My thumb's been extremely sore for about a month. A visit to my G.P. for X-rays last week ruled out arthritis, so he referred me to an orthopedic surgeon to try and find out what's going on with it. After subjecting my dolorous digit to a battery of tests, he determined that I had a sprained ligament and prescribed a cortisone shot. Now I've had cortisone shots before, about seven years ago for lower-back pain, but nothing prepared me for the excruciating pain of having a hypodermic poked into the interphalangeal joint. The agony was unbelievable. It felt like my thumb was going to explode. Thankfully, he used a fluoroscope to align the needle.

So now I'm in "wait and see" mode. Maybe the cortisone will help, maybe not. In the meantime, all I can do is ice it, elevate it, and take massive doses of Ibuprofen, along with my own special painkiller...the Planet of the Apes Cocktail from Beachbum Berry's Grog Log:

2 oz. Dark Jamaican Rum
1 1/2 oz. Creme de Banana
1 oz. Orange Juice
1 oz. Unsweetened Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz. Freshly-squeezed Lime Juice

Put all ingredients in a metal cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Shake vigorously for 15 seconds, then pour contents into a Disneyland Epcot Center tiki mug, and drink until pain subsides, or until you just don't care how much it bloody hurts anymore.

But hey, you didn't come to this website to read the rantings of some old fart whining about his aches and pains, you came here to find cool shit. We'll let me share a couple of things with you:

One of my very best friends gifted me with a passle of extremely cool books for my birthday; one of which was the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia.; this slim, pink volume is chockablock with photographs and drawings of horrifyingly racist, sexist, anti-semitic, and pornographic body art that adorned thieves, hooligans, anarchists, and murderers in the former U.S.S.R. Sad and disturbing, this book reveals the bizarre subculture of dissent and a secret languange of Soviet ne'er-do-wells.

For reading material on my recent plane flight to San Jose, I selected the current issue of Outré Magazine. This month's special feature was devoted to the planet Mars, and spotlighted Chesley Bonestell's most excellent illustrations for the Collier's Magazine Conquest of Space series, Disney's Mars and Beyond television show, and the legendary cover art for Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars novels. Here's another cool gallery of ERB's book covers just for the halibut.

Damn, my thumb's hurting again. Keep your stinkin' girly cocktails away from me, you damn dirty apes!

Posted by MrBaliHai at 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I'm back from my whirlwind trip to the Bay Area, exhausted from traveling and a bit sick from so many rich meals, but happy.

On Tuesday evening, I met up with fellow weblogger, Uncle Jim, for a Cuban dinner and several potent mojitos at La Bodeguita del Medio in Palo Alto. Uncle J proved to be quite a charming and erudite fellow, although he is much taller in person than he appears on his weblog. Among his many accomplishments, he was the librettist for a polyglot opera called Sub Pontio Pilato (scroll down to the 5th entry for some mp3s, production photographs, and a PDF file of the libretto itself).

Wednesday night, a friend and I drove over to Santana Row (beware the nasty embedded audio) in San Jose. We did some window shopping and had a fine meal at Consuelo's where we drank a couple more potent Mojitos, and dined upon guacamole made fresh at the table, Ensalada de Nopales (cactus salad), Mole Poblano con Pollo, Camarones al Mole de Tamarindo, topped off by warm Mexican chocolate cake and crepes with Cajeta for dessert.

No wonder my tummy's upset.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I'm back at work today after a fabulous weekend of culture and cuisine here in the Bay Area. After checking into my hotel on Saturday, I spent a couple of hours at the Mountain View Art and Wine Festival, then drove into San Francisco with a friend to see Cosi Fan Tutte at the opera. It would've been a totally fantastic experience if not for the fact that a couple in our row thought that it would be a good idea to bring their loud and squirmy 3-year old son to the performance! Fortunately, they left at intermission and we enjoyed the rest of the show in peace.

On Sunday, we took in the matinee of The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets, an amazing avant-garde collaboration between Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, and William S. Burroughs. The music and stage production was brilliant and the cast was stellar, featuring Marianne Faithful, Matt McGrath who played the lead in the stage production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and a real blast from my past, Richard Strange from the proto-punk glam band, Doctors of Madness.

Afterwards, we dined at Farallon. I guess we weren't good-looking enough to rate a table on the main floor, because we were seated in a dark booth upstairs where it was difficult to appreciate the unique decor. However, our disappointment was mitigated somewhat by our terrific waiter and the superb 5-course tasting menu with wine pairings. Highlights of the meal included the Roasted Alaskan Halibut with sweet corn risotto, squash, and Main Lobster Fondue, followed by the Grilled Filet of Beef in a red-wine sauce served with an incredibly buttery and warm foie gras, and French Chanterelles. The wine pairings were very good as well; my favorites being the 2000 Stuhlmuller Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2001 Qupe Bien Nacido Block Eleven Chardonnay. We were utterly stuffed afterwards, and had to keep checking our big toes for signs of gout.

After all that excitement, the rest of this trip is going to seem downright dull.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today is my birthday. I am 45 years old. That is all.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)