What I'm Reading Now -- The Great War

Probably ten or 12 years ago, I "borrowed" this book from Dad.  By borrowed, I really mean that he had read it and said I should.  I know this was 10 or 12 years ago, because I was in college.  I remember that I was in college because I got about a third of the way through it, got busy with the semester, and never went back to it.

The book is The Great War: Perspectives on the First World War, a collection of essays.  I have been fascinated by WWI since I took a class on it in college, but this book got lost in the boxes and has recently resurfaced.  Hopefully I'll have better luck than I did the first time!

What I Watched -- Gravity

I don't know how it is that I neglected to write about my last-minute trip to see Gravity at the dollar show (which is actually now four dollars, by the way - damn that inflation) before it left theaters, but somehow I did.

Neither T nor I had seen it, but both wanted to.  We missed its run at major theaters, but T found it showing in South County, so off we went.

Surprisingly, despite all the buzz around the movie, the end hadn't been spoiled for me - and I will do my best not to spoil it for you!  I will just say that the story gets moving right from the beginning of the movie, and it's tense.

And it doesn't stop until the end.

Bottom line: simple, straightforward, but well constructed.

Goal #17

Goal #17: early to bed, early to rise.

I am trying to get back into rowing after falling off the wagon.  Last week I worked hard at going to bed early.  This week, work is going to be insane, so I need to keep up the early bedtimes so I can actually go get my workout in.

Recap of goal #16: I did actually make some good use of my time, though I had help with some of these tasks: I read a couple of magazines, made progress on a (short) book, baked a two-layer chocolate cake (I had to pre-test for a baby shower in a couple of weeks), went for a bike ride, and moved the computer in my office to make better use of the limited space on my desk.

Keystone

We will all miss you, buddy.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? -- Take 2

This is a strange book.  I listened to the audio version, and I think that was a huge help in understanding the narrator, who is a 15-year-old girl.  I was a 15-year-old girl myself roughly half my life ago, but holy hell, it might as well have been a hundred years in the past, for all the kinship I feel with the person I was.

Anywho, the narrator did a pretty good job voicing the girl, and I think it made the story much more engaging than it probably would have been if I had been reading it.  There were a few times when I thought she was overboard with the drippy emotions, but on the whole it was likely an improvement over having to voice the character myself.  I do not believe that would have gone well.

As for the meat of the story, it was pretty good.  I was intrigued by the disappearance at the center of the book, but a bit disappointed by the resolution.  That's all I'll say about that, because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet.  But I very much liked the way the book was put together, largely built out of letters, emails, and other forms of communication between the various characters.

Bottom line: maybe it's not so different from Gone Girl after all: interesting assembly of the story, but I was left a little flat at the end.  Between the two, though, I'd pick this one.

What i'm Reading Now -- 84, Charing Cross Road

C had a party on Friday night, and probably my favorite thing to do when I'm at someone's house for the first time is to peruse their bookshelves.  I left the party at the end of the night with two books.  Incidentally, both of the books belonged to C's wife.  He had read one of them.  Not this one.

As 84, Charing Cross Road is the shorter of the two, I decided to start there.  I know nothing about it, but it looked interesting and caught my attention on the shelf (probably due in no small part to the fact that the titular address is in London), and that's a good start for a book.

Because as we all know, we judge books by their covers.

Goal #16

Goal #16: make use of some alone time.

Letter J is going away on a climbing trip.  T will be in California for a few days.

I have much to do around my apartment, many things to do around town, and hopefully the weather will be nice again so I can also do some things outside!

Recap of goal #15: this goal was a little bit of a difficult to quantify, but somehow I think I accomplished it.  Obviously it will be an ongoing effort, so in truth, time will tell.  But I'm feeling a bit better and, you know, more focused.

What I'm Reading Now -- Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

Round about the time Gone Girl was getting so much hype, Where'd You Go, Bernadette? also came out.  It wasn't completely lost on the critics, but it didn't get nearly the fanfare of Gillian Flynn's clever but ultimately overrated third novel.

The concept seemed interesting, so I picked up the audio and thought I'd give it a try.

Thunderstruck -- Take 2

As I suspected from the first few chapters, Thunderstruck does indeed follow a similar pattern of profiling parallel lives until their intersection as Devil in the White City.  As the story unfolds, it becomes clear in Thunderstruck just how they're going to intersect.

Regardless, the actual moments of truth were tense.  Larson is quite a storyteller, creating clear pictures of the characters just by sharing stories about them.  Could some of the stories have been edited out?  Sure, but the picture would have been less vivid for it.

If you're into history and like narrative non-fiction (and really, who doesn't?), this is worth a peek.

Random Links

A new kind of dominoes.

A romantic view of a dark night's sky.

Taking ice cream shops to a new level.

Feel like learning a little something?

A funny April Fool's prank.

Let's hear it for underprotected kids, and the parents who love them.

Tax Day!

Nobody likes tax day.  If you're getting money back, you filed long ago.  If you owe money, you waited until today.  It's not a good day.

But there are some special deals out there to ease the pain just a teeny bit.  Curly fries, anyone?

And in case you're curious about what strange taxes you might not realize that you're paying, check this out.

But the best news of all is that we don't have to go through this again until next year!

National Library Week

Everyone who knows me knows that I love libraries.  I think they're an important public institution, and we need to support them so they stick around.

Show some love to your local libes this National Library Week!

Goal #15

Goal #15: leftovers.

I am going out to dinner several times this week.  I have a bad habit when I eat of scarfing down my food so fast that a) I don't realize I'm full (E can explain satiety cues to you); b) I don't enjoy it as much as I could; and c) I'm left without leftovers.

I love leftovers.  They mean I still have food to take for lunch even if I don't have time to cook.  I need to save some leftovers, and hopefully in the meantime pay a little more attention to my food too.

Recap of goal #14: some refocusing was done.  I got back out and rowed (once), but until I am doing that consistently, I'm going to take a little break from climbing.  It makes sense that this is happening now, because League just ended, and that pretty much burned me out on climbing. So, there's that.

Are there many other things I need to work on besides just rowing and climbing?  Yes.  I guess I'll have to work on those things another week.

Simply Sinatra

In recent years, I think the St. Louis Symphony has been making a real effort to branch out from its classical music roots in order to attract new patrons to their fine venue.  For this event at least, it worked.

T and I went to see Simply Sinatra.  It was exactly what you would have expected, and that was exactly what I wanted.  Vegas singer Steve Lippia came in and performed a revue of - you guessed it - Sinatra's work.

Here's the thing about me: I'm not much for jazz.  I don't really like it, because it makes my brain hurt.  But Sinatra wasn't jazz, he was a vocalist.  Did he have a whole lot of music backing him up sometimes?  Sure.  But he had a melody, and he could carry a tune.  That's the kind of "jazz" that I like.

Lippia, while not 'Ol Blue Eyes himself, did a pretty good job of it. We heard classics like "Come Fly With Me" and "Luck Be a Lady," and some lesser-known pieces too.  And of course, an encore of "New York, New York."  He interspersed his songs with some of the history of Sinatra as a musician, and the packed house - myself included - had a great time.

Aside: T and I were commenting on the demographics of the symphony musicians during the breaks, and specifically noticed one older African-American woman who probably started playing the violin before she was even allowed to go see a show someplace like Powell Hall.  That same day, this article (albeit with a focus on gender rather than race) appeared in the local paper.  Still, interesting.

What I'm Reading Now -- Thunderstruck

Erik Larson is probably best known as the author of The Devil in the White City, which I read a number of years ago.  It was back before law school, which was an entirely different lifetime!

Thunderstruck, his next book, follows a similar format - that is, it follows two different players until the point where their lives and work intersect.  In Devil, it was the architect who designed the buildings for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and a serial killer who was living on the south side of town.  In Thunderstruck, the two men are Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless radio transmission, and Dr. Hawley Crippen, the murderer.

How to they collide?  We shall see.

What I Watched -- Tim's Vermeer

For T's birthday last month, we headed to Plaza Frontenac to see Tim's Vermeer.  It tells the tale of curious entrepreneur Tim Jenison, and his completely unambitious attempt to recreate a Vermeer's The Music Lesson.

Vermeer's luminous paintings have been a mystery to art historians for the 350 years since the artist's death.  Imaging techniques of other artists' works reveal sketches of the final work on the canvas under the paint.  Vermeer's paintings, at least his later ones (the famous ones), don't have those sketches.  So the question was this: how did he get that perfect perspective, not to mention those wonderful colors, without doing a little bit of sketchwork first?

Tim had an idea.  It involved a not-very-complicated setup of lenses and mirrors, and he was sure he was right.  He set about the task of recreating a Vermeer as a way to prove himself right.

That alone would be hard enough (as you eventually learn), but first he also had to recreate Vermeer's studio as depicted in The Music Lesson.  He rented warehouse space, framed windows, built 400-year-old musical instruments, fashioned mannequins, and so on.  Then the real work began.

Tim is funny, a bit irreverent, and quite an interesting character.  He makes for a good subject.  If you have any interest in art history, in Vermeer specifically, or just a curiosity about curious people, I think you'll enjoy it.

The Book Thief -- Take 2

Apologies, this will be another short post.

I finished The Book Thief a while back, and I loved it.  I started it a long time ago, but then got busy for a while, and finally got back to it when I got caught up on all my podcasts.  Props to Mr. Zusak for writing in a way that I was reminded of who the characters were, rather than having to go back and start over.

This book tells the tale of several years in the life of Liesel Meminger, and I don't think it's too much to say that they're not entirely happy.  (We are talking about the Nazis and the Holocaust, after all.)  But what Liesel is is resilient, and that makes for a story worth reading.  I don't want to say too much more for fear of spoiling it.

Bottom line: somehow this often incredibly sad tale winds up being pretty uplifting.

Goal #14

Goal #14: uh, yeah.

I need to refocus.  That is all.

Recap of goal #13: Mom and E are both squared away for now!  Neither of them have actually relocated quite yet, but their storage lockers are ready to go when that day comes.

A Lesson from Jerry Seinfeld

I was too young to appreciate much of the humor in Seinfeld.  But this, I love.



Here's the thing, people.  Unless you are on your way to the gym or from the gym, sweatpants are never appropriate attire in public.  (You might be able to get away with a quick stop for gas or at the grocery store on your way home, but that's it.  If you're stopping at the mall, take a change of clothes.)

And I really don't give a hoot if your "sweatpants" are $4,000 "leather joggers" from Gucci.  They're sweatpants.

For Heaven's sake, don't ever, under any circumstances, wear sweatpants to the symphony, any type of theater event, any concert where the average age of the fans is over 16, out to dinner, or to breakfast, bunch, or lunch for that matter.

Those of us who respect ourselves and proper decorum appreciate it.

What I Watched -- Marie Antoinette

I saw Marie Antoinette back when it was in theaters, and I didn't really like it much then. So why did I want to watch it again?

I'll tell you why: it's a visual treat.  That's all I wanted.

Bottom line: don't expect much; your eyes might die of a sugar overdose.

Kansas City, Day 2

I got up a bit earlier on Sunday than on Saturday, and headed down to the kitchen to chat with our proprietors before breakfast.  They were simply lovely, as was our meal!  This time our starting course was Greek yogurt with homemade granola, honey, and apples, followed by lemon ricotta waffles with bacon, or "rashers" as Peter would say.  And OJ.  And coffee.

We got the car loaded up and headed out a bit earlier than planned, so we killed some time at the Barnes & Noble store (for me) and Moosejaw (for Letter J) before heading over to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to see what was in store.  And we found lots: Egyptian art (including a mummy!), Greek and Roman frescoes and sculptures, Cubist art, and a quick run through a couple of Impressionist galleries.  We headed to the contemporary wing only because I wanted to see the photography exhibit.  I don't know why I'm into photography exhibits, but I am.  I like them.

On the whole, it's a good museum.  I'm partial to our own SLAM, but Kansas City has done okay for itself.

Before leaving town, we had a late lunch at Gram & Dun, which came highly recommended from a couple of sources.  I had the short rib grilled cheese, which was quite good, but the winner was the monkey bread.  We were there just in time to catch the end of brunch, and the monkey bread was delightful!

And then, the drive home.

Kansas City, Day 1 (Plus a Bonus Dinner on Day 0)

Due to this year's late spring, I had a free weekend that I didn't expect.  I had planned to go climbing, but it was still too cold.

Instead, Letter J and I decided to go to Kansas City.  He was humoring me since I had never spent any appreciable time there.  I had been through it on the way to somewhere else, and I once went to a conference at an airport hotel, but was kept so busy all weekend that I never went anywhere except out to the hotel parking lot.

We headed off after work on Friday, and got to the our B&B around 9:00.  We stayed at the Jefferson House, which was a gem!  The proprietors were around the corner at dinner with the other guests when we arrived, so we waited on the porch while they ventured home.  It's on the west side of the interstate, and has a lovely view of the city from its perch on a hill.

Once we dropped our bags, we headed off around the corner ourselves, to dinner at novel (yes, that's with a lowercase "n").  I started off with a delicious concoction called a Ruffled Feather: rye, smoked cumin, and ginger.  So surprisingly tasty and wonderful.  My appetizer was a Fuji apple soup with seaweed and miso.  I could have done without the seaweed, which is normally my biggest complaint about sushi as well; I'm fine with the raw fish, it's the seaweed that gives me pause.  For a main, I ordered the pig's head ravioli (no longer on the menu).  It was quite delicious, and I'm always up for trying something new.  This was perfect, because it came topped with crispy pig's ears!  They are in little strips and taste mostly like bacon, but they're pretty tough to chew.  The ravioli was delicious, but was a bit overshadowed by the novelty of the ears.  (Did I blog about the pig's tails I had a The Libertine a couple of months back?)  Letter J had the roasted chicken with radishes, scallions, and egg yolk.  He shared a bite, and it was good, but I prefer pork to chicken 9 times out of 10.  We split two desserts: the flourless chocolate cake with bourbon caramel sauce, peanuts, and a fancy housemade whipped cream, and the coconut panna cotta with pineapple and gingersnaps.  I think it's fair to say that we both liked the chocolate better.

Saturday began with a stunning breakfast of copious amounts of coffee, fresh oj, fruit with candied almonds, our proprietor's French grandmother's scrambled eggs, spinach and roasted tomatoes with balsamic, rustic toast (from the baker around the corner, more to follow), and potato hash with corn, bacon, and scallions.  This last bit was delightful.

After stuffing ourselves with all that food, we did what good, red-blooded Americans do and went out looking for more food!  We had to check out the bakery from whence the bread came.  It's called Fervere, and it was less than a block from our dinner spot of the night before, and we each bought two loaves to bring home.  I ended up with a beer bread (their weekly special) and a dried fruit bread.  From there, we headed to the City Market, the big downtown farmers' market.  It was neat to see, but we didn't have anywhere to keep any perishables, so we left empty-handed.  But if you find yourself in KC, it is a good place to go for beignets, fresh produce, and Indian spices.  Across the way was a Chinese grocery  which we stopped in just for kicks.  You can find very, um, foreign things in a Chinese grocery store.

Once we were sufficiently weirded out at the grocery, we headed south to the Liberty Memorial and World War I Museum.  Here's something we learned: go to the museum first, then to the memorial.  We did it in the opposite order, and thankfully the elevator operator at the memorial was kind enough to let us up to the top without tickets, but only after we promised that we really were planning to go to the museum.

 The views from below

The view from the top

We did indeed to to the museum, as promised, and it is amazing.  It is not a huge building, but it is packed absolutely full of stuff.  I overheard someone saying that the museum in KC has the largest collection of WWI memorabilia outside of the Imperial War Museum in London.

The museum is arranged in a circle.  You start out watching a video about the run-up to the war.  Then the first half of the circle is the war prior to American involvement.  There is so much to see!

Declarations of war

 Bavarian 15cm heavy field Howitzer

Standard issue infantry rifles of various armies

A month-by-month timeline lines the wall

I probably spent more than two hours getting through the first half of the museum.  (Fun fact: according to Lord Charles Beresford, for every artillery fuse manufactured in England, the British government paid one shilling to the German company Krupp Armaments, which held the patent.)

There's another video describing how America got involved in the war, and the remainder of the museum focuses on our involvement.  While U.S. involvement was certainly pivotal, I frankly don't find it all that interesting, so I probably spent about 45 minutes on that side of the building.

Anyway, awesome.  (There are also two little additional buildings up near the Liberty Memorial.  Worth a peek, especially if you like maps.)

But I spent so much time there that we were starving by the time we got out.  We headed waaay north to the Cinder Block Brewery to try out some of their delicious brews.  We shared a flight to figure out which beers we wanted, and I opted for the porter -- an unusual choice for me.  We had some pretty unsatisfying food from the food truck outside, but it was enough to make us sleepy enough to need a nap . . . which for me lasted until 9:00 p.m.

Oops.  That pretty much shot any dinner plans, so we found a Mexican dive named Ponak's, grabbed a bite, and called it a night.

Iron Fork

Just over a week ago, T and I attended a food extravaganza called Iron Fork.  It's a gathering of about 40 local restaurants in one place.  You pay an entrance fee, then get to wander from booth to booth tasting whatever delicious bites they brought to share.

So, a couple of things.  First, the event was held at Union Station.  When I was a kid, there was a lot of stuff at Union Station.  Now it's mostly just sad.  The place feels so empty, and the shops that are there are mostly touristy kitsch -- the kind of junk you could get at an airport.  The one saving grace is (was) that The Fudgery is still there -- the two guys working the marble slab were singing when T and I walked through the door, just like I remember as a kid.  (I say "was" because the St. Louis Business Journal just announced that the Fudgery would be moving to Ballpark Village this summer.  Probably a good thing for the shop, but a terrible thing for Union Station.)  And it's such a cool building; it's a shame it doesn't get used and appreciated the way Union Stations do in bigger cities.

Second, Iron Fork was crowded.  It was hard to move around in the room, you had to stand in sometimes long lines for food.  Now, is it great that all those people were actually at Union Station?  You bet.  And was it okay that you had to stand in line because it gave you a chance to digest your food?  Certainly.  But would it have been nice to maybe have a place to sit down, so you could actually enjoy your snacks?  Yes.  Is it difficult juggling a plate or two, some forks, a drink, a wallet, etc., when you have no place to put anything down?  Uh huh.  Did I drop a few things over the course of the evening.  I did indeed.  Just a fork or two -- thankfully not any food.  But spreading it out a bit more, and adding some more spots to take a breather, would have been nice.

Third, and speaking of juggling all that food, I probably only tried half the restaurants there, and I left not a bit hungry.  The event lasted about 3 hours I think, and I was there for 2.  I certainly could have used that extra hour, but honestly I don't know how much more I would have wanted to eat.  It would have been nice to have a bit more time to enjoy the event though, rather than running from booth to booth like a crazy person because there just wasn't enough time.  Plus, adding a couple of extra hours would thin the crowd out a bit.

Having said those things, I think T and I both had a lot of fun.  I finally got to try a few restaurants that I've been wanting to get to, like Mission Taco and Nathalie's, and I got to enjoy them right alongside some old favorites like Bogart's and Kakao.  It was money well spent.