V.J. Erickson's Blog, page 28

My favorite show on television right now is Masterchef Australia. I’m on pins and needles this...

My favorite show on television right now is Masterchef Australia. I’m on pins and needles this final week. My vote is for Julia. Love her! 

I took these photos of downtown Manhattan a couple weeks ago. I...

I took these photos of downtown Manhattan a couple weeks ago. I love the design of the World Trade Center buildings and I’m excited to see them go up.

A street performer in Washington Square Park in NYC. I’ve...

A street performer in Washington Square Park in NYC. I’ve seen them with electronic keyboards, but a baby grand is a first for me. At first I thought it was some sort of scheduled park performance, but he had tip buckets and everything.

There’s some great curry around here and a Thai shop that takes delivery orders online, Little...

There’s some great curry around here and a Thai shop that takes delivery orders online, Little Buddha Thai, so it’s convenient AND delicious. Still, take-out isn’t cheap, so I’m working on creating my own version of curry.

First of all, I have no idea what should or should not go into curry. Is broccoli authentic? Answer: who cares! I just threw together a bunch of vegetables that sounded good to me.

Pictured here are garlic, onion, green peppers, button mushrooms, sugar snap peas, green beans, and broccoli. Not pictured: cubed red potatoes roasting in the oven with olive oil and garlic.

To that I added some chicken poached in chicken stock with garlic (again! you can never have too much garlic!). I like to poach chicken because it’s pretty fool proof for getting tender meat. I just bring the liquid (stock or water) to a boil with a chicken breast or two already in it and then remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 30 minutes. Hard to screw up, right? Moist and pulls apart easily with a fork.

I’m still working up to coming up with my own curry spice blend (baby steps!), so I use the curry mix that my mom used as a kid. I loved it then, but I find it a little bland for my taste now, so I upgraded to the hot stuff.

Here it is with the curry mix. Looking good!

Then I add in the potatoes from the oven. I do this last since it gives them a little bit of a crisp rather than the mushy texture they’d get from cooking in the curry mix. Probably not authentic, but I like it that way! Here it is served on rice. 

It turned out pretty well. I like that I can just throw in any vegetables that I like. It was still a little bland for me though, so I might look at adding some chilies or habanero peppers next time.

"Do you prefer “fashion victim” or “ensembly challenged”?"

“Do you prefer “fashion victim” or “ensembly challenged”?”

- Cher, Clueless

"This is what you do. You make a future for yourself out of the raw materials at hand."

““This is what you do. You make a future for yourself out of the raw materials at hand.””

- Michael Cunningham

The seven things I loved about... Pushing Daisies pt. 7

After only two short seasons, Pushing Daisies was cancelled. Here’s seven reason reasons why it was gone too soon.

I was torn at first as to what would take the number one spot. Should it be an ode to the star of stage and screen, Kristin Chenoweth? Or a tribute to the hard on the outside, soft-knit on the inside Emerson Cod? Either the adorkable Lee Pace as Ned or the demure British-with-a-killer-American-accent Anna Friel as Chuck could take their own post easily, though they did get to share #2. Digby, the loyal Golden Retriever, got a moment’s consideration as TV’s smartest dog this side of Lassie and Jim Dale as the narrator cannot be underestimated.

As I scoured the internet for pics and took screen captures of the show as I watched old episodes though, the true #1 became clear. On this front, no show has come close to rivaling Pushing Daisies. Not even Carrie Bradshaw’s fantastically-unaffordable couture can hold a candle to the real star of Pushing Daisies:

#1 The Hats

I mean really, feast your eyes on these. We have ladies hats:

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Men’s hats:

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There are theme hats:

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Hats for disguises:

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Costume hats:

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Does this count as a hat? I say yes:

Never before have we seen such a dazzling display of headgear. Or least, not outside of royal family coverage from England. But really, do we need more of this?

So that’s it, folks. Seven things I loved about Pushing Daisies. I could easily list seven more, but this is not the Pushing Daisies blog. Besides, there are other shows to flog to death… I mean feature. My better instincts tell me to focus on the more internet-friendly shows gone by, such as Arrested Development and Firefly, and while I agree that these ended way too soon, that point has been made. Instead, you can look forward to other shows you’ve barely heard of like The 4400, Todd Vs. the Book of Pure Evil, Invader Zim, The Fades, and Life is Short.

But not tomorrow. I’ve got some rewatching to do first! In the meantime, let’s all look forward to Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller’s upcoming reboot of The Munsters, Mockingbird Lane. Can’t wait to see those hats!

Image Sources:  Seat 42F, TV Guide, The Swelle Life, Buzz Sugar, A Lovely Shade of Nostalgia

"So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible."

““So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.””

- Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

The seven things I loved about... Pushing Daisies pt. 6

After only two short seasons, Pushing Daisies was cancelled. Here’s seven reason reasons why it was gone too soon.

#2 - The Chemistry

It is often said that the best on-screen romances are those where there’s a lingering will-they-or-won’t-they romantic tension. Ross and Rachel (Friends), Mulder and Scully (The X-Files), Carrie and Mr. Big (Sex and the City), Leonard and Penny (The Big Bang Theory), Buffy and Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel), Jim and Pam in the early years (The Office), and countless others are good examples of this. If they get together it is often tense and fleeting and in the best examples, they are either forever destined to be apart but in love (Buffy) or they draw it out as long as humanly possible (10 seasons and two character’s lifetimes for Ross and Rachel).

The relationship of Chuck and Ned follows the same formula. They are on until they are off, they live together than apart, but like Buffy and Angel, there are forces beyond their control that ensure that they can never quite have it all.

The twist that makes their relationship really sizzle in this case is that they cannot touch. Since Ned used his power to bring Chuck back from the dead, he cannot touch her again without permanently killing her. And you think your relationship has challenges! They find ways around it, but there’s always a sense of unfulfilled longing.

Chuck and Ned, kissing through cellophane

Because of this, the tensions are always high. Their love and human urges can never be completely consummated, so their affection for each other can never be anything but unfulfilled. So when they are intimate, it is always a pantomime of intimacy and there is always a literal physical barrier or distance between them. It’s this gap that actors Lee Pace and Anna Friel fill with longing looks and chemistry to spare.

This is as racy as it gets, folks.

We’ve all had that bedroom fantasy where we strip to our underwear and have dead insects poured onto us that burst to life on contact, right? 

There are subtle sexual metaphors to be found, but you’ll never have to embarrass yourselves trying to explain it to your kids, since these innuendos are harmless and even silly, much like everything else about this much-missed show.

Last one’s tomorrow, folks. Check this spot for my #1 reason to miss Pushing Daisies!

This lemon beagle lives up to his breed’s name.

This lemon beagle lives up to his breed’s name.