Honey Extraction Party

There's a guy who lives a few blocks from me who has a lovely garden on his roof.  Also on his roof, he keeps a couple of rather large hives of bees, which have been quite successful in the last few years. Every fall, he invites all his friends over for the Honey Extraction Party, and you're best advised to go dressed to work.

Before the party guests arrive, he smokes out the bees and brings all the honeycomb inside.  The stack of boxes is taller than I am, and each box holds about 10 combs.  They come out of the boxes one at a time, and you use a heated knife to trim all the beeswax from either side.  That goes into a big tub with a drainage pan, and the honey drips out of the wax assisted only by gravity.

The combs go vertically, six at a time, into the extractor, a giant stainless steel drum with a simple gear and crankshaft running to a handle at the top.  Once it's fully loaded, you spin and spin and spin and spin and the centrifugal force sends all the honey flying out to the walls of the extractor.  It runs down to the bottom and out the valve into a waiting 5-gallon bucket.  You can eat it raw, or wait until it's in its final, twice-filtered form.

We probably filled six buckets. I would've taken pictures, but my hands were covered with honey!

Goal #39

Goal #39: Don't let the apartment backslide.

I have a very busy week at work this week.  I have also been making progress here and there (maybe not yet visible to the uninitiated) in the direction of a cleaner apartment.  Unfortunately, usually when I am busy in life, my apartment falls to pieces because I come home late, I'm tired, I drop things anywhere, and I never get around to picking them up or putting them where they belong.  So by Saturday when I get around to taking a breath or considering working on my apartment, I basically spend all weekend just picking up the mess from the week, with little or no forward progress to be made.

This week, I will put a stop to that.

Recap: I think I did a pretty good job this week of filling everyone in on the good tidbits we learned at the conference last weekend.  Unfortunately we had a Thursday evening meeting planned, and those are always a little rushed - everyone has a lot they want to say, but everyone also wants to get home.  Anticipating that, I typed put together a typed summary of my notes from the sessions I was in, as well as general brainstorming ideas we got from talking to other people at the conference.  So I'll go ahead and say: information -- conveyed!

Multi-Movie Recap

I have watched a few movies I haven't had the chance to write about, and honestly, there was enough other stuff going on that I can't write a full and complete review of them anymore.  So I'll just give a brief statement about each one:

Beasts of the Southern Wild:

This movie got lots of press when it came out, mostly for the stellar performance of the young Quvenzhane Wallis, who I believe was six at the time of filming.

Her performance as Hushpuppy is good; it's honest.  Hushpuppy lives with her father in "The Bathtub," a slum outside New Orleans which is prone to flooding.

Can you see where this is going?  You're right, but with a twist: Hushpuppy's world is populated by mythical creatures who help her learn to be caring and brave.


 Anna Karenina:

Admittedly, I watched this one a long time ago.  Regardless, the fact that I can barely remember it I think says everything you probably need to know about it.

However, you should not leave my discussion of this movie without hearing my favorite line, spoken by Alexei to Anna when she was refusing to come to dinner because her marriage to Karenin was falling apart.  To convince her to join him: "Divorce is one thing.  Dinner is quite another."

Looper:
In case I haven't said it before (which I actually have), I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Still.  Ever since I was 10.  Can't explain it, and frankly don't feel the need to.

Despite his totally one-sided acting, Bruce Willis can be entertaining too, mostly because he's just a super-crotchety old man all the time, who somehow still manages to kick people's asses.  It works.






Like Crazy:

I liked this movie like crazy.  (How many people do you think said that before me?)  I think this is why: (1) the two lead actors are both fresh and refreshing; (2) Jennifer Lawrence; (3) much of the script is improvised, but doesn't feel like improv.  It feels real.

This is the story of two young lovers.  There are parts that seem completely ridiculous, but I still loved every minute.  Really.

Before Sunrise:

This is the first of what is now a trilogy starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.  In this first film, the two lost souls find themselves with less than a day to spend together, and they decide to hop off the train in Vienna and spend it there.

It's a young love story on a smaller scale than Like Crazy, in that the whole thing takes place over the course of a few hours.  It's like one of those long, wandering conversations that you have at the beginning of a relationship when you're just getting to know one another, except that in this movie you're in the middle of someone else's conversation.

Mmm . . . Dinner

Query: is there anything objectively wrong with buying a party platter of sushi from Trader Joe's and eating half of it for dinner?

Goal #38

Goal #38: recover and recap.

Work-related conferences can be great.  (They can also be terrible.)  One of the biggest problems I've found, though, is this: it's all well and good to sit around and talk about all the great things you will do someday when the only thing on your agenda at the conference is to sit around and talk about all the great things you will do someday.  It is quite another thing to actually put those ideas into practice once you get back to your busy real life and all the things you didn't do while you were gone are staring you in the face.

My goal this week is just to make sure my little working group at least has a good understanding of the things that I learned.  Implementation always takes time, but at least if everyone shares in the ideas, we might get somewhere.

Recap of goal #37: success! Exhausted as I now am (and as I was even thinking about it ahead of time), I was social, outgoing, talked to strangers, took the lead, and made connections.  And I spilled a glass of water on myself and got laughed at.  And I didn't even die of embarrassment.

Goal #37

Goal #37: make new friends.

I am going to spend two days this week attending a conference, and I will do my best to be social and outgoing!  Obviously there is no clear way to measure my success at this, but I'll report honestly.

Recap of goal #36: Hm.  Sleep.  I have determined it to be overrated, if you can get by without it.  Here's how this week played out:
Sunday: 5.75 hours
Monday: 6.5 hours
Tuesday: 5 hours
Wednesday: 5 hours
Thursday: 5 hours
Friday: 7 hours
Saturday: 5 hours

Quote of the Day

"If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."
   -- Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Quote of the Day

"My only regret in life is that I did not drink more champagne."
  -- John Maynard Keynes

Goal #36

Goal #36: Get more sleep.

This is a repeat of a long-ago goal, but I think it's a good and worthy one.  This weekend I did a LOT of bike riding, and all that work and sun and getting up early gave me a good excuse to go to bed at 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday night.  As did the fact that I had nothing else to do, but I digress.

Getting up at 5:00, it turns out, is easy when you go to bed at 9:00 the night before.  Okay, actually "easy" might be overstating it.  "Less painful than normal" is probably more accurate.

Regardless, this week I will try to be good and actually sleep. 

Recap of goal #35: I actually did go climbing last week, but only once. I was hoping for twice, but I guess you can't always get what you want.  Hopefully I can hit the gym again in the next couple of days, just as soon as I've recovered from my bike ride.

Random Links

Extremely Decent Films.

Turns out Facebook is worse for us than I thought.

A great version of my all-time favorite Simon and Garfunkel song.

Topless female trampolining world championships.  Just kidding.  Sort of.

Glass into bone.  What will they think of next?

Is that supposed to be some sort of joke?

Quote of the Day

"Powder your nose, paint your toes,
Line your lips and keep 'em closed.
Cross your legs, dot your eyes,
And never let 'em see you cry.

Go and fix your makeup, well it's just a breakup,
Run and hide your crazy and start acting like a lady.
'Cause I raised you better, gotta keep it together
Even when you fall apart."

  -- Miranda Lambert, Mama's Broken Heart

St. Louis Architecture Series

The sun behind the City Museum

Lucas Avenue and N. 15th Street

SLAM Grand Opening

Way back in late June, when K was in town for our big trip to Wisconsin, the two of us were joined by T at the grand opening of the new wing of the St. Louis Art Museum.

The day started out with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the East Building, where SLAM Director Brent Benjamin was joined by Governor Nixon, Mayor Slay, architect David Chipperfield, execs from HOK, and other bigwigs.

 

The East Building almost exclusively houses the contemporary art collection, save for one gallery of ancient art.  Generally I'm not a huge fan of modern art, but there are some interesting pieces there, and there's lots of quality, in the traditional sense: Rothko, Pollock, Warhol, etc.  I found the Post-War German collection to be interesting.  I found this piece to be rather amusing:

Homage to the Square: Wondering by Josef Albers

I really loved this series of photos of blast furnaces, taken by Bernd and Hilla Becher:

They also had random deep thoughts posted on plaques all throughout the East Building. Loved them!

I could see how this piece, Townscape Sa 2 by Gerhard Richter, would look neat on a brightly-painted wall:

As for the building itself, I like the simple lines of its exterior design.  Unfortunately, that's coupled with white paint on the interior walls, which I find a little dull.  On the other hand, I love the paint job they gave the old building a few years ago (see below).  I think the art looks so much better backed by color.  The new building does, though, have fabulous light.  It has floor-to-ceiling windows in many of the galleries, and skylights dot the ceiling.  Well done.

We briefly wandered into the lovely old building, built in 1904 and designed by Cass Gilbert.  There I saw a few of my old favorites and discovered a few new ones:

Vinyards at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh

Lake with Castle on a Hill by Joseph Wright of Derby

Love the round frame!

The Three Trees by Rembrandt van Rijn

Once we were satisfied with our intake of art, we wandered back outside to enjoy the view. Not bad for little ole St. Lou.

Quote of the Day

Audrey: "You know, you just make jokes about relationships 'cause you wish you could have one."
Russell: "Hm."
Jennifer: "Yeah, you're just jealous."
Russell: "You know what? I am a little bit jealous, you're right.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go do whatever I feel like doing, all the time."
  -- Rules of Engagement, Season 1, Episode 5, "Kids"

Goal #35

Goal #35: climb.

I have been busy.  Life has happened.  I have managed to get in two rows and a bike ride this past week, but I did not go climbing.  It's good for clearing one's head.

Recap of goal #34: unfortunately R the Wonderdog did walk into a few things before the end, but thankfully not many of them were on my watch.  I hope his poor little nose wasn't too sore.