My Anonymous Blog

The Politics of Hope

Here is a poignant excerpt from a speech the late Harvey Milk gave illustrating the importance and power of encouraging and voting for diversity:

Athens Greek Restaurant - Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Following the advice of two friendly employees at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller who lead us around during Matthew's shoot there, we decided to try Athens, a Greek restaurant located just before the bridge into the main part of town.  We were a little apprehensive eating Greek in the middle of nowhere, and became even more nervous when we walked in the place and discovered a mishmash of knickknacks thrown seemingly willy-nilly all over walls and every inch of available surface space. Fake flowers, pots, pans, candles, tacky vases ... it looked as if an old lady's attic blew up and all of the contents somehow landed in the restaurant.  It was a bit much, as were the scary looking, scantily dressed female patrons with enormous bellies hanging out.

After sitting for several minutes with no sign of water or menus, we briefly debated leaving before a slighty nutty (but friendly) waitress appeared and informed us of the day's special - freshly made moussaka, which we happily ordered along with a hummus appetizer and lamb kabobs.  While waiting, we chatted with a local couple who had never been to a Greek restaurant and were quizzing us on what to order. They ended up copying our order exactly.  It was rather amusing chatting with them through a thick jumble of silk flowers.

After what seemed like an eternity, our food finally arrived.  First the hummus, and then moments later our two entrees, which were served with salad and generous amount of both pita and garlic bread (a Canadian midwestern addition, I gather).  We were both happily surprised by how delicious everything was. The moussaka was prepared beautifully, a time consuming dish that kind of looks like lasagna.  The lamb was equally as delicious, tender and flavorful.  The one thing that kind of suffered, but was still good, was the hummus.  I'm a huge fan of freshly made hummus, and order vast amounts of it in New York from the incomparable Hummus Place.  They set such a high bar that when I'm served cold hummus that has been sitting in the fridge for any length of time, I'm a little disappointed.  But, as I said, it was still decent.

Overall, I give Athens Greek Restaurant a B+ for their surprisingly good Greek food.  Even if you're not a fan of Greek fare, it's almost worth the stop here just to peek in at the jumble of crap all over the walls.

ATHENS GREEK RESTAURANT
71 Bridge St
Drumheller, Alberta, Canada
T0J 0Y0

Phone: 403-823-3225
Hours: Open 4PM - 10PM Daily

If You're Registered - YOU MUST VOTE!

Many of you who are registered won't make it to the voting booths on November 4th out of sheer laziness, and that's NO EXCUSE!  This could be you if you don't get your ass in gear and VOTE (for Obama, of course):

Independent Women of America.org's 2008 Presidential Election Tool Kit

According to their website, "The goal of IndependentWomenofAmerica.org is to encourage undecided women in key battleground states to vote for Barack Obama.

You can help us by sending the video clips below to people you know who may still be on the fence this election season. Click here to learn how.

Our brief (30-60 second) portraits depict real, independent, working people. They are mothers, teachers, nurses, veterans, small business owners, church volunteers, union members, retirees. Most have never been politically active. Each carries a simple message:

“People like you and me are voting for Barack Obama.”"

And there you have it! See below for the preview video, and CLICK HERE to view the rest and help spread the word to undecided voters before election day!

Royal Tyrrell Museum - Drumheller, Alberta

After landing in Calgary late, we raced two hours through monotonous oil and wheat field lined roads that suddenly gave way to hilly terrain dotted with ... dinosaurs!  Not real ones, unfortunately, but life-sized, brightly painted dinosaur models placed all around the town of Drumheller - their main claim to fame and a healthy amount of tourists is the dinosaur-centric Royal Tyrrell Museum. 

Matthew photographed a slew of toothy specimens while being escorted by a pair of locals that happily detailed factoids about various fossils, the surrounding landscape and even provided us with restaurant recommendations.  The museum had some interesting installations that were beautifully lit.  It's well worth a drive out there if you find yourself in Calgary for any length of time. 

The town of Drumheller alone is a destination in itself and is good for a meal and a walkabout to see the various dinosaur specimens installed at street corners, in front of shops, and there is even the so-called "biggest dinosaur in the world," which visitors can actually walk into and view the town from inside his open mouth.

Calgary: Dallas on Ice

This is what surrounds the oil town of Calgary - mile upon mile of wheat and oil fields. It's amazing Matthew didn't fall asleep at the wheel as we drove for several hundred kilometers across vast nothingness.  Unfortunately, the city of Calgary isn't much more exciting than these flat stretches of grass.

We arrived in Calgary after a canceled flight and a few hours waiting around in Vancouver.  I was pleasantly surprised to see our luggage kept up with us on the other end, however! 

Vancouver

We left Vancouver feeling pretty lucky that we only faced one day of rain out of eight, with the rest of the time being spent in almost full sunshine.  It's a beautiful city when the weather behaves and has so much in common with Seattle, my childhood home.  The mountains, water and greenery are beautiful to look at and play an integral part of the cityscape and the air is fresh and clean.  Unfortunately, with all the pretty surroundings and crisp air comes over nine months of pure drizzly, gloomy, cloudy, seemingly forever wintry hell.  It's no wonder there are thousands of heroin addicted homeless people wandering Vancouver ... I know what drove them to it!  Vancouver might be pretty, but like Seattle, I wouldn't want to live there.

Wanda Sykes on anti-gay speech

Wanda Sykes speaks out on anti-gay speech and thinking before you speak.  Take a look:

http://perezhilton.com/tv/index.php?ptvid=b9461106b13e8

The Elbow Room - Vancouver, BC

There's something nice about being assaulted verbally when I'm outside of New York that makes me feel like I'm back home, and that's exactly what happened when I walked into The Elbow Room, where saucy comments from the staff are part of the schtick. The thing that makes this place really rise above the self-imposed kitsch is the food, which is pretty damn amazing.

Everything is homemade and is so fabulous that we ate here every morning for three days straight. You have to try the Big Ass Pancakes, which come in either 6" or 12" sizes. When the waitress asks how big you want your ass, I highly recommend going with the smaller ass - it's a ton of food and you are requested to donate spare change to an AIDS charity if you don't have a clean plate!

Other great things on the menu include the French toast with strawberries, eggs Benedict and the turkey club on cranberry sourdough bread with cream of spinach soup (this might not be one of the soups of the day on your visit, however). The fix-it-yourself tea, coffee and water table is brilliant - not only does it fit in with the faux grouchy atmosphere, but it is easier to fill up your own cup rather than waiting around for an already overwhelmed server to do so.

Other than the food, my favorite part of The Elbow Room is its exceedingly flamboyant owner, who struts around the room cooing, "Hello, Girls!" to each and every table while making funny comments. After paying the bill for my Big Ass Pancakes on my first visit, he snapped, "Girl, you like everything BIG!"

Yes, I do.

The Elbow Room gets an all around A for providing an exceptionally entertaining atmosphere while offering solidly delicious, made-from-scratch diner fare.

Fantastic stop - highly recommended!

THE ELBOW ROOM
560 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 2G4

Phone: 640-685-3628
Hours: Mon - Fri 8AM - 4PM; Sat - Sun 8AM - 5PM

The Great Schlep

Well, all my Jew friends: It's time to really get to work at convincing your elders living in Florida that Barack Obama is the candidate for them before election day, and here's Sarah Silverman to help guide you into ways to more easily broach the subject.

For more information, visit TheGreatSchlep.com.