tamarind week-end kicker

Hello. Good morning.

Official FFT Halloween week-end consisted of two parties, Sunday whiffle-ball, fantasy victory, generous amounts of slumber, red wine and David Sedaris ... in no particular order.

Firstly, Tamarind, the new Vietnamese place that opened last Monday is a keeper. Simple, fresh and authentic. The menu is, for now, basic: pho, noodles, a bit else and that's about it. My friend ordered the beef pho, which was good; I had vermicelli with brocolli and tofu. It came in a large white bowl with about 5-6 brocolli flower heads and 7-10 cubes of golden tofu, more breaded than fried. I think the dish cost about $7.50 and it was a good deal. No beer or wine yet--but it seemed like the kind of place where you can discreetly sneak a sip or two of your outside beverage of choice. I'll go back in a couple weeks for a follow-up.

Later that night I went to a H party on N near the adult school and the two liquor stores, which was fun ... 'cept for the lack of decent beer. You can't really get hammered on Miller Lite, no matter how much you throw down. I went as, well, a hack leftie journalist--surprise--but the better costumes were Pocahontas and a female postal delivery girl, with dogs stuck to her feet! Saturday I went as Donnie Darko but was burnt out.

Sundays at 2pm--until it gets to wet to play--is the official Sacramento Whiffleball League*, where they even keep running statistics and have MVP voting. Needless to say, my skills are by no means enough to pay the bills (0-3 with three Ks and a ROB because of an error--with two errors in the field to boot). We lost 6-3 in extra innings, as I struck out with a chance to tie the game ... fucking depressing, man!

Sedaris was nice. He read on Sunday night for about an hour and 15 minutes, including a new holiday barnyard bit that will be coming out in the New Yorker late this year. His humor and insight is refreshing because he is so out of touch with what Baudrillard would call the hyperreal. A lady in the audience asked if he has a laptop now, which he does, but he doesn't use e-mail or the Internet. It was good, sold out crowd at the Crest.

Last night at the Crest was the closest I've been to a movie theatre in months. I started a new job a couple weeks back, but I think I'll make the time to catch a film this week. We'll see ...