...In which our heroine goes 50/50.

I keep waiting for summer to come to Chicago and it hasn't. We had a couple sunny days in the 90s, but mostly there's just rain and the miserable muggy heat that follows. It can stay cool for Pitchfork and Lollapalooza though.

Job training was very cool. I'm by far the youngest person there - all the other mentors are seniors or have just graduated - and then it's a bunch of educators from the Chicago Public school system. The training is for next week, when I'll get two CPS high school students to mentor. All week, we'll be working on finding text and images that represent where they are from and where they are going to culminate in a book at the end. Pretty cool. I'm happy that I've found a job that can have a positive impact on another person.

Putting the final nail in the coffin, Emily and Lane broke up. It makes me quite sad not only for them, but now the chances of the fabulous five I spent the year with ever even being in the same room again are slim. One split couple could work, but not two. I realized yesterday that every couple I know, with the exception of one, is now finished, which is really odd. An era ends, but at the same time, I've also realized that this is the first time in a couple years that I haven't been wrapped up in a boy. It's a nice feeling.

(500) Days of Summer review: Really good for the first hour or so. Zooey and Joseph are adorable, have great chemistry and provide a lot of laughs. But as their relationship breaks down, the movie kind of implodes. It stops feeling realistic and the ending really ruined it for me. Better than the average rom-com, but not better than the hype.

Speaking of that, I'm getting really hard to impress film-wise. In the couple weeks, I've watched (500) Days of Summer, Cemetery Man, Role Models, Amateur, Chinatown, Away We Go, and Public Enemies. All of them were "fine," which has become my de facto word. The only thing I've watched lately that's impressive was Dr. Strangelove, which I knew I'd like going in. Film school is making me snooty, and I wonder if it's better that I know what's behind the curtain now,.

Work all week, Thursday means Paper Heart with Charlyene Yi in person, who stars and was the stoner chick in Knocked Up, and the weekend means AshleyAnn and Pitchfork!

And here's some Saturday Jenny Lewis to put a smile on your face:

...In which our heroine goes three by three.

The new Gossip album, Music for Men, is out. Beth Ditto has my favorite female voice in rock at present, and she's just generally awesome. I'm declaring the first single, "Heavy Cross" the anthem for summer 2009, but the whole album is excellent.

The onstage camraderie between Neil Young and my least favorite Beatle in this performance of my favorite Beatles song from London makes my heart happy.

I can't get enough of Neutral Milk Hotel. It upsets me that Jeff Mangum can't perform anymore because of mental issues (and night terrors which someone else I know gets). But despite the shitty quality of this, the only live thing I've ever found by them, there's still something lovely about it.

Jennifer's Body looks disappointing. I still enjoy Juno quite a bit, although reading the script made me want to vomit. Diablo Cody appreciates the horror genre and all, but the red-band trailer is full of all kinds of nonsense. Megan Fox is hot, but her delivery is nearly unbelievable. I guess I just dislike how contrived the trailer is - "Cherry Bomb" in the background, the lesbian tease, the faux-scandalous dialogue.

On the other hand, the directorial debut of Robert Siegel, who wrote one of my favorites from last year, The Wrestler, looks really interesting. Big Fan got quite a lot of festival buzz, and looks to be a nice little dark comedy with one of my favorite comedians, Patton Oswalt.

So this is a remake of a Danish movie. Brothers seems like a typical fare kind of tear-jerker but Jim Sheridan is behind the camera, and he still made one of my favorite films with In America. We'll see.

Mad Men is the best thing on television right now. I'm about halfway through season two now, and I have a major girl crush on Joan Holloway, as played by Christina Hendricks. I've mentioned before how awesome her body is, so we might as well get right to it.

Am I the only one who hates Weeds so far this season? They're making Nancy as unlikable as possible. Last week's episode was an improvement, but there aren't any real stakes, or at least not enough is happening to make the stakes seem that scary. This was one of my favorite parts from last week.

Daria was such a badass show when I was watching it, not supposed to be, in my childhood. Emily brought to my attention it isn't on DVD, and that made me quite upset. I especially remember this assaulting my young ears. Now I just wanna watch some episodes...

Busy rest of the week. (500) Days of Summer tomorrow, training Wednesday and Thursday, dinner with the recently back in town Kris, then work next week leading up to Pitchfork!

...In which our heroine tastes Chicago.

Although it isn't over yet, I've gone to the Taste of Chicago three times this week. The weather has been lovely, and I like the people watching as much as the food. The organization of the booths helped cut down on the crowd, which was never as bad as I anticipated. I didn't go see the Counting Crows or the Barenaked Ladies for free, but I may still hit up Buddy Guy tomorrow.

So what did I eat? Lots, and for a total of $24 spent. Granted, I shared a lot and took advantage of smaller, cheaper "taste" portions, but I still feel that I totally got my money's worth. 

From best to worst:

Steak Jibarito - a Puerto Rican sandwich I'd never tried before. The bread, which was actually fried plantains, was crispy and really flavorful. Add to that chargrilled steak, lettuce, and amazing garlic sauce and it was a great dish. Too bad the restaurant it's from is in the worst neighborhood in the city.

Lemon/Mango/Blue Raspberry Italian Ice - so fresh, and the texture was smooth but not ice cream-y at all. Lemon was my favorite of the three. 

Panna Cotta with cherry balsamic sauce and caramelized almonds - This was definitely outside of my comfort zone, I'd never tried panna cotta, but it sounded good and it was. The portion was HUGE, too much for a festival, especially for a rich dessert. Panna cotta is cooked cream made into a kind of custard, and the tartness of the cherries balanced well.

Orange Chicken - This was Emily's, but we shared. I'm wary of chinese food, especially from a festival, but the chicken was not yucky like it can be in Asian cuisine. The sauce was a really nice blend of sweet and spicy.

Prime Rib Quesadilla - The meat was tasty as was the added cilantro, but an acid would have elevated the dish, especially lime. 

Crab Cake Bites - Pretty mediocre. I don't think there was really crab, and if it was, it wasn't the lump kind, which makes for the best crab cakes. The sweet chili sauce however, was really yummy. 

BBQ Rib Tips - Spicy/sweet sauce was a good blend of both, but not enough meat and one of the pieces was all bone.

Lamington - This was Kristen's. Essentially dry, yellow cake dipped in Hershey's syrup and coconut. Not bad, but boring. 

Sweet Potato Hash Browns - I love sweet potatoes. I do not however love them when they've been made into the consistency of rice and not seasoned well. One bite was sweet, one was salty, but not in a good way. I threw most of this away.

I wish there would have been some more exotic food choices. I can appreciate hot dogs and deep dish pizza, but not ten booths of them. Overall, way more good than bad food and I was impressed with how clean and well-portioned everything was. 

...In which our heroine dials M for...

Not murder, silly! Instead, for Mad Men, which I've previously mentioned and am now throughly addicted to after only a few episodes. The thing that stands out to me most about the series, to continue with alliteration to make Beth Harding proud, is the masculinity. Weeds and True Blood both feature female protagonists and are in spite of all the goings-on with each, pretty feminine shows. Strong and feminine, but feminine nonetheless. 

Mad Men on the other hand, is very dude-centric, and I love the way the male characters are portrayed as complicated, often very unlikable chauvinists. But it's authentic to the decade in which the series is set, the early 1960s, and the industry of advertising it follows. I'm glad it doesn't shy away from having every male character openly talk about conquering women, with a cigarette in one hand and a scotch in the other. From stories my grandmother has told me about being a housewives in the 1950s and 1960s, it seems to hit the mark.

But of course, what would the men be without the women behind them? We get all sorts of women of the era too: dissatisfied housewives, complacent housewives, the rogue single mother, high society newlyweds, mistresses, secretaries who rule the office roost. And because of these characters - January Jones as Betty Draper and Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson really stand out - the show's primary focus of the Sterling/Cooper ad agency becomes much more interesting when you learn what, or rather who, makes its employees tick.

Compared to my two other summer loves, Weeds and True Blood, Mad Men is pretty low key and sometimes a tad slow in pacing. But so far, it has been worth it for the character development and atmosphere. And Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks are just as gorgeous as I hoped they'd be. Worth a watch while you wait for Sundays to come around...

...In which our heroine shares.

My mom started making this recipe last summer when she was on her losing weight kick. It's Weight Watchers summer corn chowder and it's really delicious, so I thought I'd pass it along.

Katydid's Summer Corn Chowder: 

2 Yukon gold potatoes

1/2 cup green onion

1/2 cup of onion

4 cups frozen corn, or 4 ears fresh

1 cup of red pepper

8 ounces Canadian bacon

4 cups milk - whatever kind you like

Spices to taste - I use salt, pepper, chili powder, and garlic powder

Saute the corn, onion, and red pepper and spices in olive oil, butter, cooking spray- whatever floats your boat (I use olive oil), until veggies are tender. Add Canadian bacon, milk, and potato. Simmer for 10 minutes and serve.

I modify the recipe from its original form, and you can add pretty much whatever veggies you want - it's difficult to mess this one up. Enjoy!

...In which our heroine is a synonym for random.

Some things of note:

-I like everyone else on the planet is sad about the death of Michael Jackson. Yeah, he was a nut, but his music with the Jackson 5 and on his own is totally timeless. The times we listened to "Beat It" this year with the boys, or Emily and I screamed along to "P.Y.T" serve to show this fact. You can't be in a bad mood and listen to Thriller. Sad, sad - madness and genius tied so closely together have caused the downfall of another legend.

-I got a job, finally. It's only for a week and doesn't pay a ton, but for that week I get to counsel Chicago public high school students about what it means to be an artist. To a point, it seems ridiculous that I have an authority on art, but it will also be a really good experience and something that actually impacts someone, hopefully.

-Finished reading I'm with The Band: Confessions of a Groupie by Pamela Des Barres. She's the infamous sixties groupie who was with Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Keith Moon and many more. While I didn't care for Des Barres' writing style, the stories were so so interesting and in a weird way, her heartbreak over the men she loved and lost made mine fall into perspective. I had to watch Almost Famous today too, seeing as she was a big inspiration for my heroine, Penny Lane. I want her life, for about six months. She's written a couple other books that I'm going to check out soon.

-My screenplay is almost done, dare I say. This first, very rough draft is around 120 pages and needs work, I am aware, but I'm very proud of myself for getting it done in about a month. The muse has been especially kind the past couple of days. Maybe I'll recruit some proofreaders...

-True Blood season two is so, so good. It's so trashy and over-the-top, but I'm a sucker for black comedy. I found out my favorite character on the show, Terry Bellefleur, is Lane's husband Zach from Gilmore Girls, cute! And Stephen Moyer, who plays the hot vampire Bill, had this awesome quote about Robert Pattinson : "He's a pussy...the diet Coke or Slim-Fast of vampires." HAHAHA.

-FUCK TRANSFORMERS.  Seriously, I'm so tired of those dumb ass robots and Megan Fox's face everywhere. And I appreciate all things geek, but lines must be drawn. Up and Drag Me to Hell are both great, choose those.

-I've also decided there will be a pie of the week. First it was Toll House Pie, which was awesome. But this week, chocolate buttermilk pie, not so much. This weekend, they'll be Paula Deen's sugar cream pie. As I've mentioned, I'm a bad feminist and I love being domestic and baking.

-Taste of Chicago starts tomorrow. We get free tickets through residence life. I need to prioritize what needs to be eaten. 

I hope you kids are keeping cooler than me.

...In which our heroine lists.

Being the aspiring film snob that I am, one of the summer projects is to work through the list of movies I feel that I need to see, via Netflix. So, in case you were curious:

The Classics:

Chinatown

Dr. Strangelove

The Godfather II

Apocalypse Now

Being There

La Dolce Vita

Breathless 

Jules et Jim

Nashville

The Last Picture Show

Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Bonnie and Clyde

The Third Man

The Maltese Falcon

Badlands

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Mean Streets

The Searchers

Barry Lyndon

Seven Samurai

Eraserhead

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Lolita

A Woman Under the Influence

Nashville

Horror:

Oldboy

Inside 

Cemetary Man

Bride of Re-Animator

Bad Taste

The Company of Wolves

Alien & Aliens - re-watches because I was too little when I saw them.

Twin Peaks

The Devil's Rejects

The Devil's Backbone

3 Women

Battle Royale

Foreign: 

2046

Rouge, Blanc, Bleu

The Edge of Heaven

Au Revoir Les Enfants

Fanny and Alexander

Timecrimes

Talk to Her

Irreversible

Fat Girl

Romance

Wings of Desire

Contemporary:

Barton Fink

Brazil

Miller's Crossing

Nine Lives

Do the Right Thing

Palindromes

Storytelling

Towelhead

Paris, Texas

Pi

The Savages

The Fall

Role Models

Run Fatboy Run

Hellboy II

Happy Endings

Night on Earth

Wendy and Lucy

Metropolitan

This Is England

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Amateur

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

80-some odd titles. I'm averaging about two a week, so at this point, I'll be done in like a year.

Ha.