Doctor Meow
Doctor Meow – Fantastic Fest Bumper Submission from Jenn Murphy on Vimeo.
As promised, here is the video Jenn and I made for the Fantastic Fest bumper contest. I hope you enjoy it.
In case you aren’t familiar with Fantastic Fest, or the bumper contest, let me give you a little bit of background. Fantastic Fest is a film festival in Austin, Texas that focuses on genre films like horror, sci-fi, action and fantasy, in other words, some of my favorite kinds of films. Before each film, they show bumpers made by fans. This year, the theme for the contest was Time Travel is Fantastic, plus each bumper has to end with “That’s Fantastic.” The bumpers are notoriously pretty crazy, but if you win, you get two VIP Badges for the festival in 2013.
It would be amazing if you would vote for our bumper. All you have to do is click that link, and then “like” our video. If we get enough votes, we’ll make it to the finalist round. As a side note, there is a very small percentage of the bumpers made by women, so even if you aren’t a fan of our bumper you’ll vote, just as a vote for the ladies. Or maybe you’ll just vote for Meeme and Mochi because they’re the cutest?
New England Vegan
A few weeks ago we visited New England for a dear friend’s wedding (have I mentioned this already? I think perhaps I have). It was so nice to be out in the country and around trees and quiet. Mostly it was nice to spend time celebrating with old friends. We were able to drive around in the days following and explore a few states I’d never been to. I wasn’t too sure what the vegan choices would be like in more secluded areas, but we managed to find some great restaurants all over. Here’s a little round up of where we went:
First, we found the lovely Riverbend Cafe, conveniently located across the street from the motel we stayed at in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. We were surprised to find a spot with vegan french toast, not to mention bagels and tofu cream cheese. I had some super tasty oatmeal with peaches and brown sugar. The setting here was idyllic and the food was great. Plus we got to spend the morning catching up with Agatha which made the whole thing extra awesome.
Randomly, we stumbled upon a farmers market where there happened to be some goats hanging out. I love goats!
As our travels continued, Shawn once again proved he is the vegan pizza finding master. I had us routed to a spot in Northampton, Massachusetts which ended up being closed. He tracked down Pizzeria Paradiso which not only had vegan pizza, they used Follow Your Heart, which made me extra happy.
In Keene, New Hampshire we stopped in at Country Life, a Seventh Day Adventist buffet spot. Even though it was sort of vegan 1.0, it was really good, and felt really fulfilling. They also had a cute little market.
Concord, New Hampshire had some great vegan spots. First we stopped in at Hermanos Cocina Mexicana which, while not a vegan restaurant, had some superb vegan options. They had some spicy seitan for their burritos, plus all the fun stuff like soy sour cream and vegan cheese. I had some truly amazing enchiladas.
Also in Concord was Cafe Indigo. We stopped here for a great lunch and picked up a ton of sweets. A giant box of cookies, blondies and more for about $10. It was awesome. I had a wonderful ToFishy sandwich and Shawn had their infamous Rachael, a vegan reuben, both of which we loved.
Our last stop was in Boston. We ran into the Clover food truck and picked up some chickpea fritters and a soy BLT. It was a pretty good snack for a hot afternoon in the park.
Last but not least, we hit up a double whammy of vegan pizza and ice cream. First, Piece o’ Pie served us a fantastic margarita pizza with tofu ricotta, which kept me fed for our entire flight home. I think if we could have stayed longer, Shawn would have tried all the pizzas here.
Right next door was FoMu, a decadent vegan ice cream shop. It took forever for me to choose a flavor (I went with espresso) while Shawn went all out with a sundae. They had some really neat flavors and I wish I could have tried more.
Okay so there were a few more spots along the way, but this post is too long already! And yet there were still places we missed. I guess we’ll just have to go back.
kittens!
You may recall a few weeks ago I posted photos of some adorable black cats and kittens. I discovered they were living under a neighbor’s apartment, and while they seemed to be in good health, I knew something had to be done. This past week, I caught them all, had them fixed and vaccinated and now they’re looking for homes.
Let me introduce you! There are two sweet black cats, one boy and one girl. Despite growing up outside, they are really affectionate and love to snuggle and be petted. They often purr when they eat and then will come and nuzzle me afterwards. They’re also very playful and love to do kitten things: playing with toy mice, chasing tails, all the cute stuff.
I don’t have an exact age for them but I’m guessing 3-4 months old (this is a total guess by the way) but they are definitely under 6 months. They’ve been using a litter box all on their own, natural instinct and all. They’re both fixed and vaccinated as I mentioned, they’ve also been tested negative for FIV and FeLV. Plus, they’re microchipped just in case.
Luckily, their little grey sister is going to go live with my mom. Her name is Cami. She is the most timid of the bunch and only half the size of her brother and sister. She was also the hardest of all to catch.
If you’re interested in either of these darlings, and live in the Los Angeles area, please email me at veganbakesale at gmail (or by clicking the email me link on the sidebar).
Last, but certainly not least, if you’d like to do something to help feral and abandoned cats please consider donating to one of the many organizations who help with adoptions as well as sterilization. I recommend Fixnation and Best Friends Animal Society.
UPDATE Both little Cami and her brother went to their new homes this weekend. Hooray! And the little girl? Well, read more here.
Twin Peaks Marathon
This weekend we had part one of our massive Twin Peaks marathon. We made it through the pilot and first 19 episode over two days. Lots of Twin Peaks. It was so good. I shouldn’t need to sell you on the show though. In typical fashion, we went all out, with themed food and decor.
We wanted to give our living room the feeling of the black lodge, with the red velvet curtains and chevron floor. I have to admit I didn’t quite finish my chevron quilt, but I managed to put the top layer together which worked just fine. It wasn’t a full on replication of the room since comfort was also a factor in watching so many hours of television, but it definitely evoked the essence of the black lodge.
Let’s talk about food though. There was pie. Lots of pie.
I tried some new recipes for key lime pie made with avocado and coconut milk, banana cream pie, the cherry pie from The Joy of Vegan Baking
We had possibly the creamiest macaroni and cashew cheese ever. I’d like to eat this every day. Jenn also brought some super tasty donuts. Let’s not forget the signature David Lynch coffee. It was surprisingly good and quite strong, perfect for extended watching conditions. The pot pie was pretty good too. It was even better the second day.
On the second day we actually tried to eat salad, but the sweets won over. Hello waffle sundaes. More pie. There is nothing like sugar to get you through marathons.
We watched two days worth of Twin Peaks. We watched, we ate, we tweeted, we gossiped. People came and went, although for the majority there were eight of us. It was awesome. I can’t wait for the next installment when we finish the series and Fire Walk with Me.
getaways
This past weekend, though very similar to many others, has changed me, even if just a little. We shot the majority of my short film (which still doesn’t have a title by the way, or I’d tell you) over one day and night. There is still some left to do, some specialty things, but with basically no crew, we covered a lot of ground. Having shot things with more equipment and people in the past, it was freeing to work with only the bare necessities.
The whole thing was exhilarating. For the past month, or even two, I’ve been in a slump. My motivation seemed misplaced, despite my best intentions. Part of this was because I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to make this short. Until the day we started filming, I thought things would fall through. This uncertainty bled into every other thing I did. Yet when we arrived home from the last night of filming, in the early hours of Monday morning, I felt driven. I still do. I’m not quite sure where my path is heading, but I’m charging ahead.
So here is to following through, even when it gets hard in ways that don’t entirely make sense. Here is to blind ambition. Here is to following dreams you’re terrified of following. And most importantly, here is to trusting others’ faith in you and to friends who get on board your wild projects. More so, I could not have done this without Shawn’s constant support and excitement. Not to mention the fact that he shot the whole film for me. So here’s to finding the perfect partner too.
