I rarely link to YouTube videos, but this one is sweeeet. Somebody reprogrammed a bunch of the old Chuck E Cheese robots so that they perform hip hop. It is dope-so-dope, I must say (but maybe a little long). You’ll get the idea after, like, 45 seconds. (The best moment, I think, is the solo that the guy on the right side does around 50 seconds in.) Check it out. (I can’t embed it, because it screws up the formatting on the whole blog.)

I finished orchestrating “Wood” today, so everything that’s written is now orchestrated. The score is due September 1, so I have one month to write a super-brief intro and… the finale. “Felt” is very difficult (as a concerto should be), “Metal” is high and lyrical, and “Wood” is mid-tempo, completely tonal (it has a key signature, for chrissake), quite easy to play, and is scored with a sort of chamber winds mentality. The last movement, which I’ll start tomorrow, is going to be literally non-stop virtuosity — ie, perpetual motion. The plan is for it to just be a 3 minute sprint from start to finish. Ready, set…

Our friend Nag was in town for a few hours on Friday, and he took AEJ and I out to dinner. We went to a great place just a 5-minute walk from our house, Gingergrass. As it always is on Friday nights, it was hoppin’ with hipsters. We did have a bit of celebrity sighting at dinner — Lisa Edelstein, who plays Dr. Cuddy on “House.”

Nag mentioned that my blog had been lacking much of the food photography he’d grown accustomed to. Ouch. It’s true, and it’s because I hadn’t found a good lens for restaurant use. The lenses I had for the DSLR couldn’t focus as closely as I needed in a restaurant. (My closest focusing distance was probably 18″, which is pretty far from a plate that’s right in front of you at the table.) I found a new lens, thanks to feedback from people on the forums of DPReview, and this lens (Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 Macro) should get me back on the food photography train. Or something.

Last night, we went to House of Pies for dinner. It’s a family restaurant, but they seated us anyway.

I had something called Eggs Santa Fe, which is basically just eggs benedict but with a massive amount of canned salsa on top instead of Hollandaise sauce. This is the best kind of hash brown. I don’t want home fries. Give me shredded Denny’s-style hash browns any day.

AEJ had chili. Gotta love the big ol’ slice of American cheese on top.

Dessert was, of course, pie. AEJ had cherry.

I went with banana creme.

We clearly hated it.

I went for a little walk up the hill after dinner.

Near the top of the hill, I saw a skunk. Unfortunately, it was pretty dark, so this isn’t remotely in focus, but I swear it’s a skunk. It was crazy — he puffed up his tail and I heard a little squirting sound, but he was a good 15 feet from me, so whatever he squirted at me, he missed.

There were a few requests for the ale house steak recipe that I mentioned a few days ago…

So, here it is:
Ale-House Steak marinade

1 (12-oz.) can of beer (we usually use Asahi, since that’s what we have in the house, but I think you’re supposed to use something heavier)
1/2 cup spicy V8
8 sprigs fresh thyme
8 sprigs fresh oregano (we use dried; don’t tell)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce (we use quite a bit extra)
1/2 teaspoon Tobasco (again, extra is nice)
Two 12-oz NY Strip steaks (the recipe allows for “8 6-oz boneless NY strip steaks, 3/4″ thick.” I think that would be too much steak for this amount of marinade.)

In a large resealable plastic bag, stir together all marinade ingredients except steaks. Add steaks, turning to coat both sides. Cover and refrigerate 2-4 hours, turning occasionally.

Heat grill. Pat steaks dry. Season steaks generously with coarse sea salt and cracked black peppercorns.

Place steaks on charcoal grill, 4-6″ from medium-high coals. We grilled each side near the fire for about 4 minutes per side, then moved the steaks a little away from the heat and put on the grill cover, cooking until the internal temperature was about 135 for medium-rare and 140 or so for medium. This took about 12 minutes total.

The steaks get a nice crispy crust, but because of the marinade, they stay totally juicy. Not a great picture, but a great steak.

Maybe next time, I’ll give the recipe for the cocktail in the glass behind the steak…

About a month ago, I wrote an entry about “Felt,” the second movement of the sax concerto, and I provided a link to the PDF of the short score, which I’d just finished. (Here’s the PDF I talked about, in case you don’t feel like clicking back to that old entry.)

I’ve orchestrated about 30 pages of the short score so far, and thought I’d provide a link to a PDF of the newly-orchestrated version of the same excerpt I posted last month. Here’s the PDF of the orchestrated version. It isn’t formatted well, so it’s pretty ugly at this stage, but you’ll get the idea. If any of the consortium members look at the excerpt, I hope they think it looks expensive.

And, just so you have something non-musical-related to look at, here’s an HDR image I made a few months ago, taken from the front deck. Blue is pretty.

And, hell, here’s one more.