Listen to the Rain

Fall slammed into Chicago like a freight train on Monday, when the weather went from late-summer sunny and 30°C to the current cloudy, rainy, and 20°C with 16°C nights. It's just a brief bit of cold weather, though--real fall begins next week, when the weather will be 15°C nights and 27°C days. Fall in Chicago is basically summer during the day and winter at night, through the end of September and sometimes even October. But I just ordered a bunch of autumn-themed tea and I'll take advantage of the chill while I can.

The movie trailer for Dune came out! I've already watched it multiple times, and while the first time I was a bit unsure, seeing Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides ratcheted up my excitement, and everything after Paul said "Fear is the mind-killer" was fantastic. By the end, I was internally chanting, "Show us the Worm, show us the Worm, show us the Worm!" and they did not disappoint.

I'm also glad they seem to be focusing on the philosophical end, with much of the early part of the trailer being the gom jabbar and the meaning of humanity. I've already seen some people online questioning whether Dune is another white savior narrative and I really hope that the movie goes is true to the book's message that basically all saviors are bad. Paul doesn't save anything--he destroys galatic government, he destroys the Fremen culture, his children destroy the ecosystem of Arrakis, there's basically nothing but bad results from his Jihad. If the movie casts Paul as a glorious hero instead of a tragic figure trying desperately to avoid his destiny, it'll have failed even if it looks amazing. Dune is one of my favorite books of all time, so I really hope that this movie gets it right. It goes both ways, though. I've similarly seen people who clearly don't understand the book say they hope the movie isn't full of "SJW bullshit."

The casting is great, though. Oscar Isaac, yes, but Zendaya looks fantastic as Chani, and Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho (the true protagonist of the Dune series!) works far better than I thought it would.

The trailer does feature the extremely-cliché "slowed-down epic version of pop song" soundtrack over it, in this case Eclipse by Pink Floyd, but I can forgive it because Jodorowsky wanted Pink Floyd to do the soundtrack for his version of Dune.




Arancini porcini, filled with River Valley Ranch mushrooms and fontina cheese, made by Sfera Sicilian Street Food, with some tomatoes from last week's Hardin's Family Farm box as well as some aged goat gouda from Stamper Cheese, topped with wildflower honey balsamic vinegar from the Middle Eastern Grocery Store, and a peach from Hillside Orchards.

After the giant box from last week, I wanted another easy to make meal and I settled on the last vendor that I haven't bought anything at all from this season. I don't know anything about Sicilian food or how it's different from Italian food, but I had noticed them every time I went by and I was curious to try it out. It's like street food everywhere, with fried dough wrapped around something savory, and it had that lovely cheese-spilling-out-of effect that a lot of Italian food has. There was some kind of herb aioli they served with it too, and while I usually don't like mayonnaise or anything resembling it, this was delicious. I even saved it to put on bread later.

The cheese was a last-minute decision, and as you can see, the presentation didn’t really work out that well. The gouda was delicious with the tomatoes but now I understand why people always use a softer cheese like mozzarella or burrata—it’s much easier to cut into slices that fit. Maybe there’s some secret to cutting a hard cheese that I’m not privy to, but all I got is crumbles and shards.

They told me to put the peach out for a day and let it ripen before I ate it. I ignored them. It was still great. 🍑


A caramel nut crostada from Leticia's Natural Bakery. When I first took a bite I wasn't very impressed, so I decided that I didn't have anthing to lose and I heated it up for twenty seconds and then had it with ice cream. That was objectively the correct choice--the caramel melted and the crust grew much more flakey, making it a delight to eat. The ice cream helped cool down the bites as I put them in my mouth and its creaminess contrasted with the crunchy nuts. Someday I'll learn that lukewarm is never the best way to serve food before I bite into it, but it's apparently not today.


I just got back from lisekatevans’s balcony, where she invited me for drinks. The original plan was to sit out on a pedestrianized section of the street she lives on, but it's too cold and rainy for that. She made me a gin cocktail, we talked, and I took the train home becuase my leg is bothering me a bit. Now I'm waiting for sashagee to get off work.