Lovers and 🥁

Occasionally, I enjoy live music. Typically, a small venue. Not sure why it always seems to happen like that. I suppose it is two reasons:

the musicians I want to go see don't command large arenas

I don't particularly like big crowds (which you find at big arenas)

I think the last time I saw a big show could have been David Bowie, Tina Turner or the B-52s. I do know that I wore an original Emilio Pucci that was my mother's from 1965-66 (her first haute couture dress). I'll tell you about The Dress another time. 

Anyway, I mostly go and see Michelle Malone (I'm a huge fan girl) at Eddie's Attic a few times a year. And since Covid, I've been cautious to start heading to places where there are lots of unknown people. 

Well, I decided I needed to start getting out more and when I saw Sophie B. Hawkins playing at Eddie's, I bought tickets. 

To be honest, I really didn't know much about her recent work. I do remember this hit from the 90s since I had purchased the album.

https://youtu.be/Lt6r-k9Bk6o

Ok, so off I go with little to no idea what to expect. 

To say that she is eccentric would be a huge understand. She did put on a good show and she has got an amazing head of hair.

While Sophie was good, the real start of the show was Katie Marie. Danyale and I were smitten and totally fan-girling over this badass drummer. We both had our eyes glued to Katie Marie and drooling over her drumsticks. 

We even made a point of speaking to her after the show to tell her how much we loved watching her perform. You can follow her on Instagram here and you can be sure I'm going to see her if she ever comes back to Atlanta. 

 

👁️‍🗨️ Harassment, Bullying and Intimidation

Seriously people! What the ever-lovin' fuck is wrong with you!?!

If you thought I was finished with being harassed about my opposition to the streetcar project, you would wrong (you can read about the first part of the nonsense here). 

Nope, not done. Even after all that nonsense with stealing signs and being on the news, someone had to step up the harassment. 

Yup. I got doxxed by Ryan Gravel. Yup, the guy that wrote the famous term paper to reuse an abandoned rail bed for a mixed use and transit corridor. If you are unfamiliar with the term doxxing, let me enlighten you (to be honest, I didn't know what it was until it happened to me last week). 

Now, let me state that I think that the initial idea to reuse the rail bed for alternative transit was a great idea. We need transit in Atlanta. Badly. However, THIS plan will NOT remove cars from the road. Before they start doing stuff intown, we need a comprehensive transit network that goes out to the suburbs. Why, you ask? Take a look around any intown neighbor on the weekends and you'll see move Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, etc. Those outnumber the Fulton Cty tags by far. And why are those people coming to town? A lot of them come to be on the Beltline. 

Our lovely, now a beautiful linear park on the rail bed. It's crowded on the weekends. I personally won't go on it on the weekends because of the cyclists and scooters going too fast and all the people. I DO walk a portion of it everyday since that is how I get to work. 

And speak of the devil, I saw my doxxer this morning as I walked to work. I did not engage with him (although I did consider it). And if he wanted to give me crap about living in an expensive house, dude lives in an expensive house in my 'hood too. As if the price of house had anything to do with the price of bananas (forgive the strange reference to something my mom used to say). For the record, the value of my home has tripled in the past ten years and I couldn't afford to buy it now.

So, back to the doxxing. Here I was minding my own business on a Monday morning and getting on with life when I get an email saying how sorry the leader of the opposition is about Ryan doxxing me. 

Excuse me? (after I look up doxxing).

Then I go online and there it is, big as day. 

It's on Twitter and Instagram. My home address. Well, ok, I think, fine. 

Then I read the comments. 

Holy hell! 

Quite a few people called me all kind of names because their leaders have done it. I'm talking about Ryan and Matthew Rao since their comments in this and other online forums have clearly indicated they approve of 💩 like this. Bullying, harassment and intimidation, plain and simple. 

Several people called him out for posting the details about the location of my home. Yup. That was the thing that went too far. 🐪

And then there were a few that made downright scary comments. 🫣

Bad enough for me to make sure my security cameras were fully charged and all the doors / windows locked securely (I did have a nightmare that week about someone breaking in and yelling at me about the streetcar). 

The man doesn't know me. He doesn't know what my objections are and apparently doesn't care to have a respectful discussion. He just wants to be a bully (and if you ever met him, and I have, he is kinda an arrogant 🫏). 

And if he thought this would intimidate me and remove my signs, guess again buddy. 

I did a little more research to see what I could do to protect myself. 

Report the bullying to Twitter and Instagram. ✔️
Surprisingly, Twitter removed the post and Instagram ignored repeated requests. 

And I made sure to take screen shots before reporting. 

Next up, report to the appropriate authorities because, upon further research, I discovered the doxxing is a FEDERAL CRIME. Yes, as in a misdemeanor. 

That means I filed a report with:

• Atlanta Police Department
• Georgia Bureau of Investigation 
• Federal Bureau of Investigation 

And if you think that is overkill, let me explain that is what was clearly communicated online as the correct steps to take. And if some crazy shows up at my home, burns it down or injuries me or my kitties, then Ryan is liable. 

Bullying, harassment and intimidation isn't cool. Ever. 

Meats and Rice and Everything Nice 🥩 🍚

 Time for another Julia adventure.

Tonight we made Boeuf A La Catalane, or, in English, Beef Stew with Rice, Onions and Tomatoes.

Julia states that this is a hearty dish from the Spanish-Mediterranean corner of France. It was delicious. But I get ahead of myself. 

Danyale and I started with lardons. Unlike Julie Powell, I don't might blanching bacon (I guess the Texan in me is as powerfully ingrained).

And time to dry the meat.

Once cooked, the beef joined the cooked lardons in the casserole dish. 

Brown onions, move to the casserole and then cook the rice. I used brown rice which needed twice the cooking time. Then removed to a bowl (good grief, we use a LOT of dishes with any of Julia's recipes). 

Now lovingly deglaze the pan with some dry white wine. Be sure to scrape up all the tasty brown bits creating the most delicious fond.

Add your stock and the herbs, cover and simmer for an hour at 325.

Now it's time to add the tomatoes. These would be peeled, seeded, juiced and chopped. I've actually never done this before. Not once. After peeling, you squeeze the tomatoes to get the juice out. 

Back in the oven for an hour. Then check the meat to make sure it is almost fork tender. Now raise the oven to 375 and stir in the rice. Bring to a simmer on the stove. Shove back in the oven for 20 minutes with stirring.

And all the hype about being hearty - yes. Delicious - yes. 

We didn't eat it all but we sure did make a dent in it. 

Don't Poke The 🐻

So I won't bore you with the details BUT there is a bit of a debate going on in the city.

Specifically, this area of the city. 

And, I'm gonna keep it real, it's more than a bit.

Some people feel strongly FOR something to happen.

Some people feel strongly AGAINST this thing to happen. 

Of course, there is a bit of grey in there too.

I'm one of the opposers. I don't oppose the idea of what this represents, oh no. I oppose the current plan of how the city wants to execute the idea. It's an incredible waste of money, the current way this service works is not used by anyone (except the homeless) and will truly do nothing to help the people that actually need this public service (it has the potential to make it easier for gentrified neighborhoods to go shopping at an overpriced market). 

As one of many opposers, we got together to make yard signs that expressed our concerns.

A respectful sign with data points provided by the city itself. 

However, someone in the FOR camp decided that I, and many of my cohorts, didn't have the right to have an opinion that differed from their own (what is it about leftist extremists being as crazy as right extremists - but I digress). And so, our yard signs were stolen. What are you? Five? Take your toys and go home.

Naturally, you can imagine how I took this action (especially since the sign at my business was stolen too). 

That's right, I put TWO signs in my yard and made sure my security cameras covered the areas. And I put more up at my business. I zip-tied those suckers to the building. Take that you big babies. 

Did I stop there you ask?

Of course not. My dander was up.

So I did what any logical, sane person would do. I posted about the theft on NextDoor. 

If you are not familiar with NextDoor, it a way for neighbors to share information about going-ons in the 'hood along with bashing each other without doing it in person. You know, another online place for trolls.

I don't ever post on NextDoor unless I've got a lost cat or something like that (it's worked great to help me return a lost kitty to it's owner). And since this topic had the potential to go south quickly, I made sure that my post was very respectful. I posted the image of the yard sign artwork along with expressing my disappointment that a neighbor wanted to silence me and others. 

As you might imagine, some people went crazy. And I mean really crazy. 🤪

4K impressions and 150 comments in 24 hours. 24 hours! Most of the comments were supportive of the opposed perspective. And of course the for folks had their say too. Some of those comments were bit scary. 

After all that attention, a local reporter reached out to me to get more info about the opposed viewpoint. I told him that I wasn't the leader of the group and he didn't care. In fact, he wanted a less formal perspective. Against my better judgment, I agree. Well, he came to my business and filmed an interview. It wasn't too bad and, of course, one of my statements was taken out of context. The opposed group was pleased with my interview and a couple neighbors mentioned seeing it. 

Funny how those that attempted to silence me ended up having my concerns get a much broader circulation.

And that was that. 

To Souffle or Not Souffle

 Just read Friday, January 3, 2023 of the Julie/Julia Project. 

This blog describes how deceitful souffles can be. 

Lying bastards. 

Souffles are tricky on a diet.  They fool you.  You take a bite of a delicious salmon soufflé, perfectly browned, light and puffy, and you can’t help thinking, against all your experience and judgement, “oh, this couldn’t be bad.  This is like eating yummy, moist air.”

Then before you know it, you’ve eaten half a soufflé.

💯 #truth

Prior to preserving a record of #adventuresincooking with images and words, Danyale and I made JC's cheese souffle recipe. 🧀

I have fond memories of cheese souffles. My maternal grandmother had a recipe from the Orillia Junior League (or some other hoity toity group) for an easy peasy cheese souffle. 

It included:

• 4 eggs (or maybe 5, my memory is fuzzy)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (preferably Campbell's)
• Salt, pepper and some other spice (again, fuzzy memory)
• Some other ingredient that I'm sure I'm forgetting

With this recipe, I learned what stiff but not dry egg white peaks were suppose to look and act like. I learned that a souffle will fall some but not completely if you had gently folded the egg whites into the rest of the mixture. 

I think I started making this on my own around 13-14. I was an expert at cheese souffle! 

Quite an accomplishment for a teen girl (honestly, teen girls should take the wins whenever they can get them but I digress...). 

I made that sucker #allthetime. 

Now, I was making JCs souffle. 

It was more complicated than my grandmother's recipe and but not overly so. I will say there was a lot of warnings about not-doing-this and not-doing-that. I still felt confident.

I was still accomplished at making souffle (even though I hadn't made one in a couple decades).

It was delicious! (I was never worried, much)

 Light, puffy, crispy on the outside and cheesy. Just like eating yummy, moist air, as Julie states. 

And yes, Danyale and I COULD NOT STOP eating it!

We wiped that sucker out and started planning when the next one should be made. 

The moral of the story is: don't be afraid of souffles. Go make one and gorge yourself! 

And forget about a diet.