blogonhoy | pauline orendain

18.2.08

The Road Home

The Road Home, originally uploaded by pauloy.

A stormy day on a drive home. Menacing clouds engulfed the desert landscape; bathed in eerie light and exploding pockets of sun fighting to shine its final rays upon the gathering twilit sky

22.1.08

nowhere to go but down; on juno, payard and kenya

One thing about escalating build-up is the inevitable tumble into disappointment thereafter. Case in point: the film Juno. OK, so acerbic wit and the great use of the word "vag" aside, it was too feel goody-goody. Yes, life begs the question can two people ever stay together forever – well yes, maybe, but with great difficulty and life is never so sweet and smug and properly fitted with a young mother-to-be beaming with awe, wonder and disbelief at her newly born son, not biologically hers, while two high schoolers get off the hook so easily from becoming "ill-equipped" yet in love with each other teenage parents. Bah. I'm just a pessimist. So call me Cassandra.

Another case in point: Payard Pâtisserie and Bistro at Caesar's Palace. After months of work staring at layout placement images of Hazelnut Succès, proofreading menus and considering price points of entrées (average, 20-some odd dollars), I had to go and taste the Frenchly-concocted descriptions of amuse bouches and then some. So I admit it really wasn't much of a sampling being a non-meat eater and having to turn down the filet mignon special of the day, but still – dessert should have been heaven doused in melt-in-your-mouth hazelnut ganache under a chocolate dome of paradise. All I could think of, as the stuff slowly disintegrated on my tongue, was "damn, that is sweet". And not sweet as in dude, sweet, but more like "omfg, this stuff tastes like I just quaffed a bag of sugar" sweet. The green tea lychee yuzu concoction tart thing was only just a tad better, but in all nothing spectacular – with scones and madeleine on the menu, I expected to be taken right back to Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, but instead I can't seem to get past the $5 cappuccino.

Things have really taken a turn in Kenya. It's descent into maddening turmoil leaves me saddened that the once upon a time model of economic success and political stability has deteriorated into civil strife not unlike many of its neighbors. This was my childhood home and it's hard to believe that the peaceful place that I used to inhabit has become the stereotypical image of Africa – genocide, graft and corruption, civil unrest and a malady that clearly comes from the growing gap in disparate classes. Where did all that aid money go? Clearly, not to those who protest for change. Change they need, but must so many die for it?

26.12.07

favourite music for 2007

In no particular order:

Radiohead In Rainbows
Jamie T Panic Prevention
The White Stripes Icky Thump
Arctic Monkeys Favourite Worst Nightmare
Underworld Oblivion With Bells
The Decemberists The Crane Wife
Arcade Fire Neon Bible
The National The Boxer
Robert Plant and Alison Kraus Raising Sand
Babyshambles Shotters Nation

5.11.07

butterfly – fall morning at wee thump

Butterfly, originally uploaded by pauloy.

23.10.07

radiohead's in rainbows

Free album, if you'd like. Radiohead stick it to the record company and go at it on their own. You pay what you want to get In Rainbows, the brilliant new album that takes a bit of Thom Yorke's solo sound and a slow-cooking Radiohead, together, again. It's good to hear Radiohead as a band, since Kid A, coming a bit off of their neurotic journey into an atmospheric, albeit languorous sound. Drums, guitar, piano, ether – all combine in a glass flask, and escape slowly, wafting opaque smoke, bringing beautiful music to my ears. "Warm"? "User friendly"? (Pitchfork review) Nah. It's just good stuff.