I took advantage of my laziness yesterday to get out of the apartment. Spooky and I prowled about Morningside, Virginia Highlands, and parts adjacent. We located a Thai restaurant we haven't tried, which smelled invitingly of jasmine, but ended up having dinner at a trusted favourite (also Thai), instead of trying the new place. But some asshole had chopped down four very large, old trees near the trusted favourite, trees that were not only fine things in their own right, but which, if we must justify their lives by recourse to service to humans, kept the blazing afternoon sun off the restaurant. I hope there is a special Hell for tree murderers. There should be chainsaws and indifference. Atlanta is a city sorely lacking in greenspace, smothering in smog, and it can't afford to lose perfectly good, oxygen-producing trees. Anyway, we sweltered on the previously comfortable patio and tried to enjoy our dinner. We started with pork loin buried in mounds of fresh garlic, green and red chilies, cilantro, fish sauce, and lime, all on a bed of shredded cabbage, a dish so hot it really ought to be eaten last as it strips the taste buds and renders them useless for a day or so.
Where's the Lorax when you need him?
Of course, the Lorax failed.
The right side of my face still aches, but I seem to have recovered, otherwise.
Today, I have to get myself unmired from the "Bradbury Weather" scene in which I have mired myself. I feel like a mammoth stuck in tar up to my ass. The sabre-tooths are watching through the tall grass.
There was a great documentary on Frank Frazetta on IFC last night. Painting With Fire. I went through a "phase" as a child/preteen when my most favourite author was Edgar Rice Burroughs, and this was back when Ace was releasing all his books as paperbacks with those fabulous Frazetta covers. 1975-'78 or so, I guess. I was eleven, twelve, thirteen, etc. I still have all those paperbacks (which is surprising, as little survives from my tumultuous childhood) with their startling, terrifying, sexy, deliciously creepy covers, many of which were featured in Painting With Fire.
Okay. Time to make the doughnuts...