Dear Eduardo: The Food Entry

Dear Eduardo,

I bet you'd just about given up hope of me writing to you again, huh? I'm sorry to have ignored you and the blog which you so meticulously maintain for so long; I've been busy to say the least. There are so many new developments and I don't have time to discuss them all now (I'm busy after all!), but rest assured I'll find some time over this coming weekend to regal you tales of West Coast happenings such as Bay to Breakers Freedom Day, Celtics in the NBA finals, three new roommates, field epidemiology training, kickball in the park, The National at the Fox Theater, and of course my trip home to Rhode Island (I guess that's more of an East Coast happening).

Anyways... this entry will be short and delicious, since its devoted to food. Why food? Two reasons:

1. Now that school is done for the summer, I suddenly find myself with time on my hands. I've been filling this 4th-dimensional gap by cooking more often. I've really missed it.
   
2. I saw this story on NPR's website today and was filled with feelings of nostalgia, homesick-ness and hunger. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127481915

Providing that link to the NPR story was half the reason for this post. The other half is to inform you that I recently made some pulled pork that I was particularly proud of. I used a North Carolina-style vinegar sauce for the first time and think it came out pretty well. Of course, anytime you have the patience for something to cook in the oven for six hours, it better be tasty. I'd provide you with the recipe, but I forget what it was. Plus its nothing special. I also shredded a head of red cabbage and mixed in a bit of cider vinegar to go with it. Yum.

So I've spent the past few days doing my best to consume five pounds of pulled pork without getting sick of it or because of it. Some of my solutions: pulled pork sandwiches with cabbage (duh), pulled pork omelette with cheddar and red onion, pulled pork and cabbage on polenta patties, and finally tonight pulled pork soft tacos with shredded NY extra-sharp cheddar, peach mango salsa, chopped bacon bits and of course, shredded red cabbage. Stick that with a limited-release Lagunitas 'Undercover Investigator Shut-Down Ale' that weighs in at 9.75% ABV and you've got yourself a solid Friday night dinner. Here is a picture of said meal before I conquered it in less than 10 minutes...

Until next time...

This Guy is a Rock Star

I saw Tallest Man on Earth play this past Sunday night at The Independent in San Francisco. Hands down the best $12 I've spent in a long, long time (and I buy a lot of really good beer). I'm not critical enough, nor do I have a good enough ear for the more technical aspects of music to write any sort of real review... but I found one from the show I saw here that might suffice. Maybe.

What I will say is that if you ever have a chance to see this guy perform you'd better grab that opportunity by the proverbial balls and not let go. Not only does he know the guitar better than the vast majority of performers I've seen, in addition to his effortless voice, but the man has stage presence too; a perfect blend of humility and confidence that lends itself perfectly to his music.

How he produces such full sound from a single guitar is beyond me. At one point Robbie commented that he simply had to have another track playing in the background (I forget which particular song). Almost immediately, as if to say "oh dear boy, do not underestimate me" he threw in an abrupt pause before continuing the song, just enough to show that yes indeed, it was all him and his guitar.

You can check tour dates and sample a few tracks on his myspace page. I'd recommend making use of GrooveShark to listen to both his albums (Shallow Grave and The Wild Hunt) until you realize he's good enough to deserve you actually dropping a few dollars on his albums.

Postscript: I'll actually finish my post on Coachella in next couple of days and maybe even make a few more. Deadlines for my research and infectious disease finals have been haunting my life for the past few weeks.

And if you're going to be homeless, do it here.

News Flash...

I'm a nerd and a dork...

Nucleotide sequences from Staph saprophiticus in one gChat window, the Gandalf/Batman debate in the other...

Coachella 2010: Condoms & Coccidiomycosis

Dear Eduardo,

I owe you a plethora of apologies for not keeping you updated on the goings-on of yours truly, April, it would suffice to say, as been a rather busy month. I've got lots to tell you, but this entry will be reserved for telling the tale of Coachella 2010. I'll update you about the rest in my next post, which likely turn out to be a bulleted list lacking any semblance of literary worth. Just you wait and see...

Onward!

As my last post informed you our trip to the Coachella Music & Arts Festival was dual-purpose... checking out some sweet live music and distributing 10,000 free condoms to the dirty, sweaty, drunken masses to that they'd keep their herpes to themselves. I'd like to report that we were successful in those endeavors... as well as many more.

It all began with Gail and I bailing on our infectious disease lab by late morning Thursday so that Megha could pick us up in a timely fashion and our journey to southern California could commence. Of course, we couldn't just drive right to Indio, CA (the site of Coachella), first we had to stop at Megha's parent's house in Malibu to swap her Mini Cooper for their minivan, as well as pick up the two giant boxes filled with condoms that they so graciously allowed to be shipped to their home. After that we'd be picking up Megha's friend Ron (and the object of my new bromance) at LAX, stopping in Pasadena, and finally heading east to Indio. Having left Berkeley at roughly noon, we arrived at the entrance to Coachella at 2am. This what we found...

That would be the 2-hour wait we found. A field full of cars being searched by overtired Marine volunteers and Coachella staff. We made the most of it by hiding our hard liquor and other unmentionables in the compartment that the minivan seat folds into under the floor and passing out condoms to all the people waiting in or on their cars. We may have also had a few beers. By 5am we had been searched, checked in, and found our campsite. We had our tents pitched by dawn and proceeded to get oh... about 1.5 hours of sleep. We awoke to this...

Beautiful sight, no? Well it was hot. Coachella is essentially the desert. I've yet to mention that in addition to the four of us in Megha's ride, we met the other half of our crew right before entering the festival (Divya, Scott, Baran, and Mary). So after cooling off with some morning High Lifes and getting our bleary-eyed selves together we embarked on the trek across the festival grounds to the entrance to the concert area. Though it took an inhuman amount of stamina on hardly any sleep, we spent from roughly 2pm until 1am checking out the following lineup.

• Deer Tick; Rhode Island natives who gave Divya and I a shout-out for yelling about Providence. They rocked harder than I expected, one of the best acts I saw all weekend.
  
• The Avett Brothers; a fantastic follow-up to Deer Tick.
  
• She & Him; god I want to slap Zoe Daschanel. As Robbie put, she's obnoxiously adorable.
• Passion Pit; who played a stellar set right at sunset. Very awesome.
  
• Vampire Weekend; sounded great, but their show wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
  
• Jay-Z; Friday's headliner who did not disappoint. Even dragged Beyonce out for a final track, but left a lot of people disappointed since the buzz for the two weeks prior was that Dre would be making an appearance during his show. At this point in the night my memories are clouded and it all seemed surreal.

I'm going to have to continue this entry later... I'll put this much up for now.

What Would YOU Do with 10,000 Condoms?

Duh.

How 'bout if you had to give them all away in less than three days? Keep in mind there are only 4,320 minutes in a three-day period, stud.

Next weekend I'll be joining several other of my fellow public health nerds in going down to the Coachella Music Festival east of Palm Springs. It will be three days of hot days, cold nights (its the desert) and fantastic music. The lineup includes Jay-Z, She & Him, The Dirty Projectors, MGMT, Spoon, De La Soul, and of course... PAVEMENT.

What makes the trip extra-special is that we'll be arriving with 10,000 condoms in tow. We applied for and received a 'mini-grant' from the Center for Health Leadership student board and purchased them through the AIDS Healthcare foundation. We'll be giving them out at the festival for free to help balance the fact that last year they were reportedly selling condoms at a price between $2-3 each. Clearly a barrier to safe sex... clearly.

But the best part... we made t-shirts. And they're awesome. See below.

I Heart Vaccines

Measles will kill you. Why? Because your neighbors didn't vaccinate their children, and then you babysat for those little rats. Little did you know that those germ bags came into contact with another unvaccinated little punk while they were vacationing in southeast Asia two weeks ago.

The term 'intentionally unvaccinated' is used to describe these kids, whose parents refuse vaccines not on religious grounds (that would be reasonable), but based on new-agey pseudo-science that says 'organic' food will boost your immune system and vaccines will give your child autism. (1) There is no scientific standard set by any regulatory body (such as the FDA) to determine what 'organic' entails, and if you have any concept of how the immune system functions, you'd realize that organic yogurt isn't going to keep you from getting even something as 'mild' as the flu (influenza will also kill you). (2) I've ranted plenty of times before about the complete lack of scientific evidence supporting any link between vaccination and autism. And of the steady of flow of court cases coming to the same conclusion should be some kind of indicator.

Its ironic that we're so lucky to live in a country where people actually have a choice of whether or not to get vaccinated against diseases that kill thousands in other parts of the world. Diphtheria, polio, pertussis, measles, pneumococcus, Haemophilis influenzae, rubella, hepatitis... know anyone with these ailments? Probably not. Its because we have vaccines.

NPR did a great story on the cost of recent measles outbreaks that have been occurring with more frequently as pockets of 'intentionally unvaccinated' grow. Check it out.

In other news, the latest formulation of Meningococcal vaccine is hitting Europe, which will now help to protect adults against Meningitis C. Of the five major pathogenic strains, we can now vaccinate against Meningitis A, C, Y, and W135. Meningitis B vaccine still eludes because its a tricky bastard, but its days are numbered.

You can visit the CDC website to the schedule of immunizations every person should receive.

Post About Nothing

I'm a pretty crappy blogger. Even I will admit, between bouts of self-loathing, that there's a gem or two on this blog, even if those gems are only a couple sentences long. However, I really cranked out too many posts in February and I fear I'm suffering a residual loss of inspiration, intelligence, or wit (probably all three). There are numerous likely causes for this downturn in my blogging ability, and I will enumerate them here for my own benefit as I ponder how to get back on the track to achieving blogging mediocrity...

1. Imbalance of bodily humors. According to the ancient Greeks, the four bodily humors were identified as black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Since blood was traditionally associated with the spring season I must be short on blood. Interestingly, it is also associated with the liver, my most oft-abused organ; could there be a connection? Perhaps.
2. Impending reversal of the Earth's magnetic field. On average it reverses approximately every 300,000 years, but we haven't had a reversal in 780,000 years! We're totally due for it.
   
3. Rabies. It can have an incubation period of several days to several years. I figure I must have been infected by a bat bite, which can sometimes go unnoticed. If its the long-incubation sort I'll slowly progress from malaise and fever to the more exciting symptoms like violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, hydrophobia, hallucination, and coma. Not even Dr. House could save his rabies patient. I'm doomed.
   
4. Lack of Artistic Angst. "Angst is a German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety. It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of strife." Basically, I think I'm too easily contented. I need some strife.
   
5. I am Job-esque. You know, Job, from the Bible. The almighty is testing me by ensuring my writing sucks. Don't worry God, I'm wise to your tricks. I don't blame you.
   
6. Armageddon. This is only the very first sign of the impending armageddon that we all knew would follow the passage of the Health Care bill. Damn you Obama.

Truth be told, I probably just need to adjust my whiskey-to-beer intake ratio. Perhaps that's the black and yellow bile the ancient Greeks were referring to.