Ham and jellyfish

Kendra's off dancing tonight, and I am left to my own devices. I was hoping Britta would come by to watch some MST3K, but she's too overworked and tired tonight. I was all geared up for some flirting, but nobody is here to flirt with. So I simmer, a bit.

Earlier tonight, Kendra and I found a table at the incredibly popular Tk Wu, a Chinese restaurant on Liberty, for the first time. Popular wisdom states that the best [ethnicity] restaurants are those that are always full of [ethnicity] people; I question that somewhat, since if I were, say, a Frenchman looking for good American restaurants in Paris, following the Americans would lead me to McDonald's. That said, Tk Wu is always full of Chinese people, and their food is both good and reasonable. I had moo shu pork, a pudding-flavored (!) bubble tea, and a big plate of jellyfish surrounded by ham.

I was not expecting a big plate of jellyfish surrounded by ham; what I ordered was a "pork and jellyfish roll", which I thought would be something like an egg roll. It was not. Kendra theorized that I was meant to roll up the jellyfish in the little slices of salted pork, which I did. It was rather tasty that way—something like cold spicy noodles, only chewier—but much more than I could eat. My limit on jellyfish is about three mouthfuls per night. Apparently.

It's cold as a comet here tonight. My cheeks went numb while changing the marquée, and Kendra and I clung together like baby monkeys on the walk home. Stupid Michigan.

Wonderfalls

I just watched the premiere of "Wonderfalls". I likes it. A lot. It has some of the best dialogue on TV today, nontraditional editing (like ViewMaster scene changes, appropriately tacky for the Niagara Falls setting), and blessed, blessed sarcasm. The characters need to settle into their roles a little, but I'm definitely going to keep watching.

Minor SPOILERS below:

It's eerily similar to "Joan of Arcadia" (though both, as far as I know, were developed independently): voices from beyond tell a young woman to do small things, which cascade into large, happy (ish) endings. The difference with "Wonderfalls" is cynicism: where JoA is sanitized to Hallmark standards, WF has a "Heathers"-lite streak of darkness running through it.

E.g.: estranged sisters bond over an emergency tracheotomy. The tacky little tchotchkes ("I should call them tchotchkes, because I'm Jewish now") that talk to her seem just a _bit_ malicious, and have more personality than JoA's God-people. "Surrender to Destiny" is clearly the driving phrase for the protagonist -- but it appears on T-shirts and coffee mugs in her Niagara Falls gift shop, and it refers to a young Indian woman who _died_ when her tribe sacrificed her right over the falls. What's the message there?

(It's also, basically, the Kira show, which can be seen most clearly when the protagonist says "Dumbass.")

I fear only word of mouth will save it from Foxecution.

(I'm watching Army of Darkness on AMC now. They ran an ad for The Day the Earth Stood Still right after the Klaatu Barada Nikto scene. Well done, AMC.)