“We had some lamb tonight,”my mother informed me. “It was very good. But not as good as the lamb we had in Vancouver.” That goes without saying. The lamb my mother had in Vancouver was, in her estimation, the best she had ever eaten – so, whenever she comes to town, a trip to Lamb Nirvana is always in the cards. Lamb Nirvana, a.k.a., Ouzeri on West Broadway, is a terrific little Greek restaurant that immediately dispelled my long-held belief that you couldn’t find good Greek food in Vancouver. Sure, you can find cheap Greek food (feel free to join the line up at that place on Davie Street), but if you want good Greek food, and excellent lamb in particular, you have got to check out Ouzeri. We usually start with a couple of a dips (taramasalada and hummus) served with piping hot pita bread, maybe the saganaki (golden panfried kasseri cheese), and then move onto the main event: the lamb chops. I usually do four chops and an order of Greek salad (tomatoes, cucumber, green peppers, feta, and onions). Now, as someone who loves lamb – one of the highlights of the summer is the local Greek fest which I’ll hit three or four times for the spit-roasted lamb alone – I have to say I’ve eaten my fair share. And my mother is right. The lamb at Ouzeri is no doubt the best I’ve ever eaten. Even someone who doesn’t like lamb – say, Carl for instance – would probably be won over. Well, maybe not Carl as he’s fairly set in his ways, but surely your average lamb-hater might think differently.
Today was an R&R day (Reading and, well, wRiting. Close enough.). I just finished off the last two issues of the Luna Brothers’ Girls and anxiously await their next project. On the novel front, I’m about a third of the way through China Mieville’s The Scar. So far, I’m really enjoying the incredibly inventive and detailed world he has created and, if the book continues to impress as it has so far, I’ll have to put Perdido Street Station on my to-read list. Worked on my Chow review and should have it ready to go sometime this week.
A little Q&A to round out today’s entry –
Alipeeps writes: “Far be it for me to correct you, oh wise and powerful one, but don’t you mean started prep on This Mortal Coil?”
Answer: Thanks for pointing it out. I’ve edited the post. Tomorrow, I will also edit this response to something along the lines of “What are you talking about? It says Mortal Coil!” so that you will seem mistaken instead.
Valerie writes: “How do they come up with all the items for the set design. I assume that they buy some of the items and make others, but do they create everything new for each set or do they have some storage area where they keep the materials from previous sets to pilfer?”
Answer: A little of both. It really depends what the scene calls for. Our set decorators are pack rats who have hoarded pretty much everything they’ve ever used on the show. The last time we visited Norco, we counted five different prop phone booths.
Namiko writes: “Is there anything you’ve tried that you just can’t handle?”
Answer: I’m not a big fan of most veggie burgers.
Anonymous #1 writes: “How did you get into writing and what drew you into Sci-Fi?”
Answer: I’ve been writing since I was a kid and I’ve always enjoyed SciFi. As for how Paul and I ended up on Stargate – we were fortunate enough to have an agent who could get our writing samples read by the producers.
Anonymous #2 writes: “ Never forget your audience Joe, unless you already have another job lined up.”
Answer: We’ve always been mindful of our audience, but there is big difference between respecting your audience and taking dictation from a sampling of online fandom.
Edward4th writes: “On what basis have you decided to trade Weir for Carter?”
Answer: I’ve already answered this question but since you appear to be new to the blog, I’ll repeat the response I gave the last time the question was asked: “ The decision to bring the character of Samantha Carter onto the show was made independent of any decision made with regard to the Elizabeth Weir character. The truth is that once the decision had been made re: Weir, there were a number of options open to us in terms of a replacement (three specific candidates come to mind). In the end, and after much discussion, we elected to go with Sam Carter.
Morjana writes: “Joe you have been nominated for a ‘Bloggers’ Choice Award, in no less then 4 catagories!”
Answer: Is there some sort of cash award? If so, everyone head over there and vote for me. I only need so 4500 votes to overtake Rosie!
Rhyss writes: “ If the SGA budget was limitless, what actor and actress would you like to have on SGA?”
Answer: I’m pretty happy with the ones we have.
Jen, the cow hugger writes: “Do you have any kids? Do they get sneak-peaks with Atlantis?”
Answer: No kids, but three pugs who are huuuge David Hewlett fans. It’s kind of embarrassing really.
Royal Nonesuch writes: “Have you seen the recent Entertainment Weekly? I was raging when I realized that SG-1 wa snot included in their list of the top 25 Sci-Fi movies/TV of the last 25 years!”
Answer: I wasn’t really surprised considering who put the list together. Entertainment Weekly hates Stargate and, for reasons unknown, has always gone that extra step to take potshots at the franchise (usually when doing features on other presumably more deserving productions). But, at the end of the day, lists such as these aren’t the result of any scientific process, and EW’s mandate is not to offer any sort of logical representation of what the viewing public enjoys. Their mandate is to sell as many issues as possible by pimping the latest brainless big screen blockbusters and following the lead by gushing over well-established media darlings.
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