Last night, I treated Ashleigh, our Executive Producers’ Assistant, to dinner. It was my way of saying “Thanks for everything you do.” and “Your hard work is greatly appreciated” and “This gets me out of having to give you a Christmas bonus this year.”. We ended up trying somewhere new: Calabash Bistro, a Caribbean restaurant located in one of Vancouver’s skeevier neighborhoods (and not just because Ashleigh lives in the area). After parking my car and quietly praying it would still be there when I got back, I negotiated the maze of local flavor to finally find the restaurant.
It’s a laid-back place with a nice island feel, a friendly staff and some deliciously lethal selections on their tropical drink menu (I had the Tek Out!: Appleton VX, Cointreau, tamarind syrup, early grey tea, and fresh orange and chocolate fudge molasses).
- Ashleigh’s “Let’s forget I was ten minutes late” smile.
We decided to go with a variety of starters –
- Fried Coconut Dumplings: We were served these even though we didn’t order them. We told our server who shrugged and informed us we could have them anyway. They were excellent.
- Veggie Pattie. Damn, was this good too. I’m sure the beef version is even better.
- Jerk Poutine. The most intriguing offering. Unfortunately, I wasn’t crazy about the brie/jerk combo and the cheese wasn’t fully melted. They also offer a curry version I’d be perfectly happy to try next time in.
Once we’d finished our appies, our server came by and asked if we wanted anything else. As a matter of fact we did: our main courses. He seemed to remember placing the order and assured us he had not forgotten, although the ensuing lengthy wait suggested otherwise.
We skipped dessert and headed out. I didn’t feel right letting Ashleigh walk home alone (since I wasn’t completely sure she had finished sending out my office mail), so I offered to give her a lift. On our way back to the car, one helpful fellow standing on a street corner shouted out directions to the nearest soup kitchen. I thanked him and was moving on when, suddenly, his gaze narrowed and he pointed an accusing finger at me. “You’re not one of us!”he yelled. I felt like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Run! RUUUUN!
“That has never happened to me,”said Ashleigh as we got into the car.
“Of course not,”I told her. “Look at the way you’re dressed.”
Anyway, we had a very nice time (well, I had a nice time so I can only assume she did too) and I would definitely go back for the oxtail.
With the Stargate: Universe second season premiere less than a month away, I got the ball rolling on an in-house produced trailer that, hopefully, will be released in the coming weeks. I’ll be swinging by post tomorrow to chat with Steve about what I’d like to see – in short, I want a trailer packed full of Holy Shit! moments. And I’ve got plenty in mind.
While we’re on the subject of Holy Shit! moments, here’s a little something James Robbins in the Art Department has been working on…
What’s the deal with places making vegetarian food bland? It doesn’t have to be, yet it seems to be the default. Just because I don’t eat meat doesn’t mean I don’t like flavor!
Can’t wait to see the trailer, Joe. Thanks for initiating that!
“You’re not one of us!”
That is probably the funniest thing I have heard all day
Got around to watching SGU commentaries..good stuff!
Re: in-house trailer
noice!
Joey, careful now…ya know, before you start sounding like some sort of elitist snob. What’s up with you and the ‘skeevy’ parts of town? Were you traumatized by a Bowery Boys tv marathon when you were little, or something?
Methinks someone should come up with a reality show where you have to spend a week in the inner city. No fancy clothes, no fancy cars, no fancy food. They should call it Survivor: Skeevytown. You wouldn’t last a day.
Food looks good – but not as good as the French toast I made today, made with home-baked pecan, raisin, date bread that I picked up yesterday at the farmer’s market. It was the best, EVER!
Guh…I’m pretty tired. Better call it a night.
Have a good one, ya old snob!
das
I think that might feed a lot of people on the Destiny!
I wish I could tell you all how fabulous Patrick is doing. I’ve been putting more detailed posts on Facebook where I can make sure to weed out all nosy school district employees trying to build a case to discredit the place he is at. But sharing this wouldn’t cause any harm. For anybody who does not understand, people with autism are literal thinkers. Example, a fork in the road — they would be looking for the eating utensil. Shooting star — they would be looking at the sky. I was playing Rockband with Patrick tonight (well I was playing guitar and singing and he was just enjoying that), playing/singing the song, “Shooting Star” by Bad Company. I changed the lyrics just a little bit, “Don’t you know that you are MY shooting star, don’t you know.” After singing the line a few times, he suddenly got all excited where he was sitting next to me, his face just beamed and he yelled out, “I AM!!!!” As clear as I have ever heard it before, and started laughing. Then we just had fun with that and giggled next to each other for about 5 minutes. Today, I knew for sure he understood a metaphor. Yesterday, when I asked him if he was going to have a good day at school that day he said, “I am NOT.” And true to his word, he had a rather crabby morning. Let me just say this is NOTHING compared to what has happened to him in these last 12 days. Just goes to show you ATTITUDE is everything. He is no longer around people who say “limited intellectual capability” or “do you think 6 signs in 1 year might be too much?”
early grey tea?
Jean-Luc would certainly be disappointed.
4PBmom – wonderful!
4Joe – the oxtail looks mighty tasty. Along with the appies.
Hey Joe,
Cool looking alien beast thing.
It’d be neat if SGU did an homage for an alien from Stargate (1994)… specifically: that big hairy beast thing that Dr. Jackson first encountered shortly after they traveled to that planet (the best that carried Daniel off, dragging him behind). 🙂 It’d be very cool to see a CGI version – or variation – of that big friendly hairy alien animal thing in SGU.
Sean 🙂
Nice looking beast thing! Is that 6 legs I see… interesting.
And wow… accosted by some random guy while exiting a restaurant… ahh that brings me back to my undergrad days. Ummm being the accostee not accostor. Glad the two of you were able evacuate the area safely.
Tea earl grey, hot.
Well, looks like an interesting dinner. Vegetarian was bland huh? I wonder about the flavorings then. Or if it is ever tasted by the food preparers. Okay, so while I was reading your post HOly Shit sums up that cat thingy.
right then, was I going to say something important? Probably not
I ate at this little place here in Houston called Azuma by the Lakes. Sushi bar and something “R” word. I wish I took pictures the interior decorations were quite welcoming. Unfortuantely I think my girlfriend suffered from either a bad shrimp or it was possible the poor dear could not handle the greasyness of the tempura. Either way she got sick, I warned her of common symptoms of the food poisoning she might suffer. Then told her its likely the grease any way.
On the other hand before we started at azuma we wondered into a white table cloth dining facility. It did not seem appropriate for my attire tho as I was only wearing shorts t-shirt and well the check average was probably $35 a person at the least. Well either way I’ll see if I can get more about those places and pictures for you to look at. (Like that’ll Happen)
so, yeah holy shit
LOL LOL LOL Brilliant!!
However Joe, I think her revenge maybe long, slow and very much drawn out…
”Look at the way you’re dressed” LOL !!
Aw! You slummed *and* had a good time! The soup kitchen anecdote was priceless. Count me in as another vego who despairs at the apparent inability of most cooks to make tasty vego food. Garlic? Herbs? Heard of those, guys? Also, if they could just avoid boiling the buggery out of vegetables they might find they all have pleasant flavours of their own. Man, I love veggies.
@ PBMom – I’m really, really glad to hear your good news. Here’s hoping for many more great stories like that.
“We skipped dessert…”
I’m ashamed of you; what happened to the ‘trio of deserts’ or ‘one of each item from the menu’ as normally seems to be the case when I read of your culinary escapes in your blog each day?!
hopefully that trailer doesnt spoil things too much. btw, whats the marketing strategy here this time? anymore today show guest appearances?
Less than a month? I seriously cannot wait that long, I might suffer from a case of “Universamania”. Like that guy you bumped into.
Nurse:”We’ve got another patient admitted muttering about the universe”
Doctor:”Oh, we’re going to get a few of those”.
Coucou ça va Joseph?
Moi moyen, depuis hier j’ai une douleurs pas agréable au niveau du talont, je ne peut plus posé le pied à terre….sa promet, je part à Paris dans 3 jours =(.
Merci pour les photos et ce concept art très bien fait =)
Gros bisou!!
Is the project arcturus had been totally abandoned by the ancients ?
Have they taken their ressearch during their exile of pégase to resume this one of the beginning and finish it ?
Ugh. Avatar fever? Still? 6-legged animals are SOOOOOOOOO 2009!
Yaaaaass. Thank God!!!! I swear… I was gonna die if the only trailer I got was a syfy cut one. They really aren’t good at cutting trailers IMO. 🙁
Just remember Joe… You wanna go with moments that surprise, not that gives away all the plot twists of season 2. If you can make it look epic without giving the whole season away (like MGM did) you’ll have one mighty fine trailer.
@PBMom,
I am sooooo happy for you and Patrick! That is awesome! Stick to your guns with the school district. I am sure they will lose.
Although I assume the “veggie stuff is bland” comment was more Ashley bait than anything, let me point out that this is not always the case. Most Indian and Thai can also be had in vegetarian versions. A lot of them are even that way traditionally.
Maybe some restaurants think that vegetarians don’t want salt, etc, to spoil their body temple. Hogwash, I say!
Wow, I surely don’t want to meet this alien creature when I go out for a walk 😀
Some questions:
1) Few days ago you mentioned Joel Goldsmith and his musical score for one of S2 episodes (I don’t remember, which one is that. Is Joel preparing new “previously on” theme like he did for S1.5, or it’s going to be the same music?
2) When does the episode inculuding SGA guests start filming?
3) Can we expect any new cast promotional photos for season 2?
I don’t see how you managed to tackle the main course, after that layout of appetizers. I do understand why you skipped dessert. Though you could have at least told us what was offered on the menu.
You are introducing tree cats to the show??? or at least the skeletal remains of their ancestors… hard to believe we can actually start counting down the season premiere without flipping a page in the calender.
You didnt mention how you were dressed. I’m wondering what inspired the local to think even momentarily you were native to the locale. Another lost kodak moment there. And happy you apparantly found your car intact and in place. Good thing Vancouver isn’t like Winnipeg in terms of car theft.
Thanks for the daily post. Have you started considering what awards you expect or anticipate for maintaining your unbroken run of posts? We, your sort of adoring fans, need to know. It may take awhile to sort through all the consignment stores and yard sales to find the appropriate prizes.
6 legs – more drumsticks for everyone!
Really looking forward to an in-house trailer, as the ones that are coming out kinda suck 😀
@ PBMom – Firstly, I love Shooting Star by Bad Company. Played the hell out of that album when I was a kid. 🙂
Secondly, yay! for Patrick! Nothing is better for a kid (with or without challenges) than a positive learning environment.
Thirdly, when I was younger (and into my 20s) I was a very literal thinker (not on the level of someone with autism, however). I remember once – I was problaby around 20 years old – when my sister said, “‘I see’, said the blind man when he picked up his hammer and saw.” I immediately asked what it meant, and if by bending over to pick up the hammer, the blind man jarred his optic nerve and was able to see. My sister rolled her eyes and said I think too much. 😛
Of course, now I get all those idioms and metaphors and stuff, but I still have trouble getting my head around some abstact things, such as Jungian philosophies and scientific theories, like time travel. How does someone with autism process those sort of things? In my case I ‘accept’ that stuff on face value when it’s thrown at me in tv shows and all, but I don’t really understand it, or believe [in] it. I’m lost when it comes to grasping the concepts behind the terms; things like multiverses or the whole ‘ego’ thing doesn’t make sense to me so I just file it away as make-believe hokey-pokey. 😀 Take Jung’s shadow archetype, for instance. Why can’t we just have a ‘dark’ side without it being so…complicated? Why can’t we be responsible for our own actions – have control of our actions – without it being about something irrational inside us, manipulating us? It’s much easier for me to get my brain around good people doing bad things just because they want to, than trying to explain it all away as some repressed subconscious thing that’s warring within you, trying to gain supremacy. People do what they do because they want to…making it any more complicated than that just gives them an excuse to be evil….
Uh…yeah. In regards to other arguments I’ve made here, let me cover my ass by saying if Wraith were real they would not be condemned by my last statement since, as an insectoidesque species – they act out of instinct and their survival is based on physical needs and drives, not on intellectual choice. In a sense that makes them a living ‘shadow’ – the literal interpretation of Jung’s shadow archetype – the physical manifestation of underlying qualities that humans possess but are unwilling to acknowledge. “You are more like Wraith than you know”…by those words Todd was basically saying, ‘If you look in the mirror, Sheppard, you will see me.” Not sure Sheppard ever got that.
Okay…where was I? Oh, yeah, I was saying that humans have a choice when it comes to doing good, or bad – they can make themselves ‘evil’ if they want to, but Wraith are not evil since they have no choice, they are instinctual beasts, driven by physical needs, not intellectual desires. Whew. That was a close one. 😉
God, I really went off on that, didn’t I? Does that make me a linear thinker, or a non-linear thinker? And why the hell do I think Joe’s blog is my personal shrink couch?
Sorry. I haven’t eaten yet and I’m hungry and my tummy’s growling. MAYbe that’s the evil thing inside of me controlling everything I say and do… 😉
Shutting up now.
Really.
Bye.
das
@Mr M hope you are compensating David Weber for borrowing his Hexapuma. Did J Robbins got the description from the Honor Harrington books?
@Das: you make me smile 🙂
@PBMom: as someone with challenges I was born with I can empathize with you and the limitations that people impose on those with challenges. It’s HARD!! But what I find helps is talking about it with the ones who truly care for you and other poeople who face the same challenges because at the end of the day not too many people can truly say the undersand what your going though. Just hang in there because Patrick is an AWESOME human being and has the best advocate in YOU!! <3
@Joe: where are we going on my b-day in 2 weeks??
…I wonder if it’s possible to get a movie theater to play a 250 hour marathon of Stargate, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe…
{pondering}
@ Penny – ‘Cause I make you feel so normal, right?
😛
das
This may go without saying, Joe, but please, no spoilers in the trailer! I again recommend the current “Mad Men” episode previews, which give nothing away.
@PBMom–Hooray! Hoping for the best all the way around. Found a carpool yet?
@das–Regarding literal thinking, I recommend the HBO film, TEMPLE GRANDIN, as a starting point. Also interviews of and books by Dr. Grandin (PhD in animal behavior, I think). Saw Dr. Grandin’s long-form interview before HBO premiered the film last winter, was very impressed, gained some insight.
Hey Joe!
Again… thank you SOOOO much for making a new trailer. So psyched..
Couple questions…
1. When are you shooting for a release of the trailer? Will it be released onto MGM.com or this blog?
2. With Spyglass/MGM deal being finalized, which would allow some productions to move ahead, have there been any rumblings on the movies front?
Thanks so much,
Major D. Davis
Question for BAG:
Was it your idea to to have a note pad as a prop? If no, then whose was it?
@link 022
The Ancients have either died or accended. As Weir put it ” The Ancients have made all the plans they were going to make” They don’t “interfere” with lower plains of existence as they put it. I think they care about what happens to us judging how they did hide our galaxy from the Ori, but they for what ever reason made that law to never interfere. Also since that control device was found in Janice’s secret lab it is reasonable to assume that the rest of the Ancients didn’t know about project arcturis. Because they obviously didn’t know about his secret lab so why would he keep the control device in there if they already knew about project arcturis?
Hello Joseph,
I realized for SGU a fanart, you can see it via this link,
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/5572/ancientmedicalinjector.png
I hope that that will please the staff. And what that shows you in which point we like what you make.
ByeBye =)
1.The production design of the alien creature reminded me of a sabertooth tiger. Did they base the design on that?
2. I read an article where researchers designed a CAD system to study living and extinct organisms. Have you seen this?
3. We saw how Ashleigh was dressed, she looked very pretty….you did compliment her didn’t you? How were you dressed?
4. Is skipping dessert a first for you? I felt a rumble in the universe.
5. How have the other dogs reacted to Jelly’s new lease on life?
6. Care to share any good juicing recipes?
7. If the trailer is full of holy shit moments, what will we say holy shit to when it premieres? Oh and the super awesome news is that Aus are getting SGU only 3 days after the US.
8. AussieCon4, the World Science Fiction Convention is on at the moment. Anything you want?
Cheers, Chev
Fixing a bad link
2. I read an article where researchers designed a CAD system to study living and extinct organisms. Have you seen this?
Hey, Joe.
How’s it going? Got a couple of questions.
I.) I’m sorry you guys didn’t win the Emmy for Visual Effects, losing it to CSI even. In fact, not only was I annoyed that it beat out SGU, I was pretty ticked off that something such as CSI somehow managed to beat out 4 freaking sci-fi shows. That is, until I saw the scene that CSI won it for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLEBsFKfCFI
I don’t know. What do you think? Did that deserve to win?
2.) Furthermore, how does that stack up to what we’ll see in season 2 of SGU?
Thanks for your responses.
Any anime updates Joe? Posting from phone.
So just to clarify… you’re dissing what Ashleigh was wearing, when you were the one who was called out as a fellow homeless person? (I notice there was no picture of *your* attire.) Oh well, enough of giving you a hard time.
It all looked really good, except for Ashleigh’s main. I don’t know why vegetarian is always equated with overcooked under-seasoned vegetables.
Frankly, what I don’t get, since Van. is so…. um… er… granola/green… you would think that there would be a fabulous vegetarian restaurant on every block!!
No dessert? You feelin’ OK? Or perhaps it was you knew you had truffles waiting at home….
Good luck with the trailer…
I wonder if Jelly has a take on her new found mobility…
Anyway…
HAGO!!
Kymm
I think I just got promoted to editor. Getting promoted – that starts with boasting about something and ends with a bunch more work without more pay, right?
No, there’s still someone else called editor. I think I’m just a sucker.
@Das: dang you figured me out….. LOL!! Nah you make me smile cause your posts are always awesome!!
Ooooh…fried coconut dumplings?? Those look good! That veggie pattie looks scumptious as well. Mmmmm! There ya go again makin’ me hungry again.
That alien creature looks pretty cool. Gots 6 legs. Can wait to see the CG for that. Will there be a puppet too?
just for that picture u left last there holy shit
It looks to me that it is actually 4 legged, with the front two appendages more like arms.