Brooklyn Show is CANCELED!

UPDATE: Don Pedro has canceled all bands tonight and will have a DJ set instead.


While our show in Brooklyn is still scheduled to go on, we have decided that it's simply not safe for us to try and make the journey down. We really hate canceling more than anything else in the entire universe. We've been keeping a close watch on the weather, hoping for it to clear up enough for us to make the journey, but there are already significant reports of flooding, downed trees, and other obstacles along our path. The latest weather off the wire suggests that travel will be extremely dangerous or impossible. We feel bad and sad, but we feel that it increases the probability that we will live until at least Monday and you all know how much we love Mondays! We hope that you will all forgive us and we very much hope to see you in the near future!

The latest:
--
A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until 6 am EST Saturday.

A Winter Storm Warning means significant amounts of snow...
sleet... and ice are expected or occurring. Strong winds are also
possible. This will make travel very hazardous or impossible.

Snow will continue... heavy at times... into Friday morning... with
additional accumulations of 4 to 6 inches tonight... bringing
total accumulations by daybreak to 6 to 11 inches in New York
City... and 10 to 15 inches in Westchester and Putnam counties.

The snow will then gradually become less steady and lighter into
Friday night... before tapering off to light snow or snow showers
on Saturday. Storm total accumulations through Saturday morning
should range from 12 to 17 inches in New York City..and 15 to 20
inches across Westchester and Putnam counties.

West winds will also be quite strong. Gusts to 50 mph at
times will produce near blizzard conditions at times.

The heavy wet snow will be sufficient to bring down trees and
power lines... and could also cause roof collapses.
--

DNFMOMD - Play in Brooklyn FRIDAY!

We're very excited to make our NYC Debut this Friday, February 26th at
Don Pedro (90 Washington Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn) with Rumanian Buck,The Sounds of Kaleidescope, and Tennis System- we play at 9:00PM!


Facebook Event

Launch Over Radio Campaign Opportunity

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling will be releasing our first EP in April - we're joining forces with Launch Over to pool resources with other bands to do a small-scale radio campaign. See the Launch Over Blog Post and let them know if you are interested in packaging your CD with ours to save some money on shipping costs!

From Launch Over:
"Launch Over is exploring the possibility of pooling the funds of several bands in order to cut down expenses for conducting a mailing campaign to college radio stations. The target date for the campaign is late March / early April. We're looking for new, professionally recorded releases by Boston-based artists. Our vision - to build a package and develop a set of bio/press materials (including one-sheets and station ID packages) for up to 5 records to package together and send to approximately 300 radio stations. Although we will follow up with as many stations as possible, this is not a full-service campaign and we will not track charting, etc. In other words, this is not a true replacement for traditional radio servicing and is not appropriate for artists concerned with CMJ radio chart accomplishments. This is instead intended to be a low-cost alternative to a traditional full campaign. Artists included in this package would simply pay their share of the shipping/packaging costs and receive all other included services at no cost whatsoever. Estimated cost for entire campaign: $300-$500 (plus artists would need to provide 300 copies of their CD). Please let us know if you are interested in joining forces with us!"

DNFMOMD Interview with Alex Fitch of Panel Borders

clockwise from left, 'No.6', painting by Simon Palmer, Patrick McGoohan on the set of Living in Harmony, Ian Rakoff at Comica, Michael Epstein and Sophia Cacciola a.k.a. 'Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling' and the cover of the novel 'Miss Freedom' by Andrew Cartmel

Celebrating 42 years of the cult TV show The Prisoner – Alex Fitch talks to a couple of writers who have continued the adventures of Patrick McGoohan’s iconic character No.6 in other media. 1980s Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel has written a new Prisoner novel ‘Miss Freedom’ while Sophia Cacciola from the band ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling’ has written an album of songs based on each episode of the TV show. Also, actress and comedienne Jessica Fostekew reads from the novel accompanied by sound effects and music from the show…

For more info, please visit the home of this podcast at Sci-Fi London (originally broadcast on 01/25/10 in an edited form as part of a Clear Spot on Resonance 104.4 FM).

Links: Info about Andrew Cartmel’s The Prisoner: Miss Freedom
Listen to Alex’s interview with Ian Rakoff about writing Living in Harmony and co-editing It’s your funeral and The General.

You can download the entire show at: http://panelborders.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/reality-check-fall-out-the-prisoner-in-other-media/


Alex also had us write up our 10 favorite/most influential movies in a piece called Film Jukebox for Electric Sheep Magazine - check it out here.

Next Show: 02/17 at Church!

Upcoming show - 02/17/2010
a night of punk-cabaret, art-rock, and piano sorcery
Church of Boston

HUMANWINE
Walter Sickert and the ARmy of BRoken TOys
Sarah RabDAU (solo)

$8/21+  DNFMOMD on second.

 

top flyer by HUMANWINE bottom flyer by Walter Sickert 

Facebook Event  (Army of Toys' FB event)

Videos by Ted Cormey of Walter Sickert and the ARmy of BRoken TOys:

and Sarah RabDAU:

DNFMOMD: Interview with SciFi Pulse!

SciFi Pulse did a very lengthy interview with us recently on the scope of our band and we shared opinions on a host of other sci-fi and spy-related tv and movies. From the SciFi Pulse press release,

"featured in our fifty third episode is a music act with a difference, because everything about them is a celebration of the classic 1960s Spy Fi series The Prisoner, which was written and starred in by the late great Patrick McGoohan....During the course of this unusual interview. Host Ian Cullen and the gang discuss their musical inspirations, and their love of the 60s and 70s Spy genre in television and movies."

The interview is downloadable here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/scifipulse (Episode 53) or you can stream from this link and you can download from I-tunes by searching for SciFiPulse.

01/29/10 Show Recap

photo of Chris Mascara from Mascara

On Friday, January 29th we got to open up Mascara's CD release party at The Middle East. It was a really great night of arty, challenging (in a good way) ROCK. This was my blog preview of the night.

Bernie Conneely got some video of one of our songs:


Bernie also got some of Super 400


and I taped two songs of Mascara:


and finally, Ho-Ag riffing on Prince's 'When Doves Cry'

DNFMOMD was On The Town with Mikey Dee on 01/06/2010

We were honored to be the very first band of 2010 to be on On The Town with Mikey Dee on WMFO on 01/06/2010. Joel Simches mixed our live set and mastered it back at his labs, we're offering it up on Bandcamp for free or donation. Shilo McDonald was our interviewer - we also posted the interview up on youtube:



Photos:

me inside the drum booth

Mike making his "bass face"

Shilo being "Crafty!"

being interviewed

DNFMOMD: January 29th at The Middle East Upstairs!

January 29th, 2010 - The Middle East Upstairs 9:00 SHARP
This show is going to be really awesome. Super-rock-trio Mascara are releasing their new CD, titled Fountain of Tears.

More on Mascara from Mascara: MASCARA, led by "the real-life model for Rock Band lead singer avatars" (Boston Magazine) and dubbed 2009's Best Super Trio (Boston Band Crush), worked long and hard on the new expansive, avant rock CD. Mascara is touring the Northeast and were recently described in the Boston Phoenix as "weird...like Joni Mitchell's jazz phase played by a spaced-out garage-prog band who drive a van with a wolf mural...Gang of Four-meets-Andrew Lloyd Webber." 

Ho-Ag who are also amazing- are headlining the night - this is a band who has covered Devo for Halloween - what more do you need to know? 

Super 400 are on right after us, they're a power-trio from Troy, NY that I've been hearing a ton of great things about (chick-bass-player-awesomeness).

We are very excited to open up this night of serious rocking (so come early!!)

Facebook Event  

Sophia's Year in Review

all links go to something interesting.

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling:


In July we recorded 3 songs with Mike Quinn at The Moontower (download them here!), and had a kick-ass photo shoot with Kelly Davidson. In August, we played our first real show on my birthday at The Middle East Upstairs, which was an amazing evening for me. We also played Church and finished out 2009 with a show at Harpers Ferry. In November, we shared our top 10 movies with a British underground film magazine, Electric Sheep Magazine. In December we were interviewed by them for a podcast that should be up shortly, also we were interviewed by SciFiPulse for their podcast that should air in January. At the end of December, we began work at The Moontower to record our next three songs.

Looking forward to 2010: We’ll be on WMFO’s On The Town on January 6th, we’ll be finishing up our first EP to be released this Spring. We’ll be opening up Mascara’s CD Release on January 29th, and playing with HUMANWINE and Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys in February, and shortly will be beginning preproduction on a music video to be released in the Summer.



Boston Band Crush:

I had a great time meeting tons of new bands and people this year through Boston Band Crush. Highlights include my SXSW and WBCN Rumble coverage (including talking about it on Boston Emissions with Anngelle Wood), interviewing Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes, and co-planning and executing our coming-out event, One Night Band.

Launch Over:

Mike and I started the groundwork on a Boston music licensing, publishing, strategy consulting and targeted marketing company that will be operational in 2010.

Personal Highlights:

I enjoyed trips to (vegan eating guides are linked): San Francisco, San Diego, & LA; Portland, OR and Seattle, WA; NYC; the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate NY, Maine, & North Carolina.

I got to spend two wonderful weekends with my adorable 1 year old niece – I’m hoping to be able to spend more time with her this year.

Saw more than 100 different local bands play (full list is forthcoming) and attended 18 The Motion Sick shows this year.

Had the privilege of experiencing Leonard Cohen in concert.

Had a ton of fun being an extra in Ad Frank’s music video for Winterthru – I’m excited to see the finished product!

DNFMOMD: Recording at The Moontower 12/27/09

Mike and Sophia took to the studio last weekend to record the songs:

Episode 4: The Chimes of Big Ben
Episode 9: A. B. and C.
and their Leonard Cohen cover, First We Take Manhattan

Working with the esteemed Mike Quinn, we cruised through the tracking and we'll be headed back in to finish mixing in early January.

Here are some photos:

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling Tshirts are here!

and they are awesome:

go here to buy: http://donotforsake.com/sales.html
or grab one on December 10th at Harpers Ferry! 

DNFMOMD: December 10th at Harpers Ferry

We play first on what starts out as a girl-rock band night and ends as a dance party explosion.

The Sun Lee Sunbeam

Jeddo Stars (former Charms members)

Harpers Ferry, Allston MA 

The New Number 2 EP- Lyrics

The New Number 2 EP Lyrics:

click images to make larger

Episode 1 - Arrival

they had the flood lights on you

saying you’re not gonna make it this time

they beat your body

took your will then they took your mind

sent you back to me, said

"get what you can then leave him behind"

they’re gun gun gunning for you

your lips curl out from your face

like they got something to prove

and when they’re moving at night I think

you’re finally telling the truth

you’ve been running your whole life singing

"if you’ve got nothing you’ve got nothing to lose"

they’re gun gun gunning for you, love

when you wake up you’ll be in your own bed

when you wake up it won’t be your thoughts in your head

wake up wake up wake up wake up

wake up wake up wake up wake up

they’re gun gun gunning

they’re gun gun gunning

they’re gun gun gunning for you

Episode 2 - Dance of the Dead

Were you a ghost, were you a dream, were you just meant to hurt me

I've had this headache for six days straight
and I know it's you knocking around in there
this heart aches but it just won't break
and it's just not fair, it's just not fair

that you stepped out of a poem I'd read
you were dark and brooding, I was sure you were dead
but you were singing and laughing and dancing and praying as you talked me
through the night

saying "it'll be all right, it'll be all right, it'll be all right"

Were you a ghost, were you a dream, were you just meant to hurt me

you were the wind blowing through this house
coming up my lungs and out my mouth
but you don't talk to me anymore
and I'm trying to be strong, I'm trying to be strong

"it'll be all right, it'll be all right, it'll be all right"

Were you a ghost, were you a dream, were you just meant to hurt me
Were you a ghost, were you a dream, were you just meant to hurt me

Episode 3 - Checkmate

You’re sitting at the table

watching jacks fly around

making bets you can’t pay

letting chips fall to the ground

made your money selling your torture

made your friends by being so lonely

got your name hiding what you knew

they couldn’t pin it on you, pin it on you

don’t follow me, don’t follow me (no, no, no)

stay with me, walk with me

got your hands in your pockets

clutching at the fabric of a green, green dress

it’s the last that you took from her

on the day that she left, the day that she left

don’t follow me, don’t follow me (no, no, no)

stay with me, walk with me

don’t follow me, don’t follow me (no, no, no)

stay with me, walk with me

you get up and your chair tips back

bullets are flying and you laugh laugh laugh

just give up, you won’t get her back

smoke is rising and you laugh laugh laugh

don’t follow me, don’t follow me (no, no, no)

stay with me, walk with me

don’t follow me, don’t follow me (no, no, no)

stay with me, walk with me

DNFMOMD: Friday, November 6th at Church

Church of Boston
FRIDAY, November 6th

with:
Shoney Lamar and the Equal Rights
MRS DANVERS
Justin Shorey

Coded Message From HQ About Episode 4: The Chimes of Big Ben

We just received a coded message from HQ.  The exchange was made in a secret location in the Boston area.  We can't tell you exactly what it means, but we have finally been given the go-ahead to complete the song "Episode 4: The Chimes of Big Ben" and we look forward to presenting it publicly in the very near future.

MP3s of Episodes 1-3 are still available for download at (along with the international leak of a live video of Episode 6 made by an unknown UN official): http://itbeginswithashriek.blogspot.com/2009/09/download-new-do-not-forsake-me-oh-my.html

Download new Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling music!

Download the first three songs of 17 in The Prisoner Series!

The New Number 2 EP:
(March 2010 Update: Free download has expired - keep an eye out for how to buy/stream the finished EP!)

Watch Episode 6 - Many Happy Returns (live at The Middle East 08/19/2009)

DNFMOMD: Mailing List Email - Show August 19th!

Hello Friends,

It has been a while since you've heard from us. While Blitzkriegbliss is no more, we've got a new project called Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling. This band is a two-piece, Sophia on drums and vocals and Mike on bass.

We will have recordings ready very soon! Until then, you can check out our new band photos, a live video shot during a test show last year and find out more information on our new website: http://donotforsake.com.

Our first show is this Wednesday, August 19th at The Middle East Upstairs. We're super excited about the excellent bill, a celebration of women in ROCK with: Apple Betty, Highly Personal Trash, The Sun Lee Sunbeam, Sarah RabDAU and Self-Employed Assassins.

This is also my birthday, and I will be making a TON of VEGAN cupcakes. The biggest present I could ask for is for you to consider coming out for the show!

The Rock Out Boston Club is sponsoring this show, they gather people at a bar to socialize before events, this month they are meeting up at Miracle of Science at 8pm, more information is here. I'm also delighted that Boston Emissions on WZLX hosted by Anngelle Wood is also sponsoring the event.

The Facebook Event for the show.

Details:

9:00: Apple Betty
9:45: Highly Personal Trash
10:30: The Sun Lee Sunbeam
11:15: Sarah RabDAU and Self-Employed Assassins
12:00: Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling

Love,

Sophia

Advance Warning: Birthday Show August 19th!

We've got an epic show planned for Wednesday, August 19th with:
Apple Betty
Highly Personal Trash
Sarah RadDAU and Self-Employed Assassins
The Sun Lee Sunbeam

at The Middle East Upstairs.

It's my birthday, and I'm bringing cupcakes. I'll have more details soon!

Vegan Eating Tour of Seattle 2009

Bamboo Garden was our first stop after getting off the train. This is Chinese food with mock-meats and tofu, not unlike Boston’s Grasshopper-except maybe more authentic. We got General Gao’s and Ma po Tofu, both really tasty.

Mighty O Donuts - We never made it to the actual mighty-o location (okay, we did, but it was closed and we only got to peer inside) but we ate some at a few coffee shops and after a week of eating Voodoo Doughnuts, they just didn’t compare. They did taste more “healthy” than voodoo, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Pizza Pi – is an awesome all vegan pizza place right in the U-district. Their default is to use Teese, but they also have all sorts of home-made white sauces (and nutritional yeast flakes at the tables!), and they were very happy to work around Mike’s many and random allergies to make us a super-awesome pizza. Highly recommended.

Next door, we were excited to find yet another vegan grocery, SideCar for Pigs Peace (which benefits a pig sanctuary). They had a bunch of typical vegan goodies, and some tasty chocolates, and individually wrapped ice-cream bars, and cupcakes and Mighty-O donuts. It’s also worth a stop if you’re looking to stock up on the harder-to-find vegan pantry items.

Juliano’s Pizza – is a regular pizza joint that was open late and near our hotel – that also has a vegan pizza! Their default is Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella (which I actually like better than Teese) but you can also get a garlic–tofu mash as your “cheese” just tell them that you don’t want the FYH. They were super nice and there were some drunk people commandeering the internet/tv connection to play songs on youtube (to give 'em credit -they were picking some good tunes--mostly 60s stuff, Bob Dylan, etc) and encouraging us to write on the sharpie-graffiti covered walls (which, of course Mike took a picture of):

It’s definitely an adventure at night!

Café Flora – was a substantial bus ride from downtown but totally worth it. This was the only “upscale” vegetarian restaurant that we found on the entire trip. As such, Mike picked on me a little when I ordered the Black Bean Burger with Yam Fries (which, happened to be really tasty.) Mike got some sort of arugula-chick pea croquettes which he said were delicious, and we started with deep-fried avacado –which was unusual and good. Dessert was a super rich, super moist chocolate cake, that was probably better than any chocolate cake that I've had out, but I'm not ready to say that it's better than my own.

Squid and Ink – I have a mixed review of. Mike got a chick-pea puree sandwich that was akin to a tuna salad sandwich and a tomato soup, which he raved and raved about. I got the pastrami reuben—which was okay, but I have a weird relationship with seitan where the more I eat it the more I dislike it, and this sandwich was huge slabs of seitan. It was alright, but not my favorite meal of the trip.

We tried to go to Carmelita in Greenwood, but got there an hour before opening (at 4 pm) and when we read the menu it was full of tree nuts and mushrooms (the two things Mike is most allergic to) so we left and went to…

Sunlight Café instead. Sunlight does hearty home-cooking with a slight middle-eastern flare. Mike had a stew/soup and a tofu stir-fry; I had falafel patties, it was alright –but not the most “gourmet” meal ever.

If you’re in the downtown area, there isn’t a whole lot of vegan to choose from, but we did find a really delicious Ethiopian place called Pan Africa Market that had a whole vegan section (that was even labeled vegan!) It was also way cheaper than we are used to paying for Ethiopian ($8 each instead of about $13) and they carried a tasty Moroccan beer (called Casa, I believe). Highly, highly recommended if you are stuck downtown and/or are famished from Pike’s Place.

Cinnamon Works at Pike’s Place – first shimmered at us like a mirage in the middle of Pike’s Place Market by advertising vegan and gluten-free items. They had many vegan choices, and we finally decided on a frosted cinnamon roll. They listed ALL of the ingredients which I recall were really simple (and it’s nice to know what is in the thing you are eating!) the roll was moist, flaky, I’ll go so far as to say ‘heavenly.’ Such a treasure amongst the fishmongers!

Vegan Eating Tour of Portland, OR

May 2009

Sustainability is a big buzz word around Portland, OR. Though I was pleased that most places had bins for compost, and left water out (for me to easily refill by steel bottle-and let me avoid buying bottled the whole trip.) Most of the vegan places in Portland are cafes - so we ate a bunch of sandwiches all week. You can only live on sandwiches for so long, I've decided.

Here is the run-down on all of the places we went.

For food, our favorite by far was Blossoming Lotus. We went twice even. The weird thing about BL is that it is attached to a yoga center - it was very distracting walking into the bathroom of the restaurant you're eating in and seeing naked ladies walking in and out and around the showers. Day one - I had the most enormous burrito (which tasted like the best thing ever, after being on the plane for what seemed like decades). Mike had the bbq soy curls sandwich (our first experience with soy curls - my opinion is that they almost cross the line to being too 'meaty'-didn't stop me from bringing some home though-as you'll see later) They also had vegan soft serve ice cream! They carry one flavor at a time, and the first day it was mint chocolate chip--it was seriously rich and delicious. Our second visit there, I got the monk bowl, which was brown rice, beans and kale with a peanut sauce - very hearty and tasty. Mike, again, got the bbq soy curls sandwich. This time the soft serve was plain ol' vanilla - while it was good, it wasn't nearly as exciting as the mint chocolate chip - which Mike had delcared was the best thing he'd ever put in his mouth hole.


Voodoo Doughnuts, I've decided, is the happiest place on earth. They have the best doughnuts I've ever tasted - and a large vegan selection. We went there three times in four days - each time eating more doughnuts than I care to admit. We stuck to three flavors, of which our favorite was the frosted sprinkles, Mike liked the powdered doughnut, and I also enjoyed a "Portland" (ahem, Boston) Creme. Voodoo also does weddings - if only I had known! Go there, eat, get married!

Papa G's Vegan Organic Deli A Vegan Deli – how awesome is that. We enjoyed mashed potatoes with ginger gravy, a meatball sub, a bbq tofu sandwich, and a bowl of macaroni salad so close to the real thing it was almost gross!

Bye and Bye - is a hipster bar that was non-smoking before non-smoking was a law. The place reminded me of Bukowskis in atmosphere. I got the Eastern Bowl: brown rice, broccolli, tofu in a peanut sauce. Mike got the BBQ platter: collard greens, bbq tempeh, and baked beans. Tasty, and if you go at happy hour, as we did--super cheap!

Proper Eats was way in the middle of nowhere - after a 45 minute bus ride through residential areas we came upon a block of stores in "St. Johns." Proper Eats is located behind a small grocery. The food had great presentation - very fancy with the garnish. I got the nachos--PE makes their own cheese sauce - which my tastebuds would guess was made from cashews and nutritional yeast. Mike got the tempeh reuben.

Finally, to the 'vegan mini-mall' - which is more like a block of cool vegan stuff. I'll go in the order that we went to them:

Red and Black Cafe - a worker owned collective, we ate more tasty sandwiches. This time I got the tempeh reuben, and Mike had a "tuna" like sandwich. Our order took a few minutes to come because one of the customers got all of the workers to take a survey on what it means to be vegan - I was sad she didn't ask us to also take the survey.

Then, to Herbivore - a cute clothing store with slogan’s like “eat like you give a damn” and “I heart tofu” I picked up a pretty awesome wallet here, additionally the staff were super nice.

Next door over is Food Fight Vegan Grocery - a place I've done online orders for obscure vegan stuff a bunch of times. The physical store was more like a mini-mart. I regret not buying the can of vegan haggis, or the vegan caviar or the pate, but we did pick up some soy curls, jerkey, and chocolates. Check out their website and read thier snarky descriptions of items (example: Vegan Chedder Crackers "Product Description: Most Holy Jeebus! We finally got these. Pretty much just like those "goldfish" crackers every kid used to make a mess with. Except organic and more expensive! Awesome!")

Our final destination on this block was Sweetpea Baking Company we got a coffee cake that was delicious, and a chocolate-peanut butter bar that was good but really rich. We also found Sweetpea cookies at most of the independant coffee places that we went to.

Speaking of coffee, try Stumptown Coffee Roasters if you go--I didn't actually make it to one of their locations, but Backspace cafe served Stumptown coffee and it was the best latte I've had in a while. Backspace also has vegan sandwiches but we were there before the kitchen opened and had to make-do with bagels. Backspace also carries Voodoo Doughnuts, and has cool art - so all-around local and worth checking out.

Andy Warhol

makes eating a burger interesting, somehow:

Don't let this make you lose your faith

in all things good and just, but Johnny Cash totally stole Folsom Prison Blues.

Evidence:



Compare with:



Really, this was standard practice at the time, to re-write old country and folk standards, the problem here being that this song was not an old standard. There was some sort of court case, and this practice has fallen out of favor amongst musicians, in the age of copyright.

Mike eats raw tofu on tour

New Vegan Marshmallows from the Chicago Soy Dairy!

Oh how I miss marshmallows: I long to make rice crispy treats, and smores, and hot chocolate; and now the Chicago Soy Dairy (a dedicated vegan "dairy") is making all of those things come to life. Introducing: Dandies Vegan Marshmallows!

California Vegan Eating Tour of 2009

Here is the lo-down on the California Vegan Eating Tour of 2009. Sadly, I have not worked up my courage to take photos of food in restaurants, so my short descriptions will have to do.

San Diego:

Pizza Fusion: Thin crust pizza with a great sauce and Follow Your Heart cheese, good natural soda choices, and organic-recommended.

Berkeley:

Herbivore: went for breakfast, I got the southwestern tofu scramble—which I wolfed down, and I thought was great. Mike got the pancakes, which were good, but he didn’t love. I also had my first-ever vegan donut—which was awesome.

Gelataria Naia: had some decent sorbet, and a pumpkin vegan gelato that I enjoyed.

Nabolom Bakery – we tried to go but we were thwarted as they are closed on Mondays.

Smart Alec’s – I didn’t love Smart Alecs – too much of the homeless/dirty scene made it into the restaurant to make it fully enjoyable – but I appreciated that they had vegan items—the marinated tofu was quite good-though I didn’t like the bread it was on (too doughy).

San Francisco:

Millenium - is probably the best restaurant I’ve ever been to, and one of the more expensive. But everything we had was delicious. They were super polite and accommodating to Mike’s allergy needs. The black bean torte (this is the description of it from their website: "whole wheat tortilla, caramelized plantains, smoky black bean puree, pumpkin-habanero salsa verde, cashew sour cream, strawberry-jicama salsa") is to die for, the chocolate parfait was amazing. The entrees had really interesting and complementary flavor pairings. For entrée I had an Indian Crepe, with mellow coconut overtones and delicious mango chutney. Mike got pumpkin seed encrusted tempeh with polenta gnocci—all of which was very, very good. Highly recommended, very romantic for dates.

Herbivore – ran in to a different Herbivore location just to snag some more of those donuts.

San Jose:

Good Karma Café – Good Karma is basically set up as a lunch counter, sadly we had just eaten lunch elsewhere—so we only got dessert. We had a really tasty chocolate pudding-esque pie (I hesitate to call it a “cheesecake” as it didn’t have that taste-but had a similar consistency).

LA:

There are a lot of vegan Thai places in LA-of which we made it to two—the most exciting thing about these places was the availability of vegan thai iced teas!

Truly a Vegan Restaurant was the better of the two. I got a pad thai, and Mike got a seitan dish that came with brocolli and brown rice, and weirdly a tahini sauce. They also had a glossy magazine article on all of the tables that claimed that Patrick Dempsey and the cast of Grey’s Anatomy have eaten there/and continue to frequent the place.

California Vegan: Mike got the gluten-free pancake—which was pretty good—but the fake chicken it came with was frightening. I played it safe with fried tofu in a sweet chili sauce, which was pretty decent.

Real Food Daily—My one regret from the trip is not eating a full meal here—both times we were near one of the locations we were in-between meals—so we enjoyed their soy lattes and amazing desserts. Mike got the raspberry chocolate mousse cake twice, and the gingerbread cookie was amazingly moist. The hostess cupcake, was good, but quite dense and would have been more delicious with more filling. Anyway, I’ll be buying their cookbook based on their menu selection alone.

Rahel Veggie Cuisine – we found ourselves in Little Ethiopia at lunch time and found that Rahel had a vegan all you can eat lunch special for only $7.95. We got five dishes, mixed vegetable (potatoes & carrots), spicy lentils (in a red berber sauce), yellow split peas, kale, and green beans. Everything was super tasty (some of the best Ethiopian I’ve had, actually) and for that price, cannot be beat!

That is dildos...I mean awesome!

This is a pretty extensive pentagon-flow-chart on how to name a metal band:



Link

It's a sad day for No. 6

My favorite actor died today.  Mike wrote up a succinct blog over at his band's site, which I am going to copy here: 

"I am very sad that my favorite actor Patrick McGoohan passed away yesterday at the age of 80. I am slightly disturbed by the fact that last night, we completed our viewing of the 86-episode, 18 DVD box set of Secret Agent / Danger Man. We saw the final episodes, which were the only two shot in color. The next morning, news arrives that McGoohan had passed. 

Soon after the end of the Secret Agent series (which ended at the star's insistence), McGoohan launched his own series, The Prisoner. The first 7 or so episodes may just be the absolute best television ever produced. The show was essentially a continuation of Secret Agent, though could not be formally affiliated due to character ownership issues. In the show's opening sequence, a secret agent bursts into his supervisor's office, slams his hands on the desk, and hands over a letter of resignation. He scrambles home, hurriedly packing his things, knowing that there is little time to spare. However, he is too late. A man had followed him to his home and now knocks him out with a spray of gas. When the agent wakes up, he is in the familiar surroundings of his own abode, but when he pulls aside the curtain and peers out the window, he is anywhere but in London. 

The show proceeds as the agent, whose real name is never revealed in the series, is assigned the number 6 as his identity. He tries to escape from his new surroundings, but never can. He is confined here, a place called The Village, where quite odd things happen, and it's never clear who is a captor and who is a captive.

The show's absolutely, stunningly amazing allegorical style, wit, and suspense established the tone for virtually every modern sci-fi TV series. Extremely clear references can be seen in shows like Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and Lost. The show is mindblowing today, even 40 years after it aired. 

Secret Agent / Danger Man, although less cerebral, was also a wonderful and fun spy series. The first season of the show, in which episodes lasted only 30 minutes always ended abruptly, allowing the viewer to extrapolate outcomes. Although that may sound simple, it is unsettling to modern audiences used to spoon-fed closure. The show was put on hiatus after the first season. Then, the massive success of the James Bond movies prompted its return as an hour-long series in which McGoohan, who originally played a NATO agent without specific national affiliation now played a British intelligence agent.

The Bond movies actually borrowed heavily from Danger Man in many areas including the tag: Bond, James Bond (Drake, John Drake on Danger Man). Patrick McGoohan was asked to play James Bond at one point, but he declined because he was unwilling to kiss a woman on screen (or even have implied relations or womanizing), as it went against his moral principles as a devoutly married man. He comes off in the few interviews he did as a tough, but very intelligent and interesting individual. McGoohan has always kept his private and family life very private and most of his fans have respected that choice including, Roger Langley, the author of his recent biography Patrick McGoohan: Danger Man or Prisoner?. There are great interviews with McGoohan on Youtube. I have chosen not to include them here because they include many spoilers for The Prisoner and give specific interpretations for events and ideas that are, at the very least, flexible to individual interpretation.

Sophia and I were both struck so heavily by The Prisoner that we decided to name our band Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling after an episode of the show (though we do also know that the episode title is a reference to High Noon, which we also love). We even hope to wear stage outfits inspired by costumes from The Prisoner.

Although Patrick McGoohan had essentially been out of acting for some time now, I am as saddened by his death as I possibly could be for someone I didn't personally know."

If you're going to San Francisco....

I've always (literally since I was a baby) liked this song. I feel like it represents hippie love and yet imparts a general mood of coming dread and the dark side of the hippie movement (that a little San Francisco band called The Doors explored.) From wikipedia, I learned that the song is one big ad for the Monterey Pop Festival. Listening to the song in this new light makes it hilarious, and makes me love it even more:

"For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there"

A-ha! A love-in! Go hippies with your veiled advertisements and subliminal messages and call to arms!

Day One Sauerkraut: