On Chocolate, Tastes, and Confusing the Relatives

I discovered something this weekend about chocolate.

We were at chaosdruid's birthday party at the Cheesecake Factory, and niveus_tigris had acquired two whole cheesecakes for the party, one of which was a sort of chocolate mousse on chocolate cheesecake on chocolate cookie crust affair. I managed about two small bites of this, after which I had to pass my plate off to agrnmn, who devoured the remaining cheesecake with great appreciation. For me, though, the experience was almost painful. I have always had an iffy relationship with chocolate, but never been able to put my finger on why. And then, suddenly, it occurred to me that the thing that eating chocolate was most like was being tickled in one spot repeatedly for an extended period of time. The first taste is good, if it's a small taste. But then, I get overwhelmed with the unrelieved sweetness of it, and it ceases to be a good time very quickly.

niveus_tigris mocked me roundly for this (which was not undeserved). "I never thought I'd hear you say 'no, that's too much for me' about anything," he said, "What's next, 'Oh, that's too much sex for me?'". And usually I am about too much. Too much is almost enough. But the too much I'm after is too much different sensation. Too much of a single sensation is no good. So I don't do plain chocolate, but chocolate with chili peppers is fine, and sometimes even sought after.

A lot of my tastes are tending away from sweet anyway. Although I will still eat my own weight in honey if I can manage it. I'm not sure how that's different, but I'm sure I'll figure it out someday.

Also at the party, I had the interesting fortune of standing near agrnmn when chaosdruid was introducing people to her mother, which caused her mother to think that I was his wife. Then, there was a period of trying to explain who went with who, at the end of which, niveus_tigris went, "OK, everybody pair up!". Doesn't help, for me, I said. I get the short end of the pairing up stick every time. So he thinks for a second and goes, "Okay, then, everybody stand next to your favorite person?". But that doesn't work for me either. But what can you do? Some of us don't come in twos.

On Chocolate, Tastes, and Confusing the Relatives

I discovered something this weekend about chocolate.

We were at chaosdruid's birthday party at the Cheesecake Factory, and niveus_tigris had acquired two whole cheesecakes for the party, one of which was a sort of chocolate mousse on chocolate cheesecake on chocolate cookie crust affair. I managed about two small bites of this, after which I had to pass my plate off to agrnmn, who devoured the remaining cheesecake with great appreciation. For me, though, the experience was almost painful. I have always had an iffy relationship with chocolate, but never been able to put my finger on why. And then, suddenly, it occurred to me that the thing that eating chocolate was most like was being tickled in one spot repeatedly for an extended period of time. The first taste is good, if it's a small taste. But then, I get overwhelmed with the unrelieved sweetness of it, and it ceases to be a good time very quickly.

niveus_tigris mocked me roundly for this (which was not undeserved). "I never thought I'd hear you say 'no, that's too much for me' about anything," he said, "What's next, 'Oh, that's too much sex for me?'". And usually I am about too much. Too much is almost enough. But the too much I'm after is too much different sensation. Too much of a single sensation is no good. So I don't do plain chocolate, but chocolate with chili peppers is fine, and sometimes even sought after.

A lot of my tastes are tending away from sweet anyway. Although I will still eat my own weight in honey if I can manage it. I'm not sure how that's different, but I'm sure I'll figure it out someday.

Also at the party, I had the interesting fortune of standing near agrnmn when chaosdruid was introducing people to her mother, which caused her mother to think that I was his wife. Then, there was a period of trying to explain who went with who, at the end of which, niveus_tigris went, "OK, everybody pair up!". Doesn't help, for me, I said. I get the short end of the pairing up stick every time. So he thinks for a second and goes, "Okay, then, everybody stand next to your favorite person?". But that doesn't work for me either. But what can you do? Some of us don't come in twos.

Night Watch

Also, we took the opportunity on Saturday to go see Night Watch up at the Tivoli. (Now that someone has bothered to tell me that there's an elevator in the building, and that I don't actually have to haul myself hand over hand up a gazillion narrow stairs when my knee is acting up in order to get to the theaters, I like the Tivoli even better than I did before.)

While there were a number of things that would have made the film much better, chief among them being a connection between the two plots of the film (those being a. A cursed virgin threatens to end the world and b. A child is born who is prophecied to decide the fate of the world, Light or Dark, forever) and a satisfying resolution to plot a, it was a lot of fun, and certainly the most original vampire film I've seen in a damned long time.

The film is also, notably, packed full of Very Cool Film Tricks and Non-Plot Devices which are more or less passed over without drawing attention to them. One of the most interesting things I saw was a scene in which the Night Watch (who are supposed to be the Good Guys) are in an apartment building across the street from the apartment building which is the site of immenant Armageddon. They have taken over the building in a frozen-in-time moment, and its normal inhabitants are sitting at the dinner table. During this entire scene, the "normal" people are frozen, and the Night Watch move around them. Then, we see the window, out of which they observe the gathering Doom. In the window is a collection of clutter and junk, arranged as to create a sigil which they are apparently using to collect occult data. They move these bits around, an AOL cd, a broken doll, some cigarette package ends, and so on, and are extracting something from it. Exactly how it works is never mentioned. But the fact that this stuff exists lends something to the scene, making it somehow better and realer than it might have been if there were some more obvious and traditional occultism going on.

Also, the folks who subtitled the film for English somehow managed to make a fair number of the subtitles an integrated part of the film. When the characters get angry and yell, the subtitles get larger or fly across the screen and shatter. It's a cheap trick, but used to very good effect.

Good times, overall. Worth seeing, even if it likely does lose something in translation.

Night Watch

Also, we took the opportunity on Saturday to go see Night Watch up at the Tivoli. (Now that someone has bothered to tell me that there's an elevator in the building, and that I don't actually have to haul myself hand over hand up a gazillion narrow stairs when my knee is acting up in order to get to the theaters, I like the Tivoli even better than I did before.)

While there were a number of things that would have made the film much better, chief among them being a connection between the two plots of the film (those being a. A cursed virgin threatens to end the world and b. A child is born who is prophecied to decide the fate of the world, Light or Dark, forever) and a satisfying resolution to plot a, it was a lot of fun, and certainly the most original vampire film I've seen in a damned long time.

The film is also, notably, packed full of Very Cool Film Tricks and Non-Plot Devices which are more or less passed over without drawing attention to them. One of the most interesting things I saw was a scene in which the Night Watch (who are supposed to be the Good Guys) are in an apartment building across the street from the apartment building which is the site of immenant Armageddon. They have taken over the building in a frozen-in-time moment, and its normal inhabitants are sitting at the dinner table. During this entire scene, the "normal" people are frozen, and the Night Watch move around them. Then, we see the window, out of which they observe the gathering Doom. In the window is a collection of clutter and junk, arranged as to create a sigil which they are apparently using to collect occult data. They move these bits around, an AOL cd, a broken doll, some cigarette package ends, and so on, and are extracting something from it. Exactly how it works is never mentioned. But the fact that this stuff exists lends something to the scene, making it somehow better and realer than it might have been if there were some more obvious and traditional occultism going on.

Also, the folks who subtitled the film for English somehow managed to make a fair number of the subtitles an integrated part of the film. When the characters get angry and yell, the subtitles get larger or fly across the screen and shatter. It's a cheap trick, but used to very good effect.

Good times, overall. Worth seeing, even if it likely does lose something in translation.