First pic isn’t mine, but it’s a damn sight more aesthetically pleasing than the view of the spaghetti meat I prepped tonight, simmering in the pot. But I will share that, as well, momentarily.
I really like that photo of raw spaghetti noodles from above! It reminds me a bit of the lines the stars would turn into when the rebels engaged Light Speed, running from the Empire, in all the various iterations of Star Wars. Me? A bit of a geek/nerd? Naaaaaah….
Many, many things remind me of Star Wars from time to time, even if I’m behind on some of the Disney+ series offerings. When I had a really bad cold/flu-type thing, I said I felt like Han Solo after Vader finished torturing him, without asking any questions.
It’s not just me. I may have passed this onto my offspring. I recently happened upon a Facebook memory where she, also under the weather or suffering Fibromyalgia pains, had said he felt like “a dying Tauntaun.” In my recap of the event, I added that she made some really godawful noises imitating said beast.
Also, when she’s talking to me on speaker driving home from work, there are times the cars outside her/their truck sound just like speeders, and I ask her every time if she’s actually driving on the forest moon of Endor.
Those are just a couple examples. I know I’ve made other allusions to that whole fictive world, in passing. And I am VERY fond of a particular Star Wars Dad Joke:
What’s the temperature in the inside of a Tauntaun?
Lukewarm.
God, it STILL makes me laugh, years later.
ANYWAY… we were discussing PASTA!!!
I scrimped on some things, like buying the discount pasta, and generic pasta sauce. Figured I would doctor it up, myself. I did buy a blend of dried Italian herbs, and fresh basil and oregano. Kind of wish I had reserved a couple basil leaves for plating tomorrow, especially after sighting some especially sexy spaghetti pics on Pexels, but I went HAM getting the meat ready.
I now have a more solid understanding of what’s meant by a “green smell.” Breaking up the large basil leaves and pruning the smaller oregano leaves from their stems, the most wonderful aromas filled the kitchen. I think I can still smell the herbs on my hands, and in the air, even with the meat secreted away into the fridge for tomorrow night.
The scent definitely brought to mind memories of working with plants, and soil, and growing things. Green smells.
There are many instances in Lost Souls of scents described in terms of color. I’ve begun experimenting with that kind of synesthesia. It’s been a part of my poetry in the past, but I don’t know if I used that sort of imagery in fiction, a well.
Will definitely have to branch out into other sensory crossovers, too. Hopefully, it will feel more like a respectful homage to a technique I admire, rather than theft? Not that the author formerly known as Poppy Z. Brite is the only one to use it. Synesthesia is definitely a whole thing.
As filmmaker Jim Jarmusch famously said, there are no (actual) original ideas. Also just saw a great post all about his Only Lovers Left Alive. SUCH an amazing movie. Deliberately slow and sensual.
Okay, here’s the meat (damn that sounds scandalous):
I also added a can of Italian style stewed tomatoes. Could have and maybe should have drained the liquid and only added the solid bits, but instead, I simmered the meat mixture down considerably, to thicken it by cooking off some of the liquid. I guess the advantage to that method is that the flavors would have condensed and intensified, as well.
Maybe by the time you figure in everything I added, pricier and fancier pasta sauce would have been cheaper; however, this was MUCH more fun than Prego, or anything even more top-shelf than that. (I guess Prego isn’t actually top-shelf… I just always really liked it growing up).
I also had to get fresh ground pepper and a sea salt grinder, to season the meat when raw, and tweak the flavors, as it cooked in the sauce. But salt and pepper are pretty necessary, regardless, even if I almost never salt my food, once it’s plated. Might use the pepper on morning eggs. That would be tasty.
I won’t claim that any of this is authentic Italian cuisine. Without a recipe book, better-quality ingredients, and more time for extensive prepping and making from scratch, this is just humble, Americanized spaghetti.
Though really, this is just the meat sauce. I’ll boil the noodles tomorrow. Good thing I got salt, to help the water boil. Could’ve used a splash of olive oil to keep the noodles from sticking. Hm. Hadn’t thought of that ’til just now. Well, I can always add butter once they’re on the plate, if needed. Again, less authentic, but workable.
I do have a Pasta Night playlist. One of my shorter ones. Maybe at some point, I’ll add some Italian opera music, or Italian instrumentals. There may already be some? I haven’t listened to it in a bit.
BUT tonight, I’m listening to a sprawling collection of songs spanning several genres. It’s a combination of several Daylist suggestions Spotify gave me. Songs I didn’t want to lose but that didn’t seem to fit in with other playlists I had, while also not really giving me a sense of a concrete vibe to sort them by.
Initially, I had named this playlist something cumbersome, combining as many of the genres on it as I could. But that just looked silly, especially when I added songs from genres not yet covered in the title.
Then, I remembered the meme about someone who loves multiple genres of music calling themselves “polyjamorous.”
I added Breaking Benjamin’s song “Polyamorous” and even found more of an indie/folksy song also called “Polyamorous” and added that, too. Then, playing with a lyric from the Breaking Benjamin song, I rechristened the playlist “My Polyjamorous Friend.”
Maybe the “friend” is Daylist, or Spotify, or just the abstract idea that someone unknown recommended all of the songs. Or, it could refer to the playlist, itself. I just thought it was fun.
I may have shared an earlier version of this playlist, so if the image attached to it looks familiar, that would be why. But I promise, it has since grown. Been repotted, like a plant, if you will.
Green scents.
Repotted. Reminds me of my Hippie Frisbee Golf playlist. For whatever reason, seemingly totally unprompted by anything I had recently listened to, Spotify served me up a huge helping of stoner rock. So, I saved that, too. Just for funsies.
I guess I do have a few songs in a similar vein in my Malibu Mix (a nod to the day a coworker in a call center said his call from Jamaica or the Bahamas sounded like they were filming a Malibu rum commercial in the background, leading to many jokes about them paying us in bottles or cases of Malibu).
Recently added Sublime’s “Legalize It” to that one, but it would fit well with the Hippie Frisbee Golf playlist, too. There’s some solid crossover thematically, between them.
I expanded Hippie Frisbee Golf with Spotify’s option to pull up songs they think might fit. From there, I checked out the “radio station” for one of those bands, who were news to me! There were some great things to be found there, as well.
Okay, so looking over Hippie Frisbee Golf, not ALL of it gives stoner vibes. But a fair amount does. Maybe that’s hippie stereotyping. I just added another Zeppelin track, and something from Hendrix I’m listening to now, that I hadn’t heard until tonight.
Some of the songs are from more recent eras than the psychedelic 60’s. It’s a fun blend. What the heck. Here it is.
The original Daylist title to the early version of that list, was just hippie golf something-something. But I couldn’t visualize proper hippies golfing. Again, that may be a stereotype. To me, “golf bros,” as my bestie calls them, are more yuppie than hippie.
Disc golfing, that I could imagine. I used the less proper nomenclature for the sport, because it sounds more interesting. Once called it frisbee golfing to someone who played it avidly and was passionately corrected.
Kinda wish I had made up some of the Texas toast tonight. Getting a little peckish. I do have sliced cheese. That will suffice. Oooh I could even add sliced cheese to the Texas toast! Maybe it isn’t very Italian-ish cheese, but it might still be fun. We’ll see.
Planning on having more of that plussed-up salad tomorrow, along with all the carbalicious goodness. Had some with breakfast and for whatever reason, really struggled with keeping the add-ons balanced on my fork. I suppose you could spear the blueberries and dried cranberries, but that wouldn’t work with the cashews. First world problems.
Kept the cat entertained, as she checked the plastic under my rolling PC desk office chair again and again to see what I’d dropped, only to discover repeatedly that she had no interest in blueberries, or cranberries, and the like.
But it was a good breakfast. One slice of yesterday’s pizza, a kiwi, and the salad. Oh, I could also have a kiwi tonight! I’ve got a lot of them. I suppose I could even slice up a kiwi for tomorrow’s salad, especially if I plate instead of bowl it. Give it more room to breathe.
The cat is perched on the top of the living room couch, snuggling into the book bag I got at the author event at the library. She consented to being brushed tonight, perhaps because this time, I wasn’t also trying to add the waterless shampoo. Not a fan of that! But she actually came closer to me as I gestured toward her, holding the brush, and let me brush her some more while she nibbled her cat food.
Trying to kill some time until Daylist updates ONE last time. It’s exciting to me, to see what washes up onshore there. Enough so that I’m willing to stay up just a hair later, to see it refresh again.
HUZZAH! The eternal moment is now. Who first said that? Was it Ginsberg? Might have been. I think it was an essay on him where I ended with that line. The whole paper was crafted to imitate his style. That was something I was keen on doing those undergraduate days. The professor wasn’t at all impressed, but I had a lot of fun writing it.
On to Daylist! Then, really, I should go to sleep.
Might have to take a blogging hiatus to work on Mystery Train tomorrow. Thursday, I finish work pretty early, for me, and Friday, I’m off. Still. I miss my vampires.
Hanging out with the ones in Lost Souls is fun, too, but it isn’t the saaaaaaame. Each fulfills a different need. But I have been sticking to just a handful of pages each night, with Lost Souls. Savoring, and getting rest.
Maybe I’ll save the Pasta Night playlist for tomorrow, or so. If I do still post, tomorrow. It could maybe use a peppier name, anyway, and maybe some beefing up.
May you encounter many pleasing “green smells” out and about, or cozied up in your kitchen cooking, or tending to your houseplants. Maybe green smells different to you than to me. I’d be curious to hear about that!
Good night & have a good day.
All the Bright and Sparkly Things 
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