Turn Around Bright Eyes (Drag Queen Karaoke in P-town)

We'd had a great dinner at Devon's, a restaurant the size of a pocket serving local striped bass and scallops. We'd strolled around Provincetown taking in the many variations of friends and families all enjoying their ice cream cones. My ice cream was Chocolate Mint Oreo and how that has not managed to become a modern standard baffles me. It's really really good.

We'd started thinking about going home but needed a bathroom break (home is about 25 miles down the road). A quick slip into the Governor Bradford which turns out to be a karaoke bar run by a quick and sweet-natured drag queen in a demure sequin tank and python pleather leggings. And motorcycle boots. Our intention was to split a drink but as I had retired the car keys to Jason, I got to have my own. And it was fun so that lead to two of my own.

Which led me to an epiphany.

I will never see anyone in this bar again. The exception being Jason and it is increasingly difficult to be embarrassed around him. He's a musician, he's WELL AWARE that I am not. I am surrounded by friendly, hammered boys and girls whose performances might even make mine look palatable because I could just swing my hair around if I muss the words.

I first try to talk Jason into a rendition of Islands in the Stream. No go. He does not karaoke and he is sober anyhow. But I'm adamant now that this is my last best opportunity to do this for the first time. It's between Bonnie Tyler and Juice Newton. Bonnie won and I felt a twinge of sick when I dropped my slip with my name and song code into the fish bowl.

It's a slow night. Very suddenly I'm up next. Medicinal shot of Jameson. Not sure if that helped but at least it coated my vocal chords. Made my way to the stage and whispered my first-timer status to Dana Danzel who I've come to know as the hostess.

There's a group of 5-6 middle-aged women directly to the right of the stage. They are complimentary and encouraging. I'm well aware that I'm shouting. It is a yelling, Shatneresque rendition of "Total Eclipse of the Heart." Jason is filming and I remember to look at him from time to time...more so later in the song when I've decided to "own it."

Dana jumped in to help me out on the chorus and with the "Turn around bright eyes..." and before I knew it I was belting it out. Monotonically but BELTING nonetheless. People danced. It was really fun. Intensely awful but still fun.

I walked off stage to a wildly amused boyfriend and some time later did convince him to be Kenny Rogers to my Dolly Parton. It was even worse but we did it and and then we did it again on the ride home when we found the song on one of my parents mix CD's, sandwiched between "Colors of the Wind" and "Roseanna."

Maybe next time I have a houseful of awesome, I'll be brave enough to try it again, bring the whole crew. Unlikely but I enjoy the thought.

And because I would never have done it with you IN the bar, I give you the footage. Because I'm moving a little slowly this morning and it will have seemed like a good idea at the time. Don't say I never gave you anything.

Total Eclipse of the Heart (TKTC 1st Karaoke) from ToKissTheCook on Vimeo.

Music Is My _______

We've covered that music and food are two of my passions. I will never be paid to do either and that just keeps the love pure. Two things that have been around since the dawn of time and are meant to be shared among friends. Makes all the sense in the world to me. That said, this week music has been popping up in some pretty strange places, in some fairly odd ways. I know it's long but stick with it. Voici:

Music is my Big Yellow Taxi.

I talk to cabbies. I am that girl who gets out of a cab and has traded life stories with whoever is driving (you're so not surprised). On the way to the blog meet-up in February? Got into a great conversation about the role of immigration in this year's election and what actual change would look like. This type of thing is the norm mostly because I've been pretty lucky. Plus I never shy away from a great story and find that cab drivers are much the same.

So when my car was out of commission on Thursday, I happily hopped in a cab on the way to work... having just barely missed the bus. The cab driver is asking me about my job etc. "I do PR in the beauty industry etc etc," says TKTC. He says he could figure that because I'm looking all fashionable and put together. I don't care if that was an easy shot at a clearly frazzled woman...I was running late and I will take the damn compliment.

Anyhow, we're chatting away and he says he was just in LA. I say, I have a good friend who lives in LA part-time, he's a musician. Cabbie says Really? Cause my daughter is a famous DJ and that's who I was visiting. His daughter? DJ Colette. Now I'm no house music specialist but I know that name. And he says her boyfriend is an actor turned musician but I'm playing it too cool to ask about him. He's really proud of her. She's in Chicago for a set at Smart Bar once a month. I of course look her up as soon as I'm back at the office and not only is she in fact very well-known, but her boyfriend? Rookie of the Year. Yes, I know Thomas Ian Nicholas has been in things since then (little things like American Pie 1-3) but I fell in love at Rookie of the Year. He's making music now if you're interested. I kicked it with his almost father-in-law on my way to work last week.

Music is my Babysitting Client.

I have three families I still sit for from time to time even though I've taken a big step back in the last year to pursue...a life. But the money is great, the kids are bright and the parents are genuinely interesting people. Plus, girlfriend can't be going out ALL the time. Anticipating a fairly wild weekend coming up, I took it easy over Easter.

Saturday night I was more than happy to head to Old Town to hang out with the kiddies, read a billion awesome magazines and scope out their latest music picks (so.much.cooler.than.me). Then this morning I got a call from Momma L about a friend's benefit tonight she'd almost forgotten. Poppa S is out of town, could I watch the kids for a bit? Of course!

Per usual, kids were great (so cute). We read some books, we made some farm animal noises, may have done a little dancing and voila- everyone asleep by 8:30 and I'm catching up with Caro. Momma L comes home and we're talking as I gather my things and I blithely ask where Poppa S is. "He's in Nashville for Kenny Chesney's 40th birthday party."

Huh? Poppa S introduced my to LCD Soundsystem, Neko Case, Joseph Arthur etc... Apparently they've been working together through Corona and just having a blast so S flew on down and was kicking it at Tin Roof with KC. Hilarious.

What else is funny about that? I don't oft think about Kenny Chesney. I have one song by him and it's a cover, Please Come to Boston. If you've not heard it, it's about a guy that's a bit of a gypsy who keeps trying to get his hometown girl to come meet him on the road and she's all "No way, guy. Come home- there's nowhere like this and no one quite like me out there." You may already see where I would connect with this a bit and why it might have been in my head when I mentioned it a couple weeks ago!

But WAIT... it gets better.

Music is my Brother & My Dear.

Brother has frequently been referenced on this site for his music scoping prowess so that one would stand alone and make some sense. My Dear (also know on TKTC as Jaimeson) is fairly invlolved in the music industry for work. They were together tonight. My two favorite guys were together tonight. Where were they together? Boston.

Sometimes, Universe, I have just really got to hand it to you. I didn't even see "Connect Four!" coming.

As for this weekend..
1) Long scheduled dinner in Greektown with P tomorrow night
2) My darling Em on Friday night!
3) Traveling with Jaimeson on Saturday for my first time properly in the state of Wisconsin (and to Madison, no less). Roadtrip!
4) Apparently marching in the Greek Independence Day Parade on Sunday (TKTC Note: I am not actually Greek, but I may be by Monday)
5) Hotel Cafe Tour with bloggers and buddies alike at the Park West on Sunday evening. Hopefully we'll have better luck than Sass:)

Thank God I have this blog to help me pay attention to the million little details. I'm just beginning to connect the dots...Universe, I am on to you.

Orange You Loving This Pan-Seared Tilapia with Citrus Vinaigrette

The Original- Cooking Light, Jan/Feb 2008

Crunch time is upon me at work. Beauty show week has arrived and starting Friday, you won't hear a word from me till Tuesday. It's stressful but it'll be over soon and then I'll have a silly amount of new product to sit and play with till it's legitimately warm out.

My saving grace has genuinely been the gym and my STOCKED fridge, freezer and cabinets. And I even organized it all yesterday so I can find stuff (why do I keep buying chopped tomatoes and breadcrumbs?) I've been pulling clips and have a gorgeous stack of recipes to get me through my grocery store booty (and maybe minimize the other one). Seriously kids, it's gonna be good eating in Wicked Park AND it's going to be documented.

Enough kissing (now that I'm all recharged anyway ;) It's time to get cookin'.

Tonight I picked something that I knew would be quick as I had my workout at night tonight. In fact Chester surprised us with a fitness test (did just fine:) so I was happy I'd thought about dinner in advance.

Even tired, sweaty people can cook.

Tonight's choice was a full menu out of Cooking Light. This is something that usually overwhelms me. I will make one or two items and sub in an old standby typically. However. Cooking Light's "Dinner Tonight" segment even tells you what order to do things in and doesn't make more than one item at all tricky (even the tricky is relative. Can you follow directions? Ok , go). Plus this page had a LOT of favorite things so I figured I could get all kinds of exponent on my gym endorphins by coming home to chop fresh Italian parsley and zest a lemon. Plus pan-seared fish, cherries, whole wheat couscous, almonds...it was a shoe-in. I'm cliche CRAZY tonight, apologies.

This may be my new favorite dinner. I'm also really excited because timing everything is still pretty tough for me and this would be great dinner party fare. Fresh, quick, full of flavor and healthy . And DELICIOUS if I didn't make that clear. Everything came out exactly as promised and from the shallot sauce to the couscous with dried Traverse cherries (Cam, they sell them at Jewel!) ...ridiculously good and DONE in 20 minutes. I even zested a little orange on top of my fish for presentation. Sometimes I think you just need to go the extra mile for yourself.

TKTC Note: I know toasting almonds sounds like a pain but they keep for awhile so if you do a batch in advance, just store them right and they will keep on giving. The ones I used tonight came from THIS recipe session.

The only item I think can improve on would be the roasted Brussels sprouts. I'd never so much as eaten one till last year and this was my first time making them. There weren't real directions so I think I'd really coat them with my Olive Oil Pam next time and leave them in about 5 minutes longer (did about 10 min this time, shook the pan once). All I did was cut them in half, throw em in a jelly roll pan and do a quick salt/pepper shakeshakeshake. Pretty easy and they have their own spiciness which I really love.

Ta-DAA!

Goodnightsogood

I was a little out of it/hungover for my Dominick's bender Saturday AM so when Annie Lennox's No More I Love You's came on and I was out by OHare (read: not going to run into anyone I know, save maybe a very amused Jenn), I just sang along. Up and down the aisles...never missing a word and really siiiinging it. Like I do when I'm singing into my rearview mirror and should really be watching for the stupid CLybourn light to change. I love it- have since I was 12 and had it on repeat in my Dad's car (poor guy). I don't care if that makes me mentally 57 years old. And probably divorced.

This started an interesting kick in the kitchen tonight...playlist as follows:

Heart of the Matter by India.Arie (obviously)
China Grove by the Doobie Brothers
Are We Different by Priscilla Ahn
Please Come to Boston by Kenny Chesney
Let the River Run by Carly Simon
Call Me by Blondie
Moonlight Kiss by Bap Kennedy (this is the perfect snowy night song, thank you Serendipity)
I'm Gonna Be by the Proclaimers
Extraordinary by Liz Phair
Free Man in Paris by Joni Mitchell
The Rising by Bruce Springsteen

Now in honor of the Oscars, Netflix delivered Gentleman's Agreement to my door on Friday and I'm going to go sit and pull more clips. And try to stay out of my leftovers.

Oh...just got an interesting Match email:) Not that one (still...ugh) but a newbie. I'm intrigued so maybe I'll just be a computer rat instead...