Lila's New Writeups

Sex on the beach (thing)

2006-02-02T23:26:49Z

At 3am on one of the busiest nights of the year and someone starts asking you to mix up cocktails that you have never made before and aren't on the menu and the recipe is written on the back of the waitress' hand you will often ask if maybe they don't want a Mojito instead. But when that person is holding hostage your copy of season two of the West Wing DVD, well it takes a better person than me to say no.

So I dashed off a couple of the stupidly named Sex on the Beach cocktails.

What a good drink - easy to make, the ingredients are available in any bar and in most liquor stores at affordable prices. It tastes good enough to sell to almost anyone.

As with any recipe and especially with the simple ones choose your ingredients with care. The vodka has to be decent, but the peach schnapps can be any brand or variety. The OJ can be natural or a decent brand with relatively few additives. It's all about the balance.

After a few rounds of…

Borgia Family (person)

2006-02-01T22:28:20Z

A Sign Of The Times

To be able to talk of the Borgia family, one must be able to at least try and understand the time in which they ruled. It's for another node and time to try and entirely dissect the mentality of the Catholic Church during the end of the dark ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, if not we can simply list their crimes and misdemeanors, and be suitably shocked and gratified we do not live in that world. But this would not bring us one iota closer to understanding.

The world that saw Callistus III rise to power was a world that would be unrecognizable to the 20th century boy. Apart from the lack of electricity, the printing press was still a few years in the future and the core of literacy was still confined mainly to monasteries and to a few universities. With use of arithmetic symbols (the humble + and - signs) all but gone from usage, the educated Erasmus and Thomas Moore were very much unique for their time.

Europe was still a…

Riot Act (thing)

2002-11-11T14:41:00Z

"... I was a fool because I thought
I thought the world
Turns out the world thought me..."

This is not the first Pearl Jam album I've bought on my own, and it hopefully won't be the last, it was like the others, an anonymous purchase. If I lose the receipt by this time next month I'll have forgotten all the details of where I bought it. I spent the last pennies I have until I get paid, whenever that may be, on it. But it doesn't matter. Money comes, money goes, mostly goes. But I'll get by and do it again next week. I left work sick today but remembered to grab it on the way home. Because Pearl Jam are home at times to me, Eddie's voice is one of the safest sounds I know.

The sleeve notes are familiarly composed of Jeff Ament's beautiful black and white photography depicting the band rehearsing and chain smoking, filled in with a strange native american illustration by Brad Klausen. The dedication at…

No way (thing)

2002-11-08T15:02:14Z

Pearl Jam have been recording, touring and releasing albums for nearly fifteen years now at a consistent rate. On average every two years the release a new album, go on a world tour and go home. Lather, rinse and repeat. Call it boring or call it professionalism, it works.

With grunge credentials and firm roots in the underground scene they have done all they can to escape from this image, whilst always moving slowly away from their contemporaries. While the Seattle scene went down in flames they were recording Vitalogy, a wonderful compilation of mumblings and rock guitars, with a song called Stupid Mop thrown in for good measure. Now they seemed to have, if the reviews are anything to go by, achieved their apparent ambition to become a Crazy Horse tribute band with their new album Riot Act.

But I digress. I love Yield. Actually I love the first half of Yield and the very end. The middle bit is where I always wander off to make dinner or have a shower. But the…

Dream Log: November 4, 2002 (thing)

2002-11-04T12:16:30Z

I am slowly convincing myself that Iâm going a little crazy. Most of the telltale signs I would attribute to winter and my rather evident sad problem. But there are two major things I canât fit in anywhere but in the place I donât want it to go.

The first one is that the whole world seems to have shifted about two degrees to the side, the right side. This can be taken in a few ways so Iâll explain what I mean. My perception has slipped a few degrees right towards ânot wellâ. When people talk to me there are all coming from a different place than me. Even day to day stuff seems slightly skewed. The whole world at times seems to physically be twisted. I get dizzy a lot lately. My own reactions to the world have also altered. I am becoming more irrational and obsessive to the world and about the things I care about. But it all seems perfectly normal. I know that if this goes on Iâll lose this ability I still have…

November 1, 2002 (idea)

2002-11-01T11:16:22Z

Warning: Language used.

It's decision time in my world again. It's been awhile now creeping up. In the most sensible manner I could muster (which is big leap for me, Ms. Out-Of-Her-Tiny-Mind) I've been trying to analyse it, to probe at it, to make sure that it's not what I think it is.

Push.
Poke.
Prod.
Ouch!

It's tender and it hurts. It's lurking and getting darker. I again I have a choice. To deal with it in the best way I can and try to get over it. Ride out the rough patch. I could probably do it. I may not have managed before but there have been victories, there have been times when it's all be good and clean and really good. So I know I don't need the shit that they try and push on me. The only drugs I want they won't give me anyway. Even though it would be a damm fine idea.

But then you know there is the easy…