day 4 – no day 4
Everything just happened yesterday: my midterm, the shoot, pub night, party. I have been a producer, a student, a careless 20 year old girl dancing around and reverted to being a grip at the end of the night. But I have done the unthinkable: I’ve scrapped my cooking goal for a bag full of McDonalds. Mind you, it was the best damn thing on the long shoot when I was starving and tired. People are so picky. Fast food is fast food. It’s not something you eat every day but when you absolutely need food, McDonalds serves its purpose.
day 3 – banana buttermilk pancakes
I am terribly busy today! I have a full production day, plus a partay! to go to later. So I doubt I’ll have time to cook any other time besides breakfast. This is a preeeeeeetty easy college recipe:
Banana Buttermilk Pancakes
Get some aunt Jemima ready made mix. (Or combine flour, sugar, salt, some baking powder and soda and you have the same mix). Add an egg or two depending on how much you’re making and instead of using water to moisten the mix, use milk. Then get some bananas, one or two and mash em’ in the mix. Wala, you have banana buttermilk pancakes that doesn’t require too much time/ ingredients.
day 2 – peppercorn steak
Day 2. Peppercorn steak.
I made this quite crankily. My cook book is very particular and requires expensive/fancy ingredients, so I might just not adhere to one cook book. This I made out of inspiration, sight and logic. All I slathered on the beef steaks were dashes of salt, peppercorn, rosemary, oregano, garlic.
I know I should be happy because my storyboard is awesome, my teacher was quite pleased and my grad project seems a go go, that and I’m in the Free Candy show, but I’m quite peeved at myself. Why am I such a fickle friend, that and I get caught up in my little world only? I know tomorrow I’ll be happy and confident again but right now I want to reconnect with people I care about rather than bury myself in work. I miss my friends. Crap. Work work work til’ the end of term. What am I talking about? I was chilling with the coolest friend in the world Sitji and he bought some amazing tea …blueberry roibos? for his aunt…lucky woman! We also shot his short compositing exercise…I’m glad to be of help. He’s the one person in the world I am happy to be friends with because we can have random fun, be serious, be creative together and he doesn’t leave me even if I’m a frumpy, fickle friend who sometimes has random emotional breakdowns that are like whirlwinds: they happen so intensely then disappear as if nothing happened. My anger is either nonexistent or short lived or passive aggressive. Actually, it’s hard for me to get angry, deeply deeply pissed more than an hour, I sometimes think I am a continuous doormat. See? Look at what I write. He’s an amaaaazing guyfriend for dealing with all of this.
So pushing the peppercorns in the steak and ripping through meat was therapy. My parents and sister tried interacting with me, but I wasn’t in the mood. I have to go shopping for Emiko and Sachuko’s costumes tonight…and boy is this stressful. I’m hoping the shoot will be fantastic and I will feel amazing after. How do I make this anxiousness go away?
Hmm…at least my steak is smelling good and I’m relaxing by writing, reading and watching Paprika. I want to watch more films, read more books, write more and experience more things…I want to be in the know but not be too channeled in one stream and become a pretentious nerdface. It’s a balance I think is worth challenging myself to comitting to. I hear my sister a comin’…good night everyone.
day 1 for day 2
I’m contemplating what to cook right now. I realize I’m going to be up in my ears doing my AfterEffects final project and producing for Karlo. I have to assemble costumes for this shoot, so this is a little hectic. But it’s worthwhile..it’s worthwhile… so I’m doing that in the morning, and the Free Candy show is at 7pm and a class is at 1230. So. Uh. When do I have time to cook? If I do, it’s going to be beef in phyllo pastry… oi.
On the bright side everyone devoured my chicken at home. I also made coffee for my familia in a bodium/french press, which I used to do mechanically at Starbucks but now I’m doing it freely. (In the house of organic, I learnt how to use a stovetop coffee maker, which is the most stressful thing if you are not quite awake ever in the morning like me. It’s kind of like the toaster they had too, which didn’t auto-pop. So if I had a long night writing a paper and decided to make toast, go to the bathroom and piss, there was a high chance my toast was steaming and black by the time I got there. One time I was so tired, I grabbed the toaster with my two bare hands thinking shaking it would make the smoke go away. I dropped it on the counter after going “Ouch!” and unplugged the bastard.)
You’d think after working there so long coffee would be purged from my system, but I am quite addicted to both the substance and the culture.
Within my blood lies the corporation!!!
day 1 – sesame chicken & cantonese chicken
Of course, I wake up late. I was planning to wake at 630 to get everything done, but I woke up at 730 in this manner: last night I attempted to watch the awesome anime movie Paprika but woke up the next morning 730 with the intro DVD menu music to this movie playing.
I run to Safeway, nab my ingredients and bus pass headed home with some depressive life thoughts in my head, but it soon goes away as the chicken must be made. (No, no suicide thoughts, just the idea that I might live my life inside my head exclusively)
For the Sesame Chicken, I used bread crumbs instead of this “soda cracker crumbs” thing. I could go smash some crackers but bread crumbs are cheaper a box of crackers, though less practical now that I think about it. The cantonese chicken is something for poor college students: you just need ketchup, honey, soy sauce and lemon juice and you have this white-man-Chinese food dish on your plate. They both took me under 10 mins to make together. Now I’m waiting for it to bake…
Here are the recipes:
Sesame Chicken (serves well with romaine lettuce salad & bread)
Fine soda cracker crumbs 1 cup
Sesame Seeds, toast them in the oven for 10 mins…and don’t burn them like me. 1/2 cup
Paprika 1tsp…. OOH CRAP I FORGOT THE PAPRIKA!
Ok. back.
Onion salt 1/2 tsp
Salt 3/4 tsp
Pepper 1/4 tsp
Bone in chicken parts
Milk 1/2 cup.
Combine first 6 ingredients in shallow dish.
Dip chicken in milk, then coat with crumb mixture. Arrange chicken, skin side up in a single layer on greased baking sheet with sides. Bake in 375 degrees F, 190 d C oven for 30 mins. Turn chicken. Bake for about 30 minutes until tender. (OH SHIT THIS IS GOING TO TAKE AN HOUR??! I have only forty five minutes…gong showww)
Cantonese Chicken
Bone in chicken parts
Ketchup 1/2 cup
Soy Sauce 3 tbsp
Liquid Honey 3 tbsp
Lemon juice 2tbsp
Water 2 tbsp
Arrange chicken, skin side down on a pan.
Combine remaining 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Spoon over chicken. Cover marinate in refrigerator for at least 1 hour, turning once. (Did not do, shit. I cannot read apparently) Bake, covered, in 375 F for 30 mins. Turn and bake uncovered for 30 mins.
…I have to go cover my chicken and turn it.
julia child
So here it is! I’m going to cook a new dish or two every day in December. I hope 30 days of complete devotion to learning a skill will be more productive time. I’m mainly inspired by Julie & Julia. I want to be Julia Child, has anyone seen her insanity?:
I bought this book “Company’s Coming: Most Loved Main Courses”, which is technically a book of all meat recipes. Chicken, beef, seafood, etc… I decided not to get one of those ADD large cookbooks with appies, desserts, etc, because then I will end up not making anything getting lost in the possibilities. I swiped this book for a buck at the VGH Thrift Store on Main and Broadway as I was shopping for costumes for a film I’m producing at the moment. One moment I’m thinking of a scatterbrained mother’s outfit for a horror film and the next moment I’m like “hey, I should make Sesame Chicken!” Though, eating at Reno’s today with some friends made me realize food to me whether in a swanky place or a sketchy diner like Renos always fascinates me, so this project is definately worthwhile for a foodie like me.
The first dishes I will make tomorrow are Sesame Chicken and Cantonese Chicken. I will have to wake up early around 630 to get to Safeway at 7am to get my bus pass and the random ingredients for thes recipes. For Cantonese Chicken, all I need to nab is some honey and for the Sesame chicken its the breaded part I need ingredients for. I realize this will be a costly experiment, but what the hell. I’m going to be making baked chicken at 730 and running to school around nine. I have to wake insanely early because of two things that occupy my time at 10am at Emily Carr:
1) I’m in the Free Candy show, so I have to set up my stuff ASAP. I bought a wire and a padlock to secure my laptop which is going to have my film on it. I am so sure some kid will want to hike my crap old laptop even if the screen can no longer stand on its own (its really a desktop PC now) and occasionally turns off by itself. Believe me, there are some people aching for a lappy even if its 256k and a monstrous behemoth that is my HP laptop from six or seven years ago. I just don’t want anyone to steal it hence the wire but we will see. The things I do for art….
2) I want free vegeterian sushi at the FVIM survey thing. They’re going to ask us what we feel about the program, if our expectations are met, what they can do, what we suggest, etc. Oh the suggestion sheet I’m going to write… Then again, I might just go, “yeah, this program is awesome, fuck yes give me more sushi”. Why else would they be feeding us anyway?
3) I seriously need to finish my animation before I super cram too many things for this weekend.
Nyeh, if I sleep in I will cry. I need to start December off and keep to this goal. Go, go, go!
cooking papa
This weekend is much needed! It is my creative retreat from theoretical crazies and my practice. My dad taught me how to cook two amazingly good dishes. This is one thing you learn in college: food will take a lot of your time if you live alone. The first dish is good because it keeps for a week in your fridge, plus it’s great for meat lovers:
Chicken & Pork Adobo by Jose De Los Santos
Ingredients: Pork, chicken, garlic, salt, pepper, vinegar, knorr cubes, bay leaves, soya sauce, sugar.
-Cut the chicken and pork.
-Wash the meat in the pot.
-Fill the pot 1/3 H20, put over medium heat. (If you have lots of meat, just make sure the meat is submersed in water)
-Add a tbsp of salt and a little more.
-Add a dash of pepper.
-Add 1/3 cup vinegar.
-Seperate 1 bulb of garlic, but don’t chop it up. Throw it into the pot of meat and soup.
-Put 1 Knorr Chicken Broth Cube.
-Put 2 bay leaves and a dash of sugar.
-Optional: add 1/4 cup soya sauce.
-Cook until meat is ready.
-Put pan on high heat, pour oil until it fills the entire pan 2cm thick.
-Pull meat out of pot into pan. Keep sauce in pot.
-Fry the meat til it’s brown.
-Throw everything back into pot or pour sauce into pan.
-Simmer on low heat until meat is super tender.
You can use any left over chicken for….
Stir Fry Brocolli with Mushrooms and Chicken (Or the other way around) by Jose De Los Santos
Ingredients: 2 heads brocolli, 10-15 mushrooms of any kind, 1 med onion, left over chicken cooked/uncooked, Panda brand oyster sauce
-Cut brocolli up – remove bottom stems
-Cut mushrooms into thin slices
-Chop onion in half, then slice into thin slices.
-Prepare chicken. It should be cut into thin strips. If you’re using raw chicken, precook it before moving onto the next step.
-Put the chicken in the pot with onions and oil, saute the chicken.
-Don’t overcook the onions, saute the onions til’ its soft not brown!
-Add mushrooms.
-Add brocolli.
-Don’t over cook veggies! Soft but not brown! Cover it and let fry.
-Add two stirspoons (or just an amount enough to cover all veggies) of oyster sauce. This should cover for pepper and salt, but if you feel needed only add pepper.
-Just cook til’ soft, unless you like your brocolli crunchy. Take off the stove immediately.
If you have leftovers of this, you can use it in “Pancit” which my dad will be teaching me next weekened. Free education! I also learnt how to cast off my scarf I made for me moomsly for Thanksgiving via Youtube. You don’t need to go to school and pay money for that sthuff. I used to make scarfs for my friends learning the free way.
I am a feminist at school, but hot damn not at home. Look at my post.
My guyfriend got kicked out of the feminst class at school for questioning feminist theory. He basically questioned why the feminists were still packing on the hatorade against male sexuality, when they should focus on explaining what exactly female sexuality is, without so much emphasis on its relation to male sexuality. He also questioned a teacher who kept saying “‘I’m a dike, I’m a dike” when he pointed out it was kind of silly to boast about that when really it’s OK to be a dike in our day and age, you dont need to parade that shit like an asshole.
So he gets kicked out by his teacher who says he’s too difficult and he’s making everyone in the class uncomfortable. Hahaha, so much for being a progressive school Emily Carr if students can’t even question the theories taught to us – I and many others applaud him, I’m a feminist but I enjoy the cage being shaken once in a while. Emily Carr just wants to load us up on ready made thoughts.
ANYWAY, this is my creative recharge away from that kinda stupidness:
Books are an immediate recharge for me: Wutherbury Heights by Emily Bronte, Zisek and his Parallax View, Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. I read too fast. I need to reread Far From the Madding Crowd, it’s such a wonderfully written book despite its plot being very simple.
I’ve brought home my dad some DVDs we will be watching, the artsy type of Emily Carr. My dad usually dives into the $2.99-$8.99 box at Blockbuster and has a collection of over 300 DVDs, but amongst all the mainstream things he gets, he gets lots of awesome things like Milk and Lust and Caution.
I’ve had a failed attempt to score tickets to VIFF. I want to go see I Killed My Mother and Ana & Arthur… but don’t have a VISA. Damn. I Killed My Mother sold out right infront of my eyes. I will catch a flick, I will! I will go get a ticket for Ana & Arthur. I wanted to go see America, which was a recommend to me… but I decided that Ana & Arthur as a documentary might relate more to my documentary I’m constructing right now because its about relationships between humans and connections. I’m rather tired of the representational politics drowned documentaries about the bunk system America has. I’ll be in the mood after I digest Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore.
Tomorrow I will be headed out to Brentwood Mall to get my bridesmaid gown and my sister’s going to get her brides dress. I’m also gonna get my eyes peeled for a sewing machine as I want to finalize my Halloween Costume, a la Terra from Final Fantasy. I’m winding down this night drawing the Zelda Four Swords comic as my drawing practice (10% done) and I’m doing my grad project at the moment. I just want to keep moving before I have to sit in theoretical sludge next week.
Good times.
emily carr university sucks. period. PERIOD!
Emily Carr University of Art and Design is the worst school ever but the good part is it’s a cheap form of getting your bachelors.
But you really do get what you pay for.
Here are a few tips to survive:
1. Do loooots of outside work: like how I’m in Code Lab. Like how I write this blog so I can escape the fuck-all-stress-pool-of-pretentiousness that is this school.
2. Just don’t go to art parties that have televisions in their sinks and no one’s actually dancing, but they’re talking about something existential and getting drunk to talk more and more about it. Go to the real college kinda fun parties.
3. Skip class. Chances are, it isn’t worth it. I have gotten a really high GPA ditching class, doing my own external research on the same topic and coming back to class with what some consider smartness. No. It’s called me leaving an unproductive environment to read like crazy and come back more enlightened than the average bunch in my class.
Why does Emily Carr University suck?
1. Despite all the cool people I met, you get the handful of insecure artists who are not only afraid of themselves but totally dismiss someone else’s creativity because they’re so wrapped up around their own work. Here’s an example. I showcased my documentary about Balding for Dollars, a fundraiser where people chop off their hair for wigs for cancer patients and also raise money for sick children cancer patients. This chick in my class goes:
“Seeing your documentary made me want to puke, it made me think “FUCK THE SYSTEM”! Seeing people use paper plates and hot dogs, thinking they’re helping other people, when really they’re just buying into capitalism…”
What the fuck! OK. So capitalism is the hot topic nowadays, but nothing compares to being a parent of sick child dying of cancer, you insensitive bitch. What, should we have served some sort of vegan hot dog on a multigrain bun on some fancy plate to serve over a thousand people because somehow that money will appear out of nowhere?? It’s one thing if we were using that money to build up a McDonalds or taking over someone’s land, but that money is going to a good cause. I just think they’re afraid to see their own work in ways: if you make something stereotypical like maybe I did, maybe that’s all it takes to look back and see and improve your work, instead of running around in a wordy circle of pretentiousness.
I think it’s also the being wrapped up in your own shit. Art is like a religion at my school. If you do it any other way, someone wants to invade your holy land with their sacred ideology of art. Fuck that.
2. I’ve met three teachers in my career here who actually know how to teach. The rest are trying to figure out what it is they’re saying over the duration of the course. I have had two teachers out of the three who were fairly consistent in expectations, teaching and topic relevancy, the other one was just so awe-inspiring, it didn’t matter if he taught us or not.
3. What, have, I, learnt? Nothing. Everything GOOD I’ve done I’ve taught myself. I hate how our school uses Diego Maclean as their badge of honor, when I’m betting he taught himself everything he needed to know to become great.
I’m just on a horrid spit. I just want my fucking bachelors and get out of this crazy hellhole.
A boy I think is absolutely horrible is running for rep at my school and if he gets in, I think I will actively try to duck out of school. He kills everyone at critique, he’s told me to shut up when I tried to critique him back, he totally tried to hijack this girl’s presentation because she couldn’t speak English, his art is just a rip off of Yves Klein, yet the teachers love him and people know his name and will vote for him because his name gets around too much. If you want an idea of his intelligence level this is how he hijacked that girl yesterday:
“I want … to do a documentary about food ahitives.” She says.
Another girl asks: “Food what?”
“Food ad-ah-tives. So I want to do how its so misleading and tasty looking but is bad for you…”
Asshole: “I’ve got a better idea. You should do a documentary about how the people who shop at Capers are more healthier and good looking, compared to those who shop at local grocery stores, who look miserable and fat…”
“It’s because the people who shop at Capers are rich, that’s why they look that way, “my guyfriend retorts.
I start laughing as he goes on this crazy spit:
“That’s NOT what her documentary is about,” my guyfriend continued, “hers is about food additives and how we should be aware of them and yours is about better presentation at a ridiculously expensive store!”
If this guy is rep, I will shit on Emily Carr University’s front (which someone has done already as an art piece…and menstrated) and burn their fucking bunk ass logo. GoodNIGHT!
code lab
So I’m involved with code lab at our school.
Basically, my friend is way more into programming than me… then he mentioned I was making a video game. That’s how I got in. Sorta. We’ll see. We did our first assignment which was a video assignment, and since I am in film that was alright.
Tomorrow I get to meet all the head honchos and side orders of cheeses.
I have no clue what I’m saying anymore. Documentary has made my brain asplode. You cannot make a documentary at my friggin’ school without being skewered because everyone’s so damn worried about representational politics of some sort.
Just stop THINKING about that shit and do whatever you want. People are like… afraid to look at themselves. Maybe it’s just you if you end up making a stereotypical film – that’s just what you produce. And that’s what they don’t wanna see in themselves, but no matter what you’re trapped in this box constructed from growing up, learning in a certain way and the people you interact with.
I’m a crazy art spit. Abort!
