.
I really like the Scissor Sisters and am interested in this thing called spiral tarts. More info please!?!
And my list always includes Liv Tyler. She has been my favourite since that movie made in Italy. If only I could be so leggy!
She would be the embodiment of a strong sexy woman who is comfortable in her own skin. And still doe-like no?
Scarlett is also a favourite.
But what about these spiral tarts...
Kat: Someone hasn't been watching her "Sound of Music"... I believe the song goes a little something like: Doe, a deer, a female deer. Thank you, we'll be here all ze week. :-p No, but, so, I think you're thinking "fawn." (I had to look that up. My first thought was "veal." Ha-HA.)
Also, I think gaunt women with ribs and cheekbones are still totally "it" and high fashion, no?
And (c), re: lady predators, are you thinking of Madonna's arms right now?
I thought I was done, but point #4 has just occured to me, which is, why isn't there a deodorant called "LadyPredator?" The canister could be pink, but with, like, black claw marks. After all...it's a jungle out there. Someone get this girl a marketing gig!
Saffron ~
The spiral tarts...mmmm, so good. My mum used to make them, well, she still does, every Chinese New Year. They're these little biscuity things, I guess, rather than tart tarts, but whatever. You make them in paper petit-four cups, piping the pastry mixture in a spiral pattern from the bottom up and out. They're a fiddly bitch to make, but once you get the hang of it it's easy peasy. And then, if you are my family, you top them with a dollop of pineapple jam just before serving. Sometimes "just before serving" simply means "just before putting it in your mouth while you stand at the kitchen counter." Sometimes you run out of pineapple jam, and then things get a little crazy. My mum wouldn't endorse this, but I have been known to go Nutella. Nutella gets a little claggy, though, so I still vote for some kind of jam. Or cream, oh, we likes cream.
(Now I don't know whether "claggy" is the word I mean, but it is the word I feel. It is like, a thickness. It makes your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth. If you try to separate your tongue from the roof of your mouth, the sound that may result may be: tchluck.)
I don't know where we got the spiral tarts recipe, but knowing my mum, chances are goodish it's from a Christian girls' comic book from her heady youth in Taiping, Malaysia. I'll e-mail you the tart recipe. The pineapple jam recipe is: Process pineapples in a blender, cook in a pot, adding sugar and cloves and star anise to taste, stir and stir and stir, and maybe six hours later, when you're about to fall over from weariness and the concoction is thick and golden, you're good to go.
Now I have to go ROCK IT RIGHT THIS SECOND because the Scissor Sisters on "Laura" makes me feel CUH-RAY-ZEE good.
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