I’ve finally got the New York/Canada photos posted on the web page. It was a great trip.
– Poppa
31 Sunday May 2009
Posted Alert the Media, New Stuff
inI’ve finally got the New York/Canada photos posted on the web page. It was a great trip.
– Poppa
24 Sunday May 2009
Posted Snide Humor
in“Wrong Way” Champlain
The most prominent sculpture in Ottawa is the monumental statue of Samuel de Champlain at Nepean Point. The most famous aspect of the statue is the astrolabe Champlain is holding in his hand. He’s holding it upside down.
The presumption is that Champlain knew how to hold his astrolabe but the sculptor didn’t.
– Poppa
23 Saturday May 2009
Posted New Stuff
inAs seen on Canada’s Parliament Hill.
– Poppa
20 Wednesday May 2009
@#$%&*!!! Airlines! Cursed Lambert gate. Late departure. Panicked run down Chicago concourse.
Lost luggage. Old friend. New friend! New cat! Found luggage! Chicken Piccata.
Empire State Plaza. Giant bedpan. New York State Museum. Mastodon bones. World Trade Center bones. Rollapalooza. Tulipalooza. Skunkapalooza. Fifteen years on the Erie Canal.
Adirondacks. Outlet malls. Shoes. Beautiful cabin. Roasted corn on the cob. Grilled steaks. Black Flies. Screened-in porch. Toasty fire.
Crabcakes with béarnaise sauce for breakfast! Adirondack chairs. Black Flies. Screened-in porch. Grilled pork chops and veggies. Black Flies! Screened-in porch! Roaring fire.
Omelets and Belgian waffles for breakfast. Buttermilk Falls. Black Flies! Spray Deet everywhere. You’re not supposed to spray Deet on face! Lips tingle. Eyes burn. Flee to gas station restroom. No soap in the restroom! Get used to it. Lunch at Sunday Rock. No Black Flies. Arrive at Canton. Collapse.
– Poppa
13 Wednesday May 2009
Posted Geeking Out, Opinions? I’ve got 'em!
inSaturday night Nan and I accompanied Joe and Marie (Nan’s brother and his wife) to see a performance of New Line Theater’s Return to the Forbidden Planet, a version of the 1950s SF classic movie Forbidden Planet, itself based on/inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Like the Worm Ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail, Return to the Forbidden Planet loops back to the original source.
It’s not every day you get to hear the term “klystron generator” embedded in Iambic Pentameter. New Line Theater’s Return to the Forbidden Planet is a glorious hodgepodge of Shakespearian bombast and kitschy 1950s references; Miranda’s/Altaira’s Poodle Skirt has a rocket instead of a poodle and Ariel/Robbie the Robot zips around the set on carhop roller skates. There were even a few Star Trek phaser shout-outs thrown in for people under fifty, though everybody knows the crew of the C-57D was armed with neutron beam blasters.
Seeing (actually, hearing) Forbidden Planet is a vividly remembered event from my youth. I saw it in on TV in the late ‘50s, not knowing what it was called, and it scared the bejabbers out of me. I fled to the top of the stairs and listened to the sounds of the “Monster from the Id,” afraid to look, but too fascinated to turn off the TV. It wasn’t until years later, while looking through a coffee table book on Science Fiction films, that I learned what had frightened me so as a child. When I watched it for the first time as an adult, it was a cathartic experience.
The entire cast was good, but Zachary Allen Farmer, playing Prospero/Morbius really stood out. He was channeling Walter Pidgeon, and I mean that in a good way. We’ve enjoyed him (Farmer) before as Barry in High Fidelity, and Barry is about as far as you can get from Prosporo/Morbius.
The music, classic ‘50s and ‘60s rock standards, tied the whole thing together beautifully. The only negatives were the occasional Shakespearian soliloquies that stopped the tempo of the show like a circular saw hitting a knot. Shakespeare was used to best effect when the cast mined every bad pun they could out of his work: “Two Beeps or Not Two Beeps, that is the Question!” “Beware the Ids that march!” But I wasn’t crazy about the soliloquies. Having them intrude on the rock-and-roll/SF fun was like finding a peppercorn in your ice cream. They’re both edible, but they don’t belong together.
– Poppa
07 Thursday May 2009
Posted mmmm Good!, New Stuff
inWe’ve put a busy and partially bird-themed weekend behind us (pictures at johnandnan.com). Saturday morning we participated in an American Heart Association Walk in downtown St. Louis and got to see the inside of Busch Stadium for the first time, even getting to walk around the field at ground level, peer into the dugouts and see the pitcher’s mound from the batter’s perspective, a Cardinal’s-eye view <insert groan here>, bird reference #1.
Following that, we went to lunch at the home of a friend of ours, Peggy Ladd, who organized a group for the walk. Peggy used to be a neighbor at 10th Street. She went on to buy an old manufacturing building in South St. Louis and turn it into a lovely home.
We checked out a TARDIS-like Shop ‘n Save, where the isles were so long they seemed to disappear into the distance and the outside of the store seemed smaller than the inside; then went from there to visit Nan’s Mom. When we went out on the porch, we found, for the second weekend in a row, a dove sitting in the plants on the railing (bird reference #2). Last weekend it sat there the whole time we were on the porch and then flapped off as we got up to leave. Rather than watch it nervously out of the corner of my eye only to have it startle us again as we left, I shooed it away immediately. And then discovered it had been sitting on a clutch of eggs. This made me feel about 10 inches tall. The dove returned to the nest as soon as we left, so it looks like I didn’t make orphans out of les oeufs.
Saturday evening I took part in a trivia competition at the University City Library and had big fun there, but I can’t think of any bird-related hooks I can weave into the narrative. (Well, I learned the alternate name for a double eagle in golf is albatross. Hah! Bird reference #3.) Our table came in third, so face was saved somewhat, even though we tanked in the Home Cooking category. We managed to achieve the lowest score of the evening by any team in any category. I had no idea home cooking was so challenging.
Sunday we spent a quiet day around the house, nursing our aching legs and saving up our strength to attend one of the farewell performances of Riverdance at the Fox Theatre. Once again we had seats to die for, third row orchestra pit. Really. To die for. We could have been killed if any of the dancers had thrown a shoe. If you’ve seen Riverdance live or on TV (it used to be a staple of PBS pledge week), you know what a high-energy show it is. If you haven’t, you should see it one way or the other. The step dancers just make me grin like a loon, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard Nan laugh with sheer delight as much as at this show, although she accused the lead male dancer of using “enhanced clopping” at one point because she heard clopping when both feet were off the ground at the same time (I heard it too, but I think it was just the drums).
After the show we went to a late supper at a new (to us) Vietnamese place, Banh Mi So #1 on South Grand, to try the bánh mì sandwiches and spring rolls, reputed to be the best in the city. Bánh mì is an inspired fusion of French bread and Vietnamese ingredients, such as pork meatballs and garnished with carrot-daikon relish, cilantro and hot peppers. The first time I ever had bánh mì was in Atlanta when I wandered into a little Vietnamese grocery store on Buford Highway looking for a bite to eat before band practice. As I was trying to puzzle out the menu based on pictures of the food (the descriptions were all in Vietnamese), the guy behind the counter said, “I’m going to make you the best sandwich you’ve ever had.” He put together a bánh mì with barbecued pork and the usual garnishes. He was right, it was the best sandwich I’d ever had.
The bánh mì at Banh Mi So #1 was every bit as good as that first sandwich in “Chambodia“, and the spring rolls were outstanding. These are rolls of the cold variety, pork, shrimp, vermicelli, lettuce, and mint in rice wrappers. They’re sometimes also known as summer or fresh rolls. I can’t vouch for whether or not they’re the best spring rolls in St. Louis, as their neon sign says; I haven’t tried all of the spring rolls in St. Louis yet. But I don’t think I’ve had better anywhere else, including Atlanta.
Just to widen our exposure to the menu, Nan had Bánh ướt, king-sized steamed noodles topped with pork slices, greens, fried onions and a light sauce, also very good. Banh Mi So #1 is a major find, convenient to our newfound grocery stores and right across the street from a Ted Drewes.
There must be a bird reference I can make for Sunday. I’m thinking, I’m thinking . . . um, we had eggs for breakfast? Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby?
07 Thursday May 2009
Posted Alert the Media, Geeking Out
in06 Wednesday May 2009