Guys who like food

When I was in high school a good friend and I wrote a food column in the school paper called "Two Guys Who Like Food." It was a fantastic excuse to leave school and eat. It was a lot of fun. Scott has had his own part-time photography business for several years now.

Now Amy and I are going to be doing a cool secret shopper gig for a good restaurant chain in the area, necessitating weekly detailed reviews. We went to our orientation this evening downtown. It's going to be an excellent learning experience, if anything. Pretty psyched.

Salt

Horrible insults came to mind while watching the movie Salt today. "Even those who've suffered head injuries deserve to enjoy spy films," that kind of thing. Bottom line, it was deeply stupid with a "twist" so obvious it felt at times I was watching a satire.

On to something neat, though. A friend of Amy's has a neat blog using Hipstamatic (the iPhone application) that's very worth checking out http://prettykitty03.blogspot.com/.

Dinner/Breakfast

We did go to Wildfire last night for dinner in Oakbrook. I would give the experience a 5.5 out of 10. Part of this is our fault in that we thought we were going to a slightly quieter more intimate and upscale setting. It was instead fairly loud, albeit comfortable. The food was fine. It was neither the best nor worst steak I have had. Our server was either a little harried or just not overly pleasant. I'm sure he's a nice guy or could have been having a bad day, but he did not check back appropriately or provide that sort of warmth that can tip the scales when deciding whether the place is to be recommended.

I ordered a rib eye, rare, encrusted with horseradish with a sweet potato. They did cook it properly, but I found the horseradish to be devoid of flavor and gave the dish a greasiness I hadn't anticipated. Amy had three fillet medallions, each encrusted with something different (blue cheese, potato, etc.). She liked two out of three. Our deserts were fine. The coffee I found weak or thin. The prices were more reasonable than expected. I don't mean to knock the place too much. Many people I know seem to like it. I think it's not necessarily for a "foodie," not that I claim to be one, and it would be a good place to take a undiscriminating group for a friendly time, as opposed to an anniversary dinner.

To be honest, I think we had a much better meal that morning at Labriola Bakery. Very good food, comfortable lighting and a gentle din of kitchen and diners that allows the still tired to read their Saturday paper in peace. I had a Toad in the Hole and Amy had a breakfast sandwich. We would have probably been just as happy going there last night. They too have pizza from a wood burning oven, and it's quite good.

Thank God this week is over

After a fun work week, I now have much of Saturday to kick back a little before Amy and I go out for our 2nd anniversary. We're going to Wildfire in Oakbrook, which friends have mentioned to me multiple times, but we've never gone. I am told they have a horseradish encrusted steak that I would like. I'm pretty good about not eating meat except when we go out. Then all bets are off, I guess.

I've been steadily making my way through Diarmaid MacCulloch's "Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years." It's a long one, and I've been taking it slowly. Fascinating stuff. It's a good one for the Kindle for a few reasons. 1) It's about 1200 pages, which is a bear if you like to read in bed. Unlike my dad, I cannot lay a book on a table and read that way. Even when I do use a counter or a bar, I have to use a wire book stand to hold it upright. 2) It's such a well worded thing that I've underlined much of it, which, if you have handwriting like Charlie Brown, is much neater to do with the Kindle.

I still have Philip Kerr's latest waiting for me, but I haven't really found the time to do that one. I'm now saving it for our trip down to see Amy's new niece next weekend in Missouri.

Bonzai Show

We stopped in at the Arboretum Bonsai show. Fascinating to talk with some of the experts. We also met a local maker of bonsai tables.

Bridgeport through an iPhone

Kimball

There are not a lot of people teaching martial application for Tai Chi, which is a shame, because it can be very powerful. This is a short section of a form as executed by Paul Kimball in Bridgeport. I shot it with my iPhone, so it's not terribly clear, but it's clear enough. Note any lack of unnecessary flourish. Health club practitioners wouldn't get into it.

Visiting the master

Today, make the drive to Bridgeport for an advanced tai chi lesson. I'm not an advanced tai chi guy, but the teacher certainly is. My tai chi has been on minimal life support for the past year, so I'm hoping this might kick it into gear a bit. I may be alone in this, but I happen to like the south side. It's far more interesting that the burbs. Not saying I'd want to have my wife there, but I like visiting on my own.

Friday off

Today was a little rough. Someone the other day smashed my right rear car door, smearing it with their red paint, and then fled without leaving a note. I hate those people. This is the same as reaching into someone's wallet and extracting $500. After dealing with my insurance agency and determining that it would be better to just pay for it myself, I threw my bike on the back of the car and headed to the Arboretum where I pedaled in 90 degree heat for an hour. I go to Bridgeport tomorrow for some authentic tai chi. Looking forward to it.

Napping: the poor man's opera

LA Theatre Works

I've been periodically listening to LA Theatre Works, which produces radio plays. I've listened to Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, Shadowlands and a play about Frank Lloyd Wright called Work Song. Most recently, I listened to Top Secret, a play about the legal battle between the Washington Post and the Nixon Administration over the Pentagon Papers. Some of these have been pretty good.

I grew up with a weird bent toward radio drama and comedy. I've met people my age or younger who are hooked on old radio, and they're equally odd. I've since gone back and listened to several comedies only to discover that they were surprisingly bad. They did not trust America to get good humor and relied on some pretty hokey stuff. The format is good for drama, though, and some episodes of "Suspense" are positively terrifying. Radio leaves more to the imagination.

What easily breaks radio's fictional dream is awkward but necessary exposition to make up for not being able to see what the actors are physically doing and where they are. So a skillful weekly show like LA Theatre Works is most welcome to me. It uses great actors and focuses on some pretty interesting scripts, though Top Secret was more of a heavy handed re-enactment than a play. The ending to me was too obviously ripped from The Cain Mutiny in which the attorney who represents the heroes of the story then drunkenly admonishes them for being too delighted with their victory, warning them them of unconsidered consequences.

These things are great for the iPod and for playing in the car. Even if you have short commutes, like me, it's amazing how much time we spend in the car. You can get through an unabridged novel in a week or so.

coyote

There is a split second between experiencing a surprise and contemplating it when everything slows down and I am of one mind. When fishing, it's just as a living thing strikes the other end of my line. When driving it's when a Chevy Suburban does a 720 across four lanes of black ice right in front of me on the way to the Kansas City Airport. Since I am never of one mind, I relish these milliseconds of clarity perhaps more than most. This morning it was a coyote. A sly looking 35 pounds of sallow brown fur and teeth. Amy had told me there was one skulking around the other day, which may be why my own surprise on stepping out the front door with the dogs was so brief.

We followed him at a distance of 30 yards or so. He showed a disconcerting lack of concern over the suburbanite and his soft dogs. Crumley and Iris pulled on their leashes and showed hackles and all of that, but they were quiet about it. I don't know if their lack of usual bravado betrayed an uneasiness with actually catching up with a wild thing or if they were reverting a more primal silent running. Or maybe it was simply curiosity.

He finally slipped between two townhouses and we resumed our walk. Later as I ate half a grapefruit and read the Sun-Times, Crumley let out three booming barks and I looked up through the patio door to see the same coyote trotting through the backyard. It makes sense. They're resourceful and found everywhere from Alaska to South America to Central Park. The Western Suburbs has millions of rabbits and squirrels, and we're near multiple forest preserves. It was fairly early so it's possible he'd been out night hunting and had gotten far away from his den and was now attempting to find his way back. I know these townhouses all look exactly the same to me.

Another Good Friday

We took Friday to go downtown again this week. We started with lunch at Frontera Grill. If you get there about 20 minutes before they open at 11:30 a.m., you can get a table right away when they open. I had a duck that was to die for. Amy had pork tacos that were incredible. We've eaten at all three of Rick Bayless' restaurants located there--all astounding--but this is my favorite. I can eat that guy's food until I'm hospitalized.

We then went to the Field Museum, where they are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their Tyrannosaurus, Sue. I had been there another time for a fundraising ball, but I didn't realize how great the place was until Amy and I went yesterday. We took our time--which I normally hate to do--and saw just about every bit of the place. It's a very old school, Teddy Roosevelt natural history museum with thousands of mind blowing examples of taxidermy, much of it from the 19th century and early 20th. In fact, most of it seemed to be done before 1935, but they are so well preserved that they still look very much alive. I'll include a few here along with another of my choppy videos of the robot dinosaurs (which were actually very cool in person; they had motion detectors that allowed you to incense the robots).

Messing around

iPhone sucks in that it is really great. I love messing around with it. About the same time we paid a pound of flesh for the Canon, I paid about $4 for an iPhone app called Hipstimatic that takes prematurely aged pictures, complete with 70s flares, etc. It's fun. This first, as an example, is exactly how a bar used to look to me at about 2 a.m.. (It's actually at Piece in Wicker Park last week.) The next two I snapped while waiting for Amy to get ready for her friend Dorian's wedding. The last is one of infinite times I have annoyed my wife.

Arboretum and the end of my weekend

I don't really care for these steel root sculptures, but there is something Lovecraftian about them. Amy and I went to the Arboretum today and messed around for a bit before going to the mall in Oak Brook, which is my favorite. I played with the camera, and Amy was very patient. I really need to sign up for a camera class and begin figuring out the other 99.9999 percent of how this things works.

Ficus alert

The photo to the left is NOT my ficus, but one I lifted from a local website. I'm guessing it's reasonably mature because the trunk looks thicker.

My own ficus is not doing terribly well, which is distressing, but I've got plans. I'm looking up everything I can on it and making sure the soil never completely dries out, at the same time not over watering it. I'm also going to my first Bonsai society meeting, which, as luck would have it, actually meets at my place of work about two buildings away. So ideally, they'll have more info for me.

Right now my ficus sits in a very sunny window. It's not supposed to be in temps less than 65 degrees, and I noticed an air conditioning vent nearby, so I'm covering the vent with a towel.

I also found a pretty good Bonsai website called Bonsaigardener.

Grandma's 90th

I attempted to use my Canon Rebel T2i to capture some video of my grandmother's 90th birthday party last month. I then tried cobbling some of the pieces together using a simple software option that came with the camera. Was sort of like using a croquet mallet and phillips head screwdriver to shape a diamond. The ultra-choppy result is that I've visually mangled a very nice event. Too many more of these and Canon is going to demand their camera back, lest I drive away business. Thank you again, Judy, for organizing all of this. It was a really good time.

Myopic Books

Completely forgot that while in Wicker Park, we came across Myopic Books. Not as edgy as I'd hoped from the street (I don't really know that for sure, as we weren't there long) but nice people and a good collection that I could have browsed for some time if we didn't have a movie to get to.

Good times

I spent the early morning Friday entertaining the dogs with a 3 mile walk while I listened to "Gentlemen of the Road" by Michael Chabon. This was followed by fussing over my bonsai trees and repotting for the first time an old, long-armed green leafed house plant that has refused to give up on my in the 10 years I have owned it and moved it from home to home, city to city, job to job.

I then did some actual work at the computer for a couple of hours, afterwhich Amy and I had a good Chicago Friday. We went downtown for lunch at ate in Wicker Park at Piece Brewery and Pizza, which is a New Haven style pizza place owned (or partially owned, I'm not sure) by the lead singer of Cheap Trick--thus there are a few ridiculous multi-necked electric guitars from his famous collection cast about a slightly smug loft environment. Our service was very good. I ate a gigantic amount of pizza and spent the rest of the day nursing ginger tea trying to get over it.

The Pizza is very good and, for Amy, a true relief, as she does not care for Chicago deep dish and apparently never will. The New Haven style is a flat but chewy wheat crust, someone bubbled and with light use of sauce. I personally like it very much, and it's a nice change from the
cheese-bucket-o-heart-attacks you get at Gino's, Giordano's, Milano's, crappy Pizzas Uno and Due, etc. We started with their guacamole and chips and then had a medium pepperoni and mushroom.

Then, we were off to Landmark Cinema in Lincoln Park to see Cyrus, a new sad comedy with John C. Reilly as a lonely guy who finds the perfect girlfriend (Marisa Tomei) only to walk into the buzz saw of her neurotic 22-year-old son (placed so well by Jonah Hill that he's possibly my new favorite actor). The entire cast is awesome, and we loved the movie.

They made very nice use of a technique I see sometimes in movies from the late 60s and early 70s in which you listen to the characters talk to each other while watching film of them doing something else together like laughing or drinking wine. It's effect can be magical. I can't think of an original example but Faye Dunaway comes to mind.

So what can I say? It was a good day ended with a lot of reading and too much sleep. It's now Saturday, and I have nothing pulling me in any particular direction. My dogs are fed. My wife is sleeping in. I have a kindle with great books on it. I did some tai chi and now hope to primarily laze and perhaps read at the Morton Arboretum. It doesn't get much better than this for me. I didn't even mention seeing Winter's Bone the other night. It will surely be nominated for best picture next year.