Good Night Sweet Prince

For the remainder of this post, please play the song "The Final Countdown" by Europe

So the date has been set.  June 24th 2011.  I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand it was inevitable, I've know it was coming for some time now.  But it was always sometime in the future, it was intangible, but now it's defined.  The there is a definitive point in my life where I will no longer have a colon.

In addition to searching for my colon's "last meal", I plan on eating en masse, not particularly mass amounts of food, but with friends, large groups of them. Food by itself is just something to eat, to doesn't become a meal unless you enjoy it with others***.

Last Saturday I was at a bar with a couple of friends, and after I told them the date one of them said something along the lines of "There it is, you have five months of feasting".  As I write this* I'm currently sitting in an airport lounge drinking free alcohol and eating mediocre food.** And it's true there is five months left for my colon to experience all that it can.

*I had planned on writing this post a couple of days ago, when it would have actually been 5 months of feasting, but technical difficulties have plagued my connection, i think it's my router.
**While technically not free, I paid $30 to get in, I have 3 hours to kill as my flight to England was delayed, I figured it's either pay a lot of money for okay food, or pay slightly more for okay food and an open bar#.
***By "enjoy it with others" I mean a massive party which will be considered a failure unless some get alcohol poisoning. Everyone is in invited##
#I know for a fact I can drink $30 in 3 hours.
## Everyone except Scott+ (that guys' a dick)
+ Specifically Scott Campbell of Mississauga^
^A group of us were at the Artful Dodger@ for my birthday party 4 years ago, while I was out smoking that asshole made some racists comments, almost got into a fight, and then left leaving me with his bar tab.
@I really recommend the Artful Dodger as a location for a birthday gathering.

England!

I've been a little silent recently.  There have been major technological issue in my life, my faithful laptop may have died completely this time. it's been chugging along for over years and may have finally given up the ghost.  Then my router died, then my blackberry died. Both router and BB have since bee replaced, however I'm reduced to using my netbook, writing stuff was the reason that I bought it, but It was better when I was using it by choice.

Anyway.

In January I am off to England, specifically London.  Now this moderately ties in with this project due to the reason I am going, it's not my colon's last meal, but it ties in with the blog. I get to that later..

I was there once in 2003,and fell in love with the city.  Two things that always bring back strong and specific memories have been music and food, both very related topics. For me there are very specific memories triggered by tied to that trip. Some things trigger those memories and some memories trigger longing.  I spent an evening celebrating a mid-summer festival with a bunch of Swedish people drinking heavily and eating strawberries on the porch of the hostel I was staying at.  Whenever I hear the song Moving by Supergrass, I'm reminded this one night where one of the guys* staying at the hostel played the song over and over again as we sat drinking with a bunch of people. And every so often  think of how I would go to Marks and Spencer, buy a pint of milk, a bag of salt and pepper crisps and a roast chicken and stuffing sandwich, then find a park somewhere and eat lunch.  It was a good sandwich, not the best sandwich I have ever eaten**, but I would kill for one.  I've tried to recreate it, but it's never the same. Perhaps the location I was in made it taste different, maybe the fact it is completely inaccessible fuels the desire***.  It's hard to say, but if I get there and for whatever reason they are no longer selling them, I'm going to be super pissed.  I'll find a pub and drown my sorrows.

When I started this the first person that I wrote to was Isabel Monteiro of the band Drugstore.  I have long been a fan, and in my musical hierarchy they are in the second tier alongside Radiohead and The Magnetic Fields.  Below Tom Waits, but above Supergrass.

They are heading into the studio to record in January. I'll spare you the details, but for reasons unrelated to this blog or medical conditions, I get to spend  a day at the studio while they record the new album. And that is why I'm heading to London.

*That guy was named "Snoop", because he looked a little bit like the rapper Snoop Dogg, he lived at the hostel and made a living selling pot to American backpackers.

**For the record the best sandwich that I have ever eaten in my life (that I did not personally make), was in June of 2004 when I visited a friend in Kentucky. It is the sausage sub sold by the American east coast based sandwich chain Penn Station. 

***This is most likely the reason why whenever I get back into Canada after being away for  more than a week, I have an unholy desire to eat back bacon+ and consume maple walnut ice cream++.

+this is not entirely true I desire to eat back bacon on a fairly regular basis.

++ The only time I that ever eaten maple walnut ice cream (at least in the past decade) has been in the first 2 days in Canada after getting back from a trip#.

#Does any one know how to create proper footnotes using Blogger? I'm tried of using random symbols.

So another glass And a cigarette . . . Isabel Monteiro from Drugstore

Drugstore is a band I fell in love with. I bought their second album "White Magic For Lovers", based solely on a 3 second clip of music that I had heard in a commercial for HMV.  That album stayed in heavy rotation until Songs For The Jet Set came out. From there I tracked down a copy of the then out of print self titled first album.  

Drugstore, who took their name from the film Drugstore Cowboy, is a London based band with a multinational cast of characters led by the wonderfully talented Brazilian born Isabel Monteiro.  After their third album Songs For The Jet Set, and much to my disappointment, they went on a hiatus of sorts and seemed to disappear from the musical landscape. 

Things were quiet for 7 years, and then in 2009 there were rumblings from The Cave, and Isabel popped her head out.    That year saw a reunion in the form of a sell out gig at Dingwalls in London.  That reunion wasn't enough for the fans or Isabel.  The start of 2010 saw a search for new "Cowboys" to join Drugstore, and shortly after that another sell out gig at the ICA . 

As of right now Isabel and her crew are in the midst of recording a new album.  Which I and many other fans are eagerly awaiting.  I personally recommend the songs "I Wanna Love You Like A Man" and "I Know I Could" (from which the title of this post is taken from).

Isabel is not only the first contributor to my quest, but happens to also be the first person I wrote to.  Which seemed like a very good sign, so far I'm batting 1000.  Isabel keeps an online presence through Facebook, Twitter and her blog, Drugstore Anatomy. Visit them all.

The recipe is called Brigadeiro, it's a Brazilian dessert and just looking at the ingredients make me want it. Once I have pictures of the process and the final product I'll post them.

Isabel wrote:
"Sending you a super-basic recipe for a traditional brazilian sweet treat.
It's prob the 1st thing you learn as a kid, but it stays w/ you forever.
Every now and again, when I'm feeling cold and grey, I get a tin of condensed
milk and make a batch of 'Brigadeiro' - takes me right back to my childhood.
Hope you'll enjoy it. Maybe serve after meal, w/ coffee and liquors?
Recipe attached.
Hope everything's gonna be cool w/ you.
keep me posted.
love
x
isabel"

The closest thing I have to a liqueur in my house is a bottle of Jameson's, that should work. The recipe is as follows.

‘Brigadeiro’ (brigadier)

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 tin sweetened condensed milk

100g of dark chocolate

25 of butter (2 tablespoons )

Chocolate sprinkles or granulated sugar

Tiny paper candy cups

Method:

Combine first three ingredients in a heavy pot and stir constantly

over medium heat, bringing to a boil.

Continue stirring until mixture thickens enough to coat the bottom

of the pan.

Remove from heat and carefully scoop hot mixture out of pot into a

separate bowl to cool.

Cool completely.

Coat hands with butter and scoop out a tablespoon sized amount

into the palm of your hand. Roll into a small ball, roll the ball in

sprinkles or sugar and let rest in paper cup.

Makes about 40.