Microbrewery: Kirkwood Station Brewing

I got together with some old friends who are in on my bid to visit various microbreweries, and the latest pick was Kirkwood Station Restaurant & Brewing Co.  Things did not start out well.

We were supposed to meet at 7, but I got distracted at work, so I was late getting there.  It turns out that this place starts charging a cover charge at 7.  A cover charge!  A cover charge!  In Kirkwood!  Possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.  (Is my indignation obvious?  If not, I can use block letters and italics.  Let me know if that's necessary.)

The situation did not improve once I made it in the door.  The food was okay at best.  A friend at my table got the full beer sampler -- everything they had.  He shared.  The beer was passable in some cases, barely drinkable in others.

Then the band came out.  They were three guys (I think, maybe just two, I had my back to them), who were probably about my age.  "How do you know that," you might ask, "if you had your back to them?"  I know that because they were playing songs from my high school days, which means they were in high school when I was in high school, because that's always the music that makes an impression on you, even if it was terrible.

And speaking of terrible, we finished our okay food and passable beers and headed down the road for a different flavor.

What I Watched -- The Imitation Game

I went to see The Imitation Game a few weeks ago with T and G, after it got a gazillion Oscar noms (including best picture, best actor, best supporting actress, best director, and best adapted screenplay, among others).

It's hard for me to say that it deserves to win the statue in all the categories in which it was nominated, because I haven't seen all the other movies that were nominated (yet), but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it won most of them.

BTCC disappears completely into the role; Keira Knightley is a pretty darn good actress, as it turns out.

Bottom line: if you're at all interested in World War II, cryptography, or both, you can't miss it.

Random Links

Think you're a good skier? Watch this.

Lobster farming.

Totally insane vintage news stories.

"No More" ads that didn't quite turn out as planned.  They turned out better.

Mystery rifle.

Benedict Timothy Carleton Cumberbatch is at it again.

What I'm Reading Now -- Allegiant

I've moved on to the last book of the Divergent Trilogy, Allegiant.  (You can read about the earlier books at these links: Divergent, Insurgent.)

We left our heroine Tris at the end of Insurgent just after she revealed some super-secret information to the whole of society.  Let's see what happens now.

What I Watched -- Finding Vivian Maier

I was at the office one Sunday when CK asked me if I had ever heard of Vivian Maier.  "No, should I have?"  I had no idea what context to put this person in: client? fellow attorney? celebutante?  "I saw the most incredible documentary yesterday," he said.

He apparently had been flipping channels and happened upon it at a moment early in the film where the camera is mounted to the ceiling and you're looking down at the floor of a room while the documentarian was going about his business.  The interesting camera angle caught his attention, and the odd story kept it.  The film was Finding Vivian Maier.

Vivian Maier was a nanny.  And a photographer.  And strange.  And eventually mentally ill.  Her photographs are stunning compositions, mostly in black and one, generally with a human subject who often didn't know he or she was being photographed.

Often, Vivian would drag her charges along with her while she was photographing, and several of them are interviewed in the film, discussing both their expeditions and day trips, and the woman who took them, sometimes used assumed names, and lied about her birthplace.

Bottom line: a fascinating look at a confused and confusing woman.

Wolf Hall -- Take 2

I took a long pause in the middle of listening to Wolf Hall, and perhaps that's the reason I didn't like it very much.  Maybe my lack of attention span while I'm listening and also doing other things is the reason I didn't like it very much.  Maybe it was just too long. 

But what it comes down to in the end is that I didn't like it very much.  It wasn't poorly written (it won the Man Booker, after all). It wasn't a dull story (sex! lies! political intrigue! death!).  But for some reason, it just didn't take.

Now the big decision: should I press on with the next book in the series, Bring Up the Bodies, in the hope that it will go better?  Or abandon all hope and delete it from my iPod?

Goal #4

Goal #4: clean off my desk.

Since I made my big push last fall to get my apartment in shape, I have been pretty good about keeping it clean on a day-to-day basis.  (There are still a few little things that need attention, but those are a project for a different week.)

I have, however, been accumulating a pile of paperwork that needs attention on the corner of my desk.  This week, before all the fun I have coming up, I will clear it off so I can have a clean mind and no worries.

Recap of goal #3: how did I do on my water consumption?  I did really well!  Some days I fudged a bit because I went out to eat or the like, but I gave it my best guess.  Hopefully I can keep it up, since it really is good for you!

Happy National Readathon Day!

Go find yourself a book!

Dinner at Farmhaus

Last Saturday, a group of friends got together for dinner at Farmhaus.  I had been there once before with dad, and my recollection is that we both ate a whole lot of pork.  My recollection is also that I didn't blog about it though.  Did I?  Sometimes it's hard to remember.

Farmhaus maybe wasn't the best choice for this group (don't blame me, I didn't choose it), since one of the couples in the group doesn't eat port, which severely limited their options.  A couple of other issues: we were seated in the bar, which had potential to be bad but turned out okay once everyone was seated at their tables.  But the only other table in the bar area was l-o-u-d loud, and that made conversation a bit difficult.

So we had a few logistical problems.  But that didn't affect the food!  I started out with a bite of T's cotechino, an Italian sausage, served with grits.  My own appetizer, which came out a few minutes later, was the roasted Ozark mushroom salad.  I sure am glad I learned to like mushrooms, because this was worth eating, but they're not kidding about the mushroom part.

My main was the Cajun-inspired pork loin.  Not too spicy, and again, heavy on the star of the show, the pork.  They certainly don't short you on the good stuff.  For the final hurrah, T ordered a slice of the apple pecan pie, and I had the root beer ice cream which came along with it.  And excellent way to end the meal, since it fills in the cracks!

A Novel Affair

I have been immensely neglectful in not yet writing about a wonderful fundraiser T and I went to exactly two months ago now.  It was put on by the St. Louis Public Library Foundation. I think part of the reason I haven't written is because of my total lack of pictures to go along with my post, which I feel makes it a bit lackluster.  I'll just have to do my best with words.

The evening began in the lower level, the general adult fiction section.  The lights were low, and the shoulder-height bookshelves throughout the center of the room were adorned with large candelabra.  Everything was black, red, and gold, underscoring the Italian Renaissance theme of the night.  An ensemble in the corner played period music.  There was a bar at each end of the room, and a huge, gorgeous bouquet of flowers at the base of the old split stairwell.  When I say huge, I mean HUGE -- a big globe of roses and other flora probably eight feet across -- and it smelled amazing.

Servers with plates of little hors d'oeuvres abounded: figs stuffed with blue cheese, mushroom arancini, rosemary and leek chicken on polenta cakes, zucchini roll-ups with pesto cream.  There was also a buffet table with the usual crudites, fruit, etc.

At the end of cocktail hour, trumpeters (yes, trumpeters) summoned us upstairs to the great hall for dinner.  The library tables had been replaced by long rows of dining tables adorned with more candelabra and baskets of bread, spreads, and cheeses (how very Italian).  While guests were seated, a mezzo soprano serenaded us from a pedestal at the front of the room.

Wine flowed freely (if you hadn't had enough downstairs), and the first course was served.  It was a delicious vegetable salad on a bed of baby greens.  At least I thought it was delicious; T was not so enamored.  He was a much bigger fan of the main course.  But before that, our second course: a seared scallop with one of those really crispy fried Parmesan wafers!  Love those!  The main was a tasty and not-overcooked beef tenderloin with steamed green beans and peppers, as well as a  mushroom and potato gratin.  The final course, which many people were too full to eat, was a light finish to the meal, except for the sauce: a poached pear with marsala creme anglaise.  As a complete meal, the food was delicious (and significantly better than expected).  I left full and satisfied.

And to top it all off, there were even after-dinner snacks, additional wine, and a string ensemble for those who stuck around for a bit longer!

What I Watched -- Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

This is one of those classic movies that, once seen, I can't believe I hadn't seen before.  C has inquired a few times as to whether I've finally sat down to watch Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and now my answer can be yes.  And I can do him one better; I didn't just watch it sitting at home, I found it at a theater!

For a few more days, there is a performance of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner at The Rep.  In conjunction with that, a film group in town convinced the Hi-Pointe Theatre, a classic spot, to screen the classic film.

I had a rough idea of what the movie was about (in case you don't know, a rich white girl brings her new black man friend John home to meet the parents), but I was shocked at how candid it was regarding questions of race, especially given that it came out in 1967.  There are still movies, TV shows, etc., that can't address racism that directly.

It's not all good, of course.  How stereotypical that John's dad is a retired post man?  Really?  But still, I suppose we can overlook a few errors of judgment in favor of some wonderful performances by some of the great actors of the day.

Bottom line: how could I have gone so long without seeing this?  If you have also, you should remedy that.

What I Watched -- Unbroken

I am one of those annoying people whose response to a question about an adapted screenplay is usually, "the book was better."  But it's usually true, and that's why I say it.  However, if you're in the mood for just turning off your brain for a couple of hours, many of the movie versions are acceptable alternatives.

As it is with Unbroken.  The book was better.  But the movie isn't a bad short version.  I heard a lot of complaining before I saw the film that there was too much torture in it.  Maybe these people didn't read the book, but there's an awful lot of torture in the book too.  That's not the point of the book, exactly, but without it, this amazing tale of survival doesn't exist.  So yes, there's a lot of torture.

Where the movie really succeeds, I think, is in capturing the spirit of the book without the narration that you get in the written version.  With just pictures and gestures and a look in the eyes, the movie has to convey the essence of the person at the center of the story, and it succeeds.  Credit there to Jack O'Connell.

The movie itself is a bit uneven, and I think it may have worked better as a straight story rather than told in flashbacks.  Perhaps that explains its relative lack of Oscar noms.

Bottom line: a tortured but impressive performance (including incredible physical transformation) from the lead, and a story worth knowing.

A Brief Summary of a Week in Durango

I kept very poor track of my trip to Durango, and for that I apologize.  But I'll do the best I can to reconstruct it so you can enjoy a vicarious breath of fresh, cold mountain air.

Day 1
We started out my first day there, Christmas, with the obvious choice: presents!  (Actually, first we started with coffee.  Then presents.)  So fun, especially with the snow swirling down outside!  However, I learned that a lot of wrapping paper is not recyclable.  Bummer.  That should be fixed.

We spent the afternoon out snowshoeing, which is really just walking with funny shoes on.  But you get to walk lots of places that it would be more difficult to go in boots, so the funny shoes do have a serious added benefit.

Dinner that night was flavored by the good 'ole Brits: Cornish game hens!  And some spaghetti squash with vodka sauce, but I'm not sure how British that is.

Day 2
More snowshoeing, this time up at Molas Pass, where it was c-o-l-d cold.  We were up in the great wide open, and had a lovely view!

(Yes, we look practically the same, just with different background.  We're not finished yet.)

We had a lazy afternoon, and a dinner of delicious, made-to-order tamales.

Day 3
We all so enjoyed our lazy afternoon that we decided to have a whole day of lazing about the house, you know, just to test it out and make sure it was everything it seemed.  And it was!  We started out with brunch at the Kennebec Cafe.  Delicious coffee and scones, though the service was a bit slow.  Fueled by our lattes, we took a lovely drive up into the La Plata Canyon to take in the view, and look what we saw:

How adorable is that?

The afternoon consisted of lots of reading, lots of eating, a bit of work, probably three or four trips to the grocery store, a trip to rent skis, and preparing for dinner -- stuffed squash that came out better than I have ever managed at home.

Day 4
Early to bed after stuffed squash meant early to rise in the morning; we suited up and made the not-so-long drive up to the slopes for our day of alpine skiing.  Getting there early was the right choice, because there were no lift lines.  We ascended and descended, ascended and descended, until we couldn't feel our toes and decided to throw in the towel.

Ahh, yes.  In the same outer layers again!

This was E's last night in Durango, and the night before my birthday, so we went out to dinner at Seasons to celebrate.  The bummer of the night was that they didn't have much in the way of vegetarian options (I went to another restaurant recently with that issue, but the story was different. Stay tuned.), which left E somewhat limited in her choices.  I had a potato gnocchi with with a super-rich and -dark ragu. (Vegetarian sauce was not an option here.  We asked.)

The real discoveries of the night were made when we were sitting at the bar, and took the form of two bottles from the Leopold Bros. distillery: New York Apple Whiskey and Small Batch Gin.  I've never really liked gin, but I could probably get somewhere with this one!  They also have peach, cherry, and blackberry whiskeys, which I simply MUST try.

Day 5
Before we let E get out of town, we had to go out cross country skiing.  The destination of choice was the Vallecito Reservoir, which was lovely on a clear day.

We reluctantly headed to the airport to send E back to warmer pastures, then did some running around town for errands (including, I think, two more trips to the grocery store).

This was my birthday proper, so I got to pick the dinner main: venison loin, one of my favorites.  That particular night, it was expertly prepared with cranberry chutney, wild rice, sauteed mushrooms, and roasted root vegetables.  (Please note that when I say it was expertly prepared, I was not the one doing the preparation.)

Day 6
Dad and I headed back out to La Plata Canyon for some more snowshoeing.  It was a lovely day, with deep snow and a few tenuous creek crossings.  (Technically I suppose they were river crossings, since it's the La Plata River, but that really overstates its size up in the Canyon.)

I was hoping to enjoy my last night in Durango, readying for a mid-afternoon flight the following day, when I got a text message that my flight had been cancelled.  Typical.  A few phone calls to the airline and I got on a different flight home, on a different airline, through Phoenix.  But that flight was quite early, so the rest of my night was packing up and straight to bed for the early return.

Goal #3

Goal #3: drink enough water.

Some days, I realize as I'm eating dinner that the only things I've had to drink all day are a couple cups of coffee.  That can't be good.

T got me an awesome, hot pink, indestructible thermos bottle, which is excellent because I tend to drink more water when it's ice cold.  So starting tomorrow (yes, I should have started today, but it's too late unless I want to be up all night), I will try to drink one entire bottle (48 oz.) per day.

Recap of goal #2: there's no hiding the results of this one.  I started out strong, getting three or four posts all ready to go for Monday through Thursday of last week.  But then...nothing.  I still have so many posts that await completion!

What I Watched -- Locke

I don't remember where I heard about Locke, but its premise immediately sounded interesting. 

The entire movie takes place in a car.  You're in the car with the driver, and get to listen in on his telephone calls.  That's all.

But you can learn a lot about a person when he is making life-changing phone calls in his car (I won't spoil it for you), and what is impressive about this movie is how wrapped up you can find yourself in how these calls are going to turn out.  It's a testament to Tom Hardy's skill, because I'm not sure just any actor could pull it off.

When Locke gets off the highway, you part ways with him, and that's the end of your eavesdropping.

Bottom line: an interesting conceit, well acted.

Franny and Zooey -- Final Thoughts

While I pretty much hated Franny and Zooey and never want to read any more Salinger, there were a few flashes of writing which perfectly encapsulate the tedium of the entire book which seem worth sharing.  Brace yourself.

From the third page, where Zooey is talking about the story he's about to tell:

"The plot line itself, to finish up, is largely the result of a rather unholy collaborative effort.  Almost all the facts to follow (slowly, calmly to follow) were originally given to me in hideously spaced installments, and in, to me, somewhat harrowingly private sittings, by the three player-characters themselves.  Not one of the three, I might well add, showed any noticeably soaring talent for brevity of detail or compression of incident.  A shortcoming, I'm afraid, that will be carried over to this, the final, or shooting version.  I can't excuse it, regrettably, but I insist on trying to explain it.  We are, all four of us, blood relatives, and we speak a kind of esoteric, family language, a sort of semantic geometry in which the shortest distance between any two points is a fullish circle."

Well, can't say he didn't warn me.

Behold the Henry Jamesian length of this sentence:

"Where once, a few years earlier, her eyes alone could break the news (either to people or to bathmats) that two of her sons were dead, one by suicide (her favorite, her most intricately calibrated, her kindest son), and one killed in World War II (her only truly lighthearted son) -- where once Bessie Glass's eyes alone could report these facts, with an eloquence and a seeming passion for detail that neither her husband nor any of her adult surviving children could bear to look at, let alone take in, now, in 1955, she was apt to use this same terrible Celtic equipment to break the news, usually at the front door, that the new delivery boy hadn't brought the leg of lamb in time for dinner or that some remote Hollywood starlet's marriage was on the rocks."

Zooey talking to Franny:

"'On top of everything else,' he said immediately, 'we've got "Wise Child" complexes.  We've never really got off the goddam air.  Not one of us.  We don't talk, we hold forth.  We don't converse, we expound.  At least I do.  The minute I'm in a room with somebody who has the usual number of ears, I either turn into a goddam seer or a human hatpin.  The Prince of Bores."

You could say that again.  And in fact, he probably did, in each of the next several sentences.

Garth!

Lots of you have heard my story about my awesome weekend back in early December (a month ago!) already, so I'll try to keep it short.  Ready?  Here goes:

Garth is touring for the first time in a long time, and was in St. Louis for the first time in 17 years.  So I went to see his show.  Twice.

I had planned to go Saturday with some tickets that a friend of mine was throwing over because she got better seats.  That was going to be it, until T decided at the last minute on Friday that he wanted to see the show.  So off we went.

End of story.

Now, the pictures:

Christmas Wrap-Up

I finally got to see Love Actually!  I never did find my DVD, but T streamed it on his fancy TV and I got my fix.  (And I have since bought a new copy of it.  Hopefully I can manage to keep track of it through next Christmas.)

We also went to MoBot to see Garden Glow on its second to last night.  It was cold and started to mist a bit, but we had hot chocolate and s'mores by the fire pit so it was okay.

As a final hurrah, we also drove out to Our Lady of the Snows to see their Way of Lights display, which, though not my cup of tea in some ways, was nevertheless impressive.

Goal #2

Goal #2: write the old blog posts.

I have loads of half-written blog posts that I haven't gotten around to finishing.  As you can probably tell from the lack of posting last week, I've been busy.  This week, I will try to get caught up.  (Yes, this is one of those peace-of-mind goals.)

Recap of goal #1: I tried out three slight variations on my protein shake, and I discovered this: it's still a protein shake.  Sure, you can make it slightly less or more palatable, but a tiger can't change its stripes.  Now that I know how to edge it towards palatable though, hopefully I can get myself to drink one on days that I need a boost.

What I Watched -- Edge of Tomorrow

One of the movies I watched to fulfill my goal #52 was Edge of Tomorrow. I didn't particularly intend to watch it, but I had a couple of hours to kill sitting in front of my computer and it was the first movie T and I could agree on.

To steal T's analysis, if you squish The Matrix and Groundhog Day together, with a little Independence Day thrown in for good measure, this is the movie that comes out.

I had heard not terrible things about this movie, and when you're talking about movies with weird alien-like enemies, a primary focus on explosions, and Tom Cruise, "not terrible" is pretty good.

And though I may despise both him and Angelina Jolie on a par with one another, Tom Cruise does know how to make a movie.  Emily Blunt holds up her end of the bargain as well.  The dialogue is quick, well timed, and occasionally funny.  I think that's where the movie gets its credibility.

Bottom line: entertaining, if you're looking for something in this vein.

Goal #1

Goal #1: test out my new protein shake.

As with the last two years, I am refraining from making a big New Year's resolution this year.  Mostly that's because I'll probably fail miserably at whatever overly-lofty and -ambitious goal I set for myself, and just be disappointed and give up.

Again, as with the last two years, I will continue instead with my trend of weekly goals.  As I have mostly completed the organizing of the apartment which occupied much of the second half of last year, I will pick a new theme.

And I will go with the unsurprising theme of "self improvement" (or PIP, if you are K).  My goals, until I tire of this theme, will be generally related to my mental, physical, or emotional health in some way, large or small.  (So, really, they could be pretty much anything.  I mean, getting rid of this last lingering box of CDs I haven't yet sorted would arguably be good for my mental health, no?)

So for this first week, I will test out a few variations on my shake recipe and hope to get the right balance and quantity, so I can whip it up any time I feel the need for a little pick-me-up.

Recap of goal #52: a good time was had by all! The rest of my trip to Durango was great (more on that later), T and I enjoyed a slightly-behind-schedule dinner at Home Wine Kitchen on their last night in business, I had a very short work week, and watched a couple of movies (more on those later as well).

Happy Birthday, Mom!

250 Cakes

Now that 2014 -- St. Louis's 250th anniversary -- is over, I might as well get around to posting the pictures of the cakes I saw this year.

The what?  The cakes.

As part of the anniversary festivities, the city commissioned 250 artists to design 250 cakes to be placed in and around St. Louis, to honor famous landmarks, cultural icons, historic sites, and other favorite spots.

T had had an idea to plan some bike rides to visit each and every cake, but then we looked at how far flung some of them are, and that plan went the way of the dodo.  But here are the ones I did see, for your enjoyment!

Christ Church Cathedral

 T-REx

Babler Park

Chain of Rocks Bridge

Missouri Botanical Garden

Opera Theater St. Louis

Riverfront Trail

St. Louis Art Museum

Union Station

 I have no idea!  This one might also be Riverfront Trail, but I can't remember.

Happy New Year!